Knock! Issue 3

Hey all! I'm a contributor to the OSR zine Knock! I wrote up 12 Sword Saint techniques specifically for your Fighter character!

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KNOCK! ISSUE 3

VANCIER MAGIC SYSTEM [B/X]

Quick post I’ve been thinking about lately. I recently read Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth after going down an Appendix N rabbit hole during the pandemic. I’ve always liked the Vancian casting system old d&d uses but reading the book really solidified my appreciation for it. Vancian casting just makes sense now. That being said I wanted to toy around with a system emulates the Dying Earth magic that’s still somewhat balanced for b/x-esque games.

Dying Earth Art by George Barr

Here’s what I’ve got jotted down so far:

BRAIN SLOTS (Name pending)

• A magic-user begins play with a number of Brain Slots equal to 1 + their Intelligence Modifier. Thus a magic-user must have a score of 9 or higher in order to hold and cast spells at all.
• Brains Slots represent a magic-users ability to hold the esoteric spells they find during their careers.
• On level up the magic-user may roll an Intelligence check (roll under INT) adding their level to the attempt to gain a new Brain Slot. This check represents the character’s natural talent, mental exercises and meditation they undergo to increase brain plasticity. The penalty represents the slump and hubris that comes with success.
• A human brain can only have a maximum of 10 Brain Slots. [My first instinct was max 6 brain slots since B/X spells only go up to level 6 but I liked the nice simple 10 that b/x uses a lot. Rounds, turns, ect]
  
  

SPELLS

• Spells are held in Spellbooks and must be prepared and contained in the Magic-User’s Brain Slots before they can be cast.
• Preparing spells to hold in Brain Slots takes 1+1 turn for each spell level above 2. This represents the caster "priming" the spell and performing the necessary chants and gestures before imprisoning it in their brain to cast when needed.
• Spells weigh a number of Brain Slots equal to their level. So a Third Level spell would take 3 Brain Slots to contain.
• Spells may also be found imprisoned on Scrolls and can be cast from them without utilizing Brain Slots.
• Spells can be transferred from scrolls to Spellbooks or Spellbook to Spellbook but comes with risks and costs.
  
  

NOTES

So using this system a 1st level magic-user with a 17 INT could prepare and cast a Fireball spell (3rd Level) but just that one spell. Or they could prepare and hold three 1st level spells.

One thing I'm really liking is that it's not guaranteed that a M-U gets a new brain slot each level. The most powerful magicians in the Dying Earth could only hold a few powerful spells. I think this system showcases that well. But let me know what you think, is this playable? What would you change to make it feel more Dying Earth?

That hat, goddamn. Yum.

Campaign Map Building 01

Land of Confusion Base Map

The above is the starting map I drew up a couple of hours before my session last week using Worldographer and this blogpost by Melan as a guide. 

I started the campaign off in Hex 0804 which houses the Fell Temple of the Baboon God. A basic dungeon I wrote up using the procedures found in Old School Essentials. The players returned to Hex 0905 at the end of the session which contains the starting town of Gillamore. In session two the players wanted the visit the Northern River Temple in Hex 0703, but got stuck in Hex 0904 where they encountered slavers (random encounter roll) who were on their way back to the City-State of Nostia in Hex 1107. They slaughtered the slavers, freed the slaves and claimed the slaver's treasure as their own. They once again returned to Gillamoor to carouse and hire new retainers. So two sessions so far and they've only been in 3 hexes, a little content goes a long way.

After my 2nd session I decided to fill out my map some more using the stocking method outlined in the simple Hex Guide I linked to earlier.

The guide says to roll 2d12 for 6-mile hexes for Ruins & Lair but I changed it to 3 to add a wildcard with Wonders & Vignettes.

HEX STOCKING METHOD
Roll 3d12 different color dice. On a "1" stock the hex as per the table below.

DICE 1--WONDER [Triangle] or VIGNETTE [Triangle w/ Circle]
DICE 2--RUINS [Square] or STRONGHOLD [Square w/ Circle]
DICE 3--LAIR [Circle] or SETTLEMENT [Circle w/ Circle]

You can roll a dice or just choose which content the hex has.

After rolling the above for each hex I ended up with the following map.

Was pretty surprised that HEXES 0305, 0905, & 1107 were hits considering they were already settlements so I decided 0305 would be the hidden lair of an Ancient Sorceress turned Demon, and 905 would be the lair (palace) of the Sorcerer King. Haven't decided what's in 0905 yet, first instinct is thieves' guild. At first I wasn't going to roll for the ocean portions but was surprised at all the hits I got. I think 1203 is for sure going to be Crap people. 

OH yeah before I forget to write it down, I based the map off my home town of Los Angeles. 

Orange hexes are Chaparral terrains.
Red are mountains.
Purple are wetlands.
Pink are Swamps.
Teal are Forests.
Brown are hills.
Green are grasslands.

But yeah, I'm having a great time keying this map and I can't wait for my next Land of Confusion session. I'll post my full Hex Map Key on the blog when I finish it. Thanks for reading!

Blog Update

Doing my monthly check-in. Still alive, LA is still a shit show. Working on my tentpole megadungeon AND a house-rule document. I'll probably throw out the document in a week or two, gonna be at least 20 pages of fun. That's it for now, see you later! Please get vaccinated!

