This is where the saga begins. Toys will grow out many unusual things, but this is where it starts. This is where the fighting librarians from Ethos set out. This is where the Orc Queen takes the first step on her march to the Peace Bringer. Right here in Toys Volume I, this is the roots of all of it, of all the published issues and of those still expanding in the pod. In a saga writ large and ongoing a philosophy of the dice begins to develop and it all starts to make sense. And it’s never written in stone. It’s for you to play God with. Pick up some Toys. Scatter the pieces. Take each chapter and mold it with the secret stuff that’s only known to you. That’s the way this world works. Live it.

Toys. The Omni. Issues 1-18. A good deal of fun.

Look! Right there! What a marvel! The Egg of Wonder is spinning out. It’s pantomiming something! It’s the future! It’s the past!  But don’t watch too closely. You’ll  miss the love story playing out at the Vintners Inn in standard, clock-based time. It’s a triangle, really. Who gets the Earl? Will it be the glamorous singing thief? The seeker disguised as a vintner? If you don’t want to watch the lovers, you can scratch straight through time based reality altogether and watch the history of the old inn – the ghosts and magicked properties that crawl through the spaces just outside chronological reality. Unbeknownst as well, the ice elementals from the Astral Star are waiting close on hand for the King to arrive. And the lycanthropes, yes, they are prowling, too, just outside the window when the jewel thief sings. It will be hard to keep the strands untangled as you play out this corner of the saga. But here’s a clue – keep your eye on all the levels…don’t be too human…

Available at RPGnow and Drivethrougrpg and as part of the Year 2 subscription.

Good luck. This one ain’t pretty. Who knows if it was the Emperor of Shiel who kept the powers of darkness at bay? But it for sure is true that once he made a pact with Kryzcazzca, his whole establishment became a roiling production for all kinds of dark powers unhealthy to humanoid types. Now with the Emperor turned into a dark oracle, what hope does an abandoned wife like Disel have? Is a monk who writes symphonies  doomed? What about Hosltler, that investigative librarian? What power does a fighting intellectual have against the multiple faces of evil he and Disel butt heads against? Only thing to do is pick a side. Maybe join the party? They’re still fighting. Does that mean truth and right prevail? Or? Who knows. The only thing to do right now is to fight off the spiders and those Monsterwood productions that keep dropping in the background. God bless…But which God and who?

Get The Elf King’s Palace here.

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Hey, you – watch out! That’s the Wreckers’ Wall in front of you. You might have heard it’s the most free place in the world, but just don’t think that means you can cruise right in. Warden Hastings is waiting for you, crafty as 10,000 cats and quick with a blade. You hear that ugly sobbing, like weeping, like pain? That’s the Outcorloig, a monster for sure, bred out of parts strewn around after a battle. Careful! He bites big. Wreckers’ Wall? Yes, it does get billed as the most free place in the world, but make sure you’re ready for this much freedom. And, by the way, look sharp stern side. These guys are free enough to cut a hole right in the side of your ship…

Get the Wreckers Wall here, or subscribe to get all of this years issues of Toys for the Sandbox for half off here

King Krister IV has a reputation and it’s not such a good one. He’s a womanizer and everyone knows he likes to party. But his City By the Sea is on the brink of war and contrary to what many of his people believe, he is quite prepared to deal with it. That is, he’s prepared to deal with the problems he knows about. He doesn’t know that all the threads in the mix – the northerners, the military, the poor, the isolationists, the Daashiono, the Wraith King and the Troglodytes – all these strands have been woven together by the young god who is poised to come into his own right now, right here in The City By the Sea. Prophecy and destiny have a bead on your city, King Krister. Brave adventurers are heading your way to fight for the young god. It looks like war! War coming to The City By the Sea…

Find out more in The Royal Palace

Peace on Earth has been in the works forever, and Sheldrian Cloudsinger has been working on it almost that long. But now Poet Cloudsinger’s efforts to fix the world is getting the black god of anger worked up and Orc Chieftain, Defric Ran’drag, has decided the Poet must die. On Defric’s side he’s got his sometime lover and full time assassin, Volk of the solid black eyes. On the Cloudsinger’s side is Grastlian, the dwarf with the singing axe. From his Poet’s Hut, strung and chinked with melodic bits, the power of the Poet streams through it all. The party can gain permanent power at the hut if they manage to add to The Poet’s song, so, everybody, listen up. The wind will stir the song fragments and teach the way to go. But remember, basically it’s  a soul trip so celebrate Peace. Pick up your own Singing Dwarven Axe. Boost the flag! It’s Power to the Peaceful!

Is this a Nativity Story? Writ large upon the topography of the coast is the name of Axzevibrish. It’s a sigil, it’s a signal. Is the city ready for its god to awaken? People who live here think the city is theirs and that  they grew it to fill their human needs. Wrong! Moving below, intermeshed with all that humans do and plan and plot are powerful, unseen forces. Troglodytes and a god elemental carry forward their own designs. Georgette, priestess in waiting, is getting boosted up to expand into the superhuman persona of High Priestess of the great God of the City. Watch the layered society of The Sea Caves expand the dimensions of the City by the Sea. Play it out… It’s another layer in the story of the City by the Sea.

A dwarven forge that long ago was lost at sea is buried now in the Shandilite Desert. Its position in the sand is just below salt mines owned by the God King. The mines are pits of misery from which the God King amasses huge and secret wealth. They’re prison mines and he uses them to punish those who have displeased him. Now something unusual is happening at the mines. Magic is leaking from the forge making the sand glow rosy red and plants of a kind never seen before are growing.  The God King thinks the red glow means great spiritual and temporal riches for him. But he might find instead his evil is going to be interfered with. He might find that his salt mines are going to begin broadcasting far and wide all the anguish of his slaves. Is there someone who will pick up these psychic messages? Will a rescue mission find the mines?

Issue 49: The Salt Mines available now. 

The City By the Sea is a complicated city. Long ago the god presence living there drew the Daashiono to it and they settled in the sea caves beneath the city. Harboring tiny god bits gone astray, the Daashiono are first and foremost creators, but the god spark in them went bad. Now they experiment and create with human flesh in the great sea caves that offer them the secrecy they need to make monsters. Over the years the Daashiono have proliferated and from the The City By the Sea is a complicated city. Long ago the god presence living there drew the Daashiono to it and they settled in the sea caves beneath the city. Harboring tiny god bits gone astray, the Daashiono are first and foremost creators, but the god spark in them went bad. Now they experiment and create with human flesh in the great sea caves that offer them the secrecy they need to make monsters. Over the years the Daashiono have proliferated and from the tunnels and sea caves they have migrated through sewers and basements to access every part of the city. They bargain and negotiate for human flesh with slavers, thieves and with isolationists disappearing northerners. Daashiono themselves are hunted too. Specialized forces, people who may have seen their families and towns destroyed by them, want to eliminate them all. And the university intellectuals study them. Who are they? Where did they come from? What can be done about them?

Find out now in issue 48 of Toys for the Sandbox: Lair of the Daashiono

Four days ride north of The City by the Sea are tall, thin needles of stone. Here Defric, an orc queen turned holly woman, waits in the Low Spires to meet the person who will bring peace to the north. Morglain the Dragon, who would rather be just plain Isaac, will be there too, and Anna Mercer, the wild beast hunter who only cares about Morglain and nothing for Isaac. Will the clicking cube help Isaac? Will Morglain get his soul back? Give the Sword of Revelation to a turn coat and watch the iron sync his soul. Make it all happen. The saga continues…