Reviewing Umerica & New ed of Babylon RPG

So I reviewed some of these prior from other versions and PDFs earlier and the print copies cames. 

Babylon On Which Fame and Jubilation Are Bestowed (BOBWFAB for short)  
A very attractive a5ish book 308 pages. The cover and is nice and is explained within. The serif font on the cover has legibility problems but i was pleasantly surprised. I have PDF and map from a previous LuLu version. The older version is a dnd retro clone mentioning non human races and interesting dnd spell lists based on gods. It is a very detailed old-school rule set I quite liked. This version is cut away those complex mechanics and is stripped of dnd tropes like elves. It is less magical or non magical historic rpg quite simple. It is one of the best history RPGs for historic detail. I know the setting well and ran perhaps 15 years over 6 campaigns of running RuneQuest3 as Babylonia. I'veI also more recently ran a more dnd-ish fantasy setting based on the stuff. I have about 40 ish books on the topic. This is probably one of the only games which I learn from as it has far more authentic language use than I could ever do. I hope both versions survive and are available and I kinda want to get the older one from LuLu in print too as it has many charming things in its own right. I do like the victorian illustrations and paintings and the introduction on this is a good thing. If I run any Babylonian RPG again I will keep this on hand with my 4 inches thick folder of photocopies from uni libraries on history. (✫✫✫✫) 

Umerica Series
So I now have my lovely hardback of the Umerican Road Atlas, Softback of The Umerican Survival Guide and four of the modules. Will get monster book soon....all on Drivethrough.

So this is a post apoc setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics. Not only is it better than Mutant Crawl Classics it is more gonzo. When later Gammaworld brought in the wacky broken reality thing (an anime did it in 70s) instead of the war in earlier versions I was kinda a bit ugh. It seemed more a way to say anything goes and be lazy. This setting the moon has been broken and the reality is broken and the apocalyptic mutant stuff is pretty punkrock. More 2000AD grime than early Gammaworld. I could slap lots of this content in my several post apoc settings. This includes magical stuff also and patron gods but they are briefer and stranger and more interesting than MCC rpg ones. I like weird but I like to pretend its serious and present gritty post apoc parodies of the modern world like Judge Dredd comics would. The humour and pop parodies in these are thick. The art aesthetic also reminds me of 2000AD comics - lots of punky grime and dirty details.

The Umerican Survival Guide is the main setting book. It has lots of rules I want use but still readable and entertaining a read like mutations and even repair tables. It has lots of ruin search tables any genre game would benefit from. It describes some setting features, goes straight into basics of survival. Character classes and new combat tables, scrap built vehicles and more. Some interesting locations to slot into lots of post apoc settings. Very enjoyable rpg book. ✫✫✫✫

The Umerican Road Atlas hardback is nice and a non-gamer friend thought it was pretty. Very matt paper I like very much. Great art and a great expansion to the above book. Pretty good stand alone. Has lots of good spot locations and generates more interesting locations to visit. I'm reminded of childhood family road trips on school holidays where you pass desperate tourist traps and this book is full of those. Dense with art and content a great buy. Themepark strangeness vibe of setting rife here. ✫✫✫✫

Previously I mentioned the modules The Children of the Sun (I rate as ✫✫✫✫) one of the better adventures/settings I've read in years. Covers a mutant Aztec civilisation in Mexico. Slave Drones of The Fantastiplex  (✫✫) is basically an alternate start very much like a Paranoia Alpha Complex. As I know Paranoia very well and it influenced all my SF and horror gaming (i could adlib a freeform rpg at any moment of it). So personally this one didn't offer me lots. I did get some ideas and liked the alternate jargon but not as awesome as Children of the sun. Still has an adventure here and ideas even though I feel it well-trod territory for me. Damn Tasty (✫✫✫) is an infiltration mission into a food complex to learn their secrets. It's weird and I will get ideas from it and good art. Burger wars  (✫✫✫)  is about rival fast-food chains and their minions in a ruined town and have lots of strange locations. 

Need the monster book and Killer of Giants next. Mutant Epoch monster book probably good to get too. Got more Darwins world too. 

I slip these into my Planet Psychon setting without much change, My Broken Hill setting could fit in lots even though it downplays or ignores magic or broken reality. Even my more straight BRP mad max Murder Highway game will get some snippets from this. 

Cave Heroes Smush Elder Gods

 

Stone age sorcery game had cave heroes flying recon using magic and animal form and mutations has explored a region. In an area based on Strange Aeons 2 for Call of Cthulhu. So I'm minimising spoilers from products. Possibly the no money in setting and oaths and community of tribe has minimised Stoneage murder hobos stuff. I made this throw up pic from a sandcastle in a few minutes. 

Heroes saw missing villagers and other tribes controlled by ghosts and the heroes killed the unwitting cult leader, his followers and a minion of the toad god Tsath-Og-Tha. The battle destroyed a ziggurat and used wizardry triggered floods and stampedes ruin the heretic ghost cult dwellings. Drove them away from the prehistoric empire's ghosts. 

Decided to put off fighting the Frost Giants and went home to check on village. Elf had elf followers he wanted to gather and the giant had pet dogs left in his magic cave in Red Ape Valley (Dysons 2nd Map book on LuLu). Helped the refugees home befriending the Elk tribe and convinced some more Snake trike to join the Four-Law tribe. The tribe now has a sky-solar law cult, a darkness ogre goddess, a spider goddess and a snake cult plus some leave out offerings for elves and gnomes. Elf who now has mutant translucent bug wings and a sprite hero sidekick has been stalking lone griffons charming them and bringing them back home to tame and got a pair for him and their warrior ally.

Three months later Elf and the Giant plus followers went into Red Ape Valley and battled shoggoths and had the complex buried to seal a pulsating chaos gate that monsters from three corrupted planes to come here for the food. So killed everything and roasted all the cult gore pits and battled undead trogs a such which kept gating in for food that was ash. Got village occupants to burry the hill as the gate thing was a problem.

Experimented with magical buff relics and the chaos elf flipped a coin and wondered if use use followers to try the random chaos effects as the ods were one or two would get only benefits. After days of the study concluded elves would just use the + to encounter mods as that had best odds. Killed lots of monsters but ended up just sealing the gate room and leaving a boulder on the entrance.

Still, a cave and a ziggurat to search and the party levelled up. Elf gained teleport spell and went off on camping trip a days ride by griffon for a day then learned the spots as teleport spots for the future. So later could hop through known spots and fly over huge areas. The giant is 8 foot 9 inches now but has become a warrior to avoid more growth. Has convinced party he can help them seize a giant sky castle they can fly about in or move the village into the sky forever.

Last HD for most party name level next. I've been hothousing them to test rules at higher levels and break the system a bit. 

