tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10879743408414556542024-03-14T12:12:00.013-06:00My Terrible Sorcery Is Without Equal In The WestHDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-43360184824631217172024-02-16T14:17:00.003-07:002024-02-16T14:17:28.268-07:00Choosing Gaming Music<p>(I was going to mention this in my last post on gaming prep & workflow, but it really is its own topic)</p><p>I have spent hours hand-picking music for my in-person games and I consider that time well spent - everyone comments on the atmosphere during the game! This is the kind of work that continues to pay off, since the same playlists can be used multiple times (with periodic updates to keep them fresh). That kind of work is useful prep. Plenty of other things, aren't.</p><p>If you use Spotify, maybe that works for you, I don't know. I still use mp3s on my phone because I grew up with Napster. For my current in-person game I have a wilderness playlist and a dungeon playlist which have each grown from about 2 hours of music to -- <i>checks notes</i> -- over 6 and 7 hours respectively, more than enough to run a session and not hear any repeats.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijZijfFYAVeiw_OdCpvFqOKkdWAUoVMiUDx5LpfYH4RMOssMw2KVzO_8o1VDeGZEyF2NhlYb8_QhprHjVVIr8DP_QNzQsOt8ccnIkMd2xgk8zrKyLjsSXn92hMIM024id-Kol-qjsxUQCk_9kN6tCdZDX6pcipmO1Z-FTWCcRxBlmR939wGOI6iG63ApYa/s807/Bard-horse.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="807" data-original-width="677" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijZijfFYAVeiw_OdCpvFqOKkdWAUoVMiUDx5LpfYH4RMOssMw2KVzO_8o1VDeGZEyF2NhlYb8_QhprHjVVIr8DP_QNzQsOt8ccnIkMd2xgk8zrKyLjsSXn92hMIM024id-Kol-qjsxUQCk_9kN6tCdZDX6pcipmO1Z-FTWCcRxBlmR939wGOI6iG63ApYa/w335-h400/Bard-horse.PNG" width="335" /></a></div><br /><p>It has taken me a LONG time to build these playlists because I have very stringent requirements for in-game music, which I will try to outline here for your edification and amusement:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Rule 1 - Minimal Dynamic Range</b></p><p>When you first decide to play music during your games, you might run for the music of your favourite films. The problem is that most film soundtracks are written & produced just like classical music with much broader dynamic range than modern popular music: from near-silence to huge crescendos. This works during a movie but is absolutely insufferable to listen to even at home alone, when I'm trying not to turn my stereo's volume knob every goddamn minute. </p><p>Most 'modern classical' compositions are simply way too over-the-top to work as background music anyway. Big orchestra hits, swells, violins attacking like swarms of bees, timpanis crashing... I'm trying to have a conversation here! Hans Zimmer is really bad for this. During a game this will amount to quiet sections being totally inaudible while everyone is talking, then conversation getting interrupted by a blast of sound. A non-starter. </p><p>What you want is a constant volume level so that you can <b>set it and forget it</b>. Your game music must be quiet enough that it doesn't impinge on everyone talking & nobody has to raise their voice, loud enough that it can actually be heard a little bit. </p><p>This is actually a very narrow band!</p><p>An additional oft-overlooked consideration with this rule is trying to find songs that are roughly volume matched to <i>each other</i>. I think Spotify or some other streaming services might do this for you? Just pay for premium because if I hear an ad during your game I'm strangling you.</p><p><br /><br /></p><p>Some examples of too much dynamics:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zyodILZEQFg" width="320" youtube-src-id="zyodILZEQFg"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CpAkBWG8eu8" width="320" youtube-src-id="CpAkBWG8eu8"></iframe></div><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>On the flip side, this track is consistent throughout. Howard shore is the GOAT but take care because not every song on this album is so cooperative.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2zr6spmybP4" width="320" youtube-src-id="2zr6spmybP4"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>Rule 2 - Not too 'song-like'</b> </p><p>I used to play extreme metal or folk music during my games, I don't do that anymore. I avoid anything with drums and most guitars. This contributes to the background sense of the music - I don't want the players to really<i> take notice </i>except in rare instances. Strings, synthesizers, things like that are all fine. Even in ambient music there are percussive elements and these should be considered carefully, some can work as long as they don't sound like an actual drum kit. </p><p>Acoustic guitars can be OK, depending. Medieval instruments like a glockenspiel or something need to be chosen with care, as they can easily descend into terminal cheesiness. Anything with lyrics is right out, although some vocal chants or something might be okay.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Rule 3 - Not Easily Recognizable</b> </p><p>The hardest one to do, depending on your gaming group. The first time a player says "Hey, isn't this from <b>Lord of the Rings</b>?!" you'll never make that mistake again. Everyone is now imagining the scene where Gollum finds the ring, instead of the damned hexcrawl you're trying to run. Pretty soon someone is doing a Gimli voice, someone else is telling the story of Viggo Mortensen breaking his toe and the game has gone completely off the rails.</p><p>Just don't do it! Skip Hollywood franchise films, blockbusters and things your players will know (I can't tell you what those will be, you have to know your players - a DM's work is never done).</p><p>Dig deeper and find stuff people haven't heard. This is where being into underground music really pays off (a rare circumstance indeed!). Call up your much cooler friends and ask them what they're listening to. Dig into anime from the '90s, foreign films, non-triple A videogames, or fire up Youtube and poke around for some new microgenre that hasn't been saturated to death yet.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Rule 4 - Not Too Much Variety</b> </p><p>I stick to 3 or 4 artists for a particular themed playlist. This is not a hard rule. Since it's tough to find composers who have enough songs that fit my requirements, it ends up working out this way. I find creating strongly themed playlists works better - the players can <i>feel</i> the difference between different areas of the game world, different modes of play or even levels of danger!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Rule 5 - No Jazz!</b></p><p>No matter what <a href="https://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2019/05/incomplete-list-of-underrepresented.html">Noisms</a> says! (that article has some good stuff in it though)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Suggestions</b></p><p>Oh what, you want some songs that you should include, instead of a list of prohibitions? Okay, here are a few, you'd better thank me for bestowing my wealth of experience. I'm giving y'all the game here, so don't say I never did anything for you guys!</p><p>Remember, these are entire albums. You have to use the principles I just taught you to pick the appropriate songs from each!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6vKe7x5qhcA" width="320" youtube-src-id="6vKe7x5qhcA"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0Fl9-359oeg" width="320" youtube-src-id="0Fl9-359oeg"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZvUSY67z-hQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="ZvUSY67z-hQ"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0hEAiV9MatA" width="320" youtube-src-id="0hEAiV9MatA"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p>There you go, no more excuses.<br /></p><p>Now get back to your game, blogland!</p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-44698861974645672272024-01-01T13:19:00.005-07:002024-01-01T13:19:46.589-07:00Special Podcast Appearance!!!<p>I'm on the latest episode of Gus B's Classic Adventure Gaming Podcast, you can find the latest episode <a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tcagp/episodes/Cauldron-Con-2023-e2drf9r">HERE</a>. Go check it out, the latest episode is about the already legendary first Cauldron Con in Germany and has a star-studded cast of cool guys, scene VIPs, 10' pole forum goons and Discord chatterboxes from the deep end of the oldschool D&D pool!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizvGVPXTcezskR0sZouLSMXEJ37tecwGx5FTJATfVn_PDWin7vA4N1C1YTb3P5wN50OFG-Z0lfuICqYBlEEzlWd4rxzASIMa4axvtEoA4TzSD-DrCqMg0s_z2DeaWTUJhV6Le-EiZaUedmuIsZXJqCqtMC8qlr65-kQqv-5fnq_Y57_9j10LeZDfclfFmk/s400/35660372-1672261854557-4d708e46720e1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizvGVPXTcezskR0sZouLSMXEJ37tecwGx5FTJATfVn_PDWin7vA4N1C1YTb3P5wN50OFG-Z0lfuICqYBlEEzlWd4rxzASIMa4axvtEoA4TzSD-DrCqMg0s_z2DeaWTUJhV6Le-EiZaUedmuIsZXJqCqtMC8qlr65-kQqv-5fnq_Y57_9j10LeZDfclfFmk/s320/35660372-1672261854557-4d708e46720e1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>I'm not an interview guest (nobody should be listening to my opinions, haha) but I did create the podcast's theme music! It took me a while but I'm quite proud of it, this is the first project I've finished since beating tendonitis and getting my playing back this year. Go follow them and listen to the back episodes, they're all great!</p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-26540452895703034872023-10-22T17:47:00.002-06:002023-10-22T17:47:58.146-06:00Never Say Die! or, How to Improve Workflow - Part I<p><i>"No updates since January!!! Where you been at TS?"</i></p><p>I flatter myself that you are thinking this. </p><p>I've been short on posts for a few reasons this year. I have been playing and running A LOT of games in the last few years. I got on Discord, made new friends, played in some pickup games, joined some campaigns and had lots of fun (hails to all the cool and weird folks I've met on many different servers, too many to name). </p><p>Mainly though, I was running my own games for my own players. No matter how much I use modules and steal material from everywhere I can, inevitably either my players take a weird turn forcing me to write new material and/or I get a cool idea I have to write up for myself anyway. As I've said before it takes me forever to write even a small dungeon, so there was no energy left over for blogging.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3IVwSH0khi3hPj9SoP1yRnMePgETm8knoumSneqyQtkq9F_rknlc5G6tY-Hx4WzkSrZS6OcDFC_vbf1AAqTKvbq6JDvH-sSO8vFluxeK1b8OMPQalshYgBUn9uOdxLcT9SEEtr-FxO1ZTxRC4ivLNCec2I4OIgX72_a7T7szowgdoWWLMbhU9VsRyDggk" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="332" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3IVwSH0khi3hPj9SoP1yRnMePgETm8knoumSneqyQtkq9F_rknlc5G6tY-Hx4WzkSrZS6OcDFC_vbf1AAqTKvbq6JDvH-sSO8vFluxeK1b8OMPQalshYgBUn9uOdxLcT9SEEtr-FxO1ZTxRC4ivLNCec2I4OIgX72_a7T7szowgdoWWLMbhU9VsRyDggk=w435-h640" width="435" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It'd be a lot cooler.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Several recent developments have hampered my gaming even further: </p><p>I am studying for a work exam on evenings/weekends (normally this would be 3 months of full-time schooling, so doing it in my spare time takes a while). This really cuts into anything else I might spend my time on. I have put my online game (running since October 2019!) on hold for several months to focus on school stuff, and my in-person games (both of them) have slowed down completely over the summer/fall.</p><p>More importantly: due to a relentless and constantly-evolving rehab & weightlifting routine, the tendonitis that plagued me for years is finally in retreat and I can use my hands again! It is impossible to overstate how positive this change has been. For the last 5-6 years I haven't been myself at all - being unable to play music has really been wretched. Only now that I am out of it can I see, by comparison, what a deep mental pit I was in for a <i>long</i> time. Like having my mouth sealed shut for half a decade - all of a sudden the duct-tape has been ripped off! </p><p>I only dived deeply into RPG gaming more intensely a few years ago <i>because </i>my hands hurt so much I couldn't play. Now that I'm back I am making up for lost time, spending hours in the studio, finishing up projects and taking on new ones, not to mention practising to regain my previous skills. Although my speed is nearly at peak levels I've noticed my endurance, accuracy and precision on my instruments are *not*. This will take time... time that I'm not prepping for games.</p><p><br /></p><p>*****</p><p><br /></p><p><i>"Okay TS, that's great (and verges on oversharing) but what's the point?"</i></p><p>I need to write more gaming material in less time than ever before. Running multiple original sandbox games (even using modules when possible) has placed a creative demand on me that I've never had to deal with before. Here are some of the ways I have kept the workflow going, and some mistakes I've made & lessons I've learned along the way.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Other People's Suggestions</b></p><p>First of all, I tried to find reading material on speeding up my prep time. I couldn't seem to find anything good. I asked plenty of other gamers and found that sometimes even <i>communicating my problem</i> was basically impossible - a baffling situation!</p><p><b>The Alexandrian</b> has a lot to say on the subject. Many of you will find all of it old news, others will benefit. <a href="https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/25696/roleplaying-games/thought-of-the-day-prep-tips-for-the-beginning-dm">Start here</a>. I read these articles a long time ago and they are helpful if you are currently a beginner or mired in counterproductive habits, but for me at this point they don't say anything new.</p><p><b>Sly Flourish's</b> book <i>The Lazy Dungeon Master</i> just sucks, don't read it, fucking embarrassing.</p><p>If anyone else has suggestions for "smart prep" resources, I'm all ears, but strangely this is one area of gaming that I don't see too many people discussing. Am I an outlier? Am I just missing the conversation? Let me know in the comments.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>A Short Tale</b></p><p>I was house-sitting for my brother a while ago, spending most of the time on the couch with the cats and watching all the streaming TV that I don't have at home. I eventually felt guilty I wasn't being productive so I brought over the gaming material I could fit in my laptop bag: the <b>Sword & Magic</b> rules, my campaign notes & maps and a 2 or 3 helpful booklets (more on that below).</p><p>I tell you, I created <i>more dungeon rooms</i> in my notebook on the couch with inane sitcoms droning in the background, than I do on my computer with a modern word-processor and access to a veritable mountain of gaming resources, tables, blogs, PDFs & books!</p><p>What can we learn from this?</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Get The Fuck Off The Computer</b></p><p>The dangers of distraction are well-documented in the social media age. I have certainly killed a lot of time scrolling IG or hanging on Discord, but you know all about that stuff. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqyBUrk-9eYpfXDIp5ihN6atpIQRDRUmM464sjV_BJaP_x8dClay5L_FqifTM_udAatFu-S8lu896M6ZKDKr-Kw1-5XmeFiakPSb1AM36wjUztHQWm8jDr_OVdg46oxjaDJIknILZlQjX-uxAxgCP8j25ErXuw1QN7jrzzEndGCvqF0SPuEOP99TYkFkGg/s700/hide%20the%20pain%20harold.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="700" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqyBUrk-9eYpfXDIp5ihN6atpIQRDRUmM464sjV_BJaP_x8dClay5L_FqifTM_udAatFu-S8lu896M6ZKDKr-Kw1-5XmeFiakPSb1AM36wjUztHQWm8jDr_OVdg46oxjaDJIknILZlQjX-uxAxgCP8j25ErXuw1QN7jrzzEndGCvqF0SPuEOP99TYkFkGg/w400-h245/hide%20the%20pain%20harold.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>My point here is somewhat different.</p><p>When I'm writing on my computer I try to stay organized. I want my dungeons to make sense, to 'fit' together into a coherent whole. So to help with that I have my dungeon map open in photoshop, a project overview & to-do document, a doc for the particular dungeon level I'm working on, my treasure tables, a stack of books beside me, my favourite generator tools, etc. Having all of this at my fingertips can<i> </i>drain my ability to do anything. Alt-tabbing around between documents, maps and different books is really distracting and soon, work bogs down utterly. Attempting to hold all the existing dungeon information in my mind <i>while creating something new</i> is pretty much impossible.</p><p>To an untrained observer I am "focusing" on creating a dungeon (after all, I am engrossed in these dungeon documents & maps, I'm not browsing socials or looking at my phone) but I can easily spend hours doing nothing of substance. I might be tweaking the map, reordering the to-do list, adding some inspirational source material I should eventually read, or re-writing the room keys to be more terse and evocative... </p><p>But NONE of that help me decide what is in the next dungeon room - and that's what I need to figure out by game night!</p><p>Peter de Vries wrote <i>"Write drunk, revise sober."</i> Perhaps for me it should be <i>"Write on paper, revise on the computer."</i> Now on Saturday mornings I go down to a local hipster coffee shop with my notebook, get caffeinated and write down dungeon ideas. I just bang out cool rooms, monster lairs, dungeon dressing, 'specials' and anything else I can think of.</p><p>As it turns out my memory is fine for this purpose - I don't need all the keys and maps in front of me in order to write rooms that make sense in the context of the dungeon I'm working on. I can remember the basic organizing principles, and don't need to know exactly whether the pit trap is in room 10 or 11 in order to write something down the hall.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Use What You Have & What Works</b></p><p>The other factor in that house-sitting success story was my limited access to game materials. Instead of having access to my crammed gaming bookshelves (not to mention an unimaginable horde of PDFs on my computer) I was forced to make use of the books I brought along. Instead of browsing for that "one perfect table" I rolled on what I had, noted down the result and moved on. This kept me focused on generating ideas instead of "comparison shopping" indefinitely.</p><p>What many folks know already is that <i>not all gaming materials are created equal</i>. I have been running a city campaign for 4 years and never once have I used anything from <b>Vornheim</b>. Meanwhile <b>The Nocturnal Table</b> features in my game consistently. Coincidence? Um, just, like, my opinion, man? I think not! Good game materials deliver results when you need them. When you find powerful tables or useful reference works, use them all the time instead of indulging your inner magpie and looking for the next shiny object. I wasted years beating my head against substandard tools, trying to make them work because everyone else <i>said</i> they were great.</p><p>(This is where the dudes at old-school bastions like K&KA will steer you right. Ask them what kind of tables & reference books <i>they</i> use. I know they seem scary, just be cool and don't talk about B/X.)</p><p>Here is a short list of highly useful tables and reference works that I can recommend to everybody. It isn't anything earth-shattering, and most of these you probably know already. Some are hard to find but don't @ me. Get these in physical copy or download & print them, stack them beside your desk, turn off your computer and get more shit done than before:</p><p>- The 1st edition DMG<br /></p><p>- <a href="http://knights-n-knaves.com/osric/">OSRIC</a> (get the Black Blade hardcover if you can) </p><p>- Hack & Slash - Treasure (the best thing Courtney ever wrote, fight me. PDF only but I printed it out for my gaming binder. Yes, it's that essential)</p><p>- Judges Guild - Ready Ref Sheets, Wilderness Hexplore Revised, Wilderlands of High Fantasy, City-State of the Invincible Overlord (and plenty more, but these are the best)</p><p>- Matt Finch - City Adventures, <a href="https://www.mythmeregames.com/en-ca">Tome of Adventure Design</a> (Honestly I don't use the TOAD as much as some people, but certain sections of it are gold. There is a bit of a learning curve while you get familiar with what it can do and where to find things)<br /></p><p>- Melan - The Fomalhaut Oracle from <a href="https://fightonmagazine.com/">Fight On! Magazine</a> #3, <a href="https://emdt.bigcartel.com/">The Nocturnal Table</a></p><p>- Muddle's <a href="http://picastudio.com/random/">Wilderness Location Generator</a> (the dungeon one isn't too bad either)</p><p>- New Big Dragon Games' <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/4528/New-Big-Dragon-Games-Unlimited">d30 Companions</a> (duplicates some DMG stuff but both have useful shit)</p><p>- Ktrey's <a href="https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2018/03/wilderness-hexes-version-10.html">Wilderness Hexes</a>. Too bad this is not available in book form. (hint hint bro, my money is yours for all the use I've gotten from these over the years) Also you can browse his blog for even more material.</p><p>I'm sure I omitted your favourite book or table. There are lots more, but the point is that these are some of the basics. Start with a useful core of books that <i>definitely</i> work and expand one piece at a time as you find useful things. For further reading, some of these and more are mentioned in Melan's blog article <a href="https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2021/03/blog-great-tables-of-d-history.html">Great Tables of D&D History</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>*****</p><p>A lot of this advice comes down to <i>working on what actually gets results</i>.</p><div><p>This post got really long, so I cut out some for a future article to make things a bit more digestible. Maybe writing post was a distraction in itself... Oops, time to go! I hope this was useful or interesting. I'm still out here gamin' hard, and I hope you are too. </p><p>Have fun everyone!</p><p>To return to the reason for this post: here is one guitar player who wouldn't let a little setback - an industrial accident that cost him TWO FINGERS - prevent him playing some of the heaviest shit ever committed to tape:</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zUT730G-xvA" width="320" youtube-src-id="zUT730G-xvA"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p></div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-35457089703911018242023-01-25T14:16:00.000-07:002023-01-25T14:16:13.160-07:00Just got Lynched<p><i>Bryce</i> Lynched that is. </p><p>My adventure <b>Gilded Dream of the Incandescent Queen</b> just got <a href="https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=8398">reviewed at tenfootpole</a> and received a coveted "The Best" rating!</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgforavg1Bjf6HSwmIwTxPjB_D_V5sCpURFji1nJJog-D76_-hF8nZ_tHEvYiDZ8J5lOpOisHHG1sqRZHQPK3iLPSlrujNYmlopFgPjM8kGVVlrG8JvlHrHdD48hGYGOZ5xkFSIg5JkQdsIcoz1_u2x36G0zeYMBB3K0tPbYG7MdarPc8C-07pSZQmuvg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="465" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgforavg1Bjf6HSwmIwTxPjB_D_V5sCpURFji1nJJog-D76_-hF8nZ_tHEvYiDZ8J5lOpOisHHG1sqRZHQPK3iLPSlrujNYmlopFgPjM8kGVVlrG8JvlHrHdD48hGYGOZ5xkFSIg5JkQdsIcoz1_u2x36G0zeYMBB3K0tPbYG7MdarPc8C-07pSZQmuvg=s16000" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>Some carefully selected quotes from the review:</p><p><i>"It's doing everything right ..."</i></p><p><i>"So, surprise surprise surprise, Terribly Sorcery gets it."<br /></i></p><p><i>"Again, if I really think about this then it seems pretty nifty. And it is ABSOLUTELY better than most of the garbage I run across. (This is what praise from me looks like. Its not the best food ive ever eaten in my life. Why is that the case?)"</i></p><i>"The ability to create, and communicate, the truly MYTHIC in quite well done. The designer understands the need to do this in an adventure and has the ability to do it."</i><p>He didn't quite like my minimal prose stylings, but you can't have everything in life. Anyway, as usual you can get the adventure for FREE in <a href="https://www.dragonsfoot.org/php4/archive.php?sectioninit=FT&fileid=503&watchfile=">Footprints magazine #25</a>.</p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-11468523501479329882023-01-05T17:55:00.015-07:002023-01-23T06:45:09.860-07:00New OGL Contro<p>Well, various people have jumped in with their opinions on this latest nonsense from WotC about a new 1.1 version of the OGL. Some say it invalidates the old version, others say it can't. (A great deal of talk is happening on Reddit, but that language I will not utter here) </p><p>[DOUBLE EDIT - I'm going to add more good links as I find them (or you can also just go on youtube and search 'OGL 1.1' to find a million videos)]<br /></p><p><a href="https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2023/01/section-9-of-open-game-license.html">Here's Rob Conley breaking it down</a>. <br />A bit from <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/ryan-dancey-hasbro-cannot-deauthorize-ogl.694196/">Ryan Dancey himself</a>. <br />This guy <a href="https://medium.com/@MyLawyerFriend/lets-take-a-minute-to-talk-about-d-d-s-open-gaming-license-ogl-581312d48e2f">'My Lawyer Friend'</a>, who seems pretty lucid.<br />The <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/beware-gifts-dragons-how-dds-open-gaming-license-may-have-become-trap-creators">Electronic Frontier Foundation weighs in</a>.<br />Cory Doctorow with an <a href="https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/12/beg-forgiveness-ask-permission/#whats-a-copyright-exception">essay on Pluralistic</a>, including lots of links.<br />The Alexandrian wrote a <a href="https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/48760/roleplaying-games/open-gaming-license-a-brief-history">brief history of the OGL</a>.<br />AD&D legend Grodog posts up a <a href="https://grodog.blogspot.com/2023/01/ogl-resources-you-can-use.html">collection of resources</a>.<br /><br />Alexander Macris, the ACKS guy, <a href="https://arbiterofworlds.substack.com/p/the-perfidious-treachery-of-wotc">shoots across the bow </a>on his Substack.<br />Mythmere himself, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HMtk9SAjUI">Matt Finch did a video</a>.<br />Frog God/Necromancer games <a href="https://www.froggodgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/FGG-NG_Statement_OGL-1.1-image-1024x1325.png">make a statement</a> (link to an image).<br />Goodman Games makes a <a href="https://goodman-games.com/blog/2023/01/12/a-comment-on-the-ogl/">statement</a>.<br />News about Paizo <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/paizo-announces-new-irrevocable-open-rpg-license-to-replace-the-ogl.694404/">creating their own</a> open license for everyone to use (paizo.com is down, everyone is obviously stoked on this, here is an <a href="https://archive.md/leaSw">archive of the original</a> post).<br />Penny Arcade <a href="https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2023/01/13/ogle">steps on up to the plate</a>, thanks Tycho (includes some links too).<br /><br />This shit even made it into VICE and The Guardian (I ain't linkin it)!<br /></p><p>I find the debate mildly amusing but it really doesn't change a damn thing. The OGL isn't even necessary for what we do! Although I do hope this latest round of blood-from-a-stone tactics will convince a few people dumb enough to still play Corpo-D&D to throw away their expensive 5e books and come over to play with the cool kids.</p><p>Either way my message to Hasbro & WotC is, was and always will be the same. I hope you will all join me, dear readers, raising your voices as one in a righteous chorus to say:</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqz_OR_qR0kNM5M-AFOgz-fHxCH15M1rtgBxcmkGYP4giq1vXvtQfBMRph5btzdAauO3APGUsvKA3nbz3C4gfcIf9c7Io1yN9SrPyrGC_EkIHKGKGyVDaXp_tHyE0Od11GbJdxTHkhtx2ysnPCEj_862mYSprrQKHwboo2vPAO_DnJZG5IeQfCitldw/s600/JesseVentura.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="600" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqz_OR_qR0kNM5M-AFOgz-fHxCH15M1rtgBxcmkGYP4giq1vXvtQfBMRph5btzdAauO3APGUsvKA3nbz3C4gfcIf9c7Io1yN9SrPyrGC_EkIHKGKGyVDaXp_tHyE0Od11GbJdxTHkhtx2ysnPCEj_862mYSprrQKHwboo2vPAO_DnJZG5IeQfCitldw/w400-h175/JesseVentura.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>License this <i>dick</i>, suits.</b></p><p><br /></p><p>That's all for today, but here is an old video that may shed some light on the subject. Watch and at least <i>try</i> to pay attention:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y2q5L8kUOtA" width="320" youtube-src-id="y2q5L8kUOtA"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-25814632844220257912023-01-03T09:48:00.000-07:002023-01-03T09:48:38.021-07:00Land's End II: Druid class, house rules & character sheets<p>Hey, long time no blog. Since a few of my players (Steve & my brother for example) read this sometimes, I can't post too much sensitive info! Anyway I have been busy as hell prepping and running games, so blogging has fallen by the wayside, which is a good problem to have. There are some posts around I can dust off and maybe more play reports if I'm feeling ambitious - one group has been storming through <i>The Vaults of Volokarnos</i> and another is adventuring in my megadungeon based on <i>Tomb of the Serpent Kings</i>, both having a lot of fun. Meanwhile my CSWE group continues to explore the <i>Night Wolf Inn</i>, encountering deadly foes and serious challenges at every turn!</p><p>***</p><p>Anyway, Like I said before, running <a href="https://fomalhaut.lfg.hu/2011/01/17/sword-and-magic/">Sword & Magic</a> has been good so far and is great for introducing players to the hobby, since the rules are so damned simple & straightforward.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW0NCIRdmTUyku0ozwxD75eOC4Fv96eLmu89SFU9_LnMLZcQAK_cV5w8jTbpndatfl0P5boVpcwTAFJ79iavebauEnyE3SO2QvdWQDjKRVPTdzAd-8xQkacjWw_qhLqxiYJuhqlXOUA5e6LVcLxvGjQ85JegWsNkFyX4NgXr33XEwpHi5kieSbIN19KA/s1600/Sword%20and%20Magic%20-%20cover%20image%20conan%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1316" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW0NCIRdmTUyku0ozwxD75eOC4Fv96eLmu89SFU9_LnMLZcQAK_cV5w8jTbpndatfl0P5boVpcwTAFJ79iavebauEnyE3SO2QvdWQDjKRVPTdzAd-8xQkacjWw_qhLqxiYJuhqlXOUA5e6LVcLxvGjQ85JegWsNkFyX4NgXr33XEwpHi5kieSbIN19KA/w329-h400/Sword%20and%20Magic%20-%20cover%20image%20conan%201.jpg" width="329" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I printed this out and stuck it on my binder. You know how we do.