tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67837473540448854082024-03-12T16:42:47.025-07:00SPECTOLOGYThe study of that which is not.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-55008704567401757142016-06-15T08:35:00.003-07:002016-06-15T08:38:45.695-07:00The Hunted: A gonzo racial class for OSR-style games.<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Originally published in the <a href="http://santicore.blogspot.com/2015/03/secret-santicores-vile-volumes.html" target="_blank">People section of Secret Santicore 2014</a>.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Lore</span></b></h2>
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Those who have ventured into the deep forests often speak of the songs of the giants. Deep moanings can be heard, loud enough to be felt in the chest. The travel hundreds of miles, vibrating trees and sending the ears of animals up at the sounds. The forest itself seems to sing with deep sounds of the wandering giant tribes. But rarely is such a giant seen, even as the sound seems to emanate from right next to the travelers.</div>
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So rare are the sightings that some modern scholars insist that giants to not exist, that they are hypothetical inventions to explain the natural sounds the forest makes. </div>
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The giants are real, however. They not only have their songs, but also language and culture. They stand as tall as two men and as wide as three. They travel in small, disperse groups through the forests, foraging for the moss, lichen, and bark they call their food. They can be violent, but they never war amongst each other. For the giants have a secret that few men know, a secret that is contained in the slow songs they sing to each other.</div>
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In their slow songs, the word the giants use for themselves is “Hunted”.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Background Information</span></b></h2>
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The Hunted are a nomadic race of humanoid giants that live in seasonal forests, foraging food from their surroundings. They are a thoughtful, plodding race, and one that serves as a bit of a thought experiment: What would a conscious, cultured race look like that is not at the top of the food chain?</div>
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Because of their dangerous surroundings and solitary existence, the Hunted are hunted by the apex predators of the forest, particularly wolves. Because of this, they have developed a culture that both fears and venerates the Hunters, who they look upon as avatars of god’s divine wrath. They have developed a culture that minimizes the risk that any giant, particularly young giants, will be brought down, but have developed a religion that helps them deal with the fact that most giants do meet a violent end between the teeth of their god.</div>
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The Hunted live and travel in large tribes of individuals, but because they require so much space to graze, they often will spend weeks not in physical proximity of each other. In order to stay in touch, to share information about the weather, predator movements, and just not to get lonely, the Hunted sing a low, deep, slow song that can travel hundreds of miles through the forest. This song contains information, but not in the form of words that make up sentences—rather, the information is contained in the grammar of the song, the way they sing it with each other, the musical points and counter-points of the various participants. The song is a low slow lumbering thing that holds multiple layers of meaning, much of it just out of the conscious awareness even of the Hunted. </div>
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The Hunted are phenomenal bushcraftsment. They can predict the weather days and weeks in advance, can track any animal over long distances, can tell from the sounds of the forest where packs of wolves or other predators are. In spite of their size, they can hide well in any forest, and even their slow singing will not give away their location. It is only through an excellent sense of smell or by happening upon an unsuspecting (usually very young or very old) giant that one will be found.</div>
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The Hunted navigate the north-south length of the continent every year. The summers they spend in the North, taking advantage of the abundance of food and lack of predators in order to congregate for two months as they give birth and raise their calves to the point that they can make the long journey south. In the winters, they again congregate at the southmost reaches of the seasonal forests, doing their best to help each other find food until the worst of winter relents.</div>
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They thus spend most of their time traveling, and only travel through the forests. As the forest is not unbroken, many have wondered how the Hunted make it from the top of the continent to its inner reaches without ever being seen.</div>
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In each of their semi-permanent settlements is a convent for the very old. Those few Hunted who have managed to live to the point where they can no longer travel settle in these areas and become the spiritual leaders of the Hunted. The Old Men live in the South, and the Nans live in the North. As such, two separate versions of the Hunted’s religion have formed, which the Hunted believe simultaneously.</div>
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The Old Men tell of the importance of accepting what is in a philosophy not unlike Buddhism. The Wolf comes for everyone, and so accepting Him when He does come, regardless of his incarnation, is an important point of growth. Once the acceptance of things as they are has been made, a Hunted can himself sense better, communicate better, and survive longer. The Old Men promote doing willfully and experiencing mindfully, and teach meditation techniques that help all the Hunted live better in the world. </div>
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The Nans, those who have grown up charged with protecting their young, do not take such a laissez-faire attitude towards the Wolf. They teach that The Wolf is an unthinking force of nature as much as he is a cruel god, and as such the techniques that the Old Men teach are just as useful for understanding its ways in order to work around them and even challenge them. They teach the importance of sacrifice to the Wolf in order to satiate it, and the ways in which a Hunted can fight back with both intelligence and strength.</div>
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The Old Men and the Nans communicate between each other only through slow songs: at the beginning of each migratory season, as the Hunted leave a resting ground, those who will not be coming with them start a new slow song that will be sung that entire season. In this slow song is information that the Hunted will need to safely make it through the season, and when they arrive at their destination those Hunted who lived out the whole year since their last leaving will take in the song, help them sing it one last time, and then begin composing a new slow song for the traveling season ahead. Thus, the Nans sing to the new mothers and fathers of how to protect their children, while the Old Men sing to the young children of how to do well in the woods on their own and how to interact with society. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">How to Play</span></b></h2>
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In order for the players to play as a Hunted, they must be willing to play a large smelly beast of a humanoid, a giant <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">covered in green mossy fur and rough bark-like skin, with paddle-like hands of ridged leather that they use to scrub lichen off rocks, who will attract unwanted attention wherever they go. In return, they will play a creature that does not fear physical attack, has heightened senses, and can travel through the woods as easily as a whale through the ocean.</span></div>
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A Hunted can be played as a gentle giant, a dim-witted warrior, or a cunning barbarian druid. The player should know two things about the Hunted character: Why has the character left the tribe, and why has the character left the forest? These question can be answered in many ways: maybe a whole tribe has left the forest to live with men or halflings, perhaps he was exiled for wrongful conduct and chose to leave the forest for self-punishment, or perhaps she lost her first young child and in her grief forgot the ways of gliding between the forests and actually reached the edge.</div>
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For examples of how to play a Hunted player character, look at the “further reading” section at the end.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mechanics</span></h2>
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In game terms, the Hunted are a racial class that takes elements of Fighters, Halflings, and Dwarves and combines them with a large size and several custom abilities and disadvantages. I will be using Lamentations of the Flame Princess for reference, but rather than giving exact stats I will be explaining how to construct the Hunted class for your game using your chosen ruleset.</div>
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First, the size. Hunted require a minimum strength modifier of +1 and constitution modifier of +1. In addition, they receive a racial bonus of +1 to their strength or constitution modifier, as the player sees fit. So in most old school systems, if a player does not roll at least a 13 on both Strength and Constitution, they cannot play a Hunted (unless a kind system or GM is willing to let them swap stats after the roll). </div>
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Hunted are good fighters with long reach. Male hunted take a +2 to the base melée to-hit bonus, and females a +3, although progression from there continues as a Dwarfs (in LotFP, to-hit never increases, in others it increases by the minimum amount per level). In addition, they all have a d10 hit dice, and a minimum HP of 6 at level 1. Finally, their tough hide gives them a +1 AC bonus for having “natural armor”.</div>
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However, the Hunted are not often trained warriors. Most know how to use a stone spear—it has fantastic reach even in melee (treat as a spear), does impressive bludgeoning damage (treat as a mace or warhammer), and can even be thrown (again, treat as a spear, although with no bonus to ranged to-hit), but cannot use any other weapons without training. In addition, any non-custom armor will do more harm that good by preventing the +2 to-hit bonus, and only increasing AC by 1/2 the usual amount. Custom-made armor does not have such restrictions, but costs 5x the normal amount due to added materials costs and the difficulty in sizing it properly, and can only be made by a master craftsman. </div>
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In addition, while the Hunted are strong and hearty, they are not agile, lucky, or accustomed to magic. They have the saving throw progression of whichever class has the worst in your ruleset (the Fighter in LotFP), and start with the saving throws of a level-0 character even as they are level-1. This can often be role-played as the Hunted simply accepting the world as-is, as the Old Men teach.</div>
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The Hunted also have three special racial abilities, described below, and a special racial disadvantage, described below that. The players can invoke the abilities whenever they make sense. The GM should invoke the disadvantage whenever it makes sense, and play it out to its logical conclusions.</div>
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<i>Ability 1: Slow Singing</i></h3>
