RPG Blog Carnival: Small Souls in a Big World! - 3DIE6 RPG

 

Happy Spring. And this month's RPG Blog Carnival transitions from the Very Big, to the Very Small, thanks to Errant Thinking.

Back in '21 or so, I pledged to a little game produced by Deeply Dapper Games as part of that year's Zinequest: 3DIE6.

And playing as a tiny ant-thing is about as small as you'll get in an RPG. Because, as far as I know, no one has developed "Tardigrade, the RPG" yet.

First of all, the game, as you might have intuited, is a d6 system. In 3DIE6 (and its sister games), the three d6's are either combined into a 3d6 additive roll (skill tests) or as three individual dice with individual values (combat) - these being "attack," "defense," and "effect."

But first, the setting. 3DIE6 takes place within "The Shimmer," a subterranean labyrinth of fungus-illuminated tunnels and warrens. Your PC is one of the Roan, an insect that may be a bit human, or alien. We're not sure... 

It's a dangerous and deadly land for a tiny arthropod such as yourself. So much so, that it's good to bring along a friend. Or two. Not as companions, but in your own head. Because each Roan is actually three personalities, selected from the six base archetypes of the game: Brutal, Clever, Nimble, Precise, Resilient, and Vicious. The archetypes are designed not to be across the board equivalent to our familiar basic PC classes, but to overlap or be more setting-specific in our ant-world. And as archetypes, each has its strengths and limitations. 

an example character

So what's up with the three-in-one character? Each Roan is inhabited by three selected archetypes, and may switch in three situations: after a rest (referred to as cocooning), the primary or active personality is killed, or under duress during an encounter (although with penalties for the latter two cases). The idea was born from the system/game originally being designed as a solo system, so an individual player could have access to a "party" of different skills. Regardless, it's also useful for one-on-one play, or a limited party of just a couple of players. Think of it as resource management including the three PCs in your body...

The setting, The Shimmer, has a number of post-apocalyptic undertones. The Queen is fading in virility and power, which allows the Roan to break from their natural hive-mind and explore, seeking resources and propping up their decaying City and Queen. Or striking out on their own.

As a subterranean world, there are plenty of foes: rogue Roan, fungal beings, giant boring worms, spider things, and probably real ants. Combat with the d6 system is fast and fatal.

The zine includes setting background, character creation, the d6 mechanics, a handful of statted foes, and a brief "Tunnel Master" section with some game advice and lightweight random tables for plot, tunnel generating, and loot.

In addition to the 46 page zine version, a 135-page expanded core rulebook is also available. A Second Edition is pending on Kickstarter.

They Met at a Tavern 23: Breaking out the Temple of Dynss, once again.

Who graced the table at the brewery?

• Wayne: Pharan, human Sea Wolf
• Chris: Galen, human Priest
• Dan: Kiara, elf Ras Godai
• Seana: Zanegar, 1/2 orc Sea Wolf
• Roger: Drom, dwarf Desert Rider
• Wilson: Gim, dwarf Fighter

Full house. Let's do it. 

The party departed from Zelkor's Ferry to the nearest city of note. What's the town? Let's ask the players for help. 

We have a medium-sized city that is well-established, but fallen on hard times, and a shadow of its former glory. It is run by a council of merchants, with a figurehead of a mayor. The city looks backwards, and makes a good trade in relics. That said, one of its notable landmarks is the old trading hall, once an impressive edifice, but now threadbare. The city is called Bettiholme. 

The party disembarked from their packet-ship, and paid a treasure toll to the harbormaster. Gim, an itinerant dwarf, was met. Fending off a band of enterprising urchins, they reached the shop of Delmar Hevrolug, brother to Kalgor Hevrolug of Zelkor's ferry. After some bitching about the state of his business, Delmar agreed to find a buyer for the party's magic orb. 

The party was directed to the shop of Kashmi Rasam, an artificer and dealer in artifacts. They managed to avoid serious mishaps and petty crime as they were slowed by a small street carnival, with snake charmers, jugglers, and acrobats. As city guards rushed in to apprehend pickpocket jugglers, spilling snake handler baskets, the party made a quick departure...

Rasam was quite enthralled by the find of the orb, pressing the party for information. The orb was demonstrated, although Kashmi warned that it may only have a limited number of uses left. Best not to show it off. He agreed to act as broker and find a buyer.

But first, we carouse. The party was recommended a modest dwarf-operated inn in the neighborhood. None of that weak halfling beer there. Only one PC woke up in the gutter. 

