James Maliszewski

The Undead

There are a great many types of undead beings in sha-Arthan, ranging from the nearly-mindless dritlor to the vengeful kelthaga and the mighty gorodaka. All of them will be described and illustrated in the setting's bestiary. For the moment, though, I just wanted to share with you an early sketch of the dritlor, a low-level undead opponent and a creation of the Necromancy sorcerer spell. 

The Light of Kulvu

(This is an example of the kind of regular setting content I plan to post starting in October. Sometimes it'll be slightly esoteric material like this; other times it'll be something more immediately "down to earth" and adventuresome. All of it will, I hope, help to paint a picture of sha-Arthan, its history, cultures, and possibility for gaming. My aim to produce a 500-1000 word piece once or twice a week, with longer pieces coming at least once a month, but I suspect the actual release sche...

The Secrets of sha-Arthan?

I'm trying out alternate titles and this struck me as one to consider, given its alliteration. Any thoughts?

I'm far from committed to changing the name, but it's a possibility I keep thinking about and this one seemed more promising than previous ones. 

Sorcerer Spells -- at last

Here's the link to the first draft of the sorcerer spells: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bkMuIjW29xhWAU6ZkCXcNzI3f6w21q_v/view?usp=sharing

These are going to need serious playtesting, so please do not consider anything here to be final by any means. Likewise, the text will almost certainly undergo many revisions in response to playtesting.

That said, feel f...

Progress Update

I wanted to share a brief update on where things stand with The Vaults of sha-Arthan:

1. The magic section is closer to completion, though it'll still be a little while more. Partly, this is because I rewrote the entire section after a change of heart about some of what I'd done previously. While this has slowed the overall writing, it's resulted in a better draft.

2. I'm editing and re-working (slightly) some of the character class material, with an eye toward turning it over for...

Thedlani

As a companion to yesterday's teteku illustration, here is the thedlani.

Teteku

Here's another bit of art to tide you over till I finish the spell descriptions. It's a teteku, a riding mount commonplace on sha-Arthan. 

Adept Disciplines

With the sorcerer spells section nearly done – yes, I know I've said that before – I had a question about the presentation of adept disciplines, hence this poll.

Would you prefer disciplines to retain the brief descriptions they currently have or would you rather each of them be expanded and given fuller descriptions after the fashion of the sorcerer spells?

da-Imer

The starting location for the campaign will be the city of da-Imer, formerly the capital of the Empire of Inba Iro before its conquest by the Chomachto a century before. Though the political and administrative capital has moved to the "New City" of Tamas Tzora, the "Old City" remains the realm's most populous. It's also home to many ancient sites, such as the Supernal Palace of the King-Emperor (now abandoned); the Temple of Ukol, god of abundance, agriculture, and medicine – and divine pro...

Spell Preview

Work continues on the sorcerer spells. I spent a lot of time this weekend getting them together. Much more work remains, in part because I was sidetracked by another idea I had (reworking alignment into an allegiance system). In any case, things are shaping up into a form I can soon share.

Title Change?

I recently discovered that there's already an OSR-ish setting called Vaults of Vaarn and, while sha-Arthan isn't at all similar to it (aside from a couple of similar inspirations), I can't help but wonder if it might be a good idea to come up with another title, if only to avoid confusion. What do you think?

The Four Worlds

Though I'm sure you're all reading the posts over at Grognardia, I nevertheless wanted to draw attention to this one – GROGNARDIA: The Four Worlds – which is a very small sneak peek of information about the sha-Arthan setting and its cosmology.

Another Chenot Illustration

Illustrator and reader of Grognardia, Kelvin Green, very kindly sent along a drawing of the Chenot he was inspired to draw after reading the original class post on the blog. I guess this is the first piece of sha-Arthan fan art! Anyway, I thought you might enjoy seeing another take on the True World's plant people.

Player's Guide Combined File

As promised, the latest iteration of the Player's Guide draft is now available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mqiJn_XjgdpzKZzauNKDCJnMhxE0QCf0/view?usp=sharing

This is a combined file that includes all the information available to date (some of it revised), along with new material (e.g, equipment and advancement rules). Aside from spells, the only major sect...

