Matt Finch's "World of Jordoba" Comes to Backerkit

It's crowdfunding season (not that it ever ends...), and I'm not sure how many rulebooks, supplements, and adventures I currently have hanging out there. My debit card will let me know, I'm sure...

But here's one more I'm tracking...

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Matt Finch is well-known and regarded through OSR-land. As co-author of OSRIC and author of Swords & Wizardry, he brought a couple of the early retro-clones into the scene. Plenty of us have pored over his "Old-School Primer" essay, whose adages (e.g. "Rulings, not Rules") for RPG play have been dissected and argued over since its original publication. And many swear by the ideas and inspiration held within his Tome of Adventure Design editions and its companion volumes. 

So, for those of you who'd like to add another volume to the Matt Finch/Mythmere games shelf in your library, Matt will be releasing his "World of Jordoba" setting via Backerkit in August. 

The prototype Jordoba campaign was one of the first "actual plays" that I watched, way back in 2018. Matt ran a grotty crew of adventurers through the ancient ruins underlying the city, as well as the surrounding desolate lands. The campaign world was influenced by Mediterranean cultures and geography, with much of the city campaign including forays into the buried ancient metropolis and catacombs underlying the current city. Accordingly, the setting had a substantial history of past cultures, lost objects of power, and holy retribution and destruction. The PCs explored the undercity and its weirdness to recover loot and knowledge, as well as hopefully thwart the plots of various baddies residing therein.

The live play often acted as my soundtrack while running from job sites to lab to gym or home. And no Roll20 here. All adventuring play was done with minis, handmade terrain, and a small camera pushed along the hallways of the dungeon. The viewers and players were seeing the same perspective view, and there were plenty of moments of real tension as the PC-eye view of the camera turned a corner to discover a potential encounter. 

The playlist of the original campaign can be found here, replete with some excellent old-school strategy, PC deaths and near-deaths, and the general shenanigans expected from a handful of chaotic players and their equally chaotic PCs. I highly recommend it.

Double Review: Monkeyblood Design's "Chewer of Fingers" and Professsor Dungeonmaster's "Deathbringer" RPG

A few weeks back, Mr. Jackson and I decided to play a quick one-on-one game to pass a Saturday evening. For the system, we grabbed Professor Dungeonmaster's ultra-light Deathbringer. And for the adventure, Monkeyblood Design's Chewer of Fingers, described as a "grim, old-school introductory adventure intended for The Midderlands setting."

For those perhaps unfamiliar, The Midderlands is a fantasy setting based on a grimdark medieval England, described by the author, Glynn Seal, as a "green and unpleasant land." Fog abounds, as does a thesaurus-full of shades of green, along with an equivalent number of venomous NPCs and critters. Monkeyblood published the original volume, as well as a number of supplements, via successful Kickstarter campaigns. For people following the current Dolmenwood Kickstarter, Midderlands bookends very well with that setting, and both were used within Red Dice Diaries' "CSI Midderlands" campaign for anyone interested in seeing how the two settings mesh. I've seen discussions that the Dolmenwood setting is intriguing, but some people are less attracted to the fairytale tone of the setting. The Midderlands may be worth a look for people who prefer a darker, more grounded, tone.

So here we go:

I made up a 1st level character of each of the five provided classes in the two-page game system, choosing three to pit against the adventure: a deathbringer (fighter), grimscribe (mage), and plague doctor (sketchy healer/alchemist). Chargen took about five minutes each. More on Deathbringer below.

We considered truncating the adventure, but ended up running the full scenario, which we finished in around 3 hours.

The hook is to investigate and (hopefully) capture a serial killer (the eponymous Chewer) who has escaped from a local gaol.

The PCs started their adventure by saving a "mud cow" for an old lady at her decrepit farm.

Mud Cow

After freeing the irascible beast, the party scraped the mud off themselves and accepted a bag of turnips in reward. Clearly going to be a treasure-heavy session...

Wormkin

Glynn drew this. I wrote up some slapdash words...

Original Sketch by Glynn Seal

Hailing from the Boglands of the south, or found creeping about in the temperate rainforests of the Northwet, the secretive wormkin make their way in their silent, mysterious societies...

Annelid-humanoids ranging in height (length?) of four to six feet, with spindly arms, their moist skin ranges from a translucent pale to dark red in color. Other than than light-sensitive organs around their head regions, the wormkin are essentially blind. Compensating for this, the wormkin have finely-attuned 'tremor-sense' for vibrations and an acute sense of smell. Because of their thin skin, wormkin require moist environments and are found in rainforests, humid caverns, and bogs. Some "invasive" wormkin have been encountered in city sewers and cesspools, although their reason for occupying such spaces in a mystery.

