Shadowdark One-Shot: Wherein I run an online session

Well, here we go - with the conclusion of Tim's Scorn campaign, our band of cretins are running rotating one-shots. I got short straw to run first. Joe's out with his own projects, so we recruited one of our "loyal viewers" to join the frivolity. 

The game: Shadowdark. The scenario: Kabrel's Tower

The miscreants: 

• Mike: Beregar, Sea Wolf; Aran, Halfling Thief
• Tim: Mire, Elf Mage
• Paul: Ignatius, Human Priest

Opened the session in my usual one-shot ritual: Random Hats! Along with a few character questions.

I initiated the scene with a deceased mutant being brought in by farmer Mordecai to the sheriff. The party, of course, was recruited to investigate. 

They accompanied Mordecai to his farmstead, where he reported that the mutant's companions had absconded with a couple of farmhands. Mordecai's wife and son emerged from their home, relieved that he had safely returned. The party stayed the night, and was fed by the missus. Wulfram, a stout boy of 15, volunteered to guide the party.

Leading them along an abandoned trade road, the party spotted a figure on horseback. Aran diverted into the woods to flank. 

sup, yo.

The figure disappeared, reappearing with a few companions, most with obvious 'changes.' Plus, Naked Dude. Who charged Ignatius.

Ignatius, not wanting whatever the fellow was offering, dodged. And Beregar split the fellow asunder, taking some acidic blood damage...

Aran realized that the horse was not normal, and shot at it instead of the rider. The rider cast a spell on himself and encouraged his mooks. The horse bit Aran on the head.

Campaign Journal: Lindwurming

 Cresting the dunes, we see:

• Slick
• Jax
• Fulvus

(Frederick and Rondel joined later).

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Before them were arrayed placer deposits of ruby along the dune faces and valleys. Snogriz Stormvault, dwarven assayer, squealed and trundled off to assess the resource...

like this, but ruby

Of course, something else was there. The PCs recalled that the elves had mentioned that any negotiations for the ruby would need to be with "Calaquendi-Culu." The sand shifted, and Snogriz got himself half-buried in the dune face as he attempted to scramble back to the party.

It was a worm, or, at least, a lindwurm.

howdy

Because desert, of course. Anyway. It lunged at the party, taking a large chunk out of Jax. Goober thought better and was off attempting to dig out Snogriz, avalanche rescue dog style. Slick disappeared, to go be secret-stabby, and Fulvus did his bouncing halfling thing. Much stabbing, biting, sand-burrowing, and attempted constricting, and the thing lay dead. Head too large to recover, but claws make for a good trophy.

Snogriz, now dug out of the dune, recovered his senses and took over. The party spent a few days winnowing the sands to separate enough ruby (and plenty of surplus) for new lens construction. Somewhere in this, Slick wandered off and came upon a terror-bird nest with a deceased parent and conveniently-hatching egg.

They Met at a Tavern 8: Ruining the "Notebook Failure Dungeon"

Greetings, weary travelers, we come across another party of randos who joined me for an evening oneshot. Although not totally random, as we had two Repeat Offenders(tm). The game, Shadowdark. The headgear, random as always.

Back for more abuse:

• Dakota (Halfling ranger, Long flowing hair)
• Claire (Elf priest, AMAZING curls)

Always there because My Shorter Half:

• Seana (Elf Knight of St. Ydris, Blank-faced helm)

New and enthusiastic:

• Declan (Half-orc thief, Brown, tasseled hat)

The venue: "Notebook Failure Dungeon," scene of one of my favorite early meetup games.

And off we go...

The PCs arrived at the entrance, short on coin and hoping for a bit of a boon. Some discussion on the wisdom of climbing into the entrance chasm or roping across somehow. Punctuated by the appearance of the carrion crawler. All safety across, crawler threatened with torch and dropped rocks.

got carrion?

 Entrance lock deftly defeated by thief. Party read goblin graffiti in the entrance foyer and added their own. As they negotiated the partially-collapsed walkway further in ("There are some serious code violations here."), they were set upon by the goblins from their secret watch-post. Goblins summarily defeated, although one escaped to tell the tale.

