Barking Alien Challenge day11: Where to find adventure! + Early prep of new campagn

Well, being a grimey horrible world adventure is easy to find.

I have lots of quest tables, but here are some quickstart adventure hook tables

d100 magic bugs to eat on the way

d12 Urban Quick Hooks

1 Gang members demand your money and will come back regularly

2 Witness a child snatcher

3 Rabid stray dogs or giant rats

4 Drunken sailors or labourers are easily offended and like brawling

5 Old, begging adventurer with missing limbs, offers a treasure map for cash

6 A thief snatches an item, and the owner offers a reward

7 Someone looking for a family member or pet, offers a petty reward (it's the best they can do)

8 Recruiters looking for hardy youths to d4 1=ship crew 2=guard shop 3=search sewer for item or person 4=clean and repair a tomb

9 See some robed cultists kidnap a victim
10 See gang bully some local shopkeepers

11 Offered a chance in an underground fighting pit

12 Town crier announces jobs and bounties from market notice boards

d12 Market Notice Board

1 Landlord wants some thugs to evict unwanted occupants of a house d4 1=giant vermin 2=gang 3=beggars guild members 4=minor undead

2 Business needs giant vermin removed from the basement, warehouse or ship

3 Bounty for a local bandit leader and gang

4 Bounty for a species of humanoid monster

5 Angry mob or posse being formed to hunt d4 1=robber 2=murderer 3=witch 4=monster

6 Party of adventurers forming to plunder a dungeon

7 Magician requires a rare ingredient from another town

8 Merchant caravan requires guards (to replace lost ones)

9 Gourmet dandies require adventurers to guard them on their travels and to hunt monsters to eat
10 Explore the recently discovered catacombs found in a construction project

11 Test some experimental magic potions and earn one to keep

12 Town council, bank, guild or merchant needs someone to "take care of" a problem d4 1=find a spy 2=identify a cult 3=drive away humanoid monsters  4=hunt a creature menacing the town

d12 Village Quick Hooks

1 Villager sure they saw a strange creature while working fields

2 Herder complains of wolves or some menace to herd

3 Local mentions a dangerous aquatic thing has ruined a fishing hole

4 Hunters complain of a cunning beast, and they need some help

5 Retired adventurer offers a dungeon map for a few beers

6 Child or pet has fallen ina well or sinkhole

7 Villagers found some interesting coins in a local ruin

8 Villagers complain about bandits or a humanoid monster gang

9 Famous monsters with a name menacing area and subjects of gossip
10 Monsters scaring local children with noises or hiding under beds

11 A local ruin is haunted

12 Locals found a cave entrance by accident

d12 Village Store Notice Board

1 Bounty on a beast that has taken an animal

2 Vermin exterminators needed, bounty per creature killed

3 Bounty on a local bandit or highway robber

4 A valuable animal has gone missing

5 Creature dancing on the rooftops by night, a reward to stop it

6 Warning to avoid a nature spirit luring youths into the woods

7 Shopkeeper wants a late delivery to be investigated

8 Old ways druids seek strong-armed warriors to recover a grove fallen to evil

9 Visiting spell caster seeking adventurers to help explore a ruin
10 Local land owner wants someone to dig up a barrow on the land

11 Local priest requires a relic to be recovered 

12 Local noble seeks daring adventurers come to his castle for a discreet mission

Possibly im starting a club D&D5/24 game and no idea about regularity, ages, etc so these are current thoughts for a game.

I'm probably drawing from Ravenloft (a non Straad domain) and Grim Hollow books, which are Australian. I plan to keep low level maybe max ppl at 4th (gain stats or feats or other stuff if milestones are happening). Non-humans will stand out and humans will be the dominant species. I will use some slower healing/rest requirements like a long rest requires a day with a proper bed and food. Survival could craft a place to sleep. 

I will keep it grimy and dangerous with cinematic 6-room dungeons with lots of environmental features for dramatic fights. So not using 1980 dungeon design style I normally do. I found using a non-familiar setting and being a bit grimy helps DM control and flexibility. I'll see what happens but I am thinking up some simple one-page dungeons and will show some here. Maybe call it Tenebrae Fields or Macabre Grafschaft. Possibly reading on sale DCC comps might help for ideas.

Barking Alien Challenge day10: Whats the first thing we should do? + Theros Game

d12 Stuff to Start With
1 Hang out in a tavern and ask about work and rumours
2 Go to town square and look for a noticeboard or ask town criar or gossip
3 Get into a fight with local crime guild or cult
4 Meet a pressgang and get surprised recruited to sailoring

5 Go to prison, learn old crook secrets, escape and profit

7 Hear about a murder hobo camp growing wildly with gold rush fever, dungeons in them thar hills!

8 Visit the temple, which often needs people to find cults or lost relics

9 VIsit a local magician they often need strange items not in the shops

10 Explore local ruin or haunted house

11 Ask local sherrif if any bounties or rewards on offer

12 VIsit a bank, guild or town hall and ask for work

My games are mostly sandbox and driven by players i just make the world and tables. Its always good to have boss guys flee so you have enemies later. Marvel films kill villains off with 50 years of lore too soon. Especially wizards. They know to turn invisible and flee and come back with new goons. 

I avoid backstory and prefer it be earned but:

Family Obligations
In a game with civic life or a knight's family is a great way to make party united and have NPCs in their lives. In other games not so much but a player might want to roll a family up. In Oriental Adventures, this was a cool feature and I have some tables that might help. Players might prefer autonomy and no baggage.

Shared Service
Parties all meet, employed already helps but this could be a school or a guild or a temple. They might all leave the job together or be employed by a wizard or school that wants dungeons uncovered or whatever purpose you require. You can assume players have met and maybe killed some giant rats in a basement or something risky already.

Childhood Friends
Similar to family, but the party is the family. Perhaps they have been apart learning their character classes. They might grow up in a village, a town, a castle or homeless sewer children.

Forged by Fire
Met through an incident or a common tragedy. A battle of some kind, lost loved ones to some faction, robbed or kept poor by an aristocrat. Through separate similar events or a single one the party work together in a world they mistrust and is out to get them. Some common enemy seeks them and sends encounters often their way. Make random encounters linked to the enemy and give them lots of goons and secrets. The enemy can lurk in background and remind party they exisr between adventures. Party may realise they need money and experience to beat the foe.

======================

Recent Theros Game D&D5/24

The party had cleared out most of a dungeon but two doors that were warm and had rumbling volcanic sounds beyond. It was a forge temple built into a temple. They had brought back scholars fromthe city to loot the library and smiths from their basion to loot the forge. There seemed to be the modern priests covering archaic temple art. Comicus reading the library ancient and modern script and translators' notes determined the older artwork was another god being hijacked by a current god. 

So the party got ready (8th Lv(

Hypolytus the centaur bard
Chiron the centaur monk
Omiros the satyr priest of light god
Comicus the scholar philosopher wizard

Finally found rules so monk cannot drag 24 ton statues around with a wrestling move. Thankfull you have to be able to lift someone to drag them. I wish all the rules on wrestling in one spot as this took us a year to find. Players agle to fight 200hp monster now.

The combat began with the satyr priest soaking up damage while others blasted the two 20 foot tall golem guards guarding a door with moon beams and magic missiles and arrows. The monk hung back with his elemental powers, lashing the golems from outside their heat aura. As the priest soaked potentially hundreds of damage points with his high AC and disadvantage to being hit from his light priesthood. The centaur got in a few hits with his magic trident and mostly was mostly burned by scalding metal blood and heat aura. He also was healing the party the whole time. After first golem fell the one guarding the other door joined in.

So in the smaller door with one golem they found a room with vents with tripos seats over them for oracles to get high off volcanic fumes. A bit of ritual junk and incence. The other romm with two guards was a huge chamber of lava with a walkway to a platform in the middle of the lave with a collossus of bronze with a hammer and spear standing over it. So the party sent the monk and the satyr to run in and steal some magic items on a bench. The colossus threatened them with wrath of Hephastium and ordered them to return the items and apologise. It threatened the wrath of their god.

They got:
helm of protection and see invisibility
+1 shield protects you from petrification
+1 sword each blow does +1 pt bleed damage for ten rounds or until treated with first aid
+3 spear that returns  
+1 sword +15 necrotic on a nat 20 roll and weilder gets them as temp hp

Players discused the curses of the collosus who now stradled the walkway over lava and had hands waiting to grab any intruders. Heroes chatted abit and were reuctant to give back. The party did some divinations and the priest confirmed their was an older god but didnt forbid him from messing with the older god. The wizards efforts seemed to indicate taking the stuff was a good thing. They already had some gods getting angry at them so thought cash of selling loot worth it.

So the people who had come to help loot temple who considered occupying it did not want to with a collosus trapped inside who could destroy the complex. So they all fled. The part considered fighting it but while in lava it healed 8d6 a round from heat.

They were not interested in exploring mines in the mountain so went noth east planning to see the giant king and possibly steal a cow.

They saw domen and stone idols in the eastern woods. The bard who gre up here said it was all normal druid stuff or the old folk who lived before the current settlers. They saw a hillfort of earthworks and decided to visit and on the way a pack of 5 wingless griffon-like creatures attacked. But the wizard pulled the sword that let him speak to lions. He made peace with creatures and they sat and cooked a meal and fed the beasts. The beasts said their was a bad giant on the mountain who kept delicious sheep. The party offered to kill it and the beasts offered to join them but one who went home to lair. 

So each player had a temp pet monster, and they went to the top and saw a tall female giant. Her proportions seemed normal and her flesh had a mottled purple grey colour. Her proportions were normal, unlike the other simpleton giants, and nobody knew what she was. She had a pet spider too, and they were cooking 3 sheep impaled on a branch over a fire. The priest satyr went to chat and she seemed pleased to see them. He asked why and she said her father Geryon, wants the heroes punished and foresaw they would come here. She has camped here hoping to kill the party and get her fathers aproval. So a fight started and they fireballed her twice, hurting her a bit. Griffon beast killed her pet spider and hurt her.

Her staff emitted a purple scythe blade of magic and she began pummeling the priest. They managed to hit him for 38 damage and other attacks missed. The party kept her on the ropes but she teleported and instilled fear in them and took out the wizard with a necrotic bolt that healed her. This was a worry and was a concern her powers caused instant death if brought you to zero but that was her scythe. The players won and found her frightening and tricky. They ate the roast sheep with their griffon beast allies and and celebrated. The allied beasts planned to move here.  

She was a death giant from Bigby's book. I hope to use this books' lairs in future as lots of giants in my games ahead as they invade Geryon's kingdom and search the mysteries of these older gods. Aparently the priests have suppressed knowledge of older gods.

Next time they will loot the giant and continue north.

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.

Barking Alien Challenge day8: Local People & Culture

 

This is tricky as mostly its generic faux pan European mostly. It was kind of the point to tack in moduleas and content i liked. 

But the third empire remnants were just quashed and the rebel states now have uncontested sovereignty and are rebuilding. Many were depopulated by the civil war and abandoned frontier regions. Everywhere is now feudal rather than part of an imperial republic turned despotic. Still, even though the first and second empires feel like foreign lands, the continent has 3000 years of shared civilisation.

Everywhere, civilisation is bustling, not just for weapons and resources for war anymore, but for building new settlements, wagons, ships, and luxury items. Business is thriving and the lords in their castles and city palaces want to reclaim control of frontiers and rural wilds. The church to has had to change. The fall of the empire has made the church look bad and the former capital state is now under the control of the church of Light Templars who invaded from the west. The older gods of the second empire have been more popular and appealing to everyman craftmen and working folk. The much older gods of nature and elements which existed in the wild people and barbarian,s have arisen again into civilised areas. The gods of light included some of these older gods but Protar the lord of light was the favourite and his mother, Solaria the wife of the Sun God. The fire and hearth gods are given some respect with shrines.  

Since Chagrinspire and the war a thousand years ago most of the gods stopped visiting the world. Avatars were killed but also imprisoned and used for energy to power their universe nullification device. They also summoned demons and gods from beyond the void and destroyed them utterly. In recent years, more summonings and cults have been observed and petty godlings have been roaming the world again on this continent now it is safe for them. Bogrump the turnip god has thrived in the wastes of Chagrinspire and been officially accepted as a minor approved farm god by the church of light. Chagrinspire at its peak at the end of the second empire was advanced and this magic spread to the allied kingdoms. Since then this technology has been shunned by churches. Blackpowder exists but is uncommon and pricey and requires skills to be operational without risk. The warring kingdoms and city states of the east lands are the largest users of guns and seek to reclaim the secret of smokeless powder and cartridge-based firearms. 

The great waste of the southern centre are barbarian and nomadic kingdoms that notoriously hate wizards, gods and literacy. A grudge since they destroyed the monster kingdoms. There are many beast folk tribes in the wilds also and they have more in common with each other and orc tribes than with civilisation. 

Kingdoms of the Continent
Mordnar - currently thriving and optomistic with new bardic schools thriving in a new age of idealism for knights. Many of the old estates abide by older rules or may even be fairy touched or cursed. Many young knights go to the borders of Auldwood for adventure in the endless forest trails, villages and decaying knightly manors of the old orders.

