New RPG Book by Zak Sabbath from I Hit It with My Axe

[Greg Tito]

New RPG Book by Zak Sabbath from I Hit It with My Axe

The dungeonmaster from I Hit It with My Axe [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/i-hit-it-with-my-axe] wrote an RPG supplement about how to run the city of Vornheim, and make up your own fantasy city.

In the two separate campaigns of D&D that I've been running in The Escapist offices over the last six months or so during lunch, I've focused a lot on rolling randomly to see what's around the next corner. I have tables and random encounters galore, and it's been fun for both me and my players to see what comes with a roll of the d20. Zak Sabbath has taken that to the extreme with his supplement called Vornheim: The Complete City Kit [http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=67] by providing not only the background for the city he used in the campaign of I Hit It with My Axe but the tools needed to create vibrant cities on the fly.

"This book is not about Vornheim, it's about running Vornheim - or any other city - in a fantastic Medieval setting. And about running it with a minimum of hassle - so you and your players can get to the good stuff," Zak Sabbath says in the introduction to Vornheim: The Complete City Kit.

The supplement is currently available to pre-order in PDF form from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess website [http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=67]. The PDF is 12.50 Euros right now, but a real brick and mortar book is planned eventually.

I've already put down my order to help me out with my 4th Edition games, what are you waiting for?

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[Woodsey]

*waits for this thread to be locked, as advertising is not permitted on the Escapist forums*

 

[Jaranja]

*waits with Woodsey*

It'll probably have tonnes of cleavage in it though.

 

[XT inc]

I never could watch Id hit it with my axe, it was far to jumpy and never got the story across, they should have just done long drawn out audio podcasts or something. D&D is far to involved and time consuming to chop down into tiny bits, unless someone crit fails at a crucial moment in the game and spazzes out.

I doubt it will be removed, surely contributors to the site get leeway in hocking their wears.

 

[dkyros]

All I got out of that was a reaction that went a little something like "ewwww you play 4th edition..."

Also, apparently advertising is a no no.

 

[Impluse_101]

Ah! I've been wondering how they've been since IHWMA is kind of gone now....

They were all great people.

 

[Simriel]

I killed an emperor in my last D&D session. Does this book allow for punching emperors to death? Of course not, since its 4e, and there for doesn't have the awesomeness that is MONK! Monks Rule!

 

[Zechnophobe]

I killed an emperor in my last D&D session. Does this book allow for punching emperors to death? Of course not, since its 4e, and there for doesn't have the awesomeness that is MONK! Monks Rule!

Um, Player's Handbook 3? Yes, there are monks in 4e. Although they have stupid art and silly little halos. And have a 'psi' power source for some completely unknown reason.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I misread the title as "New RPG Book by Black Sabbath."

Now I'm just disappointed.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Good to see Zak's back in action!

 

[Therumancer]

Interesting, to be honest though I'm not a big fan of the 4E rules. I picked up the core books when they first came out, and honestly was kind of underwhelmed. But then again I'm a guy who uses 2nd edition AD&D as the base when he GMs, and on the occasions when I still play it seems most people I know do the same, or use 3.5.

Still, nice to see that Zak got a book published, and I dig the old-school-like cover art.

Honestly though, I personally don't think any city has outdone the 2E "Waterdeep: City Of Splendors" boxed set, especially when you have the Volo's guide to go with it and help fill in some of the details. Monte cook's "Ptolus" is interesting (I can't believe I shelled out the money for it years ago) but I found it lacking in some areas.

I haven't followed 4E publications much, but it's good to see there are people producing "cookbooks" for making cities and such (which seems to be what this is). Back when I gamed regularly and had time to develop my own stuff, I found things like that to be fairly useful.

 

[Simriel]

I killed an emperor in my last D&D session. Does this book allow for punching emperors to death? Of course not, since its 4e, and there for doesn't have the awesomeness that is MONK! Monks Rule!

Um, Player's Handbook 3? Yes, there are monks in 4e. Although they have stupid art and silly little halos. And have a 'psi' power source for some completely unknown reason.

I'll keep my badass Pathfinder monk with his Ki powers thanks. Oh and the ability to deal out 8 attacks a round.

 

[ThaBenMan]

I doubt this book is strictly strictly intended for 4E - I believe the rules Zak uses are mostly 1E that borrows some elements from 4E. I'm sure like most of the new "old school renaissance" books, the rules are adaptable and can be used with pretty much any system with some tinkering.

The book looks cool for Zak's great artwork alone, although I'm sure it's useful as well. I wish him success with it - I loved IHIWMA, and now that it's gone, my wednesday's are a little darker

 

[Callate]

Honestly, I didn't see a lot in IHIWMA (of the handful of episodes I kept up with) that I'm desperate to emulate. It doesn't help that the editing was all over the map, it seemed to be veering increasingly sensationalist to attract viewers, and the party shifted so much, of course- for all I know, Sabbath is a master of writing and organization and the book is the definitive guide to medieval fantasy cities against which all others will be judged. But if IHIWMA is what I'm judging off of, no thanks.

 

[Scars Unseen]

These days I'm kind of a fan of Castles & Crusaders more than D&D 4E. One of my standing favorite systems remains Legend of the Five Rings, and I keep meaning to convert the rules to a different genre.

 

[RandallJohn]

Judging by the above comments, it seems like I'm in the minority. I really enjoyed Zak's DMing. I'm looking forward to checking this out.

(Captcha: Lord gencydsc. Perhaps Inglip has a challenger?)

 

[Vitor Goncalves]

Judging by the above comments, it seems like I'm in the minority. I really enjoyed Zak's DMing. I'm looking forward to checking this out.

(Captcha: Lord gencydsc. Perhaps Inglip has a challenger?)

But you are not alone. It was his DM capabilities that hooked me up on the series.

 

[DeepComet5581]

Considering that Zak's last book was called We Did Porn: Memoirs and Drawings, i'm not holding out much hope for this book.

While it's interesting you've managed single-handedly to hook pornstars onto D&D of all things, I think it should have been left at that.

 

[Spiny Norman]

And the book he worked on before that was the illustrations for Gravity's Rainbow, but neither of those have any bearing on his D&D campaign setting. I think that Zak really has fantastic ideas for D&D that he puts in his campaigns. The problem is that it is really difficult to capture it in a 10 minute weekly show. The work that shows up on his blog is really inspiring in terms of its creativity as well as its weirdness. The book seems to condense his work on Vornheim as well as include a bunch of his artwork, which works well with the setting. As for me it looks like a buy, and if I may I would suggest that others check out some of his work that pops on his blog. I think it will change the mind of anyone who thought that he was a no talent DM just trying to get viewers with a gimmicky premise for a show.