Penguins & Princesses & Project Updates

This blog post is going to mostly be recommendations, with a couple of project updates!

Recommendations 

So if you’re into small press RPG’s (I know you are because you’re reading this) you need to check out Space Penguin Ink- Officially launching today, SPI is the brainchild of Jarret Crader, who is leading a bunch of excellent folks in the indie TTRPG scene. 

Space Penguin Ink

The store is launching with 2 mothership adventures, a Troika adventure, A Mork Borg adventure and a DCC adventure- basically a cross section of the most fun indie ttrpg games around. For those of you who don't know, Jarret used to be the project manager at Exalted Funeral, and he has more or less been responsible for some aspect of almost every cool book in RPG land for the last 10 years or so.

Another quick recommendation- If you enjoy the Palace of the Silver Princess, you may be interested to check out this reorganization of it for Cairn done by David Blandy & Richard Markert. It’s a solid way to enjoy a classic adventure that does a few things I especially like-

-Leans into the Zelda-like setting (in a few ways I hadn’t even considered)

-prunes the blocks of texts into highly parseable language for the table

-Combines some of the best aspects of both the orange and green covers to create a better overall story 

-understands the importance of Travis

Consider picking it up and tossing them a few bucks.

Palace of the Silver Princess Cairn Edition

Some Project Updates:

I’m still accepting commission requests for my BIG CHARACTER COMMISSION SALE, and I think I will be until the end of the month or so. My car shit the bed the other day and I’m still waiting to hear back as to the extent of the repair costs (which may be great enough that it might be time to put the old girl to bed and get something new). Either way I’ll be needing some extra cash. The deal is still:

$75 USD ($70 for current Patreon subs) for a character commission (doesn’t have to be an rpg character per say, I’m currently working on a piece memorializing someones old Dark Age of Camelot character- so sick)

If you’re interested you can shoot me an email at Sdmameli@gmail.com

The first issue of Better Legends Friends & Foes is trucking along, we have reached the point where I have to write things and those familiar with my process will know that is the SLOW part of any project for me. But I predict it will be done soon and available for free to patrons and for a small cost to everyone else. This will be digital only for now, as I think I’ll wait until I’ve done a few issues before I combine them into something physical.

The first chapter of my 18+ erotic adventure comic, Island Vacation is nearly done as well! The last page of the first chapter is being posted for my Patrons today and the full version should be ready for general consumption in not that long (hopefully even physical copies of that one!) if you’re interested in any of my NSFW stuff, you can find it over on my Patreon at the $10 tier.

Dungeon23

I am struggling. I think the six month mark may be the last of this project, but that is not set in stone. I have gotten farther than I have with any daily practice project that I’ve done before, which I am extremely proud of. We’ll see what the next few weeks hold and if I manage to dig myself out of a 10 or 11 day idea drought. It would really be something to end it on this:

That's all for now! Thanks for reading.

-Skullboy (Sam)

Dungeon23: Week 23, Throne of Blood

A quick post before I head into the mountains and bid the internet farewell for a whole 7 days. Thank the lord.

Dungeon23: Week 20, The Manticore

Oh boy, this was a weird one-

I went further with an additional piece too. What a horrible thing!

Still figuring out the best way to post these, I don’t know if I want every blog post to be a Substack? Idk it feels like too many emails would get on folks nerves? For now this blog will still be the main thing, with occasional posts also being Substacks/emails.

Dungeon 23: Week 19, The Emerald Lock Door

doing some boss monster things for May. First up is the Wyvern.

Dungeon 23: Week 18, The Five Headed Hydra

Laying the foundations for some some wilderness within the dungeon.

Dungeon 23: Week 17, Snakeskin Wrestling

We press on!

Dungeon 23: Week 16, Temple of the Scorpion

I promise being a few days late is not becoming a bad habit! I was out of town, visiting an old friend and while I kept up with my daily room writing I have taken to an extended drawing session on Sundays for the map itself and that was not in the cards while away from home.

