Current Campagn Log

Currently, my Exilon campaign focuses on war and party as great heroes are able to go in ahead and wreck enemy commanders and their bases. Currently, players have helped various alliances to help the war efforts by bringing peace. If all goes to plan the United city-states will be able to wage war on possibly three great empires. Don't worry about the later-era maps having more water here.

The adventurers are currently part of a collective invasion force on the cities ruled by necromancers since the age of stone. These death templars have magic descended from the prehuman monster empire in the age of darkness/ The party have managed to have a few neighbouring nations stop fighting and help out as everyone hated death magic and the Templars. The party have been talking to every dragon they meet and helping them relate in the dragon lands so even the dragon kingdom likes the party and might help out with some air power. The party are currently attacking behind lines the home of some eldritch prehistoric wizard they don't know much about but people assume is a lich-lord (they are wrong it's worse). As the lair is on another plane divination research has been tricky.

Most of these armies are new and the Alliance city-states still operate huge militias the great empires abandoned. They preferred operating professional troops and disarming their population. Each army has been assembled just for this invasion. 

The sea nation army has arrived with a new chariot corp built by a player's efforts replacing the clunky old battlewagons pulled by donkeys or oxen. Usually, fight around waterways and coasts and their marines are out of place but their magicians and engineers have been known to cause floods in the war. The Sea nation was most ready for war due to a prophecy the players fulfilled and have lots of medium infantry and spearmen in blue and green colours.

The Snake Nation army is famous for their serpentine brass battle horns and use of treachery and cunning and even poison as tactics. Most of their army are light spearmen and slingers many of who have bought pet snakes and their priests may have giant snakes and snake hybrids. They also got on well with the dragon lands and never had any conflict with them. They also seem to have used faerie tactics like altering landforms and planting forests overnight. Their army is well-fed and mostly in green colours. Not well known for pitched battles and half the army are lightly armed irregular skirmishers.

The solar army has shiny brass banners and coatings on their shields and armour and looks quite dazzling in the high sun. Famous for phalanxes and a large light chariot corp pulled by mostly Konga. Many priests and nobles have lions and cheetahs and spotted leopards and eagles as war beasts. They are infamously disciplined and perform well vs the undead due to the priesthood of the sun. Surprisingly many women in uniform due to the more violent Ishtar cults.

The Storm lands are constantly at war with the barbarian borderlands and the only ally with a border touching the death templars lands. They have a disciplined modern corp at the heart of the army but most are clan-organised barbarian tribes who are irregular and disorganised and keen on battle, The leaders have to struggle with communications and use chariots (more like battle donkey wagons) for this. Many of the tribal heroes have chariots pulled by unusual prehistoric animals like brontotherium. They have proven better than expected with siege warfare with the use of hastily built siege weapons pulled by colossal beasts. Most of the army wear red somewhere and have their own shield and helmet designs, though many are horned.

The barbarians of the waste overlap with the Storm lands and have lots in common despite the civilization-tainted rulers. Mostly irregular hordes of willing but chaotic armies operating in clan units and infamous for poor planning. Many more do not use metal but will strip armour and weapons from enemies and use them as they go. Some leaders and heroes use chariots but are seldom used for fighting in groups mostly for taunting and chasing demoralised enemies. They hope to help exterminate the last of the legacy of the old evil empires and destroy all the wizards and civilised relics they can find. Many will become tainted by civilised weapons and pleasures and join the Storm army.

The hills on the eastern border have become rapidly overgrown with new forests accelerated naturally by fairies and elves. They have also allowed reptilians to pass the great forest and reach the Templar lands as they have ancient grudges and ancient reptilian undead they want to be destroyed. They have many small slingers, thousands of spearmen and dinosaur riders. Goblinoids constantly swarm over the borders also to plunder and uproot the stelae and borderstones of the death cult lands. They also act as skirmishers for fairies and elves. A few goblins are joining the templars and preferring death gods to worshiping their nature cult oppressors. 

Tyraneans are a new kingdom uniting many barbarians and the royalty seek more arts of civilisation and trade for goods and experts with the city states. As players made peace between Reptilians and Tyraneans there are several legions of disciplined soldiers and irregular barbarian hordes still clinging to the old ways. Mostly they wear brown and their cults include earth death and storm cults. They have a notoriously pessimistic and gloomy outlook and expect everyone to betray them still and their attempts to be civilised to be sabotaged.

Kutha is the capital of the Death Templars and is recognisable as a city of living people under work the fields and perform basic millitary functions. Necromancers and various death cults here draw power from the underworld via a sacred cavern under the twin Zigguratt of Nergal and Erishkigal. The city is surrounded by necropolis burial grounds thousands of years old and provides armies with reinforcements. As various kingdoms of darkness have fallen around the world many have had remnants come here to operate fortresses now guarding Kutha,

Nakba is a fortress temple dedicated to shadows and darkness of the underworld and its leaders employ nightmare creatures and shades. All the population have been made into zombies and barbarians are wary of this place. 

Negatha is a fortress temple dedicated to Nergal in his panther form and the priests and nobility include were panthers. Panther-headed clubs are common side arms and they prefer capturing enemies for devouring and bloody sacrifices.

Assus is a fortress ruled by witches and hags, who keep vast treasures and knowledge in their underworld temples. They are keeping Tyraneans at the border in narrow valleys.

Ulan is a fortress of bloody berserker cults waging war with reptilians

Renak is ruled by witches serving the queen of the night in her screech owl aspect. Many leading women in this cult are were owls or command giant owls or stirge owl swarms. They have been waging war with faerie who threaten to smother their region in vegetation.

Karna is a city of vampires currently under siege from the Sea and Serpent nations. They have trapped vampires within an irrigation trench of holy water and it is considered a matter of time the net is drawn and vampires will lose their last nation.

Cugel is a necropolis where armies of undead and trolls and giants come from. The planar palace of an elder wizard from the start of the necromancer kingdom millennium ago. Many assume they are a lich or some worse monster now. There seems to be nothing but a ruined necropolis around a mausoleum here and the party is currently trying to kill the master of this place. Vast numbers of trolls are being bred here and acting as shields for the master.

Currently, the hope is the Allied city-states will defeat their enemy fortresses and be able to capture Kutha first. The dragons may help as they hate undead dragon cults surviving still in Kutha. The city-states could also bring in the Amazon army and a Sythron horde now that the Dragon lands are considered no hostile.

Apparently, another evil empire of devil cults to the west are trying to get near the action and failing. Two southern empires and their barbarian allies are trying to get to the current battlefield and may arrive vs the barbarian wastes. An attempt to march through the great faerie and elf forests failed badly and resulted in the forest encroaching their lands more.

Im hoping on wrapping this up within a few sessions but it could go into battling some gods and empires later. I am keen to run some SF horror with BRP for a bit.

Strange Stars SF RPG Set-up

Having a go at a SF horror rpg using stuff from my Elfmaids & Octopi Space book which I partly recapped here recently with some scenario fragments. 

I will partly cover my preferred SF RPGs I cand Bend to SF Horror in my style. I freely admit I only have run 3 games since 1983 (ok a few star frontiers and gammaworld and top secret/SI too but mostly during 80s). TSR Marvel, Retro D&D and BRP (Cthulhu/Ringworld). There are games that I have and read and steal from which will be included here. Mothership isn't one of them. I think it is pretty, simple and probably good for short games but I find it pricey and lacking some grit I like and. Mostly mechanic novelties don't really excite me at all. I like BRP because its easier to scare ppl with violence and it is never 100% safe and has good detail for minor to lethal injuries and body part loss (cyborg or biological replacements possible). Space archaeology would be one of my favourite things and I hate heists and every employer betrays you tropes.

