Artists I Like: Sean Aaberg

I came to know the work of California artist Sean Aaberg through the monster section of Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion. Sean was a fitting if not perfect answer to the iconic demon and devil art of Dave Trampier from the Monster Manual.

Sean has been a punk and metal artist since the 90s, and publisher of the free zine PORK, which is all about rock and roll and low brow culture. He is also the publish and creator of Dungeon Degenerates, a pretty badass looking board game.

Check his shit out.

Doomslakers RPG 01

Maybe I'll start blogging about my process for writing this game. It can't hurt.

Very brief background: Doomslakers RPG is the Black Pudding RPG. But it's not based on D&D. Instead, I'm taking the game mechanics from GOZR and hacking them to fit the Black Pudding implied setting of Yria. So... Doomslakers is an original game about the world of Black Pudding whereas Black Pudding zine itself is explicitly catered to old school D&D play ala Labyrinth Lord, Old School Essentials, or Basic Fantasy RPG.

To be even more clear: Doomslakers RPG is not a D&D game nor does it attempt to be compatible with those games. The Black Pudding OSR Play Book still exists in issue 4 of the zine, but I don't have any plans to publish an expanded version of that at this time (though I'll be honest and tell you I spend MANY hours working on one, so don't count it out completely).

Enough of my head canon.

WHAT YOU DO

The game is highly structured in terms of "what you do". It's an adventure game. You play the role of an Agent working for an Adventuring Company (Doomslakers Adventuring Company) to do dangerous jobs for those who can pay. It's a simple conceit. It's a very easy way to frame an adventure. The answer to the question "why are you going on an adventure?" is already delivered. Because it's how you get paid.

There's more to it, and room for Company intrigue and all that.

BACKGROUNDS

I would say the biggest influence on character creation is Troika's Backgrounds. I love that concept so much that Doomslakers is more or less the same exact thing. I even have 36 Backgrounds, such is my love of that character creation system. Most of them are Black Pudding character classes converted to Doomslakers Backgrounds.

CORE STATS

The game's core is characters with 3 basic stats rolling d20s to do things. I like it when the dice numbers go high, so one of the design principles is that it is always better to roll high. I'm trying very hard to never have a situation where a low roll is beneficial.

This means something important. It means there's no roll-under mechanics. This is only important to the most jaded nerds among you as no one else in their right minds would care.

So those 3 basic stats I mentioned... those are your target numbers. If they are high, you need to roll higher. Therefore having a low stat is better than having a high stat. This is outlined in GOZR as well.

The 3 stats are called Action Roll Targets (ARTs)*. Cunning is for thiefy things, Magic is for thinky things, and Prowess is for fighty things. These 3 stats go back to sometime around 2018 when I was working on a game called Dead Wizards, a sword and sorcery thing. That concept morphed into GOZR in 2020. But it is fitting that I return to the original idea since it was also based on the Black Pudding setting.

Sorry... more head canon stuff.

PLAYER-FACING MECHANICS

All rolls are player-facing. I must have picked up this idea from The Black Hack because I was playing various Hacks of that game by 2018. Then I found Into the Odd and was solidly in the player-facing rules camp. To do a thing in this game, you roll 1d20 vs. the ART that makes sense, as outlined above.

BEING OLD AND USING SKILLS

I'm also old. I'm 54 as of this writing**. I like old games. I like some game design styles that might be thought of as clunky or outdated today. I'll dig my heels in and say that a tabletop game cannot technically be outdated because it relies on brains, not computers. That isn't to say its content can't be outdated, but the mechanics... are timeless, my friend.

That being said... Doomslakers includes Skills, which are a bit 90s if you think about it. And they are simply +1 or +2 or whatever. So when you want to punch a bastard, you roll 1d20 + Punching Skill (if that's a thing) vs. Prowess. If you make it, you punch 'em. Intuitive, right?

HIT POINTS VS. LUCK (POINTS)

GOZR uses Hit Points. I like HP. They are simple and direct. But I wanted to challenge myself to avoid HP for Doomslakers. I made this fateful decision a mere week or two ago and it has vexed and thrilled me ever since. And while I did avoid a straight HP system, I do include something like it.

In the current iteration, players have Luck. This acts as both hit points and meta-currency luck points. Attacks against you can be absorbed by spending Luck or you can take a risk on a sort of wounds table roll. It's up to you. You can spend Luck to do cool things, avoid damage, etc. When you run out of Luck, you are dead. Or, as in GOZR, you can choose to survive and be Debased... taking some kind of permanent setback.

I like this approach. There's still risk. You still LOSE something if you run out of Luck. But death isn't the only end game for running out of Luck.

