tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537830746947670022024-03-05T20:48:22.030-08:00The Elder SküllBeing a blog dedicated that harrowing and cruel master, gaming.huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-80695505224120544012024-01-05T15:05:00.000-08:002024-01-05T15:05:20.763-08:00Free Hexmap Templates<p></p><div class="x1n2onr6" id=":r4a:" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="x1n2onr6" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="xmjcpbm x1n2onr6 x1ja2u2z" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); font-family: inherit; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="xua58t2 xwmqs3e xxxdfa6 xzg4506 x78zum5 x1q0g3np x1n2onr6" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="x2lah0s" style="flex-shrink: 0; font-family: inherit;"></div></div></div></div></div><p></p>Hey, with the #hexplore stuff going on I figured I should clean up and post some hexmap templates I've had sitting around for a while: <br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/466355/Hexmap-Templates?affiliate_id=325155" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qURM_LJxseOFnblWOOkcO1BkyWNhPeY3DNhvxo6pXxHXctfs0ekPBPrBquxmNZgpJeFadmdt69KeqyRB5ed5M0WPp0_Xd9rMAa_6ehtWuYnW8GHsyvtF7zWz6AIkaYUGBrxRSvGOdAe-Tp_r25qDkBWoUaaWqaBySPm4-WHZjy__f1GM8qMjt5RKj_Pu/s320/huth_hexmap_templates_dtrpg_cover.jpg" width="247" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/466355/Hexmap-Templates?affiliate_id=325155" target="_blank">Hex Map Templates</a></div><div><br /></div><div>If there's any hexmap templates (or variations on existing ones) you'd like to see added, please let me know!</div><div><br /></div>huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-12774174127890120322023-03-10T07:36:00.000-08:002023-03-10T07:36:10.929-08:00Two OSE SpellsA few years ago, when a Wilderlands campaign was being converted from 5e to OSE, I had written up two versions of spells my 5e character (a Tempest-domain Cleric) used a lot. It seemed weird to me for him to just stop casting the spell, so using existing previous-edition spells as benchmarks I converted them to this: <br /><br /><b><i> Thunderwave<br /></i></b><i>1st Level Spell<br /></i>Duration: Instant<br />Range: 15’ cone<br />A wave of thunder blasts creatures and objects in a 15-foot cone originating from the caster. Any creature in the area of the wave takes 1d4 points of thunder damage per caster level (maximum 5d4), with a successful save versus spells indicating half damage. Unsecured objects and medium or smaller creatures who failed their save are hurled 10ft away from the caster. <br /><br /><b><i>Shatter<br /></i></b><i>2nd Level Spell<br /></i>Duration: Instant<br />Range: 60’<br />An implosive wave crushes things within a 10’ radius sphere originating at a point within range.<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Damage: Creatures and objects caught in the sphere suffer 1d4 damage per level of the caster (1d6 if they are made of inorganic materials), with a successful save versus spells indicating half damage. </li></ul>huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-5686772038735721712023-01-09T14:37:00.001-08:002023-01-09T14:37:07.454-08:00Disconnected Thoughts on Running Medieval Settings <p>Reposting a reply to someone who asked for tips and advice running a Cthulhu Dark Ages game. These were written with the idea of a medieval mystery game in mind, but I think they apply equally to pretty much anything trying to capture a medieval vibe.<br /></p><p>1. All institutions are persons. The level of bureaucracy and institutional inertia we're used to in the modern era could only be *dreamed* of. The rules are *never* blindly enforced, and the systems in place to argue about them are incredibly complex compared to our expectations. </p><p>2. Labour is expensive, and preserving it is everyone's reflexive top priority. As much as the life of a peasant seems degraded to us, the entire system exists to keep people able to make food, and the margins for error for even a king are razor-thin compared to now. </p><p>3. Points 1 and 2 mean everyone is very aware of their debts and obligations in keeping everyone around them alive, and their reliance on the fulfillment of those debts and obligations by others. If one person in a village dies, it's everyone's business.</p><p>4. The world is alive. This might seem odd, since we're not used to the idea of medieval Christianity as "animistic," but the reality is that the medieval mind treated the entire cosmos as hylozoic — they describe physics, geology, weather, everything in terms we would reserve for plants and animals. </p><p>5. Life is mysterious, and mysterious forces surround everything. A tree grows from an acorn; a child from its mother; a corpse births the worms and flies of corruption. It is not weird to assume that a child born under a particular star-sign will have some traits, for the fixed and wandering stars scribe the cycle of the seasons themselves upon the heavens.</p>huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-25775223528148951462022-12-29T22:20:00.006-08:002022-12-29T22:20:36.112-08:00Space23 Table Ideas<p>Someone was talking about alternatives to 'rooms' for an SF-based version of the dungeon23 project, so here's a table of options when you're out of obvious ideas:<br /> </p><p><b>Roll 1d6:<br /><i>1. technological item. </i></b>(not necessarily a new technology, but an existing technology used in a setting-specific way. example: ferengi tooth-sharpeners.) <br /><i><b>2. ideology. </b></i>(a belief, either a whole structure or a common opinion or narrative about something in the setting, with an idea of who holds it and why) <br /><i><b>3. accident or sudden event.</b></i> (industrial accident, vehicle crash, disease, toxic chemical release, or just the result of systemic negligence.) <br /><i><b>4. minor NPC. </b></i>('person-on-the street' npcs for various common locations --- starports, colonies, underhives, ancient low berth colony ships, etc)<br /><i><b>5. cargoes.</b></i> (something carried from one place to another, i.e. *why* a spaceship exists). <br /><i><b>6. </b></i>roll again: <i><b>1-4 </b><b>non-intelligent life form and</b></i> it's environment adaption/niche<i><b>; 5 </b><b>non-generalized robot (</b></i>like an automatic checkout, roomba, or car assembly robot); <i><b>6 specialist program</b></i> in starship/starport/local planetary networks.</p>huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-1266597829135001582021-10-07T03:22:00.008-07:002021-10-07T21:08:10.152-07:00Colossi Takes (Sessions 1 - 4)<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAtR2usGcUV1x-khiIgwlcW5C_Vy31pV7VsvSlHJXbvAuHaLxWXtPZV_XUdu-puAJsjmXbFlrZ0nReiP0U_GquFXNRd7kJQS28Ns8z7dFtBmVwg8-ddDLB1r5k7CVuF-17ulc7gzrb6RFD/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="762" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAtR2usGcUV1x-khiIgwlcW5C_Vy31pV7VsvSlHJXbvAuHaLxWXtPZV_XUdu-puAJsjmXbFlrZ0nReiP0U_GquFXNRd7kJQS28Ns8z7dFtBmVwg8-ddDLB1r5k7CVuF-17ulc7gzrb6RFD/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></div>I should really be writing here more, given that I’m running two games. I somehow managed to post nothing for the entirety of 2020, but given that it was 2020, who could blame me? <div><br /></div><div>Anyway, here’s two session takes from <i>Nightwick: Isle of Colossi</i>, which I’ll explain at some point.<br /><br /><b>BEHOLD THE COLOSSUS (2 Sessions)<br /><i>Present:</i></b> The Choir, the Llady, Sir Miquelo, Nestorios Parsimonios<br /><b><i>Treasure:</i></b> 2 gold collars (10 gp each), 2 gold armbands (30 gp each), 1 gold necklace (30 gp), 8 gold necklaces (8 gp each), 1 golden chain (60 gp), 1 jewelled golden belt buckle (80 gp), 1 ancient crown (250 gp), 1 mysterious reddish-copper circlet (magical?)<br /><b><i>XP:</i></b> 269 each.<br /><br /><b>THE NIGHT OF THE KNIGHTS (2 Sessions)<br /><i>Present:</i></b> The Choir, the Llady, Sir Miquelo (Pt I only), Nestorios Parsimonios</div><div><b><i>Treasure:</i></b> None</div><div><b><i>XP:</i></b> 296, except for Sir Miquelo, who receives 142.</div>huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-84239088367289290882019-12-21T10:08:00.002-08:002019-12-21T10:08:43.064-08:00Two Nightwick-Inspired Campaign IdeasOne of the challenges I often face when designing D&D campaigns is what I refer to as "the whole deal." Even if I'm starting a campaign with a small hexmap or a single dungeon, I get stymied when figuring out the rationale for default D&Disms like elves, orcs, and the various kinds of magic. I might post more about this later, but the TL;DR here is that, to solve this problem, I often develop campaign ideas starting from games I've played in. Here are two ideas I have that have originated with the <a href="http://inplacesdeep.blogspot.com/search/label/Nightwick%20Abbey" target="_blank">Nightwick</a> campaign run by <a href="http://inplacesdeep.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Evan of In Places Deep</a>. <br />
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<b><i>The Corpse-City of Kar Hadash</i></b><br />
<b>Setting:</b> The ruined city of Kar Hadash, on the coast of the Desert Lands, far southwest of Nightwick Abbey. <br />
<b>Vibe:</b> Ruined city megadungeon in a late medieval southeastern mediterranean<br />
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Centuries ago, the Lawful Empire of Man invaded the isle later known as Zenopolis and deposed the cruel dynasty which was preeminent amongst the isle’s kings. The last survivors of the dynasty fled with their secret treasures across the sea to the Desert Lands. There, they founded Kar Hadash, the ‘new city,’ and brooded over their plans for revenge and supplicated their demonic masters for foul boons. It became a pirate port and den of wickedness renowned the world over. It is no wonder, then, that it was one of the first places laid waste by the crusading Sword Brothers. <br />
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For centuries afterward, the city was a charnel house and dwelling place of naught but ghouls, but now rumours of resurgent cults, strange prophecies amongst the desert tribes, and piratical pretenders to the ancient throne have drawn a new generation of crusaders and tomb-robbers to the dead city.<br />
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<b><i>Raiders of the Lost Empire</i></b><br />
<b>Setting:</b> Atalia, the Desert Lands, and isles of the Starry Sea ~1400 years before the Nightwick Abbey campaign<br />
<b>Vibe:</b> Sword and Sorcery Rome in the age of the Crisis of the Third Century. <br />
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The revelations of the Empress have transformed the Empire. The miracles of those initiated by Gax Ovo have transformed the world. As those who hear the holy thrumming Law and those who hew to the Old Gods (and worse) split the empire in revolt and revolution, the ancient temples and nemetons of ages forgotten are ripe for overthrow and plunder. Noble zealots and ignoble vandals seek out the treasure-vaults of the Empire’s Old Gods — Orcus Oath-binder, Apollo Far-shooter, Hermes Soul-taker — and try to stay out of the way of the clashing legions of the riven Empire. </div>
huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-1917523210085991312019-10-05T18:04:00.002-07:002019-10-05T18:04:18.954-07:00Xothesque Adventurer Origins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The adventurers who delve into the mysterious Black Pharos come from to Yond on the continent of Gnydron from across the wide oceans. Roll 1d20 to determine where your character hails from:<br />
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<b><i>Xothesque Origins (1d20)</i></b><br />
<b>1: Western Archipelago.</b> Lying amidst the Black Current that flows between Zothique and Gnydron, these islands are inhabited by pirate clans, exiles from the mainlands, and hidden devotees of disreputable gods.<br />
<b>2: Naat, the Funereal Isle.</b> The home of ancient orders of catacomb-dwelling monks, defending their charges against jungle-dwelling anthropophages.<br />
<b>3-6 Xylac.</b> A breakaway maritime province of Cincor, whose mercantile triremes travel to all quarters of the world from the ports of Mirouane and Oroth.<br />
<b>7-9 Cincor. </b>An ancient and shrinking empire centred on the tomb-girt plain city of Yethlyreom.<br />
<b>10-11 Ilcar. </b>Northern Cincorcian suzerainty of rock-carven towns in mountainous plateaus.<br />
<b>12-13 Tasuun.</b> Desertified remnant of the sorcerous empire of Ossaru, which once stretched to the western sea.<br />
<b>14-15 Yoros. </b>Southern Cincorian suzerainty of warm, fragrant forests and wide, fertile river deltas.<br />
<b>16 Cyntrom. </b>Large island of petty lowland kingdoms and fractious hill clans.<br />
<b>17-18 Calyz.</b> A rich eastern kingdom ruled from the high-domed palaces of Shathair.<br />
<b>19 Far Isles.</b> Fabled Uccastrog, Sotar, and other, legendary islands of the Orient Sea.<br />
<b>20 Stranger Lands.</b> Gnydron is more subject to incursions of "outsideness" than any former terrene realm; and more liable to the visitation of beings from galaxies not yet visible; also, to shifting admixtures and interchanges with other dimensions or planes of entity.huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-57457607617768196402019-09-27T13:28:00.001-07:002019-09-27T13:28:18.378-07:00The Red Manse of OumkhaThose adventurers who seek the mysteries of the Pharos strike out from the <b>Red Manse of Oumkha,</b> a paltry oasis of humanity within the eerie vastation of Yond. Its crumbling reddish-ochre walls date from the rule of the devil-kings of the Pharos, when it served as the dwelling-place of some unknown viceroy, warlord, or hierophant. It is only one of the ruins ringing the outer approaches of the Pharos, but gained notoriety amongst the Yondorkandi as the dwelling place of the madman Oumkha, once apprentice of the doomed Arbaz who disappeared in the shadow of the Pharos.<br />
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A few years ago, the heterodox, vermillion-robed <b>Daughters of the Maugourah</b> came to reside there, beginning to clear the rubble and replace ruined stone with wood and brick. The sisterhood persevered in the midst of the prowling horrors of the wastes, and since then, the Red Manse became a stopping-place for the exiles and wanderers who people the region, eventually taking on the quality of a small market village.<br />
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More recently, a <b>soubashi</b> of the far city of Aburuz has arrived with a troop of guards, dispatched to assert the authority of that city over the settlement of the Manse. He wisely does not press the issue with the locals, and spends most of his time in some (relatively) palatial tents outside the Manse.<br />
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The Manse itself is built around two courtyards. The southern, <b>fountain courtyard</b> is where newcomers water their animals, and is overlooked by the apartments converted into the <b>House of the Magourah</b>. This section, except the <b>old shacks </b>clustering around the south side of the House, is closed to outsiders. The northern <b>market atrium</b>, once a tiled garden, is now filled with the tents and shacks of scavengers and craftsmen.<br />
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The manse is bisected by a large passageway, connecting the fountain courtyard to the market atrium and the road north, and a smaller passageway east to west, dividing the market atrium from the house of the Magourah and fountain courtyard. <br />
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A berm of rammed earth stretches to the west, remnant of some fortification from past ages of Yond. The <b>Soubashi’s tents</b> are northeast of the market atrium, along with the <b>ruder dwellings</b> of the cactus-gatherers, hunters, and smiths.<br />
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Most of the population of the Manse is temporary — beggars, exiles, heretics, escaped slaves, refugees of war, criminals fleeing the law, muck-farmers, mushroom-gatherers, hunters, scavengers, dust-sifters, dew-collectors — but a few personages stand out as more constant dwellers in the Manse’s walls.<br />
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<ul>
<li><b>Sister Ouahaub</b> is the public face of the Daughters of the Magourah, and assumed by most outsiders to be their leader. She is the one who handles the money, goods, or services the sisters charge for stays in their simple shacks.</li>
<li><b>Sister Amuathah</b> is a cheery, punctilious old woman who dispenses poultices and other medicinal remedies to locals and visitors. She is frequently seen in Vosseion’s company, presumably because of the overlap in their professional interests.</li>
<li><b>The Soubashi</b> is a flighty, paunchy man who was dispatched from the far city of Aburuz to ensure the dwellers of the Manse pays the Vizier their due, he has so far failed to make strong headway in the taxation department. He seems more interested in purchasing artefacts dug up by from the surrounding area.</li>
<li><b>Youb</b> the wine-seller is a sun-shrivelled old man clad in faded and threadbare finery, who imports wine and other liquors from New Yondorkand, Aburuz, the nearer coasts of Cisyondic Gnydron and beyond. His product being universally popular, he often accepts payment in goods and services from the nomadic wastelanders.</li>
<li><b>Vosseion</b> the apothecary, shisha-monger and tea-seller is Youb’s counterpart as another purchaser of exotic flora gathered by the wanderers of the wastes. He wears only plain black silks, and entirely depilates his pallid skin.</li>
<li><b>Nabrarzha</b> the smith is a grizzled, scarred, one-eyed, seven-fingered woman who works with metals and gems. It is an open secret that she fled from the torture chambers of New Yondorkand, where she was imprisoned at the Hierarch’s pleasure over an aesthetic disagreement regarding her sculptures.</li>
<li>Among the muttering priests, fakirs and holy women who sell charms and prophecy in the market are the handful of <b>shrine-keepers of Yugla</b>, the ugly, laughing beetle-god. Colourful sacred beetles are fed with choice cuts of meat to gain Yugla’s favour, and their divinatory movements amongst the scattered offerings of petitioners are interpreted by the shrine-keepers in response to petitioners’ questions. </li>
</ul>
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Rumours (1d20)<br />
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<ol>
<li>The Red Manse is not the only ruined villa nearby. Some are nearly intact.</li>
<li>The Pharos mutates those who linger under its mauve glow; everyone in the the Red Manse will be beast-men ere long.</li>
<li>All the expeditions to the Pharos are cursed; those who ‘return’ from the Pharos are demons in stolen faces.</li>
<li>The thearchs of Ong plan to conquer Yond; their spies infiltrate the Manse and New Yondorkand.</li>
<li>Soon, the Hierarch of New Yondorkand will march on the Manse and kill them all.</li>
<li>The food harvested from the mushroom forest to the northwest turns men to beasts.</li>
<li>No natural beasts reside in the wastes; all are accursed former humans.</li>
<li>The Hierarch of New Yondorkand is a demon in human guise.</li>
<li>There is a great city of beast-men to the north. They are preparing to march on the Manse.</li>
<li>The ancient Crown of Yond resides in some hidden tomb, still worn by the true ruler of this land.</li>
<li>To the west is a crack in the earth which falls away into the starry sky.</li>
<li>The Daughters of the Magourah abduct people in the night to be their lovers and slaves within hidden chambers of the Manse.</li>
<li>The Daughters of the Magourah are the disguised handmaidens of a princess of Bel-Nahath, fled from the thearchs of Ong.</li>
<li>Great bats fly out of the Pharos to feast on the psychical essence of humans.</li>
<li>The Magourah is in fact a lamia, driven out of the Pharos by the inquisitors of Ong. The daughters are her mesmerized cohorts.</li>
<li>The Pharos marks the place where the gods had wrought the world, the axis mundi, and birthing-place of Veragammata Phanes, mother of the cosmic egg.</li>
<li>The Pharos is the tomb of Thasaii, dark god of Old Yondorkand. His devotees still hide among the peoples of Yond.</li>
<li>The Pharos is the tomb of Thasaii, euhemerized king of primordial Yond, slayer of the dragon Thaumogorgon.</li>
<li>The Pharos is the wick of a strange living flame that resides deep within the earth.</li>
<li>The light of the Pharos is the lantern-light which projects the shadow-puppets of mundane reality. </li>
</ol>
huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-86355596677438483652019-06-08T21:34:00.001-07:002019-06-08T21:34:38.076-07:00Autopsy Report on an Equine Cadaver<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6roBhUvlhDHtSjrD-vPZ1jCJjimxbM-I1tSikgMJBPS_5TBlvy56Cod6wUMRB_AjdauoBOvHI7QHvDAXO49M1UQBPmZqBaMkAXsKmUKkfH6UOeuNt2kkUdBExNrd1-BEb2RR3Irf82VCg/s1600/IMG_0556_1a975fd3-89c0-4385-aad8-867ee25dad38_2048x%25402x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="1600" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6roBhUvlhDHtSjrD-vPZ1jCJjimxbM-I1tSikgMJBPS_5TBlvy56Cod6wUMRB_AjdauoBOvHI7QHvDAXO49M1UQBPmZqBaMkAXsKmUKkfH6UOeuNt2kkUdBExNrd1-BEb2RR3Irf82VCg/s320/IMG_0556_1a975fd3-89c0-4385-aad8-867ee25dad38_2048x%25402x.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On my <a href="http://elderskull.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-osr-is-dead-horse.html" target="_blank">last post,</a> someone asks:<br /><div>
<i><br />I'm curious, as I wasn't around back then- what happened in 2013 that makes you consider that about the time that the OSR died? </i><br /><br />I peg it at 2013 because of a number of trends, most of which intersect with the mass movement to G+ space (and the forced integration of G+ and blogger) by OSR participants. </div>