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Wherever other Hunted are in range, the character can slow sing to communicate with them. This slow singing is available regardless of their relationship with those particular Hunted—the truth of the slow song does not follow the petty conscious social boundaries of regular speech. </div>
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Slow song does not work like speech. There is no back and forth, not even symbolic concepts underlying what is being sung. The character sings along with the others as if in a trance, and like tapping into an animal collective unconsciousness, comes out knowing certain things. </div>
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In practical terms, a certain length of singing will give the character certain knowledge. If the character would simply like to broadcast important information (“the forest is on fire!”, “the big baddie is coming!”), it takes only a half-hour of singing to broadcast it to others who will then incorporate it into their song. This song will continue to travel at a very rapid rate, upwards of 500 miles per day, but only to other Hunted.</div>
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If the player would like to know the answer of a yes/no question, they must simply sing for an hour, and then will know what the other Hunted communicated with them—although it may simply be “I don’t know”, and this they won’t know until after finishing the song. Singing for a longer period of time is more likely to result in a solid answer, as the song will have traveled a longer distance across multiple participants. </div>
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If the player would like to know the answer to a more complicated question, it’s likely that they will have to sing all day. Traveling is a prime time to sing, and so the GM may choose to make this easy by simply letting the Hunted’s player ask one question for each day of travel where the Hunted did not engage in any encounters or speak with the other players (to simulate their focus on the Song). The GM should answer in a way that is helpful but cryptic, and if the Hunted asks a question that the other Hunted wouldn’t know they may receive an unhelpful reply back. The more relevant the question is to the life of the average Hunted, the more specific and useful the answer will be—so asking where the wolves are or how warm the summer season will be is going to be more straightforward than asking the movements of men through the forest or the goings-on in a forest village, and asking about the political situation in a kingdom far from the forest will likely result in confusion or laughter rather than answers. </div>
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<i>Ability 2: Bushcraft and Hiding</i></h3>
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The Hunted excel in nature, particularly the woods. Whenever foraging for food or water, attempting to know the weather, or find their way through unmarked nature, they have the same chance of success as a ranger or halfling of the same level (so starting at a 1/2 chance in LotFP). This is true of all skills that could be construed as being “bushcraft” skills.</div>
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The Hunted can hide incredibly well when in the forest. They have no chance of being found by men when they put their mind to hiding, and a 1/6<sup>th</sup> chance even while they move and/or sing. If a druid, ranger, or dog is doing the looking, the chance of staying hidden decreases by 1/6<sup>th</sup>. </div>
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If, while hiding, the Hunted makes a successful melée attack, that attack counts as a “sneak attack” under whatever rules you’re using. Or, if you’d prefer, the attack is a critical hit with all that implies under your system (acts as a roll of a nat 20, so it does full damage or roll on a special benefits table or whatever). </div>
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<i>Ability 3: The Word for World is Forest</i></h3>
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The Hunted travel only through the forest, and have found a way to slip from forest to forest along magic lay lines, so that they never have to set foot in open plains even when any conventional travel route would take them there.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Slipping between the forests only works when groups are singing the slow song. They do not have to be in particularly close proximity, and indeed it is the slow song itself that anchors the Hunted to the forest.</span></div>
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To many Hunted, the space between the forest is but a myth, a sort of geographical boogymen that mothers tell calves in order that they not stray out of range from the safety of the song. To those who have seen it, it haunts them all their lives—either through fear of approaching it again, or through curiosity of what lies beyond.</div>
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A party with a Hunted can slip through the forests with it, as long as they’re singing a song as they go. Any possessions they are in contact with will come as well, as will any beasts that sing along—such as dogs howling, donkeys braying, or cats purring. The song, once it’s been taken up, is infectious, so this should all come through course. The hardest part is getting the party to sing together in the first place. It is only through a mindful but unselfconscious singing that they will align with the Hunted. The forest knows whether the song is sung sincerely or with only personal gain in mind. </div>
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The GM might want to prod the players into actually singing along the first time. There will be hemming and hawing, but only once everyone is in harmony (as poor a harmony as it might be) and have found a song they can sing together can the adventure continue. The song itself does not matter. </div>
