tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24332760246556443762024-03-25T14:56:07.538-07:00How Heavy This AxeOld School RPGs and StuffDominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-51681056107536223482024-03-25T14:55:00.000-07:002024-03-25T14:55:31.100-07:00Wandering, Mentally<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXeovIcaFsepLs3aK1Z3URQvMHQQQ8WD7ogjwHEhAtkdhGEVGQk1vNQooT58oK0B-C1974We2drCThE9SrPZd6GaQxU-h99RcgUFhDd4gywsRdijJz_CP00hRgB4n8hoOtCzigVFFiMprI9_ahKFt6BhbVUEUG6kOoFd-tOObK5kL0in_t4326ADNqqz4/s900/428F0B26-1342-417F-8BF4-7968E81A20DD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="900" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXeovIcaFsepLs3aK1Z3URQvMHQQQ8WD7ogjwHEhAtkdhGEVGQk1vNQooT58oK0B-C1974We2drCThE9SrPZd6GaQxU-h99RcgUFhDd4gywsRdijJz_CP00hRgB4n8hoOtCzigVFFiMprI9_ahKFt6BhbVUEUG6kOoFd-tOObK5kL0in_t4326ADNqqz4/s320/428F0B26-1342-417F-8BF4-7968E81A20DD.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My mind, although that should probably be musket smoke</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>I’ve been on holiday in the past week. It’s given me more available thinking time between glasses of wine and plates of fish. That is a bonus, it would seem, given that I have struggled to find time to prep and think about games recently. However, I found my mind wandering away from the actual game I’m running and dwelling on other tangential material. Adventures I’d not finished running for one reason or another, campaigns I’d like to bring to the table, that sort of thing. All of which is fine, and good, but it doesn’t help when the actual game I’m running is about to start. So I have guided myself back mentally to do a little bit of prep everyday for the Grim North whether I like it or not. Generally it turns out I do, after all it is my creation and everyone likes their own brand. However it is important, I believe to allow the mind to wander a little bit too. It is an essential function of minds to do so if we intend to stay creative in the long term. So I’ve noted a few things down in the belief that ideas can often stop ruminating if they are captured in ink and commuted to the page </p><p>It’s interesting, to me, where my attention goes in these moments and there is a definite theme. A few years ago, in the G+ days, I ran a few sessions of an English Civil War era game of Lamentations of the Flame Princess I had devised but I allowed it to fizzle out before it really got going. One of the players had to take a break from our sessions and I placed the game on “hiatus” until their return. Hiatus, the death of campaigns. I never picked it back up, moving on to other things but for whatever reason it has recaptured my imagination. I have no intention of binning off my current Grim North campaign to pick it back up but if I get time to run some extra sessions in the week…</p><p>Ha, there’s no time for that. </p><p>However, in the Grim North this week; a new player joined and the PCs began to explore an abandoned mansion in the Patrician district with the goal of kicking out a bunch of squatters. Good times. </p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-35507221040079611112024-03-23T05:48:00.000-07:002024-03-23T05:48:49.673-07:00Tiny Blogs<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQNzgKPtN2NHUMGYVsqoN0Fh4ngEsyvxiy2jHoxZ1Mkyw4Uw-FKDxfyHg5tsMxokitT2nMDnuoL2uaIAixeAt4H2tFEa90P2hX57zNOlGn8hDcwjdFD7KO4FxKbtAlgK9au-BDjuWKmWZNFA_quh95vDS0aj8ddEcx5dYNlwhd1mhRR5-ayyuiKzQcDU/s940/43ECD2A7-C439-4AFF-83D7-68308B5DE781.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="940" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQNzgKPtN2NHUMGYVsqoN0Fh4ngEsyvxiy2jHoxZ1Mkyw4Uw-FKDxfyHg5tsMxokitT2nMDnuoL2uaIAixeAt4H2tFEa90P2hX57zNOlGn8hDcwjdFD7KO4FxKbtAlgK9au-BDjuWKmWZNFA_quh95vDS0aj8ddEcx5dYNlwhd1mhRR5-ayyuiKzQcDU/s320/43ECD2A7-C439-4AFF-83D7-68308B5DE781.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trees and things. It’s Druid stuff, best steer clear.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I was going to try and do tiny blogs to go along with my tiny prep. I haven’t yet achieved it. Just like daily thoughts on games and things, nothing necessarily too in depth or with an eye on how well it reads. No joy so far.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The tiny prep is going well though. Each day I add something to the Grim North. It’s not necessarily the most useful thing in terms of what might get trotted out for play in the next session but material accumulates.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Organising it is probably the next step. I mostly type things up in Notes on my phone although I’ve been trying to use a journal to hand write things. Handwritten is good, it allows me to doodle maps and draw weird stuff in the margins but it’s not as editable as digital. The chaotic nature of my handwriting is both a feature and a bug. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This week I added some entries to my big f’ing rumour table, drew some smol dungeon maps, gave a a few of them a very basic key, added a couple of NPCs, wrote down the names of some locations to flesh out later and probably most pertinently added some notes on a location the PCs actually expressed an interest in: an abandoned mansion with a huge tree growing out of it.</span></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-71095075441572762292024-03-13T04:10:00.000-07:002024-03-13T04:12:04.893-07:00Pocket Doors<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGnQtUWEJ_Ai5nEVFJdqFtfjbt7d9OAJ2_nf_Oc2dx-3c7x4nLO3sGvKtnyj-T8GJ_SA22VEG0zYqAWsbomvTu1LcP19TpiW7KTlSXmw1mkMBWt8UFna6WDNVTljxKpM-jm861c5rr5JGMYhTyKKamhDiWofuc1Pb4coy0nzfrmnDmc3xVicOZng3_V9I/s626/B4B056E1-6F13-4B50-92EE-B280D77100F4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="626" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGnQtUWEJ_Ai5nEVFJdqFtfjbt7d9OAJ2_nf_Oc2dx-3c7x4nLO3sGvKtnyj-T8GJ_SA22VEG0zYqAWsbomvTu1LcP19TpiW7KTlSXmw1mkMBWt8UFna6WDNVTljxKpM-jm861c5rr5JGMYhTyKKamhDiWofuc1Pb4coy0nzfrmnDmc3xVicOZng3_V9I/s320/B4B056E1-6F13-4B50-92EE-B280D77100F4.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Door magic. It’s a thing<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Pocket Doors are doors you carry around in your pocket. They lead to strange places, generally to Temporal Dead Ends, branches of the time stream that did not come to fruition. These items are generally crafted by the Lords of Synchronicity and the pocket dimensions they lead to used as sanctuaries and safe houses in their unseen war with the Achronos.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This is what happens when one of your players (Hi, Brian *waves*) states he might have to go shopping with his other half instead of playing and that “You have not lived until you have shopped in person for pocket doors.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Because the Grim North is planned as a drop in game, it takes place in a near infinite fantasy city. This leads to mainly city based capers, so each session starts and finishes in town. That way player characters can wander off or rejoin the group mid adventure as suits their availability. It being built on top of the ruins of a thousand civilisations is one way I can introduce a dungeon crawling mode of play. After all the city is almost entirely made of dungeons if you scrape the surface. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Additionally the implementation of secret paths, portals and mystical doors allows other modes to be explored as PCs dimension hop or merely fast travel around the Grim North as a whole without ruining the start and finish in town presupposition. </span></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-21316866464667200342024-03-12T04:07:00.000-07:002024-03-12T04:07:30.831-07:00Achievability and Tiny PrepIRL I’m super busy so I’ve returned to running the Grim North.
This is what’s achievable right now and it’s a lot of fun to run. <div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXgEoaZQhAPUeN5vkI4eFLTrGr25rb1tmHwKjd1SC_z0nadiJGROGQ5y8Z_xWcx59h2DfeGuPanbZ38GVxrUH6CG1W8k9GZLAL6U-KrZR3FcybzbHXgcdcmedF2FE0ObRKt91I7MePaTPVKaREXKc4KMs7fwE2dWlilNjCd3YWko59vZD8j8TTJp6QzI8/s1000/conansnow2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="1000" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXgEoaZQhAPUeN5vkI4eFLTrGr25rb1tmHwKjd1SC_z0nadiJGROGQ5y8Z_xWcx59h2DfeGuPanbZ38GVxrUH6CG1W8k9GZLAL6U-KrZR3FcybzbHXgcdcmedF2FE0ObRKt91I7MePaTPVKaREXKc4KMs7fwE2dWlilNjCd3YWko59vZD8j8TTJp6QzI8/s320/conansnow2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just an average day in the Grim North</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Because I’m short on time I’ve tried to embrace the principals of Tiny Prep. Just doing something every day to contribute to the weekly game is enough to maintain or even spur on my creativity. Tiny Prep is the brainchild of Che Webster of Roleplay Rescue. He’s got a book out on it now, which admittedly I haven’t read but the idea resonates with me. His blog posts on the subject are collected <a href="https://roleplayrescue.com/tag/tiny-prep/">Here</a><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://roleplayrescue.com/tag/tiny-prep/" target="_blank"></a>
I am not a prep heavy GM. I don’t generally have a lot of material prepared in advance. I certainly don’t get involved in virtual table top bells and whistles. I play on line using video chat and theatre of the mind. Some
prep is required however no matter how well developed the ability of the GM to improvise. The reverse is also true; even the most well prepared GM must improvise at some point in response to player action.
In returning to the Grim North I realise how much I have prepared to improvise. There are tables for things, adventure seeds, a big d100 rumour table, omens, weather, small encounter tables for each district of the city, a loot the body table, all things I have created piecemeal over the years to support myself in session. In going the Tiny Prep route I can add one small thing each day that will be useful in session: an NPC name, some detail about and existing NPC, add a room to a smol dungeon, add an entry to a random table, etc. The accumulation of such tiny additions pays off in the long term and often spurs further creativity so more gets done. </div><div><br /></div><div> So, as much learning and playing the systems I have purchased over the years seems like a worthy pursuit I’m focusing on what is achievable right now. After all this is supposed to be fun, not work. </div></div></div>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-87852223919056928102023-12-20T09:12:00.000-08:002023-12-22T08:14:05.765-08:00(Warlock!) The Sleep of the Sword, part 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJby2YmGbgvRI2bymxWeHbnjaMCWKy0mCy0kGBJFOPHkAj5Tot55Mz9HVBS6sWaaVl8GElyp7DTmSwbn7eSDTM4pQUfIAtDiJ1iA78ZgggKlkjYuP1GJKHi-ZYRlEeeKAVZIIzRlJyC3ofcc7Mk5rvAvXjBgNolHW7EsXEuZ4swDeWBQ-xEf67iXGBUOM/s800/D4C89E01-9F6C-4669-A723-8E18016E2E58.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="701" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJby2YmGbgvRI2bymxWeHbnjaMCWKy0mCy0kGBJFOPHkAj5Tot55Mz9HVBS6sWaaVl8GElyp7DTmSwbn7eSDTM4pQUfIAtDiJ1iA78ZgggKlkjYuP1GJKHi-ZYRlEeeKAVZIIzRlJyC3ofcc7Mk5rvAvXjBgNolHW7EsXEuZ4swDeWBQ-xEf67iXGBUOM/s320/D4C89E01-9F6C-4669-A723-8E18016E2E58.jpeg" /></a></div>
Having rescued the ranger from the white faced Unmen, the PCs returned to Beck’s Ford with him and to consult the witch. She used her herbal brews to heal everyone a bit and discussed with the Ranger that the re-manifestation of Varrock’s spirit at the Tower of Memory was probably the catalyst for the increase in Unman activity in the area.