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<b><br />1. Blogs. </b>The rate of blogging was falling dramatically in favour of G+ posting. And, by this time, many core OSR blogs and their associated communities, and blogs as a means of communicating between bloggers, had either stopped (a la Grognardia in 2012) or disappeared (a la Eiglophean Press in the late Triassic). The ones that kept posting tended to degenerate into clickbaity content-grinding (like endless d100 tables du jour or Zak’s Fiend Folio bullshit). This is partially driven by… <br /><br /><b>2. Monetization. </b>While other people (cough Evan cough) have strong feelings on the aesthetics of the monetization of OSR blog material, I don’t really have a problem with it, but the move from posting, discussion and criticism to aggregating, publishing, and promoting dramatically changed the tone and quality of OSR discourse. Around 2013 "OSR" became a promotional term to stick on your PDF or KS to sell to the preexisting audience of blog-readers.</div>
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<br />For one thing, tons of people seemed to shift into Consumer Mode at the drop of a hat, even when it was at odds to the very point of the shit they were reading up to that point. The central event here is everyone getting their jimmies rustled for a Dwimmermount book, despite Maliszewski specifically saying that a published megadungeons are bound to disappoint. And then when real life intruded on the (too optimistic) KS schedule, some people started flipping out and shitting on Maliszewski personally. Then someone started bitching about round numbers of coins in rooms, proving Maliszewski right… </div>
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You can call someone’s blog post crap (and explain why) and still be friends or respected colleagues; but doing a bad review of their product (and explaining why it is) takes money (theoretically) out of their hands, hanging a sword of Damocles over presenting anyone’s real thoughts about anything publicly. And the OSR was never And people care about this more because… <br /><br /><b>3. Socialization. </b>The faster pace of G+ commenting and the face-to-face communication of ConstantCon exposed much of the community to much more intimate scrutiny of itself than before, stripping away the emotional distance of blogging and replacing it with the awkwardness of actual speech. By 2013, what previously had been a community linked primarily by blogrolls had become more discrete sub-communities based around playing in weekly games with mostly consistent player-bases, which sorted themselves according to subsets of interests, personalities, and politics. Ideas which previously were written up in blog posts become bullshit you said at 2am to 1d6 randos across the globe. </div>
<div>
<b><br />4. Politics. (All kinds). </b>With exposure to more people in more frequent and intimate ways, things about each participant in the community that never really came up in (most) blogs started to become obvious to the other participants, and around this point most people started dissociating themselves with large sections of the community based around political views — both ‘regular’ politics and internal scene politics. (I had a list of examples here, but it infuriates me still to recount them, so I will leave them mouldering in G+'s grave.) A year later, the intersection of external politics, internal politics, and another scene's internal politics gave rise to greater actual stakes for all of it. </div>
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huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-80642345106497114692019-06-06T17:55:00.000-07:002019-06-06T18:01:43.967-07:00The OSR Is A Dead HorseThe OSR as a single, coherent community died around 2013. It was never a coherent philosophy or genre. "OSR" is now a meaningless brand identity, like "green" or whatever. Any communities that exist now are not OSR, but post-OSR, and if the members of any such post-OSR communities participated in the OSR before it died they, generally speaking, hate large swathes of the rest of the former OSR community. If they don't, they weren't there, like the reverse of Woodstock except in this metaphor there was no Woodstock, just Altamont.<br />
<br />
Any attempts to "rename" the "OSR" is missing the point. Either it's trying to find a new brand identity to grind into the dust of meaninglessness, or just trying to ride a dead horse.huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-70231103783680918432019-03-05T21:08:00.003-08:002019-03-05T21:09:01.223-08:00Caves of Chaos Restock — Part One: Everything (Part Two)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoUsUHfjFkifjpm_7CEIRjT8g0Wju1Mcly7kqOI7QKvEIqyxicw0pNkK3LEKjrQm3l_7OXCCG8Nfrgf2IoAZ-OWwxRUA9xezsMLE5qjCCJmaYpdc5BJcNObUy67SrUDRRP5u0wQQGrbXZQ/s1600/233004_8554813395d4fc9dfe73c2bd90f54cce_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="900" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoUsUHfjFkifjpm_7CEIRjT8g0Wju1Mcly7kqOI7QKvEIqyxicw0pNkK3LEKjrQm3l_7OXCCG8Nfrgf2IoAZ-OWwxRUA9xezsMLE5qjCCJmaYpdc5BJcNObUy67SrUDRRP5u0wQQGrbXZQ/s320/233004_8554813395d4fc9dfe73c2bd90f54cce_large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>This is the second half of our first step in restocking the Caves of Chaos. You can read the first half <a href="http://elderskull.blogspot.com/2018/11/caves-of-chaos-restock-part-one.html">here</a>.</i></div>
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<div>
Last time, we established who or what built, used, and inhabited it in the past. Now, we begin to establish who or what inhabits it now.<br />
<br />
Again, we want to preserve the basic point of the Caves, where the players explore the territory of a variety of foes, some of which are allied with the inhabitants of other caves, and which present a variety of challenges to the players.<br />
<br />
Using the Red Box monster list as a suggestion, and guided by the previously-established history, I've started to flesh out the inhabitants at the most basic level:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>A - Fungi/Giant Bugs</li>
<li>B - Ghouls</li>
<li>C - Goblins</li>
<li>D - Goblins</li>
<li>E - Special</li>
<li>F - Orcs</li>
<li>G - Special</li>
<li>H - Wizard and Minions</li>
<li>I - Oozes</li>
<li>J - Cultists</li>
<li>K - Elves</li>
</ul>
<br />
I've chosen this mix to include both "regular" humanoids, undead, wildlife, and a couple of "specials." This should make some of the areas of the cave both feel different and present different kinds of challenges to the PCs.<br />
<br />
In order to underline and complicate these differences, i'm also going to relate certain caves to each other factionally. These relationships will be more obvious than in the original version, and hopefully offer more choices to the PC when it comes to allies of convenience or sources of information. These faction-relationship will form the other half of the 'story' of the dungeon as it changes in response to PC actions.<br />
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Each faction is first formed by connecting areas to each other:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKz6yT9buNCpLOOylS1-U6vzNN_EbMsW529-WdNJ5iSidwlsWHQ3l16kQn9_vdIq7r6IeUoJArpbcRrPp8D8UmRSN6ZJViRZemHNNgxRliW8tgqz4Bi9xuh7mp4NVyNxk2NgEJSFf36Ye/s1600/COC_factions1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="A - Fungi/Giant Bugs - Purple B - Ghouls - Orange C - Goblins - Green D - Goblins - Purple E - Special - None F - Orcs - Orange G - Special - None H - Wizard and Minions - Green I - Oozes - None J - Cultists - Orange K - Elves - Purple" border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="850" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKz6yT9buNCpLOOylS1-U6vzNN_EbMsW529-WdNJ5iSidwlsWHQ3l16kQn9_vdIq7r6IeUoJArpbcRrPp8D8UmRSN6ZJViRZemHNNgxRliW8tgqz4Bi9xuh7mp4NVyNxk2NgEJSFf36Ye/s320/COC_factions1.jpg" title="" width="272" /></a><br />
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This provides us with the following factions and sub-factions.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Faction One (areas K, D, A): The elves, goblins, and their fungi</li>
<li>Faction Two (areas J, F, B): The cult of Orcus, the orcs, and ghouls - J, F, B</li>
<li>Faction Three (areas H, C): The wizard and goblin minions - H, C</li>
<li>Faction Four (area E): Special</li>
<li>Faction Five (area G): Special</li>
<li>Faction Six (area I): Oozes</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br />
With these relationships in mind, we can also start to flesh out our ideas about what each group is like. I’m going to start just with an evocative name that suggests evocative imagery:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>A - Fungus Garden</li>
<li>B - Shadow Ghouls</li>
<li>C - Clan of the Pallid Eye</li>
<li>D - Redcaps Clan</li>
<li>E - “Ghosts”</li>
<li>F - Bonesplinter Cadre</li>
<li>G - Aged Lamia</li>
<li>H - Arch-inquisitor of the Pallid Eye</li>
<li>I - Pit of the Oozes</li>
<li>J - Cult of Orcus</li>
<li>K - Deep Elves</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br />
These links will, of course, change over time. Most obviously if one part is wiped out, but also in response to stress or the movement of other factions or other unusual circumstances. If the goblin chief is killed, perhaps the remainder may ally with the other goblins instead of remain loyal otherwise. The wizard may cut a deal with new groups to serve his ends. Oozes might feed on carrion left in an emptied area and colonize it as well. Et cetera.<br />
<br />
Next time we'll start stocking the caves themselves, starting with... outside the caves.</div>
huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-20347151818723589802019-01-30T13:45:00.002-08:002019-01-30T13:45:28.782-08:00Jump Drives in Traveller - An Illumination<i>This post grew out of discussion with <a href="http://inplacesdeep.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">certain</a> <a href="http://migellito.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">others</a> about handwavium technologies in RPGs, with a specific focus on interstellar travel constraints in Traveller. As someone who is always interested in how genre constraints are perceived in-character by PCs, and who was weaned on <a href="https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_Technical_Manual" target="_blank">robust technobabble</a>, I wanted to try to address the operation of the default Traveller jump drive. This is written without reference to OTU assumptions, working mostly from the relevant pages of the LBBs. </i><br />