Following them into the guard-post, the party paused to look through gear ("Ooo, goblin fanny-pack!"). Which gave them time to hear the orcs coming up from deeper in. And lay a tripline across the door for them. The orcs' goblin mooks got tangled up in the tripline and were summarily shanked. As this was accomplished, the party was jumped by the orc guards and took some heavy damage, including felling the thief. The priest crit-failed her crossbow and replaced the string in a panic. The shaman big-bad then waded in, and failing his spells, chose to cast scimitar against the priest, skewering her through a chair she hid behind. The halfling ranger, after having little success, even with a holy weapon-blessed sword, finally stabbed the shaman dead.

ANOTHER Baker's Dozen of D66 Random Tables...

A second (!) collection of random D66 lists originally posted here on the blog (plus an extra, for my deserving readers!) for use, abuse, or inspiration at your table. Contents include: wands, ships, dogs, and multiple random dungeon content generators! The generators have been stress tested in the real world(tm), so have at 'em....

DriveThruRPG Link

Previous batch here

Campaign Journal: Crossing the Border

 Who's picking sand out of their teeth?

• Jax – Barbarian
• Fred- Thief
• Slick – More Thief

The group began at the restored spring/shrine, recently divested of corrupting demons. Without further ado, they headed for the border post of Eliond with their desert elf guide, Imiriel.

Slick, always slightly invisible, spotted a party of elves a distance off. They didn't quite look like the elves that the party is traveling with, so he circled back to notify Imiriel. She trotted off on her axebeak, and there arose a heated discussion. The other elves were apparently from a neighboring clan, straying across territory in search of a pair of killer lions. After some negotiation, Imiriel gave them a sigil to allow their trespassing, on the condition that any slain lions be brought to Eliond.

As if by fate (or dice) the party was jumped by one of said lions as they traversed a wash. It leapt at Imiriel, injuring her, but she was able to stay astride her bird. Slick, Jax, and Durkan attacked the sprawled beast. Imiriel's bird did a fair Goober impression and stomped it to death.

Onto the wagon with the lion's corpse, and away they went. 

Night fell, and as if on cue, a commotion arose in the dark. “Damnit Kavderak!” The elves threw stones into the dark. Goober stayed close this time. Slick went invisible. The dragon poked his head into the firelight - “Ooo, I smelled blood!” He proceeded to investigate the lion's corpse, damaging the valuable hide. Slick, in his ongoing quest to touch new and interesting creatures, touched the dragon. Kavderak, started, looked around, sniffed, “I see you!” and shot out a cloud of sleep gas. In the entirely wrong direction... Slick revealed himself and gave some BS line about being honored to be in the presence of such an imposing and wise and beautiful dragon, yaddayaddayadda.... So they got along famously and chatted the evening away. Kavderak took his leave, and relieved Slick of some gems, as well as swiping a scroll.

“Worth it!” - Slick.

On to Eliond, a small border village, and welcomed by the local clan-mates. 

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Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog #20 - Blaze of Glory

Whoo! Did you dogs fart in here? What did you get into?

Oh, the tablet. Why is is smoldering? This had better not violate the warranty... 

Corrupted file. Hmm. Let's see what we can find ... 

***

taptaptap. is this thing on? are the words showing up? i can't tell from here...

oh well.

so there we are. i stumble down the steps into the dark temple where we first met the cardmaster. dremont is down, demons are flocking about - vrock and dretch... columbo and tarim are standing firm against a greater demon as it tells them to lay down their weapons. better to not be seen. i turn invisible. the magic works...

tarim and columbo turn to attack some third type of demon, i guess. the big demon changes to a sexy big demon and asks nicely for them to put down their weapons. they agree this time. vacant-eyed yahoos. doing whatever a pretty lady asks.

a demon tries to drag a dead-ish dremont away. fine. i didn't need to stay invisible anyway. i missile it back to wherever it came from.

dremont still mostly dead.

columbo gets enough of his few wits about him, gets a potion into dremont. it works. dremont now a conscious drooling idiot. improvement?

the bad lady demon touches tarim with a scepter, and he goes down. sigh. this is how it's going to go. i missile the bad lady, that stops her from doing more harm to tarim.

columbo under a pile of demons, swinging away. just like he likes it.

something happens with dremont, and he comes to, glowing blue. does he get signal from the forest down here?

columbo has tarim's spear of serath - he's poking at the demon portal. it seems to have a little effect. very little. 

i remember something. pat at my pockets. there it is. oblivion card. I hold it up to the bad lady demon, and she goes away.

