Spirit Bound Skull

Artist Axel Torvenius brings us this human skull pierced by a myriad of iron nails.  That was one of the traditional black magic techniques for binding a spirit into your service.  

Just make sure the nails are never removed. 

 

Shaman's Dagger

Artedarme Workshop returns to our pages with this LARP-safe shaman's dagger.  They've done an outstanding job of recreating the look of real obsidian and bone.  That's no small feat. 

 

Deadly Harvest

Artist Nathan Vent brings us this trio of mandrake roots, harvested at considerable danger to himself.  

 

 

D&D Handouts

Over on Reddit, PMbyday_DMbynight shared some excellent handouts from his latest Dungeons and Dragons campaign:

 "During the last session of our D&D, I made handouts for my players. While I handed it to my players, they did not open it right away. They turned it over, checked the seal and held it up like it actually mattered. The whole table was quiet for few seconds. That’s the moment I know physical handouts are essential.

Since last year, I have been making simple “parchment” at home using cheap brown paper, printing on it and aging it a bit. Nothing really fancy or expensive but once you put it in an envelope or add a small prop, it starts feeling like an object from the world!

It is honestly one of the best and easiest upgrades to immersion at the table."

As you would expect, the comments include a lot of very positive player reactions to getting tailored handouts.  That jibes with my own experience.  I've also seen players totally ignore the clues and information included in prop documents.  That can occur even when the participants are experienced investigators.  When it does, I normally have them roll a perception or intelligence check for their characters and offer up varying levels of detail depending on their success (or lack thereof).

Is it meta-gaming to expect players to pick up on things?  You bet, but it's also fun and immersive.  Having the character's abilities as a backup gives them another chance to take advantage of what they've been given. 

 

Hail to the King

Artist Yu Chung brings us this excellent King in Yellow statuette.  Check out his feed and you can see the entire process of it being digitally sculpted, sent out for 3D printing in resin, and the final paint job.   

 

"None More Black" Handouts

Over on Reddit, Nelog has posted a collection of handouts for the "None More Black" adventure from Chaosium's "Doors to Darkness" scenario collection.  The investigators are tasked with finding out what's going on after a student at Miskatonic University dies after taking a dangerous black-market drug.  The original version was set in the classic era of the 1920s.  Nelog had the brilliant idea to run it as a "Delta Green" scenario, transplanting the action to 1980's Miami.  "Miami Vice" meets the Mythos?  Sign me up.

He was kind enough to make all of the documents he created for the game available over here on Google Docs. 

 

Merchant Mask and Armor

I've been a fan of artist Tomàs Barceló for some time, as his past appearances here on the blog can attest.  Head over to his ArtStation page and you can see this mask and armor set he created for himself when he's appearing at shows.  He has a real gift for creating pieces that feel like artifacts from the past.