Lamnutainia - the former emperor's kingdom, now shattered and occupied. Many know they were duped and are helping exterminate the old order. Some old guard wish the old empire to return. Some hope to hijack the church and start a crusade. Commoners are rebuilding an now more mobile and able to travel. Some are optomistic a new ruler acceptable to the Light Templars will be anointed and keep the peace. People are sick of war and crusades and the church of the deified emperor. Some people want the Templars gone. A land of conflict and troubles after the civil war.

Dormund - The Light Templar Kingdom with castles and church estates with some private knight domains sworn to the church and given land in return like a king. People are proud of ending the Empire by superior virtue and divine favour. They feel increasingly zealous against cults and other faiths.

Kastria - prosperous knightly domains and castles of various orders. They prefer the more humanistic gods of civilisation but many aristocrats give lip service to the Church of Light. Some orders and knights seem to have fallen to dangerous cults. Frontier farms and villages are often as being cictims of awful abominations. 

Aeostra - Fully restoring the old nature gods and allowing barbarians to settle. They hate the church of light for the massacres during the occupation. These mobilised the population to reject modern religion, yet keep their modern feudalism.

Tulan - This moody mountainous kingdom is built on the prehistoric ruins of troll civilisation from when they were civilised wonder workers. Locals have to deal with trolls and all participate in millitary drills and carry arms. People are harsher, meloncholic and more pessimistic. They also tolerate the inbred aristocrats. They worship the civilised gods and the old gods especialy sky and weather and death gods. They drink alchemist distilled spirits and have made progress with armour, weapons and tactics. Famous for crossbow and halberd mercenaries. Their adjacent kingdoms are fearful of the future of Tulan. 

Valadran - a failed country run by robber barons, slavers and bandit warlords. Ocasionaly a king holds the land together a few years. Commoners are wretched and poor and revolts are brutally oppressed. Kingdom was heavily involved in the global slave trade and their troubles from adventurers have bankrupted them. Some revolts have succeeded or are being waged against robber knights and bandit warlords. Many commoners and escaped slaves have fled the land too. This is the only land whose population is shrinking.

Zorda - People of Zorda love wizards and dragons who rule them. Most of the land is ruled by wizard lords and about 10% are ruled by dragons. Draconic abhumans, draconic templars and shapeshifting dragons may be employed by dragons. Some sorcerers draw power from dragon shapeshifter ancestors. There are draconic changelings who switch from small dragons tohuman agents. They have many remnants of ancient Exilon including civic buildings, ziggerats and caselations on their forts. Many wizard traditions thrive here and spread to other lands. Nobility of Zorda are perfumed, wear makeup, wigs and dye their beards to look more god-like. Commoners here are aided my magical constructs and charmed monsters. Bandits and wandering monsters are rarer here and criminals are fed to dragons or given to wizards to experiment on. Continental peoples dislike the flashy ways and arrogance of this land and claim they are soft without wizards and dragons. They in the past had flying ships that helped armies cross the world to die at Chagrinspire a thousand years ago. Zorda has remained for 5000 years without regime change.

I might do some domain tables. My exilon barbarian tables might be fine still.
More Con report stuff too
Maybe a d100 magic bugs

Barking Alien Challenge day7: Weather today + goatquest prep for Oz-Orc-Con

Bob interested in tadpole

My settings like Psychon and Chagrinspire use weather, but my main fantasy gamedoes not as much. There is a recent Ethyria Season post also for my faux Mediterranean setting.

https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2023/05/seasonal-faerie-encounters.html

https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2025/10/pesky-divine-meddling.html
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2016/09/strange-omens-and-portents.html
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2025/07/farmer-drama-1-chagrinspire-farm-life.htmlhttps://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2015/07/year-on-domain.html

Spent 8 hours rebuilding all my frog racks and had hand cramps and was exhausted after. So I had to amend the goat stuff last post as some errors. So didn't get all the prep id like, forgot my gaming tokens and hourglass and goat minis. Then couldnt find my goat character sheets that have constantly turned up in my files for 5 years but not when i want them. But as id done a goatquest book, i generted a village, some evil goats and doodled a map. Did have to mess with character sheets but worked well with players adopting goat classes, rolling their breed and decorations they were ready to do. 

The goats had finished their training. Two holy goat sibling but one was a scruff. There were two cunning goats, small and sneaky the other a mum with thee kids with the flock. One was filthy fleabag. There was a magic goat who was smallest and a beautiful golden furred buck fighting goat who was a bit vain. As goats speach was a secret they had to keep speech a secret and they did, except for some people they were killing. The game was billed as comedy lighthearted. It was inspired by and started during my time in Sydney where weird one off games were wild and wacky. The goats were made sentient by the famous Petty God named Nanny Binx to help hunt a chaos goat and possibly cultists.

So the goats listened to gossip and nibbled weed in the churchground and heard priest discuss some menace at night dancing on their rooftops and had stolen a magic cow. They went to the farm and had a map to show rumoured places. The village is a crossroad so has 4 roads out each with local perils. They visited the missing cow farm and heard owner sobbing so one of party gotas swung her udders and winked to invite them to milk her. While family milked goat and chatted other goats broke in the house, ate some spinich and inspected the family for cult activity. They did find the family were very devout and believed the cow was a gift for their piety. But on the roof there were hoof prints, broken tiles and smouldering sulpherous chaos goat poop. Herd followed scent and figured the creepy farm over the hill was a good place to search. The War goat was a great leader in bush ignoring terrain for the party. Spied on farm of drooling inbred farmers. Kids playing with pigs in a wallow. Women gutting possums on porch and men chopping meat and skinning animals. The goats snuck up, and a cunning goat climbed up a woodpile and squeezed in a window high up. He got stuck and the bigger goat shoven him in. Inside the blood covered shed and demon cult cannibal kitchen was the cow. The goat gnawed off the collar with the cows famous bell and sneaked out the window.

A shift evil pig came and looked at them oddly and the big goat glared at it. When a young farmer came around the shed because he heard bell, the battle billygoat butted the cultist destroying all his ribs and leaving the villain a bloody choking agonised mess. The goats ran away.

They showed the bell to ownders who formed a lichmob. When they got to farm with pictforks and torches the males of the clan were tracking goats towars the village and lacked the big billys scouting abilities in bush. So villagers took cow and the clan remaining fled. Back in town there was a celebration and the goats were rewarded.

The goats headed back by their secret path and found cult farmers searching for them So they dug a whole and rigged a trip vine. A holy goat teased the 3 men. The first fell in the trap and goats came out the bushed to jump on him. A crafty goat struck a man from behing exploding his hip and spine from his body. The oldest cultist was killed by a magic goat acid spell.

