Barking Alien Challenge day9: Whos In Charge Here? + Con Stuff

Rulers of the Continent
Most rulers of high level are on the verge of demigodhood at 20th Level. The fallen emperor was the closest of them all.

Lamnutainia - Current;y Govenor Parthas Gloryhand has been appointed caretaker by the Light Templars of Dormund. It is intended a King will be selected. Lord Parthas is a strict paladin and has mobilised excorcists and inquisitors to root out the false sun cult and hidden darkness templars. He is considered fair and just, and people have hope again. Some resist her reign so he is busy dealing with heretics. Adventurers are appearing here as if the land was some frontier hellhole. Parthas a 20th Lv Templar, just wants peace so he can retire.

Dormund - the holy Hierophant and grand master of the Templars Julianna Anatharax, is an officious lawmaker concerned with maintaining the Templar Kingdom and now Lamnutainia. The church appreciates her, but commoners find her distant. Many commoners have icons and shrines dedicated to her they pray to for her health. Julianna, a 20th Lv Priest, just wants stability and the rule of law to bring peace.

Kastria - Caroline Ortega the 7th, current queen lives a life of pleasure with her proud family ina great sprawling palace. Knights and local orders attend her with gifts and tournaments. She is fickle and feared and more cunning than people expect. She has plans, including paying a fleet of exploratory ships to trade with other continents. Her ships have conflicted with Shadelport Pirates so she has employed former pirates to run her navy. A university and huge cathedral the civilised gods are recent projects. She has ignored stories of frontier cults and knightly orders going strange as long as she gets her taxes. She is a 20th level Sorceress. She gives some public lip service to the church of Light but thinks it leans too close to the emperor and foriegn control. She has restored the civilised gods of the second empire and the old nature gods have returned.

Aeostra - King Gilberto Korbermore, seized the throne from a weak vassal of the Emperor and proceeded to destroy the church of Light. The King has encouraged the ancient gods to thrive and brought in barbarian priests and druids. New idols and temples are built daily to the myriad of great and small gods. The church of light gods are found here among the others but not unified or linked to the Templar kingdom. Gilberto is young and vigorous and has a reputation as a womaniser with over a hundred bastard children. The king has personally gone to fight on his frontier and claim new territories as a 20th Lv Warrior. He has better relations with barbarians and faerie folk than other rulers.

Tulan - King Derek Morganstern is a militaristic despot obsessed with war. He keeps his lands fortified and ready for action. He has many powerful barons who want his title, and he has to be wary of traitors. The kingdom has begun menacing Valadran next door with raids and robber knights. The real enemy if the troll mountains where seasonal hordes of monsters raid civilisation. The King knows there is the remains of an extinct high troll city in the mountains and sends adventurers there to see if they can find a way to stop the degenerate troll fiends. a 20th Lv Warrior with a strong cadre of spies, secret police and elite knights. The old nature sky gods have thrived here and consider the light church subordinate.

Valadran - Currently ther is no ruler her as it in a state of collapse. Slavers took over the government briefly and went bankrupt from their land distribution chain being destroyed. Currently local warlords and robberknights rule by force and commoners are demoralised and fleeing. Many warlords claim desire to be crowned but it is unlikley. Criminal guilds have stepped in to control cities and trade. Churches of all colours fight and compete. Most nobles persecute the church of light as a threat to theior power.

Zorda - A council of wizards and a council of dragons meet in a great council chamber to debate various matters. It is slow-moving and incomprehensible but has been stable for centuries. When they do act it is with fabulous magic. Currently lord Zoltar Morgtar if the high wizard in charge of foreign affairs, who deals with outsiders. He was formerly a teacher at a university operated by dragons. He would prefer Zorda return to global affairs. He has considered seizing Chagrinspire or taking Forbidden Island to control the rival dragon spawning pits that lead to hell. He has an interest in the magic technology of CHagrinspire and hopes it can be used for global domination. Most wizards seem bored with these ideas and just want drugs and a life of pleasant illusions.

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Con Stuff

For goat quest i generated a cultist farm, a monster lair in a cave, a ruined alchemist tower, an old mill, a tavern used by criminals, a witch house, a ruined castle used by criminals, and a faerie wood. I made a simple crossroad village map of Scumwad, a town of mostly pious farmers and some crafters.

