Using the Numenera Ruin Mapping Engine with the Sun Below
In Jade Colossus: Ruins of the Prior Worlds, Monte Cook Games has come up with a ruin mapping system that allows you to flesh out parts of the Ninth World that you don’t have details for. Most of the book is about the Jade Colossus, but like many Numenera ruins, it’s enormous and there is no point in detailing hundreds of rooms and corridors that players will never see. The ruin mapping engine lets you roll a few dice and create weird Numenera environs on the fly.
Let’s roll some dice!
Example One: A 5m x 10m rectangular chamber with a machine that grinds small objects into drit. It has one exit sealed with a force field, and two additional exits.
Example Two: A sealed vault (seals are level 7 with level 7 defenses that do 7 points of energy damage). The interior is made of self-repairing level 8 synth. The vault is 15m x 30m and contains a vortex of energy that swirls above a raised circular platform surrounded by complex (level 8) machinery. The vortex is painfully bright and hot, and induces a sense of awe in observers. The vortex is a wormhole that leads directly to the sun.
The Sun Below
Using the ruin mapping engine to flesh out when players go “off the path” in any Sun Below adventure is perfect. You can roll dice, or use the tables for inspiration.
Then use the background of the adventures as window dressing for your on-the-fly creations. In example two above, that vortex obviously leads not to some lame sun at the center of the solar system but directly to the Sun Below!
The Sun Below: City on the Edge
Like the Jade Colossus, Urbamorr, the city on the edge, is enormous. Unlike the Jade Colossus, it’s mostly inhabited. Use the ruin mapping engine, and 50% of the time decorate the places with praithian statues, burial chambers, and enormous artwork. Above ground sections will have dh’lann features (like dream-vapor bowls), while below ground areas will feature slithik items (like floating tubes of blood).
Since the city is inhabited, 50% of the time use a creature as the main feature, the rest of the time roll as normal. If you do have a creature, 50% of the time use dh’lanns, floaters, praithians, praithian war snakes, pyronic sentries, or slithiks.
The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady
Liluna is also massive, and, like the Jade Colossus, mostly uninhabited. 50% of the time you should decorate the areas you roll up with displays that show lido automatons, Liluna in flight, gibbering murken, Lebby with her red bouncy ball, or an aspect of Storm. Depending on what's going on in the stricken moon, you could show the forces of Liluna or of Golthnor doing well or doing poorly.
If you roll up a creature, 50% of the time use a child of Golthnor, cultists of Golthnor, data demons, gibbering murken, lido automatons, Lebby, skratts, Storm, or synites. Look at the Orb Encounters section of the adventure for ideas.
Get those Holiday Orders in!
Numenera Celebration Sale!
Did someone say 24 Hour Sale on Numenera Print Books?
OK then!
$12.49 for The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady
$9.20 for The Sun Below: City on the Edge
Buy both and save on shipping!
Both include the PDF for free!!!
Gods and Icons Comes Together
We've got some great playtesting feedback, which really helps. The art is rolling in, the writing is almost done, and editing is underway. Next up: layout!
I wanted to share this lovely picture of Lady Akuma by Jeshields. People say terrible things about the Lady, but they don't know the half of it. Maybe she's just misunderstood. ;)
We were so lucky to find some great artists for Gods and Icons. Since I both love art and fail at the basics, I'm in awe of what people can turn my art specs into.
And let's not forget Supreme Commander Tyrvek! I'm pretty sure he's not misunderstood. ;)
James did a great job on Tyrvek standing alone, but I wanted to show him as leading an army. So James added the background and I love it!
Now that's it's August, our Christmas in July sale is over, but the savings don't stop! We lowered the price for both The Sun Below: City on the Edge to $2.49 and The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady to $6.49.
Keep on gaming!
John
Sale Ends Leap Day and Kiss of Death for Numenera
A little Numenera love before the Gods and Icons Kickstarter eats my soul.
40% Off, Sale Ends Leapday
The post-valentine's day sale is ending soon. The PDF versions of The Sun Below: City on the Edge and The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady are still 40% off for the rest of February.