They Met at a Tavern 22: Breaking and Entering the Crypt of King Solimas (plus mini-review)

 

• Seana: Tarl, human Fighter
• Chris: Roult, human Basilisk Warrior
• Callista: Erol, elf Priest
• Dan: Budris, human Bard
• Wayne: Pharan, human Sea Wolf
• Roger: Drom, dwarf Desert Rider

So the band decided which way to go - west into the hinerlands, or east across the water to hock the magic orb. Barrows are always a fun attraction. And our high-rolling priest is back. Necromancer Solace knew of a clump of them about a day away, and provided a map. Budris sought out some lore, finding that some barrows were known to contain "interesting" fungus.

Drom got his camel out of the stable, and led the rest of the boot leather band westward. Eward, mute stablehand, was excited to have been able to care for, and pet, a camel. 

Humping across the grasslands, a herd of loose horses were spotted. Some scouting, and it was found that they were domestic, likely escaped. Some herding and horse-handling attempts later, and everyone had a ride, although Budris and Roult needed quite a bit of help, as their horsemanship was pitiful. 

Onward, and camping. The party awoke to find themselves among several burrows (not barrows, nor burros). Chris (as player) recalled another unfortunate camping experience... Several giant soldier ants emerged, but chose to simply block the burrow entrances as the party immediately decamped. 

Good morning!

Ok. Barrows.

I have a handful of barrow maps, with associated random tables. But I also had "The Crypt of King Solimas" burning a hole in my adventures folder. So be it.

The party found a barrow with a bronze-coated slab, rather than the boring old stone. Must be important... 

They Met at a Tavern 21: The Bloodsoaked Gem Caverns That Weren't (plus mini-review)

Who's hanging at Bristleback's Inn?

• Seana: Zanegar, 1/2 orc Sea Wolf
• Chris: Roult, human Basilisk Warrior
• Rick: Bjorn, 1/2 orc Paladin
• Tony: Holmarn, human Fighter
• Wayne: Pharan, human Sea Wolf

Note: Wayne is better known as Fulvus, halfling terror, from my OSE campaign. Tony asked to watch, as he needed to be somewhere, then said, "give me a character."

The ferry/packet arrived. Certain hooded individuals met with Hebetha Solace, carrying off a certain package. A couple of new adventurers stepped off the boat. Holmarn, newly arrived in town, was on the hunt for portable wealth, preferably gems. He checked in with Kalgor the gemcutter in his shop for possible leads. Kalgor greeted him and, after conferring with "Olaf," an apparently invisible friend. After some back and forth, Kalgor sketched out a map to an abandoned mine that was worth a look.

They stopped at the trading post for supplies. Rasmus, in addition to normal tack, had also recently traded for a prism and some vials of acid. The party bought a vial. 

Off they went. 

While trekking to the "X" on the map, the party encountered a like-numbered group of beastmen. Bjorn, as is his way, greeted them with his cask of ale (I really need to enforce slots better. Is it one or two? Anyway...). The leader hesitated, but a drinking horn was produced. Some language difficulties overcome, the party asked about the local terrain and what the beastmen were up to. "Well, we hunt, maybe we take things from settlers." "Do you attack caravans?" "No - Too many spears. Like you guys. Too many spears. Oh, here's a silk robe and slippers we "found" in exchange for the ale."

source

The two groups parted ways, and the party found their way to the mine, Some poking around, and they found a winch/elevator to get them into the works. The rope held, and into the caverns they went. 

Yet Another Mass Combat Hack - Using "Field Combat Rules for Shadowdark" in OSE

OK, for those who have been tuning in to the channel, we had a knock down drag out battle a couple of weeks ago in the campaign world.

There was strategizing. And cookies.

But prior to that, I needed to come up with a mass combat system for the session, something light enough that it didn't bog down our usual chaos. Plus I'd never run mass combat before. A couple of our crew have wargame and other miniatures battle experience, so I didn't want to look like a total noob. 

So what to do?

Well, of course obsessively look for the "perfect" system through all the mass combat rules I've acquired. And then homebrew off the favorite. As you do.

So, this exercise wasn't completely cut from whole cloth. After looking at how I had already inventoried my spreadsheets of potential forces of allies and foes, I needed to find something that worked off a similar structure as to what I already had in mind and had modeled a bit in my prep.

So of the sheaf of options, I chose "Field Combat Rules for Shadowdark" by Connor Ludovissy for my starting point. The system starts with the extrapolation of an individual NPC combatant to a "unit" of similar capability. While Connor's assumption is five combatants per unit, my combatant number ("company") was more nebulous, in that it could represent a larger group of militia archers or a small group of elite knights.

For example, here is a unit of what may be considered militia from the original rules:

"2. Fighter Unit

• Men and women with basic training and sharp weapons.
• HP 24, AC 12, ATK 1, 1d8 damage, close
• When half of unit is lost, DC 12 WIS or flees."

