Mazirian's Garden: Six Starter Spell Books
A while back I posted some downtime rules for magical research, which you can see here (they get expanded in my forthcoming zine, Downtime ...| maziriansgarden.blogspot.com
A while back I posted some downtime rules for magical research, which you can see here (they get expanded in my forthcoming zine, Downtime ...| maziriansgarden.blogspot.com
We've reached the end of the first week of #dungeon23! I will be posting the results of my first week on here, on Monday! So stay tuned for...| maziriansgarden.blogspot.com
There are two pieces of big news I want to shared with you. The first is that I have launched the first installment of my new physical zine for my Patreon titled The Oneironaut. It is a zine that shares my second thoughts, items from the cutting room floor, previews of things that are ready, but won’t printed for a long time in Through Ultan’s Door. Before I say more, just look at this beautiful cover, with header and design from Lester B. Portley and the stunning illustration by longtime...| Mazirian's Garden
Mothership has a wonderful character creation process, where a few random “flavor” rolls both convey a lot about the setting, as well as tantalizing suggestions about the character. One of these is a roll for a patch. In the new Mothership campaign I have begun, one of the player characters, Isaac, is an android. Isaac’s player rolled a patch that said “Travel To Distant Places /Meet Unusual Things / Get Eaten”. Incredibly, he rolled for his loadout (starting equipment) Manufacturer...| Mazirian's Garden
For our purposes let’s just say that lore is “setting background”: information about the setting of a campaign. The paradigm is perhaps the history of the setting, which is literally lore that could be learned in game from sages or history books. But I would count also count its metaphysics, theology, organized religion, the nature of magic, and the like. And while we’re at it, we can add more humdrum facts about languages, prevailing forms of government, the economy, different social...| Mazirian's Garden
I have big news for the future of Through Ultan’s Door. As I spoke about last time, I’ve been trying to solve several problems so that I could break the log jam and move forward with publishing future issues. So, the big announcement is that I am launching an Ultan’s Door Patreon. Check it out here!| Mazirian's Garden
Two Problems| Mazirian's Garden
The system of downtime actions I created is individual by design, built as a counterbalance to OSR games where the action is focused relentlessly on cooperative exploration, so that characters might develop as individuals and chart their own path between adventures. (If you are unfamiliar, for an illustrative downtime activity, see here.) However, I have come to believe that it is desirable to incorporate some group downtime actions into this system in cases that involve the need for group bu...| Mazirian's Garden
I had some more thoughts on downtime I wanted to share. But first, speaking of downtime, it was just announced that my supplement, Downtime in Zyan, is one of the winners of The Awards 2023! You can check out the full list of winners here. It’s an honor I share with my team. Downtime in Zyan is what it is thanks both to the meticulous layout of Lester B. Portley, and especially to Evlyn Moreau’s superb mole rat illustrations, without which the supplement would be a hollow shell. But back ...| Mazirian's Garden
Art by Evlyn Moreau| Mazirian's Garden
In this special Halloween episode, I interview Miranda Elkins about her long-running Nightwick Abbey campaign--a dungeon literally possessed by a demon! We talk about the secrets of successful restocking, the importance of theme to an adventure location, and how to use geomorphs to craft your dungeon map. We also talk about how to run a horror themed dungeon by externalizing psychology and making metaphors literal. Without further ado, I present the episode on your platform of choice:Episode ...| Mazirian's Garden
I’m very excited for the upcoming Halloween Special episode of Into the Megadungeon, “Literally From Hell”, where I interview Miranda Elkins about her long running Nightwick Abbey campaign. To tide you over, here is a Halloween season installment of Missives Beyond the Veil of Sleep, presenting you with original never before seen dreamlands material, including a very black magic indeed, naugomancy a sort of naval necromancy. This material is intended to be background for 2 of the factio...| Mazirian's Garden
This morning when I sent out Episode 6 of Into the Megadungeon, the audio for the episode was broken. As soon as this was pointed out to me I reuploaded a fixed version, but it took a couple of hours to refresh across the various platforms. Furthermore, I’ve found that if you have started playing the episode previously, it can be hard to force your platform to refresh to the updated audio.| Mazirian's Garden
I’m very excited to present the first of two blood curdling October episodes of the podcast. In this episode I take us into the megadungeon to interview Luke Gearing about his weekly lunchtime megadungeon campaign Rutghast, as well as his published sci-fi horror megadungeon Gradient Descent. We talk about why the dungeon is more fun if every creature is an NPC, how random stocking produces interesting results, and why empty rooms matter. We also talk about how science horror gaming differ...| Mazirian's Garden
In this episode, I interview Nick L.S. Whelan about two megadungeon campaigns, "Dungeon Moon" and "Five Years Left". We talk about why GMing is so hard and what lessons we can learn from our failures. We talk about why some kinds of prep increase rather than decrease your anxiety at the table, how the GM's experience can be dissatisfying even when the players are having a good time, and how play is subtly shaped by what we take seriously at the table and what we're happy to let slide. Withou...| Mazirian's Garden