The Berserker Armor [RIP Kentaro Miura]

The Berserker Armor [PLATE +1]
"May we run rampant with hatred and wild joy just to crush with these fangs the true light that burns us." – The Beast of Darkness

Those who don the Berserker armor experience the following:

• The armor circumvents their bodies natural limiters, allowing them to exude terrible strength and speed [STR & DEX become 18 in combat].
• Damage Reduction 1 as the armor allows the wearer to ignore the pain from injuries. 
• If an attack would reduce the wearer's HP to 0 or less, roll 1d8+1 and you gain that much temporary HP as the armor inserts metal rods to bind and mend the body to keep the wearer fighting. Each round afterwards you lose 1hp from blood loss and the armor's insertions, if the wearer's HP would become 0 due to the armor, the wearer dies.
• Once the wearer's HP has been reduced to 0 or less the armor's Berserker Rage activates; only melee attacks can be made and are rolled with advantage, all melee damage is doubled, and finally the armor begins to take the shape of a beast of the player's choice and the wearer can no longer differentiate between friend or foe, all within melee range are attacked. 
• The wearer may attempt to end the Berserker's Rage at anytime by making a CHA check, however doing so before combat ends costs 1 permanent point of Charisma. A pass means the Berserker Rage effect ends. A failure means you lose 1 permanent point of Charisma and become temporally consumed by The Beast of Darkness; i.e losing control off the character for a number of turns equal to your CHA score. Only a sleep spell or death will end the Beast's rampage.
• If the wearer's CHA becomes 0 the The Beast of Darkness consumes the wearer's mind and exerts control over the body permanently (becoming a NPC that seeks to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible).
• Once combat is over the wearer loses all temporary HP gained and their HP becomes 1 + CON MOD (min 1) and must rest for at least a turn before continuing with the adventure. After the current adventure ends the wearer must rest for a minimum number of days equal to their CON score.

[Referee Notes: To me the CHA score has always represented force of personality or "spirit/soul and seems a good sub for Berserk's Ode].

The passing of Berserk's creator Kentaro Miura was the first time that I felt a personal sense of loss for someone that wasn't family or friend. I started reading Berserk when I was 16, I'm turning 32 this year, literally half my life. I can say with no exaggeration that Berserk gave me my love of manga and dark fantasy. The above magic item is my small homage to Miura, thank you for everything, and rest in peace.

Megadungeon Dreams

Megadungeon like dis.

During the pandemic I've become obsessed with running a "traditional" vanilla d&d campaign. And one facet of that I've really wanted to try was creating a Megadungeon. I've journeyed down the blog rabbit-hole about megadungeons' (especially this page) and have started jotting down some of the things I would want to see in a google doc. Thought I should share some of what I have and maybe I'll even chronicle my megadungeon journey on my blog here, from inception to play. 

Megadungeon Slush Idea Pile [VERY ROUGH]

• "reverse skyscrapper shaped" The dungeon is modern-esque but still fantasy, maybe shaped like hive from the Resident Evil movie. Has rusted pipes and furnaces, very rusted ala Silent Hill's otherworld. Very Mythic Underworld and weird. 
• DRAGONS on random encounter roll “2”. [Stolen from Papers & Pencils blog]
• LOTS ‘o’ Undead.
• Dungeon Worshipers/Cultists
• Dungeon Gnomes: Repair’s the dungeon, made of clay & fueled by miasma
• Dungeon Fruit: Bestows dungeon blessing (see in dark, open stuck doors, etc) must make a save vs spells or become charmed by the dungeon. Cultivated by the Crass Clown.
• Dungeon Miasma
• Dungeon’s Curse: Those who die in the dungeon become an undead in 2d6 turns. A bless spell permanently prevents the corpse from rising.
• Rival Adventuring Parties [Alignment Matters]
• The Crass Clown serves as the dungeon’s custodian. The Crass Clown goes about the dungeon removing adventurer’s corpses, resets traps and places treasure. 6 hands, two of which (“hand-feet”) maneuvers the creaky unicycle that is his lower half. Wears the Crown of Gambles (Crown with d6 shaped gems), wields a Bubblegum Laser Gun (shoots bubble made of gum).
• Floor Demons [Bosses] that match level/section theme.
• Mad M-U’s.
• Hall Of Doors, Section with a ton of doors.
• Insect Level/section
• Comically large pile of shit with 2000 copper coins painted gold within
• Golems
• Mortician’s Hide-away. Resurrection possibility, worship God of Death.
• Gallery of Faces [That creepy face room from FF9] Can ask 1 question about the dungeon and the faces will answer truthfully. Requires tribute (a face?).
• Great Fairy Rooms [Huge weird naked woman ala Legend of Zelda].
• Madfolk/Vagrants [Upper floors only]
  
  

I'll probably come back and upgrade this went I have more ideas. 

Dungeon Idea & Blog Highlight

Heaven but it's a dungeon?

Holy smokes! April is almost over and I haven't posted jackshit. So much for once a week...

UPDATE
Anyways. Looks like I'll be able to start running games IRL soon again, my family and I were lucky enough to be to get fully vaccinated early-thank god.

As for the campaign prep; I keep drawing campaign maps and tossing them. I don't know why, they look cool but I just hate them for some reason. I think I might just go the minimalist route and grab a free dungeon off the internet and run a b/x (ose) campaign "off the cuff". What I'll probably end up doing is cram-prep like a day or 2 before the actual game date, as I usually do lol. 

BLOG HIGHLIGHT//DUNGEON IDEA
I found a blog called I Cast Light!  and really enjoyed their post about encumbrance and sins. Especially because a couple of years ago when I was deep into LotFP stuff I had a similar idea for a (mega?)dungeon set in heaven that utilized sins as encumbrance. The characters (17th century ruffians) would stumble upon a stair to Heaven during their travels, maybe after finding a mass grave or something. The floors of paradise would be made of stained glass and as the characters explore they naturally gain treasure and sins (literal encumbrance/weight of guilt) which causes the glass to crack beneath their feet. Too much treasure or sins and they fall through the glass to their doom. I might actually make this since I had forgotten about it until I read the blog I wrote about above.

What do you think? Dumb idea or great?

10 Hex Locations I

A lot of my IRL gaming group is starting to get vaccinated which means I really need to start prepping a sandbox to run OSE in. The following are some hexes I wrote up that I want to throw onto a campaign map. 1st in a series probably?

[I put the influences or where I straight up stole the idea from in brackets.]