Kiss of Death
Numenera in Space! Into the Night from Monte Cook Games is an inspiring setting book that teleports the game into space. I wrote an instant adventure set in one of those space worlds, Kiss of Death.
Liskal the AI needs a mind-gem from Zalkezia of Branu’s Kiss. Liskal tells the PCs that Zalkezia will spit the gem out after leaving the Kiss. They must grasp the gem to be teleported home.
Look for the upcoming release of CypherCaster Issue 5, which will include Kiss of Death. This adventure is set in in the watery worldlet of Branu's Kiss from Into the Night.
CypherCaster magazine can be found at DriveThruRPG.com. CypherCaster 5 should be out in mid March.
Speaking of CypherCaster magazine, check out the bundle for issues 1 - 4. www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171996/CypherCaster-Issues-001004-BUNDLE
Art for Art's Sake
A little preview of the icon Baron Von Vorlatch for Gods and Icons. The baron rules the barony of Borgostnya for Emperor Roland. He likes the night.
And here's the new art for The Sun Below Bundle: City on the Edge and Sleeping Lady. Eventually That's How the Light Gets In will be there as well.
Happy New Year from Dread Unicorn Games!!!
Dread Unicorn Games in 2016
Are you going to OrcaCon? I am, please say hi! I'll be running a few 13th Age games for Fire Opal and attending as much gaming goodness as I can.
Our first products are sister titles: Gods and Icons for 13th Age and The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains for 5E. Why two? It turns out most of the writing and art will work in both products, so why not?
Here's where we are now with Gods and Icons and The Gods Have Spoken:
- The writing is 75.09% done (+ or -). Vanessa has done a great job with three pantheons, and I'm excited to plug in their relationship to the icons for Gods and Icons. There will be holy swords for paladins and religious items for all the divine classes.
- I've been playtesting Gods and Icons for a few months now. Soon I'll give it to the real playtesters to try out.
- We're going to Kickstart the gods! You'll be able to pick either or both titles as your rewards.
- Since this is our first kickstarter, we're going to be cautious. We don't want to promise what we can't deliver! For example, we're not going to do our own printing and shipping. For physical copies, we'll use Drive Thru's Print on Demand and let them do the shipping.
- But we will have lots of great stretch goals: more content and more art!
- Speaking of art, we have a great cover artist! Justin Wyatt has agreed to do our cover art, which will include three gods and three icons. Yay! Gaming art fans will recognize Justin from The Sun Below: City on the Edge where he did interior art and The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady, where he did the amazing cover and interior art.
- Some of Justin's work:
After the Kickstarter, our next title will be a return to Numenera with another adventure: The Sun Below: That's How the Light Gets In. There the players will confront what happens to the underground world when The Sun Below starts to fail!
After that? We're not telling! There is so much going on in roleplaying right now. We've got a lot of great ideas, but first, let's get these three products out the door.
Happy New Year!
John
Major Hobnobbing on Game Master's Journey
Lex Starwalker and I chew the fat on his most excellent podcast: Game Master's Journey. Give it a listen!
We talk about Numenera, The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady, The Sun Below: City on the Edge, (electronic versions of both are on sale now for 40% off!!!) 13th Age Organized Play, how the run an RPG Montage, using Fronts in your own adventures (and fronts in The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady), and more.
And this is just part one of a two part podcast!
Print Version of The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady Available Now!
It's here! The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady in print.
The print version is available now. 
Customers who bought the electronic version (which includes not just the PDF, but the eBook as well!) look for a special discount offer on the print version from DriveThruRPG.
Sorry, Deschutes Jubelale not included.
New Sleeping Lady Extra: Running the Tootsie Frootsie Man
A little advice for the GM in running Pinky, the dh'lann "Tootsie Frootsie" man in Bursang. Inverting the Channeling the Marx Brothers post to let the GM channel her inner Chico.
We're Number Two! :)
I just love this screencap. The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady is the 2nd hottest Cypher System seller right now on DriveThru. And the Sun Below bundle with City on the Edge is the featured product.
OK, enough reveling in my 15 nanoseconds of 2nd place fame, back to work.
