Now available from DrivethruRPG is "People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: Cattle Drive."
This six-page PDF uses a variation of the Chase Rules to recreate cattle drives. It includes stats for cowhands, background information, and ten plot hooks, and is intended for use with Wild West settings using the Savage Worlds RPG.
-Nate
People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: Cattle Drive
For this and the past three years at Con of the North, I've been running scenarios that involve neo-Nazi antagonists. It started with an idea for one scenario that split into two. While I was writing “Infernal Devices” (for 2023), I realized that what the thieves were trying to steal would lead into a whole other scenario, which became “The Dead Man's Tale” (2024). “Crowning Achievement” (2025) stood on its own, and ended in a place that set up a potential showdown. Wanting to venture into new territory in the future, I wrote “The Thule Ultimatum” to resolve that arc. It sees the heroes being brought into the enemy stronghold—but first I needed to capture them.
That didn't go as I'd hoped.
I started with the heroes aboard a boat in the North Sea. Aboard the boat I put goons armed with stun guns, and thought I might be able to zap the heroes into submission. That's not how it worked. In the first session, I rolled Stealth for the villains as they surreptitiously tried to surround the heroes for an ambush. My roll was a Botch! Not surprised in the slightest, the heroes made pretty quick work of the villains. They then drove the boat into the enemy stronghold anyway and bluffed their way into having the evil Dr. Ingo Hartmann come aboard it, where they subdued him and his berserker bodyguard.
In the second session, the heroes still recognized the ambush; I rolled an 11 for Stealth, but so did one of the heroes for Notice. The fight proved to be a good deal tougher, however, and the bad guys had a couple of the heroes down on the ground with their stun guns. The heroes still won out, however. They drove the boat close to the stronghold, donned SCUBA gear, and went into the water. Thus they snuck into the stronghold, managed to steal some uniforms, and then claimed to be guards (Vaughn, Gavin, Jerry and Linh) who'd captured interlopers (Thaddeus and Magdalena).
Both sides found Professor Hall, strapped into a chair and hooked up to an IV, on top of the howe (burial mound) that the neo-Nazis had built as a nexus of evil arcane energy. My idea with that was that the players needed to solve riddles, to help Hall mentally and spiritually overcome three challenges from Norse mythology. The first group did so. In the second session, however, Jerry pulled his pistol and shot one of the guards, opening combat.
I tried to make the fight more challenging this year, since it seemed a little underwhelming in the second session last year. In addition to Dr. Hartmann, an occultist, I included a Wild Card berserker bodyguard name Hans and plenty of goons. I was pleased with how the big fight went in both sessions. The first table played with more of a run-and-gun style after helping Professor Hall solve the riddles. The heroes at the second table locked themselves in the chamber with the howe and fought the main bad guys, and then, as the remaining goons were cutting down the door with fire axes, burst out and made a run for it. Gavin had Dr. Hartmann in a chokehold with a combat baton, forcing the goons to hold their fire. That scene ended with Linh firing a flare into some fuel barrels, triggering a string of explosions, while Gavin broke the evil occultist's neck and dumped him into the water. It was fun!
Available now from DrivethruRPG is "Allies & Enemies."
This short supplement, for use with Treasure Hunter Adventures and the Savage Worlds RPG, presents two NPCs with stats, plot hooks, and locations related to their activities. #FFFFebruary
-Nate
"The Mission" is now available from DrivethruRPG.com.
This eight-page scenario, for use with the Savage Worlds RPG, sees the heroes recruited to accompany a band of pilgrims to reopen an old Catholic mission in the Southwest. There is more to the story, however, including evidence of a valuable discovery and a long-concealed murder.
-Nate
People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: The Mission
Here's a recap of the year for me in gaming. It has been a little bit quiet, which is okay.
In 2024, my group and I struggled to find consistent play. We finished up a Star Wars campaign by the spring, and due to a variety of reasons didn't start anything regular in the fall. I did run some Savage Worlds for some of the guys, both Treasure Hunter Adventures and People, Plots and Places of the Wild West. For the most part we played virtually.
That changed in 2024, when we regained a player and the group decided to start a Freeport campaign using the Pathfinder 1E rules. This gave me a chance to run the "The Ironjack Legacy" scenario from the big Pathfinder Freeport book released back in 2014. That took us all the way to summer break, and in the fall we started Plunder & Peril. Since we play every other week, that module has taken us until the end of 2025, but I have a couple of other scenarios in the queue for next year.
Over the course of the year I released three one-sheet supplements for Treasure Hunter Adventures: "Ritual Magic," "Pandemonium" and "The Ossuary." This is all material that didn't find a home in other supplements; hopefully it's been useful for people.
