Just like I did the other week, I just got an email about the new updated Dungeon Master's Guide PDF.
So if they keep up with what they've been doing so far, it should be going on sale tomorrow over at;
While you're at it here's the errata for all AD&D 1st edition re-prints over on Dragonsfoot as well as a comparison of the reprints versus the originals.
Since I'm a Linux geek who loves maps this one struck my fancy. These are from the Dedoimedosite.
The Great Linux World Map
Here it is, the Great Linux World Map, the Atlas of the Theater of the World, Dedoimedo style. The smaller
image below links to a full-sized 2752x1536px 1.19MB PNG map. The map
is in 16:9 aspect ratio, so you can use it as a wallpaper, if you fancy so. Enjoy!
For different formats, here are a: PDF version
(1.1MB) Grayscale version (892KB)
Black & White version
(124KB).
The Great Linux World Map Version 2.0
Below is the map, 2752x1548px in size, in 16:9 ratio, good for desktop wallpapers. You get the full colored
version (2.27MB), linked in the illustration below, a clean black & white version (693KB) in case you
want to use your own coloring scheme and make modifications, and I warmly welcome those, and a special black & white version (693KB)
with some extra Latin text, see if you can spot it there. All PNG format. Click to enlarge.
In case you haven't already seen this... take an HD look at Pluto!
Pluto flyby photos thrill New Horizons scientists after nine-year Nasa mission The Guardian
NASA spacecraft makes history as the first spacecraft to reach distant dwarf planet, the last unexplored world in the solar system.
NASA’s New Horizons probe flew past Pluto early Tuesday, providing the clearest images yet of the dwarf planet.
New Horizons launched in 2006 and has traveled 3
billion miles in the past nine years. It’s not stopping at Pluto, but
it flew past the dwarf planet at 7:49 a.m. ET Tuesday.
At its closest approach, the spacecraft will have been just 12,500
kilometers (about 7,750 miles) from the surface, traveling at 14
kilometers per second (31,000 miles per hour). The pass was the closest
scientists have ever been able to get to Pluto.
The stunning image of the dwarf planet was captured in the above photo from New Horizons
at about 4 p.m. EDT on July 13, about 16 hours before the moment of
closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles (766,000 kilometers)
from the surface.
NASA released the first close-up photo of Pluto on Instagram Tuesday morning, taken before the spacecraft reached its closest approach.
But Hubble was in Earth’s orbit, so the photo wasn’t very clear. But earlier this year, in May and June, New Horizons began sending back pictures of Pluto that were better than any Hubble had taken.
For those who haven't seen it over on the wizards site is another hilarious installment of Jason Thompson's walk-through cartoon maps of classic modules. This time we get his rendition of the adventureT1: The Village of Hommlet. Jason has done quite a few of these and always packs tons of detail into his maps, check it out if you haven't already!
From part of the write up;
Your party is now approaching the Village of Hommlet, having ridden
up from lands of the Wild Coast. You are poorly mounted, badly equipped,
and have no large sums of cash. In fact, all you have is what you wear
and what you ride, plus the few coins that are hidden in purses and
pockets. What you do possess in quantity, though, is daring and a desire
to become wealthy and famous.
Thus your group comes to Hommlet to learn if this is indeed a place
for adventurers to seek their fortunes. You all hope, of course, to gain
riches and make names for yourselves. What the outcome of this will be
is uncertain, but your skill and daring, along with a good measure of
luck, will be the main ingredients of what follows, be it for weal or
woe.
To either hand forest and meadow have given way to field and orchard.
A small herd of kine graze nearby, and a distant hill is dotted with
the white of a flock of sheep. Ahead are thatched roofs and stone
chimneys with thin plumes of blue smoke rising from them. A road angles
west into the hill country there, and to either side of the road ahead
are barns and buildings—Hommlet at last! The adventure begins….
And with that, Jason Thompson walks us through the trials of a
typical party seeking to gain said riches in the ruins of the nearby
moathouse.
The original Village of Hommlet Moathouse maps, to compare:
About the Author
Jason Thompson (@mockman) is a comic artist, illustrator and D&D player. He is currently designing his first tabletop game, Mangaka: The Fast & Furious Game of Drawing Comics at www.mangakagame.com.
Just got this in my inbox from Dungeons & Dragons Classics.
The 1st Edition Player's Handbook is back!
No more searching through stacks of books and magazines to find out
what you need to know. The Player's Handbook puts it all at your
fingertips, including: All recommended character classes: Fighters,
Paladins, Rangers, Magic-Users, and more.
Character Races: Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half-Orcs, Humans, and more.
Character Level Statistics.
Equipment lists with costs.
Spell listings by level and descriptions of effects (including many new spells!).
As a dungeon adventurer or Dungeon Master, you will find the contents
of this book to be what you have been waiting for. All useful material
is now compiled under one cover, especially for players!
Well the PCs have finally made it through the "Against the Giants" series of modules
and are proceeding into the
"Descent Into the Depths of the Earth" portion of the whole GDQ series. Now, while I own the original modules, I still like using printed out maps in game, usually as covers in the 3-ring binders I have all my DM notes in. While the maps provided in the modules D1-2 and GDQ 1-7 are all good, I ran across Maldins Greyhawk pages a long while back and he has a color map he re-did for the Dragonsfoot Collaborative Project: Mapping the Depths of the Earth. While I like his map the distinction between the tertiary tunnels and the hidden tunnels are hard to distinguish (for my old eyes anyway). See for yourself.
That's why I dusted it off and edited it slightly to conform more closely to the black and white map in the Descent series, as far as the tertiary tunnels go anyway. I also changed the encounter hex colors for the non-module encounters to yellow as well as the river color. It's easier to just look at the revised map to see the revisions.
Revised DM map of the Underdark
For me anyway, it makes it clearer which are the secret passages and which are the tertiary tunnels, as well as distinguishing between the Gygax module encounters at a glance. My thanks to Denis for a fine map.
Now with that all said and done the players, naturally, don't get the pretty printed out map, but rather they have to make do with the hand drawn map below.
Players Map of the Underdark
They got this from the deep gnome spy in the Trading Grounds, for the appropriate price of course as well as a promise to debrief him on their escapades in the Underdark as well as any intel on the Drow.
Just like I did the other week, I just got an email about the new updated Dungeon Master's Guide PDF.
