INSIDE THE ART: MYSTERY IN THE WALLED VILLAGE

Jackie Musto just sent in the final images for our House of Paper Shadows adventure and she included a gif of the following illustration so people can get a glimpse into her process: 

It is an image of life inside a tulou-style walled village. I won't say more because I don't want to spoil the module for people. But below is the gif showing the artwork's stages of development. Rather than explain it to you, see Jackie's note below where she talks about how she composed the image. 

Jackie: A WIP of the village scene. I always start with a loose sketch to verify where I'd like all the elements. When I'm making up a composition, I try to keep in mind an interesting angle that will highlight all the specific characters or elements of the scene to keep the importance on them. After working up the backgrounds, I tend to make the characters on their own layers so I can scoot them around or easily separate them for inclusion on other areas of the book. Lastly, the most tricky element is keeping the contrast in check so the final illustration ends up interesting and easy to read!

SPEEDING UP COMBAT IN OGRE GATE

Sometimes flow and momentum in a game is important and you don't want to get bogged down managing lots of NPC combatants. This is something I find is particularly the case when I have groups of PCs with many allies or disciples. This is a quick and dirty method for managing that. I sometimes call it the One-Two-Three approach. I talk about it on the podcast HERE. 

Here is how it works. For every major NPC involved in combat that isn't directly fighting a PC (so big heroes and villains clashing on the periphery of the player's field of vision) I assign a d10 dice pool rank equal to their Qi level. This sort of assumes each of the NPCs pair up to duel one another, but you can mix and match, or roll multiple times against one target when they are surrounded. You can also give them a +1d10 to +2d10 Bonus for having exceptional techniques or advantages. 

Over the course of three rounds I have the characters roll against each other. Whoever gets the best two out of three wins, incapacitating the target. If they win three out of three, it is assumed the can kill the target. 

Here is how it might work with two 'off-screen' NPCs clashing: 

Lady Plum Blossom: 6d10
Laughing Fox: 4d10

I assigned Lady Plum Blossom 6d10 because she is Qi rank 6, and I assigned Laughing Fox 4d10 because he is Qi rank 4. 

Each round I have them roll against each other. Here are the results:

Round One: Lady Plum Blossom 10, Laughing Fox 6
Round Two: Lady Plum Blossom 9, Laughing Fox 10
Round Three: Lady Plum Blossom 9, Laughing Fox 8

This means Lady Plum Blossom won 2 out of 3 rounds and is therefore victorious, having incapacitated Laughing Fox. Had she won 3 out of 3, she could have killed him

Here is an example of what it might look like with multiple foes: 

Opponents	Rating	Outcomes
Lady Plum Blossom	6d10	W	X	W
Laughing Fox	4d10	X	W	X
Jagged Blade	5d10	X	X	X
Iron God Meng	7d10	W	W	W
Jade-Faced Lion	3d10	X	W	X
Smiling Cub	3d10	W	X	W
Fourth Iron King	6d10	X	X	X
Red Mantis	5d10	W	W	W

It is also possible to mix things up or have characters team up on one another. Assume that when a character has lost two rounds they are on the brink of death but still alive.

If you really want to keep things simple, don't worry about doing it over three rounds and just make one roll for each character. 

NEW TECHNIQUE

Here is another new Technique from Zachary. 

SHATTERING FISTS OF YANSHI (SECRET)

Discipline: Waijia

Skill: Arm Strike against Parry

Type: Normal

Qi: 3

You unleash a flurry of punches at your opponent, wearing down their resistance with each successive hit.

Roll Arm Strike against the opponent's Parry. On a Success, roll Muscle as Closed Damage but consider their Hardiness to be lowered by your ranks in Waijia for this purpose. If you are able to chain this attack several times against a single opponent, and neither you nor they have moved between uses of this Technique, their Hardiness decreases by an additional point for each additional turn (again, only for the purposes of damage rolls for this Technique).

If your Qi is higher than your target's, on a Total Success they lose their next turn.

Cathartic: If you hit and the target fails to Counter this Technique, they lose their next turn regardless of their Qi level. In addition, if the opponent is of lower Qi than you, the damage roll becomes Open Damage.