Campaign Journal: Negotiations and Remediations

Due to the three-day weekend, we only had Frederick and Jax. But you run for who shows. And so we went...

The party awoke to see a band of desert elves riding to meet them. Bogumir, the party's guide, walked out to greet the curious elves, who approached riding on a combination of mules, bison, and terror birds. So that's where the curious tracks came from...

Best be polite. 

Bogumir parlayed with the leader for some moments. The leader and a few lieutenants approached, while the rest stayed back, watchful. Findire, the leader, asked why the party was in the desert out of trading season. Frederick replied that they had lumber to trade, and were hoping to negotiate good prices away from the competition. Findire replied, fine, we'll trade you and you can go. A lieutenant inspected the two wagons, finding that the wood was an uncommon northern hardwood. 

Ok, might as well negotiate for real. We need to cross your territory, to reach the desert where the ruby sands might be found. What's your need for the sand? Frederick, roundabout, explained that the ruby was needed to restore the Barrier communication network. Finally, he showed a fragment of ruby lens that the party carried. The elves inspected it, and asked how it involved them. Well, Chaos is on the move after a long time, and twisting nature. We would think that you might find that offensive. Findire and his second, Arielen, discussed. Ok, what to you really have to trade then?

The party threw out their bag of unclaimed magic items, mostly potions and scrolls. The elves poked through them, mostly unimpressed. (Oh, a spellbook, looks like something we give children for reading.) Hmm, what's this book? The elves looked at an unclaimed and unread tome that has been sitting on a shelf in the party's home base. Opening it, a smell of grass and petrichor emerged. Sudden, hushed discussion.

Wait here. We will return with our shaman.

D66 Magic Staves

Time for the good ol' basic stick. Or staff, if you so desire. 

A walking stick, peasant's weapon, or signature accessory of any self-respecting mage:

Enchanted, of course.

Download me here

As always, use with caution:

Diving into list no. 24, which means I need to create another secret list for the next D66 compilation. Any suggestions?

Edit: Doh! Forgot to note. Yes, at least a few staves are based on the Plagues of Egypt, because if a couple of Moses's staff tricks can get into the DMG, why not more?

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog #19: Urban Renewal

Get off the top of the fridge!

Hey, why do you keep all the good snacks way up here? I'm starving!

Those are the dog treats!

Whatever. Pigs ear! And bully sticks! No way! You've been holding out on me!

***

... We catch our breaths. Someone finds a healing potion and we split it between Dremont and me. I'm feeling like half the goblin I used to be.

The fog is crawling through the streets. We hear people calling for help - Columbo thinks he hears Godfrey's wife. She's been missing since the fog happened the first time (this time? Last time? This time travel stuff is confusing). Down into the foggy streets and alleys we go, because that's smart. Tarim calls for Serath's aid, and on cue, a Meridon of the Temple of Serath emerges from the fog, one-shotting demons and being a bit full of himself.

Fine, let's go. We step into the fog and I feel it burning and weakening me. Just another day.

Columbo hears Mrs. Godfrey off in the mist and trundles off. Some tentacle demon lurches out of a well to grab him. He pulls loose, chopping at tentacles. Fine. I'll help. Zap. 

let's see if this gets me flagged.

Mr. Meridon gets grabbed by a second demon and Tarim, wanting to make a good impression, sidles over to help.

More hot tentacle action, as the boys swipe at things. I stay out of the way, choking in the foul mist. Damnit, I'm in the middle of a Viking Party. The Meridon yanks me back to life and accuses me of slacking.

They Met at A Tavern 7: Revisiting Kabrel's Tower

New year, new journals...