1. Village of the Blessed: Village was struck with famine and starving until a prophet arrived with an endless supply of food, himself. The prophet is able to instantly regrow flesh daily. Accompanied by the “Sacred Butcher”. [Idea Stolen from Fire Punch]

2. Ancient Forgotten Town: Empty town haunted by a female ghost who dances herself to death every night from the tunes of a manic flute playing demon. Ghost will invite the party to uncle’s house to join in the merrymaking. Looks like a lively town at night (but strangely empty) but just ruins and foundations during the day. [Idea Stolen from Tales of the Dying Earth]

3. Dryad w/ Parasites: A weakened dryad asks for assistance to slay parasitic wasps that have infected this forest’s mother tree. Will offer a fruit from the Hidden Tree of Might, Increase STR to next highest + Modifier, or to a +1 Modifier. [Idea Stolen from Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter]

4. Red Lotus Field: A flooded plain tended to by the Carmine Monks who do not tolerate lotus thieves. The Lotus can be made into a very addictive drug that has proliferated in the closest city-state. At the center of the field is The Abbey of St. Padua.

5. Village of the Dog: Village that breeds war hounds and worships the Dog God. Will sell War Hounds (Base) for 150gp. 

6. Castle Al Pastor: Warlord Pastor is a name level Fighter who “retired” and built this castle. Has since been invaded by a trio of Devilswine who keep Pastor as the castle’s butler under a strong charm. Pastor will pay 5000gp and a pick of magic item from his treasury if the castle is reclaimed from the Devil Swine.

7. Shrine to Fell God: An ancient shrine carved into a large boulder dedicated to a forgotten god. 2-in-6 chance of 2d6+2 pilgrims worshiping. 

8. Necromancer’s Abode: A Necromancer’s keep, inside the walls is a vast beautiful garden tended to by undead. The Necromancer will pay well for Red Lotus stolen from the Carmine Monks.

9. Lost Amphitheater: Lair of the Undead Fight King, challenges those worthy to various fighting competitions. Winners gain the Fight King’s Favor (permanent +1 to attack and damage rolls). [Stolen from Adventure Time]

10. Cave of Shadows: Lair of 2d8+1 shadows. The shadows dance around a dead cleric’s skull that had continual light cast on it. The light is a dull eerie red.

TTRPG Bucket List

-Art Source-

Ah the old bucket list. While I'm not planning on dying anytime soon I did want to jot down some TTRPG Campaigns or one-shots I eventually want to run. Just in case. 

In order they are...

1. French Vanilla B/X campaign. I'm dying to run a basic d&d game using OSE and I want a homebrew campaign world that I'm actually willing to return to and set b/x games in.
   
   
2. Adventures In Space. I have yet to run some Sci-Fi in my gaming career and am itching to cross this one off the ol' list. I'm thinking Flash Gordon mixed with some Dai Dark. Using Mothership or maybe Traveler as the base rules.
   
   
3. A Supernatural Knock-Off. A campy/cheesy picaresque campaign modeled after one of my favorite monster-of-the-week shows Supernatural.
   
   
4. ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! As seen in Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Walking Dead, etc. I would want the game to start in media-res right at the beginning of the infection. 
   

I'll come back and update this post when I think of more stuff I want to run. 

LotFP & What Needs To Change

The Grindhouse Referee Book

I like Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP). So much so that once upon a time Raggi hired me to run his social media [1]. However the enthusiasm I had for the game has since died down to an ember but I still want it to do well. Trouble is Lamentations barely managed to crawl out of the abyss and it's still hanging precariously close to the edge. It needs an outstretched hand. And while I don't think Lamentations will ever reach the pinnacle of what it was, it can continue to put out quality products, like the DCC peeps. They just need to clear some stuff up and fix some things that need fixing.

So with all that said here's what I think needs to change for LotFP to survive in the current happy-fun-time landscape and maybe even thrive again. 

• Misinformation
  There is/was a whole cabal of publishers who threw fuel on LotFP's funeral pyre when the Zakpocalypse festered. LotFP once dominated the OSR scene and there was definitely some resentment. The fact that a edgy grimdark retro clone was raking in all the cash and snagging the big awards year after year really rubbed some jealous people the wrong way. This cabal continues to work behind the scenes and shit all over LotFP stuff wherever and whenever they can [2]. If LotFP wants to circumvent this at all, they need to rally the fanbase and denounce misinformation whenever it's seen. The outright lies I've witnessed, oh boy. I've have since given up doing this since I decided it wasn't worth the stress. Especially after that whole fanzine debacle [3].
  
  
• Controversies
  One of the reasons I got into LotFP was because it used to push people's buttons for the right reasons. Not because of an online difference of personalities or the disc horse that's popular nowadays but because books themselves were controversial. Better Than Any Man is one of my favorite rpg books of all time and was highly controversial at the time. Partly because it was a Free RPG day book that blew the other submissions out of the water and party because there's some really dark shit in there. Let's go back to that; the books are controversial, not people. 
  
  
• Da Rules

  While Raggi never thought the core rules were super important, I think they are. Look at OSE, people wanted a skeleton d&d system to fill the LotFP void and Necrotic Gnome filled it. If LotFP had the quality modern day layout OSE does I would continue to use it as my base system. It's time to upgrade Raggi, hire a fancy expensive layout person and clean up the rules a bit. Visual aesthetic and ease of use are king now. Remember you're competing with computers and books need to be as useful at the table as a phone.
  
  
• The New Referee Book
  This fucking thing. I vaguely remember hearing that it was going to be a huge book and mehhhh. Here's what you do instead. Get the old Grindhouse Ref book [4], get the old tutorial book slap them together and write a new foreword apologizing for not putting out a new ref book but it just ain't-gonna-happen. Then, add a shit load of random tables for the default 17th century that's "implied, add great new art, a new modern layout, mix them all together and put it in a beautiful hardcover leatherette book with a sweet title. BAM! New Ref book. Maybe add some material from the new draft as a appendix but not too much just the really good shit. I'd buy that.
  
