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Day 22 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Interdimensional Space. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 9: Write an Eavesdroppable Dialogue.

The Orrery of the Beyond

I gasp for air. Crossing the portal felt like my body was pulled in ten different directions. The food under me is cold. I look around. The room is lit, but there is no visible light source. It is as if I were walking outside under the sun but could not see it. Behind me, on the wall, there is the shape of the portal I crossed and carved into the wall, but there is no door, no portal, just a stone wall. I hear the approaching voices and scramble to my feet. I silently dash down the corridor and come to the room.

A cavernous room with a giant orrery in the center, spheres float in the air, and the domed ceiling opens into a night sky I have never seen before. The voices come closer, and I hide under one of the desks around the giant orrery.

From the corner of my eye, I see the woman wearing white and golden robes, her dark curls framing her beautiful face, walking next to a bandaged man wearing silver and blue robes. Every part of him is seemingly covered in bandages over bloody wounds. They stop and listen momentarily; I hide in the shadows and hold my breath. I cannot see them, but I can hear their conversation as they walk away.

The woman’s voice is melodious, “The mortals of the south have rallied the hordes of the Darkness in the lands. The otherworldly interlopers are defeated, for now. The wizard seeks a way to the Hall of the Potentates of Night. She thinks she may yet break their hold on their world. She plans to use the Mirror of the Worlds Beyond to find her way.”

The man’s voice is gruff, and it is as if every word he speaks hurts. “We cannot allow this. If she fails, the Dark Ones may travel beyond her world.”

“You would doom them to save the other world?” The woman’s voice is impassionate, more curious than outraged. He chuckles. “Theirs is not the world we protect. They brought this upon themselves.”

“Then we must stop her,” the woman replies calmly. Let us see the portal of the Mirror.”

A way to defeat the Nocturnal Potentates, and these fools will stop it. It cannot be; I must do something.

We haven’t seen this nameless character since Day 6 Portal, and the speakers reference the Mirror of the World Beyond from Day 12. What’s going on? We might get back here before the month is over. Let’s see what the challenges bring forth.

You’re still on time to participate in #RPGaDay2024. If you find a topic interesting, write about it, comment on it, or talk about it on your socials. The goal is to celebrate all the wonderful things tabletop role-playing games bring to our lives and the positive elements of the community. Don’t forget to tag your contribution with the hashtag and share it with us here, on social media, and in the #RPGaDay 2024 Facebook Group.

Workbooks with hand-drawn, old-school maps! Write notes & stock YOUR dungeons, on YOUR shelf! DnD 5e, OSR, OSE, D&D, Pathfinder, & Runequest.

Sometimes, small Kickstarters are the best option. The Maps For Fantasy RPGs Old School Workbooks 3 & 4 Kickstarter looks like one that I want to back.

I hand draw and digitally color LOTS of maps. I sell many of them in royalty-free digital packages so people can use them in their commercial projects. I always wanted a book of maps to put on my shelf, and thought: “Why not make the maps into a workbook that DMs/GMs can write in to stock each dungeon? That way the book becomes a living document they can keep on their bookshelf and re-use for new game groups, saving them time and effort!” 

MAPS For FANTASY RPGs Workbook 3 & 4  are 150-page & 138-page softcover books/PDFs with 36 (Workbook 3) & 33 (Workbook 4) black & white old school grid and grid-less maps from the MAPS FOR FANTASY RPGs 1 & 4 Digital Maps Packages and include spaces provided to name maps, stock dungeons and/or add notes as you run players through your adventures! 

These DM's/GM's Workbooks are ideal for anyone who wants to keep their dungeon/adventure notes organized and in one place - on your bookshelf, in beautiful books with gorgeous hand drawn, old school maps!

 

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I am playing a bit with the point-based character building rules, and trying to set up a little more of a structured approach; I personally like the randomness of character generation, but I also think that having a fixed point-based method would be helpful. One of the problems with the existing point-based method is that it's pretty heavy-handed; it basically gives you an average die of your tier. That's fine at D8, but gets problematic at D16, where you have D16 across the board (which is pretty powerful). If we go with the idea that the 'average is that you have one die of your tier, one die higher, one die lower, and one die two lower, we end up with these numbers:

D8 (10, 8, 6, 4) = 28 points (currently 36 points)

D10 (12, 10, 8, 6) = 36 points (currently 40 points)

D12 (16, 12, 10, 8) = 46 points (currently 48 points)

D16 (20, 16, 12, 10) = 58 points (currently 64 points)

It seems reasonable to set the benchmarks at D4 (16 points), D6 (26 points), D8 (36 points), D10 (46 points), D16 (56 points), D20 (66 points). This means that a D4 character is D4 across the board (well, yeah), and a D20 character might end up with D20/D20/D16/D10. These work pretty well.   

 So over the weekend I pulled out Cepheus Univeral & began working on a one way time travel campaign. So I've been rereading the massive Cepheus Univeral book. I've been doing research into the Cepheus Univeral rpg because I'm getting ready to run a Rider crossover. The idea here is that the Knight Foundation is contacted by the CIA, an agent of thiers has gone rogue & broken Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 

The long dormant OSR zine Fight On! has returned from the crypt with a new issue, #15, dedicated to none other than J. Eric Holmes...! 