Very simple stats, and easily ported over to our B/X-OSE environment. In fact, I just kept the SD morale roles to simplify the number of dice on the table.

But the simple combat rules really stood out, especially since they give the option to give bonuses to units when PCs incorporate themselves into the unit, both for damage and morale. Field Combat Rules 4 and 5 line out most of this:

"4. Player characters may fight as individuals using their unmodified statblocks. However, characters with allies of a similar type may also form units, and their stats can be abstracted (adding additional damage and HP as indicated).

5. Any unit that is forced to flee leaves the battlefield and does not enter combat again. A friendly unit accompanied closely by a player character has advantage on WIS checks against fleeing from battle."

I modded it slightly: "Party members can either attack an individual target or add their damage to a unit & +2 morale." I figured that the miscreants would want to go stab the various big-bads directly, or step back and fire spells. Which they did.   

Here's a couple of final example stat blocks, with a couple of  different "Companies":

Opposing forces (mutant foot, cavalry, and chimera) had similar stats.  Certain groups, like the undead soldiers and zealots, were exempt from morale effects.

As noted, I kept a similar number of hit points per company as Connor had in his units. Damage was based on an assumed HD average for the group: 1HD: d6, 2HD: d8, 3+HD: d10. Damage was also modified to reflect "averaging" effects of various attack abilities and bonuses, so we weren't getting bogged down if a mutant had an extra claw attack, or some chimera had poison or not. I can see adding a single extra "ability" for a group of combatants without too much complexity, such as a secondary damage or effect on a foe. I wouldn't go further than that in the spirit of keeping the combat light and fast. Connor recommends changing damage as the unit takes losses, so I would probably add a rule about dropping the damage die by one once the unit take half damage to represent their decreased effectiveness.

For our battle, groups of allied combatants were split out and printed onto individual sheets, so each player had their own batch of mercs and mooks to manage, between two and five groups. Likewise, they were in charge of moving the company's meeple, calling actions, and noting if the PC was in the group or separate. Late-arriving or reserve combatant units (such as the Khanate cavalry or the mutant chimera) were added to the field based on timer rolls.

I ran the opposing forces, both individual high-level NPCs/monsters, as well as the various combat units. For this battle, this involved rolling/selecting actions for about a dozen combat units and four NPCs/monsters. Although two NPCs got taken out in the first couple of rounds, simplifying my tasks...

Initiative was by side, the usual Dueling D6 of Doom per B/X-OSE (Connor also reverts to side-based initiative in his rules). 

Overall, as an experimental method, I think it works well. I would need to refine it in the future, particularly with respect to PC values added to combatant units. I wasn't sure how to manage some bonuses, so we mostly just stuck with normal PC combat bonuses, although I may choose to stick to unmodified PC damage in the future (e.g. 1d8 vs 1d8+2 STR +1 magic). Something to refine. Otherwise, we didn't bog down or have too much ambiguity on what was happening, and the battle was regarded as fun. Which is what counts.

Connor's rules are seven pages in length (including cover). There is space left on a few pages for notetaking or homebrewing rules. The rules include unit examples, an example combat, and rules for training forces. I would highly recommend it for mass combat scenarios, as it can be readily modified for a rules-light combat, whether the opposing forces are a handful of skirmishers, or of multiple unit types and capabilities. Since the individual combat units are essentially NPCs, I wouldn't have any hesitation in dropping this into a one-shot or for people not familiar with mass combat. I would still use a battle map of some sort, as physically moving units and being able to visualize positions is helpful for immersion.

Other rules considered/read during the process:

• Mass Combat (ver 0.6) by Ratmanof (I can't find the original source, so uploaded it here - if someone knows the source, I'll update)
• https://lairofthelich.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/simple-mass-combat-rules-3.pdf
• https://castlegrief.itch.io/killchain
• https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/140878/by-this-axe
• https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/141199/by-this-poleaxe
• https://lixu-gaming.itch.io/appendix-l5-rising-generals
• The mass combat rules from Aftermath! (The rest of the game is overly-complex, but the mass combat system is relatively straightforward)

They Met at a Tavern 11: Shadowdarking JV West's 'The Howler'

Ok, had people show for this session, so things were good.

• Betsy - "Charm" - Dwarf priest (pageboy haircut)
• Candace - "Driznag" - Goblin Priest (Banded helm)
• Seana - "Ad Bather" - Halfling Fighter (Hood w/ ancient symbols)

First, we must note that none of the PCs were over four feet tall. This will be important later. I also provided each PC with a random magic item to bait the Howler.

As I mentioned before, I ported over the monster stats for JV West's "The Howler" to Shadowdark, and wanted to give it a run-thru, since it will likely be a con game, as well.

I've run the adventure before, so I'll go light on the details.