Another Meetup play report, where I meet strangers and try to kill them... figuratively. Superbowl Sunday was coming up, so I posted up a game titled, "Gaming for Those Not Watching the Game." I had no dog in the hunt, and figured plenty of other folks also approached the game with a rousing, "meh." A neighborhood taphouse was bereft of screens and set aside a table for me. The game of the night was Shadowdark.

Who made it?

• Wes (Elf wizard)
• Davion (Dwarf Knight of St. Ydris)
• Leif (Elf ranger)
• Seana (Human fighter)

I got everyone situated and bumped up to 2nd level. Rolled for hats, as is tradition. 

We started in Neuforde with rumors of not-quite-humans raiding local farms and caravans. The priest in town volunteered a local youth ('Sven') to act as a guide. Knowing the raids came from the southwest, Sven led the party to the overgrown trade road and they picked their way through the alder. 

As is tradition, they were set upon by a party of Chaos mutants consisting of a leader on Damned Horseback and four mooks. The mooks were visibly altered, particularly the one naked dude...

Battle was joined, with the two elves focusing on the leader, and the other two party members going after the mooks. The leader's spells got disrupted enough to have little effect. The dwarf laid about himself with his razor chain. The dwarf and elves badmouthed one another. Sven hid in the bushes.

Two of the baddies were slain, including naked acid-skin guy, and the remaining two mooks and leader fled with one hp each. The dwarf salvaged a dose of acid from the dead mutant and gave it to the ranger as a peace offering. Symbols on the dead mooks implicated a Chaos goddess known for twisting nature.

an old friend

The Hedge-Mage for Old Games and Shadowdark

Whew, its been a long time since I cobbled together a character class! Looks like the last time I dabbled in class creation was the Tabaxi...

That will not do.

So - a couple of things. First of all, I snuck in the "Hedge-mage" at the back of my Brindlegrit Gatehouse scenario, so it's likely that the class went unnoticed. So I wanted to pull it out as its own post.

Secondly, for anyone who's suffered through watching our Shadowdark sessions - If Bloggah the goblin mage happens to level up at the end of a session, I roll his new spells randomly. It just fits the character, and the fact that I enjoy the random nature of magic in Shadowdark (even if my colleagues in the game may not have similarly refined tastes).

So, expanding on that theme, we have the hedge-mage, an unschooled, or perhaps undisciplined, student of magic, who happens to pick up magic wherever and however they can. And therefore, randomly. If fact, they may even be unburdened by the constraints of magical schools or mechanics. Therefore, every spell that they own is rolled randomly.

It may not be to everyone's (or anyone's) taste. But magic should be random, mysterious, and somewhat out of control. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Anyway, here we have the Hedge-Mage for your generic Old School Funny Dice Game:

Download me!

And for Shadowdark... I formatted the language and table for SD, but didn't duplicate the layout and style because my design skills are one step above crayons and edible school paste.

Download me, too!

AND NOW, SHADOWDARK V. 2.0, updated after a couple of reader suggestions (plus a tweak to the OSR variant).

Slightly shady spellslinger by Nicholas Roerich.

D66 Magic Axes

Behold, more D66 goodness! This time, the doughty battle axe! Favored by dwarves, barbarians, seafaring raiders, and those folks who just like to chop stuff!

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Download Me Here

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Closing in on another dozen lists, so will compile another baker's dozen soon...

Campaign Journal: Dead in the Desert

Oops, behind on my journaling. I have a few sessions to catch up: my OSE campaign, the Shadowdark campaign, and a Shadowdark one-shot.

Let's get to it, shall we?

Slim attendance at the campaign, with several schedule conflicts. So you run for who shows:

• Slick - thief
• Jax - Barbarian
• Rondel - elf

The party headed south, guided by Bogumir, and with two wagons of good hardwoods in tow. Slick occupied his time by pranking Snogriz the assayer. 

The journey was generally uneventful as they travelled a rugged wagon-road. After two days, they arrived at a caravanserai surrounded by a stout wall and offering stables, a tower with lodging, and a well to replenish water. Symas, the proprietor, welcomed Bogurmir, and had his crew unhitch and settle the animals. Slick was pleased to see active guards on the wall, and that the various stablehands looked like they could handle themselves in a scrap.