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<i>If anyone has any critiques of this description in relation to the mechanics of the LBB jump drive, let me know in the comments.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibBesEqpE0CBwTjTIP-InQ-z2htS3C6zWEKf5KyrTSsPp3AWAobiZW9lkq54rTXmVNI9XBYmr7e2jF_Vfnb3Gg6ryGgJUsOhpPfdhI15jlUnrPDXJ1wpmhK-7YA_qm8E40X_4U_tdodh1u/s1600/Jump-FTL-WH-Keith-CT-Starter-Trav-Pg-28_03-July-2018a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="452" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibBesEqpE0CBwTjTIP-InQ-z2htS3C6zWEKf5KyrTSsPp3AWAobiZW9lkq54rTXmVNI9XBYmr7e2jF_Vfnb3Gg6ryGgJUsOhpPfdhI15jlUnrPDXJ1wpmhK-7YA_qm8E40X_4U_tdodh1u/s320/Jump-FTL-WH-Keith-CT-Starter-Trav-Pg-28_03-July-2018a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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When activated, the jump drive produces a bubble of ‘realspace’ within jumpspace, and in forming the bubble imparts to it the mathematical equivalent of a ’ballistic trajectory’ in reference to realspace-jumpspace coordinate correlations. By way of analogy, the jump drive is like a nuclear pulse rocket, using a single release of energy to lift off from the surface of a planet. Following this analogy, the fuel consumption and gravity-well distance is the minimum necessary to achieve realspatial ‘escape velocity’ for the jump-bubble. Because the formation of the jump-bubble occurs while the ship is in reference to realspatial coordinates, the course must be plotted before the activation of the jump-drive. No means of affecting the trajectory of the jump-bubble from inside, once created, is known, although research continues. (This may have something to do with causal issues related to the realtemporal-jumpspatial issues described below.) A major part of the trajectory calculation requires the jump-bubble’s surface to collapse, ‘re-entering’ realspace, in relation to the energetic level of the bubble at the moment of intersecting with gravitational warping of jumpspace — hence the ‘empty space problem’ of navigating without relation to gravity wells, and the requirement to climb out of a gravity well to form a jump-bubble.<br /><br />The bubble’s extent in realspatial dimensions is related to ship size, but jump-capable ships currently require a minimum of 100 tons of displacement (although this is likely to be a constraint of power and fuel needs in relation to materials engineering rather than jumpspatial physics). The bubble’s minimum extent in realtemporal dimensions is subjectively between 150 and 185 hours (approximately 605 000 seconds, on average). The temporal size of the bubble appears to be related to the minimum density for realspace bubbles within a jumpspace ‘medium’; decreasing subjective jump time would require a method of adjusting realtemporal density without risking the bubble’s jumpspatial surface tension. (Given the time spent in the jumpspace bubble during a misjump, it is possible there’s an <i>inverse</i> relationship to realtemporal ‘density’ and jump-bubble surface tension.) It’s often assumed that the time spent in jumpspace also corresponds to travel time ‘within’ jumpspace, but the lack of ability to perceive jumpspace except as a theoretical mathematical construct means that this is likely to be a mere projection of sophont realspatial assumptions. huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-5346124031860385562018-11-18T09:52:00.000-08:002018-11-18T09:52:02.160-08:00The Aglaeca Stalks Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.rpgnow.com/product/258428/The-Aglaeca" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1349" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCotSFofKHLzpYp4iIiGFHOPu9pqLMzqils-3IiQbdOuHPPMOPAqkKrhj3KBpkfDAeStjZ4r12-jD5t2rH7wCirWdRIMkEtJ8W_-Q43pNjIrVut4zhUqpJ5aX38vgpqKoxIR3_npG-3jlt/s400/aglaeca_cover_preview_nov13.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<br /><b><i>Buried under fields, entombed in roots, or burbling under marshes, lurks the aglæca...</i></b><br />A new creature for your D100 or GUMSHOE-based horror mystery RPGs. The Aglæca is a beast out of the mists of folk-legends and grandam's fireside tales, an eater of children and king of the wastes. <div>
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<div>
This PDF includes:<br /><ul>
<li>Stats for the Aglæca for both percentile-based RPGs and the GUMSHOE system. </li>
<li>Variations and echoes on what the Aglæca is and where it comes from, and scenario seeds for placing it in your game.</li>
</ul>
<br />The Aglæca has been revised and rereleased on <a href="https://www.rpgnow.com/product/258428/The-Aglaeca" target="_blank">RPGnow/DriveThruRPG</a> as a pdf.</div>
huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-13832541388835975382018-11-17T20:28:00.000-08:002018-11-17T20:40:29.264-08:00Caves of Chaos Restock — Part One: Everything (Part One)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
To begin, we have to establish two sets of facts about the Caves: <b>1.</b> Who or what built, used, and inhabited it in the past, and <b>2.</b> Who or what inhabits it now.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To preserve the central premise of the Caves, I'll continue to assign each area to different, mostly-mutually-hostile factions. This both produces variety, and explains why there isn't an effective defense against PC incursions into the Caves.</div>
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<div>
Some of the history should tie into why the current inhabitants are there, but some should be new arrivals as well, and each faction requires some sort of goal that they purse in the Caves. </div>
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<div>
<b><i>History of the Caves</i></b><br />
For this exercise, let us assume a world that is broadly the same as the Red Box presents it — there is a human civilisation, somewhere, but it is not here. Elves, dwarves, et cetera live in small clans and feud amongst and between themselves. Orcs and goblins are less friendly than the elves and dwarves, but possess their own societies as well. This should inform the situation locally, in the Caves.<br />
<br />
To start with, let's say the Caves were built by elves, the oldest civilisation. Their original purpose were as tombs, rock-cut tombs set into an old gully. Because the exterior of the Caves are somewhat nondescript and a little boring, let's add some sort of fantastic detail to liven it up and try to communicate the idea that it was created by elves: the stump of a giant, petrified tree at the top of the gully (roughly above area XX). Petrified roots stretch across the sides of the gully, and the doors to each area are built into the negative spaces. The doors of each area are carven trilithons. This might mean that the first chambers of each area are the oldest, although the shape of most of the Caves (especially the north and south areas) implies whole sections were constructed at once. Conversely, Areas I and X might never have been deliberately excavated at all.<br />
<br />
The monumental nature of the tombs implies that they were made for important people, and perhaps to commemorate those who died in some monumental battle or from some notable dynasty. We can put aside the specifics thereof until later, but we should keep that in mind while stocking decorative elements and specials.<br />
<br />
To fill in the history of the Caves, post-construction, we'll layer on strata of occupiers, each having put their own mark on the complex. I'll leave aside describing the process of brainstorming these specifics, but in general I want a history of conflict and different reasons for occupation, in order to create the groundwork for justifying different factional interests in the Caves:<br />
<br />
<i>The Caves were first excavated by elves as a tomb complex. Later, they were occupied by a cadre of dwarves, who defiled and expanded them during their ancient wars with the elves and goblins. The dwarves, too, were killed and driven out by orcs and goblins, who then occupied the caves before being driven out by other clans. The Caves exchanged hands many times in the long, dark ages since then. The death-energies of the place attracted undead, diabolists and necromancers, but their hold on the Caves have been broken by the recent return of a secretive elven cabal. </i><br />
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Next time, we'll figure out the large-scale question of who's in what area of the Caves, and how those areas interrelate with each other. </div>
huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-6947844499275465352018-10-20T12:52:00.000-07:002018-10-20T12:52:01.000-07:00Random Vessel Generator<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZwkvqELCaQx4G17K0yo9Ha62fQAc9wsptHFQIQ1vA-e5OnoC0T-hrKvFlzENiExe-_uNT4CY1PvkFWpCGD6qvAmta0EDB89-qIco4ds-tdQoaRNZdfjeZ4xo-cFud8LKsl9FmVzT_A2z/s1600/6c71a50711f5c6af29bd0fd008992e49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1280" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZwkvqELCaQx4G17K0yo9Ha62fQAc9wsptHFQIQ1vA-e5OnoC0T-hrKvFlzENiExe-_uNT4CY1PvkFWpCGD6qvAmta0EDB89-qIco4ds-tdQoaRNZdfjeZ4xo-cFud8LKsl9FmVzT_A2z/s320/6c71a50711f5c6af29bd0fd008992e49.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
This is a sequel post to the <a href="http://elderskull.blogspot.com/2012/08/random-colony-generator.html" target="_blank">Random Colony Generator</a> from way back in 2012.<br />
<br />
<b>[A] [B] [C], troubled by [D].</b><br />
<br />
<b>A — condition</b><br />
<b>1:</b> sleek and brand-new<br />
<b>2:</b> well-maintained<br />
<b>3:</b> beat-up and rugged but functional<br />
<b>4:</b> ramshackle<br />
<b>5:</b> broken (roll twice on Trouble table)<br />
<b>6:</b> fragmented (roll 1d6 for number of pieces, roll on the trouble table for each section)<br />
<br />
<b>B — Size</b><br />
<b>1:</b> Up to 20m (Examples: Soyuz capsule, Huey helicopter, Spacelab)<br />
<b>2:</b> 20m to 50m (Examples: C-130 Hercules, Space shuttle orbiter)<br />
<b>3:</b> 50m to 100m (Examples: C-5 Galaxy, Boeing 747, Antonov AN-225 Mriya)<br />
<b>4:</b> 100m to 200m (Examples: International Space Station)<br />
<b>5:</b> 200m to 500m (Examples: <i>Nimitz</i>-class aircraft carrier)<br />
<b>6:</b> 500m or more (Examples: Burj Khalifa hotel)<br />
<br />
<b>C — Type </b><br />
<b>1:</b> Space Survey (Examples: astronomical surveyor, space anomaly investigation, navy scout ship)<br />
<b>2:</b> Planetary Survey (Examples: terraforming surveyor, prospector, biological surveyor, xenoarchaeological excavation, army scout ship)<br />
<b>3:</b> Passenger transport (Examples: liner, colony ship, refugee transport, snakehead smuggling ship)<br />
<b>4:</b> Freighter (Examples: courier, free trader, bulk freighter)<br />
<b>5:</b> Military (Examples: patrol ship, search-and-rescue vessel, weapons platform, drone carrier, assault craft)<br />
<b>6:</b> Station (Examples: refueling station, trading post, communications relay, defensive outpost, navigational buoy, sensor array, orbital habitat)<br />
<br />
<b>D — Trouble</b><br />
<b>1:</b> Lack of resources. (Examples: leak in fuel, fuel made useless through radiation or contamination, trapped in an area where solar power or other resource cannot be gathered)<br />