  
• The Implied Setting
  I love the 17th century and the real world history. Most people don't. Look at the Mork Borg craze, people love that setting and it's literally just a map with like 5 thinly alluded to places. If you want to stick with the implied 17th century history setting you need a goddamn history book. A gameable one. Lay out out all the real world kingdoms and empires Game of Thrones styles with why they hate each other and why the century sucked to live in. Stat up famous NPCs like so and really do the history justice. OR make a generic map and just give the locations grimdark foreign sounding names [5]. 
  
  
• The Product
  Stop making books that are weird for the sake of being weird. For example, while I loved Big Puppet's premise I get the feeling it would be a pain to try and implement and explain. Back when I was running my LotFP campaigns what I really needed were A. The fucking history book I talked about earlier and B. decent dungeons. Where are all the goddamn dungeons? If I need treasure plundered from dangerous places on the fringes of society to level up classic d&d style where are they? Give me a entire book of short dungeons themed to 17th century history. A hidden dungeon under Stonehenge that houses alien mummies, an aztec temple with elite guardians that are trying to keep people out for their own safety. Fucking Scholomance a horror themed Hogwarts? Come on it writes itself. An ancient crumbling roman temple with secret sex crazed Aphrodite worshippers. MORE GOOD DUNGEONS, short ones and maybe one huge mega-dungeon. Fermentum is an ok start.
  
  
• New Blood
  This one is going to be probably the most difficult but LotFP needs more good writers, preferably with a following already. Reach out, give them bags of money if you have to. OR Raggi needs to write heavy hitters again like Death Frost Doom or Better Than Any Man. Btw where is that hardcover version of BTAM?
  
  
• EMBRACE AND FOSTER THE 3RD PARTY STUFF
  When someone makes something for your game it needs to be promoted to hell. That's what I tried to do when I ran the social media. People having enthusiasm for your game is key, again, look at the new players like Mork Borg and Necrotic Gnome. Huge support for their 3rd party stuff.
  
  

All these things (and more) need to be fixed before LotFP can stitch itself together and claw out of it's shallow grave. But what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my observations? Or let me know what you think LotFP needs to change. Let me know in the comments.

[1] Check out my dead blog if you want to read me whine and bitch about why I quit.

[2] I'm only a quarter serious. Most people just parroted the same bullshit a few loud ones vomited out.
[3] Yes, I'm still salty about that lol. 
[4] A fucking masterpiece DM's guide btw.
[5] Mork Borg is sweet, I'm just yanking their chain.

Raise Dead; Trials and Trepidations

A Failed Raise Dead Casting?

B/X's (OSE) spell Raise Dead is so strange to me. It's a spell that completely circumvents the biggest fear a character has in-game and makes death just an inconvenience, a speed bump. And yet I kind of like the idea of it existing but there has to be some consequences to it. Otherwise some rich merchant could theoretically buy some Raise Dead scrolls and be done with death. So here are some further rules and prerequisites I'm thinking off adding should someone gain access to the Raise Dead spell in my future hypothetical OSE campaign.

RAISE DEAD

CHANGES

• Raise Dead is no longer instant and instead takes minimum 1 hour to cast depending on the caster's customs and rituals.
• Range is changed from 120' to 5'. The caster must be in very close proximity to the body.
  
  

LIMITS

• Cannot bring back someone who died of advanced age.
• The spell will mend wounds but does not regrow lost limbs or such. Think Beric from GoT.
• The target cannot be an enemy of the caster's religion, god or alignment.
  
  

CONSEQUENCES

• The caster must make a save vs spells when Raise Dead is cast, this represents the caster's faith. A failure means the caster ages 1d10+2 years and this casting is unsuccessful. I might allow some bonuses if the caster prepared some fancy expensive incense burning and lamb offerings and such.
  
  

I'm also thinking about adding a monetary cost to each casting but might save that for NPC castings of the spell. 3-13 possible years of aging seems like a significant penalty to prevent spamming the spell.

Do you allow RAW Raise Dead in your b/x--OSE games or do you change it up? I'm curious so let me know in the comments! Would love to hear some Raise Dead stories too.

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 5

Find Week 4 here

WEEK 5: THE LARGER WORLD

Week 5 is all about filling out the campaign world by listing mysterious locales, deities, mythical treasures and more. Most of the tasks are dedicated to this but only require you to do three. I'll instead pick out the most interesting tasks to me and then that'll be pretty much it for my run of the Gygax 75 Challenge. It was really fun and got my mind off shitty pandemic life and Trumps shit attempt at a insurrection. I'm gonna keep working on this world and I'm probably gonna test run with my SO and child and hopefully with the old gaming group after the pandemic. I'll write up some session reports if/when I do. Anyways on to the tasks!

TASKS:

Develop a Pantheon and Powers
I want this campaign world to have numerous strange gods with each settlement having their own deities and religious practices. I have this vague idea of a Sun Worshiping Cult* in the beginning stages of becoming a global religion, maybe, if they can put down all the other rival cults. Then this Sun Cult is going around proselytizing and perhaps slaying (burning?) heretics and rival cults.

In my Week 4 I already started this practice by showing the great river spirit Undine and one of the blessings she bestows upon the town. Also want to throw in some Saints of various aspects, like a Saint for Murderers, Assassins and Eccentric Musicians called St. Emil. 

*Yawn, I know done to death BUT it's something that I want to try out.

Develop a Rival Adventuring Party or Mercenary Band
St. Emil's Regulars are a band of music hunters seeking out rare sheets for their god, The Red Musician. Their leader Ri-Kas is the 41st apostle of St. Emil and 5th level Cleric.

Create Events and Rumors from other lands the characters might hear. 

• The Praetorians have been seen in the mainland's coast ransacking villages and taking slaves.
• A red dragon has been rampaging and causing mayhem down south. 
• A red star fell from the sky and landed somewhere west near the village of  Piurn. Bad luck for them.
• The White Sun's Zenith approaches and the City State of Dis prepares it's grand festivals.