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Symas questioned why the party was attempting to trade late in the season, and shared that the desert elves had not visited much over the last year. They seemed even more uptight than usual...

The stay at the caravanserai was uneventful, the food fair.

Happy Anniversary

Was poking through my blog last night while scuffling with Google regarding my most recent post flagging, and discovered that I had said "Hi" to the blog community eleven years ago.

Time flies.

Leicester (RIP) says hi from wherever he is...

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog #18: Back to Where We Started...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Shadowdark - Bloggah's Blog #17: The Band Still Hasn't Gotten Back Together Again

Well, you look in a slightly better mood...

Got the days re-set, I think. Forest seems less uptight. But my student done got blowed up.

Sorry to hear. That happens.

You blew up a student, too?

No, can't say that I have.

Can I have these rations?

Those are dog treats. Whatever, go ahead...

***

We stand there, watching what's left of Milos dissolve in the light. I lose more interns that way (OK, well, just this one). 

Whatcha want to do, Dremont? Well, we're in the neighborhood. Might as well go find that relic hammer.

We know it's to the north, past some marshes, so a-slogging we go. At least the marshes may be frozen...

Crossing the marsh, we find a batch of abandoned huts, flooded by the marsh. Dremont notices something in the ice of the march. 

Alligator nose.

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Well, at least we won't have to contend with them. Dremont resists the urge to pick a nose.

Near nightfall, and we stumble on an old low stone wall. It looks in good shape, even for its age. It seems to be surrounding something, but we don't see a gate. So we hop over. Nothing could go wrong with a little trespassing. Standing in the middle of the enclosure is a big ol' menhir.

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D66 Dungeons Trois - Paul's Mission, Completed!

In honor of Paul slogging his way through drafting 30 dungeons in 30 days, and in appreciation of his using a couple of my tables for random inspiration, here we go again. D66 more things for yer dungeon.

Paul will be drafting his final random dungeon live, tonight at 7pm CST. Join us to marvel at his fortitude!

This time: things to get, things stopping you from getting them, and what's decorating those rooms and passageways.

download me!

Again, here are tables Number One and Number Deux. The three can be used together, mix-and-match, to spark a bit of inspiration or vision for your latest dangerous spaces for the hapless PCs. Roll each column as many times as necessary to fill atmosphere, features, and monsters. Although there are similar lists and crossover on the tables, each has enough uniqueness, especially on the 'enemies lists,' to hopefully make something that's not quite run of the mill. Have fun!

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Campaign Journal: Southward, ho!

Full house this session:

• Jax
• Frederick
• Slick
• Fulvus
• Rondel
• Orzu

Time to get going... The party started in Chirath, refitting the ship and taking care of some business.

First of all, off to the Temple of Garond. Henry See made some tithes, and the party spoke with the priests about restoring Roderick's twisted arms. The miracles required to heal such a terrible injury were beyond the powers of the local priests, but their brethren in Athenard had capabilities to make Roderick whole again. The party made a significant gift to the church, and the priests took Roderick in their care.

Kimbu, their ship's navigator, announced that he needed to return to his original post with The Wolverine. He agreed to help the party find a suitable replacement, although he admitted pickings might be slim at this time of the year. Fulvus, Jax, and Orzu accompanied him on a survey of waterfront dives and flops, finding three suitable candidates. After an exhaustive interview process, and not a few tall tales told by said candidates, they selected Kiliwick, a competent gentleman with a pet falcon and a bit of derring-do.

In the meantime, Slick and Frederick went to catch up with their colleague Solange at The Hidden Hand. She didn't have any work or need of "outside contractors," but caught them up on a bit of local gossip, affirming that a few towns up north had been found depopulated, and that ships were spotting odd lights out in the inland sea.

Hey, didn't we leave a bunch of our hirelings here?

Oh yeah, let's see if anyone is still around. Well, Golman the drover, Merla the cook, and Murdar the dwarf were still around. The rest had taken their leave (with the horses, as well). The three were willing to hire back on. Murdar was working the door at a waterfront gin joint, and was happy to leave without posting notice. He brought along his coworker, Burgax.