Character Gen

                        Terra       Luna       Venus       Mars        Belt
d12 random     1-6          7             8              9              10-12                           
Strength           2d6+6    2d6+4      2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+4 
Dexterity           2d6+6    2d4+12    2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+9
Intelligence       2d6+6    2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+6  
Constitution      2d6+6    2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+6       

Appearance      2d6+6    2d6+6      2d6+9      2d6+6      2d6+6  

Power               2d6+6    2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+6
Size                  2d6+6    2d6+4      2d6+6      2d6+6      2d6+4      

Education         2d6+9    2d6+9      2d6+6      2d6+9      2d6+6  

These might end up with their own character sheets and skill bases

Terra is dominated by AI after an apocalyptic war and everyone is working on great space habitats, reclaiming Earth and preparing for 1 km-long colony ships for one-way trips to the stars. Terran people live in ultra-dense mile-high structures and most of the planet is managed wilderness. Terrans tend to go along with their ai model advisors who most of the time know best. All kinds of medical health problems have been eliminated by genetics. Most people live in confined utopias and have entertainment or busywork to occupy them provided by machines. Many works on a team surveilling a wild animal or small ecosystem or operating orbital construction drones or studying or making culture.

Mars is where the Sol system security forces are based and are involved in controlling assets in the middle and outer system and squashing rebellions, piracy, smuggling and other crime. Martians are disciplined and serious and their AI are always seeking threats. Everyone on Mars has a job and nobody gets to be idle.

Luna settlers or Selenites and their AI are idealistic, cooperative and peace-seeking. Most are involved in mining and construction and building orbital habitats and new asteroid colonies. Luna has the most advanced medical facilities and schools.

Venusians live in their cloud cities and orbitals and refinery complexes in relatively automated luxury. They are notoriously lazy, indolent and pleasure-seeking. Their automatons do most work and deal with the troubles of outsiders. 

Belters colonised the middle and outer system and are more independent and prefer dumber machines that are less friendly.  Belters are more loose and multidisciplinary due to small crew ships and isolation. They are more chaotic and have more freedom. They are less surveilled and catalogued by inner system AI. All kinds of malcontents and separatists have settled on asteroids and worked for supplies that need from the inner worlds. New moon colonies might mean independence. Many belters work on the colony ships and some are included in crews. Many hope that they can build their own colony ships or even move whole asteroid colonies to form independent allied regions.

Currently, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have workers from everywhere but may end up with their own specialists one day. These will be where most adventurers live.

No aliens or evidence of them has been discovered. Government and AI think labs are not so sure and looking for exotic objects and building huge deep-space observation arrays. There were humanoid animal hybrids and androids after the apocalypse but they are rare now and in isolated places forgotten by most people. Some factions of habitats have modified themselves to be more distinctive with new colours of human skin never seen in nature. Gene mods to survive extremes of gravity have been common off Terra for generations. Clones and androids have been used by militant separatists in habitats and have been destroyed. People are wary of this technology in the hands of extremists. AI are commonplace as are functional dumb drones, humanoid and functional form robots and biomechanical androids all are common. Androids are mostly frowned on as subversive and for deception. Some machines have holographic interface personas to be more communicative or appealing.

Starting Space Service Careers Training EDUx20 points
or use specific example careers coming up

1 Millitary - millitary ship crew including marines and space fleet 
2 Security - law and intelligence forces focused on non-military threats to public
3 Technical - repairs, construction, maintenance and everyday technology operations 
4 Engineering - specialist technologist and applied sciences development

5 Medicine - health and welfare systems and support services
6 Exploration - navigators and scouts who go in first in exploration teams 

7 Biological - life support, food production, cloning, terraforming sciences
8 Commerce - merchant ship crews and logistics, distribution of goods 
9 Information - data management specialists, planning, AI relations
10 Media - pop celebrities, entertainers, reporters, pundits  
11 Academic - scholars specialising in off-world research & education
12 Government - civil administration & management

There is definitely no 13th-service group
it's just a rumour spread by paranoid malcontent cults

These careers are also built into clone banks and are castes of the AI-controlled society for Terrans and the colony generation ships in construction. Androids and clones may be produced as adults with these career groups.

Starting Interests INTx5 points

Additional skills of your choice to give you some personality or some other skill you have chosen to learn that might not be on your personal record. Perhaps athletics or some branch of knowledge like some criminal skills. Interpersonal skills always make life easier.

Starting Gear
Everyone will have a basic Smartsuit gained during their career with service patches possibly removed and one spare outfit and personal grooming bag. The smart suit will have standard mods for your career. Also, choose one extra item from the GM and can negotiate this in secret away from other players. 

Ongoing Themes
Humans are on the cusp of diversifying as colony ships will be separate branches of humanity for possibly centuries. At this office, there is no evidence of alien life above the bacterium yet found in space. Many are still looking and claim to have found unusual objects and evidence of other life in the solar system in secret. Some claim that governments operate secret zones to contain alien artefacts. Mostly crazed old space hobos talk about this stuff when high in spaceports. No sensible person who wants a good psyche evaluation for promotion would talk about this stuff. Your AI councillor will most likely dissuade you from this line of inquiry.

The Inner system doesn't really use money and people live well but often meaninglessly. Outer systems out of AI control and used trade for basic resources which gives them the illusion of independence and free will. Inners will complain about conditions like unclean boring confined spaces and bad food. Outers will enjoy all these features as proof of their freedom. Martians enjoy minimal rationed luxury and mostly serve the greater enterprise of the Mars colony. Crime is more rampant in the outer system and inter-colony struggles over resources or ideology. Starting your own habitat colony or adopting a prebuilt hab somewhere isn't too hard. Databases are less consistent and coms access time lags are worse. 

The background of huge colony ships should be everywhere. Components structures and materials everywhere are being assembled for this wonder of the age. It is hoped once the first ships make it more will follow and more people dream of leaving Sol. Many of the malcontents of the belt started as outcast communities and many would appreciate a colony ship. Stealing plans, copying parts or hijacking might all be options. The first ship is a few years away but more than 20 are planned and some with capacity to deploy more than one colony. Popular media talks of speculative colony enterprises frequently its the spirit of the age. Aliens are not in people's imaginations.

Background Options
Everyone can choose to draw one secret background option card at the start of play and do this before making their character. Your secret may inform your character's choices or interests. Players should keep their secrets and only see the card they have. I may employ a card system to help players as the game will be deadly like my old SF game. 

d12 Option Card (soft option here only)
1 Gene-mod - from a separatist nationalist organisation +3 on one stat 21 max, often has cosmetic features like skin colour or even animal features to be distinct, considered a freak by most people

2 Mind Wipe - from medical or government authority +2d4 Sanity and +2d6 Psychology skill after time in a facility. You probably don't want to know what you knew

3 Cult Survivor - family were connected to a strange cult you escaped before the inner mysteries revealed to you +3d6 Occult skill. The cult has become more secretive and occasionally contacts you

4 Syndicate - criminal cartel gives you delivery jobs and occasionally false ID papers and data, they know everyone you ever loved +3d6 Streetwise skill and a minor illegal implant or smart suit mod for moving data or criminal activity like an electronic lockpick

5 Veteran - you've seen lots of death you automatically make sanity checks from human death, gore and massacres from normal explainable causes like violence or accidents

6 Amphibian - gene modded for high G, pressure and to breathe the liquid atmosphere of high G acceleration patrol and emergency vessels. You are even slightly more vacuum-resistant and you have 1AP from your tough skin and 10AP vs cold

7 Clone Corp - your not special and if killed your replacement can step in with different interest skills and otherwise the same as all your line. Most people prefer to not know

8 Agent - secretly you serve a security organisation as part of an investigation, if needed a backup personality can step in in times of crisis that is temporarily immune to shock

9 Replicant - android agent of security AI gathering intel but you don't consciously think about it unless you are compromised and your backup personality can kick in to clean up loose ends

10 Seventh Sense - sometimes get strange feelings of some secret danger but nothing has ever come of it so far. Pow as % chance of detecting unnatural threats or life-threatening danger for one magic point per check improves as a skill

11 Witness - you saw something unexplainable outside in space where nothing should live, someone died and you said nothing because nobody would believe you -d4 SAN +2d6% Spot and +2d6 Occult skill. Your a bit more open to wild stories

12 Conspiracy - may be watching you, all you know is they have agents in all sorts of places warning you and making trouble because they know you know. You're not really sure what they are up to or what you're supposed to know +2d6 Listen +2d6 Occult

I would use a much meaner table for a one-off or con game

Players might want to have a mixed team or might all be military-security or criminal or all be outer system inhabitants which makes adventure opportunities easier. It is possible anyone could end up criminal and any criminal might be recruited by force or extortion into black ops. My intention is when a era has had its drama potential used up will have a skip in time (frozen, clones, FTL mishaps). 

d100 Missions from the Frog Queen + Old Frog Posts List

The frog Queen is a minor water divinity and faerie who may appear among colonies of frog folk, toadlings or other amphibians to temporarily guide and protect them. Local amphibians will of course temporarily cede all rulership to her. Occasionally a frog priest might object but she usually explains she will chat to their deity in person again soon and tell some story about how tight they are. Some say she is the mother of various frog petty gods. She has her own special priorities and not being eaten or killed is fairly high. 