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Traveling in this way does not cut down on the travel time, distance traveled, or resources required, but it does force all encounter rolls to be done on a forest table, the party has no chance of encountering settlements of any kind as they travel this way, and only druids, forest elves, and other Hunted will be able to track them. </div>
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<i>Disadvantage: What Is that Smelly … Thing?</i></h3>
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The Hunted aren’t readily accepted in human company. They are large, somewhat smelly, awkward, scary creatures. Their hands are flat and ridged, their brow sticks out past their snout, and their mouths are wet and gummy and full of rows of tiny molars. They can speak the common tongue well enough, although it sounds not unlike if an elephant were to speak English out its snout—deep, sonorous, and undignified. To men, they look like terrifying alien creatures, more animal than human.</div>
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And as such they are treated. Most who meet with the party will assume that the Hunted among them is either a beast of burden or a slave. They will cause villagers to run into their hovels or band together to drive it out, they will often not be allowed within city gates, and the best lodging they can expect at an in is in the stables—and only if there are no horses there to be frightened (other animals besides dogs will largely ignore the Hunted and goats may even befriend them). In some of the more baroque cities, association with a Hunted may be a mark of social good amongst the nobel classes, but only as men of high standing in Europe used to keep on “savages” as boarders—they are a mere curiosity to be paraded in front of their friends, and are still regarded as less than human. </div>
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Hunted generally do not feel comfortable in the presence of man. Man is, after all, an apex predator himself, one who was able to conquer all other predators and even domesticate the Hunted’s god. </div>
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Speaking of which, the Hunted have a fearful venerations of dogs bordering on insanity. Female Hunted will often attack them on sight, unwilling to stop until the last one is dead (or they are). Male Hunted will do their best to hide from them, and if seen will pray loudly to the dog in hopes of a good clean death. Of course, many human-bread dogs are more scared of the Hunted than the Hunted are of them—although packs of dogs or well-bread war dogs will often attack the Hunted, or at least get very aggressive in their presence. </div>
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Being Hunted in a human world is not easy nor comfortable for the Hunted, and while the party might be quick to befriend a strong, intelligent, and skilled giant to help them on their quests, most of society will not react similarly.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Further Reading / Works Cited</span></b></div>
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Much of the society and behavior of the Hunted is based on real life behavior of the giant grazing mammals of the oceans, and the general concept for the slow songs is based on the mysterious songs of the humpback and blue whales. Any documentaries about humpback or blue whales are worth watching if you’d like to know more. I particularly like David Attenborough’s BCC documentaries, such as <i>Ocean Deep</i> or <i>Life</i>. </div>
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The old communal language of the dolphins in <i>Startide Rising</i> by David Brin was an influence as well.</div>
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A possible backstory for a Hunted player character can be found in the book <i>1491</i> by Charles Mann. Mann describes the true story of the person we know as Squanto, the Indian Tisquantum (a name that literally translates as “Wrath of God”). Squanto was trained to be the personal bodyguard of the king of his tribe but was captured by a slaver ship as a young man and taken to England. He traveled Europe as the charge of various men who used him either for labor or as an ornament to show off to their friends—that is, he was little more than a slave. However, he twice learned the language of his captors, befriended them, and convinced them to help him return to his home. When he finally did arrive home, it was just after a plague had wipe out his entire tribe, and a neighboring tribe captured him, put him in a cage, and forced him to translate for them in their dealings with the Pilgrims. Some day I’ll write a fantasy book based on the life of Tisquantum, but until then steal this story for your Hunted character.</div>
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The idea of slipping through the forest was taken from Peter Hamilton’s <i>Pandora’s Star</i>. Honestly the book isn’t worth the read, but that was a pretty sweet idea to steal for an RPG. The name of the ability I stole from the Ursula K. Le Guin book, <i>The Word for World is Forest</i>, which I must admit I’ve never read. It would be easy enough to use the Hunted in an SF setting as a peaceful sentient race on a forested planet of some sort. </div>
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Finally, this is an updated version of a race I created several years ago in a thread on the worldbuilding forum on reddit. If anyone would like to see the original incarnation, just email me, but I promise it’s not that exciting. </div>
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If you do end up using this racial class in play, I’d love a report on it! Any questions, additions, comments, or corrections are always welcome as well. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-20267332656983558072016-02-07T20:14:00.000-08:002016-02-08T06:34:27.908-08:00A short review of every post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read.The other day I was thinking about post-apocalyptic novels, and how many of them I'd read. So I sat down and created a list of as many of them that I've read that I could think of. Then I decided to write a review for them all. Here is that list. I hope people find it interesting. If you think there are any novels that I might have missed, please ask in the comments and I'll add them! And if you think I'm wrong about any of these reviews, let me know, I love arguing about books :-).<br />
