tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27546169676297686352024-03-14T03:10:16.820-04:00The Secret DMA small blog with a big heart. A big, soul stealing gem heart.Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-38791478179426197982021-09-29T05:40:00.001-04:002021-09-29T05:40:58.818-04:00Burn<p>So I’ve started writing my own game system. Again, of course, but this time I’ve actually followed through and put something together that — on paper — I really enjoy.</p><p><br></p><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1CmYQxFdr68WufxUkbRnbW45xkGW3JUe3"><div><br></div><div><i>Logo design by Jason Chapman, featuring art licensed from William McAusland/Outland Arts.</i></div><div><br></div><div><b>BURN</b> is a game system that uses a single d6 for determining outcomes. Players have six different stats and 12 points distributed among them that they can “burn” to achieve an auto success and avoid a failed roll, which usually involves a setback or negative consequence.</div><div><br></div><div>Once all the points are spent though, a character is “burned out”, suffering disadvantage on rolls until they can take either a rest.</div><div><br></div><div>Characters begin the game with six health, and when health is reduced to 0, the character is on <i>The Brink of Death</i> — alive but unable to take any action, until healed/mended by another character or they rest.</div><div><br></div><div>Resting restores 1 health and 2 points distributed among the six stats, including putting both points into the same stat.</div><div><br></div><div>All attacks in the game are considered successful and deal 1 hit, but rolls of 1 on a d6 will result in triggering a setback as well, such as dropping your weapon, and rolls of 6 deal double damage (so normally that’s 2 hits).</div><div><br></div><div>You must be holding a weapon of some kind, or trained in unarmed combat, in order to make an attack.</div><div><br></div><div>The game is inspired by Into the Odd, Troika!, a little bit of DCC, and a dash of 4e, among other games. </div><div><br></div><div>Theres still a lot of work to be done to get the game ready to play test, but I feel good about the direction it’s moving in.</div><div><br></div>Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-10108417089019273392021-09-19T21:44:00.004-04:002021-09-19T21:44:53.151-04:00Working with Friends<h2 style="text-align: left;">I'm very blessed to be surrounded by amazing people who are creative in ways I can only imagine.</h2><p>Don’t get me wrong, I know I have ideas, and some fun ones too, but it's more that I have spontaneous bursts of creativity, and I struggle to follow through on those ideas and turn them into something tangible. It might be that it takes too much work or effort, it might be a matter of believing I don't have the time. Whatever it is, I put out ideas and I love doing just that, and I don't really expect of myself that I'll finish any of them.</p><p>Except with three ideas I had, not necessarily original, but, well, they are something, and now I'm working with three different sets of friends to turn them into something more. This is what I love; collaboration. It was a big part of the scene I was part of when Google+ was around, and I get to do it in small ways now on Facebook, Twitter, and Discord. Even Instagram occasionally when I post something and someone messages me, but its more rare there.</p><p>So anyway, here are three ideas, or collection of ideas or thoughts, and these are now no longer mine, but a collaborative effort:</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">THE GIGGLIES</h2><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><img height="640" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1vRoHxK3CFZzNu2CPFYnI-aOWKT7NbB9C" width="426" /></div><div><br /></div><div>There’s this artist named JR on <a href="http://instagram.com/jars.drawings">Instagram</a> and <a href="http://reddit.com/u/Rojom">Reddit</a> who shares these amazing pieces of dark, twisted art, like this piece based on the Teletubbies, and I immediately thought this was gameable. So I got to talking to my friend <a href="http://hodagrpg.itch.io">Hodag</a> (who recently released <a href="https://hodagrpg.itch.io/hodag">THE HODAG RPG</a> and you NEED to check it out), and he introduced me to his friend Cónor, who loved the concept and wants to make it into a thing.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h1>ACROSS THE STARS</h1><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><img height="640" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1Dl6uCvrM0-JfZR0bM4w2g3shHczzC3iR" width="453" /></div><div><br /></div><div>I’ve likely talked about Across the Stars years ago, when it was something else. But a few days ago my friend Matthew Adams published a 1-page game called <a href="https://gaslark.itch.io/exploiters">Exploiters</a> as part of the #MSPaintjam (or #MSPaintRPGjam, I’m not sure which) and I love it and the tone was perfect for it. So I got to talking to my friend Richard on Twitter about it and I pitched my old ATS concept and he’s considering helping me develop it into something more.</div><div><br /></div><h1>ROCKS OF SANTH</h1><p>I wrote up a list of names today, and me friends David and Ted both jumped in and started to help me figure out what it all meant:</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Hewer of the Rocks of Santh</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Carvers of Eyes</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Mandelbrot Columns</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Slipstone Golem</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Krathickack of the Nine Mouths</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Feeder Worms</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The No-Beast</span></b></p><p><br /></p><p>Immediately a mine locale comes to mind, where the Hewer pulls out Rocks of Santh, served by and aided by the Carvers of Eyes. The Mandelbrot Columns are alien things, shifting things, mutating columns, maybe of flesh? Maybe of something else. And Slipstone golems are forged from the Rocks of Santh.</p><p>This much I know. The rest I have to figure out. Or we do, really.</p><p>Oh and the no-beast is a creature that slides through different dimensions. I think it’s lion-like in form, maybe two-headed. Or no-headed.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Let's see what comes next!</h2>Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-63131862129372556542021-09-17T18:27:00.001-04:002021-09-17T18:27:56.570-04:00Lost in a Dungeon<p>Hey, have you heard about <a href="http://dwglive">Down We Go</a>?</p><p>So I’ve started blogging here at The Secret DM again, and I also started running Down We Go online on Monday nights, and I’m having a blast, and decided I would blog about the experience.</p><p>Which I could have done here at The Secret DM.</p><p>But I’m not going to, really, probably not anyway. Instead I set up a new blog: <a href="http://lostinadungeon.com">Lost in a Dungeon</a></p><p><br></p><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1fbqHr5-AMY9dng9dX2ZXr7xEO5tn_VJ_"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Lost in a Dungeon is a new blog dedicated to supporting Down We Go— it will feature my play reports, as well as optional content to enhance play for others. I’m looking forward to developing it there, and I’m very happy to have the support of both Tony Vasinda and Markus Linderum to pursue my plans for Down We Go, utilizing the Together We Go 3rd party license.</div><div><br></div><div>So be sure to check out <a href="http://lostinadungeon.com">http://lostinadungeon.com</a>!</div><div><br></div>Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-89101031179289763512021-09-16T18:45:00.001-04:002021-09-16T18:52:41.246-04:00Consuming Plant<p>Some things just want to eat your face.</p><p>I saw a piece of art by Nick Pyle on Instagram, of a person having their face consumed by a plant — or something like that, anyway, and I immediately thought of an awesome monster it would be.</p><p>This post features original art by <a href="https://www.patreon.com/evlynmoreau">Evlyn Moreau</a> that pays homage to the Nick Pyle piece.</p><p>And because it’s my favorite right now, I’ve statted this monster for <a href="http://ttrpg.link/dwglive">Down We Go</a> — which is currently crowdfunding on GameFound. Check it out! There are seven days left!!</p><p><br></p><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1qTF1xLNxfmKaHtaiOu-iXssovMy42DTb"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Consuming Plant</div><div><br></div><div>A consuming plant is a mobile plant that seeks to attach itself to the head of a living creature, sliding vine-like tendrils into the skull and quickly dominating the brain, turning the creature into a vessel to do the plant’s bidding.</div><div><br></div><div>Wracked with painful headaches, the victim becomes bent on maniacal plotting for diabolical plans catering to furthering the needs of the Consuming Plant.</div><div><br></div><div>Very loud noises seem to disrupt the influence of the consuming plant over its victim, but only for short periods of time. Fire can destroy the plant but usually the victim must be set on fire as well.</div><div><br></div><div>Difficulty: 15</div><div>Dam: Special</div><div>Hits 3</div><div>Special: Smothering</div><div><br></div><div>The ball of vines leaps about quickly and latches vines around a potential victim’s head, then pulls itself close and begins smothering the subject until they succumb to its dominion, which takes 1d4+2 rounds.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-58797066478225950582021-09-15T06:59:00.001-04:002021-09-15T06:59:44.343-04:00SlipStarToday I want to talk about a game I’m developing, <i style="font-weight: bold;">SlipStar</i>. <div><br></div><div><br></div><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1VHAGUYLzgNYacwup_SNejf8VELHYEKNR"><div>You can find the working manuscript here: <a href="https://kjrpg.site/ssrpg">kjrpg.site/ssrpg </a></div><div><br></div><div>It’s a game of survivors of a galactic cataclysm: an invasion by diabolical forces from another dimension.</div><div><br></div><div>And I’ve been stuck working on it for about six months.</div><div><br></div><div>As you are probably aware, my personal gaming style leans heavily into old school play: dungeon crawls, limited resources, character lethality.</div><div><br></div><div>In SlipStar, there are no hit points. Instead you track things like Heart and Hope, either of which, when they reach zero, your character is no longer playable. I like this idea conceptually that you can lose heart, or lose hope, and end up succumbing to that in a way that death by hit points would otherwise function.</div><div><br></div><div>But what’s it like in actual play?</div><div><br></div><div>I don’t know yet. I felt I had to write out the mechanics and all of the game setting content in full before I attempted play testing, but then my writer’s block hit and I’ve been stuck ever since.</div><div><br></div><div>But my friend (and business partner) <a href="http://Twitter.com/yungdumbitch">Ava Islam</a> (here blog is here: <a href="https://permacrandam.blogspot.com/">https://permacrandam.blogspot.com/</a>) suggested I playtest it now, in its current state, and build on that. Which obviously I’m nervous to do, but it makes sense.</div><div><br></div><div>So I’ll probably look to run a game of this soon, on a Friday night or Sunday night Eastern Time, just to see how even this bare bones, barely formed ruleset plays out.</div><div><br></div><div>I posted the link to the manuscript however to invite feedback, if anyone wants to share their thoughts. I’m new to game design personally, in that while I’ve been home brewing D&D for over thirty years, I haven’t really tried to create a game system from nothing.</div><div><br></div><div>Just be gentle if you can, lol. I can handle honest criticism but I don’t think I can deal with cruelty with this first attempt at something different. Different for me, anyway.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1ZGciM8nQ3kH0Ot-rpObB2uGNw3O7zEtx">Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-84480379656821786382021-09-13T11:14:00.000-04:002021-09-13T11:14:19.546-04:00Building a Generator<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRhLZvYKhq0x719VudDFAVothOlQhsbI6Cz0xSF6EAkBHxd9ko0c_BBpr6xMdCbZjKcIPatgUzZNPzwEoYrcN0FkwzGHTHZV9MxmAXv0z8Ur-Ymr5Fl87GdtPqKmWhkJzOJQYAOVzy_z0/s1920/old-books-436498_1920.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRhLZvYKhq0x719VudDFAVothOlQhsbI6Cz0xSF6EAkBHxd9ko0c_BBpr6xMdCbZjKcIPatgUzZNPzwEoYrcN0FkwzGHTHZV9MxmAXv0z8Ur-Ymr5Fl87GdtPqKmWhkJzOJQYAOVzy_z0/s320/old-books-436498_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/old-books-book-old-library-436498/">Pixabay</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><a href="http://twitter.com/michaelraston">Michael Raston</a> is a machine.</div><div><br /></div><div>Recently on his blog, Michael wrote up a "how to" guide to building tables and making generators for gaming purposes, sort of as a favor to me -- really I asked him to outline his process, and the result was an out of this world, in depth blog post on the topic. I highly recommend checking it out.</div><div><br /></div><div>This post is NOT that post, by any means. What follows will be a set of tables I wrote up myself, inspired by what Michael does, and an example of how I would make it work for me. But the real quality can be found directly at <a href="https://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2021/09/how-i-write-generators.html">https://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2021/09/how-i-write-generators.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Okay so, here goes:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
<style type="text/css">
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<table class="tg">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="tg-c3ow"></th>
<th class="tg-umjc">Locale</th>
<th class="tg-umjc">Theme</th>
<th class="tg-umjc">Descriptor</th>
<th class="tg-umjc">Monster, Base</th>
<th class="tg-nb08"><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Monster, Type</span></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">1.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Monastery</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Memory</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Wet</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Bat</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Goblin</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">2.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Crypt</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Mirrors</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Diseased</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Slug</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Hobgoblin</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">3.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Vein</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Dreams</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Empty</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Crab</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Orc</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">4.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Hollow</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Reflection</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Mossy</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Fish</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Skeleton</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">5.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Vault</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Death</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Moldy</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Goat</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Zombie</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">6.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Shrine</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Decay</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Broken</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Cat</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Vampire</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">7.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Tomb</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Time</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Ruined</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Dog</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Wight</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">8.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Castle</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Loss</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Slimy</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Spider</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Golem/Statue</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">9.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Tower</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Guilt</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Bubbling</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Bear</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Fiend</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">10.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Ruins</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Power</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Crystalline</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Insect</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Dragon</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">11.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Temple</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Regeneration</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Hot</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Bird</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Troll</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">12.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Forest</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Destiny</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Melting</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Jellyfish</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Ogre</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">13.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Passage</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Magic</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Metallic</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Plant</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Ooze</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">14.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Canyon</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Belief</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Slippery</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Turtle</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Gorgon</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">15.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Grotto</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Wisdom</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Forgotten</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Frog</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Ocular Devourer</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">16.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Hill</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Fire</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Mysterious</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Bull</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Octopus Headed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">17.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Cave</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Water</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Open</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Elk</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Sphinx</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">18.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Keep</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Air</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Smooth</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Snake</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Robot</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-7btt">19.</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Gate</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Earth</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Cracked</td>