Find it on DrivethruRPG (currently PDF only; print is coming) or on Lulu (print or PDF).

For this issue I contributed an article, titled "Ten Ways to Holmesify Your Game", which goes over ten different rules or themes you can use to make your D&D game more "Holmesian". It is accompanied by an illustration by Cameron Hawkey of adventurers tangling with a purple worm.

Other Holmesian content in this issue includes:

• "Holmes Town Heroes" by Tony Rowe (with whom I co-authored an chapter about Holmes in the recent book Fifty Years of D&D), which provides D&D character write-ups for Boinger, Zereth and Murray the Mage from Holmes' stories.

• "Bringing it All Back Holmes": Holmes Basic origin stories from Aron Clark (author of the Holmes & Clark RPG), Grodog and Calithena.

• "Distributary of Darkness" by Alex Zisch expands an area of the Sample Dungeon.

• Two original dungeon maps by J. Eric Holmes that relate to the Maze of Peril (these can also be found in Things Better Left Alone).

• A page of art by Chris Holmes

Plus loads of other content, including a continuation of the long-running Darkness Beneath megadungeon!

All of the Back issues of Fight On are also available, either individually or in compilations (see the links above).

Gosh, ever since that yacht landed last week, things sure have been crazy.

Millionaire playboy Cidri Flynn was found dead in his hotel room– his body covered in countless red sores. Autopsy reports indicate that his killer had entirely drained Flynn’s body of blood. Local authorities suspect this to be a space mafia related murder and that this sick method of torture was some kind of message to rival gangs.

Meanwhile, Baron Theotormon has been murdered at his estate. Further, his rather healthy coffers and space credit accounts have all been cleared. Although he had been shot and also suffered the effects of a fall from a very great height, autopsy reports indicate that the actual cause of death was via a katana through the heart. As such, suspicion has fallen to itinerant samurai Beat Takeshi who is wanted to for questioning.

Finally, sir Mitchel Denters is organizing an expedition into the deadly Locrian rainforest. Ostensibly this merely for the adventure of it all, but some suggest that the objective here may be to retrieve a key ingredient for an secret space drug with unknown and perhaps even nefarious properties. Note that if anyone happened to want to get out of town for a while in order to escape scrutiny from the local authorities, this journey into the wilds would be an easy way to lay low for a while.

Hint to players: the timing and the the nature of the next ship that arrives will be very significant. Each “turn” of this sessionless Braunstein will have ONE roll on the following custom encounter table from the original Moonstein:

This is a lonely backwater. At the end of each “turn” of Braunstein action, I will roll 2d6. On an 11+ a ship has arrived. On a 1-4 it is a Scout ship, on a 5 it is a tramp freighter, and on a 6 roll again. On a 1-3 it is a Pirate intent on mayhem and on a 4-6 it is Ariston returning in his yacht. Player characters that believe this planet is too dangerous may secretly bid for passage off this world in the event that a ship passes through during the space of a game turn.

Referee observation: The reflex of Traveller players is to kick back and imagine together what everything means. This has occasionally resulted in “satisfying” moments in game sessions with a very peculiar quality distinct from D&D campaigns and their derivatives. However, this impulse is inconsistent with the requirements of Braunstein play and its requisite turn orders. Some of it is inescapable. A little adds to the fun. Too much can obliterate any semblance of an actual game.

Cast of Characters:

From Madriguerra:

• [Trash] Zebulon “Zeb” Beignet, Rank: Colonel, Branch: Army, UPP: 4D73C5, Age: 34, CR: 17,645, Electronics-1, Computer-1, Leadership-1, Gambling, Rifle-1, Revolver-1, SMG-3
• [HG] Former Lieutenant Olga Carter C769B9 Leader-2 Air/Raft-1, rifle-1,smg-1 20,000cr age 26
• [Mandalf] Hamilton Lee Starque — Ex-navy Admiral 8A79AA Age 46, 7 Terms, Cr 150,000, Dagger-2, Auto rifle-1, Pilot-1, Jack of all Trades-1, Electronics-1, Engineering-1, Travellers’, Dagger
• [Bdubs] Beat Takeshi – Former 2nd Officer: C66B48 . Age 38. 5 Terms with Merchants. CR 30,000. Bribery, Broadsword-2, Dagger-1, Vehicle (Car), Electronics, Gun (Rifle). Mysterious fighting man looking for men of honor to challenge to melee combat. Equip on person: 5 daggers, Broadsword, Rifle (20 ammo). Cloth armor.
• [Gabe] John Evryman, jr. – Ex-Marine Lt., 577777, Age 38, 5 Terms, cr 100,000, Brawling 1, Cutlas 1, Dagger 2, Gambling 1, Mechanical 1, Revolver 1, High Passage, Low Passage, Travellers’ Aid
• [Kes] Sir Samuel Harker. Ex-Army Draftee 96836B, Age 22, 1 term, credits 10k (+Education, Gun Cbt: Rifle), Respirator, Cloth Armor, Reflec Armor
• [Bdubs] Mitchel “Green Knight” Denters — Knight — 56865B, Age 30, 3 terms, Cr169,670, Blade-1, Hunting-3, Ship’s Boat. Mesh armor, Blade, Carbine with 3 clips, Yacht.
• [Deceased] Flynn — Retired Executive — 75647A, Age 46, 7 terms, Cr160,000, ATV-2, Interrogation-1, Admin-3, Carousing-1, Shotgun-1, Recruiting-1. Middle Passage x 2, Watch valued at Cr700.