Create more major magical relics of the world and short history, including where they were last seen and who/what owned them.

• The Sinister Hymn of Fiends is a piece of sheet music written by a forgotten devil. Those who listen to it to completion and survive gain a fiend's strength. Last seen at the Monastery where St. Emil ascended to godhood. Some say Emil himself heard the Hymn and ascended but for other's this is blasphemy. 
• CHIME [As seen here] is a dwarven forged bident tuning fork used to slay Dragons. It's current rumored location is in the Tower of Ivory Stoops in the Praetorian Empire of Birdosa.
• The Seven Orbs of Zulan, basically a Dragon ball rip off. Have to find all seven orbs that are scattered all over the world to get a wish. 
  
  

And that's it! I'm super proud of myself for finishing this challenge and I hope any readers out there were as entertained as I was. Stick around as I go back and finish some of the extra credits and flesh out the campaign world even further.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 4

Find Week 3 here.

WEEK 4: TOWN FEATURES

The Town of Mun

Mun is a fast growing logging town located west along the river Galmere, south of the dreaded Devilwoods. The town recently had an economic boom when the newly founded LICOT LOGGING COMPANY arrived to begin harvesting lumber from the nearby forest. The town’s  population is around 800 and growing. Odam Licot [1], the owner of the Logging Company, is hiring adventuring types to clear out any ruins or monsters they come across while logging.

TASKS:

FIND OR SKETCH OUT A CITY/TOWN MAP

Draft Map of Mun

NAME SEVERAL SHOPS (LOOK AT EQUIPMENT LISTS):

• JAMAS’ GENERAL STORE [GENERAL GOODS]
• GODO’S [2] FURNACE [BLACKSMITH]
• THE GROTTO OF ILLICIT DELIGHTS [BROTHEL]
  
  

LOCATE & DESCRIBE EACH OF THE FOLLOWING IN A SHORT SENTENCE:

A Political Faction and it’s Rival

The Earl of Mun; Rewis Tane [3] is unnerved by the Lumber Companies growing influence in Mun. Tane wants the town to return to the “old ways'' and not disturb the evil Devilwoods. 

A place the characters could lose all their money

A secret gambling den is housed in the Grotto of Illicit Delights, the town’s brothel. Only after building a good relationship with Madam Frytha [4] will the characters be introduced to the gambling contacts. Hosts traditional gambling games but it’s signature is illegal Snail Racing. 

A place people gather to hear news or speak their mind

The town square has a bulletin board where the local’s share news, rumors and minor job requests. 

A Secretive Guild Hall and it’s reputation

Mun is home of a renowned esoteric guild of stonemasons known as The Order of the Titan’s Fist. The order built and maintains the town’s walls.

Best place to get food and a bed

Edmund’s Repose & Respite [TAVERN], owned by the grizzled retired adventurer Edmund Fontour [5]. Famous in town for his Special “Immortal Stew” (that has been stewing for 13 years, or so he says) and will pay good coin for rare meats like dragon flesh to throw in the pot.

A religious center and the god(s) to which it is devoted

The residents of Mun worship a great water spirit named Undine who resides in the nearby river. Her temple lies in the middle of the river and requires a boat to reach. An elegant fountain shrine to Undine is found at the center of the Town Square for more convenient worship. 

A feature unique to this town

The Violet Tide is a blessing by Undine where the water around the town turns a pronounced shade of violet on the last day of the month from dawn to dusk. During this time rare black carp appear for the townsfolk to catch, the carp are said to bring good luck if eaten [True] and also act as an aphrodisiac [False]. 

CREATE 5 NPCs, each with a D.N.A (Distinguishing Trait/Need/Agenda)

1. ODAM LICOT -- The owner and founder of Licot’s Logging Company (D). Unearthed dungeons and rampaging monsters keep delaying work in the local forest. Licot is looking for adventuring types to take care of these delays (N). Licot is attempting to amass enough wealth to forcibly take Mun and begin to build a new empire (A).
   
   
2. GODO -- A dwarf exiled from his homeland for committing a terrible blasphemy. Godo is able to forge magic items but does not make this known to anyone, save those who may aid him in reconciling with his past (D). Wishes to atone for his past mistakes but does not know how (N). Will continue to do mundane forging work as a personal penance (A).
   
   
3. REWIS TANE -- The Earl of Mun (D). Tane takes his duties as Earl very seriously but lately a seed of greed has planted after seeing Licot’s excess wealth thrown around town. Tane will hold onto his position of power by any means necessary (N). Tane has reached out to an assassin’s guild in Dis and begun negotiations to take out Licot (A).
   
   
4. MADAM FRYTHA -- Cursed by an old witch to retain a youthful appearance but experiences excruciating pain when touched (D) Wants to be free of the curse (N) Has begun attempting to court Licot in order to get enough funds to find and hire a Curse healer. (A)
   
   
5. EDMUND FONTOUR -- A heavily scarred, snow haired adventurer with a prosthetic hand and eye. (D). Loves to hear stories from active adventures and will offer a free meal for particularly good ones (N). Secretly wishes to go on one last adventure and die at the end (A). 
   
   

Find the final Week here.

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 3

 

Find Week 2 here. 

WEEK 3: THE DUNGEON

The Tasks:

TEMPLE OF THE SWINE GOD

• ENTRANCE: A descending stone tunnel carved to resemble a yawning boar.
  
  
• ROOMS BY LEVEL (Exits/Entrances):  11 (4),  10 (2),  8 (2)
  
  
• DUNGEON THEMES: WORSHIP x3 (LVL 1), CONSUMPTION x4 (LVL 2), HALLOWED x4 (LVL 3). Words with a [TX] mark indicate a theme budget used, where X is the dungeon level.
  
