LoSS 6: Sorceress of Zhaan has arrived! With Soundtrack and Videos!

Issue 6: Sorceress of Zhaan has finally arrived!
And it's was definately worth the wait!

The Lair of Sword & Sorcery game continues with a new issue with loads of new articles, Background and a new Adventure!

Get it on DriveThruRPG Here

Soundtrack ready to go into studio!

All right, now the soundtrack is all set and ready to go into the studio! Going to draw the cover this weekend and colour sometime next week, so close to all the finishing touches and wedging everything into a pdf!

~ripley

Another Late Weekend Update! Progress on 2 fronts!

Progress continues!

Music time! Late Weekend update.

Working on the soundtrack for Issue 6 now!

Nice to be back in the studio again!
Once that's done it's on to photography and film.
Then back into layout to finish all the little fiddly bits and on to the cover!
I'm always loathe to slap a date on it but summertime is definately looking good for a release date.

Sorry about the lack of new releases so far this year, lots happening in the first of the year.

Work had a few "glitches" to iron out in the first quarter.

The transistion to print copies on Drive Thru RPG did not got as well as planned (get your print copy at Lulu here) That ate up a lot of the first of the year.

That led to working on the Lair Core Rules rerelease, which led to a rewrite of all the rules and background information and grew into a whole thing of it's own. It's creeping along as well but will likely be next year minimum before it see's light of day.

And so on...

So lot's happening just not alot of "releases".

But Sorceress is winding down and Brytax is winding up.

Brytax is going to be a more "traditional" release.

It will include a "wilderness" map of the area between the heroes and Brytax.
It will also include a Campaign like story with a few Main adventures weaving through the story and many optional encounters along the way. The heroes are free to continue with the main story if they wish or leave it at any point along the way.

Also to be in this issue will be the extended Veteran Point rules. They're useful for so much more than just buying skills!

So rock on my Bloodreavers! more coming soon!

Quick update, busy busy.

Just a quick update so you all know that I'm not dead.

What's up in the world of LoSS at the moment?

Lair Redux Core Compilation rulebook

Still in the writing stage. There is a lot that I am adding to the compilation rulebook for this edition but it all needs to be written first, I'm tackling that on section at a time but it's getting done.

Issue 6 Sorceress of Zhann

Issue is written and laid out.

Art is chugging along for this issue, and there's alot of it!

Almost finished the big set piece for this one as well.

Still have miniatures to paint for this one.

Then on to the soundtrack, some filming and editing and it'll be in your hands. I hope the wait will have been worth it.

The LoSS miniature line

On hold till this next issue is out. My hopes are to launch the fist minis by the fall convention schedule but that may be a bit premature.

LoSS soundtrack

The first LoSS soundtrack will be included in the Sorceress of Zhaan issue, Anyone looking to get included can send their music to: spookyroomproductions@gmail.com

The LoSS synth

No time, no money, no progress yet. I'm hoping to get at least the Control voltage module and Oscillators up and running before the end of the year.

The LoSS homegame

Classic story, conflicting schedules, kids, work, people not available on the same day etc. Roll 20, while helpful was not able to overcome scheduling problems.

But all is not lost! I'll be moving the game out of the house and off the interwebs and into the local game store. I'll be running LoSS in public for real people in real life, coming as soon as the Zhaan issue is finished up.

The LoSS Roll20 demo game

Once the Zhaan issue is done I'll be starting up another game on Roll20. The LoSS demo game will be open to all who want to drop in and see what the game is all about, ask questions about the game, or just hangout.

The first hour or so will be devoted to just hanging out and Q and A about the game, and if anyone feels like sticking around to play we'll jump in.

So yeah, lot's going on, the biggest issue ever is creeping closer to done, and lot's of even bigger things on the horizon, long live LoSS.

~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.

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

Fan art rolling in for Sorcery issue

The Fans Art is starting to roll in! This first guy is a great Wizard by Jud Crandall.
I'd link him but for some reason he's not on Google plus, baffling!

But he is a member of Wooden Wives (https://woodenwives.bandcamp.com/) who are supplying the music for the first Lair animation.

So head on over to the link and show them a little love.

All the other stuff is crawling along, lots getting done just nothing to throw up on the site. Yet.

~Ripley

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.