<b>2:</b> Control system failure. (Examples: computer malfunction, navigational malfunction, remote-operation input malfunction)<br />
<b>3:</b> Power failure. (Examples: power generator failure, engine failure)<br />
<b>4:</b> Life-support failure. (Examples: cryotubes killing crew, cryotubes not opening on time, atmospheric integrity loss, failure of quarantine procedures)<br />
<b>5:</b> Primary mission system failure. (Examples: weapon system failures on a military ship, sensor system failures on a deep space probe, cargo containment failures on a freighter)<br />
<b>6:</b> “Nothing.” (Or, roll again for incipient failure, or roll on the Black Stars Hang trouble chart)<br />
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<br />huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-33067411133798447872018-10-03T06:03:00.001-07:002018-10-03T06:03:23.967-07:00Caves of Chaos Restock — Part Zero<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRlUvpE5kWEl6P5rrVQEwuEniqEjRdqoG68hjiN6xurGOTXTcOAH-CX9hYH6fwkqAMjjWAvH4cY53o7s1I3owmpTqOg1_aIEBu8AX62Wl2SpzufBfjwW52b6gr6bIG0Raf3rxBlpwyAOax/s1600/B2ModuleCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="277" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRlUvpE5kWEl6P5rrVQEwuEniqEjRdqoG68hjiN6xurGOTXTcOAH-CX9hYH6fwkqAMjjWAvH4cY53o7s1I3owmpTqOg1_aIEBu8AX62Wl2SpzufBfjwW52b6gr6bIG0Raf3rxBlpwyAOax/s200/B2ModuleCover.jpg" width="153" /></a></div>
Despite its place in the pantheon of early D&D modules, and its almost-platonic structure (home base, wilderness map with keyed and unkeyed sites, leading to a large dungeon), B2: Keep on the Borderlands falls down in the dungeon department. While the map is intriguing, and the immediate branch-point of up to eleven possible directions to explore is a more initially-impressive situation to present to players than you get with most dungeons, the content itself sticks close to the idea of D&D as a tactical wargame, presenting you with a number of areas primarily inhabited by humanoid aliens who are distinguished only by their HD. The fantasy element is rare here — only showing up in certain treasure items, a couple oozes, one irritating magical hazard, and then some evil cultists and undead at the presumed end.<br />
<br />
Whether I’m just a jaded millennial bereft of the sense of simple wonder of fighting ‘bugbears’ and ‘gnolls’ that nerds revelled in in 197whatever, or whether it’s just not a great dungeon, I’ve long mulled over doing something ‘in dialogue’ with the Caves of Chaos. The first version of the project appeared here as ‘Chaos on the Old Borderlands,’ material from which I’ve reused for my current Elderwold campaign (sans the Keep dungeon). Recently, inspired by Dyson’s completed redraw of the caves and rereading some old Alexandrian posts, I decided to try restocking the caves into something a little closer to my particular D&D interests.<br />
<br />
The first step is refreshing my memory of how the areas are separated, and what their contents (mechanically) are:<br />
<br />
A — Kobold lair: 38 HD<br />
B — Orc Lair: 23 HD<br />
C — Orc Lair: 20 HD<br />
D — Goblin Lair: 34 HD<br />
E — Ogre Cave: 4 HD<br />
F — Hobgoblin Lair: 57 HD<br />
G — Shunned Cavern (owlbears and oozes): 14 HD<br />
H — Bugbear Lair: 54 HD<br />
I — Caves of the Minotaur: 24 HD<br />
J — Gnoll Lair: 58 HD<br />
K — Shrine of Evil Chaos: 121 HD<br />
<br />
Again, you can see how the majority of these dungeon zones are distinguished thematically by political divisions rather than landmarks, environmental conditions, differing ecosystems, magical effects, aesthetics, etc.<br />
<br />
I haven’t done the math here, but just eyeballing the sheer number of rooms with monsters in them is way over the B/X stocking recommendations. I think the first thing I’d do, before changing anything else, is cut down the overall number of encounters (and probably reduce the total HD per zone, unless I were running it for a higher-level party).<br />
<br />
While the idea of factional differences as well as zone themes isn’t one I want to wholly discard, I think its important to tie them together and add in mechanical differentiation, plus the kind of details that makes exploration in D&D an intrinsically enjoyable part of the game (rather than simply a precursor to tactical engagements).<br />
<br />
Next time I’ll address the thing B2 completely leaves out — the history of the dungeon — and make some decisions as to new zone themes.huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-27244699629824481422018-07-28T14:13:00.000-07:002018-07-28T14:18:37.252-07:00Elderwold - The Preamble<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBv2IfO-wpw9p-Xemme9bhzFXTVgl7DOBZS8y62pC8YO-6xh0xj7bR4AQH3IYpkKP-8dJoFwCBifHyztxb6-c4P2TonTZsjBLp4a9A52Awwg1zu0PAIEQ-_VwJW0wL5Jbr9fBE7P20GyuZ/s1600/borderlands_banner_jun30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="1200" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBv2IfO-wpw9p-Xemme9bhzFXTVgl7DOBZS8y62pC8YO-6xh0xj7bR4AQH3IYpkKP-8dJoFwCBifHyztxb6-c4P2TonTZsjBLp4a9A52Awwg1zu0PAIEQ-_VwJW0wL5Jbr9fBE7P20GyuZ/s400/borderlands_banner_jun30.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i></i><br />
<i>
Here's the preamble I read to new players in the face-to-face campaign I'm currently running. This campaign is reusing some of the Chaos on the Old Borderlands material previously posted on this blog, but adapted to an earlier-medieval type of milieu. </i><br />
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Though the setup is a D&D-style sandbox, we're using a once-'lite' fantasy heartbreaker system that's a little bit BX, a little bit Traveller, a little bit BRP, a little bit WFRP. As it gets playtested, I might start releasing it publicly, though in what format I haven't decided.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<h3>
Elderwold</h3>
<div>
You’ve come to the town of <b>Caradoc Howe</b> in the <b>North Marches</b> to seek glory and fortune. It is a small fortified hilltop town within sight of the edge of the vast, foreboding forest called the <b>Elderwold</b>. Hunters, trappers, loggers and fishers brave its dark bowers to bring its bounty back to Caradoc Howe. To the south of the town are a scattering of small farms, made up of doughty freeholders and serfs whose fate it is to risk the predation of goblins, orcs, and elves. </div>
<div>
<br />
Caradoc Howe is nominally the responsibility of <b>Lord Gerhart</b>, member of the <b>House of Chlodomer</b> and cousin and vassal to the <b>Earl of Harthach</b>, Marcher Lord, but practically <b>Abbot Lonan</b> of the small <b>cloister of Apollo Belenus</b> takes on much of the active duties of town management. The Abbot also takes on the responsibilities of high priest for the settlement, over the objections of <b>Father Adhemar</b> of the small <b>Temple of Juno Augusta</b>. <br />
<br />
Nearby settlements are <b>Cenwyn’s Ferry</b>, <b>Castle Harthach</b>, and the <b>hunter's camp</b> and the <b>fisher's camp </b>a day's travel into the Elderwold. The ruins of the old <b>Abbey of Apollo Belenus</b> lie southwest of Caradoc Howe and northwest of the Castle (Abbot Lonan being one of the monks from that accursed Abbey), and the ruined pile of <b>Castle Trowgate</b> looms in the hills to the east lies near the <b>Old Road</b> that leads to the <b>dwarf-halls</b> of the <b>Trowmoors</b>. <br />
<br />
<h3>
History</h3>
The North Marches are the northernmost extent of the Great Kingdom, which, despite its name, is currently ruled by the High Regent. The Regent and the order of warrior-monks who enforce her will — the Templars — seized the Leaden Crown during the tumult of the Princes’ War a generation ago, when competing heirs, orcish invaders and other, darker crises threatened to destroy the realm of Law. Since then, she has ruled with an iron hand. <br />
<br />
Most of the Great Kingdom’s population lives in the long-settled and temperate southern half, but land clearances and an organized system of fortified settlements to the north-west have brought forth more food and a power-base of those ennobled by the Regent’s land grants. These settler-nobles are the rough-and-ready <i>nouveau riche</i> of human civilisation, always looking for a leg up on older, established, pre-Regency noble families and new places to expand to.</div>
</div>
huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-73416666558339241452018-07-10T15:35:00.003-07:002018-07-10T15:37:44.273-07:00Encounters, CanadianIn a <a href="http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=4301">recent review</a> for the inexplicably Ennie-nominated adventure compilation <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/239661/The-Scenario-from-Ontario"><i>The Scenario</i> [sic] <i>From Ontario</i></a>, Anonymous (presumably an anonymous individual, not the organization) left the following comment:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A<i>s a Canadian, I feel as though the heavy-handed stereotyping should offend me more.<br /><br />It’d be like if I wrote an adventure called “Death & Texas”, and the random encounter table was like “1d4 bald eagles, 2d4 rednecks, guy in a coonskin cap, a revolver golem, lynch mob, 1d6 Coca Cola oozes”<br /><br />Just grab basically every surface level thing you’ve heard about a place and throw it all together, eh?</i><i><br /></i><i>It’d be like if I wrote an adventure called “Death & Texas”, and the random encounter table was like “1d4 bald eagles, 2d4 rednecks, guy in a coonskin cap, a revolver golem, lynch mob, 1d6 Coca Cola oozes”</i><i><br /></i><i>Just grab basically every surface level thing you’ve heard about a place and throw it all together, eh?</i></blockquote>
<br />
Putting aside the question of the existence of <i>any</i> Canadianness outside of heavy-handed stereotyping, I thought I would offer a suggestion as to a more nuanced and realistic random encounter selection for adventuring in Canada. Because of the distinctive cultural differences between urban and rural Canada, I have elected to present a table for each environment:<br />
<br />
<b>CANADIAN WILDERNESS ENCOUNTERS (1d6)<br />1. </b>Angel, Stone (1)<br />
<b>2. </b>Labourer (clad in lion-skins) (1d6)<br />
<b>3.</b> Patient, English (1)<br />
<b>4.</b> Manticore, The (1)<br />
<b>5.</b> Solitude, Twin (2)<br />
<b>6.</b> If rolled while in barrens: Lost. Otherwise: Viking Grave, Cursed<br />
<br />
<b>URBAN CANADIAN ENCOUNTERS (1d6)<br />1.</b> Maritimer, Unemployed (1d3) and 2 in 6 chance of Quebecois, Unemployed (1d2)<br />
<b>2.</b> Film shoot, low-budget SF (2d8 crew, 1d6 actors (recognizable: 2 in 6 chance))<br />
<b>3.</b> Film shoot, local comedy (2d8 crew, 1d3 actors (recognizable: 1 in 6 chance))<br />
<b>4.</b> Fang, Hooded (1)<br />
<b>5.</b> Drome, Video<br />
<b>6.</b> Flesh, New (1d6)huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-15656298191914996882017-10-03T07:00:00.000-07:002017-10-03T09:52:40.424-07:00Chaos on the Old Borderlands - 20 Questions, Part Four <i>Continuing the description of the Old Borderlands, here's the next instalment of answers to <a href="http://jrients.blogspot.ca/2011/04/twenty-quick-questions-for-your.html" target="_blank">Jeff Rients</a>'s famed 20 Questions.</i><br />