  
• 11 MONSTERS: Cultists, Berserkers, Wereboars, Druid, Boars, Pig-Faced Orcs, Stone Boar Guardians, Boar Skeletons, Giant Flies, Primordial Water Elemental, The Swine God.
  
  
• 4 FEATURES: Sun & Moon room allows the resident boars to sunbathe and the wereboars to transform under moonlight. The Bronze Boar steam cooks prisoners alive. The Primordial Hot Spring houses an ancient water elemental that cleanses the Swine God [T3], the water also has healing properties. The arena is used for entertainment and punishment.
  
  
• 3 WONDEROUS ITEMS:  The Boar-Helm of Brokkr allows the wearer to gain the smelling capability of a boar, thus increasing foraging and tracking chances, the longer the helm is used the worse their eyesight gets until eventual blindness. The Loom on lvl.3 can weave together the Swine God's bristles to make holy garments, boar disguises or armor. The Orc-Vats [T2] allow one to create hideous Pig-faced Orcs once the recipe is learned.
  

THE DUNGEON MAP

Last time I tried this challenge I was too obsessed with trying to make an actual playable dungeon right out the gate. Since the challenge only really tasks you with making an outline I decided to just do that to avoid feeling overwhelmed. And it helped! I am going to come back and do the extra credit when I'm done with the challenge though, since I really like how the dungeon's outline turned out. The outline lists only the "main attractions" of the dungeon. When I eventually do map it out it's gonna have a lot of empty "flavor rooms", hallways, dead ends, and treasure.

LVL 1

LEVEL 1
The first level is mainly used by the Swine Cultists to tend to the boars needs using rooms like the mud bath room [T1] and the Sun & Moon room [T1]. It's also used to lure would be looters and capture them for the orc-vats on the 2nd level or as training for the Berserkers and Orcs in the arena. Enemy skulls are mounted in the Trophy room to glorify grand battles won in the past. The Boar's feasting hall is where enemies are fed to the boars [T1].

LVL 2

LEVEL 2
The 2nd level is the basically the cult's living quarters and the theme is consumption. A variety of strange mushrooms are grown in the compost room [T2]  to be consumed by the warrior caste (rage inducing mushrooms) and the boars (truffles). The dungeon cells [T2] hold captured looters and rival cultists to be used in sacrificial rituals or by the resident M-U's growing pig-orcs. The Bronze Boar [T2] is used to slow steam roast a captive to be served to the Swine God. 

LVL 3

LEVEL 3
The third level is abode of the Swine God is considered holy ground. The sacrificial altar is used to appease an angry swine god [T3]. The Sacred Boar Graveyard [T3] is used to house the remains of especially esteemed boars and their remains will animate to attack intruders. The Primordial Hot Spring [T3] is as old as the god itself is used as holy water after the Swine God bath's in it.

All in all pretty basic but I'm looking forward to mapping the outline after the challenge and using it to run a vanilla dungeon delve.

Thanks for reading!

Find Week 4 here

B/X Visual & Audio Media

Art by Erol Otus

Since I've been getting into b/x stuff lately I've been hunting for more media (besides blogs) about the system, which surprisingly there isn't a lot of. Most of the stuff out there is just old reviews of the modules. So here are a few of the podcasts and YouTube videos I found to be entertaining and/or helpful for b/x (OSE).

Actual Plays:

• Snow & Smoke -- by Red Dice Diaries 
  
  
• Winter's Daughter -- by Bandit's Keep
  
  
• Tale of the Manticore [Solo Play] -- by The Manticore
  
  
• Tales of Mystara [Solo Play] -- by Solo Dungeon Crawler

Helpful Youtube Vids:

• Why B/X D&D? -- by IvanMike1968
  
  
• Creating an adventure Old-School Style with b/x D&D -- by Bandit's Keep
  
  
• Building a Hex Crawl -- by Bandit's Keep
  
  

• How OSE Creates Emergent Gameplay // Black-box Review -- by Lucille Blumire
  
  
• Old-School Essentials Black-box Review -- by Questing Beast
  
  

Bonus Fun Reads:

• B/X Misadventures: Fellowship of the Bling Volume I -- by Mailer
  A hilariously written b/x campaign report where the author runs his players through randomly generated dungeons only.
  
  
• Swords Against Chaos 01 (B/X Mystara) -- Age of Dusk
  Another campaign report. This one is mostly RAW b/x and very gritty, and at times very funny. 

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 2

Find Week 1 here.

Week 2: Surrounding Area (Campaign Map)

The Campaign Map

The Tasks:

• Get a sheet of Hex paper: The above map took 2 hours to draw using a packet of hex paper I bought just for this challenge. When I was satisfied with the map I scanned it to my computer and spent an additional 2 hours fumbling around with GIMP for the first time to write the names.
  
  
• One Settlement of a significant size: In red is The Port City of Dis, a coastal city ruled by a once grand magic-user turned sea devil.
  
  
• Two other settlements: We have the Grand Empire of Birdosa (in red), home to the monstrous avian Praetorians (rip off of the Dark Crystal's Skeksis). And I have the starting town of Mun, a small logging town that forages into the perilous Devilwoods for lumber.
  
  
• One major feature: I made two large forests (Devilwoods & The Whalehead Forest), a small one (Whitewood Grove), the coast (The Sea of Haverna), some hills (Nilbog?!), and two main rivers (The Galmere and Savdosa). I think that's a good start.
  
  
• One mysterious site to explore: The Lumenloth Lake has strange happenings going on there.
  
  
• One main Dungeon entrance: Not listed since I want to hand the map to my future players for them to find. I have it located a few hexes into the Devilwoods above Mun. Found after some loggers cut too deep into the forest.
  
  

Map Notes:

The map isn't complete. You'll notice its missing the hex numbers and the direction marker (north, south, etc.).  The map just looks so damn good I didn't want to mess it up yet. I'll probably just print it out and draw the rest when I use it to run a game. Oh yeah and 1 hex = 6 miles.

