Ever more shiny links found while wandering the web. 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.
Tales of the Lunar Lands refreshes familiars in I'm Not Familiar
Skull Azure writes an insightful Party Size Matters
Archon's Court introduces See It Descend Into - Premise & Classes
Eldritch Fields gives us Wilderness Encounter Details/Activities
Goatman's Goblet writes Randomizers: Local Troubles for Wandering Magistrates
Le Chaudron Chromatique reveals Liminal High School
A Knight at the Opera writes Oh God There Are So Many RPGs (A Guide)
hypertextfish shares Twelve Angry Rooms
d4 Caltrops presents d100 - Wilderness Landmarks & d100 Overland Discoveries
for h in hexes: Falconry
The 3 Toadstools asks What do I look for?
Halfling's Luck reemerges with The Forest - A Free Kriegsspiel Revival Roleplaying Game
The Secret Game - Il Gioco Segreto compiles Free Resources for Maritime Adventures
17 October 2022
15 October 2022
d8 Prehistoric Epochs (GLoGtober 3)
Taking a prompt from the list on GLoGtober '22: Under New Management we discuss "Prehistory (no dinosaurs)" from a promptlist by The First Gokun
Prehistory being the time before writing, for the purposes of our fantasy world let us say the time that current records do not record.
d6 Those who came before
1. - Titans. Everything that is happening is just the long slow degradation of the immortal gods down through their ever smaller and shorter lived descendants. The first age was the gods themselves, then the first titans, who could die but not of age. Then their descendants were giants, long lived but smaller and things all started going wrong (in the Gods view) from there
2. - Snakes. Had great empires, ruled for millions of years, plumbed the vastness of knowing. Failed to notice scuttling warm-blood busy-bodies becoming dangerous, too distracted with internal concerns, suddenly it was all lost. Warmbloods call it all 'pre-history' because they never learned to read Snake; it all adorns their ruins but noone today recognises it is even writing.
3. - The deep time thinkers - the mountains once walked, like great barnacles, with gigantic fronds that soaked in daylight and they carved the world and left all the ecosystems behind in their trail. This is why such different terrains are so close together there. The dreamers all fell into deepest sleep eventually and all sentient races are the condensed dreams of one of the dreamers.
4. - First there were the elements and the Princes of the Elements warred with one another for territory, then came the genii - the dao, marids, djinni and efreeti - who stamped their sense of beauty and order on the raw elemental chaos. They all brought companions and servants to fill their dwellings and realms and when eventually the elemental connections faded, all those one-time vassals were abandoned and the genie took their wisdoms with them, including knowledge of writing, their histories and left their vassals to fumble their way alone
5. - In the beginning there were aboleths, that dwelled deep in the oceans. They willed into existence servitors to venture ashore and claim resources they could not reach. Their purposes achieved, they retired to the deep ocean once more and their tools became free. Some say this too was part of their ancient plan, but noone knows because to the aboleth, tools had no need of writing.
6. - Long long ago there was an age, much like now, with being and civilisations and magic. And all was overcome by fungus, consumed until there was nothing more, then the fungus too died. All that came since has arrived here through extraplanar portals, seeding the mulch of this dead world with new life, and so we come to today.
7. - Vampires built a dread empire, blocked out the sun, messed up the ecosystem and killed the world. Some undead shambled around a bit, some things survived in the deep underdark but not much. Then a fireworld in the outersystem collided with another planet and ignited as a new star. A second age dawned, this one seeded by the things that had survived huddled around oceanic vents and the deep underdark. Analogues of almost everything exist but are fungal derived if plants or mostly evolved from molluscs.
8. - There was a time, much like this, but then the god of writing and knowledge was usurped by a god of secrets and with that passing went all writing and records. There was a period of chaos as societies were upended - more chaotic societies coped with this shock better than lawful societies who were now without their laws. By the time the upheaval passed and writing was relearned, much had changed. There are some very ancient beings who remember the before times but for most all is lost. It is a recent prehistory, one with many fine and visible but mysterious sites and artefacts
Noting all this is in the shadow of the the amazing Goblinpunch take on this topic: Dinosaurs Fuck Off - read that if you are interested in this prompt.
Prehistory being the time before writing, for the purposes of our fantasy world let us say the time that current records do not record.
d6 Those who came before
1. - Titans. Everything that is happening is just the long slow degradation of the immortal gods down through their ever smaller and shorter lived descendants. The first age was the gods themselves, then the first titans, who could die but not of age. Then their descendants were giants, long lived but smaller and things all started going wrong (in the Gods view) from there
2. - Snakes. Had great empires, ruled for millions of years, plumbed the vastness of knowing. Failed to notice scuttling warm-blood busy-bodies becoming dangerous, too distracted with internal concerns, suddenly it was all lost. Warmbloods call it all 'pre-history' because they never learned to read Snake; it all adorns their ruins but noone today recognises it is even writing.