I have been thinking a lot about the nature of this KIND of project. To save you the long winded version I will simply say that the point of this now is to finish it, and to have finished it. I do not care what it ends up looking like in the end. Is this a bad thing? I think not, because the goal is to have done SOMETHING. Personally I learn more from pushing through the boredom or monotony of a task than from giving up. This phase of the project is ABOUT disliking it and what I’m producing. Having been consciously participating in the process of artmaking for the better part of 20 years I know the ebb and flow of my own interest, and I am excited for the next big swell.

All of this being said I think I can say with some certainty that success with this project requires the following-

1. An understanding that it will be a disjointed mess

2. An embracing of that disjointedness, likened to praying to a chaotic deity.

3. A simple gaming framework on which to build a world, and to lean back on when inspiration is no where to be found

4. A good strong arm with which to handwave any logical inconsistencies that get in the way of the practice.

5. A few different good pens, so you can shake things up from time to time

6. An understanding that it will never be a finished product, and the understanding that a sketchbook is not for selling, it is for learning.

7. A notebook that fits in your preferred method of transportation (the Hobonichi Weeks fits snugly in my pouch so I bring it everywhere with me like a travel sized holy book)

8. The willingness to skip the practice some days and batch multiple entries on other days.

9. A good place to write about and catalogue the experience of the practice.

10. At least 2 other people’s work that you are closely following, so you can feel the communal aspect without being overwhelmed by the work of others.

If you are reading this and also continuing to work on the project, keep going.

Dungeon 23: Week 15, The Humming Mound

I came a hair breadth from calling it quits on D23 this week. I made this wing of level 4 this morning though, and I got excited again.

The secret to me not giving up is that I switched pens and liked the way it looked better. Idk man, it’s just like that sometimes.

Obviously, the players have to choose whether they want to help raise the dragon from last week, or the holy undead titan from this week. Choices choices- either way it definitely ends in a kaiju battle.

Dungeon23: Week 14, The Ziggurat

Kind of a stressful week, so I wont say much. I look forward to someday fleshing this section out more.

Dungeon 23: Week 13: Black Sand

I am excited to be into a new level. I think a feature of a long-running project is that there are going to be some lulls. You need lulls though so you can come back from something. I’m really excited to fire up a really focused floor this month- especially since we’re really starting to get into some more interesting, high level spaces. So I figured it would be fun to do a really over the top, death trap level. Here’s to April.

Dungeon 23: Week 12, Silk

Didn’t get around to posting this here on Sunday like I normally would, because I was busy losing my mind writing a different blog post.

I got on a tear reading about how silk is manufactured though, and here’s what came of it. Enjoy!

Dungeon23: Week 11, The Tiny Kingdom

Not much time to write, on my way to a board game convention. Enjoy!

Dungeon23: Week 10, Behind the Organ

I realized after I posted last week that there was no place to go from that wing, so I decided we needed to dig back into last weeks entry and add a secret door behind the organ! You open it by either using and open door spell, or playing the song “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’” on the organ itself (this functions as a knock spell, and sheet music is how bards learn new spells) I don’t even have bards in games that I run and now I have to because I love the idea of them finding sheet music for spells, damn.

The theme of this area is a bit obvious but I had fun with it. I am particularly fond of the lung rooms coughing and shaking if you have a lit torch with you.

Until next week!

Dungeon23: Week 9, The Church of Tsa’Rook

Level 3! March is upon us and that means it’s time for a 3rd level of Dagamoor. I just cant resist BIG OCTOPUS and you shouldn’t either. Tsa’Rook is something I’ve had written in a notebook since before I was born and I’m glad to commit its gigantic hollow bones to something more tangible.

I sometimes think I’m still doing this specifically just for the satisfaction of flipping through an entirely filled notebook. Which is actually the greatest thing a person could ever do.

Dungeon23: Week 8, A Small Library, In Memoriam & Another Poem

This week feels sparse when I look at it on the page. But I think the giant book room is one of my favorites. I just like the idea of a big stupid trap in a room like that.