Weekend update/ announcing Lair Chapbooks

Sorcery monograph cover in progress

Weekend Update.

Mini Lairs

I should have another quickie Lair made up before the end of the weekend "The Warlord", which sees the heroes being captured and enslaved by one of those upstart princelings trying to carve out a petty kingdom.

Hopefully these are quenching your thirst for Kartharkan content for the time being till the next big issue. The Veteran issue was such a monster that I have to step back from these massive issues for awhile. But luckily that means more free content for all the Demonlords out there.

Lair Synth!

And now for all those crossover fans of Sword and Sorcery, home brew Roleplaying games, and DIY synths (getting into pretty deep subsets of subsets here), the first board for the Lair synth.

Busy Busy!

Busy Week!
Just getting everything prepped up for the summer season of Lair.
The next few publications will be Scenarios and campaigns since I'm going to be focusing on my own game for the next little while.
I'm sure many rules additions will crop up while I'm working on those so those will be compiled into a single issue once enough of them have built up in the scenarios.

Sorcery!

The biggest change will be in the Sorcery part of the game.

I was going to put out a double issue for Sorcery with one for the players and one for the Demonlord.

I decided that I just didn't like the idea.

I wanted Sorcery to be far more fluid, mysterious and conducive to any given scenario.

So in my own game I will be introducing Sorcery (someone found some scrolls!) piece by piece.

Sorcery in Lair should be unpredictable so each "spell", demon, item, or other things will all have their own rules.  During play I'm sure that these will soon settle into a more standardized form and will publish a sorcery issue of guidelines once I have a large enough mass of material.

Music!

I was deadly serious about a Kartharka album. Stymied only by some linux issues on the computer that should be worked out shortly. I'll probably be posting the seperate songs here before the album is complete, or videos will go up on the Youtubes. Anyone who wants to throw a track on the album feel free to send it along. I'm in the process of building a new synthesizer which may or may not appear on this album but the guitar and the S612 sampler are raring to go. 

Videos!

Yes indeed, promotional videos for Lair will be going up on the Youtubes, again linux software stymied this for a bit but some good alternatives were found, the moving pictures will arrive soon!

Toys!

Those of you who know me in real life know that this has been in the works for the last couple of years, well I finally broke down and got me an arc welder. There may be a line of Kartharka toys born yet.

So keep your eyes peeled lots of free content is on it's way and if I can sort out the camera finally more pics than ever.

Thank the gods the main rules are all finished up so that we can all get down to playing!

~Ripley

Veteran Issue of Lair in stores Now!

Veteran issue is finally here.

• This is the big one, had to add 4 pages for all the content. The Lair Veteran system, the Fame and Favour system, the Follower rules and a little taste of Sorcery.
• As well as new weapons, armour, and combat rule.
• A host of enemies to attack the poor heroes.
• Guidelines on running a full Lair.
• And more, so much more.
• An expanded background of the whole Winterlands area with update maps of all the new and mysterious locations.

With this issue the Lair of Sword and Sorcery is now a full game. For those of you who have been waiting to see if we got this far, we certainly did!

The issues are available now at Heroes beacon and within a few days will be available here on the site.

I won't be jumping right into the Sorcery Issue just yet. That's another whole monster, and a double issue at that, one for players, one for Demonlords.

Next up on the publishing schedule is going to be some other stuff though.

First will be "Temple of the Blind Burrower". The first Lair campaign (Story in Lair parlance).
That one will be available for free download as well as in print.

After that will likely be the "Book of 50 Lairs". Which will also be a download, possibly a print edition as well, I haven't decided on it's final format yet. This will essentially be a book full of maps, ready to be populated with suggestions on the use of each one.

My own campaign will hopefully be chugging along happily by then and will probably throw up the next couple of projects as we start attacking the Sorcery rules and put them through the playtest meat grinder.

Also on my Radar is a Lair album of "music inspired by lair". It's an idea that's been floating around since before publishing the game and I think it's time to start locking that down. It will be a free download available somewhere so if anyone has been inspired by Lair and has some music that maybe doesn't fit in just anywhere else, then send it along.

So I'm off to enjoy regular life for a little while and actually get to visit some other peoples sites and read other peoples stuff.

I'll send out another post when the New buy links are up for Issue 3!

~Ripley