And so on. More later.

*Nothing is set in stone. All the terms discussed herein are working titles and subject to change. But Action Roll Target is literally what they are and so I'm rolling with that for now. In GOZR, they are called Action Classes, or ACs. Which seems to confuse some folks because of AC being Armor Class in other games. But it's the same principle, right? Like a Saving Throw. You're trying to roll a target number.

**Jeez. Best not to think about it.

Artists I Like: Larry MacDoughall

Been a minute since I did an Artists I Like post. Let me try to get back into the groove...

Larry MacDoughall is a Canadian fantasy and faerie tale artist, by his own description. I encountered his work in one of the TMNT supplements, maybe Mutants in Avalon? I know he also did lots of work for Palladium's Rifts game.

But he's been busy since then. Book of Beasties, Gwelf, and tons of whimsical paintings that, to my eyes, slot right in perfectly next to Brian Froud. Lovely stuff.

Gooz Character Generator

The Kill it With Fire blog has posted a fantastic little bookmarklet that creates gooz characters with one click! You have no excuse for not creating dozens of them.

 

GOZR Cheat Sheet

Jimmi at Domain of Many Things has written a very nice blog post about GOZR and he had the gooz to include a CHEAT SHEET! I probably should have included one with the game.

 

Artists I Like: Jason Galea

This week's Artist I Like is Jason Galea, who I know about because I've become part of the Weirdo Swarm... a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard fan!

Jason is the visual guy behind the band. I believe he created all the album covers, many posters, tee shirts, and music videos. I love this shit. I mean I really, really love it. This is my alley and he's right up it.

(Yeah, I'm also thinking of Skinner and Sean Aaberg for sure.)

KGLW Lizard

There was a social media post about an alligator stealing a person's hat. I drew this doodle of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's lizard wizard stealing the hat. For giggles.

 

Artists I Like: Ashley Wood

Another artist I don't know anything about is Ashley Wood. I picked up a random issue of Zombies vs. Robots a while back and was pretty impressed with the art.

Wood is an Australian. They turn out some killer shit down under (I'm looking at King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard). Wood's art is what I'd call highly spontaneous, impressionistic, immediate. It's got energy. But it holds together. A powerful combo.

Looks like he works in both traditional and digital media. often mixing the two.

 Oh... one last note. There's another, entirely different comic book artist named Ashely A. Woods. Totally different creator. I bet she gets frustrated because looking up her art you inevitably get Wood's art as well or instead. If I was in that situation I am not sure if I'd consider changing my professional name or not. It's an option. Anyway, she's pretty good too.

The Gloom that Befell My RPG Folder

Hell's bells, I haven't done one of these posts since 2023.

To clarify: My RPG Folder series is where I open my folder of RPG PDFs and randomly click on a few. I give them a once-over scan or read and I write my thoughts pretty much as I'm scanning. These are not full-throated reviews, just "at a glance" thoughts. For fun.

Nobody reads these. I'm literally talking to myself right now. But I'm in that kind of mood. So here we go.

Opening folder... hitting "page down" a few times... double clicking with my eyes closed...

Oh. This one was just a one-page dice template for a custom d10. I'll click on something else...

Files For Everyone: Nashi by Alexander Augunus. Killer cover art by Luis Prado. Interior art by Prado and Chan Yue Rong. We're off to a good start because I have no idea what this is. No memory of picking it up. And it's for Pathfinder, which I've never played.

"Nashi are short, stocky plantigrade humanoids whose body is covered in thick fur that often makes them appear stouter then they are. Although viewed as a disparaging remark by the nashi, the term “raccoon folk” does aptly summarize a typical nashi’s appearance, as they possess furred bodies, long tails, mask-and-ring fur patterns, and nailed digits."

Given that the product came out in the 2010s and features a raccoon-ish character sporting a big gun, I think this was likely inspired by Guardians of the Galaxy. Which is cool. I love that movie.

Um... ok so this is a species for Pathfinder. Now, what I do know about Pathfinder is that it is the spiritual successor to D&D 3.5 edition, being largely the same game by a different name. I missed that whole era of gaming. I ducked out of D&D in the early 90s and didn't really pick it back up until I discovered the OSR in 2013.

The Nashi are an industrious lot. They love hard work and building things. Cool. This is a 21 page PDF and it's packed with info about these critters. From culture to cuisine to ethnic groups. Way more information that I'm comfortable with in an RPG. But I'm happy it exists. Looks like the author went to a lot of trouble to build something fun and detailed. Bravo.