Extra Credit: Create a Random Encounter Table [2d6]

I tried to show how the Devilwoods currently has a small skirmish between a Green Dragon and the Forest's Swine God. Of course the forest is huge so there's some other more vanilla d&d stuff I sprinkled in.

I included a dragon in the table after reading Papers and Pencil's Your Dragon's Suck blogpost. I shared a similar view that Dragons were supposed to be these godlike beings and thus unusable for most games but after reading that post I've come around on them. I think most of my wilderness encounters will include a dragon. 

Onward to Week 3!

Dungeons & Dragons T.V Show?

No, not again!

Today I read that Hasbro was giving D&D another shot at mainstream media with a t.v show. One written by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. With Kolstad I'm cautiously optimistic that it might not be a complete cringe-fest. I wanted to do a quick write-up on what I do and do not want to see from a official D&D movie. 

Do Want:

• Extremely violent; limbs getting hacked off, lots of blood, and sword clashes. Death. 
• A switch between the IRL players and their characters. The player's lives should affect the campaign in some way and vice versa. See The Gamers: Dorkness Rising for how this is done. 
• Lessons learned from the game should help the players in IRL, build confidence for example. Guess this is kinda the same as the above. Whatever. 
• The DM has a sweet homebrew world, or uses an old setting like Greyhawk or Mystara. 
• No miniatures please, theater of the mind only. Or miniatures used for combat only. 
• An actual Dungeon. And Dragon(s).
• Some darker horror tones every now and then.
• Some unique ideas.
  
  

Don't Want:

• Forgotten Realms or 5e. PLEASE. (I know this isn't gonna happen)
• No kids, teenagers would be fine I guess.
• An actual generic fantasy plot with no mention of players or the actual D&D game. Like the old 2000 movie. 
• PG Violence.
• Weird monster races as PCs or main characters. Like a lame Critical Role knock off.
• Mainstream actors. I'll allow a single cool cameo with Keanu Reeves, maybe. 
• Boring rehashed ideas. 
  
  

That's all for now. What would you want to see (or not) in a D&D show? Let me know in the comments. 

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 1

Alright, lets try this again. 2021 Edition.

Mid-last year I tried (and failed) to do the Gygax 75 Challenge found here. I got to Week 3 (The Dungeon), fell behind and gave up. In short the challenge asks you to make a small campaign setting and everything you would need to get a campaign going in 5 weeks. Including a stocked 3-level dungeon, which to me screams classic od&d--b/x. Rebooting this should be the perfect opportunity to do some creative writing for an OSE campaign I've been wanting to run. I'll be stealing some stuff from my first attempt since a lot of what I wanted to do back then I still want to try out.

[Note: I assume you've downloaded and read the challenge going forward.]

THE CONCEPT

Tasks:

1. Get a Notebook:
   Done. I'll be using Google docs. It's quick and easy and I can jot some notes down while I'm at work if I get particularly inspired.
   
   
2. Develop Your Pitch:
   Write 3-7 well developed bullet points that will sell the campaign to your players. See below [2].
   
   
3. List Inspirations
   Gather your sources of inspirations and what they bring to the campaign setting. Annotate them See below [3].

Pitch Development [2]:

• POINTS OF LIGHT -- A grand span of time has passed since a forgotten cataclysm smote the civilized world. Now, only a howling emptiness remains. A few walled settlements have risen from the dirt and stand as a monument to the stubbornness and tenacity of sapient life. I want the few pockets of civilization to feel far from another, it should take a day or more to move between the larger settlements. Extremely small hamlets should be a bit more common, just a bit. 
  
  
• DUNGEON x DEVILS -- Beyond the walls of man lie sanctuaries of chaos people call Dungeons. The dungeons are inhabited by monsters, cultists and sometimes devils themselves, beings of pure chaos. Adventurers delving into these dungeons hope to surface richer, stronger and intact.
  
  
• FEAR INCARNATE -- Humans used to claim the title of apex predator but now a new threat has emerged, the Dragon. Dragons stalk the land hunting and proliferating fear wherever they go.
  
  
• THE OTHER'S RETURN -- Ancient tales tell of fairies and other folk who once lived alongside humanity. They disappeared during the zenith of man's age but returned when they fell. The Ancient Dwarven furnaces are lit and the primordial world tree of the Elves cast it's shadow once more.
  
  

Mostly going for a "vanilla" d&d campaign. Well, vanilla with a bit of weird chocolate swirls.

Campaign Inspiration [3]:

• The Original D&D Setting written by Semper Initiativus Unum 
  My main inspiration for wanting to run a "vanilla" fantasy campaign. Talks about the assumed setting for Od&d. Free to download, give it a peek. 
  
  
• Princess Mononoke written by Hayao Miyazaki
  A classic tale of Man vs Nature. Tribes of different beast species worship a forest god that the humans are hunting for, reasons. No spoilers! Go watch this if you haven't!
  
  
• Berserk written by Kentaro Miura
  One of my favorite examples of weird od&d strongholds in non-gaming media is the Tower of Conviction. The tower is a religious stronghold whose occupants believe pain and torture can cleanse one of their sins. Berserk in general is a great example of pockets of "light" fighting against the approaching darkness.
  
  
• Dorohedoro written by Q Hayashida
  My current favorite manga. I love the way Dorohedoro depicts Magic-Users and Devils and want to sprinkle some of that weirdness into this campaign. EVERYTHING in this manga is insane, check it out if you haven't. 
  
  
• Swords Against Chaos [Actual Play] written by Age of Dusk
  A black comedy campaign report written for the author's mostly RAW b/x campaign. I believe most of the players in the campaign were new to rpgs so it's very interesting (hilarious) to see their metamorphosis into murderhobos. Also the later siege on a fort is so deliciously grim and grimy.
  
  

Extra Credit: Make a mood board

This is the mood I'm going for.

"Hmm, that's weird."

I'll be posting these every Sunday afternoon until complete. If you don't see it by Monday it means I have failed again lol.

