Free fiction from Ty Johnston
As some of you might know, after 20 years as a newspaper journalist, nowadays I make my living as a fiction writer, mostly in fantasy and horror though I occasionally dip into other genres. Over the last decade or so some of my short stories have become available to read on one website or another, and a number of my shorter e-books are currently free to read. For those who might be interested, I thought I would provide a brief guide along with links to the stories or e-books.
Concerning the e-books, where available I will provide a link to the Amazon page for those of you with a Kindle or who use a Kindle app, but I will also provide a link to a site called Smashwords where you can download the free e-book in whatever format you desire.
Let’s get going.
Free e-books from Ty Johnston
Mage Hunter: Episode 1: Blooded Snow
A hunt for raiding barbarians turns upon the hunters. But far worse is to come for the sleepy villages of northern Ursia and the soldiers who protect the villagers. The Dartague barbarians have had enough of the Ursians encroaching upon their mountainous borders, and the raids are but a feint to draw out soldiers while a much larger attack is in the works. His squad mates slain, Sergeant Guthrie Hackett finds himself alone in the winter wilderness on the border between his homeland and the nation of barbarians. He discovers the Dartague have a new leader, a wyrd woman who is behind the border assault. Worse yet for the sergeant, he has fallen under the attention of an ice witch, an inhuman creature with secret goals of her own. Seeking to survive, Hackett tries to make it back to his own countrymen, only to find there is relatively little safety for him anywhere in the northern regions.
This e-book is serial fiction, the first in a five-part series that tells the tale of Guthrie Hackett and how he comes to learn a few things about himself while trying to survive an approaching war with outlanders.
Monster Bag Plus Weekly Wrap
Hello and well met traveler of the internet. Nerdarchist Dave here with another edition of our Weekly Wrap. We finally got a game in after a two week hiatus of no tabletop gaming 🙁
Sometimes it just goes that way. We weren’t able to schedule our 1st Cypher System meets Shadow Run game this month and had to push it to next month. The beginning of the month Ted ran his Gryphongaff game and this weekend I ran mine. If nothing else we were at least able to book end the month with gaming. The same day this post goes up we’ll also have our fan game going on. I at least get little extra gaming in.
Couple of weeks ago Nerdarchist Ted hit up the Steam Punk World’s Fair and you can see what he picked up while he was there down below.
Ted’s Man Monster Bag
“Gone But Not Forgotten”- Out of the D&D Encounters Box #4
Introduction:
To Game or Not to Game?
Hello fellow Nerdarchests, I hope to find you all having a great time. I wanted to address an issue some [caption id="" align="alignright" width="350" class="zemanta-img"] The Werewolf of Fever Swamp (TV special) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] of us might have and that is trying to run multiple games...
Gaming like a box of chocolates: D&Dizing Forrest Gump
Run, Forrest, run! The Mobile Feat in action.
Yes, this week I’m doing something silly. The idea occurred to me during a recent road trip. Behind the wheel of a car for hours on end, I had to have something to think about, and a Fifth Edition D&D version of Forrest Gump came to mind. Once I started thinking about it, Gump has a lot more talents than I initially thought.
And to be clear, all references are to the movie version of Forrest Gump, as I’ve not read the books the character is based upon.
I’ll provide some explanations below, but first, his stats:
Forrest Gump — D&D style
“All That Remains” Out of the Box D&D Encounters #3
Introduction:
Out of the Box D&D Encounters #3 – “All That Remains.”
Kickstarter Behemoth is this the new Tarrasque
I try not to share too many Kickstarter projects here, but every once and a while I feel that a project is
200 px (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
worth sharing. Over the years Dungeons and Dragons as well as Pathfinder have released a number of large or should I say gargantuan miniatures. Most of the miniatures I have that get big are Dragons.
Lets face it the game many of us play is called Dungeons and Dragons so why make the other stuff? We as players all want to face down the big bad monsters, save the world, get the treasure and save the girl.
The biggest monster that anyone has put out was the Colossal Red Dragon. It is a wondrous figure and I am happy to say that I do own one. The dragon can actually hold a standard size human in one claw and I typically store one there for fun.