Frog folk are very interested in prisoners and will often present them to their bosses who will continue gifting them higher until you meet the monarch or petty god ruling them. If you don't kill too many frogs they might enter into diplomacy. Maybe they will demand compensation. They might insist you do a quest for the money or accept debt to be paid off in mercenary work. They might want your followers as hostages. Overall they are quite negotiable but they might feed you to some pet colossal pit toad pit or small elder god if their generous offers are accepted. Throwing you to the maggot pits is the biggest insult. Frogfolk like to dwell in swamps where humans and other humanoids may not even put up with ancient evils and malignant land spirits. Bards are very popular to frogs and will often place prisoners into a play-or-die music contest with a frog bard.

Maybe a quick Frog Comp Book Needed
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2017/04/d100-magic-frogs-for-village-frog-shop.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/11/chambers-of-frog-council.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-war-against-amphibians-part-1.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-war-against-amphibians-part-2.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-war-against-amphibians-part-3.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/04/gone-to-frogs-1-rewards-from-frog.html
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/04/gone-to-frogs-1-d12-mysterious-frog.html
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/12/top-12-anuran-wizards-up-to-no-good.html
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/10/d100-frog-folk-gossip.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2013/03/time-of-frog-lords.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2013/03/petty-relics-for-my-petty-gods.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/10/trap-toads.html
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2019/09/treasure-frogs.html
not including SF post apoc cane toads

d12 Frogfolk Settlement Type
1 Camp for nomadic stoneage frog folk, leaving few traces often don't use even fire, often use ambush, persistence hunting, poison darts and arrows and slings and javelins and clubs, a few have hunting animals like a pack of hunting frogs or even riding larger dumb frogs
2 Village simple frog folk, with bug farms, irrigation, pottery, woven houses on huge reed rafts, shrine, hall and a boss shack and a blacksmith who works bog-iron. Will have all kinds of prehistoric and magical pets and giant bugs for livestock
3 Town of Frogfolk with more permanent structures possibly wood or thorn hedges and stonewalls. More speciality crafters and equivalent to modern humans with even similar armour and weapons of the region (night prefer fancier ancient ones).  Often have secret catacombs or caves with flooded mazes as well as a temple
4 Castle of Frogfolk is a fortified multi-storey citadel possibly hidden or overgrown with vines and slime and looking like a hill in the distance. A noble ruler and their elite noble mounted warriors rule and rule the region with a chapel and the most advanced frog millitary technology. Some are run down, grimy and corrupt others are clean and posh and courtly
5 Frog Cult Centre is built around a monument like a stone circle, earth mound, statue, cave sanctuary, monolith, pyramid, ziggurat, crashed spaceship or whatever depending on local frog folk tech. They might even adopt an older monument or guard one (like the bug and worm gods who need repressing)
6 Frog City is a sprawling walled metropolis with a standing army, navy, wizards school and a spectacular religious precinct. Impressive harbours and engineering features control flooding which they can use defensively to trap or destroy invaders

d12 Amphibian Folk - d3 type per community
1-4 Small Amphibian 3-4 foot tall froglings, toadlings or most commonly froglings (reskin halflings or gnomes)

5-10 Large Amphibian  5-7 foot tall frog folk or toad or newt or salamander folk (abhumans reskin)

11 Amphibian Spirit Folk are able to change from human to amphibian or in between, all use magic and usually similar fashion and material culture of humans. They often act as intermediaries between humans and other amphibian kingdoms (spirit folk)
12 Giant Amphibian 6-26 foot tall often more primitive, possibly treated from birth to be guardians by church or in times of war or just rare mutants

d12 Amphibian Type
1-2 Salamanders and Newts - various types possibly with crests and piebald patterns and bright stripes. Some have huge heads and some ancients had boomerang-shaped heads. Brighter colours more poisonous. Prehistoric salt dwellers are possible also. They predate anurans or tailless amphibians
3 Aquatic Salamanders - have gills and reclaimed ancient waters including axolotls and olm. They cannot survive on land but some turn into salamanders to travel or colonise new waters
4 Caecilians - snakelike burrowing amphibians as animals are like snakes and worms. Have smaller limbs and a more noodly body and prefer life underground
5 Aquatic Anuran - spends most time in water preferring to exit in emergencies or ambush
6-8 Ground Anuran - like to wallow for hours but many dwell on land near water and hunt on land and water 

9 Tree Anuran - climbing arboreal frog folk who like tree houses and flooded forests and jungles. Some have suckers others rely on terrain. Can be friendly some smaller colourful ones are poisonous
10-12 Burrowing anuran - burrowing frogs or slightly tougher and more resilient toads. Burrowers might even live in deserts with wells and seasonal yearly rain or less. Not so good in water and poor climbers but try. Grumps often round and may sit in a hole for weeks eating or sleeping

d12 Fancy Amphibian Arts
1 Bug farming so efficient giant swarms constantly around the community and frees snacks

2 Domesticated bugs and worms so common they are everywhere and perform various labour-saving tasks for owners

3 Bog-iron smiths can make rust-free iron but requires a yearly treatment in a crucial with a rare formula, metal goods are superior for those of their technology and might include crossbows and muskets with slightly superior mechanisms

4 Fungus Farmers who often employ goblins and grow crops of fungus for their bugs and even may grow mushroom houses and use fungi creatures as guardians and make magic fungi potions  

5 Worm Farmers grow vast pits and dams squirming with worms, caterpillars, and grubs and will even use giant ones as defence or for labour

6 Devout priesthood with many shrines and may call on the holy magic often
7 Arcane amphibians have many wizards and alchemists among them and will have unusual pets often cross-bred with planar beings mutated or surgically altered. They keep vast libraries of prehuman books and magic

8 Chaos amphibians are the more desperate kind who seek fecundity and power and gain mutations and dabble with daimons of the outer void. They will have hybrid cults with local humans as agents. They may commune with frog daimons from primal disorder

9 Elementalist amphibians of sorcerous bloodlines who have bred with elemental kindred long ago giving their clan additional powers and elemental oaths. Will have various elemental hybrids

10 Druidic Amphibians have thriving farms and many giant pets including insects and animals. They may also have vast areas of modified land with dangerous vegetation and creatures as defences and they may even have living houses

11 Faerie Amphibians allies with fey and elf kind and goblinoids and some of the less horrible trolls. Often have allies and faerie and sylvan creatures and elves among them. Many more amphibian changelings among them can live among amphibians folk or among human mortals in secret. May be bright or dark fey depending on amphibians' alignment  

12 Great merchants who can trade and bargain for independence and their larger communities have merchants with many local hidden folk will use or even operate shops. They are more culturally diverse and open-minded, d4+2 x10% = number of non-amphibians here. Amphibians might even employ some other species for warfare often lizard folk with giant war turtles. Others might recruit or even make some orcs with forbidden old magic. Other species here take specific jobs they are famous for like dwarf crafters or an elf herb shop. The good amphibians will be altruistic the naughty kind are more corrupt and slimy merchants who abuse the rules and offer credit deals and indentured servitude  

d12 Fancy Amphibian Comunity Features
1 Great frog-sphynx statue which also has a temple inside for strange mysteries

2 Spectacular Domed frog council chamber with incredible acoustics for quarelsome amphibian parliement and councils. Also used for singing most nights of the week. Each councilmember has own bath and the main floor is often a communal pool which is filled from the VIP pools above through a fountain mechanism (magic or mechanical)

