Some call me jeph. ...
I've been diving a bit more into this map , angling specifically towards using it to run a Bookholm campaign. Enromous caveat: I am an Anglo gamer chud with no archaeological or historical background; what follows is a repository of my dungeoncrawling-focused deciphering of French government(?) data using a combination of google translate and my partner who studied GCSE french. It is not an…
They do not kill. It is as bad for business as the farmer who slaughters his milk-cow, and any thief with a reputation for leaving behind bodies and blood will find it hard to book gigs. The burglar's share of party XP for monsters slain is obliterated, made null and void. In addition, a burglar incurs XP debt( 100 * H D ) for every life she personally takes. At Level 6, she may form a…
Today I ran cliffcrawl v0.0 for the very first time at the Ancient Robot Workshop's monthly playtest night. Many thanks to the intrepid playtesters Fred, China, and George. scenario: Polynia For the scenario, I bashed together a quick concept based on the short story Polynia by China Mieville, in which icebergs appear in the sky over London. Some assorted quotes get the vibe across more concisely…
sometimes. . . . . postscriptum being a recount of the RPG modalities I have experienced, and the differing levels of experiential curation required of the GM therein. short pickup games I love running at my local game shop's RPG nights because I love the struggle. People often buy a ticket for the night without checking Discord to see what games are on. They just show up and get given a seat. I…
If you tell your players they're in a murder mystery, but the murder doesn't occur until halfway through the session, you're going to have some problems. I ran Slow Sleigh the other night and it could have gone better. Here's some thoughts. what? First, some facts. I had 6 players. I made all of them pick from the backgrounds supplied in the book. Players included my brother, who's played troika…
I thought it would be easy enough to bang out a random encounter procedure for Sky-faring in Troika! , but it has morphed into collections of tables for random barges, their crews, those crews' motivations, sky-beasts, their lairs and proclivities, various tables for loot, and et cetera. WHoops. In order to have something out for Tuesday I'm going to leave here the first segment of my D66 table…
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy drawing maps as much as you do, but there is a special joy to be found in adapting real world locations into gaming material. Often the peculiar geographies of the real world will outstrip your own imaginings. Herein are map generators and archives that I've used, plus a collection of real life locations I consider ripe for adaptation. tools and repositories An…
In a push to make my writing as efficient as possible, I have hobbled myself by editing my words before they get the chance to land on the page. I participated in another friendly short story competition at my partner's workplace, and decided it would be a good exercise to countermand my writer's block by writing in 'stream of consciousness' style, but sadly found the stream had dried. It was only…
This is Golden Barges based on the damage tables from Troika -- namely those for Small, Modest, Large, and Gigantic creatures. The main concept is that travel distance is rolled against this very table, but with 2d6 rather than 1. 1.0 bargewrights Barges come in 4 classes: small, modest, large, and gigantic. Barge Luck is determined as it is for PCs in Troika! Barge Stamina is 2d6 plus 6 for…
Soundtrack The Monks of Brink groan continuously. In my first days here I observed how they produce such deep, resonant vibrations. They spend a full minute to inhale before they harden their guts and purse their lips in unison. The resultant rattle of their chests and throats issues and rebounds throughout the high and lonely halls of dying Brink. As twelve begin, another twelve are halfway to…