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Raging Swan Press
Resources for busy GMs

Welcome to the Raging Swan Press blog. Herein you’ll find resource and advice articles to make your game better. From time to time, we’ll also post exciting Raging Swan Press news!

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Featured Posts

Featured
Languard: City of Adventure, Explained
May 14, 2025
Ashlar, GM's Resource
Languard: City of Adventure, Explained
May 14, 2025
Ashlar, GM's Resource
May 14, 2025
Ashlar, GM's Resource
GMs! Details Matter
Apr 11, 2025
GM's Resource
GMs! Details Matter
Apr 11, 2025
GM's Resource
Apr 11, 2025
GM's Resource
Dressed vs. Undressed: An Example of Play
Nov 5, 2024
GM's Resource
Dressed vs. Undressed: An Example of Play
Nov 5, 2024
GM's Resource
Nov 5, 2024
GM's Resource
Dungeon Dressing Explained
Oct 8, 2024
GM's Resource
Dungeon Dressing Explained
Oct 8, 2024
GM's Resource
Oct 8, 2024
GM's Resource

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Recent Posts

Check out our recent posts, many of which include free downloads, or visit the Archive to browse all our blog posts.

The Blind Fiddler
The Blind Fiddler

The Blind Fiddler offers cheap beer, sour wine and wild times. Raucous laughter, drunken singing and wild yells often come from this ramshackle tavern. Kuura Tuntia (N male human), the gregarious alcoholic owner, welcomes any with coin. Drinking here isn’t for the faint-hearted.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 22, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second LocaleComment
Ventla’s Lament
Ventla’s Lament

Ventla’s Lament threads its narrow, crooked and gloom-shrouded way through the slum. Named for a streetwalker found dead years ago it is a fetid, dangerous place. Desperate, predatory folk live in the tottering houses flanking the alley. The watch never come here.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 21, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second AlleyComment
20 Pieces of Pit Dressing
20 Pieces of Pit Dressing

Pits are a lurking danger that have spelled the doom of countless adventurers. Pits can be used to kill, injure or trap intruders, to block progress or to prevent escape. An explorer trapped in a pit with no way of getting out is at the mercy of the first creature or character to discover their predicament.

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GM's ResourceCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 21, 2021Dungeon Dressing, 20 ThingsComment
Tuure Raita
Tuure Raita

Tuure Raita (NE old male human) sculpts lifelike waxen figures which he paints, dresses and displays in a back room museum of his chandlery. Some figures depict normal folk. Others take more blasphemous, disturbing forms. Tuure emits a faint miasmic scent.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 20, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second NPC, Ten-Second Low CityComment
The Bard & Pyre
The Bard & Pyre

The Bard & Pyre is a place for serious and quiet drinking and gambling. Brawls are frequent, and deaths not unheard of, in this cellar tavern. Its dour owner, the ex-pirate Ari Tapo (NE male human), hates singing, dancing and music.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 19, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second LocaleComment
10 Things to Find in a Gelatinous Cube
10 Things to Find in a Gelatinous Cube

Quintessential dungeon scavengers, gelatinous cubes engulf all in their path. Untold numbers of neophyte adventurers have met their doom in the depths of a gelatinous cube. Sometimes their death leaves behind treasure for luckier, or more skilled, adventurers to retrieve.

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GM's ResourceCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 18, 202120 Things, Dungeon Dressing, Creature DressingComment
The Broken Path
The Broken Path

The Broken Path meanders passed scores of once well-to-do homes. High walls pierced by locked or bricked-up gates flank the path. Overshadowed by hoary trees, moss and weeds grow thickly in this cobbled, little-used alley.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 18, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second AlleyComment
Sipi Vihas
Sipi Vihas

Sipi Vihas (CN male human) walks with a bad limp and rails against the injustice that put him in that cart’s way. A self-proclaimed genius he has many views on many things, but few friends. Sipi wears old, stained robes. He rarely shaves or washes.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 15, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second NPC, Ten-Second Low CityComment
What Makes a Dungeon Awesome?
What Makes a Dungeon Awesome?

Dungeons are literally the bedrock of the hobby. They have been a core concept of the game from the first campaigns. 

All dungeons are not created equal, however. Some are great, some are terrible and some are mediocre. 

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QuestionCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 14, 2021GM Question, Player Question Comments
Kaleva’s Cuts
Kaleva’s Cuts

Kaleva’s Cuts hides a dark secret. Kaleva is a Braalite cultist and uses his butcher’s shop to dispose of his sacrifices’ remains. The shop backs onto a rowdy pub and the noise from its taproom masks any odd sounds coming from Kaleva’s workshop.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 14, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second LocaleComment
Dead Man’s Court
Dead Man’s Court

Dead Man’s Court huddles within a ring of lofty, dilapidated tenements. A covered passage cuts through each building to the shadow-filled, cobbled court. Corpses discovered here with shocking regularity spawn lurid rumours of ghosts, vampires and cultists.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 13, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second AlleyComment
Rusi Niera
Rusi Niera

Rusi Niera (N old male human) “worries” about the local whores and works tirelessly to save them from themselves. A wealthy merchant this clever letch professes deep religious beliefs, but is a hypocrite and bounder. Skinny and bald, Rusi dresses well.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 12, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second NPC, Ten-Second Low CityComment
To Cut a Long Story Short... Announcing Storylines!
To Cut a Long Story Short... Announcing Storylines!
GM's ResourceCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 11, 2021The Lonely Coast, Dungeon Backdrop, StorylineComment
Coppers
Coppers

Coppers offers a vast array of wares. Disorganised, piled-high shelves fill the shop’s dingy interior, and everything costs less than a silver penny. Albin Panu (LE old male human) owns the place and has a reputation as a peerless skinflint.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 11, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second LocaleComment
Aatami Himottu
Aatami Himottu

Aatami Himottu (CN male half-elf) cuts a dapper figure in his fine red doublet and matching hose. A fop and a dandy, Aatami fancies himself a master with a rapier and loves duelling to first blood. A thin scar on his left cheek adds to his look of derring-do.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 8, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second NPC, Ten-Second Low CityComment
4d4 Besieged Castle
4d4 Besieged Castle

The besiegers and the defenders must contend with the vagaries of nature, logistics, morale and their enemies. The minor events below will not turn the siege’s tide in anyone’s favour, but canny commanders can use them to their advantage.

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GM's ResourceCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 7, 202120 ThingsComment
Blood Alley
Blood Alley

Blood Alley runs behind a row of butchers, chandlers, tanners and other foul-smelling businesses. Blood, offal and other unidentifiable things make the muddy ground slick. Heaps of rotting, stinking rubbish, and swarms of voracious rats, makes this a place to avoid.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 7, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second AlleyComment
Ari’s
Ari’s

Ari’s—cramped and dingy as it is—has a reputation as a place where anything can be had. Most assume this basement-shop is a thieves’ guild front, and they’d be right. The pale and skinny owner, Ari Osma (CN male human), drives a hard bargain, and never forgets a face.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 6, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second Low City, Ten-Second LocaleComment
20 Minor Events in a Siege
20 Minor Events in a Siege

The besiegers and the defenders must contend with the vagaries of nature, logistics, morale and their enemies. The minor events below will not turn the siege’s tide in anyone’s favour, but canny commanders can use them to their advantage.

Read More
GM's ResourceCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 5, 202120 ThingsComment
Ahti Leino
Ahti Leino

Ahti Leino (N male human) broods over past failures and future disasters. Wracked by inadequacy, Ahti is a taproom regular, enthusiastic brawler and drunkard. He is bald and has shaggy eyebrows, bulging arms and a solid paunch.

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Ten-SecondCreighton BroadhurstJanuary 5, 2021Ten-Second, Ten-Second NPC, Ten-Second Low CityComment
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