Category: Adventures

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Webstore Now Open!

Hello, It’s Been A While…

We are back! The webstore has been closed since the end of February and we’ve missed three whole months of not being able to send you awesome roleplaying goodies whilst the whole world has been dealing with the virus pandemic.

We hope that you and your families have kept safe and well and that things will be improving soon, if not already starting to do so.

We’ve not been idle during this time, and managed to get some new projects on the store and some imminently arriving.
So without further ado, come and stop by and look at all the pretty-shinies.

Thanks,
Glynn & The Team

Start Shopping

An Important Covid-19 Update about Shipping!In order to protect the health & safety of our staff and reduce trips to the Post Office, we will be shipping orders once per week (on Tuesdays) for the foreseeable future.
We still aim to ship large orders (such as bundles) the following day.
Also, whilst we want to get goods and parcels to you as soon as possible,
please expect delays in the shipping services of the UK and other countries.

New Stuff!

In The Pipeline!

The Bats of Saint Abbans

Richard Marpole’s teetering exploration of the Abbey-Cathedral of Saint Abbans. The abbess has a bat problem and needs competent people to head up into the lofty heights of the cathedral to sort it.

An adventure for Levels 1-3 for Swords & Wizardry and other OSR-style games. Compatible with The Midderlands setting.

This title will only be available from DriveThruRPG in both softcover print and PDF formats.

Midderzine Issue #5

More The Midderlands goodness!. This fifth issue contains details of the town of Abbots Bream, more Slightly Less Shit tables, March Woodkin, Legendary turnips, and more.

This title will be available in:

  • PDF format on DriveThruRPG
  • Softcover print and PDF format on the MonkeyBlood webstore

Folk Magic of the Haven Isles

Richard Marpole delights us yet again with a British folklore-based supplement for flavourful Magic-Users. Suitable for Swords & Wizardry and other OSR-style games. Designed to compliment The Midderlands setting.
It provides ‘overlays’ for the Magic-User class, giving your Magic-Users a unique flavour and opportunity to stand out from the rest.

This title will only be available from DriveThruRPG in both softcover print and PDF formats.

Subscribe to the blog to keep posted on this project as it develops.

That’s it for now. Keep ’em peeled.

Glynn & the Team

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The Bats of Saint Abbans : Playtest

Richard Marpole and I have been working on a new adventure called The Bats of Saint Abbans. Richard has written it (and it’s great!!), and I’ve been doing the cartography, art, graphic design and layout. It’s just over 100 pages (A5) and it’s ready to inflict on people.

  • Rules: Swords & Wizardry Complete, but any OSR/retroclone system should be fine.
  • Character Levels: 1 to 3
  • Setting: The Midderlands, specifically Saint Abbans in Hertshire on The Haven Isles map. Can be tacked into any fantasy setting without too much trouble though.
  • The players aid the abbess in ridding the working abbey of a bat problem. Involves exploration and climbing/falling, etc.

If any groups would like to playtest it and provide feedback, feel free to contact us using the form below. Include a comment as to why you would like to be considered for the playtest and to help us whittle down any applicants if we get too many requests.

Those players and game masters that are involved in the playtest will receive a playtesting credit in the book (available via DriveThru RPG in PDF and print on demand), and also when it’s released, a free PDF and as many at-cost print copies as you like.

A playtest pack will be sent digitally (via download link), which will include;

  • The adventure as a bookmarked PDF
  • Separate .jpg files of all maps (can be provided without grids/note for online/VTT use).

Thanks all! Glynn & Richard

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

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Sea King’s Malice

Following on from the successful Kickstarter campaign by Frog God Games, Alex Kammer’s underwater escapade is bought to life in Swords & Wizardry and 5E versions.

I had the pleasure to create the map of Tzar’Grandula, and my S&W copy of the book arrived today. It looks fabulous, and I can see me taking my group into its murky depths 🙂

You can still grab a copy here: https://froggodgames.com/product/sea-kings-malice/

Thanks to Alex and the Frogs for having me onboard the project!

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Creator’s Corner: Orbital Intelligence

Welcome to the fourth installment of Creator’s Corner!

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This is where we let another small RPG publisher or freelancer loose on the blog in the spirit of supporting each other and spreading the word. The RPG scene is filled with amazing creatives and products and this is me doing my part by trying to help ‘raise the tide to lift all boats’.

#supportsmallrpgpublishers #creatorscorner

Please support these folks if you can, check out what they do, and if you can’t support directly, please help share this post.

If you want to post in Creator’s Corner and let the good RPG folks in my feeds know about you and your products, then drop a message to glynn@monkeyblooddesign.co.uk with the subject: Creator’s Corner submission.

Thank you for stopping by and supporting the creatives in the scene, Glynn

In the spirit of transparency, Sean and I have worked together previously.
Without further ado, over to Sean Christopher Richer and a look at some of the awesome stuff he is putting out there! —

Super Weird, Super Strange, Extremely Playable.