From the original Moonstein:

• [Dunder] Roarke Garnett — Ex-marine Force Commander, AA8898, age 26, 2 terms, Cr 20k, Laser Carbine-1, Revolver-1, Cutlass-1, Medical-2, Tactics-1, Mechanical-1.
• [Gabe] Jung Junger — Ex-army Colonel, A897C8, Age 38, 5 terms, cr3000, Rifle-3, Bayonet-1, Tactics-1, Mechanical-1, Brawling-1.
• [Mandalf] Joe Gelt-Waunder — Ex-merchant Captain 696BC9 Age 46, 7 Terms, Cr 50,000, Pilot-3, Laser Rifle-2, Bribery-2, Vehicle-1 (ground car), Jack of all Trades-1, Navigation-1, Free Trader, SMG.

The Barons:

• [Deceased] Theotormon [Noble #3] — Baron, 34398C, Age 46, 7 terms, cr300,000, Leader-1, Gun Cbt-1, Hunting-1, Carousing-2, Bribery-1, Travellers’.
• Jadawin [Noble #9] — Baron, B5976C, Age 34, 4 terms, cr100,000, Brawling-1, Pilot-1, Leader-1, Engineering-1, Admin-1, Travellers’.
• Vala [Noble #12] — Baroness, 48BB8C, Age 30, 3 terms, cr50,000, Blade Cbt-1, Leader-1, Computer-1, High Passage, Travellers’.
• Palamabron [Noble #15] — Baron, 49968C, Age 34, 4 terms, cr200,000, Pilot-1. Blade Cbt-2, Vehicle-1, Liason-1, Admin-1, two High Passage.
• Luva [Noble #17] — Baroness, 84798C, Age 26, 2 terms, cr200,000, Carousing-1, Admin-1, Leader-1, Travellers’.
• Anana [Noble #23] — Baroness, BB689C, Age 30, 3 terms, cr10,000, Pilot-3, Carousing-1.
• Enion [Noble #29] — Baron, 89788C, Age 26, 2 terms, cr100,000, Engineering-1, Computer-1, Gun Cbt-1, Travellers’.
• Ariston [Noble #31] — Baron, 89444C, Age 26, 2 terms, cr10,000, Ship’s Boat-2, Gun Cbt-1, yacht. (Note: Ariston is currently offworld and his estate is being managed by a steward.)

 Chris Floss artwork used without permission During tonight's Stars Without Numbers game centered around Trey Causey's Strange Stars campaign setting things got really nasty really fast. This blog post picks up from a few days ago on the blog here. Alright so the PC's got it in thier heads that they wanted to seek out a Scavenger Fleet & trade ancient parts and pre Scream Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

DTRPG currently has a Cosmic Horror Sale going on. Most of the sale prices are 25% off the regular price, but many titles in the ALIEN RPG collection are 50% off, including the ALIEN RPG Starter Set.

Additional Cosmic Horror Bundles HERE!

I played in a few sessions of the ALIEN RPG, and it was a blast and a half. I'll be buying a copy of the Starter Set for my own collection.

This set contains everything you need to start playing:

• A 104-page rulebook with a fast and effective ruleset designed specifically to support the core themes of ALIEN: horror and action in the cold darkness of space.
• The 48-page complete scenario Chariot of the Gods by sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska, taking you on a thrilling, terror-filled ride into deep space where no one can hear you scream. Chariot of the Gods is designed for 3–5 players plus the GM.
• Five pre-generated characters to play.
• A huge full-color, double-sided map, with one side depicting chartered space in the year 2183 and the other floor plans for the Chariot of the Gods scenario.
• 84 game markers for keeping track of characters, motion tracker pings, and more.
• 56 custom cards for weapons, personal agendas, and initiative in combat

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar

By Ben Burns
New Comet Games
OSR
Levels 1-2

Join us on this whirl wind epic journey, as the characters are swept up in a struggle between good and evil, law and chaos and right from wrong. Return to the glory days when you feared rolling the dice, and one misstep might be your last

This is a small double-cross and shipwreck adventure, padded out to 53 pages. Long read-aloud, overpowered opponents, and a simplistic adventure are not something I wanted to wake up to this morning.

This is from the designers home campaign, built over forty years. You can tell that they really love their home game. The artwork here is of serious adventurers doing serious things. The adventure has a section on the gods of the campaign world and an overview of it, all very serious. This is not my vibe. I’m more of a ruffians and reprobates kind of guy. I’m not sure what the market is for these “this is my campaign world” adventures; I’m usually looking for something that I can drop in easily to my existing game rather than use, whole cloth, as my new world, with a set of interconnected adventures. The inclusion of the background campaign world and, in particular, the gods, is quite peculiar since I don’t recall that information having little to do in the adventure. 