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Here is my porting-over of the druid class. I hope I got this one right - I made a few tweaks to things, but tried to keep the class in line with the original as much as possible. One of the characters in Land's End II has just become a druid of <b>Partressa</b>, the goddess of deep waters (a JG/Wilderlands deep cut for you). This is kind of fun because Partressa is chaotic so it's a bit harsher than most druidism - human sacrifice, reading the future from entrails, and ensuring those hungry fish get their due will be the order of the day!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>DRUID</b></p><p><b>Subclass of</b>: Cleric<br /><b>Attack bonus</b>: Cleric<br /><b>Favourable saves</b>: Fortitude, Will<br /><b>Weapons</b>: club, dagger, dart, staff, scimitar, scythe, sling, spear, javelin<br /><b>Armour</b>: light and medium, non-metallic only<br /><b>Hp</b>: 1d8 per level, 2 per level over 9th<br /><b>Prime Stat</b>: Wisdom<br /><b>Alignment</b>: usually Neutral<br /><b>Skills</b>: 7 (at least 4 must be druidic)</p><p><b>Spellcasting</b>:<br />Druids cast spells from the druid spell list, using the same spells/day as other casters.</p><p><b>Skills:<br /></b>Similar to thieves, druids can pick four extra skills at character creation from the following list:</p><p>Animal Training, Brew Poison, Find Tracks, Heal, Knowledge: Local Area, Knowledge: Wilderness, Knowledge: Plants, Read Signs, Sneak, Stargazing</p><p>The character's normal allotment of starting skills can be used on these as well if desired.<br />Druids also begin play knowing the secret Druidic language.</p><p><b>Special Abilities:<br /></b>Gain +1 to saving throws against fire and electricity.<br />At 3rd level, can pass through overgrown areas at normal movement rate without leaving a trail.<br />At 7th level, immune to <i>charm</i> from woodland beings (Nymphs, Sylphs, etc).</p><p><b>Wild Shape:<br /></b>Starting at 5th level, druids can transform into any small or medium sized animal (small as a mouse, up to about 2x human weight) for 10 minutes/level. Druids retain their to-hit bonus but gain the animal's natural attacks, movement, vision and similar traits. Can communicate with other animals of the same type. Can end the effect at any time. Can only transform into animals they've seen before.</p><p>At 7th level, animals up to Large size (albatross, bear, big cat)<br />At 8th level, animals as small as an insect are possible.<br />At 10th level, any size at all (elephant, small roc, giant versions of regular animals)<br /></p><p>When transforming into an animal, a druid heals hp as if they had rested for a night.<br />Usable 3 times per day.<br />Can only transform into a particular animal once per day.</p><p><b>Druid Circles:</b></p><p>Every druid is a member of a <i>circle</i> - a group of druids bound to oversee a particular area. He may travel far & wide on his adventures, but must always return sometimes to tend to matters at home and obey the dictates of his superiors.</p><p>There are a limited number of high-level druids in any circle. Every druidic circle has their own challenges for high ranks. A druid cannot reach 10th level, nor any levels beyond that, without passing a test. Sometimes the druids must duel (to the death or otherwise) for the rank, otherwise a <i>quest</i> or some other task will be imposed. While a druid is 9th level, his experience total is capped at 89999. Any gained in excess before his task to reach 10th level is complete are wasted.</p><p style="text-align: center;">*****</p><p><b>Druid Spell List</b></p><p>I transposed over most of the AD&D druid spells, and added a few from later editions that I like. I did skip a handful (animal summoning) that I don't dig, but I'm willing to revise later depending on how the class does.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>0th level</b></p><p><b>Create water</b>: creates 5 litres of water per level<br /><b>Detect magic</b>: detects the presence of magical auras<br /><b>Detect poison</b>: detects if the subject is poisonous or poisoned<br /><b>Light</b>: provides light of approximately torch strength<br /><b>Purify food and water</b>: makes food and water pure and harmless<br /><b>Read magic</b>: deciphers magical texts</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>1st level</b></p><p><b>Charm Animal</b>: charms an animal subject for 1-4 days + 1/level<br /><b>Detect Animals/Plants</b>: detects the presence and location of particular animal or plant types<br /><b>Detect Snares & Pits</b>: detects natural snares or traps<br /><b>Entangle</b>: pins enemies; -2 to hit, -4 DEX, half movement, pass concentration to cast spells<br /><b>Enthrall Animals</b>: fascinate a group of animals for up to 1 hour<br /><b>Faerie Fire</b>: illuminates creatures so they cannot hide<br /><b>Goodberry</b>: 2d4 magical berries heal 1 hp each and count as a meal<br /><b>Invisibility to Animals</b>: animals cannot detect through sight, sound, smell, etc for 10 mins/level<br /><b>Pass Without Trace</b>: one creature/level can pass undetected through wilderness for 1 hour/level<br /><b>Protection From Elements+</b>: immunity to a selected element, 10 hp shield vs. magical or concentrated<br /><b>Produce Flame</b>: creates torch-like flame in hand, can strike with it or throw for 1d6 + 1/level<br /><b>Shillelagh</b>: stick becomes magical +1 weapon in caster’s hands, deals 2d4 damage in melee<br /><b>Speak with Animals</b>: can speak with & understand any mundane animal for the duration<br /><b>Wall of Fog</b>: a wall composed of swirling mists obscures vision</p><p><br /></p><p><b>2nd level</b></p><p><b>Animal Messenger</b>: send a tiny animal to a designated place to deliver something<br /><b>Barkskin</b>: Natural armour +2 AC, +1 for every 3 levels above 3rd<br /><b>Cure Light Wounds+</b>: heals 1d8 + 1 hp/level<br /><b>Enlarge Animal+</b>: 20% growth per level, maximum 200%. Every 20% increases STR by 1 point.<br /><b>Flame Blade</b>: bar of fire deals 1d8 + 1 dmg/2 levels as a touch attack<br /><b>Fog Cloud#</b>: creates fog cloud; assumes powers of drugs or airborne poisons<br /><b>Gust of Wind</b>: knocks over or blows away lighter opponents<br /><b>Heat Metal+</b>: Heats held/worn metal over 7 rounds; 1 & 7 – 0 dmg; 2 & 6 – 1d4; 3-5 – 2d4.<br /><b>Hold Animal+</b>: 1-3 targets; if 2 targets, -1 to save. If 1 target, -2 to save. 4 rounds + 1/level.<br /><b>Slow Poison</b>: halts the effect of poison 1 hour/level<br /><b>Spider Climb</b>: walk on walls and ceilings<br /><b>Summon Swarm</b>: swarm of bats/rats/spiders that pursues enemies. Lasts for concentration + 2 rounds<br /><b>Tree Form</b>: become a tree for 1 hour/level, appear totally mundane. Aware of all that happens around<br /><b>Wood Shape</b>: reshape 10 + 1/level cu. ft. of wood into desired shape. Cannot create machines or moving parts</p><div><div><br /></div><div><b>3rd level</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Call Lightning</b>: call bolt of lightning every 10 mins while outdoors, each dealing (Level-2) d8 damage</div><div><b>Cure Disease+</b>: cures a disease</div><div><b>Cure Moderate Wounds+</b>: heals 2d8 +1 hp/level</div><div><b>Dominate Animal</b>: animal follows your commands; can ask it to do complex tasks with concentration</div><div><b>Neutralise Poison+</b>: dispels the effect of a poison</div><div><b>Plant Growth+#</b>: create overgrown jungle in 20’x20’ area/level; or enrich harvest in half-mile radius for one year. Second function requires a living sacrifice, or burnt offerings worth 1500 sp.</div><div><b>Protection from Energy</b>: immunity to one energy type; absorbs 6 damage/level, maximum 60.</div><div><b>Rusting Touch</b>: nonmagical iron-based items crumble to rust. Vs. metallic creatures does 3d6 + 1/level</div><div><b>Speak with Plants</b>: can speak with plants or plant creatures</div><div><b>Spike Growth</b>: ground becomes field of natural spikes; 1d4 damage and halves move. Spell DC to spot</div><div><b>Stone Shape</b>: molds stone into the desired form</div><div><b>Water Breathing</b>: allows breathing underwater 30 mins/level</div><div><b>Wind Wall</b>: deflects gasses, breath weapons and projectiles</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>4th level</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Anti-Plant Shell</b>: magical barrier plants cannot pass</div><div><b>Clairvoyance/Clairaudience</b>: spell to observe distant locales</div><div><b>Command Plants</b>: plant creatures perceive caster’s words favorably; can be convinced to do tasks</div><div><b>Control Water</b>: lower or raise the level of waters in an extensive area</div><div><b>Cure Serious Wounds+</b>: heals 3d8 + 1 hp/level</div><div><b>Dispel Magic</b>: cancels spells and magical effects; check of [1d20+spellcaster level] -vs- [1d20+spellcaster level] for active, or [10+spellcaster level] for passive effects</div><div><b>Flame Strike</b>: 6d8 damage divine fire</div><div><b>Hallucinatory Terrain</b>: envelops an area in illusion</div><div><b>Ice Storm</b>: 5d6 damage in target area</div><div><b>Reincarnate#</b>: dead creature comes back in a new form</div><div><b>Sticks to Snakes</b>: turns 1/level of sticks into snakes; 5%/level of deadly poison</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>5th level</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Animal Polymorph+</b>: change a creature into any animal or giant version; 20 mins/level for caster or permanent for others. Will save, or intellect changes to that of the animal after INT number of days.</div><div><b>Atonement</b>: lifts the weight of a great sin</div><div><b>Cure Critical Wounds</b>: heals 4d8 + 1 hp/level</div><div><b>Commune with Nature</b>: learn about surroundings; 1 mile/level outdoors, 100 ft/level underground</div><div><b>Control Winds</b>: whip up winds in 40’ rad/level; up to tornado force at high levels</div><div><b>Insect Plague</b>: summons spider, centipede or locust swarms; 1/3 levels</div><div><b>Plant Door</b>: pass between two plants of the same kind over any distance</div><div><b>Rock to Mud+</b>: turns a stone surface or object to mud</div><div><b>Stoneskin#</b>: grants DR 5/- until 5 dmg/level is absorbed (max 75); requires diamond dust worth 3500 sp</div><div><b>Wall of Fire</b>: 2d4 damage in 10’, 1d4 damage in 20’, 2d6 + 2/level damage when stepping through</div><div><b>Wall of Thorns</b>: spiky brush must be cut through, moving deals 21-AC damage</div></div><div><br /></div><p style="text-align: center;">*****</p><p><b>DM Notes</b>: Extra skills *and* spellcasting *and* special abilities *and* they can transform too? All these druid special abilities are balanced out by the druid's spell list, which is heavily weighted towards very specific tasks. In a dungeon the druid will have to work hard to pull his weight at low levels, especially with no turning undead and delayed access to curing magic. </p><p>At high levels of course, the druid will rule the school - just look at that spell list!! Once again there is a balancing factor - the druid's circle gates these spells off until he has proved his worth on a difficult quest, or a duel to the death! The DM is encouraged to make this as hard as he likes.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>HOUSE RULES</b></p><p>I only have a few of these, mostly to fill in a few gaps or to fit the campaign world. The more I play, the more I want to keep house rules to a bare fucking minimum wherever possible. If the system doesn't work for you, play a different one bro!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>MONEY</b></p><p>Land's End uses the silver standard, so 1 sp = 1 xp. Sword & Magic almost does that anyway (1 gp = 5 xp), so I'm just going a little bit further. I had to recalculate treasure values, but it wasn't too hard. As in the original Land's End game, everything is expensive and good gear is hard to find! After using it for a while, I am confident the silver standard is <b>not</b> generally a good idea for most D&D campaigns (it seems to break down around 5th level). For the sword & sorcery jungles of Land's End, it works fine. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>ENCUMBRANCE</b></p><p>I use unit encumbrance. A character can carry a number of <i>significant items</i> equal to their strength score without penalty. When items exceeding STR are carried, movement speed is reduced by 1/3. Beyond double STR, movement is halved and skill roll or saving throw penalties may be assessed as well (nobody ever carries that much, so I haven't thought much about that part yet). Carrying more than 3xSTR worth of items makes any movement other than staggering impossible.</p><p><b>Examples of one significant item</b>: a one-handed weapon, a bag of 100 normal coins, a coil of rope, 2 torches, 2 days' rations, 2 bottles (potions or oil flasks), 20 arrows, 4 darts, a shield, a spellbook, a worn backpack, etc.</p><p><b>Examples of two significant items</b>: a two-handed weapon, a bedroll, a small wooden chest.</p><p><b>Armour</b>: armour counts for as many items as its AC bonus (eg. chainmail weighs 5)</p><p><b>Small items</b>: a pouch of gems, a letter, a ring of keys, worn clothing, jewelry, paper currency and the like are not counted towards encumbrance.</p><p>Sword & Magic has no encumbrance system, so I had to add one. These are the same rules I use for every game I run, more or less. They are simple and easy to work with. I have been fiddling with them over multiple campaigns with multiple systems, so this is just the current incarnation. They are not perfect - a longsword & dagger weigh the same - but they are straightforward & playable.</p><p>The core priority is that the system be easy, otherwise players, shiftless as they are, just pretend it doesn't exist. The baseline I started from is "carry weight = strength score." From there I push the items' weight up & down until it fits. I don't like to change things mid-campaign unless I make an egregious mistake, so it has taken a few tries to smooth things out.</p><p>The focus is on a system that is coarse-grained enough for players to work out encumbrance problems <b>fast</b>, without having to do math. I want my players asking "do we drop the ammo, the food, or the mysterious crate so we can carry that gold statue?" not "I need to free up 2.5 pounds..."</p><p>(Remember also I am running these campaigns in person, with paper character sheets. Online it's a bit different and I just use character spreadsheets so players can see their encumbrance totals instantly.)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>REACTIONS & MORALE</b></p><p>I use B/X-style 2d6 reaction rolls and morale, as always. I consider these rules (or something like them) indispensable. I made them fit into Pathfinder without a problem, so they should work fine here. They are not specified in the Sword & Magic rules although Melan does mention morale rules in his zine. Charisma modifiers to the reaction roll will be stepped down to B/X standards, as usual (13-17 = +1, 18 = +2) because a +3 to reactions is impossibly too good, and even +2 is absurd.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>CHARACTER SHEETS</b></p><p>I made these in GIMP based on the old D&D Basic character sheets. Very simple but effective. I found a font that is <i>almost exactly</i> like the original. Pretty cool right?</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgza_KzpWUJlmBdNq9XGSmCK4gywIq_nEGjpQvgBgJprtHjoJrZkuqyP_Car4hOjnybnmUrWkrDWM2cQjbyvEEGF_Cl-j6ydpshdrGTA1xf97eCesRk6w41HXQ2DkPuMIKG8ngdnH1Hk4zgjrXt7SW7RB_bUUaF2G3b3fmKBEinltGoTwMrNYSF-HRUlg/s1100/Sword%20and%20Magic%20-%20character%20sheet%20v2%20pg1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgza_KzpWUJlmBdNq9XGSmCK4gywIq_nEGjpQvgBgJprtHjoJrZkuqyP_Car4hOjnybnmUrWkrDWM2cQjbyvEEGF_Cl-j6ydpshdrGTA1xf97eCesRk6w41HXQ2DkPuMIKG8ngdnH1Hk4zgjrXt7SW7RB_bUUaF2G3b3fmKBEinltGoTwMrNYSF-HRUlg/w494-h640/Sword%20and%20Magic%20-%20character%20sheet%20v2%20pg1.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Rh2lefU2xPZXdoMywyekDG0Qoz-_NXoDGgZGBDz4SPY4faNbo2Jey1MHiOZPQonwtvZfkKnHwEL715xjPa74xvVN8ZDeO2jJ31a5Do-IsVSbN4qxG7DXbXk_Gydt0QIE_Eao7Qr9VVDVxD43uRfkQbQv8sOEUCK2WIQymaXg1Vle05NK7MUUKOeFDQ/s1100/Sword%20and%20Magic%20-%20character%20sheet%20v2%20pg2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Rh2lefU2xPZXdoMywyekDG0Qoz-_NXoDGgZGBDz4SPY4faNbo2Jey1MHiOZPQonwtvZfkKnHwEL715xjPa74xvVN8ZDeO2jJ31a5Do-IsVSbN4qxG7DXbXk_Gydt0QIE_Eao7Qr9VVDVxD43uRfkQbQv8sOEUCK2WIQymaXg1Vle05NK7MUUKOeFDQ/w494-h640/Sword%20and%20Magic%20-%20character%20sheet%20v2%20pg2.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><br /><p>Catch you on the flip side blogland!</p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-62574821346232214742022-08-08T12:47:00.000-06:002022-08-08T12:47:16.380-06:00[Play Report] Helvéczia - The Seven Knaves<p>A few months ago, I got the wonderful Helvéczia boxed set from EMDT (read <a href="https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2021/06/news-helveczia-picaresque-fantasy-rpg.html">all about it here</a>, and then go <a href="https://emdt.bigcartel.com/product/helveczia-picaresque-fantasy-rpg-boxed-edition">buy it here</a>). One day when my online B/X group was a bit short-handed, I decided to run the starting adventure included in the book. My players had a great time. I thought I would have to explain everything to them but they understood the premise instantly and got right into character. Now they ask me when we can play "the fop game" again!</p><p>Here is how it all went down:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>THE SEVEN KNAVES</b></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhYlqrYuUmrJgZjGxANyNtY9SiB7FLH61FOFt1USX4o9wnjHfoij2CLs02LvlTX57L0nxHHC0EC61A8lreav8Gcb3vk4DjmARb5I1Szz1r_iGZrvLGyp3xXFp54gE0--16UawLnm3syWTOHEZMDs4O7CWgFi75rY1R_VHzPlakFZP-yZCbwI05DWQzg/s711/b1ee7dbf4cdd5d775b57b98a8626bed2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="538" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhYlqrYuUmrJgZjGxANyNtY9SiB7FLH61FOFt1USX4o9wnjHfoij2CLs02LvlTX57L0nxHHC0EC61A8lreav8Gcb3vk4DjmARb5I1Szz1r_iGZrvLGyp3xXFp54gE0--16UawLnm3syWTOHEZMDs4O7CWgFi75rY1R_VHzPlakFZP-yZCbwI05DWQzg/w485-h640/b1ee7dbf4cdd5d775b57b98a8626bed2.jpg" width="485" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><b>Meeting on the Road</b></p><p>Three wanderers ambled along a cliffside highway after sunset:<br /><b>Tarasz Lobodou</b> - a handsome Cossack wearing expensive boots and a feathered hat;<br /><b>Wilhelm Rudd</b> - a sure-footed, sharp-eyed Dutchman with a crossbow, at home in the wilderness;<br />and <br /><b>Zenzi</b> - formerly an innkeeper, this German was now pursuing his education in arcane sciences, while carrying a sack full of grenades.</p><p><b>Tarasz</b>, introducing himself: <i>"People outside Zaporizia can't pronounce my name very well."<br /></i><b>Zenzi</b>: <i>"Yes, and those inside don't want to!"</i></p><div>Having just been turned out of Oberwalden village by the sullen residents, they were on their way to the next town and the next adventure when they came upon an old moss-covered stone cross by the roadside. A dishevelled vagrant slept beneath it, his hat over his face. <b>Tarasz</b> shook him and he woke with a start of fear, only relaxing when he noticed the group wasn't hostile.</div><p>The tramp introduced himself as <b>Bernard</b>, explaining that he had been begging for alms at a house up the road when he was set upon by a gang of toughs who took what little money he had and gave him a thrashing for his troubles - they posted a few guards on the road by a stone arch, so he wouldn't come back. </p><p>Moved by the poor man's plight, <b>Tarasz</b> gave him a few coins [+1 Virtue]. The group thought they might investigate these ruffians to see the truth of his story.</p><p>But first, <b>Wilhelm</b>'s keen eyesight spotted a distant red glow in the nearby forest and the group decided to investigate, with <b>Bernard</b> in tow. Walking along a narrow path through pine forests that had never known a woodsman's axe, they came to a small patch of glowing red mushrooms with fireflies dancing above. Each adventurer took a piece, and the glow persisted after they had been picked.</p><p>The forest path continued past the mushrooms until the group came upon a small mountain lake (more of a pond, really) surrounded by rushes. A cave opening in some rock formations was visible beyond. Peering into the water, <b>Zenzi</b> noticed a yellow glow amongst the weeds at the lake's bottom. Wasting no time, <b>Tarasz</b> stripped to the waist, set his sword & pistol carefully aside, held a dagger in his teeth and dove into the water.</p><p>Lucky he was to bring a weapon, as the brave Cossack was immediately attacked by a gigantic man-eating frog! The horrid beast almost swallowed him whole, and only swift action with his main-gauche allowed escape. Meanwhile two more of the creatures leapt towards the group on the shoreline, one almost swallowing <b>Bernard</b> whole.</p><p><b>Zenzi</b>, noticing one of his areas of study is Amphibians: <i>"This is the greatest day of my life!"</i></p><p>While <b>Tarasz</b> swam for dear life, a keen-eyed crossbow shot by <b>Wilhelm </b>and a blast from one of <b>Zenzi</b>'s grenades taught the other amphibious predators a lesson. Making it to the shore just ahead of his pursuer, <b>Tarazs</b> managed to put a final bullet in it a split-second before it bit him again! After the fight, <b>Tarasz</b> swam down and recovered a glowing golden cross from the bottom of the lake while <b>Wilhelm</b> managed to treat <b>Bernard</b>'s wounds [a very lucky Medicine roll!].</p><p>In the cave was a tomb, showing an armoured man and an inscription: <b>Von Oberwalden</b>. Part of the carving was movable and had a place for a key or signet of some kind. <b>Zenzi</b> made an impression of the symbol, but lacking any such key the group moved on.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The House</b></p><p>Emerging from the woods, the party espied a moss-covered stone farmhouse across the road. Cheery light shone from its windows and the sounds of song & merry-making could be heard. Further back up the highway, a stone arch was visible against the starlight.</p><p>Deciding on a 'divide-and-conquer' strategy, <b>Wilhelm</b> snuck through the woods while the rest of the group walked up the road with a lantern towards the stone arch. Lurking in the trees, <b>Wilhelm</b> could hear the two guards playing dice and grumbling about their posting.</p><p><b>Tough 1</b>: <i>"We have to sit out here, watching out for that bum! Meanwhile </i><b style="font-style: italic;">Raoul</b><i> and the lads are drinking in a nice warm cabin. Pfaugh!"</i><br /><b>Tough 2</b>, notices the party appraching: <i>"Oh, what's this? </i><i>Mayhap we've got some relief after all."</i></p><p>But it was not to be. As the party got close enough to recognize, <b>Tarasz</b> whipped out a pistol and the game was up. Caught by surprise, they considered their options but were thoroughly demoralized to see <b>Wilhelm </b>emerge from the trees at their flank, crossbow levelled. The toughs were forced to admit they had robbed <b>Bernard</b>, were interrogated, then bound & gagged and left in a roadside ditch. The beggar was overjoyed to get his handful of coppers back [+1 Virtue for everyone].</p><p><b>Tough 1</b>: <i>"As a good Christian, you wouldn't shoot an unarmed man?"</i><br /><b>Tarasz</b>, brandishing pistol:<b> </b><i>"Mayhap I'll send you to G-d and let him be the judge of that!"</i></p><p>The group learned very little except the gang's leader was a rich gentleman named <b>Raoul</b>, and something important was happening tonight. </p><p>As the party returned to the house, the Oberwalden town church bell tolled ten o'clock. The sounds of merriment still issued from inside. Listening carefully, <b>Wilhelm</b> felt sure there were no more than six men inside. The stables held only a fierce-looking, night-black warhorse nobody dared approach. The party decided to lie in wait for a while, reasoning that after all this drinking somebody would have to come outside to relieve themselves.</p><p>Half an hour later, their patience was rewarded when a shabbily-dressed thug stumbled out towards the forest. <b>Tarasz</b> and <b>Zenzi</b> crept up on him carefully, the latter preparing to cast a spell on him: <i>The Mirror of Narcissus</i>.</p><p><b>Zenzi</b>'s player: <i>"And just as he whips it out, I step forward and meet his eyes..."</i><br /><b>Tarasz</b>'s player: <i>"I take some small steps back from the scene."</i></p><p>Failing his Temptation save, <b>Witless Heinz</b> (for so he was called) saw <b>Zenzi</b> for a simple rogue just like himself, happily having a few drinks. He spilled the whole story: <b>Raoul</b> was a tough & fearsome leader who sometimes ventured into the woods all alone and showed signs of knowing magic (his boots were shoed in reverse). He had told the gang that an important visitor was arriving tonight, commanding them to return to the house at eleven o'clock. The group sent <b>Heinz</b> back inside with a commandment to keep silent about them [he made a Temptation save to keep his mouth shut, another of the company's lucky rolls this night!].</p><p>The group heard Oberwalden's church bells ring out eleven as they deliberated on their next move. Finally they decided on the direct approach: <b>Zenzi</b> threw a grenade through the window while the rest of the group charged in through the stable door! There was the crash of gunpowder, screams of agony & fear, fire and smoke. <b>Tarasz </b>spotted the rogue <b>Raoul </b>standing in the front doorway, lace spilling from his cuffs. The black-clad Spaniard held up a crystal globe which seemed to absorb <b>Tarasz</b>'s mind, drawing his whole consciousness towards it - but the Cossack's will was stronger than this black magic and he resisted. Inside, <b>Wilhelm</b> cut down some Frenchman who tried to blast him with a blunderbuss, while <b>Bernard</b> went wild with a club in the confusion & smoke.</p><p>Seeing things were turning against him, <b>Raoul</b> tried to flee down the highway, but <b>Tarasz</b> managed to hit him with a flying tackle, knocking the crystal sphere from his hand just as <b>Zenzi</b> came around the corner! Together the two of them subdued the rogue.</p><p>As the smoke cleared, <b>Wilhelm</b> saw that poor <b>Witless Heinz</b> had been laid low by<b> Bernard</b> in the latter's zeal to punish the ruffians who robbed him. Taking pity on the fool, he saw to his injuries [another great Medicine roll, and +1 Virtue!].</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The Visitor</b></p><p>With the villains subdued, the group searched the house and interrogated <b>Raoul</b>. They found a few Pfennigs on the ruffians, and <b>Zenzi</b> took <b>Raoul</b>'s spare set of fancy black clothes, putting them on so he resembled the dashing criminal.</p><p>Searching <b>Raoul </b>was illuminating: the party found a catalogue of grave sins (murder, arson, etc), each one signed by himself and another called <b>Goodfriend</b>. The man was tough-minded and resisted interrogation, but the group did manage to get a few details out of him - the mysterious midnight visitor was to be the Devil himself, with whom <b>Raoul </b>would make a bargain most foul!</p><p>A plan began to form. The group tied <b>Raoul </b>to a tree outside and cleaned up the house as best they could. <b>Zenzi</b> carefully cut <b>Raoul</b>'s moustache off and stuck it to his own lip. </p><p>As midnight tolled, the clatter of wheels and neighing of horses could be heard. An elegant black carriage pulled by four fierce chargers pulled up to the small country house. Its driver was obscured by a cloak & broad hat, with clouds of red sparks issuing from beneath as if exhaled by a furnace. Stepping jauntily out of the coach, dressed in an elegant vest & monocle was the sooty-faced Devil, horns and all! </p><p>He rapped sharply on the door and <b>Zenzi</b> invited him in. <i>"Ah, nice to see you again <b>Raoul</b>. Do you look a bit different...? No matter."</i> Whether <b>Zenzi</b>'s hasty disguise had fooled the demon [another fantastic roll this night!] or all men looked much the same to him was unclear.</p><p><i>"You have the papers?" </i><b>Zenzi</b> produced <b>Raoul</b>'s paperwork and <b>Goodfriend</b> reiterated the terms: worldly fame, wealth, magical power & skill at the Devil's Bible (playing cards) in exchange for a sequence of heinous crimes... and one immortal soul! After signing the contract, <b>Zenzi</b> really didn't feel any different, but <b>Goodfriend </b>said the changes would take effect the next day. He offered to do deals with the rest of the group, but when they weren't interested he bid everyone farewell, jumped into his carriage and was gone with a clatter of hooves.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Return to the Crypt</b></p><p>After this, <b>Raoul</b> gave up some of his secrets under intense pressure from <b>Wilhelm</b> [torturing a captive, uh oh, -1 Virtue!]. The group was able to recover his treasure - a lockbox with some coins and a signet ring showing a snake coiling around a sphere - the same symbol as in the <b>Von Oberwalden</b> tomb.</p><p>Returning to the forest cave, the signet ring unlocked a deeper passage inside. Descending the stairs, <b>Tarasz</b> just barely avoided a hidden spear-trap [lucky save!]. At the bottom was a large stone coffin with a carving of a bearded man with a mace & shield, while four moldering coffins lined the walls. </p><p>Opening the sarcophagus revealed an ancient armoured corpse with a sword on its chest, holding a scroll-case. When <b>Zenzi</b>'s <i>Faithful Servant</i> spell retrieved the scroll, the sword rose into the air and attacked! A tense struggle ensued but with <b>Zenzi</b>'s quick thinking, a chunk of coffin-wood and <b>Wilhelm</b>'s net, the sword was thrown back into the sarcophagus and the lid slammed shut.</p><p>Opening the scroll case revealed an ancient paper: <i>The Testament of the von Oberwaldens</i>. This ancient will seemed to indicate that anyone who held it and the signet ring is the true and rightful master of Castle Oberwalden and the whole valley around it!</p><p>With this new windfall, the group wonders what strange escapades might come next?</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The Catalogue of Sins:</b></p><p>Tarasz - offered charity to Bernard (+1 Virtue)<br />Everyone - returned Bernard's stolen money (+1 Virtue each)<br />Wilhelm - showing mercy, healing Witless Heinz (+1 Virtue)<br />Wilhelm - torturing Raoul (-1 Virtue)<br />Zenzi - using Student spells (-1 Virtue)<br />Zenzi - making a pact with the Devil! (-3 Virtue)<br /></p><p>Tarasz: +2<br />Wilhelm: +1<br />Zenzi: -3<br /><br /></p><p></p><p><b></b></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Times New Roman"; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8JAVUNktBFQgRXfWPJDPmmBguZuwPO7w5ppoMMMSyLkko2tC6akT12vf8XaKSNTC5DmrT8a55CW_GVlT-89oS71gPDh95Su6DYSSMDUiL8PrX5l9jWsKoS9vJF4B1RsMeW7d9FrbqfwsWiOyj7IKbNRTUMQ39jcISbhLVaohU8rQPbwkuvhKbb41uw/s1024/2947914002_aa5640a754_b.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="542" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8JAVUNktBFQgRXfWPJDPmmBguZuwPO7w5ppoMMMSyLkko2tC6akT12vf8XaKSNTC5DmrT8a55CW_GVlT-89oS71gPDh95Su6DYSSMDUiL8PrX5l9jWsKoS9vJF4B1RsMeW7d9FrbqfwsWiOyj7IKbNRTUMQ39jcISbhLVaohU8rQPbwkuvhKbb41uw/w338-h640/2947914002_aa5640a754_b.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="338" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zenzi's future...?</td></tr></tbody></table>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-40796819595744316742022-06-01T17:38:00.002-06:002022-09-28T19:09:39.355-06:00Intelligent Magic ItemsA post many years in the making!<br /><br />After finishing that <i>"Knights in Orcus' Service"</i> post and knocking around ideas for the other Chaos patrons in my setting, I realized I needed my own rules for demon weapons. Creating these items for my home game, I've been forced to cobble things together haphazardly. It's been rather annoying and nothing has felt quite right, so this is my attempt to streamline the rules for my home games - in whatever version of D&D I happen to be playing.<div><div><br /></div><div>After using these rules several times in my home game, I feel good enough about them to post up. If I change them in the future I may come back and edit this.</div><div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GOVKPz6xUgk/YYrDVWeSXOI/AAAAAAAAEyw/v2Jzx5UcIhI-UFgGyLZGw6zCGGfuEnJhgCLcBGAsYHQ/Screenshot%2Bfrom%2B2021-11-09%2B11-13-05.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="156" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GOVKPz6xUgk/YYrDVWeSXOI/AAAAAAAAEyw/v2Jzx5UcIhI-UFgGyLZGw6zCGGfuEnJhgCLcBGAsYHQ/w144-h640/Screenshot%2Bfrom%2B2021-11-09%2B11-13-05.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />
First, let's examine the books I already have:<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness - </b>The rules for Demon Weapons are cool as fuck, and clearly inspired by Elric. "Slays any unit it hits" is a bit much though. The magic effects from the Chaos Weapons section are good and the artwork is of course fantastic.</div><div><br /></div><div>Awesome, but it will need some massaging to work within D&D. <br />We will come back to it later.<br />
<br /><br /><b>The Metamorphica Revised - </b>The 'Ficto-Technica' section has tables for magic items. The best table is the one on pg. 208, "Demon-Possessed Items":<br />
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<br />This will come up later on. </div><div><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198038/The-Metamorphica-Revised">Just get it</a>, it's $10 for the revised pdf or get the classic version FREE! <br /><br />
<br /><b>AD&D DMG - </b>Pages 166-168.<br /><br />The standard to which all others are compared! Tables for personality and special goals are fantastic, but the whole system is pretty complicated and you have to flip back & forth. As usual, it could do with a bit of organizing.</div><div><br />I will be using the DMG as the baseline. From there I have attempted to streamline the mathematics and make things a little simpler while calibrating for my home setting.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div>
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<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>CREATING INTELLIGENT MAGIC ITEMS</b></div>
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<b>0: Start</b><br />
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Per the DMG - we begin with an existing magic item. It could be a standard book item or one of the DM's own devising. This system was originally for magic swords but could be applied to anything: other weapons, wands, rings, armour or whatever.<div><br /></div><div>From there, a simple 6-step process:</div><div>1: Roll for item INT</div><div>2: Roll for Alignment</div><div>3: Roll for Special Abilities</div><div>4: Roll for Special Purpose</div><div>5: Roll # of Languages Spoken, if applicable</div><div>6: Calculate EGO & Personality Strength</div><div>
<br />
<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1: Intelligence and Capabilities (%)</b></div>
<br />
We begin with the base tables from the DMG to see if it has intelligence and a mode of communication, and determine starting EGO rating:<br />
<br />
01-50: No intelligence. Stop here.</div><div>51-75: No intelligence, but a strong alignment. Roll on <b>Step 2</b> and then stop.<br />
76-83: INT 12, EGO 1, semi-empathy<br />
84-89: INT 13, EGO 2, empathy<br />
90-94: INT 14, EGO 4, speech<br />
95-97: INT 15, EGO 5, speech<br />
98-99: INT 16, EGO 6, speech, read nonmagical languages/maps<br />
00: INT 17, EGO 12, speech/telepathy, read magical writings<br />
<br />
Or, if you are going to make an intelligent item anyway, use this chart expanded to the full percentage range to avoid a lot of rerolling:<br />
<br />
01-31: INT 12, EGO 1, semi-empathy<br />
32-56: INT 13, EGO 2, empathy<br />
57-76: INT 14, EGO 3, speech<br />
77-88: INT 15, EGO 4, speech<br />
89-96: INT 16, EGO 5, speech, read nonmagical languages/maps<br />
97-00: INT 17, EGO 11, speech/telepathy, read magical writings<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>EXAMPLE - I begin with a magical +2 sword. I have no particular plan for this item, so let's see what the dice give me on the top chart. Rolling for intelligence I got a 91, lucky! This sword has INT 14, EGO 3 and the power of speech.</i></div></div><div><br />
<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>2: Alignment (d20)</b></div>
<br />If you use simple law/chaos alignment like I do, just ignore the good/evil component of the result.</div><div>Remember that all cursed weapons are Neutral.</div><div><br /></div><div>1-5: Lawful Good</div><div>6: Lawful Neutral</div><div>7: Lawful Evil</div><div>8-11: Neutral Good</div><div>12-15: True Neutral</div><div>16: Neutral Evil</div><div>17: Chaotic Good</div><div>18-19: Chaotic Neutral</div><div>20: Chaotic Evil</div><div><br /></div><div>Simple alignment: if Chaotic, 30% chance of a demon item</div><div>AD&D alignment: if any Evil, 40% chance of a demon (or daemon or devil) item</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Unintelligent but Aligned Items</b></div><div>Simple: Can be wielded or held by anyone, but activated & special abilities only work if alignment matches exactly. Plain <i>+x</i> items are reduced by one 'plus' for every step of alignment difference.</div><div><br /></div><div>AD&D: Can be wielded by anyone, but activated & special abilities only work if all non-neutral elements of the item's alignment match the wielder's (a Lawful Neutral item can be used by anyone Lawful). This doesn't work in reverse - a Lawful Good item can only be used by Lawful Good characters. Plain <i>+x</i> items are reduced by one 'plus' for every step of alignment difference on either axis.<br />
<br /><b>Intelligent Items</b></div><div>Simple: Handling an item of opposite alignment deals damage equal to item EGO. Handling an item one 'step' away (item or wielder is Neutral) deals 1/2 damage.<br /><br /></div><div>AD&D: All non-neutral elements of the item's alignment must match (as above), or handling the item deals damage equal to item EGO.<br />
<br /><b>Demon Items</b></div><div>Can be used by characters of any ethos, all the better to corrupt them to the forces of darkness.<br />
<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>EXAMPLE - I use Simple alignment in my game. I rolled a 5, indicating the sword is Lawful.</i></div><br />
<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>3: Special Abilities</b></div>
<br />
Roll for abilities based on item's INT:<br />
<br />
INT 12: 1 detection ability<br />
INT 13-14: 2 detection abilities<br />
INT 15-16: 3 detection abilities<br />
INT 17: 3 detection abilities, 1 extraordinary power<br /><b><br />Detection Ability (%)</b><br />01-08 - detect shifting rooms/walls/sloping passages 10'</div><div>09-16 - detect traps 10'</div><div>17-24 - detect undead 20'</div><div>25-30 - detect opposing alignments 10'</div><div>31-36 - detect similar alignments 10'</div><div>37-45 - detect precious metals, kind and amount 20'</div><div>46-54 - detect gems, kind and number 5'<br />55-66 - detect magic 10'</div><div>67-69 - detect illusions 10'</div><div>70-74 - detect secret doors 5'</div><div>75-80 - see invisible 10'</div><div>81-85 - locate object 120'</div><div>86-93 - roll twice, ignoring this result or higher (add 2 EGO)</div><div>94-00 - roll for extraordinary power (add 2 EGO)</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Extraordinary Power (%)</b></div><div>01-06 - determine direction and depth, 1d2/day</div><div>07-14 - enlarge/reduce on wielder, 1d2/day</div><div>15-21 - spider climb for 1 turn, 1d3/day</div><div>22-28 - clairaudience for 1 round, 30' range 1d3/day</div><div>29-35 - clairvoyance for 1 round, 30' range 1d3/day</div><div>36-40 - ESP for 1 round, 30' range 1d3/day</div><div>41-46 - charm person on hit, 1d3/day</div><div>47-50 - knock, 1/day</div><div>51-56 - strength on wielder, 1/day</div><div>57-61 - invisibility to item's enemies for 1 turn, 1d2/day</div><div>62-66 - levitation for 1 turn, 1d3/day</div><div>67-70 - fly, 1 hour/day (add 1d3 EGO)</div><div>71-75 - illusion as the wand, 120' range 1d2/day (add 1d3 EGO)</div><div>76-80 - x-ray vision for 1 turn, 40' range 1d2/day (add 1d4 EGO)</div><div>81-86 - telekinesis for 1 round, 1d2/day (add 1d3 EGO)</div><div>87-90 - telepathy, 60' range 1d2/day (add 1d4 EGO)</div><div>91-94 - teleport, 1/day (add 1d4+1 EGO)</div><div>95-97 - heal, 1/day (add 1d4+1 EGO)</div><div><div>98-00 - Roll twice, ignore this result again (add 2 EGO)</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<i>EXAMPLE - INT 14 gives 2 rolls on the Detection Table. <br />I rolled 03 - "detect shifting walls/rooms/sloping passages," and 71 - "detect secret doors." Not bad!</i></div><div><i><br /></i>
<b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>4: Special Purpose of Intelligent Item (d%)</b></div></b>
<br />Every intelligent item should have a special purpose. </div><div>All these goals are filtered by alignment. A lawful sword that must 'defeat or slay' will only select chaotic enemies of its chosen category, etc.</div><div>
<br />
01-15: overthrow opposite alignment (or "maintain balance" if Neutral)<br />
16-85: defeat or slay:<br /> 16-22: divine magic users (incl. divine entities, etc)<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"> 23-30: arcane magic users (incl. magic-using monsters)</div> 31-37: fighters<br /> 38-44: thieves<br /> 45-55: all non-human monsters<br /> 56-63: particular creature type (humanoids, undead, demons, etc)<br /> 64-71: particular race or kind of creature (elves, orcs, ghouls, etc)<br /> 72-78: servants of a specific deity<br /> 79-85: everyone!!<br />
86-92: defend a particular race or kind of creature<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
93-00: defend interests of a specific deity</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;">Intelligent items generally prefer to use their powers in pursuit of their special purpose, but will do so for general tasks as long as they are kept happy. Using the item in opposition to its special purpose (aiding those the item wishes to destroy, etc) provokes an immediate personality conflict.</div>
<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>EXAMPLE - Rolling for Special Purpose, I get a 75 - "defeat or slay servants of a specific deity." Since the sword is Lawful, I decide to randomly select from the Chaotic powers in my setting. I end up with INMA, EMPRESS OF THE WORLD, a petty god worshipped by degenerated elves.</i></div><div>
<br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>5: Languages Spoken</b></div>
<br />It's assumed the item can understand its wielder in any case. This determines the number of languages the item can speak aloud, if it is able. Per the DMG:</div><div>
<br />
<b># of languages (%)</b><br />
01-40: One<br />
41-70: Two<br />
71-85: Three (+1 EGO)<br />
86-95: Four (+1 EGO)<br />
96-99: Five (+2 EGO)<br />
00: Six (+2 EGO)<br /><br /><b>What Language? (%)</b></div><div>Here is a chart from my game as an example.</div><div>01-15 - Imperial (aka Common Viridian)</div><div>15-20 - Alryan</div><div>21-25 - Antillian</div><div>26-30 - Dunael</div><div>31-35 - Ghinoran</div><div>36-40 - Skandik</div><div>41-45 - Tharbrian</div><div>46-50 - Amazon</div><div>51-55 - Altanian</div><div>56-60 - Avalonian</div><div>61-65 - Orichalan</div><div>66-70 - Old High Viridian</div><div>71-72 - Wild Speech</div><div>73-74 - Skeletongue</div><div>75-76 - Duvan'Ku</div><div>77-87 - Grimscribe</div><div>88-91 - Demonic</div><div>92-93 - Wild Elf/Bog Elf</div><div>94-95 - Lizardfolk</div><div>96-99 - Chthonic Elf</div><div>00 - Something really old/rare (draconic or something else cool)</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>EXAMPLE - Here I rolled fairly low, a 15. The sword can speak one language. I rolled Wild Elvish and decided it was made by the elves to destroy the heretical cult of Inma!</i></div>
<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>6. EGO Modifiers & Personality Strength</b></div>
<br />1 - Begin with item's starting EGO score as per <b>Step 1</b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>2 - Add 1 EGO for every magical 'plus' an item has. Double this bonus for weapons that came into the process with special abilities (a +1 sword adds +1 EGO, a +3 sword of sharpness adds +6 EGO, etc) </div><div>If the item is some weird thing from an OSR blog with no pluses you must use your discretion. Eyeball a power level between 1 (+1 sword, simple misc. magic item) and 10 (+5 holy avenger, staff of the magi). If you're completely stuck roll 1d10, or 1d6+1d4, or whatever.<br /><br /></div><div>3 - Include bonuses from <b>Step 3</b> and <b>Step 5</b>, if any.</div><div><br /></div><div>4 - Add the item's INT + EGO together to find its Personality Strength (PS).</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>EXAMPLE - The sword started with EGO 4. </i><i>Add 2 for the sword's +2 bonus.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Total EGO of 6.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>"Xyrxidon"</b> Sword +2, Lawful</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>INT 14, EGO 6, speaks wild elvish</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Detect shifting rooms/walls/sloping passages in 10' , detect secret doors in 5'</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Resolving Personality Conflicts</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Personality conflicts arise when the intelligent item's desires are not being met by its wielder. These contests are resolved with Personality Strength scores. </div><div><br /></div><div>The wielder of an item has Personality Strength equal to their INT + CHA + level. This diminishes as the character suffers damage. The experience level component of this formula is reduced in proportion to hit point damage suffered.</div><div> </div><div>The DMG explains it quite Gygaxianly, it's actually less math than it seems. The DM needs to calculate this just once (and when the character gains a level). Find the character's hp breakpoint at which the item's PS is higher than his, and make a note of it. There is no need to keep track of floating modifiers, since they don't matter most of the time.</div><div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>EXAMPLE - <b>Tjarg the Fighter</b> is 5th level with 9 INT, 9 CHA and 30 hp. He normally has a Personality Strength of 5+9+9 = 23. For every 1/5 of his total hp he loses (6 points in this case) he deducts 1 point from his PS - so at 24 hp his PS is reduced to 22, at 18 hp it is 21 and so on.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>If Tjarg is using our +2 sword above with its INT 14 & EGO 6 (PS of 20), you can see clearly at 12 hp he is tied with the sword and once his hp reaches 6, the sword's personality is stronger than his! All Tjarg's DM needs to do is write down <b>"Tjarg loses contest w/</b></i><i><b>sword at 6 hp."</b></i></div><div>
<br /></div><div>As long as the item has a lower Personality Strength than its wielder, it can make its desires known and refuse to use its abilities if frustrated, but has no power over the character.</div><div><br /></div><div>When an intelligent item has a PS higher than its wielder it may dominate him at any time. It may force him to attack certain opponents or allies, refuse to strike foes, force him to surrender or to drop it, etc. The likelihood of this happening depends on the relationship between item and wielder. It may make other additional demands - encrustation with gems, a fancy scabbard or case to be stored in, other efforts toward favoured causes, things like that.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Optional Rule for Personality Conflicts:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>One thing I don't like about the DMG rules: it is trivial to roll up an intelligent weapon that will <b>never win a personality conflict!</b> This doesn't seem that exciting to me. Maybe you want a bit more uncertainty in your game?</div><div><br /></div><div>It requires a bit more note-taking. The DM must note the wielder's Personality Strength at multiple breakpoints. Perhaps full hp, slightly hurt, half hp and near death. Keep these notes nearby for reference. When a personality conflict arises, the DM rolls 1d8 for both the item and wielder, adding it to their PS scores before resolving the contest.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>EXAMPLE - A magical boon has increased <b>Tjarg</b>'s INT and CHA scores to 10. His Personality Score is now 25. His humble sword can only win a battle of wills when he has 0 hp left - not very useful! Instead, the DM notes his Personality Strength at 12 hit points (PS 22) and 6 (PS 21).</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>During a difficult fight <b>Tjarg</b> gets hurt badly, reducing his hp to 11 (therefore, PS to 22). His sword has new plans for him and attempts to take control. The DM rolls 1d8 for each of them. <b>Tjarg</b> gets a 3, totaling 25. The sword rolls an 8, totaling 28. Today isn't <b>Tjarg</b>'s lucky day...</i></div><div><br /></div><div>I have not tested this idea very much. It would have to be calibrated. You could make it more or less random by changing the size of the die. If you used a d4 or d6, upset results would be rare. A d20 would make the whole thing way too random. d8 or d10 seems like a nice middle ground - the die roll will count for about 1/4 to 1/3 of success or failure, with the remainder upheld by statistics. Just enough that one can't be certain all the time!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Optional Rule for Different Versions of the Game:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The DMG rules are calibrated for players with certain statistics. Probably using 4d6 drop-the-lowest method, or perhaps something more generous than that. From the anecdotal evidence I've seen, successful AD&D PCs tend to have 1, 2 or even 3 exceptional statistics (15 or over), with the rest hovering around average. Consider this when calibrating the PS of your intelligent items.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you play B/X and use 3d6 in order, for example, maybe you would reduce all item PS scores by 10-20% to balance out the lower stats.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>[CHANGES]</b></div><div><br /></div><div>This system will generate intelligent items that are slightly different from the DMG version in some ways:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Section 1</b> - Ignore "no intelligence, but strongly aligned" and this is exactly as per the DMG, I just condensed the math for you.</div><div><br /></div><div>Aligned items being commonplace adds a sense that they were created for a real purpose. Picking up a <i>wand of fireballs</i> that only works for Chaotics, an Evil <i>sword of sharpness</i>, or a suit of armour made by a Lawful cleric helps to embed these items in the game world.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Section 2</b> - I rearranged the order of the alignments so that law, neutrality and chaos were grouped together, but the chances of rolling a given alignment are still the same. Effects of opposing alignments are standard for AD&D 2-axis system, and extrapolated from there for simple alignment. [EDIT - I had to fix this. Before damage was impossible if the wielder was Neutral, lame]</div><div><br /></div><div>Effects of aligned, but unintelligent weapons are my own. </div><div>Demon weapons will occur about <b>6%</b> of the time, and be explained in a later post.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Section 3</b> - The first table is BTB.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Extraordinary Powers are more likely (<b>7%</b> instead of <b>2%</b> BTB), but the really powerful ones will occur less often so this seems fair. Some of the better Extraordinary Powers now add extra EGO to the item. This is fair, since rolling up an item that lets you teleport or fly every day seems like a really big deal!</div><div><br /></div><div>I reworked the abilities so they fit my game better and have more variety. Sloping passages and trick walls are rare in my dungeons (unlike in the old days) so I combined them into one result, then I added some other cool abilities, etc.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Section 4</b> - Basically the same but I added more purposes to the table to give it some variety.</div><div><br /></div><div>I removed "special purpose powers," so you'll never get a disintegrate-on-hit sword, but those were only going to happen <b>0.02%</b> of the time anyway, so who cares?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Section 5</b> - BTB, I just included the EGO modifiers to make your life easier.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Section 6</b> - BTB, I just helped with the math.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div><br />
This is already getting long, and even more tables are coming up so let's quit while we're ahead. Rules for Demon Weapons coming up in the next installment!<br />
<br />
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<br /></div></div></div></div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-55866998284048155022022-02-23T13:40:00.000-07:002022-02-23T13:40:59.473-07:00We Are Not The Same<p>Someone recommended I check out the <b>Eberron</b> campaign setting. I could see myself running it with a few tweaks. I would change the names a bit (way too many "Dragon-somethings"). But the magic-as-technology thing is intensely annoying. I would rather play in a game where wizards ride stagecoaches and helium zeppelins and send telegraphs, than one where every post office is run by a dude casting <i>sending</i>.</p><p>'High Magic' in D&D should be a lot less <i>continual light</i> streetlamps and more of this, and I am reprinting it here so I can link to it during internet arguments. </p><p><br /><br /><i>Before the black-armored image there hung seven silver lamps, wrought in the form of horses' skulls, with flames issuing changeably in blue and purple and crimson from their eye-sockets. Wild and lurid was their light, and the face of the demon, peering from under his crested helmet, was filled with malign, equivocal shadows that shifted and changed eternally. And sitting in his serpent-carven chair, Namirrha regarded the statue grimly, with a deep-furrowed frown between his eyes: for he had asked a certain thing of Thasaidon, and the fiend, replying through the statue, had refused him. And rebellion was in the heart of Namirrha, grown mad with pride, and deeming himself the lord of all sorcerers and a ruler by his own right among the princes of devildom. So, after long pondering, he repeated his request in a bold and haughty voice, like one who addresses an equal rather than the all-formidable suzerain to whom he had sworn a fatal fealty.</i><br /></p><i>"I have helped you heretofore in all things," said the image, with stony and sonorous accents that were echoed metallically in the seven silver lamps. "Yea, the undying worms of fire and darkness have come forth like an army at your summons, and the wings of nether genii have risen to occlude the sun when you called them. But, verily, I will not aid you in this vengeance you have planned: for the emperor Zotulla has done me no wrong and has served me well though unwittingly; and the people of Xylac, by reason of their turpitudes, are not the least of my terrestial worshippers. Therefore, Namirrha, it were well for you to live in peace with Zotulla, and well to forget this olden wrong that was done to the beggar-boy Narthos. For the ways of destiny are strange, and the workings of its laws sometimes hidden; and truly, if the hooves of Zotulla's palfrey had not spurned you and trodden you under, your life had been otherwise, and the name and renown of Namirrha had still slept in oblivion as a dream undreamed. Yea, you would tarry still as a beggar in Ummaos, content with a beggar's guerdon, and would never have fared forth to become the pupil of the wise and learned Ouphaloc; and I, Thasaidon, would have lost the lordliest of all necromancers who have accepted my service and my bond. Think well, Namirrha, and ponder these matters: for both of us, it would seem, are indebted to Zotulla in all gratitude for the trampling he gave you..."</i><p>-Clark Ashton Smith, <i>The Dark Eidolon</i></p><p><br /></p><p><i>"Listen, my lord. I was once a great sorcerer in the south. Men spoke of Thoth-Amon as they spoke of Rammon. King Ctesophon of Stygia gave me great honor, casting down the magicians from the high places to exalt me above them. They hated me, but they feared me, for I controlled beings from </i>outside<i> which came at my call and did my bidding. By Set, mine enemy knew not the hour when he might awake at midnight to feel the taloned fingers of a nameless horror at his throat! I did dark and terrible magic with the Serpent Ring of Set, which I found in a nighted tomb a league beneath the earth, forgotten before the first man crawled out of the slimy sea..."</i></p><p><i>..."Blind your eyes, mystic serpent," he chanted in a blood-freezing whisper. "Blind your eyes to the moonlight and open them on darker gulfs! What do you see, O serpent of Set? Whom do you call from the gulfs of the Night? Whose shadow falls on the waning Light? Call him to me, O serpent of Set!"<br /><br />Stroking the scales with a peculiar circular motion of his fingers, a motion which always carried the fingers back to their starting place, his voice sank still lower as he whispered dark names and grisly incantations forgotten the world over save in the grim hinterlands of dark Stygia, where monstrous shapes move in the dusk of the tombs.<br /><br />There was a movement in the air about him, such a swirl as is made in water when some creature rises to the surface. A nameless, freezing wind blew on him briefly, as if from an opened Door. Thoth felt a presence at his back, but he did not look about...</i></p><p>-Robert E Howard, <i>The Phoenix on the Sword</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvwblVbeCK_RYUKlbtB0qgn1Pereke0vlIpfDS2wo7OpY1gwddbxUU834CKSC_OUv-0Bs5PS0gQtphEyijVemIuJvS_k6MQQ7Lc3Rz5mR9cNYy48N0NZOBWGd_ddTcf3uUijE0NXFmbGloFj853qUpUsey0s3zvjv_QbXSf6Ud023axTvCSj4YYUnfpg=s2032" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2032" data-original-width="1769" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvwblVbeCK_RYUKlbtB0qgn1Pereke0vlIpfDS2wo7OpY1gwddbxUU834CKSC_OUv-0Bs5PS0gQtphEyijVemIuJvS_k6MQQ7Lc3Rz5mR9cNYy48N0NZOBWGd_ddTcf3uUijE0NXFmbGloFj853qUpUsey0s3zvjv_QbXSf6Ud023axTvCSj4YYUnfpg=w558-h640" width="558" /></a></div><p><br /></p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-25083447094813017132022-02-08T15:42:00.002-07:002022-02-11T11:43:32.032-07:00Terrible City Guards<p>So I was having a few laughs with some other gamers about city guards in Swords & Sorcery campaigns. We agreed that well-done city guards should be the <i>opposite </i>of helpful in every possible way! I am running a game in the City-State of the World Emperor right now, and I think about this kind of thing a lot. </p><p>In the spirit of Lankhmar, the CSIO and Melan's <i>The Nocturnal Table</i>, here is a list of assholish city guard behaviours to make your ne'er-do-well player characters' lives difficult.</p><p><b>EDIT - After Prince's comment, I've added some more entries to the table. <br />Enjoy the new 36-entry version!</b></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrtHbsaWBzJ4eW76TwE3toGC9k7rAYQFSTmAoWLt-4rJBvk13y9V817US8_V-J3xkkNXnbdSFhHeJmPMkvHSvWeL7Z6j1BN1_b7cGSlEOVYah8-cJwT3SfgkFd1a5YjdUA6x76jVAc_G6wbmRJ_sUoO6QA11AfF0QUo_s0BPx-9f3EYXTCM3-zB0b0Hw=s1010" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="768" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrtHbsaWBzJ4eW76TwE3toGC9k7rAYQFSTmAoWLt-4rJBvk13y9V817US8_V-J3xkkNXnbdSFhHeJmPMkvHSvWeL7Z6j1BN1_b7cGSlEOVYah8-cJwT3SfgkFd1a5YjdUA6x76jVAc_G6wbmRJ_sUoO6QA11AfF0QUo_s0BPx-9f3EYXTCM3-zB0b0Hw=w486-h640" width="486" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Roll for individual guards or an entire group (or just the guard you're talking to).<br />For best fun, roll 2 or 3 times and combine!