The giant learned to speak griffon. A warrior might learn to ride griffon. I love griffons a bit too much I'm wary I will show them too much mercy. Sprite and griffon follower for elf has been cool. Giant has had no1 dog grown to pony size like a boss warg other like a huge wolf hunting dogs Giant has introduced shield use to everyone too. Elf and giant squabbling over law vs chaos and primordial history has been good. The humans scaping ghosts have been influenced by dreams of ancient civilisation adding to the influence over tundra the party have made.

Broken Hill Setting in Progress

Patreaon right now has 77 page preview of my current book on Broken Hill for post Apoc games like Darwins World, Gama World, Mutant Epoch, After the Bomb etc. Might be finished this month...

So here is a piece I'm writing here as I have now text editing software on machine and Grammarly better than word or open office. Watching MadMax2 as I work. Using lots of my ruin photography Id forgotten about.

Bothering to build a new site really low priority so will do a few things here like reviews and finish some old stuff but I'm unlikely to go back to daily posts ever. Rest of this year mostly making comps on my Patraeon the rest of the year. I do value your feedback and it does encourage me to do more stuff otherwise i feel I'm in a creative vacuum. It would be nice If I could do a KS campaign for Psychon around xmas. Must release my Post apoc RPG before actual apocalypse...

Broken Hill Missions
When you get to the great sprawling ruins it can be bewildering but in Silver City, the occupied trade town of the Warlord there are plenty of job offers. Public noticeboards for jobs are by every gate offering jobs and rewards.

Most of these say how to contact the paying party of the poster.
Some give general info on what is wanted others more secretive.
Pay varies but silver in ounces is typical.
The better the pay the less job info provided.
You could also get these missions if you have a job.

d10 Quick Mission Types
01 Bounties - paid to capture a wanted person
02 Wanted - a reward for proof of death (head is best)
03 Search & Destroy - locate and destroy something
04 Seize goods - take goods from someone
05 Find goods - locate something someone needs
06 Gather info - intelligence on some group required
07 Negotiate - trade or bargain with a faction
08 Wetwork - kill a target, no questions 

09 Hunting - kill mutant animals causing problems
10  Warlord's request - missions from the Warlord

d100 Missions in Silver City

01 Slavers offering rewards for escaped slaves and those helping them
02 Merchants want a debtor returned so they can pay debts for reward
03 Bunker dwellers living in secret ancient splendour always wanted alive  
04 Missing robot tech vanished with crew in ruins wanted back in the market by traders
05 Senior of Warlord's chosen proved traitor working for Silverton gang spies wanted alive
06 Drug dealer producing toxic potions wanted alive by survivors and families
07 Contractor in water filtration plant is a missing reward for safe return (and for breach of contract)
08 Gang leader want a man who was betrothed to a daughter who fled returned alive for reward
09 Bail jumper, paid for limited release from warlords prison camp then fled into ruins wanted alive
10 Child kidnapped by a gang in the ruins, family want them returned alive
11 Bandit leader from the rubble, merchants offer price on head
12 Sniper in ruins harassing the Warlord's patrols wanted dead (actually there are lots of these)
13 Mutant cultist caught contaminating water supplies with mutagen wanted dead
14 Gang or raider leader wanted dead (a d12 of these up any time)
15 Whole gang is wanted for various crimes, the price for any dead in gang colours 
16 Wanted dead, head mechanic of the ultralights in the gang compounds of Silverton
17 Wanted dead, Mortis chief of the Silverton gangs and priest of the Satanic church there
18 Wanted dead, spy possibly from a bunker, was in Warlord's employ till exposed 
19 Wanted dead, beast abhuman tribal leader has been eating travellers
20 Wanted cyborg, an agent of an unknown hostile power, the whole corpse wanted with head intact
21 Android base in ruins offers to destroy it for reward
22 Wasteland raider gang have secret supply depot in ruins, destroy it for reward
23 Secretive cult claim to have an ancient weapon, kill them, destroy temple, bonus for recovery of weapon a micro "clean" suitcase nuke or mutagenic warhead 
24 A robot gang have a supply depot using it to repair and supply, without it, the gang skirmish tactics will not be effective, destroy it
25 Locate a desert raider camp and destroy it and anybody in it
26 Cane toad abhumans commandoes from far north have secret firebase in ruins from the war 30 years ago, find it and destroy them 
27 Cannibal clan ate someone and merchant family want the clan found and killed
28 Children are being taken by something in the sewer system, rescue children if possible and destroy whatever responsible
29 Some intelligent force is dwelling in secret in mines and old tube tunnels, find and destroy
30 Someone or something is planting monstrous plant seeds in ruins and settlers farms, find them and destroy them
31 Bandits took a merchant shipment, recover the goods from their mine lair
32 Steal a vehicle from a road gang, bonus for spare parts  
33 A gang in ruins has repaired a battlesuit with scrap, steal it
34 Some subterranean group has been stealing supplies through tunnels and drains, find them and steal supplies back 
35 Anti ageing drugs were stolen from a merchant offering money to get them back before some idiot uses them 
36 A mutagenic warhead was found in ruins and a cult stole it, get it back at any costs
37 Cyborg parts wanted, an area in the city has hostile cyborgs possibly defending a bunker who will have plenty
38 Android food wanted but android food processor better, most likely in an android supply depot or bunker
39 A cache of ancient drugs was dug up and stolen by a gang, a rich addict will pay for the lot 
40 A gang have been digging out a subway and found something the gang is keeping quiet. An investor wants it whatever it was 
41 A secret untouched bunker in the ruins full of treasure, report to warlord for a reward
42 Someone stole a battlesuit from the warlord and fled to the ruins, kill them and recover the suit
43 Any information leading to teleporter terminal said to be lost in area
44 Clone vat or parts wanted, especially control terminal and data files
45 Functional or close too aircraft or aircraft parts wanted by Cockburn airfield
46  Supplies and parts for 3d metal printers wanted
47 Ancient medical supplies wanted no questions asked, automated parts especially
48 Non-functioning robot scrap and wreckage always wanted
49 Atomic power cell cores wanted, frequently in vehicles, no cracked or leaking ones wanted
50 Car parts are required by scrapyard mechanics, wanted part list available
51 How many vehicles do the road gangs in Silverton 
52 Where do all the new huge mutant creatures come from?
53 A few have claimed secret AIs communicate in the ruins, what do they want?
54 Stories of some hidden underground faction are common, how true are they?
55 Raider gang spies infiltrate market area to learn traders movements, find out who
56 A suicide bomber was caught trying to blow up a gate of Silver City 
57 Infiltrate the raiders of Silverton at race time and investigate which gangs are where around town and try to get names of leaders
58 A bunch of demons worshipping cultists in the ruins have been trading with Mortis the ruler of Silverton what is the link and how extensive is the gang
59 Someone has a missing sister they believe is kept in a private harem, confirm if the woman is there and note any means of rescue or escape
60 A gang has uncovered some codes and ID cards from a secure underground space research facility in the wastes and some scholars want the data
61 The locals seek to trade and hire tribals of the waste but mostly they shun any with technology, try and make a deal with them, arrange an exchange of experts
62 A local radio station needs fresh beats and tracks. Trade with some other stations in the ruins and wasteland or some of the feral rave DJ crews
63 An AI has occasionally has traded some goods at an impregnable bunker doorway. Try and see if a regular trade deal can be established
64 A merchant had some goods taken and wants to have someone try and buy a certain trunk back from them without it being damaged
65 A merchant wants someone to help broker a deal to establish a monopoly over booze in the city but none involved how other distillers among ferals tribes will fit into the scheme
66 A clan of squatters in the ruins want to settle inside the walls of Silver City but in the past they angered the Warlord who controls it. They want to broker a deal they can live with. They have knowledge of using certain mutant plants and maps of the ruins near their current home
67 A trader has been swapping coal for new steel machine parts, blades and axe heads. A rival knows a sewer outlet the trader goes down and wants someone to make a deal with whoever is down there
68 A merchant has a secure laser com link to negotiate dropping some goods from the heavens. The com centre is dangerous to access
69 The warlord wants to recruit a road gang to his service and needs negotiators to visit them
70 A savage slaver clan captured someone and a merchant wants to buy them back but needs muscle to back them up
71 Kill Mortis leader of the raiders of Silverton but make everyone blame one of the gangs in his service
72 An ex-slave has done well and now wants a former master killed
73 Someone wants one of the Warlord's chosen killed from some old grudge from old days in a raider gang
74 A graffiti ganger wants a rival artist in ruins who capped their tags to be killed secretly
75 The warlord keeps a panel of advisers in various fields and a rival wants a current one killed so they get the job 
76 Someone had a relative killed in a bar fight and the law did nothing so they want private justice delivered
77 A trouble-making farmer leader is coordinating growers to raise food prices, a merchant wants them dead
78 A party of prospectors murdered a relative of a client who wants them all to vanish in the ruins
79 A sleazy prospector keeps recruiting urchins to explore dangerous ruins and parent of a missing ones wants the scavenger dead
80 A tech worshipping cult hoarding relics to worship, devoutly follow a leader who a scholar wants the leader killed and evidence left on them to make the cult lose faith
81 Killer plants have infested an area farmers were preparing for crops, find some poison or flamers in the ruins to help destroy them
82 A huge mutant monster has made a lair in the ruins that prospectors want dead
83 There is a wooded area within the walls of Silverton where creatures have been snatching people. Destroy them and farmers offer food and scrap
84 Locusts came and ate lots of crops and when farmers went to eat ones they killed found they had chipped brains. Find who controls them and the farmers will reward heroes
85 Something in the sewers is singing and some kids vanished looking for it, locals posted a reward to solve the mystery
86 Lots of mutant rats come from a sewer and take food. Locals pooled in for exterminators. One warns a rat bigger than a dog had a tool belt
87 A creature has covered itself in junk and lurks in rubble ambushing locals. Survivors want it killed 
88 Some mutant creatures look human enough but is killing and eating people in the market area
89 A whole gang was wiped out by some brutal abhuman mutants. Locals fearing they might next want them dead.
90 Some kind of parisite is infecting people and using them as thralls to spread in populated areas. A number of healers want them found and eliminated without a panic
91 The Warlord needs someone to destroy the fuel refinery in Silverton to cripple their vehicles
92 The Warlord wants someone to destroy the functional ultralight aircraft operating in Silverton supporting the gangs there
93 The Warlord suspects there are deeper levels hidden in a long emptied bunker, kill any gangs living there and find the secret levels
94 The Warlord wants a cyborg gang in the ruins wiped out and who controls them destroyed
95 The Warlord wants someone to bury land mines on roads used by a road gang 
96 The Warlord wants a gang hiding in the ruins wiped out and leave a spectacle so everybody knows the Warlord did it
97 The Warlord wants some tech someone refused to sell them and needs someone to give them a final offer they cannot refuse
98 Women escaped the Warlord's harem and he wants them returned and anyone helping them killed. None of the women are to be harmed
99 The Warlord has had reports of old tunnel under the sound and wants the passages searched for threats or loot
100 The Warlord wants the gangs fighting in the mine ruins to be beaten back so hard they think twice before coming back. He can't commit any help but offers ammo and a few vehicles