So, the party is caravan guards and they arrive in a city at the end of their journey. They see a sign advertising for adventurers, which is a trap. They get captured, and then shipwrecked. Then they get captured again and dumped in to an underground temple. You escape the seven room dungeon and the adventure ends. 

I am, perhaps, a little more forgiving of these railroad beginnings at the start of a campaign. You gotta kick the game world off somehow, yeah? But something about this one just rubs me wrong. The whole “the town has thirty buildings” and then captured in the bar well known for capturing people thing is just off. And then, of course, the food and wine is drugged in the bar. As is the incense in the air, in case you don’t eat anything. But, of course, the dude hiring has taken the antidote beforehand, so he’s not impacted. Also, there’s an illusion wall with a bunch of 7 though ten NPC”s behind it, ready to capture you. It’s just a little too much of a set up for me, and my hatred of gimping like this, where every possibility has been thought of. And then you wake up in the ship hold, the ship having already run around. 

It is at this point that the party find themselves alone on the ship and need to get to shore. While in the water they will be attacked by a sea lion. A 6HD sea lion. Ouchies! Oh, wait, TWO 6hd sea lions. It does note those that they take their meal away after they kill someone. I guess one or two people are not playing D&D tonight?

Then you’re captured by an entire tribe of kobolds, many strong. You’re not escaping this, since you have to be chucked down The Maw and in to the dungeon below. It is at this point, finally, that you get to play D&D for a bit. Seven rooms. Full of, for the second review in a row, inscriptions on walls to give clues to people. “Don’t leave the room without making a sacrifice!” or else get hit by a 6d6 lightning bolt. And other ham handed interactivity like “ When the door the adventurers entered through closes, a mouth appears on the ceiling and says, “Remember the way out is always opposite the way in.”” Well that’s fun. This is the extent of the interactivity. Well, beyond being captured the multiple times in an adventure. That’s always the least fun thing. To have absolutely no agency over your character,

Read-aloud tends to the long side, sometimes approaching column length. The DM text is full of backstory and history. Explaining why and so on. Completely useless to the game at the table and obfuscating what you need to see to run the adventure. And then there are things like “You could fire a shot from the ballista at the longboat rowing away …” with a bunch of text following. I guess I get no text in case I fire off a magic missile? The picking and choosing and over-explaining things tha the DM should be relied upon. I fully expected to read something telling me how to roll to hit. Or, in one part of the ship “The furs are from two different animals that the adventurers do not recognize, but they seem exotic.” Great. Does the DM get told what they are? No. Value? No. 

And then there’s a long fiction piece at the end.

I appreciate the history of ones game, and how it feels important. But a published adventure is different than a home game. 

This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is six pages and shows you nothing of interest, except the first long read-aloud. It should have shown some encounters. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/472820/adventurers-wanted-osr?1892600

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on newsstands around August 18, 1983.

Thriller #1: In an unspecified near future New York, Dan Grove is considering suicide, dealing with the trauma of filming his brother's brutal assassination by the terrorist Scabbard in the Middle East. Instead. he's reluctantly recruited into a group of adventurers named the Seven Seconds by a ghostly presence of Angeline Thriller, who wants "Seven Seconds to save the world."
The creation of Fleming and von Eeden, Thriller is (like Ronin) emblematic of the new things DC is trying in this era. I remember reading the Meanwhile column on it as a kid, and it seemed so different from anything I was used to in comics. Today, I would say it perhaps prefigures some of the things the British writers would do that became Vertigo, or perhaps more accurately, it resembles something you might see in the direct sell indies of the era. Unfortunately, the storytelling and presentation is as offbeat as the content, and I don't think that part works quite as well. We'll see if that impression changes with later issues.

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #13: The indicia title of this issue says the title is still "The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl," though on the cover it's just "Supergirl." Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner introduce a new costume ditching the short of "70s cocktail waitress/stewardess' vibe she was rocking. There's also the beginning of a new story arc, as Kara learns that her neighbor, Mrs. Berkowitz, has had a swastika painted on her door by a fascist group, the Party for Social Reform.  Linda attends a rally at which the group's imposing leader preaches some dog-whistle anti-Semitism.  When a riot breaks out, incited by the staged beating of one of the party members posing Jewish protestor, Supergirl intervenes and orders their leader to end the rally.  Instead, the woman reveals her name as Blackstarr, and she focuses her cosmic powers on the Maid of Might, knocking her to the ground.

Batman and the Outsiders #4: Another lackluster issue by Barr and Aparo. I think they're still figuring out what to do with the team. A former Batman (and Black Lightning) foe now calling himself Meltdown has broken out of prison and is stealing radioactive materials. The Outsiders pursue and do battle but Batman is suspicious something more is going on here. The one thing I did like about this issue was the twist that the warden of the prison is the real villain, and Meltdown was merely driven to desperation because the establishment was withholding life-saving treatment.

