James Maliszewski

Down with the Sickness

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. Fortunately, my enthusiasm remains high and I plan to share lots about Gamehole Con and other matters once I'm a little less sick.

In the meantime, enjoy another piece of sha-Arthan artwork, thi...

Gamehole Con: TSR History

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 time and at the company, some of which I'll share, both here and on Grognardia.

Return

I 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 development of Secrets of sha-Arthan).

For now, though, I need to rest ...

A Jalaka Warrior

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 variety to be found among the nonhuman races of the True World. For example, not all Jalaka are spellcasters. Many of them are quite formidable warriors, as anyone who's ever faced off a...

More Artwork

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.

Alternatives to "Scion"

I'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 sha-Arthan in search of diversion and using his upbringing and status to do so comfortably. I'm starting to think the class would work better if it also included non-nobles engaged in a similar kind ...

Gamehole Con 2024

Though 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 playtest of the latest version of The Secrets of sha-Arthan rules and GHC might present the perfect opportunity to do so.

I'll post more about this once I know for certain that I'll be ...

Quick Update

I 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 settle down in the next few weeks and I can resume regular posting, both on Grognardia and here, but I've thought that several times since the summer. In any case, I wanted to give everyone a heads-up...

Friday Feature: Best Laid Plans

Well … 

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 probably won't catch up completely till early September, but I plan to do my best, starting with the Vaults of da-Imer. I'm about a month behind on that, but, fortunately, most of the work is already done...

Discord Oddities

I'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 and will rectify it as soon as I can.

Thanks!

Friday Feature: Revised Sorcery Preview

Work 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 equipment and vehicles chapter by next weekend – close enough!

For now, though, what I want to share is the revised draft of the sorcery chapter. This one includes a fair bit of new material, as...

Ironian Names

One 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 inaccessibly exotic setting that no one except its original creator could ever use at the table.

To that end, I've begun putting together a series of random tables of names, starting with those intend...

Character Generation Draft 3.0

The 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 here.

There are several new bits in this draft that will need to be playtested thoroughly to determine if they work ...

Friday Feature: Revised Character Generation Preview

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 important material, like equipment and spells, are not yet available in revised form (though my intention is still to get all of that to you before month's end – fingers crossed!).

The link I'm pro...

Feedback on the Character Classes Draft

I 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. It would also make things simpler for me if you could make the subject of your email(s) "Chapter 3 Feedback." You are also welcome to use the Discord channel "sha-Arthan Previews" for discussion, but...

Character Classes Draft 3.0

As 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 share your thoughts with me. 

In the meantime, here is the link: h...

Friday Feature: Revised Character Classes Preview

The 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 am certain there will still be plenty of inconsistencies, ambiguities, and outright errors – this is an ongoing process, after all!

Nevertheless, I wanted to share with you the draft as it curr...

Friday Feature: Playtesting Secrets of sha-Arthan

As 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-oriented material – character generation, basic rules, spells – during this month, with the goal of weeding out all the worst errors before playtesting begins. 

I'd originally wanted to wa...

A Grognardia Shout-Out

The blog gets a mention in the third paragraph of this article at The New Yorker by Ed Park – most unexpected!

The Secrets of sha-Arthan and the OGL

As 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 a certain degree of rewriting the current draft of The Secrets of sha-Arthan so as eliminate any vestigial connections to the d20 SRD.

Fortunately, this won't be too onerous. The curren...

Unmade Martinet

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 Secrets of sha-Arthan. I'll being present full write-ups of each of the three main types of Unmade in the future. When I do so, I'll include the accompanying illustrations. For now, though, here's ...

Happy New Year!

I 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.

Friday Feature: The Vaults of sha-Arthan

The 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 into her very heart." According to Vasan, the Vault is found in "the desert of Jiridor in the land of Urendira," two locales lost to history, assuming they ever existed at all. Nevertheless, the Vault...

Friday Feature: The Unmade

The 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 across sha-Arthan (except the continent of Alakun-Tenu, where the priesthood of Ten long ago extirpated them).

Like their masters, the Unmade first appeared during the Epoch of Strife. Though none c...

Unmaker Prophet

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. 

This particular prophet is Isimikta, who leads the Eritar Ibaia, or "Circle of Transcendence." The Circle is rumored to operate out of the Vaults beneath Eshkom in Inba Iro, but evidence for ...