Welcome to the Raging Swan Press blog. Herein you’ll find resource and advice articles to make your game better. From time to time, we’ll also post exciting Raging Swan Press news!
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We storm into February with a small flock of new resources for your gaming pleasure along with some new pages for our website.
y of Ashlar is small and constrained. Always, the forces of evil and shadow press inwards upon its borders. If it were not for a stout few, death and darkness would have long ago overwhelmed the land. Dunstone was once Ashlar's northern bulwark. Now…
Successful thieves need a fence—someone willing to buy and sell their ill-gotten gains. Like their customers, such folk must keep their true business secret, and thus, they often openly practise some other legitimate trade.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Merchants, traders, artisans, and some ordinary folk, need somewhere to store their bulky goods. Some own their own warehouses, while others hire the requisite space on a temporary basis.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Houses of worship and quiet contemplation stand in or near many settlements. Within, the occupants seek spiritual enlightenment in the service of their patron.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Normally places for the poor or the penny-wise, boarding houses offer lodgings and food; most such places offer only the barest of essentials to their guests.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Windy Corner is a busy junction. Here, three roads meet, and chaos ensues. It is often jammed with carts, wagons and frustrated pedestrians. Thieves and cutpurses stalk the crowd while pedlars sell refreshments of dubious origin from battered handcarts.
Read MoreMagical gates and portals are a staple feature of many dungeons. characters stepping through them are often whisked off to a new exciting (and dangerous) adventure locale.
Read MoreVappu Aikio (CN female human) paints strange, otherworldly vistas of disconcerting aspect. Dwelling in a cramped, rundown garret Vappu is always short of money. Consumed by her art she cares little for her appearance or health. She seeks a patron.
Read MoreThe Blind Fiddler offers cheap beer, sour wine and wild times. Raucous laughter, drunken singing and wild yells often come from this ramshackle tavern. Kuura Tuntia (N male human), the gregarious alcoholic owner, welcomes any with coin. Drinking here isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Read MoreVentla’s Lament threads its narrow, crooked and gloom-shrouded way through the slum. Named for a streetwalker found dead years ago it is a fetid, dangerous place. Desperate, predatory folk live in the tottering houses flanking the alley. The watch never come here.
Read MorePits are a lurking danger that have spelled the doom of countless adventurers. Pits can be used to kill, injure or trap intruders, to block progress or to prevent escape. An explorer trapped in a pit with no way of getting out is at the mercy of the first creature or character to discover their predicament.
Read MoreTuure Raita (NE old male human) sculpts lifelike waxen figures which he paints, dresses and displays in a back room museum of his chandlery. Some figures depict normal folk. Others take more blasphemous, disturbing forms. Tuure emits a faint miasmic scent.
Read MoreThe Bard & Pyre is a place for serious and quiet drinking and gambling. Brawls are frequent, and deaths not unheard of, in this cellar tavern. Its dour owner, the ex-pirate Ari Tapo (NE male human), hates singing, dancing and music.
Read MoreQuintessential dungeon scavengers, gelatinous cubes engulf all in their path. Untold numbers of neophyte adventurers have met their doom in the depths of a gelatinous cube. Sometimes their death leaves behind treasure for luckier, or more skilled, adventurers to retrieve.
Read MoreThe Broken Path meanders passed scores of once well-to-do homes. High walls pierced by locked or bricked-up gates flank the path. Overshadowed by hoary trees, moss and weeds grow thickly in this cobbled, little-used alley.
Read MoreSipi Vihas (CN male human) walks with a bad limp and rails against the injustice that put him in that cart’s way. A self-proclaimed genius he has many views on many things, but few friends. Sipi wears old, stained robes. He rarely shaves or washes.
Read MoreDungeons are literally the bedrock of the hobby. They have been a core concept of the game from the first campaigns.
All dungeons are not created equal, however. Some are great, some are terrible and some are mediocre.
Read MoreKaleva’s Cuts hides a dark secret. Kaleva is a Braalite cultist and uses his butcher’s shop to dispose of his sacrifices’ remains. The shop backs onto a rowdy pub and the noise from its taproom masks any odd sounds coming from Kaleva’s workshop.
Read MoreDead Man’s Court huddles within a ring of lofty, dilapidated tenements. A covered passage cuts through each building to the shadow-filled, cobbled court. Corpses discovered here with shocking regularity spawn lurid rumours of ghosts, vampires and cultists.
Read MoreRusi Niera (N old male human) “worries” about the local whores and works tirelessly to save them from themselves. A wealthy merchant this clever letch professes deep religious beliefs, but is a hypocrite and bounder. Skinny and bald, Rusi dresses well.
Read MoreCoppers offers a vast array of wares. Disorganised, piled-high shelves fill the shop’s dingy interior, and everything costs less than a silver penny. Albin Panu (LE old male human) owns the place and has a reputation as a peerless skinflint.
Read MoreAatami Himottu (CN male half-elf) cuts a dapper figure in his fine red doublet and matching hose. A fop and a dandy, Aatami fancies himself a master with a rapier and loves duelling to first blood. A thin scar on his left cheek adds to his look of derring-do.
Read MoreThe besiegers and the defenders must contend with the vagaries of nature, logistics, morale and their enemies. The minor events below will not turn the siege’s tide in anyone’s favour, but canny commanders can use them to their advantage.
Read MoreBlood Alley runs behind a row of butchers, chandlers, tanners and other foul-smelling businesses. Blood, offal and other unidentifiable things make the muddy ground slick. Heaps of rotting, stinking rubbish, and swarms of voracious rats, makes this a place to avoid.
Read More
Everyone—even the powerful—has enemies, and the Nameless Mage was no exception…
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.