I’m leaning into the idea of “Vault Rooms” Basically a puzzle door that leads to a treasure hoard. I think it’s fun and it supports West Marches dungeon play nicely. I think for this puzzle I would accept solutions along the lines of a fireball spell that was made to last longer than usual by doing something clever like pouring oil on the door first, or maybe using some sort of permanence spell in conjunction with it? Also just building a bonfire around the door would probably work after a while if the fire was big enough. I would also probably let a clever player that cast an illusion on the door to make it “glow red” through because I’m a big softy and that’s the kind of shit I’m always trying to pull.

Room 24 is a direct reaction to losing my Hardcore WoW classic character to an orc ambush on Thursday night. It was brutal. She was only level 17. She had her whole life ahead of her. RIP Skulfa-

We also have another poem this week! Deborah the Chicken Wizard graces us once again!

Dungeon 4

One of mine

Dungeon of the compromised vegetables

Not the beet first. But a sulky lime

And a wavering carrot on its long feet.

This is the friendly dungeon, full of friends, tubers

And squash with their rotund green bellies.

You could like it here, hanging out with corn in the damp warm morning

Caressing its silky silk. Little round tomatoes scurry

About, with little faces that are round and red

And maybe only a little sly. What peace might you find here, in crumbly warm dirt

With the eyes of potatoes looking up at you from their frosty beds.

Yeah we’re here, see us, while the brussel sprouts, a crowded den family

Waft around on their big stems, wait until the end of the season they say

All the crackling golden stalks. The moptops of carrots, the

Tiny cucumbers curled like puppies , the glorious rainbow of peppers.

Dungeon23: Week 7, Frozen Labyrinth

It was time for an ice level. Been thinking about lock and key style dungeon making and ultimately just leads to me making the players buy winter coats to explore down here effectively. Probably special spiked boots too to negate a lot of slipping. I think I just like the idea of characters having multiple “looks” but that’s definitely the character designer in me.

Really excited to see where that portal leads, and if it’s where all the snow and ice came from, because I think this place started not so frozen. The Young Blue Dragon from the last section would have come from someplace more desert like if we’re going by classic D&D dragon logic, but a tundra is ALSO a kind of desert right? RIGHT?

The Minotaur definitely doesn’t know about any of that though because he’s been hard at work making an ice labyrinth that isn’t even really that impressive of a labyrinth (I ran out of room to do it justice and just blamed it on the minotaur, what a jerk.) I like the idea that Minotaur’s are the ones that are building these labyrinths, and I always think of it as them making a quiet place for themselves to think. I imagine they are plagued by intrusive thoughts and frustrating dreams.

Quick shoutout to anyone who gets the reference to the chain demon swinging a chain at the top of the waterfall. I just had to do it.

The frozen merchant with a really useful dungeon “key” might be the most Zelda thing I’ve put in the entire dungeon so far, and I stand by it. I imagine it’s stacked in a big pile of other frozen treasure/junk though so you need to be the curious sort to get it. I like reward the curious sort though so that’s okay I think.

How many severed wind duke heads are there? well I think it depends on whether or not I run out of ways to make that puzzle more annoying. So probably a couple more at least.

Bye for now,

Skullboy

Dungeon23: Week 6, The Glittering Halls and The Young Dragon + A Poem

Another week down! The more I do this the more I want to go back and REFINE. Which eventually, I will do. I think forcing myself to work within these very small spaces is keeping me safe from burnout and actually excited to revisit some of these spaces later. They all need more specific treasures and wandering tables blah blah blah. In much more exciting news (to me at least) my mother-in-law, who is a very kind and supportive follower of my work and who plays Deborah The Chicken Wizard in the city-crawl game I’m running for my wife’s family, took an interest in Dungeon 23 based on what she saw and decided to write a poem about it (she is in fact a poet so she does that from time to time). I absolutely adore it, Enjoy.

Dungeon 23

Not one of mine

They are plump and seem harmless

These denizens

With their fat spears and humming

Bows

With metal painted snouts and

Pretty dresses

This is the fashion dungeon

Where they don’t have to threaten

But waddle around picturesquely

And look soft. They aren’t really

Cuddly, being difficult creatures

Of imagination, wily, and

Unpredictable. They would as

Soon skewer you as hold you

And the empty frames on

The walls just wait for 

Trophies. They are satisfying

In their menace. They wait.