The PCs surmised that the spirit had been taken there by the twisted, one-eyed figure seen clutching a brass urn by the village idiot. The urn obviously contained the remains of the former general and the weird giant was taking him home. <div><br /></div><div> So armed with the knowledge that the Great Bowl where the Tower was located was guarded by the Wyvern of the Wood, they set off into the forest once more. Planning this time to stop whatever was happening with the spirit of the Warlock’s former general. A ritual of some sort was the consensus.
Entering the woods, they encountered a small, wizened being who had set out a stall in the bole of a lighting split tree. He claimed to be a word trader and some PCs parted with silver for the knowledge of particularly interesting words.
Pushing further on they came to the Great Bowl. A desolate depression, where nothing grew opened out before them. In the centre was a rising spire of rock upon which a ruined fortress was situated. A rope bridge stretched from a great horse chestnut tree out to the fortress. Around the base of the tree is a huge, scarred, impossibly old serpent; the Wyvern of the Wood. </div><div><br /></div><div> A long debate with the Wyvern (including freshly purchased words from the word trader) resulted in the PCs pledging to bring to justice thieves that had stolen past it and looted items from the Tower. So have negotiated their way past the huge serpent they crossed the rope bridge and entered the ruins.
Rain poured, and thunder rumbled. By a stroke of luck a flash of lightning silhouetted a twisted being stood on a bridge of fallen masonry about to hurl a rock at the PCs. They joined battle with this creature and mortally wounded it. It revealed the urn containing Varrock’s ashes had been stolen by a townsman who smelled of ale and bitterness. Identifying this as the tavern keeper the PCs rushed back to Becks Ford, believing he was about to perform
Some sort of ritual to summon the dead general’s spirit. </div><div><br /></div><div> At the village it seemed all of the villagers had been invited to the innkeeper’s daughter’s birthday party at the inn. Everyone in the village was making their way there, lured by the promise of free ale.
In the time honoured tradition of PCs everywhere they decided to sneak in the back. Passing Yestin, the village idiot, who proudly showed them the finished security precautions he had added to the inn. Locks to the shutters and bars on the outside of the doors, it looked like they were designed to keep people in rather than out!
Inside they observed the taproom chairs had been arrayed in a circle and the inn-keep and his daughter were making some sort of celebratory speech. Believing something horrible was about to take place the PCs sprung into action upon the revelation that the inn-keep was carrying a concealed yet ornate dagger. Exposed, he plunged the dagger into the nearest villager causing smoke to spill from the urn as Varrock’s spirit began to manifest. A cloudy, dark mass of talons and eyes like burning coals. A big fight then ensued as the PCs simultaneously battled the evil spirit and tried to keep the innkeep and his daughter from sacrificing more villagers to it. Eventually though they killed the inkeep, vanquished the spirit and subdued tue daughter.
There was no celebration. Instead it rained. Soaked and miserable, the villagers hung the daughter in grim silence. The PCs slipped away without ceremony, after all the Church Knights were on there trail and it was probably for the best if no one saw them leave. </div>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-25376694007469378172023-10-10T12:42:00.003-07:002023-10-10T12:44:29.200-07:00(Warlock!) The Sleep of the Sword, part 2<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKyK4ETt4unZXVCM0IlvQgM2WAvSZT386w1VprVyL9wuidlpUeEg2Mm5LYWfgmtQ-Us4Aa9b7ed560i4daZXODA9kau87CsZlnik0zQFg04pTDxX54hZ_QaqpDvnbmw7WxqTXZ8egpE0Bb3WeIL33GrHNFO88JaotKwXM1I6vuFj7xvKzYygb5ZnqrDsM/s768/F5447442-FA1B-4D63-8821-EE89BED35409.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="768" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKyK4ETt4unZXVCM0IlvQgM2WAvSZT386w1VprVyL9wuidlpUeEg2Mm5LYWfgmtQ-Us4Aa9b7ed560i4daZXODA9kau87CsZlnik0zQFg04pTDxX54hZ_QaqpDvnbmw7WxqTXZ8egpE0Bb3WeIL33GrHNFO88JaotKwXM1I6vuFj7xvKzYygb5ZnqrDsM/s320/F5447442-FA1B-4D63-8821-EE89BED35409.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bloody Unmen</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">Alphonse, human noble</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">Jonas, human militiaman</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ogden, human bodyguard</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Having captured the Miller they intimidated him in to revealing that he was indeed trading weapons for unusual silver but he didn’t know who the buyers were. He met them in the forest at night and they were cloaked and hooded. The characters arranged to hold him until his next trade and then follow him into the woods to observe it.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;">Sure enough in a moonlit the Miller trade his boxes of weapons and bags of arrows with figures in voluminous, brown, hooded robes. The characters elected to follow these guys and discovered they were in fact the foul Unmen. Sorcerous hybrids of animal and man, cast off by whatever treacherous magician had engineered their creation. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;">The Unmen had seemingly camped around a huge standing stone that they had defaced with obscene writings and abhorrent illustrations. The characters elected to try and pick off the Unmen sentries with missile fire but were unsuccessful. With the entire camp now roused to search for them a curious thing occurred. Another group of Unmen, white of face and daubed with red paints broke cover from a nearby hiding place and also began to flee. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;">The PCs cleverly pitted these against a group of their pursuers and then followed the victorious White Faced Unmen back to their camp. All signs of pursuit had died away as the characters observed the White Faced Unmen feasting on roasted meats and drinking sloppily from horns of mead and wine. Also they had captured a weather-beaten looking man and strung him up from a tree in a cage made of wooden branches. Ogden was spotted by a revelling Unman but promptly shot him with his crossbow and luckily it seemed as if he had collapsed in a drunken stupor. This gave the characters an idea and they waited until the Unmen had revelled themselves to exhaustion before attempting to rescue the prisoner. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;">They still engaged in a brief fight with the soberest of the white faced Unmen, whilst the others lay stultified with drink. Alphonse the disgraced nobleman was cut several times but the characters triumphed. They liberated the man who identified himself as Kaelin, the missing ranger from Back’s Ford, and the character’s made their way back to the village just as the Sun rose red in the east. An omen perhaps, the times of blood were upon them. </span></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-27602006064387685882023-10-02T10:02:00.003-07:002023-10-02T10:12:59.071-07:00(Warlock!) The Sleep of the Sword, part 1<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi69ruTZ0Ky54-3FdKx2e626T3EuR9cR-P4NqBYg61L5nROZIpXO2-RnwRSyCq-khGel_x4r2-pbxKfTGa7rVKkiQhLG2yJ8Tms9_WXi56D1Fd2MKtbwH_wlYaryvW8Bp5AX8x9FMpxx6LxXa8fK_Xx9INnk23rzV9slN3NRogAMWfR-hj-oMH_gQ4B7oE/s1080/69A582E5-9752-40F9-9C3C-9635C92934A9.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi69ruTZ0Ky54-3FdKx2e626T3EuR9cR-P4NqBYg61L5nROZIpXO2-RnwRSyCq-khGel_x4r2-pbxKfTGa7rVKkiQhLG2yJ8Tms9_WXi56D1Fd2MKtbwH_wlYaryvW8Bp5AX8x9FMpxx6LxXa8fK_Xx9INnk23rzV9slN3NRogAMWfR-hj-oMH_gQ4B7oE/s320/69A582E5-9752-40F9-9C3C-9635C92934A9.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arts by yuriperkowski666</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></p><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Samy, halfling bodyguard</span><p></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">Morben, elf agitator</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">Alphonse, human noble</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">Jonas, human militiaman</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Ogden, human bodyguard</span><span class="s1"></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Whilst on the run from the Church Authorities, wanted for a crime they didn’t commit, this disparate group of itinerant undesirables came to the village of Beck’s Ford. Fleeing from the inflammatory so-called justice of the Church Knights they sought comfort from the dismal rain in the local inn. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">On the way to the village they encountered an abandoned cart. It came replete with bloodstains, damaged trade goods and a trail leading off into the nearby woods. A strange trail with multiple types of unusual footprints. Either it was Unmen , blasphemous hybrids of animal and man, or as the PCs surmised they had found a giant chicken. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Passing this by to hopefully gain more information at the village, they headed straight to the inn. The packed tap room fell silent as they entered until they stated they meant no harm and did in fact have money. The inns occupants matched what they had seen outside. This was a downtrodden place. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">A quick chat with the mayor revealed that there had always been Unmen in this area as one of the Warlocks generals was from around here. His old fortress was located in the woods nearby, although he had been slain at the battle at Herne Hill. Lately though the numbers of Unmen had grown and with it their bravery. Soon no one would be safe. Apparently this had all escalated following the sighting of a twisted, hunchbacked, one eyed giant heading into the nearby woods. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Alas the only eye witness to this was Yestin, the village idiot. Slightly on the paranoid side Yestin was located in the inn’s rear yard, where he had been working on adding additional security precautions. While Ogden and Jonas questioned Yestin the others remained in the bar and Owen the Miller bought them round after round of beers, regaling them with tales of his advanced milling techniques in exhaustive detail. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Yestin stated he had in fact seen the twisted, hunchback and that he was clutching a brass urn. Also he noted that he was heading into the woods in the direction of the Great Bowl, a depression in the earth where nothing would grow. It became apparent that Yestin was a little paranoid believing that most inhabitants of the village would “stab you in the back as soon as look at you.” However he cast aspersions over the Miller’s apparent wealth and suggested the PCs also visit the witch, although not to trust her obviously. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It was apparent that the dilapidated state of the actual windmill was incongruent with the Miller’s affluence so the PCs resolved to check him out further. After exhorting the mayor to put them up, he generously offered up the inn’s common room at no cost. Berthold the inn keeper was less enthusiastic, muttering about being under appreciated and that when he was successful everyone would rue treating with such casual disdain. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Despite being quick drunk at the Miller’s expense the PCs agreed to stand watch and Samy the halfling heard and observed some suspicious activity around the windmill. Someone loading a cart in the middle of the night and driving it into the woods. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Resolved to see the Miller and the witch despite their hang overs Alphonse and Ogden approached the front of the windmill to distract the miller while Jonas and Samy sneaked in the back for a look around. Morben the elf was mostly sick in the bushes, the fortified rosé proving too much for his delicate constitution. Despite making a racket while they broke in, Alphonse covered everyone’s tracks by leveraging the crippling social anxiety the Miller felt at being spoken to by an actual noble, even a disgraced one. Samy and Jonas rooted around inside the mill. Much of the workings appeared in a state of disrepair. It was unlikely the windmill would actually work as such despite the Miller’s claims to advanced <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>flour grinding techniques. What was definitely of interest was crates aid weapons and bags of arrows. Meanwhile the Miller was stating he believed the Unmen threat to be overstated and that it was the fear of the beastmen that was causing more problems than the creatures themselves. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So armed with the knowledge that the Miller was definitely not on the straight and narrow they went to see the witch. The witch cast the bones and consulted the spirits of many small things. She concluded a darkness had returned to the forest and if was not held in check could spread over the whole kingdom. She prophecies plagues of Unmen and rivers of blood. They asked if she could see the Warlock but she refused “That way lies madness and death.” To which Samy the halfling responded “Our business is madness and death.” </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">They resolved to expose the miller’s dodgy dealings. Theories ranged from him selling weapons to the Unmen to simply being some sort of arms dealer. However when ex millitiaman Jonas gave his best “cop knock” on the front door of the mill, the miller fled out the back. Samy and Morben were waiting for him and Samy punched him square in the ankle with her knuckle duster while Morben tries to intimidate him into submission by passive aggressively flinging flower petals at him or some other elf nonsense. Anyway, it failed but he was incapacitated by the halfling’s super low blow. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Next session they’re going to haul him off to the inn and expose his nefarious non-milling activities.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-63284676544932916522023-09-29T12:55:00.000-07:002023-09-29T12:55:00.144-07:00Clearing the Shelves<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip72VVfl2UDXCMYNK6-oPbKLb2a8x_noQSmAOyilJNN6oZfjZc4fTzg3P_4uJS6Fy-93Gsbn4hDIzLAhNlbZi4aSSGyX-RLoFUzOOYPPbbKHflNorTVuehFtf5w-W_wHY7dCoGAC3mAC5_2y23G1YlJNJlY7NByYun4T-qhluNaAmNsnrZKILbp4rOQS0/s612/0BEC33A0-F61B-421B-9147-E677E14277C3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="411" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip72VVfl2UDXCMYNK6-oPbKLb2a8x_noQSmAOyilJNN6oZfjZc4fTzg3P_4uJS6Fy-93Gsbn4hDIzLAhNlbZi4aSSGyX-RLoFUzOOYPPbbKHflNorTVuehFtf5w-W_wHY7dCoGAC3mAC5_2y23G1YlJNJlY7NByYun4T-qhluNaAmNsnrZKILbp4rOQS0/s320/0BEC33A0-F61B-421B-9147-E677E14277C3.jpeg" width="215" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One way to solve the problem of too many RPG books</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">In a flash my old RPG projects are dead and new one has arisen Jesus-like from the ashes.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Indeed I have resolved to play all my unplayed games. At least the ones I have paid actual money for. I seem to have a surprisingly large collection of RPG related books and PDFs I have picked up for nothing but I’m not counting them for now. Just the ones I’ve bought. </span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">At present that is a count of 19 different RPGS. Some of which I am more excited about running than others, it has to be said but the proof will be in the playing. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The List </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><ul class="ul1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; list-style-type: circle;"><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Runequest 2e</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">D6 Star Wars</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP)</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Through Sunken Lands</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Call of Cthulhu, world war cthulhu/ dark ages/legend </span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Runequest Glorantha</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The One Ring 1e</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Crypts and Things Remastered </span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">GOZR </span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Blood of Pangea pdf</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">WFRP 2e</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Black Hack 2e</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Troika</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Empire of the Petal Throne</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Warlock!</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Electric Bastionland</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Macchiato Monsters</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">White Star</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Advanced Fighting Fantasy</span></li></ul><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In order to make this achievable I plan to run one adventure in each system until they’re all done. This flies in the face of my usual methodology of running longer form games. Also some of these are big asks. I have no idea how to actually play The One Ring or Runequest for instance and they’re complicated. Or at least they look complicated. Some are much easier, Blood of Pangea is rules light and the OSR style games are right in my usual wheel house. Through Sunken Lands doesn’t even really need prep being a sword & sorcery version of Beyond the Wall. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In order to determine what to do first I rolled a d19 and the result was Warlock! A modern take on old school British gaming Warlock! is like a mix of WFRP and Fighting Fantasy and it seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun. </span></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-40632267807917960882023-09-27T12:23:00.002-07:002023-09-27T12:24:06.938-07:00The Temple of the Toad Oracle, pt 2 <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaxFBi37YrId3CTGjCjRiaL9Wg3JSoJuMCbsq4qMSu87eJoUVy4P0x2TSzXdJT-5HD_9T63onOCoVw-5yKHPK8mzY64H9erH4wYP-aSOOWBak_nm5eoULXwmXTUWLrBwu5Fkssfv4J9SDp0kgTz_dgiR-0yyjPR6xu9lcLGFisg-cimT_QbfTAAib4K0/s612/015ED8A3-E0B3-488D-AEA1-EB47C56DF181.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="490" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaxFBi37YrId3CTGjCjRiaL9Wg3JSoJuMCbsq4qMSu87eJoUVy4P0x2TSzXdJT-5HD_9T63onOCoVw-5yKHPK8mzY64H9erH4wYP-aSOOWBak_nm5eoULXwmXTUWLrBwu5Fkssfv4J9SDp0kgTz_dgiR-0yyjPR6xu9lcLGFisg-cimT_QbfTAAib4K0/s320/015ED8A3-E0B3-488D-AEA1-EB47C56DF181.jpeg" width="256" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Grim North is no country for old amphibians</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Calypso Seth, M1</div><div>Dögrenn, R1</div><div><br /></div>Having entered the Temple of the Toad Oracle the PCs were faced with a large pool filled with sludgy freezing cold water and millions of thumb sized tadpoles. Attempting to cross it without disturbing the pool seemed unlikely and the failure of anyone to bring a grappling hook was keenly felt. Wading through the pool left them soaked with icy water and about an hour of activity before some form of hyperthermia set in. <div><br /></div><div>Not so lucky was NPC bodyguard Steve who was snatched and carried away by something under the surface of the pool. A hasty exit onto dry land was performed. On the far side of the pool now the PCs were faced with toad statues and stairs leading up to a slime covered door. Thorough inspection of the area revealed one of the stairs featured a pressure plate and also there was a lever artfully carved into one of the statues. So, to pull the lever or not to pull the lever? </div><div><br /></div><div> They pulled it. A concealed door opened up across the pool and they were able to reach it using a handy coracle. In the chamber beyond they encountered an impossibly old being. Either a huge frog so old it looked like a man or a man so old he looked like a frog. Claiming to be the Brewer, he had four crucibles laid out in front of him. He stated that they were toad brews that bestowed the powers of the amphibian gods on the Champion of the Toad Oracle. A being the PCs would have to fight if they intended to consult the oracle. </div><div><br /></div><div> Calypso decided to quaff all four brews and mutated hideously as a result. She began to manifest powerful frog-like legs, froggy eyes on the side of her head, a bulbous neck sack containing a powerful croak and a slimy paralytic secretion exuding from her very skin.</div><div><br /></div><div>They took the coracle through a semi submerged cave rather than return to the stairs of found themselves in the arena of the Toad Dome. Calypso faced the Champion of the Toad Oracle within the Toad Dome but although two entered she did not leave, having been brained by a warty mace. </div><div><br /></div><div> However the sacrifice to the amphibian gods was complete and so they progressed to see the Toad Oracle itself. After solving a frog related riddle, in record time, they were granted an audience with the tiny oracular toad. His cryptic croaks were not much use to their patron who may have discovered the location of the Well of Ophid or may not have. It depends on how many croaks means yes and was that one croak with a pause or two croaks. You can’t put your faith in oracles it would seem.</div>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-79349824093290077102023-09-21T23:00:00.001-07:002023-09-21T23:00:00.150-07:00Solo Dragon Warriors: Creating My Character <p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOF4hWmSBxYJdh4qFcxtZ3Jj0OI63rBU-kQsDV8LlWuHlH2b1ASujwNVe_slos-Ny7fRRwAf_LPhfgGECXv_fbHMfRSbsI_VGpNO4Rg5SiQpbHgsE-yN6CPobs9apAIuw5JEmB72phSTc8-yJOSaULhewDV0vnucu8Wh0q81eLs_nYeDYYoSUSw66d0xM/s1600/A2F6AF7B-BE27-4091-8316-4FD4C716C70E.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1070" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOF4hWmSBxYJdh4qFcxtZ3Jj0OI63rBU-kQsDV8LlWuHlH2b1ASujwNVe_slos-Ny7fRRwAf_LPhfgGECXv_fbHMfRSbsI_VGpNO4Rg5SiQpbHgsE-yN6CPobs9apAIuw5JEmB72phSTc8-yJOSaULhewDV0vnucu8Wh0q81eLs_nYeDYYoSUSw66d0xM/s320/A2F6AF7B-BE27-4091-8316-4FD4C716C70E.jpeg" width="214" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That downbeat survivor look is about right for a Dragon Warriors character<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">With setting and tools squared away; and mechanics being kept simple and non-intrusive; next port of call is character generation: 3d6 down the line, as Gary intended.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Strength 15</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Reflexes 11 </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Intelligence 9</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Psychic Talent 9</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Looks 11</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So this guy is a knight. His above average strength means he’ll have encumbrance (12 items instead of 10) and attack score bonuses. Dragon Warriors rules make knights inherently defensive fighters, using better armour and defence scores than the more offensive barbarian profession with its ability to go berserk. So he’ll be skilled with his shield and in tracking, as per the rule book. I figure since he’s travelling alone he is independent and probably come off worse in a few fights. I couldn’t think of a satisfactory name or back story so I’m leaving this blank for now, to be filled in later. Expressing all this in a more FKR style looks like:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Nameless Knight</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Strong</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Enduring</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Scarred</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Swordskill</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Shield</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Tracking </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Armour: Coat of Plates, mail-shirt </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Gear (12 items plus Backpack) </span></p><ol class="ol1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Bedroll</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Lantern (plus Flint and Tinder)</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Oil</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Sword</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Dagger</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Shield</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Rations (7days)</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Wineskin</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></li><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></li></ol><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Ok, then. Ready for adventure….</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></<b><b></b></b>p></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-30654071617536353182023-09-19T01:42:00.001-07:002023-09-19T11:57:35.829-07:00Solo Dragon Warriors <p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdh9k1UtWULyvcVLCP8KESYDQB4cYsHomFmN63XMzytssV1wngSqnTnZgfYgHs3WW5naxjid4VB40t55QuGvka0g_tfqG3Ng-NjY7d_aLoGOUP-X822hlWflLc2HEXbT9Eop8x6TbKzZZzcsouO3ZLFSp2dyQfabbiVWoyjwgdt2wI8F8Ij-v7w96ObQ/s2205/C082CBFD-8B17-49FA-AB70-8E399C55C660.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2205" data-original-width="1654" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdh9k1UtWULyvcVLCP8KESYDQB4cYsHomFmN63XMzytssV1wngSqnTnZgfYgHs3WW5naxjid4VB40t55QuGvka0g_tfqG3Ng-NjY7d_aLoGOUP-X822hlWflLc2HEXbT9Eop8x6TbKzZZzcsouO3ZLFSp2dyQfabbiVWoyjwgdt2wI8F8Ij-v7w96ObQ/s320/C082CBFD-8B17-49FA-AB70-8E399C55C660.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This random encounter lacks balance</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Currently I have time for one campaign. Prep time and play time enough for one session a week which is on a Sunday evening. As many of us would I would like to have more gaming time. My friend Alex is an advocate of playing solo RPG. I have been aware of this. For example The One Ring RPG has Strider Mode which is a supplement for you to play alone.