<br /></p><p><b>City Guard Traits Table (d66):</b></p><p><b>11 - Lazy</b>: doesn't want to lift a finger, no matter how serious the situation<br /><b>12 - Mean</b>: gets angry if spoken to without proper "respect"<br /><b>13 - Greedy</b>: loves to get bribed, makes up bullshit fees, skims off the top<br /><b>14 - Upstanding</b>: reacts negatively to a bribe attempt<br /><b>15 - Inquisitive</b>: follows up on everything, suspects everyone<br /><b>16 - Party animal</b>: looking for a drink, smoke or skirt<br /><b>21 - Shady</b>: trying to hide activities from the higher-ups & witnesses<br /><b>22 - V</b><b>ain</b>: trying to look good, impress the populace, get chicks<br /><b>23 - Slovenly</b>: unshaven, ill-fitting armour, helmet askew, may trip on own boots<br /><b>24 - Unwashed</b>: scent is oppressive enough, stands very close<br /><b>25 - Cowardly & Vicious</b>: takes easy chance for cruelty, avoids any challenge<br /><b>26 - Superstitious</b>: fears magic, recent convert to weird cult, or keeps lucky charm<br /><b>31 - Zealot</b>: believes Overlord/local priest/etc is best possible ruler, enforces happily <br /><b>32 - Axe to grind</b>: vs. particular race, class, religion, or everyone<br /><b>33 - Bent</b>: running own schemes, has contraband to buy & sell<br /><b>34 - Drunk</b>: raucous fun, maudlin despair, or sullen & violent<br /><b>35 - Disbelieving</b>: assumes citizens are liars, believes opposite of what is said<br /><b>36 - Ultraviolence</b>: <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OY6xUAKQaas/VOqm5PPavqI/AAAAAAAACfc/sZ6f4o6YsEQ/s1600/blogo3.jpg">Sanpaku eyes</a>, ready for bloodbath at slightest provocation<br /><b>41 - The good guard routine</b>: easygoing & friendly, trying to extract information<br /><b>42 - The bad guard routine</b>: loves to beat on the citizenry, fights dirty<br /><b>43 - Shit rolls downhill</b>: blames nearest bystander for anything that goes wrong<br /><b>44 - S</b><b>hit rolls uphill</b>: everything reported to the district commander<b><br /></b><b>45 - Filling </b><b>quotas</b>: collects tolls & taxes, sliding scale based on seeming wealth<br /><b>46 - Press-ganging</b>: eyeing likely candidates for the Overlord's salt mines<br /><b>51 - The boss is watching</b>: strict & by-the-book, the more obscure the laws the better<br /><b>52 - Entrapment</b>: pretending to be on the take, ready to arrest anyone who takes bait<br /><b>53 - In it for the pension</b>: will not face even slight danger, makes any excuse<br /><b>54 - On break</b>: all the privileges, none of the responsibilities<br /><b>55 - High alert</b>: vigilant, notices any subtle/suspicious goings-on<br /><b>56 - Informant</b>: works for Overlord's secret police, rats out everyone<br /><b>61 - Doing the job for once</b>: asks all passersby difficult questions, needs answers now<br /><b>62 - On the payroll</b>: looks other way for local thieving, reports new operators to guild<br /><b>63 - Judge Dredd</b>: inhumanly Lawful, pursues even minor infractions unto death<br /><b>64 - Private Pyle</b>: pudgy dim-bulb would love a donut right now<br /><b>65 - Fit a description</b>: vaguely likes PC for crime that just happened across town<br /><b>66 - Jam-up</b>: new orders, crackdown on PC's next plan or favourite business</p><p><br /></p><p>There you have it folks, a good old-fashioned random table that you can use in your home game today. <b>Based on a blog comment section collaboration in the high & ancient style, no less!!!</b> Who says the scene is dead?</p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-22993106723464848432022-01-23T15:32:00.001-07:002022-01-23T15:32:19.544-07:00Land's End II: Peoples and ClassesMy Land's End II campaign uses Melan's <a href="https://fomalhaut.lfg.hu/2011/01/17/sword-and-magic/">Sword & Magic rules</a>, which are great. I have fiddled with this stuff enough that it seems worth posting about how it's going. We'll start with the playable character races in the setting.<div><br /></div><div>Everything here is written to be player-facing, except what's behind the <b>DM Notes</b>.</div><br /><br /><b>HUMANS</b><br /><br />Skin colours may vary, but no mechanical differences.<div>No level limits<br />+1 extra skill at start<div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNoeYdNdBMeUqpIK8ZFypQ6yklNJPvXntc2LPLo8UVj-pnKwMS7roXiq5qex2jkAPpomS2Kw43NGEuFx8-2CQplnH8GBYM5jhVC5gBvgzs3LPddQvX5vFgvW_PRDIF068S2nYEsTglwHeUt1eSLhSXMlF-FINkmIes8L14v_-4cRp_pK-akk8voOy7Ow=s552" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="468" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNoeYdNdBMeUqpIK8ZFypQ6yklNJPvXntc2LPLo8UVj-pnKwMS7roXiq5qex2jkAPpomS2Kw43NGEuFx8-2CQplnH8GBYM5jhVC5gBvgzs3LPddQvX5vFgvW_PRDIF068S2nYEsTglwHeUt1eSLhSXMlF-FINkmIes8L14v_-4cRp_pK-akk8voOy7Ow=w339-h400" width="339" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhG1m3HJm_hrL__a0esaKpc9q_P_biPXuS-VVHW6FfiNE1mPwKntXgeog3bfmJ6Ibej0igaJbFuXMXMlCyeAwcSadlbHfFs7HVxsKx1MmwvAaF1EsJeZTmotT-UUEGIOwO3iwLp6jMmYj8OcvZZu-PsJ2dCgtTqDJlaP1mdSzKI5dH-ftrnJyeZgusAHg=s705" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="705" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhG1m3HJm_hrL__a0esaKpc9q_P_biPXuS-VVHW6FfiNE1mPwKntXgeog3bfmJ6Ibej0igaJbFuXMXMlCyeAwcSadlbHfFs7HVxsKx1MmwvAaF1EsJeZTmotT-UUEGIOwO3iwLp6jMmYj8OcvZZu-PsJ2dCgtTqDJlaP1mdSzKI5dH-ftrnJyeZgusAHg=w400-h350" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b>DM Note</b>: Land's End is in the Wilderlands, so the usual suspects are around: Orichalans, Tharbrians, Viridians, Altanians, all the wonderful primary-coloured folks! The PCs in this game have no idea of their origins because they all started as slaves to the lizardfolk. I rolled randomly for their human subtypes, but if the campaign started differently I would have given them a list to pick from.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><b>WILDMEN</b><br /><br /><div>Degenerated humans, or perhaps their distant forebears? It is unclear.<br />Crude features, slightly hunched posture.<br /><br />+1 STR, +1 CON, -1 INT, -1 WIS<br />Level limits: Fighter *, Cleric 5, Thief 5, MU 0<br />Begin the game illiterate.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjMyBxB3f_cNdpuLqrwL0JRA2VnUpT26hq-bU7OGdyOqIZm1gTZUwgT3OQvZfejzrHZR846RNU5TrAwryYR8a5B7FpzTcbcEN9OTZWi8nK_9EM3U5qHkmviMK5jaYUakesjtDLF928xoYvamllHK8Yj56fBC5bwsbpuKYeciaZCO1LvVWPOJLh_HnaJrg=s1440" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="926" data-original-width="1440" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjMyBxB3f_cNdpuLqrwL0JRA2VnUpT26hq-bU7OGdyOqIZm1gTZUwgT3OQvZfejzrHZR846RNU5TrAwryYR8a5B7FpzTcbcEN9OTZWi8nK_9EM3U5qHkmviMK5jaYUakesjtDLF928xoYvamllHK8Yj56fBC5bwsbpuKYeciaZCO1LvVWPOJLh_HnaJrg=w400-h258" width="400" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><b>DM Note</b>: The wildmen's exact nature is left vague intentionally. They are a broad category that might be "primitive hunter-gatherers" as easily as degenerated or mutated men, or Neanderthals. They can pass as normal humans some of the time. Since I use cavemen where orcs would normally go, we can call wildmen the half-orc equivalent of Land's End. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><b>HALF-ELVES</b><br /><br />Savage tribesmen scratching out a living on the edges of civilization. Their mixed blood has driven them to strange practises.</div><div><br /></div><div>Get the Find Tracks skill for free, and treat Read Signs as a class skill.</div><div>Can use bows even if their class is normally unable to.<br />Level Limits: Fighter 9, Cleric 5, Thief 9, MU 9</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><b>ELVES</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The doomed race. Once they ruled the world, now they are dwindling, rare & lost in the wilds.</div><div><br /></div><div>+1 DEX, -1 CON</div><div>Treat Read Signs as a class skill.</div><div>Can use bows even if their class is normally unable to.</div><div>Immune to Sleep and +2 to save vs. Charm.</div><div>cannot be raised from the dead by ordinary magic</div><div>Level limits: Fighter 9, Cleric 7, Thief 6, MU 9</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>DM Note</b>: I have tweaked these bonuses slightly to fit into the setting. Pure-blooded elves are hard to find, half-elves are commonplace. They usually live in the wilderness, barely scraping by, living off nomadic herding and raiding human settlements. Elves don't look super-elfy in Land's End - pointed ears, maybe a smaller build than the average human, slightly odd features (like a human with a bit of prosthetics and makeup, not like the anime-elves you see sometimes). Half-elves might be anywhere in between, and can often pass as human.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>CHTHONIC ELVES</b></div><br />Spending their lives underground or in dark jungles has made them strange. Rumours of cannibalism & demonology keep most other races away from the ruined cities they infest.<br /><div><br /></div><div>+1 STR, -1 CON, -1 CHA</div><div>Darkvision - With no other lights, can see in the dark in a limited way. Black & white, very little detail.</div><div>Light Sensitivity - During the day, -1 penalty on perception/initiative/attack rolls due to squinting. -2 on bright sunny days.</div><div>Ghoulish - Once per day, consume the flesh & blood of a recently killed humanoid foe to gain back 1 hp/level, up to the maximum of your hit die (ie. M-Us max out at 4 hp this way, Fighters at 10).</div><div>Level limits: Fighter 9, Cleric 9, Thief 7, MU 6</div><div><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAwvD7mmmC4OKYbagpBN5aALv4y-BI4aTcCj8KWGvhMpV1X5KIwrNWLB9adTIny3uJxW5fkIMF4dOAuIVthXSf1ONoBavpbncKBddPGGUTeGD8eHaHeN-I3PpYIO-GZStnPy-fFh3HZItUIxX88wmInJAN3PZx7DnyJDDXVWG9JXGKFFkZl7IAbX_OUQ=s1600" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1342" data-original-width="1600" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAwvD7mmmC4OKYbagpBN5aALv4y-BI4aTcCj8KWGvhMpV1X5KIwrNWLB9adTIny3uJxW5fkIMF4dOAuIVthXSf1ONoBavpbncKBddPGGUTeGD8eHaHeN-I3PpYIO-GZStnPy-fFh3HZItUIxX88wmInJAN3PZx7DnyJDDXVWG9JXGKFFkZl7IAbX_OUQ=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Usually, less armour is worn.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>DM Note</b>: I don't remember where I got the idea for these guys, but I have seen similar things in the OSR here and there. Someone else probably deserves the credit. Nevertheless I think they are cool so they are here to stay!</div><div><br /></div><br /><b>LIZARDFOLK</b><br /><br />Fearless hunters with their own sense of honour and tradition.<br />Usually they find "warmbloods" difficult to deal with, preferring to keep to themselves.<br />They follow no gods, instead seeking harmony with the natural world.<br /><br />Natural bite attack (1d4+STR bonus). Can use in a grapple, or in addition to regular melee attacks with -5 to hit.<br />Natural armour (+2 AC - cumulative with light or medium, but not heavy armour)<br />+1 STR, -1 INT<br />Level limits: Fighter 9, Cleric 3, Thief 5, MU 3<br />One of their starting skills must be swimming.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAtb0i9kIt3JplBy71wxZfGmcp0VVMLjZezmcmrz2m-GtAvaVZhQXuIf_d426MX0v-gOWPPbtsTP3JdViOjoOMwgVDaHvFqRQZSrMii_T0gH6TBJ7270att8rDxdap-eIrpQP4CUYlgdknjYvsAi2NTyjXtPyFiTUW6YZE2X27K4DejyH3D5a2Ray8BA=s540" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="540" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAtb0i9kIt3JplBy71wxZfGmcp0VVMLjZezmcmrz2m-GtAvaVZhQXuIf_d426MX0v-gOWPPbtsTP3JdViOjoOMwgVDaHvFqRQZSrMii_T0gH6TBJ7270att8rDxdap-eIrpQP4CUYlgdknjYvsAi2NTyjXtPyFiTUW6YZE2X27K4DejyH3D5a2Ray8BA=w400-h230" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>DM Note</b>: Simplified versions of 3.x edition lizardfolk. Extra attack & natural armour are balanced by fairly harsh level limits and reducing the skill selection a bit. Also interspecies tensions may arise. They are my favourite humanoids and I like using them everywhere, especially since Land's End is a tropical climate, mostly jungle and swampland.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div><b>PLANETOUCHED</b></div><div><br />One-in-a-million freaks of nature? Children of demons? Nobody knows. Each is infused with otherworldly forces. Their features are "angelic," "demonic" or partake of one of the four elements. (An "air" planetouched might have hair that constantly moves in an unseen breeze, an "earth" might have coal-black skin or gemlike fingernails). Rude people call them "Demonbrood."</div><div><br />Each planetouched has +1 to one attribute and -1 to another, and level limits ranging from 3 to 9. Otherworldly nature, attribute bonuses, level limits and appearance are all generated RANDOMLY by the DM!<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gZ9nkFZF6Ng/YdPG_KO4O4I/AAAAAAAAE0o/ScRRJZhQrd8rd7HxsL8wDigOUejbHUnrQCNcBGAsYHQ/planescape-tiefling.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="434" height="400" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gZ9nkFZF6Ng/YdPG_KO4O4I/AAAAAAAAE0o/ScRRJZhQrd8rd7HxsL8wDigOUejbHUnrQCNcBGAsYHQ/w338-h400/planescape-tiefling.jpg" width="338" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inspired by, but not exactly like this.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><b>DM Note</b>: Some may call into question my old-school credentials for allowing Tieflings, Aasimar, and whatever the elemental ones are called. In my defense, I make all the rolls behind the DM screen. This eliminates the asinine "build" aspect of character creation - picking Air so you can get +1 INT in order to play an M-U, or whatever. This is for advanced players who want to try something new and don't mind letting the dice fall where they may! </div><div><br /></div><div>Putting all these types in one category also reinforces the in-game ignorance and fear that would attend them - is that guy with red horns touched by Infernal forces, or is he just a fire-guy? Nobody knows, and why take the chance? Tar & feather him!!</div><div><br /></div><div>There are no rerolls allowed! If the player doesn't want to play the character that's been rolled up, that's fine - but the DM should note all rolls made, just in case. Some of the special abilities are powerful, but I feel it's fair since there is no way of knowing what you'll get. The DM might also want to limit these characters to 1 per group or something since they are so rare, but it depends on your milieu.</div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Planetouched Type (%)</b></div><div>01-06 - Celestial: +1 CHA, -1 STR, Cleric 9, Fighter 9, Thief 3, M-U 3</div><div>07-28 - Fire: +1 WIS, -1 CON, Cleric 9, Fighter 3</div><div>29-50 - Air: +1 INT, -1 DEX, M-U 9, Thief 3</div><div>51-72 - Water: +1 DEX, -1 INT, Thief 9, M-U 3</div><div>73-94 - Earth:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>+1 CON, -1 WIS, Fighter 9, Cleric 3</div><div>95-00 - Infernal: +1 STR, -1 CHA, Thief 9, M-U 9, Cleric 3, Fighter 3</div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>Classes not mentioned have a level limit of 6.</div><div><br /></div></div><div><b>Planetouched Attributes</b></div><div><div><br /></div><div>The descriptions of the elemental-kin are a list to pick from. Not every single one looks exactly the same. Most of the following is from the 2nd edition Planeswalker's Handbook, or the Pathfinder SRD. I've just streamlined and adapted it for the system.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Air Attributes: </b>light blue skin/hair, sometimes with swirling markings; surrounded by constant breeze; distinctive breathy voice, strange inflections; flesh is cool to the touch.</div><div><br /></div><div>+1 on saves vs. air magic, additional +1 at 9th</div><div>Can go without breathing for 10 mins/day/level</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Earth Attributes: </b>brown, black, grey or white skin & hair; metallic sheen to skin; hair like crystalline spikes; blocky features, thick torsos & limbs; rough, gritty flesh; deep, slow, rumbling speech; eyes like deep black pits or sparkling gems.</div><div><br /></div><div>+1 to saves vs. earth magic, additional +1 at 9th</div><div>Natural Armour +2 AC (stacks with everything)</div><div>Natural understanding of stonework</div><div>Climb skill for free</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Fire Attributes: </b>deep red, coal-black or brassy skin; scales of charcoal; red or mottled horns; deep red hair moving like waving flames; voice crackling like a fire; perpetually warm or hot flesh; fiery red eyes.</div><div><br /></div><div>+1 to saves vs. fire magic, additional +1 at 9th</div><div>60’ infravision</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Water Attributes: </b>blue-green skin or hair; blue-black eyes; light layer of scales; fin-like ears; webbed hands or feet; hair waving and swaying as if underwater; muffled voice resembling underwater sounds; cold, clammy flesh.</div><br />+1 to saves vs. water magic, additional +1 at 9th<br />Breathe underwater 30 mins/day/level<br />Swim skill for free<br /><br /><br /><b>Celestial / Infernal Appearance: (%)</b><br />Roll twice. </div><div>Results before the slash are for Celestial-blooded, results after for Infernals.<br /><br />01-04 – swirling patterns on forehead / horns on forehead<br />05-06 – unicorn horn / horns on temples<br />07 – halo floats above head / single horn on forehead<br />08-09 – long, thin face<br />10 – metallic lips / fangs<br />11 – pearlescent teeth / pointed teeth<br />12 – musical voice / forked tongue<br />13-14 – pointed ears<br />15 – catlike ears / webbed fanlike ears<br />16 – long nose<br />17 – tiny or nonexistent nose<br />18 – long eyelashes<br />19-21 – amber eyes / red eyes<br />22-23 – white eyes / black eyes<br />24 – feline eyes<br />25-26 – glittering eyes / deep-set eyes<br />27-28 – neon hair / murky, slimy hair<br />29-30 – metallic hair / animated hair<br />31 – multicoloured hair<br />32-33 – six digits<br />34-35 – burned-looking knuckles / extra thumbs<br />36-37 – fingers leave contrails / black fingernails<br />38-39 – glowing palms / red glowing fingernails<br />40-41 – fingers 1” longer than normal<br />42 – arms 6” longer than normal<br />43 – legs 6” longer than normal<br />44-46 – birdlike legs / horse legs<br />47-49 – feline legs / goat legs<br />50-52 – small feet / goat hooves<br />53-55 – androgynous<br />56-57 – fox tail / aquatic tail<br />58-59 – tiger tail / lizard tail<br />60-62 – lion’s mane / spiny ridge on back<br />63-65 – vestigial wings / spiny ridges all over body<br />66-68 – totally hairless<br />69-71 – body covered in short fur<br />72-73 – body covered in striped markings<br />74-75 – glittering skin / greasy skin<br />76-80 – scaly skin<br />81-83 – metallic skin / leathery skin<br />84-85 – feathers instead of hair on d100% of body<br />86 – prismatic skin / greyish skin<br />87 – sparkling skin / translucent skin<br />88-89 – special side effects<br />90-94 – roll twice<br />95-00 – roll three times<br /><br /><br /><b>Celestial/Infernal Special Abilities (%):</b><br />Roll once.<br /><br />01-15 – roll on Appearance table</div><div>16-25 – roll on Special Side Effects table<br />26-40 – random 0th level spell 2/day<br />41-51 – random 1st level spell 1/day<br />52-55 – 1/2 dmg from fire<br />56-59 – 1/2 dmg from cold<br />60-63 – 1/2 dmg from electricity<br />64-67 – 1/2 dmg from acid<br />68-71 – darkvision 60’<br />72-75 – infravision 30’<br />76-79 – +1 to saves vs. fire<br />80-83 – +1 to saves vs. electricity<br />84-87 – +1 to saves vs. poison<br />88-91 – +1 to saves vs. cold<br />92-95 – +1 to saves vs. acid<br />96 – +1 to Fort saves<br />97 – +1 to Reflex saves<br />98 – +1 to Will saves<br />99 – roll twice<br />00 – roll three times<br /><br /><br /></div><div><b>Special Side Effects (%):<br /></b>Roll as directed.<br /><br />01-10 – no odour / ashy odour<br />11-15 – outdoorsy odour / sulfurous odour<br />16-20 – perfumed odour / rotting odour<br />21-25 – skin glows / skin exudes ashy grit<br />26-30 – winged shadow / casts no shadow<br />31-33 – clothing billows in invisible winds / no reflection in mirror<br />34-40 – susceptible to anti-outsider spells (protection from evil/good, cacofiend, dispel evil, etc)<br />41-50 – outsiders of opposite type react as though you are an enemy<br />51-60 – causes unease in animals<br />61-65 – causes unease in humanoids, reaction rolls -1<br />66-70 – touch causes plants to grow / wither<br />71-75 – claws or talons (natural attack for 1d3)<br />76-80 – high heat, touch inflicts 1 dmg<br />81-85 – cold, touch inflicts 1 dmg<br />86-90 – strange skin, base AC 8+1d6<br />91 – cannot reproduce<br />92 – unholy/holy water deals 1d6 dmg<br />93 – can be turned by clerics of evil/good<br />94 – cannot enter unholy/holy areas<br />95 – gains DR 5/silver or magic<br />96-00 – speak/understand a random ancient language<br /><br /><b>Basic Colour Table (d10):</b><br />1 Red, 2 Orange, 3 Yellow, 4 Green, 5 Blue, 6 Indigo, 7 Violet, 8 White, 9 Black, 10 Roll 2x<br /><br /><b>Extra Colour Table (d16):</b><br />1 Maroon, 2 Red, 3 Orange, 4 Yellow, 5 Olive, 6 Lime, 7 Green, 8 Aqua, 9 Navy, 10 Blue, 11 Purple, 12 Fuchsia, 13 Jale, 14 Dolm, 15 Ulfire, 16 Roll 2x <br /><br />There you have it, my foul origins in the '90s hellscape of 2nd edition are revealed. Oh whale! Folks may also wonder at my rearranging of the attribute bonuses, but those with eyes to see & ears to hear may notice what scheme I am working from.</div></div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Classes in Land's End</b></div><div><p>The core of Sword & Magic is the same 4 classes we know and love.</p><p>The fighter has 5 subclasses (plain fighter, sailor, archer, barbarian & amazon) each with a few minor special abilities. I called the sailor class 'hunter' because it fits the jungle theme of the campaign, at least for beginning characters. Magic-users are subdivided into regular M-Us and illusionists. While illusions are tough to adjudicate sometimes (I am halfway through that insane 40-page article on Phantasmal Force from Footprints #25), the class has style, flavour and lineage, therefore it must stay. Clerics and thieves are good just how they are with sneak attacks, turn undead, etc. all working like we're used to.</p><p>I couldn't help noticing the lack of bards, assassins, druids, monks, paladins or rangers though! I decided that paladins and rangers probably wouldn't fit the jungle-survival-horror setting. Assassins are great but with a comprehensive skill system they are not mechanically different from the existing thief. Bards? Not interested.</p><p>Druids do belong in the setting since so much of Land's End is about struggling through dangerous natural landscapes. I had a place for monks, too, in the hidden shrines and monasteries that would dot the region - I was already thinking of unique monk techniques from different schools, that sounded like fun. I thought it would be a fun challenge to elevate the class from the usual "dudes from fantasy-Asia get parachuted into ren-faire England" thing. </p><p>At this point I looked back to Pathfinder. While I hate the system, some of the character classes are really good. Was the witch worth keeping? (maybe... I have yet to see a good witch class in any edition) How about the alchemist, psion or occultist? (nah) Sorcerer? (HELL to the no) The oracle? (definitely!!) </p><p>This gave me an expanded class list rooted in the classics with a sprinkle of the new:</p><p>Fighters (Fighter, Hunter, Archer, Barbarian, Amazon)<br />Cleric, <i>Druid, Oracle, Monk</i><br />Magic-User, Illusionist, <i>Witch(maybe)</i><br />Thief</p><p>In the future, look forward to write-ups of these other classes, starting with the oracle.</p></div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-824264224333788522022-01-07T11:40:00.003-07:002022-01-07T11:40:44.199-07:00Improve your D&D game with this one simple trick!<p>The other day, I had bought some new three-ring dividers and was rearranging my gaming binders. You know that feeling when you say to yourself: "What order do these go in? Should it be wilderness rules - encounter tables - monster stats - hex key; or wilderness rules - hex key - encounter tables - monster stats?" Or is that just me... </p><p>Anyway, they were looking pretty lame. Plain white binders didn't really convey any sense of adventure. So I got on to <a href="http://pulpcovers.com">pulpcovers.com</a> and <a href="http://pulpartists.com">pulpartists.com</a> and started poking around for high-res images.</p><p>In an hour or so of fiddling with GIMP, I desaturated them for a more vintage feel and played around with brightness/contrast for a kind of halfway-posterized look (this mitigated the graininess of a few that were lower-resolution than optimal). Added some text in my favourite font (Imperator Bold) although I now realize I missed an opportunity to aim for <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091027151421/http://geocities.com/rgfdfaq/tsrfonts.html">trade dress porn</a>. Then drove down to Staples to print 'em out. Pretty cool, right??</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TfgRMcz2hJg/YdiDSxlfxUI/AAAAAAAAE2A/a-S4Oahpfq4bvaHu9zHnfL4S7e_lvvjRACNcBGAsYHQ/20220107_110304.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2608" data-original-width="4274" height="244" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TfgRMcz2hJg/YdiDSxlfxUI/AAAAAAAAE2A/a-S4Oahpfq4bvaHu9zHnfL4S7e_lvvjRACNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h244/20220107_110304.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BlPbr0ULxKQ/YdiDRsY-CMI/AAAAAAAAE18/i16elDKFfLATlDPXPyf8u9wS5XRNPLsxwCNcBGAsYHQ/20220107_110437.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="300" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BlPbr0ULxKQ/YdiDRsY-CMI/AAAAAAAAE18/i16elDKFfLATlDPXPyf8u9wS5XRNPLsxwCNcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/20220107_110437.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, it looks like after a holiday hiatus I am back in action with a vengeance, DMing <b>two</b> games this weekend - Land's End II is tonight, then City-State of the World Emperor online tomorrow. More play reports and other fun is in the can, so check back soon!</p><p>In the mean time, I got turned on to this music by a legendary old-school gaming forum troll, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-bc37fU36Vk" width="320" youtube-src-id="-bc37fU36Vk"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-37079765964573510552022-01-03T16:27:00.004-07:002022-01-04T12:42:49.871-07:00[Play Report] Land's End II, Session 2 - Escaping the Tunnels<p>Unknown in-game date</p><br /><b>Characters</b><br /><br />Iron-In-Blood, Lizardfolk<div>Heka, Wildman</div><div><strike>Floros, Human</strike></div><div><strike>Xenia, Planetouched</strike></div><div>Pale-Heart, Lizardfolk</div><div>Duul, Wildman</div><div>Pallas, Human</div><div>Agàta, Human</div><div>Kazik, Human</div><div>Dimemnu, Chthonic Elf</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div><div><br /></div><div>The slaves continued their exploration of the complex beyond the Room of Stars.</div><div><br /></div><div>From the central chamber with the fire-shooting statue, they ventured to the right into a small tomb. Seven grave niches held loose bones topped with primitive humanoid skulls - perhaps they were wildmen? Primitive metal armour, weapons & funerary masks were displayed prominently next to each collection of bones.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Gross,"</i> said <b>Xenia</b>, touching some of the bones with one bluish foot. <i>"Maybe these masks are valuable, though?"</i></div><div><br /></div><div>As the group sifted through the grave goods, a sinister clattering arose. The mounds of bones sprang to life, rolling in unholy bundles towards the group! The slaves stood in the center of the room, laying about them with their stone picks and the butt-ends of spears. The abominations were destroyed, but not before one pile of bones got a lucky shot in - Xenia the planetouched lay dead, bleeding from a grievous neck wound.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few weapons and a suit of armour were recovered. They were of antique design and slowly rusting away, but far better in battle than the slaves' crude stone mining picks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Returning to the central room, they took the left exit. This led to a sort of throne room. A stone chair faced a wall made from grey, cracked glass. Tablets lining the walls depicted winged visitors from the skies granting magical gifts to ground-dwelling humanoids. These earthbound peoples used the gifts to wage war on an army of demons led by a goat-headed, bat-winged monstrosity. Finally the winged beings departed, promising to return at some future time. Were they supposed to be angels, gods or something else?</div><div><br /></div><div>On a table at the back of the room lay the shattered remains of glass vials, clay jars & tablets. A few intact vials held strange fluids: one clear green & cold, the other soft milky blue. The slaves took these, wondering what they might do. Beside them, a clay tablet showed pictograms accompanied by unknown text: a wounded man drank from a bottle and got back up, a fighting-man drank from a bottle and struck his foe, and a man poured a bottle into a river and then walked over it.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Hmm, three sets of instructions, but two potions"</i> said <b>Pallas</b>. <i>"We'll have to try out which is which later."</i></div><div><br /></div><div>On another table rested a small black metal box with a handle on top, adorned with shiny metallic protrusions & crystals on one side. Pallas noticed that a small panel on the bottom could be opened up. Inside was a mess of coloured threads & strange metallic pieces, their functions obscure to him. With a little bit of fiddling, he managed to install one of the threaded metal cylinders they found earlier [last session].</div><div><br /></div><div>The box came to life! Coloured lights danced around the metallic knobs & dials on the front face. Buzzing, crackling noise filled the room. Frightened of this strange magic, Pallas managed to fiddle with the controls enough to turn down the volume. He could hear distant voices buried in the waves of distortion, but wasn't able to clear up the signal. After some more fidgeting, he removed the metallic cylinder (some kind of power source. Was it magic, or something else?) and the box quieted again. The group brought the black box with them, intending to plumb its secrets a later time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Through the last door in the large chamber, they entered a darkened room lined with pillars. A shallow pool of water ran through the centre, shimmering with underwater lights. A few lumpen, crystalline golems shuffled towards the group with unknown intentions. They moved slowly, but the slaves weren't taking any chances with a fight. After some experimentation, <b>Kazik</b> realized they were attracted to the groups' lamps. He left one brazier burning in the corner, and the crystalline creatures surrounded it, warming themselves by its light.</div><div><br /></div><div>Giving these odd beings the slip, the group ventured down a spiral staircase at the end of the room. They next found themselves in a long room with two large tables. Toy battles were set up with tiny clay miniatures showing humans, lizardfolk, elves and stranger beings battling amongst hills, forests and cities. Not understanding this game, <b>Dimemnu</b> the elf took a handful of the figures in case they might be valuable or useful later.</div><div><br /></div><div>There was only one door left, at the end of the hall of miniatures. It opened onto another room full of clay soldiers - only these ones were life-sized! Under the watery light of a great crystal sphere, a clay general rose from his throne, pointing an accusing finger at the invaders. Seventy clay soldiers began to animate, climbing up from the pit they had been preserved in and moving towards the group.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Never mind!"</i> said Iron-in-Blood, slamming the door. With no desire to fight ten times their number, the slaves hustled back up the stairs, past the slow-moving men of crystal and back out towards the Room of Stars.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"I hope those clay soldiers can't follow us through this magic door..."</i> <b>Agàta</b> mused.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sKGdinuIfj4/YW9ETsPERvI/AAAAAAAAEyI/ldlMc_BAfkY4Wx_QV2_6TC6GoYfTTr-pwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/Land%2BEnd%2B2%2B-%2BFirst%2BAdventure%2Bplay%2Breport%2Bmap.