24 February 2010

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net

ROGUE FEED grapples them. The player must roll under their character’s Strength on a
d20. If they succeed the Wasserman failed to grab them. If they fail the
UPDATE — NEW MONSTERS first Wasserman has their weapon hand. After that, on their turn, more
Wassermen try to grab the player until there are enough of them to
AND MAGIC ITEMS ADDED drown the character. On the character’s turn he can attempt to break free
FEB 23, 2010 04:55P.M. of one Wasserman per round with another Strength check.

New monsters and magic items have been added. Once one Wasserman has hold of their weapon hand the character can’t
attack and can only try to break free from the grapple during their turn.
Each turn thereafter, another Wasserman will try to grab the character
until five of them take hold and drown the character.
ROGUE FEED
For every Wasserman that has hold of the character there is a +1 pen on
WASSERMEN their Strength check roll. Anything larger than a dagger will be a
FEB 23, 2010 04:51P.M. hindrance (+1 to roll) rather than a help when fighting underwater. If the
character went into the water dressed and carrying gear there are
• AC: 7 [12] penalties to their roll …

• Hit Dice: 1-1 • +1 per 100 coins they carry

• Attacks: Bite (1d4) • +1 for a shield or each weapon

• Saving Throw: 15 • +1 for anything other than light clothes.

• Special: Drowning • +2 for a backpack full of gear

• Move: 14 in water 12 on land • +2 for Leather armour

• Challenge Level/XP: 2/35. • +4 for Chain

The Wasssermen are a savage tribe of aquatic minions created through • +5 for Plate
the sorcery. They are humanoids that are slightly smaller and more lithe
than goblins. They have bulbous eyes, potbellies, flat noses, tiny ears,
needle like teeth, webbed hands and feet, and scraggly matted hair all
over their bodies. They spend most of their time in the water, and can
hold their breath underwater much longer than most, but aren’t water
breathers. They have no interest in adventurers other than to eat them
and strip them of their treasures.

Unless the situation is desperate the Wassermen won’t come on to dry

land and fight in melee. If attacked from range by missiles or magic, they
dive deep underwater to safety. It’s only when enemies enter the water
that they attack. Just two of them are able to tip over most boats and five
of them can drag a character underwater long enough to drown.

The Wassermen and Drowning

Each round a player is in the water, on the Wassermen’s turn, one

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 24 February 2010

ROGUE FEED • AC: 3 [16]

DRAKLINGS • HD: 1+1

FEB 23, 2010 04:45P.M.
• Attacks: 1 weapon (1d4+1)
Twelve Draklings
• ST: 12
• AC: 5 [14]
• Special: Rune inscribed arms and armour
• Hit Dice: 1
• Move: 13
• Attacks: 1 Knife (1d4-1) or Trident (1d4+1) or Bolas (1d4+ special)
• CL/XP: 2/25.
• Saving Throw: 15
Wirries are tiny men. They are about ten-inches high, have blond hair,
• Special: Bolas (see Below) that they tend to wear long and in plaits, and sport long droopy
moustaches that they are very proud of. Wirry Carls are armed with a
• Move: 12 spear, a Sax dagger, and carry a shield. The elite warriors, the Wirry
Thanes, wear chain hauberks, helms, carry a shield, and fight with
• Challenge Level/XP 1/20 swords or axes. Their arms and armour are inscribed with runes that
effectively make them magic weapons. The women, Wirry Cows, are fair
Draklings are small (two-foot tall) Draconic humanoids. They have long maidens who have flaxen plaited hair, large bovine eyes, and cow’s tails.
snout-like reptilian faces, sharp teeth, scaled skin, and clawed hands.
They use nets to ensnare small, Bolas to capture larger enemies, small The Wirries are very friendly towards any human or demi-human
tridents for throwing into water, and hunting knives for hand to hand visitors, but can be haughty, proud, and overly sensitive about both their
combat. They speak Common, Draconic, Dwarvern, and Elven. stature and their women’s bovine features.

Draklings use their Bolas like normal missile weapons. If hit their victim
gets a Saving Throw. If they fail the are ensared and cannot move,
though they can defend themselevs (-1 to hit and dam due to being ROGUE FEED
entangled). A succsesful Saving Throw means they are hit but not
caught. WHITE WATER WYRM
FEB 23, 2010 04:13P.M.

White Water Wyrm

ROGUE FEED
• Armor Class: 3[16]
WIRRIES
FEB 23, 2010 04:30P.M. • Hit Dice: 5

Wirry Carls • Attacks: 1 Bite (2d6)

• AC: 8 [11] • Saving TThrow: 12

• HD: 1 • Special: Immune to poison, secretes paralysing poison

• Attacks: 1 weapon (1d4) • Move: 4 on land 16 in water

• Saving Throw: 12 • Challenge Level/XP: 7/600

• Move: 14 The Wyrm is a thirty-foot long beast with huge bulging eyes that are
perfectly adapted to the darkness of the cave and its waters. It has
• CL/XP: 1/15 rubbery white flesh, proto-gills and lungs, diminutive fins, and semi-
functional limbs. It secretes an oily substance that paralyses those that
Wirry Thanes come into contact with its skin (Saving Throw vs. Poison -1) or are

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 24 February 2010

exposed to the water around it (Saving Throw vs. Poison +1). It is a ROGUE FEED
dangerous predator in the water, but it can, and does, waddle onto land
from time to time. SHOCKFISH
FEB 23, 2010 03:29P.M.

