Rejoice!

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. John 3:16-17

Happy Passover to my Jewish friends, and to those who have a different faith or none at all, I wish you and yours a wonderful and peaceful day.

Other World Spirits: Herne the Hunter

 image source

ST60 IQ17 DX17 EN60 MV12, AR-4, DM 3d6+3 via bow or 5d6 via spear 

Herne rolls 3 dice in any tests and is immune to fear, sleep, paralyze and any immobilizing magics.

Herne the Hunter is a spirit of justice, order and fair play.  He is associated with forests, elves, rangers, druids and is seen as a protector of forest dwelling creatures. Herne appears a tall (7') burly wildman with heavy beard, braids in hair and stags antlers sprouting from the sides of his head.

Herne walks the woods without leaving tracks or making noise and deems any who enter the woods as subject to his judgement. Herne rarely aides those who request it, instead Herne judges on his own when his help is necessary to restore balance, order, or to right a wrong and deliver justice. Nature takes its course and those who seek to interfere with that path or twist it for their own needs are subject.

Followers of Herne
Those who seek to follow the same path as Herne often dress in forest colored hues of green and brown and shun settlements larger than small villages and farms. They will not ventures out into areas more than a days ride away from a forest.  Followers favor bows, spears and short swords or long knives as weapons.  They wear nothing heavier than studded leather armor, and do not use shields.  Followers of Herne are experts with bows and do +1 damage when they hit with a bow.

A group of followers of 7 or more will have a leader often known as "The Hood." The Hood is the one who will often receive communications with Herne but is also held to the highest standards of justice and fair play.

Herne's Favor
Herne is known to speak to favorites in their dreams often rewarding them with special knowledge to aid them in righting wrongs or even superior classed (though not magical) weapons. 

After feedback

Freezing Sphere (T) IQ14 EN4 R:IQ

Freezing sphere creates a frigid globe of cold energy that streaks from your fingertips to the location you select, where it explodes in a 10-foot-radius burst, dealing 3d6 points of cold damage to each creature in the area. An elemental (water) creature instead takes 8d6 points of cold damage.

If the freezing sphere strikes a body of water or a liquid that is principally water (not including water-based creatures), it freezes the liquid to a depth of 6 inches over an area equal to 100 square feet. This ice lasts for 12 turns. Creatures that were swimming on the surface of frozen water become trapped in the ice. Attempting to break free is a full-turn action. A trapped creature must make a 5/ST test or a 5/DX+ Escape Artist check to do so.

You can refrain from firing the globe after completing the spell, if you wish. Treat this as a touch spell for which you are holding the charge. You can hold the charge for as long as 1 turn per IQ point, at the end of which time the freezing sphere bursts centered on you (and you receive no test to resist its effect). Firing the globe in a later turn is a standard action.

  

Spell Choices #2

 

Based on feedback here are two new choices, thanks for taking time to provide feedback!

Spell Choices

As I put together the Magi Carta, I'd like your feedback on which spell description you prefer.

Option A, just the text
Option B uses a grey box over the spell description to differentiate it.

Nearly 600 spells to reference...so choose wisely!

New HOW review!

GO SEE!

Hero's Progress

So here is a quick look at where we stand:

Magi Carta is about 85% complete
Cauldron #1 is about 60% complete

After those two I'd like to focus on creating a Barrow exploration sandbox sort of setting...but I will also continuing working on the HOW version of Lee Reynoldson's REDWALD.

In fact I have commissioned Luigi "Artkid" to start new illustrations, many of which will appear in the HOW version of Redwald!

I am geeked about Redwald for a couple reasons: 1) Lee's fantastic vision and writing 2) I love the Dark Ages 3) This HOW system lends itself to a gritty style of play.

Let me also share a very cool resource with you, Ancient Warfare and Medieval Warfare magazines.  These are outstanding resources if you enjoy not only learning about warfare in different era, but about the equipment and battles of the past!  Even better? Ancient Warfare magazine has an extensive free PODCAST library! These are great roundtable discussions of various topics found withing the magazine issues.

I really consider these outstanding resources which one could add any amount of fantasy elements too, or could be tweaked and fit into semi historical setting like Lee Reynoldson's Redwald.

The work continues...


IMAGE SOURCE

23 de Marzo...road trip?

Courtesy of Patxi, it's a Con I sure wish I could make!  Holy cow, HOW at a Con? Unbelievable!

Cauldron #1 cover

Not quite complete but close to done...can't wait to get Magi Carta and Cauldron #1 done!

18 and spells are done

And that is a wrap, all spells through IQ18 are complete in the Magi Carta.  Next comes combining this work with the original HOW spells list.  So its close to 600 spells!  The work continues...

Image source

Where we are

So a quick work in progress report. I only have the IQ 18 spells to complete...then shuffle the original HOW spells into it, update the master spell list and the BULK of the Magic Carta is done.

Problem is this is taking a lot more time than I anticipated, so my work on Cauldron #1 has slipped.  To that end, and given my job work and travel schedule, Cauldron #1 will not be out in March...instead I am aiming for a late April release.  At the same time that means I expect (but can't promise) to release the Magi Carta this month.

So don't let the quiet make you think things aren't in progress. 

Downloads Update

I have changed the download file hosting service to a paid mediafire account, hopefully that will work better for us all.  As a reminder, if you are curious about Heroes & Other Worlds after reading the review links, download Issue #0 of the Cauldron for FREE by clicking the download link to the right.  You will get the basic gist of the rules, some sample characters, a solo adventure and a refereed adventure as well some neat articles.  Get it now!

Use promo code MARCHBOOKS13 to get 20%  the PDF and or Paperback on Lulu.com

Image by Alex Horley-Orlandelli