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A Tribute to Terry K. Amthor & Shadow World
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link to the sixth part of the audiobook: link

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The Songfire Part 13:
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The Song of the Hidden Key

A quieter wonder now enters the Songfire, yet one no less dangerous than the loudest metal hymn or darkest Shadowflow. Today, to meet the needs of our growing readership, we are introducing the newest printing-press format for this special edition of the Songfire Chronicle.

For years, many knew of the Flute Keys only as strange Earthwarden relics tied to the old bridge near Gryphonburgh. Scholars and rumor-mongers alike spoke of their powers in fragments: that they could open portals, rouse the four Gryphon Sentinels, raise warding barriers between the bridge lamps, and even command the Blue River itself—drying its bed or turning it into a violent torrent. Yet one truth remained hidden: most who carried or studied such a key had never mastered more than a fraction of what it could do.

Now, for the first time in public, Layana Ixbridge has unveiled what many believed lost forever: that a Flute Key does not yield its fullest strength to mere handling or skill alone. It demands a song. Not simply melody, but a true act of attunement: the bearer must learn the key's own hidden composition and sing the binding words while playing, or else the artifact remains only half-awake. Worse, the old records warn that an unskilled or unattuned user may trigger dangerous and unpredictable effects.

The key Layana now performs with is said to be one she found years ago near Gryphonburgh, where the old bridge still stands as a mystery of Second Era or older craftsmanship, linked by lore to other ancient Earthwarden sites. Through such a key, a skilled wielder may choose destinations within the portal network itself, including the Earthwarden tower in the Argirpiri or the Lon Lemira on Vog Mur.

That alone would have been enough to stun the audience.

But it was the song that silenced the hall.

Layana did not merely demonstrate an artifact. She revealed that each Flute Key may have its own song, its own path to awakening, and that the piece she performed was not a courtly embellishment but the very rite by which her relic answers her call. If true, then the Songfire has crossed into new ground entirely: music is no longer describing power, but becoming the key to power itself.

And so the whispers now spread through Sel-kai and beyond:

How many more of these instruments still sleep in forgotten ruins?
How many songs have been lost with them?
And if one melody can open a bridge, call gryphons, and command a river... what might the right voice awaken next?

Jaiman song: link

Emer song: link

Have fun!
Micael

Glad to know Character Companion is going forward.

Учасники форуму постійно шукають, яке джерело чесну аналітику.
 
Ось ресурс  — rodis.org.ua.
 
Без політичних умовностей. Без замовчування.
 
Свіжоспечені матеріали про війну, геополітику, арсенал та сумнівних політиків Фіцо чи Орбана

One hurdle I'm stumbling upon times and again is the kind of situation where you have your PC party and about twenty or so NPCs, faced with a similar number of opposing NPCs or monsters.

Players can manage their own actions and it makes sense to focus on the NPCs/monsters they are in direct combat with with the same level of detail.

My problem is when it comes to NPC-NPC combat. Having to micro-manage each NPC, rolling for skills/attacks/spells, consulting tables, then rolling for RR or crit and consulting tables *again*, and keeping track of the accrued modifiers for each one is very time-consuming. And it's basically the GM playing with themselves - players are completely passive and merely wait for their turn. When you have 20 NPCs on each side, the situation degenerates into the GM rolling 40 rolls and computing the outcome of each (reading tables), then rolling again for crits/RR - a total of at least 50-60 rolls on the average, more in case of multiple actions. It is, in my experience, a perfect way to annihilate action pace and player interest.

I tend to forego everything and just decide what happens, which is fast but not very satisfying and removes all the "surprise" factor for the GM. It can also appear as GM fiat. In any case, the NPCs are relegated to moving landscape status.

And thus, the question: has anyone designed a subsystem that resolves a combat round between NPCs in a single roll, without having to micromanage actions, DB allocation, and so on ? Preferably a single roll that resolves both sides at the same time. Even better if it can handle melee groups (e.g. two vs three, or such) in a single roll as well.

Welcome

To the one hundred-and-seventy-eighth Briefing and fifth scheduled Briefing of 2026.

Conventions

I have received confirmation of our booking for Dragonmeet. As a reminder, the convention will be in ExCeL London again and the date for your diaries is Saturday 28th November 2026.

