Monday, June 10, 2024

Wolves Upon the Coast Play Report

I will edit this blog post after each session, to keep all the information in one convenient place. Keep in mind that this is a rough-and-ready document. You're basically reading me journal right now. For my players, also know that this is mainly a record of the main series of events, and not all information revealed or mentioned during a session will be recounted here.

Note that this particular instance of the campaign uses the unofficial "Folk Wisdom & Forbidden Truths" supplement, which you can find here. I also read the "Reavers" fanzine, and incorporated the practice of reading the opening text and post-script of the rules booklet at the start of sessions, as a way of marking entry into the ritual playspace.

Spoiler Alert: If you plan on playing a Wolves of the Coast campaign other than mine, I encourage you not to read the following, as it reveals secret information about various locations on the map.

Session One

Grimhild (F) and Aoife (eee-fa, he/they/she) are two escaped thralls riding upon the raiding ship MacCumhail, with Grimhild having killed their former captor with a knife. Also on the ship are 12 rowers and some other adventurers, who are yet to enter our story.

Monday Spring 1, 754
The MacCumhail sailed South across open waters, soon reaching the West Coast of Ruislip. They then continued to sail South alongside the coast. The sky was clear, and there was a gentle Southwest breeze. 
 
Along the coast, they spotted a hill with two runestones, one noticeably larger than the other, and further South, a line of cliffs dotted with seacaves.  Aiofe boasted he would return to the runestones, uproot the larger one, and steal it. Grimhild added an extra challenge, insisting that Aoife further increase the challenge of the task by swimming a mile to shore. Grimhild agreed, and they continued their journey Southwards.
 
The crew encountered another raiding vessel, bearing a raven banner. The crew of the other ship had a positive inclination towards them, and a brief conversation was had, in which the other crew announced their intention to plunder Saint Olham's monastery on the South coast. The crew of the MacCumhail claimed to be on route to raid another monastarey, "St Ondheim's". 
 
Intent on beating their rivals to the St Olham's, they promised to double their rowers' rations for them rowing faster, giving them a minor edge.
 
Tuesday Spring 2, 754
Continuing South, with the same gentle Southwest breeze, the crew encountered a patrol ship from the nearby town of Dorbog. The patrol ship had a negative inclination towards our adventurers, but allowed them passage onwards on the condition they stay clear from Dorbog. 

Further South, they found the Monastarey of St. Olham. They approached and knocked on the door, taking on the personas of guilty sinners seeking penance. After entering and leaving their weapons at the door, they upped the ante by further claiming to be possessed by devils they encountered while fighting in "a great war". While most of the monks were in the chapel attempting to exorcise Aoife, Grimhild was told to wait outside in a corridor, with a novice sent to attend her. Grimhild lured the novice deeper into the Monstarey, where she suddenly attacked him unarmed. She punched him and slammed his head against a stone wall, killing him. She then hid his body in an alcove. Exploring the monastery looking for things to steal, she pilfered a silver candellabra and multiple books of scripture, sneaking them back to the ship.

Aoife's drawn-out and dramatic exorcism drew to a close, and Grimhild re-entered the chapel. Grimhild's exorcism began, with the monks dunking her head in holy water and brandishing crosses at her.  While the monks were distracted, Aiofe snuck to the back of the chapel, and soon discovered a trapdoor leading down to a tiny basement room, containing two wooden chests and a skeleton dressed in fresh priest's garments. She rattled the two chests, and broke open one of them, revealing silver coins within.
 
With some prompting from Aiofe, Grimhild insisted the monks go to the garden, eventually succeeded in luring the crowd out to the garden. When there, she demanded the monks eat all of the unripe turnips growing there, causing an argument with the abbot. Grimhild eventually pretended to collapse unconscious. In the meantime, Aiofe smuggled silver coins out to her donkey named Bucket, who she had left outside of the monastarey. Soon enough, Aiofe saw a crowd of the monks returning to the chapel, preventing her from sneaking out the rest of the coins. 
 
Aiofe and Grimhild declared they must swiftly return home to their parents, despite the abbot's insistence they wait until a demonologist from Albann could come visit them. Back the the boat, they discovered the ship of the earlier-discovered rival raiding crew. Their rivals were angry that they were in fact targeting St Olham's and not the invented St Ondheim's. Our adventurers claimed they hadn't raided St Olham's and were merely visiting, to which their rivals responded that "if we go there, and the skeleton isn't still there, there will be trouble". Eight of the fifteen rival crew approached the monastarey with churches, leaving seven of them guarding the ship.

Our adventurers retreated to their own ship, where they concocted a scheme to seize their rival's ship, and hold it hostage in return for the skeleton...

