New B/X Class: The Sssnakeman

I didn't really have any substantial news/commentary today (not that I ever do), so here's a class to be a snake wriggling around in someone's skin!

Snakeman

Snakemen are actually insanely long and thin parasitic worms who consume and hollow out their target's bodies in order to use them as their personal vehicles. However, they are exceedingly cunning and capable. Snakemen will consume everything in their targets' bodies except for the skin and the bones, taking up the space between. By contorting and twisting their little snake body, they can manage to move the body in a semblance of something natural.  However, this makes them very clumsy, so all snakemen subtract 1 from their Dexterity scores. Due to their lack of agility, snakemen cannot use small weapons and can only use two-handed weapons.

Actual Class Stuff

Experience/Levels: Snakemen level at the same rate as halflings.

HP: Snakemen have a 1d8 size hit die and gain 3 hit points per level at level 10 and so on.

Saving Throws: Snakemen have the same saving throws as halflings except Breath and Magic are switched because snakemen aren't good at dodging stuff and... um... their snakehide repels magic to some degree.

On Starfinder Stuff

Personally, I'm not going to buy a copy of Starfinder, because despite the various improvements from d20, I still enjoy OSR sci-fi, a la White Star and Stars Without Number. However, I will unabashedly steal some of the improvements for the d20 games I run (usually a PF/3.5e hybrid). Quite a few of the improvements had already made it into various people's d20 games already, but having Paizo use them in an official RPG made it seem more official I guess. Especially the new full attack rules looko pretty cool.

Update on RPG Products

I just finished up my project for Amora Game and a preview of the amazing cover for my personal project just came in, so I'll be spending most of my free time on finishing that up. Once the cover is finalized, I'll share it here and on Google+. On the Shoulders of Giants will be a primarily LotFP compatible product but will have Black Hack compatible versions of the classes for those of you on the rules light side of the OSR. Anyway, that should be done in a month or so hopefully.

On the Defenders

I'm just watching the Marvel TV show, the Defenders, and I do have a few comments. Although it does have that fanboy glee on par with the Avengers that comes from watching all of the previous Netflix shows, the different shows just don't seem to mesh as much. Additionally, some of the fight scenes seem dull, lacking some of the spark from the individual TV shows. However, it does provide a host of potential plot points for new seasons of the shows and the story was pretty great, it just seems like they didn't utilize what made each character great as well as they did in their personal series.

Tenkar's Tavern Podcast/Other OSR News

Important news for OSR fans, the first episode of the Hero's Brew podcast just dropped on http://tenkarstavern.com! Also, congrats to Lamentations of the Flame Princess for the three ENnies and the Judge's Spotlight that they got! Blood in the Chocolate definitely deserved the gold for Best Adventure but Veins in the Earth should've gotten gold instead of silver in my opinion... although Lamentations does use the silver standard...

On the Fanzine Again

I'm still finishing up a few more pressing RPG projects in my free time, but the fanzine is still ruminating in the back of my mind. I'm thinking that it could be based around a particular set of OSR retroclones/old school material, perhaps just B/X or BECMI retroclones? Anyway, congrats to everyone who could make it to GenCon 50, hopefully I'll be able to go to 51 and here's hoping Blood in the Chocolate wins that ENnie.

WIP Fanzine Musings

For the fanzine I've been considering making, I would have to make all artwork/writing donations but could make it PWYW on OBS and split all donations between the authors and artists through the OBS freelancer royalties tool. Then again, I would have to make sure that I would have enough interest in people making content for it, and a decent name for it. But, as I said previously, my On the Shoulders of Giants project, and Amora Game project, are taking priority currently. I should be able to expand on this within a couple weeks however.