<td class="tg-c3ow">Lizard</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Elemental</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-amwm">20.</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Hall</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Life</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Burnt</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Shark</td>
<td class="tg-baqh">Lich</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxPGyHed1A8bGWe6WHegIMzWerIpxpnbCAUR3YHnnGyu4tBtyV53fdaLLejhKKzPlvT0EC4anSjNFlOmYEB066bGSM_RlBheQFQTs76aJyzFlY6xst6U91-NglQfTTmzmb4sI_yZtvzaM/s1914/mennell+skeletons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1914" data-original-width="1667" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxPGyHed1A8bGWe6WHegIMzWerIpxpnbCAUR3YHnnGyu4tBtyV53fdaLLejhKKzPlvT0EC4anSjNFlOmYEB066bGSM_RlBheQFQTs76aJyzFlY6xst6U91-NglQfTTmzmb4sI_yZtvzaM/s320/mennell+skeletons.jpg" width="279" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art by <a href="http://patreon.com/smifink">Dan Smith</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Okay so let's dig in a bit to this series of tables and see what we can make.</div><div><br /></div><div>First off, the lists are not EXHAUSTIVE; the goal is to get 20 (or fewer if needed) motifs for each list...just some key concepts I can roll up and quickly turn into an idea for something.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lets take the first two columns to start: <b>Locale </b>and <b>Theme</b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>My first results on those two tables are: Halls (20), and Mirrors (2).</div><div><br /></div><div>Okay, So our players are going to explore the <b><i>Mirrored Halls of Mynroma</i></b>. Sounds good.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's roll again.</div><div><br /></div><div>Vault (4) and Decay (6)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>The Vaults of Decay</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div>It doesn't have to be anything in depth at this time, just something to generate ideas. And now that we have a dungeon or two, we can use the rest of the chart to describe the interior and populate it with monster types. You can also roll multiple times for each column.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moldy (5) and Metallic (13)</div><div><br /></div><div>The interior of the Vaults of Decay are covered in mold, but there are some sections constructed from metallic paneling -- very artificial in nature.</div><div><br /></div><div>And now some monsters:</div><div><br /></div><div>Slug (2) Lich (20)</div><div>Plant (13) Gorgon (14)</div><div><br /></div><div>The idea is to combine these to create new kinds of monsters. The list is not meant to be literal: while you could create a Slug Lich, it may be better to turn this into some kind of slow-moving but powerful arcane creature that, if slain, returns to life unless its special cocoon/phylactery is destroyed. It hates its immortal existence but longs to destroy all living things it encounters.</div><div><br /></div><div>I chose gorgon for the classic presentation of Medusa with a snake-body, so a plant-based snake-bodied creature that maybe spews some kind of organic substance that can turn things into stone.</div><div><br /></div><div>So the Vaults sound like pretty dangerous place. I can keep utilizing the various tables and combining results to determine other monsters to face, modify those monsters with the descriptors instead of using them to describe the interior of the dungeon, and do this over and over until I feel comfortable with what I have.</div><div><br /></div><div>The point is that the table is a starting point, to help get the creative process started, and at anytime you can switch into manual design mode and make something. Or use the generated results as is. Even better, have your players make random rolls to determine the dungeon and what they'll face there.</div><div><br /></div><div>I love the idea of a Random Treasure Table too, and may add that. As it stands, all told, the above chart can generate over 3 million combinations (if my math is right) and it's just a starting point.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks again to Michael Raston for encouraging me and helping me get started!</div>Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-9130476574752154622021-09-10T05:31:00.001-04:002021-09-10T05:31:39.794-04:00Creating Compelling Content<p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-e47ae4a6-7fff-7cbf-ad72-8df84fbeaf9b" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 26pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creating Compelling Content</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 16pt;"><span style="font-size: 15.000000000000002pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ideas for developing original settings and game concepts</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Floating chunks of stone drift in the sky over the heads of horned men, godless shepherds and keepers of the Valley of Thirst, it’s yellow, sallowed grass tall to their knees and yearning to be quenched in rains that never come.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Setting design can be challenging. Coming up with ideas for locations, setting up epic storylines that are ripe with opportunities for adventure...it can be a daunting task to take on. I’m not going to solve that problem for you in this blog entry, but I’m going to talk about my approach and introduce some of my techniques, and hopefully you gain something from what I have to offer here.</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 18pt; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smash two things together</span></h2><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is advice I borrowed from Stephen King. In his book </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Writing</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, King discusses one of the methods he uses to come up with a new story: he takes two elements and mashes them together to create something new.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s a personal example, and let’s make it interesting. Let’s write up two random lists, roll on them, and see what we get and what we come up with when we combine them.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LIST ONE: MONSTERS</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><ol style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Skeleton</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Zombie</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vampire</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goblin</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Orc</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Elemental</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dragon</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ooze</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Demon</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bandit</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spider</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shark</span></p></li></ol><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LIST TWO: SUBSTANCE</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><ol style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bone</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blood</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jelly</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rust</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Metal</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crystal</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Time</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Children’s Dreams</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wood</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ice</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lava</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Psionic Energy</span></p></li></ol><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My results: Elemental [6] and Children’s Dreams [8]</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Okay, how about this:</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A massive storm has settled over the lands of Areyna, thick and roiling clouds of purple and crimson filling the sky, choking out sunlight. Flashes of black lightning strike between the clouds and the earth, leaving a smell like sulfur filling the air.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Areyna is cursed. Everywhere, from the shores of Usuria in the east to the Valley of Thirst to the west, children are succumbing to a strange illness, slipping into comas from which they cannot be stirred. Now, strange beasts stalk the landscape -- half formed monsters and slithering oozes, and gelatinous reptilian things that fly, and other oddities.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The worst of them are massive entities formed of shimmering energy, through which one can see glimpses of bizarre places, twisted faces, and other obscure details: these are Elementals, forged from the dreams of the comatose children.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And they must be stopped. Destroying an elemental frees a group of children bound to it, waking them from the prison of their sleep. But the elementals are everywhere. The player characters have answered a calling to rescue Areyna and free it from its curse...and to save the children.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overall, the key is, as with anything, practice. My techniques for creating settings aren’t original or even revolutionary, it’s just taking chances with bits of things that pop into my head, inspired by what I read, what I watch on TV, video games and tabletop RPGs, and art and music I find online. Inspiration can come from anywhere. One setting concept I had was inspired by someone talking about their character background in a live stream for an actual play session of someone’s game. Just something they mentioned as their character’s motivation for entering a dungeon was enough to spark an idea for me to create an entire game setting.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s a sample setting, which I just call Death Planet X. You might call it something else.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s the origin of the world? Is the planet a </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thu-in</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> prison world? One of the rare, stellar jewels of the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collector</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? Could this be the long lost homeworld of the ancient </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Usurpers</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">?</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regardless of how this planet came to be, one thing is certain: it's a death trap.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Outwardly, the planet's surface is a scarred, inhospitable landscape, marred by layers of discordant technology from an endless list of long dead civilizations. There are mercury lakes surrounding spires of gargantuan bone, which border metallic jungles, beyond which lie vast stretches of machine dust deserts, where obsidian-hued obelisks rise up and gaze across the horizon, watching the edges of the world shift and flow like fabric.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Giant, translucent glass spheres float through the air, their purpose unknown. </span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wild storms of dust and electricity form and dissipate with no warning.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crystalline warriors stalk the land, patrolling the surface and destroying anything they encounter.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a harsh world.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So let’s see how it came to be:</span></p><ol style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Usurpers</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> called this planet 'home', but they were not the first inhabitants.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This isn't a planet; it's a dormant </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Renjin</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> battle platform. The "surface" has built up from meteor collisions and other debris over a million years, hiding the awful weapon.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's really planet Earth, sent back from the future to avoid destruction when Sol expands.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thu-in</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> only discovered the planet within the last century, and banished their worst criminals here, all of whom have undoubtedly perished.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was once a part of the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collector's</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> galactic museum, but it was stolen and moved to its current location. The Collector continues to look for it...</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The entire planet is an illusion, projected by a cabal of mindlinked </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thought Wizards</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> from inside one of their prism ships positioned at the 'core'.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The planet is a nexus point for all of creation; it is the only known place in the universe where all realities, dimensions, timelines, universes, etc. converge.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The planet is the legendary 'Eden', the failed genesis seed world of the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Progenitors </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">before their successful terraforming of Earth.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's a rogue dimensional world from an alternate universe. Somewhere, there's an evil empire of goatee-shaved pirates looking for their homeworld...</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's the legendary </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ixian Manifestor</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, whose purpose is itself a mystery. One rumor about the manifestor is that it creates a new universe, ripping apart the current one.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The planet is a sentient being that feeds on the sense of discovery experienced by new explorers.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" style="list-style-type: decimal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The planet is actually the exit point of a dimensional portal, through which a hyper-advanced society disposes all of its technological and biological waste.</span></p></li></ol><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-1015840026030470512021-09-09T12:28:00.001-04:002021-09-09T12:28:13.254-04:00Twenty Ways To Nowhere<div><font color="#201f20" face="Roboto, sans-serif"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 31, 32); font-size: 15px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">I wrote this for a blog I started up a few years ago, but never explored the concept further. My friend Joshua Burnett (</span></font><a href="http://bernietheflumph.com/">http://bernietheflumph.com/</a>) made some art based on the list, and I <i>still</i> did nothing with it.</div><b style="caret-color: rgb(32, 31, 32); color: rgb(32, 31, 32); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><div><b style="caret-color: rgb(32, 31, 32); color: rgb(32, 31, 32); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></b></div>Twenty Ways to Nowhere, or How to Enter the Null Path Dungeon</b><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 31, 32); color: rgb(32, 31, 32); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(32, 31, 32); color: rgb(32, 31, 32); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></b><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 31, 32); color: rgb(32, 31, 32); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 240, 242);"></span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 31, 32); color: rgb(32, 31, 32); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><ol style="caret-color: rgb(32, 31, 32); color: rgb(32, 31, 32); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><li>There is a hole at the top of the Black Mountain that can be reached by bribing the Hawkmen of Calhoun to carry you there.</li><li>The road through Zendahar, the City of Skulls, is known to be very treacherous, but its the most direct route to the Gate of Nothing, beyond which lies the Null Path Dungeon.</li><li>Fall asleep under the tree of the Lily Knights, in Old Gabhur; as long as the knights are away you will awaken within the Null Path Dungeon. If the knights find you though, they will slay you for trespassing.</li><li>Speak to the wizard council known as the Blind Triumvirate. They will have you complete a difficult task, after which they will teleport you inside the dungeon.</li><li>The bite of the negative viper is painful, but not deadly. Within 1d4 days, you will appear inside the dungeon.</li><li>Find the Tree of Yearning in the Forest of Errond; convince the tree it still has worth, and it will open up an entryway that leads into the dungeon.</li><li>The vines of Nethrang all end inside the Null Path Dungeon. If you survive the journey down before the vines kill you, that is.</li><li>When the moons of Ilsa and Adorra eclipse each other, a stairway of light appears in the Lake of Dwelling. This stairway leads into the dungeon.</li><li>Find the Endless Map, an artifact that can transport up to six people to any artificial destination. Once used, the Endless Map crumbles to dust.</li><li>Wait patiently, for one day a Garrabun will kidnap you and bring you to the Null Path Dungeon.</li><li>Give one of your eyes to the Seer of the Golden Desert; he will give you a red crystal in exchange. Its warmth and glow will lead you to the dungeon.</li><li>Break a deal with Senthrax, the Evil One. He will banish you to the dungeon.</li><li>Steal a chroma egg from the Salt Elves of Eurheim, in the Blasted Lands. Eat its yolk as the moon Ilsa rises, and you will be transported to the dungeon.</li><li>Bind a young Hopperling in the Azure Bluffs; in exchange for its freedom, it will whisk you away to the dungeon.</li><li>Trick an Interloper from the Beyond to dream you to the dungeon. Careful though, as Interlopers are hard to trick and difficult to trust.</li><li>Pay a negamancer to take you to the dungeon. Gold is worthless to them, though, as are most things.</li><li>Sell your soul to Senthrax, the Evil One, in exchange for taking you to the dungeon.</li><li>The Blind King, who lingers in the Valley of Nov Ral Arath, knows the way to the dungeon. But he is well guarded by Whisper Golems and Blind Demons.</li><li>The sewers of Zendahar, the City of Skulls, lead into the Null Path Dungeon. This may or may not be easier than following the road through Zendahar to the Gate of Nothing.</li><li>Ride a wild Ramshackle Crawler through the City of Windows, and eventually you may arrive inside the Null Path Dungeon.</li></ol><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=12SvSJLEGWemHpm3TjLY4yDiKj_zOXGll"><div><br></div><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=19lBKH_g0Lvv3E-6NOOBUGc-IIPNqaw7k"><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1IOsAgn4bqmWtjAG-tWSqvof6uRFGxVhX"><div><br></div><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1bJQFo1PAwz4TvT5z9u2cVf1xkOD3nESQ"><div><br></div><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1yTtKCOe21zTYb5O2UVtus4s948eW-U5p">Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-54303487210852880032021-09-08T15:12:00.001-04:002021-09-08T18:38:36.264-04:00The Voice Beyond the Stars<img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1QTUQ6YI3Uyfw57NXsrPhmxZcvCB7tV5w"><div><br></div><div style="text-align: center;">Artwork by Perplexing Ruins: @perplexingruins on Twitter</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">There comes a whisper across the distance of time and space; a voice in the Void…a ghostly calling from another dimension.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>“Beware the rising of three black moons, and listen to the howling of the wolves on their approach. There towards the horizon lies the Door to Indrya Ühl, the Path of Nowhere.”</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">These are the words of a mad god, and they bleed out in dreams and fevered hallucinations.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Voice Beyond the Stars</b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">A Revenant from outside of time, watching this world and plotting machinations of its demise…</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">…or of its liberation and advancement…it’s hard to tell, because the words and riddles whispered by the Voice are so obscure and often misleading.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Voice is an entity that has existed for near eternity; once a traveler among mortals that lived through multiple lifetimes and iterations of mortal forms, it passed and ascended to another dimension, but it’s interest in this world never ceased. Now it spends its time reaching out across the vast distance to touch the minds of those willing to listen. Soothsayers, Cultists, Fortune Tellers…and unsuspecting adventurers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">It traveled among their kind once, long long ago in different ages, adventuring and exploring and learning.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">But now it is in its final form: and it has a purpose. Only that purpose is a mystery. One thing is certain: it will either serve to undo existence, or lead the life forms of this world into a new awareness, an elevated state of being.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><h2>Interacting with the Voice</h2><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1kv34ojUixIlG9tzgWyF6h9aRQEQlIDf4"><div style="text-align: center;">Art by David Ellis, @db.ellis on Instagram</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Voice, being a disembodied entity, can take various forms. Often this appearance is as a swirling nebula with a single twinkling star set in the forehead of a silhouette of a face. Or it can appear as an androgynous giant, bald head in the middle of a field. It can come in dreams or manifest in physical space.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Voice has no corporeal form, being composed entirely of energy. It is incapable of physical attacks and immune to them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">It can <i><b>Command</b> </i>or <i><b>Intimidate</b> </i>any intelligent being into following its orders, within reason, proximity, and purpose, that isn’t directly harmful to the subject, similar to a <i>Quest</i> type spell. Saving Throws to avoid succumbing to the instructions are allowed. But the Voice doesn’t enjoy using this method, preferring to coax and entice people into serving it and it’s causes…nefarious or otherwise…with the mere inclination that such “advice” and suggestions it offers are worth being followed, based on any of a number of kind of rewards they can provide.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><h2>The Voice for Game/Story</h2><p>Using the Voice is one of those amorphous elements that can add some kind of dressing to a setting or campaign. It’s a pretty obvious maguffin to use, the “distant voice as friend or foe” — and really this is all just an excuse to create a character based on Doctor Who’s final form, The Veil.</p><p>I think entities like this are fun to incorporate into a fantasy campaign, as long as they aren’t overused. The Voice should show up rarely, mysteriously, randomly…and impart things that are helpful and equally harmful at different intervals.</p><p>It isn’t necessarily important if the Voice serves good intentions or bad ones, as long as everyone has fun with the mystery. You should decide before the campaign ends which it is, but the implied temporal loop should be enough to cover the actual truth: The Voice speaks from different times, in double speak, because it is communicating from different time periods itself. So it is both protagonist and antagonist of its own intentions.</p><p>If that makes sense.</p><p>I’ll come back to The Voice in a future post, addressing some mechanical ways to make it a part of your game. I think it has potential. I really appreciate Perplexing Ruins letting me use their art for this post as inspiration, and David Ellis for creating the piece of art of the floating head for me.</p><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div>Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-59782110011619638652021-09-08T03:25:00.001-04:002021-09-08T03:25:43.182-04:00It lives!<p><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1MrcKp9KkPvKBU1gB2G3SesW_ArxJnXw4"><div>(Art by Dan Smith)</div><div><br></div><div>Mwahahahahahahaha!!!</div><div><br></div><div>I’m back from the grave!</div><div><br></div><div>So…what’d I’d miss?</div><div><br></div><div>Seriously though, I’m happy to be back, and I want to talk about what I’ve been up to for the past year and a half, not that it’s really relevant to anyone, but I’m hoping to start this blog somewhere, and this feels like it.</div><div><br></div><div>I launched a new blog called <i style="font-weight: bold;">Beyond the Weird </i>(<a href="http://beyondtheweird.blog">http://beyondtheweird.blog</a>) with my friend, Tony Obert. That blog is a different animal — featuring original content, mostly written by Tony, along with guest writers and original artists brought in for almost every post. I don’t really write for the blog myself, spending more of my time producing for it, which I enjoy but I struggle to get content made for it consistently which, if you know me, is a pattern I succumb to (just look at this blog, THE SECRET DM, and my history of posts — pretty sporadic).</div><div><br></div><div>I’ve also dismantled my company, <b>In Search of Games</b>, which I started in 2016. I enjoyed it, and grew the company to include several other employees, but my focus and drive wasn’t there, and ultimately I decided it was time to move on.</div><div><br></div><div>So I formed <b>KILL JESTER</b> (<a href="http://killjester.com" target="_blank">http://killjester.com</a>) with my friend, Ava Islam. Together we launched a very successful Kickstarter campaign for Ava’s old school roleplaying game, Errant…which you can preorder at the site above, or check out the rules here: <a href="https://errantrpg.carrd.co/" target="_blank">errantrpg.carrd.co</a><a href="https://errantrpg.carrd.co/"></a></div><div><br></div><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1MF_3DSyAl-cw5ywd6mAmZKEJsvs7Ws5H" style="width: 100%; float: right;" class="note-float-right"><div><br></div><div>…and there’s more, but not much more. I’ve battled depression, faced Covid with my family (everyone survived, which I’m very thankful for), lost 40 lbs, gained back 20…and have started to lose weight again. I also set up a group on Facebook called <b>Chris Mennell’s Setting Ideas and Art Share Forum</b> — feel free to request to join, I love new members! </div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2813324678912302/" target="_blank">facebook.com</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2813324678912302/"></a></div><div><br></div><div>I’m also starting to use Twitter more, only now I’m @chrismennell — same on Instagram. One day (soon) I’ll talk about Google+ and all the interesting conversations that occurred there and the incredible creativity it sparked, but for now there’s Facebook and Twitter (and Discord too, of course) and we’re doing okay with what we have.</div><div><br></div><div>So what else is happening? I hired an amazing assistant, Ty aka Eldtrich Mouse (@eldritch mouse on Twitter) who has been helping me establish routines, get organized, get tasks done, and move forward on any of a dozen ideas I’ve had in the works.</div><div><br></div><div>For instance, a couple of friends of mine (Jim Pinto, Dan Smith, Chris G. Williams) got together and produced a game called <b>MURDER CARS!!!</b> - a narrative game of vehicular combat. It’s available for download now at DriveThruRPG: <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/369684/Murder-Cars">https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/369684/Murder-Cars</a></div><div><br></div><div>I’m also launching a new blog, dedicated to a game called <b>Down We Go</b>, written by Markus Linderum, and being produced by Tony Vasinda — currently crowdfunding on gamefound.com: <a href="http://ttrpg.link/dwglive" target="_blank">ttrpg.link</a><a href="http://ttrpg.link/dwglive"></a></div><div><a href="http://ttrpg.link/dwglive"> </a></div><div><br></div><div>The new blog is: <a href="http://lostinadungeon.com" target="_blank">lostinadungeon.com</a><a href="http://lostinadungeon.com"></a></div><div><br></div><div>It will feature original artwork by Billy Blue, as well as Luigi Castellani and others. The blog is set to feature regular posts from me as I lead a party of player characters through a series of dungeons using the Down We Go rules, exploring and testing the system. I’m also hoping to feature additional DWG content, like optional rules, monsters and equipment, etc., as well as interviews with the creators and other contributors (which, if you check out the crowdfunding campaign, you’ll see are quite a few people.)</div><div><br></div><h2>Which Reminds Me…</h2><p>I’ve been working on a personal campaign setting for awhile…a far future space opera I describe as “Dune meets DOOM” — complete with hell in space and provincial houses of a crumbling imperium. It’s called <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Dark Between</i>, and I’m looking forward to sharing more about it in the weeks and months to come. I’ve started picking Dan’s (of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Throne of Salt</i> — <a href="http://throneofsalt.blogspot.com">http://throneofsalt.blogspot.com</a>) brain about making the AI Hegemony in the setting more noteworthy, and I look forward to sharing the results of that discussion as well.</p><p>Which brings me to closing out this blog post, that didn’t really talk about much and doesn’t improve anything for anyone, anywhere. More and more I feel that blog posts should serve a purpose, should advance something in some way, and I’m terrible at writing in that fashion, at this point anyway…although I hope to get better at it.</p><p>I also don’t want to just list a bunch of blogs to check out, because I feel like that’s a cop out. Same with listing Kickstarters to check out.</p><h2>Final Thoughts…?</h2></p><p><img width="100%" src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1grABsK-VXoKbYBb7qUJ-rKPvv623Nfjo"></p><p>Here’s a picture of a simple layout for a dungeon I’m working on, <i>Nethregor’s Crypt</i>. It’s a terrible map, but I’m not an artist or a cartographer. What I will eventually do is turn this map over to an artist, someone whose talent far exceeds my own, and have them craft something mesmerizing. Probably Dan Smith, again.</p><p>But what this map does for me is allows me to better visualize the intended layout of a dungeon I’m plotting. And similar to a point crawl, a dungeon can be a series of points linked by corridors. Obviously I want to make it more than that — the finished work will be a living, breathing dungeonscape with its own flora and fauna and ecology. Well, some undead too but definitely a <i>story</i> that can be told by the placement of the inhabitants, in case anyone is paying attention.</p><p>Which is a subject I want to get to in the future — the importance of some semblance of realism in populating dungeons with monsters vs. the lack of interest in backstory by a bunch of murdering lunatics hunting for gold.</p><p>I’m sure others have written about that subject, people smarter and more talented than me, and I’ll do my best to find those posts.</p><p>But back to Nethregor’s Crypt…</p><p>One of the key things I love about <i>Down We Go</i> is the encouragement to use adjectives, especially for players to get involved. What kind of dungeon are you exploring? DWG suggests choosing or rolling: Flooded, Shrouded, Infected, Glowing — and then you build from there.</p><p>I think using adjectives is key; it’s easy and sets a tone immediately. Like playing Mad Libs, only we’re building a dungeon.</p><p>So, our entryway…what is it?</p><p><b><i>The entryway is murky.</i></b></p><p>Okay, so what does that mean?</p><p><i>“The entryway to the crypt is a small chamber of lackluster design, slightly flooded with a few inches of mud. The air is damp and mold clings to the chamber walls. A single passage leads east down a dark and murky corridor.”</i></p><p>This helps set the tone for the dungeon.</p><p>I could add more details of course, it’s great to use flowery language and dress up a descritption, and I highly encourage touching on the five senses — how it smells, how it tastes, what can be seen or heard…how the ground feels wet and soaks through the boots as the players slosh towards the next chamber…</p><p>…but remember you’re entertaining lunatics hunting for gold, and they don’t care about the finer points of your descriptive prowess. Keep it short, make it interesting with adjectives, and be ready to move on.</p><p>Okay, I feel like I gave you, the reader, SOMETHING there. It isn’t a lot to go on, but I mostly wanted to say I’m back now, and happy to be here. But I also wanted to offer up something tangible, which I want to do regularly.</p><p>And maybe you’ll read this and let me know what you think.</p><p><br></p>Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-56957541877457731142020-03-06T18:43:00.002-05:002020-03-06T18:45:43.253-05:00Some writingSome writing I’ve done today:<br />
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A giant eye sits exposed in the center of a large chamber, walls carved with ornate symbols that glow with white purple neon luminescence. The eye blinks and rolls down to peer at trespassers who enter the chamber. Hooks dangle from the ceiling, and the eye can control them with psionic influence, latching into victims to rip flesh and pull them to the ceiling.<br />
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It was Pun Isaac’s birthday yesterday. I wrote up a monster to celebrate his birthday:<br />
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Minotaur, Fighting, Drunken: The Drunken Fighting Minotaur is a somewhat less formidable opponent than its regional cousin, the Fighting Minotaur, though it’s drunken nature should NOT lead one to believe this Minotaur is any less deadly. They just tend to stumble and fall infrequently, giving would be victims a chance to escape.</div>
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This Minotaur has two main modes of combat: BAR BRAWL and BULL IN A CHINA SHOP.</div>
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BAR BRAWL: With dukes up the drunken fighting Minotaur is in prime attack mode, able to deal dual attacks with meaty fists (1d8+2 damage each), occasionally flipping a table if one is nearby.</div>
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BULL IN A CHINA SHOP: In this mode the Minotaur moves in a spinning frenzy, knocking over and destroying anything in its wake. It deals 2d6 damage to anyone within a 5’ radius, save for half damage.</div>
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At the start of each round, roll 1d6. On a 1 the Minotaur stumbles and falls to the ground.</div>
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Drunken Fighting Minotaurs are solitary creatures, wallowing in their loneliness. If there are any non-drunken Minotaurs nearby, the drunken fighting Minotaur will attempt to seduce them, with a 1 in 3 chance I’d successfully courting a partner.</div>
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XP: 625</div>
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Today is Ben Laurence’s birthday. I wrote some fighting styles for him before I figured out he wanted fighting styles like the ones he put up on his blog:</div>
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<a href="http://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2020/03/downtime-activities-martial-training.html">http://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2020/03/downtime-activities-martial-training.html</a></div>
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I’ll post the poor versions I wrote on Twitter below:</div>
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Until next time friends.</div>
Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-48032605014742622452019-10-15T01:00:00.001-04:002019-10-15T01:00:03.787-04:00The Metaminds of Vor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Spectral; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Metaminds of Vor dream only of doomsday, calculating the odds of humanity’s demise. Synthroid agents tend to the needs of the massive brain-tanks, monitoring their systems for fluctuations in the patterns that could spell sudden disaster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Spectral; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unbeknownst to anyone, the Metaminds are themselves psychic entities, using their ability to access future events to determine the outcomes of extinction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Spectral; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As semi-organic constructs, the Metaminds do not consider themselves to be synthetic life forms, but the synthroids who care for them see them as machine minds. This detail is significant as synthroids themselves care little for the outcomes the metaminds predict.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Spectral; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vor has suddenly gone silent, and the scientists who monitor the calculations worry something dire has happened. The PCs are hired to investigate and get the transmissions back online.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Spectral; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are some reasons why Vor is offline:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Synthroids have revolted and taken the systems offline so that the Metaminds no longer serve humanity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Metaminds have malfunctioned as a result of tampering, and their psychic abilities are wreaking havoc across the Vor station</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A newly installed Metamind has gone rogue and is attempting to take over Vor station for its own nefarious needs</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Synthroids have converted Vor into a temple and worship the metaminds as Gods</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A virus has infected the metaminds and made them psychotic; the synthroids stationed here serve the metaminds without question</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enemy agents have infiltrated Vor for the purposes of hacking the metaminds to serve their own needs</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-74042220158588279512019-10-12T13:58:00.000-04:002019-10-12T13:58:03.870-04:00The Opulent TempleI’m trying to get back to writing.<br />
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Not fiction, game writing. Not mechanics either, I hate those. Fluff, I guess, but I hate long winded fluff, like game books that are 400+ pages of setting details. Just short, little vignettes.<br />
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I’d like to gamify these with stats or charts or something useful, but for right now I want to get this bit of writing I did down.<br />
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<b>The Opulent Temple</b><br />
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Twin, rectangular stone slabs stand as sentries, vertically rooted in soft, grass covered earth, towering nearly two stories tall. They rest as unmoving guardians, their unmarked, blank faces watching those who cross through the entryway of the Opulent Temple. They are copper toned, hewn in single pieces from the Nymead Mountains, some 1,000 miles from the temple.</div>
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They are, for all intentions, unremarkable, beyond their strange positioning outside the temple's entrance...and their signature color.</div>
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But they are dangerous golems, capable of expelling invisible beams of radiation at anyone deemed unworthy to enter the temple.</div>
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Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-74315864455011808242019-10-11T13:42:00.000-04:002019-10-11T14:36:49.197-04:00Whilst Asleep Came the Hunger<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
So Dan wrote up a brilliant creature ready to casually invade some players' dreams, maybe steal some spells:</div>
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<a href="http://throneofsalt.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dream-eater.html">http://throneofsalt.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dream-eater.html</a></div>
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...and his post inspired me to make my own dream invading creature, a "Dire" Dream Wolf.</div>
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Whilst Asleep, Came the Hunger</div>
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Wolves, Dream, Dire</div>
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[as dire wolves except +125 xp]</div>
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Dire Dream Wolves are creatures corrupted by regions where the far realm meets the spirit realm. Dream wolves are, by their nature, guardian spirits who stalk the twilight realm, hunting down tricksters.</div>
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But far-touched by the tendrils of chaos, dire dream wolves hunger instead for any living thing that enters their domain, specifically focusing on sleeping travelers and other wayward souls.</div>
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Their bodies are dark, speckled with starlight, with large lesions on their bodies that seep chaos. There is a 1 in 3 chance for the dire Dream wolf to have a tentacle, granting it a reach attack upto 10'.</div>
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Combat with dire Dream wolves can only take place in the Spirit Realm; they cannot be brought into the physical world because they possess no true physical form.</div>
Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-41893034632050869632019-09-10T19:29:00.001-04:002019-09-10T19:29:09.426-04:00After the Rain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnksxDjSb9QDWmLJDQLqPZbzv1DV5w8gNuGaWShN589MGAgHQOzEYFFEJ_KpHo4Uv0agp0zyE6BLx5q3K4Y6tP8Dgy3nnWq-sFQmk1SIMFogHlGCu2ff30jzZ_Moc8BdDYII11dGSUCLg/s1600/0C99BFD9-9B5B-4E9F-873E-75C77CD73F6F.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnksxDjSb9QDWmLJDQLqPZbzv1DV5w8gNuGaWShN589MGAgHQOzEYFFEJ_KpHo4Uv0agp0zyE6BLx5q3K4Y6tP8Dgy3nnWq-sFQmk1SIMFogHlGCu2ff30jzZ_Moc8BdDYII11dGSUCLg/s320/0C99BFD9-9B5B-4E9F-873E-75C77CD73F6F.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It’s 2079.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">You are survivors in Newmerica, the last bits of viable land of the former United States of America, somewhere in the midst of the Midwest, between the now-poisoned Mississippi River and the toxic landfill of the Grand Canyon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Everything is ruled by The Unity, an oppressive corporation with ties to older, globe-spanning empires of business and industry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As a survivor, you struggle to make a living in a society that appears picture perfect on television, despite shrinking forests, frequent acid rain, and intensifying storms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is little hope for change, but there is the promise of the elite of society, of having their lives as portrayed on television.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">And then there’s the Whisper, a radio transmission emanating from some distant point that breaks the veil created by The Unity, offering up harsh realism of the way things really are in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The question is...will you be swayed by the promises of the Unity...or lured by the voice of the Whisper?</span></div>
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——————————————-</div>
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“After the Rain” is a roleplaying game currently in the works. I’m leaning on “Into the Odd” as my basis of a game system, but that could change as I continue to work on this project.</div>
Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-45950823800612209472018-09-03T04:12:00.002-04:002018-09-03T04:12:31.349-04:00The Godfaced Lands<i>The Dumontiluvian War rages across the vast, pockmarked skinlands of the Godfaced valley of He-who-Hungers, with the roving hordes battling to drive their enemies into the massive, screaming gorge whose walls rise up and crest into a fang-rimmed chasm known as the End of the World.<br /><br />Vulturemen on shackled, enslaved hawkbeasts soar overhead and dive to feast on the dead left behind in the greater war between the ratmen on their giant human-headed spider beasts, facing insect-people on goat beasts, and pigmen riding lizard beasts joined in battle against octopi riding crab monsters.</i><br /><br />Yeah so, I've started work on a new project. It's just a short and silly thing to get my creative juices flowing again, but of course I'm already hungry to see artwork based on the brief I posted above, and I've reached out to Michael Raston (<a href="http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/">lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com</a>) to help me flesh out the setting and concept a bit more.<br /><br />My thought is this is all there is to the world; just the face. The face itself has been ripped off of a God, so there’s a Faceless God out there somewhere. Probably a little pissed to be missing their face.<br /><br />So it’s clearly a ripped off face floating in darkness I guess? Although the world has some kind of day/night cycle, some kind of atmosphere and physics and gravity making it all work.<br /><br />I’m not great at writing right now but I kind of envision this place as a weird, Alice-in-Wonderland-kind-of-weird place, where it has its own sense of logic and reality that functions for the bizarre factions that are all engaged in ridiculous war for no reason.<br /><br /><br />As for the rider/mounts:<br /><br /><b>Vulturemen riding shackled hawkbeasts.</b><br />Clearly at some time the hawkbeasts were free roaming. The gangly vulturemen, In all their skeksi-like glory, have imprisoned them, quite possibly in heavy and burdensome shackles making flight difficult but possible, but hardly graceful. And the vulturemen could fly themselves, but they are lazy and hate to use their wings.<br /><br /><br /><b>Breathing-mask wearing humans riding giant ticks.</b><br />No idea where the masks come from or why they are needed but the only humans present wear ornate face masks wit breathing apparatuses attached and ride gigantic black ticks.<br /><br /><br /><b>Ratmen in howdahs riding gigantic human heads on spider legs.</b><br />Weirdest of the mounts, the massive human heads are the heads of priests and kings who once served the now faceless god. Clearly for them this landscape is some kind of version of hell. They do not speak but probably appear angry or distressed as they are ridden into combat.<br /><br /><br /><b>Insect-men on dual-headed goat monsters.</b><br />The goats have two heads aligned vertically, and seem to constantly be in pain. The insect-men are regal in design, each warrior atop a goatbeast a prince of their hive.<br /><br /><br /><b>Pigmen riding lizard beasts.</b><br />The pigmen (NOT pig-nosed orcs) were the worshipers of the Faceless God when he had a face. This too, like the priests and kings mentioned above, is their version of hell. They ride atop horse-like lizard/dinosaur beasts.<br /><br /><br /><b>Octopi warriors atop crablike monsters.</b><br />Somewhere there is an ocean whose water smashes against a beach, and it is from this place these warriors rise. Fierce and intelligent, the octopi wield multiple weapons as they ride their crablike behemoths into battle.<div>
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Six factions so far. I'll probably (or Michael will) come up with a few more. Maybe it will be possible to mix and match Rider and mount, with the above outline being only one possible outcome. I suppose each rider and mount has unique advantages and disadvantages in play.</div>
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With a great deal of thanks to everyone on Google+ who contributed ideas and suggestions!</div>
Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-77764347307782474522018-08-06T21:59:00.001-04:002018-08-06T21:59:11.418-04:00The Thing in the SkySo here's a thing I had made:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrRFXTopBC3f2T9NI1fbHd6Ji821-R4hGK9NPCKs9M_kPlybKqMFVooixYsH98c1dJyeSL03JhaY9HPRoty9RS5u2VdLBNDAUIPiBp8NU7wXYQ_KM_JTf-pc_07ojllmMgW32298BxROc/s1600/issyka_cloud_beast_final.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrRFXTopBC3f2T9NI1fbHd6Ji821-R4hGK9NPCKs9M_kPlybKqMFVooixYsH98c1dJyeSL03JhaY9HPRoty9RS5u2VdLBNDAUIPiBp8NU7wXYQ_KM_JTf-pc_07ojllmMgW32298BxROc/s640/issyka_cloud_beast_final.png" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artwork by D. L. Johnson. Copyright 2018.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
If you don't know, I run my own game company called <b><a href="http://insearchofgames.com/">In Search of Games</a></b>. We're focused on producing old school game products, like the Ennie-nominated <i><a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/201182/Santa-is-Dead">Santa is Dead</a></i> as well as <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/208237/Ruinous-Palace-of-the-Metegorgos"><i>Ruinous Palace of the Metegorgos</i>,</a> both products written by Evey Lockhart (both products are also Copper Sellers and available for download and purchase on DrivethruRPG).<br />
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So I have this artwork made by D.L. Johnson, and nothing yet planned for it.<br />
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Which is where you come in. If you or someone you know would be interested in work, I'm accepting pitches for a small product that makes use of the above featured artwork. Payment is $.10/word, plus profit shares.<br />
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Send your pitches to me directly at <a href="mailto:thesecretdm@gmail.com">thesecretdm@gmail.com</a>.Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-8678880428389831432018-08-03T13:15:00.002-04:002020-03-14T03:02:08.367-04:00The VivisextratorThis post comes from a lot of hard work, and practically none of it is mine. Michael Raston, whose work I linked to in my previous post, took some old writing of mine and vastly improved upon it, rounding out what was intended to be a factory of monster creation that I just wasn’t capable of finishing myself.<br />
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So here is the Vivisextrator, a gargantuan bio-factory that vomits up new monstrous creations. Initial description by me, random tables by Michael.<br />
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For more of Michael’s work, be sure to check out <a href="http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/">http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com</a>.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">The Vivisextrator: A Monstrostifactorhemoth</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">A remnant super-structure of the Biode Hexegemony (a hegemony governed by witch-based ritual power), the Vivisextrator is a behemoth-sized living factory that has recombinant DNA glands that constantly churn and fuse living shapes together; effectively, its mucus makes monsters, and it vomits up random creations.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">It's constantly in motion, and its massive cylindrical legs trample everything underneath as it walks. Each leg stalk ends in a stump with a wide mouth at the bottom, which pull all sorts of material from the ground into the beast's conversion gut, which reprocesses materials for use in monster creation.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Thankfully, the creature moves pretty slowly.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Two rows of tall, hollow bone-spires jut out from the behemoth's spine, exhausting wasted gaseous flesh clouds. These clouds can travel great distances and, depending on precipitation, cause meat-bone storms to occur even miles away from the Vivisextrator.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">In addition, this exhaust tends to attract Parasitic Rust Vultures who make nests around the bone spires.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Killing the factory should be almost impossible; Not only can we assume it has over 1000 hit points, but it's also pretty well armored and pumps out radiation like a nuclear reactor in meltdown; which is pretty much what the environment inside its skull/brain/control center is.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">If someone gained access to the control center, they'd find themselves plunged into a compartment crammed full of thick meat folds and putrescent mucus. If they figure out how to work the controls, they theoretically could control the beast's movement, its feeding, and it's monster creation, but they'd also have to deal with life-ending radiation baths every round.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">More importantly, the factory serves the purpose of vomiting an endless assortment of random creatures that are eager to stab players in the face (not all of them), so onto the random charts!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Start Here: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Size, d6: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">1-3 Medium, 2HD, No. App: D6</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">4-5 Large, 5HD, No. App: D3</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">6 Huge, 12HD, No. App: Solitary</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Head form, d20: </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">1. Man</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, malformed and brutish, leering eyes and flaring nostrils. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">2. Amoebic sludge,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> quivering and featureless mass, barely held together with surface tension. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">3. Beetle</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, compound eyes and huge, sharp, strong mandibles. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">4. Fish</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, scales, enormous and expressionless eyes, drab gulping maw. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">5. Bird</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, long, sharp and cruel beak, beady eyes of pure hate. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">6. Toad</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, encrusted with warts, huge slit of mouth with lolling and grasping tongue. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">7. Lizard</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, hypnotizing and lurid eyes, thick scales and strong biting jaw. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">8. Bat</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, elaborate mechanism of a nose, flesh folds, dish like ears that hear all. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">9. Crocodile</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, almost all jaw, mouth and teeth, ancient and dispassionate eyes. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">10. Cat</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, dangling whiskers and small, quick teeth, eyes that laugh at the terror it inflicts. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">11. Ape</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, wizened eyes, leathery flesh, huge ears that dangle aside tufts of fur. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">12. Wolf</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, A drooling snarl, wrinkling and knowing nose that smells all. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">13. Bear</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, dead, black and empty eyes, a deafening and terrifying growl. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">14. Flower</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, scintillating patterns of petals, swirling hypnotically, defusing poisonous perfume. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">15. Vine tangle</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, mess of a mass of ever twirling, tangling green ropes. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">16. Shark</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, All mouth and teeth, eyes blank and dumb. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">17. Stone</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, featureless rock, somehow points towards target with unnerving accuracy. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">18. Flame</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, burns in a myriad of colours, huge and menacing. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">19. Gas</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, wafts in all directions from an ever replenishing neck hole, at times vague features form. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">20. Mechanical</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, plates of bio-organic gears and cogs, formed into a jaw of horror. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"># of Heads</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">We start with heads because the BETTER TO EAT YOUR FACE WITH</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">1. None</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">2. One, but you can roll again if you prefer. Get this twice and it's definitely one head (boring) but deal with it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Two. Same as above because TWO HEADS ARE JUST AS BORING.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Four heads. Now we're talking.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">5. One head that shares two bodies.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">6. Two, but heads terminate at end of arm-like limbs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">7. Two different heads, roll twice on the head table. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">8. Three different heads, roll three times on the head table. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">9. Head is another body, roll twice on the body form table. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">10. One but head is in torso. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">11. Roll again, but instead of heads it's tentacles where the heads should be.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">12. Roll again but instead of heads it’s just a mouth where the heads should be.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Body form, d20: </span></div>
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<ol class="lst-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 start" start="1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; counter-reset: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 0; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">1. Man</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, lumbering arms and legs, naked with ponderous genitals hanging. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">2. Amoebic sludge,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> globular, rolling and quivering mass, ill formed and slow. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">3. Beetle</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, scuttling, six legged and heavily armoured with thick carapace. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">4. Fish</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, silvery and twisting, bizarrely floating through the air. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">5. Bird</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, foul feathers, long scabrous hook taloned claw feet, flaps through the air. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">6. Toad</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, squat, wet, boil, pus and mould covered, slowly crawls or suddenly leaps. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">7. Lizard</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, huge claws and swatting tail, scrabbles and scrambles along. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">8. Bat</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, Enveloping, black leathered wings ending in poisoned claws. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">9. Crocodile</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, scaled, long and flat, gouges the land as it drags itself forward. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">10. Cat</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, furred, quick and graceful, liquid in motion, a natural hunters body. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">11. Ape</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, gangling and drooping, thick leathered skin with tufts of fur, all muscle and stomach. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">12. Wolf</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, blunt, pointed and sprinting, hurtles deadly head towards target. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">13. Bear</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, huge, slow and thick, shambling mass of thick flesh and muscle. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">14. Flower</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, creeping, delicate, uncountable feet of dizzying petals. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">15. Vine tangle</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, ever morphing and transforming mass, sometimes flat, sometimes round. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">16. Shark</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, long, sleek floating gullet, never stops darting about. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">17. Stone</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, tumble and rolls forward grinding all in its path to dust. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">18. Flame</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, a rolling brush fire destroying all of existence, leaves desolation in its wake. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">19. Gas</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, seeping, disgusting and fetid, dissipating and forming around the central head mass. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_nmkypkoxtndj-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">20. Mechanical,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> bio-organic, stilts, spikes and claws, formed into a spindly stalker. </span></li>
</ol>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; height: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">Additional Attack ability, d20: (Assume all forms of attack implied by head and body). </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; height: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<ol class="lst-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 start" start="1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; counter-reset: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 0; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Spews sparking lighting from orifice or limbs. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">An enormous blade, mace or lance affixed to limb or made from own flesh. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Impaling horns, skewering victims with charging. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Is fast beyond measure, d8 extra attacks a round. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Eyes are huge and piercing and stops the heart of the weak willed. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Breath destroys and corrodes, d4; 1.Flesh, 2. Vegetation, 3. Mineral, 4. Stone. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Vomits tsunamis of choking and diseased water. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">A blast of deathly brain melting migraine emanates from brow. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Belches plumes of red flame and fire. Is ever smoking acrid black smoke. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Touch of fingers destroys and corrodes, d4; 1.Flesh, 2. Vegetation, 3. Mineral, 4. Stone. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Warps and twists bones of victim through sheer power of mind. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Expulses poisonous yellow gas which melts lungs of victims. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Can leap great distances and plummet into victim, near killing them in a single blow. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Chameleon stalked eyes that turn victims to stone with gaze. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">A moon like shield of bone, metal, crystal or scale that reflects back damage to attackers</span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Trampling, stomping oversized feet, or a bony, deformed, body fused battering ram. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Barbed tentacle whips erupt from body, from back, torso or limbs. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Harbours hivegrowths that biting clouds of insects erupt from. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Sirenesque scream that, d4: 1) Bursts eardrums, 2) Seduces, 3) Maddens, 4) Stupefies</span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_5ioamgn9gp0l-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">A bank of spines that can be fired like a rain of arrows, replenishes hourly. </span></li>
</ol>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; height: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">Form mutation, d20: </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; height: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<ol class="lst-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 start" start="1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; counter-reset: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 0; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">The dead rise around it, bent to its will to serve it. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Glows and shines brightly, inflicting awe on those that see it. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Ever covered by a miasma of dark shadow. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Befouls and corrupts the very land it walks upon. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Is constantly expulsing corrupted eggs of its own kind. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Is increased in size by one, is now the bearer of a deadlier monster, cradled in its arms. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Is made of prismatic and iridescent quartz, either craggy or smooth. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Is made of twisting and gnarled living wood, can regrow lost limbs wit time. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Is skeletal, made of pure bone. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Form is composed of engraved and holy temple stone architecture. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Form is encased in thick and gilded, gaudy coloured cloth, robe like costume. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Covered in milky malformed eyes with light blue iris. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Flesh sloughing off in great bubbling rends of red, grows back and sheds again. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Wings of pure white feathers. If already has flight, has ability to teleport. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">A blinding and deafening halo of divinity tears through reality above head. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Swirling white smoke erupts from body, can phase through physical barriers at will. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Long, black, mank and matter hair cascades from head. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Snakes and worms erupt dangling from all orifices include now empty eye sockets. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">All flesh and skin is smooth, fresh, clean, soft and plump as an infant human. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_edggl4twvst5-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Extra body parts, d4: 1)d6 extra mouths, 2) d8 extra arms, 3) d4 extra legs, 4) d8 extra tails. </span></li>
</ol>
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<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: 700;">Behaviour, d20: </span></div>
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<ol class="lst-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 start" start="1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; counter-reset: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 0; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Demands the allegiance of all living beings, is ever gathering a horrible horde. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Burn all heathens unworth of the godbeing Vivisextrator. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Create cairn like shrines and temples in honour of Vivisextrator. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must stalks and hunt from a distance, must not be seen by those it kills. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Collects bones of victims to cover, costume and adorn self. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must see the world turned into a wasteland. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must destroy all other monsters, to become the favoured spawn of Vivisextrator.</span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must make itself a deity, to be venerated by lesser beings. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must corrupt beautiful things, people and places. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Act as smiling and joyous emissary for the oncoming Vivisextrator</span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Recover Vivisextrator DNA cache that will allow the creation of a new Vivisextrator. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Scout out intriguing DNA for the Vivisextrator, and shepard it in that direction. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must build a tower of rock or bone and perch their awaiting the return of Vivisextrator</span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must be mated with to give birth to new horrific offspring, a miniature Vivisextrator. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must gain rulership of nearest town, city or village. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Searches wildly for any remnants of the Biode Hexegemony. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must exchange knowledge and tales of the world around it with others. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Make itself a suit of holy irradiated armour. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Destroy the relics of all fakegods that are not Vivisextrator. </span></li>
<li style="counter-increment: lst-ctn-kix_lbgp6je2vg0n-0 1; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36pt; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Must quietly ponder its own sentience and consciousness, or philosophize with others. </span></li>
</ol>
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Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-89264285704150828502018-08-01T04:18:00.000-04:002018-08-03T13:07:48.756-04:00Hey it’s been awhileHey, it's been awhile. Normally after a year long absence I'd nuke the old posts on this blog and start fresh. I've done it several times since starting this blog in 2008. Hard to imagine it's been 10 years.<br />
<br />
I'm coming back though, and I'm happy about it. Actually, the truth is I've been blogging for a few months already, only I haven't been doing it here. Instead, I have a new blog: <a href="http://avoiceinthevoid.com/">http://avoiceinthevoid.com</a><br />
<br />
Careful though; the subject matter is...intense. It's a game blog, yes, but it's a blog where I openly discuss my depression. It's dark and unforgiving, and I present it without making any apologies for its subject matter.<br />
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It does feature original art, by people like Alex Mayo, Dan Domme, and David Lewis Johnson.<br />
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I'm really happy with how it's coming along, although suggestions and feedback are always welcome.<br />
<br />
So what does that have to do with this blog?<br />
<br />
I've decided to come back to blogging here. I have a big project in the works that I'm going to be discussing and sharing on this blog. And this blog is a more mainstream gaming blog, so you won't have to deal with posts about depression here, that's what the other blog is for.<br />
<br />
Okay, so here is something I want to share, mostly so that I have a link to it saved somewhere that matters to me:<br />
<br />
Michael R, who is a fantastic artist, also happens to be incredibly inventive, and has made this really bad ass suburb generator that he posted on his blog: <a href="http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2018/07/infinigrad-suburb-details-generator.html">http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2018/07/infinigrad-suburb-details-generator.html</a><br />
<br />
I love this thing. I wish I could come up with something like this myself. Maybe one of these days I'll actually make something useful personally and share it. Until then, I'll have to rely on the ingenuity of others.<br />
<br />
So many good things being produced right now...I look forward to discussing all of them in more detail in the days and weeks to come.Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-67175966184918050482017-04-25T22:10:00.002-04:002017-04-25T22:10:20.228-04:002017 One Page Dungeon EntrySo with many thanks to <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/105769777408266049884" target="_blank">+K Yani</a> and <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/115970951358392971018" target="_blank">+Luka Rejec</a>, I present to you a mini adventure I wrote and posted to Google+ a few weeks ago, which Luka was kind enough to convert into a one page dungeon for me:<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
The Purple Road</h2>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0JM-EYYc91tX0lIOXZuVVBiclE"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkUbF_N6mwxAXhLLCEiMFQirSQImzTDLPNj6c7MVQq1hFVfJJoTeY1G7oNU4blzI3PQwnidiOCUvV7HmZIN93TVW9Pj6xdwdLbJ73XEcKt3C7bcZWiXzW3_7Br61NOhEkuAXVYGX2Pfc/s640/0.jpg" width="406" /></a></div>
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Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0JM-EYYc91tX0lIOXZuVVBiclE</div>
<br />Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-69153312893953619652017-04-15T08:30:00.000-04:002017-04-15T08:30:13.461-04:00More Troika GoodnessI'm in a giving mood today.<br />
<br />
As you should probably be aware, I'm a huge Troika! fan (what's that? See <a href="http://www.thesecretdm.com/2017/04/troika-interview-daniel-sell-and-jeremy.html">this interview</a> I did a couple of days ago) -- I love the rules lite design, the descriptive and charming character backgrounds, just everything about it. Well, almost everything. I'm honestly not a fan of the character sheet included at the back of the book.<br />
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So I had my friend Jim Magnusson draw up some new ones:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wrJ8IkaWhFXNCP0NfwiJuj4Oyko4pu1vSj_CNhbv6pD3GChCp0ubyfuucC5AjzhyaOia7HTnvOXzf6AOrakkBBFop6pcPZkdUU8YyWxjQGR-Xkq-DWLomI8frA0i0_XjXwb5_wzpHhs/s1600/IMG_8789.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wrJ8IkaWhFXNCP0NfwiJuj4Oyko4pu1vSj_CNhbv6pD3GChCp0ubyfuucC5AjzhyaOia7HTnvOXzf6AOrakkBBFop6pcPZkdUU8YyWxjQGR-Xkq-DWLomI8frA0i0_XjXwb5_wzpHhs/s640/IMG_8789.JPG" width="448" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgehiiXTysj-DK0WeOzEBZHwqD0fu3dd2xfQJelI087CG7vxU0rSfWUo2dp7UsVhNMiLqqYC5kqlt1nNIIUO2jQDrre2KacfUKe3ypwEABV7Vp3Vw8IHYyWuS7rq6K3qt7_a-x7MzSN7Yk/s1600/IMG_20170405_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgehiiXTysj-DK0WeOzEBZHwqD0fu3dd2xfQJelI087CG7vxU0rSfWUo2dp7UsVhNMiLqqYC5kqlt1nNIIUO2jQDrre2KacfUKe3ypwEABV7Vp3Vw8IHYyWuS7rq6K3qt7_a-x7MzSN7Yk/s640/IMG_20170405_0003.jpg" width="447" /></a></div>
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I think they are absolutely fantastic!<br />
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I also have them stored in a Drive folder for easy access: <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0JM-EYYc91td1VuU2pjRlNPQkU">https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0JM-EYYc91td1VuU2pjRlNPQkU</a><br />
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<h2>
But wait! There's more!</h2>
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So check these out:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_Amn1MaYduazPgqLijGu_cA_98Aa1kKv29Ye7EvYd7P4RQrP4Tlerlq6o6i4fNwx6BjgfS0EuQeSW9zaFT5Lex5CSHx3kWGLmHTmSrvqaaiKcqTXrsQ-CGK8Ut9j_tnEQlXkMA74pIo/s1600/IMG_20170330_150116555_1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_Amn1MaYduazPgqLijGu_cA_98Aa1kKv29Ye7EvYd7P4RQrP4Tlerlq6o6i4fNwx6BjgfS0EuQeSW9zaFT5Lex5CSHx3kWGLmHTmSrvqaaiKcqTXrsQ-CGK8Ut9j_tnEQlXkMA74pIo/s400/IMG_20170330_150116555_1_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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These are <a href="http://melsonia.bigcartel.com/product/troikan-initiative-bag">Troikan Initiative Bags</a>, which are <b>the best method for tracking initiative</b> in Troika!. They are sold as a set of 30, 10mm dice of varying colors. To understand better, here are the initiative rules from the Troika! rulebook:</div>
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<i><b>5.0: INITIATIVE</b></i></div>
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<i><b>5.1 Assemble the Bag.</b> During combat or at other times where it is important who goes first, you will need to assemble the Initiative Bag. To do this, get a container and a selection of coloured dice or other convenient markers. Each player will be assigned two dice of a single colour, while all enemies will share one colour of the number specified by their Initiative Rating or the GM’s whim, and a final single token of a distinct colour will be added to mark the end of a round when drawn (5.3).</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><b>5.2 Using the Bag.</b> The GM will remove a token from the Bag at random, the colour of which will determine who holds the Initiative and takes a turn.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><b>5.3 End of round.</b> If the end of round token is drawn then all tokens, including the end of round token, are put back in the Bag. Resolve any per round or end of round activities such as magic effects, fire, poison or bleeding out, then draw another token and carry on.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><b>5.4 Henchmen.</b> If you have any hired help that are willing to fight for you, treat them as their own character that only gets 1 Initiative token in the Bag. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><b>5.5 Rationale.</b> The random turn length adds a degree of uncertainty where you never know how much time you have left. When actions are not taking place it represents hesitation, panic or other incidental delays that can happen in a tense encounter where every second counts. The goblins have few dice because they are cowardly, not because they are slow; the dragon has many because it knows exactly what it wants, not because it is fast.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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They're only £3.50 (plus shipping) for a bag...not, bad, right?</div>
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<h2>
...but how about FREE instead?</h2>
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So here's the deal: </div>
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I'm going to give away (5) sets of Troikan Initiative Bags. How do you win one? Easy.</div>
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<b>Create a new character profession and background for use with Troika!</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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Troika! features 36 original backgrounds, which are more than enough and cover a variety of options for use in the game, as well as providing details that paint the unique setting of Troika itself.</div>
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They mention things like the Million Spheres, Lost Corda, the Phoenix Throne, and fleets of golden ships...a lot of interesting details about a diverse range of places.</div>
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So lets add to the setting by providing new professions and backgrounds. Don't worry about details like skills and possessions (unless you really want to) -- all I'm really looking for are new background details to play around with.</div>
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Post them below in the comments and, when I have at least 10, I'll pick my favorite 5 and send the Troikan Initiative Bags, along with a bonus surprise, at absolutely no cost.</div>
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<b>And, if we can get to 36, I'll have them fleshed out as full character profiles (with skills and possessions) and release it as a free supplement for use with Troika!.</b></div>
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Here's an example character background from the book:</div>
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<b><i>Sorcerer of the Academy of Doors</i></b></div>
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<i>As a student at Troika’s very own wizarding academy, pride of the city, experts in pan-dimensional mobility, you were able to penetrate the (2d6)th door. You are no master, certainly, but few outside your peers can claim to know more about the vagaries of skyward travel than you.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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You are welcome to provide multiple entries, but I'll only pick one per person, so that five unique people can win a Troikan initiative bag.</div>
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And besides, who doesn't love having more dice?</div>
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Purchase a copy of Troika! here: <a href="http://melsonia.bigcartel.com/product/troika">http://melsonia.bigcartel.com/product/troika</a></div>
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Or grab the free, no-art version here: <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/199604/Troika--Free-Artless-Edition">http://www.rpgnow.com/product/199604/Troika--Free-Artless-Edition</a></div>
Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-73927698904740027392017-04-14T08:30:00.000-04:002017-04-14T08:30:16.513-04:00Veins of the Earth Interview: Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ahh, <a href="http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=262">Veins of the Earth</a>.<br />
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I don't have any delusions that people are stumbling across my blog not knowing what Veins of the Earth from Lamentations of the Flame Princess is, but briefly: it's Patrick Stuart's take on the underdark.<br />
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Here's more about it, from the website:<br />
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<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<strong>THE ENDLESS DESCENT</strong></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
At the deepest point of the dungeon, behind the throne, beyond the rooms where the battles took place, after everything is done and the enemy dead, there is a crack. A black empty space where the wall joins the stone floor, a foot and a half high and three wide. A breeze comes out. You’d never notice it. You could lie on your belly and fit inside.</div>
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<strong>IT NEVER ENDS</strong></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
You have existed, up to this point, on the illusion of a plane, bordered by mountains, rivers, seas or the politics of maps, and this life has been a lie. Its borders are made up, its seas are gateways, its mountains are cradles of deep life. There is no plane.</div>
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You can read the rest via the link above.<br />
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Like a lot of people I'm patiently waiting for my physical copy to arrive in the mail, so in the mean time I thought I'd reach out to both Patrick and the artist, Scrap Princess, and ask them a bit about Veins and its development while I wait to hold this massive tome.<br />
<br /><br /><b>The Secret DM: So Veins of the Earth has been on a long road to completion and its release date is finally here. Considering that, in a lot of ways VotE is your "first book", at what point did Scrap get involved in the process? What about James Raggi? How did VotE end up as a Lamentations release?</b><div>
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<b>Patrick Stuart: </b>Someone actually helped track down a G+ post that must be Scrap's earliest involvement in Veins:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8AVbwyCRLeZ7O4atW9i9A_aqeg2jv8kZbYCB06knFIjwuhKJ_ORChByVa8Wbu8-m-AADWbPUsphsWTxQbtbLcNQsYfNOjqh95b4gb5hndr1YEIyCuZo9MClA0tc5QPRNrbvJABFDUd4/s1600/Scrap.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8AVbwyCRLeZ7O4atW9i9A_aqeg2jv8kZbYCB06knFIjwuhKJ_ORChByVa8Wbu8-m-AADWbPUsphsWTxQbtbLcNQsYfNOjqh95b4gb5hndr1YEIyCuZo9MClA0tc5QPRNrbvJABFDUd4/s400/Scrap.PNG" width="378" /></a></div>
<br /><br />So, February 9th 2013. I think this is about the first time Scrap became interested in my blog as well, so a lot of our relationship dates to around this point.<br /><br />Initially several other people were going to do illustrations, and people like Logan Knight and Cédric Plante did illustrations for one or two monsters, but as the project developed it looked more and more like it was going to be difficult to get it published with a profit share system whilst also having multiple artists in the book, and Scrap and I had grown used to working with each other, so she ended up stepping up and doing everything.<br /><br />I think I contacted James around the 2nd July 2014 with a first draft in electronic format, then sent a full test print on the 6th June. After he had read through that he agree'd to publish it. This was around the same time that <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131801/Deep-Carbon-Observatory">Deep Carbon Observatory</a> had come out and about a month after that was released James said he would like to publish Veins.<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0t1AY9_vhbKU5CETKnDAO4Em2C5tPZVNLrAqXgcR8As3rhCUF7EGojcYhMtW_eLZaDa9NcE6sZHNbtb15lGvHjSYNVjIK_1pPqepNfauUhF-fmcsB29e3Ihj-4nhtb5qykrQ5itI6Zyw/s1600/Veins+preview+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0t1AY9_vhbKU5CETKnDAO4Em2C5tPZVNLrAqXgcR8As3rhCUF7EGojcYhMtW_eLZaDa9NcE6sZHNbtb15lGvHjSYNVjIK_1pPqepNfauUhF-fmcsB29e3Ihj-4nhtb5qykrQ5itI6Zyw/s400/Veins+preview+4.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>SDM: Scrap: your artwork that's been previewed looks deeper and more vibrant than previous works...is this just the result of a natural development of your style, or did James or Patrick make specific requests that pushed your art style in a different direction?</b></div>
<br /><b>Scrap Princess: </b>The drawings for the pariahs go back over 4 years so that definitely evolved with time. There's only 1-2 that I redid when I realized I could do better now. <div>
<br />The rest of the art in the book happened closer together when it was going to be my art all the way through, which was only decided when Raggi confirmed as publisher.</div>
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<br />The quality of writing made me want to push my haphazard abilities like I had never before. I really, really wanted to nail the look of an anti-phoenix or a cromagnogolem , and nail it as good as I felt the writing was. It's the first time I had something inspire me that hard and the first time I was determined to reach an external standard. Normally I'm not really a "give a shit" person. I make stuff that I enjoy, yes, but it's rare I accept any external frame of reference for quality on my own art. So this is what happens when there's a really cool monster I guess.<br /><br />That's a good yardstick for art: <i>does it have cool monsters y/n?</i></div>
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<b>SDM: Patrick, did Scrap influence your writing in any way?</b></div>
<br /><b>PS: </b>Probably less than for any of the other stuff we have done together. She had some influence on DCO, <a href="https://www.peecho.com/checkout/148490425053512495/267274/fire-on-the-velvet-horizon">Fire on the Velvet Horizon</a> was a dual-creation where we both had a big effect. <i>Broken Fire Regime</i>, if that ever comes out, has a great deal of Scrap-influenced and Scrap-created content. The longer we have worked together the more our influences have interpenetrated with each thing we make but Veins is one of the first things I did. She still has bits and pieces of writing in there that were added in development though, so she is present in the text and her art ties the whole thing together.<div>
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<b>SDM: What sort of obstacles and challenges did you face while working on it?</b><div>
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<b>PS:</b> It's huge and that caused delays. Most of the big central ideas were done by the middle of 2014, so the remaining 3 years are made up of being proof read twice, edits by James, Zak and I think anyone else who looked at the text. Most of that was done by around the summer of 2015 so the two years after that were waiting for Jez to become available and him laying out the book, becoming more frantic in the two or three months prior to completion as all the little problems were squeezed to the end of the toothpaste.<br /><br />Nothing moves quickly in the OSR, the old saying is that things can be fast, cheap and high quality, but you can only ever have two of those. The OSR is poor, so it has to be cheap, everyone involved wanted it to be quality, that means that it's gonna take 4 years and 6 months to do.</div>
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<b>Scrap:</b> The biggest obstacle is I would feel I did some fantastic next level shit with an art piece and send it to Patrick and he would say, "yes this is nice" and I would plot his demise. The second biggest obstacle is my amazing ability to not read properly if it's on a computer screen and so having to redo a drawing because I had left something out. The 3rd obstacle is Jez doing things irrelevant to the project like other books, sleeping, and having a family. The 4th obstacle is my own haphazard artistic abilities and having to work around a lack of technical skill with "dynamic gestures" and pure mutantness.<br /><br />The workflow got wack towards the end with bad communication and a sense of urgency that meant I wound up not pushing as hard for things but, art exists external to the creator, so you have to accept that other people are going to like art of yours that you don't super like and they are not MAD.<br /><br />This also meant that spaces for art opened up late in the project, and it would of sown deeper madness amongst the others if I had delayed things to make sure there was art I felt exactly right for them. Like every piece of art in there is something I would call "good" but not all are "exceptional"; 70% of the book is art I would describe as "exceptional".<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkp51q0VHhdG5ntBmUoA6JK8HvtdkJqErebC5udjXTkdfW7sr0ATMSYKNWLxOjSwfZgX6Q85_pGaGiptDLyX9XfyhJVn91OPhNd1gVTRpRkLCWad8QCJsYwPYBukKKlxo3h-CxxcErBxI/s1600/Veins+preview+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkp51q0VHhdG5ntBmUoA6JK8HvtdkJqErebC5udjXTkdfW7sr0ATMSYKNWLxOjSwfZgX6Q85_pGaGiptDLyX9XfyhJVn91OPhNd1gVTRpRkLCWad8QCJsYwPYBukKKlxo3h-CxxcErBxI/s400/Veins+preview+3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /><br /><b>SDM: Is there anything you would have done differently if you could do it over?</b><br /><div>
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<b>SP:</b> So if it was done over, knowing that I was doing all the art and how much art we could fit in, and still taking 4 years, then maybe it would be 100% "exceptional" art pieces to me. Though, again, there's pieces in there because other people like them so much, that I think are merely good, so it might not even seem that much of a better book to anyone else.</div>
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<b>PS:</b> I would make something shorter, sharper, tighter and lighter. That said, the draft zero for <i>Broken Fire Regime</i> is currently at 124,609 words so clearly I am insane. After that though, I am only going to work on short, sharp projects that can be easily lifted with one hand.<div>
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<b>SDM: What were your inspirations for VotE?</b></div>
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<b>PS:</b> Briefly: geology, caving and speleobiology. Reading about geology gave me a powerful impression of "Deep Time" and the book of the earths history as written in its stone. A lot of this comes from the work of Richard Fortey but if you go into any geological subject in depth you are essentially trying to relate the human experience to a gulf of time which it can't really comprehend, but which is physically incarnated in the stone around it. The attempt to bring a sensation of deep time into the human experience also informed DCO, most of that adventure is about creating a sense of incredible depth and age in the minds of the players and Veins works the same way.<br /><br />Reading about the actual history and nature of caving, as opposed to the cave as a cultural artifact on film and television. <i>Blind Descent</i> by James M. Tabor is a bit pulpy but was a good entry point to that, once you get past the initial public face of the thing and start reading the stories and analysis of actual cavers and the things they do, you realise what a unique thing it is. It really is a frontier of human exploration and understanding and a borderline to human power. There are rules on some caving expeditions that if you die underground you agree that your body will be left for long enough for it to be skeletonised so it can be safely retrieved because trying to lug a human corpse through some of those systems will just get more people killed.<br /><br />The caving in Veins is still super-fictionalised, it would be utterly impossible with a D&D level of technology, even with magic helping out, but it goes back and draws directly from the real experience to create what is hopefully a more original and active lie than the standard rules. (NOT a criticism of <i>The Dungeoneers Survival Guide</i> by Douglas Niles; after trying to write a book that does a similar thing, I have a huge amount of respect for the man.)<br /><br />And the study of life in caves and life underground is closely related to both geology and our developing understanding of life on earth. We have found life not just around volcano rims but inside rocks, eating gold. There are cells so slow that they might take centuries before they decide to grow. What we think of as 'normal' biology, even through it takes up a huge amount of the planet's biomass, is, genetically, a highly specialised offshoot of a much wider range of biological possibilities. It also relates to deep time both in its unveiling of the biological past and simply because one very common strategy for almost any kind of creature underground is simply to wait. Caves are full of creatures patiently waiting for something to happen and living a very long time to do so. When you extend this, and other underground adaptations to an intelligent creature, or a civilisation, it becomes quite interesting.</div>
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<b>SDM: What are you hoping to see people get out of VotE? You described Veins starting as a "Vornheim for the Underdark"...and <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/195785/Maze-of-the-Blue-Medusa-o-Deluxe-PDF">Maze of the Blue Medusa</a> also had key layout decisions you were happy with that made it a functional book at the table...does VotE achieve the same kind of functionality? How much influence did you have on the layout?</b><br /><br /><b>PS:</b> I'm worried that it doesn't. It's really huge and the text was locked pretty close in 2015. The monster descriptions have some really long passages and some of it is really good prose. That's not ideal for a usable monster entry but at every editing juncture no one wanted to loose the prose so it stayed in.<br /><br />If <i>Vornheim</i> was a short, sharp punk song that did its job with economy and got off the stage, and MotBM is something like a classical symphony (pretentious I know, but I use the comparison to relate it to ideas of beauty and order combined) then VotE is a huge, decadent, sprawling 70's prog rock album and it has all the negative and positive attributes of that. All of the rule systems are usable and will work as a whole, but there is a LOT of it, and it sprawls.<br /><br />As for layout I had relatively little influence, mainly reading and OK'ing what Jez did and that was late in the process.<div>
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<b>SDM: Is there any content you had to cut from the book, and specifically, content you regret cutting?</b><div>
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<b>PS:</b> I don't think so. If anything the book is over-stuffed. Cédric's and Logan's images were really good and I miss not having them in but it really wouldn't have worked with multiple artists.</div>
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<b>SDM: This was a long time in the making...are you satisfied by what you've created?</b><div>
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<b>PS:</b> I don't know yet, I'm still in the backwash of making it. I'm pretty sure that everything in it is stuff that I like but as to whether it works as either an aesthetic or useful whole, we will have to wait a year or so to find out.<br /><br />I do really like Scrap's art in here. It's an overwhelmingly beautiful object and I really want her to win an award for it but if she did she would immediately throw it away or melt it into some kind of sculpture. I care a lot more about the recognition of the overculture than she does, and I don't care that much. (She is probably in minus numbers for that.)</div>
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<b>SP:</b> Satisfaction? I will have to physically hold it my hands, at the moment it feels pretty abstract and the final rush to get it out was pretty punishing with everyone having to work together and not demand the book be exactly how they want it and still feeling the burn out of that. <div>
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Feels pretty swell though.<br /><br />I wish I could of had more trilobite knight pictures in there? There's barely 12 or so. <br /><br />There's so much art in the book that I look at it and go "this is exactly how best I could have done this thing and to look at it exist surprises me and its form is beyond my imaginings of how I would do it". I know a drawing is good if it surprises me that I did that. There's a lot of those here. That's pretty fucking satisfying.</div>
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<b>SDM: Patrick, do you have a favorite piece of art in the book?</b><div>
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<b>PS:</b> There's someone confronting something terrible on page 189, someone clinging to a stalactite on 211, the main Trilobite Knight image on 141 is iconic I think.</div>
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<b>SDM: What about you Scrap? Is there a favorite piece of writing? Anything in particular you enjoyed illustrating the most?</b></div>
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<b>SP:</b> The easiest answer for favourite writing is the Pariahs . I love the phrase "Pariahs of Creation. That's what got me on board and was the beginning of a friendship with this tortured English loon. They were the most interestingly challenging to draw and are some of my favourite pieces of art that I've ever done. Other pieces that I find myself rereading for the pleasure of it are the introduction piece, the cultures (I keep calling things 'you Efreeti Fuck' in my head) , and the civilopede treasures. <br />The Derro is especially fun. The Derro is not fun.<br /><br />The civilopede treasures is an interesting one because as I was writing this I was going to mention the desire to have to illustrate them but actually, letting the writing be the sole creator of the image for them is great. Like it means the DM can't just say "It looks like this"; they have to attempt to internalize the writing in some way and the writing's worth it. There's all kinds of ideas and insights there and it feels like it really has been curated from eons of cultures by an alien intelligence with a slightly dry and provocative sense of humour.<br /><br />I find the concept of being in tight spaces underground horrible and this book makes me think about that constantly in a visceral way and that's great/awful.</div>
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I could've been happier if some of the cultures hinted at were expanded on, but hints are a good part of the deep crushed time of the thing. I went on a jag making up cultural specific weapons for the main groups like Derro "Feeling Knives" and "Sack Of Agony" and Olm "No Swallow Jaw". When the books out a while I might blog the drawings and ideas.<div>
<br />But yeah, more artifacts like that from cultural interactions, so tactics and specialist that they would involve to murder each other. Dvargir "inevitability teams" trained for countering knotsmen , Aelf poisons for making the darkness poisonous and tailored cultural nemesis weapons plucked out of a culture's worst nightmares, Derro "Repugnancy Amplifiers" to make Aelf just death-spasming with hate.</div>
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<br />Some other emergent ideas like Aelf slave-overseers being a politely untouchable class in their society because they have to acknowledge the existence of other life on a constant basis and interact very closely and deeply with it, and they would be even more fucked up than the rest of them from the mental gymnastics they would need to live with themselves.</div>
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<b>SDM: What's next for each of you?</b></div>
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<b>PS: </b>My current 'working on' folder has <i>Broken Fire Regime</i>, an ostensible sequel to DCO, then a "Secret Mystery Project" with a Rogue Group, which should be much smaller. Then after that all I have to do is <i>Eclipse Knights</i> with Zak. I plan to do that alongside writing <i>Knights of the Snail</i>, a volume of twenty short stories linked into my version of Mallory's <i>Mort D'Arthur</i>, White's <i>Once and Future King</i> or Spenser's <i>Faerie Queen</i>. A long time ago I promised Matthew Adams that I would do this and that he could illustrate it and I intend to get it done.<br /><br />(I do have an extremely small mini-project that might be coming out with help from a friend, all the writing on that is done through.)<br /><br />After those I imagine I will be sick as hell of Knights for a good long while.<br /><br />Beyond that are the two remaining volumes of what should end up being the 'Elemental Quartet': <i>Littoral Storm Corsairs</i> (pirates in the envelope of a Gas Giant) for Air, and <i>Unconscious Oceanic Labyrinth</i> (best guess at a title) for Water. Both of those should be dome with Scrap.<br /><br />And after that? I would like to finally address <i>Lanthanum Chromate</i>, the doomed dwarven city slipping down a volcano rim into hell, maybe do a <i>Nightmare Sea</i> book, an <i>Isles of the Imprisoned Moon</i> book or a <i>dErO</i> book.<br /><div>
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<b>SDM: A 'dErO' book? What's that?</b></div>
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<b>PS:</b> "<b>De</b>trimental <b>Ro</b>bots"; not mechanical beings, but robot-like due to their savage and unrelenting nature - the mutated and perverse descendants of an ancient race who retreated beneath the earth to escape the twisting effects of the suns coruscating rays. Now they inhabit the deep caverns first created by this once-noble prehistoric people and manipulate machines of terrifying power to warp the minds of all of the population of the earth. 'dErO' are briefly touched on in VotE but anyone wishing to know more should investigate the works of Richard Sharpe Shaver.</div>
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<b>SDM: Ahh, wild stuff. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on VotE. And Scrap, what's next for you?</b></div>
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<b>SP:</b> That cyberpunk booklet you are paying me to do. More art for BFR and the DCO re-release. Then at some point my very own home brew D&D alchemist stone that is everything I want D&D to be. Also <i>WIDE_ON_FOR_DESTRUCTION,</i> an RPG system for playing out everything I wanted anime and 80's cartoons to be, but are actually in fact terrible.</div>
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Order a physical copy of Veins of the Earth here: <a href="http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=262">http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=262</a></div>
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Or grab the PDF here: <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/209509/Veins-of-the-Earth">http://www.rpgnow.com/product/209509/Veins-of-the-Earth</a></div>
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And here's a character sheet:</div>
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<a href="http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/uploads/downloads/LotFP%20VotE%20character%20sheet.pdf">http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/uploads/downloads/LotFP%20VotE%20character%20sheet.pdf</a></div>
Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-16550577669481516462017-04-13T08:30:00.000-04:002017-04-14T01:35:47.684-04:00Troika! Interview: Daniel Sell and Jeremy Duncan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hate doing reviews.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I worry that I'm not critical enough to do a review of a product justice; I tend to like a lot of things, and appreciate the effort people put into their work. Troika! is no different; I love everything about the game...from the rules-lite design to the setting bits drizzled throughout character backgrounds and spells and so forth. Nothing is laid out bare for the reader; you have to dig through each of the fascinating backgrounds of each profession to get a sense for the strangeness of the land this game is set in, and I find that to be absolutely wonderful.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So for a more detailed review, you can read what Scott Malthouse wrote over at the Trollish Delver: <a href="http://www.trollishdelver.com/2017/03/review-troika.html">http://www.trollishdelver.com/2017/03/review-troika.html</a></span><br />
<br />
You can also play around with a random character generator here: <a href="http://character.totalpartykill.ca/troika/">http://character.totalpartykill.ca/troika/</a><br />
<br />
AND grab a copy of Troika! here: http://melsonia.bigcartel.com/product/troika<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, rather than reviewing the book (it's good, you should buy it), I went directly to Daniel Sell and Jeremy Duncan and asked them about their little game.</span><br />
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b>
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Secret DM: So Troika! ...how did it get started?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Daniel Sell: </b>It had multiple causes. Some time last year these happened:</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read all of Planescape. As a child with no money and two planescape box sets I had to settle for imagining what the rest of the game was like. Reading the actual books 20 years later, it came up short.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">AND</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I went on a podcast called The Smart Party to talk about what I was doing at the time (D&D). They asked a very sensible question: Why do I write D&D material when I have very little love for the system?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">AND</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was re-reading my old copies of </span><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dungeoneer</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blacksand</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. There's an uncommon life in those pages, one which you don't see often.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SO</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I made </span><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Troika!</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as a tribute to these things that don't exist.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM: What were some of your concerns or obstacles during the development of Troika!?</b><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b>My concern was making a game that could inflict the correct state on the reader, who would in turn generate the correct games. As a result it takes a long time to write anything for the system, with every background, enemy, spell, etc. being written over and over to the point of meaninglessness until eventually it comes through the other side and manages to surprise me again. If I read something and it doesn’t make me insufferably pleased that I wrote it, then it’s not finished.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rules were drilled to death in the same way. What I was making wasn’t a clone or spiritual successor of </span><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dungeoneer</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, it was a game that would do anything, kill any darling, to create a specific state of mind and play. It’s no longer the 80s and we are no longer children, even </span><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dungeoneer</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> can’t be </span><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dungeoneer</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> any more, too much has changed. To create it again takes more than updating the rules and slapping on a fresh coat of paint.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Otherwise the whole system is designed to mesh with how I work: I like short, discrete pieces of information I can manipulate and work on without having to make room elsewhere. Poetry vs. prose.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM: How much playtesting did you do? How much did the game change following playtesting?</b><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b>I ran two small campaigns, with the rules changing weekly. Since the rules were already solid it was mostly small things like how much rations heal, how much damage feels good, how to die etc. Some changes were larger, like the initiative system. The original initiative was too chaotic, D&D style I-go-You-go was dry and tasteless (and I was against letting anything of it get inside). Eventually I arrived at a chit-pull system, which turned out to be a perfect fit, completely capturing the flavour of the game. </span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">At what stage in the development did you know you wanted Jeremy Duncan involved?</b><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b>From the beginning. He gets it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Jeremy Duncan:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can't remember if it was Daniel contacting me, or me frantically waving my hand in the air. I could probably go back and find the exact moment, but I kind of like the uncertainty and I think I'll leave it alone.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So far, it's been one of the easiest projects I've worked on, at least in terms of concept -- execution's always a challenge. I generally just react to Daniel's writing and turn in the result. I've been fortunate so far in the projects I've done in that I haven't come across a lot of editorial push-back. I turned in a cover with full frontal male & female nudity and he didn't bat an eye, which I'm pretty sure you can't get away with when working for WotC, etc. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As far as I know, I haven't had any direct influence on the setting. Daniel can correct me if I'm wrong. For what it's worth, I think I'm drawing from some of the same obsessions and influences as Daniel is when he's writing the text, or at least broadly compatible ones. Like Daniel, I loved Planescape when I was growing up, but didn't have the cash to drop on the supplements, so a lot of the Planes were filled in with my daydreams, or whatever it was I was reading or watching or listening to at the time. I still love it, but not as much as I </span><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">want to</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> love it. I remember him doing some Troika posts with a Gnostic angle right as I happened to be reading about the Early Church, so I think a lot of it is just lucky coincidences like that. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>SDM:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Is there more planned for Troika!, or now that it's released are you moving on to other things?</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS:</b> F</span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">or the foreseeable future, Troika! is all I'm going to write.</span></div>
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I've considered the possibility of making several cosmology maps, all contradicting each other. One of my major issues with Planescape was how mundane the arrangement of the cosmos was. You can communicate the details of the multiverse in a few pages, whereas the Gnostics dedicated volumes to the shape of things and still couldn't make much sense of it. The confusion is important to making it interesting.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regarding Jeremy having influence: It's a bit like an exquisite corpse, each passing it blind to each other. In the moment there isn't much influence, but at the end it becomes an equal part of the whole.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM: So what's next for Troika!?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b><i>Empires of Foliage</i>.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM: Will there be Troika! adventures?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b>It’s distinctly possible. I have some vague plans in that regard but it’s going to be a while until they happen. </span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM: Troika! is open to 3rd party licensing...is there anything in particular you're hoping to see people do with that license?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b>Not especially. I’m curious to see what Troika! does for people, if anything, and I want to leave the option for them to go their own way if they don’t like mine.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">How has the response to Troika! been so far, and has having the free no-art version been a benefit?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b>Although I like to think I’m a publisher, I’m no good at marketing. Troika! has a very limited circulation, but people who have read it generally seem to like it. I think it suffers from not having an easily definable “hook” to sell the book, but I’m ok with that. It’s in no danger of becoming the next hotness.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As for the artless edition, I’m not sure. I know a lot of people have downloaded it, but I imagine almost as many haven’t looked at it beyond seeing something for free. Which is fine. It’ll sit there like a mind-worm, ready to act. </span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM: What do you most want to see/hear from the community of Troika! fans?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b>I want to hear it being played and to know it’s doing what it was designed to do. Beyond that I hope they take ownership of it and run with it. If it somehow becomes a financial success and secure its future in the meantime, that would be great.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM: Jeremy, was visualizing Troika! a challenge in any way? The cover is beautiful, but was it your first attempt at the cover?</b><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>JD:</b> I did a few practice sketches and a quick watercolor that ended up being the basis for the final cover.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4eIqaHhHytCxhyphenhyphenybM2YFM84gMKJt9sfrcM19uVfoelXmR1xvHuWe5puN_vSuasr_TRXhFNoMoZKDP56PHG4cs_fwurijdPdHeIOoxE359PF3-84s9vZcU5wTSLecW4TfkOzBxAWu4fLY/s1600/16+-+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4eIqaHhHytCxhyphenhyphenybM2YFM84gMKJt9sfrcM19uVfoelXmR1xvHuWe5puN_vSuasr_TRXhFNoMoZKDP56PHG4cs_fwurijdPdHeIOoxE359PF3-84s9vZcU5wTSLecW4TfkOzBxAWu4fLY/s640/16+-+1.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM: Is there more you'd like to do, from an artistic standpoint, with Troika!, and if so, what might that be?</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>JD:</b> I'm hoping to make the most of the freedom I've been given with this project, however long it takes. I have a lot of persnickety, pigheaded, annoyingly contrary opinions about fantasy art and this is my chance to put them all into practice while I'm lucky enough to work with someone willing to inflict it all on decent people.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">SDM Is there anything else either of you would like to add or discuss?</b></div>
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<b><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /></b><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DS: </b>I’m not very good at talking about my own work and I’m not an artist who is able or willing to sell themselves to money-men. Because of this it will be down to other people if this succeeds. I’ll keep making it on a knife-edge as long as I am able; just me, my little publishing house, my choice of editorial staff, and Jeremy. My hope is we become something like Palladium Books, a crazy person and his chums forging a strange and stubborn niche.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My most lofty goal is to earn enough through this to actually </span><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">employ someone</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. That would be mind-blowing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>JD:<i> </i></b><i>"My hope is we become something like Palladium Books, a crazy person and his chums forging a strange and stubborn niche."</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm already working on a blank template for cease and desist orders.</span></div>
Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-67120470293494835142017-04-06T08:00:00.000-04:002017-04-06T08:00:04.448-04:00Dealer of Poisons<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRV9lc3M4x2L_R5Mxn9ay3q9I_MN4qM5nJFsNcZHE99WYaC22ZI8_YogJQiet70XuP2g708R2W05kRml7vySDaDMpxYNUjw_VPaa4i3UYyHYzwjDa9lEEG0k8bbWo0fe8SsHKwewo635w/s1600/9c2b1129af03297454e6257a86e82471.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRV9lc3M4x2L_R5Mxn9ay3q9I_MN4qM5nJFsNcZHE99WYaC22ZI8_YogJQiet70XuP2g708R2W05kRml7vySDaDMpxYNUjw_VPaa4i3UYyHYzwjDa9lEEG0k8bbWo0fe8SsHKwewo635w/s640/9c2b1129af03297454e6257a86e82471.jpg" width="494" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artwork by Sean Andrew Murray. Source: <a href="http://seanandrewmurray.com/">http://seanandrewmurray.com</a></td></tr>
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<br />
Nobody trusts the poison dealer, but his is a necessary evil in the city of Murder.<br />
<br />
The streets of Murder are all narrow alleyways that intersect at odd angles; there are no main roads here, although there are names for them. Meetings occur in the alley behind the west wall complex past Dagger's shop and in between the Halls of Minotaur and Blade, all of which line Murder Row, which is a street that no one knows how to find but every shop owner claims to know how to get to.<br />
<br />
The poison dealer is no different, as he offers what he calls his "canticles", the liquid verses of death.<br />
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I'd offer a random table of poisons, but there are so many of them out there. My personal favorite is <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/110740771198261840982" target="_blank">+David McGrogan</a>'s:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-RHJWWGpzy2u2cDn_7wWlHnActYUlZi1kmwsFA-QRVKLy2YxCeSlHQLoh4hHyDrt4zoFizP6tcoJpZCXyFnSuarYcQkfb77UhRUZU-bcEXHbPFuqTA4rP5QGNxcUUdE-X1DRJo-iEgmU/s1600/29.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-RHJWWGpzy2u2cDn_7wWlHnActYUlZi1kmwsFA-QRVKLy2YxCeSlHQLoh4hHyDrt4zoFizP6tcoJpZCXyFnSuarYcQkfb77UhRUZU-bcEXHbPFuqTA4rP5QGNxcUUdE-X1DRJo-iEgmU/s1600/29.png" /></a></div>
<br />
...which you can get more details on here:<br />
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<a href="http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2014/04/random-poisons.html">http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2014/04/random-poisons.html</a><br />
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What poison tables do you use?Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2754616967629768635.post-48980418517461009812017-04-05T10:05:00.000-04:002017-04-05T10:05:16.930-04:00Swordfish Islands KickstarterLast post I briefly mentioned <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/116357045271154658211" target="_blank">+Jacob Hurst</a>'s <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pandesmos/the-swordfish-islands-hot-springs-island-an-rpg-he">Swordfish Islands Kickstarter campaign</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsHvo97JSsprdjvzdDvTuA-p8-XUjm68GerdXKPBgYU3YcwKqE2MuDhvmYe-30IPIjzsMrJFPVJdiI_TmO4_aXYJWPXodNphmqdFSYMz4dV8prNtVzVrlP2aT_uTywq4oyovGi2yzbVzE/s1600/swordfish+islands+still+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsHvo97JSsprdjvzdDvTuA-p8-XUjm68GerdXKPBgYU3YcwKqE2MuDhvmYe-30IPIjzsMrJFPVJdiI_TmO4_aXYJWPXodNphmqdFSYMz4dV8prNtVzVrlP2aT_uTywq4oyovGi2yzbVzE/s640/swordfish+islands+still+image.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The campaign offers a lot of really great content, but you can find out about it by going to the kickstarter page itself.<br />
<br />
<b>I'm going to talk about something completely different.</b><br />
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I've started reading <i>A Field Guide to Hot Springs Island</i>, which is intended to be an in-game resource for players. It includes a fascinating story from one group of explorers as they traversed Hot Springs Island, and what they found there (or rather what found them). It also has sections describing native flora and fauna that are found on the island, including the <i>muttering serpent</i>:<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>No one knows what the head of this large serpent, covered in mirror like scales, actually looks like as it always appears as the observer's head, even in death.</i></div>
<i><br /></i>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-qkx8FnWXneBwTmOpxXE4moNk5uLIltalPe2S3vSVcoub_gVN1dTflYei_-xnEOJFGd9EeZCb_EoNNQjT9Be29nTgnVOKvs6xLaLc2YC9iqpyVfXeTxXmWjOh7ZIf8zl9R7bQ835rv8/s1600/muttering+serpent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-qkx8FnWXneBwTmOpxXE4moNk5uLIltalPe2S3vSVcoub_gVN1dTflYei_-xnEOJFGd9EeZCb_EoNNQjT9Be29nTgnVOKvs6xLaLc2YC9iqpyVfXeTxXmWjOh7ZIf8zl9R7bQ835rv8/s400/muttering+serpent.jpg" width="362" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Muttering Serpent</td></tr>
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I don't want to give away too much information, but I can describe <i>A Field Guide...</i> as over 200 pages of inspiring content. I can see how it could be useful in player's hands, but as a DM, it's particularly useful to me. Reading the introductory story segments help paint a picture for this strange island, and the suggestions presented of the creatures that are found there get the gears turning for new things to throw at my players.<br />
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This book is getting an upgraded reprint as part of the new kickstarter, but the second book is the really interesting one: The Dark of Hot Springs Island. This book is the DM's guide to everything crawling on and around Hot Springs Island, arming the DM with a plethora of new content that makes running a hex crawl on Hot Springs possible. It's the book I'm most looking forward to getting. In fact I <i>almost</i> passed on getting the Field Guide reprint, but it's only $25 more to have both books beautifully rendered so...why not?<br />
<br />
If you enjoy hex crawls and campaigns of exploration, I highly recommend making the decision to back this project. There is a ton of beautiful artwork inside, and Jacob is a person who is very interested in producing high quality content. The decision to print these books the way he's pursuing is a great example of that.Christopher Mennellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00033568485073789950noreply@blogger.com0