Session Two

Tuesday Spring 2, 754 Continued
 
Two players joined us, playing adventurers that had formerly been guarding the ship. These adventurers were Orm, an archer and Tendency, an old lady with a handaxe and a pet pidgeon.
 
Our intrepid adventurers seek to seize the Karvi of their rival raiding party. They instruct their rowers to row the Karvi away to trick the rivals into thinking they're leaving, then the adventurers wade out to launch a surprise attack. Their rivals had pulled their Karvi on shore and left seven to guard it. Tendency's pidgeon Pidgey distracted the rivals just long enough for the group to climb into the ship. They started making ghost noises and one of the rival raiders went on board to investigate. The group successfully ambushed and killed him. The rest of the raiders went on board and open combat ensued. Two of the raiders died, and Orm, Tendency and Grimhild were mortally wounded and fell unconscious. Aoife was offered surrender and refused, and continued to fight, strapping Grimild's shield on her arm while continuing to fight with a two-handed axe. Aoife killed two more people, and the surviving four fled to their compatriots in the monastarey. Aoife used bandages to stabilise her own unconscious companions, and sailed away with the stolen Karvi.

Session Three

Wednesday Spring 3, 754
 
Aoife and Tendency sailed upon their newly gained second Karvi, the Cú Chulainn. They sailed to the runestones that were found on Spring 1. Aoife upheld his boast by sailing a mile to shore and succesfully uprooting and taking the larger one of the runestones. Despite being illiterate, he carved a rough transcription of both runestones' inscriptions onto a plank of wood. Tendency was walking up the hill to meet Aoife when she encountered the corpses of one Christian priest and sixteen swordsmen, who appeared to have been killed by some kind of giant bird. Tendency boasted that she would discover the giant bird, and further took on the complication that she would tame the creature's young. The rowers of the Cú Chulainn were armed with swords from the corpses.

Session Four

Thursday Spring 4, 754
 
Tendency captained the Cú Chulainn, taking it to the town of Dorbog in order to sell the group's captured treasure. Orm, Aiofe and Grimhild sailed the MacCumhail further upstream the river. At night, they hunted herds of deer, succesfully securing more food for the ship. Grimhild made a boast that she could throw a javelin and have it fly straight through a deer's body, a boast that was not fulfilled. While hunting, the group discovered a stone ruin, with a giant creature looming over it, which they could not make out the details of in the dark.

Friday Spring 5, 754
 
Orm, Aiofe and Grimhild investigated the stone ruin. The giant creature was a Juggernaut, with a giant stone-and-bramble body, four stone legs and two orange eyes. It was taller than all the buildings around it, and was standing still. It was proved to be responsive when Aiofe threw a pebble past it and it turned it's head to look. The group snuck into the city from the opposite end than the Juggernaut was facing, and started searching through buildings, finding some coins and baubles. Orm climbed on top of a building in order to see the layout of the city, noticing a temple at the very center of it. The group moved slowly towards the Temple, scrounging more baubles and coins along the way. They encountered groups of childlike creatures (goblins). The goblins were mostly disinterested in them, but when approached seemed to have some interest in their backpacks. Orm and Grimhild fed some rations to the first group of goblins they encountered, leading some of the goblins to follow the group. As they came close to the central temple, they discovered marble statues, first of goblins, and then of terrified human warriors. The temple itself was intact, but looked like it had been deliberately deconsecrated and defaced.

Most of the goblins that were following them left when they came across the statues, but a few remained. Grimhild offered one of the goblins a torch, which it greedily accepted. The torch was lit alight and food was thrown into the temple, causing the goblin to run inside. The goblin made noises as it ran inside but then the noises abruptly stopped. Grimhild watched what happened inside the temple, and was turned to marble. Aoife and Orm fled the city with the marble statue of Grimhild. They did not encounter any of the goblins on their way out. They attempted to restore Grimhild's life by dipping the statue of her in running water, to no avail. They tied the statue to the front of their ship. A possible scheme was hatched of describing the statue as being the petrified corpse of the fictional "Saint Ondheim" they had invented on Spring 1.
 
A moment of silence was had for Grimhild, and her player created a new character: Hippolyta, a grave defiler literate in Latin. Hippolyta started play with incomplete knowledge of the Yew Ward.
 
 

Session Four

Saturday Spring 6, 754
 
Tendency sold the candelabra and tin ingots to some rando in Dorbog. The crew sailed down river and around the island of Ruislip, seeing an island to the south with a dome of earth.
 
Sunday Spring 7, 754 
They reached the village of Killucan where they met the rambling Ultán and heard of his plan to become one of the gargoyles. They had a meal in the house of Ciamhnait, a widowed mother who told them that Ultán had been in his current state for a week, after she had spurned his advances. They went up the river, and saw the gargoyles. The crew poured water on the gargoyles, and Ultán began the process of gargoyling himself, only to ultimately decide that he would rather be a rower on the ship, after a trumped-up sales pitch from our adventuers, who had been dealing with a labour shortage due to managing two ships (they also hired some people in Dorbog). Further up-river, they found a wolfhound, who they decided not to adopt. Even further up-river, in a marsh, our crew found a fortified tower, leaning on an unsteady foundation. They knocked on the door multiple times, only to be met with a javelin, which seemed to be aimed at Orm, but missed. They retreated into a nearby woods, and right after the sunset they saw a group of what looked like large, hulking men leaving the tower. 

Session Five

Monday Spring 8, 754
Hippolyta and Orm aboard the MacCumhail sailed downstream to the sea, back past Killucan. They then sailed North along the coast, seeing the town of Blulach and then a field of ancient barrows. Further North still, they came to a small cove, wear they were greated by Niamh, leader of a crew of pirates. They ate a fish lunch with Niamh's crew while speaking to her about her recent raids. She was cagey on details, but stated that Albann had more oppurtunities for raiding than Ruislip, and told them of the town of Guthram, ruled by a pirate-queen. 

Tuesday Spring 9, 754
The two sailed further North still, the crew came to the small fishing village of Cloyne, and met the 'mayor' Beyf. Beyf told them that there was a Griffon somewhere further North, and that many in the town ignored his authority to instead consult with a nearby druid.

Wednesday Spring 10, 754
Hippolyta and Orm pay a local to tell them about the nearby druid, and later to take them to the druid's lair.  The local leaves them in a ravine with a cave. Hippolyta found an animal charm carved from bone near the entrance of the cave. Eventually the druid arrived, apparently angry at the two tresspassers. The druid raised an almost-clawlike hand and chased the two out of the ravine, but did not pursue them further.

Session Six

Thursday Spring 9, 754
Hippolyta and Aoife ask Beyf if there's anyone in the town who can read the druid-signs. He tells them that most people who read the signs end up leaving the town to be druids themselves, but there is one child he knows of who can read the signs but has not left the town yet. They meet the parents of the child, but fail to convince them to let them speak to their child. They wait for the adults of Cloyne to go out fishing and then come by the child while he is tending to livestock. They lure the boy out by convincing him that they are Aiofe's donkey, named Bucket, is a traveling attraction. They ask the boy about the druid's powers, and they tell them that he turns invisible to ambush people, but that that when moving unseen he can still be noticed by animals. They take the boy to near the druid's lair and ask him if he can find any signs. He sees two broken twigs surrounded by blood, and tells them that it means that two intruders have come to the druid's lair. They return him home before his parents get back.

Session Seven

Friday Spring 10, 754
Hippolyta, Aoife and Tendency go to investigate the druid to determine if the druid is in fact in league with the Devil. Hippolyta kept her distance from the lair. Tendency pretended that she fell over and needed help. When the druid arrived, they lifted up Tendency and put her back on her feet. Tendency and Aoife say they're very thankful. They try to sway the druid, but the druid only growls and gestures for them to grow away. When Aoife asks the druid about Jesus, the druid prepares to attack, and Aoife boasts that she will kill the druid. The three adventurers quickly defeat the druid, and conduct a christian burial. Aoife looks through the druid's cave and finds some treasure, buried under accumulated shit. The group resolves to go to Cumblewarden, to distance themselves from the druid they murdered and to get closer to the griffon, which Tendency had sworn to adopt the chicks of.

Monday, May 2, 2022

Nasty Little Freaks - Character Generation

Nasty Little Freaks is a tabletop adventuring game about strange creatures that may resembles goblins, devils, dwarves, kobolds, gnomes, trolls, or feral children, who talk, walk, scheme, bicker, dream and get themselves into all sorts of trouble.

 

I'm working on an ashcan edition for this concept so I can play test it with some friends some time and go on from there. 

 

Here's the character creation rules for the game. Later I'll post an adventure and maybe the core game play rules (for now, you can just plug this into Risus or whatever else).

 

If you read this and have thoughts, or especially if you try playing with  it yourself, feel more than welcome to let me know your feedback :-)

 

 Making A Nasty Little Freak

  1. Roll 1d6 for each of your starting traits: Nasty, Little, and Freak.
  2. Roll 1d6 for you starting value in your three funds: Coins, Hearts, and Stars.
  3. Roll a random d20 starting gear package.
  4. Roll a random d20 quirk.
  5. Flesh out your character slightly with a name, gender, looks, etc. 

 

Traits

Different monsters and NPCs have different Traits. Traits are always ranked from 1 to 6.

