Neal Litherland
Bio
Neal Litherland is an author, freelance blogger, and RPG designer. A regular on the Chicago convention circuit, he works in a variety of genres.
Blog: Improved Initiative and The Literary Mercenary
Stories (299/0)
The Blessed
The toughs swaggered into the alley, their hands on their weapons, and sneers on their faces. Their armor was scarred from use, their hands calloused from long hours with blades and bludgeons in their fists, but most telling of all was their eyes. They were hard, and merciless, used to looking at terrible things without so much as flinching. They were cold, and dispassionate. These men were hunting hounds, sent to run prey to ground, and tear it apart for their master.
By Neal Litherlandabout 13 hours ago in Gamers
- Top Story - November 2023
A Little Taste of GlamourTop Story - November 2023
Lorelei panted as she fell through the gateway between worlds. She stumbled, gasping, looking over her shoulder through the half-rotted doorframe leaning against the alley wall. Through the splintered, rotting frame she saw an overgrown world of vibrant green, the branches and vines doing their best to imitate a cityscape. The illusion fell away the further past the door one went, though, and beyond the skeleton of a bush that looked like an Oldsmobile, and a line of trees with vines stretched between them in imitation of telephone poles, there was only the dark, angry green of the Hedge. The branches waved, and something roared as it came closer.
By Neal Litherland7 days ago in Gamers
Beats As Bennies
The Chronicles of Darkness covers a huge variety of monsters, ranging from vampires and werewolves, to the damaged souls of changelings, and the tormented existence of the artificial beings known as Prometheans. Of all the games out there, though, one of the most unique is Deviant: The Renegades. A dark twist on superheroes, Deviants have been broken in ways that leave scars, and they've become something more than human... but also less. Wounded and pursued by dark conspiracies, it is a game unlike anything else the setting has to offer.
By Neal Litherland14 days ago in Gamers
- Top Story - November 2023
The Chessboard MotleyTop Story - November 2023
Miss Bishop leaned back in her chair, and eyed the man who had come into her office before locking the door behind him. He had the lean, ropy musculature of a serpent beneath his cheap suit, and the dead eyes of a shark. She could see where he was packing a heater on his hip, and she had no doubt he was good with it. Good enough to do the job he was usually hired to do, at least.
By Neal Litherland28 days ago in Gamers
5 Questions Every Changeling: The Lost Player Should Ask
There are worlds beyond this one. If you catch the whispers from forgotten doors, or follow the smell of goldenrod down a crumbling alley, you may soon find yourself lost in a world of the impossible. Bizarre creatures stalk you from the underbrush, and the seasons change at a moment's notice. You hear horns in the distance, and before long, the pounding of hooves as the hunters catch your scent.
By Neal Litherlandabout a month ago in Gamers
How To Build a Blood Angels Space Marine in The Pathfinder RPG
Mankind was once ascendant. We rose from the dust and dirt of our ruined world in an attempt to retake the stars, and to remind the galaxy that we were a force to be reckoned with. While the Great Crusade was filled with a thousand horrors, one of the brightest lights that guided humanity was the Primarch Sanguinius. A radiant, golden figure, his beauty was second only to his righteous wrath. Though he was betrayed and slain by his brother Horus, Sanguinius's legacy lives on in his gene sons... the IX legion of space marines and their successor chapters, the Blood Angels!
By Neal Litherlandabout a month ago in Gamers
Character Background- The Experiment
"Once more, I need to emphasize that even if this works, it will be an extremely painful process," Daranoth said. "Just do it," Wikkam said. The young man sucked in a breath, the air rattling in his thin chest. For all the frailty in his body, though, there was steel in his eyes. He had made up his mind.
By Neal Litherland2 months ago in Gamers
How Did You Learn Your Magic?
"I'm sorry," Tara said, her tongue touching her bottom lip. "Did you just say you didn't attend an academy?" "You heard me correctly," the tall, young man said, leaning on his ash wood walking staff. Tara put on her best polite smile, but it was strained around the edges.
By Neal Litherland2 months ago in Gamers
Down and Dirty Combat in The Chronicles of Darkness
Combat is a part of most RPGs, because sooner or later someone is going to try to solve problems through the application of extreme force. And while some games keep combat extremely bare bones, Chronicles of Darkness offers players a lot of dynamic options when it comes to their violent delights. There's melee combat with bare-handed options, grappling, and weapons, there's firearms (including mechanics for armor, cover, distance, etc.), thrown weapons, falling damage, environmental damage, supernatural powers, and of course vehicular combat (which I recently talked about in Vehicular Combat is Always an Option), and that's without getting into your expanded options from fighting style merits, or all the shiny options in books like Hurt Locker.
By Neal Litherland2 months ago in Gamers
Where The Red Flowers Bloom
Tanaka ran from the sounds of gunfire, his steps splashing through puddles of stagnant water and fresh blood. The broken tiles were slick beneath his boots, though, and he went down in a heap. Pain raced up his leg, and he clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle a scream. For a moment the world went gray, and the sweat running down his cheeks felt cold. The world tried to fall away from him. He gritted his teeth, and focused on his breathing. If he passed out now he was going to die… the only question was whether he would wake up before a bullet found him.
By Neal Litherland3 months ago in Fiction
Adventuring as a Mid-Life Crisis
A heavyset man in boiled leather armor dismounted from what looked like a hard-shoed plow horse, and approached the seneschal's table. The man didn't look like much at a glance. He was tall and broad-shouldered, it was true, but his wide middle looked more at-home behind the bar of a tavern, and what hair he had left was starting to go gray. The sword at his side was old, and dust still clung to the grooves of the hand guard, but he seemed familiar enough with it.
By Neal Litherland3 months ago in Gamers
Name, Rank, and Serial Number in Werewolf: The Apocalypse
The garou in Werewolf: The Apocalypse have a lot of customs and traditions, many of which go back for thousands of years, and are specific to particular tribes, camps, and so forth. While I've played a variety of chronicles in this particular game in both the tabletop and in LARP settings, though, there is one, particular tradition (a formality, really) that I feel gets overdone to the point that it becomes a rote reflex. And doing that, I think, reduces it to just another game mechanic rather than actually marking events as special, or noteworthy.
By Neal Litherland3 months ago in Gamers