The goats stripped the men of clothes and searched them. The other priest goat had his carrybags on and they loaded up some cult symbols. They left the ruined corpses in the forest and came to the evil farm. They broke in the shed and some found an old witch inside who thought they were satyrs "oh no not again" she cried.

So the goats found a trunk of satyr instruments and a gold medallion with a satyrs face and gem eyes. Knocked over lamps and candles and burned the house and shed down. On way home the holy goats found magic herbs they added to the pack. Later the villagers came back with the sheriff, captured the farm survivors and locked them in the church to prey to save them until court.  

The goats were pretty impressed at their mayhem and spine-shattering vigilante murders of evil doers. So they decided to look for the satyr. The Shepherd was surprised that the great golden goat was wearing the satyr necklace instead of his macrame collar.

They were suspicious of a goat-loving pervert in the village, so they visited. They were concerned the way he watched their kids. The fiend tried to lure in smaller goats with herbs but a holy goats warned they were narcotics. The other scruffy priest (who thinks is a friar compared to his brother) pretended to take the herbs and went in. The other five goats burst in and crowded the man and he panicked. The holy goats used their turn shapeshifter to force the man to change into his other form so he turned out to be a rat changeling. He needed magic to hit but the holy goats buffed the warrior and a crafty goat with blessings and the wizard blasted the fiend. He did scratch a goat but it was easily healed. They found a rat idol under the man's bed. He did beg a bit at the end and goats trampled him.

The goats on way to forest saw the alchemist's tower and saw coloured liquid and mineral secretions. Sickly mutagen carrying plants grew in the sludge. Someone had dug a channel from an effluent pool to the river into the wetlands. The wizard goat was very keen and went inside. There seemed to be a line of goat hoofprints following each other perfectly. They found a messed library and the wizard goat used comprehend languages to see he could research new spell here.

Onto the top floor they saw the vile chaos centigoat. He had a dozen legs and an extra-long articulated but. He was frightfully evil and offered the magic goat to join him to live deliciously serving demons. But he cast burning hands and the rest of the gang came up to butt heads. Healings and blessings proved ueful from holy goats again. The crafty goats were quite good murderers. One cunning goat went downstairs, out a window, climbed the wall and got the bad goat thing by surprise and flung its corpse to the ground to shatter on rocks. The wizard goat wanted to come here again to study. The found the satyr crying trying to make new instruments. They were wary but the satyr promised to not molest the goats or charm them or bother the village to get his treasure back. The cult had blackmailed him to help them menace the village. The satyr let the goats keep his gold satyr medalion and received his instruments. They asked about other threats and went home.

The next morning he visited the old fort bandit lair. It was early and the bandits had been drinking all night. So the crafty coats climbed the walls and attacked tower guards. One went down but other shouted. So the rest of the goats charged in behind the golden goat and trampled the survivors. During the battle, two goats were knocked out and holy goats had to save them. The wizard burned many of them. They searched the place, loaded up bandits loot onto a cart and towed it home. Turned out the bandits were just bandits and not cultists. What a funny misunderstanding, they all agreed. The shepherd, now rich knew better than to question his lucky goats.

Was very fun, got lots done and plenty of risk. Others said my table sounded jolly. Ill talk more about other game i played tomorrow.

Barking Alien Challenge day6: Starting Locations + Goat Quest session prep

These are stats I've used for campaigns...

1 Youth Gang - Players all start as zero-level street urchins in Shadelport. Once hit 1st level, skip a few years till they are adults who meet again and let players say how they became apprentices in their classes. (or roll various background tables i have)

2 Shipwrecked! - Wash up on Anglerslund near the marsh village. Getting to the lights of the village should be dangerous. Locals will drag into a pub and give survivors grog and ask to hear the players' tales. Can be relocated to anywhere touching the sea, really

3 Refugees! - Arrive on the southern coast of exile island. They need to avoid wreckers and find a nice village, and not the fish folk cult village, who hate strangers they are not related to. This. Players might relate why they fled the continent. This could be moved to anywhere perhaps fleeing a war or disaster.

4 Locals - start as villagers who need some cash and are willing to take a risk. Perhaps a local haunted location, lair or ruin. A local monster might be defeated with preparation and trickery. Have a local family and know everybody. People expect you to get proper boring jobs and be married asap

6 Nobles - start in a castle as minor family members of a ruling clan. Something goes wrong, and all the older family members are dead. If you dont flee the kingdom, you will die too. Good in any feudal kingdom or city-state with property to fight over

7 Granny's House - you are the bastard abandoned children of murder hobos who grew up in Granny's home. Adventurers paid her to raise their offspring for decades. She was strict and fair and fed you all well. All her children get good apprenticeships that suit their nature and most return to visit her. She has a reputation locally as benevolent but weird. Could play a zero lv caper, then do a time jump to adulthood as 1st-level adventurers.

8 Convicts! Taken to Exile Island in a ship. Why are you in this mess? Told you can slave digging or for a chance to earn your freedom, explore dungeons for the engineer corp. They need expendable sappers to drive out monsters and disarm traps so troops can mop up. They also claim loot. Its a bad deal but escape to Shadelport would be possible but they will send bounty hunters after you

9 Squires! servants and entourage of a knight. You get to watch the master on their way to tournaments. Keep them safe from attractive witches, cursed manor hospitality and rival knights. Your adventurous family might serve the family too and have some levels

10 Agents! On a mission from nobility or church or other patrons, need adventurers to poke around a frontier region to see if stories of arising evils are true. Your welcome to loot bandits or unfriendly peoples not sworn to the kingdom. Locations to search include Chagrinspire, distant sea voyages, scarford Reef, Anglerslund and Sour Hill are all good places to start or the rural areas of Exile Island

11 The Clan - You all have same dad a minor noble with a city house and a rural manour and lands. Look after the family and seek fame and glory. Keep daddy and his heirs happy. You might be chosen for some special purpose or mission, an oportunity for respect and profit. Set in any river valley civilisation or any barbarian kingdom. Could also be adopted into a male or females family house and clients under them. The family should be detailed 

12 Mule Drone - headless quadraped pack mechanoid follows soldiers or walks specific routes. Used in areas with bad terrain

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Goat Quest session prep

This is my session prep for my Goat Quest game at Oz Orc Con

Pick Your Goat Type

Goat 1
AC+4 HD d6 or 4 Unarmed Attack d6 Move 24
Cunning Goat - x2 damage on surprise attack

Agility 15+1 Might 9 Vigour 10 Charm 13+1 Talent 12 Will 11
Arms: Disarm, Opportunity attack 
Arts: Balance, Climb, Hide, Jump, Mechanical Lore, Sleight. Sneak, Trap Lore