Jax stopped by the Bear Garden and asked Akreos if there was an opening on the schedule. Sure enough, one of the fighters had taken sick, and Jax stepped into the ring to fight a giant scorpion (de-stingered). A couple of blue mohawks were spotted in the crowd. She and Goober put on a good show (It was children's matinee, after all) and got a pouch of gold for their efforts. 

Bad Water at Bishara Shrine: Another Shorts Adventure

Tim scribbled up a dungeon map using the random dungeon generator found in the Shadowdark rulebook. 

Yep, it's random. It almost makes sense, though. So I took it upon myself to make it make sense. Imposing order upon chaos, or something like that. Anyway, the diversion of the stream (which I am assuming to be subterranean) caught my eye and had to be the focal point and "cause" for the adventure. After all, water has been both the foundation and downfall of plenty of cities and civilizations. So if the water goes bad, it is a crisis, indeed. Especially when another crisis looms on the horizon...

Download: Bad Water at Bishira Shrine (estimated for 3-5th level party) (Updated 3/25 based on play, and minor edits)

While looking for imagery for this piece, I found this cute little guy:

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The caption reads: "Alleborith: a demon from The Testament of Solomon. While most demons have many powers to inflict horrid ills upon humans, Alleborith has only one: he can cause people to choke on fish bones. No angel is assigned to banish him, perhaps because of how minor & specific his power is." 

Use caution around that salmon dinner....

Campaign Journal: Trenches and Horses

Who's here?

• Jax
• Fulvus
• Slick
• Frederick
• Rondel

Where are they? Cobalt Lake. The party retrieved the broken lens from the tower to return to the dwarves for raw material. They said their farewells and thanks and headed back north. The first night they found an abandoned cabin to hunker down in and get out of the weather. Unfortunately, a pair of worgs was also interested in the cabin and a disagreement on squatters rights occurred. A tense battle occurred as the two beasts pushed into the cabin, but Jax and Goober pulled through, making killing blows to both the beasts. 

The rest of the night passed, and the party rode north on a cold clear day.

That is, until Slick and his horse fell into a concealed trench in the road. Dammit. They party was swarmed by a pair of Chaos knights and their respective mutie mooks. Both of the knights missed on their charges. Slick, his priorities in the right place, attacked the horse.

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Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog #16: The Sloggening, Part the Third.

Damnit, I hoped it would be warmer here!

Cold snap, dude. And put down the dog's chew toy

squeak-squeak. squeak squeak. 

I can't have it? I was going to use it to distract Columbo.

No, and you got smudges all over the tablet. What is in those rations of yours?

****

Well, the smoke clears. Or the snow, at least. Dremont and I catch our breath. 

Ivanoff comes out of his shop. Something's not right. If I squint, he looks a bit... reptilian.

Everything shifts a little, and a bronze dragon is looking down at us. No one else seems to notice. 

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And now we're getting scolded by said dragon for messing up the balance in the Forest, and it shows us the results of our actions if we don't set things right. Chaos overruns the hamlet, including the army of undead. I squint and think I might see Elinar among the throng. 

Focus, Bloggah. 

OK, when we went to the elven shrine and boogered around with the magic sundial thing, we shifted things a day, and that got the Forest all bent out of shape. OK. We'll go fix it.

The dragon becomes Ivanoff again and everything goes back to normal. Well, normal for the Komor...

It's snowing. We buy snowshoes, since Dremont is tired of breaking trail for me.

Review: The Other Ancient Civilisations: Decoding Archaeology’s Less Celebrated Cultures

Like plenty of my friends and acquaintances, I dabble in history, both by reading and perusing the YouTubes for credible historians, archeologists, and similar scholars. Therefore, Raven DaSilva's channel, "Dig It with Raven" comes up periodically in my feed as a recommendation. She has good content, delivered in an entertaining, forthright manner. So one of those recommendations was her announcement of publication of her first book for popular audiences, "The Other Ancient Civilisations: Decoding Archaeology’s Less Celebrated Cultures."

The premise of the book is to provide a survey of ancient civilizations that are either lesser known or otherwise not as widely taught as the usual suspects (e.g. Greece, Rome, Egypt, Babylon, Persia). The various civilizations are spread across the six inhabited continents. I was familiar with about a half dozen of the selected societies from other readings, classes, and YouTube rabbit holes. 