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<b>13. Which way to the nearest tavern?</b><br />
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<b>The Rimy Bear</b> was named after the frozen bear corpse found in the building before it was rebuilt into a tavern. The bear’s skull is now the tavern’s sign. It’s barkeep and owner, Boyan, is rumoured to be an ex-adventurer, and most of Constable Ferro’s garrison drinks there when off-duty. A few private rooms upstairs are available, but most travellers sleep in the common room downstairs. Because the Bear cycles through regulars in the Constable’s command, it has a clannish feel, and newly arrived adventurers are required to perform the ritual of ‘swearing on the skull’ before being allowed to drink in peace. <br />
<br />
<b>The Weary Mule</b> is the largest inn at the Manor, and is built outside the old manor walls but inside the outer stockade. It has stabling for horses and livestock, but all the accommodations are common rooms. It’s partially owned by the Constable, with former (mostly unsuccessful) adventurers putting up the rest of the cash to get it started. The hobgoblin Hilderica, former barmaid, has become the de facto manager and primary barkeep of the Mule, though she is not the namesake as many patrons assume.<br />
<br />
<b>The Humble Vagabond</b> is outside the stockade, but is built out of the stout stone walls of an old outbuilding and has its own defensive enclosure. Its stables are small, but it has cozy private rooms aplenty, and is popular with the more furtive travellers passing through the Fort. The owner, Sobeshka, is a night owl, and is known to answer a knock at the inn’s door late into the night. She is rumoured to be involved with peasant revolutionaries, or banditry, or sorcery, or chaos worship, or something sinister, but that may also just be suspicious cast by the talkative on the reserved. <br />
<br />
<b>The Garden and Vine</b>, the largest tavern and inn in Leechford, is built to the specifications of its owner, Lord Fasolimov, and is almost fatally cold in the winter. It’s supposed to resemble a kind of faux-villa for wealthy travellers to lounge around a reflecting pool and trade witty repartee, but the kind of visitors who come to the Old Borderlands aren’t in the market for Fasolimov’s expensive wine, expensive food, and cut-rate attempt at south-coast secular architecture. If it weren’t the best place to gamble in the Borderlands, no one would go there at all. Fasolimov keeps funding the thing, though, so the landlord Audoin and his staff do their jobs. They just do them very slowly when Fasolimov isn’t staying there.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<b>14. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?</b></div>
<div>
<div>
<br />
<ul>
<li>The <b>Dragon of Foul Peak </b>terrorizes the hills and mountains east of the Blackbriar Wood. That no goblin-champion or orcish war-party from further north has slain it and opened up the region to resettlement means the dragon is either is too monstrous for mere mortals to deal with, or its presence serves someone’s interests.</li>
<li>The <b>Wanderer of the Grey Hills </b>is usually heard, rather than seen. Soul-chilling howls are the only warning of its approach and strange, giant footprints the only trace of its passing. </li>
<li><b>Mad Chernyvulk</b>, the self-proclaimed Goblin Emperor of the West Marches, has personally led a number of raids against caravans and outlying settlements that ended with massacres so grotesque that some believe he is a chaos-cultist, or a demon himself. There is a hefty bounty is on his head, but the last party to seek him out never returned from the Blackbriar.</li>
<li>Goblin hunters have reported seeing a <b>giant boar</b> the size of a hut in the northern Blackbriar, but a lot of goblin hunters are kind of tiny so how large could it be, really?</li>
<li>At least one half-dead adventurer made it back to the Manor ranting about a <b>minotaur</b> in the berzerker hills — something about a bull-head-man? Poison vapours? The details were pretty sketchy.</li>
<li>The ragamuffin children who catch fish in the Leechfens have been telling tall tales about <b>“The Beast of the Fens.”</b> Maybe one of them was telling the truth.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
<b>15. Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?</b></div>
<div>
<br />
The Old Borderlands is supposedly part of the Realm of the Great Kingdom, and the Realm of the Great Kingdom is currently at war with the High Khaganate over the disposition of some southern border provinces who sought the Khagan’s protection in exchange for Khaganate suzerainty during the Wars of Realmish Succession. Thus, the current conduct could be considered merely an extension of that previous conflict, especially from the perspective of those breakaway provinces whose independence from one or more High King(s) is currently being paid in bloody installments against Realmish armies. For the Realm to call such things ‘wars’ would theoretically legitimize the authority of those hoping to push off the High-Kingly yoke in the eyes of the Elector Princes, leading to all sorts of bad precedents in case an Elector Prince elects to disapprove of their princely peers’ choice of electee, so instead the bloody massacre and driving-out of the swamp-dwellers of the Greatwash and the grinding siege and blockade of the Bryscanie peninsula are merely ‘revolts.’ </div>
<div>
<br />
In the lands of the orc-lords to the northeast, alliances great and petty clash over tundra and steppe. Though the orcs—and the humans and goblins who live under their overlordship—are mostly thought to be split between those who follow a eschatologically-inclined variation of the Church of Law and those who sacrifice to the di inferi. </div>
<div>
<br />
To the northwest, in the isles of the north, Realmish authority seeks to establish itself up to at least the nominal levels it possessed in the last century there. Expeditions from the Realm encounter breakaway petty kingdoms, enclaves of pagan orcs, and elven holdfasts from ancient ages. </div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
<b>16. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?</b></div>
<div>
<br />
The death-pits of the elven age are perhaps merely legend; stories of northern chaos-sages who perform auguries by by reading the bite marks and gnawed entrails of the starved prisoners may be just stories too. In the Realm, in times of peace, the knightly classes would test their mettle in jousts and grand melees, but as actual wars occupy the aristocracy’s attention they’ve become more recruiting and training events than celebrations. </div>
<div>
<br />
In the Borderlands, the closest to a formalized combat is betting on wrestling in the Rimy Bear. That only happens on weeks without fights about who’s cheating at dice, though. </div>
<div>
<br />
Woodsmen in the Rimy Bear mention that the goblins of the Blackbriar Wood have some contests of skill — spear-throwing, hitting tiny stones with sticks, things like that — but that’s more about showing off and gaining esteem amongst the goblin-clans than earning prize money. </div>
</div>
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huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-82622668014678958352017-08-11T10:47:00.000-07:002017-08-11T10:47:11.760-07:00PATREON PREVIEW: The Alienist presents: The Aglæca<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWTbFSQZc0MGwQ2mjaRlek87F3JaOwIiJwgyOxsHSdCWs3Ru9hRpSmMlNZjZA2Ielp9jtpZvzttEbcG6AkyVBrAL0lMtlSmIkRbC1iZw7IIGuAPS0p5lf2OVD9HRgvgQYvtCNzMlh3hWg3/s1600/Alienist_The_Aglaeca_Aug12_prev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="342" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWTbFSQZc0MGwQ2mjaRlek87F3JaOwIiJwgyOxsHSdCWs3Ru9hRpSmMlNZjZA2Ielp9jtpZvzttEbcG6AkyVBrAL0lMtlSmIkRbC1iZw7IIGuAPS0p5lf2OVD9HRgvgQYvtCNzMlh3hWg3/s640/Alienist_The_Aglaeca_Aug12_prev.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>
<b>This is a preview of what my patrons are getting access to this month: </b><br /><i>Buried under fields, entombed in roots, or burbling under marshes, lurks the </i>aglæca<i>...</i><br />A new creature for your D100- or GUMSHOE-based horror mystery RPGs. The Aglæca is a beast out of the mists of folk-legends and grandam's fireside tales, an eater of children and king of the wastes. This article includes:<br /><ul>
<li>Stats for the Aglæca for both percentile-based RPGs and the GUMSHOE system. </li>
<li>Variations and echoes on what the Aglæca is and where it comes from, and scenario seeds for placing it in your game.</li>
</ul>
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<b>Get access to this critter and everything else in the future by supporting me at <a href="https://www.patreon.com/umlauthuth">https://www.patreon.com/umlauthuth</a></b></div>
huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-37774328770879355932017-07-06T12:00:00.000-07:002017-07-14T23:58:37.796-07:00Chaos on the Old Borderlands - 20 Questions, Part Three<i>Continuing the description of the Old Borderlands, here's the next instalment of answers to <a href="http://jrients.blogspot.ca/2011/04/twenty-quick-questions-for-your.html" target="_blank">Jeff Rients</a>'s famed 20 Questions.</i><br />
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<b>9. Is there a magic guild my wizard belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?</b><br />
No sorcerer’s guild operates in the Old Borderlands. To some grey-faced and suspicious members of the church of Law, such an organization would be tantamount to a cult of Chaos.<br />
To learn more spells or the like, you’d need to find someone to apprentice you, and that means either taking instruction from <b>Sardo the Younger</b> or tracking down hidden practitioners of the secret arts.<br />
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<b>10. Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>The closest thing to a magic guild is the Alchemist’s Guild, and the closest member of the Alchemist’s Guild is <b>Master Fringuello</b>, whose guild membership seems to lack some supporting documents. He does sell things he calls potions, though, and will pay a supply of certain components.</li>
<li><b>Baron Liutward</b> fancies himself a historian and aesthete, and can at least attempt to spin a provenance for any objects d’art put before him. </li>
<li>While she frequently has other problems to deal with, the <b>Abbess Ferrolinguetta’s</b> aristocratic education included a stint at the Academy of Cittibiana — before the destructon of that august institution in the Wars of Realmish Succession — and may expound on many questions historical, philosophical, or scientific. You’d better catch her in a good mood, though. </li>
</ul>