3 Huge memorial fountain with multiple statues dedicated to gods or ancestors or famous rulers 

4 Great Bath House - both a huge public bath but has a noble and a merchant and a pleb class of common pools. There are also private breeding pools where spawn is whisked away to the communal creche or even assigned to families who require someone to take on their skills for retirement and work in family trade

5 Great Garden with lots of water features, pool and streams and is used for communal orgies during certain moon festivals. Some of the plants are narcotic and harvested and sold as addictive swamp weed and frog grog to human amphibian cults

6 Breat Bug Battle Dome where amphibians bring their insectoid and arachnid pets fight for glory and honour and gambling and drinking. Often very noisy when operating. May also be used for intruders or criminals. Volunteers may bet they survive and make money as a bug gladiators. Some arenas can be flooded and filled with booby traps baited with weapons for battle royale events. The more evil the community the nastier and filthier and sader it is. The good battlebug fans always heal their bugs and consider it combat training and don't feed losers to their other bugs like greedy trainers 

7 Great Amphitheatre for theatre and orators to debate political stuff and philosophy. Very noisy many nights and being drunk here is frowned on. There are artworks dedicated to past speakers and actors and writers carved in relief on the walls that amphibian thespians will talk about for hours  and even drop some poems they wrote about them 

8 Great hall for communal feasts where the ruler has a special seat always vacant for them but most comes for festivals or for political clout. Every night drunk amphibians here roar and gorge on bugs and beer. In the morning it all the vomit, poop and dead bugs gets cleaned up by a trained swarm and then fed to poor amphibians or prisoners 

9 Opera Hall where high art narrative operas, solo concerts, choral groups and bards perform here with wonderful indoor acoustics and lavish carvings of great fables and performers of old. VIP get private baths overlooking the stage 

10 Museum of amphibian civilisation with great petrified monsters found in swamps, fragments of elder gods relics, blasphemous books, weird swamp folk idols, cursed tablets, weird art and other stuff is kept on displayed and studied by amphibian priests and wizards. There are displays and timelines of amphibian history that puts their age as the peak of the universe and now everything sucks mostly now. They like to explain everything through this lens of their own superiority and how actually they invented everything on land first

11 Amphibian Creche where druids and priests care for babies in this holy place and identify the tadpoles best suited for certain trades and send them off to proper families. The commoners get to be labourers and soldiers. The facility could produce thousands if frog folk if needed and they had the food supply. Some send out tadpoles to colonise areas or swap them with other amphibian tribes to get some specialist abilities. Evil amphibians may eat or abandon children or even rescue abandoned ones to start a gang or a cult

12 Pyramid or Ziggurut overgrown, crumbling and most of it has sunk over aeons. Locals regarded as holy and proof they were the dominant power of old. Local stone masons move blocks and cut stone with help of giant bugs some that spit acid or work a saw. They build lesser monuments to more recent rulers in a vast sunken necropolis with prehistoric undead and giant bugs and worms

Frog folk excel at irrigation, terrace gardens, aquaculture, aquatic engineering and moving large things on boats. They grow plants to feed the bugs they eat and to attract bugs. They cultivate fungus forests, carnivorous plants and certain monsters on their land. This features in their myths and land claims. Long ago frogfolk battled and subjugated the bugs and worms who ruled before the first sunrise. They have waged war on reptilians and fisherfolk but have also been allies vs humans or goblinoids. Sometimes they are thralls of some other species. Snake and crocodile folk are less keen on than draconic or lizard or turtle folk. Bird folk are unpopular also and often fight ratfolk in sewers. They can recover huge losses from very few if they need to and sometimes when get hungry invade outsiders. In prehistory, more amphibian folk were salt tolerant and dominated coasts also and some might still live but they will more likely be salamander types. Quests like these would also be given to amphibian knights at Castle Frog and all lawful good chivalrous amphibians live by this code made by Queen Uula when amphibians ruled the world.

d12 Frog Quest Rewards
1 Barrel of finest frog grog and a case of swamp weed cigars and dozens of wicker baskets with a fortune in delicious live bugs from ruler's own stash

2 Marriage to one of the amphibian ruler's children "cementing our family forever"

3 A small estate with a family of 25 amphibian bug farmers growing one giant bug species with a contract to the crown worth 100gp a year. Most are just tasty bugs but also for war or industry

4 Chest with a dozen water-breathing potions and a potion of water elemental control

5 Passport to Frogland or key to gates of frog town or equivalent amphibian relics

6 Knighted as heroes of frog land and offered some swampland on the human frontier to protect for the crown as bottom-tier landowners

7 Offered to come to your aid with amphibian soldiers. If you can give them 4 years and arms and food they could raise a huge army but a squad or some war frog handlers in the meantime can come to your aid in the swap when you blow this croak whistle 

8 Your very own warfrog tadpoles 2d4 will survive in a year to become frogs than a year to grow to human-sized toothed carnivorous frog that is quite a wolf like and pack hunt. Amphibians pize them for hunting or demoralising enemies. There are giant prehistoric newts some even salt water possible too

9 Guargantuan frog tadpole that in a d+1 years will be able to swallow a human whole when full grown. Great guards of treasure or a moat and eat giant rats, birds, stray dogs or anything. Poor sight so may nip owners up close

10 Seal of the amphibian monarch all amphibians will respect or at least let you live as hostages or maybe even help you

11 Riding frog and harness, very uncomfortable without training but can jump and climb and swim but not great endurance can also bite and kick

12 Offer to turn you into frog folk where you will be at the monarchs hand and treated as heroes and can have thousands of children to anoint your grave shrines forever. It will be awesome. Its a secret method and amphibians may be offended if humans reject gift

Frog merchants Units
1cp = 1 kilo crude bog iron = a one or two "hand" bug or grub up to 1kg
1sp = 1 kilo refined bog iron = basket of bugs or grubs or several 3 "hand" bugs up to 10kg
3cp for a draught of frog grog 
(-d3 Dex and +d4 HP, skin turns green long term use, lasts d4 hours addictive) 
4cp for seven swamp weed nuggets for a pipe or two pre-rolled cigars
(+10 foot for one jump, causes warts long term -1CHA, lasts d4 hours addictive)
clay pipe 2cp wood pipe 4cp brass pipe 1sp
Amphibians like to buy human food and farm leftovers for bug food  
Pack Snails are slow but sure steeds and turtles are popular for leisure or war
Giant salamanders. frogs and toads are all used but limited by climate, jumping amphibians not so good for wagons or carts. Giant beetles are popular also and giant dragonflies are the most popular flying mounts 

d12 Amphibian Punishments
1 Thrown to the maggot pits to feed grubs

2 Thrown to toil in the bug farm pits

3 Made to herd insects on a bug farm

4 Made to nurse giant beetle larvae and provide for them

5 Made to rake muck and effluent to fertilize crops for bugs to eat

6 Cursed to be mute until forgiven (frog has your voice)

7 Cursed to be unable to swim or float

8 Cursed to only crave live bugs and worms and mice for food

9 Cursed to slowly turn into a frog over a d4 days

10 Fed to a giant amphibian guardian or sacred animal

11 Sold to another unknown abhuman beast folk or species

12 Forced to do a quest

d10 Quick Quest Types
1 Protect the waterways

2 Protect the food 

3 Capture possibly delicious rare bug

4 Make a treaty for amphibians 
5 Recover missing goods or kin

6 Investigate a dangerous location

7 Defend amphibians from other peoples

8 Defend amphibians from monsters

9 Plunder this dungeon

10 Stop an ancient evil of the swamp

d100 Missions from the Frog Queen
01 Pirates have a base in the area attacking aquatic travellers and attracting soldiers to area and need to be removed

02 Bandits have a base near water and amphibian spies have been watching their patters, go rob them blind and recover the goods

03 An alchemist or tannery or dyer is polluting some water make them stop or drive them away

04 Several evil human fishers poison amphibians for bait and need to be stopped forever

05 A human necromancer has occupied a tomb and letting zombies loose and graverobbing please kill them and cover it in water or burn it 