3. - The deep time thinkers - the mountains once walked, like great barnacles, with gigantic fronds that soaked in daylight and they carved the world and left all the ecosystems behind in their trail. This is why such different terrains are so close together there. The dreamers all fell into deepest sleep eventually and all sentient races are the condensed dreams of one of the dreamers.
4. - First there were the elements and the Princes of the Elements warred with one another for territory, then came the genii - the dao, marids, djinni and efreeti - who stamped their sense of beauty and order on the raw elemental chaos. They all brought companions and servants to fill their dwellings and realms and when eventually the elemental connections faded, all those one-time vassals were abandoned and the genie took their wisdoms with them, including knowledge of writing, their histories and left their vassals to fumble their way alone
5. - In the beginning there were aboleths, that dwelled deep in the oceans. They willed into existence servitors to venture ashore and claim resources they could not reach. Their purposes achieved, they retired to the deep ocean once more and their tools became free. Some say this too was part of their ancient plan, but noone knows because to the aboleth, tools had no need of writing.
6. - Long long ago there was an age, much like now, with being and civilisations and magic. And all was overcome by fungus, consumed until there was nothing more, then the fungus too died. All that came since has arrived here through extraplanar portals, seeding the mulch of this dead world with new life, and so we come to today.
7. - Vampires built a dread empire, blocked out the sun, messed up the ecosystem and killed the world. Some undead shambled around a bit, some things survived in the deep underdark but not much. Then a fireworld in the outersystem collided with another planet and ignited as a new star. A second age dawned, this one seeded by the things that had survived huddled around oceanic vents and the deep underdark. Analogues of almost everything exist but are fungal derived if plants or mostly evolved from molluscs.
8. - There was a time, much like this, but then the god of writing and knowledge was usurped by a god of secrets and with that passing went all writing and records. There was a period of chaos as societies were upended - more chaotic societies coped with this shock better than lawful societies who were now without their laws. By the time the upheaval passed and writing was relearned, much had changed. There are some very ancient beings who remember the before times but for most all is lost. It is a recent prehistory, one with many fine and visible but mysterious sites and artefacts
Noting all this is in the shadow of the the amazing Goblinpunch take on this topic: Dinosaurs Fuck Off - read that if you are interested in this prompt.
12 October 2022
d6 Sites of the Long Wars (GLoGtober 2)
Taking a prompt from the list on GLoGtober '22: Under New Management we discuss "Cycles of violence" from a promptlist by Phlox
I was thinking about the 'father fights the war, son keeps the peace, grandson goes back to war' rule of thumb on how the value of peace fades with time and how that compares with the widely varying lifecycles of various fantasy races. My hypothesis is that different groups are going to switch between 'warlike' and 'peaceable' at different times, based on their longevity and time elapsed since the last Great War of All Against All. These societal states can be used as hook generators. If you want to just get straight to the d8 sites, scroll down to the bottom.
Taking four common 'conquering threats' as our anchor points: giants, dragons, elves and 'everyone else' essentially.
I was thinking about the 'father fights the war, son keeps the peace, grandson goes back to war' rule of thumb on how the value of peace fades with time and how that compares with the widely varying lifecycles of various fantasy races. My hypothesis is that different groups are going to switch between 'warlike' and 'peaceable' at different times, based on their longevity and time elapsed since the last Great War of All Against All. These societal states can be used as hook generators. If you want to just get straight to the d8 sites, scroll down to the bottom.
Taking four common 'conquering threats' as our anchor points: giants, dragons, elves and 'everyone else' essentially.
10 October 2022
Shiny TTRPG links #89
On time this week - shiny links from around the 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.