Green Lantern #170: I guess Cohn and Tuska/Sekowsky felt like last issue was great because they repeat the same basic framing sequence of the Guardians telling Lantern Kista X, who questions their treatment of Jordan, another story about a former Green Lantern aimed to convince her "the Guardians always know best." In this one, Green Lantern Monak falls to an invasion of his homeworld by the robotic forces of Z'nang after he had warned the Guardians about a despotic takeover on the Z'nang world and they had declined to allow him to intervene. His son, Meeno, because the next Lantern and makes war on the Z'nang in violation of the Guardians' orders, even directing a comet toward the world. When he's shown that the comet will kill many innocent victims of the dictorial regime, he redirects the comet but is killed by Z'nang soldiers. The ring passes to a Z'nang political prisoner who can now fight to liberate his people.  
Jordan wakes up from the mindgame test the subjected him to, and he is dismissed. He asks for another reply beyond "don't call us, we'll call you," particularly given his current exiled status, but none is forthcoming. Despite this, he tells Krista where he given the option to do it all over, he would still choose to be a Lantern.

Sgt. Rock #382: In the main feature by Kanigher and guest artist Spiegle, Easy takes a town and with it some German prisoners who all happen to be teenagers. The leader is as fanatical as the come, and refuses to go easily, killing some of Easy's "green recruits" with a grenade. This story is a bit unusual; I expected Rock to be able to get through to the kid a bit, but no, he's Nazi through and through.
There are a bunch of shorts on everything from the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee to the F-111, but the only other story is a "Men of Easy" feature on Little Sure Shot, that's okay, other than the silliness of depicting Native Americans in the reservation (presumably) in what must be the 20s or 30s in stereotypical Hollywood "Plains Indians" regalia.

Legion of Super-Heroes #305: Levitz and Giffen/Schaffenberger have a group of Legionnaires go into action against the Shrinking Violet imposter that's married Colossal Boy. Her name is Yera, and she reveals she is working for a group on Imsk that turn out to be separatists. Colossal Boy naturally doesn't take this well but joins the others in trying to locate the real Violet. What follows is well-done, with Cham infiltrating the group as Yera, then calling in the others for a devastating assault. In the coda, Colossal Boy reveals to Yera that he has decided whatever her true identity, she is the one he has fallen in love with.

Warlord #75: Cool Jurgens cover. I reviewed the main story here. No Barren Earth backup this month.

Day 21 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Disaster. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 4: Invent and item.

The Broken Crown of the Water King

After the Battle of Rixes River, the Alliance of the River Kings seemed poised to strike against the hordes of creatures tainted by Darkness that had for so long haunted their lands. Under the leadership of Prince Urthen, son of Tharen, King of Greenvale, and the advice of the young wizard Gavinia the Wise, the Alliance of the River Kings sent an expeditionary force across the Great Sea of Grass to meet with the gathered clans of the Great Ruhn and forge an alliance.

But petty King Tarrester seethed and schemed in his mountain stronghold. With the waters of the great Rixes Lake flowing past the great dam and down the great waterfall of Skypeak Fortress, King Tarrester summoned all the allied kings and demanded they swear loyalty to him, or he would once again close the great dam and rein in the released mighty Rixes River.

The other kings initially resisted the demand, but Prince Urthen advised the rulers to appease the King of Skypeak and forget their differences with a greater goal before them. The other kings agreed, but Tarrester, the petty ruler, was jealous of Urthen’s wisdom and popularity and the blossoming love between Gavinia the Wise and the young Prince. He demanded the hand of the wizard in marriage.

Prince Urthen was heartbroken, unsure what to do not to imperil their fragile alliance. Gavinia the Wise had no such reluctance. She faced King Tarrester and declared she would not bow to any man who would control her. When the King ordered his men to capture her, she unleashed her magical might on King Tarrester and his fortress.

The fortress towers crumbled, the King’s throne sundered, and his reign ended. All that remained was the broken crown of the water king. From that day forward, Gavinia was known as Gavinia the Mighty or The Witch King Slayer by her enemies.

The Broken Crown of the Water King is a broken crown that grants its wearer the knowledge and means to use and upkeep the great dam in the ruins of Skypeak Fortress. Whoever wears the crown is tasked by the Kings of the Rixes River to control the water flow from the great lake down to the valley, protect it from flooding during the rainy season, and preserve water during drought. The crown wearer can control the great stone golems that control the dam but is magically bound to remain in Skypeak for as long as they wear the crown. The crown must be willingly accepted but can only be taken off if all the kings of the Rixes River give them leave.

I am continuing the story from yesterday. I enjoy writing this. I hope you like it. See you tomorrow.

It is never too late to join #RPGaDay2024. If you find a topic interesting, write about it, comment on it, or talk about it on your socials. The goal is to celebrate all the wonderful things tabletop role-playing games bring to our lives and the positive elements of the community. Don’t forget to tag your contribution with the hashtag and share it with us here, on social media, and in the #RPGaDay 2024 Facebook Group.

I'm confident that the game you finally get (you know I'm doing a Kickstarter, right?) will have been carefully vetted. 

Today, I spent a decent chunk of time changing the rules for invulnerable and impervious, linking these to power instead of might. My thinking was that this would give greater variety to heroes, since the characters with invulnerability tend to be the big bruisers, and the might/endure combination makes them very powerful with the single stat. However, halfway into the process of initiating this change, I realized that it created all sorts of weirdness - characters who shouldn't have high power ratings suddenly needed them to justify the invulnerability they should have had (and did with the higher might). I'm hitting the point in editing and work on the game where I realize that every change I think about making ends up being a step backward - the design is pretty solid as-is. I keep reminding myself I've been working on this game for decades (in significant ways), and everything I have learned about game design has already been baked into the core system. There isn't a lot I can do 'better' without making foundational changes to the game. It's very, very good at being what it is. I'm going to let it be that.

Also, after drawing Modi yesterday, I decided to draw her Olympian parallel today, the great Prince Heracles. My 'War of the Demigods' storyline is about the children of the elder gods and their efforts to establish a new home as their old ones were dying. Modi was a leader among the Norse gods, and Prince Heracles was a leader among the Olympians. They will both appear in Stalwart '85.

Day 20 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Battle. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 5: Write a Legend or Rumor.

The Great Battle of Rixes River

From the mountains of Ancient Ravall came the thunderous marching of an army of automatons set on conquering the kingdoms along the once mighty Rixes River. Their shapeshifting leaders, the former Cabal of the Masters of Sakai, claimed that they would liberate the world of the taint of Darkness upon the world and pull the Nocturnal Potentates themselves from the skies. Despite their claim of being liberators, the armies of Ravall crushed those who faced them and advanced unopposed down the Rixes Valley.

Gavinia the Wise, a former apprentice of the Masters of Sakai, melted the heart of King Tarrester, who opened the great dam and allowed the river Rixes to flow free for the first time in three generations. With the King’s show of goodwill and his army behind her, Gavinia traveled the river kingdoms, uniting the mortals against the advancing army. With their great host ready, the united river kings prepared to face the marching machines of menace.

And then, at dusk, the roar of the savage hoards reverberated across the Rixes Valley. The hoards of the creatures of the night, those tainted, warped, and changed by the Darkness, descended against the armies of Ravall.

The two armies fought from dusk until dawn for three days. The armies of Darkness gained the upper hand under the constellations of the Nocturnal Potentates, with the automatons rallying at day, great flying demons protecting the hordes against the mechanical dragons that pressed the attack.

On the dusk of the third day, the giant commander of savage hoard faced the gigantic automaton vanguard of the army of Ravall. When the giant ripped the colossal automaton to pieces, the armies of Ravall were routed, and the savage hoard seemed victorious until the army of men descended upon them. The Battle of the Rixes River was the first great victory of mortals against the gathered power of Darkness.

This post felt like an appropriate epic theme and challenge to tell this story and move along the tale I’ve been crafting this month. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. See you tomorrow.

It is never too late to join #RPGaDay2024. If you find a topic interesting, write about it, comment on it, or talk about it on your socials. The goal is to celebrate all the wonderful things tabletop role-playing games bring to our lives and the positive elements of the community. Don’t forget to tag your contribution with the hashtag and share it with us here, on social media, and in the #RPGaDay 2024 Facebook Group.

 The E.D.D.I.E. Unit is a cybernetic organism from a tech level sixteen society designed to operate down the time stream in a tech level twelve society. E.D.D.I.E.( Elimination, Detection, Destruction, Identification, Extermination)  units were created by the Iron Maiden corporation to police the time stream & destory any alien or forgein threats to thier timeline from alternative Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

I decided at last to create Modi (who I wrote about four years ago, but never actually drew or came up with game stats for), and she's pretty awesome. I figured that she's about as powerful as a hero could reasonably hope to be (Titanic Tier, Might D16), so she would be a good one to try both weapon damage as a modifier and the dice stabalization rules with.
It went really well. The only concern is that you have two modifiers to add (she had +5 from might, since I was rolling D10+5 instead of D16 when dealing damage), and then I had the +4 from her hammer. However, since the damage was always +9, I could easily track it... and since I had her fighting a foe with invulnerability 6 (Rhonda Rekkit), damage was always D10+3. She would almost always hit (only failed on a 1, because Rhonda has Evade 4 and Modi's getting +4 to hit). 
As it was, it took two rounds for her to defeat Rhonda, and she is one tier higher, so it wasn't unexpected. Rhonda did manage to knock her down about 15 hits, so it wasn't completely one-sided. However, I really like both sets of rules, and I think they are keepers.
I especially like that the weapon gets 'bigger' as you get higher level, which is a bit better than it was before. Cap's shield is going to be a +4 weapon, just because he's a very high tier, and D8+4 is definitely better than D10 for damage.
  

The setting material / boxed sets for the DCC RPG are simply stunning in the quality and quantity of the contents.  DCC RPG Dying Earth is no exception, and it holds a prominent place on my gaming shelves. Alas, it will likely never get played, as my gaming group isn't a fan of the DCC RPG, but the books are sweet and a pleasant read.

The Starter Collection for the DCC Dying Earth Set is 17.95, and you can grab the complete Bonus Collection for about 36 bucks.

