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See, this problem has a very simple solution: Butlers don’t have first names! He’s Featherleaf to the owners and guests, and Mr Featherleaf to the rest of the staff.

It's actually an Orc name I promise.

Me (the DM of our homebrew game): and the half-orc butler to the Duchess’s estate answers the door for you. You all would know that his name is Hugmug Featherleaf-

My players: his name is WHAT.

Me: Hugmug? It’s an Orc name.

My players, laughing their asses off: you named the orc butler HUGMUG?

They effectively stalled the game for about five minutes just laughing and then for five more minutes would erupt into laughing fits any time I said his name.

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Technically, I can be 8 horses!

Party Druid (via outofcontextdnd)

Is this guy four eels?

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I ran a Stone Age game where the party made a point of skinning and otherwise harvesting parts from almost every monster they fought. Hide, teeth, claws, horns, the lot. Some of it was used as magic item components, some just got turned into clothing and jewellery, and the rest was traded to traveling merchants.

Their motto was “There’s no such thing as a Treasure: None monster.”

Dungeons and Doggos - #32 “Rat Collector”

With the rats all slain, there’s only one thing left to do… Shove them all in a travel sack and get the heck out!

Do you have a player in your group that likes to take parts of monsters with them? Or are YOU that player? (I know I am!)

Thanks for being awesome fans! I wanted to announce that DnDoggos is now on Patreon! There are several fun ways support the comic, so check it out and share with your friends! https://www.patreon.com/dndoggos

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Ok, to do this I’ll need Phantom Steed, Tenser’s floating disc, a whole lotta rope, a table, a flying snake, and like twenty minutes.

A mad genius (via outofcontextdnd)

This sort of thing is why I’ve never regretted putting skill ranks into Use Rope.

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My new D&D character

me, a street urchin in Ravenloft: why don’t the gods help us??? if you gods are so powerful and benevolent, why can’t you do one thing, JUST ONE THING, to make the world better for the people around me?

the gods: GRANTED, MORTAL

me, now a paladin: ... no, not like that

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“With all the technomancers and AI on the Matrix, won’t corporations stop doing their research on the Matrix, and do everything offline to be safer?”

(via Roll Safe think about it)

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I love Captain Killara. He has such great style, not to mention being a very handsome liz.

And what about the skink lady? She’s just so scrappy, and not quite as good a fighter as she thinks she is. I kind of ship her with Darel? Is that okay?

For some reason there are just no pictures online of the obscenely hot lizard mercenaries from Kulipari: An Army of Frogs.

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A Mongolian shepherd with an AK47 and a pet snow leopard

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Grab the Credsticks and Run

me at the meet: Here’s your paydata, Mr Johnson.

Mr Johnson: Excellent work! Here is your fee, on ten separate certified credsticks, as we agreed. I do have more work available, if you’re interested.

me: *is listening*

Mr Johnson: There is a prototype drone being developed inside an MCT Zero Zone-

me, shoving credsticks into my purse: sorry but I have to go back to my safehouse right now immediately

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Shadowrun: Anarchy Development

This isn’t the cover for this coming book. Instead, it’s a graphic that’s a starting point for what Anarchy will be. The rawness and simplicity of it makes me smile in a big way…such a great leap-off point.

So we announced Anarchy through distribution a few weeks back, but it’s time to start talking about the development of this book. 

The first question that’s likely coming to your minds, if you’ve not already heard the rumors about this book, is what is Anarchy?

Here’s the current draft of the back cover text for this book :

Shadowrun. The Sixth World. Orks in pinstripe suits with uzis; mohawked dwarves jacked into vehicles racing through megasprawls at breakneck speed; humans casting fireballs at corporate-trained paracritters; elves hacking the Matrix for a datasteal of the latest tech or working to topple an upstart corp. It’s where man meets magic and machine.

Shadowrun: Anarchy is a new way to get into the best cyberpunk/urban fantasy action around. Based upon a rules-light and easy-to-learn mindset, Shadowrun: Anarchy is a narrative-focused game experience that allows even an uninitiated gamer to grab some gear, load up on spells, and quickly get to throwing the dice. Immerse yourselves in the Sixth World!

Okay, I know what you’re likely thinking? “Okay, that sounds cool? But what exactly does that mean?” Well, here’s some more details from the sell sheet:

Shadowrun: Anarchy joins the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition game line as a way to bring in players who want storytelling-focused experience, with less focus on the detailed simulation that SR5 rules provide. Shadowrun: Anarchy allows even an uninitiated gamer to grab some gear, load up on spells, and quickly get to throwing the dice. • Adapts and refines Shadowrun mechanics to a faster-moving, story-focused approach to role-playing. • Includes numerous ready-to-use characters and so players can dive right into the action. • A slew of ready-made Missions will have players on the mean streets of the Sixth World in no time.

“That still doesn’t provide a ton of answers?” I know…but it’s a great starting place to announce this book and get people talking about it. After all, there’s a lot of weeks between now and the end of summer when it release. And in the coming weeks I’ll be rolling out numerous post talking about the development of this great, new Shadowrun experience. 

Enjoy!

Randall

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Lofwyr is not going to be happy about this.

Shadowrun Market Panic Art

And another sneak peak at the publishing-soon Shadowrun: Market Panic art, this one by Victor Moreno.

Enjoy!

Randall

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Our birb now.