Local Problems
1 Monsters dancing on rooftops at night (satyr and blackmailed a satyr for help)
2 Some occasional goblin raiders from the faerie woods or hills
3 Someone has been burning crops and a few sheds
4 Sulphurous poop has been left around the village (centigoat)
5 Centigoat has been trying to summon chaos demons to mate with
6 A ghoul goat sneaks into the graveyard at night for snacks
7 Magic cow stolen by cultist farmers
8 Several people have disappeared
8 Bandits living in the area hurting trade

9 Degenerate Gallows Farm folk make the town cringe
10 Sheriff in next town hard to reach so local angry mob is ready instead
11 Alchemical waste spreading to moors by river from the old tower

12 Witch has cursed some people but they deserved it

d12 Exploring Hexes
1 Animal lair in a cave

2 Grave

3 Pond

4 Creek

5 Ruins

6 Dolmen

7 Alchemist waste

8 Goat hoof prints

9 Haunted shack

10 Hermit camp

11 Cult ceremonial ground and altar
12 Camp used by d4 1=bandits 2=hunters 3=cult 4=flagelants

 
d12 Day Encounters

1 Wild dog

2 Village idiot

3 Local dogs

4 Goblin

5 Lone bandit

6 Farmers with a wagon

7 Goatherder with flock

8 Drunken youths

9 Hunter

10 Local children

11 Elf spy

12 Satyr - wants booze or loving, goats or humans, any gender fine, has lost his instruments to the farm slime god cult

d12 Night

1 Two cultists on way to ritual or seek a sacrifice

2 Wolf

3 Bandit on way to tavern

4 Drunks on way home

5 Cats hunting

6 Were rat pervert who spies on goats by day

7 Owl

8 Bats

9 Ghoul goat!

10 Witch

11 Spectral phantom or shadow

12 Centigoat & satyr dancing on rooftops

Gallows Farm - local cult village
1x male and female elders
8x children - mostly play with pigs in the mud and neglected
6xyouths
1x adult male "Daddy"
5x women. Daddys wives

Notes 
1 Shack for ritual slaughter and cannibalism
2 Old house, a mess 
3 Shrine of a demon slime god
4 Stick idol of the centigoat who they fear and revere
5 Hundreds of bottles in piles
6 Mud pool for pet pigs who occasionally eat someone
7 Kids also hunt squirrels and copy what their parents do to strangers on them
8 Women making possum pie and pickled intestines currently
9 Menfolk skinning and hacking up corpses
10 Plants are ill-kept and struggling because farming is harder than cannibalism
11 They do keep some carnivorous plants to feed scraps too for the fruit
12 Local satyr used to charm and abuse them but recently stopped

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I did try a new game. It had some AI assets and lots of numbers and resources to track. I was most conservative and used no magic and died last. Several wizards exploded and several people used up their points to fight and were killed or fled and were killed. Some found mechanic to be interesting. Despite spellcasters exploding we were encouraged to try and cast any spell but i thought odds too poor. I made all the magic stats low because i had no idea how they worked.  I found a bit flavourless. Like I know nothing of setting just retro game vibe. Im not sure if peoples attempte to create completely new dungeon robbing clone games we need. At least BX clones i can run all kinds of stuff without much change. It had lots of old dnd tropes but wildly different outcomes. Im not really sure if it was a good fit. Maybe the system might fit other genres. I think many games trying to skin a new system with retro tropes is it misses many of the procedures and campaign-building effects of these. I like character design to fit into the setting, not just tropes. Was an improvement system I never got to meet the conditions of. I wasted 3/4 or my resources to fail. Interesting but I'd rather play RQ. My main takeaway was all i remeber is numbers mostly and player antics. DM was fine player who elevated it with enthusiasm. Part of the session was spent explaining game and discussing rule amendments. I think it has potential and had some similar goals to RQ but the creator was unfamiliar with it. There is a point where too simple or abstract i find unthreatening in a game.

I dont feel a need to name it as I've encountered these same issues in a few games trying to abstractify or storygame old D&D, and I'm sure it won't be the last. A user base is a good feature of a game vs indy games doing well worn ground.