 

A dragon's traits might be: Big (6) Flying (4) Fire-Breathing (5) Lizard (3)

A knight's traits might be: Gallant (3) Holy (2) Warrior (4)

A random peasant might just be: Peasant (2)

and so forth

 

PCs start with three traits:

  • Nasty: Use to do tough or mean things, like chewing through rope, swinging hammers at robotic crabs, or hissing and growling at the townsfolk.
  • Little: Use to do cunning or sneaky things, like hiding in old piles of laundry, squeezing through small cracks, or disguising yourself as a lost child. 
  • Freak: Use to do sorcerous things, like stirring up foul concoctions, weaving charms from stolen spellbooks, or striking bargains with Evil Himself.

Nasty Little Freaks that prove their uniqueness can earn a fourth trait.


 Funds 

 Funds are how the game tracks different abstracted qualities that fluctuate over time. Each Fund cannot go below 0 or above 12. You start with however much of each Fund, but from there they'll just come and go. Your starting quantity is in no way a maximum or a default level for your character, it's just how they start off.

  • Coins: Spend Coins to buy stuff, bribe people, etc.  Get Coins by pick-pocketing people, digging up buried treasure, selling your old knick-knacks, etc. (Each Coin represents a decent sum of money: enough to cover one decent purchase).
  • Hearts: Spend Hearts to brush off an attacks that would otherwise injure or incapacitate you. Get Hearts through strange health tonics, mighty feasts, sharing stories around a campfire, or elsewise boosting your health or spirits.
  • Stars: Spend a Star to reroll the dice, or, at the right moment, do something wondrous. Get a Star by leaving the proper offering at a shrine, solving a fairy riddle, drinking from an enchanted fountain (risky), or by elsewise obeying whimsical superstition.

(There is a secret fourth fund: Wishes. Everyone always starts with zero, and cannot ever hold on to more than three at a time. Spend a Wish to spin reality to your word. Get a Wish by saving a god’s life, or else by kidnapping one and holding them for ransom)

 

 d20 Starting Gear Packages

 

  1. Futuristic helmet, ray gun, high-tech bag of tricks*

  2. Colourful outfit, juggling balls, talking monkey, bag of tricks*

  3. Black dress, pointed hat, broomstick, cauldron of weird soup   

  4. Chef’s hat, butcher’s knife, shaker of “super-spice”, can of mystery meat

  5. Barrel of ale, funnel, set of drinking horns, three throwing axes

  6. Inverness cape, dashing cap, spyglass, pistol, smoking pipe, tobacco pouch, opium pouch

  7. Chisel, wood block, painting set, an almost-finished set of infinite nestling dolls

  8. Pyjamas, night cap, candle in candle holder, teddy bear, blanket

  9. Garish leaf-print shirt, disposable camera, map of nearby landmarks

  10. Edgy clothes, dagger, vial of poison, lock picks

  11. Frilly garb, rapier, perfume, hand fan, scraps of paper with gossipy scribbles

  12. White shawl, loaf of bread, dead fish, goblet of wine, draft of a new scripture

  13. Medical scrubs, stethoscope sewing kit, box of spare organs

  14. Scary mask, bag of treats, bag of tricks*

  15. Groovy outfit, portable disco ball, set of wind-up music boxes

  16. Flameproof vest, red helmet, fire hydrant, hatchet

  17. Tweed jacket, spectacles, vial of poison, weighty tome of gobbledy-gook 

  18. Red-and-white robe, reindeer steed, sack of presents, rabid “elf” helper

  19. Altar robes, studded mace, cheap prayer book, insense, dubiously holy water

  20. Captain’s hat, The Talking Stick™


*To pull out a nifty knick-knack or gizmo, say what you want and roll a d6. On a 6, you pull out just what you wanted. On any other result you pull out something else, as described by the First Amongst Fools - the higher the number, the closer it is to what you wanted. Once you’ve gotten two sixes, the bag’s all out of tricks.

d20 Quirks

 

  1. You’re a secret agent sent by Evil Himself.

  2. You can talk with rats, worms, and certain bugs.

  3. You have been nicknamed Stinky, and for a reason.

  4. You have the first signs of a nutmeg addiction.

  5. You have an actual human baby in your care.

  6. You have a habit of hissing at and recoiling from the sun.

  7. You enjoy setting things on fire a disconcerting amount.

  8. Your spit works surprisingly well as a makeshift glue.

  9. You have an old flame in every port.

  10. You are the prime suspect for the assasination of the Queen.

  11. You have caught the cruel affection of an exiled fairy prince.

  12. You’re very good at pretending to know how to read.

  13. Your are biomagnetic, although the intensity fluctuates unpredictably.

  14. You befriended the Wisest Fish In All The Seas, but then he swam away.

  15. You can climb up walls, but not back down again.

  16. You can lick your own elbows.

  17. You are in crushing debt to the King of Badgers.

  18. Unbeknownst to you, you are the one and only rightful heir to the throne.

  19. You’ve fallen in love with a donkey, due to some fairy magic gone haywire.

  20. You can hold your breath for a very long time, but only if your head is upside down.

  