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Playing this way, as both player and GM, flies in the face of my preferred play style. I’m a traditional sort of gamer, I like the GM to provide the setting and the PCs to explore it. Having control of both sides of the equation is to have total authorial control of the game and we’re into the territory of the types of story games that are not to my taste. However I’m firmly of the opinion that unless you try something, your opinion on the matter is fairly inconsequential. For example when I was trying to get a game of BECMI D&D going at an RPG club in the city almost about ten years ago, I struggled for players. So instead I ended up joining a table playing FATE Accelerated every week for fourteen weeks. So I can unequivocally state: I despise FATE. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So how does this solo thing work? I always want a Legend based game on the go. Dragon Warriors is in my blood after all. I mean for so many reasons, not just because it was my first RPG but the pull of nostalgia is strong. Also this is a setting that lives large in my brain, so imagining myself into it is less of a stretch than something more esoteric like Tékumel. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In order to get started I took a lot of inspiration from Ironsworn, which is good and free; and conveniently also depicts a downbeat, pseudo Dark Age, low fantasy setting. For solo play Ironsworn uses Oracles, or random tables as I prefer to call to them, to provide prompts from</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">which to construct the scenario which your character is going to experience. I have conveniently created my own Spark Tables which will come into play here <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Also as the themes on Ironsworn are somewhat similar to Dragon Warriors the tables therein don’t require much adaptation for Legend. Random Encounter tables and B/X D&D style reaction rolls are going to be extremely useful as well. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">For mechanics I’m intending on taking a fairly FKR approach to resolutions. There will already be potentially quite a lot of dice rolling involved in consulting tables for scenario construction and developing the environment. I don’t want to get bogged down with mechanics. Ironsworn uses a PBTA approach but fortunately the tables are system agnostic so I can divest myself of those rules and use my own. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Basically I’ll keep everything to a 2d6 (with bonuses) roll as much as possible and add relevant rules as they come up. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I’m going to journal the adventure as it transpires. It won’t be literature, or even a play report just recording what happens in whatever format suits at the time. The whole point of this is to be flexible, having short spells of gaming in random slots of free time and seeing where it goes. There is definitely space in my psyche for a game that doesn’t require too much thought or worry. I’m excited to see what happens. </span></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-27716324361890161452023-09-12T13:30:00.001-07:002023-09-12T13:30:00.136-07:00Other Realms of the Grim North <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgocHMV3RthfseCWG0eltk9VrGKB1B7Nv-TXRk8SGxA2JpozKc1-PPm1dQ48SKZYYKEnO24HUql5zCgGaF8zQTFbLSwWfCYQz2-54x4zNMlqv08itXMsIgOCgTCG9i5H_6JR3UbQHD9jS5AfsSZpOxd7ZTHGpWsYuk6ZxkaY0ZwyMhtarmRnY424f1G_cE/s1680/A0A30815-9514-4323-A669-E27FC1A46DE0.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="1680" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgocHMV3RthfseCWG0eltk9VrGKB1B7Nv-TXRk8SGxA2JpozKc1-PPm1dQ48SKZYYKEnO24HUql5zCgGaF8zQTFbLSwWfCYQz2-54x4zNMlqv08itXMsIgOCgTCG9i5H_6JR3UbQHD9jS5AfsSZpOxd7ZTHGpWsYuk6ZxkaY0ZwyMhtarmRnY424f1G_cE/s320/A0A30815-9514-4323-A669-E27FC1A46DE0.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This way to adventure, and by adventure we mean death</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">t is explicit on the Big F’ing Rumour Table that it is possible to access other dimensions from hidden doors and portals within the city.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">For example:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span></p><ol class="ol1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The Copper Door in the Spirals leads to other planes of existence. </span></li></ol><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Which planes of existence is obviously the subject of further conjecture. Such things are studied and debated in the draughty halls of the Immaterial University. Academics are somewhat divided on the existence of the Farthest Black for instance. How would such a place manifest? Are incidents believed to be caused by breaches from said dimension evidence of anything other than the fact that outside the reality of the Grim North things are not very nice? Also there is debate whether it is the same thing as the Outer Dark or they are in fact two distinct realms so alien to our own that comprehend of their nature is impossible. It is hard to determine such things when travel seems to be one way and breachers from both dimensions seem to be as far beyond demons, as demons are to humans. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Seemingly, the Gloom is everywhere (and nowhere) at once. A shadowy reflection of our reality. Travellers there do so supposedly by detaching their spirits from their physical body, because to transport your material form there risks it being lost in the Gloom. While it is not as well populated as the Material Realm there are things that lurk, and they are nearly all hostile to humanity. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The Wyrd is a hotly debated subject in places where such things are actually debated. The actual existence of the Wyrd as a force or as a dimensional location are unresolved in scholastic circles. That things, people and places are Wyrd Touched is evident by the strange effects it has upon them. There are no written records known of travel to the Wyrd Realms and if anyone living has achieved such a feat and returned they are not making themselves known. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Similarly it is believed there are doors and pathways that lead to all sorts of other strange places. The River Skarrion is reputed to have secret branches that allow boats to cover vast distances in short spaces of time. If the River Priests even know of these it seems they’re not telling. Likewise the Plane of Gennera, which rumours suggest to be populated by talking animals and weird puppet children, can be access from various locations within the city. Travellers can even make their way to the Moon of the Grim North if they can locate the correct door, although tales tell of strange arks and temples of incomprehensible geometry populated by faceless monks and twisted giants. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It’s probably safer to stay at home. </span></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-20819328339834144622023-09-05T12:02:00.005-07:002023-09-05T12:05:31.404-07:00Grim Sorcery<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg6elPnf7MkuhcaZUxmv9YTpvTryPMeVcGVKvLK3bPh8OD1vEa0ydo0WER8Dtd4dbR4jHTcFyT6Jq8gI2TMx7qo4T-Hqw5_ZDo4nAGD6u0EXAsJdUzTBdEkb5ICl8tD0eTr_PXNbApE-dRRX0laNeLjmIcirSLbzUFkN6B0zu-ooSVC_gEgRDuSDMs11k/s1457/18A73BF6-DF0B-42BA-B37E-404BFAF78D66.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1457" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg6elPnf7MkuhcaZUxmv9YTpvTryPMeVcGVKvLK3bPh8OD1vEa0ydo0WER8Dtd4dbR4jHTcFyT6Jq8gI2TMx7qo4T-Hqw5_ZDo4nAGD6u0EXAsJdUzTBdEkb5ICl8tD0eTr_PXNbApE-dRRX0laNeLjmIcirSLbzUFkN6B0zu-ooSVC_gEgRDuSDMs11k/s320/18A73BF6-DF0B-42BA-B37E-404BFAF78D66.png" width="176" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like sorcery but grim, and northern…</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The rules for Grim Sorcery are constantly subject to review. This is because I’m trying out various things to get the feel I want for magic in the Grim North, that Conan-risqué Sword and Sorcery vibe that is essentially missing from most versions of Dungeons and Dragons if we’re going RAW.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In the Grim North we want magic to feel like something ancient, powerful and if we’re honest; something us mortals should probably leave well enough alone. Player characters are not generally renowned for their sensible approach to such things however so, let’s face it, they’re going to steep themselves as deeply as humanly possible in the darkest, most foul sorcery they can find. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Good. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So grim sorcery has spell lists. Each relates to one of the much vaunted (admittedly, only by me) thousand dead civilisations that the Grim North is built atop the ruins of. Each long dead culture has its own ancient language in which its magic is written and if you speak that language then you can learn the spells of said ancient civilisation. Hence we don’t need artificial constructs such as Read Magic spells; if you can read Sepulchral, the grave tongue of accursed Xidia then you can acquire the secrets of those ancient death magicians. Although clearly there is some small risk attached. Folk can’t simply go stomping all over the Grim North turning up forbidden secrets and expect those secrets not to stomp back. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So it might be that OSR D&D isn’t going to cut it or maybe it will. We’re playing online where simplicity of rules seems to be king. So keeping it sorcerous but simple is probably the way forward for now. One of the players has rolled up a wizard as his reserve character do we’ll see how it works out in the game should that come to pass. Theorising will only get us so far after all, the proof is in the play. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-42868459957410231942023-08-28T09:58:00.000-07:002023-08-29T04:45:31.830-07:00A Few House Rules of the Grim North<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-spDnU5VWqSfZ14AFUFoId_Rn0XB5prQWkr-1h273yoF7g6LB1SFotURe_f695ytFrKFIDoW-a7qEbYxNEuGuP7mdCC6Q7zoW0MK7Oz6YYYC2mntSDyndGQTSxjKW8rjgxn6R9qKqDHPI6eyEDPBeWgEl0Mxu9MPRFzC3ohIarIUE9wOROXvnZDmKsHo/s728/CA12FB1A-A4F4-4AEC-86DE-8FA9F5384F66.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="728" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-spDnU5VWqSfZ14AFUFoId_Rn0XB5prQWkr-1h273yoF7g6LB1SFotURe_f695ytFrKFIDoW-a7qEbYxNEuGuP7mdCC6Q7zoW0MK7Oz6YYYC2mntSDyndGQTSxjKW8rjgxn6R9qKqDHPI6eyEDPBeWgEl0Mxu9MPRFzC3ohIarIUE9wOROXvnZDmKsHo/s320/CA12FB1A-A4F4-4AEC-86DE-8FA9F5384F66.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">“Let’s go over there and do adventuring or whatever”</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Criticals and Fumbles: On an attack roll of natural 20 or natural 1 a further roll on the critical or fumble table will be required. (These are still works in progress but there were a few criticals rolled in the first session and I was pleased with how they resolved.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Conan’s Rule: Once per session a PC may regain 1d4 hit points by imbibing a container <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(be it flask, bottle, skin or large mug) of strong drink.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">I Cut, You Choose: When performing combat manoeuvres the attacker states the desired result, makes their normal attack roll and the defender chooses whether to accept the manoeuvre or take normal damage</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Shields Shall Be Splintered: This classic OSR rule means a PC may choose to absorb all the damage of an attack on their shield but it is destroyed in the process.</span></p></span>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-45314091004270832032023-08-21T03:31:00.000-07:002023-08-21T03:32:36.608-07:00Grim North Session 1: Into the Temple of the Toad Oracle<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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Rufus Rose, F1 <div>Pandora Set, T1 </div><div>Dögrenn, R1 </div><div><br /></div><div>In Nox Aeterna, city of Eternal
Night, it was dark and smoky in the cans only bar at the Secret Shack of
Mercenaries, Sellspears and Blades for Hire. Three ne’er do wells perused the
board marked “Jobs.” It had three handwritten notes pinned to it: </div><div><br /></div><div>Escort Sion
Malafice to the Temple of the Toad Oracle, beneath the Stilt District: 450sp </div><div><br /></div><div>Recover foreign family heirloom from notorious con man Edmund Eldermeans: 400sp </div><div><br /></div><div>Evict squatters from the formerly abandoned Von Keinlen mansion: 425sp </div><div><br /></div><div>Deciding
that con men were notoriously difficult to pin down and that they were
dangerously close to being squatters themselves, they decided to peruse the
escort job. Outside, in the Spirals, it was snowing moderately as the PCs passed
the abandoned church of Garuul and observed the disused fairground where the
lights of the Wheel of Wyrd still turned, unattended for over a hundred years.
They crossed the river via the Pauper’s Bridge and entered the gentrified
district of Rivershore. Beset by ironic beards and espadrilles they forged
onward until they were accosted by a smartly dressed urchin seeking charitable
donations for the blind, deaf, mute, plague ridden orphans of the parish.
Dögrenn’s charitable nature got the better of him and he donated a silver piece. </div><div><br /></div><div>They crossed into the Stilt District. The ancient residents of this area feared
their terrible, cthonic gods so much they built their houses on stilts to be as
far away from them as possible. In the Broken Hare tavern, they sampled the three
stouts on offer (Grimniss, Night Porter, Ticket Stout) and met with Sion
Malafice. Accompanied by two thugs the golden robed, black masked Malafice
explained that they wished to consult the Toad Oracle but it’s temple was
located in a part of the undercity that was rife with cannibal mole men and
voracious white alligators. </div><div><br /></div><div>Just then thugs from the Lightfinger ACs burst into
the tavern demanding the money that Malafice owed them. He responded by
directing the PCs to deal with this for him, after assuring them that he was
good for their fee (it’s not that he couldn’t afford to pay the thieves back, it
as the rate of interest he was disputing) Dora erupted from the shadows and
fatally backstabbed the lead thug, unfortunately she then caught a plank of wood
with several nails in it to the face and was slain. Battle ensued. Dögrenn was
temporarily blinded by his own blood but the thugs were defeated, the last one
being tripped to the ground by the newly appeared Calypso. </div><div><br /></div><div>As they crossed the
Stilt District, Rufus discovered a sack cloth doll that represents a little girl; however the eyes had been torn out and ragged stuffing protruded from the holes.
Heading down into the drainage tunnels they found the spoor of white alligators
but there was no sign of the actual beasts. Supposedly they were the de rigeur
pet of the Patrician class some years ago but we’re then discarded into the Undercity once they were no longer sufficiently fashionable. </div><div><br /></div><div>They arrived at the entrance the the Temple of the Toad Oracle without any major
incident. Steps lead down to a platform facing a huge pool, a hundred feet
across, sludgy with ice and swarming with tadpoles the size of a human thumb. A
significant amount of planning then ensued taking us to the end of the evening’s
session.</div>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-38146813979830626942023-08-17T00:32:00.000-07:002023-08-18T00:52:22.728-07:00The Grim North Returns<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicW5zQ6zUtQy-VY5_38051qjNpzCOniN3ihpUveCG_ZGRfkdk-vxcNVJihZVBDaGC-e4AoH91g5PJMVM43u-49cuJ5Jxd_tSsBO65WKp6i7Yqr8CqIZFZKAU0Px7llEFUrq-BsKRRS-sJ2TMT1JGM_Bzcl6X2zdhsyU7398GCQN4eRmBVlBGPusjVLbR4/s777/9A477A60-B7D1-44B7-854A-18B3E6728B20.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="777" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicW5zQ6zUtQy-VY5_38051qjNpzCOniN3ihpUveCG_ZGRfkdk-vxcNVJihZVBDaGC-e4AoH91g5PJMVM43u-49cuJ5Jxd_tSsBO65WKp6i7Yqr8CqIZFZKAU0Px7llEFUrq-BsKRRS-sJ2TMT1JGM_Bzcl6X2zdhsyU7398GCQN4eRmBVlBGPusjVLbR4/s320/9A477A60-B7D1-44B7-854A-18B3E6728B20.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a great plan</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </p>
Like seriously, for real this time. I did run an online con game set in the Grim North a couple of years ago but essentially now is the time to bring it back as a campaign. Something I feel excited about.
Time is against me. Not just me, I realise, but I don’t have a lot of time to prep and play games. The Grim North is probably the easiest thing for me to get to the table because it exists entirely in my mind. There is no referencing of source books or whatever. I have notes and random tables and so forth but any lore comes from me. I don’t have to concern myself with adherence to any particular aesthetic for the setting. When I run the Old World or even Legend I have considerations about whether my additions are consistent with the fictional coherence of those worlds. Not so with the Grim North. This is the great advantage of crafting your own setting. When I was trying to decide what to run after WFRP ended abruptly, I was sat in the garden and surprisingly for a summers evening (even in England,) there was a chill on the wind. It felt like the Grim North was calling me home.
Of course it helps that I have been quietly tinkering away on the material in the background of whatever else I was playing or running at the time. So, while I sometimes feel the need to try out new systems and settings I always seem to return to the one that I devised to run over hangouts in the G plus days. It was intended for drop in/ drop out, open world play in a giant fantasy city. It uses old school D&D rules for ease but could really run with anything if I set my mind to it. There are no overarching narratives, it supports emergent storytelling. The stories we tell of our adventures in the Grim North are crafted after the events. Characters explore and interact with the setting, it’s an old school method. Because it springs directly from my imagination it’s dark and whimsical, and it hates pretension.
It’s the campaign in the old sense. The story isn’t about player characters necessarily, they are often fragile but their actions can permanently alter the setting. Alvis of the Jug might be dead, poisoned by White Spider venom in the Grimwood, but the Alleyway Brotherhood are still on the warpath after he stole Gary’s Nan’s recipe for scones.
The time is right. It’s dark and smoky in the Secret Shack of Mercenaries, Sellspears and Blades for Hire, outside it’s snowing (moderately) and the Grim North awaits…Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-36479450072331010642023-08-16T11:45:00.004-07:002023-08-16T12:01:22.874-07:00Endhammer<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5PF9PubOf2Lo9z6Xo3L2w2aZg8yPJj_UeNTL37JXCX2Vy6mzNVCqqUyHi4p5OfHOQ7oDL2B4Yqeek-ukrOG_yB-Uft49Vm-xToratWyryF_A145nZSuNFDVMfCJNGexaeWIb2oStUdeTogCdZ8CaluoHuiTZVWmK1L-8Tz5kaTiwJWj3gXGbGJ5SPfc/s648/17E3905B-A863-412C-AE36-FD62DE027242.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="463" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5PF9PubOf2Lo9z6Xo3L2w2aZg8yPJj_UeNTL37JXCX2Vy6mzNVCqqUyHi4p5OfHOQ7oDL2B4Yqeek-ukrOG_yB-Uft49Vm-xToratWyryF_A145nZSuNFDVMfCJNGexaeWIb2oStUdeTogCdZ8CaluoHuiTZVWmK1L-8Tz5kaTiwJWj3gXGbGJ5SPfc/s320/17E3905B-A863-412C-AE36-FD62DE027242.jpeg" width="229" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aaargh! Ian Miller trees!</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My 1st edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign has come to an end after just over a year and about 30 sessions. Why did it end? Death, lots of death.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But before we talk endings, let’s review the beginning: This is my second campaign of WFRP set in the town of Ravenstein. I originally chose it because it had a cool sounding name and not much associated lore, so I could just make lots of stuff up about it. The set up for both campaigns was that PCs were all orphans, survivors of the same orphanage, and that common bond was what tied them together as a group of what otherwise would have been fairly disparate individuals. In fact one PC spanned both campaigns as a result, despite two largely different player groups. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My personal vision of WFRP hews close to the aesthetic of “alcoholic gamblers knifing cultists in back alleys.” I have never had a non-human PC or single orc rear their ugly head with either group. I could write a long post about what I think are appropriate setting elements for WFRP but <a href="http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/10/bringing-down-hammer-part-12-my-own.html?m=0" target="_blank">this blog</a> does </span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">it more justice. While I sometimes struggle with games that have a throng aesthetic to maintain, it easier after all to follow the kitchen sink approach to fantasy of early D&D than the low fantasy folklore and horror of Dragon Warriors, I also believe you’ve got to go where the game takes you. This is how you end up with a chicken footed wizard’s apprentice in the group, as well as a one armed Chaos mechanoid that floats around off the ground rather than walks. Or at least it is if you start rolling for mutations on the glorious d1000 table in Slaves to Darkness. I guess once you include a piece of warp stone in the game, there’s no getting the worms back in the can and the campaign was better for it.</span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">After all the orphans burned down their former orphanage, forced some children into a life of crime, murdered several completely innocent people for money and ultimately all died in a high stakes bid to take over the criminal underworld of Ravenstein. Although the mechanoid did return to life like Arnold in Terminator 2, rebooting by use of his last fate point, to bite off the head of albino gangland boss Kurt Weiss in a spectacular critical attack (only to to have his ruined mechanoid body smashed to pieces by Weiss’s surviving henchman, and new crime Lord of the city, Some Random Guy.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So yes, we ended on a total party kill. It was glorious, totally fitting, and as with so many of these things could have easily gone the other way with a few better dice rolls on the PCs’ side. Still we’re done with WFRP for now, although a return to Ravenstein could always be on the cards at some point. After all, we never did find out what Little Herman did to deserve a steel crossbow bolt to the spine and a summary burial in the cellar of a burned down pub on Hexennacht.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-36518690597174140052021-12-14T15:45:00.000-08:002021-12-14T15:45:09.409-08:00Christmas Specials<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">Christmas Scenarios are somewhat of a tradition in the world of Legend. If only because Dave Morris’ group plays a Christmas special every year and the scenario ends up on his blog as a Christmas gift to well behaved children everywhere. So, in an attempt to emulate this I wanted to do something similar for my Dragon Warriors players for Christmas 2020. However, instead of a one off special I was looking to integrate it into our long running campaign if possible.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh98SwP6Q7qX7hNs8L8AKXiupa4evpZn2OY3Ga6FNX4DmUjoR7bS6da8oU17PsSHmLxadGNbTW47J4vTfOb-iJEUh44OT3WoKjVIRNkEb56paqMhWwpHyXhGbC7dZXtOw4wRX8xGBJBSpLADukZd_Fe2_1nGuRT59oOKO49phT-cDvyqYYe3z2n-ZJb=s620" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="620" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh98SwP6Q7qX7hNs8L8AKXiupa4evpZn2OY3Ga6FNX4DmUjoR7bS6da8oU17PsSHmLxadGNbTW47J4vTfOb-iJEUh44OT3WoKjVIRNkEb56paqMhWwpHyXhGbC7dZXtOw4wRX8xGBJBSpLADukZd_Fe2_1nGuRT59oOKO49phT-cDvyqYYe3z2n-ZJb=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">However, what makes a Christmas scenario? I sat down with my notebook and the internet and a large mug of mulled wine to think it over. Setting a game in Legend is useful in this respect. Being a close but no cigar version of our own late dark/early Middle Ages there is already analogue Christianity in the form of the True Faith so it stands to reason there would be an analogue Christmas feast. Plus we have a load of scenarios set around that time on the Fabled Lands blog to draw from.