Bat in the Attic Games and 2025

 Happy New Year Folks!

This would be a good time to update everyone on what has been happening with me and my plans for the upcoming year. 

Personal

I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes a few years back. This wasn't unexpected, as my family has a history of the disease. But I didn't do myself any favors being overweight. However, I caught a break when my doctor switched me to Mounjaro. It controlled my blood sugar better and I dropped a lot of weight (100 lbs). So things are looking good in the health department. Plus, as an added bonus, I can better enjoy the outdoor activities my wife, Kelly Anne, likes to do.

Gaming

I am playing in Joe the Lawyer's AD&D 2e Forgotten Realm campaign as a half-elven druid named Darumir. I originally started out as a Human Fighter named Argyll MacDoughal from the Moonshaes but a stupid decision on my part led to the character's death when he kissed a nereid and drowned after blowing the save. Darumir is now at the 7th level and in the midst of trying to reactivate a network of old henges in the High Forest region of the Sword Coast.

For over a year I have been refereeing an online monthly DnD 5e campaign for an old friend, Dave, and his circle of friends. It started out with the group dealing with a bunch of humanoid tribes threatening Castle Blackmarsh. That wrapped up this fall, and the group found out that a priest of Sarrath, the dragon god of war and order, was the mastermind behind the whole conspiracy. 

After ransacking the hidden temple of Sarrath, the group found clues pointing to the mother temple in a place called Delaquain's Fist. Which is my adaptation of the excellent Dark Tower adventure by Judges Guild based on Goodman Game's 5e version.

The fact that we have monthly sessions forced me to adapt my usual style of running sandbox campaigns. The group is fine with a more mission-style focus, especially since it consists of a paladin of Delaquain (goddess of honor and justice), a cleric of Vertas (god of truth and creation), a cleric of Mantriv (god of storm and thunder), and finally, a cleric of Delaquain. 

I created my own set of DnD 5e rules, which I have a rough draft of here. 

Finally, I am refereeing a weekly game also set in the Majestic Fantasy Realm also using my DnD 5e rules. It is a sandbox campaign centered around the exploit of four characters hunting demons and cultists, with two of them followers of the blood goddess Kalis. The first is an assassin, specifically a Rogue with the Claw of Kalis archetype from my rules. The other is a monk following the Way of Blood also from my rules. The other characters are an Elven Merchant Adventurer, another rogue archetype, and a human barbarian/druid part of the circle of the Trehaen. 

The group just wrapped up an adventure rooting out a corrupt druid in the hills south of the City of Northport, the capital of the westernmost duchy of the Grand Kingdom. From the druid's possession, they learned about his alliance with the Drow of Nightportal Keep in the middle of the Forsaken Desert.

So why all the DnD 5e? I may publish my own RPG, but my friends remain my friends, and they just like the fact they have more "fiddly bits" to play with when it comes to fifth edition. Luckily, I found that the power curve of 5e mirrors that of ODnD and my Majestic Fantasy rules, so I just sub in the 5e stats, and I can run the campaign the same way as I usually do.

However, to be clear, the key to doing this is not to use all the optional rules of DnD 5e (2014). Hence, generally, I limit characters to one feat, and that is only if they are human. I use the variant human rules and discourage multi-classing unless it makes sense in-game. Everybody having an enjoyable time trumps everything, so if the group makes a good case, I will make exceptions.

Publishing

My goal is to have three major releases this year. Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, Scourge of the Demon Wolf 2nd edition, and finally the full rules for the Majestic Fantasy RPGs.

I write fairly slowly, partly because it is difficult for me as a side effect of the hearing loss I had since I was six. However, I am confident I can do the three releases on time, as all three are fairly complete rough drafts and have the playtesting done.

Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northern Marches.

Before I got the license from Judges Guild to do the Majestic Wilderlands, I was working on a new setting that incorporated all the original material I created over the four decades I have been running the Wilderlands without any Judges Guild IP.  The result was the Points of Light books from Goodman Games and Blackmarsh. 

Points of Light
Points of Light 2, the Sunrise Sea

Now that I no longer have a Judges Guild license, I have returned to that setting, and the first release will be Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northern Marches.

This will be four 12" by 18"maps, each 31 hex columns by 40 hex rows. The maps will slightly overlap on the edges to make tracking travel from one map to another easier. 