Aaron Smalley ran an ICE booth at the 2026 "Cadillac Pop Culture Con" in Cadillac, Michigan last month. This was a modest success and Aaron hopes to attend next year and run a demo game or two.

In terms of Gen Con news, we are in vendor booth #2465 (Hall G). Game sessions are all located in the JW Marriott, and our sessions have been placed on the third floor (room 304).

Software

As you may know, our set of Foundry modules were originally released for Foundry version 13. Last month, version 14 of Foundry has been released and Bob has been busy updating our RMU modules to be compatible. Bob has now completed this. Bob reports that version 14 it is now possible to detach your character sheets from the main window.  If you have a wide screen or multi-monitor setups, you should find this new feature useful. The other big change has been to upgrade Character and Creature Sheets to the Foundry AppV2 architecture - these look and behave the same as existing sheets but use the new Foundry sheet architecture which provides better performance.  The word from Foundry is that the existing AppV1 sheets will not work on next year's version of Foundry v15. Thanks to Bob, we are prepared for that change now.

Max has made some updates to the ERA software packages, notably to the gaming table elements, so please feel free to download the updates at your convenience.

Shadow World

On the RMU stat appendices for existing Shadow World modules, we now have volunteers for Tales from the Green Gryphon Inn and Eidolon. If anyone wants to put their hat in the ring for Emer III, Cloudlords of Tanara, Haalkitaine, Jaiman, or Xa-ar, please let either myself or Colin know.

HARP

The softcover proof copy for HARP Banecroft: The Mage's Tale arrived and passed its inspection. It is now available on DriveThru.

HARP Steampunk will be heading into the print process very shortly so fingers crossed for no issues as I would like to get hardcover and softcover print copies to Aaron in good time for Gen Con.

I have been wrestling for a little while on how to make progress with the remaining spells required for HARP Something Wicked Something Wondrous. I have more than twenty spell concepts to still work up, in terms of writing the textual elements and doing the spreadsheet work to cost them. I have realised that the best way of getting this done is to split the work into two parts (yes, I know obvious solution to everyone but me) – writing the text for all of these (which I can do in the comfort of an armchair, on the train, etc), and then using one of my imminent days off where I can do the PP costing work in a single sitting at a desk. This has proven effective – six concepts successfully translated to textual format (which concludes all the spells I expect to provide for the Mentalist Circle) and two concepts were cut as not working out.

RMU

Editing continues on the vastness that is Arcane Companion.

Artwork is steadily arriving for RMU Character Companion. Nick has been pouring the edited text into layout as a first shakedown.

Until next time

Please stay safe and keep gaming.
Best wishes,
Nicholas

Недавно наткнулся на сайт pewhiweoiuwegouwegf.space и решил поделиться впечатлением.
 
Проект сразу вызывает интерес своим запоминающимся названием и вызывает любопытство сразу после входа.
 
По первому впечатлению проект выглядит как ресурс, построенный на на сдержанную подачу контента и простоту.
 
Важно подчеркнуть, насколько грамотно организована структура, насколько динамичной выглядит работа, и понятно ли, для чего он вообще создан.
 
Что стоит обсудить в первую очередь:
Основную идею и направление ресурса.
Функциональность и удобство навигации.
Визуальное оформление.
Релевантность и пользу информации.
Общие ощущения от посещения.
 
С моей точки зрения, такие площадки стоит рассматривать не только по внешности, но и по тому, насколько они помогают пользователю.

Quote from: DerGraumantel on April 18, 2026, 02:50:22 AM

Quote from: Thot on February 09, 2026, 03:03:08 PMI just today thought, maybe one should just roll crits with a D30+55 instead of D100.[...]

I mean the tables make the game. If you take them out, you have a mediocre character creation and skill system (at best).
[...]

Mediocre? I beg to differ! It's quite nice to have this cost-based system in my opinion, and the roll-over skill system works just better for me than roll under like BRP, for instance.

But note that I did not propose to remove the crits, but just to slightly reduce the randomness. Modifiers for crits could still apply then as in RAW. It's a minor change that solves the main issue most people have with random crits.

A lot of positive response to this Imperium for Harp SF ... but was anything produced?

I know it's been a while on this thread ... but did any of this happen?