Set Two Battle Maps Now For Sale!

Exciting news! Set Two of my Battle Ready 25mm dungeon maps is now for sale on drivethrurpg.com. Got three dollars rolling around in your account? Want to make your own fantastically detailed 3D-view dungeon rooms that double as battle boards for your 25mm miniatures? Here's the link.
Again, here's a sample page. This one shows various doors and gates from the pro room builder section of the PDF:

Dungeonteller, Battle Ready Dungeon Maps, Rock Opera '79, etc.

This post is a bit of a catch-all, so apologies in advance.
1. The full-on version of my Dungeonteller RPG, with full-color player pack, full-color monster pages, and updated core rules, is still very much in play. I'm shopping it around and still hoping it can be published to the general market -- I have big ambitions for it. If I can't get any publishers to bite, I'll issue it in PDF and POD formats myself.

2. Set 2 in the Battle Ready 25mm Dungeon Maps series is waiting for approval from rpgstuff.com. Should be a day or so. Set One is still available if you haven't yet snapped it up. The coolest feature in Set 2 is the Pro Room Builder that allows you to cut and paste elements to create your own rooms. Glue and scissors not included.

3. As Dungeonteller sits on an editor's desk, I've been working on the game mechanics for RockOpera '79. It's based on a standard deck of playing cards. Everyone comes to the game with a deck of cards and a few rock anthems from their collection (mP3 or 8-track, your choice), and when you say, "Let's Rock!", you crank up the tunes and the heroes get buffs and bonuses while the song is playing. The GM (known as "The Man") can play lite rock songs to weaken the heroes or disco songs to buff his evil minions.
This being the '70s, your star sign determines your stats (Chops, Heart, Mojo, and Muscle). The game will come with 12 iconic (fictional) rocker PCs to choose from, each based on a zodiac sign. In play, it really feels like you're in a band, taking (and trading) "solos" as the PCs take on discops, nobots, roller queens, and mud rakers as they battle their way to the penthouse of The Man and the oligarchs of the repressive Discocracy. The game might end up as my first Kickstarter offering.
4. For those of you who expressed interest in Faereich, (The Dirty Dozen fight their way through a dungeon to bring evil magic undead Nazis to justice) stay tuned.

Mazes and Monsters and Moms

A few months back I was at my mom's senior living center and ran into a mom whose two sons I had played D&D with back in the early 80s. She pulled me aside and said, "I was so happy to give you boys a place to play Dungeons & Dragons, even though at that time lots of moms wouldn't have." I was put off guard by her remark, because I never felt any disapproval from the adults in my life about gaming, and I wondered what small-town ninnywags had given her a hard time about letting her sons play "Whatsits and Whosits", as her husband referred to the game.

When I started playing D&D in 1977, most folks I met had no idea the game existed, let alone how it was played. If you weren't a wargamer or a college student, you simply would not have encountered it. The mass media weren't all over it until '80. And the initial press was positive. So you could play at home or at school and no one cared. Then in '81 came the steam tunnel years, and depending on where in the States you lived, D&D was either frowned upon or outright banned. Not so for me. I had the D&D Moms on my side, and until now, never realized they caught flack for letting us play.

My mom told me years later, "I loved that you played D&D in high school. I never had to worry about where you where on a Friday night." Because we were in the basement. Drinking. Hot chocolate. And fighting orcs. Ouch, I guess I was a bit peripheral to the dating and party scene then.

But her finest moment as a D&D mom was ambushing Rona Jaffe on a radio call-in show when she was on to promote Mazes & Monsters. Hopped up on TAB and Devil Dogs, she phoned in and said to Ms. Jaffe, 

"You should be ashamed of yourself for smearing kids who play that game and for saying they're crazy. My sons and their friends play Dungeons & Dragons and they're all honor roll students and have never been in trouble a day in their lives."

Ms. Jaffe's reply is lost to history. But years later, my mom would still bring it up, calling the author "That sleaze queen." I love my mom.

Battle Ready Maps Set 2 is On the Way!

I just sent Set Two to be approved by drivethrurpg. It usually takes a day or two to appear on the site for sale. Here are two preview images:

The title page for Set 2.

Thumbnails for Set 2.

DIY Battle Maps

Development with the hand-drawn battle maps is really humming along. With the floor, door, and accessory sheets, some scissors and glue, you can make your own custom handouts/battle maps. Look for these for sale soon on drivethrurpg.com.

Turn this...

…into this.

Which RPG would you rather play?

Two RPGs I'm developing:

1. FaeReich. You're a member of a dirty-dozen-style team of commandos in 1945 hunting down Nazis who have escaped not to Argentina, but to a standard fantasy world with orcs, elves, and magic. Think Guns of Navarrone + D&D.

2. Rock Opera '79. You and your friends are members of a rock and roll supergroup fighting The Man and the evil Discocracy in a world where rock and roll has been outlawed.

More Battle Ready 25mm Dungeon Maps

I have 12 new maps done -- caverns, an evil chapel, bridges, stairs. Set Two is on the way!

10 x 10 accessory tiles. For building your own rooms via scissors and glue.

Cavern with sunken floor on right.