Goat 2

AC+3 HD d6 or 4 Unarmed Attack d6 Move 18
Holy Goat - Turn Shapeshifter once per day will revert to true form
Zero Level Spells: Cure, Mask Scent, Open Gate, Sprout
First Level Spells: Bless, Bless Horns, Cure Light Wounds, 

Agility 15+1 Might 9 Vigour 10 Charm 12 Talent 11 Will 15+1
Arms: Alertness, Frenzy, Recovery

Arts: Beast Lore, Folk Lore, Herbalist, Listen, Scent, Taste

Wizard Goat 3

AC+3 HD d4 or 3 Unarmed Attack d4 Move 18

Zero Level Spells: Acid, Ignite, Quill, Whisper
First Level Spells: Burning Hands, Comprehend Language, Invisible Servant, Magic Missile 

Agility 13+1 Might 9 Vigour 10 Charm 11 Talent 15+1 Will 12
Arms: Split Cast

Arts: Arcane Lore, Astrology, Diplomacy, Forbidden Lore, Ettiquette, Taste

War Goat 4

AC +4 HD d8 or 5 Unarmed Attack d8 Move 15

Agility 12, Might 15+1 Vigour 13+ Charm 11, Talent 9 Will 10

Arms: Charge, Knockback, Martial Attack, Martial Strike

Arts: Search, Listen, Scout, Scent

Roll These: 
Goat Lineage
Goat Decor
Goat Condition
Secret Goat Origin

ill ad rest next post game

Barking Alien Challenge day5: History + Gnome Drones for Murder Domes

An old banner i did for a local online group1

Spear Video debunks decades of spear squabbling in games during 80s
d&d did spears and sheilds wrong vs RQ - most popular weapon all history in the nb tier sucks

Solo play has been useful for testing of new class mechanics. I will try The Endless Tunnels of Enlandin from Basic Fantasy by awesome Stephan Poag. 3 characters and some followers seems fine. I have a con game of my Goat Quest this sat then sun my Theros game. Im enjoying being a player and our homebrew TSR Marvel game running since 84 on and off.

Bob video on fantasy sub genre in gaming
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History For Challenge
Ive detailed lots already in the last few posts and have a well-resolved cosmology and creation mythos. The main point of my many thousands of years of history is the world is crawling with dungeons and the deeper you go the more your dealing with time capsules of the surface world. Dungeons are everywhere and miles deep. Exile island as the capitol of a global superpower in the past has many ruins from that age of prehuman darkness. There are even ruins from the timeless golden dawn age when gods walked about and a human like species served the gods. SInce humanity threw off the monster king tyranny they have has many waves of civilisation from dastardly necromancer kings, the elemental heretics, the age of Exilon and three versions of the Empire. Chagrinspire began in the second empire and led to the end of the Empire's peak domains over a thousand years of conflict.

In recent years, the last state of the Empire under the mad emperor was destroyed and now administered by the church from the Templar state. The empire had been settling the island and bringing in convicts. Refugees from the continental civil war as the third empire died, fled to Exile Island and set up new villages. Some were trafficked by pirates and slavers others crossed the straits via underground tunnels of legend.

Some villages on Exile Island that were still loyal to the Second Empire were discovered, but had some dark secrets like an immortal sorceress who ruled a castle through puppets for centuries. The empire had soldiers, sappers and engineers strip mining dungeons on Exile Island and sent the wealth to the Emperor. Sometimes they just threw convict labourers in the dungeons who are told dont come back empty-handed or uninjured or you get crucified. Now this is collapsing but local 3rd empire loyalists have kept up appearances well. The Barron of Exile Island the ruler for 800 years, has ended wars with elves, made deals with the empire and offered to protect these empire colonies. The Baron's Pirate fleet now is the dominant naval force in the world, controlling trade and skimming off all who use the sea. Rival pirates of the south and west resist. The warring east has cannon ships butthey are too busy fighting each other. New villages are still springing up and many adopt adventurers for the local monsters. 

As the Empire's civil war ended, leaving separate nations at peace for the first time in decades, many nations prospered and wanted to reclaim areas. Most lost control of their outer domains due to depolulation of war and the administration collapsed. In Morden the North East kingdom, an ancient city was abandoned and adventurers are helping the region recover. The woods overlapping with Auldwood have gone to the fey a bit. Many knight castles became isolated and even cursed or haunted by faeriekind. As the war ends, sweatshops in the city have closed and many wish to repopulate rural areas abandoned over the 30-year civil war. There is a lot of strange stuff therre and adventurers are welcome.

Between Morden and CHagrinspire is a whole village of murder hobos rapidly growing as they loot frontier dungeons. Like a filthy gold rush mining camp.

Chagrinspire has been getting settlers and a Gateway Kingdom has appeared of adventurers. They have waged war on the international Slavers guild, seeking to exterminate them forever. The tower seems to be in part coming to life again. Adventurers are swarming to the area. Some of the outer waste is dominated by undead and mutant crusaders. The inner waste still has many dangerous, weird factions hidden away. The Empire, before its fall, wasted thousands on a pointless attack on the wasteland, uniting locals into the Kingdom it is now. This helped weaken it but also the giant king of the Gateway Lands killed the Emperor, who was an evil demigod rather than the noble sun king he pretended to be.

There are lots of places to start and lots of dungeons and areas where adventurers are common.

----------------------------------
Gnome Drones for Murder Domes
These are simpler mechanoids than most golems or automatons. They have simple behavure and may be controlled by a more sophisticated mechanoid or a gnome operator. Outdoors most drones will have a controller in a vast data centre of gnome drone pilots. Indoors or underground a local operator or simple behavior is programmed in. Drones running on programs tend to not kill their own kind or allied uniforms.

d12 Gnome Drones
1 Spider Drone - espionage and scouting. Has an eye on a long tendril and may hide under floors, or roofs or at choke points like trenches or bridges. Report visual information to gnome owner AC+4 HDd4 Att Bite d3 Move 12 Climb 12

2 Isopod Drone - football-size metal bugs follow larger isopod mechanoids and gather scraps and materials for recycling. Some set to metal or fertiliser (also for fuel). Also some may be used to repair other automatons and machines or train lines or toilets. AC+4/8 if rolled up HD1 Att Bite d4 (not in ball form) Move 12 Climb 6 Roll 18

3 Burrow Drone - one man burrowing pod deploys a man or monster to locations, then returns home. May deploy sensors or other drones AC+8 HD6 Att None Move 3 Burrow 9
4 Dragonfly Drone - observation drone but also armed with a smallarm and can bite, very agile and hard to hit. Often lay in wait and ambush targets AC+7 HD5 Att Bite 3d4 Move 2 Climb 6 Fly 24

5 Needle Drone - an insect with a loaded syringe can sneakily sting targets, usually with ten doses of a sleep-inducing drug, but also dispenses medicine to soldiers and aid medics AC+4 HDd4 Att Bite 1pt Move 12 Climb 12

6 Ant Drone - mechanoid ants used for mining and construction and building railways. Most have buit in tongs, some have a rivet gun or other tool. Defensive warrior versions bite and spray acid will come to aid the common models AC+4 HD2 Att Tool d4 Move 12 Climb 12 the defence version AC+7 HD4 Att Bite 2d4 or spit acid d6 range 2 cone fx Move 12 Climb 12

7 Flitter Drone - spinning bladed guardians left in locations fly to attack intruders and are hand size. Wait in guarding positions, especially places where enemies might hide or take cover. Some instead inject drugs or poison AC+3 HDd4 Att Slash d3 or Bite 1pt + drug Fly 15

8 Bombadier Drone - a landmine with legs, older, more like a black powder grenade in an iron sphere with a fuse and ignition system. Advanced fragmentation versions do more harm and detonate on contact and are fireproof and waterproof. May be used for demolitions of building or bridge or mine. AC+4 HD1 Att Bite Explode save halves Blackpowder 2d4 1 area save halves or Fragmentation 2d6 3 radius Move 12 Climb 3

9 Centipede Drone - a scuttling security drone will hide in holes, garbage or loose soil. Indoors will burrow into walls, floors, and ceilings. Can grapple and bite, and work in teamwork with others. AC+5 HD2 Att Bite d6 Move 12 Climb 12 Swim 3

10 Raven Drone - a mechanical bird that when new has nice feathers but after years of use they are obviously mechanical. Act as spies but a group might attack AC+4 HD1 Att Bite d4 Move 6 Fly 24

11 Baboon Drone - a mechanical beast for climbing and construction with a mechanised tool in their tail (depending on construction project). Tails can be swapped out and combat versions are possible. AC+6 HD3 Att Claw x2 d4 Bite d6 Tool tail d6 Move 15 Climb 12. Larger Boss units AC+7 HD5 Att Claw x2 d6 Bite d8 Tool tail d26 Move 12 Climb 12

12 Hound Drone - a mechanised guard dog usually patrols a complex or secure area. Thermal optics, steel jaws and some models have a firearm (d8 1=pistol 2=rifle 3=SMG 4=net gun 5=shotgun 6=silent narcotic dart gun 7=grenade launcher 8=roll again with d6 twice). As a platform, there are many variants and some even built from scrap by scavengers AC+6 HD4 Att Bite 2d4 + weapon Move 18 Climb 3 Jump 2 Swim 6

Barking Alien Challenge day4: Is there a map?

Maps? yes i have maps
This is the empire of the monster kings before humanity.

The gnomes of chagrinspire repeated this in part but just took what they want with airships and ironclad ships only a thousand years ago

After the monster kings were killed by revolting barbarian and orc slaves there was an age of necromancy when humans stole forbidden lore of the past. There  was an elemental heresy also, but less succesful. 

Then humans rebuilt civilisation in the ruins of the elder horrors,
This campagn had players arive in logs after a great flood wiped out remnants of the old world.
They found a tribe, saved people, hunted, explored and eventually visited remnants of civilisations and saved them. Guys reached 20th Lv.

So a few thousand years later the Age of Exilon
We got to about 16 and I was dreming up CHagrinspire.
Ive run a few babylonian cthulhu RQ3 campaigns for over 12 years worth
this was my first overt fantasy version 

Exile Island Wilderness was made in 2012 for a campaign where i wrote my own retroclone from memory when sick. That was EMO and the start of this blog. Id played RQ3 and TSR marvel super heroes for 20 years before that. 

The second Empire, which wasted away fighting the construction of chagrinspire. 
As arcane technology advanced, Chagrinspire forces in airships plundered the world and took tributes, while the sailing ships overloaded with priests of the imperial church couldn't compete.

Simple hexcrawl map at start - feel free to use

When i lived in a game club and ninja dojo nightclub warhouse we played for years here.
Over years in game time the 3rd empire tried to recolonise briefly.

Nobody ever went to bloodsand beach despide my detailed post on it.
Players saw and smelled the whaling and sealing operations of the 99% man town of rejects from Shadelport (which they say is the worst city in the world) 



When I made lots of 3fold dungeon zines this is where I set them
Its the north east of continant and Chagrinspire just a bit off map to west
I plan to return here

These were part of a stratography based design theory i used a while with geomorphs and found online maps till players were sick of them and wanted to go shopping and sailing.

Part of Anglerslund, where players arrive in a zine series I did for a year

Plenty more out there and my Flickr account too

Barking Alien Challenge day3: Where the heck are we? + reviews reconsidered

Where the Heck Are We?
The main playable areas of my campaign

Exile Island & Shadelport.
The land is crawling with criminals, dungeons and monsters.
It was once capitol of the global monster empire in the age of darkness.
After the fall of the second empire a thousand years ago pirates ocupied the ruined eldritch cit and built a global maritime trade empire that the third empire ended up reliant on. Until the pirates and all the kingdoms of the empire revolted against the mad emperor of the continant ending the third empire. Outside this vast city and its giant bridges and mutant and goblin and orc ghettos, their are many small villages that make food for the city. Farmers are protected by law and lightly taxed. Bloodsand Beach is a whaling and seal-hunting town of slaughter with a mostly male population. The smell keeps most people away.

The empire a few times colonised a southern island but always ended up isolated and backward. The empire sent convict labour here and many fleeing the empire came here. They say there are secret tunnels connecting the island to the imperial continent you can walk. The straits on the surface seem close but weather, rocks, dangerous islands and seamonsters make the closest point the most deadly. Their is a great swamp spoken of as if it was a self-aware evil being. Their are multiple forests wildly different and haunted by faerie folk and human ruins. The northern wilds have tribal folk, tiny dwarf kingdoms, giants and a elf region. Humans and elves were enemies, but now it is forbidden to kill elves or unicorns. People from all over the world can be found here because of the maritime endeavours. The city has the worlds biggest magic university and thousands of holy shrines.

Forbidden Island (also monster island)
Their is a small port used by traders and a viking outpost used by modern visitors. The rest is a volcanic tropical jungle with ruins of the monster empire. The biggest volcano is a dragonsparn pit connected to Hell and the lair of Tiamat. Many thunderlizards, reptilian peoples and caniibal cultist tribes.

The Straits: Scarford Reef and Anglerslund
Scarford reef is a dangerous, rough region with some large islands with inhabitants. Some more modern village folk, just isolated but their is a millenia old amazon citadel and one Island full of older Islander folk holtile to civilisation.Under the reef is a vast network of caves and below that a cavern land covered in mountains and sealed by the gods. Great ancient citadels and strange landscapes in this cavern have made it a famous regiou of the underland. Anglersland is a strange island kept isolated by the hungry god lampgulp, an idiotic anglerfish who swallows ships. Visitors say the land is full of madmen and cultists.

Auldwood
The north east corner of the continant. The south is aforested rich kingdom recovering from the civil war with the empire. Tho hilly northern lands were almost abandoned and depopulated and now adventurers and settlers are returning. Sour Hill was a city mostly abandoned and locals always need help to drive out monster squatters in ruins. Under the city are far older tunnels form the age of stone and bone. The western auldwood up until the wastes of Chagrinspire are forest full of knightly manours and villages. These all grew isolated and those trying to return it to the kingdoms control note many estates are cursed, haunted or elfstuck with madness. 

Chagrinspire
The great waste around an 18km high tower built by gnomes a thousand years ago to destroy all creation. A thousand years ago a terrible war accelerated technology and wasted most of the worlds lives. The wastes around the tower are full of monsters, mutants and undead soldiers still fighting. Very few get into the tower or the great gnome city below.

B9 solo play
This adventure didnt have so much magic loot. At least it has more adventures. Has a  master encounter table which is handy. We all got rabies last time from rats and had to blow thousands on cure disease spells but traded some +1 maces. We had our Templar and Rover reach 3rd level, sorcerer lv2, young wolf 1HD, student templar and a kobold with a +1 sling.

The clearing of castle caldwell
A bunch of monsters who dont really get along living in a castle. At least they ignored hearing fights mostly. Another humanoid massacre but not as bad as the previous castle raid. Lots of mostly empty rooms with petty loot. We immediately used out knock spell to go to the next scenario but we could have rest. Our kobold tried to convince kobolds to join us and it failed and we killed them all. 

Dungeon of Terror
This wasn't too bad, but a sneaky doppelganger was exposed by detect evil when they met someone. Wights were nasty, but a whole party throwing their best at it worked. 

The abduction of Princess Sylvia
So your supposed to walk in and a wizard lv 3 with a second-level spell has made a 30hp owlbear illusion. Its not really how I want illusions to work and it seemed a bit gross. Our silent rover saw an owlbear and shot it and it didn't respond as the wizard couldn't see this happen and react. Suspicious party went around it, killing lots of orcs and robbing them. The pinned the wizard in his spyhole and recruited a goblin follower who squealed on the wizard. 

The Great Escape
Players love loss of autonomy and losing all their stuff. So calculated AC and checked unarmed damage and had to fight out of a cell. First room checked had a store room leading to the monsters treasure. The next room was a few guards and armoury where we got stuff back. So for an escape resource challenge, it annoys players then nakes non of this matter. Lots of empty rooms or a few people in their rooms easy to kill. 

The Sanctuary of Elwyn the Ardent

This temple has a spiralling passage so one way railroad. It describes altars you can barley move you could sell and redescribes them several times which one description would do. So more monsters and you hear a maniac cackle as things hurt party. The monsters escalate - orcs, a wood golem, rock staue shooting lava (almost killed templar), then a black dragon. The templars follower was liquified and others badly injured but kobold and goblin stayed well behind. It was a nasty fight but the beat it unconciois then chained it up and gagged it. Almost a TPK. That dissolved student templar had a fortune of magic gear too. A nasty ambush by 2 shadows and 2 gargoyles was a bit of a pain but the shadows barley lasted but drained the spell slinger a bit, but hey its a dump stat for him. The crazy boss didnt last long and had lots of loot. This was a railroad meatgrinder.

We had lots of treasure and suits of +1 plate by the end. More generous than what I would give people. Thousands in coinage and other loot. Everyone, even flunkies has magic items. Tht last black dragon was one of the worst fights but technically we captured it. The castle raid in B12 was pretty harsh trying to get breaks for healing while killing scores of humanoid swarms. It could have gone worse. A few times low level wizards cast sleep on party and could have caused TPK too. Mostly the followers and pets go down, leaving the strongest to kill the wizards. Lots of weird potions also. My characters ended up probably willing to retire with lots of loot. Was a good playest. My system probably did a bit more damage and were tougher and had more abilities but most of party were low-level flunkies. Rediculous magic armour and sheilds and rings or protection are really the reason the party survived and could keep going. All three of these playtest adventures B11 B12 B9 had lots of healing and we could progress without the module-imposed breaks in a few cases.

Satisfied my guys could run in old module with no adjustments, feel plenty of risk and have a few near TPKs and one permadeath follower. I think these adventures seemed a bit dumber than say B1 and B2. I can see they were instructional and they had to make more basic adventures but you can see the tone is aimed a bit younger and heading to the mid 80s era of sequences of 6-room dungeons. Empty rooms of clutter are time sinks and its ok to kill everything then search the place. Morale was a big decider too and saved us from TPKs and encounters. The plots were all very wordy for what was involved and im sure my murder hobos got bored and zoned out in these briefings. Point to the villains we can kill and profit from I say. If I ran these in a campagn I think it would ruin them with magic loot. As beginer game with impressive loot to excite maybe its forgivable.

If every 3rd Lv wizard can have a illusionary 30hp owlbear I think it would be a problem. One of the lair dungeon comps had a ruling for beholder power that made something normally a hazard turn into a lethal attack based on rule reading nobody would use. It doesnt come up too often this problem of problem rule stretching. I like the test that you shouldn't be able to get a better result than a higher level version of same spell.

Barking Alien Challenge day2: Your Guide + some reviews reconsidered

Do you seek adventure and treasure?

A wizened old hairless gnome in travelling clothes buys you all some beers. He says he is Ozymandius Fledermus, a peddler between the Underland and the surface world who aquires unusual objects. He likes to meet adventurers in the area who might be able to help. He is happy to answer your questions about foreign lands or cities on his maps.

He also collects and evaluates gossip and suggests he can find common magic items for trade (two +1 magic items for a +1 item he can obtain. You can trade up other stuff when when you have more money and find better loot. Gems are in high demand as currency in the land down under. These items help him find adventurers when he needs them and sometimes he turns up in a dungeon with a stall or pushcart. Sometimes he has strange armoured guards or a pet owlbear or mimic.

Besides a offering a beer he will offer some free gossip and offer to trade more. 

He will offer them one of his cheap maps so you can see how good his products are. He will give some history of the target location, usually a dungeon or ruin. He sasy you may have everything you find he just wants one item. It is usually specific and weird. It may include, magic, documents in ancient text, artworks or non magic relics like ancient crowns he can use for leverage for some people needing some new history to justify some noble claims. Nothing is ever particularly evil.

The first map is free but bring me back this one item, please as a token
The second map is 100gp or a magic item for something more special

He has anti scrying and detection magic amulets and turns invisible at will

d12 Ozymandius' Free Map Destination
1 Ruined tower on an island

2 Crypt in the ancient graveyard of a forgotten people

3 Dungeon under a ruined castle in the wilderness

4 Ruined temple of the ancients with catacombs

5 Shipwreck near the coast with an unplundered treasure

6 Caverns in a mountain with art left by prehistoric cults

7 Sinkhole under a grassy plain into a great cavern teeming with life

8 Abandoned isolated castle said to be haunted 

9 Crumbling mansion at the centre of an overgrown, creepy estate

10 Gloomy castle on storm-ravaged and fog-shrouded mountain

11 Underground complex of a lost civilisation

12 Ruins of a town or village mysteriously abandoned before modern memory

d12 Ozymandius' Fetch Quests
1 Ancient books in an unknown language wrapped in oilskin in a chest
2 Strange set of weird keys (set may be broken up)
3 Glowing glass orb with swirling, hungry, petty godling of the outer void. If broken as a shadow or wraith or other appropriate undead
4 Pipe carved from black unicorn horn that improves the duration of visions of magic drugs
5 Ornate Bronze Golem head, inactive but magic
6 Crystal sphere, like a lever from some strange magic machine

7 Rare potion in a jade bottle like black resin, dont drink it, whatever you do
8 Artwork depicting a famous location but indicating a tunnel entrance that is unknown to people of today 

9 Obsidian rod, with fine detailed images of serpent folk wizards using the rod to open a door
10 Mysterious skull with occult symbols and gem eyes

11 A silver mirror with arcane symbols in the frame

12 Black iron cauldron with the old gods depicted

Players trying to hijack these possible adventure leads dont seem to stop Ozymandias from dealing with a party. He might send them on a further mission with a relic once brought to him. Will pay in silver ingots, gems or magic items. He might appear where players are up to some breach of the deal, showing he kinda knew or wanted them to do stuff for him. As long as he gets some apparently useless mcguffin he is satisfied and may reward initiative to heroes who "find" stuff he haddnt even told them to yet.  

Besides getting objects for schemes and gathering information, he might offer more violent adventurers' bounties or hitjobs. The more pay the less questions. He might offer some rotters' rewards to tempt good adventurers like  and or a werewolf or something.

d12 Ozymandius' Bounties on Offer
1 Cyril the Boy Strangling Maniac living area and strangling 1st born sons
2 Basil the Baby Eating Bastard used to be subtle but now has got more brazen
3 Kaylarg Vortis, leader of a murderous bandit who killed several nobles

4 Katie the Cannibal Cook moves from place to place and gets caught out serving human meat

5 Mourna Klaug takes money to adopt children and then drowns them and flees

6 Rupert the Rebel, a bandit robbing tax collectors and the rich while encouraging rebellion 

7 Princess Marion, leader of the rebels and descendant of a murdered dynasty

8 Klara Ethultan, a witch who defies guilds by providing affordable medicine

9 Morbert Winkerton, traitor for money has been living as a robber baron with gang in a gruberhole

10 Bordran Dallok, a rubber barroon and demon worshiper operating from a ruined castle

11 Gillian Berherk, grave robber and necromancer, murders to keep her youth

12 Elhanna Bilgefork, murdered a nobleman she served and has evaded capture

These people have in some way crossed gnomes but these missions serve as a guide as to wht adventurers will do. Bounties usually higher if alive so they can have bloody public executions. 

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Woke up in middle of night realising id not posted in time.
Possibly I over did it.

I have been playtesting my new character class designs solo using B11 B12 & B9 (in order). I was not really into them and had on my to sell pile for years. But I found solo stuff works ok with lots of simple adventures. Im also finding solo with a party works better Lv1-4 with some followers. As book keeping gets more complex Id say a single character and some followers works better for 5th plus. I started from zero level with a Templar and a rover with a temple initiate and a young wolf. 

B11 Kings Festival
After 12 pages recapping game basics and detailed backstories for class types. Its a simple 2 Lv Dungeon we managed to beat in one run and recruited a kobold. Chameleon was bad. It helps you rescue clerics in the dungeon for healing and 2nd Lv undead. Good magic treasure - +1 dagger, mace, sheild & sword. Potions and scrolls helped us finish. The kobold impressed by his treasure share stuck around and threw rocks and dragged wounded back. Both main characters had some healing. I think the dungeon is an ok one and makes more sense than I thought before. The back story was pretty unimportany and long winded. My moron characters yawned and asked where to start killing orcs and evil clerics.

I realised the point of lots of humanoid species in D&D is to provide factions. It is built in.

I fixed a class ability for rangers from needing a spell action to as part of combat action as it proved to nerf the character quite a bit. The templar burned his resources more easily.

B12 Queens Festival
This has more episodes, less waffle, handy monster stat roster in back which I may try to emulate. You start entering a magic basement a 21 room affair. There is a +1 crossbow, 
Phase stingers were a pain but not too dangerous. The green slime is one of the worst. I miss that they dont move in modern game but dont miss their non hp based damage system and fatal first aid options. A gargoyle was a pain. The evil party was fun and had mace +1, sheild +1, detect magic wand, sword +1+2vs wizards and scroll with knock x2. So we had more magic weapons than members. A rust monster was able to be locked away.

Next we hexcrawled a few days to find a evil outpost. We hired a sorcerer so he could use some knock scrolls. This adventure is a meatgrinder of 1hd humanoids vs my now 2nd level templar and rover, their kobold, slightly bigger wolf and zero level student. The odds are you will get lots of monsters swarming the party defending a doorway. We killed leaders and bullied rest to flee a few times and got some orcs to even help. Oldschool morale helps all this. We rolled a barrel of burning oil into the gnolls room and let them flee as most gutless monsters. This could easily be a TPK and not for 1st Lv. The spell caster hireling used sleep well. There is a +1 chain, sheild, sword on one boss and ring of protection +1. The lower level was harsh too with more big monsters like an ogre and owlbear. You can trick the owlbear and lock it away. A bad guy has +1 plate, +1+2 vs lycanthropes 2-handed sword and a hunting chameleon. Got a staff of healing too. There is also a crystal ball, +2 weapons (dagger, longsword and shortsword not being used by baddies). The boss lady had +2 chaotic sword that commands 40hd of goblinoids ho are immune to sleep and charm that might have unbalanced her mind. We smashed this item. She also had plate +1 and sheild. Her cleric has a +2 staff. This was quite hard and I felt we had a silly amount of wealth and magic armour and weapons. Our kobold ended up with magic weapons even. The student with 4 hp and zero level ended up in plate +1 with magic sheild and sword. I guess villains often higher level but the party ended up with stuff id say was a bit better than 2nd Lv deserves.

Ill go through B9 next post...