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11. <b>Where can I hire mercenaries?</b><br />
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The Manor-fort is teeming with runaways, vagabonds, ruffians, and ne’er-do-wells ready to swing an axe or sword for drink and gold. In addition to the week’s crop of desperate adventurers, there are a few more seasoned parties that can be called upon:</div>
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<ul>
<li><b>The Death-Dealers: </b>Tough-looking guys and gals in tough-looking leather gear (usually dyed black and metal-studded), looking for some jewelled thrones to grind beneath their booted feet. While they will serve as mercenaries, they usually prefer to work independently. Symbol: A horned helmet on a shield.</li>
<li><b>The Bordo Family: </b>Twins and their cousin, plus some other local friends and family when times are tough. Local bumpkins and fortune-seekers; to look at them in a dungeon, you’d think they were in over their heads. They’ll offer their individual services as hirelings sometimes. Symbol: A capital ‘B’ surrounded by ivy and a plethora of animals rampant (one young Bordo is an enthusiastic artist). </li>
<li><b>Wurster’s Boys:</b> Shitty assholes who’re just there to make some petty cash. Local mutterings pin some recent banditry on them as well. They do seem to enjoy the appearances of being adventurers. Symbol: Two wolf’s heads on a shield, facing away. </li>
</ul>
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Other parties known in the area include the Owls of Minerva (an elf, a dwarf, and a goblin walk into a bar…), the Hallowed Band (the innocents’ crusade), The Circle of Seven (about 3-4 wizards), the Chalice of Light (more wizards), and the Chain (like the Death-Dealers, but with more metal than leather).<br />
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<b>12. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?</b><br />
Outside the Fort, Leechford, and the scattered, rebuilding villages, the Old Borderlands are functionally lawless. Inside these places, the law is the command of whoever is lord of that place. In Leechford and the Fort, violence and thievery are punished harshly, though few restrictions are in place to prevent either from happening. People are unlikely to trust someone walking around with a deadly weapon, but everyone does it, so people are unlikely to trust anyone. <br />
As (if) the political situation stabilizes, more detailed legal restrictions on the use and wearing of weapons — and the open practice of sorcery — will probably be put in place. Until then, chaos reigns.<br />
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huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-59900997708021525272017-06-20T12:30:00.000-07:002017-06-20T12:30:01.629-07:00Chaos on the Old Borderlands - 20 Questions, Part Two<i>Continuing the description of the Old Borderlands, here's the first four answers to <a href="http://jrients.blogspot.ca/2011/04/twenty-quick-questions-for-your.html">Jeff Rients's famed 20 Questions</a>.</i><br />
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<b><i>5. </i></b><b><i>Who's the </i></b><b><i>Greatest Warrior in the Land?</i></b><br />
Plenty of local wags would claim that title for themselves, but some other names come up often:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Lord Reiner Star-helm: </b>A commander of a knightly order from the west. An experienced soldier, and a grim crusader against the enemies of the Realm, whoever they may be at the time. The shining Star-helm he wears is a relic of his ancestors.</li>
<li><b>Mighty Meg, Hobgoblin Champion: </b>Her ancient, pitted greatsword has cleft many a goblin, orc, and man in twain in the petty wars and raids of Blackbriar Wood. She boasts of having twelve husbands, three wives, and the most fearsome pack of hunting hounds in the Borderlands. </li>
<li><b>Lord Kromvinger: </b>Tavern rumours among adventurers have it that the lord of the orc-legions to the east of Blackbriar still lives and commands their war-host, despite the grievous wounds suffered at the Battle of Leechford. </li>
<li><b>Boyan, Barkeep of the Frozen Bear: </b>When Kromvinger’s name is mentioned, the stories usually add that the barkeep of the Frozen Bear tavern was the mercenary responsible for Kromvinger’s wounds at Leechford. Even if that’s true, Boyan fights with a well-aimed mug instead of an axe these days.</li>
</ul>
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<b><i>6. Who's the Richest Person in the Land?</i></b><br />
The legal ownership of much of the Borderlands is in dispute. The last obvious Castellano heir—the legal feudal lord of much of the local land—died during the War of Realmish Succession and subsequent orcish invasions almost sixty years ago. Since the Battle of Leechford pushed back the orcish advance and resettlement began, the claims have been tied up in suits and counter-suits and appeals all the way up to the High King’s Court, and are unlikely to be resolved any time soon. There are numerous <i>theoretical</i> heirs in the Borderlands now, each claiming to be, and who potentially could be, the wealthiest person in the local area. <br />
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Until that is resolved, though…<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Lord Fasolimov: </b>An early resettler of the Old Borderlands after the Battle of Leechford, Fasolimov has no legal claim to the land’s he’s recultivated but pays for the protection of it by hiring local mercenaries (and, politically, by helping out Bishop Tyrogenio). He tends to focus on cash crops like grapes and olives. Rumour is he’s still in a lot of debt, though.</li>
<li><b>Baron Liutward: </b>Second son of an Elector Prince with court connections, plenty of rich friends back west, some hefty loans from his family and friends, and no clear idea of how to manage the land he’s been able to settle people on. He’s sure there’s no way he could fail to shape up these uncultured buffoons and ragged adventurers and reclaim his rightful (though distant) inheritance. </li>
<li><b>Count Simeon: </b>One of the earliest arrivals of the Castellano-heir claimants, Simeon’s frittered away his head start with gambling and failed sorties south and east to secure more land. He’s sure that the orcs, goblins and berzerkers are just one decisive defeat away from being driven off, if only he could raise the forces and find the trick to doing it.</li>
<li><b>Bishop Tyrogenio: </b>The babyfaced and inexperienced representative of the Ecclesiastical Hierarch of the Eastern Marches has the most secure local legal claims to lands in the Old Borderlands, but is stretching his resources to clear it of bandits and raiders and fill it with settlers. Shipments of gold and supplies from the Hierarch to the Bishop are a common occurrence, and will be until the church’s local lands are self-sufficient. </li>
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<b><i>7. Where can we go to get some magical healing?</i></b><br />
Depending on how recent skirmishes with raiders, bandits, and orcs have gone, and how plague-ridden the peasantry is, scruffy adventurers might be far down the list of who gets healed this week.<br />
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<li><b>Abbess Ferrolinguetta:</b> While she bickers with Tyrogenio about planning and tries to keep her temporary cloisters in order, the Abbess raises funds by offering healing prayers to various and sundry. </li>
<li><b>The Hermit: </b>The peasants swear by an old (or just hard-living?) man not to far from the Old Keep, but they give contradictory directions to his hermitage. </li>
<li><b>Bishop Tyrogenio: </b>Some Apollonian devotees are present to, at minimum, <i>diagnose</i> your problem, although experienced healers are rare this far east.</li>
<li><b>Master Fringuello: </b>The guy does claim to be a doctor, too. </li>
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<b><i>8. Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?</i></b><br />
See questions 4 and 7, although lycanthropy is the kind of curse of Chaos that people tend to think is best solved by a merciful death.<style type="text/css">
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</style>huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-70803331959908221212017-06-11T17:52:00.000-07:002017-06-11T17:52:10.587-07:00Chaos on the Old Borderlands - 20 Questions, Part One<i>Continuing the description of the Old Borderlands, here's the first four answers to <a href="http://jrients.blogspot.ca/2011/04/twenty-quick-questions-for-your.html" target="_blank">Jeff Rients's famed 20 Questions</a>.</i><br />
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<b><i>1. What's the deal with my cleric's religion?</i></b><br />
Clerics from the Realm serve the <b>church of Law</b>, which resembles a sort of Roman state religion reconstructed around Stoic, Neoplatonic and somewhat gnostic philosophies. The church’s pantheon of gods above —the <i>di superni</i>—is headed by Sol Invictus, his consort Juno Augusta, Quirinius, Vulcan, Minerva, Bellona, and a host of lesser gods, messengers, and apotheosized mortals. It is common, in this decadent age, for the learned to either euhemerize the gods, or to treat them as personifications or metaphors for abstract spiritual sub-forces of Law. There are mystery cults or devotional societies which focus on a specific deity (like the ‘Soldier’s Guild’ of Mitra Bull-Slayer, or the Colleges of Apollo); on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Solist sect sees the other gods as avatars or emanations of Sol as ultimate supreme being (similar to Vaishnavism or Saivism).<br />
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Elfs (and some human clerics from the Republic of the Sea-Barons) worship other gods, such that even among the 'civilised' there are a bewildering array of names which receive orisons and devotion. Some say these are simply the gods of Law under different, older names, but generally the opinion in the Realm is that they’re at best unreal, and at worst demons of Chaos. Among their number are Isis (usually associated with Juno Augusta under the name ‘Juno Caelestis’), Rhea (also associated with Juno Augusta, though also with Persephone or as a god below herself), and obscurer figures such as One of Two Faces, Obsidian Butterfly, and Grandmother Who is Clad in Serpents.<br />
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Dwarfs have no priests known to outsiders, but in their shrines revere Vulcan. However, Dis Pater — the Father of Riches — and Persephone — the Favoured One — are held by the dwarfs in highest esteem, though other folk group them in with the <i>di inferi</i>.<br />