Adventurer! This all-new DCC Dying Earth Bundle presents the 2022 Goodman Games tabletop roleplaying game adaptation for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG of the world-famous Dying Earth stories by legendary fantasist Jack Vance.

Funded in a June 2021 Kickstarter campaign, DCC Dying Earth is the newest licensed RPG version of Vance's setting. DCC Dying Earth is both a sourcebook that expands the DCC RPG core rules and a campaign setting that evokes Vance's singular setting: the distant twilight of Earth as a dim red sun sheds its last life. The world is filled with the whimsical and the curious, the evil and monstrous. DCC Dying Earth is 100% compatible with DCC RPG. Parties can jump from Aereth to the Purple Planet to the dim twilight of the 21st Aeon, where magic and science are one and the same – even back through time to the sorcerous age of Grand Motholam or doomed Ampridatvir. The four new classes (magician, wayfarer, witch, and vat-thing), dozens of new spells, new monsters, and more – all can fit any era and expand any judge's setting.

Note: This licensed DCC RPG adaptation of the Dying Earth stories is different from an earlier version published by Pelgrane Press. These adventures all require the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG rulebook, which is not included in this offer – but check our DCC Essentials Starter Pack in the Bundle Store!

Dungeon Crawl Classics module 5 Penumbra of the Polar ApeThis all-new offer has everything you need to begin adventuring in the 21st Aeon. For just US$17.95 you get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $61) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete DCC Dying Earth core set and the first three modules: Dying Earth #0: The Black Obelisk, #1 Laughing Idol of Lar-Shann, and #2 Sorcerer's Tower of Sanguine Slant.

Dying Earth campaignAnd if you pay more than the threshold price of $35.39, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with seven more titles worth an additional $67. The centerpiece of this Bonus Collection, debuting exclusively in this offer, is the Casebook of Arcane Apocrypha, a collection of stretch goals from the DCC Dying Earth Kickstarter campaign. And this Bonus Collection also adds DCC Dying Earth modules #3-8: #3 Magnific Machinations at the Grand Exposition, #4 Mind Weft of the Moonstone Palace, #5 Penumbra of the Polar Ape, #6 The Great Visp Hunt, #7 Phantoms of the Ectoplasmic Cotillion, and #8 The House on the Island.

The Casebook of Arcane Apocrypha debuts exclusively in this offer and is not yet available on DriveThruRPG. Download the Casebook from your Wizard's Cabinet on this site.

 

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By Ancient Sage
Self Published
OSR
Levels 6-10

And to the undoomed living shall be revealed but a small portion of the horrid secrets the dead have hitherto so well guarded…and they shall quail… […] Now, ages later, Ordane has long lain in ruins. Recently discovered by explorers from the colonial duchy of New Herod, it has gained the attention of powerful interests. The PCs are tasked with exploring the ruins and eliminating any threats. Rumors of goblins and bugbears in the area as well as a palpable miasma – an apathetic pall within the grounds of Ordane itself – are nothing compared to the whispers that…something…lurks deep within the bowels of the undercity…

This thirty page adventure uses six pages to describe ten rooms in some ruins, half above ground and half below. It’s a Cthulhu cross-ver, with shoggoths and elder things. Because of that its a little more freaky than the usual fare, but, still, there’s nothing much here in the way of interesting encounters.

Ohs nos! The fort has been raided! Here’s a pittance for your level six through tens, please go stop the goblins/hobgoblins! The problem here, I think, should be obvious to anyone who actually plays OSR D&D. And the problem is almost certainly not relatable at all to those who do not run ongoing OSR games. This level range should have the party being pretty much badasses, or close to it. And they should have their own lands, or close to it. And whatever reward offered to them just isn’t going to cut it in terms of motivating them to do something. The pretext here is essentially out of touch with what the actual game vibe is. There are a couple of alternate hooks, class specific, that show some life to them. You owe a debt, from a failed theft, to the thieves guild. Or you got caught with a hooker and now need to prove your piety by ferreting out some heretic shit. I’m not the biggest fan of off-screen pressure on the party, but they at least have a little life to them. 

You get a few above ground encounters in some ruins that consist of goblins, hobs and bugbears. There’s a vague “ancient techno” thing going on, with them having a flame gun, before you take an elevator down to the few linear encounters underground. This isn’t really gonzo though. You’ve got to think of the underground as more of a ancient eldritch empire, in to Cthulhu stuff, with a few vaguely techno items. Maybe more like something weird shit that an Elder THing might use. The final boss is a shoggoth, there’s an elder thing trapped, and nyarlathotep is wandering around as an extra. In spite of this, we’ve also got a horde of skeletons, a generic wraith and a some generic shadows running around, as well as a few golems. 

While there is an artpiece that is quite evocative, of an elder thing on a throne, the vast majority of the adventure is quite generic in its descriptions. I’m disappointed in the generic shadows and generic wraith. I want some life here, a good description that brings the horror of the undead to life! And the shoggoth and eldritch creatures are not handled as much more than something to stab, though you could talk to the Elder Thing. This accompanies the rather generic and bland room descriptions that don’t really bring that kind of pseudo-cthulhu environment to life much at all. 

