What I’m Up To

During the pandemic, I discovered two things which would profoundly affect my life going forward. The first was that I had inherited a genetic degenerative ataxia affecting speech and motor control. The second, happier, discovery was that a player in a game I ran during the late 80s to early 90s in California was still being run. One of my players had taken over as DM, and he was still running the same world to the best of his notes and memory.

The first discovery means that I have limited time to contribute meaningfully to the community, but the second affirmed that others had found meaning in the material I had created. I had previously published adventures, of course, and I have received some awesome feedback on those over the years. Writing is a lonely business, though, and there is never really enough feedback to keep imposter syndrome at bay!

(I am not really better than anyone else at providing feedback, and our community has some tremendously talented and honestly lovely people who I still haven’t written – or written enough – about!)

Anyway, I have finally decided that I don’t have enough time to make other people’s visions come to life. I really only have enough time and energy to focus on the projects I want to see come to fruition. That doesn’t mean I will never contribute to others’ projects again, but it will no longer be a focus of my work. I decided that I need to become my own publisher if I want to make the material I want to exist. Hence Crowking Press. I cannot write quickly anymore….things I could do over a weekend now take months….but I think what I am writing is worth the time spent.

Fasten your seat belts. The sales pitches are coming.

The Cyclopedia of Common Animals is something I’ve wanted forever. Game stats for animals are always useful, and this book comes with tools to help them become more useful. It starts with a long(ish) article on using animals in rpgs, and includes information on climate, habitat, and the relatively rarity of animals within these. Generating encounter tables is discussed, and I included a revised faerie animal class with a plethora of options…including faerie dinosaurs!

I also included rules for diseases like malaria, rabies, and sleeping sickness, rules for homing pigeons, and expansions on the core rules for donkeys, mules, warhorses, and the like.

But nothing explains like examples, so here are four examples taken at random:

Giant Banana Spider: Init +3; Atk +2 melee (1d4 plus venom); AC 14; HD 1d8; MV 30’ or climb 30’; Act 1d20; SP venom (Fort DC 17, 1d4+2 Strength and 1d4+2 Stamina damage on a success, 2d4+2 Strength and 3d5+2 Stamina on a failure plus save again or permanent impotence), camouflage +6; SV Fort +2; Ref +4; Will +2; AL N.

Getting bitten by the normal version of this highly venomous tropical spider isn’t due to an attack roll; it is due to being unlucky. These spiders hide during the day in dark places such as termite mounds, beneath logs, or in bunches of bananas. At night, they roam the jungle floor in search of prey. A potential victim coming into contact with a banana spider with exposed skin may attempt a Luck check to avoid being bitten. Within their range, the judge may include banana spiders as a potential encounter, and may include these spiders as a potential consequence of searching a location one is hidden in.

Giant banana spiders are halfling-sized nocturnal predators. Their camouflage ability typically comes into play while hiding during daylight hours. A thief may extract 1d4 doses of venom from a giant banana spider with a successful Handle Poison check.

Other names: wandering spider.

Cassowary: Init +0; Atk claw +0 melee (1d4) or peck +1 melee (1); AC 10; HD 1d6; MV 40’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +1; Ref +1; Will -2; AL N.

This flightless bird is usually 5 feet + 1d12 inches tall, with a maximum height of 6 feet 3 inches. Males weight 1d12+63 pounds, and females weight an average of 2d30+100 pounds, with a maximum recorded weight of 187 pounds. Although their normal diet consists of fruit, fungi, insects, and small animals, they can be aggressive, leaping to kick with dagger-like inner claws.

Stonefish: Init +0; Atk spine +0 melee (venom); AC 10; HD 1 hp; MV swim 20’; Act 1d16; SP venom (see below), camouflage +8; SV Fort +0; Ref +0; Will -4; AL N.

These fish are found in warm tropical seas, or more rarely rivers, and often in coral reef areas. They average 11 inches, but can grow up to 16 inches. Like the closely related scorpion fish, they are not aggressive, but unlucky adventurers who step on or touch them may be subject to a defensive attack before the creature attempts to retreat. Because stonefish can survive out of the water for a full 24 hours, even touching an unmoving stonefish on the beach may result in a sting.

Stonefish venom is especially deadly, requiring a DC 12 Fort save. Even if the save succeeds, the victim takes 1d4 Strength damage and is incapacitated by pain for 2d5 turns. If the save fails, the victim takes 1d3 permanent Strength damage and must make a second DC 12 Fort save. If the second save fails, the victim is paralyzed for 1d7 days and must succeed in a third DC 12 Fort save or die in 1d3 hours. Ingestion of the venom has the same effect, but the Fort save DC is increased to 16. Nonetheless, stonefish is considered a delicacy, and if properly prepared, it is not poisonous. Heating the venom can also destroy its potency (determine with a Luck check).

A thief can extract 2d3 doses of stonefish venom from a dead stonefish with a successful Handle Poison check.

Quokka: Init +2; Atk bite +0 melee (disease); AC 8; HD 1-2 hp; MV 30’ or climb 10’; Act 1d14; SP disease; SV Fort +1; Ref +2; Will +1; AL N.

