[Now Available] Forest Adventures -- Shadowdark Supplement

Forest Adventures

Designed for use with the Shadowdark RPG

By James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler

The materials presented in this booklet are optional, providing a new ancestry, new class, new spells, and new patrons for players and new monsters, treasures, and a complete mini-campaign setting for the game master to challenge player characters.

This supplement is designed to expand options for any campaign setting or sub-region of a campaign setting that is based in a forested area.

Designed for use with Shadowdark, Forest Adventures is easily adaptable to any other classic style OSR Role-Playing Game.

Forest Adventures includes:

New Oozeling Ancestry

New Hermit Class

20 new Woodland Spells

Four new Patrons for Warlocks and Witches

15 new forest-themed monsters:

Brudnakula

Doe Maiden

Flitterswarm

False Satyr

Korrigan

Lamia

Lamia Princess

Leucrotta

Nix

Nixie

Plonakupa

Satyr

Schaedelbaum

Woodwyrm

Ywazent

10 new forest-themed treasures:

Horn of the Woodland

Nixie Ring

Potion of Ooze

Potion of Power

Rune-Carved Menhir

Saint’s Cloak

Seed of the Outer Sphere

Stormcrown

Staff of the Woodlands

Woodwyrm Necklace

A Gazetteer of Witchyflow Vale for James Mishler’s Hawkmoor Campaign Setting, including:

Extensive Encounter Tables, with region guidelines and history;

25 Hex-based Encounters

d100 Specific Witchyflow Vale Encounter Table

Witchyflow 2 mile-per-hex GM’s Hex Map

Witchyflow 2 mile-per-hex VTT Player’s Hex Map

40 pages (37 pages of content).

$6.00

AND NOW, A WARNING: My Shadowdark products add a further level of complexity to the rules and to play than a typical Shadowdark player might desire. The difference in complexity is about that between the Basic rules of a game and the Advanced rules. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN FURTHER COMPLEXITY IN YOUR GAME. YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED!

BUY FOREST ADVENTURES ON DRIVETHRURPG NOW

[Shadowdark] The Shadowdark RPG Kickstarter is Live!

The Kickstarter for the Shadowdark RPG by The Arcane Library is now live!

Click here to go to the Shadowdark Kickstarter.

This is the best new RPG since Moldvay/Cook Basic/Expert Dungeons & Dragons.

It is the perfect expression of Old School feel with Modern RPG system design.

Check out those simple stat blocks!

Check out the AMAZING stuff you can get out of the gate with the Kickstarter!

There is already a bunch of support for Shadowdark by Third Party Publishers, and the Shadowdark 3PP License is simple, easy, royalty-free, and IRREVOCABLE.

I've already published three supplements and an adventure for Shadowdark... click here to check them out!

[Announcement] James Mishler Games Extended Hiatus & End of the OGL Sale

UPDATE: With Hasbro's apparent change of heart, I am at this point reconsidering removing my products from DriveThruRPG. That will depend on further developments. I will not be satisfied that this is all irrevocably resolved until they release OGL 1.0b, properly adding the term "irrevocably" and properly excising the term "authorized." At that point I will consider everything properly finished to my satisfaction for the protection of all OGL products. 

In any case, I still have to wait and see what shakes out with Labyrinth Lord and Shadowdark and other games and Open Licenses and whatnot before I decide how to move forward.

Until then, the 23% off sale continues as planned. Barring another reversal of Hasbro's decision, my existing products will remain available until further notice.

After much consideration, I have decided that the simplest course forward after the OGL Debacle is to simply purge James Mishler Games of all products, go on hiatus, and return when the whole situation clears up.

I have no desire to publish new products for game lines that might be forced to disappear overnight.

I have no desire to support games that were designed to support earlier versions of games that Hasbro still owns.

Don’t get me wrong; I still love BX Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and the Labyrinth Lord/Advanced Labyrinth Lord games that were developed to support those lines.

I will never stop playing them… probably in the Advanced Labyrinth Lord format, as that is closest to how I originally played the game.

But I cannot support them anymore.

Dan Proctor is working on a new edition of an OGL-less Labyrinth Lord. I will always support Dan with his endeavors.

Kelsey Dionne is working on an updated OGL-less Shadowdark RPG. I will always support Kelsey and her work.

If possible, I will support both games with published products.

But my current product lines are going away.

I am not going to wait until Hasbro decides what to finally do with “OGL” 2.0-whatever. I have no desire to follow all the malarky anymore. They are going to do whatever they want to do, right or wrong, moral or immoral, ethical or unethical, legal or illegal, fans, long-term viability, and simple common sense be damned.

