Book picks similar to
HackMaster Player's Handbook by Jolly R. Blackburn
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Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
Ed Stark - 2006
They are as ancient and infinite as the multiverse itself. Even the bottomless Abyss could not contain their malice, and so they spread out across the planes, corrupting and destroying everything in their path. No living soul is beyond their reach, and with each conquered soul their numbers grow. What can stand against such a terrifying onslaught?This supplement for the D&D® game presents the definitive treatise on demons and their unspeakable home plane. Along with information about the physiology, psychology, society, and schemes of demonkind, you’ll find feats, spells, items, and tactics commonly employed by demons and those who oppose them. This book also provides detailed information on various demons, demon lords, and Abyssal layers.For use with these Dungeons & Dragons® core booksPlayer’s Handbook™ Dungeon Master’s Guide™ Monster Manual™
Pathfinder Chronicles: Campaign Setting
Mike McArtorJeff Grubb - 2008
The Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting provides classic adventuring style and cutting-edge game design perfectly suitable for the world’s most popular roleplaying game!Note: Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide has replaced this volume as the main Pathfinder campaign setting book. The newer volume has been expanded and updated, and is designed for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. And the PDF is cheaper, too!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
Blades in the Dark
John Harper - 2016
There are heists, chases, occult mysteries, dangerous bargains, bloody skirmishes, and, above all, riches to be had — if you’re bold enough to seize them.You and your fledgling crew must thrive amidst the threats of rival gangs, powerful noble families, vengeful ghosts, the Bluecoats of the city watch, and the siren song of your scoundrel’s own vices. Will you rise to power in the criminal underworld? What are you willing to do to get to the top?In this stand-alone game, you’ll find:* Rules to create your scoundrel using the following character archetypes: the Cutter, the Hound, the Leech, the Lurk, the Slide, the Spider, or the Whisper.* Rules to create your crew, built from types like Assassins, Bravos, a Cult, Hawkers, Shadows, or Smugglers.* A robust core mechanic which puts the fiction first—the strength of a character’s position (desperate, risky, or controlled) matters just as much as the character’s ability scores.* A lightning-fast mechanic for planning criminal operations to cut through the usual slog of planning at the game table.Rules for alchemical experiments, gadget tinkering, and weird occult powers—including rules for playing Ghosts and other strange beings.* A setting guide to the haunted city of Doskvol, with all the maps, factions, NPCs, schemes, and opportunities you need to run an exciting sandbox game.
7th Sea Core Rulebook
John WickShen Fei - 2016
Players take the roles of heroes thrown into global conspiracies and sinister plots, exploring ancient ruins of a race long vanished and protecting the rightful kings and queens of Theah from murderous villains.Save the Queen of Avalon from treacherous blackmail!Thwart a dastardly assassination attempt on the Cardinal of Castille!Raid the villainous fleets of Vodacce Merchant Princes!Free the Prince of the Sarmatian Commonwealth from a mysterious curse!Make decisions that alter the very course of Thean history!In 7th Sea, you are a Hero, an icon of Theah ready to live and die for causes that matter. You bravely take on a dozen thugs with swords, knives and guns all on your own. You are the trusted knight, a loyal bodyguard or even an adventuring queen herself.In other words—you are d’Artagnan, Milady de Winter, the Dread Pirate Roberts, Jack Sparrow, Julie d’Aubigney, and the Scarlet Pimpernel all rolled up in one!This is a game of high adventure, mystery and action. This is a game of intrigue and romance.This is 7th Sea.