Find Sean and his products at…
Website: http://orbitalintelligence.co
Products: DriveThruRPG — Exalted Funeral — Melsonian Art Council — Itch.io

by Sean Richer

HELLO I’M SEAN, FOUNDER OF ORBITAL INTELLIGENCE, LLC. We formed to start bringing ridiculous ideas to life. We focus on super weird, super strange, and extremely playable, content.

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How’d we get here? Let’s jump back to when I was a child, back when satanic panic was a thing. I wasn’t allowed to play Dnd, and couldn’t tell you what edition it was in the 90s in Canada. (but somehow I played spellfire… I don’t know how that worked)

I did however hit the library hard, and going through Robotech art books I eventually stumbled into the palladium stuff. Which became the first game I’d run. This led to RIFTS, which pretty much raised me (and all things palladium for that matter). I wanted nothing more than to make a sourcebook for RIFTS (Siembieda if you’re reading this, HIT ME UP).

So what do we do now? We are trying to crank out as many zines as possible, while maintaining quality. It’s difficult, but we wouldn’t be able to do it without frequent collaborators. MonkeyBlood Design has done all of our layout so far, and I plan to keep it that way! Endmusik (Michael Weeks, friend and frequent musical collaborator) did our company logo!

Let’s dive into what we currently are doing!

Ongoing Zines

Stratosfiend; tentacles and sorcery. (DCC & TROIKA)

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(Satellibat Drone, by Chin Fong | Stratosfiend Magistrate Gladiatrix, by 2headedgiant.com | Acceptance, the Root Organ-Fractal, by Shane O’Neil | Stratosfiend Delver, by 2headedgiant.com)

A setting that focuses on “the drop”, an event where giant tentacled aliens burst forth and set up shop on earth (or wherever). It’s super Gonzo, and you can play 20 foot aliens from the get go. It was initially going to be savage worlds, then MCC, but DCC seemed like the correct home for over the top Aliens and Bat gods. Just about everything mutates, and has a separate tentacle die that levels with them.

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A ZINEQUEST KICKSTARTER IN FEBRUARY FOR STRATOSFIEND ISSUE 2 WE WILL BE BACK TO TALK ABOUT IT IN DEPTH!

Necrotic Edifices; surrealist nightmares with a focus on playable mechanics (TROIKA)

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This setting is a mess of collage art, mind-rending art, and layout to match it. It contains new character backgrounds (including sentient gravel), new bestiary entries (including a demonic elf on the shelf, and sentient toast), and A NEW ADVENTURE WHICH FOCUSES ON A WORLD THAT IS SLOWLY TURNING INTO CHITIN WITH EVERY DAY THAT PASSES AND DOOR THAT IS ENTERED. Glynn KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK on this one. Matching each piece of art, with even crazier layout.

you wouldn’t last a minute on the creek

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(Ultrabasstrodon, by Sean Richer)

This one is equal parts cosmic dread simulator, 1 player funnel, and a love letter to *cough* Dawson’s Creek. I used to put every new character background that I see for Troika through its paces. How many seconds did YOU last on the creek? In some cases you may be hit in the face by a frisbee, in other cases the sentient creek consumes you and everyone you know. In other cases, perhaps you just didn’t do your homework? Or lost your love.

If you have itch troika products, let’s talk and get a bundle going! I’d love to pair up!

The tragedy that begot ternwillow; a love letter to idyllic fields through the lens of [Redacted] of Green Gables and end of [Redact]-elion (TROIKA).

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(Jackknife, Brains, and Ironsights (Ronnie) by Chin Fong)

Come spring 2020, you will start to hear about the town of Ternwillow, and how these brave pilots helped fight back horrors of humanity itself. Spoilers, they perish. All stories and play are told in the form of flashbacks, and stories of what happened. As players try to piece together what exactly the tragedy was.

BYE 4 NOW!

Find Sean and his products at…
Website: http://orbitalintelligence.co
Products: DriveThruRPG — Exalted Funeral — Melsonian Art Council — Itch.io

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The Rise of Ryecroft

As we get ready to launch HandyMaps – Buildings & Structures later this month (preview video below)…

We are also continuing apace with the next hardcover book project…

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… An old school cemetery-crawl with a lack of undead.

It will be a case of rocking up following some hook or other, and then exploring the cemetery whilst trying not to become another one of the bodies interred here.

I thought it would be a good idea to provide some update as to its current status and development…

I want to have this mostly written and a good chuck of the artwork and cartography complete by the time we launch the KS (early 2020).

I see it as an A5 book with a page count likely to be 200 pages or somewhere close. A black cloth and silver foil blocked cover, or maybe black leatherette with silver foil blocking cover. It would have a beautiful dust jacket artwork design by Jon Hodgson (the piece will also appear as a double page art spread inside).

For Artwork, Juan Ochoa has turned in a number of fabulous art pieces already (creatures and full pages), which I’ve tentatively plugged into layout… These are some of the Maggotkin.

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We plan to Kickstart extra pieces from Jon and Juan. I’ve also worked on some of my own pieces too, of which I plan to do more (all full colour):

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Writing for above ground is mainly complete except for some outsourced  stuff I’m waiting on. Below ground has started now that I have fleshed out the below ground map and its tentative locations.