06 Human effluent is spreading in water and doesn't have the advanced biological refining that amphibians use in their sewerage works to farm bugs. Teach the humans amphibian ways or stop them polluting the water

07 Humans draining wetlands stop them with sabotage or violence

08 A dangerous infection of oozes and jellies needs containing

09 A dangerous giant fish is damaging frog marine engineering project

10 Dozens of human corpses washing from upstream and seems odd so investigate this
11 A giant non-amphibian animal reading our bug farms so stop it 

12 Herds of mammals have been ravaging the crops we feed our precious bugs with so stop them

13 Help the maggot farmers in need of labour to deliver grub shipments

14 Help hunt dangerous giant wild bugs for the community for food or domestication

15 A giant snapping turtle is raiding our bug farm and now its eating workers kill or capture it

16 Giant ants are raiding our maggot farm, go find their nest and kill their queen

17 Our bug farm has a mite infestation help clear out this menace and pick them off our precious bugs

18 Help bug farmers move their hordes to another amphibian settlement

19 Capture us some goblins to toil on our bug farms and muckraking, humans would do I suppose (maybe you can buy some from a prison warden)

20 These giant maggots lost their parents and you must raise them to adult form as bug nannies 

21 Dig in the mountains for giant rhinoceros beetle larvae

22 Trap some giant flt maggots with bait and bring them back

23 Giant predatory insectoids have got under the bug paddocks and snatched farmers' insects

24 Giant dragonfly larvae are required for the new frog army flying corp

25 A new breed of tasty bite-size bugs has been discovered go study their life cycle and habits and return with specimens

26 Rescue a prize farm beetle that has gone wild it has features a frog can easily identify but humans might struggle with

27 A dinosaur corpse has giant grubs eating it of an unknown type go fetch these creatures for our top bug-druids to study

28 A beloved pet golden beetle has been stolen by an escaped goblin servant and a royal family member is quite miffy

29 Fetch us baby giant bees gorged on royal jelly please, you can keep the magic honey

30 Another frog nation has selfishly kept a plant and a delicious bug to themselves as trade leverage please get us plants and the grubs
31 Amphibians require guards for ambassadors visiting rival amphibians

32 Go contact the serpent people and give their ruler this letter, if they disrespect you feel free to do as you please

33 Go visit the swamp hag and demand she leaves or hands over her treasure for the frog crawn treasury

34 Gather taxes from a recalcitrant noble, payment in bugs is acceptable

35 Contact the fish folk and negotiate a meeting for delegates tp discuss local aquatic matters

36 Visit the humans to negotiate sales for bog iron in return for tools and weapons

37 Meet these crimelords and give them samples of frog grog and swamp weed and let them know we have more. Some humans enjoy them and officials trying to stop these new vices from spreading

38 VIsit local human nobles and inform them of the proper borders of the wetlands where amphibians rules

39 Halflings and storks have a peace treaty so the frog crown needs you to deliver this treaty to the fish, snake, rat and eel folk of the area and any other interested parties will gain a bonus

40 Deliver these gifts to the faerie king and queen to affirm our ancient alliance

41 An evil wizard has kidnapped lots of tadpoles and needs to be punished and the tadpoles returned to safety before he makes frog demons or whatever

42 One of the royal youths lost a crystal orb used in the frog folk coronation ceremonies that must be recovered from the gambling den the prince lost it in

43 Someone has kidnapped Jonny Hopper the petty god frog Lothario trickster. The frog gods say we must send him aid. Possibly he was up to antics in human form in town again go get him

44 A portrait of an ancient frog monarch on a shield has been seen in a dungeon complex, hop over and ask the dungeon boss to hand it over, please

45 A blasphemous manual of the elder frog god of madness has been stolen by cultists from the frog monastery on nightmare island. Go kill the cult and return the book, don't peek at its mind-shattering secrets of wickedness and nightmares

46 A royal prince and princess of different factions have eloped and must be returned for the sake of peace, don't listen to their sob story about true love

47 A frog knight went on a quest to meet the green man of the woods and has not been seen please bring them home they have hundreds of children who miss them

48 A frog traitor ran away some years ago with their mate into a crack in the earth and now it seems they have been breeding an albino cannibal amphibian army, go capture the leaders so we can peacefully absorb these poor pallid fools

49 The crazed frog jester was playing with a magic item they ought not to and was kidnapped by bandits. Go get the jester and the item

50 The frog royals are competing with visiting cousins in a scavenger hunt outside the wetlands and frogs require a team to do a bunch of small fetch quests pronto
51 A scary-looking cave is a lair of an amphibian-eating monster please go identify and if you stop it you'll get a treatise

52 A frog has discovered an underwater cave that looks frightening take these water-breathing potions and investigate and eliminate any vermin or nasty monsters  

53 A spirit being has built a shack and looks quite scary will you go and check

54 A creepy old tomb has undead coming from it often could you please find out why

55 A partly sunken ruined castle has some frightening noises coming from within and may be haunted, please be certain of the nature of this supernatural unpleasantness

56 A sunken temple in a lake has been exposed after the last floods and tadpoles say they have seen spooky shadows inside please make it safe

57 An angry nature spirit guards a branch of the creek and has been stopping people use it go find out what the trouble is and appease the angry spirit being

58 A flooded old barrow has been exposed you can find it as it is a small muddy hill with humanoid bones everywhere. Please investigate if there is any shiny treasure or horrible undead monsters to be found

59 A gigantic old hollow tree has been used as a watch tower and home for wetland friends but some magical grumpy old person has evicted all the dead trees inhabitants go see what is this mortal or creature

60 A recent flood had damaged an ancient tomb, go mudlarking and find us pretty baubles and gold and magic and watch out for tomb inhabitants they can be irksome
61 Local humans are poisoning water and trying to drive out amphibians and need to be stopped and punished. Local druids and other swamp peoples glad to help

62 A swamp gang of human scum have occupied an old semi-sunken village and have eaten several frog folk please get rid of these human outlaws and your welcome to the reward the humans offer for them dead or alive

63 Orcs have been raiding us help defend us then following them and hunting many down so they dare not come back. Kill their heroes and leaders if possible

64 A snake man sorcerer has a cult of lizardfolk from eggs they stole and raised and now they have attacked precious amphibian bug supplies and must be hunted and destroyed

65 A human cult of cannibals in the swamp will eat amphibian folk also and give the swamp a bad name. Go finish off these swamp scum who worship bad spirits

66 A tribe of goblins have moved in and are not the nice ones. They have attacked us and are fortifying their new village with a wall. Stop this wall by any means

67 Swamp kobolds have been raiding bug farms and need to be stopped, find out what they are up to, they seem to have occupied that old dragon lair that has been empty for decades. If any dragons wake up party will be blamed and told to fix but may keep treasure

68 Some fiendish race has been tunnelling up from the Underland draining away water and snatching some amphibian folk go stop this

69 A tribe of new abhumans in the area are hostile to our kind and murdering and eating us. They seek to replace us and need to be dealt with. They are some kind of disgusting hairy mammal people

70 A tribe of insect folk in the area luring our bugs away from our farms with phenomes, go stop them robbing us and seize the means they control our bugs
71 A dragon has attacked us and eaten some of us and we need you to go stop it

72 Some alchemical effluent from a wizard tower has produced a behemoth tentacled frog monstrosity that the wizard now uses to protect his tower built with magic rapidly recently. Go stop the pollution and the mutagens from spreading 

73 A giant snapping turtle attacked our fishing nets - go finish it and bring the body back for a feast

74 A giant stork was made by a witch and it has killed and eaten a few frog folk

75 A siren has been seducing young frog Romeos and is making them into an army, stop her

76 An undead wandering bog mummy has been lurking in the fringes of Frogtown and needs to be eliminated

77 A pack of dimetrodon has been roaming the wetlands and is a hazard to amphibians and anyone made of meat to stop them

78 An allosaurus has been guarding a ruin and possibly snake folk wizards are up to something to destroy 

79 Crocodilians are thriving at the expense of lovable giant salamanders, go cull a tenth of all adult crocodilians

80 An ancient mutated fish folk chaos wizard and his gaggle of chaos freaks have been wandering amphibian territory and need to be destroyed or driven into somewhere we don't like
81 Find the frog monarch sceptre held by a gang in a dungeon complex in the swamp