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

An Ur-RPG

This is a game for two people. It's a little like a text adventure, or one of those choose-your-own-adventure books you read as a kid. It's about imagining a person in a situation, and exploring different ways that same situation could turn out depending on what the person does. It's played through conversation: face-to-face, over a phone call, through twitter/tumblr/instagram/discord messages, whatever. Here's how you do it:

  1. Pick who's gonna control the Character, and who's gonna control the Situation. If you can't decide, flip a coin or something.
  2. The Character player thinks a little about what kinda person they might wanna play. Then they give a brief description. Here's some examples:
    - I'm a space pirate, with an eyepatch, and a raygun!
    - I'm a teenage witch. Frizzy hair, stolen spellbook, too ambitious for her own good.
    - I'm a divorced dad in his mid - 40's who's secretly a radioactive mutant psychic.
    - Uhhh, a guy? With a sword?
  3. The Situation player thinks a little about what kinda problem they'd like to see the character face. The situation should be precarious, with many possible ways of turning out badly. Here's some examples:
    - An Imperial Space Force ship looms above. It sends a message through your communication screen, threatening to open fire if you don't turn yourself over now.
    - You're missing the key ingredient to your spell. Eye of newt, or something. Yeah anyway it's in the middle of like a weird maze filled with weird little magic fuckers. Like in Labyrinth.
    - Your ex-wife, a notorious supervillain, calls you from her evil lair. "World domination isn't working out" She says, "Wanna pay me a visit - for old times sake? I've got half a bottle of wine and a DVD box set of some trashy soap opera. I just want to talk to you again - face-to-face."  
    - A big scary monster's been tearing apart the local town, and you gotta sneak into it's cave and kill it before it kills anyone else.
  4. The Character players says what the first thing they do is.
  5. The Situation player says what happens because of that. This will end either with "The End" (if the Character has solved the problem they started with, or if they are now unable of solving it from here, for example if they died), or more often, "what do you do next?"
  6. Now it's the Character player's turn to speak again. If the Situation character asked what they do next, they answer that question, and describe their Character's next action, repeating step 4, from which point play keeps repeating in a loop until you come to an end. If the Situation player declared an End, they can either accept that as end to the story and the game, or try again. If they try again, they pick up the story at any established point of their choice and say "but instead of ____, I do ____". The Scenario player describes how the different action leads to a different result, again restarting the loop of play.
That's it! Hope it made sense. I feel like that last step might of been a bit wordy and messy, but I'm not gonna edit it right now, so I hope you figured it out somehow. :shrug emoticon:

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Ill-Advised Escapades: Generating a Random Shipwreck

Take a standard rpg dice set (a d4, a d6, a d8, a d10, a d12, a d20 and percentile dice), roll 'em, reroll some of 'em, and consult these charts to generate your very own shipwreck!

(Tables listed in descending size of dice, not based off content)

Name (d%)