We started off among the barrows and graves with the party finding the body of Gundrin O’Noggin. Some questioning, and I shared that they heard the fellow's name in the tavern and that he was going to poke around the tombs. Probably because that's where kids would go to smoke.

They went through the corpse's pockets, respectably, of course. And threw rocks at the vultures harassing them.

The party listened to their common senses and didn't desecrate any random tombs. The blood and drag-trail led them to the tomb entrance, and the fun could begin.

Driznag caught a sneezing fit, which started the "Howler timer." They found some minor items in the entrance chapel, and poked at the slimy water in the ritual pool. More investigation alarmed a giant spider, which they killed without too much effort.

Into the dart-trapped hallway. Remember, they're short. And crept down the hall, unbothered by the darts firing over their heads. Finding a ranting, nearly-dead Rains Calibrin, they attempted to heal him, and only got more ranting.

And the warning that the Howler was creeping along the ceiling behind them. Battle was closed, and a knock-down drag-out occurred. The Howler alternated between attacking magic items and PCs. The creature's ability to heal from magic energies was quite frustrating. 

The priests attempted turning, but found that the Howler was not undead. Spells failed. Driznag went down but was revived with a healing potion. And finally the halfling made two crits to put the thing down. A vision upon the killing blow revealed the Howler's true nature.

The battered PCs recovered a handful of abandoned items from the temple chamber, and chased off lurking spiders with fire. 

Finding the crypt, they investigated. Driznag knew enough Primordial to piece together the epitaph on the sarcophagus plinth. But made the mistake of reading it aloud as she sounded out the words. Oops.

The mummies arose, attacking and chasing the party from the chamber. The dwarf got zeroed out (plus some CHA damage). The goblin and halfling each went invisible and fled (I'd randomly rolled a Cloak of Elvenkind for Driznag). Satisfied, the mummies returned to their sarcophagi, and the surviving PCs dragged the dwarf free. 

A quick check of the remaining chamber, and mushrooms were found. These did not revive the dwarf, although a third Nat 20 by Ad Bather allowed for a stabilization. 

Fleeing with their recovered goods, the party stopped to recover Gundrin O’Noggin's body to return him to town. And if the mummies somehow arose and started to wreak havoc, well, the party wasn't admitting to anything. It was probably those kids sneaking into tombs to smoke.

DM Notes:

I've reviewed the adventure before, and my opinion is similar after this run. Because of its organization and wall of text style, it can be less straightforward to run than something of a more bullet-style or concise format. And this DM got the pages out of order during the session so had to do a lot of flipping. For the next run, I'll probably pull more salient details into my text document with the monster stats, as well as highlight important bits. It's unfortunate, because it detracts from a good concept and creative monster. For instance, I missed some overly-complWEstex if-then details on the Howler's abilities.

If anyone is interested in running the Howler using Shadowdark, I've put a document with stat conversions here. Note: I realize I've been using the original version of the adventure (no longer available), which is written for a generic D20 system. The adventure has since been revised for Labyrinth Lord/OSRIC, so will easily port over to any OSR-style game, like Old School Essentials. It looks like the newer version has been somewhat reformatted and content updated, as well. I've snagged a current version copy, and have revised my conversion stats and update notes.

And, with the presence of a goblin priest, we established the alignment of "Goblin Lawful."

In other notes, we met up with Jonathan (B/X Blackrazor) Wednesday night to playtest an AD&D tournament-style adventure he wrote for an upcoming convention. Let's just say that we wouldn't have scored well. But we had a fun time pulling the levers and opening doors we shouldn't have.

They Met at a Tavern 10 and Mini-Review: The Tragic Curse of Grimhill Fort for Shadowdark

So I ran a "They Met at a Tavern" pick-up game on Sunday through Meetup, but had a fleet of no-shows. Except the Shorter Half and my coworker Chris (better known as Frederick the currently-smoldering thief). But the ethos is to run for who shows. I was going to run The Howler, and had converted all the critters and challenges to Shadowdark (so I was a bit miffed at the spent effort - save it for later). 

But with two PCs (A Sea Wolf and a Warlock), something lighter might be suitable. Besides, both had already run through that adventure.

So I grabbed The Tragic Curse of Grimhill Fort by Reverse Ettin Games out of my folder to run. I'm not going to do a recap, other than to say that they got their asses handed to them a couple of times, and I flexed challenges a bit to avoid a mini-TPK. So first off - have more than two PCs. And perhaps a silver weapon or two, in case the ones in the adventure aren't found before they are needed...

Spoilers ahead.

They Met at a Tavern 9: It Fell From the Sky

Time for another Meetup session at the brewery. This time, I took the leap of actually using a pre-written adventure. In this case, Thom Wilson's "It Fell From the Sky" written for Shadowdark. I have a few of Thom's products, and a what appeared to be a low-level homage to Expedition to the Barrier Peaks sounded like fun. Spoilers ahead, of course.