82 Go into the worm pit tunnels and recover a frog knights sword stolen by disgusting lamprey folk chaos cultists

83 Go into the dungeon of an evil wizard and take back the monarch's seal he took from out ambassador. Kill as many of the wizards minions and cause as much damage as possible

84 Go to the tomb of a master thief full of traps and recover the eye of our beloved frog idol the thief stole. They got the other one back recently

85 Go to the ruins of marsh island and stop the cult there from releasing mutagen and obviously trying to build a chaos army

86 The old reptilian temple ruins have become lair of some reptilian wizard vampire please go and finish this creature and your are welcome to its treasure

87 A rival frog heretic cult is summoning frog chaos daimons into our world and must be stopped before they start getting the more powerful ones through of open a portal allowing their free passage. Go to the old mines they have set up in

88 The top of an ancient stone building has been exposed and an entrance found, go make a map bring us the greatest treasure you find

89 A complex of basalt and black glass of the old ones has many strange monsters and relics of alien magic, go there and recover some interesting relics to satisfy our curiosity

90 A tomb of a chaos frog god cultist apparently has a relic inside the monarch requires 
91 Go to the stronghold of the evil swamp spirit and destroy the sanctuary and dark druids who dwell there. Defile and destroy their relics and monuments and free their captives

92 An ancient portal to the outer darkness is being dug up in the swamp and needs to be stopped d4 1=necromancers and zombies 2=serpent folk wizard and hybrid cultists 3=reptilians with pet dinosaurs 4=chaos cultists with demonic servitors
93 An evil fish folk cult has been operating a temple in the swamp and trying to establish a hybrid colony near the humans

94 A serpent wizard has made zombies dig up a pre-human ruin from the age of darkness please stop this cult from being revived as they enslave amphibians and reptilians before

95 Cultists are sacrificing victims to the forbidden ruins to contact the otherworldly horrors that lurk there. The slime-filled pit contains some vast machine powered by imprisoned slime gods

96 Outsider beings from beyond have crashed their void chariot into the swamp and are building something, best they all be destroyed for everybody's sake asthey should not walk the mortal world

97 A fabulous amphibian statue has been found and we would like it moved to the royal palace, please fetch it and never mind the smaller backward amphibians who think the monolith is sacred or warn you about releasing old ones

98 Clay tablets from a prehuman civilisation have been discovered by an amphibian wizard. They need guards to help workers gather these priceless books of blasphemous lore from the age nightmares ruled the world

99 Human swamp folk who killed a species of small amphibians have since been cursed by ghosts and monsters and they are willing to send gifts to appease amphibian gods and ancestors. To help our delegates get the best deal preferably allowing amphibians to open shops and trade without tax or something good or vast sums of cash. Aid the amphibian exorcist to make sure we really can appease these spirits

100 A horrible slimy ruin of the old ones is guarded by bog mummies who were all murdered treasure hunters. Some say a dangerous being is trapped within some cults believe helping release the being will receive wishes. Go and drive away this new generation of dangerous cultists

Planetary Remnants

Living intelligent life has left evidence on multiple worlds. At first, this was exciting but now it is dangerous, classified and handled by specialists. Digging the sites of aliens is potentially profitable but is highly illegal without registration and another red tape. All alien remains are to be reported and left alone. Xeno-archaeological expeditions include millitary and security forces and are prepared to destroy findings.

These are for visiting systems of main star lanes and exploration

d12 Alien Remnants
1 Evidence of FTL light-related events in the system from unknown vessels or phenomena, various unidentified and ghost signals detected

2 Discover a dormant probe, if disturbed it sends a signal and sef destructs

3 Ancient remains of an advanced base and possible signs of modified lifeforms

4 Ancient remains of a civilisation destroyed by nuclear war millennia ago

5 Remains of a lost human colony seemingly abandoned or occupants taken, a guardian has been left behind to kill visitors and alert creators that life has returned

6 Alien wrecked vessels detected but it difficult to access d6 1=in comet tail 2=in corona of the sun 3=in atmosphere of gas giant 4=appears and disappears 5=visually sighted no trace on scanners 6=moves well away from any attempt to approach

7 Alien wreck badly damaged but alien materials, no sign of survivors d4 1=if reactivated sends a signal 2=SOS signal but has a dangerous biological weapon or intelligence possibly a trap 3=dangerous alien automaton 4=alien corpse and technology remain

8 Remains of primitive civilisation left great ruined monuments but seem to have ended suddenly, possibly surviving relatives of the missing species live near

9 Beacon sends a signal if detects advanced FTL era technology, will attempt to identify and possibly dissect intruders but avoid capture

10 Bioweapon here designed to target intruding visiting life forms turning them into hostile plague carrier monsters d4 1=canibalistic undead 2=thralls of parasitic worms or virus 3=parasitic insectoids use medium animal hosts 4=mutagenic agent turns victims to hostile tentacled amorphous flesh horrors  

11 Species left here is a living bioweapon able to combat the heaviest human power infantry d4 1=baited with SOS signal 2=baited with ruined structure 3=wreck of the vessel previously landed here and occupants killed leaving killers species dormant here 4=huge artificial mound

12 Stasis box or cryonic vault of an advanced species guarded by advanced AI defences

d12 Colonial Remnants
1 Wrecked long lost space vessel or ships boat of the early colonist era, possible evidence of landing sight and survivors for a few generations d4 1=automated miner 2=colony 3=scout 4=automated science vessel 

2 Colony of abhuman servants of long gone failed colonists living in pre-spacefaring age

3 Module of a colony ship in orbit and crashed lander on the planet, signs of some survivors lived in ruins for generations 
4 Orbital stations were built in part from the colony module and remains of a colony and outposts on the planet
5 Machines built a colony here and awaited settler arrival who never made it
6 Remains of a refuelling operation d4 1=gas giant orbital 2=ice mine 3=aquatic refinery platform 4=lunar mining base
7 Savage regressed colonists in tribal groups waging war, some protect sacred wrecks or colony structures
8 Hostile colonists live around holy complexes of hostile cults who teach outsiders are enemies, often have modified selves to stand out or adapt to planet, little technology survived or is possibly forbidden
9 Collapsed colony wiped out by war and disease and leaving colony structures behind? Or did the colonists find something?
10 Remains of a colony long-abandoned currently occupied by scavengers or pirates d4 1=origional colonists are feral 2=native or alien species live in tribes near pre-human ruins 3=activated an alien bioweapons or signal device recently 4=backwards survivors are slaves for advanced scavenger occupation
11 Collapsed colony broken by civil war and AI and auto factories destroyed dropping technology to pre-spaceflight levels and remaining barbarians feud between factions
12 Functioning industrial colony with in-system mining ships and outposts. AI and auto factory complexes still functioning

Any alien devices sending signals will probably have an advanced scout drone arrive. Will assume any advanced species are enemies, seek to capture and study an alien and leave. It may leave bioweapons or grow biological troops or a brain and some automatons behind to gather intelligence or terrorise unfamiliar life. Turning humans into monsters or using human brains in machines can save using their own technology. Possibly at least one elder species prefers biological tech while another is more technological with robots and cyborgs. Making a parasite that can infiltrate a population to spread disease or gather data might be a possible threat. Advanced aliens encountered most likely just servants and drones. Real ones may be long gone or far away. 

Grime & Glory Edition of my homebrew in the works

this art by my robo-art-robber-app will be my next game character

my current game is Lv14 so prepping for the next overhaul of the system

1 gain +1 attribute point per level
It is more fun, and makes every level cooler
i have managed to have people have low stats fine - this means when you're beating up the kobold god in a portal at 20th level you have at least one demigod-like attribute

also changing the stat bonus table so all in blocks of 3 which makes high stats slightly worse off but is less arbitrary number ranges 9-12 + 0 13-15 +1 16-18 +2 etc. Makes high stats from monsters and demigods more manageable and maths easier and more consistent and offsets slightly the stat per level thing. I like the BX era ranges but the later version i disliked for some dumb old man reason.