Shockfish
ROGUE FEED
• Armor Class: 3 [16]
SHROOM FAIRIES
FEB 23, 2010 03:41P.M. • Hit Dice: 4

Shroom Fairies • Attacks: 1 Shock

• AC: 9 [10] or 0[20] • Saving Throw: 15

• Hit Dice: 2* • Special: Each shock does 2d6 damage (double if wearing metal
armour) to anyone within 20ft that fails a Saving Throw
• Attacks: Swarm Storm 1d6+1
• Move:16
• Saving Throw: 12
• Challenge Level/XP: 5/400.
• Special: Immune to sleep spells and AC 0 [20] against anything but
blunt weapons These fish are bug-eyed, with translucent scales, and are about the size of
a small crocodile. They discharge electric pulses into the water then feed
• Move: 14 on anything that falls pray to their shocks.

• Challenge Level/XP: 2/80

*They only have 1 HP each but the swarm attacks as a 2HD monster. ROGUE FEED

There are 2d6+6 Shroom Fairies in each swarm. They are difficult to hit WHITE WYRMLINGS
with missile weapons, swords, daggers, spears, etc. but easy enough to FEB 23, 2010 03:26P.M.
swat out of the air with blunt melee weapons (reflected in the two AC
scores). The whole swarm concentrates its attack on one member of the • Armor Class:9 [10]
party (the one who picked a mushroom). They pepper their target with
multiple tiny lightning bolts that do 1d6+1 damage in total. Each • Hit Dice: 2
Shroom Fairy only has 1HP and when the swarm is reduced to five or less
individuals, they fly away. It takes a reduced swarm three months to • Attacks: 1 (Venom)
respore enough members to form a new circle.
• Saving Throw: 18

• Special: venom (paralyses if Saving Throw is missed)

• Move:12

• Challenge Level/XP: 2/50.

Offspring of the White Water Wyrm. These vile looking things resemble
aquatic tapeworms with teeth. They thrash about a single victim in a
swarm. Anyone who succumbs to the paralysing venom that seeps from
the Wyrmlings’ skin or from their bites will be eaten. If they are
successful in paralysing a victim, they will devour him in just four
combat rounds. If left to feed they will not attack anyone else. If the party
tries to rescue their paralysed comrade the swarm will retaliate. If a

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 24 February 2010

swarm is reduced to four or less Hit Points they will swim away. on his part, one that you can disagree with, and one that you
could accuse of being hackneyed and cliche, but it’s one that
can be respected as an artistic choice. The same simply can’t
be said for the other films, which function purely as mindless
ROGUE FEED action flicks, vehicles for their respective stars, with no
thought to any sort of dimension. Conan the Barbarian and
GLOOPERS Solomon Kane are films that can be argued against: the other
FEB 23, 2010 03:08P.M. three are films that can just be ignored.

• Armor Class: 8 [11] That’s rather a more positive review than I was expecting. I’m actually
fond of James Purefoy as an actor, though he wouldn’t be my first choice
• Hit Dice: 1d4 to play Kane. So, it gladdens me a little that the film might not be wholly
irredeemable, even if it’s about as far from its Howardian origins as
• Attacks: 1 bite (1d4) Milius’s Conan the Barbarian. That means it might be worth seeing if
only as a conversation piece (assuming it’s ever released in North
• Saving Throw: 16 America) — which is higher praise than most films get these days,
especially ones based on writers of whom I am fond.
• Move:14
More food for thought.
• Challenge Level/XP: A/10

Gloopers are large, newt like, chaos-tainted mutated amphibians. They

get their name from the ‘gloop-gloop’ noise they make as they surface for
air when readying to attack. They are very aggressive carnivores.

ROGUE FEED

Solomon Kane: Yay or Nay?

FEB 23, 2010 11:03A.M.

The Cimmerian’s Al Harron weighs in on Michael J. Bassett’s Solomon

Kane, concluding:

There are two types of Howard adaptations: those that can,

through contrast and comparison, make you look at the
source material in a new way, or at least appreciate it even
more; and those that don’t, because they are so trite and
shallow they don’t even warrant further discussion. Conan
the Barbarian, with its Nietzsche allusions and philosophical
metaphors, is of the former: even if you despise it, you can
look at the original stories in a way that you might not
normally due to the differences of the two creations. Conan
the Destroyer, Red Sonja and Kull the Conqueror?
Meaningless, bereft of depth, no more worthy of discussion
than a satirical newspaper cartoon. In my opinion, despite its
considerable faults, Solomon Kane is of the first variety.

Bassett’s interpretation of Kane’s origin is wholly alien to just

about every Howard fan’s I know, but it’s at least derived
from the source material. He made Kane into the character he
is not because of some arbitrary factor like a star that needed
a vehicle or cashing in on a current fad, but because it was
part of the story he wanted to tell. It’s an intellectual decision