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sKGdinuIfj4/YW9ETsPERvI/AAAAAAAAEyI/ldlMc_BAfkY4Wx_QV2_6TC6GoYfTTr-pwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Land%2BEnd%2B2%2B-%2BFirst%2BAdventure%2Bplay%2Breport%2Bmap.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the deep obsidian caves</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The slaves continued exploring, progressing downslope from the Room of Stars. They entered a vast cavern filled with a darkened frozen lake, seemingly frozen in mid-wave! It was not cold or icy to the touch, but some kind of greenish glass. The group could see dim shapes buried underneath the surface, and a few shattered sections that looked as if something once frozen inside had busted out.<div><br /></div><div>Walking on this strange lake was like a maze amongst the breakers. The slaves were accosted by the faint, ghosts of hunched-over, hulking humanoids. Attempts at communication were met with impatient hand gestures. The ghosts seemed to understand a little bit, but couldn't speak themselves. They didn't seem hostile, and the group was at a loss until <b>Floros</b> asked if they knew a way out. The ghosts led the slaves back the way they came, to the edge of the frozen lake. They indicated the group should head up the tunnel to the Room of Stars, then slowly faded out of view.</div><div><br /></div><div>After this enigma, the slaves returned to the underground river through the Room of Stars. Curious about some of the items they'd brought, Floros decided to don the strange silver helmet garlanded with thin wires. <i>"I can see it! I can-"</i> he exclaimed, before the poor fellow died messily, his eyes exploding from their sockets in a shower of fluid!</div><div><br /></div><div>Mourning Floros, the slaves explored further into the tunnels. The hopping piranhas were gone now, and the river safe to walk by. Turning back down an unexplored tunnel, the slaves came to a set of three stone statues in alcoves. One of a humanoid man with an elongated, ovoid head, wearing robes and an ornate circlet, pointing a scepter upwards to the ceiling. The second statue was the same man holding a shield, his open hand pointing downwards. The third statue was covered in mineral deposits and unrecognizable. Writing in an unknown language lined the statues' bases and each one had a small bench or step in front of it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Duul was interested in the humanoid with the sceptre, and stepped closer to investigate. When he touched the bench, he began to levitate! After some experimenting, it seemed Duul could float upwards or downwards under his own power, but not sideways. The effect wore off after a few minutes. The group decided this was their chance, and each stepped up to receive the statue's blessing in turn - then their friends pushed/pulled them towards the river, before shoving them until they floated to the opposite side. The statue's magic ran out before everyone could be levitated, and Pale-Heart had to jump across into the waiting arms of her companions. Luckily, nobody fell into the swift & cold mountain stream.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Beyond the river, a narrow tunnel extended deep into the mountain. The slaves walked on, with only the flickering coal's light to illuminate their next step. They were all accustomed to fatigue and hunger, but it was impossible to know how much time passed in those dark tunnels. After perhaps one work-shift of walking, at the end of their endurance, the slaves reached the end of the tunnel. A crumbling, rocky opening led out into a lush, rainy mountain valley with a river running lazily through the center. Signs of cultivation were apparent, but nobody was around. </div><div><br /></div><div>Have the slaves found a safe place? Will the clay army take over the caverns? What about those ghosts on the frozen lake? What's the deal with that black box? Plenty of unanswered questions remain...<div><br /></div><div><b>Monsters Defeated:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>7 bone-piles</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Treasure:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>some antique armour & weapons</div><div>7 funerary masks</div><div>2 colourful potions</div><div>tablet with writing & pictures on it</div><div>black box that makes noise</div><div>a few clay figurines</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Experience:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>1000 xp each for escaping slavery</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div><div><br /></div><div>Phew, the holiday hangover is beginning to wear off! Thus shall we work through the play-report backlog. Session 3 and 4 were short and exposition-heavy affairs, shouldn't take too much effort to transcribe although memory does play tricks on me sometimes. Our next session is upcoming in a week, and I am hoping for some action!</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, for this dungeon the gang did fairly well, only running away at the very end when things got crazy. I also removed one of the monsters (in the throne room) because they already had to venture through a monster-infested dungeon just to get there, and it didn't exactly fit the theme.</div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>I don't think you should run a DCC level-0 funnel every single day, but I am glad I gave it a try. It is easy, fun, and a nice introduction for rookie players. Nobody has to pick skills or even classes, or worry too much about anything - we just jump into the game! From such humble beginnings, who knows what heroes will emerge?</div></div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-25105469965173196352021-11-30T13:41:00.006-07:002021-11-30T15:01:51.098-07:00REVIEW - Dream House of the Nether Prince<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dUMZm-ttRvY/YXCMvMRRaVI/AAAAAAAAEyc/jIir-lElKrMWZLeaOM_---1LGEFpJfizwCLcBGAsYHQ/s501/rrn7yr-front-shortedge-384.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="384" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dUMZm-ttRvY/YXCMvMRRaVI/AAAAAAAAEyc/jIir-lElKrMWZLeaOM_---1LGEFpJfizwCLcBGAsYHQ/w307-h400/rrn7yr-front-shortedge-384.jpg" width="307" /></a></div><p><b>Dream House of the Nether Prince</b><br />AD&D level 14+<br />by Anthony Huso <br />blog - <a href="http://thebluebard.com">thebluebard.com</a><br />art by Valin Mattheis - <a href="https://www.strange-gods.com/">website</a><br />maps by Tim Hartin - <a href="https://paratime.ca/">website</a><br />buy hardcover and pdf <a href="https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/anthonyhuso">here</a><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Since I read <a href="https://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-night-wolf-inn-review.html">Ben L's review of The Night Wolf Inn</a> and had to get myself a copy, I have followed the exploits of Anthony Huso, one of 1st edition AD&D's most devoted exponents. He has a long series of posts on his blog about his BtB AD&D home game. He makes no apologies for his playstyle and is uninterested in compromising for the mainstream.</p><p>Also, he likes Blue Oyster Cult [1]. My kinda guy!</p><p>The final adventure in the author's six-year home game, Dream House of the Nether Prince is set inside the abyssal palace of the Demon Prince Orcus. Being a fan of the goat-headed one himself, obviously I had to get my hands on it.</p><p>A digression: </p><p>Back in the bad old days of the '90s, we had <i>Planescape</i>. I could never quite get my head around it [2]. The idea of a fantasy-Dickensian London where you run into a demon at a bar, but he's just hanging out drinking a funny-coloured beer, looking for mortals to tempt or selling you Green Steel weapons... it never sat right with me. Just like <i>Twilight</i> did to vampires, Planescape took what should be the most profound manifestations of evil - beings that are truly inhuman in every sense - and watered them down into regular guys with horns & tails.</p><p>Huso keeps demons harsh. Dream House begins with <b>The Enchiridion</b>, an 11-page treatise on AD&D demons. This section really showcases his imaginative approach. He takes every hint & clue dropped by Gygax in the core books, extrapolating outwards from there while remaining faithful (as far as I can tell) to the source material. This section covers a huge range of topics ranging from special Abyssal effects to new treasure, demonic transmogrification and more.</p><p>Maybe you already have rules for some of these in your game, but The Enchiridion has something worthwhile for everyone. The sections on amulets and summoning are really interesting. The rules are a bit complex in terms of what happens when demons are killed with/without amulets, what happens to the amulets, etc. but they are absolutely Gygaxian: I can see how players interacting with these systems will produce lots of downstream effects that will drive ongoing campaign play. They can see what works and what doesn't, make demonic enemies, strike bargains (successfully or not) or struggle to destroy a demon permanently.</p><p>I love the treasure section, always a high point of Huso's work. Gold piece values are provided for an entire economy based on human corpses (the demons eat them) and abyssal larvae. Along with these are exotic trade goods, some new and some from his other adventures like Dam Marmara or ebonwood bars. This kind of variety in treasure keeps things interesting, especially in a high-level adventure that has literally <i>tens of millions</i> of gp for the taking!</p><p>A section on abyssal weather, special effects & other hazards adds icing on the Cake of Pain that adventuring in the lower planes is meant to be. Effects range from maddening winds to sulfuric rain, toxic snow, mutations and even earthquakes. All of this should make your players rue the day they ever delved into the Abyss before anyone rolls initiative. </p><p>Planescape this ain't.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span data-darkreader-inline-color="" style="--darkreader-inline-color: #b63d3d; color: red; font-size: large;">ACHTUNG!!!</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span data-darkreader-inline-color="" style="--darkreader-inline-color: #b63d3d; color: red; font-size: large;">BIG-TIME SPOILERS AHEAD</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>Dream House is written for the author's home campaign and no concessions are made to the rest of us. The only hook we get is the following:</p><p><i>"You have obtained the gobbet of mindless immortal flesh, known as the Starfire Neonate. To prevent [a hideous elder god] from ending your world, you must bring the Neonate's imbecile god-flesh into direct contact with [the elder god]. Much like the meeting of a Xag-ya and a Xeg-yi, the event will destroy or [more likely] banish both.</i></p><p><i>Because the [elder god] inhabits the trackless depths of the Prime Material's cosmic void, the only way to find and reach it, is to use a gate. The only known gate is in the Abyss, and it is located in Orcus' Iron Vauntmure--for the Prince of the Undead doth treat with the [elder god] time to time.</i></p><p><i>Ergo, the PC's motive is quite simple.</i></p><p><i>1. Arrive in Pazunia<br />2. Enter the Iron Fort<br />3. Find and Open the Gate<br />4. Force the Starfire Neonate to Touch the [elder god]"</i></p><p>It then goes on to explain that this whole adventure (and maybe your whole campaign!?) is part of an elaborate long-term plot by Orcus. The characters are going to be catspaws in his never-ending war with Demogorgon, whom Orcus hopes to draw out at an opportune moment and defeat for good.</p><p>This is totally awesome but rather specific and may not apply to my game or yours. Cool that we get a slice of Huso's totally fucking wild home game, but it would be nice to get a few more readily usable hooks or rumours. Honestly though, if your DMing chops are remotely up to the task of running this adventure you can come up with a reason for the PCs to go there.</p><p style="text-align: center;">*****</p><p>The adventure section itself runs 89 pages, spanning 137 rooms over three castle levels and the caverns below. It is crammed with hordes of unflinchingly dangerous monsters and dickish traps. I want to see the character sheets of the party that survived this shitstorm. Did your group squash Acererak and piss in Vecna's eye-hole? Maybe you have a shot at this.</p><p>There aren't many rooms of the "let's mess with it and see what happens" type, usually staples in modern OSRland. There is no faction play based on reaction rolls and figuring out what the NPCs want. Dream House is a pounding, ceaseless battery of monsters and traps. Curiosity and fiddling with things is rarely the right move. Many rooms are simply a drain on resources best bypassed or avoided. This adventure demands that the players function at a high level of competence all the way through. Individually some of these encounters may not have too much going on, but the overall effect is powerful and highlights Huso's approach rooted in a deep reading of the DMG and the classic Gygax modules, especially the S series I think.</p><p>Notes are provided on monster behaviour in terms of investigating disturbances, guarding areas and chasing foes in the form of small icons next to the monster statblocks. This is a nice shorthand that you will definitely use.</p><p>The tunnels below the fortress are called <b>The Warrens of the Prince</b> and they're just a warm up: pit traps into frozen abysses, ghoulification curses, Vrock packs, 14,000 Manes demons and a few really harsh uniques (the 24 HD scarlet beast of revelation!!!). This level is mostly monsters and traps and I felt a lack of interactivity here, although the rooms that do have more going on are very cool. There are a few bangers like the Rag-Man, and the treasure room with possibly every cursed item in the book. </p><p>As the players ascend things get progressively more strange and interesting. The first floor is the <b>Court of Orcus</b>. Here we get another dose of dangerous passive effects. These are generally under-used in modern adventures and it's a shame. Huso does these really well, adding another layer of tactical challenge for characters who are presumably loaded down with tons of game-breaking magic items & spells, without engaging in cheap gimping. The Braziers of Devotion act as gaze attacks that force victims to sacrifice valuable goods in them and Dimensional Ward Stones slay anyone Teleporting into their area of effect (there goes the scry-and-die, oops).</p><p>The rooms get more dickish here. Doors that <i>Finger of Death</i> you, illusory walls, 20HD zombie guardians, disintegration pits, mutations, suicide-inducing fear effects, squads of Yochlols and Type VIs. A few no-save screwjobs like the stairs that throw you out into the Deep Astral for 1d10 years. They are sometimes telegraphed, but Huso is also counting on players that are as seasoned as their characters being able to spot dangerous situations.</p><p>The rooms also get much cooler, with more weird things to look at and interact with: the Wand of Orcus is kept here, there are weird high-tech machines you can play with, a dangerous game of 'pill-roulette' administered by grotesque eyeless undead bitches, and even one of Tiamat's eggs! Orcus His Damned Self is here on his throne and will address the group if they get close, urging them to ascend further to reach their goal (all part of the plan).</p><p>The second floor is the <b>High Temple Prisons</b>, consisting mostly of unique foes that are dangerous in the extreme. There are a few imprisoned folks to be rescued like captured paladins, devas and a solar. The most involved room is a little extradimensional war between Orcus and Tiamat. The PCs can enter, travel around the small hexmap and team up with Orcus' forces to fight packs of ancient chromatic dragons! Yikes.</p><p>The top floor is called the <b>Spires of Damnation</b>. This floor is almost all unique enemies, specials and weird stuff including some really nasty combats. You know what you're getting into at this point. 6 Mariliths are killing the Incubus King. A masked demon orgy. A pack of 23 vampires and their mistress, the Duchess of Bats. Sut, the Walking Demon. The Dark Seer. Any one of these would be a battle to cap off someone else's campaign - in Dream House they are packed in cheek by jowl.</p><p>Finally, we come to the end. If the PCs can survive Witch Hall, avoid being crushed in the Thighs of the North and reach the Doors of Ultimate Sacrifice - the <b>Prince's Duel</b> begins! Demogorgon appears, and each Demon Prince will speak to the group during a <i>time stop</i>, offering them safe passage, absurd riches and other sweet stuff to side against the other. Once a bargain (if any) is made, battle is joined! The stat blocks for Orcus and Demogorgon run into multiple pages including special abilities, immunities, artifacts and minions. Satan help you trying to run this combat anyway, but I think miniatures would be a necessity. Rules for The Primal Order by Peter Adkison (some kind of supplement for divine & demonic powers I think) are also provided, if you have that book.</p><p>After the battle (if anyone survives), the Golden Doors can be approached. They require willing sacrifices to open, just in case you thought the struggle was over. At this point you're saving the world, so that paladin you spent half of a real-life decade building to 15th level? The one who was only a week from retirement? Who had plans of raising sheep on a little farm outside Midwall? He's not gonna make it home.</p><p>The <b>Appendices</b> consist of about 25 pages of supplemental material. Sci-fi weapons sit alongside powerful magical artifacts, some new illusion spells, demons & undead. Everything is cool and worth using. A d100 random undead table (references monsters from Dragon and even AD&D modules), gated demons table and some monster statblock summaries are useful references. Finally, the Epilogue offers some helpful advice on running Orcus & Demogorgon and how the fortress reacts to the PCs. </p><p style="text-align: center;">*****</p><p>There you have it. Dream House of the Nether Prince is not perfect, but it is <i>pure</i>. The work of a true disciple of Gygax. It asks for a great deal - few players are ready to face this challenge, perhaps even fewer DMs could run it. Everyone in your group should be seasoned AD&D veterans to even contemplate this. But what heights you'll climb together! The party will either be ground up by the numberless, ravening hordes of the Abyss - or win through after tremendous battle and sacrifice to see a Demon Prince destroyed and the world saved. This is what D&D is all about.</p><div><br /></div><p><b>Good</b>: Grand, ambitious, epic, unique. Beautiful artwork. Great supplemental sections. Insanely lethal. High-level AD&D the way God and Gary intended.</p><p><b>Bad</b>: Big-ass stat blocks. Heavily combat-focused. Can be tough to scan due to the amount of information. Refers back to other material you may not own. A niche product in multiple ways. Insanely lethal. </p><p><b>9/10 Demon Princes</b></p><p>The book has a credits section, playtesters aren't listed, although you can go read about the final session on Huso's blog.</p><p><br /></p><p>*****</p><p>[1] - I had owned the Night Wolf Inn for a year, and then listened to Secret Treaties again. Give it a try.</p><p>[2] - Even though Planescape: Torment is probably the best computer RPG ever made, Balance In All Things, Amen.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now some Abyssal music to play us out:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7vl04mUciV8" width="320" youtube-src-id="7vl04mUciV8"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-18584376468757377062021-11-25T14:02:00.000-07:002021-11-25T14:02:39.055-07:00REVIEW - Trilemma Adventures Compendium: a friend in need...<div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1Bdtp_zDhWw/YZ_1KjM6bGI/AAAAAAAAEzU/ipMRXkN4_ZQuidwnowVMEyiTUi-mIRVEgCLcBGAsYHQ/cover-750px.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="733" height="314" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1Bdtp_zDhWw/YZ_1KjM6bGI/AAAAAAAAEzU/ipMRXkN4_ZQuidwnowVMEyiTUi-mIRVEgCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h314/cover-750px.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Trilemma Adventures Compendium</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">system-neutral</div><div style="text-align: left;">by Michael Prescott & others</div><div style="text-align: left;">published by <a href="http://trilemma.com/">Trilemma Adventures</a></div><div style="text-align: left;">print & pdf <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/286792/Trilemma-Adventures-Compendium-Volume-I?src=trilemma-site">here</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">One-page dungeons. We know them, we have mixed feelings on them. The contest has been around for over a decade, producing mostly unplayable garbage and a few nice-looking maps (which are also unplayable). Can the format be done well?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Since 2014, Michael Prescott has been creating one- and two-page dungeons, beautifully rendered with his own black & white drawings. All of these adventures are up on his blog in pdf format FOR FREE[1]. In 2019, he launched a kickstarter to release them in a hardcover collection. In my usual fashion I totally missed backing it, but managed to buy one of the surplus copies after the campaign finished. Now that I've had a chance to run a handful I can offer a decent review.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Firstly this is a lovely volume. Heavy-duty covers with a great texture like a nice old book (what is this material called?). I don't fear the consequences of stuffing this in my bag to bring it to game night. Silver foil text, one of those soft red fabric bookmarks, nice thick glossy paper. Every spread has beautiful isometric maps and illustrations by Prescott or occasionally a guest artist. All the artwork fits together remarkably well, the book has a consistent look throughout. Formatting and layout are simple and well done, using bolding and a bit of colour to highlight relevant details. The whole aesthetic is simple & clear, distinctive while focusing on readability.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>"Okay so far"</i> you ask, <i>"but you did say <b>system neutral one-page dungeons</b></i>?<i> Can these be any good?"</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">To be fair: six are actually a single page [2], most are two pages and a handful are three or four. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What these adventures do very well is present interesting & imaginative situations. A disused healing shrine inhabited by giant spiders who are curious about humans. An evil wizard imprisoned by an aging, weakened order of knights, desperate to recruit new members. A ruined tower that grants wishes using a complicated ritual of numbered rooms. Almost every adventure has a weird & cool premise (sometimes excessively so - we will return to this idea later). They are poised on the edge, ready for the PCs to show up and knock things around. Prescott consistently creates these dynamic areas, packed with potential energy for adventure. They jump into the reader's mind, leaving him with that familiar but elusive "I can't wait to run this!" feeling.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>There are no +1 swords or giant rats. Almost everything is new and strange. The adventures are written with a certain type of OSR mentality the reader will probably recognize - a B/Xian perspective familiar if you read blogs like Goblin Punch, Against the Wicked City & similar. I would say in terms of pure creativity, Trilemma is up there with the most interesting material I've seen from this corner of OSRdom.</div><div><br /></div><div>The adventures are of course small, and this is a problem - the largest about 20ish keyed areas, and most hover around 6-10. This limits the scope of action. You can't have much of a dungeon-crawling experience here. This is one of the key complaints with one-page dungeons. Although Prescott's are some of the best in the format, they contain more <i>potential adventure</i> than they do adventure - the DM must still provide a fair bit of the latter. It might be better to view most as detailed hexcrawl locations, dungeon sublevels or even just adventure seeds.</div><div><br /></div><div>Although they make for minimal dungeoncrawling or exploratory experiences in themselves, these adventures serve well - at least they have in my games. Because they are so dense with ideas, they colour the campaign world around them. I ran <i>The Moon is a Mirror</i> for my group over the course of two sessions, but it sent the campaign in a completely new direction - we are still dealing with the effects a year or so later. This is exactly the kind of thing I crave as a DM, don't you?</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fuck man, <i>The Cleft of Five Worlds</i> could be a two-page brief for an entire underdark campaign setting! Each paragraph is like a hex description of a dungeon I want to play in and it's tied together with a bit of history and overarching relationships. Of course if you wanted to run it, all your work is still in front of you. Ultimately, the Trilemma Compendium gives the lie to the idea that one-page dungeons are something you just 'pick up and play' - I have never been able to do that with these adventures.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The monsters are quite a highlight. There are five or six standard "by the book" monsters but everything else is new and almost all are great: the implacable Brass Soldiers, bloodthirsty Chitin Drakes, Cave Stitchers, Lantern Worms, Moon Babies and tons more. Some are a new spin on and old concept, like the Avatar of Suvuvena (basically a CIFAL from the Fiend Folio). Some new humanoid races are included like the Dradkin (kinda sorta like dark elves), the Heelan (reptilian desert-dwellers) and several more. All the monsters fit together remarkably well, combining into a whole bestiary with a unified tone and feel. You could pick and choose, but looking at them all gives the reader a clear impression of the Trilemma world.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is expanded upon in the appendices, which develop a setting for all the adventures to live in. Sections for monster descriptions (no statistics, but more detail on ecology, special abilities & such), magic items, maps, history and a guide to the Trilemma world.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The world guide is hard to read. The relentless <i>newness</i> of everything, which works fantastically in a one-pager (since I'm looking for a density of ideas) actually works against the Compendium here. It is hard to grasp because there are so few familiar touchstones to latch onto. It washes over the reader in an undifferentiated stream. Or at least it did for me - maybe I just have trouble with all the names.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Trilemma world would also require a great deal of DM work to use. For instance, I cannot find a scale on the world map! I wonder if it would have been better to leave it as something just implied by the adventures themselves? I have my suspicions, but would love to know for sure whether I'm seeing Prescott's home game world or something he created after the fact to tie his adventures together.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><br /></div><div>The section on hooks, rumours & lore is great. Every adventure gets a set of 9 rumours and it all goes in a huge d1000 table. The table format is probably unnecessary - I assume you are going to hand-pick which of these adventures you're using - but the rumours and lore themselves are good, and I like that Prescott considered this element.</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">The system-neutral thing might turn some people off, but Prescott has your back, kinda - after the Kickstarter, he published a <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/315827/Trilemma-Adventures-Bestiary-B-X?src=hottest_filtered">bestiary book</a> providing monster stats for B/X which covers most of the creatures you will encounter in the Compendium adventures. Of course if you're playing B/X, you can probably eyeball stats for most of these guys - but it never hurts to have another monster book, and most of them are really cool anyway. Get it in pdf if you want to save money.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>How to use this?</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I recommend picking out a handful of adventures you like. Use some as hexcrawl locations, dropping them into your campaign map exactly as-is. Use your favourites as more significant locations: put some work into expanding them, add some more rooms based on the existing themes or graft them on to an existing location. Connect them to other areas of your game world. Maybe the reason I like this book so much is that it fits quite well into how I create my own campaigns. I don't mind that these adventures are small, really - what I crave is density of ideas, and the Trilemma Compendium has that in spades.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There are 49 adventures in this book. I would use all but a handful based on merit alone. I have run three so far in my home games, and placed ten or twelve more around my campaign setting. I look forward to the players finding them!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You <i>could</i> use this as an entire Trilemma Campaign. It would have a very specific flavour - short dungeons, lots of hopping around. I think it would suit a certain type of player group. It would lack the depth and exploratory elements of classic play without extensive additional work.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Good:</b> Gorgeous production, lovely artwork, highly imaginative, a new & distinctive flavour of D&D. Sweet monsters and magic items. Plenty of interactivity. Huge ideas-to-page-count ratio. The best tiny adventures you're likely to find. It has provided me hours of fun and I anticipate more of the same.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Bad: </b>Familiar one-pager flaws: limited scope, require DM investment & energy to fully realize. The gazetteer section is of limited utility. Filthy system-neutrality. Too strange to use all the time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>6/10 Minions of Sorg</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The book has an extensive credits section, including playtesters.