Reviews Again

Possibly I wrote lots of game stuff out of being cheapskate unwilling to spend money. 

Mostly working on 2 books offline while watching excellent Tripods S1 and S2
Im updating my Current Patreon Project today to 30 pages on my Broken Hill book
Im sourcing a artist for a mock up cover art fro a Norman Linsey meets Mad Max meets 2000AD grunge vibe.

A few Interesting pics today....

The Lost City
vol 4 of goodman games reimagined classics hardbacks.
One of my fave adventures I have never run. This book is the best out of the four so far (followed by 2 then 1 then 3). Lots of art and one item of pole dancing goblins probably one of the biggest surprises in a book I've ever had. Only one reprint of the adventure which is a help. It totally ignores the amazing fan-made companion which goes into the Alexander the Great themes and one web page had awesome addictive drugs for a setting like addictive cheap healing potions better than the "Fantasy" drug in this book. Other than those issues it is the best yet with lots of new dungeon areas like a huge goblin complex and the city detailed and lots of other good extras with great maps. It doesn't feel like a BX 1-3 level adventure anymore in the 5th ed revision but it is pretty nice. One beef I have with this series is new monsters lack any lore or text just stat blocks which I find sad as almost everyone has space and someone could have done this in a few hours. I'm pretty happy with is and hope more like this. Vol one had 2 modules reprinted twice but expanded the wilderness nicely. Vol 2 added extra encounters and really nice Willian McAustland art which I enjoy and vol 4 repeats it. Vol 3 improved the story a bit then ads expanded campaign predicated on new monsters with no illustrations and more monster stat blocks lacking inspiration but i guess S3 was flawed even if fun once. Interestingly I ran S3 last after ASE 1-2-3 and the gonzo genre-bending didn't stand up. Looking forward to vol 5

Bug Hunters TSR 1993 by Lester Smith
This has the gold TSR logo lozenge of the 90s, a time I gave up TSR and DND for being lame. Poorer art, pay per word, people younger and dumber than me writing stuff (complete necromancers guide was the product that made me quit TSR). So this is for the Amazing engine. It Is a marine-based SF game where you are lab-grown troops hunting aliens. The map is great Hard SF sphere around earth as good as the 2300 map but more manageable area. Starship troopers and Aliens is the vibe. Some good points are the modular ship blueprints, some ok equipment that still seems relevant decades later and the best part is the background. It is pretty cheap second hand and some ways the alien back story might fit in with Eclipse Phase or could be used in other SF campaigns. Two ancient races fought a war one used biotech (blobs and the thing and nasty critters) vs the tech race that build robots, replicants, killer drones. I like you could end humanity by shooting new aliens first which can start wars and prevent humans getting allies. The ancients are mostly gone but left traps and monster bioweapons around. Some ex thrall races exist also which could be friend or foe. It does set my imagination off so I commend it for that. Not a lot of art and workman like layouts of this era TSR.

Bug Hunts - Mark Latham Osprey Books 2015
This is more recent and builds a setting very aliens/starship troopers based and sets up a bunch of horrible colony destroying monster species to fight. If your bored with Alien this will give well resolved alternate critters. Would work well with the old TSR Bughunters book. Like all Osprey books the art is very good. Check out cthulhu wars and cthulhu rome books too. I am tempted to get the (non rpg) Alien Marine handbook full of good tech art. The species in here could be in lots of space RPGs. As I said a mash of this and the TSR one would work fine.

High Adventure Cliff Hangers Buck Rogers War Against The Hun
Ive seen a novel of Buck Rogers with warnings for dodginess I cant imagine has got better. Which is pretty fair. I like decopunk SF but this is a real oddity (and was cheap). I might grab the main box if i see around but it seems to be let's try and save our Buck Rogers IP without any advertising or interest from fans so we can own it 75 years more or something. Paper is really thin and the books feel like comics almost. The Mike Pondsmith Buck Rogers IP was a good game with imaginative Ideas that influence me still. The big flaw like lots of TSR things in this time was the interior illustrations seemed workmanlike and not very exiting vs 80s content. So beautiful covers an approximate average inside. This book has like Bughunters has a mostly workmanlike layout and even though they used original Buck comic art was a bit thin. The portrayal of Asians is like pantomime Chinese from 1900 AliBaba plays. The second book in the box has a better layout and has colour printed spot colour on page edges. I hope this was when spot colour was cheaper cos if it was full-colour printing I would be upset. Some of the chapter layouts and presentation of info inboxes is better designed. Well, I did learn more about the setting but I will put this product under the oddities collection. Sadly TSR/SI would have made a good SF or Pulp Game - the Agent 13 book is a superior product 

News, Reviews & AWOL Stuff

 

So blogger seems to be working better and a page of links I deleted after contents ruined came back fine so I have no idea if my complaint worked or not. I'm still wary. I seem to get the same hits even if I do nothing. I'm evaluating what and where I post and my writing and the purpose of this blog.

I'm in the process of sorting PDFs of every post and sorting into compilation project folders. I'm back to editing my 80pg homebrew rulebook and my broken hill book mostly. I've been resisting the urge to write whatever comes to mind here. I'm not bothering to Tag here if i cant cut n paste them into a field - the box-ticking thing is a pain and "forgets" what you just entered. It shouldn't be this fiddly. Some changes ok. I'm deleting the most tasteless post I ever did (I seem to do them to drive particular persons away). I mostly used this blog to write and file stuff with intent to organise later or just to write for its own sake. Most of the earlier years have all been accumulated into my PDF compilations already. So no idea what I'm doing yet and I'm not making any plans. I don't really have issues with creativity (my mind is an open sewer of ideas) but developing it is problematic for lots of reasons. I'm upping my bandwidth and playing videogames for a while probably. I'm mostly shut-in currently, quit study and working. Still on Patreon which will probably benefit from all this most. Oddly enough most of comments on all this came from Reddit which is not famous for being supportive.

Axebanes Deck of Many Dungeons
From https://www.thegamecrafter.com/. I thought I would get a few items to see quality as I have considered designing some decks. I got a deck of sanity cards I guess for Cthulhu which was nice till i realised that most of the cards were repeated something like 8 times and this adds nothing to the utility. I might even split it and give them away. The concept was good just could have done more. The Dungeon deck, however, is nice. I got the expansion too but it is quite a bit smaller and I would rather have it bigger and the expansion theme didn't really shine through once mixed with originals. Quality-wise the cards are nice as is the box. So some cards are entries with a quest most cards are rooms and corridors and a few are quest goal or stairs for a new level. You're supposed to lay them out then play through them. It reminds me of a game I made with kids years ago. I played through some 1st Lv adventurers from my homebrew and it was entertaining. Kids would like it. The card monsters are based on levels but I don't think they should have aimed this high. If six people met 6 hydras in a 10-foot wide hall I don't think they could even move about very well. It has given me ideas anyway. 

I might try and make an apocalypse ruin deck or something one day. Lots of game pieces here too including some sathar fighters possible buck rogers pieces. Had some viking and greek myth minis which had some good monsters for my 1/72 gaming. Egyptian one was out. I got some rayguns for Gaslands custom jobs too.

Mythic Odysseys of Theros
Ive got a bunch of dnd gazeteers coming but I surprised myself by buying a 5th ed book. Partly I found I liked art and Dysons maps. I find lots of big head and arm art in fantasy is not my thing and Im afraid to look at the halfling page in the dnd5 Players book. Once I had it home I was pleasantly surprised. There seems to be a new wave of historic culture books coming out by 3rd party publishers at the moment, the same time as debates on cultural plundering is commonplace. 

Theros was a Magic the Gathering thing which you would think I would run a million miles from. While greek inspired It is not Greece and thus the heroes and gods are more ethnically diverse than reality. This frees them in many ways from some problems and closes some doors. Slavery, for example, a standard feature of the ancient world but here we get one reference to someone being sold in a pull quote from a NPC. The players are Heroes and I like the background tables lots. Athlete background is nice but a philosopher might be good too. Races are great and while Im over dnd5 being a furry game I do like the Lion race here. Satyrs, centaurs, minotaurs, tritons are all fun. I enjoy very much the concept that the gods are all potential enemies and there is a chapter dealing with each god and includes Dyson maps of holy complexes to use in play. I found the whole take on fantasy religion here very welcome. I liked the monsters and gender norm-breaking from tradition with male nymphs. The chimaera pages are wonderful. There are some big critters here that remind me of pathfinder monsters. 

The gods are ok. I'm unlikely to use them. They do seem kind of alien which is interesting. There is a monster called a Typhon which has nothing to do with one of my favourite villain gods.  I wish I knew an ancient greek scholar to comment on the naming schemes. You could replace these gods without much trouble and still use concepts, tables and maps. People sure love putting roman colosseums in ancient Greece settings but most of them are good. The setting is simple and solid, far simpler than Greece or the Mediterranean. I like the polis concepts. One is a sort of Sparta with no mention of slavery or other evils (Spartans were some of the most abusive slave owners ever). Another is sort of Athens. Another I liked is an Amazon city. The minotaur polis with a maze I was charmed by. Here avoiding history was an ok decision. I like the notion of travel and inconsistent times for travel which is more dreamlike which is a nice touch too. Not many human communities really but I like the option to explore and find others.

You could use this as is or to build a more historic setting from. Some of the concepts on religion I think could be applied anywhere. The races are fun. It has made me want to look again at the last few dnd5 books again.