Cartography is well-developed and coming along. Plans are for a A2 folded poster map of the cemetery above ground, and the same for the below ground map.

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A starting village to reprovision, and all the 284 above-ground structures in the cemetery will have information text, and if memorials, will have information about who is buried there and some kind of hook.

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And this is my marked up notes for the below ground map… the colours indicate faction areas…

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The project gets more exciting the more I work on it, and seeing art come in really solidifies the vision.

Really looking forward to bringing it to life in early 2020, and your support would be invaluable.

Take care,

Glynn

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State of the Monkey – November 2019

I’m buried in all sort of things at the moment… but I figured it would be a good idea to give an update on some of the key MonkeyBlood Design & Publishing stuff I’m progressing/planning for those interested…

HandyMaps – Buildings & Structures

So, I am putting the finishing touches to a new Kickstarter for another HandyMaps campaign to be run on Kickstarter. The draft preview is up already, so click that Remind Me on Launch button to get an email when it goes live:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monkeyblooddesign/993119939?ref=7q2gfc&token=62144ca9

Launch is tentatively planned for 10th Dec 2019, but will very likely come forward.

I’ve been working on a couple of extra structures (suggested in the feedback) which will become stretch goals… two cottages and a stables. All your favourite Great Lunden locations will be included (Clopetra’s Needle, Gael’s Sanctuary, Dourgul’s House, etc)

Ryecroft – A Cemetery-Crawl

Ryecroft Art Preview

Another project that will come to Kickstarter early next year is Ryecroft. I’ve been posting about this tentatively already, and it’s moving along nicely. I have the awesome Juan Ochoa working on some art, and also pleased to have the fabulous Jon Hodgson working on the cover. Really excited to see this coming together.

It will be an OSR (S&W Complete) cemetery location which will be mostly devoid of the undead trope, instead focusing on the insects and vermin that thrive there. It’ll have lots of Midderlands references whilst not being a specific Midderlands product.

You can hear the excellent Spikepit podcast (Colin Green) doing any exclusive reading from the Ryecroft project here: https://anchor.fm/spikepit/episodes/213-Into-the-Pit—Glynn-Seals-Ryecroft-Exclusive-e6e4jm

Definitely check out the Spikepit podcast, it’s great stuff!

Super-Secret Big Project

I’m currently in negotiations with a large 3PP about a secret project that might take place early next year. You won’t want to miss it. Keep your fingers crossed it happens.

Midderlands Dice Bags and Storage Boxes

So, Midderlands Dice Bags are in the UK, currently processing through customs, so they will be up on the store very soon by December… Also, The Midderlands storage boxes will be a thing around December, also up on the store. Somewhere to finally keep all your Midderzines, maps, cards, and bookmarks in one place.

Treat yourself this Christmas!

 

 

The Bats of St. Abbans

The great Richard Marpole (Midderzines and Adventures in Great Lunden story) is currently working on an adventure called The Bats of St Abbans. Here’s the cover art so far. No release date as yet.

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Midderzine Issue #4

Tentatively in progress. My challenge is to deviate from my usual Serif PagePlus and Affinity Publisher layout tools, and use InDesign instead… I’ll need that just in the the Super-Secret Big Project happens. I’ve made a good start, and a couple of great folks have expressed a desire to contribute content.

Trollfang, Serpentlands, Lost Machines, and a Midderlands Megadungeon…

All these are in the pipes but progressing at less speed than the other things above.

Anyway,  hope that’s whetted your appetite.

Over and out, Glynn

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CorpoMeat: The RPG

Transparency Disclaimer: I vehemently hate McDonalds. Long story about parking fines. I do like KFC though.

Support the Small Publishers by promoting their stuff

While everyone is choking on gristle from the corpomeat burgers, in an attempt to level up their Cholesterol Cleric character playing CorpoMeat: The RPG, maybe spare a thought for the small publisher who doesn’t have the skills of a team of viral marketers at their disposal, or the money to persuade gaming celebs to do their bidding with wads of $$$s… (Don’t kid yourself the RPG is free… it’s trying to get you to buy fast food, which is not free).

Newt Newport and D101 Games

Newt at D101 Games is a solid guy trying to make a living doing something he loves, and I really enjoy and admire his enthusiasm. Instead of a fast food meal over the weekend, why not head to the Backerkit Preorder Store for the Tales From the Sorcerer Under the Mountain Kickstarter, which is now LIVE!

If you missed the Kickstarter, you can still get in on the action, PLUS loads more stuff. You can get a metric shit-ton of RPG stuff from Newt, and none of it will subliminally or otherwise make you eat at any particular fast-food retailer*

*That I know of.

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Massive OSR Humble Bundle!

Hey All!

There is an Old School Humble Bundle up and running and MonkeyBlood Design is super-pleased to be involved (with The Midderlands) along with some top creators.

Here’s the link:MBD-2.jpg

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/old-school-fantasy-roleplaying-books

But before you head there, here’s the list of stuff that’s available at the top tier of $18+. All $624 of it!!
It’s pretty staggering!

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  • Items highlighted in green are published by MonkeyBlood Design & Publishing.
  • Items highlighted orange feature work by Glynn Seal.