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[1] - Rendering my review somewhat pointless. Just go look and see if you like them. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[2] - I'm just going to say 'one-pagers' for the duration of this review, to save space.</div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-24217570621148034652021-11-07T13:07:00.001-07:002022-01-03T14:45:32.644-07:00[Play Report] Land's End II, Session 1 - Jailbreak!<div><br /></div>Unknown in-game date<br /><br /><br /><b>Characters</b><br /><br />Iron-In-Blood, Lizardfolk<div>Heka, Wildman</div><div>Floros, Human</div><div>Xenia, Planetouched</div><div>Pale-Heart, Lizardfolk</div><div>Duul, Wildman</div><div>Pallas, Human</div><div><strike>Vorvou, Chthonic Elf</strike></div><div>Agàta, Human</div><div>Kazik, Human</div><div>Dimemnu, Chthonic Elf</div><div><strike>Gold-Foot, Lizardfolk</strike></div><div><strike>Hafza, Wildman</strike><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div><br /><div>Life in the mountains digging obsidian for the lizardfolk is the same every day: Get up early. Dig up the glass. Get beat by the overseers. Go to sleep and do it all again. </div><div><br /></div><div>The slaves tell each other stories to pass the time, dreaming of escape to <b>ZEMPHAS, the Lost City of Silver</b>, where no being is made to serve another. One old warm-blood named <b>Agàta</b> said he heard of it from another who had actually been there - he described the argent towers, brass domes that blaze in the sunset and ethereal bells that ring through the city at dawn. He said it lies past mountains, jungle and desert on a vast blue ocean. It seems an impossible distance away.</div><div><br /></div><div>One day, something changed:<br /><br />Most obsidian mines are open-air trenches, but then a cave is found with veins of the black & green stuff running through it. The tunnels are deep cracks in the mountain, webbing out in every direction. The overseers sent groups down to extract more obsidian for the Black Wings’ war efforts and to enrich their warchief above all others in the Drowned Lands. </div><div><br /></div><div>The nightmares began soon after. Every time it was the same: </div><div><br /></div><div><i>…Horns ring out from the mountaintops. Strange constellations glitter, lighting an unknown earth. Floating in icy water, black and still. The taste of hot blood. The touch of fine-grained stone, cold and damp. Whistling music in the firelight. And voices echoing in a vast, timeless, frozen darkness… </i></div><div><br /></div><div>They persisted for weeks. One slave choked on his own tongue during the night and everyone else was terrified. The overseers & guards stopped going into the tunnels, since only those who work down there get nightmares. </div><div><br /></div><div>One day, Agàta made his rounds at mealtime. He was tired & sickly, the nightmares taking their toll on even his mighty frame. He spoke briefly, only to those who worked underground: </div><div><br /></div><div><i>“We’re getting out of here. Tomorrow. Tell only those you trust, ten or twelve at most. Spread the word tonight. They’ll never catch us. I’ve found a way out… down below!”</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Escape</b></div><div><br /></div><div>At the beginning of the workday the group followed Agàta down into the obsidian tunnels, trusting in his vague plan of an escape route. Each one knew they had until nightfall to get as far as they could before the overseers expected them back. Equipped only with stone picks, leather sacks & lumps of coal for light, they crept through dark tunnels deep within the earth, venturing farther and deeper into the mountains than they ever had before - until Agàta indicated a narrow crawlspace.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Smell that?</i> <i>Bat guano. We've never seen bats fly through these caves, so there must be a way to the surface through there! And look what else I found!"</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Agàta showed the group two strange relics: a chunk of yellow metal with writing on it, and an oddly-shaped... key?... with a glowing orange gemstone in the handle.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Look at the lettering... this could be from Zemphas itself!"</i></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L--5qDo_1Nw/YW3zTe_4fjI/AAAAAAAAEvo/nagPmkKBURwiuSfkEIYT83j0BdoC_I7PACLcBGAsYHQ/LE2%2Bfirst%2Badventure%2B-%2Bfound%2Bitems.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L--5qDo_1Nw/YW3zTe_4fjI/AAAAAAAAEvo/nagPmkKBURwiuSfkEIYT83j0BdoC_I7PACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/LE2%2Bfirst%2Badventure%2B-%2Bfound%2Bitems.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Treasures? Clues? Relics?</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>Crawling through the narrow passageway, their backs scraped by the razor-sharp rock, the stench of guano got steadily stronger. The slaves emerged into a pool of the foul stuff, hearing the twittering and fidgeting of thousands of bats above their heads. Their faint coal braziers barely illuminated several narrow tunnels exiting the cavern.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"I've an idea,"</i> said Vorvou. <i>"Let's disturb the bats, and see which way they fly!" </i></div><div><br /></div><div>The group assented to this plan, covering their lights while the two chthonic elves used their unnatural cave-adapted eyes to watch the bats. Throwing a few rocks caused the flock to exit to the left, but a few of the bats had a thirst - with a shriek, Vorvou was set upon by a few and his blood was drained in an instant! The rest of the group covered their heads with their leather sacks and hid at the bottom of the cavern, luckily avoiding the vampire bats' attention.</div><div><br /></div><div>Following the flock of bats took the group to a narrow chimney they couldn't climb. Well, so much for that plan. Unwilling to backtrack towards servitude, the party continued their exploration of this hostile & bizarre cave. They came upon a vast underground lake that stretched into darkness, the only sound a distant drip of water. A narrow ledge stretched along the lake's edge, but nobody dared chance the crumbling stonework so they moved on.</div><div><br /></div><div>Climbing upwards they found a glistening, iridescent trail of slime on the ground that led them to a room with a huge rainbow snail-shell. Assuming this was the territory of some bizarre invertebrate, they hurried onwards. They passed a room with a black handprint burned into the wall but decided not to investigate.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the shores of a cold and swift river they disturbed a school of ravenous piranhas who <i>leapt out of the water</i> in hungry pursuit! The group made a terrible tactical mistake, which luckily didn't work out too badly - they fled <i>forwards</i> into unknown territory pursued by the hopping, gnashing school of fish. </div><div><br /></div><div>They ran down a narrow tunnel and broke into a round room of worked stone. A pattern of stars was carved on the ceiling, and an ancient stone bed lay to one side. A layer of scented dust covered every surface. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thinking quickly, the slaves jammed the old bed against the crack in the wall - the tiny land-piranhas couldn't jump over it and gave up pursuit, retreating to the river. Behind the bed was an old brass tablet with obscure markings, which the group took.</div><div><br /></div><div>The slaves pressed on through this constructed area. They entered a rectangular room covered in carvings showing a robed humanoid figure floating or flying through a field of constellations. In a small alcove guarded by an ancient, collapsed pit-trap they found a purplish crystal skull (definitely not human) that looked valuable and three tiny metal cylinders with threaded ends, glowing with a faint reddish light.</div><div><br /></div><div>In another domed room smelling of old incense and dust, they found a metallic skullcap with a cluster of silvery filaments extending outwards from it in intricate, twisting patterns. Nobody was willing to try it on, so they took it for later.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then they entered the Room of Stars. Seeming to float in the void of space, the group could barely navigate the room without falling over it was so disorienting. As the approached the back alcove, the stars shifted along the walls, coalescing into a glowing doorway of light. Nervously, Agàta reached out to open it and the group entered.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9gxfGd2SWRQ/YW34JBEanAI/AAAAAAAAEv4/TKtnEecbCsIKc_liRlReU3VJ0y3-cC4TwCLcBGAsYHQ/Land%2BEnd%2B2%2B-%2BFirst%2BAdventure%2Bplay%2Breport%2Bmap%2Binitial.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9gxfGd2SWRQ/YW34JBEanAI/AAAAAAAAEv4/TKtnEecbCsIKc_liRlReU3VJ0y3-cC4TwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Land%2BEnd%2B2%2B-%2BFirst%2BAdventure%2Bplay%2Breport%2Bmap%2Binitial.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The deep obsidian caverns</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></div><div>The group found themselves in a narrow hallway of worked stone, leading to a small room with four bronze statues of spearmen, ready to throw. Entering the room cautiously, the inevitable happened: the statutes animated, hurling their spears towards the group! Everyone tried to duck, but Hafza the wildman was too slow and was impaled.</div><div><br /></div><div>The statues didn't seem to present further danger after this, and the group took up the finely-crafted spears for themselves. </div><div><br /></div><div>The next room was a large chamber with a huge statue in the center of a robed man holding a tablet in one hand, while his other pointed imperiously forward. Three other doors were visible. Gold-Foot and Agàta entered, noticing that the statue swiveled on its base, continuing to point at them wherever they roamed in the room. Nervous about this, they tried to leave when blasts of fire issued from the statue's finger! Gold-Foot was burned to a crisp while everyone else ducked for cover.</div><div><br /></div><div>When the jets of flame ceased, they heard only triumphant crowing: <i>"Hah! Stupid magic statue, you think you can get the best of me?"</i> Proving himself a tough old man once more, Agàta had survived another scrape.</div><div><br /></div><div>It seemed the statue had exhausted its magic and the rest of the slaves contemplated their next move: three doors presented themselves, but this area was obviously quite dangerous. What to do?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>And so it begins! </div><div><br /></div><div>A brand new in-person Land's End game with a very small group! "Season 2" is set a little ways off from the original Land's End theatre of action. It maintains a handful of connections to the original (the Black Wings lizardfolk and their slaving ways, for example) but with a slightly different focus. </div><div><br /></div><div>Follow along with us as we uncover more mysteries, explore more snake-men tombs, and get trench foot in the jungle again! We begin on the right footing by killing a handful of PCs in this introductory funnel. I've always wanted to run a "no equipment, no abilities" adventure, a trope that's been floating around forever but fits Land's End quite well - a setting where even established adventurers struggle to find decent gear! </div><div><br /></div><div>Some readers may recognize the first few rooms of the Dungeon Crawl Classics 0-level funnel "The Door Beneath The Stars," which has been modified a little bit to fit the setting.</div></div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-58201648959292792502021-10-18T20:13:00.007-06:002021-10-20T11:04:07.423-06:00Land's End: Appendix N<p>Since I have started a "Land's End Season 2" campaign, I thought it would be a fun post to collect some of my favourite inspirations for the campaigns here.</p><p>Some of these informed the tone or atmosphere more generally, and others I stole from directly. See if you can guess which is which!</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tp0jIbLskKE/YW4CrBh5vfI/AAAAAAAAEwA/4T9N9clBCooWRT19rz_2FVroglW0kCCpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1053/cas%2Bzothique.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1053" data-original-width="627" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tp0jIbLskKE/YW4CrBh5vfI/AAAAAAAAEwA/4T9N9clBCooWRT19rz_2FVroglW0kCCpwCLcBGAsYHQ/w382-h640/cas%2Bzothique.JPG" width="382" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique cycle. Desolate wastes, corrupt wizards, a terrified populace, and Mordiggian!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yyrYIWcSeG8/YW4CrjrOQ8I/AAAAAAAAEwU/SUyDLvKwWnoujiOeVV79gbFM3PPmT8-zQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/conan%2B.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1210" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yyrYIWcSeG8/YW4CrjrOQ8I/AAAAAAAAEwU/SUyDLvKwWnoujiOeVV79gbFM3PPmT8-zQCLcBGAsYHQ/w378-h640/conan%2B.jpg" width="378" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You already knew it.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oAjOQNkBe8U/YW4CrHyg1tI/AAAAAAAAEwI/dkQG1H7dwYIHz0jCYFdE-ugpK7pLhG_GQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1325/Dark_Souls_Cover_Art.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1325" data-original-width="1076" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oAjOQNkBe8U/YW4CrHyg1tI/AAAAAAAAEwI/dkQG1H7dwYIHz0jCYFdE-ugpK7pLhG_GQCLcBGAsYHQ/w520-h640/Dark_Souls_Cover_Art.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dark Souls, the best console game ever.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X_l5gJGtuQs/YW4CridQ4UI/AAAAAAAAEwM/VgN249pJ4e0MnNO2F1RSBhzVJ2WVevqLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s592/el%2Bborak.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="416" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X_l5gJGtuQs/YW4CridQ4UI/AAAAAAAAEwM/VgN249pJ4e0MnNO2F1RSBhzVJ2WVevqLwCLcBGAsYHQ/w450-h640/el%2Bborak.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert E. Howard's El Borak stories. Adventuring amongst savage tribes in the desolate regions of the world, discovering lost cities and vast hidden treasures.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nx5MkGvuMrQ/YW4CrtPgpyI/AAAAAAAAEwQ/ZeOZKnWr-aIvayDvSDfZHThr8FWz0twKACLcBGAsYHQ/s1105/hyperborea.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1105" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nx5MkGvuMrQ/YW4CrtPgpyI/AAAAAAAAEwQ/ZeOZKnWr-aIvayDvSDfZHThr8FWz0twKACLcBGAsYHQ/w418-h640/hyperborea.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea cycle.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GCvitXFJ77U/YW4Cr4uIhrI/AAAAAAAAEwY/d7U_W23LjvEiLIWkKn15pvvmnUXWFMN8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s923/indy%2Bfate%2Bof%2Batlantis.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="923" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GCvitXFJ77U/YW4Cr4uIhrI/AAAAAAAAEwY/d7U_W23LjvEiLIWkKn15pvvmnUXWFMN8ACLcBGAsYHQ/w416-h640/indy%2Bfate%2Bof%2Batlantis.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The old Dark Horse Indiana Jones comics, especially Fate of Atlantis. I was going to mention <i>Raiders</i>, but I already wrote a whole blog post about it a few years ago.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-INaM14aOL4I/YW4CsBDkCQI/AAAAAAAAEwc/HRXWPWb1qoAH54j_bQA2PojUfzt61G8IwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/king%2Bsolomons%2Bmines%2Bcover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="629" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-INaM14aOL4I/YW4CsBDkCQI/AAAAAAAAEwc/HRXWPWb1qoAH54j_bQA2PojUfzt61G8IwCLcBGAsYHQ/w402-h640/king%2Bsolomons%2Bmines%2Bcover.jpg" width="402" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. The original 'hidden valley' adventure site!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QLLnTE5dxEI/YW4CsFqVC5I/AAAAAAAAEwg/3wowUsNGbREvOXAOM8is_gGNPudADlTLACLcBGAsYHQ/s900/myth%2Bthe%2Bfallen%2Blords%2Bcover.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QLLnTE5dxEI/YW4CsFqVC5I/AAAAAAAAEwg/3wowUsNGbREvOXAOM8is_gGNPudADlTLACLcBGAsYHQ/w426-h640/myth%2Bthe%2Bfallen%2Blords%2Bcover.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myth: The Fallen Lords, by Bungie. Dark fantasy wargame that rips off the Black Company extensively.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-imorayUOXjg/YW4CrHT5ZBI/AAAAAAAAEwE/J2-i9GuSyXIfyFTkixD25NcsNko7thrFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Poster-Score26-Daggerfall.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1508" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-imorayUOXjg/YW4CrHT5ZBI/AAAAAAAAEwE/J2-i9GuSyXIfyFTkixD25NcsNko7thrFQCLcBGAsYHQ/w472-h640/Poster-Score26-Daggerfall.jpg" width="472" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daggerfall, the best Elder Scrolls game. Crude, buggy, dark, mysterious, with a charm all its own.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RLs9UHFZTB4/YW4CsM4VeAI/AAAAAAAAEwk/kCzPnt7SCo41YCrlXI14Xt1drEQsUIi7ACLcBGAsYHQ/s793/realm-of-chaos-01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="595" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RLs9UHFZTB4/YW4CsM4VeAI/AAAAAAAAEwk/kCzPnt7SCo41YCrlXI14Xt1drEQsUIi7ACLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/realm-of-chaos-01.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9e_SGDWHGIA/YW4CsYS3kKI/AAAAAAAAEwo/QrAHHw61DLgXNknczGYQBUoGGImoSQiAACLcBGAsYHQ/s803/tengerek-kisebb.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="803" height="399" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9e_SGDWHGIA/YW4CsYS3kKI/AAAAAAAAEwo/QrAHHw61DLgXNknczGYQBUoGGImoSQiAACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h399/tengerek-kisebb.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Melan's <a href="https://fomalhaut.lfg.hu/2011/08/15/sword-sorcery-and-rayguns-01/">Fomalhaut campaign</a> and materials, like Isles on an Emerald Sea.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uDn9uID4upk/YW4EP2UqQOI/AAAAAAAAExE/rdFM8Zuz75IENCOm_VoZl28HdbKEqbJKACLcBGAsYHQ/s423/97686.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="300" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uDn9uID4upk/YW4EP2UqQOI/AAAAAAAAExE/rdFM8Zuz75IENCOm_VoZl28HdbKEqbJKACLcBGAsYHQ/w454-h640/97686.jpg" width="454" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa. I wouldn't run it on its own, but picking bits & pieces from it works really well.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pjSBwq61BgM/YW4GnO2JMfI/AAAAAAAAExM/XCJj-sl83XcPpa0lTJrDZvdqEsNR0ovOACLcBGAsYHQ/s960/wasteland.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="624" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pjSBwq61BgM/YW4GnO2JMfI/AAAAAAAAExM/XCJj-sl83XcPpa0lTJrDZvdqEsNR0ovOACLcBGAsYHQ/w416-h640/wasteland.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oni Press' Wasteland comics. Post-apocalyptic desert adventures. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UMJ8a8Mmop8/YW4ZlneyxCI/AAAAAAAAExk/QpPVfko38HwteXxuTkIz9x7_eOofywtdACLcBGAsYHQ/s475/amazonsecretbig.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="323" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UMJ8a8Mmop8/YW4ZlneyxCI/AAAAAAAAExk/QpPVfko38HwteXxuTkIz9x7_eOofywtdACLcBGAsYHQ/w437-h640/amazonsecretbig.gif" width="437" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Secret Teachings of All Ages, by Manly P. Hall. Dense and difficult, sometimes woefully outdated, but worth a read.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1Z5Fy5HIgc/YW4WKZjTBVI/AAAAAAAAExc/H13y_mTMe8oq8C1JZ9Ke1L82kXc0MfOhQCLcBGAsYHQ/s533/1-START1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="533" height="325" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1Z5Fy5HIgc/YW4WKZjTBVI/AAAAAAAAExc/H13y_mTMe8oq8C1JZ9Ke1L82kXc0MfOhQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h325/1-START1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exile: Escape from the Pit by Spiderweb Software. Taking it back to the '90s!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HsgK997pgf8/YW4bSeTcshI/AAAAAAAAExs/MO6GTLZEMLsPyEpRZvhjxVaZE6GacDkMACLcBGAsYHQ/s220/ziggurat.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="220" height="218" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HsgK997pgf8/YW4bSeTcshI/AAAAAAAAExs/MO6GTLZEMLsPyEpRZvhjxVaZE6GacDkMACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h218/ziggurat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://planetalgol.blogspot.com/">Planet mother fucking Algol</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vZ_mJniM6aY/YW4drak1TmI/AAAAAAAAEx0/l6UvXu8vo7gmG2NXlw_ZhL_brEa0mtPowCLcBGAsYHQ/s750/n7Yco9hRn6Pqoq5k8f0oy6tn8xD.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vZ_mJniM6aY/YW4drak1TmI/AAAAAAAAEx0/l6UvXu8vo7gmG2NXlw_ZhL_brEa0mtPowCLcBGAsYHQ/w426-h640/n7Yco9hRn6Pqoq5k8f0oy6tn8xD.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jason and the Argonauts film (1963). Man those outfits were <i>boss</i>.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SbRis5qc_4s/YW4pMiCO7vI/AAAAAAAAEx8/od_LRVq9nt0u478VnFLFi6EmA43HrPDXgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Journey-to-the-Center-of-the-Earth-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SbRis5qc_4s/YW4pMiCO7vI/AAAAAAAAEx8/od_LRVq9nt0u478VnFLFi6EmA43HrPDXgCLcBGAsYHQ/w426-h640/Journey-to-the-Center-of-the-Earth-cover.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>Also: the Wilderlands, everyone's gaming blogs, the SRD, and a giant stack of reference works!</p><p>I can't really believe it myself, but Lovecraft doesn't actually get a mention. Land's End is much more pulpy and action-packed, it doesn't really have any sense of horror. There are some gross Lovecraftian monsters but the Chthulhu mythos doesn't even really make sense in the setting, except for a few veiled references.<br /><br /><br />[LATE EDIT: I forgot one absolutely <a href="https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/10/here-be-cannibals-mapping-generic-osr.html">VITAL component</a>!!!]</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rbf_VKhprtU/YXBL4T4IXvI/AAAAAAAAEyU/xtJKjslkWhc1zTXxKlejwJJbj9NkBGoUwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/OSR%2Bmap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1360" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rbf_VKhprtU/YXBL4T4IXvI/AAAAAAAAEyU/xtJKjslkWhc1zTXxKlejwJJbj9NkBGoUwCLcBGAsYHQ/w544-h640/OSR%2Bmap.png" width="544" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-60928986454369500132021-09-19T11:09:00.005-06:002021-09-19T11:09:43.856-06:0010 Year Anniversary of Terrible Sorcery!<b>September 19, 2011 was my first post on blogspot.</b> A big round number like that is cause for reflection, not that I have the spare time to be doing it right now.<div><br /></div><div>Ten years of blogging! Where do I begin? It feels like this whole thing was started in another lifetime, by a different man. Let's look back and see how the blog developed over the years.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QNTFYU_TbfA/YT6OnOzr1CI/AAAAAAAAEus/zC00hXqwCJAmynf-liq5_vZ3sBbwQ0jPQCLcBGAsYHQ/berserk%2Bskells.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="982" height="294" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QNTFYU_TbfA/YT6OnOzr1CI/AAAAAAAAEus/zC00hXqwCJAmynf-liq5_vZ3sBbwQ0jPQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h294/berserk%2Bskells.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>2011-2012</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>I had quit the band I was playing in (a really great one BTW), quit my job, and was on the outs with my girlfriend for a while. Perfect time to think about D&D again after a five-year break from gaming! I bought the Pathfinder core rules (little did I know...) and started playing with my roommates. This was the original Land's End game, which ended sometime in 2012 after a few arguments with one of the players. </div><div><br /></div><div>I was reading all kinds of OSR blogs at the time, starting with Grognardia. I decided to get in on the action. At this time, blog content was mostly me trying to figure out how to write and what to write about. A fair number of articles were rambling nonsense, or based on some dumb notion that crossed my mind. A few bits and pieces of actual gaming content, like the Secret Santicore contest which was great fun.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>2013-2015</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Of course, almost immediately I got a new job with more hours/week, patched things up with my girl and started a new band. Free time commensurately dwindled and you can see the posting frequency drop off until I actually go <i>two and a half years</i> without posting, between Feb. 2013 and Sept 2015! I was recording and producing my band's first record all by myself, and that was a lot of fucking work. </div><div><br /></div><div>Blog content - the beginning of my "Nameless Cults" series, some of which are fairly good. My favourite opinion piece I've written, which of course is about the best video game ever, <a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2015/09/dark-souls-is-classic-d-in-modern-video.html">Dark Souls</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>2016-2017</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>At this point I think I was between jobs a lot and didn't have much money. These years were pretty lousy as I recall. I could have spent more time thinking about gaming, but I didn't have a group to play with around this time. I started dating a new girl who would ruin my life a few years later (referenced obliquely in <a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-saints-have-turned-to-crime-secret.html">The Saints Have Turned to Crime</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>Blog content - In an effort to get my friend Manscorpion to publish more stuff (he writes a lot, but hardly ever releases anything) I gave him a spotlight on the blog to talk about the dungeon he was running at the time, <a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2017/01/enter-manscorpion-crater-of-termination.html">The Crater of Termination</a>. These posts were fun, I wish he did more of them but I can only whip a giant sized scorpion-abomination so much. I started working in earnest on one of my grandest & least workable ideas yet: a campaign of <a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-spoils-of-annwn-session-1-play.html">Arthur's Knights vs. Chthulhu Cults</a>. Somehow it never gelled together, despite me spending years thinking about it. Failed experiments actually seem to comprise 75% of my gaming ideas!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>2018-2019</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>While my personal life was still fucked up at this point, I was gaming lots more. I got to be a player for a while in a 2nd edition game, which was great until it wasn't (<a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2019/01/why-osr-you-recognize-nothing.html">Why the OSR?</a>). I restarted Land's End with most of the original players when my brother moved to town (<a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-return-or-hard-lesson-about.html">The Return!</a>). I ran some Labyrinth Lord games for some brand-new players, and we had great fun. I got on Google+ just in time for it to collapse, but managed to participate in one or two communal things (the <a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-henry-justice-ford-monster-manual.html">Henry Justice Ford MM</a>). Somewhere in there I discovered Judges Guild and the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, and they blew my fucking mind. I started playing in some online games with G+ people that have been tremendous fun and really mind-expanding. I think it was sometime in the winter of '18-'19 that I became obsessed with WFRP 1st edition, and managed to find a copy of <i>Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness</i> on eBay for a reasonable price. Still looking for the second book, though.</div><div><br /></div><div>Blog Content - Finally after six or seven years, I was actually producing decent content. A good mixture of play reports, some gameable material and opinion pieces. My first reviews appeared around this time. This will never be a review-focused blog but I do like writing them and will continue to review things that I find fun, useful or annoying. The <a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2018/10/random-monster-generator-book-shootout.html">Random Monster Generator Shootout</a> began here, and that's probably my favourite part of this blog. Fun on the Velvet Horizon was also a great series, if intermittent. I <a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2019/05/new-album-cover.html">commissioned that bad-ass banner artwork</a> up top from Mr. Penny Melgarejo, who you should contact if you want some metal-as-fuck artwork at a great price.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>2020-2021</b></div><div><br /></div><div>A mixed bag. My personal life has vastly improved. Work is steady. The newbie-friendly Wilderlands game I started in 2019 has moved online and now has players from across North America including a few of my old gaming pals from back home. That's a great feeling. I released my first sizeable project: a 20-page dungeon for Footprints magazine #25 which included my own hand-drawn maps & artwork, something I never thought I would ever do.</div><div><br /></div><div>Blog Content - Still doing well. I put up a small dungeon used in my home game (<a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2020/05/tomb-of-abysthor-special-black-pyramid.html">The Black Pyramid</a>). Many series continued. <a href="http://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/p/revised-weaponarmour-lists.html">The Historical Weapon & Armour Lists</a> were published with the help of my good pal (& player in my Wilderlands game) Steve. Now that you've been granted this platform, I don't want to hear any more comments about 'realism' during a game, OK??</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Today and Tomorrow</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>I am so busy trying to prep for all the games I'm running, I don't have time to come up with ideas for the blog! I have three campaigns going right now that play at varying frequencies:</div><div><br /></div><div>1 - The revived Land's End campaign is still going (three years later) although play is currently intermittent. Honestly that's fine, the next dungeon is proving extremely complex and difficult to write up. I don't want to spoil anything about it yet - but it's going to be a RAGER.</div><div><br /></div><div>2 - The Labyrinth Lord game set in the Wilderlands in and around the City-State of the World Emperor. This is the newbie game mentioned above, began in 2019 in person and moved online in 2020. I have a rotating pool of 7 or 8 players who show up at various times.