2 Halfling Revision
I'd like to change up halflings to represent any small sneaky species without spells. If you want a more magical small person use a gnome. Will be a kit to make goblins, house trolls, or any animal folk with -ling as a suffix. Like ratling, calling, dogling, frogling, newtling, also shroomlings and bushings. Reconceptualise them anyway. 

So to compete in the woke arms race what if I renamed Halfling? what sounds possible? a few thoughts before i start my next gamebook draft

Also, I want it to be re-skinnable into a variety of small sneaky tough people like small animal people or goblins or barn trolls

Gamin is one option - origin implies thieving and is used to refer to street urchins, mischievous, thieving, small person or child, sneaky (has a male bias, unfortunately, but word origin not so much)

Hauflin is just a Scottish term for a tween rural youth which I like

Wee folk or small seems a bit twee and like they are urinal sprites or something

I like a squat but maybe that has issues and maybe 40k drama and a bit mean
Runt i like but as a word mongrel in gaming is probably a bit too mean also.
Something not used to be a slur or in a schoolyard by jerks is probably preferable

Mannequin comes from the French word mannequin, which had acquired the meaning "an artist's jointed model", which in turn came from the Flemish word manneken, meaning "little man, figurine" (too gendered? too mean?)
Manneken sort of interesting (Mannakin? Mannaken?)

Gamin and Mannakin kinda my favorite

Reskins/subclasses could include stuff like
Barn and stove trolls or goblins or small orcs

plus any short furries you can conceive
modelling or moleskin
ratling or catkin
frogling or frogkin
duckling or duckkin

I think many of these species would think human terms for them were a bit mean or patronising. So naming your own species is ok and there can be dozens of types of catkin people if you want (make adorable followers). These people probably don't want to be hugged by giant people or held like babies or patronised (or do they? Do they hold up their arms and want to be picked up to steal your earrings). Maybe such people are underdogs facing human oppression and abuse so they are tough and sneaky by necessity. Maybe there could be more halfling berserkers. Or I just accept it as one of those traditions so parts of the game are FRPG standard and I'm overthinking the problem ideas of a short-person class.

In my system, you can change classes even species-based ones. A halfling could become a druid and later a thief if they don't want to max out in halfling stuff or even change their species if they really want to in their heart become an orc so they can marry their sweetheart. 

FRPG species Height
Gnome* 2 foot - magic tough sneaky
Halfling* 3 foot - tough sneaky 
Dwarf* 4 foot - broad muscular tough
Elf* 4-7 foot - scrawny sneaky magic
Humans* 5-6 foot - vary
Abhuman 7-8 foot - muscular tough
Giant 7-27 foot - muscular tough

3 Alignment, Oaths & Religion
All be merged into one system. Added possibility of oaths to gain income. Eventually, a sheet for main alignments, elementals, religions, dragonology and major gods will exist. Maybe a book of oaths and boons of major gods. I have done a few of these and ones for AI gods in my post-apoc setting. Its probably the biggest weirdest element of my basic rules and it might be able to be bolted on other old-school games. I could see a page per alignment or cult happening. A bit more streamlined than dcc or mcc. Income in gold is possible for oaths as well 

4 Tiers of power
Used to measure broad benefits of levels. You might pull above your entitlement which can happen but expect to butt heads with people who don't think you're good enough. I'd like to mechanically use this also but uncertain now. Will use it to class monsters like say dragons and adventures. At the 20th level, you are in danger of apotheosis which can be fatal if it doesn't go right or raise you to divinity. Some adventurers will do things to avoid this like changing class. I've considered some skills available at higher tiers. Magic item tables too set to this. Maybe even in spell descriptions, like spell affects lower tier. 

d100 Famous city wonders in the age of bronze

 So most cities have a famous attraction and wonder to impress other civilisations and shame lesser cities lacking in wonders. Building one puts your city on the map attracting pilgrims and trade. Just hope tourists don't take over and stay.

Consider a wonder will be something the city is famous for and may be part of its title like Melkathor the dreaming city of the gilded ziggurat. 

I did this to help generate some cities faster for sat game.

d10 Famous city wonders in the age of bronze
1 Defence

2 Temple 

3 Tomb

4 Knowledge 

5 Resources

6 Leisure

7 Reputation

8 Curses

9 Perils

10 Cosmic

d100 Famous city wonders in the age of bronze
01 Vast walls surround the city with massive gates, each with a name and spectacular relief art. Chariots can drive side by side or even race

02 Walls around town but also enclose large areas around the city enclosing fields and strategic choke points vs invaders

03 Famous unbreachable gate dedicated to city gods with spectacular art and shrines built-in, includes a famous professional road for parades and festivals

04 Spectacular tall towers around the city for defence each with a name 

05 City built on an ancient mound raising it above the plane, possibly built on an ancient earthwork fort or just thousands of years of urbanisation 

06 A huge fortified citadel complex inside the walls incorporating various important buildings

07 City located in a secure location like a mountain valley, canyon or in a river bend  

08 Great moat, artificial lakes or ditch surrounds the city limiting access to walls

09 Walls built on vast mounds with a 40-degree slope making it difficult for enemies to reach walls and increasing the height 

10 A colossal statue in a prominent location like a harbour or gates of a patron god, monster or heroic age semi-divine ruler. Some say these constructions can come to life to defend the city but nobody living has seen this. Includes a dedicated temple
11 Mighty Ziggurat complex towering over the city dedicated to the city patron god, a mountainous temple built in an earlier age when wages were lower. Used for important festivals, coronations and other events. Some say the gods visit the temple chamber on the top. The best rulers can now do is repair and maintain this wonder 

12 Complex of several ziggurats often of related gods with the city patron god

13 Huge sacred temple precinct with thousands of clergy, a city within a city

14 Has hundreds of temples and thousands of shrines in the city famous for recognising many gods and eager to build more if they discover a new one

15 District for divination with many specific shrines specialising in varieties of divination including a cave of crack where fumes from the underworld can induce visions or even death. Famous as a place for pilgrims even foreign rulers visit and make donations

16 Huge temples with vast vows of huge pillars and a gigantic statue of divinity, some have various wonderous features like treasures, magical effects 

17 A popular beast cult or beast form of a divinity or pet of a god is popular here and there are temples, shrines and idols everywhere. Examples of the creatures are common in art and sacred ones live in certain temples. If possible locals love these animals and many live in the city area a vast graveyard for these animals has people from many lands sending their dead animals here to be buried 

18 Temple dedicated to a wonderous relic linked to a deity of hero, pilgrims visit and hope to touch or kiss the relic but access is strictly controlled. The relic is used for city ceremonies and has rarely leaves the temple

19 Temple dedicated to the place where a famous mythic event happened or deity or servants made contact with mortals

20 Spectacular temple carved from a single vast rock covered with religious relief art of mythical scenes, a popular place for pilgrims and to take children to teach about the faith. May even be a vast statue with a temple inside

21 Vast necropolis of tombs for all classes, guarded and often haunted by night near city with tunnels and secret passages 

22 A temple of the underworld gods claims to have a gate to the underworld and attracts burials from many lands believing this location makes the journey of the dead less 

23 Enormous mausoleum dedicated to a powerful personality of city history 

24 Pyramid tomb or other vast stone tomb close to city that is so vast it will outlast the city

25 Vast burial catacombs used for thousands of years, some areas have entrances to temples and shrines 

26 Tombs of dozens of ancient rulers, surface ones often looted but many more underground. Often guarded and has active funerary temples. Many visible surface tombs have a shrine chamber for visitor offerings 

27 Huge underground chasm with hundreds of tombs carved into the rock with limited access from a temple and limited access for commoners

28 Hills riddled with cave tombs used for centuries, often sealed with boulders

29 Vast marble tomb of famous beauty with gardens and water features and a temple of caretakers. Interiors are sealed and filled with deadly traps maintained by magic and priesthood

30 Underground maze tomb complex with deadly guardians that devour thieves or criminals cast into it, a great treasure crypt in the centre of famous ancient hero, wizard or king
31 Famous library with scribes, scholars and vart archives