The maps will be the Great Glacier (NW), The Wild North (NE), Blackmarsh (SW), and Northport (SE). Each has dozens of entries covering Terrain, Islands, Lairs/Ruins, and Settlements. Like Blackmarsh each locale is keyed to a five-mile hex.

There an overview of the Northern Marches. Which is the region covered by the four maps. Along with another short overview of the Majestic Fantasy Realms as a whole.

However, unlike the World of Greyhawk Folio (and boxed set), this section will be short. Into the Majestic, Fantasy Realms focuses on a wealth of local-level details, not on a grand overview in the travelogue format of the entire continent. In addition, I designed the setting so that its various parts can be taken out and plugged into other settings like you could with Blackmarsh and the Points of Light Series.

In many ways, this process for the Majestic Fantasy Realms mirrors the development of my Majestic Wilderlands. I started out focusing on a few select regions, like around the City-State of the Invincible Overlord, in the early 80s and built out from there. The part of the continent that I will focus on for Into the Majestic Fantasy Realm are those regions that are important to the Northern Marches, like the Grand Kingdom, the Norlund Vikings, and the Ochre Empire dominated by the dragon god, Sarrath. 

The writing for the four maps is done. Also, thanks to the folks at Forge Studios, I have most of the art I need.

What remains are;

• The first draft of the overview for the Northern Marches
• The first draft of the overview of the Majestic Fantasy Realms
• Mini Maps to illustrate various locales

Plus a dozen city maps like Castle Blackmarsh but in color.

Expect a kickstarter early this year.

Scourge of the Demon Wolf, 2nd Edition

After Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, I will release the 2nd edition of Scourge of the Demon Wolf. The adventure will be the same but will now be set in the Duchy of Northport within the Majestic Fantasy Realms.

One of the complaints about the original is that the hexcrawl formatted setting I included in the 1st edition was too terse. For the 2nd edition, I expanded it to a letter-sized map similar in word count to Blackmarsh, covering the entirety of the Duchy of Northport. The supplemental sections fully detailing Denison Crossing, the village of Kensla, and the Golden House will remain.

The Majestic Fantasy RPG

Hopefully, I will be able to end 2025 with a Kickstarter to fund the art and editing I will need for the full version of the Majestic Fantasy RPG. The rough draft of the rules has been written and will be released in five books. I designed the layout of the books based on the notebooks I used when I ran campaigns using these rules. While all-in-one rulebooks are popular, I find keeping the material as separate references to be more useful at the table and during prep.

The digest sized books will be

• The Manual of Puissant Skill
  A player's handbook for the Majestic Fantasy RPG
• The Domesday Codex
  A manual of characters for the Majestic Fantasy RPG.
• The Legendarium of the Fantastic
  A manual of monsters for the Majestic Fantasy RPG.
• The Tome of the Mundane, Strange, and Arcane
  A guide for running campaigns using the Majestic Fantasy RPG along with Magic Items and Treasures.

Beyond the stat blocks, the Domesday Codex, and The Legendarium of The Fantastic will have material on various NPCs groups and Monster ecology to help fuel ideas on incorporating them into your campaigns.

Optionally

• Libram of Spells
  An optional book that just has the spells and magic rules. This will duplicate material found in The Manual of Puissant Skill.

I know it sounds strange, but among the stuff I carry to the session is a stack of Librams to hand out to those playing spellcasters. They seem to really appreciate it. The way this will work is that the PDF for the Libram will be included, but a print copy is available for those who want a print version for themselves and don't have the time or means to print a booklet for themselves.

Finally, I will release a System Reference Document for the entire system under Creative Commons BY. 

While I am not currently running a campaign using these rules, I have run several convention and game store events using my system.

Wrapping it up.

So that where I am at and what I am planning to do. I appreciate being able to participate in this community and am glad I got to talk to many of you over 2024. I am looking forward to meeting even more of you in 2025.

Keep safe, have fun and

Updating the Classic Traveller Character Generator

Most years, I save up my vacation time and spend the last week or so of the year with my family. Outside of the holiday celebrations this gives me some time to do various projects. 

While my main focus is on finishing up the draft of Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, I try to do one or two small projects. This year, I worked on updating the Classic Traveller Character Generator that I host on my Bat in the Attic Games website. 

Originally written by Phil Gorman with contributions by Frank Filz, I modified the original source code to include the 12 Citizens of the Imperium careers. It has proven popular with thousands of views every month.

Recently James over on Grogardnia was talking about Classic Traveller and he mentioned that he used a character gen program that was since lost. When I mentioned the generator I host, he didn't like the lack of interactivity.

So I fixed it.

Traveller Interactive Character Generator

The original still exists at its original address except now it has a link to the interactive generator.

You use it by picking a career (or use random). Then clicking Start. This will create a fresh character with no terms. Keep clicking Start if you want to reroll your starts.

Then when you ready to start your first term click Term. If enlistment roll is made you start out in your chosen career. Otherwise the character is drafted into one of the military services. Once you click term, the results will displayed below. For the interactive character generator I enabled Verbose mode by default to allow you to see exactly what is happening. 

Then the generator will ask you to pick your skills. You will get a number of skill picks per term and you can pick which table to roll on.

Per the original rules there a Advanced Education chart that will appear for character with a education of 8+.

Once you picked all the skills for that term then the generator will display.

You can click start to start over or term to continue. If you want to muster out then click MusterOut. 

When you MusterOut you can pick whether you roll on the Cash table or the benefit table.

You can make a maximum of 3 cash rolls after which the option will disappear and you can only roll benefits.

After which the history will end and display that Character Generation has finished. 

The character sheet results and history are all text. So you can select and copy this with your mouse if you want to save your character. I may try later to add a save character option of some type.

I will have another post about my projects for 2025 before the New Year. Meanwhile, enjoy the new Interactive Classic Character Generator!

To everyone, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Concerning the Future of Traveller

 I have been a fan of Traveller for a long time and have bought various books over the years from just about every Traveller licensee, as well as from Marc Miller himself from Far Future. I also support the Citizen of the Imperium forum, which is the main hub for chatting about Traveller. 

Earlier today, I got this email from Marc Miller about the future of Traveller. It good to hear that there is a plan in place.

Some years ago, fellow game designer Greg Stafford died, and I was impressed that his company announced almost immediately that he had a succession plan in place, and that his legacy and his designs would live on.

His example was an inspiration to me, and I resolved to emulate him. It would be a terrible loss if Traveller were encumbered, or somehow restricted in its outreach to present and future fans.

With that in mind, I have worked to make Traveller an asset to science-fiction role-players... with our user-friendly Fair Use policies, with the Travellers’ Aid Society programs, with the Cepheus editions of Traveller, and with Mongoose as a primary publisher of their edition of Traveller.

Over the past several years, I have turned over more and more responsibilities to Mongoose, and I have collaborated actively with them as they work to realize the Traveller dream. Earlier this year I passed full ownership of Traveller to Mongoose in order to secure its future.

With that in mind, I point out that, following the example of Greg Stafford, I have a succession plan in place: day-to-day decisions about the Traveller game system are already being made by Mongoose Publishing (with my co-operation and approval), and if anything should happen to me, they would carry on with my full knowledge and blessing. 

That doesn’t stop me from speaking my mind: expressing opinions about Traveller, writing stories and lore, and even revealing secrets about the universe. 

But Traveller is in good hands, now, and far into the far future.

And I thank you for your (continuing) support for Traveller.

Marc

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox is the Deal of the Day

 For those of you who are unsure about How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox, tomorrow, June 27th, the PDF version will be the Deal of the Day on DriveThruRPG. For 24 hours starting at 10 a.m. Central Time, the PDF will be $3 instead of the normal price of $14.99.  

If you want print copies How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox is offered in both softcover and hardcover. While the Deal of the Day doesn't effect the print price, the PDF is offered as a free option if you purchase a print copy.

Plus check out the other things I have on my Bat in the Attic Storefront. 

Bat in the Attic Games Update

I am working hard on Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms. I am currently fleshing out the magical strangeness of the Ring Islands before moving to the ruins and lairs of the Northport map. After that, I will be wandering into the various settlements of Northport and seeing who is living there and what they are up to.

In addition to the main maps, I have been working on maps of important towns, cities, and locations. 