I’m just done.

The JMG End of the OGL 23% Sale Off resumes on Friday, January 27th, and will run through Friday, February 24th. 

The sale might end sooner if Hasbro puts out the new “OGL” before then.

Everything comes down that weekend. 

Everything.

All my products on DriveThruRPG. Everything, including all maps. Everything will be deleted from their system. I’m just going to purge it all and start anew.

I will have something new. A placeholder, to keep JMG active on the site.

But otherwise, everything will be completely gone. 

This is the absolute last chance to buy anything JMG from the OGL era. 

This will be your last chance to download anything you have bought.

I will also be deleting all my Dungeons & Dragons, OGL, Labyrinth Lord, and Shadowdark-related entries on my personal and company blogs. Gone.

I will return to blogging sooner than later, and once things shake out for the new Labyrinth Lord and Shadowdark and other Open License Games, I will return to publishing. That might be three months, six months, probably a year on the outside. I will be happy to support them and other RPGs that pique my interest and have a true Open Gaming License. 

I will never support Hasbro or Dungeons & Dragons again. 

They get nothing from me. Nothing. Nada. Nix. Niente.

Not so much as a bent copper.

No more print books, no more classic PDFs from Wizards. No collectibles. I will not go to the movie, and I will not watch the streaming show.

I have been a hard-core Dungeons & Dragons fan for more than 40 years. My entire adult life, my career, was chosen because of the love of games that was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. I met most of my friends through games. I met my wife because I got a job in gaming.

For 40 years, I have been a walking, talking advertisement for Dungeons & Dragons.

But no more.

Dungeons & Dragons is dead to me.

Long live Open Gaming.

Long reign the Age of the ORC.

[James Mishler Games]: The OGL: Known Unknowns and Unknown Unknowns

I go away for less than two weeks and all Hell breaks loose.

That'll teach me to try to take a vacation!

I'm sure you've seen the news all over the place.

We know that some elements of the leaked New "OGL" are true, from statements by those who are already working with it or have negotiated to do so.

We do not know if Hasbro intends to "de-authorize" the Old OGL for everyone or only for those who opt-in on the New "OGL."

We do not know if they try to kill the Old OGL for everyone else if it would even be legal or not.

Doesn't really matter, if they intend to lawyer up and follow up C&Ds with actual lawsuits.

Might not be moral; might not be ethical; might not be legal. But that's the way the system works here.

I don't think anyone has the money or wherewithal to fight this thing; it would take years and years before anything was resolved, likely without the ability to publish under the Old OGL until it was resolved.

We don't know how this is going to work with DriveThruRPG.

We don't even know all the things we don't know yet!

But I do know one thing. I'm not going to deal with it.

Even if they don't follow through now, there is no knowing if they might try to follow through later.

And besides, I'm no fan of the way they are mistreating the community of designers and players by even toying with these ideas. No sir, I don't like it at all.

Ergo, James Mishler Games is getting out of the OGL publishing business.

Starting tomorrow morning (Saturday, January 7) most of my products will go on sale at 23% off...

Our OGL Countdown Sale.

In celebration of 23 years of the OGL, almost all our products are 23% off!

The sale is scheduled to last through January 12th. Rumors have it that the New "OGL" might be released on Friday the 13th. 

How apropos.

If so, and if there is as expected a sunset date on the Old OGL, right or wrong, legal or not, I'll have my products down on or before that date.

So, if you've been on the fence about buying my products, buy them while you still can. And download them right away, as we don't know if we can still keep them hosted after that. Then save them in several locations (backing up in multiple locations is always a good idea, anyway).

My return to publishing thereafter depends on a couple of things.

First and foremost, Kelsey Dionne of The Arcane Library has already announced that she is pivoting away from 5E and going to focus on the Shadowdark RPG, which will be rewritten to ensure it is not entangled with the OGL.

I will be supporting Shadowdark once it releases. That release is now, of course, delayed.

Unfortunately, this whole kerfuffle means that I will no longer be able to publish for Labyrinth Lord. However, Dan Proctor has already considered some options of what to do in the event that Labyrinth Lord has to go away, so I will be looking into that, as well.

Many other companies are considering creating their own RPGs and offering them in a true, non-revocable, perpetual license. I'll look and play through some of those, and then see what strikes my fancy.

Until then, as the mood strikes me, I'll probably concentrate on writing system-free products, such as encounters, NPCs, Locations, and various worlds and world elements.

I've got a LOT of Hexographer maps I can offer.

Finally, I will also look into re-writing Isle of Eldisor to be essentially system-free. That would require extensive changes and require some time. I hope to be able to offer it in the same "slot" as the original Isle of Eldisor product so that those who purchased it can simply download it. I'll have to see how that works on DriveThruRPG.

Thank you for your support for the last 10 years. None of this would have been possible without you.

This is definitely not the way I wanted things to go on the 10th Anniversary of James Mishler Games.

But sometimes, you just never know...

[Now Available] The Witch, the Shepherd, His Goats, and Their Daughter Shadowdark RPG Adventure

The Witch, the Shepherd, His Goats, and Their Daughter

An Adventure Designed for use with for Shadowdark

By James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler

Art by Evlyn Moreau

Challenge Level: GBX

The Witch, the Shepherd, His Goats, and Their Daughter is a fairy tale adventure designed for use with the Shadowdark RPG. Help the Shepherd find his Goats and Daughter who have been kidnapped by the Witch of the Woods. The woods are home to all manner of strange, fearsome, and fey monsters… not to mention the witch!

Featuring 12 encounter sites, each with various dangers and rewards, The Witch, the Shepherd, His Goats, and Their Daughter provides action and adventure for one to three sessions.

The Witch, the Shepherd, His Goats, and Their Daughter is a forest point-crawl based on the art of Evlyn Moreau. It presents three Challenge Levels and can thus be used for three different kind of adventuring parties.

This adventure is designed for three separate Challenge Levels of play – Gauntlet (G), for parties of 0th level characters; Beginner (B), for parties of 1st or 2nd level characters; and Expert (X), for parties of 3rd and 4th level characters. Note that G level adventures are more difficult than B level and slightly less difficult than X level, as they are designed for four or five players each with four 0-level characters, rather than four or five players each with one character of 1st or 2nd levels or 3rd or 4th levels. Most, though not all monster and danger difficulties and treasures vary depending on the level of play – the greater the danger, the greater the reward! Choose the level of play based on the characters at hand – of course, you could also go with a lesser or greater level of danger, depending on the desires and fears of your players and their characters to seek danger and reward regardless of level! Higher levels of play in subsequent adventures include Champion (C) 5th to 6th, Master (M) 7th to 8th, and Legend (L) 9th to 10th.

JMGSD04, 20 pages (17 pages of content), $3.00.

Buy it now on DriveThruRPG

[Now Available] Expanded Races: Thanians - A Shadowdark Supplement

Expanded Races: Thanians

Designed for use with the Shadowdark RPG

By James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler

Expanded Races: Thanians includes 41 new races for use with the Shadowdark Role-playing Game.

Thanians, also known as Beastfolk, are anthropomorphic animals, including insect, amphibian, reptile, avian, and mammals, and including the following races:

Antfolk

Apefolk

Badgerfolk

Batfolk

Bearfolk

Beefolk

Birdfolk

Boarfolk

Butterflyfolk

Catfolk

Cattlefolk

Corvidfolk

Crabfolk

Cricketfolk

Deerfolk

Dogfolk

Duckfolk

Fishfolk

Foxfolk

Frogfolk

Gatorfolk

Goatfolk

Horsefolk

Lionfolk

Lizardfolk

Locustfolk

Mantisfolk

Monkeyfolk

Mousefolk

Otterfolk

Pigfolk

Rabbitfolk

Raccoonfolk

Raptorfolk

Ratfolk

Roachfolk

Serpentfolk

Sheepfolk

Skunkfolk

Tigerfolk

Wolffolk

Each has a brief description of common physical characteristics and typical societal systems, along with one or more special abilities.

16 pages (13 pages of content). 

$1.99 -- A steal!

Buy it now at DriveThruRPG!

 

[Now Available] Expanded Talents for the Shadowdark RPG

Expanded Talents

Designed for use with the Shadowdark RPG 

By James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler 

Expanded Talents contains a new talent system for the Shadowdark RPG. It expands the Class Talent Tables for each class from five talents to 11 talents, with many new talents to roll or choose from! 

New talent tables are included for Clerics, Fighters, Thieves, Wizards, Knights of St. Ydris, Warlocks, and Witches! 

Expanded Talents also offers new Racial Talent Tables. A player may, at the discretion of the Game Master, choose to roll a talent from their character’s race rather than from their class. These tables provide a character with talents that emulate the talents of those races according to myth, legend, and fantasy role-playing gaming tradition.

New talent tables are included for Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Halflings, Half-Orcs, and Humans!

A new talent system, complete with 13 new talent tables designed for use with Shadowdark!

16 pages (13 pages of content).

$1.99

Buy it now at DriveThruRPG!

The Shadowdark Quick Start PDF is available FREE from The Arcane Library!

Get the Shadowdark Quick Start Now!