Issue 5 and a package deal!

Issue 5 has arrived!

Well LoSS has officially made it. The Lair issue is available for all!

Buy it here:  LoSS Hardcopy Prints

For those of you just hearing about it, Lair of Sword & Sorcery (or LoSS) started about a year ago and has been published one glorious chunk at a time.

A game of Sword & Sorcery adventure in a land of Ice and Snow. Thrill as your heroes battle through hordes of enemies, or twist their way through the treacherous tunnels of the Winterlands.

The Lairs issue pulls together the last little bits of the game with rules and guidelines for creating your own campaigns and adventures for LoSS (Stories and Lairs in the LoSS parlance).

I hope you all enjoy the finished LoSS product as much as I did.

But that's not all!

Special Package Deal

Now that the game is complete I'm starting up a package deal where you can order all 5 issues of LoSS for only $26.00 including shipping (you save $16.50 wow!)

Pay what you want pdfs

As usual you can get the pay what you want pdf's here: Get LoSS on Gumroad

Thanks everyone for this wild ride.

P.S.

There's still openings to play in the LoSS homegame on Roll20, just send your email into spookyroomproductions@gmail.com and I'll get you set up.

Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen in the great communities here on google+

~Ripley

editors notes from issue 5 suming up a year of Loss

Thought I'd put this here since, hey why write things twice?

Editors notes:

Welcome to issue 5: Lairs! (The sideways issue)
As we near the end of another year we also near the end of the 5 core books of LoSS (Lair of Sword & Sorcery)
Lets take a look at what I’ve done with LoSS and why.
Issue 1: Demonboard: Detailed the making of the all important demonboard on which all the action of the game takes place. Since a battlemat was so inherently important to the proper play of the game it was necessary to dedicate most of an issue to it. But I didn’t want to just send you out to buy a battlemat or even more expensive 3d dungeon materials.
If the game was to be played by anyone I had to prove that you can make a great looking 3d dungeon yourself with just a few dollars. Not only that but I had to show a way that anyone could do it, not just artists that can create a full 3d dungeon out of foam and cardboard already.
I needed something that was cheap, easy, and not at all time consuming.
I often say that you can make a perfectly suitable Demonboard in the same amount of time as it takes to watch Conan the Barbarian.

Issue 5 done!

Just a quick update to let you all know issue 5 is done! It's off to the printers and if all looks well you should see the links soon.

We're finally there! LoSS is a full game!

For those of you who have been thinking about playing now is the time, a special deal for a 5 book package will be going up.

Keep your eyes out for this great deal!

~Ripley

6 days to open game!

Just a quick update to all of you who received your invite email.
If you received it login to roll20 to claim your spot as soon as possible.
If you haven't received one yet email me at spookyroomproductions@gmail.com asap so I can get you hooked up.

For all you readers out there this game is open to all so if you want to give the LoSS game a try with the creator of the game as Demonlord then send your email address to the email and I'll send you an invite.

You can also request and invite through roll20.net, the games title is "Kartharka".

Issue 5: Lairs!

Photography is finished and we're moving into final edits and layouts.

Soon LoSS will be complete!

~Ripley

Almost there...issue 5 Lairs!

Photo shoot

Pictures are bopping along, got some taken yesterday in between chores but haven't got the cover shot I'm looking for yet.

Roll20.net

I'm still hinting for players for the online game of LoSS. Saturday Noon, AST

You can find it yourself on Roll20.net as "Kartharka",

Or you can send me your email and I'll send an invite. My email is spookyroomproductions@gmail.com

Apparently most of regular players are Meatspace only people and aren't too interested in playing online.

So that means I need you! The fans of the game or at least the moderately interested.

Join the game for a week, There's no commitment required, think of it more as a regular pick up game at the local game store.

Other odds and ends

Animations: No time to work on the animations, sorry too much other awesome stuff happening with the game.

Soundtrack: Ditto on the soundtrack for now. I'm just having too much fun writing content now, but in the future, yes someday.

The Lair synth: This one was actually dead in the water but got revived. Huzzah

LoSS Miniatures: This project is actually back in the active pile again. Was able to overcome a few obstacles and this is looking like a possibility. Sadly this one does depend on some outside resources so a timeline is just impossible to track, but someday. someday.

Issue 5 chugging along!

Lairs! has been in the percolator long enough, time to get down to business!
Not much art to go in this one as it's mostly just Jam packed with templates.
Got a photo shoot planned for the weekend for the cover and a couple of interior shots so we should be in layout by next week!

It's a bit exciting but a bit daunting to be reaching the end of the core releases.
By the end of the month I should have the complete LoSS game in print!

So for all of you waiting till the game is complete to get on board...Your time has come.

Follow the blog here or on G+ to hear when the release is finally available.

And the future?

Oh wonderful things!

I have one large story ready to go as well as another large one in the works, both in the Winterlands and including new enemies rules and places.

After that will be a series on the world of Karharka, likely an issue for the whole world and one for each of the Winterlands, Autumnlands and summerlands.

The fabled Mage wars will also be discussed in an issue along with all the details of Magic in the World of Kartharka.

Other than those topics it's up to the players to decide what else is coming. Depending on what they do and where they go. Those things will all be explored in the blog and future issues.

So if there's anything you would like to see in future issues, let me know.
Comment on the blog, on G+ or send an email to spookyroomproductions@gmail.com.

ps. upgraded to windows10 and edge (the new windows explorer) does not play well with blogger, but is pretty fast with google plus, where I've seen chrome slow to a crawl depending on what's in the feeds.

~Ripley

Issue 5 writing complete!

Issue 5: Lairs!

Writing is done and this issue is going into Layout! 

This one should be out soon.

The bulk of the issue is the "Temple of the Blind Burrower" Story and he blank templates for creating your own Stories and Scenarios so not alot of art is required for this one.

Also included are a few short essays on how to use the templates, building on the guidelines for Scenario creation from the Combat issue.

Also included will be the Demonlord Screen (Finally!)

I've been needing one of these for awhile myself. It should really help those of you who have had to learn the game from reading the issues as the information is finally all in one place.

It's a pretty exciting time for LoSS as this will complete the "Core" rules for the game and I can finally dig in to adding alot more background for the World of Kartharka.

And what's on the horizon?

I have another larger story, codename "pots and lizars" till another title presents itself all ready to go to layout,

I will also be finishing the Brytax area soon.

After that it's up to my players where I work on next.

You'll see alot of scans of scenarios as my Players work through them, I'll leave it up to them where to head next, whether it be travelling in the Winterlands or heading off to the Autumnlans.

I'm also tossing some rules around for epic size battles as I somehow foresee needing some soon. 

So long story short, not dead just crazy busy and the next issue is well ahead of schedule.

Rock on Blood Reavers!

~Ripley Stonebrook

LoSS Soundtrack Preview

Issue 5:Lairs! is chugging along at a nice pace, but to hold you all over till it enters the world, here is the intro track to the LoSS soundtrack.

This should pop up in some promotional videos later but for now I thought you might like a listen.

listen to LoSS track 1 Rolling Thunder

~Ripley

Sorcery Update

The unstoppable juggernaut that is the Sorcery issue barrels ahead of all expectations!
There still so much to do but the actual putting words on paper in pretty ways part of the book is plowing right along.
The soundtrack is falling a little behind but at least something should be in the issue by the time it goes to press.

Blame Skyrim, my poor Argonian aint gonna level up all by itself!  Speaking of Skyrim, damn that Aetherium crap, I go through all that for an item I am almost certainly going to sell at the first opportunity! Great quest line though, don't regret it a bit.

After Sorcery I'm jumping right into the next issue on how to write up lairs and stories. I've got all the actual content and rules etc finished for that, I"m just working on how I'm going to present it and whether or not I'm going to be using the burrower for that one or if I'll be using the newer storyline I have cooked up for the players.

I'm pretty sure burrower is going to be presented as a fairly quickly thrown together seperate pdf of it's own but we'll see how the future shakes out.

This also means that it's last chance for any of you wanting to get any music in for the first LoSS soundtrack going out with the Sorcery issue. If it's kickass it's welcomed. I don't need the full rights or anything but any songs submitted will be built into the Sorcery issue Pdf for all time.

I've also begun to hear rumblings from one of the players about writing up some alternative rules for combat and magic for LoSS. If they ever arrive then you'll see them here on the site or in a future issue.

Speaking of the future of the game, with Sorcery in the bag and the Lair issue of LoSS close behind I'm hoping that the core of the LoSS game will be complete this year.

Who knew Lair, from it's humble beginnings, would find fans across the world. Even if they're now playing LoSS itself I'd like to hope that a little of the spirit of Kartharka is working it's way into their games.

I couldn't have predicted a year ago that people would send me a picture of a Wizard and that it would make me so damn happy! Two years ago I was pretty much completely done with roleplaying, especially fantasy roleplaying. But what I've found is that I wasn't sick of the games. I was tired of the attitude of the genre in general.

This "been there, done that" attitude that was sucking the fun right out of the whole thing. Yes us old fogeys have indeed slain some dragons and gotten some loot. Then we "grew up" to more adult stories and games. And for some reason couldn't understand why we weren't having fun anymore. It's because complex, grown up, responsible gaming isn't always the funnest thing.

Sometimes you want your hero to save the village by sneaking into the castle and putting an axe in the Ogre. No matter how many ogres you slay, no matter how many maidens you save, and no matter how many piles of gold you get, if you're having fun with your friends don't force yourself to grow up in your gaming.

If you're sick of killing dragons, take on that liche, if you're tired of saving maidens, well...let them save themselves for once.

So for all the fans of Lair, just get out there and throw a fireball right in the middle of the room and be damned with the consequences. Just let your friends get out of the way first, don't be a dick about it...

Slay on crazy Blood Reavers!

~Ripley

Lair music and cover

Sorcery issue is deep in Layout at the moment with the cover gettting coloured as we speak.

Format changes and layout changes mean I can't use my good old (but not so good) template.

What with all the stuff going in and on this issue I'm shooting for a Halloween release for the Sorcery issue.

Soon behind that will be the issue detailing how to set up lairs with tips on balancing encounters, the lair and story templates, and how to use them.

There may or may not be a sample lair in that one.

Also Haven't posted many new lairs for you all on the Website and I'm sorry for that. Unfortunately that apology does not come with a Lair.

Work officially began with track 1, take one, of the Lair soundtrack.

Roll 20 still has not happened here at the homestead but we are getting part of the gang together for boardgames so Lair might happen tonight, but more likely we'll be playing a lot of short euros and card games.

That's it for today folks, no new fun stuff but if you haven't checked them out yet the lair issue can all be downloaded in pay-what you want pdfs now, just head to the "Buy Lair Online" button on the left of the site.

If you haven't seen any of the free Lairs they can be found by following the link on the right of the site.

Have a great weekend everybody, back to work for me.

~Ripley

Lair of the Blind Burrower the first Lair Story

What with the new online campaign moving along so fast the past players from the Blind Burrower will be joining that one instead (sorry guys, remind me to dole out your veteran points before you start).

That means that "The blind Burrower" that has been languishing on the shelf is now going into the final writing mode for publishing.

That one will still be published online in the Lairs section of the site for free but will be a big download as a pdf. I'll figure that out when we get to it.

It will also be available in print as well for all those that want to pick up a hardcopy (you know you do admit it).

Everything happens at once here at the Lair of Sword and Sorcery Hub!

expect updates on every other damn thing I'm working on here as I take advantage of the long weekend.

~Ripely

Lair is on RPG Geek, and other updates.

We're on the geek

RPGGeek...

Lair is now on RPGGeek. The constant efforts of +Raymond Saulnier have finally payed off and it now has a listing. (Thanks Raymond for the mighty rpggeek-fu to get it up there) I still need to go in and populate the listings with more info, pics etc but it's finally there. If any fans of Lair want to head over and post some reviews or ratings then it would be much appreciated.

Another quick Update

Just a quick shout to let you know that indeed, noone is dead here at Lair.
Veteran issue, Sorceror issue still underway. The blind Burrower is wrapping up this weekend so that will be appearing soonish (prepare for pictures of fearsome toys). Mostly it's been all art for the last week as well as hacking out the beginning of the next story.  I just need enough to introduce them to the new town, get the story started and let them have a little downtime

There may be some trouble with the Targ a comin if they aren't too careful, and the sages will definately have a lot to say about what's coming next.

The game tends to Alternate between Roleplaying heavy nights and action heavy nights once the adventure begins, but this one is a bit more "mysterious" and so they may have a little bit of leeway before everything ramps up.

Signing out from the Real World Winterlands...

~Ripley

I was supposed to...

Had plans to do my usual lineup of weekend posts, campaign reports etc but I'm choosing to go dark to get some real headway on the Veteran issue, sorry everyone, lots of material for the upcoming week but with so much material to go through I need to actually get some rough notes turned into real writing.
Currently on the block:
Veteran issue
Sorcery issue (this one will have a demonlord version and player version yipes!)
The Temple of the Blind Burrower Campaign
Plus a few other things I don't want to let out of the bag yet.

So patience folks as I hack some awesome out of the boredom of writing stuff down.

~Ripley

Campaign continues...

It's almost friday!

The official Lair of sword and Sorcery Campaign continues tomorrow.

The hapless heroes will be tackling the first Story written for Sword and Sorcery, "Temple of the Blind Burrower".

It will be available for free, either here at the site or elsewhere once we've played it through and I've had time to polish it.

Another true test of the games rules as the party has tripled in size since last week.

Luckily the Lair of Sword and Sorcery Veteran system has a built in ranking system to calculate party strength which is used for balancing encounters. 

So can my written scenario take on triple the amount of heroes? Yep, I can calculate the number appearing in the encounter on the fly, including the bosses etc.

Love it.

I'm more worried about how many chairs I have...

Play reports should be up on the weekend (even though I owe you a few from last time still).

Writing continues, the Veteran issue, Sorcery issue, and the Temple issue are all being written concurrently (Sorcery slides across all 3 so there you go)

I off to conquer!

~Ripley