The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady Available Now!
The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady adventure for Numenera is available now!
49 page adventure for all tiers, 16 page bestiary, new numenera, dozens of GM Intrusions, and player handouts.
Who is the Sleeping Lady? What's in the numenera mines? What is knock, knock, knocking at the door? Hang onto your minds and bodies, because secrets of Orb Mountain are about to be revealed!
Bundle
The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady is also available as part of The Sun Below Bundle.
Sleeping Lady, In Layout (Spoiler)
Spoiler Alert! GMs Only!
The current status of The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady is "In Layout." What the heck does In Layout mean, anyway? Well, it means this:
Here is the work in progress. If this picture goes there, this text must follow with it. Oops, I inserted some text, and now the picture is on the wrong page. And don't ask about those callouts on the sides of the pages...
One more screen capture:
I enjoy layout, but I'm ready for it to be over. Once I get the PDF download laid out, then I get to re-layout the product for print. Yay!
Sleeping Lady Art Preview 2!
Mmmmm! Seskii puppies and aneen bacon!
Can we be friends?
Rolling around
Bursang, on Orb Mountain
Preview: The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady
Coming soon, The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady, another epic adventure for Numenera.
From the Synopsis
Mor-Klish needs help. He left his team down in the numenera mines, and he asks the characters to bring them out. He waxes poetic about the wonderful new chambers they just unlocked – vast spaces full of numenera and pulsing with energy and perhaps intelligence.
On the way, the PCs encounter a sleep-walking young woman (Storm, manifesting as Sun Storm), and her daughter Lebby. Lebby tells the characters “You really should leave now, or find me another sleeper.” The pair vanish before the party can find out more. As the PCs explore the interior of Orb Mountain, they have more encounters with Storm in her various manifestations, often with her daughter Lebby. Lebby wants to wake Storm and will try and get a character to agree to take her place. What all this means is not immediately clear.
The PCs also find the crow-like murken skulking around and may find a broken automaton who has a story to tell if the characters repair it.
At this point, two forces have been set in motion. First, Orb Mountain is repairing itself and if not stopped, will take flight and become the lost moon Liluna, destroying the slithik town of Bursang. Second, Gothnor is slowly gaining control of the data nodes inside the moon and, if not stopped, will return to the world and put an end to both reality and sanity.
An adventure for all tiers, with new creatures, cyphers, and artifacts.
Art Preview -- The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady
Some people might get the impression there is a horror component to this Numenera adventure. We have no idea what they mean. ;) Artist Doug Scott gives us a little peak into the challenges to be faced in The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady. These are preliminary sketches. The final art will be steeped in even more cosmic horror.
Sneak Preview: The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady
Like The Sun Below: City on the Edge, The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady is another adventure for Numenera. They are both set far below the surface of the Ninth World in the world of The Sun Below. Like City on the Edge, Sleeping Lady is an adventure for all tiers of characters, contains plenty of new creatures and numenera, and devilish plot twists to keep your players guessing.
Sleeping Lady is a great sequel to City on the Edge, but can be run standalone or even prior to City on the Edge. It begins with machines going mad in a town of blood-sucking green slime creatures. These creatures, slithiks, will pay handsomely if the madness of the machines can be stopped. From there the players are thrust into the mysteries of the numenera mines, underground ruins stuffed with weird echos of past ages.
Two disasters in the making confront your players. Can they save the town of the slithiks from being torn apart? Can they stop an ancient evil from entering their world? Can your players handle both crises? Or even one?
Includes two new descriptors: Slithik and Gibbering, and a new focus: Burns Blood.
Get ready for minds to shatter when your players enter the numenera mines of Orb Mountain and find the secrets of the Sleeping Lady.
March Playtesting
If you are interested in playtesting The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady, email me.
System: Numenera
Author: John WS Marvin
Deadline: April 30th
Description:
As the explorers investigate disturbing goings on in the numenera mines of Orb Mountain, in the world of The Sun Below, the dangers start to escalate fast. Can the players stop not one, but two apocalypses? Or should they choose one? A Numenera adventure for all tiers.