Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '23, challenge #2 is from a list by Locheil - "Information about a small, local god" - and for this I steal formatting from Orbital Crypt and their Small Gods and Stone Soup: Deities made for Dungeon Crawling and Small Gods 2.
Name - Lady Deephome
Description - The Lady of the Under roads, once a stalwart minor dwarven deity now worshipped by many minor cults centered around her altars throughout the Underdark. Recognised as a protector and a herald of shelter. The nature of worship has diverged so much there is no longer a singular Lady Deephome but many individual small gods who all answer to the name in their location.
Altar - A statue in an weed-filled pool, arms spread in welcome, dressed in dwarven travelling clothes.
Followers - Once, dwarves, now all sorts that live in the deeps. The infrequency of travel along the under roads these days means a high diversity between local cults with very little commonality in practice. This has lead to the adoption of outfits that resemble dwarven travelling clothes by all who move around along the under roads as at least then you get the chance to claim hospitality. The observances of the dwarves are not known, lost when the dwarves left. The current followers have created a faith from stories, best effort reading of dwarven runes and interpretation of what they have taken as omens and divine signs.
d6 These followers of Lady Deephome are:
1. - Pool dwelling crocodilians - watch through the weeds and quick to take offense as missed offerings
2. - Keepers of a reliquary - a split geode shrine the insist wept from a rock face and revealed a gem vein
3. - Hospitable weretoads - dressed as dwarves, attempting to replicate dwarven mores, offer generous portions of strange tasting food
4. - Jittery, pale surface dwellers - willing to share their gleanings from the old dwarven works including honey they have tapped from the preservation vats
5. - Fierce underdarkers - speak quickly to invoke hospitality before you become supplies for them
6. - Heterogenous ritualists - a welcoming mix of many local peoples who insist on teaching you all about their very idiosyncratic interpretation of Her Ways
11 October 2023
09 October 2023
Shiny TTRPG links #141
Another week, another set of links that caught my eye. More links can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this is weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find more links on weekly blogroll on r/OSR or the RPG Blog Carnival or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.
Beneath Foreign Planets does a great Archaeology and Anthropology - Blog Carnival Roundup of last months RPG Blog Carnival.
The Other Side blog kicks off this month: ITS OCTOBER!! RPG Blog Carnival and Horror Movie Marathon
Tom Van Winkle's Return to Gaming suggests Name Your Sessions Afterwards
GLoGtober launches and we get some interesting posts in just this first week:
The Nothic's Eye gives us GLOGTOBER '23: Three Disastrous Blood War Battles
Spiceomancy shares d20 Ways to Keep a Corpse
Journeying Jormungandr writes GLOGtober 2023 #2: d66 Eccentric Encounters On An Ancient Road
Impulsive Necromancy gives us GLOGtober '23 - 2: She Who Sings in Reed and Rush
Owlbears and Chickenhawks shares GLoGTober '23 2.4: Rose Simon
All Dead Generations discusses 7 Maxims of the OSR
Beneath Foreign Planets does a great Archaeology and Anthropology - Blog Carnival Roundup of last months RPG Blog Carnival.
The Other Side blog kicks off this month: ITS OCTOBER!! RPG Blog Carnival and Horror Movie Marathon
Tom Van Winkle's Return to Gaming suggests Name Your Sessions Afterwards
GLoGtober launches and we get some interesting posts in just this first week:
The Nothic's Eye gives us GLOGTOBER '23: Three Disastrous Blood War Battles
Spiceomancy shares d20 Ways to Keep a Corpse
Journeying Jormungandr writes GLOGtober 2023 #2: d66 Eccentric Encounters On An Ancient Road
Impulsive Necromancy gives us GLOGtober '23 - 2: She Who Sings in Reed and Rush
Owlbears and Chickenhawks shares GLoGTober '23 2.4: Rose Simon
All Dead Generations discusses 7 Maxims of the OSR
07 October 2023
d8 natures of this quasi-godlike entity (RPG Blog Carnival)
Answering the RPG Blog Carnival prompt on Horrors, Gods, and Monsters, oh my! from The Other Side...
Expanding a little on the theme of petty gods, god animals, ancient dragons and demigods that occupy the fuzzy boundary above 'mere mortals' but not quite gods yet. We have a continuum that for humans looks something like 'commoner - adventurer - hero - demigod - deity' but if we consider that this exists for everyone else too, things get interesting.