32 Museum of ancient artefacts and objects of previous civilisations and legendary rulers reigns

33 School or academy, a famous place of learning for scribes and spreading literacy

34 Great courthouse of ancient legal records, many court chambers and copies of the old laws handed down by the gods. A great statue of a king or god of law will be a feature

35 Great school of healing arts with famous teachers helping city health

36 School of magic teaching spell casters the art and science of magical theory and lore

37 Seminary for priests and missionaries to spread civilisation and city influence

38 Alchemical school and a factory making potions and magical constructs and magic items 

39 Managerie or zoo for exotic animals and monsters for study and to ogle 

40 Great garden complex with many courtyards, statues, water features and a building for herbalists and plant experts and priests even druids

41 Famous underground cisterns and wells provide the city with water even in a siege

42 Vast granaries for food storage for famine or resisting sieges for years, some may be part of tomb or temple complexes and only accessed in the worst of times

43 Fortified harbour for sea or river trade or linked by canal to river. May have vast chains or gates to keep out enemy marines and boats. Many large docks possibly with buildings for boats to dock inside

44 Lighthouse or beacon tower visible from a vast distance to guide travellers

45 Famous orchards sacred to cults with walls and a temple providing sacred fruit trees and vines

46 Vast famous market with goods from far away lands

47 Aquaduct or canal delivers water and goods to the city and within it

48 Great forge where hundreds of craftsmen work and experiment with new alloys and making the finest arms and armour and attracting famous smiths

49 Famous breweries or wineries with vast warehouses and vats and influence over regional farms

50 Great clay pits for famous pottery and bricks or a quarry of famous stone for sculptures and important buildings
51 Great arena where spectacles of sport or bloody battle and other games are waged with humans and beasts

52 Race track for contests of riding beasts and chariots, often various teams divide the city and losers or even winners sometimes riot

53 Great amphitheatre for performances where famous playrights and actors work

54 Hundreds of impressive stone and bronze statues and industry of artists

55 Famous redlight district of vice where even the temples participate in providing beer and   famous crime guilds have influence over the region

56 A great bathhouse complex with vast luxurious pools for all classes and people with shrines and religious areas for initiations and purification

57 Splendid park with beautiful gardens, water features and courtyards with tame animals, areas for free citizens and nobles only to enjoy

58 Gymnasium complex where locals train and compete in athletics. The locals enjoy physical culture and enjoy exercise more than other cities, with many artworks celebrating athletes

59 Vast feasting halls for regular great celebrations and events, the locals are famous hosts 

60 Perfumed gardens a famous redlight district with temples of love and carefully tended narcotic flowers. From the gardens come famous scented oils and unguents 
61 Warrior spirit of the city full of art depicting war and full of barracks. Civilians are well-trained and support city millitary adventures

62 Famed for first post-diluvian human kings and used as a model of ideas of kingship and justice

63 Famous kings or hero came from here and their image appears in art and rulers evoke this mighty hero often. Kings often visit here as part of their coronation rituals and empire builders crave the city for legitimacy

64 Famed for diplomacy and peace and often hosts peace treaty meetings and negotiates the end of wars. City has defences but other cities will defend this vital neutral meeting place

65 CIty holy and many religions come here as a pilgrimage and cities even send statues of their gods here to meet other gods

66 Famous for welcoming barbarians and settling them in their outlying areas and civilising them Have many barbarian shrines and artworks and vast herds of livestock and a fearsome reputation in war. Often the ruling dynasty changes every 3 generations 

67 Famous for its famous family of gods who are portrayed as a family and attracts many pilgrims of those gods and industries favoured by these gods. Often a leader god and their consort and children

68 Famous for favouring a single god above all others and the things that god prefers. Maybe shrines to other gods and the lead god's servants and family. Followers of that god consider it holy but other religions feel re[pressed and the mono cult to have gone too far  

69 Blessed by earth goddesses and the people, animals and fields are fecund. The city trades excess food and has helped repopulate devastating cities

70 Famous dynasty is descended from a mighty hero or deity and the population include some mighty heroes with a fragment of this ancestors power
71 Bloodthirsty and cruel traditions like mass sacrifices, cruel executions, abused prisoners of war and the gods of this city are portrayed more blood thirsty and hideously fearsome aspects

72 City under the influence of ancient undead wizards from the age of forbidden magic and human rulers live in fear. Conquerors have left this city alone for aeons

73  Remnants of active prehuman religion, either side by side with other modern gods or many hidden cults of the dark gods and demons thrive here

74 Prone to famine and disease every few generations, a punishment of the gods for some act in the past

75 City worships the worst aspects of the gods of death and the underworld and is infamously gloomy and dispairing. The death templars control the population with terror and wage war against the gods of light and life

76 City is conquered every generation and rulers are slaughtered due to angering the gods, peoples poverty increases each generation

77 CIty is slowly sinking into boggy soil or sand and seems to be doomed due to angering the gods, degenerate cults thrive and accelerate this  

78 When the city was built a prehuman city nearby was destroyed and its people were killed. This angered the god of these people who seeks to get revenge. Inhuman ghosts dwell in the ruins and around the city by night making travelling evenings dangerous

79 City is attacked each generation by a titanic behemoth monster that causes great damage and kills thousands of people each time, otherwise, it is hidden and asleep

80 Citizens revolt every generation, butchering their nobles and anyone else they want to dispose of. The crown employs brutal executions and secret police but these don't seem to calm the people down. Many attributes this to a curse of a mighty priest
81 Dungeon complex full of perils and danger where contestants enter to compete for fame and honours. Great treasures are placed within and survivors are showered in gifts

82 Labyrinthe where sacrifices are hurled in to appease the beast within, if they can't find volunteers they use criminals or prisoners of war or 

83 Great caverns beneath the city where creatures occasionally come from. Secret shrines and temples of known gods and strange cults are built here and occasionally vast hordes of cannibalistic humanoids of the deep boil up from here

84 A gate to the underworld here shrouded in poisonous fog and protected by temples, priests exposing themselves to limited fumes have esoteric visions. An ancient hero once passed the fumes and the gate and returned

85 A ruined mound remains of a much older civilisation with various entrances but haunted. May even have some other great structure built on top

86 Catacombs beneath crawling with the dead only used by cults and criminals to move around

87 CIty has temples and shrines and art dedicated to dreams and divination. Some say the city dreams sometimes enter the waking world and vice versa

88 City is full of prehuman idols, shrines and buildings from some non-human species that have remained incorporated into the modern city. Many long sealed chambers, tunnels and relics from this past. Fish folk, reptilians or frog folk common

89 City is close to a vast ancient ruin with a thriving industry that plunders the old city. Gold, idols, artworks, treasure and even bricks and stones can be seen all over the modern city. Many adventurers and grave robbers dwell here

90 CIty full of crime, cults and warren-like streets of gang wars. Non-human shapeshifters have infiltrated the nobility to exploit the people and plunder the city's wealth
91 The city is visited often by many petty gods and immortals and many have shrines
92 A deity has been known to manifest here several times and there are locations pilgrims visit to see the remaining presence of the gods, there are footprints and other miraculous sites 

93 Once the city was mostly destroyed by a fireball from the sky from an angry god

94 city has a significant non-human population and their strange gods or versions of gods are commonplace. One species or several

95 City is dominated by a near human or non human species, humans might be an pressed minority or the ruling clan are nonhuman 

96 The ruler literally meets an avatar of the god yearly in the high temple yearly in a secret chamber for several days as part of a huge famous new year festival

97 CIty has a guargantual monster imprisones, asleep or just remains of in the city that people build on and around or is possibly worshipped or exploited

98 City crawling with wizards, summoned planar entities, buildings and walls of bronze and other evidence of spells in use are commonplace. Some buildings might even levitate or some other wonder

99 Remnants of the prehuman age are imprisoned under the city and exploited by rulers, don't pity them as they once pressed the whole world and blotted out the sun

100 CIty famous for spirits and has thousands of shrines, local shaman, medeums and spiritualists and excorcits are commonplace