Their society is divided into three classes - Aporrectodea (Priest), Lumbricus (Royal), and Eisenia (Soldier). One will never encounter a single wormkin, as they always travel in groups, or 'congregations' of at least four individuals and up to 100 in verdant, humid locales.

Wormkin communicate via a subtle combination of vibrations and scents, and communication with outsiders is exceptionally difficult. There is a 20% chance that a Priest may have a rudimentary form of ESP, allowing communication with the Aliens, as they refer to any non-wormkin intelligence. Contact with these creatures is almost always a discomforting interaction, as any collection of wormkin seems to act as a hive-mind.

Wormkin:

AC 8/11, HD variable (see below), Att: 1d3 corrosive, or by weapon (hand weapon only), Move 30, Save variable per HD, Al neutral.

Wormkin variable HD (roll 2d6)
2-5	1 HD
6-8	2 HD
9-11	3 HD
12	4 HD

Special: Due to their squishy nature, blunt attacks cause half damage. Wormkin are highly resilient, though, and are immune to disease, including such things as vermin bites, molds, and mummy rot. Wormkin also have prodigious healing capabilities, recovering 1d6 hp per night of rest. Subsisting on vegetative matter, wormkin have evolved powerful gut enzymes, which can degrade natural fibers (cloth or leather) similar to a jelly or be spat in combat (15' range) for 1d3 hp damage.

Using their tremor-sense and sense of smell, wormkin can discern the distance and direction of a target accurately, and may may track humanoid or larger creatures at distances of up to one-quarter mile. Wormkin are exceedingly difficult to sneak up on, and any thief attempting to do so will make their rolls at two levels lower.

Soldiers and Royals may reinforce their bodies with a chitinous armor of unknown manufacture (AC6/13), and there is a 10% chance for individuals to be wearing ceramic armor (AC3/16). Because of the wormkins' anatomy, this armor may not be transferred to another species, nor will they manufacture, modify, or sell the armor to a non-wormkin. The secrets to these lightweight non-metallic armors is a hard-sought goal.

A congregation of wormkin may commune to effect a number of spell-like abilities - their so-called "Dirt Magic." At least one Priest is required for any spell ability, and a Royal is required for 7th level spell-equivalents:

# wormkin/"Spell" (1e equivalent)

2/"Quicksand" - cause a 10x10' area of soil to 'quick' enough to engulf a humanoid. If the target is not extricated, they will sink and suffocate in one turn. Each additional wormkin increases the diameter of the affected area by five feet.

4/Plant Growth (3rd Druid)

4/Speak with Plants (4th Cleric)

5/Transmute Rock to Mud (5th Druid)

6/Move Earth (6th MU)

7/Conjure Earth Elemental (7th Druid)

8/Earthquake (7th Cleric)

This post is biologist-approved.

Mini Review: Staff of the Last Hill Chief

I intended to do a few reviews of various (typically free) resources I have scrounged up in the last couple of years, so I suppose I had better get to work...

So, to begin...

Download it here!

Staff of the Last Hill Chief was released by Glynn of Monkeyblood Design back in 2014.  The one-shot adventure is designed for low-level parties, with the conceit of eradicating an old tomb of orcs who are raiding in the area. Upon hopeful defeat of the orcs and their allies, further exploration will yield more mysteries and challenge.

Things I like about this module:

It is very generic in its design.  Instead of statting out particular monsters, treasure, or challenges, Glynn set up everything on a 1 to 5 scale, with all values being relative.  I particularly like this approach. While it may make for a bit more prep than pick-up-and-play, it provides an intuitive leveling.  Stronger party?  Buff up the '3 sword' critters to be an even match.  Likewise, curve the treasure or challenges to their equivalent values.  I'd like to see this, or a similar system, more in adventures classed as system-neutral.  Of course, this also assumes that fairly bog-standard monsters are used, although with a little creativity a custom monster or challenge could be built up.

General measurements and descriptors are listed by icons at the beginning of each area description - physical area, amount of light, smells, noises.

The dreaded 'box text' is avoided by 'first glance' and 'second glance' area descriptions, with notes for both a cursory and more in-depth investigation. I believe I've seen a similar approach in some other modules, and it works for me.

The meh:

By necessity of the adventure, it is a bit linear, with no real detours or alternate routes, hopefully setting up the players with a final encounter and challenge.  Pretty much once the PCs find their way, it's A to B to C and back to B.

All in all, this is a great generic one-shot that I'd carry along for an impromptu or pick-up game, especially due to its stat and challenge flexibility.

Update:  Thanks, Glynn, for reposting my review on G+.  The latest version of the adventure is up at DTRPG