Blogger Problems & Escape Plans

So my link pages on Blogger have been destroyed by the makeover. Pages with subject sorted links to thousands of tables are broken. Possibly some systems and social media removing URL links automatically. When I open edit page I can see 2 lines of links when I go to preview it shows 60 lines of links.Tags have been broken also under the new system.
Tagging now i cant cut and paste in fields i must click boxes sorted three ways in field and slow to find stuff. The boxes I click don't save frequently and I go back to find links have gone. Happened 4 times on one doc. There is a trick to it but why make it harder? If they want a phone mode for posting just do that. FB doing same with mixed results. 
 
Fixing this is too hard so sorry tagging and updating these link pages might end unless things change. Im still rewriting the same articles i wrote years ago again by mistake and I find stuff with google better than search on blogger anyway. Numbers and subscribers have dropped a bit too so I might start a big archive of PDFs soo. No plans but they have made it harder to operate or network and platform is shrinking so I doubt lots of effort on blogger worth it. 


Anyone else dealing with these bugs/issues?

Update:

Text I wrote into a blog post now missing so this is all going down fast. I'll drop my last few posts here. If I cant even enter text reliably this is pointless being here.

More sudden death than I like but oh well goodby after 8 years.

Update:
Im not deleting just not posting new stuff
I post had half text missing i looked at again and all text gone now.
In short term Patraeon might take over 

Looking at several options
preferably something that would survive if i died

The Fabulous World of DragonDance (TM)

The fabulous world of DragonDance(TM) will be a fabulous setting where your heroic player-characters seek dragons to dance with and win DragonDance battles. Young dragon dancers wander the perfectly safe and barley threatening world of magical adventure and dragon romance. While they wander dragon dancers meet new friends, try tasty new regional snacks and gain new adorable familiar spirit minions. The greatest thrill for every DragonDancer(TM) is to compete at temple regional Dragon Dances held once a century. As the contests are once a century at any one place, so the DragonDancers must travel to new Dragondance temples across the world.

Once a DragonDancer arrives at a Temple they must perform a solo audition to get final selection then if they pass to final selection will be shown a map of local dragons to seduce into the Forbidden Dance with dragons. Each temple has their own preferred dance style and own rules and score system with judges. Each area has different dragons who may or may not like dancing or might think you just want their treasure. Often friends who failed the audition help their audition winning pals seduce a dragon willing to dance. Once a dragon is enthused in the idea of dance it will test the DragonDancer in various ways to see if they are worth becoming one through dance. Finally, after the dragon's test you are ready for the great contest where you become one with your dragon dance partner and compete for fabulous trophies, ribbons and snack food sponsorship deals. For some unlucky dancers who foolishly chose bad dragons, they might get eaten or worse.

Sometimes a special choreographer can be recruited to improve their chances but this requires another journey and meeting another cantankerous supernatural choreographer. Choreographers are ancient immortals who can enhance DragonDancers chances of victory in a contest but are high maintenance and might cause conflict between a DragonDancer and their partner. Some case choreographers are liars or insane or hopelessly out of date or have their own pet dance theory judges don't cares for. During a DragonDance battle, a choreographer improves your chance on the Dance Battle Matrix chart. During the contest rounds, there is a festival to enjoy, friends to meet, snacks to try. There can also be intrigued as some rival dancers might try to influence judges or sometimes a judge has some agenda other than selecting the most beautiful DragonDance.

Quite a bit of DragonDance is wandering looking for a contest then finding dragons and choreographers and the tasty snacks they can be persuaded with. Sometimes distractions and strange spectacles or obstacles might delay you. Sometimes you might have to choose a faster but slightly risky path like a spooky woods or cross a bridge over lava. Sometimes mean failed DragonDancer gangs will demand you dance battle them or hand over all your tasty food items and familiars. Sometimes you meet disturbed people who want to hurt dragons and you have to help them recover from this terrible malady with love, kindness and the healing power of dance. Yes there are dark dank dungeons but the scary monsters use unconventional dance styles that could send you to hospital. Monsters will steal your treats and dance trophies too so there is very little to gain from them mostly unless you're on a quest to please a dragon or choreographer or a judge.

Players can play both kinds of exiting DragonDancer character types in DD, a wizard-dancer or a witch-dancer. There are hundreds of adorable magical spirit familiars you can gather on your journeys that give you magic spells like sheet ghosts, unicorns, mini dragons, talking animals, sprites, goblins, basilisks, manticores, Griffins and many more. To tame your familiar a wizard-dancer treat their familiars with tasty treats or offers to help them in return. A witch has strong allegiances to certain types of spirit and dragon and uses their kinship to persuade familiars to join with them. Naughty magicians might trick, bully, blackmail and otherwise be mean to their familiars and you can help them by defeating their masters and freeing them. Some might join with you in gratitude. Having a dance battle with a wild familiar can result in friendship but failure might send you to the hospital from the complicated otherworldly dance moves.

Sometimes your battles don't go so well and you might end up in hospital which takes time and accrues massive bills. If you cannot be rescued and taken to the hospital or your dragon eats you, the hospital will just clone you which of course is very expensive and sometimes creates legal problems if there are two of you. Some lucrative snack food sponsors include medical benefits and a supply of snacks and branded outfits and uniforms. 

Possibly might cross over with my Magical Octopus Princess Adventure game but the humans in that are possibly too mean but could be a crossover.

Carousing in the Tundra

So my tribal players are about to head to a great mammoth clan gathering which will last a week where leaders and shaman meet and foreign tribe guests state grievances and there are lots of feasts. The players tribe will be bringing seed bread buns and some magic loot and trinkets they found exploring ruins and such. I guess I'm a bit inspired by Norse gatherings with religious legal and social significance.

Festival Itinerary of Seven days 

1 Gathering where people set up camps, meet and start to trade

2 Market day then the little feast and welcome speeches 

3 Holy day with long ceremonies then the wise ones meet on occult matters

4 Legal grievances from within tribe dealt with then foreign tribe delegates 

5 People engage in contests than a small feast

6 People trade while leaders meet and the great feast

7 Everyone gathers goods, unpack and go separate ways chanting

Other projects for this setting....
Statting up centaur variations
Statting up Atlantean cursed evil wizard types

Any of these entries suggesting a quest or scene could be played as they happened if plying as encounters at event. If you using the tables to cover what happened over a longer time period they could indicate an adventure that happened "off-screen" in that time

Types
01 Feasting
02 Contests
03 Barter
04 Craft
05 Conflict
06 Friendship
07 Romance
08 Adventure
09 Dream Quest
10 Supernatural

d100 Carousing in the Tundra

01 Offered a strange gift of mystery meat 1=from magic animal heals d3HP +1CHA for hour 2=from a rare animal you've never tried 3=human flesh 4=something disgusting
02 Og offers some bog grog he brewed in a log, mildly alcoholic but needs flavour
03 Catch feral child-stealing scraps and raised partly by some animals, all amazed
04 Bard sings tribal lineage & the song of tribal hero who made a pact with the tribal totem animal
05 Odd hunter brings a strange creature to eat claims it's the best eating. Both have d3 minor cosmetic mutation 
06 Someone suggests a cruel horrible and spectacle and argues how great it will be
07 Blacked out on strange potions, gain infamy for hilarious drugged-out antics
08 A famous hero is toasted by all and recants their amazing battle with all at feast
09 Someone at feast took great offence and tried to stab you, then left bitterly
10 Invited to meet important leaders informally
11 A boasting contest of great deeds and battles spreading the fame of all
12 A hunting contest who single-handed brings in best beast alone wins
13 A target shooting contest 
14 Obstacle race with a climb a swim and bypass a dangerous creature
15 Craftsmen present greatest works to the tribe to admire for fame
16 A wrestling contest is proposed
17 A challenge to collect a trinket like a scale or a feather from a monster's lair
18 Spent lots of time playing knuckle bones
19 Teams chase a small animal, goblin or hogskin bag of peas around field for a day
20 Teams move a giant boulder the furthest
21 Trader from the sea d6 1=cowrie shells 2=salt 3=dried fish 4=shark teeth 5=pearl 6=dry seaweed
22 Trader in underworld fungus d4 1=heald d4HP 2=detect magic 1Turn 3=delicious dried rations 4=grants a spirit vision, if users saves just vomit for d3, fail save meet an otherworldly spirit, try to do in a safe place, not a hell cursed graveyard
23 Trader in flint and some exotic stones pieces d4 1=obsidian 2=crystal 3=basalt 4=jade
24 Trader in d4 colours of ochre for artwork and body paint
25 Trader in exotic furs, fine cloaks, mittens and boots
26 Trader in carving and bone tusks and some spear tips, medallions and figurines
27 Trader has strange dried animal parts, petrified bones, and huge scales
28 Trader has strange greenstone artefacts of carved strange gods and spirits
29 Trader in exotic trinkets and charms and some pieces of d4 1=amber 2=jet 3=opal 4=copper coin
30 Trader in stories knows locations of strange secret places of forbidden ancient ruins, caves into the underland and other strange things
31 Craftsman has some scraps of copper and others come to watch him make "coins" sharp pieces of metal for cutting or scraping and symbols of status
32 Witness an old wizard complete enchanting a stone axe over many days with assistants
33 Hear story of a mysterious non-human craftsman in mountains
34 A flintnapper showing new style of spearhead they learned while captured by orcs
35 Meet a famous tattoo artist and many trying to get on his job list
36 Craftsmen trying to barter for a small "starstone" iron meteorite from an old shaman
37 Stranger selling d4 strange cursed evil weapons of the ancients
38 Hunter selling scruffy dirty tiny humanoid in a sack who has an exotic craft skill
39 Hear of an impressive weapon or crafted item lost recently d4 1=in a spring 2=inside a beast 3=fell in a sinkhole 4=stolen by someone 
40 A tribal leader requires someone to locate a secretive craftsperson who lives as a hermit for a commission
41 A fight breaks out over who owns an item or wins a contest or bad trade
42 A visiting foreigner makes accusations of evil conduct in public about a tribe member
43 A mysterious wizard makes some threat about the future then vanished in smoke
44 Two tribe members battle for the love of a third person 
45 Several families in long term feud try and stir up trouble against rivals with lies
46 Two men battle a death duel over some matter of honour and pride
47 Some other tribes are declared enemies and unwelcome in area
48 Someone tried to murder a tribal delegate
49 Someone was struck by a curse and experts are called in to find who
50 Someone was found murdered in morning
51 Meet a crafty hunter who travels far and wide
52 Meet a heroic warrior who has battles with strange monsters
53 Meet a cheery bard who is looking for inspirations of heroic deeds
54 Meet a wise person who offers to perform a divination
55 Meet someone who found a strange valley of foreboding ruins and monsters
56 Meet a tribal leaders family and get on well
57 Meet a strange foreign guest who might come with you a while
58 Meet a supernatural changeling in disguise among humans
59 Meet someone who lived as a slave with unusual foreign people and saw lots of strange things
60 Meet a demi-human visitor and learn a few useful phrases of speech
61 Someone stalks you offering you love, obsessive and jealous
62 Someone offers a marriage proposal to their children, offended if rejected
63 Have a brief exiting flying until their normal lover returns
64 Develop a horrible itch, after much laughter from peers you visit a healer
65 See an attractive stranger but family do best to keep you away
66 Tribal elder looking for a mate for a disadvantaged person d4 1=disabled 2=mutant 3=idiot 4=some taboo birthmark or feature shunned by tribe outsiders cant see
67 Meet an attractive person but they look after a cranky elderly relative or a child as part of the package
68 Met a charming person with terrible secret d4 1=lycanthropy 2=cannibalism 3=is an abhuman beastfolk hybrid and characteristics are just starting to show 3=mysteriously last lovers all died 4=actually a changeling and if discovered tribe will go crazy
69 Met a lover who is a spell caster and kinda did some crazy stuff you you sneaked away
70 Made out with a supernatural shapeshifter, they return to fairyland and either a hybrid monster child grows up resentful in fairyland under fey dilated time flow then hunt the parent who abandoned them....or the lovers family are disgusted and send a magical assassin 
71 Explored a deep dark cave possibly an entry to the underland lost kingdoms
72 Discovered a ruin populated by monsters with buried buildings intact connected by tunnels
73 Discover a huge broken statue buried head, which if exposed in a serpantman
74 Discovered a chasm with hundreds of animal bones where vultures, ghouls and hyenas live in cliff caves
75 Discover an ancient magical tree people have seen strange creatures climb up and vanish 
76 Discover a stone monolith with interesting markings as old as time
77 Discover the partial skeleton impeded in the rock of a gargantuan creature
78 Discovered the entrance to a lost world valley hidden by an illusion or fog
79 Discover an elemental node guarded by a d4 otherworldly elemental beasts 
80 Discover a magical creatures lair, could be source of wisdom or a fight
81 Dream visions of your totem animal and you living as beasts in the wilderness, if you don't have one you do now
82 Dream visions of  an evil entering the land that will cause trouble in the future, an omen will warn you when the creature comes close
83 Dream visions of a great spirit offering you a gift if you come to their spirit lodge for a ceremony, if yes gain a 0 level spell (or better)
84 Dream visions of someone who is or will be important you have not seen, they are in peril 
85 Dream visions of a dead ancestor tells you some unfinished business you need to deal with in return for knowledge of the ancestors
86 Dream visions of an evil ruined temple where an evil cult worship a broken relic of the forbidden elder gods, hoping to awaken or release some ancient evil
87 Dream visions of wilderness place where a great treasure resides for you to find, will come across the exact place on some travels and know where to find a mysterious hole
88 Dream visions of what evil plot some enemy tribe is about to launch on the world 
89 Dream visions of ancient dead wizards awakening from crypts and looking out over the world that has forgotten them and hunger 
90 Dream visions of a mighty spirit tells you where an evil enemy of the tundra dwells on a mountain top and a great treasure they possess
91 Witness a magician contest with shape-changing, blasting rocks and other wonders
92 A shaman takes you to a secret meeting to warn you of some secret threat and offers a petty magic item like a potion
93 Hear of a strange tribe in a stone hut in mountains who can bring the dead back from the grave
94 Someone talked about the dead too much and a undead was attracted and had to be repelled just averting tragedy
95 Someone fell ill and experts look for supernatural causes like spirits or secret witches 
96 Receive a bundle of 2d6 +1 arrows or darts or sling stones from a leader
97 Given a wolf (or another animal) pelt cloak can turn into a wolf just like a druid once per day
98 Taken in secret by elders to meet a supernatural being like an elf, naga, sphynx or dragon to be told of some forthcoming threat and offers advice as needed
99 Got into a contest with a changeling and tricked it out of a magical +1 magic item, the changeling will seek revenge for humiliation 
100 Taken to a supernatural realm by great spirit or god where it d4 1=warns you of a future threat 2=fills you with ecstatic feelings of oneness 3=tells you where to find a relic 4=offers to make a pact with your people or bloodline 

The Tribe With No Name vs Sunderhill

New tag system so broken here now I'm giving up

I found one of my carousing tables for wilderness ramblings which is good for this setting I had forgotten about. I think I might do a d100 Clan Gathering Carousing Table with legal stuff, ceremonies, feasts, loving and some human sacrifice and cannibalism if rolled badly. I'm running one of my Patraeon Adventures here - Secrets of Sunderhill. I've done an adventure a week published on Patraeon over the last 14 months. Running them is best editing as I spotted a map issue that I should mark the magical darkness. Possibly water choke points could have a star to indicate random foe.

So the tribe set up in the new cave and started seeding area with plants the druidic holy ones could enhance. Granny grew a wooden walls and structures to screen the cave mouth and helped halflings work on tree lookouts. Water was good and the Elf would fly away and charm great beasts and led them back to the tribe in a giant BBQ pit. Halfings put walkways from trees to the wall of wood and began grinding seeds for delicious cakes. Boron the hero had returned from absence over winter on his quest to return religion of the sky lord to humans with a cleric and a few followers from a mountain clan of holy folk. Also he had been with the Mammoth tribe and had been initiated and was legally able to hunt mammoth. The tribes thought Boron was one of the great Tundra heroes. He brought some of the red haired mammoth folk as followers too. Everyone was pleased and Boron told of a new race of four legged monster folk had entered the region. Also the northern mammoth clans were out of contact. A big mammoth spring meet up was a month away and the heroes tribe was requested to make a pact. 

The elf had recruited some pine elf followers of his shunned homeland and has them keeping watch over the humans. The elves and halflings got on well but if a human came near the elves fled. The halflings didn't get it. Most halfling friends lived back in the halfling holes and the elves had a secret watch post. There were still a Pteradactyl folk barbarian Clax and a wizard and lizard folk friends in secret  valley. All up the extended tribe was now over 32 and the only muti species multi faith tribe. They were talking about the four good laws they invented (most tribes have like a hundred plus) they had invented.

"What were they again?"
"No intimacy with dogs!"
"No cannibalism!"
"What about the other two?"

Silence.

"Oh well if anything comes up we will deal with it then"

"Whats our tribe called again?"
"No Dog Tribe?"
"Two Law Tribe?"

There was talk of a new found valley in mountains found (Dysons Valley of the Red Ape)

The rescued folk from the spider and snake tribes did cause some tension as did the sky tribe and the mammoth folk. Women of the spider and snake tribe had met the Congress in the caves and a few were learning the ways of the dark cave godess.

The feast concluded with a big booty dancing halfling show.
Boron tried to top this with getting his followers to form a 3 tiered human pyramid he just dreamed up to represent the holy mountain of god and they barley got second tier going twice before giving up. 

So they recovered from the days of feasting and wonder and bonding. Then they unblocked the rear cave and prepared a new expedition into the deep. Granny had led tribe to weave over 30 metres of hair rope and make lots of torches and ration packs.

Boron brought his sky priestess and four new hunters. Sourberry the elf brought his best pine elf who made some berries and blessed arrows. Sourberry was also making obsidian and crystal arrows that carry cantrip potions in his secret elf lab (coconuts and rock apparatus of course like Gilligan's Island). Bunz the halfling brought his favourite sneaky human friend and his halfling wife Patty. Bunz of late had learned a new animal form of mole (hawk and salmon before).

The the 11 boldly went through the great art gallery chamber to the deep shaft below. Boron a master climber scuttled down and set up a rope to help others to make it safer. He was busy guiding the gang through the hazards. Went down the shaft with bunz lowered on a rope to waterline in bottom of the pit. Went back up through the familiar cave of the Congress hag who they sung songs of praise too and gave her backpacks of meat and a few bags of shiny silver tokens. Granny took her gift and looked hungrily at the bride of Bunz but she took her gifts and the passed. Saw piercers moved and only babies they could harvest for food later.

Boron climbed up to where the cave trapper beast was killed and eaten prior to finding someone had been in chamber eating leftovers. So Boron went down to a ledge with a crippled skeleton and nabbed a shiny copper knife, purest he had seen and gleaming.

Noisily and clumsily the other amateurs got down with a few mishaps, safety line saves and some screams. Boron went deeper down the shaft finding a new side cave then another on the waterline below. Went to peak in first and was a wall of darkness no light would pass. The rest came down and some heard some sniffing sounds. Everyone backed off and Bunz turned into a mole and used his mole senses and "sensed" a hideous 8 foot tall horror chaos troll just behind the veil of magic shadow reaching for the tasty mole. Bunz turned back and tried to flee but three troll came threw and the lead one scratched him.

Boron charged and Sourberry charmed a troll to turn on the other two. Halflings and the hunters threw spears and rocks and axes dropping one. The other slashed boron but wounded and fled into the magic darkness. The troll followed and finished his brother and they heard slurping. Moved through the darkness finding bones and got through. The halflings helped out by burning and stabbing fallen trolls so they did not regenerate.

Found a goblin cave tomb and got a healing ointment, a magic stone axe and some goblin bones in bundles with some art. Sent the troll into giant spider web and he took it like a champ with missile support from the tribe. He then ate the spider and the tribe began to like the hideous insane living cancer. The elf explained trolls were a great species but only these mindless things survive magic gone wrong.