Ring Islands, West

Right now, it is looking like I will be done in time for a fall Kickstarter. 

Once again thanks for everybody who supported my projects and have a Happy Fourth of July holiday and summer!

The Release of How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and the Isle of Pyade

The Release

With the successful conclusion and fulfillment of my Kickstarter, I am releasing How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and The Isle of Pyade to the public on Friday, April 12th, during the livestream of the Random Party Generator at 8pm EDT. Special discount coupons will be available for those joining the live stream, along with a live drawing for at-cost print copies of both Blackmarsh and at-cost hardbacks of both books. The discount coupons will be active for one week after the show.

Until they go public during the live stream you can monitor the Bat in the Attic storefront on DriveThruRPG.

Livestream of the Random Party Generator 

Bat in the Attic

Special Thanks

I wish to say a special thank you to the 908 backers of my How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox Kickstarter. Your generosity not only made this project possible but also allowed me to upgrade the production values beyond my previous expectations. 

Also, a shout out to my wife, Kelly Anne, who not only supported me throughout the project but also contributed two pieces of art to the book. This marks her debut as a professional artist. 

Thanks to Joethelawyer, Tim of Gothridge Manor, and my friend Josh, whose support and advice were instrumental in making this project a success. 

Finally, thanks to Erik Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern who is hosting the Random Party Generator. 

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox

Preview

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox!

Starting in 2009, I wrote a series of 24 posts on the Bat in the Attic Blog covering the different aspects of creating a hexcrawl formatted setting.  Now that the blog posts are completed, I combined and rewrote these posts into a single book.  In addition to advice about creating your setting, the post fleshs out the Isle of Pyade into a small setting that you can drop into your own campaign.

What is a Hexcrawl-formatted setting?

This type of setting starts with a hex grid placed over the map with each hex numbered.  The hex locations of the various locales, such as lairs, are noted and arranged into an index.  This format provides a convenient way to reference detailed local information within the setting.

You can look at the map, see the hex number the location is in, and then look it up quickly in the book.  It works in reverse as well.  You can read about a location in the book, with its hex location noted in the text.  Then, look up where it is on the map quickly.  This format allows easy access to dozens of detailed locations scattered across the setting map, if not hundreds. 

Hexcrawls and Sandbox Campaigns

Sandbox campaigns are distinguished by the fact the players drive the campaign forward by their choices.  In a sandbox campaign, the players may decide to head west instead of east in pursuit of their goals.  The ease of looking locations up makes the hexcrawl-formatted setting a valuable tool for the referee trying to keep ahead of their players while running a sandbox campaign.

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox will teach you how to make a hexcrawl-formatted setting and explain what details are essential to include to handle the different types of sandbox campaigns. 

The Isle of Pyade

Preview

A thousand years ago, this island emerged from the Cataclysm as a bare expanse of rock and soil. Whatever existed here prior was obliterated in the chaos. It took a hundred years for it to transform from a barren expanse to a weed-choked landscape and finally back to its original wooded condition. During that time, survivors, both humans and animals, found themselves washed up on its shores. They established several fishing hamlets in and around East Bay. Despite the chaos of the time, they managed to carve out an oasis of tranquility due to the island's isolation and the great fishing in the Midland Sea.

This was all shattered when scouts of the Lich Tavaras discovered the Isle of Pyade. Tavaras decided to claim Pyade as his own. The lich and his undead army landed on the shore of the Bay of the Dead with his undead army. He quickly subjugated the fishing hamlets and enslaved the populace.

Within the Caves of Mount Devon, Tavaras decided to establish his stronghold. On the North Downs, Bone Keep was established at the center of several latifundia, which were developed to feed the growing slave population.

Tavaras ruled Pyade as his personal domain for nearly 200 years. He survived the fall of the Dark Lord and the collapse of the Dark Empire. His downfall came with the arrival of crusaders from the United Church. Their forces besieged Tavaras' stronghold, breached the mountain and brought down the Lich Lord.

After the downfall of Tavaras, the island was liberated and made part of the Eainian Empire. When the empire collapsed amid civil war and anarchy, the island was incorporated into the Kingdom of the Isle and granted to the Gevon family five hundred years ago.

Over the centuries the Gevon invited halfling families and dwarven clans to help settle the island and exploit its rich lands and resources.

