In my earlier preview, I shared with you a PDF of the article I recently submitted for publication in a future issue of Fight On! It's an overview of a much larger and more detailed treatment o...
2025-04-15 15:08:15 +0000 UTC View PostAt the start of last month, I posted a black and white map of the Eshkom District, one of the twenty such districts that make up the Empire of Inba Iro. I also mentioned that I was in the process of wr...
2025-04-13 16:02:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a beautiful new image by Zhu Bajiee, depicting a quartet of adventurers exploring the Vaults of ba-Hanvala in the Eshkom District.
2025-03-05 23:40:46 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a complete map of the Eshkom District of the Empire of Inba Iro, a region bordering on the Ga'andrin&n...
2025-03-03 03:01:05 +0000 UTC View PostThis is an alternate presentation of the information found in this blog post, one that's a little more consistent with the US Army Operations Order (OPORD) format.
It looks like, despite my best efforts, that I may have fallen prey to the dreaded con crud. Mostly, I've just got a stuffy head and runny nose, but it's still not fun. I've been drinking lots of liquids and generally taking it easy, so my productivity isn't as great as I'd have wanted. ...
2024-10-22 19:35:06 +0000 UTC View Post
One of several panel discussions I attended was devoted to the history of TSR Hobbies, moderated by Mike Mearls. The panelists were, from left to right: Mike Mearls, Jeff Grubb, Ed Greenwood, Steve Winter, and David "Zeb" Cook. As you might expect, they had a lot of great stories to tell of their...
2024-10-21 13:19:42 +0000 UTC View PostI am now safely back from Gamehole Con. I had a blast, seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and playing games. I plan to do a series of posts on Grognardia about my time there, but I will likely have some additional thoughts and musings I'll share here with you (as well as more about the develop...
2024-10-21 12:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Among the rules changes in the latest draft Secrets of sha-Arthan is the disentangling of race and class. I'll explain my rationale for doing this in another post late, either here or – more likely – on Grognardia itself. A consequence of this is that I'm more explicit now about the ...
2024-10-15 17:50:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Here are some additional character illustrations from the Secrets of sha-Arthan Player's Manual. I hope to be able to share an updated PDF of the character classes before the end of the month, but I make no promises. Regardless, work continues to proceed, albeit slowly.
2024-09-21 16:38:48 +0000 UTC View PostI'm in the midst of completing a new draft of the player-oriented material for Secrets of sha-Arthan and I've decided to broaden the concept of the scion class.
As I originally imagined it, the scion was a aristocratic dabbler who'd taken up a peripatetic existence, wandering...
2024-08-25 15:48:59 +0000 UTC View PostThough I've not yet finalized my plans, it's looking increasingly likely that I will be attending Gamehole Con in Madison, Wisconsin in October 2024.
If I do go, I'd love to meet up with any patrons who might also be attending. I was already been thinking about doing a public playt...
2024-08-08 21:48:51 +0000 UTC View PostI wanted to quickly let everyone know that real world concerns and responsibilities continue to distract me as they have since the middle of the summer. Consequently, I am pausing the Patreon for October. Consequently, no one will be charged for this month.
I hope that things will ...
2023-10-10 12:55:48 +0000 UTC View PostWell …
The summer has been moving a lot faster than I'd expected and it didn't prove nearly as free of distraction as I'd hoped. Myriad real life matters, some pleasant, some decidedly not, have made a mockery of my grand plans.
That'll teach me.
I prob...
2023-08-12 02:14:29 +0000 UTC View PostI'm not yet certain what has happened, but the Discord server seems to have suffered some sort of failure. There are presently no longer any channels of any sort. I'll spend some time looking into the matter to see what might have happened. In the meantime, know that I am aware of the situation a...
2023-07-11 22:32:27 +0000 UTC View PostWork on the revised drafts of Secrets of sha-Arthan continues at a solid pace. While I might not yet quite make my self-imposed deadline of the end of this month to complete the revisions of the player-oriented material, I do feel confident that I'll certainly have the revision of the eq...
2023-05-26 16:54:04 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the things to which I'm quite committed in Secrets of sha-Arthan is the inclusion of lots of random tables to aid both players and referees in understanding and making the setting their own. I don't want sha-Arthan to suffer the same fate as, say, Tékumel: being seen as an inacce...
2023-05-21 23:58:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe final revisions to the draft of Chapter 2: Character Generation are now complete. If you are interested in taking a look at them, you can do so via the link provided below. Likewise, if you would like to provide feedback on the material, the same guidelines apply as those posted 2023-05-21 18:23:09 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm nearly done with my revision, expansion, and overall clarification of Chapter 2 of Secrets of sha-Arthan, which focuses on character generation. Used in conjunction with the material presented in Chapter 3, you'll be better able to generate a character for the game, though some impor...
2023-05-19 19:13:48 +0000 UTC View PostI would very much like to receive your feedback on the latest draft of the character classes chapter for Secrets of sha-Arthan. In order to make this easier for me, I would like to ask that you send your feedback to me via email to the following address: jdmaliszewski@gmail.com....
2023-05-15 18:59:29 +0000 UTC View PostAs promised, I've completed updated draft of Chapter 3 of Secrets of sha-Arthan, which describes the available character classes.
I'll be detailing the way I'd like to receive comments/questions on the draft in a separate post later today. Once that post is made, feel free to...
2023-05-15 12:59:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe revision to the character classes for Secrets of sha-Arthan is nearly done. I'll be spending the weekend going over the text to remove out of date references and terminology, along with making sure that all the information I want to be there actually is there. That said, I a...
2023-05-12 16:07:17 +0000 UTC View PostAs I mentioned last week, playtesting of Secrets of sha-Arthan will likely begin this summer, starting next month (I hope). Before doing that, I'll be sharing the latest drafts of the player-ori...
2023-05-05 18:34:36 +0000 UTC View Post
The blog gets a mention in the third paragraph of this article at The New Yorker by Ed Park – most unexpected!
2023-04-01 17:46:48 +0000 UTC View PostAs many of you are no doubt aware, there are credible rumors that Wizards of the Coast is not only introducing a new version of the Open Game License but also "de-authorizing" the previous version (1.0a) under which a great many old school RPGs have been released. If true, this could necessitate ...
2023-01-09 18:14:03 +0000 UTC View Post
I just received final versions of the Unmade illustrations that I had previously promised I'd share with you. Unsurprisingly, they're most excellent, like all the artwork I've commissioned for The Se...
2023-01-07 02:16:11 +0000 UTC View PostI wanted to take a moment to wish all of my patrons a Happy New Year and to thank all of you for your support over the past year.
Here's hoping that 2023 will be a great one for all of us.
2023-01-01 19:32:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe Onha word saya (literally "refuge") first appears in Tithio Vasan's The Wonders of the Past in reference to the legendary Vault of the Makers. He describes the site as "a vast, subterranean sanctuary grown by the Makers from the clay of the True World and extending downward ...
2022-12-30 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe Unmade (or Omajya in the Onha language) are the unnatural servitors of the Unmakers. Transformed by iniquitous sorcery, the Unmade are frightful demonstrations of where the Unmakers' nihilistic philosophy leads if unchecked. They are also a potent threat to the civilized peoples acro...
2022-12-23 05:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
In last week's Friday Feature, I wrote about the Unmakers and the threat their secretive cults pose to the peoples of sha-Arthan. In future posts, I'll provide additional details, but, for the moment, I wanted to share an image of an Unmaker "prophet," which is to say, a cult leader.
...
2022-12-22 01:38:42 +0000 UTC View Post