Found some fungus caves and was a dark patch 10 metres up they could make out a hole so the Bunz spiderclimed up and into the hole. Looked at some fungus and pots and signs of someone and got a poison needle hit him. In crack in roof an albino shaman with a mushroom demon mask shot him with blowpipe and was redying spells. Bunz threw some rocks and the nasty shaman dropped a spoorbomb which the mask protected him from and jumped down. Bunz got off a tangling spell and pummelled the guy with rocks till the elf flew in and helped finish it. Boron took 4 rounds to climb up. 

Realised they had gone most places up to waterline and Bunz who swum the waterways as a salmon earlier knew there were air spaces only reachable by swimming. So crossed one last flooded cave to check and bunz got a giant leech nab his leg and everyone attacked it. Blunt weapons in water proved not helpful and everyone was restricted by water. Troll ate the rest. Sourberry wondered if they should kill the troll or set free to nab later. Sent all the followers up and rested and prepared and healed. Did explore the darkness area with a light spell and found rock crystal chunks and bones. Troll found a giant frog which swallowed its head but the party saved it. This guys insane drooling and pustules had some kind of appeal. It had never had a friend before and loved the elf, drooling and sniffing.

The plan was to use magical herbs and Granny's spells to improve everyone's swimming and breathe in water. Decided to keep spare emergency herbs and only sent Boron, Bunz and Sourberry. Jacked up with magic into the water they did fumbling in clouds of silt. A giant lobster nipped Boron and the heroes had to once again fight with limited use of punches and some weapons so they went for stone daggers.

Found a tiny air chamber and Boron went into some shrine to a fish cult and a magical trident appeared and attacked. Others rushed into help but they realised it was a spell and found hidden fish priest and slew him. Found ancient lapis tablets of fish lore and a fist sized pearl. 

Found another chamber and as party waited onshore Boron climbed up cliff over water and into a hole he saw. Found a horrible vampire bat goddess idol, a sheet of dried rolled black hide and an obsidian dagger. Though those big shiny rocks for eyes looked good and smashed them free. (Fails saving throw now the Bat Godess wants revenge). So joined others and the Elf said the leather thing was a magic darkness priest spell. While chatting several saw a swooping horror. A giant vampiric bat with glowing eyes and a horrible odour attacked and the elf snapshot a fireball fearing undead and the bats wing membranes glowed and turned to ash. Then the piles of bat guano and gas exploded and the heroes got a bit singed. Then smashed the recognisable bat bits. Glad nobodies soul taken the pressed on to find several caves where an ancient battle was fought. They found a huge strange spiked obsidian bladed magic club and a medicine bag and Boron among orc bones found a cool cruel-looking spear with an evil rune tipped point. Sourberry confirmed the magic stuff and all impressed.

Found a water route and then bottom of another familiar shaft. A crafty fish folk warrior attacked. Boron took his new cool cruel evil orc spear and others saw his eyes turn black as clouds of filth engulfed them. Boron was fully berserk and as he was trained in this he knew it was the evil spear. Others noticed they fled, Bunz in fish form. Boron won and eventually calmed down and found way home.

Identified the magic stuff and Borons spear was +2 for a orc and cursed berserk spear for anyone else. Knew the priests of the mountain sky temple would help but also now knew the funny cyclops orc smith hero was a minor divinity who traded lightning bolts for gold in griffons nests. Boron took them the spear to the cyclops orcs and they laughed at Boron for being twice cursed. But they took the cursed spear and gave him a lighting bolt. The orcs laughed at the party for failing to show griffons gold from a bet last meeting. So sneaky Sourberry slinked away, cast fly, then invisibility and luck the griffons were eating a lion and he brought back the gold and handed it to Bunz as he prefered orcs never see him. The orcs were pleased by gold and gave another javelin to Bunz.

Back to the tribe cave for victory feast and now popular halfling bubblebutt dance off.

Elf who usually is quiet (even when halfling archer fan boys followed him) mentioned that the party battles with trolls might be something to boast about. Karg who was Granny's bodyguard mostly and mentor of Bunz and Boron was feeling the tribe safe enough he could go on a quest too now party living this paradise they had made.

Next game party might check out Red Ape Valley or go to the Mammoth Tribe spring meet up.

Realized I had some HG Wells cave genre fiction I will look at as he is one of my faves with Mary Shelly. Minis were fun today too, mostly for marching order and a sense of party size and scale. My 1/72 stuff good for big monsters and as the play gets higher level more megafauna battles coming. One of my players got Farcry Primal as on sale and I have CD but I'm convinced to fix my net and try to get it going on my current set up. I like the game and it is inspiring for this game. Of learned lots about Taxonomy and a better sense of geological time sales plus having fun debunking extraordinary claims backed up by stolen images from totally different context. Thats my shut in 2020 life now.

Tribal record form for Stoneage Sorcery

So made these in anticipation of my game tomorrow cos I'm on lock in and was busy on a patraeon book and my sleeping a mess and I thought it was Sunday already and cleaned my house for nothing. Phew!

A couple of POD LuLu items of note. ASE modules were gold I know them well and played for a year as planet Psychon. Planet Eris is a campaign setting familiar to some bloggers set out like a 70s Blackmoor feel but it is far future planet fantasy. It is nice and simple and a good example of a setting in an a5 booklet. Has elaborate keys and sailing rules and not maps to with them but it was an intersting booklet. I got Dysons Delves 2 in paperback and regretted not having hardback which is easier to use at the table - hardback sits open better and will survive. Has lots of caves and interesting take on the old-school vibe. I am way stingier than Dyson with treasure so I made mechanics players can get stuff they need because I'm too mean. 

Anyway, my cave party is now big enough for factions. Especially as they have rescued people from two unpopular tribes. I could also use this for rival tribes if needed. Running my Sunderhill module at moment and on the cusp of discovering the underland is pretty much like the forbidden age of darkness that broke the world and left it in ruins... Literally, the evils of that age only survived underground and even had gods drop mountains on them.

Current thoughts on this campaign direction: Stuff to do?
Have found Mythos stuff and ancient black magic ruins before
Know of evil wizard spiders and a vampire in mountains
Prehuman spirits are influencing Mammoth tribe....(actually a Cthulhu scenario)
Valley of the Red Ape from Dyson Delves 2 fits in well
Could spend a season in underland which is same in all my setting eras
New giant player could have them plundering invisible giant sky castles
A spacecraft might be a good thing to find and in a few cave genre things
Maybe just drop in Misty Island of the Eld
Could go full Yor and whole zone could be on planet Psychon....
Or time jump to the Bronze Age
Or visit other planes to kill monsters 
-hells in this era busy punishing wicked of last age to bother with mortal world

Will be some tension with other tribes
-tribe lack laws and traditions are all a bunch of mongrels without ties to land
-rivals with greatest tundra warriors - might need some big spring gathering
-snake and spider tribes want revenge over "kidnapping" their youths 
-new centaur tribe a complete menace to every tribe (i got minis)