Update

I'm nearly done the advancement and equipment sections, along with some small tweaks to the other sections. A larger combined file of all the material will be appearing this weekend, possibly as soon as tomorrow. After that, magic will be the next section to appear, which should wrap up most of the important material needed for players. 

Additional sections on aspects of the setting are next after that, along with a map of the initial starting area for the campaign, namely the Hash...

New and Updated Files

I've very slightly updated the Character Classes draft: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oHbHO_NOfBCH4FkyOJP2W-6XAI1KgUJ7/view?usp=sharing

Likewise, I've added an early draft of the section detailing character generation and ability scores: https://...

Revised Character Classes

I've done some revisions to the character class document, including adding the three nonhuman classes. Like the previous document, this one is a work in progress and will almost certainly be changed several times more before I am fully happy with it. Nonetheless, I present it to you now, as a taste of what is to come. 

Here's the link: https://drive.google.com/file...

Jalaka

Here's an illustration of the third nonhuman class, the Jalaka. Unlike the Ga'andrin, the Jalaka are more reliable allies of humanity, known for their skill with sorcery and the Four Worlds. 

Ga'andrin

Here's an illustration of the second of three nonhuman classes, the Ga'andrin. Widespread and warlike, these nonhumans are rivals and sometime-allies of humanity. This is the next class I'll share with you, likely in a day or two.

Chenot Class

A draft of the Chenot class will be appearing on Grognardia tomorrow. The other two nonhuman classes, the Ga'andrin and the Jalak, will appear here in the next few days, if all goes well.

More soon!

Chenot

Here's a finished version of one of the nonhumans – the Chenot. With luck, the Chenot class will be done soon, followed shortly thereafter by the other two.

Nonhuman Classes

I've been tinkering with the four human classes, some of which have been changed slightly. I'll post the revisions of them once I've completed the three nonhuman classes I plan to include initially. One of these, the Chenot, is a species of small, plantlike beings. I've attached a work-in-progress sketch of one of them with this post to give you an idea of their appearance. I hope to have final versions of them, along with the other two classes, soon.

As always, thanks for your continue...

Adept, Scion, Sorcerer, Warrior

I've included a link to a draft document presenting the four human character classes I'll be using in my upcoming campaigns. They're more or less complete, though there will certainly be tweaks and changes as a result of additional thought and, of course, play. One class – the sorcerer – is not fully playable yet, since I haven't finished the spells document (though I hope to have it done soon). Likewise, the three nonhuman classes are close to completion and I'll share them when they are...

Layout Test

Much of the text is from an earlier iteration of the player's guide, so pay no close attention to it. But I wanted to share a layout experiment with you. 

Player's Guide Draft

A draft version of the material I'll be giving to players of the Vaults of sha-Arthan should be ready within a week or so. It'll consist of the four human character classes – there are three more non-human classes that won't be available to start – along with sorcerer spells and equipment. That'll cover most of the basic material needed for players. Naturally, the guide will go through revisions and expansions, so nothing will be final. However, it will, I hope, give you some idea where I...

Session Timing and More

From discussions with interested parties, it's starting to look like one possibly workable time slot would be Thursday afternoons between 1 and 3 pm Eastern Time (UTC–5). That's not set in stone, though; I remain open to other possibilities.

At the same time, I continue to consider the idea of a concurrent campaign that's done in a play-by-post fashion. That way, it would open up the setting to more people, particularly those whose time zone or schedule simply won't allow them to comm...

Thinking About the Campaign

As I mentioned previously, it's my intention to start refereeing The Vaults sha-Arthan once I've completed the necessary player information for distribution. That'll be, at earliest, next month, though it could take a little longer. Right now, I'm finishing up the four basic character classes, with half an eye on the three nonhuman classes. After that, it's on to the spells and psychic disciplines. 

Once all that's done, I'll begin to actively seek players, drawing first from the p...

The Adept

Another character class portrait.

The Sorcerer

Here's the completed illustration of the sorcerer class.

The Scion

Another piece of artwork to share with you, this time the illustration accompanying the scion character class description.