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The Ruins of Fantasy Every fantasy RPG world I know, or more certainly every one I want to run a dungeon crawl game in is filled with huge ruins. Above ground, underground … that’s just an aesthetic choice… The question always comes up though about the source of these ruins. Why is a usually...
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A FISTFUL OF CRYSTALS SUPPLEMENTARY CLASSNEW CLASS - IMPERIAL NOBLENote: Imperial Nobles are a sort of “advanced class”, a substitute form the traditional “elf” and reference to OD&D’s confusing fighter or Magic-User method of leveling elves. Creating a noble is a more complex task than...
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A HUNTER OF THE VERGE AND WASTE At the heart of all violence, atrocity, and suffering is fear, and a mortal's greatest fear is death. Some will do anything to avoid it, face any indignity, make any compromise, or commit any crime. The metamorphosis of the Mantichora requires all three:...
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A Brief Barrow Fields GazetteerI was born on the Cidro. The City of Fountains, back during the war. Devil's pox and the proscriptions took most of my family. Left my poor mother, my brothers and me. So I headed north to prospect with the Blockers, they were robbing gems on the Crystal Frontier. In...
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I've been running an ongoing Crystal Frontier campaign using the "Fistful of Crystals" ruleset for the past several months, and at the same time finishing up editing and layout on a larger dungeon for publication - the Iron Barrow. Both projects mean that I've had to take a long look at how I...
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THE LAST ROOST OF THE BEAKED GODOn the ungovernable border land between the North Eastern Crystal Frontier and the Imperial canton of Blackacre, the jagged Maiden Tomb mountains meet the sea, straggling out into the shallow, dark waters as a series of seamounts and spectacular cliffs. This land is...
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"Vpon the Seuentene Daye of the Seconde Moneth, that same daye were all ye fountaynes of the greate depe broken vp, and the wyir of ye heauens cast wyde."- Late added marginalia in the Codex of Lead 7:11Joseph Grady - The Bank of England - 1830Imagining One's Capital in Ruins...When the sky is...
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Fabulation, Tall Tales, & Lies.The gem robbers and drifters of the Crystal Frontier come from every corner of the world, but they are often reluctant to speak of their homelands. It is difficult to learn much in the heat, dust, and desperation. Too many fear their own past: crimes committed,...
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“There are many worlds. Some have passed and some are still to come. In one world the Lui all creep; in another they all walk; in another they all fly. Perhaps in a world to come, the Lui may walk on four legs; or they may twist like snakes; or they may swim in the water like fish. Perhaps this is...
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To the North and East of the Crystal Frontier, beyond the Bay of Fallen Stars or across the Maiden Tombs over the Road of Dead is the Province of Blackacre, sometimes known as the Blackmash. Grey salt marshes rising from the Silt Straights and beyond deep, wet forests of colossal evergreens and...
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Character Generation and House Rules for My Home GameI'm going to be running a Crystal Frontier game online, the first semi-public game I've run since the end of G+. In preparation rather then introduce my house rules piecemeal I've prepared a character generation and basic rules document for the...
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I've created an Archive of all the free adventures I've written since 2012 here:FREE ADVENTURE PDF ARCHIVEI also wrote a paragraph about each the adventures included to place them within my own design evolution and perhaps a larger story of OSR design from 2012 - 2020.In Other NEWS Tomb robbers of...