Half-formed thoughts and ill-fated projects, with an emphasis on old-school tabletop roleplaying games. Currently running: Luka Rejec's Ultraviolet Grassla...
In a remote village or a forsaken suburb, ethereal sitar music drifts from a peculiar house. Within, Sadtar Khan plucks at a Cursed Sitar, with which he has enslaved the locals. Rumours of sleep-walking bandits, or the rescue of a local warrior-poet, may lure heroes to explore this sinister studio! This little adventure was designed for the 2026 One-Page Dungeon Contest. This year's theme was…
After eight hours of hiking into the Swiss Alps, Rhodes was exhausted and excited. A week before, Rhodes made plans to meet with his old friend Silvio, who he hadn't seen in twelve years. They were to meet in a remote mountain pass, at the intersection of two alpine wanderwegs to swap stories and make up for lost time -- far away from the distractions of modern civilization. Despite their years…
Here are my house rules for Graham Walmsley's Cthulhu Dark , which provides a rules-lite alternative to Call of Cthulhu while distilling the essence of cosmic horror roleplaying. These rules are meant for more 'realistic' roleplaying where investigators become unmoored from human society rather than simply 'going insane'. Delta Green was a big inspiration here. Anchors & Insanity At character…
Here's my conversion of Snakes on the Plains for Cairn ! You can find this excellent adventure as part of Dungeon Age's 13 Weird One-shots . The Hook If the players aren't motivated by selfless heroism, give them a 5000gp debt to a powerful faction in the nearest city. This is a great way to get heroes in Cairn and similar levelless games to seek out treasure, inspired by Electric Bastionland.…
Some house rules for my Shadowdark games! Subject to change, of course. Character Creation & Death After rolling your six stats in order, you can swap two of them. Your character's appearance and personality is entirely up to you. When your character dies, your new character starts at the same level, but with their XP reset to 0. Treasure & Experience Treasures are worth 1xp for every 100gp of…
Rituals test one's force of will. The alignment of metaphysical forces through the use of objects, persons, cants, and trappings creates a vortex of waking lucidity among the witnesses involved, inducing an intense nausea -- like a dehydrated drunkenness that makes you feel utterly sick yet unable to find relief in expulsion. Witnesses driven to madness are those who become swallowed up in their…
I'm currently reading T. Kingfisher's Nettle & Bone . I'm only about halfway through, but I'm really enjoying it. Kingfisher uses a bold storytelling technique that I really like -- She draws out scenes of interpersonal drama or intense emotional experience, but she skips past scenes' worth (if not chapters' worth) of story content when it doesn't develop her main characters. Early in the book,…