Maggiebirb

So, one morning in January 2015, I woke up to find that my boyfriend and girlfriend were both gone and there were little rustling and twitterings coming from underneath a wicker basket on the boyfriend’s bed. When they got back, they had bird seed, because there was a tiny budgie under the basket. In hindsight, maybe there should have been a note on the desk. “Looks like we have a budgie.”

It was a bit of a stormy day, as is fairly normal for January in Sydney. Not cold as such, but unpleasant. So when the boyfriend and girlfriend found a tiny white-and-blue budgie fluttering around the front garden, looking exhausted and unable to fly far, they brought it inside. It was obviously a pet breed - you don’t get those colours in the wild population - and we figured it was pretty young, since it couldn’t fly well and it was small for a budgie. We put up some posters and figured we’d look after it until we heard back, and it seemed happy enough perching in a cardboard box for a while. The cats were more afraid of it than it was of them.

Young? Nope. The vet’s best estimate (and the girlfriend’s sister’s best estimate, since the sister has worked with budgies for ages) is that she’s two or three, and was probably being used as a breeding budgie, because she can’t fly well and she does not like being out of her cage. She loves her cage, though. She climbs around it like spider-bird and sliiiiiides down the bars to get to her food dish, something that she obviously does on purpose because it’s fun, because there are easier ways to get to her food. She has a jingler and a mirror and a swinging perch that she likes to climb to the very top of to sleep on. She propels herself in flight with sheer rage, it seems; when she’s flying, she’s constantly shrieking at the top of her lungs.

We’re pretty sure she escaped from (or was released from) one of the breeders on the highway a few blocks away. It took all of three days for us to go “our bird now”. At first we thought she was a he and named her Magellan, because she’d got so far, but she’s a bird of many nicknames now. Maggie is the most common one, but I call her all sorts of things. Mags, Maglet, Maggaboo, Magoola Garoola.

She’s a weird little thing. She’s a tiny ball of rage and defiance, and she will peck anything that comes close to her cage. At the same time, she sits reasonably comfortably on people’s shoulders for a few minutes before flying back to her cage, and she’s aware that we’re the source of millet and broccoli. She’s more sociable than she was a year ago, but she generally prefers to keep to herself, when she’s not having screaming matches with the birds outside or the bird in the mirror.

She’s very obviously happy, from the sounds she makes. She sings a lot, that loud, strident chirping that only budgies can make, and she chatters away to herself or the Mirror Bird all day. She’s a lovely colour, but she’s pretty obviously been inbred a fair bit to get that lovely colour; she’s a lot smaller than most budgies her age. She has trouble with her feet, and from her behaviour and the way she has so much difficulty flying, we’re almost certain she came from a breeder who kept her in a breeding box most of the time. We’re cross with that breeder.

Our bird now. You can’t have her back.

(Rescue story for @pepperandpals because they are awesome)

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So exciting! I can’t wait to mod my Suzuki Mirage to hell and back. Maybe some off-road tires will do something for her lousy off-road handling (yes, 5 counts as lousy for me!). But racing tires would make her run so nicely on the streets... eh, who am I kidding, I’m going to have a stack of tires ten deep in my garage. Nothing but the best for my baby!

(I know this is still pre-final editing, but I think you effect emergency repairs, rather than affect them.)

Shadowrun Rigger 5.0 Art…

Sorry it’s been a little slow the last week…had my head down pushing hard (and still am) getting our Vikings: The Board Game finalized to send to MGM for approval. Hopefully soon we’ll be able to start showing that off.

In the meantime, some more art from forthcoming Shadowrun Rigger 5.0, this one from artist Takashi Tan.

And I thought I’d just toss in a pre-final page as well….

Enjoy!

Randall

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WITNESS!

Shadowrun Rigger 5 Art...

And so it begins…Shadowrun Rigger 5 is already starting to move into layout and art is coming in fast and furious, which means time to start sharing details!

Here’s the pre-final description from the book:

Transporting goods across long overland routes can be dangerous, so Mack developed the Hellhound. I was going to say something about it being like a real hellhound only without flaming breath, but one of the most common close-defense systems installed on the Hellhound is flamethrowers. This road warrior would make a great post-apocalyptic war rig like the ones in Mad Max: Furios Child. It’s meant to deter go-gangs and road-jackers, and while it’s nice and shiny off the factory line, it tends to take a beating in short order and look like its been through hell. But it also looked like it survived hell and came back to share some of it with you.

And here’s the illustration from artist Victor Moreno:

I suddenly want a run through the Outback!

Enjoy!

Randall

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Pink Mohawk versus Black Trenchcoat

The difference between the "pink mohawk" and "black trenchcoat" styles of Shadowrun characters:

The runners are employed as covert security for an art gallery opening, posing as regular guests.

PC 1: I wear a provocative but mundane dress, carry one very concealed weapon, and keep my stash of guns and other gear in the nearby maintenance closet.

PC 2: I ride into the art gallery on the back of my mechanical jaguar!

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The Byzantine complexity of the system (and the totally unhelpful messages!) are also really othering to those of us who have Latin as a second language.

Roman Social Justice:  

I'll have you know that ordinary Eastern Roman citizens like me (we don't call ourselves Byzantine, btw) don't have any influence over our empire's bureaucracy, so I'll thank you not to perpetuate that harmful stereotype.

I would do more to campaign against our government, but I'm too busy with other important activist work (writing slash fic about my favourite charioteers and reblogging pictures of Jesus and Mary with the #idolatry tag) to do so.