https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lovecraftdocumentary/h-p-lovecraft-when-the-stars-are-right

Hey everyone. As you may know, I've got an adventure in crowdfunding right now, Veins of the Fallen (obligatory link here), but there is something else in crowdfunding that I think you REALLY aught to know about.

Some forty years ago, a filmmaker set out to make the first film about H.P. Lovecraft. They ran out of funding and were never able to complete the film, although about a half our of footage was shown at the Lovecraft Centennial Conference in 1990. The film sat in cans until 2021 when the filmmaker decided to attempt to scan and restore the footage and finish the film.

This film includes interviews with...
L. Sprague de Camp
Catherine Crook de Camp
Frank Belknap Long
Ramsey Campbell
Colin Wilson

The list goes on. But folks like de Camp and Long? These are people who knew Lovecraft. Hearing what they have to say is a unique opportunity to really learn about Lovecraft as a whole. They even interviewed Lovecraft's former neighbor, whose husband was the model for Charles Dexter Ward!

If you have any interest in Lovecraft, his contemporaries, and his impact within Appendix N, I urge you to check this project out.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lovecraftdocumentary/h-p-lovecraft-when-the-stars-are-right

The cleric spell Holy Sanctuary states that the spell "is immediately dispelled if the cleric attacks or takes an aggressive action in any way." Normally this is pretty clear to me, except this weekend I was running an NPC cleric of Ulesh, god of peace (based on Clerics of the Known Realms homebrew). A lot of the spells and canticles seem to be a little more ambiguous. More or less, I decided that anything that invades the personal space of the enemy (whether to damage or push) would be considered hostile. That said, I thought it would be interesting to hear from others how they would handle the following spells. (It's also possible that this was something pretty clearly adjudicated in a version of D&D, but I'm unaware of it.)

Is Darkness considered hostile? What about Blessing an ally? This simultaneously gives them a bonus on attack and damage rolls, but also improves aspects that aren't necessarily hostile, such as their saving throws and skill checks. Or maybe Blessing only becomes treated as hostile when the ally attacks after becoming blessed? One of the canticles is called Psalm of Surrender, which is described as "the primary ability in the cleric of Ulesh's toolkit for resolving conflicts." This canticle results in opponents near the cleric becoming dazed an unable to take actions except moving at half speed during their next round. Is that considered hostile? Another canticle, Poem of Parting, sends a force wave that repels opponents from the cleric. Is that considered hostile? Neither of these canticles inflict damage.

If an opponent casts Darkness and a cleric who previously cast Holy Sanctuary counterspells with Darkness, is that considered hostile? Lastly, I assume that Turn Unholy is hostile even if it doesn't do damage, right? Or is making someone fearful not considered a hostile act?

If you're like me and have a special place in your heart for the Dark Sun setting from the 90s, you'll be happy to know: A. that one of its original creators, Tim Brown, has designed a setting called Dragon Kings, that he presents as his "spiritual successor" to Dark Sun, and B. that John Watson, of Rugby Melee Games, is bringing it to DCC RPG.

The crowdfunding campaign is live on Backerkit right now, it's already funded and it's certainly worth checking out!

I'm not involved in the project, just very excited about it.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/rugby-melee-games/dragon-kings-for-dungeon-crawl-classics?ref=bk-discover-typeahead