Contact Information:

jay@vanishingtowerpress.com

Sunday, January 14

Western USR review sort of...

I actually took down my various PDF's for USR as I thought they all needed some heavy editing and didn't want someone to pay for a set of rules which didn't work.

But Western USR does work. Sure it need some polish. +Andrew Domino has recently discovered the awesomeness of USR and has delivered many useful blog posts on how to create different characters and campaigns with this universal system. He commented on my interpretation of Westerns with my Western USR rules set. Seems he liked my addition of a Speed attribute to the standard attributes listed in the game.



Besides the fact he interpreted the rules wrong in comparison to the speed of a knife versus gun, I am immensely pleased with more looks and critiques on how I use +Scott Malthouse 's lovely set of minimel rules mechanics.

I created Western USR with TSR's Boot Hill 1st edition in my hands. Speed was about the only thing out of the TSR rules I took away which needed to be captured. When mere humans meet hot lead who shoots first is all that matters. I'm finding more and more detailed tactical scenarios do not add to the game. As long as I can answer the question of how far away the target is I think players fill in the rest of the details on the combat environment. Players like to try and control the combat turn to their favor obviously. I like to try and rush combat events so as to make players feel out of control what happens next when the guns and blades come out. With Western USR I tried to construct the combat rules so instant death happens when cool heads do not prevail.

Try the game out and let me know what you think.

Saturday, January 13

Gathox Vertical Slum Gang Generator

Once again I am playing around with Logan Knight's Choose Your Own Generator  java tool and fashioned the random tables in Gathox Vertical Slum to provide an instant Gathox Gang Generator!

Here is a link to the text documents I used so you can create your own bookmark link that will spit out your own instantly random Gathox gang:





Sunday, January 7

The Big Black Book of Sorcery is being drafted

Most likely the next POD publication from Vanishing Tower Press in 2018 will be The Big Black Book of Sorcery. So far the draft is indicating a 72 to 96 page softcover 8.5" x 11"  publication with sixty two new items of magic; whether they be magical items, terrible incantations, or demons of the void. What they all provide is mind blasting, soul seering sorcery for your USR Sword & Sorcery world!


The art in this book will be more of the royalty free line art which has graced the two other USR Sword & Sorcery publications. The contents of this book will not be included in the upcoming Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery. This book is its own thing and will try and further my vision for USR Sword & Sorcery gaming. I'm laying it out as I write out the specific spell details and mechanics. I don't have any set process so each one of these books comes out with their own amateurish look and hopefully one day will be purchased in a discount bin of obscure role playing games by some exploring gamer with next to no money in their pocket.  


Sunday, December 31

USR Sword & Sorcery Deluxe has an Editor!

Taking the recommendation of successful DIY producers I have engaged the services of an editor for my next POD publication. It makes eminent sense to provide a clean text document competently polished by an experienced hand before evocative art is committed to a final product.

+Jens D. the creator of Monkey Business, a procedural junglecrawl, and The Disorientated Ranger blog has agreed to throw his prodigious talent behind USR Sword & Sorcery Deluxe for a princely sum therefore guaranteeing a usable, coherent, free-wheeling rules set for fantastic pulp-fantasy adventure!

Consider this an art-free version of a USR Sword & Sorcery game complete with new adventures, genre-specific magic system, bestiary, seafaring and mass combat rules. Everything a Crypt Keeper will need to start their own USR Sword & Sorcery campaign world.

Essentially USR Sword & Sorcery Deluxe will be the core rules and Horrors Material & Magic Malignant put together along with new adventure content and mass combat rules suitable for role playing pulp fantasy engagements; whether on land or sea.

Release date is set for August 2018 and if there is enough interest in the book I will commission original black and white line art appropriate for the genre.

So 2018 is a year to improve the presentation of USR Sword & Sorcery along with including more grisly adventures. More like it, get a core book I can be really happy about so I can stop fussing and move on to more adventure writing!