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Therefore, there is a rich vein of winter feast related lore to mine both from Christian and pagan traditions IRL, and their Legend equivalents. So make it Christmassy but also make it good. And not too Christmassy, this is Legend so let’s not let anyone have any actual fun (ha.) Seriously though Legend games require a deft balance between the mundane and the magical, this a setting of grim myth, folklore and horror grounded in a version of historical reality. Atmosphere is key. Christmas here should feel like a magical time but not a fantastic one. Let’s leave that sort of thing to our RPG cousins playing in high fantasy settings like Eberron. The atmosphere we’re after is O Magnum Mysterium or Coventry Carol, an eerie time of year rather than a a joyful one. It’s the Bleak Midwinter not Decking the Halls.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What approach then to keep it seasonal but not turn it into Asda in early November, with Cliff Richard on the store radio and mince pies on the shelves despite the fact that it’s definitely still autumn outside? We’re not doing a hostage rescue on Santa, for instance. There is always the Die Hard route of just setting it at Christmas time. John McLean taking on euro terrorists in a skyscraper isn’t the most festive pitch for a movie, except that it’s set at an office Christmas Party (leading many to state that Christmas doest start until Hans Grüber falls from the Nakatomi Plaza…) Dave Morris own Silent Night scenario (or mini campaign) goes down this route, essentially being a ghost story with the Christmas Feast as the backdrop. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Whilst grasping at straws a minor epiphany occurred to me. My Dragon Warriors games are often at their heart a clash of traditions as the old pagan world slowly fades in the face of the new Faith. There are many Christmas traditions that have an obvious source and others where we pay no mind to their origins. For instance, if I were to do a straw poll of my friends and family, few of them would be able to tell me why people started placing a tree in their house at this time of year.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Plus I had watched the Hogfather on TV (it was rather good) and it had me in mind of repurposed traditions. The Old Gods doing new jobs, much like the faeries of Legend. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The characters in my DW games are already marginalised people at the edges of feudal society. They’re lordless wanderers, outcasts and itinerant mercenary types. Getting involved in forgotten traditions, that are important but no one else knows or cares about, is right up their street. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So, why does an old man climb the Dritenwood Tor every Christmas Eve and light a warding fire at the summit? It’s to keep the Cold Lady out of this reality, of course, but what happens if he dies? Who lights the fire, and if no one does would the Cold Lady really appear? More on that next time I feel. </p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-78027898195328602462021-10-10T21:52:00.002-07:002021-10-10T21:52:46.376-07:00The Hour Game<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Fv2unvCRGpXyTC0yJi5sn8em8FclMiDbQzRCsbaBLbRuFWiI43T6KbZSf91PvNfuz91DL1YFLxc0F6a1-vvwY5f3Lua0RZOi76wq41hP157fA5AeM77ub7IWeTB11gBxwsZMUPiU-g8/s337/4B1FA1E3-B27F-4390-BFD0-00A4C5A89248.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Fv2unvCRGpXyTC0yJi5sn8em8FclMiDbQzRCsbaBLbRuFWiI43T6KbZSf91PvNfuz91DL1YFLxc0F6a1-vvwY5f3Lua0RZOi76wq41hP157fA5AeM77ub7IWeTB11gBxwsZMUPiU-g8/s320/4B1FA1E3-B27F-4390-BFD0-00A4C5A89248.jpeg" width="214" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is no goblin, no dragon, no black Ssú that is my greatest enemy in all of role playing games. It’s time. Time is against me. Work, life, family, social commitments all require time. Multiply this by the number of persons required to form the average gaming group and suddenly we hit time’s evil hench-thing, scheduling. Getting all the players together in the same room or online at the same time can be the greatest challenge facing any would be adventurer. Usually on my games it’s me that is the problem. At the moment this is definitely the case. Too much non-gaming stuff is intruding into my gaming time. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">However this weekend we found if not a solution, then a compromise. The Hour Game. Number one weapon against Time itself. It might seem, when the average online session is probably three hours, that an hour isn’t enough time to play a meaningful episode of any game but bear with me.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Firstly our campaign is already established. We’ve been playing Dragon Warriors Yamato for a number of months now and the PCs know what they’re about. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Secondly we usually play for two hours with a tea break at the halfway point. When I say two hours, probably the first quarter hour is taken up with general chatting and catching up. After all we might be an online group but we’ve been together for in excess of five years and while I may never have physically met half the players we’re all friends. So in order to remain focussed during the actual hour of gaming some of the guys came on a bit early to chat, after all we haven’t seen each other for five weeks prior to this session. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Once we reached the start of the hour, I gave a quick recap and then we cracked on. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Staying focussed on the matter at hand with as little digression as possible we were able to gain a functional session in a time when something longer wouldn’t have been possible given my current time constraints. A victory then. The experiment continues next week... after all two of the PCs have now pledged allegiance to opposing sides in the mountain-storm spirit war</p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-71872192672881126962021-09-12T23:57:00.000-07:002021-09-12T23:58:39.192-07:00A Tale of Reckoning <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVF58ln5SadsBVsveI9gfIyCzgx_VHr_kUVmneEItNFoNBIo4vRUXjE2rXb33aLyMeQWQ5MdgH3fmDsIYGf5JTBSjjAbz37XSEQnj1ub_FeB2UA7_MjR0433cMIAY8FYYgrFb-8horco/s568/A1A0F7BB-D68B-490C-95D8-241944F9AD3A.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="568" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVF58ln5SadsBVsveI9gfIyCzgx_VHr_kUVmneEItNFoNBIo4vRUXjE2rXb33aLyMeQWQ5MdgH3fmDsIYGf5JTBSjjAbz37XSEQnj1ub_FeB2UA7_MjR0433cMIAY8FYYgrFb-8horco/s320/A1A0F7BB-D68B-490C-95D8-241944F9AD3A.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">“</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic;">They dragged the treacherous Sir Mortimer out into the chill of the desert morning. He had dogged their footsteps since Albion, aiding their enemies in Ferromaine and siding with the Knights of St Swithun to oppose them in the Holy Land. Aethelbald and Sir Raymond held him, and Sir Friewich struck off his head with the barrow blade. There would be no bargain.”</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This was one of the high points of my five year long Dragon Warriors campaign, where the PCs were faced with a fairly significant choice. For this campaign began as a simple one shot where I was going to run DW for some G+ folks who I didn’t really know. However my inability to be concise and neatly tie up plot threads meant that the game just dragged on and was all the better for it. The simple tale of a journey to petition the bishop for funds for a friend’s church roof quickly spiralled (downward?) into a tale of relic theft, priest murder and faerie weirdness. So, standard Legend stuff then. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sir Mortimer began as an entry on a random table of knights I created for the game. He was a sell sword with a questioning speech tick and a business like attitude that meant he didn’t believe anything was personal. Even betraying the PCs location to their enemies and assisting with the kidnap of their friend’s betrothed and shipping her halfway across the world. It’s safe to say that the PCs took a different view.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Having followed the eponymous hostage to Ferromaine they were able to rescue her from her father’s agents but allowed Sir Mortimer to slip through the net. He later resurfaced in Outremer as the PCs were attempting a dangerous trip behind the battle lines of the Crusdades in Zenhir to carry out a potentially very profitable spice trade. Now allied with the Knights of St Swithun, a crusading order of zealous heretic burners that had first crossed paths with our protagonists in session one, he sought to beat them to the Zenhiri saffron barons and establish an exclusive trade route.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Indeed he did so and the PCs only caught up with him after his armed pilgrimage was ambushed by fanatical Zenhiri tribesmen. Much like Xenophon camped by the ruins of Nineveh, the Knights of St Swithun fled into a ruined city in the desert. Here, a tense three-way game of cat and mouse developed as tribesmen, knights and PCs all hunted each other in the demon haunted remnants of this once great city. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The final confrontation with Sir Mortimer found him wounded and alone, offering not battle but a bargain. He had hidden the saffron but offered to share it with the characters if they gave their word to see him safely back to a neutral port...</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This put the players in a tricky situation. They had put considerable effort and time (both in game and out) into this expedition. The silver they had been staked to buy the saffron was lost to misadventures in Ibrahim, so their intention had been to steal the spice from Sir Mortimer and the Knights. However, now the only way to profit was to provide succour to their enemy and form a temporary alliance for the sake of financial gain. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Instead they chose revenge. </p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-78559936631054748372021-09-06T02:47:00.000-07:002021-09-06T02:50:03.473-07:00The Inescapable Green-ness of the Other Grass<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBssk6zyye6KN9pC-nfE79lqb31ElCW6IjYVtqyvM3ilY-fnR7t-2wlY4XV-E0HUV0frGiPbqjGA24CiFjwvDvbt6kcJV5vuZF3AVnEaawmiblKtIscxRNgr5Ri7m1dkfRYX6dqqrA0Y/s612/D2675B98-44C9-43BC-BDC8-FF8B19F8703C.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="612" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBssk6zyye6KN9pC-nfE79lqb31ElCW6IjYVtqyvM3ilY-fnR7t-2wlY4XV-E0HUV0frGiPbqjGA24CiFjwvDvbt6kcJV5vuZF3AVnEaawmiblKtIscxRNgr5Ri7m1dkfRYX6dqqrA0Y/s320/D2675B98-44C9-43BC-BDC8-FF8B19F8703C.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">Unrealistic RPG obsessions: I have these, i.e. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">I would love to run a long campaign of.... (insert game I barely understand)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;"> but I don’t have the time or inclination to learn what must be learned (Glorantha, I am looking at you). I’m currently on gaming hiatus for various reasons and my ASE and Dragon Warriors Yamato campaigns are temporarily suspended. The other group I play in is also halfway-ish through an Alien RPG scenario run by my good friend Alex although that is also on ice until I can return to it. However, in recent times managed to tick off a few games from my RPG bucket list. So on reflection maybe these obsessions aren’t so unrealistic.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I posted ages ago that I wanted to run WFRP, Talislanta and GURPS but probably never would. I have, in fact, run short campaigns of both WFRP 1e and Talislanta 4e since then; and played in a WFRP game as a player exploring Castle Drachenfels and getting beaten up by the furniture. GURPS however, remains on the unlikely-to-play pile for the next foreseeable lifetime. Probably a good thing. I dislike rules heavy systems these days.