Wow! I won an ENNIE award! Halls of the Blood King won 2!

Yesterday, September 17th 2021, happened the ENNIE Awards ceremonies at Gen Con and for the first time I was actually in the run for an award like the many authors and publishers I admire and have inspired me for so many years.

The moment it was announced that I miraculously won a Gold ENNIE!

Halls of the Blood King, the adventure I wrote for Old-School Essentials was nominated for Best Adventure and Best Cartography (although I still can’t believe it wasn’t nominated for a Best Cover or Best Interior art, as the work by Justine Jones is simply so good and fresh that made the adventure much more than it initially was). It was actually the first time something I’ve worked on got sent to the ENNIE Awards for consideration, so I was already super excited and honored to have been nominated for the award.

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War of the Magi – The Hermatis Clan

Since time immemorial, the Magi have organized themselves in different factions and schools they call clans. Each of them with their own history, beliefs, code of honor, plans and agenda.

Not all Magi belong to a clan, but the majority of them do, as a clan is the closest thing they can get to a family after being awakened. And as a family, there are members with a strong bond of companionship and others with rivalries and sometimes even enmity. Being a Loner, a Magi without a clan can spare one from these complicated relationships, but will also deny them a strong base of allies and contacts.

In this chapter we detail a few of the major clans the character can either be a part of or can encounter in their adventures. In the next chapter The Shades are also described, as they are enemies with all clans, even though they can be infiltrated in all of them.

The Hermatis

The oldest clan of the Magi, created long before civilization flourished into cities and empires. The Hermatis are a clan of warrior Magis, defenders of this world against the supernatural forces that would take it over. They banded together thousands of years ago when he forces of the Abyss threatened to take over the world and enslave humanity. They never disbanded since then, and were instrumental in the first war against The Shadow One.

Today the Hermatis keep cells in most major cities and places of arcane significance. They are responsible for keeping a vigil over the world and its reality. If demons come back, they will be there, ready to act. If the Shades are really returning, they will fight them. If vampires, werewolves and other supernatural beings threaten the world, they will intervene.

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Coming Soon – War of the Magi

A hooded man with open hand casting a spell with runes and the background of a dark city in red tones.
War of the Magi Book Cover

What if sorcerers were real and they were all around us? Would they hide their talents from us? Would they protect us or try to rule us? Would they consider us their equals or only slightly better than animals?

What if they all had different opinions on these issues? They would certainly fight among themselves for dominance. What if they could absorb the powers of those sorcerers they defeated, increasing their own arcane talents in the process? Would they kill one another inconsequentially or would they protect each other against those that would try to do exactly that?

This book tries to answer that in the form of a supplement for an urban fantasy and action horror game. Inspired by the Harry Potter series, the Highlander movies and the World of Darkness line of games, War of the Magi is a supplement focused on sorcerous characters in a world of supernatural threats and how they deal with that and one another.

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Venture the Legendary Halls of the Blood King

With the rising of the Blood Moon, the accursed abode of the Blood King returns to this world. The lord of all vampires comes to claim the blood that is owed to him. His halls contain treasures and secrets that would make any ambitious adventurer abandon reason and caution to seek them out. Will you risk your soul for gold and glory in the Halls of the Blood King?

Last year (2020) was a tough year. But it was made a little bit lighter for me when I was asked to write an adventure for one of the best OSR RPGs ever made: Old School Essentials!

Since the beginning of the conversation I was giving total freedom to decide what to do, and sent them a few pitches I was excited about writing and they choose the one about an plane traveling manor of an alien vampire! And so was born Halls of the Blood King!

The process of writing it was mixed with the process of playtesting it. I knew that I wanted a few things in the adventure: a sense of an otherworldly place, multiple factions and interests that could be explored by the PCs, variations of the vampire theme, and just plain weird stuff in the mansion they could play with. In the end, with playlets feedback I added up more than that, and the adventure took a life of its own. New ideas, new hooks and plot opportunities were born out of player interaction and pondering with the adventure.

In the end, Halls of the Blood King was a practically a collaborative project, and the writing was done due to a bit of my imagination, players’ interaction, careful editing by Gavin (he is a genius). But you know what made it one of my favorite product I’ve ever worked on? Justine’s art! Have you seen it! It made the adventure so much more than it already was! Seriously, Justine is an amazing artist and I hope we can work together again, and soon!

So check it out! Halls of the Blood King is available right now at DriveThruRPG in PDF format and very very soon in print at Exalted Funeral (the best Indie RPG Store out there)!

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells won a “Questies” Award of 2019!

If you are into OSR games, and modern games with Old School spirit, you are probably familiar with Ben Milton’s YouTube channel, Questing Beast. It is possibly the most well known RPG review channel out there, and it is especially interested in games, adventures and other books related to Old School Gaming.

Some of my books have been favorably reviewed there in the past (watch the review SB&CS, DS&DS and SS&SS here), but now Ben has been revisiting those reviews and giving out awards called “Questies” for each of the years he has been reviewing them.

And to my surprise, Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells was awarded the Questies for Best GM Toolkit of 2019! I am so happy and honored by this! Not only I am a huge fan o Ben’s work on the channel and on his games and adventures, but I am a fan of his game’s critique and learned a lot by his reviews!

You can watch the complete video on which he announces his picks right here.

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