So far I've released a supplement and a short scenario for People, Plots & Places of the Wild West: "Military Fort" and "A Horse Without a Rider." I have one more ready that I plan on releasing before the end of the year, a longer scenario.
My two biggest writing projects of the year were both for Treasure Hunter Adventures. First there was "Artifacts & Enigmas of the Knights Templar." After focusing on the American Revolution last year, this seemed like a natural follow-up. That disbanded order is so steeped in legends that it was easy to find material. I also added "O.S.S. Report on the Holy Alliance," exploring an organization that I found intriguing.
Lastly, I released one little Spelljammer scenario for D&D 5E: "Kith and Kin." That had been fermenting in my brain for a while, and I finally finished it on a day when my son was home from school sick. I still haven't picked up the new D&D books from 2024, and don't have much of an impetus for doing so since I'm not playing it right now. Still, I hope one day to run another Spelljammer campaign using Graveyard of the Gods, and I think "Kith and Kin" would be the first scenario for doing that.
-Nate
This entry will present the books that I've read as research for my People, Plots and Places of the Wild West series. I will try to work through them in order, starting with the ones I read for PDFs released in 2024.
-Nate
Appendix N for People, Plots and Places of the Wild West
Title: The American West
Author: Dee Brown, with photos edited by Martin F. Schmitt
Publisher and Date: Touchstone, 1994
Overview:
This book is an excellent, thorough overview for the history of European settlement in the American West, from the first fur trappers in the wilderness to the end of what people call the “Old West.” It is, in my opinion, a great place to start reading about the topic, from which other books can fill in details about more specific elements.
Title: The Rivermen
Author: Paul O'Neil
Publisher and Date: Time Life Books, 1975
Overview:
This book focuses on river activity in the Old West, especially steamboats. It was quite helpful when I was writing supporting material for “The Riverboat.” The last chapter tells of the steamer Far West and its race to bring survivors and news from the Battle of the Little Bighorn back to Bismarck, which was a gripping tale.
Title: Fort Robinson and the American West, 1874-1899
Author: Thomas R. Buecker
Publisher and Date: Red River Books/University of Oklahoma Press, 2003
Overview:
This is a good example of a book that focuses on a specific topic. It tells the story of this fort, from the events of its construction, through its role in numerous conflicts with Native people, to a time when it was becoming obsolete. While it could be a bit dry at times, it provided many useful details while I was working on “Military Fort.”
Title: The Soldiers
Author: David Nevin
Publisher and Date: Time Life Books, 1975
Overview:
This is an example of pairing a Time Life Book with another text. Specifically, I read it along with the Fort Robinson book mentioned above. It complimented that book well, providing a solid overview of life in the frontier Army, especially while the soldiers were on trail.
Back in 2024 I shared a link to some music on Youtube, "Soundtrack from an Imaginary Western." I was pleasantly surprised to see, while listening to that this morning, that it has a sequel!
Soundtrack from an Imaginary Western
-Nate
Now available from DrivethruRPG is "People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: A Horse Without a Rider."
People, Plots and Places of the Wild West: A Horse Without a Rider
This six-page scenario, for use with the Savage Worlds RPG, starts when a horse returns to Fort Phillips without its rider, launching a search for the band of settlers with which it was traveling.
I am excited to once again be running Treasure Hunter Adventures at Con of the North in 2026. The scenario for 2026 is called "The Thule Ultimatum." It wraps up a series of adventures involving neo-Nazi sympathizers and their hunt for relics intended to support their evil machinations. The rounds are 10:00 - 2:00 on Saturday and Sunday.
https://www.conofthenorth.org/
-Nate
I am sad to read about the passing of Drew Struzan, an artist perhaps best known for his iconic movie posters. His work captures the quintessential feeling of many great films, ones that certainly inspired me in the RPG hobby.
https://www.ign.com/articles/legendary-movie-poster-artist-drew-struzan-dies-at-78
-Nate
What do you do when you're home from work with a sick kid? Put the finishing touches on a little D&D adventure, of course!
Now available from DrivethruRPG is Captain Quin's Logbook: Kith and Kin.
"This scenario is written for a new party of 1st-level Player Characters, with the goal, by the end of it, of introducing them to the wonders of the Spelljammer campaign setting; they should advance to 2nd level by the time it is finished. It involves a plot by a marooned plasmoid to coerce the lizard folk of a deserted island into diving for sunken treasure, by holding their eggs captive."
Captain Quin's Logbook: Kith and Kin
This supplement started as an idea for a scenario at a gathering with some old college Gaming Club friends; it reuses a map from my first convention scenario for Treasure Hunter Adventures, "The Templar Mystery." I ended up not having a chance to run it over the summer, and so decided to use it as a release for #SWAGtember.
