Silverarm RPG Newsletter: #10
The Shrike Released in Digital, Last Day for Interloper, and Cool RPG Blogs I've Been Reading
Howdy,
Welcome back for Issue 10 of the Silverarm RPG Newsletter. It keeps coming! I’ve got some more sweet RPG blogs to share I’ve been reading lately. The Shrike is now available in digital format. It’s the last day of Backerkit funding for Interloper too and I have some fresh NPC art to showcase. Happy holidays and may your light keep the dark at bay.
Last Day to Back Interloper on Backerkit
Back It Here
We're getting near the final days for Interloper and I wanted to share some of the great NPC portraits that Jacob Fleming has been putting out to populate the mystery sandbox on the rogue planet.
In designing Interloper it was important to me that a crew could approach the module without following some singular "correct" path of investigation and still have a sweet time. Each of the NPCs have their own desires, interrelations, and tasks for the PC's- and of course there’s a murderer among them. In a lot of the noir media that inspired Interloper there isn't a lot of black and white morality but a cast of characters covered in varying shades of grey. To achieve this feel I try to keep even adversarial or repugnant NPC's as potential people the crew might be interested in aligning their interests with as they try to solve the murder or get entirely swept up in other sidequests that draw their interests. Uncovering the web of connections and secrets between the inhabitants of Interloper is a investigative or social crawl that should provide some fun routes for exploration of the failed utopia.
The Shrike Now Out in Digital
The Silverarm Store and DriveThruRPG have The Shrike available with all released digital files like the soundtrack, for people who missed the Kickstarter to start exploring this extraplanar megastructure. Leo knocked it way the hell out of the park on this one. Once books are delivered for all crowdfunding backers I’ll release physical copies of this big hardcover eldritch tome for public sale as well.
Sweet RPG Blogs I’m Reading Lately
My (Moderately Tested) Theory of Fear- A Knight at the Opera
I’ve read a bunch of posts on fear in RPG’s and this is my favorite (The Mothership Warden’s Operation Manual is great too). The combination of engaging theory of how we do horror games at the table and practical implementation is why I keep coming back to A Knight at the Opera. I always know a longform post here is worth my time. This one references tons of previous posts on horror in RPG’s while providing a theory of scares and a cheap trick or two for spooking your players. Going to steal the idea of giving every character a worst fear at character creation for sure.
Old School Rebellion Part I-Dododecahedron
My brain is broken, so when I saw Andor I immediately wanted to run a sweet revolution against tyranny focused game. I found the resources on how to run that style of game in the sandbox style I enjoy pretty sparse. This post fixes that and is the first in a series of three detailing some great ideas and strategies for how to run an OSR rebellion centric game. I always dig playing a bunch of amoral rogues but playing a bunch of revolutionaries is really sounding like fun to me too.
The Joesky Tax- Joesky The Dungeon Brawler
The original post from the ancient year of 2010. Basically if you make an argument online about RPG theory or best practice or game design you need to also include something sweet and immediately gameable for people who read your argument to steal for their game like a new spell, monster, map, or magic item or you lose your argument. This summary is almost longer than the post itself and definitely less punchy. Consider paying your Joesky Tax, I sure haven’t as much as I’d like.
d6x6 Rings to Rule Them All- Archons March On
Speaking of gameable material, the bloggers who make quality tables like this one on awful rings of power are the pillars of the earth. It’s honest work putting together nuggets of pure inspiration that can immediately benefit people and light up their creative neurons for an upcoming game. And they included an autoroller too! Here’s one result:
“This ring is rough-hewn obsidian, hard to wear without slicing your fingers, with an orbicular chunk of jet clutched in jagged claws. This ring was forged by the last survivor of a species on a distant world, and flung into the void on a meteor to be a curse upon the yet-living. This ring rules through rousing anger and disgust - its bearer can command those affected so long as they continually offer up scapegoats for their servants to act violently against. This ring can only be destroyed by the Hammer of the Giants - a lost artifact too heavy to be wielded by any mortal man. This ring is held by a hidden village of anthropophagous halflings who present themselves as hospitable bumpkins, twisted by the barbarism wreaked on them by those who sought the ring.” Sick, I’d play this campaign.
See ya soon,
Joel
https://shop.silverarmpress.com/