Read Week 2 here.

Happy New Year! // 2021 Goals

Shadow Of Time

Happy New Year! and goodbye 2020.

I'm very thankful to have survived 2020 and hope the vaccine stamps out COVID once and for all. I want to take some words to send my regards to all who lost someone, or themselves during 2020. My deepest sympathies and I hope you can start the healing process this year. And to those who are no longer with us, may you rest in peace.

[One last song to send off 2020. ]

Source

Here are my personal, gaming, and blog goals for 2021:

• Start losing weight-again. 
  
  
• Run a "vanilla" fantasy campaign using b/x as the base system.
  
  
• Write 1x blog post per month, preferably 1x per week.
  
  
• Publish a zine or something "professional".
  
  
• Make a bit any $ writing. Not living wage money but enough to fuel my coffee addiction and buy more ttrpg stuff. buy a single iced coffee from Starbucks. 
  
  

Good luck to everyone and have an amazing 2021!

[Any art will be taken down if requested.]

Contact Outer OSR SPHERES

Hello? Anybody there?

The OSR scene is an endless expanse of innumerable spheres connected by a thin sinew of a shared love of old school gaming. And it's just as splintered and distant as that sounds. I wrote this out to maybe help people better connect with the overall community, but we're a very opinionated people.

Here's all the spheres I know of and how to contact them.

[Note: Just a warning, some places tend to lean heavily left or right politically. I'm only discussing each purely on the fact that they contribute something (however little) to the OSR scene. Also they are in no particular order.]

The Blog-0-Sphere

A living fossil but still living, for now. The blog-o-sphere is in my opinion the best way to absorb OSR content. You can easily curate what you're reading and there's literally hundreds or even thousands of OSR blogs out there. Each with probably more content you could use in a lifetime. Seriously. Where to start though?

RPG PLANET collects a ton of blogs and displays them all on a "blogroll here". Go down the bloghole and see where it leads you!

and here's some legendary blogs to get you started:

Grognardia

Jeff's Gameblog

BRINEHOUSE

The Alexandrian

tenfootpole -FYI, this is the place to read OSR adventure reviews. Check out his greatest hits here to see what to buy.

Traditional Forums

Surprisingly there are still some active forums out there considering how dated the medium is. Here are a few:

RPGNET -while not a dedicated OSR forum you will some posts pop up every now and then. 

dragonsfoot.org -Heavy emphasis on "Old" in the OSR since the late Gygax himself would post here. One of the birth places of the OSR, next to blogs.

r/osr [reddit] -Reddit should probably be it's own category but I'll put it here since I consider it to be a traditional forum. That and this subreddit is the only OSR one I know of. r/osr is very active and great posts pop up pretty much daily. The negatives are the downvote brigades and very vocal energy vampires native to reddit.

Suggested by Scott Mob over on MeWe:

odd74 - od&d focused.

Knights & Knaves Alehouse -OSR focused forum. 

Discord

I really like discord but the discussions can be very hard to follow especially in larger servers. Here's some of the OSR related ones:

OSR Server -One of my favorite places to lurk, has a great collection of blogs in their blogroll channel and archive. Probably the most active OSR place after blogs.

Necrotic Gnome -I consider b/x to be the Rosetta Stone of the OSR and Necrotic Gnome's OSE is literally just b/x with a fresh paint job.

MÖRK BORG -The newest hot thing to infect the OSR, and for good reason.  

Melenosia -Run by the people who made Troika! One of the popular new wave OSR products. 

Exalted Funeral -Pretty much the place to easily  buy OSR stuff in the US. Actual store here.

Tenkar's Tavern - I dipped in for a bit for research purposes. Seems like a place that has discussions regarding the OSR. 

Discourse

I never heard of Discourse before this next entry but it's actually really interesting. A little wonky layout wise IMO but still really cool. 

The OSR Pit -While not as active as I'd like, I think this place has the potential to be the next hub for the OSR after the heat death of g+. In fact that's what it was made for, use it!

Facebook

Ugh Facebook. If ever there was a obvious mustache twirling evil mega-corp, FB would be it. But you can't deny how goddamn easy is it easy to use. Here's some decent groups to join.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess -I used to personally mod this group so I can attest to how great it is. Hyper focused on LotFP discussion with an almost no bullshit, relaxed userbase. If you like LotFP stuff you should be in this group. 

Dungeons & Dragons B/X (Moldvay / Cook & Marsh)  -A recent group I joined, seems chill so far. B/X stuff only. 

Old School Essentials -The place to talk shop about Old School Essentials.

Fantasy OSRs -Generic OSR group. All old systems and retro clones are allowed. 

Old School Gaming Rocks! -OSR focused, a bit slower than the others. 

OSR -There's a "main" OSR group on Facebook but I think they banned me so I can't post the link. Can't say why for sure but probably because I used to work for LotFP. If you're the admin or know the admin hit me up. I'm curious. 

Twitter

The twitter scene isn't really a fun place to be. It's full of hot takes, disk horses and people denouncing d&d just to help sell their games instead. Stay away, far, far away. Except for this bot that feeds you blogrolls from the OSR Discord, I just think its neat.
[Note: If you really think there is someone on there that's worth braving the twitter void let me know and I'll add them here.]

Here's a link to search #OSR on Twitter. I'll let you decide if it's worth it.

MeWe

A lot of OSR g+ refugees fled to this place, the so called next "big social media platform". A very small but dedicated community.

TTRPG Blogosphere -Another place people post their blogs. MeWe has its own unique community so you see some different blog faces here. 

OSR -One of the more active places on this index. I'm not a huge fan of MeWe but I think making an account just for this group is worth it. 


And I think that's it for the spheres. If I missed anything big let me know in the comments and I'll add it to the post (if they're not literal monsters).

Thanks for reading and hope this helps you connect a bit better with the OSR community.

Each point of light is a blog post waiting to be read