Links from about the slow summer internet. More can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this - weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find even more links on the weekly blogroll on r/OSR or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.
Blog of Holding gives us Dungeon Delver’s Guide: The NODES System
Slight Adjustments gives us Nameless Legends of GLOG
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry writes on Logistics, How Did They Do It, Part II: Foraging - great stuff for a war-based campaign
Thompson Motif Index Generator on Whose Measure God Could Not Take
The Lizard Man Diaries write up of Empyrean Dynasty Game 1, Turn 6, 100 years of Post Earth History! Things going quite grimly...
Nothing and Happy by Weaver.skepti.ch
Grumpy Wizard gives us What Makes an OSR Game an OSR game?
01 August 2022
30 July 2022
Gygax 75: The Map Around the Dungeon (Week 2)
In principle, this is to set up the area around the dungeon that is to be the campaign start point. In our particular run through of the exercise, first we must choose a world. We decided to go with a site on world 3 - tropical air world and have it be part of the great tree bank. This is a huge, floating forest, canopy towards the sun, roots pointed outsystem in the air disc-world. We are running with an 'early phase sphere' theme so we are going to see how far we can get with just insects, plants and funghi on our starting world; no reptiles, dinosaurs, mammals yet. Insects dominate life here.
I searched up and printed off a hex-grid and together with the in-house testing team marked out where the elements identified in the challenge guide needed to be. This is the working version, the full-colour fancy version is below.
This is a place of difficult terrain - a labyrinth of broad tree branches that interconnect indirectly and lead to lots of switch-backing on a journey from place to place or courageous leaps or aerial steeds. The hex-scales are 1 mile but travel times will be longer but a given hex will also be 'deeper' with more stuff per hex being theoretically possible. Things could also be closer together than crow-flies distance might allow since direct paths may not be possible.
I searched up and printed off a hex-grid and together with the in-house testing team marked out where the elements identified in the challenge guide needed to be. This is the working version, the full-colour fancy version is below.
This is a place of difficult terrain - a labyrinth of broad tree branches that interconnect indirectly and lead to lots of switch-backing on a journey from place to place or courageous leaps or aerial steeds. The hex-scales are 1 mile but travel times will be longer but a given hex will also be 'deeper' with more stuff per hex being theoretically possible. Things could also be closer together than crow-flies distance might allow since direct paths may not be possible.
27 July 2022
Actual Test: Dungeonfruit's "Making Good Factions" for a star system
Nothing like a good workflow to get the juices flowing and Dungeonfruit's "Making Good Factions (For Your Dungeon)" is a good one.
Dungeonfruit gives us 5 steps for setting up dungeon factions
1. Building the house - lay out the levels
2. Getting pets - assign factions to levels
3. Meeting the parents - create suitable leaders
4. Family meeting - set faction goals and environment interactions
5. Rats in the walls - add some short complicating factions
I thought to adapt it to figuring out what is about in the Spelljammer system I have been knocking together. This is Smoulderspace - after the gigantic out-system cool fire-world. Sol system planets and their distances from the sun provided for comparison.
Dungeonfruit gives us 5 steps for setting up dungeon factions
1. Building the house - lay out the levels
2. Getting pets - assign factions to levels
3. Meeting the parents - create suitable leaders
4. Family meeting - set faction goals and environment interactions
5. Rats in the walls - add some short complicating factions
I thought to adapt it to figuring out what is about in the Spelljammer system I have been knocking together. This is Smoulderspace - after the gigantic out-system cool fire-world. Sol system planets and their distances from the sun provided for comparison.
25 July 2022
Shiny TTRPG links #78
Links I have found since returning from the lake. I watched a murderous wasp stuff grasshoppers into a hole to be eaten; the lesson is nature is plenty strange before we get in any way fantastical. More can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this - weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find even more links on the weekly blogroll on r/OSR or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.
Adventures Buffo gives us When a Character Class is not a Class, but is in Fact an Institution
Supernatural Natures in Cairn or Similar Systems on Seedling Games - a nice alternate take on non-humans.
Xeno's Ramblings gives us A Soft Magical Campaign
small batch ambergris gives us a Time Travel Table
Adventures Buffo gives us When a Character Class is not a Class, but is in Fact an Institution
Supernatural Natures in Cairn or Similar Systems on Seedling Games - a nice alternate take on non-humans.
Xeno's Ramblings gives us A Soft Magical Campaign
small batch ambergris gives us a Time Travel Table
23 July 2022
Gygax 75: Intro, Index & Setting
Having seen many people do Gygax75 - or more specifically having seen a bunch of people start and stall-out I took this as a challenge to see just how hard a world-building effort it is.
Origins
Dragons Never Forget starts it all off with a discovery: The Gygax ’75 Challenge: Introduction. DIY & Dragons brought it to my attention and collates a bunch of peoples attempts
For my attempt I printed off Ray Otus of Viridian Scroll free pdf version of Gygax75 on itch.io.
So the schedule of this will be
0. Introduction & Index (this post)
1. The Setting of the Campaign
2. The Map Around the Dungeon
3. The Dungeon
4. The Dungeon Level 2
5. The Dungeon Level 3
6. The Local Town and All the Trouble
7. The World Plan
8. Conclusion & Links to Other Challengers
My main theme for this will be adapting it to setting up a Spelljammer campaign. I have gotten tagged into a running a campaign once Spelljammer comes out so I need some sort of backdrop for it. This is not starting from nothing, but from a randomly generated Spelljammer crystal sphere that was rolled up using the rules in the boxed set.
Origins
Dragons Never Forget starts it all off with a discovery: The Gygax ’75 Challenge: Introduction. DIY & Dragons brought it to my attention and collates a bunch of peoples attempts
For my attempt I printed off Ray Otus of Viridian Scroll free pdf version of Gygax75 on itch.io.
So the schedule of this will be
0. Introduction & Index (this post)
1. The Setting of the Campaign
2. The Map Around the Dungeon
3. The Dungeon
6. The Local Town and All the Trouble
7. The World Plan
8. Conclusion & Links to Other Challengers
My main theme for this will be adapting it to setting up a Spelljammer campaign. I have gotten tagged into a running a campaign once Spelljammer comes out so I need some sort of backdrop for it. This is not starting from nothing, but from a randomly generated Spelljammer crystal sphere that was rolled up using the rules in the boxed set.
20 July 2022
Actual Play: Hunting Shadow-Tigers on the Beastlands
Second of the one-shots visiting the planes (see Great Planar Scavenger Hunt) and trying to improve my one-shots from feedback on the Mechanus jaunt.
The pre-game brief was: "elves are dying, you are one who has answered a call for aid by the local temples trying to do something about it - whether for coin, glory or favours I leave to you. Only steer at this point is
- build someone who can work as part of an adventuring band
- you will be venturing out onto the planes, far from your networks
Build classic adventurers of whatever stripe, going to run 5e, start at level 3. This is going to be more puzzles and exploration than high crunch combat."
** Inspiration
This was inspired by 'Hunting Displacer Beasts' by Dael Kingsmill, which is perfectly on theme for the 'hunter becomes the hunted' aspect of the Beastlands. I watched through the video a couple of times, took some notes for the systems then figured out how to get a nice lead in to the core 'grid hunt' set piece. The stats for the original 'Night Beast' can be found on GM Binder. u/NathanKellen also had a go at this, also adapted it and did a big write up on r/MonarchsFactory.
The set up I went with was that long ago a seelie courtier had a pet tiger with an icon on its collar made of wood from this lost elven world at the heart of this campaign. When the seelie court visited the Beastlands the tiger broke free and ran off into the forests of Brux, the layer of eternal twilight. All traces of this wood are precious so our heroes are sent to track down the remains of this tiger.
The pre-game brief was: "elves are dying, you are one who has answered a call for aid by the local temples trying to do something about it - whether for coin, glory or favours I leave to you. Only steer at this point is
- build someone who can work as part of an adventuring band
- you will be venturing out onto the planes, far from your networks
Build classic adventurers of whatever stripe, going to run 5e, start at level 3. This is going to be more puzzles and exploration than high crunch combat."
** Inspiration
This was inspired by 'Hunting Displacer Beasts' by Dael Kingsmill, which is perfectly on theme for the 'hunter becomes the hunted' aspect of the Beastlands. I watched through the video a couple of times, took some notes for the systems then figured out how to get a nice lead in to the core 'grid hunt' set piece. The stats for the original 'Night Beast' can be found on GM Binder. u/NathanKellen also had a go at this, also adapted it and did a big write up on r/MonarchsFactory.
The set up I went with was that long ago a seelie courtier had a pet tiger with an icon on its collar made of wood from this lost elven world at the heart of this campaign. When the seelie court visited the Beastlands the tiger broke free and ran off into the forests of Brux, the layer of eternal twilight. All traces of this wood are precious so our heroes are sent to track down the remains of this tiger.
18 July 2022
Shiny TTRPG links #77
A short set of links as I have fled to a place without internet for the week. Still more can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this - weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find even more links on the weekly blogroll on r/OSR or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.
Coins and Scrolls writes up OSR: Behind the Curtain: Session 1 Examination
Prismatic Wasteland gives us an Encounter Checklist
Revenant's Quill writes Thinking about travel
A Thousand Thousand Islands looks at illustrations from the History of Java.
Environmental Storytelling on Hypertext Fish
A Knight at the Opera write Traits of the Mythic Underworld
Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet, in collaboration with Adventures Buffo gives us The 2nd Age is here
Chaos Magick-User gives us How to run urban adventures, the easy way
Managing Expectations on Weaver.skepti.ch.
Alone in the Labyrinth writes Pariah character classes for OSE or Basic Fantasy
Engine of Oracles has been making a block of generators for Small Towns Along the Uncanny Highway - starting with Part I: Town Overview then running through People & Culture, Locations, Organizations and Archetypal NPCs. Useful stuff for any setting!
Tales of the Lunar Lands writes You Should Have Your PCs Get Captured More
Graphite Prime gave us The O.S.ORC
The conversation on procedures continues in "A Basic Procedure, Extended" on Gem Room Games
Coins and Scrolls writes up OSR: Behind the Curtain: Session 1 Examination
Prismatic Wasteland gives us an Encounter Checklist
Revenant's Quill writes Thinking about travel
A Thousand Thousand Islands looks at illustrations from the History of Java.
Environmental Storytelling on Hypertext Fish
A Knight at the Opera write Traits of the Mythic Underworld
Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet, in collaboration with Adventures Buffo gives us The 2nd Age is here
Chaos Magick-User gives us How to run urban adventures, the easy way
Managing Expectations on Weaver.skepti.ch.
Alone in the Labyrinth writes Pariah character classes for OSE or Basic Fantasy
Engine of Oracles has been making a block of generators for Small Towns Along the Uncanny Highway - starting with Part I: Town Overview then running through People & Culture, Locations, Organizations and Archetypal NPCs. Useful stuff for any setting!
Tales of the Lunar Lands writes You Should Have Your PCs Get Captured More
Graphite Prime gave us The O.S.ORC
The conversation on procedures continues in "A Basic Procedure, Extended" on Gem Room Games
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