Archons March On does GLOGtober '22: Challenge 1: Moving Dungeons, Challenge 2: Plot Hooks Drawn from PCs' Families, Challenge 3: Things in Jars
Coins and Scrolls presents OSR: Alchemical Reagents and Rare Herbs
Cavegirl's Game Stuff gives us The Masquerade Grid, for VtM - useful for all sorts of intrigue too
Traverse Fantasy presents Exchange, Encumbrance, Experience: Reconstructing D&D's Economy
Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet gives us Gods and their servants
Mazirian's Garden shares My Process
Melancholies and Mirth gave us in 2018 Bestiary of 140+ Monsters
Dice Goblin creates Intrigue & Investigation: A System for Urban Suspense
Archons March On does GLOGtober '22: Challenge 1: Moving Dungeons, Challenge 2: Plot Hooks Drawn from PCs' Families, Challenge 3: Things in Jars
Coins and Scrolls presents OSR: Alchemical Reagents and Rare Herbs
Cavegirl's Game Stuff gives us The Masquerade Grid, for VtM - useful for all sorts of intrigue too
Traverse Fantasy presents Exchange, Encumbrance, Experience: Reconstructing D&D's Economy
Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet gives us Gods and their servants
Mazirian's Garden shares My Process
Melancholies and Mirth gave us in 2018 Bestiary of 140+ Monsters
Dice Goblin creates Intrigue & Investigation: A System for Urban Suspense
08 October 2022
d8 Moving Dungeons (GLoGtober 1)
Taking a prompt from the list on GLoGtober '22: Under New Management we discuss "Moving Dungeons"
1. The dungeon worm; is actually a type of extra-planar fungus, the tunnels are the root structure that open and close as it progresses, moving through terrain at a slow walk. The body is lodged in the ethereal and it constantly drifts on some unseeable tides. Dwellers, treasures and traps are mostly organic, the ecosystem that travels with the dungeon worm and scavenges off the things it encounters - lots of slimes, oozes and similar
2. The pelt of the god-beast - dungeon is entirely between the skin and matted pelt of an enormous shambling monster. Beast is alive, typically non-hostile, but the very large bugs that lair in its filthy fur are dangerous. The only treasures to be had here are harvesting parts of the god-beast or its parasites
3. The drifting dungeon - a floating mass upon the ocean, an unmoored island, moving with the currents. Should be considered from the view of the merfolk and other aquatics who dwell beneath - the underside is settled, the deepest levels are the most benign and well trafficed, getting more dangerous and unused as you progress up until you get to the protruding upper level where the deadliest danger dwells
4. The frost jarls funeral barge - the partially burned pyre of a frost giant jarl, the flames extinguished by storm before they consumed either him or the ship. The pyre-ship was large and ostentasious even for a giant, the snuffing of the funeral flame viewed as a curse on his hubris. Now it is a haunted ship, the cabins packed with treasures and the unquiet shades of slaves killed to accompany the jarl to ysgard. From a small-folks point of view the rooms and passages of this place thread between leaning treasures, all of it precious but unstable.
5. The great brass jörmungandr - a rogue dwarven boring engine, intended to mine more, deeper, faster. Something went wrong in the propulsion system, something the obsessive chief engineer would not discuss and now the crew is dead or mutated beyond recognition, the internals warped and twisted. The boring engine has ground its way out of the mountain and grinds its way across the countryside. The filled hoppers of its ore processing sections are filled with precious metals but mutants, rogue constructs and mechanical hazards threaten any who venture within but
6. The moon lords palace - a great fey palace made of shadows cast by the light of the moon through an intricate set of carved windows. The windows stand on a precipice, the palace appearing only on certain times of the year, elements appearing and dissappearing as the moon traverses the sky. The treasures are legendary but the building dissolves behind you as the moon moves, and woe betide those curse with a cloudly night that blocks the moon beams and sends intruders plummeting. Time is your foe.
7. The tumbling hive - a giagantic tree, bored through with beetle tunnels, has been occupied by goblins who are using it as a base to raid settlements around a great lake. The internals are chaos as the tree slowly rotates, submerging and exposing different part of the tunnels and all the residents are in constant motion, dragging belongings around and looking for places to sleep. The raiding has been good but the goblins are getting more sleep deprived and disturbed as their home continues to roll.
8. The room swarm - a mad wizards experiment with molluscs has created this set of dungeon rooms borne by large snails that migrate around, keeping close to one another. Getting from room to room can be as easy as stepping through matched up doorways or require hazardous leaps from the back of one snail-like room bearer to another. Falling between these things is a dreadful time. In all other manner the contents and layout are typical 'beneath the barons castle' chic except that the rooms shuffle themselves around constantly and their layout is random.
1. The dungeon worm; is actually a type of extra-planar fungus, the tunnels are the root structure that open and close as it progresses, moving through terrain at a slow walk. The body is lodged in the ethereal and it constantly drifts on some unseeable tides. Dwellers, treasures and traps are mostly organic, the ecosystem that travels with the dungeon worm and scavenges off the things it encounters - lots of slimes, oozes and similar
2. The pelt of the god-beast - dungeon is entirely between the skin and matted pelt of an enormous shambling monster. Beast is alive, typically non-hostile, but the very large bugs that lair in its filthy fur are dangerous. The only treasures to be had here are harvesting parts of the god-beast or its parasites
3. The drifting dungeon - a floating mass upon the ocean, an unmoored island, moving with the currents. Should be considered from the view of the merfolk and other aquatics who dwell beneath - the underside is settled, the deepest levels are the most benign and well trafficed, getting more dangerous and unused as you progress up until you get to the protruding upper level where the deadliest danger dwells
4. The frost jarls funeral barge - the partially burned pyre of a frost giant jarl, the flames extinguished by storm before they consumed either him or the ship. The pyre-ship was large and ostentasious even for a giant, the snuffing of the funeral flame viewed as a curse on his hubris. Now it is a haunted ship, the cabins packed with treasures and the unquiet shades of slaves killed to accompany the jarl to ysgard. From a small-folks point of view the rooms and passages of this place thread between leaning treasures, all of it precious but unstable.