Unknown Armies
Greg Stolze - 1999
Completely reorganized, largely rewritten, and jam-packed with new art, the second edition of Unknown Armies isn't just better. It kicks metaphysical ass! We've remixed the book based on the level of campaign you want to play: Street, Global, or Cosmic. At street level, you're outsiders to the secret world of magick, ordinary people entering a land of mystery and peril. At global level, you're mojo-wielding cabalists in the occult underground, pursuing your arcane agendas and plotting against your rivals. At cosmic level, you're in tune with the cosmos itself, fighting to shape the next incarnation of reality. Background material is divided up as well, so new players in a street-level campaign only read what the GM wants them to know. But the beats don't stop there: Much more information for new players, to get them into the mindset of the game and help them make better characters and stronger campaigns. * New character-creation options, including Trigger Events, Paradigm Skills, and power levels scaled to match the level of campaign you're playing. * Numerous rules tweaks, including a new initiative system, Fuzzy Logic skill checks, player-directed combat modifiers, amped-up martial arts rules, a new experience system, and more, all dedicated to upgrading UA's innovative percentile system into a lean and precise tool for fast play and player empowerment. * More magick for non-adepts: Authentic Thaumaturgy, new rituals and artifacts, and revised versions of Proxy Magick and Tilts allow the freewheeling use of symbolic, sympathetic magick by anyone with the will to make it happen. * Twelve schools of magick (up from seven in UA1) for obsessed adepts, including revised versions of published schools (Bibliomancy, Personamancy, and Urbanomancy) and two new schools (Videomancy and Narcotic Alchemy). * Fourteen avatars (up from eight in UA1) for archetypalists, including revised versions of published avatars (The Messenger, The Mother, The Mystic Hermaphrodite, and the True King) and two new avatars (The MVP and The Warrior). * More resources for the GM, including specific guidance on combat, wounds, skill checks, campaign building, and other critical issues. * New cover art and design, new interior art and design, and a hardcover binding to keep this game in line.
Player's Option: Skills & Powers
Dale Donovan - 1995
Player's Option Rulebooks present an alternative approach to AD&D characters. Custom-craft your next PC, selecting the profession, skills, and abilities you want! Characters can even have additional ability scores such as Stamina, Muscle, Balance, and others. New proficiencies, talents, and updated psionics round out the Player's Option character. Be ready for anything with Skills & Powers!
XDM X-Treme Dungeon Mastery
Tracy Hickman - 2009
(Do-it-yourself secret initiation rites included.)Master the secrets of designing adventures that tell stories.Create magic illusions that can even make your players disappear!Use actual fire in your game properly.Hijack the game as a player, and how to deal with a player revolution as an XDM.Plus loads more!If I could go back in time and rewrite Dragonlance, it would be this book...only with more dragons in it. --Tracy HickmanI can say without any shame or bias, that this is one of the best books ever written and should be in every hotel room next to the bible. --Curtis HickmanPossessed by the spirits of Da Vinci, Van Gogh, and Jack Fred, I illustrated a book that you should buy two of...one to read and one to hang on your wall.--Howard Tayler
Ten Candles
Stephen Dewey - 2015
It is played by the light of ten tea light candles which provide atmosphere, act as a countdown timer for the game, and allow you to literally burn your character sheet away as you play. Ten Candles is described as a "tragic horror" game rather than survival horror for one main reason: in Ten Candles there are no survivors. In the final scene of the game, when only one candle remains, all of the characters will die. In this, Ten Candles is not a game about "winning" or beating the monsters. Instead, it is a game about what happens in the dark, and about those who try to survive within it. It is a game about being pushed to the brink of madness and despair, searching for hope in a hopeless world, and trying to do something meaningful with your final few hours left. Ten Candles may be played with any number of players and one gamemaster. It takes between 2-4 hours for an average session. While there are some components that need to be gathered to run a game (such as ten tea light candles), the game requires no addition preparation by the gamemaster. The setting of Ten Candles will change game to game as the gamemaster selects different "modules" to run for an ever-changing lineup of doomed characters and scenarios for them to play within. The antagonists of the game also change, leaving you to fight nightmares in one session only to fight sentient shadows, bloodthirsty clowns, or the gods themselves in the next. Every session of Ten Candles is unique and will present an entirely new tragic story for you to tell.The standard setting of Ten Candles is this: Ten days ago the world went dark. The sky betrayed you. The sun vanished. The fall into chaos was sudden and predictable. The world was filled with riots and fear. You were told that the sun was not gone, and that it was still out there beyond that black sky. Order returned. Five days ago, They came. Now the lights flicker low and the dark is where They hunt. Now you can hear the screams. Now They're coming for you. Keep moving. Don't lose hope. And stay in the light.
Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design
Wolfgang Baur - 2012
The Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design offers 240 pages of in-depth essays on what makes RPGs tick. Get time-tested advice from the top designers in the industry. This compilation includes all three volumes of the Kobold Guide to Game Design series—now with all-new material by Wolfgang Baur, Mike Stackpole, and others! From core rules and magic systems to fantasy adventures, monster design, playtesting, and much more, these 40 essays cover every aspect of RPG design in clear, accessible language, to show you what it takes. The City Book Review called it "highly recommended for gaming nerds everywhere"! Pick up the Complete KOBOLD Guide to Game Design today, and starting designing your RPG tonight! Winner, 2012 Gold ENnie Award, Best RPG-Related Accessory
Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons
Michael Witwer - 2015
Michael Witwer has written a dynamic, dramatized biography of Gygax from his childhood in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to his untimely death in 2008.Gygax's magnum opus, Dungeons & Dragons, would explode in popularity throughout the 1970s and '80s and irreversibly alter the world of gaming. D&D is the best-known, best-selling role-playing game of all time, and it boasts an elite class of alumni--Stephen Colbert, Robin Williams, and Junot Diaz all have spoken openly about their experience with the game as teenagers, and some credit it as the workshop where their nascent imaginations were fostered. Gygax's involvement in the industry lasted long after his dramatic and involuntary departure from D&D's parent company, TSR, and his footprint can be seen in the genre he is largely responsible for creating. But as Witwer shows, perhaps the most compelling facet of his life and work was his unwavering commitment to the power of creativity in the face of myriad sources of adversity, whether cultural, economic, or personal. Through his creation of the role-playing genre, Gygax gave two generations of gamers the tools to invent characters and entire worlds in their minds. Told in narrative-driven and dramatic fashion, Witwer has written an engaging chronicle of the life and legacy of this emperor of the imagination.
Pathfinder Adventure Path: Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition
James JacobsMichael Kortes - 2012
An attack by crazed goblins reveals the shadows of a forgotten past returning to threaten the town—and perhaps all of Varisia. The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path begins with this goblin raid and takes players on an epic journey through the land of Varisia as they track a cult of serial killers, fight backwoods ogres, stop an advancing army of stone giants, delve into ancient dungeons, and finally face off against a wizard-king in his ancient mountaintop city. This hardcover compilation updates the fan-favorite campaign to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules with revised and new content in more than 400 pages packed with mayhem, excitement, and adventure!Celebrating both the fifth anniversary of the Pathfinder Adventure Path and the tenth anniversary of Paizo Publishing, this new edition expands the original campaign with new options and refined encounters throughout, incorporating 5 years of community feedback.The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition contains:- All six chapters of the original Adventure Path, expanded and updated for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.- Articles on the major locations of Rise of the Runelords: sleepy Sandpoint, the ancient Thassilonian city of Xin-Shalast, and others.- Revelations on the sinister magic of Thassilon, with updated spells, magic items, and details on tracking sin points throughout the campaign.- A bestiary featuring eight monsters updated from the original Adventure Path, plus an all-new terror.- Dozens of new illustrations, never-before-seen characters, location maps, and more!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
Symbaroum
Mattias Johnsson - 2015
Visit the barbarian clans to trade or to plunder their treasuries. Establish a base of power among princes, guilds or rebellious refugees in the capital city of Yndaros. Or survive encounters with Arch Trolls, dark-minded Blight Beasts and undead warlords. But whatever you do, never ignore the warnings spoken by the wardens of the forest: tread carefully and do not disturb the ruins of old, for the dark deep of Davokar is about to awaken.
Veins of the Earth
Patrick Stuart - 2017
Included in this essential work:- A detailed survey of over fifty new monsters and a half dozen cultures that lurk in the Veins.- Procedures for Referees to generate both small and large-scale maps and locations within.- Expanded rules for players navigating a realm that has never seen the sun.- Full descriptions of the different types of light and the different types of dark.- The worst kinds of fear, madness, and nightmare.
The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters
Keith Ammann - 2019
In The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, Keith Ammann lightens the DM’s burden by helping you understand your monsters’ abilities and develop battle plans before your fifth edition D&D game session begins. Just as soldiers don’t whip out their field manuals for the first time when they’re already under fire, a DM shouldn’t wait until the PCs have just encountered a dozen bullywugs to figure out how they advance, fight, and retreat. Easy to read and apply, The Monsters Know What They're Doing is essential reading for every DM.
GURPS Cyperpunk: High-Tech Low-Life Roleplaying
Lloyd Blankenship - 1990
-- The book that was confiscated by the Secret Service because they thought it contained hacking secrets (It doesn't)-- Nominated for the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement.