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.

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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