For the carnival we have d8 prompts for the nature of the quasi-godlike entity you have just run into.
1. Great beasts, loci of the animists
2. Dragons and their cults
3. Petty Gods
4. Great works - of nations, clans, guilds, wizards
5. The devolved remnants of once greater beings
6. Horrors are just other peoples gods
7. Monsters are the people you cannot negotiate with
8. Horrors are the things that fall out when you wear through reality
Expanding a little on the theme of petty gods, god animals, ancient dragons and demigods that occupy the fuzzy boundary above 'mere mortals' but not quite gods yet. We have a continuum that for humans looks something like 'commoner - adventurer - hero - demigod - deity' but if we consider that this exists for everyone else too, things get interesting.
For the carnival we have d8 prompts for the nature of the quasi-godlike entity you have just run into.
1. Great beasts, loci of the animists
2. Dragons and their cults
3. Petty Gods
4. Great works - of nations, clans, guilds, wizards
5. The devolved remnants of once greater beings
6. Horrors are just other peoples gods
7. Monsters are the people you cannot negotiate with
8. Horrors are the things that fall out when you wear through reality
04 October 2023
3 reverse-atlantis (GLoGtober 1 '23)
Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '23, challenge #1 is from a list by PRIMEUMATON - "Atlantis-type situation but in reverse. It goes up instead of down."
1. Dwarf Citadels - it is known that dwarfs understand how to create citadels - the carving of mountain tops such that they can fly.
What differs hugely place to place is how dwarfs feel about this. In some places to walk beneath the open sky is shunned and to sail the void of wildspace a dreadful fate. For those dwarfs, citadels are flown only by those who have dishonored themselves and seek redemption. A clan exiled in such a way gathers at the highest peak of their holdings, severs the mountain top and flys away to seek glories to over-stain their shame.
As the carving of this citadel of exile is being completed, often others will come to join them - some adventurers but mostly individuals who seek glory and restoration of their own honor among the stars. For the dwarf society that remains, such times can be seen as a cleansing of rogue elements or a grievous loss of debate and innovation and calcification of power and opinion.
Once launched these citadels of exile typically seek great works - finding rich ores to mine, dread enemies to fight, or great works to create. Often starting from a deeply dwarven traditionalist perspective, freshly launched citadels often overshoot into interfering with whatever they come across as they seek their new focus.
d6 Exiles of this dwarf citadel
1. - Monster Slayers seeking bloody redemption
2. - Artificers with a war-machine to test
3. - Surveyors examining the richness of these lands
4. - Old guard warriors here to resolve a local situation to the glory of the dwarves
5. - Foraging crew, logging and quarrying materials for their new great work
6. - Raiding team, testing the strength of local forces before the invasion
2. Merfolk cities - rarely an aquatic city can be thrust from its place on the seabed to the surface. Typically this happens through a ritual curse of unknown name and origin. First used long ago, with unknown purpose, it now exists only as a city-destroyer, suppressed by authorities and with even research into the nature of the curse viewed as a dire threat to be dealt with harshly.
The casting of the curse is the death of the city. Without water it is useless to its onetime inhabitants - even where they are happy to breath air and lurch around without the support of water, all the buildings are constructed to allow swimming with no stairs or other accomodation for ground-walking.
After a first wave of treasure hunters picks through the abandoned streets, these become hotly contested by avians who can make use of them in their existing form.
d6 People encountered amongst the ruins
1. - Kenku brigands setting up a base
2. - Aaracockra settlers, colonising the top of the city
3. - Winged Elves
4. - Djinni
5. - Winged kobolds serving a manticore
6. - Flying serpents
3. Exposed Underdark cities - broadly equivalent circumstances can be underdark cities expose to higher realms through earthquake, volcanic activity or other cataclysm. This will only happen for the upper-dark - the kind of catastrophe that would bring a middle-dark city to the surface is not going to leave anyone around on the local continent to be curious about it afterwards. Four things can happen - an aquatic underdark city suddenly drained - similar to the merfolk city, treat as above. An aquatic underdark city can be suddenly connected to the seas, in which case you potentially have a serious disruption to local trade routes and either rich picking for the local aquatic raiding cultures or a dread power landing among them like a wolf thrust among sheep. Next there is a 'dry' underdark city suddenly flooded, in which case it is almost certainly a treasure trove for the local aquatics to fight over and loot at their leisure. Lastly is the dry underdark city connected to the surface and likely to be at more of a disadvantage than an aquatic underdark city due to having to deal with flyers like dragons that were never a problem before.
1. Dwarf Citadels - it is known that dwarfs understand how to create citadels - the carving of mountain tops such that they can fly.
What differs hugely place to place is how dwarfs feel about this. In some places to walk beneath the open sky is shunned and to sail the void of wildspace a dreadful fate. For those dwarfs, citadels are flown only by those who have dishonored themselves and seek redemption. A clan exiled in such a way gathers at the highest peak of their holdings, severs the mountain top and flys away to seek glories to over-stain their shame.
As the carving of this citadel of exile is being completed, often others will come to join them - some adventurers but mostly individuals who seek glory and restoration of their own honor among the stars. For the dwarf society that remains, such times can be seen as a cleansing of rogue elements or a grievous loss of debate and innovation and calcification of power and opinion.
Once launched these citadels of exile typically seek great works - finding rich ores to mine, dread enemies to fight, or great works to create. Often starting from a deeply dwarven traditionalist perspective, freshly launched citadels often overshoot into interfering with whatever they come across as they seek their new focus.
d6 Exiles of this dwarf citadel
1. - Monster Slayers seeking bloody redemption
2. - Artificers with a war-machine to test
3. - Surveyors examining the richness of these lands
4. - Old guard warriors here to resolve a local situation to the glory of the dwarves
5. - Foraging crew, logging and quarrying materials for their new great work
6. - Raiding team, testing the strength of local forces before the invasion
2. Merfolk cities - rarely an aquatic city can be thrust from its place on the seabed to the surface. Typically this happens through a ritual curse of unknown name and origin. First used long ago, with unknown purpose, it now exists only as a city-destroyer, suppressed by authorities and with even research into the nature of the curse viewed as a dire threat to be dealt with harshly.
The casting of the curse is the death of the city. Without water it is useless to its onetime inhabitants - even where they are happy to breath air and lurch around without the support of water, all the buildings are constructed to allow swimming with no stairs or other accomodation for ground-walking.
After a first wave of treasure hunters picks through the abandoned streets, these become hotly contested by avians who can make use of them in their existing form.
d6 People encountered amongst the ruins
1. - Kenku brigands setting up a base
2. - Aaracockra settlers, colonising the top of the city
3. - Winged Elves
4. - Djinni
5. - Winged kobolds serving a manticore
6. - Flying serpents
3. Exposed Underdark cities - broadly equivalent circumstances can be underdark cities expose to higher realms through earthquake, volcanic activity or other cataclysm. This will only happen for the upper-dark - the kind of catastrophe that would bring a middle-dark city to the surface is not going to leave anyone around on the local continent to be curious about it afterwards. Four things can happen - an aquatic underdark city suddenly drained - similar to the merfolk city, treat as above. An aquatic underdark city can be suddenly connected to the seas, in which case you potentially have a serious disruption to local trade routes and either rich picking for the local aquatic raiding cultures or a dread power landing among them like a wolf thrust among sheep. Next there is a 'dry' underdark city suddenly flooded, in which case it is almost certainly a treasure trove for the local aquatics to fight over and loot at their leisure. Lastly is the dry underdark city connected to the surface and likely to be at more of a disadvantage than an aquatic underdark city due to having to deal with flyers like dragons that were never a problem before.
02 October 2023
Shiny TTRPG links #140
Things scraped together this past week. More links can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this is weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find more links on weekly blogroll on r/OSR or the RPG Blog Carnival or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.
ROPEBLOGI has a gem filled collection in Theory Review #129
Trollsmyth shares Magical Magic That Feels Magical
Periapt Games Design Blog gives us Lockpicking! Windows! Maps! Burning oil! The concept of fantasy pseudo-anachronism! and Fantasy pseudo-anachronism part two: Aetheric boogaloo
From the Sorcerer's Skull gives us The Adventure-Point Crawl Campaign
Methods & Madness also has a two-parter with Detailed combat rules... in one single table and Critical hit checklist
Wizard in the lighthouse gives us d100 things a monster can threaten that aren’t your life
ROPEBLOGI has a gem filled collection in Theory Review #129
Trollsmyth shares Magical Magic That Feels Magical
Periapt Games Design Blog gives us Lockpicking! Windows! Maps! Burning oil! The concept of fantasy pseudo-anachronism! and Fantasy pseudo-anachronism part two: Aetheric boogaloo
From the Sorcerer's Skull gives us The Adventure-Point Crawl Campaign
Methods & Madness also has a two-parter with Detailed combat rules... in one single table and Critical hit checklist
Wizard in the lighthouse gives us d100 things a monster can threaten that aren’t your life
30 September 2023
Open systems and open table gaming
tl;dr: some 'I roll perception' is fine when open gaming with mixed cultures and generations where the shared references might be fewer than in beforetimes.
