TTRPG - Old Skull Publishing

March 31, 2022April 21, 2022

The Primal World of Thaia – OSE Character Classes – Part I

All the 7 basic classes of OSE are fit to play in The Primal World of Thaia, some with practically no adjustment at all, others with some minor tweaks to fit the weird stone & sorcery style of adventure, which we will discuss in this short series of posts.

Note on Weapon Restrictions: In The Primal World of Thaia, there will be no weapon restrictions to any character class. All characters are able to pick up a stone axe and try to slash at a hungry dinosaur that is trying to eat their face. However, special and magical weapons specifically designed for certain types of characters are only still properly usable by those types of characters. Other character classes can try using them, but won’t get any benefit.

Illiteracy: Obviously, everyone in the setting is illiterate. There’s no written language (at least not one that the characters will be aware of in the start of the game). However, everyone can try to decipher cave wall paintings, and weird hieroglyphs, as long as the Referee deems it’s possible to.

March 24, 2022April 21, 2022

The Primal World of Thaia – 10 Characteristics of Thaia – Part I

Thaia is the name most of the free people of the world call their home world. The name’s origin is unknown, but some sages among the People of the Vale say it means our earth in the language of the Ancients.

This is a world of stone and sorcery weird adventures, inspired by pulp literature, mythic stone age stories depicted in pop culture, and the old-school spirit of adventure games. There are cavemen, dinosaurs, prehistoric animals, monsters, aliens, time travelers and much more! So, to convey a better idea of how The Primal World of Thaia really is, we created a list of 10 Traits of Thaia.

March 19, 2022April 21, 2022

Primal Quest – The Mother’s Vale – Session Report #02

As some of you know, I am developing a new game, called Primal Quest, and a zine, called The Primal World of Thaia, which will support both that game and Old-School Essentials, presenting not only rules, but setting support and adventures of stone and sorcery fantasy in a mythical stone age.

March 15, 2022April 21, 2022

Iconic Encounters – The “Innocent”

We are back with another installment of Iconic Encounters! This series of posts look into some of the most characteristic encounters in old-school style RPG adventures, and dissect them to figure out how they work, and why they are so cool.

This time we are analyzing that encounter which puts the players in front of an apparent “innocent”, harmless and, sometimes, even apparently helpful creature, who is in reality working towards their demise or worse. Differently from other encounters, this one can be a recurring one, in which they discover the truth of what’s going on slowly over time. This type of encounter has some characteristics that I will list below and then explore in detail.

An NPC or creature that appears harmless and even helpful to the PCs.
The NPC directs them to accomplish tasks that are to their benefit but that have harmful hidden consequences.
They will slowly find out information that will reveal the true intentions of the NPC.
In their final confrontation, the NPC or creature is actually stronger thanks to the PCs.

March 11, 2022April 21, 2022

Primal Quest is Coming! + Playtest Report!

I don’t know if you know this, but I am designing a new game, and a new zine. Yeah, I know, I should focus on something, right? But listen to me, this is going to be a really good, and I will focus on this!

I am talking about my new project, Primal Quest + The Primal World of Thaia! A combo of a new streamlined rule set for Weird Stone & Sorcery adventure, that is an incredibly versatile and nuanced system that is perfect for adventure games, and a Zine for it, to develop the setting, provide adventures, optional rules and much more! The game’s influences count games such as FATE, Into the Odd, Classic OSR Systems, Modern OSR Systems, Genesys, my own stuff, and much more. Let me share with you a quick blurb about it.