We had four players:

• Brandon (Dwarf Fighter - Jordan Ironhelm)
• Tom (Half-Orc Wizard - Dakklud)
• Brian (Elf Priest - Anin)
• Seana (Human Fighter - Akiina)

Off to a good start. The premise of the adventure is that the PCs are venturing to the settlement of Fregundle to take part in the "Beggening," an annual humiliation by the local lord, Underduke Ivok. 

Thankfully, the event is cancelled by the crash of an alien spaceship into the middle of town. We determined by rolls that Anin was a native of the area, and knew some local lore and personalities. As the remainder of the party waded through the muck surrounding the ship, Anin retrieved a few aids and poultices from a local healer's cabin (she had perished from shock at the crash of the ship).

The remainder of the party was set upon by an apparent zombie, which they slayed. With this, Ironhelm cast a grapple to the ship, and all ascended, finding a breach in its hull. 

They were able to access the interior, finding it quiet. A dead alien was the only witness. Some poking around and mishaps with invisible force fields blocking accessways, and it was found that alien body parts were needed to open doors. Dead alien hand on a stick.

Odd technologies were investigated, and a sneaky alien was defeated. More dead aliens were found. Now everyone had their own alien hand. 

Down into the heart of the ship. They party circumnavigated around the ship's outer corridor, investigating cargo holds and scrounging as all good adventurers do. They were able to collect a few curiosities and valuables from their investigations and property damage. Including several silver ingots. This was certainly better than the Beggening. 

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. 

Mini Review: Nuul Dice & Hexacube Dice

Behold, the Dice Goblin approacheth.

Picked up a couple of sets of math rocks recently, and sharing my thoughts on them for you, my dear reader(s).

First off, the Nuul 2d6 pair. I was alerted of these via an Agranak Studios video. As an unrepentant aficionado of the 2d6 reaction roll and its various uses, I picked up a pair from Tower House Creative via their Etsy page. The original run was 250 sets, and as of this writing, the dice are still available.

I received the dice, along with an instruction insert, bookmark (currently in my Shadowdark rules holding the 'Wizards Mishaps' page), a sticker, and a couple of random dice.  

The dice are a good quality resin in a dark pearlescent green ('malachite' per the maker). Each is a d6 with numeral outlined with an icon. The purpose of the icon is to give information on the reaction and personality of an NPC. For instance, a 'skull' icon represents hostile or chaotic, and a 'mist' icon represents uncertain or neutral. The icons may be read singularly, or in pairs. The dice come with instructions on interpretations of the paired rolls (in a d66 format!) to provide suggested reactions or behaviors.

Review: A Trio of Card Decks

Time to take a look at a few bits of Kickstarter loot that have been knocking around in my office:

First off, Crawl Cards: Overland, from BPB Games. I pledged at the $10 level for a POD discount coupon for the physical cards plus pdf. The supplement is a deck of 50 cards, each with six hexes. Hexes are color/graphic coded for terrain, along with features associates with one or more hexes (structures, settlements, monsters, unique terrain, etc.). Each card also has a brief description on the back for one or two unique features found within the six-hex area. The cards are designed for 5e, but are generally system agnostic in their descriptions.

Let's pull one. 

Card GO-07: "Blood Soaked Vale" The six hexes include three mountainous terrain, one swamp, on grassland, and two ruins/settlements (the hexes of interest).

Ooo. A mystery and the grumpy dead. Always a good start. Since the cards are meant to be used in sandbox style adventuring, the designers recommend drawing three cards and picking one that best fits as an adjacent region or continuation of a narration. 

(Draws three...)

The cards are titled "A Darker Path," "Radical Freedom," and "Rasekuhe." Cards 2 and 3 describe dwarven anarchists and a couple of farming and ranching communities, so the themes aren't particularly consistent with the original card. 

They Met At a Tavern: Deathbringer One-Shot

It's been a while since I ran a Meetup one-shot at the brewery. After all, my original series of one-shots morphed into a campaign, and I ceased the pickup games. But, I've been itching to both run games for strangers, as well as play a few other games on my shelves. So I posted up for a Deathbringer one-shot, and picked a few possible brief adventures from the files.

I ended up with four players: Elijah, Roy, Mark, and Alex. Elijah, Roy, and Mark had gamed together before. None had played the system before, although Elijah was a follower of Professor Dungeonmaster. I distributed the rules and character sheets, and did a quick run-through of chargen and the five player options. There was some negotiation on what characters everyone wanted to play, and we ended up with:

• Artemis, Scoundrel
• Vandal, Grimscribe
• Blog, Deathbringer
• "Johnathan," Plague Doctor

I had a few options to run, and picked "Requiem for Atticus Stumps," by Tim Shorts. Tim's dark and grotty Komor Forest fits with the esthetic of Deathbringer, and "Requiem" has flexibility to explore multiple small locations depending on playable time.

The gist is that the adventurers are asked by a pair of elderly locals to collect a "death coin" from a local barrow to inter with their old friend to help his soul's journey onward. And since the party consisted of two out-of-work ratcatchers, a ne'er-do-well with gambling debts, and a former militia medic with a bad healing track record, of course they said yes. Especially with the offer of being able to share in the funeral buffet.

Oh fun. I'm dropping them into barrows without a Witchfinder. Let's see how this goes...

Mini-Review: "Home" Sandbox Toolkit

Home: A Light in the Darkness, by Scott Wegener

Scott is also author of Glaive, a rules-lite OSR RPG built off the Knave chassis. I personally find Glaive to be a bit more readable variant of the two.

More importantly, Scott is also the artist on the long-running Atomic Robo comic, which if you haven't taken a look, I highly recommend.

Anyway, on to the actual topic of this review:

"Home" is a toolkit supplement designed to catalyse sandbox play by creating a base town with surrounding hexes, a threat on the horizon, a collection of resources, and a pathway for worldbuilding via play. 

This is a good tool for players and gamerunners who enjoy playing characters starting at the "you're a nobody from nowhere" style of play, as well as players who like their gameplay to have a direct and tangible effect on their world.

At the heart of the "Home" approach is the "steading" or base town. At the beginning of play, the steading is little more than a wide spot in the road, or clearing in the woods, with the characters as locals with itchy feet.

Review: "Arcane Tools, Treasures & Trinkets" by Timothy Dunham

Another recent supplement find: "Arcane Tools, Treasures & Trinkets" by Timothy Dunham.

The document clocks in at 71 pages, with 61 pages of item text, plus an index of items by category (armor, adventuring gear, summoning, etc.), and an art appendix for an illusion item. The publication is Pay What You Want ($2 suggested) for the bookmarked pdf. I sprung for the print on demand B&W softcover ($7 suggested price).

The content is 100 items, for the d100 aficionados in the crowd. Magic items range from minor one-use items to large, bulky items. All of the items are accompanied by an illustration, also by the author. Items are designed for OSR-adjacent games, but are loosely-described enough to be flexible for other game systems.

A few magic items are whimsical, such as the Scroll of Summon Feline (roll it out and a cat appears), or the Bee Holder Eye (a prosthetic eye containing a bumblebee).

Or this...

The majority of the items are useful, but not obviously overpowered: Cosy Bear Skin (a restful night's sleep, with the option to hibernate); Instant Rope Grubs (box of silkworms that manufacture 50' of rope in exchange for crushed gems); Imp Assistant (a box containing an imp in his library).

A number of items have the quality of benefit-with-cost, such as the Helm of Heavy Thoughts (18 INT, but you become morose and worrisome) or Elephant Stomach Belt (18 STR plus endurance, but your appetite increases considerably).

Take your gifts where you can get them....

I like that the majority of the items have a unique quality to them, and don't seem to be carbon copies from other similar publications. Similarly, the items are well thought out, and most have some practicality to them. They aren't weird for the sake of weird, for instance. There are certainly some of questionable value, but creative players may find a use under the appropriate circumstances. As the author notes on the backpiece, they wanted to provide items more interesting than another +1 sword.

I suspect one of my players may get this...

Like many supplements, I can see about 10% of the material having possible utility for my game, and modifying several more to match the tone or qualities for an adventure. Or at least to use them for inspiration for creating my own magical devices. No supplement is going to be universally useful, but we can pick and choose as we need, or build as needed. 

I definitely believe this is a good supplement of magic items, with a fine selection of readily useful material that can dropped into a loot pile for players to find creative uses for. I recommend that people take a look and find those items that suit their personal game. There is a lot to mine in this compact supplement.

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...

Review: Trilemma Adventures Compendium Bestiary

I followed Michael Prescott's blog during the G+ days (Note to self - restore blog onto reader feed). The guy has the one- to two-page adventure down to an art, with compact perspective maps, terse but flavorful descriptions and enough theme variety and weirdness to make them more than a bog-standard crawl (I mean, you have stuff like I write for that...). So when Michael Kickstarted a compendium of 48 of his blog/Patreon adventures, with expanded descriptions and supplemental material, I threw in my support. The product won multiple Ennies in 2020. I realize the book has been waiting quietly on my shelf, and I need to do another read-through to find some seeds and locales to borrow. I highly recommend it as a resource for drop-in locations and one-shots, as it is an overlooked gem and does not get mentioned enough when folks ask for one-shot materials. The compendium is available on DriveThru for those interested in perusing further. 

With the Kickstarter, I apparently received the companion bestiary as a pdf, which compiles all of the custom beasties and foes included in Michael's adventures. I had forgotten about this collection until I was recently procrastinating, err... reorganizing files... Scrolling through the pdf, I realized needed to order a print copy to pore through more closely, since dead-tree reading materials work best for me. 

Book in action. Note post-it bookmarks for future hijinks.

The book was immediately filled with bookmarks and notes made for both set-piece monsters and wandering encounters. Last week, my group made the acquaintance of a Chitin Drake while rescuing a wayward acolyte, defeating the creature after one PC was paralyzed, and a second char-broiled.

The book (B/X version) clocks in at around 150 pages, and contains 112 creatures to encounter. The range of foes is of the usual types, including beast, humanoid, undead, mechanical, and infernal (I think the only major category missing is the ooze/slime). Creature HD ranges from <1 to 20 (If you want to interact with a god-tortoise trundling along with a hive of giant wasps living in its shell).

Emperor Tortoise with tenants

The Black Labyrinth of Lord Greywulf - the party gets randomized

Okey dokey - Sunday again, folks, and we had a few repeat offenders, and a couple of new folks at the table.

• Jax, barbarian
• Fulvus, halfling
• Rondel, elf
• Mareth, another elf

and introducing:

• Skuli Bodvarsson, cleric
• Slick, thief (of course)

Skuli rocking his randomly-generated hairdo and 15 CHA

The party convened in Neuforde, with a wandering band of performers arriving in town to entertain and fleece the locals. I did this mostly to practice a bit of improv and to wait and see where the evening was going to go... 

Slick won a few gold in a game of chance, Rondel narrowly lost a knife-throwing contest, and Mareth and Skuli had their fortunes read by "Madame Grebe." Mareth also paid some good coin for "protective incense." Jax and Goober thought the whole affair was sketchy and gave the carnies a wide berth.

Slick also partook in a bit of five-finger discount work and garnered a few gold coins and "written directions to the Black Labyrinth of Lord Greywulf" (thank you, Donjon).

Well, I guess that's where we're going tonight...

<Pause for behind-the-curtains moment>

The Crypt of Olaf the Black, but it's JV West's "The Howler"

Whew, that was an interesting session.

Who showed up?

• Jax & Goober
• Frederick
• Fulvus
• Otto

and introducing:

• Mareth, an elf of uncertain provenance 

The party remained in Dawold, having a serious hangover breakfast of extraordinarily large omelets, when a longship docked, unloading its cargo, including a sodden, hungover elf. He said he was dropped into the ocean by a giant eagle, but his breath suggested otherwise.

Otto gave Mareth (as he introduced himself) the remainder of his breakfast, and the party recounted their prior adventure with the cult. The party bummed around town for a bit, getting more info on the collapsed, half-built tower.

At this point I laid out the regional map, as it is developing, with settlements, roads, rivers, and prior explored locations.

You are here

"Where do you want to go?"

Chris/Frederick, another avid note-taker, looked at his character sheet. "I'd like to ask around if anyone knows where the Crypt of Olaf the Black might be located." He recovered a map showing the rough location of the crypt in a past random loot draw, and had been holding onto it. 

Ok, you ask the village headman, since he's been here longest. The chap was not sure, but knew that there were numerous barrows in the forests to the west of town in an area conveniently not visited yet by the PCs. Word was that Olaf had been a magician who fell under a curse... 

And I had Howler, by J.V. West, prepped to run.

The party made their way west without much issue. Mareth asked Jax about nearly every plant they encountered, and its potential uses. (FYI, Mareth is the 2nd 6 CHA elf that has joined the roster of players. Our local elves are socially awkward weirdos). 

Anyway, they came upon some standing stones, possible tumulus' and barrows. As they were searching about, an inebriated ogre burst from the brush, yelled, "WOOHOO!" downed a bottle of whisky and hucked it at the party (it went wide). Jax, who took "Ogre" as their foreign language elective at Barbarian University, greeted the drunken fellow. Taken aback, the ogre ("Rorkker") exchanged slurred greetings and claimed that the party was in "his" forest. Otto, meaning to be hospitable, pulled out his own bottle, took a swig, and then tossed the remainder to the ogre. Rorkker downed it and yelled, "LET'S PARTY!" charging the PCs.

Dispatching The Serpent Cult -a play report & review

Back at it again, with a bonus episode of "What are the Adventurers Up To?"

