Exciting New Content — Without AI-generated Images

After recent work on professional RPG projects, I’m bringing this newsletter back with regular content featuring only human-created artwork.

Recent Shenanigans

I hope everyone is staying safe, enjoying life, and finding time to play games despite the stresses and uncertainties of these interesting times. For me it’s been a very busy start to the year! Along with contract work and the history podcast I produce with my sister — check out Chainsaw History if you’re interested — I’ve been writing for some very exciting projects. Jump down to the bottom if you’re more interested in what I’m doing here on Backstab.

Start Here Roleplaying Game

TSR alumnus Tim Beach has long been refining the ruleset for a game that might feel familiar to fantasy RPG veterans but is nonetheless easy to learn and accessible to newcomers. You roll a d20 as the basis of any action, tied to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. But Start Here focuses on quick resolution and simplicity with just enough crunch for players who enjoy mechanics and dice rolls. This affordable box set will include everything a group needs to get started.

There are multiple settings included with the game, giving you options for adventure in different eras and genres. I wrote the adventure material for the fantasy setting called Serpents & Strongholds — a place that might seem like a traditional fantasy world at first glance but also has things in common with Land of the Lost! I was excited and honored to join a team led by Tim that includes Misha Bushyager, Ed Greenwood, Jennell Jaquays (Rest In Peace, my friend), C.A. Suleiman, and Elisa Teague. The artists bringing this vision to life include Rob Carlos, Larry Elmore, and Todd Lockwood.

Start Here has great potential to become a “gateway drug” for hobby roleplaying games (great metaphor, Jamie!), as it presents a system easy to learn but with enough DNA in common with the world’s most popular roleplaying game that player knowledge and experience carries over if a player decides to try a more complicated game system later on. Check out the article by GeekMom or check out the Start Here crowdfunding page for more information.

Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf

Dungeons & Dragons released its first add-on the year I was born. It was a “little brown book” depicting the silhouette of a castle perched on a hill in front of moonlit clouds, titled Supplement II: Blackmoor by Dave Arneson. Among other things, the little book introduced the Monk and Assassin character classes to the game, a bunch of new monsters (hello Umber Hulk!), and the very first fleshed-out adventure: “The Temple of the Frog.” Blackmoor was D&D co-creator Dave Arneson’s personal and original campaign and it was presented in adventure modules and setting material just as Gary Gygax pulled material from his Greyhawk campaign for eventual publication. Blackmoor has gone on to have different incarnations on The Known World (Mystara), Oerth (the World of Greyhawk), and as its own independent setting. I was lucky enough to meet and spend a little time with Dave when he visited RockCon the year before he passed away.

Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf is material first developed under Dave’s supervision and approval, finally completed and published on the 50^th anniversary of the world-changing game he helped create. Read the press release for more details!

The Lost Tomb of Doom

Speaking of Dave Arneson, the annual convention that celebrates his legacy is honoring another legendary figure in hobby games: James M. Ward. He launched his career with another first-generation D&D supplement: Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes before going on to write and design so many things you should just type his name into a search engine and be gobsmacked by just how prolific the man was. Jim was my friend for decades, and I was lucky to work with him on many different projects. I’m sad to report that Jim passed away recently, leaving behind many loved ones and fans who are still grieving his loss.

This year at DaveCon, Angry Dwarf Games will release a limited edition of The Lost Tomb of Doom. Written in 2020, this module is a classic Jim Ward adventure inspired by his love of Egyptian mythology and archeology. It’s written to be system agnostic but very friendly to old-school D&D or OSR games, and is a deliciously lethal dungeon crawl that will wipe out a party that isn’t both lucky and careful. It was my honor to introduce the adventure with a Foreword, though bittersweet it’s for one of his final published works. As Jim spent his later years warning gamers about lifestyle health risks, Angry Dwarf Games is donating all profits from Lost Tomb to the Diabetes Foundation in Jim’s name for gamer outreach and education. Click here to learn more on the DaveCon website.

Backstab Is Back!