Bone Keep and the other ruins from the lich Tavaras rule remained abandoned. The wars that liberated the islands did not leave much time to cleanse the island of Tavaras' evil taint and abominations. To the present the northern half of the Isle of Pyade remains dangerous to the unwary.

Today, the Isle of Pyade is starting to emerge from relative obscurity. The new Empire of Po threatens the independence of Pyade and the Kingdom of the Isles. Ancient evils are beginning to stir again in the depths of Mount Devon. Once again, the island has become the center of attention, providing opportunities and wealth to those willing to brave its dangers.

Blackmarsh, Digest Edition

Rob's Note: The PDF on DriveThruRPG is free to download. So, no preview is needed.

In the days when man knew only the working of stone and fought for their existence against the orc and the goblin, the sky turned to ash and down fell the fiery mountain onto the land. The world tore open and the grey waters rushed in. Those who survived the impact were lost as boiling clouds rushed out in all directions leaving a wasteland in its wake.

The Mountain That Fell left a gift; magic. Near and far, those of learning and strong of heart discovered new powers to shape the world. In the desolation around the Smoking Bay the adventurous found viz, magic in physical form. And there was more, scattered amid the landscape were strange artifacts and stranger creatures that survived The Mountain That Fell. For a time men, dwarves, orc, goblins, and other races braved the dangers and fought each other in the wastelands. Then the elves came into Blackmarsh expelled the feuding races, drove the monsters out, and healed the land.

In the present day, many come to Blackmarsh to harvest viz, kill monsters, or seek the strange artifacts left by The Mountain That Fell. The only force that stands against the wilderness is the Blackmarsh Rangers. Anyone who is willing to defend the land and its people are welcomed into their ranks. Powerful kingdoms outside of Blackmarsh are beginning cast a covetous eyes toward the land's riches. Will the adventurers of your campaign become wealthy and powerful? Or will their bones join the many that have sunk into the swamps?

Blackmarsh is a complete, ready to run setting for your campaign. It can be run as its own setting or an expansion of your existing world. Contained in Blackmarsh are 17 geographical entries, 78 described locales, and one detailed town; Castle Blackmarsh. Each entry provide one or more adventure hooks to use in your campaigns.

Rob's Note: If you can afford it the hardcover print option comes with two blank pages in the front and three blank pages in the back that you can use for handwritten notes. The inside covers are also blank. The printing process for hardcovers wraps a heavy paper protector between the covers and the first and last pages of the book

Update!

The books have been released for the public links in the titles.

Happy New Year, and the annual DriveThruRPG report.

 Happy New Year

I wish everybody a Happy New Year! I have much to be thankful for in 2023, especially family, friends, and work. I want to thank everyone who supported my How to Make Sandbox Kickstarter. I appreciate the outpouring of support for my project.

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox

Because of my backers' generosity, I was able to increase the size of my art order. I commissioned 17 additional pieces from Rick Hershey of Fat Goblin Games. I also got back the cover art from Richard Luschek, who did an outstanding job!

Once I get the interior pieces back I will be able to complete the layout and start the process of ordering proof prints of the two remaining books: How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and the Isle of Pyade setting book. 

DriveThruRPG Numbers

Ever since I released Blackmarsh in 2011, I have had at least one download every day. Each download is accompanied by an order number. By tracking the first download of Blackmarsh every year I gain a rough sense of the volume of business that DriveThruRPG does. I am sure that many of the order numbers are internal transactions; however, from the experience I had with accounting, those increase as the total volume of business for a company also increases.

So, without further ado, here are the latest figures.  From a pandemic high in 2020, it appears that DriveThru's total volume of sales has been relatively flat from 2021 to the present. 

Once again Happy New Year!

Isle of Sedra Kickstarter

 My good friend Douglas Cole over Gaming Ballistic has launched a new Kickstarter for his Isle of Sedra setting. It is written for Old School Essentials. Along with the setting, there are several adventures available including solo adventures.

Douglas is also a third-party publisher for Steve Jackson Games's The Fantasy Trip and supports that RPG's long history of solo adventures. He has converted many of his TFT products over to Old School Essentials so fans of the classic editions of DnD can enjoy them as well.

Isle of Sedra Kickstarter.