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)

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: