Blood fueds and Revenge

Oops we killed a really vindictive guy...

Mortal table for more mortal folk you kill like nobles or dragons and planar one for beings from other planes like elves or demons or elementals.

So your players meet some other planar being. The mortal form it manifested is destroyed, and its spirit returns home. Once its true native form is complete, the entity will be quite miffy and embarrassed. Maybe higher-ups get involved when they report their failures. But such a sleight by mortal beings messing with the fate of superior beings cannot be just forgotten. Making a new body on the mortal plane may be limited a while, depending on the type. Greater beings find it harder but some specifically recover faster, like night hags.

In my more mythic games, monsters are the bitter venom of the gods and doing their job. Often they have a monster saved for some hero after causing enough suffering. Killing the monsters not at the right time makes the gods angry. Monsters and even bandits might have family. Turns out that bandit was a bastard of a high-ranking lord who feels obligated to kill the adventurers doing their duty. Supernatural parents might spy on their children or feel honour-bound to kill the killers of their spawn (or kill the killers' spawn). 

Beef from the fancy bosses adventurers kill gives DM many fun opportunities. Enemies might not be obvious and act from afar. Perhaps those thugs you kill turn out to be the kin of the first guy you killed, and now the whole clan hate you, and you dont really know whats happening. They might decide their enemy should feel loss and suffer before dying. Perhaps take away the killers loved ones. Even if your poor and powerless just burn their house down or give all their grooming implements to some leppers then return them. Eventually, the tormenter will want to make a declaration and might overplay their hand against the adventurers. So when you kill this boss after a fight you just escalate to the next higher tier of a blood feud. A king or nation might have power used for revenge by trickery, forgery or bribery. 

I like in Viking sorties like Burt Njarl the hero, estimates the legal consequences of attacking guys who hunt him. If he strikes first he could calculate how much money and cattle he would pay if he attacked first. But this is weighed up with, do I let a bunch of guys attack me first so It will cost less to kill them if they start it. Some factions might be paid off or the escalation of the fued limited. The origional angry person might refuse their boss declaring a fued over and may spilt ties or betray the boss. Perhaps the power and drive helps your victims kin gain more power and experience or even adventures.

Imps, sprites, pixies and similar beings can be great for petty revenge and can take a while to discover and kill. 

The higher your level the more blood fueds you should have.
Perhaps every visit to civilisation or your domain should have trouble, from enemies.

"Honestly we had to take over a kingdom because of that guy I killed in a pub fight that led to assassins and fighting a noble clan, and then having to nobble the king"

d12 Planar Revenge Table
1 Try to form a new body and attack as quick as possible

2 Scheme to get a mortal fanatic cultist to avenge them

3 Scheme to get a mortal cult to avenge them

4 Scheme to have cult assassins stalk the enemy

5 Gets an ally to send bad dreams to haunt the enemy

6 Bully a lesser being of the home plane to attack a foe

7 Bully a lesser beings of plane to have a go at wrecking foes life

8 Gets one of its peers to attack for a favour while recovering

9 Gains surveillance while plotting to attack the enemy at a time of weakness

10 Gains surveillance while plotting to ruin the enemy's life (property & loved ones)

11 A higher tier being takes over the matter of vengeance, sending cults & minions

12 A higher-tier being sends a planar hit squad to punish meddling mortals

d12 Petty Mortal Revenge Table
1 Creature has bitter orphans or kin

2 Vindictive best friend who swears vengeance

3 Parent devotes life to causing enemy to suffer (attack foe, allies and property)

4 Kin uses influence to have a war band to kill the killers

5 Kin calls on a spell caster to curse foe harm or damage property

6 Kin put out a wanted poster offering a reward to kill the foe

7 Vindictive feelings at death attract evil spirit into the corpse and using the remnant of the original soul for knowledge of the host body past it can twist into evil

8 Remains used to create undead or flesh construct, and the memories of death make it go off the creator's mission plan. 

9 Kin hires a secret assassin order to kill the foe and they wont quit

10 Kin gives wealth to a temple to punish the foe (priests or divine beings)

11 Kin does dark deeds for unusual power to kill foe

12 Spirit of the dead bound to a location or item. (maybe its favorite magic item or a trinket or artwork or natural features like rocks, a pool or a tree). The spirit will use other spirits or may manifest a body or other non-corporeal undead types. May possess or deceive a mortal to kill an enemy

d12 Cheap Petty Revenge
1 Poisoning

2 Arson, burn property or inn they stay at

3 Rob cash of foes' loved one or pet

4 Assault foes' loved one or pet

5 Steal or sabotage foes' property

6 Pay gang to beat foe

7 Set authorities on the foe with a complaint or a falsehood

8 Spread malicious gossip about the foe

9 Advertise bounty but have no money

10 Hire an assassin, but dont have enough money

11 Pay bandits or humanoids to ransack and pillage property

12 Pay spell weilder to curse the foe or cast a destructive spell on property

d12 Rich Petty Revenge
1 Hire a bandit gang
2 Hire theives guild or gang thugs
3 Have foe declared outlaw or declared a traitor
4 Put out bounty, wanted posters or murder contracts

5 Hire robberknight and warband of scum

6 Hire a mercenary company

7 Have a spy infiltrate the enemy service to find weaknesses

8 Blackmail allies or loved ones of the foe to betray them

9 Bribe allies or loved ones of the foe to betray them

10 Kidnap allies or loved ones of the foe as hostages

11Hire a magician or a cult to call a barrage of supernatural harm and property damage

12 Make a pact with a supernatural being or powerful monster

d12 Weird Cruel Revenge
1 Send mercenary kidnappers to kidnap the foe in a dungeon to be tortured for years by a famous torturer or perhaps in person
2 Send a mercenary force to kill and destroy the home and allies

3 Fake documents that cause a cult to believe they must sacrifice the foe
4 Fake evidence to initiate a blood feud with a vindictive faction of psychos
5 Construct weird assassin order of fanatics obligated to never quit

6 Have foe seduced and place an agent with them, if possible, break their heart and cause them most pain possible. Repeat if possible for extra thrills

7 Hire bards to slander the enemy as a repulsive pervert, heretic, criminal traitors with catchy new songs

8 Send enemies who curse those who kill them tosoften party before real attack

9 Build a dungeon of traps baited with the perfect bait where you can see them die

10 Have a cursed artefact delivered to them. Even better make the side effects bad but worth it. Can then contrive situations they use the item. Cursed divine items might hide their nature but you could research them if blasphemous books 

11 Send an army after the party who will destroy and burn any allies territory

12 Call on a god or entity for supernatural support (sold their soul?)

Recent Games & Why Divination is Great

Post no 2500 coming soon

Been playing our 60s spy-fi UNIT game as a TSR Marvel game still.

My new setting, which will be in my 2500th feature post soon. It being used for a 5,5 game but ill write more like my osr stuff. I'm still expanding this as I play, and I will PDF it up when done for reasons. I'm playing Marvel, BX, and between games in a campaign on hold. Ive been more a player in the last 2 years than the last 42 years and I think Im doing better. I hope to play some D&D5 again as a player so i can mess with builds and learn some classes better.  

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Theros 5th ed game
 has started up again. They are the first group of humans to go north beyond the colonies since the previous two peoples here were killed by the gods. Geryon is leading giants to a new age and his many children, prehuman magic and divine contacts to do something big and maintain plausible deniability from the gods. Players have also found the gods have been covering up older gods and now thanks to recoving texts the players read the Archaic language. 

Party includes a satyr light priest, a centaur bard, a centaur elemental monk and a human wizard into underworld knowledge, all Lv8.

Most recently the party befriended Gryphons (wingless griffons) as the scholar wizard had a magic sword that let him speak to lions which started them speaking. Together they faught a giantess daughter of Geryon somehow empowered by the forces of the Underworld with a magic scythe and many fearsome powers. As usual the satyr priest used his powers to waste her attacks a while but even he had to fall back. When she knew she was doomed, she tried to kill the wizard. They debated bringing her head but morality and decency won out, and they spent a day building a funeral pyre and performing respectful rituals then cast speak with dead. The giantess was complex and was willing to burn her family and also didnt think the mortals could suceed and she gave away family secrets. Like you have to stab all theree of Geryons hears at once to kill him. She apreciated this effort and her father watching by a scrying pool with a nymph was also impressed at the party having good manners. They had killed the daughter he didnt value but treated her well and even used a magic Sickle to send her to the court of the undwerworld god.

So they headed east into their fabled sylvan woodlands, where some of the party hoped to meet others of their kind. The centaur bard had come from a further south area who knew ways of the area. The other satyr and centaur were raised by humans.They met the Demigod Satyr Silenus with his satyr, centaur, drayd and human followers, all drunk and fornicating. They joined in and all but the satyr priest passed out. He gained +1 CHA and a 4L wineskin that refills daily. Bonus as most civilised humans watered wine. He had a chat with the jolly godling about the supposed lack of satyr gods and heroes who died in human myths. Silenus was evasive but gave some hints. Rest of the party awoke exhausted needing rest. 

They found a trail north with wild savage centaurs they were warned to avoid so they went the scenic seaside rout which had some unknown peril. The satyr had scouted a bit and pointed out a hill fort and a magic tree with golden apples and a guardian snake. They all went to the snake and spoke with it. It explained that only a god may eat them once a year per tree. They considered taking one to Geryon to meet him but the snake said the priest could take one to display in a temple to display for a year then plant it and have a sacred tree. He was personally responsible. The centaurs kept lusting after the apple and the monk was particularly interested because he just wanted to see what it would do not for himself to eat.

As they were all wide awake after their post orgy nap they next went to the interesting hill with giant monoliths on top. It had caves just big enough to fit a giant hermit and several giant tombs. Straight out of Bigbys Giant book for 5th ed which has a bunch of lairs and interesting stuff plus more weird giants. A phantom blind giantess appeared and explained the sacred site to them and asked to not be disturbed. She was meditating in the middle doing some magic. The monoliths gave any who touched them spell powers of divination. The wizard used it to send a dream to his family and considered they could use this to mess up enemies. The priest gained divination and asked his god for tips to protect the apple and he got a dream of mushrooms in the giant hermit nooks and make a dangerous psychotropic poison to protect the apple from "vermin". Priest was a bit surprised by light god doing this but he wasn't just a god of healing. The satyr monk gave up his dream of messing with the apple.

As they camped, their dreams interacted with the elder magics of the place and Geryon, surveilling them. Geryon saw the wizard having nightmares of a witch from his childhood dreams. So Geryon contacted actual Hags to menace the party one in the form of the childhood dream. This was an impressive high-power monster battle and the fact the creatures could become ethereal and lots of magic missiles which bypassed many player abilities that had nerfed all my monsters the campaign. During the fight a hag grabbed him to take to hades and he saw a glimpse of where in the underworld they came from. It was the borders of Tartarus where giants and titans were imprisoned. 

Players spent quite a bit of this session doing divination. I made it clear that Divination works better and can have contexts to improve results. The limits of the spells in most games are quite fun to work with, and I'm fine with players doing divination for days ahead of time. It doesn't make dungeons a cakewalk, it gives foreshadowing and lets players plan in a more heist-like way. Having magic give players bonus spells they can play was fun too, and players are likely to be able to do this more in the near future. 

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Whos afraid of Divination

Ive ignored the caps on using these to some degree. A Yes/no answer is not gonna break much. A word per level reply isnt to dangerous. I find players get exhausted after a few and the limits mean you need to phrase things specifically. In some ways, these could be the puzzle component of your D&D game. Ambiguous answers, bonus info, lore dumps and dream visions of possible events or places can all enhance the mystery of a place.

Limits on Divination? Generally, spirits and gods won't mess with things of a more powerful god or the gods as a community would dislike. Gods ratting on each other is dangerous. Gods know when you praise or slander them. Asking about something specific to the god or their cult will get better results than stuff the god was not spying on.

Some gods like sun and light gods, are more into surveillance but not at night. Instead of giving a direct yes or no answers might by a positive or negative omen or divine sign. Questions about what your god would prefer you do might work but also offend your god. Some gods might be less interested in acting as magic 8-ball and assign servitors instead. This knowledge might not be as all powerful. More regular use of same powers might establish a working relation and consider your last questions. 

I have in my Chagrinspire campaign, and gods avoid the wasters where gods were trapped and killed in the apocalypse so they are ignorant of many events in the region. Also gnomes use lots of magic surveillance, but so do my adventurers.

So you limit augry spells to one a day, which as i established in mean and lame. So the church who has lots of 1st lv priests can run barracks full of divination casters run by commanders delving into specific research. Scribes and philosophers help prepare the spell casters with scripts to devise outcomes the church requires. Its much more effective to run monasteries like computational divination centres than just random dudes ask a few questions without collaboration. Possibly, they confirm their scriptures and relics are real or were at least well intentioned.

In dungeon games at early levels, food, every bit of healing, ammo, oil all matter in the early survival resource horror mode but this doesn't last. Eventually, light and food is just a spell away and these resources diminish as threats. I think at least in AD&D the divination spells are well-paced and the information you can gain with spells is useful but limited. Its good if players plan ahead well and enemies can easily access this too. I have players visit churches thay saved and get all the clergy to max out in spare divination spells. This helps make clerics shine on their own. 

Magical and animal spy spells are also common, besides just asking gods. Thieves and invisibility can scout ahead in a dungeon so why not spells. I had 3 different automapper spells in one game. One would cover rooms but you could have spells to map buildings and invent limits for them like requires living occupants or wont show secret doors or hidden details. I did like some games had a magic eyeball you can summon easily and some you could find easily or a maze cul-desac or loop might have strapped several eyes. 

 
In our superhero games we had psychometry or postcog were powers that nerfed investigations and made them easy. So when you need an expensive antidote for a possible player ability you need to work harder to circumvent. If every villain ends up hiring psychics to remove psychmetric data you have just nerfed a legit player ability. 

You might make players submit questions before the game.

Making a limit based on your campaign is fine.
 
Gods dont squeal on other gods or comment on other gods holy places or activities unless they are prepared to fight over it. Gods might even tell you this. Pantheons might have pacts and relations the gods wont break. This can be useful to know your gods are unwilling to answer. Some might make this clear or be evasive. Its ok to for adventurers to ask for insight to read a gods mood or truthfulness. Having a god sound tired or evasive is information. Some gods might try and break rules or inform adventurers with some more subtle omens or through someone else.

In one Runequest game, we found these knowledge spirits and if you asked a secret of the gods, the spirits were deleted forever. It turned out these spirits were part of the universe and the sum of cosmic knowledge. Killing them aided the ruination of the world. We killed quite a few before realising this was a bad thing to do. We stopped of course as we lived in the universe too. RQ does a good job of culturally limiting magic rather than ruling against it. Player figures out some spell-related scam and then finds out some awful people did this, and it's considered a heretical act of evil now. If you do it and people find out you will be an outcast and bad guys might offer you to join them.

This is a bunch of random ideas to consider but maybe a more formal set of bullet point guidelines might help in the future. 

Unfinished Projects 2026

Follow Up On Last Post
This isnt meant to be depressing.
I'm not as good at finishing stuff as I was.
Im doing just feeling a bit older and less competent.
When I ran more of my own games what I wanted, I was more inspired.
Ill have a working map of my D&D5 game atrea soon. 

Blog Posts In The Works - Some Taking Years Apparently
Article on gods I should finish while I have paper notes close at hand

Global Villains - for a spy/super game, our increase in real Bond Villains helped me add some more

Varieties of Orcs

My Mystic class

Magic fruit & veg and their petty gods
 

Legend of the magic sewer children is  a draft of fiction about Shadelport

Religion & Timesacle - might be merged with the other post above on gods. I ended up pulling out my divine and nature powers post

Alchemy formula 3 - half done. It was good in play and a character invested but the record-keeping broke it. See my alchemist class above

Campaign oddments and monsters could be 5 articles, it seems to be fragments of ideas, some were removed and already became articles

Auldwood adventure seeds d100

Automaton apps (spells) about a third done trying to fit from sf to fantasy

Components - some ways of treating in-game, ive consider3eed instead of cantrips being a liability like ENC make it a benefit

d100 animal spirit changelings - will do for Auldwood

Alt Earths for Marvel 80% done

Gods of Exilon - which broke me a bit and made it hard to work on the book - now i have a religion description system it can be done

Into the nightmare realms - into a negetiven end of the dream dimension 

Deities & Demigods was a monster manual - some sorta hot take

Secret Project i was waiting to be used in print and nothing has happened
I did work for a company this year, did as told and told was good then never went any further. Then asked me for help which I did and nothing since. Not encouraging. Possibly im trouble.

Smartsuit mods 2 - more advanced smartsuits for mid tier sf civilisations, the campaign ended before I got to do my time jumps

An overcomplex Xor spell system that broke me a bit and ended further work

Another secret project X i am responsible for but process that happened was very unpleasant 

A piece on "the one true way to hate HPL" about fandom and antifandom

A piece that was published in a book/ I usually say I will hold a item a few years from use by other people and this one could be released

A possibly dated bunch of thoughts on subclasses. I ended up going away from d&d aproach - instead they are just example builds for beginners or late players. Maybe id make versions at higher levels like 5th 10th 15th 20t Probably wont see light of day but nice to see i made progress

d100 second hand sex robots with no sexual explicit content 2021

My former bonus card system - went on a bit too much and im unlikley to use. It was for BRP to make it a bit less lethal but modern BRP games have the superhero creep like D&D too. 2020

minor mythos artefacts - possibly i should bundle with other tables and use on a call of cthulhu fan content sales sight. Mostly the graphic design on these turned me off. Some guys mafe look like 80s stuff which i prefer and find more readable than cofee table gloss. 2019

Thing wherer i mad crib notes for ed greenwoods version of hell which i prefer to anything written since

SF setting notes. Blew out a bit and not in use.

I have a post with huge lists of to do articles ive not looked at in years
The Hell project was the best...

PDFs
Exilon Book was never resolved but I have solved my problem recently.

Auldwood Book I need to replace art and a few 3 folds too. Most of my Cthulhu in space stuff without art and game died - its a bit of a dead end.

Secret project x - i have art, logos, most of draft done. Was jerked around with moving goal posts and my editor has retired. If I do it will be for charity.

Anuranomicon. Draft done but not refined much.

Mutant Book broke me editing It and stopped the project. I did a passable draft but editing for game balance a bit wonky and I'd really want them all printed and put side by side to proof.

I think I had a few 3folds to do still in my series but I did about a hundred of them. The first two series I have editor's notes and I stopped there. I'd rather write and I'm shit and slow at editing. I can write 20 blogs rather than edit one as well as id like and its more like work. I did a dozen Zines tied into Anglerslund and I could comile it all and put the post-apoc stuff in them into another work.

My Broken Hill book was pretty cool but I could do a vol 2 with lots of locations and I have art assets all paid for sitting around.  Also my main artist retired during this in part due to AI in the market and saw it as a sign that artists would be treated worse. 

My Hell project I did about half the project. It did make me a bit depressed, daydreaming of Boshian/Brugel Hell all the time. It was designed to be a possibly DM-less system to pass through hell that would be different every time. I think I'd definitely try and have a go at again. I had a partner early on and weve not spoken in years. Mostly, they gave me a good list of ideas for d100 tables but they didnt do more than that.

Costs
Recently i was charged 10 dollars to print a 36pg goatquest zine and before covid it was cheap enough i could sell for 3 dollars and make a profit. Shop overcharged my as kids cant count pagination in copy shops and was over double their rates online. I made and sold zines since 1980. As im on a partial pension, making money involves red tape and is barely worth it for small incomes. Even giving stuff to charity is a bit of a pain. I think you can do it on drive-through but i dont want to handle money at all because I will require paperwork, declarations and tax. One workaround is to receive printed books or goods, which I could do and then I could distribute for charity or at cons at a hobby level. I dont really need some extra cash. An income i can live off and afford medicine and transport and do the red tape would be a different situation but I don't desperately need money currently. I deferred a course last year and cant face it at all so possibly study in current online world I dislike. I like other people to bounce ideas off.

Barking Alien Challenge day28: Wrap up and what did I miss & what next

Well, it got me writing again, so it's been good. 
Possibly some chores to do now.

I suspect some of the content of daily events was overlapping a bit. 
I didnt ever get onto mythic creation stuff but it was good to consolidate data and make lots of connections and trade details Id not had before.
And I did manage to slip in other content.
I might do trade tables for non humans too.

Probably rhe best sources ive done on my still nameless setting (campaigns named for region but not the world). My Shadelport PDF book which is easy to get and my Auldwood book which is limited and as i experimented with AI i plan to re do all the items I made with AI and then make public. If I ever publish any books again. It was in part my goal to do 12 dungeon zone books. I did versions of about half those projects. 

I am working on an update to my homebrew now, but the last few versions were not completed. Ive rewritten my Character classes. I have ideas for others but you know, making a new class has effects on all the other classes balance-wise (as i dont use xp).  

My current list:
Adept - unarmoured martial artists
Druid - magic-oriented nature clergy
Mage - arcane book guys
Minstrel - singing bard guys 
Priest - magic-oriented holy clergy
Rover - fighting-oriented nature fighting guys
Sorcerer - natural spell casters with bloodpact link to planar powers
Templar - fighting-oriented holy fighting guys
Vagabond - theiving guys
Warrior - soldier guys

Possibilities
Automaton - formerly robot - trying to make a genre-neutral version has been harder

Mystic - have allied spirit and interact with spirits, reskin as shaman, psion, exorcist, medeum in my setting, and I managed to use to make something like a dnd warlock in one class

Mutant - this has been used in the world for years

Specialist - based on theif and skill-based, but instead of stabbing, you get +4 on a skill and use the damage die multiplier with other effects like reducing cost, time or getting extra turns with a vehichle. A better name is welcome, i considered Guilder. Could do a healer, mechanic or pilot subtype. Would be common in the setting but SF version would work fine to. 

Require more work or too hard
Alchemist -  so there was a Dragon Magazine alchemist i quite liked, and i could write up a list of potions like spells. They would be like a wizard or more like my specialist class like the all the alchemy skills I partly wrote up once. This version alchemist would be more like a theif and use guns. Maybe I could do both once I have my alchemist spells or skills revised.    

Witch - in my world, a witch is an illegal spell user most frequently but most are sorcerers. Cast a spell on a local or their property thats witchcraft and a crime. Years ago i did a version who could cast spells until they failed a roll and several other games have done this. 

Next
If I finish that, I might then work on a setting book again.
I might start with something less ambitious, like Goat Quest.
I'd consider selling everything too, as I dont think I can do things the way I want.
There is one book I'm obligated to finish, maybe two.
I did buy a bunch of art, and it's been unused.

I've considered utube but I really hate googles advertising, which sucks (one of your 50k words used in a month was wrong isnt very helpful). They have also censored me from talking about fantasy demons as if the topic had any reality.  It might suit Patreon better than what im doing but Id probably need 3 channels for some non rpg stuff.

Having some ageing dramas and my brain feels like I've gone back to my 20s brain in some ways but with less energy, poorer eyesight and not perpetually horny. So feel I have limited time and energy to be creative. Just blogging what comes to my mind is fine/ Its better when for something Im running but Im years ahead of my play needs, really. I do get inspired by new stuff stil. The only things im waiting for or collecting since all my KS games came in last year are a few mutant epoch books, anything by monkeyblood, a few DCC comps, gods of forbidden north vol3 and Cthulhu things Ive missed despite my loss of interest in the fandom. Nothing 5th ed interested me in a while and I dont really want more subclasses (except all wizards and more priest domains). Id rather they do hardbacks expanding, say martial classes or deities book or a wizard book like 2nd ed brown books. 

Hoping to run Chagrinspire & Auldwwod in 2026
Been working on a DnD5 setting starting as an island mini domain in the sea of dead and can fold into my regular setting if players are regular. I thought my regular game would be off Jan and it turns out it has been quite active. Others are working but always a struggle to keep times as planned. Started playing OSE online again. I will try running something online this year.

Big thanks to Barking Alien for starting this and Tim who I saw doing it on FB and thanks for following this month.

Barking Alien Challenge day27: Anecdotes?

Doh, I possibly did campaign anecdotes in the last post. 
2nd to last day in the challenge, and I lasted longer than some others.
Also Ive blogged about many sessions over 14 years here.

I'm definitely getting a bit dumber with age and finding that reading gets a bit worse. I mostly read gaming stuff, non-fiction and comics. Ive had the same few unfinished novels by bed for a few years. I think short story comps do a bit better with me. It's a shame as I have thousands of books. I might need to sit through them and enjoy my records and cds at the same time, rather than just hoard stuff unused.

I should probably re-read some of those game posts. 

So here's to future anecdotes for a while yet.

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So I don't completely waste this space, and your eyes here are some background tables for some stuff I'm doing. Also, some notes on the Domain generated by D&D5 Ravenloft setting book (not the adventure - no Straad here). Im giving the official tables a go. I thought i was gonna ditch the 2014 dmg but it has loads of useful stuff.

These are meant to be suggestions or quick ideas. Im feeling more and more mechanics as part of character gen that enforce a narrow idea of roleplaying with mechanics is a bit much. Also as older games are more EXTREME! People start weak, and your arc happens through play and success. So tables of fluff are just that. But If you want to make a game out of making random elements work do that its fun. Before I could read, I used to look through my parents' reference books on history and tell myself stories because they were there.

I often let players make me d100 rolls and tell players sometimes what table I'm rolling and let them make the roll. Planet Psychon was a game of making random stuff work.

Bleak Island is a working title of my D&D5 game. 
Possibly it's a mini domain of Ravenloft.
There will be elements like Grim Hollow, which I've enjoyed.

Players encouraged to declare what crime made fate bring them here or what near-death experience they were thay saved from if innocent.

D12 Players Arrive by Sea...
1 Floating on the wreckage of a ship, unconscious and saved by fisherfolk
2 Came through the misty sea by raft
3 Came through the misty sea on a boat, surviving the ship sinking
4 Awoke wet on the beach, feeling fuzzy and confused, surprised your alive
5 Found on a ship at sea by fishermen with most of the crew dead, they considered leaving you
6 Pirates threw you into the sea where you were clutching a barrel and after days you came ashore

7 You dont remember mush but some fishy humanoid carried you ashore

8 Cultist threw you into the sea as a sacrifice to the mists

9 Jumped off a boat with cannibal mariners who started to fight to over who eat first

10 Swallowed by a great sea beast, you somehow survived inside it before escaping

11 Aquatic faerie folk took you, and years later, you came ashore, having escaped the underwater faerie realm of changeling fish folk, sea grass spirits, sea elves and sea dragons

12 A sea hag found you and brought you ashore. She may send you messages

d12 Why was I at sea?

1 Important trade mission for a merchant house (what was so desperate a reason?)

2 On a mission for your guild (mercenary, craft or crime guild?)

3 Fleeeing a terrible war to a sanctuary, possibly to meet your clan

4 Travelled on a short ship trip to sea to get some work across a dangerous strait

5 Caught by a pressgang to work on a ship against your will

6 Captured by pirates to sell to slavery

7 Stranded on an island and had to build a raft, have not seen anyone a while

8 Disguised yourself as a religious pilgrim vessel to escape corrupt nobles

9 Accused of a crime and escaped prison (did you?)

10 Hunted by a dangerous cult and had to flee

11 Hunted by a supernatural being who hates water 

12 Dragged on a boat as a prisoner and was being taken to a famous island prison

I started with a map of a village with catacombs and a mysterious wasteland with orcs who basically allow only a few traders a year to pass. Villagers know there is a town and some other hard-to-reach villagers.

Four other villages on the island all isolated but the central town and the domain lords palace. One worship Lampgulp the angler fish goddess. One snake people tainted community (i might add some ruins like around Gunderholfen). Another has a werewolf problem. The central town is obsessed with The Hunt. The damned lord or the domain of the Baroness Chrysopasia Draco who is obsessed with hunting and trophy taking. Dangerous monsters are bred under the town and released so people can hunt creatures whenever they want. Hunts are called for trials to see who is innocent (hunt the accused or make them hunt a creature). In weddings, the newlyweds are hunted by their families to see who they will live with. There is a weekly hunt all the locals talk about and special monthly hunting events.

Everyone here carries hunting knives and can skin a beast. Criticising the hunt gets you hunted by a mob, like a hue and cry in a market might do in other lands. Anything I can think of for a hunting-obsessed town, I will use. Kids playing Snape Hunter, gingerbread huntsman cookies, hunters' pies, hunters' wine, hunters' cheese, anything really its their one brand on everything here. Locals all discuss recent hunts and gossip about hunters.

The locals say the Baroness is the no1 hunter, but if you criticise her, you get hunted next. They will cheer her, then worry if they did it right and smile nervously. As long as some other person or beast is hunted, everything is fine. If you dont like hunting, villagers or your family will chase you with sticks to beat the cowardliness out of you.

The Baroness is a beauty, but when she is angered, poison vapours come from her alabaster skin. She can't be close to anyone for long, and her lovers and companions die. If she sees you and desires to hunt hou she can observe you with her crystal ball and spy on targets a while. She likes to know the pasts and habits of her prey so she can taunt them better. She might keep this up for months and use adventurers for sport. She might try to seduce her targets for extra thrill. If she is "killed" improperly, she transforms into a death dragon. Knowing her secrets gets you hunted too, but there may be were ravens or a hag who knows. She has for years hunted a white heart and snake hybrid she calls her questing beast. It always evades her and is tied to her curse.

There will be a troll bridge where an old troll wants background stories, and if boring, will eat you. A were-raven will help them a bit with notes or appear as an old, robed human offering wheezing advice. A swamp with giant frogs and a hag. The sea can link to Ravenloft's sea of sorrow, or maybe Anglerslund (from my zine series a few years ago). Locals fear a wild hunter who roams the woods and mountains and who helps beasts and leads hunters to mischief. Wild druids also interfere in hunts and claim there is a proper way to hunt for nececity not for pleasure.

d12 Hunting Mishaps
Local customs, lucky charms and rituals help avoid these mishaps
1 Thorns and brambles block the route

2 Dangerous slope or ravine or gulley with loose rubble

3 An old hunting trap turns up

4 Colide with another hunt, which is often tense or dangerous

5 Encounter another unexpected beast 

6 See the Baroness, please, please just pass us without contact

7 Encounter orcs who are utterly hostile and hunt and eat humans for sport

8 A werewolf hunts the hunters

9 Undead hunter who died on a hunt resents living hunters

10 The questing beast

11 Some druids sabotage hunts, remove traps and may aid the hunted with healing and spells

12 The wild huntsman injures a hunter to help a beast escape

I'm considering if you die in Ravenloft and are evil or tainted, you get reborn in Ravenloft, but innocent souls can escape. Wicked and innocent are drawn into Ravenloft to replace them. Sometimes people think they have been saved from some tragedy by being brought into Ravenloft.

Barking Alien Challenge day26: Drama!

What dramatic events have happened from the Campaign?

I was famous for sandbox games and giving players enough rope to hang themselves. I ran a Arkham county cthulhu game for years and will do it again while a recent rulebook said dont do it. There are 4+ sourcebooks detailing areas and characters and over a hundred scenatios and some well researched amazing fill ins and minor details that can be used in scenarios. A newspaper is a good thing to present in games like this or my superhero games.

Our 80s games we had two long D&D games, one started as BX and other sets never came out so we went the ad&d hybrid thing. And the basic stuff must be for beginners or babies - we were suckered by older gamers and marketing and Gygax. The first over 3 years *country kids have fewer choices of anything to do so weekly sleepovers are a thing. I used the BX known world from the map in x1 for a while.

This was the first version of Exile Island. Possibly it was late in my Dawn age and lots of high-level guys ended up gods in later games. The second big campaign was a bunch of non-standard humanoids who shared a huge base and were into conquest and messing with nations. At some point, players opened Cthulhu's Tomb, ushering an age of black magic and apocalypse.

So then I used RQ2 until about 2012 when i started this blog. The first version had characters trying to thward gods of evil by hopping to different nations and driving away some monster species serving each evil god. Went very well. The next major campaign was kind of where the Holy Land is and probably was early 2nd Empire. One great adventure characters stole dragon eggs wizards wanted to give them superpowers. While crossing the river Dragons came so party ate the eggs and got away. Anytime they went to that river dragons attacked them. In a later campaign in the same land they played their descendants who were also cursed by the same river. 

Multi-generation games are great. Pendragon and RQ3 probably had me running games with yearly turns, including hiding all winter and getting married while in the north.  RQ requires trainingng taking time so 3 months or a year off is worth it. I like time jumps that show player domains grow.

When I started this blog 2012 as friends in a bookshop wanted to play RPGs and I wrote my first homebrew bs elfmaids & octopi retroclone. I started Exile Island, and It was used for several years at the Game club I lived above a few years in Sydney. I made Exile Island, a revised version of my first island continent game. I thought I knew game club drama nut turns out I was wrong. I can still learn more about presenting games in public vs home games with ppl youve played with 30 years.

Particular antics in that world included a halfling bard, an angel changeling, a unicorn changeling, some octopi, some giants and many others. Players would spend 1in4 sessions in Shadelport and used to by murderhouses and haunted houses cheap and cleanse them then sell them. One player built a zombie rowing galley. Several had pubs. One had a bard school and shagged a lady dragon, daughter of a sea god. There was a time an angry mob came after a blood druid murder of a tavern keeper (a secret policeman he discovered after the murder). He had to bribe them away with pornographic dark elf furniture from Svartheim. Was an adventurer who got blackmailed into the secret police. Another tried to fight the mysterious drug cartels of the west and he ended up helping the Baron get a cut and helped legalise the drug trade. Now wizards could huff elder brain warping drugs without shame. There was party who started a monster orphanage and a boardinghouse and workhouse for widows of monsters the party killed. One player married an orc and she sadly died. He wanted to marry the orc side kick of another player who sold the she orc and was extremely mean about the deal. He went on to get married and be turned into an orc. Then he found out his lifespan statisticly wan now lower. At one point he considered resurrecting his old wife. He also married a number of inbred kobold princesses who were idiots since hatching. 

I started running more weird one-offs and Planet Psychon.

I was running short campagns when i came over a few weeks to adelaide and when I got back to Adelaide I started running Marvel a while (since 84 campagn). Then We ended up playing Call of Cthulhu and then back to my Homebrew campagn. Also my Broken Hill post apoc which might just be a big region of Planet Psychon. 

We played my Stone age era and my Bronze age parts of my setting for years before Chagrinspire. This campagn let me have fantasy and ruined dieselpunk mixed which came up a few times on Planet Psychon and players didnt want to leave the weird hexes and ruined skyscraper citadels. Players fighting the slavers and killing the empire and ending the continental civil war resolved stuff in my game back to 2012. Multiple other campagns didnt get around to killing the Emperor. 

Season 4 of Chagrinspire will have more espionage, domain power, lunar travel and golem mech battles.

Then I'm running Auldwood.

I'm running weekly D&D and still hoping to get a regular weekly group a while for D&D5/24. Possibly, I might shove this on my Islands in between the continent and Exile Island or make a Ravenloft mini campaign. Or maybe a Ravenloft domain based on Anglerlund from my zine series (keeping them separate and related).

All of my major island campaigns are based on Sicily maps.

Met more interesting players Ive met and used the D&D adventure I posted earlier this month again and this time they killed a fish folk, traded with goblins and started to kill a fish cult in a cursed fishing village.

Local oldschool con scene emerged here, but my style is a bit older, and Ive seen OSR dramas these people are unaware of. Mostly it's been nice, but did meet a dnd gone woke and rape is natural in RPG settings, jerk. Mostly, it's considering the same games by ppl who were driven away years ago as viable and unaware of scene drama. Meanwhile, several trans friends died, and I'm definitely in the "they dont deserve extra unwanted BS camp. Lost a few friends and family to right-wing racist popularism the last year. Its fine. Had a few friends my age who have cognitive decline, which also seems to also encourage racism in ppl who never did before. I am lucky to have lots of friends in gaming, arts, band scenes and more to keep my brain ticking. Thankyou to everybody who has been along for the ride and kept reading this far.

Barking Alien Challenge day25: Shopping Adventures

Ive been spending more hobby money on froggery and collecting UK comics. Partly for the art, the time warp nostalgia and finding strange forgotten brit superheroes who lasted decades in multiple books. Strongman was very wild in Smash! He is a muscular guy in a sort of Flash Gordon outfit with a pistol holster on his back. He zaps enemies with his gravity pistol, then beats them to a pulp while they can't move.

Challenge is winding up this week, and I'm glad I did it, and I'm relieved it's over. Getting into a writing habit is good. I am playing about 3-4 games a week at the moment, and more d&d5/24. Met gamers my age for Cthulhu, which was interesting.

Not lots of gaming books I want currently, as all my KS books came in last year. Im probably getting Grim Hollow players' book and a few Goodman Games tomes of adventure as i see them on sale. Maybe some old-school essentials. I am finding the brevity of descriptions in some people's hands works and still has flavour. Other people write stuff that is as fun to read as computer code. The Goodman Games I think, vary a bit but are imaginative. Some books have better descriptions than others or are better organised. A few found it harder to read. I still think there could be a middle road between OSE and DCC.

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In-game, other than price lists, what I've posted in this series and the link page I did early on with shopping as an activity. Maybe a d100 shopping table for carousing in markets. Ive been meaning to add an extra page on my campaign price lists. 

I would recommend that wilderness travel, exploring a base community, and a dungeon are kinda core oldschool tropes, but I think shopping in a big city is an adventure also. It's not just talking to shopkeepers and haggling over the price of a wig.  Spending time in a city is dangerous. Shopping is an adventure because while shopping, you may get leads to magic items, adventure gossip or jobs. You can have run-ins with crime, the law or barfights. The sewers are a giant dungeon, too. A rooftop chase is a different challenge for adventurers. Spells used on people can cause problems in public, and you can get accused of witchcraft. Cults are always up for urban adventure, also. 

Shopping takes time to look around, especially for quality or rare goods. Selling dungeon loot can be a part of this. Getting your next job or claiming a reward takes time. A session of city adventure was about 1in4 sessions in many of my games.

People you meet could offer jobs, gossip, sales of special items and rivalry.

d12 Village Visits
1 Find a bargain or rural produce

2 Terrible price or scarcity on needed item

3 Goldrush prices as food and metal goods cost more

4 Seasonal goods at a good price

5 Market flooded in dungeon rubbish

6 Meet criminals (bandits/thieves)

7 Meet travellers (merchants/mercenaries)

8 Meet adventurers

9 Meet some local drunks

10 Meet the village idiot

11 Meet an old storyteller or gossip

12 Meet a local spell user

d12 Village Trouble
1 Bandit or robber

2 Livestock accident

3 Farmer injured or in trouble

4 Rural bullies

5 Peasant who hates adventurers

6 Barbarian or humanoid raiders

7  Uppity mayor dislikes armed strangers

8 Haunting

9 Noble jerk

10 Local witch or druid resents adventurers

11 Inquisitor visits seeking unlawful spell casters
12 Minor spirit or faerie trouble

d12 Town Visits
1 Market shortage with high prices

2 Market surplus with low prices

3 Meet some drunks

4 Meet a gang boss

5 Meet a guildsman

6 Meet merchants

7 Meet homeless urchins

8 Meet entertainers (bards, jesters, carnies)

9 Meet mercenaries or adventurers

10 Meet cult members

11 Meet a noble

12 Meet a spell caster

d12 Town Trouble
1 Pick pocket

2 Gang of robbers

3 Murder mystery

4 Fire

5 Riot

6 Criminal guild

7 Charletan offers investment

8 Dangerous cult

9 Haunting 

10 Things from the sewers

11 Romance goes wrong
12 Shapeshifters

Barking Alien Challenge day24: Imports

d12 Imports of the Northern Continent

1 Food

2 Metal goods

3 Linen cloth

4 Rope

5 Fashion

6 Luxury craft

7 Artworks

8 Livestock

9 Blankets

10 Wine

11 Crossbows

12 Guns

d12 Imports of the Southern Continent

1 Livestock
2 Wood
3 Iron & copper

4 Paper

5 Hardwood

6 Ivory

7 Narcotics

8 Beet sugar

9 Honey & mead

10 Nuts & Berries

11 Wool

12 Herbs

d12 Imports of the Mysterious West

1 Gems & Jewellery
2 Gold & silver
3 Iron & copper

4 Slaves

5 Hebs 

6 Fish 

7 Wine

8 Dye

9 Horn

10 Glass

11 Pearl & coral

12 Religious relics & icons

d12 Imports of the Warring East*

1 Livestock 
2 Grain
3 Iron

4 Wine & mead

5 Fur

6 Herbs

7 Ceramics

8 Narcotics

9 Dried fruit 

10 Cheese

11 Horses

12 Alchemy ingredients

d12 Imports of the Northern Lands

1 Metal goods
2 Wood goods
3 Livestock

4 Labourers & slaves

5 Boats

6 Building materials

7 Wool & blankets

8 Fuel

9 Mercenaries

10 Horses

11 Barley

12 Wine

d12 Imports of the South Continent

1 Iron
2 Amber & ivory
3 Gems & jewellery 

4 Pearls & coral

5 Cattle 

6 Slaves

7 Fish

8 Ink

9 Glass

10 Linen cloth

11 Horses

12 Pearls & coral

d12 Imports of the Islands

1 Livestock
2 Iron tools
3 Nets

4 Pottery

5 Wood

6 Flint

7 Ochre

8 Sailcloth

9 Bottles

10 Spices

11 Barley

12 Horses

d12 Wasteland Imports 

1 Iron tools
2 Weapons
3 Armour

4 Wheat & Barley

5 Beer & Wine

6 Livestock

7 Wheels

8 Pottery

9 Bronze & Tin

12 Honey

d12 Auldwood Imports

1 Fruit & vegetables
2 Beer
3 Gems

4 Crystal

5 Narcotics

6 Exotic wood

7 Salt

8 Wheat & Barley

9 Ancient books

10 Amber, pearls, ivory 

11 Dye

12 Alchemy ingredients

d12 Chagrinspire Imports

1 Vegetables
2 Beer, wine
3 Livestock

4 Wheat & Barley

5 Mining tools

6 Wagons

7 Wood

8 Building supplies

9 Hay & straw

10 Labourers 

11 Mercenaries

12 Slaves

Barking Alien Challenge day23 Exports

Barking Alien Challenge day23+24: Imports & Exports
I did like the Mystara maps with global trade usable as a game aid and a game.

I imagine this would be handy for treasure, especially in a maritime setting.
Imports tommorrow.

This starts with the regions of the continant then the less detailed regions beyond. Goods from these lands are more exotic and tend to be luxury. 

d12 Common Exports of the Northern Continent

1 Wood goods

2 Fur & hide

3 Iron goods

4 Wheat & barley

5 Cured pork & pigs

6 Bows & Bowstaves

7 Coal & rock oil

8 Pine Nuts & hazelnuts

9 Pickled Vegetables

10 Dried Mushrooms

11 Sheep & goats for wool & dairy

12 Fish, dried or smoked

d12 Fancy Exports of the Northern Continent

1 Armour 

2 Weapons

3 Gems & semiprecious stones

4 Amber

5 Honey & Mead

6 Tapestries

7 Alchemist spirits (distilled grog/lamp fuel)

8 Scented soap

9 Walrus or whale Ivory

10 Troll bones

11 Magical block of slow-melting ice

12 Dried Mermaid in a display case

d12 Common Exports of the Southern Continent

1 Dried Beans

2 Sea biscuits

3 Olive oil

4 Wine & Vinegar

5 Fish sauce

6 Dairy & Beef

7 Dried Fruit

8 Spicy sausages 

9 Tin

10 Salt

11 Linen cloth & clothes

12 Salted Fish

d12 Fancy Exports of the Southern Continent

1 Gold and silver

2 Vintage wines

3 Horses

4 Safron & Silphium 

5 Religious relics & icons

6 Felt hats

7 Artisanal leather goods

8 Jewellery

9 Crossbows

10 Dye

11 Aromatic oil

12 Holy Water

d12 Exports of the Mysterious West

1 Ceramics

2 Spices

3 Ivory

4 Narcotics

5 Paper

6 Poison

7 Medicine

8 Insence

9 Exotic fruits

10 Exotic birds & apes 

11 Dragon bones

12 Gunpowder & fireworks  

d12 Exports of the Warring East*

1 Blackpowder, guns

2 Quality steel

3 Arms & armour

4 Ships

5 Alchemist spirits (distilled grog)

6 Exotic tribal idols

7 Exotic birds & lizards

8 Clocks

9 Tools

10 Books

11 Mercenaries

12 Silver & gold

*Shadeloport has similar trade and lots of influence over the warring colonies of the West
The western colonies are a small region of the west, mostly its jungles, dinosaurs, ruins and cults like Forbidden Island

d12 Exports of the Northern Lands

1 Whale and walrus ivory

2 Obsidian

3 Amber 

4 Furs

5 Wood

6 Stone idols

7 Seashells

8 Ochre

9 Semiprecious stones

10 Honey

11 Giant animals

12 Prehuman artefacts

d12 Exports of the South Continent

1 Salt

2 Dye

3 Wheat & barley

4 Dried Fruits

5 Copper, bronze and brass

6 Silver & gold

7 Wine

8 Rock oil

9 Narcotics

10 Mumified humans & animals*

11 Ancient relics

12 Potions

*used for fertiliser, fuel, paint, alchemy, and medicine. Yes, it's dangerous and unhealthy

d12 Exports of the Islands

1 Fish

2 Dye

3 Stone idols

4 Hardwood goods

5 Shells

6 Pearls

7 Obsidian

8 Seaweed

9 Scented woods

10 Perfume

11 Coral

12 Prehuman relics

d12 Wasteland Exports
1 Mercenaries

2 Horses

3 Cattle

4 Fur

5 Flint

6 Venison

7 Bison

8 Herbs

9 Horn

10 Giant animals 

11 Monster body parts

12 Composite bows

d12 Auldwood Exports
1 Wood

2 Fur
3 Herbs
4 Fruit, nuts & acorns

5 Captured beasts

6 Jewellery

7 Superior linen cloth

8 Slaves (goblinoid, kold, human, orc)  

9 Halfling crafts & foods

10 Dwarf metal goods

11 Elf luxury goods

12 Prehuman relics

d12 Chagrinspire Exports*
1 Guns

2 Scrap metal

3 Slavery

4 Machine parts

5 Tools

6 Ancient texts & art

7 Giant bugs

8 Mushrooms 

9 Slavery (currently in decline due to adventurers)

10 Gunpowder

11 Alchemist ingredients

12 Magic items, potions & scrolls
*Items from the ruins and wastes and the underland