Welcome June, Goodbye May and its RPG Blog Carnival

June is named from the Roman month Iunius, or Junius, is named in honor of the ancient Roman goddess Juno (parallel to the Greek Hera) who is the wife of Jupiter and goddess of marriage.   The first half of Iunius is a period of religious purification and was considered the most favorable time to marry by the Romans.  It will also be the eight anniversary of this journal, so I may try and do something special for that.

Summer officially starts this month, so, any thoughts on a theme, reader?  Send me your suggestions and I will try to act on them.

This May, the Journal hosted the RPG Blog Carnival with some success and I hope do do so again in the future.  The following article were published here in May, 2017:

May RPG Blog Carnival Review – Occult Mysteries and Magic

May is almost over and with it, my first time hosting the RPG Blog Carnival, you can learn more about the RPG Blog Carnival and visit the archives at Johnn Four’s Roleplaying Tips page.

The theme was Occult Mysteries and Magic and my first post can be found here, with Parts the Second and Third following.

I also presented some thematic magic items: Assassin’s Eye and Cloak, Library Bane and the Secret Society Ring (and some idea for its use).

The contribution from across the web include:

Warlock Lodge: Masters of the Invisible College and Using witches, magic and occult practices in your games and the Psychic Witch from The Other Side.

Occlusion from Infinite Adventures.

D&D 5E: Rituals and the Occult from Harbinger of Doom.

Occult Mysteries (of Eberron) from the Codex Anathema.

Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe and Supah Seekrit from Inspiration Strikes!

Spiritualist Sorcerer and Exorcist Background from Daemons and Deathrays.

Cult Magic Failures from Tales of a GM.

A Secret Society Of Character-Hunters For Your Campaign from Roleplaying Tips.

Greater Rituals (for D&D 5E) from the Dragonsmith.

Thank you all for your contributions and support!

Overall, a success I believe and I will try and host again sometime in the future.  Next month’s theme is Gonzo and cross-genre gaming.

Notes: Photo “Antique books” by Juan Antonio F. Segal is licensed under CC BY 2.0

 

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Review – Shadowrun: Cutting Aces

Shadowrun: Cutting Aces is a sourcebook for Shadowrun and provides an odd mixed bag of information on the metaplot and setting which providing more options for social-based characters and challenges.  As it covers some neglected aspects of the Shadowrun world, such as the Middle East and social skills, it is probably a good investment for a GM but the book is so unfocused unless cons or Constantinople are the focus of your campaign, I cannot say that it should be a priority to acquire.

Shadowrun: Cutting Aces, is a Deep Shadows Sourcebook for the 5th edition of Shadowrun, this particular book covers a variety of sins, confidence games and swindlers, Constantinople (formerly Istanbul) and a bit more about current events in the Sixth World.

Creative Sunday – Moria Mining

What is happening in the apartments?

It has been a while since I did one of these but some of my old gaming group back in Portland, OR, finally have their Moria Mining site up for their miniature building, diorama construction and gaming.

There is a fun selection of dioramas for a variety of genre along with information on how they were built.  The Glom Co section references a long-running Call of Cthulhu campaign we all playing in back in the day.

If you like miniatures and building fun things, CoC or dwarves, of all of them, check out Moria Mining.

PinkCat: Running in the Shade “Safety First Redux” (A different sort of SR campaign report)

To understand what is going on here, you had best read the first PinkCat: Running in the Shade post, but short summary, this is a campaign report for our Shadowrun campaign set in NorCal through the filter of a cartoon made by one of the team members.

Episode Twenty Eight: Safety First Redux

Guest Starring: Clawz and DD.

The school is on a field trip to a fully automated local factory when a power surge first shuts down their robotic tour guide and then starts everything up.  So the rest of the episode is a adventure crossing the running factory floor to get to the control room to shut everything off so that the rest of the class can get out safety.  It takes cartoon liberties with scale and distance and plays off of classic exploration and adventure tropes while also having PSA-style undertone of best practices when visiting/working in a factory.  Eventually they make it to the control room and reset everything, the robotic tour guide restarts and they finish the tour as if nothing happened.

What really happened:

May and the new RPG Blog Carnival begins, looking back at April

Tomorrow brings the first day of May.  May was Maius in Latin and was named after the Greek goddess Maia, it is thought, who is associated with Spring.  The theme for this May will have little to do with that, as the Sea of Stars is hosting the RPG Blog Carnival and this month’s theme is:

Occult Mysteries and Magic.

I hope you will join us for exploring that intriguing theme.

Now, looking back over April, 2017, it was a quiet month due to things going on in my life outside of gaming, but we still saw the following posts here :

Review – Three Sorcerous Arts for D&D 5E

Three Sorcerous Arts: Three Sorcerous Origins for Firth Edition provides some excellent options for sorcerers in 5E and expands the range of choices for that class.  Everything seems well balanced and if you like playing sorcerer, or using them as rivals to the players, give this product a look.

Three Sorcerous Arts: Three Sorcerous Origins for Firth Edition for Firth Edition by Brandes Stoddard and published by Tribality Publishing is just that, three new Sorcerers’ origins (or bloodlines as they would have been called in some other sources) and some supporting magic items.  The layout is clear with thematic color photographs for illustrations.