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The church of Law <i>believes</i> in the gods below — the <i>di inferi</i> — but see them as fearsome beings of Chaos to be shunned or propitiated, not worshipped. Among their number are the aforementioned Dis Pater and Persephone, and also Neptune, Orcus, Diana, Hecate, and Saturnus. The petty spirits of grove and stone that receive the traditional worship of goblins are usually grouped in with the gods below. Where the gods below end and the ranks of demons begin is a common topic of debate, though one of little practical value.<br />
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Orc clerics are often puritanical Solists, often with their own rituals and eschatological prophecies. The most prominent among these is that of the Iron Sun, which sees the current sun — the current aeon — as ending soon, to be reborn as a new world with a new political order.<br />
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<b><i>2. Where can I buy some standard equipment?</i></b><br />
Metal goods can be gotten from the hut of <b>Narbio the blacksmith</b>, in the employ of the Constable of the Fort. (Narbio also has a side-racket trading in various plant-based inhalants, and takes payment in kind.) More particular adventuring gear, including ropes, block and tackle and the like can be purchased from <b>Rhondobart Feathercap</b>, a dwarf merchant-house representative and local Grand Master of the Mercer’s Guild. He’ll buy from the PCs, and store and bank things for them for a fee. He also sells goods of guilds that do not have representatives in the fort. Sometimes availability fluctuates, depending on how the war goes and any local bandit, orc, or berzerker activity.<br />
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<b><i>3. Where can I get some weird armour made?</i></b><br />
The aforementioned <b>Narbio</b> can do custom barding, but you’re going to have to pony up. Better not be in a hurry, either.<br />
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<b><i>4. Who's the Greatest Wizard in the Land?</i></b><br />
Aside from ghost stories and the probably untrue tales of lurking hags and chaos-cultists:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>The Sorceress of the Tower:</b> The elven wizard who once accompanied the Castellano primogenitor in his adventures is still said to be somewhere in the vicinity, despite being nearly three hundred years old, but she is both an elf and a wizard and so doubly strange. Old locals say her tower is to the east of the Old Keep, but nobody’s exactly sure where.</li>
<li><b>Sardo the Younger:</b> Conversely, everybody knows where to find Sardo—he’s got a sign and everything—but the wizard’s sales pitches and fashion sense tend to put people off. </li>
<li><b>Master Fringuello:</b> An odd and wild-browed man claiming to be the local representative of the Alchemist’s Guild. Despite his uncertain licensing, his demeanour is definitely the result of too many years of working in poorly-ventilated laboratories. </li>
</ul>
huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-17809523697993441842017-05-17T11:05:00.002-07:002017-05-17T11:05:20.747-07:00Chaos on the Old Borderlands - Introduction<div>
<i>This is the background to my current D&D project, a West Marches cover band cover band cover band. The prep started as just an exercise to do something in the vein of 'bog-standard D&D,' but I've ended up prepping enough material that I might as well post it in case I don't get to run it before my interest turns to something else. </i></div>
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<i>In a nutshell, the premise is to take the </i>Keep on the Borderlands<i>, and add approximately two centuries of settlement, plagues, invasion, decrepitude, and revanchism. </i></div>
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The Eastern Principalities were once the edge of the Realm of Man, the Old Borderlands between Law and Chaos, but rugged explorers and bellicose adventurers slew the orcs and goblins and worse who plagued its forests and swamps, and founded new towns and castles to bring the land within the orbit of light and reason. <br />
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But now, as war and rebellion engulfs the Realm of Man, the return of Chaos to the Principality of the Keep again draws grim adventurers to seek fortune and glory...<br />
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<b>The Realm of Man </b>regards itself as the foremost bastion of truth, freedom and Law, at least for humans, in the world. It is both an empire and a federation, incorporating into itself kingdoms, principalities, free cities, dwarf-holds and theocrat-ruled territories. It is ruled over by a King, who is acclaimed so by the Electorate Council, made up of Princes great and small. The rights of elves, dwarves, goblins and orcs in its borders are strictly limited, though the Realm is more of a human-chauvinist culture than a anti-nonhuman one. The territory of the Realm lies mostly in the North and West, though it reaches into the East. Clerics are well-regarded, but wizards less so, as wizardly arts carry the stigma of Chaos. Wizards uninterested in being cloistered academics dealing only with the theoretical or creating magic toys for princes’ amusement risk heavy censure. The current ruler of the Realm is King Albo VII, a grizzled, salt-and-pepper-bearded warlord who sees himself as the stern father and protector of his peoples.<br />
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The Realm is currently at war with the Khaganate to the south, which sucks for the Eastern Principalities (of which the Borderlands are a part), because the Khaganate is much more interested in buying Eastern Principality grain and goods at a fair price than the rich cities of the Realm. The war began as a by-blow of the war of succession which wracked the Realm a generation ago, as breakaway provinces sought the protection of the Khagan against the rampaging armies of Realmish princes. Now that the throne is secure, the King seeks to claw back lands lost to the Khaganate and others, including the orc- and Chaos-ravaged Old Borderlands.<br />
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<b>The Khaganate of Man</b> is also both an empire and a federation; the spiritual and temporal power of the Khagan and his kin and court operating as a federal government uniting and managing an assembly of nations under his stewardship. It is spread widely over the South and some of the East, and has been moving West. Its law is distinguished from the Realm’s mostly in its nominal autocracy and its legal equality of all the peoples in its borders (although the local laws of sub-nations may complicate matters). Both wizards and clerics find themselves in demand in the Khaganate, though clerics’ organizations are less autonomous than in the Realm, and the legal penalties for evil magics are thorough. The nominal Khagan is Tanë II, but as he is a mere three years old, most of the decision-making is in the hands of his grandmother, the High Dowager Sirret-Cadaloz, a sharp and unsentimental woman.<br />
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<b>The Republic of Man</b> is a league of city-states which engages in maritime trade, located mostly on the shorelines of the West and South. Its culture is worshipful of ancient elven achievements but that worship does not automatically extend to modern members of the elven people. Government and laws vary between city-state to city-state, but most are ruled by some variations of councils of noble families, often half-elven or wizardly in nature. Their religious identity is fractious, with variations of the Realmish faith co-mingling with ostensibly Elven religions.<br />
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<b>The Old Empire of Man</b> toppled the Kingdoms of the Orcs, and ruled much of the known world for centuries, but fell into decadence and from there into the grip of evil Chaos. An isolated rump still exists in the East, squatting in cold deserts and feared and despised by all others. Though many of the clerical orders of the Realm descend ultimately from the Old Empire, the hermit-masters of the Empire’s secret desert lamaseries are seen as terrifying cultists, not co-religionists by Realmish clerics. No one outside the empire has seen the High Hidden One, nominal leader of the Realmish sects.<br />
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To the far North is the <b>League of the Orc-Lords,</b> a fractious alliance of orc chieftains who rule over semi-nomadic clans of orcs, goblins and humans, pressing always against the Realm’s northern borders. In the generation before the current war, most soldiers of the Realm fought in the North. Occasionally a Great Lord unites the clans for a concerted campaign of conquest; given the Realm’s perilous state of war and rebellion, a Great Lord’s army could make great gains indeed.<br />
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Legends place a <b>Secret Isle of the Elves </b>in the ocean to the West, though no elf has given up more details in living memory. Many elves would no doubt make the trip there if they knew where it was.<br />
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There are, broadly speaking, <b>five peoples</b> who inhabit the world. All else are considered beasts or monsters, regardless of their ability to converse with you.<br />
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<b>Humans</b> are all over the place.<br />
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<b>Elves</b> are an ancient people who once ruled the world in a glorious golden age but fucked it all up. Though there are small, sequestered communities of elves within the Realm, secret elven holdfasts are rumoured to exist throughout the world. <br />
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<b>Dwarves</b> are an ancient people who resent the elves for fucking everything up. They exist within the Realm, granted charters to mine by the Electorate Council and forming relationships with local Princes.<br />
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<b>Goblins</b> are older than all of them but don’t care. While many live in the wild places of the world, a large number also live in the Realm, often as part of the rabble of great cities or in bucolic suburbs of burrow-mounds. ‘Goblins’ also includes hobgoblins, bugbears, and sometimes other critters.<br />
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<b>Orcs</b> are an ancient people who invaded the lands of Elves and Dwarves when they fucked up. They are legally ill-tolerated in the Realm but common sights in princes’ guardian retinues or as mercenaries.</div>
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huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153783074694767002.post-56628116739988420512017-04-09T14:54:00.000-07:002017-04-09T14:54:06.309-07:00Into the Depths UpdateThere's an updated version of <a href="http://retiredadventurer.blogspot.ca/2017/04/into-depths-update.html" target="_blank">Into the Depths</a> over on comrade Bell's blog.huthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.com0