James Maliszewski

The Undead

There are a great many types of undead beings in sha-Arthan, ranging from the nearly-mindless dritlor to the vengeful kelthaga and the mighty gorodaka. All of them will be described and illustrated...

The Light of Kulvu

(This is an example of the kind of regular setting content I plan to post starting in October. Sometimes it'll be slightly esoteric material like this; other times it'll be something more immediate...

The Secrets of sha-Arthan?

I'm trying out alternate titles and this struck me as one to consider, given its alliteration. Any thoughts?

I'm far from committed to changing the name, but it's a possibility I keep thinkin...

Sorcerer Spells -- at last

Here's the link to the first draft of the sorcerer spells: https://drive.googl...

Progress Update

I wanted to share a brief update on where things stand with The Vaults of sha-Arthan:

1. The magic section is closer to completion, though it'll still be a little while more. Partly, this is ...

Thedlani

As a companion to yesterday's teteku illustration, here is the thedlani.

Teteku

Here's another bit of art to tide you over till I finish the spell descriptions. It's a teteku, a riding mount commonplace on sha-Arthan. 

Adept Disciplines

With the sorcerer spells section nearly done – yes, I know I've said that before – I had a question about the presentation of adept disciplines, hence this poll.

Would you prefer discipli...

da-Imer

The starting location for the campaign will be the city of da-Imer, formerly the capital of the Empire of Inba Iro before its conquest by the Chomachto a century before. Though the political and ad...

Spell Preview

Work continues on the sorcerer spells. I spent a lot of time this weekend getting them together. Much more work remains, in part because I was sidetracked by another idea I had (reworking alignment...

Title Change?

I recently discovered that there's already an OSR-ish setting called Vaults of Vaarn and, while sha-Arthan isn't at all similar to it (aside from a couple of similar inspirations), I can't help but...

The Four Worlds

Though I'm sure you're all reading the posts over at Grognardia, I nevertheless wanted to draw attention to this one – 2021-08-10 20:06:25 +0000 UTC View Post

Another Chenot Illustration

Illustrator and reader of Grognardia, Kelvin Green, very kindly sent along a drawing of the Chenot he was inspired to draw after reading the original class post on the blog. I guess this is the fir...

Player's Guide Combined File

As promised, the latest iteration of the Player's Guide draft is now available here: 2021-08-08 00:29:19 +0000 UTC View Post

Update

I'm nearly done the advancement and equipment sections, along with some small tweaks to the other sections. A larger combined file of all the material will be appearing this weekend, possibly as so...

New and Updated Files

I've very slightly updated the Character Classes draft: https://drive.google.c...

Revised Character Classes

I've done some revisions to the character class document, including adding the three nonhuman classes. Like the previous document, this one is a work in progress and will almost certainly be change...

Jalaka

Here's an illustration of the third nonhuman class, the Jalaka. Unlike the Ga'andrin, the Jalaka are more reliable allies of humanity, known for their skill with sorcery and the Four Worlds. <...

Ga'andrin

Here's an illustration of the second of three nonhuman classes, the Ga'andrin. Widespread and warlike, these nonhumans are rivals and sometime-allies of humanity. This is the next class I'll share ...

Chenot Class

A draft of the Chenot class will be appearing on Grognardia tomorrow. The other two nonhuman classes, the Ga'andrin and the Jalak, will appear here in the next few days, if all goes well.

Mor...

Chenot

Here's a finished version of one of the nonhumans – the Chenot. With luck, the Chenot class will be done soon, followed shortly thereafter by the other two.

Nonhuman Classes

I've been tinkering with the four human classes, some of which have been changed slightly. I'll post the revisions of them once I've completed the three nonhuman classes I plan to include initially...

Adept, Scion, Sorcerer, Warrior

I've included a link to a draft document presenting the four human character classes I'll be using in my upcoming campaigns. They're more or less complete, though there will certainly be tweaks and...

Layout Test

Much of the text is from an earlier iteration of the player's guide, so pay no close attention to it. But I wanted to share a layout experiment with you. 

Player's Guide Draft

A draft version of the material I'll be giving to players of the Vaults of sha-Arthan should be ready within a week or so. It'll consist of the four human character classes – there are three more...

Session Timing and More

From discussions with interested parties, it's starting to look like one possibly workable time slot would be Thursday afternoons between 1 and 3 pm Eastern Time (UTC–5). That's not set in stone,...

Thinking About the Campaign

As I mentioned previously, it's my intention to start refereeing The Vaults sha-Arthan once I've completed the necessary player information for distribution. That'll be, at earliest, next month, th...

The Adept

Another character class portrait.

The Sorcerer

Here's the completed illustration of the sorcerer class.

The Scion

Another piece of artwork to share with you, this time the illustration accompanying the scion character class description.