The interactivity here is quite simplistic. It mostly consist of, beyond the stabbing and the few opportunities to talk, reading some words written on something and then “solving the riddle” so to speak. “Etched upon the backrest in Ordanian script is, ‘If thou seekest knowledge, first prove thyself worthy. ” Well, great. 

And this is all conveyed through the usual WOTC template of long text paragraphs with just monster words bolded … and not even consistently at that. I fucking hate wading through these text blocks in order to run a room. Overly long and mechanistic, they hide the information you need to see to run the game. It’s not that there’s not a place for text blocks, but poorly written ones are just a pain to dig through. 

And that’s all really too bad. The concept here could have been great, with the eldritch things in a ruined city. And there are little add ons to follow up on that are quite nice. In the wilderness “As well, a trio of lusty mermaids is known to sunbathe on the nearmost sandbars, crooning lasciviously to exceptionally attractive passersby (CHA 16+), who then must successfully …” That’s a nice mermaid, a classic. And you can find a dead ghost dude inside the ruins that can point you to another wilderness location with his body. 

Those sorts of things are pretty decent. But they are not really put together in a cohesive way that makes sense and flows well. Just like the gobbos above and undead below, it’s seems also perfunctory. Their promise is lost by a combination of formatting, lack of evocative descriptions, and overall flow of the adventure. It seems like they are there just because, even though some of them have those little things to follow up on. And $120k in loot aint gonna go very far at some of the level ranges. 

A rumor tells us “A covey of vane harpies has recently made their home in the ruins. Don’t tell nobody this, but…I seen ‘em, and well, I kind of like what I see. Is that crazy?” See, that’s some good shit right there! But the promise, the wonder, is not delivered on. Instead we get all of that extra padding, all of the extra text and appendices and background and so on. The effort should have gone in to the adventure, proper, instead.

This is $6 at DriveThru. The preview is nineteen pages, enough to see every room, so, good preview.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/490059/osr-adventure-the-ruins-of-ordane?1892600

One of these days, I'm going to completely finish (and maybe publish) this series on the Great Wheel, but until then, here's everything I've done.
The Planes of Pure Law
The Planes of Chaos
Hell
CarceriHadesArboreaElysiumBeastlandsGehennaTwin ParadisesThe Layers of Heaven (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)ArcadiaLimboYsgard

 During tonight's Hostile game the players were playing Crew Expendable PC's including an 'air marshal' PC who was aboard as they were delivering ammo to Tau Ceti for the American corporation's forces. They were aboard the USS Franklin a Harbinger frieghter undercutting the competition. They were bringing back exo specimens for examination as the planet enters it's hot period. Warfare Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Day 19 of #RPGaDay2024. Let’s start another week. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Hologram. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 8: Present an idea for a random encounter.

A female’s cry for help calls your attention. Away from the trail, she desperately shouts for help. You can also hear the barking of dogs. When you see her, you will find she is caught in a hunter’s pit trap. Two dogs circle the trap, barking and whimpering. She asks for help but cannot climb out, so she offers a pouch of coins as her only possession. If rescued, she tells the adventurers the dogs are hers and that she is afraid to continue her travels alone. Will you help her?

Whether as described above or in other circumstances, you run into a beautiful blond woman accompanied by two dogs out in the wild. The woman’s clothes are dirty and look ill-suited for overland travel, and her two dogs are large, vicious-looking mongrels. She says she is looking for her lost child and asks to travel with the party to camp somewhere safe away from the dangers of the Darkness.

She shares that her daughter is lost, and she is searching for her. Her husband, the girl’s father, is a wizard, and he has disappeared. Her child ran from the tower where they lived. She lacks magical powers but fears that the child somehow blames herself for the mishap or might be under the effect of a spell, and she needs to find her.

When she has gained a measure of confidence from the group, she will pull out a device that she explains holds an image of the child. She will ask if she can show it to them. If allowed, she will activate the device, and it glows. You can see a wounded and afraid young woman in a cone of blue light emanating from it.

If the adventurers stare into the image, the device will cast a Geas upon them. The spell will compel them to find the child and bring her to the woman’s tower. They instinctively know the tower’s location. If the group is ensorcelled, the woman will leave them to their quest and wander away into the night.

If some or all adventurers resist the Geas (see the OSE and D&D 5e descriptions in the links) and her rouse is revealed, she will fight them. She and her dogs are all Fleashmasters (described on Day 15 of RPGaDay 2024, Genetics) and will fight to try to defeat the group. Still, the Fleshmaster that has taken the form of a woman will not fight to the death and try to escape by all means necessary, as to return and report to its Aye Eye master (see day 17).

This post follows up on the previous encounter with the same creature but with a twist. I hope you like it. I still haven’t come up with a name for this world I’m creating with these posts. Do you have any suggestions?

It is never too late to join #RPGaDay2024. If you find a topic interesting, write about it, comment on it, or talk about it on your socials. The goal is to celebrate all the wonderful things tabletop role-playing games bring to our lives and the positive elements of the community. Don’t forget to tag your contribution with the hashtag and share it with us here, on social media, and in the #RPGaDay 2024 Facebook Group.