  1. The Grinning Pussycat
  2. The Handsome Devil
  3. Destiny's Blade
  4. The Coiled Serpent 
  5. God's Corpse
  6. The Vanquisher
  7. Ascendence 
  8. Veilpeircer
  9. Windchaser 
  10. The Mesmeriser 
  11. Queen of Hearts 
  12. Ace of Spades 
  13. Jack of Diomands 
  14. King of Clubs 
  15. The Waking Nightmare 
  16. Vengeance 
  17. Webspinner 
  18. Eclipse. 
  19. Hegemony. 
  20. The Liberator. 
  21. Lillith's Bride. 
  22. Vessel #37-12-Alpha 
  23. Nitrogen Shield
  24. The Fall of Eden 
  25. Oxygen Sword
  26. Neon Nightmare
  27. Rivals' Embrace 
  28. Man's Folly   
  29. The Reaper's Scythe 
  30. Apisaon 
  31. Echoing Scream 
  32. Demeter 
  33.  Shai
  34.  Budeia
  35.  Persephone
  36. Chloris 
  37. The Dionysian Rite 
  38.  Hedjhotep
  39.  Wepset
  40.  Shemsetet
  41.  The Scent of Nectar
  42. Young Acolyte 
  43. Arceophon 
  44. The Walled Garden 
  45. The Fallen Age 
  46. The Shadowy Mist 
  47. Clytus 
  48. The Flaming Thornbush 
  49. Heavens Above 
  50. Speak of the Devil 
  51. The Last Straw 
  52. Bird in the Hand 
  53. Insult to Injury 
  54. The Silver Lining 
  55. The Wild Goose 
  56.  Live and Learn
  57. Thin Ice
  58. Devil's Advocate
  59. Rain or Shine 
  60. Enlil 
  61. Nanna-Suen
  62. Nergal 
  63. Dumuzid 
  64. Down in Flames
  65. Eye of the Storm 
  66. The Conflagation
  67. Mother of Monsters 
  68. The Synaptic Burst
  69. Cognitive Overload 
  70. Ship of Theseus 
  71. Uncertain Pilgrim 
  72. Cunning Merchant 
  73. Kind Thief
  74. Devil's Pitchfork
  75. Eye of the Needle 
  76. Hell and Back 
  77. The Endless Staircase
  78. The Organ Player 
  79. The Spinning Dancer 
  80. The Maddened Oracle 
  81. The Drowning Maiden 
  82. Hybrid Image 
  83. Aeternitas 
  84.  The Golden Apple
  85.  Aera Cura
  86. Ad astra per aspera 
  87. Discordia 
  88. Dulce periculum
  89. Dia Lucrii 
  90. Audentes fortuna iuvat
  91. Fama
  92. Ducor duco 
  93. Mutinus Mutunus 
  94. Infantes Sumus 
  95. Naenia 
  96. Slayer of Dragons 
  97. Poena
  98. Madame Unbreakable 
  99. Prorsa Postverta
  100. Good Fortune 
Look (d20)
  1. Spartan & Sparse
  2. Dusty & Dank
  3. Rusted & Ragged
  4. Sleek & Stylish 
  5. Cozy & Comforting 
  6. Ornate & Ornamented 
  7. Lush & Luxurious 
  8. Regal & Rococo 
  9. Cramp & Crystalline 
  10. Slimy & Slippery 
  11. Pristince & Prismatic 
  12. Cluttered & Chaotic 
  13. Overylit & Orderly 
  14. Tacky & Tasteless 
  15. Weathered & Worn 
  16. Robust & Repaired 
  17. Artificial & Automated 
  18. Cold & Colourless 
  19. Noisy & Noisome 
  20. roll two: it's both.
Dangers in the Wreck (d12, use a d4 to determine the total number of dangers)
  1. A rival team of wreck robbers.
  2. A tentacled mass and it's spawn.
  3. The security system gone haywire.
  4. Mutated crew.
  5. The ship's rogue AI.
  6. The ship collapsing around the players.
  7. The horrible creations wrought by the horrific experiments that were secretly conducted on the ship. 
  8. A mind-warping oddity. 
  9.  The ship's set to self-destruct! (use a ticking clock mechanic to taunt and torture the players.)
  10.  A corrosive gas leaking from the engine.
  11. An interdimensional rift torn in the middle of the ship.
  12. A surveillance system streaming footage to governmental databases.
The Ship Was Wrecked After Falling Prey to... (d10)
  1. Space locusts.
  2. Pirates/raiders. 
  3. Alien parasites. 
  4. Meteors. 
  5. Sabotage. 
  6. A fatal flaw in it's design. 
  7. Running out of fuel. 
  8. Crashing into another ship (roll up a second shipwreck) 
  9. Navigational discombobulation. 
  10. Fall twice: it was both.
Loot (d8)
  1. Trapped survivors from wealthy families.
  2. Stock commodities
  3. Illicit substances. 
  4. Fine art. 
  5. Information/data. 
  6. Experimental technology. 
  7. Weird.
  8. Roll twice: it's both.
Official Purpose (d6)
  1. Recreation.
  2. Cargo delivery. 
  3. Exploration.
  4. Prison ship. 
  5. Private transportation. 
  6. Unstated.

Friday, May 1, 2020

Ill-Advised Escapades on the Outer Solar System - pitch

Below is the text of the pitch document I sent out to my friends for a dungeon-style science fiction campaign I plan on running next year called Ill-Advised Escapades on the Outer Solar System (or just Ill-Advised Escapades if you don't have a lot of time).

I took the idea of a pitch document from the Angry GM, and the idea of a small set of basic principles that govern how the game is played from the wikipedia page for the Tales from the Loop rpg.

---------- Setting Information ----------

Aliens, Humans and Robots.
Most of the characters you will play and encounter will be humans, but there are two other kinds: robots built and rejected by the inner solar system and aliens from beyond the solar system.
Most of the Aliens in the outer solar system come to the system sol seeking refuge from the terrible wars raging across the galaxy. The system sol is neutral in these conflicts, making it a relatively safe haven. Migration to the wealthier planets of the inner solar systems is strictly regulated, leaving large populations of alien refugees trapped in the outer solar system.
Robots are built in the inner solar system with limited cognitive functions, but occasionally something will go wrong and one will be built with full self-consciousness and an inner life. Various local and inter-planetary laws forbid or prohibitively regulate the enslavement or murder of concious beings, so instead of using or recycling these rejects, they ship them off to the outer solar system to fend for themselves.

Floating Wrecks
It is only natural, given both how many vessels travel in and out of the solar system, and how many raiders, meteorites, space locusts, mind-warping oddities, and other various hazards, that there are a whole lot of shipwrecks in these parts. Many of them are laden with trade goods, trapped survivors, and other miscellanea exchangeable for credits. Some of them have rare and experimental technologies, which can also be exchanged for credits, or used to your own advantage. If there’s a decent living to be made here, it’s in the wrecks.

Weird Crystals
As well as advanced tech and credits, there’s another treasure that lies in some of these wrecks: a semi-liquid, semi-crystalline substance known to the scraps and scoundrels of the outer solar system as Weird. Those who ingest it in small qualities manifest strange powers and develop mutations. Nobody knows what happens when you ingest large qualities of it.


---------- Principles ----------

Life Is Cheap
Life on the outer solar system is nasty, brutish and short. You start play as scraps, 0th level characters with low stats, not many hit points and hardly any gear. Even as you level up, play stays dangerous and death a very real possibility. The game is rigged against you, and it will take cunning and luck to win. Character generation is quick and mostly randomised, so it’ll never take too long to get back into play.

The Law is Powerless at Best, Evil at Worst.
Unlike the heavily governed inner solar system, in the outer solar system, the law is little more than a rumour. Predatory debt collectors and corporations keep everyone in constant competition, preventing co-operation or organisation by the people of the outer planets from happening on any large scale. When the governments of the inner solar systems do get involved, it is never for the better. Those shiny white vessels drift forth towards us not to protect or serve us, but to enforce corporate interests, find minor offenders to convict to indentured servitude, break up bars or demand tribute.

Science Doesn’t Really Matter
Importance is not placed on how different tech actually works, how different alien species came to be, or other such concerns. Some elements of this campaign may contradict how things would actually work. It’s a pulp sci-fi comic or a bad 80’s flick set in space, not a hard science fiction novel. Once established, rules about how things work will be logically upheld, but any resemblance to actual science living or dead is purely coincidental.

The World is Discovered Through Play
Beyond the basic information laid out in this document, and the implicit assumptions of the rules, the setting is a blank map waiting to be filled. Not just you, put I - the GM - will be discovering things as we go along. The vast majority of information of the setting will be decided about me or by random tables. Collaborative worldbuilding is great, and we might do a little of it, but for this campaign, we won’t be doing as much of it, to put a further emphasis on discovery and exploration.

The Game is Played Adventure to Adventure
Any storylines greater than a single wreck will emerge through play. I’ll prepare sessions in advance, but not a whole campaign. You’ll find plot hooks, hear rumours, encounter signs of bigger plots going on, and at the end of every session I’ll ask “what do you think you’ll do next session?” and prepare for that.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Forests of the Forgotten - Random Encounters