But if you want to deal with something other than dragons what are you options. Not many and there
The Basics: Getting started in Western martial arts
If you came here after reading the headline to this article, your mind is probably filled with images of longswords. While longswords are indeed a major component of the modern trend of Western martial arts, they are by no means the only weapon utilized within the art itself. Also, longswords come from one fairly narrow era of time, mainly from the 14th through 16th centuries, and Western martial arts covers a much broader period, going back at least several thousand years. You will find the study and practice of such weapons as the rapier, the Roman gladius, the bowie knife, and many, many other weapons, many bladed but not all.
Why Western martial arts?
May Dungeon Crate, Tiki Tiki Board Games, and The Weekly Wrap
Hello and well met traveler of the internet Nerdarchist Dave here with another Weekly Wrap. As usual we had a week full of articles here on the website, memes on Facebook, pics on Instagram, and of course videos on YouTube. Essentially it was another week of our regularly scheduled nerdiness.
Last week we announced our monthly game with the fans- Here
“A Friend in Need”- Out of The Box D&D Encounters #2
Out of The Box D&D Encounters #2 - "A Friend in Need" Environment: Variable** Suggested Level: 5-7 ** The environment for this encounter was originally intended as a Wilderness encounter, but there’s no reason why such a location might be found in an urban environment. It could even...
Nerdarchy Revises the 5th Edition Beast Master Ranger
Hello everyone. Now those of you who like the Beast Master as is written in the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Players Handbook can just just consider the options listed below. If you feel, as Nerdarchy does, that the Ranger Beast Master does not hold up in comparison.
So as we see it here are the issues.
Shared Actions. While mechanically this is to make sure that the Ranger with an animal companion is not performing better than the fighter, which is supposed to be the optimal fighter type. Or doing more damage than the Barbarian which is supposed to be the high damage dealing warrior type.
Spell casters have the ability either by magical summoning or by magical control they do not have to give up their action in order for the other to perform their control. We also cannot over look things like familiars which have the ability to act on their own as well.
Review: Challenger, a free role-playing game
The cover of the Challenger RPG.
In the early days of tabletop role-playing games, mainly meaning the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, there was a certain amateur charm and excitement to the products. The artwork was decent, but not quite up to professional levels. The writing was personal, not full of corporate speak, with the occasional error. Even the rules were somewhat questionable, fairly simple but not always making sense.
The Challenger free role-playing game reminds of those days.
Obviously an amateur work, though a work of love, the Challenger game is written as if one of your gaming buddies was sitting across a table from you while excitedly telling you about his or her latest creation. The rules are simple, especially by modern standards, but they still seem to get the job done. The focus is upon rolling fewer dice so the role-playing aspects of the game can shine through, all while working hard to present a
The NAG, Our May Game, and Where is Nate in this Weekly Wrap 5-1-2016
Hello and well met traveler of the internet. Once again Dave here with another edition of our weekly wrap. We’ve got a couple of announcements to go along with what we did last week.
We are extremely happy to announce Mike Gould has joined us and contributing weekly a D&D series here on the website. Mike Gould has been a long time viewer over on the YouTube Channel. He’s notorious for his very long, in depth, and insightful comments on Nerdarchy videos. The series which debuted this week will help Game Masters plop encounters right into their game. The series is called “Out of the Box D&D Encounters”.
First off this is time sensitive the Easy Roller kickStarter is wrapping up in a day and half. It’s funded and they have reached all of their stretch goals. Vid and link below
Gunmetal Polyhedral RPG Dice In Complete Sets
Player Tips – Adding More Class to Your Class – Blood Hunter
Yes I lied last week when I said I was finished . Sorry about that. But we received a bunch of comments and requests to do this for Matthew Mercers Blood Hunter class. Last week we did do the last class in the Players handbook, the Wizard.
So today we are breaking off from the official, PHB classes, and focusing on the awesome class made by Matthew Mercer. I am sure that most of you know this legendary name in table top RPGs. If you do not know who he is feel free to search it out.
The Blood Hunter was created and off of the Witch hunter played by Vin Diesel so how many names can we jam into one article? Now Nerdarchy played a game play testing this class and its three archetypes. You can check out that video here.
If you are unfamiliar with the class there is a pay what you want copy at the DMs Guild here. The Blood Hunter goes further than heroes to defeat the evil, they become that which they fight. The class comes with a stigma and there is some role playing built into the class, but of course you can play it as you see fit.
“Chickening Out”- Out of the Box D&D Encounters #1
We’ve all had those moment. Writer’s Block. You’re out of ideas. Something unexpected happens and you’re not sure how to handle it. A player takes your story down an unintended path and the urban adventure you planned on is now on the road.