A thing I like to encourage at my tables is 'describe what you are doing don't just roll the ability.' This is one of the tenets of old-school play that I think particularly worthy - maximising the opportunity of us being a bunch of creative humans around a (perhaps virtual) table.
But for this to work, either the DM has to go into high detail for each new environment or the table has a strong 'open system' of shared cultural references - otherwise nothing can be assumed and the DM has to go to tedious length to cover all the detail.
So what does this mean for open table gaming? What does this mean for gaming with mixed generations? With mixed cultures? What do you do when you cannot assume any shared cultural touchstones?
A thing I like to encourage at my tables is 'describe what you are doing don't just roll the ability.' This is one of the tenets of old-school play that I think particularly worthy - maximising the opportunity of us being a bunch of creative humans around a (perhaps virtual) table.
But for this to work, either the DM has to go into high detail for each new environment or the table has a strong 'open system' of shared cultural references - otherwise nothing can be assumed and the DM has to go to tedious length to cover all the detail.
So what does this mean for open table gaming? What does this mean for gaming with mixed generations? With mixed cultures? What do you do when you cannot assume any shared cultural touchstones?
27 September 2023
Review: Planescape Core Set (AD&D, 1994)
tl:dr; talking Planescape, the 800lb gorilla of planar settings on the eve of its re-issue. Factions are pitched hard but there is so much more in here.
Planescape is coming back this October and I wanted to take a look at what we got before to refresh our memories before that. So credentials - I was known as a Planescape GM for most of my 2e/3e time. This box set was bought on holiday in Italy, I saw it in a shop after having read about it in Dragon and persuaded my parents to get it for me. I was riveted from that point on.
The books themselves are gorgeous, filled with DiTerlizzi art in its slightly fiercer whimsical incarnation. I think a major part of the setting appeal was the world portrayed through the art.
I picked up most of the major Planescape releases bar the adventures and as you can see the bestiaries from all the sets together with the Guide to the Outlands migrated into the main box over time. All the maps ended up in the Outlands box - I am sure I had good reasons at the time. That box has moved ~ eight cities., five countries, two continents. The saddle stitching used has gotten a bit ragged in places but mostly has held - I think only one sheet has come off in all this time.
Cards on the table, I got a ton of use out of this. I was known for most of the 90's/00's as a Planescape DM. I had a home game, then I got this box and it became a Planescape game. I ran Planescape in college, I ran a play-by-text campaign shortly afterward. I got a *lot* of use from the setting. Let us come back to this after a cold eyes review of what was *actually* in the box.
Planescape is coming back this October and I wanted to take a look at what we got before to refresh our memories before that. So credentials - I was known as a Planescape GM for most of my 2e/3e time. This box set was bought on holiday in Italy, I saw it in a shop after having read about it in Dragon and persuaded my parents to get it for me. I was riveted from that point on.
What actually lives in my Planescape box after ~ 25 years
The books themselves are gorgeous, filled with DiTerlizzi art in its slightly fiercer whimsical incarnation. I think a major part of the setting appeal was the world portrayed through the art.
I picked up most of the major Planescape releases bar the adventures and as you can see the bestiaries from all the sets together with the Guide to the Outlands migrated into the main box over time. All the maps ended up in the Outlands box - I am sure I had good reasons at the time. That box has moved ~ eight cities., five countries, two continents. The saddle stitching used has gotten a bit ragged in places but mostly has held - I think only one sheet has come off in all this time.
Cards on the table, I got a ton of use out of this. I was known for most of the 90's/00's as a Planescape DM. I had a home game, then I got this box and it became a Planescape game. I ran Planescape in college, I ran a play-by-text campaign shortly afterward. I got a *lot* of use from the setting. Let us come back to this after a cold eyes review of what was *actually* in the box.
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