I’ve been having a lot of fun writing game and setting material, and I have no intention of stopping now. I’m in talks with other publishers for work to begin later this year, but I still have availability as of this writing to take on additional projects as scheduling and deadlines allow. Please contact me if you’re interested in my services! Meanwhile …

This space began as a fun project for tracking the development of the newest Dungeons & Dragons edition but quickly evolved into a place to show off design ideas and broader topics related to tabletop gaming. I put this site on the backburner while I completed local contract work and game writing, but today I’m committing to producing regular content in the hopes that you fine folks will find value in it and pay me for my work!

Here’s what I have planned:

• The Strategic Retrospective (TSR). In the Spring of 1975 the publisher of D&D put out a newsletter called The Strategic Review, the precursor to Dragon magazine. Every issue offered insight into the rules or lore of the game and expanded entries to cover a wide range of nerd topics. As a “child of TSR,” I thought it would be fun to revisit the old issues and find ideas. So we’ll have a regular “TSR” feature where I create content inspired by something I found in the publication, going all the way back to that very first issue printed when I was literally a baby.

• Worldbuilder. I spent my career as a writer and game designer playing in other people’s sandboxes—from dragon-riding warriors to space cowboys to supernatural hunters to mutants on a spaceship. But a few years back I started fiddling with some ideas for a fantasy setting suitable for D&D and used it as the basis for a published adventure and a campaign I livestreamed for the whole world to see. Now it’s time to follow the lead of Tolkien, Greenwood, Hickman, Le Guin, and more by turning the ideas into a real fleshed-out setting. I’ve never done this before! Join me as I piece together an unnamed world that reflects my ideas and themes.

• Oddities & Artifacts. You know this idea if you’ve poked around this site before! This is where I take inspiration from a roadside attraction or local oddity and reimagine it as game content for the world’s most popular roleplaying game. Previously we’ve looked at a rampaging kaiju chicken and a monstrous horse-shaped guardian of a lost city, but who knows what we’ll find when I turn roadside America into content for your next game!

• Other Stuff! The above will be recurring, rotating features here on Backstab. But I can’t promise I won’t throw in more ideas as they occur to me, be they crunchy game mechanics or fluffy DM advice. If it seems fun and potentially valuable, I’ll write it out and share it here.

Commitment: No AI Artwork

Anyone looking back at previous entries will note that each one was illustrated by images generated by Midjourney AI. I will be the first to admit that I became entranced by AI image creators when they first hit the scene. As someone who draws about as well as the average second-grader but is good at describing things with words, these tools seemed like magic. And in the absence of other information it seemed like an ideal replacement for public domain or clip art that I would have used previously.

I was wrong.

Like many others, I did not think through the issues and implications related to generative AI. But now that I have educated myself and discussed things at length with other professionals, it’s an easy choice to make. I have had the privilege of working with some of the best artists in the game, such as Elmore, Easley, Engle, and Archer, to name a few. Ultimately, I will always side with artists and fellow creatives. The community has spoken and we reject the use of generative AI images.

My very first cover credit was graced by Larry Elmore’s artwork.

I'm committed to supporting human artists; all images from this point forward will be 100% human-created. It might take a little more time and work to hunt down images to pair with the content, but promoting the work of actual people is worth it. A lot of illustrators and other working artists have taken a serious hit in the wake of the AI revolution, so consider making the extra effort to support your favorites by purchasing prints or subscribing to their crowdfunding efforts.

If you’d like to understand some of the issues regarding AI art as it relates to tabletop games, my friend Mr. Welch shares many of my views:

The Beacons Are Lit — Jamie Calls For Aid!

I will spend the coming months creating the stuff mentioned above—game material and setting ideas and retro-callbacks and any other crazy ideas I come up with. If you like what you see and want to support these efforts please put me to work by supporting Backstab With A Ballista in one of the following ways …

• Subscribe Here on Substack!

• Support via Patreon!

• One-Time Tip via PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, or Ko-Fi!

Thank you to everyone who has supported the newsletter while I was off working on other projects.. Now it’s time to justify your love by writing something neat for your next session. Call up your friends, grab your dice, and game on!