Ok... full confession. I don't just look at whatever I click on. If it looks like something I don't want to talk about right now I just skip it. I just clicked on something that is super slick looking, polished as fuck, and boring as hell to my eyes right now. I'm skipping it.

Next one I clicked on was an ejection of desktop publishing overkill, complete with background imagery that interfered with text. It's also a D&D 5e type thing and I just can't be bothered right now. I'll skip it too.

Oh? What's this? O Povo do Buraco 1 by Carlos Silva, illustrated by Diego Santos. This looks interesting...

Ah, this is a Lamentations zine. But let's carry on anyway. I'm curious.

I won't comment on the writing because I assume the author's first language is not English. I will, however, comment on layout. There are some strange line breaks in here. Such as, on page 2, a line that breaks in the word "where". You never want to line break on a word like that. Super weird.

Since this is a Lamentations zine, it is going to contain references to excrement and sex. In this case, there is a local food (Vatapá) made by some scoundrels and it makes you addicted. One of the side effects is that you have to shit a lot and you might shit your pants. In fact, there are actual rules for it, with a d2 table dictating if you shit your pants or not.

There are a number of weird magic items that do strange things, such as a belt that makes you lose weight every day until you die. Oh, and there's a magic dildo that gets you pregnant with a dog-octopus baby, regardless of your sex. The drawing of this little bastard is actually cute.

But this is not for me. I don't mind the edginess, but often it feels like edginess for the sake of it. And I wouldn't want to play in or run a game where the central theme is shitting your pants and playing with dildos. I did enough of that in junior high.

I wish people would put the publication dates in these things. Maybe I'm stupid but I can't find it. Last update on DTRPG was 2018 so maybe that was it.

This next one is another desktop-publishing-nightmare and it's for Pathfinder and it's over 200 pages. I'm skipping it.

ReMemorex by R. M. Sean Benjamin Jaffe and illustrated by a bunch of people. Looks like 2018.

This is a game inspired by 1980s supernatural fun. Given the date, I'm sure Stranger Things had a large hand in making this game happen. Which is cool. I loved that show too. And I was an 80s kid, so this is supposed to hit me in the feels.

Right off the bat it does not. But lest I sound harsh, let me explain. Though I was a kid in the 80s (turned 10 in 1980), I am also a cynical middle aged man. I am not easily swooned by nostalgia. Especially when it is trendy. I really don't like being pandered to. And I'm not saying this game is doing that. To the contrary, it feels like a really genuine attempt to connect to the vibe of a time.

Ok. The look of the game is pretty classic. I don't love the very light font used, but I respect the late 80s RPG layout. Somehow it reminds me of the original Cyberpunk box set layout, which I owned for a brief time in the late 80s. Not bad.

Oh, funny mistake: The Athlete Type lists Flash Gordon twice in the examples.

Speaking of... So the game is very very simple. You make up a character with three ideas. One is your Type, one is your Training, and one is your Talent. Types include Athlete, Criminal, Brain, Basket Case... basically the cast of Breakfast Club. Next you come up with your Training... the thing you have learned to do. Examples include Techie, Karate Kid, and Meanest Girl. Finally you name your Talent... the thing you're actually really good at.

Then you assign them as Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. One example given is Ferris Bueller whose 3 things are (in order of importance):

Talent: Getting Away With It

Type: Trickster Prince

Training: High School Hero

Looks like you assign dice to your traits. So I think this is a dice pool type system.

OH... there's a terrible secret... ReMemorex isn't real. I like that. It means you can lean hard into nostalgia and mistaken memories and it's fine. It doesn't matter. Because the setting isn't real.

This is a highly narrative game. It has a lot of rules for players to initiate scenes, call for "Tracking Errors" (nice), and the like. The language is heavily TV-coded. There are Jump Cuts, Montages, and Clip Shows.

Ok, so I'm not going to read all 166 pages of this right now. But I gotta say that my impressions have changed while I've been scanning it. Started out a little weak for me but ended up feeling stronger about it. Went from "I'll never play or run this" to "This is a contender for me to play or run." So check it out.

It has a diagram of an Atari joystick.

Artists I Like: Matthew Allison

This week, take a peek at the art of Matthew Allison, whose work is so deeply associated with his comic Cankor that for a very long time I thought that was his name.

I don't know much about Allison. This Comics Journal piece goes into some detail, in it's own way. I do love the phrase "What Allison seems to share with so many of that first generation of alternative cartoonists is a fixation on the mortification of the flesh."

Anyway, I like the way he draws meticulous, worrisome shadows and lines on these weird loping forms. I do not currently own any of his comics but I am going to remedy that and try to get me mitts on some Cankor issues or a collection. I'll take anything.