Last night's cast:

• Bonk - fighter
• Stumbleduck - halfling
• Fulvus - another halfling
• Tylenol - cleric, w/ henchman cleric
• Frederick - thief
• Jax/Goober - dynamic duo
• Otto - a new fighter and former merc in town

They started out in town, with a 'favor' asked of them by the local halfling contingent. Would they be so kind as to deliver a wedding gift to port, so that it could be shipped across the inland sea in time for a cousin's fete?

Seemed simple enough, and favors are a good(?) thing. The gift was contained in a heavy iron lockbox. Oh, and drop it off at the dock in Dawold. Because we don't want to pay port fees. Yeah, that's it...

Halflings apparently take their wedding gifts very seriously.

The party reached Dawold without incident, or giant frog attacks. They did check in on their bandit pals along the coast road, chipped in a bit for the local road improvement fund, and learned that a couple of the bandits' number had been lured away by a sketchy priest, some snake cult or something...

They were greeted at the settlement's entrance by the local priest, who did not seem her usual cheery self. She told of a lost fishing boat, and odd individuals lurking around town, setting the locals on edge. She pointed the party to the Smolcic clan, who ran the local dock and several fishing boats, for more information. 

The party met Andre Smolcic, and handed off the wedding gift for transfer. They asked after the occurrences, and Smolcic confirmed that a fishing boat and its crew had been lost, including a cousin. The boat had been found with claw and chemical burn marks down the coast. That said, Smolcic pulled aside a fishing net to reveal a crate of huge blue eggs. These had been found on the beach, and the fishermen were hoping to sell them to recoup the loss of the boat. And yes, they do make an impressive omelet.

About this time, the party notices three hooded figures accosting a local. Confronting the three, the party asked their business, and were given a line regarding the worship "Uma'Kai" who their leader had released from her slumber. Stumbleduck asked several pointed questions and I had to see how many ways could I say it was a hydra without saying it was a hydra... 

source

It's a A Very Wyvern Thanksgiving, Halfling Brown (plus a bonus review of The Crimson Monastery by Dawnfist Games).

Well met.... 

Back at the Brewery, we meet our erstwhile heroes. 

Since it had been a minute since we had played, I pulled a Gary G and treated the real-time break as equivalent game-world time. What was everyone doing over the last couple of weeks?

• Bonk, fighter, had befriended the local fisherman and was abusing his magic trident in spearing carp
• Tylenol, cleric, had been proselytizing at the inn, drinking and gathering souls 
• Jax, barbarian, had been wandering the woods, collecting plants and snooping about caves
• Rondel, elf, had been transcribing found spells into his spellbook (his charmed chaos acolyte saved out of the charm, but chose to stick around, as Tylenol has been missioning hard to convert him) 
• Frederick, thief, showed up late to the session after attending local gladiatorial matches
• and the party was joined by Feef, halfling, who had escaped a bad family reunion elsewhere... She was taken in by the local halflings, who appear to be a different kind of "family"

I was reminded that I'd forgotten to gift Feef with headgear, and she rolled up a spiffy crusader helm to match her plate armor.

just imagine a fire hydrant creeping through the woods

I was up for some lighter adventuring, and described a beast having preyed on the local goatherd's sheep. With some description, it was found to not be the resident giant eagle, but a wyvern. The party made some plans to counter the dangerous beast, and got a sense of which direction the beast had come from. Assuming that it laired in a cave, the party hoped to either corner or trap it to rob it of flight. 

Departing after Brother Tylenol's morning prayers, the party headed to the woods. I'd made a quick d6 tracking game for the party's search. By rolls, the party first spotted the flyer, then heard its call. Knowing that they were nearing the lair, Jax poked ahead to some previously-known caves, spotting rotting detritus and bones (Goober rolled in it, of course). 

While Bonk and Tylenol scrambled above the cave with a weighted net, Rondel, Fred and Feef crept inside, hoping to spot the beast (determined to be sleeping off its latest kill). Jax held back, readying her bow. After a couple of rounds of creeping, the trio woke the thing and ran in terror as the result of the creature's horrific scream (failed saves). 

Taking the three fleeing PCs to be a sign, Tylenol rolled boulders (missed) and Bonk threw his net (partial success). The net was enough to ensnare a wing, but the beast was likely to escape soon. Jax took the initiative to rush the tangled beast and attempt to better tangle it up. Winning initiative, she was able to get the net around the animal's head. The wyvern exchanged blows, striking the barbarian with a venomous claw. Jax rolled away, digging in her pack for her anti-venom plant poultice. 

Feef hit the thing with a javelin, as Tylenol rolled another stone (miss). Bonk leapt from the cave mouth, spearing the wyvern, and ending up on a monster's back for the second time. Frederick, still shaken, sent his shot wide, and Rondel rolled a nat 20. I use the ASSH variable damage critical hits. The damn elf rolled x3 damage and maxed rolled damage. Headshot...