</div><div><br /></div><div>3 - A brand new Land's End Part II campaign, set some distance away from the neighbourhood of the original. This is a small game (just my brother and his wife). I am using Melan's <a href="https://fomalhaut.lfg.hu/2011/01/17/sword-and-magic/">Sword & Magic</a> ruleset, which is proving flexible and easy to use. I am planning on using several great modules in this one including Sision Tower, the JG classic Caverns of Thracia and more. More updates as this one develops...</div><div><br /></div><div>My roommates bought me a drawing tablet for my computer. I am getting better at using it with photoshop to screen-share maps and drawings during online games. This is a lot of fun and is opening up new vistas in terms of skills to develop. My digital maps are getting much better after some mistakes and lots of practise. Now I just need a better computer!</div><div><br /></div><div>This year I have been studying after work which has really cut into my free time. Juggling gaming, musical projects, education, exercise and (on occasion) a social call to one of a dwindling circle of friends has been tough to manage. I have always been one for hyper-focus on a single topic and multitasking is kind of a time-sink. Sometimes game sessions get missed or I have to learn to improvise (another thing I've never been good at). I am using modules more than I ever have before, but I'm getting better at using my limited prep time usefully, focusing on game-relevant detail. I feel like my DMing is better than it's ever been.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>As for the State of the OSR...</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Just kidding! I don't give a fuck! What kind of blog do you think this is? </div><div><br /></div><div>Things with me will continue in the same general vein. When my latest course is done, some updates will be forthcoming from Land's End II. Reviews for some new (or at least... vaguely recent) products that I really love. Maybe some play reports from the City-State game, a few Nameless Cults that I have in draft form, more Fun on the Velvet Horizon... you get the idea!</div><div><br /></div><div>*****</div><div><br /></div><div>Now c'mon everyone, get out there and Fight On!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TjyQUGQRPd8" width="320" youtube-src-id="TjyQUGQRPd8"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-79981105764694830312021-06-22T18:30:00.000-06:002021-06-22T18:30:20.799-06:00New Release: Footprints Issue #25<p> It's finally out!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xtU53fXNE1E/YNJ89L8P1KI/AAAAAAAAEqM/7Rv1z5382NEgFr7vtAd2oCRO28oKzphRQCLcBGAsYHQ/Screenshot%2Bfrom%2B2021-06-22%2B18-13-12.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="666" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xtU53fXNE1E/YNJ89L8P1KI/AAAAAAAAEqM/7Rv1z5382NEgFr7vtAd2oCRO28oKzphRQCLcBGAsYHQ/w492-h640/Screenshot%2Bfrom%2B2021-06-22%2B18-13-12.png" width="492" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>Footprints Magazine from Dragonsfoot. Packed with almost 200 pages of <b>Completely Free</b> old school gaming scene goodness.<br /></p><p>Get it <a href="https://www.dragonsfoot.org/files/pdf/FootprintsNo25.pdf">HERE</a>.</p><p>I bring this up because this issue has a 20-page adventure for Labyrinth Lord written and lovingly illustrated by <b>ME</b>. For characters of levels 3-6 with about 50 keyed areas. </p><p>It's called <b>Gilded Dream of the Incandescent Queen</b>. Originally it was for a random dungeon design contest and then took on a life of its own after that. I wrote it so that it could be dropped in to anybody's campaign, and I hope you, gentle reader, give it a chance and try playing it in your own game.</p><p>Venture into a floating sanctum built to transcend mortality itself! Weigh your soul on the great scales before Zarmuun, Eater of Hearts! Battle the sadistic Witch-Queen, plunder her vast treasure hoard, sail her ocean-going barge, or climb the celestial staircase up to a mysterious fate...?<br /><br /><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GIlFNxzP4E8/YNJ-4mOauEI/AAAAAAAAEqU/3j0DTDqr7-8wUpLfZ9o8YWm2iZpwAK8JACLcBGAsYHQ/GDIQ%2B-%2BCover%2Bwith%2Btext.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1922" data-original-width="1485" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GIlFNxzP4E8/YNJ-4mOauEI/AAAAAAAAEqU/3j0DTDqr7-8wUpLfZ9o8YWm2iZpwAK8JACLcBGAsYHQ/w493-h640/GDIQ%2B-%2BCover%2Bwith%2Btext.png" width="493" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-78692009881457896872021-04-02T10:27:00.000-06:002021-04-02T10:27:53.258-06:00REVIEW - On Downtime & Demesnes: just what I neededI bought quite a few LARGE gaming books in the last year or so, but they take some time to read thoroughly. When this landed on my desk, it immediately moved to the top of the list - but it took me a while since I've been so busy actually <i>playing</i> lately!<br /><br />
*****<br /><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-veFEeis_wng/Xj4E5c-H-hI/AAAAAAAACOs/1jlIZmSxFWU4e3xcgLKLKf1OuwHv_E7cQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/297829.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-veFEeis_wng/Xj4E5c-H-hI/AAAAAAAACOs/1jlIZmSxFWU4e3xcgLKLKf1OuwHv_E7cQCK4BGAYYCw/s320/297829.jpg" width="236" /></a><b>On Downtime & Demesnes (Basic D&D version)</b><br />
by Courtney Campbell<br />
<a href="http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/">Hack & Slash publishing</a><br />
print and PDF <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/297829/On-Downtime-and-Demesnes-Basic-DD">here</a><br />
<br />Once in a rare while, an RPG supplement comes out that doesn't need doctoring around with, adaptation or fiddle-fucking - it just works. OD&D (hahaha I see what you did there) is one such product.<div><br /><div>Courtney Campbell has proved his worth many times over, both on his blog <b>Hack & Slash</b><b> </b>and his other products on DTRPG. Even if all he ever released was his classic treasure document (which I use constantly) he would still have made a huge contribution to my own gaming table. Before he gutted it, his blog was a tremendous resource for traps, tricks & DM techniques, along with controversial classics like the legendary "Quantum Ogre."</div><div><br /></div><div>How many times has your player tried to do something and you thought "Huh... where are the rules for <i>that</i>?" What I often find I need in a gaming book are not more combat rules or magic items but guidelines, tables, sub-systems and procedures. The kind of things I usually have to write myself, ad-hoc when the situation calls for it. I have always had to range far and wide across blogs, published books, pdfs and my own customised rules to cover the situations dealt with in this book. Now Courtney gives us the total package at a single stroke! In a way, the book is like a best-of collection from one man's gaming blog all put together in a nice & usable package. It is accompanied by plenty of Courtney's hand-drawn black & white artwork, which brings a charming '80s 1st-edition feel to the whole thing.</div><div><div><div><br /></div>
With OD&D we get an extensive list of downtime activities, domain-management rules, options, tables, ideas and hooks. Want to build a castle? Clear a hex? Buy & sell trade goods? Learn a new skill? Find rumours? Whatever it is, Courtney has your back.<br />
<br /></div><div>Carousing. Healing. Rumours. Bragging. Buying fancy clothes. Gambling. Buying influence! Building your own vehicles! <i>Simple</i> rules for magic item creation and spell research!! Even some good rules for ARENA FIGHTS by Jove, and a few sample arenas to have them in!!! In true B/X house-rule fashion, almost everything is handled with a 2d6 reaction-style roll. Usually on an 9+ something good happens, but this varies between sub-systems. <br />
<br />I used this book in my home game the week I bought it. <b>Vuk Thuul</b> the oracle sacrificed an animal to his mysterious "divine patron" (a demon lord, hahaha). I had no idea what would happen, and then I cracked open OD&D and noticed there are rules for exactly that!<br />
<br />
In addition to rules, guidelines and tables, great ready-to-use content is sprinkled throughout. Whenever Courtney gets specific, his imagination blasts off the page. Sections include "Example Mercenaries & Companies" (5 pages of juicy, weird NPCs I would run any day), "Strange Funeral Rites," "Dungeon Doors," "Strange Inheritances" (could easily kick off your next campaign), "Random Items for Sale at a Bazaar," "Strange Pet Stores" (OK, not sure when I'll use that) and several quirky, memorable sample villages.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also like the lists of "100 obnoxious peasants" and "100 noble patrons," written by Chris Tamm of the legendary <a href="http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/">Elfmaids & Octopi</a> blog. This section was cited in <a href="https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2020/03/review-on-downtime-and-demesnes.html">Melan's review</a> and he didn't seem to like it much. They definitely bear the familiar feel of Tamm's work, but I don't mind that at all and will for sure use them. Just reading them sent me into fits of chuckling as I imagined the bizarre, dangerous and funny antics these NPCs might bring to my game. Would I use these tables every single time? No, but that ain't no crime.</div><div><br /></div><div>Campbell draws from a wide range of wisdom here in developing these rules. Actually, I think he doesn't cite his sources enough. Would it be too much to ask for a mention of the 1st edition DMG(!!!), or maybe Jeff's Gameblog for the carousing rules[1]? Maybe a lot of this stuff is covered in ACKS, which he does list in the bibliography? (I haven't read it). Also, this book does duplicate some material you probably already have, especially in the AD&D dungeon master's guide - in fact, it could probably be thought of as a B/X DMG. I don't mind too much. Having almost every fucking thing I could want to run the "Greater D&D" in one book is more than worth it.<br />
<br />One other complaint I'd level at OD&D is that it covers such a tremendously wide range of material, sometimes it doesn't do so with the depth I'd like. The Influence rules could have been delved into more deeply, or maybe explained better. And the "carousing mishaps" table has 10 entries of familiar stuff - compare them to Ben's vivid table <a href="https://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2020/11/downtime-activities-at-underworld.html">here</a>. Ultimately this is a minor complaint, this book was clearly written so it can be used in anybody's game, and a DM who wants to expand these tables to suit his own setting obviously can.<br /><br />
I bought this in pdf and after paging through it once, I immediately ordered a hard copy. It's going right in between Realms of Crawling Chaos and Labyrinth Lord on my old-school gaming shelf, it is that good. If you want to run a sandbox game (and if you don't... what's the deal?) you will definitely make use of this. If you play just about any old-school game or retroclone, there is now one less reason to bring your 1st edition DMG along to game night anymore, just to reference the rules on sages for the twentieth time. Just as well, since mine is crumbling before my very eyes!<br />
<br /><br />
Don't waste your RPG lunch money. The marketplace is crammed with unimaginative dreck, impossible-to-run adventure path railroads, retro trade dress porn, kickstarter money grabs and pretentious glossy award-baiting. Buy something you can actually use at the table for once. Who the fuck says the OSR is dead? This is as OSR as it gets. </div><div><br /></div><div>9 eccentric henchmen out of 10. An almost flawless victory. <br />
<br />
<br />
*****<br />
<br />[1] - Jeff's "Party like it's 999" post is not the first time carousing is mentioned (Dragon magazine covered this in the old days), but it is the benchmark for the rules that OSRmen play with today. <br />
<br /></div></div></div><div>Courtney's new book Artifices, Deceptions & Dilemmas is out now I think, so watch for a review of that one too. In the meantime, get fucking hyped with this:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EKSU1W0ZUmQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="EKSU1W0ZUmQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-20278417744585832542021-03-13T17:40:00.006-07:002021-03-13T18:26:15.306-07:00REVIEW - Knock! #1: miss me with that nonsense<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V90MDscj3Fo/YE1PnsXFB5I/AAAAAAAAEhc/tpvXjab3u6wIxheTw_1GqBvahbZIEqu6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1240/345695.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1240" data-original-width="874" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V90MDscj3Fo/YE1PnsXFB5I/AAAAAAAAEhc/tpvXjab3u6wIxheTw_1GqBvahbZIEqu6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/345695.jpg" /></a></div><div>KNOCK! #1</div><div>Edited by Eric Nieudan</div><div>Layout by Oliver Revenu</div><div>Contributors: see below</div><div>Published by <a href="https://www.themerrymushmen.com/">The Merry Mushmen</a></div><div>get the pdf <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/345695/Knock--Issue-1">here</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Knock! is a new OSR zine I somehow discovered on Kickstarter last year. I hardly ever back anything, but the blurbs for this product were too compelling to resist:<br /></div><div style="font-style: italic;"><i><br /></i></div><i>"It has everything you’d want from an old school slash adventure gaming publication: articles about the history of Dungeons & Dragons, reflections about genre and gameplay, some clever rules, a bunch of maps, tons of random tables and lists, 7 new classes, 7 new monsters, and 3 complete adventures. If you’re reading this, some of the names below will ring a bell, or five: Emmy Allen, Benjamin Baugh, Joe Brogzin, Caleb Burks, Brooks Dailey, Nicolas Dessaux, Paolo Greco, James Holloway, Anthony Huso, Arnold K, Ethan Lefevre, Gabor Lux, Bryce Lynch, Fiona Maeve Geist, Chris McDowall, Ben Milton, Gavin Norman, Patrick Ollson, Graphite Prime, Stuart Robertson, Jack Shear, Jason Sholtis, Skullfungus, Sean Stone, Chris Tamm, Daniel Sell, and Vagabundork."</i><br /><br /><div>As is my wont, I sent KS the money and promptly forgot about it. A couple months ago it arrived in my mailbox and I excitedly packed it in my overnight bag for a work trip, not knowing what I was in for...</div><div><br /></div><div>To start with, the book <i>looks</i> tremendous. Revenu needs to get some more work, right now. The print quality is high, the colours are so bold & vivid they fairly jump off the page. I don't think any of my other gaming books come close to being so brilliant. Even LotFP doesn't look this good. Each bloody article has individual fonts, colour schemes and a layout all its own. This must have been a huge undertaking, and I can't lavish enough praise on the zine's aesthetic. Even the damn dust jacket has a whole adventure on it (which Bryce <a href="https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=7163">reviewed here</a>, saving me the time).</div><div><br /></div><div>But how does it play? Well, I am no expert, but I cannot see how I would ever use 90% of this zine. In fact, Nieudan cops to this on the first page, where he writes</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"This first issue is a bet: a bet on your interest in owning content you may have read before, collected in this dense volume for posterity and for prep sessions."</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>May</b> have??</div><div>Dude, had I read half this zine before this Kickstarter was ever dreamed of.</div><div><br /></div><div>All, and I do mean <b>all</b> of the content by the heavy-hitters, those who often singly but definitely combined made this an auto-buy for me (Arnold K, Gabor Lux, Daniel Sell, Anthony Huso, Graphite Prime, Chris Tamm, Jason Sholtis, Emmy Allen) turned out to be existing material from their blogs! I am not exaggerating. I don't need to pay some guy to give me a glossy, high-colour version of these articles. I had that shit bookmarked for <i>years</i>, my son.</div><div><br /></div><div>Do you not already read these folks' blogs? Have you guys not heard of the <a href="https://campaignwiki.org/wiki/LinksToWisdom/HomePage">OSR links to wisdom</a>? You know that people have been updating that page for something like a decade now?</div><div><br /></div><div>Furthermore, this book is simply not user-friendly - not during prep, nor at the table. This is where the Mushmen's obsession with cool layouts works against them (or <i>would</i> work against them, if I thought they had actually made this book to be used). The articles are more easily read on the blogs where they were originally posted, and the tables (except for a few very short ones) are fucking colossal, undifferentiated blocks of text! It comes across more as an art project than a tool or game document.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I read through this zine recognizing article after article, a growing sense of indignation rose within me - I felt I'd been had. Like Don Draper trying to blend in with some hippies, Knock! throws out the "right" talking-points but none of them come together. Halfway through reading, it all I could think of was <a href="https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths">Geeks, MOPs and Sociopaths</a>. It all comes across as if Nieudan woke up one day, read someone's "What is the OSR?" blog post, and decided to create a zine on that basis. The articles are all over the map, and while many of them are tremendous and useful CLASSICS individually, there is nothing connecting them together which might justify buying a bunch of shit I already have, no 'editorial voice,' no curation that might be considered a value-add.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can't get over one question: who the fuck is this zine <i>for</i>? </div><div><br /></div><div>Where are the supply-demand curves for people who haven't read these articles already, but are willing to spend *checks notes* <b>fifty Canadian dollars</b> on a glossy OSR zine? What does that Venn diagram look like? Clearly, I am not the target audience. I suspect that most people who buy Knock! #1 will read through it, say "hey, nice" and put it on their gaming shelves where it shall rest, un-referenced, for many a year. Am I all alone in being displeased with that?</div><div><div><br /></div><div><div>The answer of course was available from the beginning which, paradoxically, only adds to my feeling of being hoodwinked. As if the Mushmen were saying "hey man, you didn't read the fine print! Not our fault." </div><div><br /></div><div>Knock! is exactly what it says: a bric-a-brac of OSR material. </div><div><br /></div><div>According to dictionary.com, bric-a-brac is:<i> "Miscellaneous small articles collected for their antiquarian, sentimental, decorative, or other interest." </i>That description fits this zine precisely. An assortment of stuff, packaged in an attractive form and not especially useful. Meant to be put on the mantelpiece or sideboard, for kitschy display purposes.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>4/10 well-read blog posts. Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining. </div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>*****</div><div><br /></div><div>(Having said all the above, if the Knock! fellows want to use one of my blog posts in an upcoming issue, I <i>will</i> delete this review.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, a little palate-cleanser:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wLrIvXFoxDs" width="320" youtube-src-id="wLrIvXFoxDs"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><br />HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-36677721201293017352020-12-10T13:27:00.003-07:002020-12-10T13:27:43.029-07:00Play Report: Death Love Doom [LotFP]<p>I have been writing these play reports for my online Labyrinth Lord group, set around the City-State of the World Emperor. Since I spend so much time on them, I thought I'd share them here for everyone to peruse. This session actually took place last year, before we switched to online play a few months ago. This weekend we're also returning to Land's End - the fun never stops.</p><p>As one of my players said the other day: "your world has more shit to do than the real one right now!"</p><p>*****</p><p><br />2nd-12th Meadowlark, 4433</p><br /><b>Characters</b><br /><br />Aladar IX, M-U 1<br />"Sir Karavon" aka Tullius Jr, fighter 1<br />Lothos the Undesirable, elf 1<br />Eric Withakay, cleric 1<br />Meep, dwarf 1<br />Veigar Thricescarred, fighter 1<br /><br /><br /><b>Leaving Drydale</b><br />(see last <a href="https://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2020/09/play-report-no-salvation-for-witches.html">session</a>)<br /><br />After their torchlight exhumation, the gang re-interred the corpse of James Blake with a mocking note, taunting whoever might come searching afterwards for his journal and <i>The Great Devourer</i>.<br /><br />"Meet on the 10th of Blackmoon in Viridistan. Under the Grand Red Statue, look for the man with twelve lit candles."<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vRw58fYvYNQ/XmwGkBuYdHI/AAAAAAAACbw/En3QB_rhKVEoNx2JfxBUV5eIoOFCYoIPgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/img%252812%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vRw58fYvYNQ/XmwGkBuYdHI/AAAAAAAACbw/En3QB_rhKVEoNx2JfxBUV5eIoOFCYoIPgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/img%252812%2529.jpg" width="523" /></a></div><br /><br />After recollecting their previous adventures, they decided to follow up a lead at the port of Targnol a few days travel away:<br /><br /><i>"The rich merchant <b>Philotheos Sten</b> hasn't been around lately. His large estate lies on the edge of town, and nobody has been seen coming or going for several days. Some fear the worst while others remark on the man's riches, accumulated through a lifetime of trading. A few thugs are going to case his place soon. You might be able to beat them to it and see what kind of loot is lying around!"</i><br /><br />The port of Targnol was a sprawling mess of crumbling wooden buildings packed with Imperial sailors on leave, dockworkers, merchants, thieves and cutthroats. Notable buildings included a grand temple to Thoth and a mysterious black pyramid containing a sleeping sorceress within a glass coffin. The town offers a standing reward for anyone who can reawaken this mysterious ebony-skinned woman.<br /><br />Not having an interest in that, the gang met with a local contact of Two-Faced Humphrey's (he had business back in Viridisan, and couldn't accompany them). The man was a sullen and scarred Viridian named <b>Komang</b>. He gave them some basics, and a few trips around town asking questions filled in the blanks:<br /><br />- Philotheos and his family hadn't been seen in two weeks, but there had been no surge of activity suggesting they were moving house or taking an extended vacation. The current theory was sudden illness or foul play of some kind.<br />- <b>Old Graham's Gang</b>, a strange and mysterious crew of all-child thieves from the capital about whom rumours have swirled for years, were casing the place. They planned to raid it for valuables the next night. Komang offered to put the party in touch with them, but this offer was declined.<br />- Philotheos kept no personal guards, for he lived on the edge of town in a rich area patrolled by (notoriously lazy) Imperial troops.<br /><br />The party pooled their money and bought a wagon and two horses. On the way up to Philotheos' mansion, Eric and "Sir Karavon" drove while the rest hid under some straw in the back, hoping the "knight" and priest would discourage prying eyes or nosy guardsmen.<br /><br />As night drew down they pulled into the driveway and approached the great mansion. Disdaining to explore the large grounds, "Sir Karavon" knocked on the door and getting no response, opened it. A distant weeping could be heard, but no foes presented themselves.<br /><br /><br /><b>Charnel Mansion</b><br /><br />The party entered the lightless home and progressed through a set of double-doors into a large parlor and dining-room. The place was trashed. Plates and vessels broken, splashes of blood everywhere, and the source of the weeping: a young Viridian girl strung up to the chandelier, her innards hanging out in a bloody mess!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DSOozvtX8Z4/Xn9zidjRCwI/AAAAAAAACjY/Df5gtGTcRxQhBZDG4j96kmd2sSbcyE_lgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/hanging%2Bvictim.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DSOozvtX8Z4/Xn9zidjRCwI/AAAAAAAACjY/Df5gtGTcRxQhBZDG4j96kmd2sSbcyE_lgCK4BGAYYCw/s320/hanging%2Bvictim.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />In terrible shape as she was, the girl regained some lucidity after being released from the chandelier. She told them her name was Ariel, and related a strange story:<br /><br />“One night after dinner, Father told everyone that he had a very special present for Mother. It was a very pretty necklace! But then a big monster and two smaller monsters came out of the necklace! And the big monster told the smaller monsters to <i>get the lovers</i>, and they jumped on Father and Nanny Alba! Then Mother and Grandma started yelling at Father, and everyone ran away! Then Grandma came to get me... and now I’m here.”<br /><br />The child's injuries were quite severe and the party wasn't sure if they could help her. In the meantime, they explored the dining room and parlour, spotting an oil painting of a newlywed couple with a copper nameplate that read:<br /><br /><i>Philotheos Sten and Domitilla Sten. Married Sunstrong 17, 4423</i><br /><br />Mounted on the wall above the painting were two fine-looking crossed falcatas that looked functional enough. The group took all these items and left Ariel for the moment to continue exploring.<br /><br />The two other rooms on the main floor turned out to be Philotheos' office and a conservatory. The centrepiece in the conservatory was a grand harp, and three statuettes of dark blue & yellow marble rested on the mantelpiece: a dragon, eagle and nymph. The group took all of these and loaded them into their cart.<br /><br />In Philotheos' office, Lothos rifled the great oak desk and found stacks of business papers - deeds, shipping manifests, etc. He pocketed a stack to peruse later, along with a fine stiletto in one of the drawers. The group was drawn to the large, shining silvery cube in the back corner which turned out to be an advanced combination safe! Three number-wheels ranged from 1 to 20. After giving it some thought, they fetched the painting of the Stens' wedding-day from their wagon. Guessing that 17 and 8 were important (Sunstrong is the 8th month of the year), they tried a few combinations until hitting upon <b>17 - 8 - 1</b>. The shining door swung open and revealed Philotheos' hidden fortune!<br /><br />It was at this time that Lothos thought to consult the mysterious ancient tome in Eric's possession. Pricking his finger, he wrote on the pages in blood, describing the party's situation and what they knew. Oddly, the book had a ready answer! This disaster was likely caused by the gift Philotheos gave his wife. The book identified it as <b>The Necklace of the Sleepless Queen</b>. It was created long ago by someone called the <b>Dead King</b>, to destroy all love in the world.<br /><br />Perturbed by this news and not wanting to meet Ariel's sadistic grandmother or the "monsters" spawned by the necklace, the party elected to start the mansion ablaze and retreat safely with their wealth. Aladar IX used his <i>Unseen Servant</i> to carry a torch around inside the house while the others barred the door to prevent any aberrations from escaping. They waited until flames were visible from outside, then rode out of Targnol full-tilt, their wagon full of loot.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SsL26G9lZUs/Xn-e4LUFQrI/AAAAAAAACkI/FC6JJrivFuMeBRypdv9d6-qcQI1O0G1xACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/article-2120378-1255B389000005DC-641_964x556.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="431" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SsL26G9lZUs/Xn-e4LUFQrI/AAAAAAAACkI/FC6JJrivFuMeBRypdv9d6-qcQI1O0G1xACK4BGAYYCw/s640/article-2120378-1255B389000005DC-641_964x556.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>Return To the Immortal City</b><br /><br />On the road home, Lothos consulted the strange blood-drinking tome again, learning its name: <b>Pheldrazash</b>. It claimed to know many other secrets, and was willing to teach him and Aladar IX a spell that would expand their knowledge for free: <i>Call to Familiar Spirit</i>.<br /><br />Two days' travel from Viridistan, the party approached the Great Wall: a colossal structure a quarter-mile high and 200 feet thick, built by the ancients in the dawning days of the world for reasons unknown to men. Approaching the eastern entrance, called the Moon Gate, they met a farmer on the road who told them a strange tale:<br /><br /><div><i>"Not too far from here, a brand-new building has sprung up overnight! It's a great structure in a bizarre foreign style, red stone and dark wood with a peaked black roof and pointed square towers, set back from the road on the edge of the Elsenwood. Travellers say it simply appeared one day with no signs of construction, no work crews, and certainly no negotiations with the elves who make the woods dangerous for honest Imperial folk!"</i><br /><br />After hearing that rumour, the gang pressed on towards the City of Spices, glad to be home after their bizarre and harrowing journeys. To move their ill-gotten loot, Lothos travelled to the <b>Otherside</b> district where many of his elven kinfolk live in ghettos, segregated from the larger city. His cousin <b>Darius</b> said he "knew a guy," and a meeting could be arranged at the <b>Plaza of Dark Delights</b> that night. The sullen, cloaked Viridian who met Darius & the party was eager to buy most of their loot - his eyes lit up with greed at the sight of the gold trade bars. He wasn't especially interested in the painting, but kicked in a bit of silver for it as part of the whole deal.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9hM8NubZ370/Xn959xV5bvI/AAAAAAAACjk/AGQoSgfQq8Iov7NKcKecY16if9WWMYkuQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/6fab00dfd44649317b1ca6639220a184.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9hM8NubZ370/Xn959xV5bvI/AAAAAAAACjk/AGQoSgfQq8Iov7NKcKecY16if9WWMYkuQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/6fab00dfd44649317b1ca6639220a184.jpg" /></a></div><br />Thousands of silver richer than they had ever been before, the party cast about for something to spend their money on. Someone had heard of a pleasure palace for the rich in the exclusive Cliffside district, called <b>The Sign of Olive & Lotus</b>. Anything could be had there for the right price: fine liquor, exotic foods, high-stakes games of chance, tantalizing companions and strange drugs.<br /><br />Once again installing "Sir Karavon" in the front of their humble wagon, the group rode up the gates of Cliffside, waving their stolen deeds in the guards' faces. Suitably cowed by the presence of a knight who owned such property, they opened the gates. Following the main Cliffsedge Road, the party espied a beacon in the night. A lone tout, signalling late-night revellers down to his place of business, which turned out to be the very establishment they sought!<br /><br />The Sign of Olive & Lotus was built right into the side of the cliffs, accessible only by narrow, ancient stair carved into the living rock. The view of Trident Gulf during the day is said to be unparalleled. Checking in cost a princely sum of 200 silvers per person per night, for the cheapest suites and a berth for the horses and wagon! The group was led through sparkling marble hallways by a mute eunuch wearing only a sash of gold lamé. Over carpets made from the skins of striped tigers and snow-white northern wolves, past doorways trimmed in gold leaf with smiling silk-clad houris the party reached their rooms.<br /><br />With a bit of privacy for the first time in a while, Lothos and Aladar IX ignited the special incenses and herbs they had previously brought and each cast the spell that would summon a spiritual helper to their side: <i>Call to Familiar Spirit</i>.<br /><br />This done, the gang prepared to party as only those in the Immortal City can...<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nBo2p2GB4aM/Xn9-lah6RHI/AAAAAAAACjw/BtKwtQw8XyMo6XRQZmxXspj4bq_vb9MhQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/fb778c113deac113d4c4916903db329a.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nBo2p2GB4aM/Xn9-lah6RHI/AAAAAAAACjw/BtKwtQw8XyMo6XRQZmxXspj4bq_vb9MhQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/fb778c113deac113d4c4916903db329a.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>Enemies Defeated: </b></div><div>none</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Treasure:</b></div><div>3 blue & yellow marble statues<br />1900 copper coins</div><div>633 silver coins</div><div>10 gold trade bars</div><div>a mound of gold & silver jewellery - necklaces, rings, bracelets, etc</div><div>portrait of <b>Philotheos</b> and <b>Domitilla Sten</b>, in frame</div><div><br />Ornate grand harp (planned to sell later)<br />fine stiletto (Lothos)<br />2 decorative falcatas (Lothos and Meep)<br />stack of Philotheos' documents, deeds, etc (Lothos)<br /></div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-86786105777210868232020-10-18T19:45:00.004-06:002020-10-18T19:45:27.158-06:00Land's End Town Map<p>Once a staging-point for Imperial military ventures in the region, the town has since shrunk to a fraction of its former population, only farmers and fishermen. Almost all current residents live north of the river in newer adobe buildings, leaving the decaying army barracks-blocks on the south side alone. These decaying buildings can be had for cheap by outlaws, adventurers, eccentrics, and others with a few coins who make it to the last station before the edge of the world.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VEchWKpoM4Q/X4ztWhQ_hjI/AAAAAAAADwc/OEegM9Ot9vM4qFvDVgFqFABsZh6ne19FgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Town%2BMap%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1674" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VEchWKpoM4Q/X4ztWhQ_hjI/AAAAAAAADwc/OEegM9Ot9vM4qFvDVgFqFABsZh6ne19FgCLcBGAsYHQ/w525-h640/Town%2BMap%2B2.jpg" width="525" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><p></p><p> The guys have been based out of this town for the entire campaign. After scouring the internet for a small farming village with a river going through the middle (seemed like it would be an easy thing to find...) with no luck, I decided to draw one myself. Came out half-decently I think, thanks to some internet tutorials - enough to fool my players into thinking I downloaded it from somewhere.</p><p>You'll notice there is no 7 on the map for "Home." That's because my players haven't picked out which house is theirs yet. Gotta make em do that before we play next, but I'm still working on the next ultra nasty dungeon, which will be a bit complicated and is taking me a long while. In the mean time, enjoy my hand-cramping digital artwork.</p><p><br /></p><p>*****</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mjYPRuzw0VU" width="320" youtube-src-id="mjYPRuzw0VU"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-73133444565655095492020-09-09T18:14:00.003-06:002020-09-09T19:41:17.342-06:00Play Report: No Salvation For Witches! [LotFP]<p>The kickoff to my (currently online) Labyrinth Lord game based around the City-State of the World Emperor was last Halloween, when I ran an ostensible one-shot for my regulars and some of their friends who had never gamed before. </p><p>I wrote this report up for all of them to read, and may as well share it with you folks here. Now that we're making progress in this campaign, you can expect other fun material forthwith. </p><p>I also included what I thought would be a fun campaign kickoff, combined with NSFW - the adventure idea at the back of Kelvin Green's Forgive Us, called "Death And Taxes." Mixing these adventures together went pretty well, and of course I had to add in some of my own ideas as well. Later play reports will show that the PCs, in classic fashion, have not pursued ANY of the leads discovered in this session.</p><p><br />*****</p><p><b>NO SALVATION FOR WITCHES</b><br /></p><div><br />1st Meadowlark, 4433<br /><br /><b>Characters</b><br /><br /></div><div>Aladar IX, half-elf M-U 1</div><div>Tullius Jr, human fighter 1</div><div>Lothos the Undesirable, elf 1</div><div>Eric Withakay, human cleric 1</div><div>Avala, human elementalist 1</div><div>Two-Faced Humphrey, human spy 1<br /><br /><br /></div><div><b>Funeral For a Friend</b><br /><br /></div><div>The characters met at the funeral of James Blake, an old army buddy who died under mysterious circumstances. They assembled to pay their respects on the way to Drydale Priory where longstanding rumours suggested heretical activities and/or valuable treasure.<br /><br />A neighbouring farmer was the only other attendee. He was confused that Bishop Gray hadn't sent at least a junior priest to officiate and worried about Blake's missing 11-year old daughter Deotina. He also mentioned a group of tax collectors had been asking questions, and asked the group to find out anything they could. A search of Blake's home turned up little except his old Legion gear and a scrap of paper torn from his diary about the taxmen. There were signs someone had packed and left in a hurry.</div><div><br />At the caravanserai, the party found human bodies everywhere killed and mutilated in the most horrible ways. The only two people left alive were a terrified, useless traveler named Arrerand and the concussed woman Naniela, who was beyond his power to help. She mumbled and raved about "red lights in the sky... the dancing woman with skin of diamonds" and clutched her bleeding head wound. Eric healed her injury and she became more lucid. The two helpless travelers were interrogated about the tax collectors and recent events but didn't know much. The party sent them on their way.</div><div><br /></div><div>The priory itself was unreachable, covered by an impassable dome of lambent red light. Leaving it for the moment, the group proceeded to Drydale for clues and found the citizens in the middle of a witch trial! Leading the event was a thin, intense man named Kynnakon. Four women had already been killed and a fifth cried upon the scaffold, pleading for mercy. At the back of the village, a strange glow similar to the red dome could be seen.<br /><br />Thinking quickly, Eric stepped in and engaged the man in a discussion about witches and their verification. As a man of the cloth his words carried weight on these matters and he convinced the crowd to disperse. Without his mob, Kynnakon was less confident. He released the "witch" Mertysa to the party's care and told them a strange story: six women had passed through towards the priory a few days ago armed and armoured, dressed in strange clothes. Since then all their livestock had died and they blamed witchcraft.<br /><br />Lothos circled around the village to investigate the red glow. A small red sphere floated at head height, softly glowing. While the townsfolk were distracted he took it in his cloak and rejoined the group, who departed before the crowd's temper could change again. Returning to the priory, the small red sphere crumbled into dust, sympathetically bringing down the giant glowing dome and allowing entry. Unluckily for the elf, the sphere destroyed a few of his possessions as it vanished from the world - including his spellbook!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GplTe5iq2bU/XdOxht2GxuI/AAAAAAAACJ8/qRyAyYGc_bUjzMZ6aNdiYAsZJGe9sAWEgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/The_violet_fairy_book_%25281906%2529_%252814750246861%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GplTe5iq2bU/XdOxht2GxuI/AAAAAAAACJ8/qRyAyYGc_bUjzMZ6aNdiYAsZJGe9sAWEgCK4BGAYYCw/s640/The_violet_fairy_book_%25281906%2529_%252814750246861%2529.jpg" width="363" /></a></div><div><br /></div><br /><b>Inside The Priory</b><br /><br />The party entered the grounds, avoiding the church for now. Searching the outbuildings revealed a succession of horrors - women giving birth to mutated children, a man and woman fused together while still alive and a puddle of fast-moving scarlet bile.<br /><br />Outside the baths, they were greeted by an imposing figure - Sir Karavon, a knight in gleaming white plate mail. He demanded to know their business and claimed to serve the cause of Mistress Orelia. After all his tough talk, battle was inevitable. Lothos sustained a terrible blow from Karavon's greatsword but the group felled him together and stripped the body.<br /><br /></div><div>The group had had enough of these horrors. They barricaded the infirmary full of aberrant children and set the roof on fire. While they were debating their next move, Kynnakon arrived on the scene leading a small torch-and-pitchfork mob. The group took up ambush positions, Tullius Jr slipped inside incognito as Sir Karavon while Eric addressed the mob, whipping them into a witch-hunting frenzy.<br /><br />Inside the church was a whirl of activity: dozens of peasant women dancing in a mad frenzy guarded by five heavily armed foreign women, overseen by two robed & hooded men and an ice-pale Avalonian sorceress in a red sash. Orelia called out to "Sir Karavon," asking the knight for a report. Tullius Jr indicated the angry mob outside and mobilized the warrior-women to battle, remaining indoors at Orelia's side in case of emergency.<br /><br />Battle was joined in front of the church! The Five Bishops (as they called themselves) guarded the door in a wedge formation, bravely meeting the mob's charge. What they weren't prepared for was the party's vicious ambush: Humphrey ran up behind one for a backstab while Aladar and Lothos peppered them from a safe distance. The Bishops couldn't withstand this assault for long and began a fighting retreat into the church. This turned out to be a mistake, as the mob charged in and held the door open! Things began to happen very quickly. Tullius Jr showed his true colours when he struck Orelia by surprise with his greatsword, nearly killing her in one strike. Retaliation with her magic wand did not have its intended effect. Two-Faced Humphrey ran around to the back and climbed up to a window for a surprise attack. Eric began smashing windows which allowed Lothos, Aladar and Avala to take up firing positions.<br /><br />In a deft use of magic, Aladar used his Unseen Servant to snatch Orelia's magic wand right from her hand before she could use it again. Tullius' greatsword finished her off after that. With magical support from Avala's earth elementine, a diving attack by Humphrey and a magical grasping fist from Aladar, the two robed figures were destroyed and revealed to be only the flayed skins of men animated by Orelia's witchcraft.<br /><br />With all opponents defeated, the mob began dragging the dancers off the platform and the party felt the beginnings of a tremor run through the building. Thinking quickly they fled the scene just in time for the church to come crashing down in a blaze of light and magic, killing or wounding all inside! The rubble began to burn, but Eric and Humphrey dragged over a tub of water from the baths, buying everyone time to sift the wreckage, rescue a few townsfolk and recover some valuables and the mysterious book they originally sought.<br /><br /><br /><b>Exhumation</b><br /><br />The smoky priory grounds were visited by a new group - the much-talked-about tax collectors! Their leader was a turbaned Viridian named Irmugar, sent by the Padishah to investigate rumours that Blake had stolen or unreported wealth. They seemed not to know he was dead. The party convinced the taxmen to take the peasant survivors back to Drydale - Irmugar indicated Tullius Jr and agreed the situation was well in hand with a "Knight of the Cockatrice" present. But something else he said got the group thinking...<br /><br /></div><div>The adventure ended where it began with the party exhuming James Blake by torchlight. Inside his coffin with his body was a locked oak box. Prying it open revealed a battered knife in an old scabbard, a locket containing a single golden hair, Blake's diary and a strange leatherbound book called <i>The Great Devourer</i>.</div><div><br />Eric meanwhile was perusing the blackened tome he had found in the rubble and touched its faded pages with his bloodstained hands. They blossomed into fresh crimson runes and symbols, while words formed in Imperial: <i>"Greetings. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"</i><br /><br /><br /></div><div><b>ENEMIES DEFEATED</b></div><div><br />Charles & Gwendolin<br />the scarlet bile<br />Sir Karavon<br />"The Five Bishops"<br />Orelia Woolcott<br />2 animated skin guardians<br /><br /><br /></div><div><b>TREASURE</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Sir Karavon's white plate mail & greatsword (Tullius Jr.)</div><div>Assorted armour, weapons and ammunition from the Bishops (various)</div><div>Orelia's ivory-tipped magic wand (Aladar IX) and red sash (Tullius Jr.)</div><div>A mysterious blackened tome (Eric)</div><div>Blake's diary (Aladar IX)</div><div><i>The Great Devourer </i>(Lothos)</div><div>Locket with a golden hair (Eric)<br /><i><br /></i></div><div>Silver drinking horn, carved with runes and studded with garnets, slightly scuffed (640 sp)</div><div>A silver-gilt radiated brooch ringed with amethysts (1200 sp)</div><div>Solid-gold decorative phallus (800 sp)</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Treasure value: 2640 sp</b></div><div><b>Each character gets 440 sp and 490 xp</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div>*****</div><div><br /></div><div>Don't worry - more Land's End material is in progress. Honestly the biggest obstacle to my blogging is that I'm gaming more often than I'm used to! It's a great problem to have, but one I was unfamiliar with before now.</div>HDAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13506175636615989219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087974340841455654.post-71725769740493527802020-08-23T19:55:00.001-06:002020-08-24T12:13:47.319-06:00E6: Overleveling yourself for fun & profitI haven't been blogging as much of late because I've spent all my time prepping for our online q-teen game in the City-State of the World Emperor. I have a big pool of players and it's a lot of fun, but we are playing more frequently than I'm used to! As the game develops I'll eventually have a backlog of material that I can share, but for now I am focusing on the most immediately useful stuff.<br />
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Here's a post I've been thinking about for a while, as I look to the future of the Land's End game:<br />
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<b>What Happens After 6th Level?</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?206323-E6-The-Game-Inside-D-amp-D">Epic 6: The Game Inside The World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game.</a><br />
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Go read it, I'll wait.<br />
Back?<br />
Good.<br />
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This modification to the core of 3.x/d20 is the only way I will consent to playing damned Mathfinder. It allows me to chop, flog and edit the system to my heart's content without fretting overly about the rules not working consistently across all 20 levels. If it works with normal humans and 1st level characters, a modification will probably be fine at level 6.<br />
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The party just reached level four, and I have to start thinking about how to handle the PCs reaching level 6. More feats will be necessary, obviously. But I think the fun of E6 will be attempting epic-level stuff. Killing legendary monsters, stealing the golden fleece, things that heroes of legends do. When all you get is one fireball, you'd better make it count. How else can the players make the best use of their power in the game world?<br />
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First of all, the core tenets of E6 won't change:<br />
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<b>Six Hit Dice</b><br />
It doesn't matter how many cool abilities you have - falling off a cliff, being swallowed whole by a dragon or chopped up by a motivated mob of lowly orcs are all deadly. That doesn't mean you can't take feats like Toughness to get more hit points, of course.<br />
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<b>BAB +6</b><br />
Feats could give situational bonuses and modifiers, or allow fighters to chain up to feats that require a higher BAB. But the whole idea is that the best swordsmen in the world are only a certain degree above a normal human.<br />
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Look at it this way: a 0-level peasant with a +5 sword (a godlike weapon, impossible for normal humans to make) is almost even with a 6th-level master armed with his old campaigning sword. I love that symmetry.<br />
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<b>No Generalized Power Increases</b><br />
Bonuses after 6th should improve specific aspects of the character, not upgrade their overall power level. Anything that increases a character's power across multiple dimensions (like lycanthropy increasing hit points, attack bonus, armour class, etc) should come with stiff drawbacks or be only situationally useful.<br />
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<b>Extraordinary Results Require Extraordinary Effort </b><br />
Not a core tenet of E6, but it flows from what I'm thinking about. Taking your allotted feats after sixth level is the natural order of things. Spending a feat or two to take abilities from a prestige class or something takes extra XP, but no extra work. <br />
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PCs who want to go above and beyond need to go on quests, consult sages, spend money, peruse forgotten tomes, take risks, utilize lost treasures, risk sanity loss, etc. in addition to gaining the required XP. All the good player-directed adventuring sandbox stuff that I try to encourage!<br />
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<b>A Dangerous World</b><br />
It should be obvious, but things ramp up at this level. Not as dangerous as your standard level 1-20 world - after all, part of the E6 magic is that the ecology of the game world can be at least a bit fucking comprehensible. The world nevertheless needs dreadful monsters that can't be defeated readily in a straight-up fight. Why bother opening up the Necronomicon and risking mutation & madness on the off-chance your wizard can make all his rolls and learn <i>Finger of Death</i> - unless you really need it to kill the dreaded Sludge Dragon of the Drowned Lands and your solitary 3rd-level spell won't cut it?<br />
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Players that reach 6th and become "epic level" might think they have no need to take risks. Epic 6 should be more like finishing an apprenticeship: a license to take on bigger challenges, and a sign that your initial 'adventurer puberty' of rapid learning and growth is over. Development now takes hard work. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Epic Problems require Epic Solutions.</td></tr>
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<b>E6 POWER-UP METHODS</b><br />
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<b>Finding The Weird Stuff</b><br />
The most basic option. The epic-level dungeons in Land's End are plentiful: the Tomb of Abysthor, catacombs beneath the lost city, serpent-men ruins, other dimensions, crashed alien... well, I've said too much already. All of these ultra-dangerous dungeons are crammed with as much cool shit as I can fit, and none of it is available anywhere else in the setting. Balancing that out are brutal traps and hordes of tough foes. Most of these locales are optional, extremely hard to find/get into, or both.<br />
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<b>Magic Item Creation</b><br />
A classic of high-level play. In E6, level limits on feats still apply. Based on the feat requirements in the PF core rulebook, 6th-level casters can create scrolls, potions, wondrous items, wands, magic arms & armour. Rods, staves & rings are beyond mortal abilities completely (LotR anyone?).<br />
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Of course some items in each of these categories are beyond a 6th-level caster anyway. A +2 enhancement bonus and a handful of special properties (distance, merciful & thundering) are all the magic weapons a 6th-level enchanter can create. This is perfect for me - even aligned weapons (axiomatic, etc) are beyond the PCs' ability, as they're products of extraplanar energies.<br />
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If the PCs want even better magical gear, they need to pick up the various lost relics & demon-haunted weapons throughout the landscape, grappling with their personalities, properties & curses.<br />
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Of course the <a href="http://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2019/11/magic-items-are-born-not-made.html">long & more fun way</a> is available also. Through mighty deeds, the players may create weapons normally impossible for mortal 6th-level heroes, and these weapons will hopefully pass on into song & story after their adventuring careers are over, where a more straightforward <i>sword +2</i> created by choosing a feat and spending money (yawn....) will not.<br />
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<b>Covenants</b><br />
You all know how much I love Dark Souls and Warhammer!<br />
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Entering into a <a href="https://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2019/12/kios-knights-in-orcus-service.html">pact with one of the ruinous powers</a> usually helps out. For a while, anyway. None of the PCs are Lawful, so it seems pointless to even detail the benefits those entities would grant. Instead, I'll work up more chaos patron tables for Abraxas, Tsathoggua, Jubilex, maybe a few others as the setting demands. If the PCs want to sign on with the forces of darkness, that's fine with me (they aren't too far off as of now).<br />
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Meanwhile, some ancient beings survive from the times before mankind. If they could be bargained with, perhaps their secrets can be learned (this is a subset of Finding the Weird Stuff). For example, the sorcerous giant <b>Nibolcus</b> (see <a href="https://blog.trilemma.com/2018/12/the-man-from-before.html">The Man From Before</a>) knows magics long lost to the world. At what price would he take on a new student?<br />
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<b>Mutations</b><br />
I mentioned a giant mutation chart in an old post a while back. Very difficult to control, but maybe a "<a href="http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Potion_of_beneficial_mutation">potion of beneficial mutation</a>" (or an <a href="http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Potion_of_mutation">updated version</a>) could be found or created that would limit the number of really harsh effects. Probably too risky for the fearful players in my game, but might come up as a desperate gambit or side-effect of something else. The Metamorphica will come in handy here.<br />
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<b>Night Hag</b><br />
Wouldn't give your witchy PC more levels, but upgrades your Hit Dice and give you more spells at the cost of stat & alignment change, some new vulnerabilities, being cast out of polite society and having to help your coven with various tasks. The process for this will be similar to lichdom - an esoteric ritual known only to few. There is a witch in the swamp attempting this right now, maybe she can be persuaded to give up her secrets? (also see <a href="https://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2018/10/witchy-wednesday.html">Witchy Wednesday</a>)<br />
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<b>Lycanthropy</b><br />
Easy to contract, hard to get rid of. We know the rules. The dread forvalaka roams the wilderness, so the changing disease could be contracted during the normal course of the game if the PCs aren't careful. The weakest form of transformation probably. It's hard to control and comes with serious drawbacks (I'll be using that chart in the AD&D DMG) but it could be narrowly useful for a fighter or barbarian who needs an edge from time to time.<br />
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<b>Vampirism</b><br />
So far there is one vampire in the setting, a hold-over from a bygone age. Trapped in a lead coffin, it has been waiting for centuries, hopelessly mad. Letting it out is probably a big mistake... but in a land covered in perpetual clouds, being a vampire might not be so bad? Increased stats, undead immunities and some great special abilities make this transformation a great move in a setting with very few high-level clerics. This option is open to PCs, but then we'll have to mess with templates and it will be a real fiddle-fuck. And of course the trapped vampire might just kill them all.<br />
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<b></b><br />
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<b>Lichdom</b><br />
There are a few liches in the region. Mostly they are happy to kill anyone they see, but one of them can be negotiated with. Prying his secrets will be a serious challenge but it could happen. Certainly this would lead to some great immunities, better hit dice and perhaps some more spell slots - I'll have to give it some thought, and dig up PF's stupid rules for templates.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.behance.net/RevolverDart">Vagelis Petikas</a></td></tr>
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<b>Other Undead</b><br />
Servants of Orcus (see link above) might be turned into skeletons, zombies or ghouls up to 6th level, or perhaps wights if they have a great deal of experience beyond 6th. There are other undead in the wilderness that might strike the players and transform them - shadows, ghosts, etc. Still, this is more of a fail state than anything the players will likely aspire to. If they do get transformed, I will offer them the option of continuing play as an undead character with all the relevant drawbacks or relegating the unfortunate to NPC status (possibly a new villain).<br />
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<a href="http://pjamesstuart.wixsite.com/author-blog/fire-on-the-velvet-horizon"><b>Brainstormer/Fuse Meister</b></a><br />
Sort of like special cases of lichdom. These two are much more difficult to make work as PCs, and perhaps I'll leave as antagonists, unless someone is really that crazy!<br />
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<b>Destiny</b><br />
As I said back in <a href="https://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2020/05/tomb-of-abysthor-special-black-pyramid.html">this post about the black pyramid</a>:<br />
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<i>"<b>Ivory Tablets</b>: One of the many long term sub-sub-subplots of the campaign. My attempt to fix the stupid </i>Deck of Many Things<i> into a powerful divination tool & force to rewrite one's destiny. Created by the high elves 5000 years ago. The individual "cards" must be assembled and brought to the shrine of Divine Providence deep beneath the Lost City where the Chthonic Elves dwell. I haven't decided what each card does yet, but I really dug myself in deep with this one. All the major arcana and 4 cards from each suit, for a total of 38!"</i><br />
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Well, luckily <a href="https://www.mithrilandmages.com/utilities/TOMT.php">Mithril & Mages</a> pointed me in the right direction. Dragon Magazine #77 has rules for an expanded <i>Deck of Many Things</i> based on all the tarot cards. Awesome! The powers aren't annoying things like "dead" or "gain 100,000 xp," rather stat changes (I'll rule that this can increase above normal maximums), strange events in one's life, saving throw modifiers, gaining tremendous wealth or losing all your money, getting pranked by magical creatures, etc. Very cool stuff and if the PCs ever assemble the deck (a tall order indeed, considering where a few of the cards are kept!) they can try their luck with it.<br />
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*****<br />
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[EDIT: I forgot about the cards! Getting back into a setting you haven't looked at in a few months can take a bit of work...]<br />
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As you can see there are plenty of options for the power-hungry player character. Whether they take any of these, well... that remains to be seen. My next move is to seed clues, hints & fragments pointing towards these options throughout the world. Off I go to do that, and write up some more big dungeons. Excelsior!<br />
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