In episode 4 of Into the Megadungeon, “The Human Element”, I interview Josh McCrowell about his eight year megadungeon campaign, and his forthcoming megadungeon ruleset, His Majesty the Worm. We talk about how old school dungeoncrawling struggles to capture the human element of the exprience of perilous exploration. We also talk about tips for making a megadungeon a lot less overwhelming to design. Without further ado, here is Episode 4, “The Human Element” on your podcast platform of...| Mazirian's Garden
Hull Breach: Volume 01 (available here) is a 3rd party companion for Mothership, the ttrpg of space horror in the tradition of Alien and Event Horizon. Hull Breach is an anthology developed and produced by Ian Yusem, consisting of 26 different entries by 24 different authors, with layout and design by Eric Hill, Lone Archivist, and Meredith Silver; editing by Fiona Geist and Jarret Crader; and art by Nikolai Fletcher, L.F. OSR, Sajan Rai, Daniel Vega, and Joshua Clark. | Mazirian's Garden
I have another episode and reader notes to share with you! But first a couple of announcements. First, Ultan's Door Press is having a September sale, with almost everything at 15-20% off. Get the entire run of Through Ultan's Door and Downtime in Zyan. I even have a small number of Huargo's White Jungle posters available! Head over to the webstore here while it's still open. | Mazirian's Garden
I'm very excited to release Episode 2 of my podcast Into the Megadungeon. In this episode I interviewed Nick Kuntz about their megadungeon campaign, The Twilight Age. I've known Nick for a long time. They were one of the players in my long-running original Ultan's Door campaign, playing primarily as the saucy teenage gonif Mia. During the early hellish days of the pandemic Nick launched their megadungeon campaign, which I've played in now for a few years as the wizard Phasmo. | Mazirian's Garden
I am excited to share the very first episode “Mysteries” of my brand new podcast Into the Megadungeon, where I interview veteran GMs about their amazing megadungeon campaigns, campaigns focused on a single adventuring location with 100’s of rooms spread across many levels. It’s my way of exploring this largely lost play style and contributing to its possible revival. The podcast focuses on the actual experience of GMs at the table. You can expect to hear details about their campaigns,...| Mazirian's Garden
I listened to the “expert delve” segment of this episode of Fear of a Black Dragon (starts around the 28 min mark) with great interest. Jason and Tom were discussing “spotlight management”, that is making sure that each player gets roughly equal time in the “spotlight”, i.e. being the one who gets to contribute to the game, by saying what their character does, and so on. | Mazirian's Garden
I was on Google + for five years. I met so many of you wonderful people there. We shared practices, information, and bits of wonder, frozen starlight, passed gleefully from one outstretched elfin hand to another. I learned how to play Dungeons & Dragons with you, in rewarding and novels grownup ways. But now Google + is gone. So I made you this mixtape. I think you'll recognize some of the songs. I hope you like it. | Mazirian's Garden
By the time you read this, I will have recorded three episodes and a trailer of Into the Megadungeon, my new podcast exploring megadungeon games. I can now share with you the trailer for the podcast. | Mazirian's Garden
Missives from Beyond the Veil of Sleep| Mazirian's Garden
So, Dungeon23 is rolling along. I haven't posted a second batch myself for reasons I'll mention at the end. But that doesn't mean I haven't been eagerly reading along! There are some really wonderful things, including some real surprises. One of the real joys here is discovering new people and new blogs. | Mazirian's Garden
This is the first of my dungeon23 entries about the Catacombs of the North Wind. For an introduction to the dungeon, see this post. I start with the journal where I am physically recording the dungeon, and then present a cleaned up, digitized version below. The lovely map was donated by Gus L, bless his heart. As usual, his illustration pushed me to imagine the area much more fully. His cartography has been a huge stimulus to my work in general. | Mazirian's Garden
There are two pieces of big news I want to shared with you. The first is that I have launched the first installment of my new physical zine for my Patreon titled The Oneironaut. It is a zine that shares my second thoughts, items from the cutting room floor, previews of things that are ready, but won’t printed for a long time in Through Ultan’s Door. Before I say more, just look at this beautiful cover, with header and design from Lester B. Portley and the stunning illustration by longtime...| maziriansgarden.blogspot.com
Mothership has a wonderful character creation process, where a few random “flavor” rolls both convey a lot about the setting, as well as tantalizing suggestions about the character. One of these is a roll for a patch. In the new Mothership campaign I have begun, one of the player characters, Isaac, is an android. Isaac’s player rolled a patch that said “Travel To Distant Places /Meet Unusual Things / Get Eaten”. Incredibly, he rolled for his loadout (starting equipment) Manufacturer...| maziriansgarden.blogspot.com
Two Problems Although I haven’t exactly been quiet for the last few years—I’ve created a supplement about downtime and a launched a first ...| maziriansgarden.blogspot.com