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_oqBjCE4UOb5upW1i9Zr1AIb3zw24VlUrKyH8betD1EPzo2I1oxC5hsAk9czQ_oRd82XQs2eOfQNAzq1RsLGUsuLVfrfQvCgrCtBgwwsBm8CQMsmT3P2H5wj3-kQJP76DwS9B6tkweZA/s1633/3F4AAE9D-DF1A-4442-8EB9-C111CCECCFE9.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1633" data-original-width="1249" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_oqBjCE4UOb5upW1i9Zr1AIb3zw24VlUrKyH8betD1EPzo2I1oxC5hsAk9czQ_oRd82XQs2eOfQNAzq1RsLGUsuLVfrfQvCgrCtBgwwsBm8CQMsmT3P2H5wj3-kQJP76DwS9B6tkweZA/s320/3F4AAE9D-DF1A-4442-8EB9-C111CCECCFE9.jpeg" width="245" /></a></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">WFRP is a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed GMing it. Critical tables and careers doing the heavy lifting in conveying the setting here. I find it a little hard to prepare for though because IMO it requires a careful hand to keep the aesthetic straight without it becoming too predictable. There’s probably some Chaos cult at the root of these problems, whatever they are, and if there isn’t what are we doing playing WFRP instead of something else? That sort of thing. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0G00beGkb0sVh1MLFqsBl-olns2ISmsag6IPU5Dgr8il7KrpzxA-vwDZSeAvLAc0EAgbiGx9pZ4MGyrXj-IE4d_2ylAD2mlkxI4R3cyE4QT3ddnJSHv7kv14DzuFQO6p9NKHDc9xLrf4/s512/E4C73062-96D8-48EC-85EA-310F8F80CD46.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="446" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0G00beGkb0sVh1MLFqsBl-olns2ISmsag6IPU5Dgr8il7KrpzxA-vwDZSeAvLAc0EAgbiGx9pZ4MGyrXj-IE4d_2ylAD2mlkxI4R3cyE4QT3ddnJSHv7kv14DzuFQO6p9NKHDc9xLrf4/s320/E4C73062-96D8-48EC-85EA-310F8F80CD46.jpeg" width="279" /></a></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Talislanta was also fun in a free wheeling Sword and Sorcery type of way. The rules worked out different in play to how I imagined. Magic in particular was less effective than I thought it would be. Also the combat specialist character was disproportionately tough and effective compared to his more generalist associates (we had an Ur Renegade, a Cymrillian Swordsmage and a Yitek Tomb Robber as a collection of archetypes.) It was however a good time as the PCs became embroiled as amateur agents of the Cymrillian secret service, carrying out operations abroad in Sindar. I’d revisit it for definite. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I did think Dragon Warriors set in Yamato would never come to pass either but we’re about ten sessions into that with no sign of slowing down. It’s probably a more magical version than my usual depiction of Legend but hopefully not by too much. This is something that first captured my imagination when I first read about the possibility in Book 6 back in the eighties, so it’s nice to finally get to it nearly forty years later. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have plans to run Marvel Superheroes for the Saturday group, once we’re done with Alien and it’s my turn to GM once more. D6 Star Wars needs to feature at some point also but I think I can manage that once I return to some vestige of normal gaming. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That leaves the White Whales: Tékumel (probably using Empire of the Petal Throne,) Runequest and The One Ring. They probably need their own post for discussion. Largely because they’re campaign games or I think they would work best in that format. I’m not really a one shot sort of GM either. Although I can manage it at a push, I prefer a longer form game. One where the setting and characters have time to grow. Those are the games that fascinate me the most. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then there’s my own Grim North setting which I continue to beaver away on now and again despite it not getting any play...</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Essentially this is about time management. I could play anything really, I just need the time to prep and run it. At the moment (always?) that means dropping something else to find space in my schedule. Having too many cool games to run and play is one of those good problems anyway.</p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-80527301254903662372021-08-30T00:07:00.000-07:002021-08-30T00:07:33.016-07:00The Anomalous Subsurface Environment <p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">I have run this and it’s good. The Anomalous Subsurface Environment is a science fantasy megdungeon placed in a post apocalyptic world of crazy wizards, dinosaurs, ancient technology and magic. It’s a quintessential old school renaissance American D&D product. It borrows heavily from the aesthetic of Thundarr the Barbarian. Or so I’m told. I’m British and we never had Thundarr over here but chat with American OSRist and they’ll rave about it. Or it’s potential. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">I don’t know many folks that still heavily rate stuff that was on TV when they were children. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So ASE 1 is setting, gatehouse level and level 1. ASE 2-3 is, surprising no one, levels 2 and 3 of the dungeon. This is unfortunately where the science fantasy weirdness ends for now. My own players are on level 3 currently. While I have tried to piece together a level 4 of my own crafting for them to explore, it transpires that I suck at and borderline hate mega dungeon design. So that probably won’t be happening. I consider this a shame because if any more ASE was published I would lap it up and run it to death, like it was one of the many henchfolk who have met their demise in the dungeon and been unceremoniously thrown from a cliff, dubbed Fall-hala by the PCs. (Does waving a lighter around while you dispose of someone’s body in a local beauty spot constitute a ceremony? If so, unceremoniously is unfair)</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFqtwH7W4ju94pdk4udqVnYnX0v8i0dSf7ZJthruNVVqNctbNPOG_Cg6FpjMkItxiEX56OYsBWJPAogQJwjJkW1BR_EpHqeqmGx_ubKt6PIQWBsIj7sir6Arglsyw6SV4GoqVMrVQFbbY/s2048/E255B2A6-1664-480A-8F1E-DE5559F1450A.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFqtwH7W4ju94pdk4udqVnYnX0v8i0dSf7ZJthruNVVqNctbNPOG_Cg6FpjMkItxiEX56OYsBWJPAogQJwjJkW1BR_EpHqeqmGx_ubKt6PIQWBsIj7sir6Arglsyw6SV4GoqVMrVQFbbY/s320/E255B2A6-1664-480A-8F1E-DE5559F1450A.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mega dungeon play in the ASE and of itself has a lot to recommend it. It’s episodic. We finish most sessions in town so if there’s a rotating cast of PCs then it doesn’t matter. There are factions. The PCs can engage in all sorts of diplomacy or just exterminate them and take their stuff if they prefer. The trap and puzzle rooms have been a massive source of planning and scheming between sessions, in some cases for weeks on end. One particular room involved a large group of PCs and their small army of henchfolk barricading dungeon corridors and excavating a wall while fighting of legions of random encounters to get at an elusive pile of silver pieces. Good times. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Henchfolk have played a pivotal role in the campaign for their valuable skills as hit point soaks for actual PCs. And also one player is now playing one of her former henchfolk after her first PC was eviscerated by a troglodyte matriarch with a double barrelled shotgun. There has been several dramatic henchfolk massacres, notably while fighting cornstalk mean on the mountain outside the dungeon; and battling the necromantic midgets, and their undead allies, in their tiny throne room.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is not a dungeon of drow and orcs but of screeching eyeless freaks and cannibal morlocks. There are murderous clowns and towering great mushrooms. Strange oracles and synthetic life forms. There is a healthy dose of the weird. A PC has been turned green, one has had their gender altered multiple times and there is a whole load of stuff included because the designer thought it was cool. Flying head from Zardoz (I have his minions manifest as different aspects of Sean Connery) a weird robot Sasquatch thing (I don’t know what it is but there’s a mini of it,) Lion men from Thundarr and more crazy wizards than can easily be counted. This gonzo but done well. Bonus fact, PCs fear clowns. I don’t know whether it’s IT or the one out of poltergeist but middle aged nerds have absorbed enough negative clown media to be actively scared of them, when all they want you to do is attend the Anomalous Subsurface Circus and have a good time....</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Preparation required to run this is limited. Just reading the module really. I did spend some time working on a party that the PCs were invited to which was well worth it. They hired a carriage, brought in a tailor to make their outfits, Stacy the halfling had her hair done. It was cool. However the low prep aspect is why I started running this. During the height of the pandemic with a lot of time on my hands I was able to maintain four games a week including two that I was running out of my own head. Having an already sketched out mega dungeon was a massive boon for Thursday nights as it required me to do very little other than show up on time with my dice, fully clothed and have my internet on.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I like it a lot and I wish Patrick Wetmore would write more of it.</p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-8951693203188580212021-08-24T00:37:00.001-07:002021-08-24T00:37:58.080-07:00Play the World<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuWQfP0xBwYGazHxjOxtAIia8jbTh0_KJpq47Y9jIimPA_Sa7Mr3NE2nL4xmeKv54fycjPhqXhgqUO-JJUeAT2osWXSyC6dcWK0whWdYXZBkB-ccNlXrBhXNPQDQ2eSX2grFrI-0J_69w/s1500/1AC91387-4C7D-4161-A438-06C2599DC0BD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuWQfP0xBwYGazHxjOxtAIia8jbTh0_KJpq47Y9jIimPA_Sa7Mr3NE2nL4xmeKv54fycjPhqXhgqUO-JJUeAT2osWXSyC6dcWK0whWdYXZBkB-ccNlXrBhXNPQDQ2eSX2grFrI-0J_69w/w213-h320/1AC91387-4C7D-4161-A438-06C2599DC0BD.jpeg" width="213" /></a></div><br />This is a tough one and I don’t have a coherent answer straight in my head yet but I shall post my thoughts regardless.<p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">The war cry of The Freekreigsspiel Revolution is “Play Worlds, not Rules.” While I may never (never say never, I did after all run a short campaign in Talislanta recently) play in an FKR style that statement resonates with me. For while I may have/still run Dragon Warriors it is the world of Legend that lives large in my mind not any undue attachment to armour bypass rolls or magical defence per se. (Although if we are going to have lots of magic I am a fan of magical attack/defence, the spells of more powerful wizards should be harder to resist.) I may have mentioned it before, a lot, but rules as written Dragon Warriors, although a perfectly serviceable rule set, is far from a perfect fit for Legend. When we examine Legend we see a world not unlike our own Middle Ages except the beliefs of folklore are real, not necessarily common but definitely real. There are trolls in the fens but you probably won’t find one bouncing on the door of your local tavern. At least not if I’m running the game (partly because you probably can’t afford to drink in a tavern.) So this would suggest to me that we should be looking at a fairly low magic rule set to accommodate all that medieval fake realism, creepy atmosphere and horror. Instead I believe the DW rules as written would work much better for a sword and sorcery world. Out of seven original Professions, at least four exhibit open magic use and the assassin’s meditative techniques are a grey area. In my own DW campaigns I have prohibited the majority of these, allowing players to portray knights, barbarians, assassins, and the players book professions. I did weaken my resolve on mystics but the jury remains out on the effects of this. By excluding magic using player characters we retained the feel of Legend more accurately but the unused portions of the book sit glancing askance at me, the players joking that “if only we were allowed to play warlocks, none of this would have happened...”