5. The great brass jörmungandr - a rogue dwarven boring engine, intended to mine more, deeper, faster. Something went wrong in the propulsion system, something the obsessive chief engineer would not discuss and now the crew is dead or mutated beyond recognition, the internals warped and twisted. The boring engine has ground its way out of the mountain and grinds its way across the countryside. The filled hoppers of its ore processing sections are filled with precious metals but mutants, rogue constructs and mechanical hazards threaten any who venture within but
6. The moon lords palace - a great fey palace made of shadows cast by the light of the moon through an intricate set of carved windows. The windows stand on a precipice, the palace appearing only on certain times of the year, elements appearing and dissappearing as the moon traverses the sky. The treasures are legendary but the building dissolves behind you as the moon moves, and woe betide those curse with a cloudly night that blocks the moon beams and sends intruders plummeting. Time is your foe.
7. The tumbling hive - a giagantic tree, bored through with beetle tunnels, has been occupied by goblins who are using it as a base to raid settlements around a great lake. The internals are chaos as the tree slowly rotates, submerging and exposing different part of the tunnels and all the residents are in constant motion, dragging belongings around and looking for places to sleep. The raiding has been good but the goblins are getting more sleep deprived and disturbed as their home continues to roll.
8. The room swarm - a mad wizards experiment with molluscs has created this set of dungeon rooms borne by large snails that migrate around, keeping close to one another. Getting from room to room can be as easy as stepping through matched up doorways or require hazardous leaps from the back of one snail-like room bearer to another. Falling between these things is a dreadful time. In all other manner the contents and layout are typical 'beneath the barons castle' chic except that the rooms shuffle themselves around constantly and their layout is random.
05 October 2022
NPC personality creation workflow
I took the 3 lists of traits from Out of the Weaving Secrets 638 Primary Personality Traits article in 2014 and set up a trio of random selector functions in my big excel sheet. I get a positive, a neutral and a negative trait. It also randomises male/female and romantic preference.
I combine that with my big list of ancestries - started from Skerples OSR: Table of Races, the usual D&D suspects from the core books and the raceoids from Lizardman Diaries - for 73 different possible ancestries. You could swap this out for a cultural background table also for similar effect.
This gives a bit of who they are, what are they like - combine that with some motivations - basically tagging them to a local faction to say what they might care about and then deciding how invested they are in that factions goals (from fanatic to casual). I talk about this a bit more in NPC motivations to meet player role-play preference. Most of the non-recyclable effort has gone into what he local factions are, who is doing what in a location. That is what I have to put the effort into when the players move around the map. Otherwise, if whatever is going on locally is sufficiently big, bad news (undead invasion, natural disaster) then what anyone encountered cares about will be clear.
And that gives me seeds to get me going:
- What this person is like individually (randomised traits)
- Their background / ancestry (randomised background)
- What they care about (picked faction)
I combine that with my big list of ancestries - started from Skerples OSR: Table of Races, the usual D&D suspects from the core books and the raceoids from Lizardman Diaries - for 73 different possible ancestries. You could swap this out for a cultural background table also for similar effect.
This gives a bit of who they are, what are they like - combine that with some motivations - basically tagging them to a local faction to say what they might care about and then deciding how invested they are in that factions goals (from fanatic to casual). I talk about this a bit more in NPC motivations to meet player role-play preference. Most of the non-recyclable effort has gone into what he local factions are, who is doing what in a location. That is what I have to put the effort into when the players move around the map. Otherwise, if whatever is going on locally is sufficiently big, bad news (undead invasion, natural disaster) then what anyone encountered cares about will be clear.
And that gives me seeds to get me going:
- What this person is like individually (randomised traits)
- Their background / ancestry (randomised background)
- What they care about (picked faction)
04 October 2022
Shiny TTRPG links #88
A day late, but hopefully worth the wait! 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.
Scribblings or Something presents the Benefic Polymorph
Mindstorm writes on Stealth Turns
Prismatic Wasteland on Doppelgänger Dos & Don’ts
Permanent Cranial Damage gives us hexcrawls ARE pathcrawls
Grumpy Wizard writes on How I Use Reputation To Modify Reaction Rolls.
Scribblings or Something presents the Benefic Polymorph
Mindstorm writes on Stealth Turns
Prismatic Wasteland on Doppelgänger Dos & Don’ts
Permanent Cranial Damage gives us hexcrawls ARE pathcrawls
Grumpy Wizard writes on How I Use Reputation To Modify Reaction Rolls.
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