-Nate
This short supplement presents a nefarious plot to refit an old Templar church as a shrine to demonic powers. It is designed for use with the Savage Worlds RPG and Treasure Hunter Adventures, released for #SWAGtember and just in time for spooky season.
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This movie came out back in May, but I just had a chance to sit and watch it. Here are some thoughts.
The chases at the start of this movie are reckless! It's hard for me to like a movie if I don't like the protagonists, and it's hard for me like a hero who endangers innocent bystanders.
What's with the dream sequences? They seem to relate to an experience that Luke had with his dad, but it isn't really explained.
Luke seems manipulative, too. He causes his sister to lose her job, and then seems to dismiss it because he believed she'd be happier on a treasure hunt. She has a family to support! Once again, it does not make him likable.
Bringing a section of the Lusitania to the surface was interesting. I doubt that the science behind it works, but it made for some cool action scenes.
We have multiple groups of rivals pursuing the prize, but we don't know much about who they are. A little more back story for them would have made the rest of the movie more engaging for me as the viewer.
The sibling squabbling gets old.
Using music for puzzles was a cool idea. It also gives the young character something important to do, which isn't always the case.
That mechanism underneath the pyramid would have to be massive. They make for an exciting scene as they start to retract, though.
All in all, I didn't particularly like this movie. I think it was due to not feeling invested in the characters. There are several big fight scenes in which lots of guns are used, and I found that I wasn't especially concerned about who would survive them.
Now available on DriveThruRPG is OSS Report on the Holy Alliance.
This supplement, for use with the Savage Worlds RPG and Treasure Hunter Adventures, presents the secret service organization of the Vatican. It includes a short history of the Papacy, two bases of operations, stats for agents, three new relics, a puzzle, and more than a dozen plot hooks.
-Nate
OSS Report on the Holy Alliance
This code system is used by the Holy Alliance to protect important parcels of information.
-Nate
Here's the first preview of O.S.S. Report on the Holy Alliance, a supplement that details the secret service of the Vatican. This preview presents two bases of operations for Holy Alliance agents, a little country church and a towering cathedral.
-Nate
As I was tracking down the four movies featured in Monday's post, it occurred to me that I should type up a post that lists which treasure hunter films are available on the various streaming platforms. Here is that. Note that I did not include non-fiction shows.
Amazon Prime: Lost Treasure of the Maya; National Treasure: Book of Secrets
AppleTV+: Fountain of Youth
Disney+: All five Indiana Jones movies; National Treasure; National Treasure: Book of Secrets; National Treasure: Edge of History (series)
Hulu: None?
Max: King Solomon's Mines (1950); The Goonies; Uncharted
Netflix: Finding 'Ohana; Mr. Car and the Knights Templar; Outer Banks (series); The Monuments Men; Tomb Raider: The Rise of Lara Croft (animated series)
Tubi: Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold; Firewalker; King Solomon's Mines (1985); the Librarian trilogy; Tomb Raider (2018)—and that's where I'll pause the list. A search for the word treasure turned up lots and lots of movies, most of questionable quality.
Please feel free to add comments with anything that I missed, or if some of the movies on Tubi turn out to be pretty good.
Here are some ways to use recent Treasure Hunter Adventures supplements and scenarios in the world of Indiana Jones.
Generic Heroes
These print-and-play characters work just as well in the 1930s as they do in the modern day, with the possible exception of the Technician. Even so, if that character functions more as a mechanic, then it can work, too.
The Shrine of the Sybil
The notion of exploring tunnels and caverns beneath Rome takes on added drama if there are Nazis present in the city, as during the build-up to World War II, or if the Allies are bombing it. The heroes could be racing to finish this adventure as the bombs are falling!
Past, Present and Future
The events of this scenario are affected in the same way as The Shrine of the Sybil, above.
The Reckoning
The finale for the Apotheosis Campaign ties up any loose ends from previous adventures, and so it is limited only by what has happened during previous scenarios.
Apotheosis Campaign Guide
Limitations do not apply to this supplement, which just provides guidance for running the scenarios in the campaign.
Curses!
This shot supplement is not affected by time period.
OSS Report on the Invisible College
The OSS came into existence at the start of World War II, meaning that it wasn't around during the time period of the first three films. In Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, however, it is revealed that Indy and Mac worked for the OSS, and they would have been active during the period depicted early in Dial of Destiny. In fact, Basil Shaw could be a member of the Invisible College!
The Ship in the Ice
This shot supplement is not affected by time period.
Artifacts & Enigmas of the American Revolution
All of the historical events related to the relics and puzzles in this supplement have happened by the time Indy is born. It is fun to imagine, though, the excitement that could arise regarding these items after the events in Dial of Destiny, when an old but not retired Indy is present for the bicentennial celebration of American independence, before and during 1976.
Ritual Magic
This short supplement is not affected by time period.
Artifacts & Enigmas of the Knights Templar
Similarly, this supplement is chock full of material that would fit easily into adventures and campaigns. Additionally, the Templars can be an additional faction that is involved in the conflict. They might be seeking revenge against the Vatican, or they could be promoting the fighting in general and taking advantage of it in order to acquire relics and lore for themselves.
Pandemonium
Because it assumes that adventures and campaigns are using the High Magic style of play, and focuses on demons, this supplement may not be appropriate for the world Indiana Jones.
Apparently, if you released a treasure hunter movie in 1985, then you had to make a music video for it, too.
When the Going Gets Tough
This song plays during the end credits from Jewel of the Nile, and the phrase itself is a them throughout the film.
The Goonies R Good Enough
This song takes it to a whole other level by combining Cyndi Lauper, WWF Superstars, and a favorite film from my childhood.
For the past few year's I've been in the habit of blogging about Indiana Jones during the month of June. It started in 2021, which marked the fortieth anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 2024 I had a lot of family stuff happening, and so did manage to post anything. This year I intend to make up for that. In fact, the combination of these two years makes for a starting theme, since the years 1984-85 brought a wave of treasure hunter movies that seemed like they wanted to ride the wave of Raiders' popularity.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
I wrote a “Watching Again” post about this movie back in 2023, during the lead-up to Dial of Destiny arriving in theaters (https://d20pirates.blogspot.com/2023/06/watching-again-indiana-jones-and-temple.html). Since then, however, I've read a number of articles calling out its racist character depictions and White Savior narrative.
Romancing the Stone (1984)
Whereas The Goonies definitely appeals to the kid in me, this one has grown on me as I've gotten older. Here are a few reasons why.
The chemistry between Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, as Jack Colton and Joan Wilder, is great. As much as I like that of Harrison Ford and Karen Allen in Raiders, this takes it to a whole other level.
Danny DeVito makes a great foil for them, too. He is a villain, yes, but a likable one—especially when his character Ralph is contrasted with his on-screen brother, Ira.
The prize in this story, a huge emerald shaped like a heart, is not so interesting, in my opinion. That's not important, however, since what matters is the goals of the protagonists that matter. Jack wants to buy a boat and sail around the world; Joan is looking for real-life romance. In chasing after the stone, they find those things.
There are good action sequences, none of them too grandiose, but executed well.
The ending of this story just feels good.
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The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
This movie has not aged as well as its predecessor, and here's why.
This movie quickly undoes a lot of what the heroes accomplished in the first movie. Normally that would bother me, but they do it so quickly that the I don't have much time to think about it.
The plot involves a mishmash of Arab, Egyptian and Muslim elements, all taking place in “Africa” somewhere. This is another example of someone writing a story and wanting to use the feel of a culture without actually representing that culture accurately.
To its credit, the story tries to do something different, making a twist on the hunt for a valuable gem by having the Jewel be a person.
The jet scene is fun. It strikes me as something that the players in an RPG session would actually try to do.
The heroes' visit to the Nubians doubles down on cultural mishmash. We end up with a fight for Joan's hand, and end with a dance party. Again, it would be nice if they tried to represent the culture accurately.
I do like the finale. The notion of hiring a rock concert producer to stage manage Omar's political rally makes for a great backdrop, and there's plenty of opportunity for exciting action.
The Goonies (1985)
Here are my thoughts.
The opening sequence of this film provides a great chance to introduce each character, giving a little insight into their backgrounds and recent activities.
This whole thing is a chase that lasts about a day, moving through a mapped location that is filled with puzzler, traps, discoveries and other details. It would be interesting to try writing—and running—a scenario like this.
The subplot about losing their homes adds to the drama, much like the characters' goals did in Romancing the Stone. A pirate ship and treasure is cool in its own right, but the fact that they're fighting against rich developers makes it even sweeter.
These are fun villains, too. Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano and Anne Ramsey would each make for a memorable bad guy in their own right; together they are quite the ensemble.
This all sets up a slam-bang ending, with not one but two great moments: first, Rosalita finds what's in the marble bag; and second, One-Eyed Willy's pirate ship goes on one last cruise.
King Solomon's Mines (1985)
I might look at this movie in a later post. For now, however, I'm not willing to pay the money to rent or buy it.