</span></p><p><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So while we can make it work what I’m saying is I would like a rule set to play Legend as it exists in the setting lore of Book 6 or in the original adventures from the back of the books (now collected as Sleeping Gods.) Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson play a house ruled version of GURPS and currently Dave toils away on Jewelspider RPG which we all hope is going to be the definitive Legend rule set (and from I’ve seen looks decent, although the magic rules remain unreleased.) </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">However, really after all this time can anyone’s vision of Legend (even that of Mr Morris) match the version of it that has lived in my head since I first read the King Under the Forest when I was eight years old? That setting has percolated away in my mind, for a long time free of the influence of the need to play role playing games, that I don’t think anyone else’s conception of it will line up exactly with my own. So whenever I gaze upon a dark Cumbrian forest, the elves that lurk there in my imagination are the capricious faeries of Legend; or the moors of my North Yorkshire homeland are haunted by the trolls of DW book one, not those of the Mentzer Expert set. That I think is the beauty of role playing games though, we all approach the same material in different ways see those worlds through the lens of our own experience, creating infinite fantastic variations on a theme. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As I lurch and weave my way randomly towards a conclusion I am beginning to accept that if I want to play Legend, rather than Dragon Warriors or house ruled GURPS or hacked Runequest I’m going to have to come up with something myself. Something simple that allows the setting to shine, in all its bloody, low key downbeat glory. That sucks because I’m not a game mechanics guy. I hate rules. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or as the FKR would suggest I should free myself from the tyranny of rules and just play the world, using rulings to adjudicate conflict and occasionally rolling the dice to resolve that which cannot be settled by discussion. Based on an old method of resolving military war games amongst Prussian officers it was deemed that whatever system of rules was used it was an artificial construct which could therefore be manipulated and the outcome skewed from actual reality. In this school of thought only the judgement of an experienced referee could effectively simulate the outcome of actual warfare. The early days of role playing games were like this in the pre-OD&D era. While I’m not fetishising this as Ur-role playing or a One True Way, this is particularly attractive to me because I’m too lazy to write even a simple rule set for my Legend games. Or like a Judge Dredd one shot or something for a 40K Inquisitor game that is multiple orders of simplicity from Dark Heresy. I’m not sure it’s everyone’s cup of tea though. </p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-14991182566420616142021-08-19T00:46:00.000-07:002021-08-19T00:46:16.794-07:00Beyond the Wall<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">Beyond the wall is good. It’s aims are to create a game that emulates the fantasy of Ursula LeGuin or Lloyd Alexander. So Earthsea and Prydain. Both good choices for inspiration in my humble opinion. While at heart it’s a B/X clone it has a number of additional things going for it that I really like.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;"> </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Beyond the Wall is designed to be brought to the table with zero prep. I’ve run it twice with this exact amount of prior work and it’s been great at the table. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Character Generation is achieved by means of playbooks and involves collaboration between players and GM to build the PCs home village. Basically each playbook is a set of random tables that tells you something about your character and allows you to add a location or NPC to the village map. It’s cool. It immediately ties the PCs to one another through pieces of shared history and to the setting because it’s their home and they are helping create it. You get packs like Young Hunstman or Witch’s Aprentice or Assistant Beast Keeper. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJtXICjFWt-92dDV5R-e_QAANRZcI8PKFK8zqizEhP7Tk-cC_gdTo8xc8Ze2ITt6zMfY_eYNub-iSTrQJSUGa5Dve10iYmNkVFTW9IiLjbX0Oxs3OdZyl8eUM2r_ZelzHppt4et__PYQ/s895/BB5F3B74-EDF5-43C5-BB1C-A6F4ADFD60D2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="678" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJtXICjFWt-92dDV5R-e_QAANRZcI8PKFK8zqizEhP7Tk-cC_gdTo8xc8Ze2ITt6zMfY_eYNub-iSTrQJSUGa5Dve10iYmNkVFTW9IiLjbX0Oxs3OdZyl8eUM2r_ZelzHppt4et__PYQ/s320/BB5F3B74-EDF5-43C5-BB1C-A6F4ADFD60D2.jpeg" width="242" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Meanwhile the GM gets a scenario pack, also a series of tables. This allows the GM to tie into the players ideas by populating tables with the NPCs and locations they create and rolling for a series of events that take place in the build up to the scenario as well as the contents of the scenario itself. The scenario pack also gives you a few useful bits like monster stats and suggestions for how to use them and also a big list of thematic names (which is always handy.) Included in the main book are a few scenario packs such as The Angered Fae or The Witch’s Mistake. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a series of rolls and about an hour you should have characters ready and a scenario prepped and a collaborative world built. Well, it’s a village but it’s pretty much the world of the PCs because they are young heroes starting out on an adventuring career.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve run Beyond the Wall twice, intending to use it in the manner it suggests. So we sat down over a Google meet session and did characters and a scenario pack. It took two sessions of two hours to resolve the mystery of the Angered Fae but we also created the PCs and their village and I did no work outside of the sessions. So a success for Beyond the Wall. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The second time I ran it, our scheduled session of Alien wasn’t ready for the table for IRL reasons so I offered to run BtW at short notice. Again I turned out a scenario pack, the Opened Barrow, and we used the same characters from the prior game, which was by now months in the past. I did add a new player and it was simple to get them to roll on their tables alone to generate stuff for their character and the village with one minor alteration (PCs get a bonus from one of the other players’ seated next to them at the table playbook so we determined this randomly instead.) Again I did no prep. I already had a lot of stuff to tie into from the previous game. One PCs ambiguous romantic involvement with another, now absent, PC’s betrothed. The absent PC now having gone missing in game plus the stuff from the scenario pack and I had loads to work with. Another couple of sessions worth it turned out. So for filling in at the last minute I was very happy with it. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’d like to run a full campaign of this at some point as there are campaign tools in the “Further Afield” supplement that also look very handy indeed.</p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2433276024655644376.post-87472554601511697582021-08-09T00:54:00.000-07:002021-08-09T00:54:04.826-07:00DW Yamato: Ki and Sumo<p> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">I have, so far,</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">added two house rules for my Dragon Warriors Yamato campaign. DW is such a light system that it’s easy to modify to your taste and there’s nothing unified about the rules, so changing one bit isn’t going to affect anything else. As we’re going for an pseudo Japanese feudal feel I’ve gone for some basic Ki rules and a bit of sumo.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;"> </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now these are both complex and interesting subjects that definitely deserve a more in depth treatment than I’m going to give them but this is two small adaptations to an old rules light system for my home game so I’m not prepared to massively go to town on this. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For game purposes this is grossly oversimplified as spirit energy and quantified by Ki points. Player Characters have a pool of these, starting with one, that they can spend to gain Advantage on a dice roll (ie roll twice and take the best result.) Characters who entirely deplete their Ki reserves will recover one following a good night’s sleep. Otherwise Ki is awarded by GM fiat for positive supernatural interactions and play rewards. Eg all my players revived a point of Ki for freeing a lake spirit that had been imprisoned by someone believing themselves to be the servant of a demon god. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In narrative terms this represents a character’s ability, through martial/meditative/magical training, to focus their spirit into mundane tasks to achieve exceptional results when the pressure is on. As a feature they are required to state they are spending Ki before they roll.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ0JDB-B2yujLEoCUotPisiOBu2JqfYR3CyTOMGfIrgXhZS5yrV10OCnJNS6Ydb3qZkqhe1hyeIXSi3wpV0Ats4VVxECPd16xOBAyhPlL-i7W5AJ3QFmpnhwwapR5Mfz0V3etBLye9cUQ/s1306/614639C6-F53E-4FC0-9A1A-FB3795418DBF.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1306" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ0JDB-B2yujLEoCUotPisiOBu2JqfYR3CyTOMGfIrgXhZS5yrV10OCnJNS6Ydb3qZkqhe1hyeIXSi3wpV0Ats4VVxECPd16xOBAyhPlL-i7W5AJ3QFmpnhwwapR5Mfz0V3etBLye9cUQ/s320/614639C6-F53E-4FC0-9A1A-FB3795418DBF.jpeg" width="245" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sumo</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dragon Warriors has no official rules for grappling or wrestling of any kind so in order to resolve a bout of sumo with a boisterous Yamawaro (a type of mountain yokai) I dug into my memory for old rules from other systems that I might be happy with. In general grappling is hard to get right in RPGs. Either the author of the rules doesn’t understand it or they understand it too well giving rise to the situation that grappling is usually abstracted too much or present led in unnecessarily granular detail. Also a sumo bout has very specific rules that don’t necessarily apply to wrestling with an opponent under life and death conditions. Sumo rules therefore do not follow the standard combat rules of DW but instead I settle for the following gross oversimplification of this ancient and complex martial sport:</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Each participant calculates a sumo score. This is the average of their Strength, Reflexes and Attack scores. To simulate the fast pace of a sumo bout an opposed roll under the sumo score is made with the highest success on the die showing an advantage. Two consecutive advantages result in victory, and you can narrate this however you like such as pushing your opponent directly out of the competition ring or throwing them to the ground in spectacular style. Any roll which is exactly equal to the sumo score is a critical and results in instant and overwhelming victory, unless the opponent also rolls a critical in which case there is a tie....</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In my game Khasan, a shipwrecked Khanates barbarian, was soundly thrashed by the one eyed, hirsute mountain spirit but did earn a point of Ki out of it. </p>Dominichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.com0