This cat-sized marsupial weighs 1d6+5 pounds. Related to wallabies, they have pleasant-seeming faces which appear to be smiling and large front teeth. They also seem to have little fear of humans, although that is probably due to lack of familiarity more than anything else. They can bite if touched and the person disturbing them fails a Luck check, and they may carry diseases, as determined by the judge. The bitten target is allowed a second Luck check to avoid possible exposure.

And, because dinosaurs are always useful, here is an example from the appendix detailing them (along with several other prehistoric creatures):

Pachycephalosaurus: Init +0; Atk head butt +2 melee (2d6) or bite +1 melee (1d4); AC 15; HD 3d8; MV 40’; Act 1d20; SP Charge (head butt +4 to hit and +2d6 damage), trample for 1d6 per creature; SV Fort +6, Ref +2, Will -4; AL N.

At 1d6+12 feet long, these dinosaurs have thick, reinforced skulls which allow them to use their heads as rams, both to establish herd dominance and as a method of defense. Typical herds consist of 4d6 members.

I am currently working on a companion volume, the Cyclopedia of Common Faeries, which I hope to have completed next year. A third volume in the series, the Cyclopedia of Common Monsters of the Middle World is intended for late 2026 or 2027.

Best yet, any published material approved by Goodman Games can use up to 10 complete write-ups from the Cyclopedia of Common Animals with proper attribution. I also released the revised text of the Golden Lion rule into the public domain. I intend to include similarly generous terms in the other two volumes.

The Cyclopedia Domestica is a digest-sized companion volume to the Cyclopedia of Common Animals, which includes those animals likely to appear in DCC funnels or owned and utilized by characters in later play. If you need to know the AC of a goose, or the hit points of a goat, this book is a handy reference. Everything herein is reproduced in the larger Cyclopedia of Common Animals, but if you travel to conventions or your friend’s house to play, the Domestica is smaller and lighter.

Another way to imagine it is that the Cyclopedia of Common Animals is designed for world-building and adventure creation, and is therefore primarily judge-facing. Assuming it is allowed in play, the Cyclopedia Domestica contains a sub-set of stats and rules used primarily in actual game play, and is primarily player-facing.

I believe that both fill a real niche, even though the contents of the smaller work is also contained in the larger.

Deities & Powers of the Middle World: Preview Edition is both part of my world-building for the Middle World campaign setting, and an answer to my need for real information related to the gods. This work is far from completed, but I hope to have the final version out by late 2026, with new spells, patrons, rules for Luck, etc. The Preview Edition contains the opening article, a list of deities which will eventually populate the work, and a few mostly-developed gods (new spells and god-as-patron write-ups are not included).

The gods included herein are Aedor (Lord of the Forge), Amaethon (the Master of Grain), Death (the Silent Reaper), Fortuna (the Coin-Tosser), Hermes (Thief of the Gods), and Zal-Rah (the Ape-God). Because the cleric class as it existed did not fit Fortuna, I devised a new class for Her devotees. Right now, the project consists of 49 gods, some of which are also patrons for wizards and elves. I have been using these gods in my open-table online Shanthopal game, and they have been very well received so far.

When I wrote The Crimson Void for Purple Duck Games, I created an expanded format for gods which was, unfortunately, not used in the DCC Annual. In Deities & Powers of the Middle World, I am combining and expanding upon these two formats. Some gods grant spellburn even to non-client wizards, and I have included tables for those. More importantly, each deity has a “When Offended” table so that the judge can quickly and easily determine what response follows a theft at some temple, killing a monster sacred to some power, or forcefully thwarting a god’s plans.

The final version will also contain a druid class and four branches of druidism, which first appeared in my games in the early 90s. Because these gods have lived in my psyche and my games for so long – in some cases since the 80s – some of them have appeared in my previous published adventures. Hopefully, that will give people some fun connections to play with.

Finally, D120 Treasures is a system-agnostic collection of 120 treasures, mostly non-magical, which you can throw directly into your game. Or published adventure, as all of the treasures are Open Gaming Content. The pdf is only $2.00, so I think that is a good value for a small investment…even if the pdf is not pretty!

As a side note, if it interests you, many of these items are based on actual items which were on display when I visited the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. I am currently also working on a follow-up containing just magic items, although many of them are minor. Like the first volume, I intend this one to be system-neutral and open for others to use. I am not sure yet what that will look like, but it will probably look the same as in D120 Treasures.

I sincerely hope that I can open up my game world to your tables.

I have even started a book on how I GM, because both blog posts and Dispatches articles on the topic have proven popular. I have no idea how long that will take me. Some days are better than others.

I started off this blog post mentioning ataxia, and I will end on the same note. I am not morose about this, but things take much longer to accomplish than they used to. I am no longer able to do non-hobby work. If I was able to keep the same schedule I could 10 years ago, most of this stuff I’ve mentioned would be out by Christmas, and all of it by the next Gary Con in March. If you do end up picking any of these things up, your feedback is important to me. It helps me keep writing!