The format of each chapter begins with a brief fictional vignette of a "day in the life" of an inhabitant of the civilization, then a deeper dive into the known history, timeframe, significance and artifacts. MAny of the selected civilizations were either influential on or assimilated into later, better-known cultures, so their existence echoes on within those nations. I did learn a good amount from the chapters, particularly of a few North and South American and African civilizations that I had little or no knowledge of. 

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog #15: Abominable Snowthings

Dogs! Do not stomp on the goblin! Sorry about that.

It's nothing, I've had worse.

So I suspect. At least you don't appear burned today. But is that ice on your robe?

It's one or the other these days (sigh). But at least I might have a student to teach the ways of goblin-mancy! (does ineffective spinning kick, knocking books off end table).

***

Blake senses something, and I see magical protection around him. I really need to get some of that magic...

Roars come from the forest west of town. So that's what had him distracted. Dremont and I form up next to Blake. 

I see a couple other folks off to our right - an archer, maybe?

The archer cast light on on arrow and fires it to the edge of the trees. That's useful.  Of course, it illuminates that what was making the sound. Not useful. 

Its abominable. that's for sure. 

Not an accurate artist's rendition

Well, the thing doesn't like being lighted up and turns the elf (that's what she was) into an elfcicle with a freezing breath thing. Dremont and Blake both fail heartily on whatever they were going to call down on it. Really. Am I the only one doing any work around here? Magic Missile Away!

Dremont switches to Old Reliable (his hammer). It is more consistent than whatever forest god he talks to. Since they don't seem to be on speaking terms tonight...

D66 Dungeons Deux

Not content to make up one random list, I came up with a second last night and this morning. That's right folks, two lists, two days! That's the type of grind that my dozen readers are eagerly awaiting. 

Anyway...

Another three-column list, with 'theme/setting," "goal/objective," and "occupants/big bad." "Settings" on this one are more of the "everything is a dungeon" concept for adventure-building. And the "occupants" list includes a few of my favorites to foist upon players, for anyone who's read my actual-play reports...

The two lists may be used separately, in concert, or as mix-and match to one's heart's content (prior one here). There is some overlap between column contents in both yesterday's list and today's, as certain elements cross boundaries (Who noted "giant" in all three columns yesterday?). 

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Ok Paul, here's more to confound you.

Download me here

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D66 Dungeons

New year, new list.

My buddy Paul (of Tarim Doomsinger fame) is slowly descending into madness in his writing garret as he attempts to create 30 Dungeons in 30 Days. 

Paul, Day 21

Playlist of Paul's efforts below:

Paul has utilized a few idea generators in his quest to rough out adventure ideas ("So easy, a caveman could do it!"). And it's been a few weeks since I've foisted a D66 list on my poor readers. 

So here we go, a triple list for generating dungeon/adventure ideas, organized into "theme/setting," "descriptor," and "occupants/big bad lists." Perhaps it will be useful to help rattle the thinking bits a little and provide a few ideas to lay down on that blank page staring back at you.

Download me here

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Itch.io Zungeon Jam 2025

It's been a while since I've participated in a Jam on itch.io. I mean, I bookmark them all the time... Anyway.

I saw this blog post linked on the OSR Discord and took a look. It seems to be aimed at folks who may be intimidated by the idea of producing an adventure for public consumption or even their own table. But I like the intention, and creating a random writing prompt is always a good seed. And nothing has ever stopped me from putting half-assed adventures out into the world before. Maybe I'll be an inspiration, or at least a warning.

Well, I took their instructions to heart. Quick and dirty? yes. Unpolished? certainly. Amateur? very. Per the blog post, yes, the initial stocking and notes took less than an hour, and each covered about notebook page. The randomly-generated graphic maps are the adventure map - nothing drawn or otherwise generated. A couple of pieces of publicly-available or AI (ugh) art. Two pages each. A couple of paragraphs of setting and adventure hooks, and six rooms each of things to find, interact with, and fight. 

Ok, with that, here they are in all their rough-shod glory:

Zungeon Entry #1: Lister's Laboratory

The party is tasked with rooting out the source of counterfeit gems (or strike a deal for their own machinations,,,). - Adventure for a few 1st level PCs of Old-School funny dice games. A 2-page mini-adventure written for the Zungeon Jam 2025.

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Zungeon #2: Merkhad's Mine Misery

When one of the ancient ones shows up promising riches, well, some things are too good to be true...  An adventure for a few 1st-2nd level PCs of Old-School funny dice games. A 2-page mini-adventure written for the Zungeon Jam 2025.

yes, I used AI...

Anyway, if you think you can do better, the Jam is running all year. Plenty of time to procrastinate.

Campaign Journal: Back to Cobalt

Tardy on this one. Holidays...

That said, it was a slim crew:

• Jax - Barbarian
• Frederick - Thief
• Slick - Another Thief

Starting from Neuforde, the gang headed southwest on a cold and windy day. They made it to the druid stronghold at Kabrel's Tower. The trees in the area continued to be intimidating, and not without a few impaled corpses. 

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The Dire Wolves, Gagnin and Anzel, found the party and escorted them to the tower, where Thefri and his comrades waited. They reported on their resistance against local Chaos predations, as well as their coordination with the party of cleric Nikhita Mahesh and her colleagues, who had re-taken Ashryn Tower and dug in for the winter. Thefri was safekeeping a damaged lens, and the party would retrieve it on their way back north.

The next day, the gang continued south. The first day of travel along the old trade road was uneventful. Still cold, but less wind. On day two, they heard sounds of a struggle ahead. Slick invisibly scouted ahead, seeing a party circled up against a large two-headed bear-thing.

Time to be heroes, I suppose. Slick and Dukan Dildran (hench) both whiffed hard. Goober got a hit in (of course). The bear-thing struck out, mangling a couple of the pressed party, as well as taking a chunk out of Goober. The fight went back and forth, until Slick was able to regain his footing and take it down with a healthy backstab. 

You think Fulvus will want a two-headed bear trophy for the alehouse? Silly question.

Happy New Year - The 2024 Roundup

Good morning, all. Got my coffee and cozy duds this morning, so taking the time to do the requisite blogger year-end recap.

It's been a relatively productive blogging year at Leicester's Rambles HQ. A lot of it was driven by gaming summaries, but let's see how it all shook out. 

In 2024, I:

• Made 84 total blog posts;
• Hit post #600;
• Made two Secret Santicorn contributions, both with a cosmic horror flavor;
• Completed nineteen d66 tables (twenty counting the bonus one in the compilation). I'm no ktrey, but I can make lists of 36 things;
• Stocked up a total of ten villages, encounter areas, and dungeons. Several were posted after being run during game sessions, and I thought that they deserved to be shared;
• Completed two product reviews, for three card decks and funny dice;
• Revised one magic missile spell for Shadowdark;
• Came up with five new monsters (standalone and introduced in adventures);
• Compiled one collection of twelve gods from my campaign world and other writings;
• Completed 49 actual-play writeups (26 OSE campaign, 13 as a Shadowdark player, and 10 one-shots/con games)

So yeah, not too bad. I have a few drafts staring at me, all judgmental-like. Hopefully I'll get a couple out in the next day or two and start the year off well.

Gaming was pretty solid. In my campaign, the players have managed to get kicked out of the city held by a theocracy (and later sneak back in to swipe stuff), get harassed by a naked grenade-throwing guy, meet a bunch of seafaring dwarves, make a few allies, including undead knights and an anarchist naga, steal a ship, and gain notoriety arena-fighting. 

And I've run OSE, Shadowdark, and Deathbringer one-shots with some success. People seem to enjoy my games although I still count myself as a comparative novice gamerunner, so that's been a blessing.

I've been playing in two online games - the Shadowdark campaign that we've streamed, and a 2e campaign. Good to get on the other side of the screen and appreciate other gamerunners' skills. 

So Happy New Year, all - I hope that it is starting off well for you, too.

The dogs don't care about your arbitrary timekeeping...

Oh, and I started a new writing notebook: