Highmoon's Ponderings

Highmoon Media Productions is proud to present Liber Sodalitas: The Pneumaphagoi.

The Pneumaphagoi, or the Eaters of Spirits, are a loose organization of individuals that share one bizarre common activity: eating ghosts. Learned from ancient texts or from begrudging tutors, the secrets of trapping and consuming spirits yield numerous benefits, and thus appeal to people with a wide variety of motives. For some it is the thrill of consuming an exotic substance, which like all highs is fleeting and ever more elusive; for others it is the power, which quickly fades. The promise of longevity draws some, although the added years can be gray and thin. Others have more noble motives in their quest to destroy the undead, a nobleness that is quickly clouded by the addictive nature of the task. Many are the paths to becoming an Eater, few that lead away.

The Pneumaphagoi is an 11-page PDF detailing a drop-in organization for your d20 Fantasy game, complete with history, tenets, organizational structures, ways of joining, and ready-to-use NPCs. It also includes six new feats, two new spells, two new incantations, and all the necessary rules to bring spirit eating into your campaign along with the possible consequences.

Written by: Scott G. Carter
Artwork by: Nathan Rosario

Available now from RPGnow.com and ENGS

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Not too long ago I placed an open call for submission to the Liber Sodalitas line. That very same day, Scott Carter replied to me with an idea for a group of people who ate spirits. I okayed it on the spot. Scott had already written one adventure for us, No Other Gods (our adventure for Testament), as well as a secret project that we have been working on for almost a year, so it was a pleasure to get to work with him once more. Scott is a publisher’s/editor’s dream freelancer, in that his ideas are great and interesting, and his manuscripts come in with minor need of editing work, which means little time from submission to release.

This organization is simply cool. Scott mentioned he got the idea from a book he read, and thought it would make an interesting new system for fantasy gaming. The use fo feats means most, if not all, characters could have access to it, and the rules are sumple but engaging, driving home the point that eating ghosts and spirits brings power but at a possibly incredibly high cost. What’s more, the group can actually work out quite well in a Modern setting as well, so we’ll probably be adapting it to release it as part of a possible Modern Sodalitas line of drop-in organizations for Modern-type games.

To top it all off, just today I got another submission from Scott for a Modern mini-setting that brings together two genres that by all means should never, ever, be put in the same room, let alone in the same game. Let’s just say that H.P. Lovecraft would be either proud or dead ten times over.

Highmoon Media Productions is seeking writers to contribute to our Liber Sodalitas line of products.

From our website:
Liber Sodalitas (LEE-ber So-DA-lee-tas), the Book of Societies, presents different organizations from a variety of backgrounds, each generic enough to be easily usable in any fantasy campaign, but with enough detail to give you a fleshed-out group to simply drop into your game. Each group is presented along with its history, tenets, ways of becoming a member, as well as with iconic NPCs, generic NPCs that can be used to introduce the group to your players, and new rules such as new feats, spells and prestige classes.

Writers for Liber Sodalitas should be well versed with d20 fantasy rules. You will be expected to write both crunch and fluff. It’s ok to use existing OGC, though we like to present around 60%-70% new material. The Liber Sodalitas organizations should be interesting, and explore new concepts of fantasy or, alternatively, present staples and archetypes in a new light. Though we do have a template of information that each product should present, the rest is really up to you. I try to be flexible with my freelancers and give them the opportunity to really get creative.

Payment for this project would be in royalties, and paid monthly via PayPal.

We already have three titles in the series, which I strongly encourage would-be applicants to be familiar with. You can find more info about them at our website: Liber Sodalitas product line info.

We are looking to expand the series to at least 15 throughout the rest of the year, though if we can make more, then all the better. Once we have between 10 and 15, we will collect a number of them into a Liber Sodalitas book to be offered both as a PDF and POD.

If you are interested, and/or would like more information, please just email me at submissions@highmoonmedia.com and we’ll talk.

Wizards posted a Prestige Class Index on their site today, covering only official D&D sources.

There are 652 Prestige Classes! Not quite, though, since there are 64 (more or less) classes repeated, so it’s more like around 590 official prestige classes. That’s a lot of PrCs! Funny thing is, as I look through the list, there’s a lot of PrCs that I don’t think should bear the name. D&D would be wise to introduce the concept of Advanced Classes, as found in d20 Modern. A PrC should not be something like the Tempest, which basically just turns you into a mobile food processor with two blades, but rather more like the Red Wizard of Thay, Disciple of [Insert Demon Lord Name Here], or Aglarondan Griffonrider, classes tied to prestigious organizations/situations that are demanding but rewarding in both mechanics and roleplaying aspects.

That’s what I set out to do when I create/modify a PrC, and that’s the reason why a product like Liber Sodalitas: The Blind Path is not just the Unsighted PrC, but rather a whole package of context for the class. I realize a lot of people just use the class by itself, which is why I named that one something rather generic, but it really is very tied to the context I gave it. With Liber Sodalitas: Scions of the Holy Triad I went all out with the concept, to the point where taking the PrC away from the context I gave it actually punishes the class and the character that takes it. It may hurt sales a little (Blind Path sells twice as much as Scions), but as a writer and publisher I need to take a stance. I believe the long-term effects will be much better for me.

Now, what I would really like to see, is that same PrC Index but with as many 3rd-party publisher sources added as possible. Now THAT would be a crapload of classes!

HIGHMOON MEDIA PRODUCTIONS SEEKING WRITERS FOR MYTHIC VISTAS ADVENTURES

HMP is looking for freelancers to write adventures for one of the following Green Ronin’s Mythic Vistas settings:

• Eternal Rome
• Trojan War

We are initially looking for short, self-contained introductory adventures that can be expanded into series if sucessful. We want to see adventures that really capture the essence of each setting and make the most of each line’s specific options.

We will make sure that all material strictly conforms with the OGL, d20 System License and Green Ronin’s specifications of use for the Mythic Vistas material. New game content should be derived from the SRD and OGC of the Mythic Vistas setting being used, with OGC from other sources to be approved on a case-by-case basis.

Payment is on a royalty basis off the net profit of the product sold, after RPGNow.com’s and Green Ronin’s percentages are taken off, for the life of the product (2 years in most cases).

For more information, please email daniel@highmoonmedia.com.
You can visit our website at http://www.highmoonmedia.com and see our RPGNow.com Vendor Page for a list of our products.

Highmoon Media Productions and MonkeyGod Enterprises present Hellstone Deep.
Buy it from RPGNow.com today!

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There was a time when darkness reigned. In a war lost to history and myth, the dread God Chairos engaged on a campaign of destruction and conquest. His goal was to topple the existing pantheon of Gods, and to establish a dark new order in which he was supremeÂ…a goal in which he was nearly successful. Only after a long and vicious campaign between Chairos’ diabolic forces and the celestial armies of good were his evil plans torn asunder, and the God of Destruction himself forever undone.

But evil never dies. For Chairos’ mightiest weapon in his dark campaign – the Chain of Scars – has been discovered. Draz Ghulan, a fiendish general with his mind set on revenge, has rekindled the flames of the ancient conflict with his burning hatred. In his possession lies the Chthonic Heart, the one item capable of reactivating the awesome power of the Chain of Scars. Unless Ghulan is stopped, Chairos’ lost campaign of terror and annihilation will begin anew, and the awesome and untold powers of the Chthonic Heart shall be released unto the unsuspecting world.

To stop him, heroes will have to engage in a deadly race against Ghulan’s own agents of evil, journeying through the stygian depths of the subterranean city of Il’drazza’kuul and to the horrific demi-plane known as The Sea of Endless Night. Ultimately, their quest will bring them to Hellstone Deep, an impenetrable fortress populated with Ghulan’s Hellish minions. But within the Heart lie powers that even Ghulan cannot understand. Powers that, if released, could spell disaster for all. And darkness shall reign again…

Hellstone Deep is a d20 fantasy adventure for 18th- through 20th-level characters.

Written by: Steve Montano
Cover by: Jim Pavelec
Artwork by: Alan Dyson
106 pages, Fully Bookmarked

Buy it from RPGNow.com today!

REVIEWS:

• EN World Reviews
• Joe G. Kushner (4/5)
• Der Kluge (5/5)
• Cats Claw (4/5)

I just got an email from the writer that was working on what was to be our setting submission to Green Ronin’s True20 Setting Search. The writer feels really strong that what he has right now is not strong enough for the submission, mainly due to need for more word count to further explore new concepts of this setting. I am okay with his decision as I believe it’s better to pass than submit an incomplete setting.

So right now Highmoon Media is without an entry for a possible True20 license, and there’s just not enough time for me to write up Bardic Lore as a possible setting, especially because I am not 100% sure how exactly I will end up handling the True20 engine along with the additions I want to make. I also decided long ago to keep Project Shirah as d20 Modern rather than convert it to True20.

I’m not bothered by this, I have to say. The True20 license you’d win through the setting search would only be for support of that setting, and I am more interested in publishing world-neutral supplements for the game engine. I may yet start dual-statting all our original products with True20 mechanics and let word of mouth take care of spreading that knowledge (along with a vague reference to the system). We’ll see.