d20 Random Encounters in the Forests of the Forgotten
  1. A tall woman dressed in feathers with a silver mask. She has a bag full of vials of water dyed different colours that she tricks people into thinking are potions so she can sell them.
  2. A fox wearing a hat. Due to faerie magic that's been woven into the fabric of the hat, he appears to most people as a handsome young man. He charms lone travellers and lures them into his den  so he can eat them. Wearing the hat as a human makes you look like a handsome young fox.
  3. A travelling folk band of 1d6+2 skeletons. Their melodies are at once comforting yet sinister.
  4. A talking cat. At first wary of the pilgrims, but warms up quickly when offered food, petting or especially catnip.
  5. A determined yet ineffectual matchmaker, comforting their lovelorn friend. The matchmaker will attempt to set their friend up with at least one of the pilgrims.
  6. A devil from the pits of hell, looking for a soul to steal.
  7. A group of lost travellers gathered around a campfire, telling stories from long, long ago. If approached, they will insist you sit with them and share your own stories.
  8. A bored faerie, looking for some humans to meddle with.
  9. 1d3+1 trolls caught in a furious argument over the best way to prepare and eat human flesh.
  10. A magic fountain. Drinking from it will trigger a roll on the below table. Tossing a coin in before you drink allows you to roll twice and choose the better result.
    1d6 Fountain Effects
    1. You turn into a newt, insect, mouse or other small animal of the GM's choosing.
    2. You fall into a deep, deep sleep.
    3. You begin to see things that aren't really there.
    4. You learn a new language of the GM's choosing.
    5. The fountain gives you a gift - perhaps a sack of coins from a far-off land or a salve that soothes the heart's pain. It floats to the top of the water.
    6. The fountain tells you a secret, whispering it from inside of you.
  11. An old man carrying a strange metal implement. The implement is an eyeball plucker. The old man seeks to steal the Pilgrim's eyeballs and sell them to a necromancer.
  12. A lost child who wandered off into the woods and ended up in the Forests of the Forgotten.
  13. Vines that tangle around one of the Pilgrims and begin to drag them into a dark pit in the ground.
  14.  A merchant with a wagon selling a variety of strange items she's found at the bottom of lakes.
  15. A talking snake carrying papers in its teeth, who will try to get the Pilgrims to sign a contract.
  16. A bumbling detective on the case for a missing pair of silk slippers.
  17. Spirits that take the form of floating orbs of light, seeking to draw the Pilgrims deeper into a dangerous part of the Forests. 
  18. A talking swarm of bees gathered around it's hive. (Note: it is the swarm itself that talks, not any of the individual bees) The swarm is good-natured and very polite and will offer some of it's fine honey in return for rare flowers.
  19. A family of rabbits gathered around for a picnic, complete with a wickerwork basket, blanket,  watercress sandwiches and toffee. Note: they are normal rabbits and as of such cannot talk, at least not in any human language.
  20. A twelve year old child with a sharpened stick and telescope pretending to be an Intrepid Adventurer. The child's pockets contain a pocketknife, crude map of the surrounding woods, a pack of playing cards with 2d6 cards missing, a broken pencil, a lucky copper coin, five pieces of toffee and and 1d8+4 marbles.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Forests of the Forgotten - Abandoned Towers.

Any pilgrim who wanders long enough through the Forests of the Forgotten is sure to sooner or later find themselves before one of the many abandoned towers that litter those woods.

When your group of lost pilgrims encounters one of these towers, you can roll on the below tables or decide on your own answers to flesh out the details of what the tower looks like.

The tower was originally... (roll 1d12)
1. A watchtower to keep a lookout for roving bandits and invading armies from.
2. A temple to a god who is now long forgotten.
3. A folly, a decorative building built as a way to give workless labourers something to do.
4. A place for gliding scouts to jump off from.
5. A granary, with special charms to keep out thieves and vermin.
6. A sanctuary for weary travelers.
7. A fortress for a warrior-king and his subjects.
8. A prison to keep particularly heinous or devious criminals.
9. An attempt to build a spire high enough to touch the heavens, abandoned long before completion.
10. A library that scholars from across the lands could borrow books from.
11. A thieves' den, filled to the brim with stolen loot.
12. A magnificent home for a powerful and wealthy merchant.

It is built of... (roll 1d20)
1. Polished stone which still gleams under moonlight.
2. Living wood, sturdy and strong and still growing over time.
3. Multicoloured crystal, created through long-lost alchemical methods.
4. Hundreds and hundreds of human skulls.
5. Pure chaos, imported all the way from the underworld.
6. The exact same stuff dreams are made of.
7. Dull, half-rusted metal, cold to the touch.
8. Row upon row of bricks.
9. Ice which stays frozen in even the most blazing of heat.
10. Withering flesh.
11. Interlocking brightly-painted statues.
12. Rose-tinted glass.
13. Broken promises.
14. The shared hallucination of everyone who claims to see it.
15. Mud that's been hardened by the heat of the sun.
16. Countless interwoven threads.
17. Precious metals and rare gems.
18. Clouds that were given weight and taken down to the ground.
19. Interlocking cogs and gears, moving around, serving no clear purpose.
20. Coins from many worlds, stuck together to form walls.

Is it inhabited? (roll 1d6)
1. No.
2-4. Yes, roll once on inhabitants table.
5. Yes, roll twice on inhabitants table.
6. Yes, roll three times on inhabitants table.

1d20 Tower Inhabitants
1. A family of talking birds.
2. An eccentric old hermit.
3. A kindly witch, content to spend her days growing her little garden and only occasionally eating children.
4. A disgraced faerie prince.
5. A king who got lost in the woods.
5. Spirits of melancholy and despair.
6. A swarm of bats.
7. A charming noble, most definitely not a vampire.
8. Not just a family of rats, but a whole clan.
9. Otherworldly versions of the pilgrims.
10. A group of children who seem to share one mind.
11. A mystery cult who have turned the tower into a temple to their deity.
12. A traveling circus.
13. An up-and-coming detective company.
14. A young alchemist, still learning her trade.
15. A band of highwaymen.
16. A sleeping child who's dreams leak into reality.
17. A necromancer, looking for some new bodies to work with.
18. A tinker, working away on some secretive project.
19. A lonely skeleton, looking for a friend.
20. A fortuneteller.