Abstract Art is All the Rage

 For me these days. started in June. Cat died, couldn't process the grief until I painted her tribute painting. It blew the doors back open and right now there is no turning back. New works of art will be posted as they become available for sale.

Woody Creek, 36" x 20" oil on canvas

Maloney Estate, UK

Mass Combat Cards for USR Sword & Sorcery

 The Red Deck: Mass Combat Cards for USR Sword & Sorcery

Armies of bronze and iron. Wizards on the wind. The fate of cities turning on a single charge.

The Red Deck is a set of physical cards designed to bring the savage spectacle of pulp sword-and-sorcery warfare to life at your table. When the Crypt Keeper describes ten thousand screaming spearmen cresting a ridge under a blood-red sky, these cards are what you lay down in front of you.

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Every image in the deck was drawn from the visual language of the genre's golden age — bone-handled weapons, rusted relics of forgotten empires, artifacts that hum with the power of dead gods. The arrows are not clean and fletched. They are barbed, ancient, pulled from the quivers of desert raiders and jungle warlords. The axes bear spiral carvings that predate the kingdoms they're now destroying. The crossed swords look like they were pulled from a tomb.

Turn a card portrait and your archers are in column, moving fast through broken ground. Flip it landscape and they've spread into a firing line. No rules lookup. No negotiation. The table sees it instantly and the narration follows — the Crypt Keeper describes the war-drums quickening as the line extends across the ridge, the players can feel the
moment change.

The Routed card — vivid red, fleeing figures, a standard torn by wind — hits the table like a verdict. A unit's morale is broken, its men scattering into the smoke, and everyone at the table knows it before a word is spoken.

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The Red Deck doesn't manage your battle. It shows it. It gives your Crypt Keeper a visual stage and your players a reason to lean forward and narrate the carnage alongside you.

For use with USR Sword & Sorcery Book Two: Mass Combat & Magic. Vanishing Tower Press.

 I have fashioned 5 separate decks of approximately 36-42 cards each. The Red Deck, the Yellow Deck, the Green deck, the Purple deck, and the Blue deck. Each has its own set of graphic designs to give each color their unique "profile"

Only the PDF of all five decks is on Drivethru for now. I have to wait for my proof to come in before I can release the actual cards for sale. The point of the PDF is so players can print out images of the cards and make their own unique key. The cards are devoid of numbers so any set of cards can be used for whatever units the players want!

Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying returns for its 15th Anniversary Edition.

Scott just released this on itch.io. This is a rewrite of the original version of the game system. 3rd edition of the game uses dice pools instead of contested and non-contested rolls so isn't compatible with other editions of the game. Which is my prefered version. So VTP is very happy to see the venerable little game sytem that could get a fresh new look!

Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying returns for its 15th Anniversary Edition. Scott Malthouse and Trollish Delver Games are proud to bring USR back to its roots with this new version of the 2011 game. This isn't just a rehash, it contains new art, layout, optional rules, and tweaks to improve the game while retaining its simplicity. 

What do you get for less than the price of a coffee?

• Everything you need to play USR, a generic ruleset that can be used for any genre. Whether you want to play, fantasy, cyberpunk, sci-fi, or westerns, USR is all you need.
• New material including foe archetypes and guidelines to create your own enemies in minutes. Seriously, it's so easy without sacrificing depth
• New optional rules for resource tracking and injuries
• No AI in sight!

I just want to say a massive thank you to those who have contributed to USR in the past decade and a half, whether offering new rules on blogs or creating brand new rulesets (looking at you Jay Murphy and Andrew Domino). I hope the 15th Anniversary Edition gets plenty of table play. 

Betting, Racing, and Other Means of Chaos

BETTING ON THE RACE

 What follows is a simple approach a GM can use to adjudicate betting results, and by extension, race results for any given race. This method can also accommodate any player action taken to affect the outcome.

1. This example will use only 4 entries and the number will also identify the “racers” lane assignment.

The GM posts whatever odds they want for each racer. The PCs place their wagers.

2. The GM rolls a d4 to see who wins and pays out all winning bets.

 For players casually betting this, or any other race, you can complete an entire race card in minutes. To reflect player impact on the outcome of a race here is what you do. Assign a percentage chance for the PCs getting their way. Roll d100 to find out if they succeeded. This method can be adjusted easily to reflect any advantages the PCs try to create. For Example; the PCs have bribed members of the race committee to place their preferred entry in a favorable starting position, lane 1. To reflect the higher likelihood the PCs wagering choice will win the GM says their race entry has a 70% chance. Roll 1d100 and if it is 70 or less the character cashes their bet.

 If you have people in your game group who know more of the exotic bets one can make on a race (think Exactas and Trifectas) challenge the PCs with a hand of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Each time they win they get to pick the entry for that position. So, if a PC places a bet for the #3 Horse to come in first and the #1 Horse to come in second, they will have to win two consecutive hands of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

 

Before a winning bet can be paid out, we need to know what the odds on the entry is before the race starts. The odds can be whatever the Game Master and/or situation dictates. The only thing to keep in mind is the entry with the lowest odds (and corresponding lower payout per dollar risked) is the race “favorite”. Meaning that entry has had the most money placed on it to outright win the race.