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<h2>
The Greats</h2>
These are my favorite post-apocalyptic novels. They are not quite in order of very best to best, but rather in the order in which I want to talk about them.<br />
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<h3>
<i>A Canticle for Leibowitz</i> by Walter M. Miller, Jr.</h3>
This is, in my mind, the single greatest story about the apocalypse ever written. It's told in three long stories, each following a monk from the same Catholic monestary after the world has all but ended due to nuclear war. The Church is one of the only institutions that wants to keep scientific knowledge alive. Each story follows a different monk, and showcases a struggle they go through to keep some knowledge alive. There are post-apocalyptic politics, strange meldings of Jewish and Catholic mysticism, and one of the most "real" post-apocalyptic worlds you'll read about.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Wittgenstein's Mistress</i> by David Markson</h3>
This is a strange, experimental novel. It's narrated by a woman who is the last woman on Earth for unknown reasons. Having no one to talk to, she goes slowly mad. The book takes the form of her highly literate but definitely crazy first-person ramblings. It's a meditation on how our relationships make us who we are, on art and literature, on loss, on what it is to be human. I highly recommend it to anyone with the stomach for postmodern and/or experimental novels.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Soft Apocalypse</i> by Will McIntosh</h3>
Nearly perfect. Rather than ending with a bang, Will McIntosh (an academic sociologist) shows how the world could slowly turn apocalyptic. Throw in a dash of climate change, a pinch of economic slowdown, and enough time, and before you know it former members of the middle class are wandering the countryside while the richest people live in hyper-futurist enclaves. It's a punk rock story about the world ending with a whimper, following one young man as he tries to make a living and find love in this strange new world. To me, the best insight of the novel was that no matter how bad and strange things get, people are versatile enough to just think of the "now" as normal, as long as change happens slowly enough.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Dark Eden</i> by Chris Beckett</h3>
This is one of those places where I've interpreted "post-apocalypse" broadly. Set on a wandering planet, a world of forever night, after a space ship crash-lands, it tells the tale of the 500 or so 5th generation descendents of the two people on the space ship. They have formed a small tribal community which is pushing against the natural resource limits of the small warm forrest that the live in. While the main character's plot is at times predictable, the setting is incredible and the story of a matriarchal tribe tearing itself apart and becoming a patriarchy was fascinating.<br />
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<h3>
<i>1491</i> by Charles Mann</h3>
"Isn't that non-fiction?" I hear you say. Yes it is. <i>1491</i> is a wonderful history book about what the Americas were like before Columbus "discovered" them. One of the most striking elements of the book is how our conception of Indians as "nomadic tribal hunter-gatherers" was not actually true: they were largely civilized, agricultural, stationary polities, even in North America, until Europeans brought diseases that ravaged the native communities in advance of the Europeans themselves. It's estimated that somewhere in the range of 50% to 90% natives died before Europeans even saw them, so in truth the "nomadic hunter-gatherers" lifestyle had more in common with the folks on _The Walking Dead_ than they did with their parents' or grandparents' lifestyles.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Blindness</i> by Jose Saramago</h3>
Oh boy, this novel. <i>Blindness</i> is perhaps the most depraved thing I've ever read, which is exactly what it's trying to be. In a small town, people start going blind. First one or two, and soon hundreds of people at a time. The blind are rounded up and put in prison to try to quarantine them. Within days, as more and more people (even outside of the prisons) go blind, society completely breaks down and a brute sort of anarchy reigns supreme. The animal in man is brought out. Rape, murder, and torture become everyday activities. The story is told through the eyes of a woman who doesn't go blind but follows her husband to prison anyway, and who bears witness to the depths that humanity falls to as soon as society ceases to hold power over us. A terrifying novel.<br />
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<h3>
The War Against the Chtorr by David Gerrold</h3>
So War Agains the Chtorr is what happens when you cross <i>Soft Apocalypse</i> with <i>Blindness</i> and add plenty of man-eating wormlike aliens and a gonzo, heavy metal attitude. I read this still-unfinished series 15 years ago, and just re-read them, and they hold up just as well. An alien ecology is infesting an Earth reeling from losing 1/2 the population due to massive plagues, and it's up to elite teams of scientist/soldiers to figure out what the fuck is going on. While it sounds like old school scifi fun and games, the books delve into a lot of philosophy and cover a lot of the same ground that _Blindness_ does, asking where our humanity lies and whether we can still keep it as the world around us goes to shit, and the answer probably isn't what we want to hear.<br />
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<h3>
<i>10:04</i> by Ben Lerner</h3>
What is contemporary lit-fic written by a Brooklyn hipster poet doing on this list? Being one of the best-written stories about the modern apocalypse we're currently going through as a species, that's what. A large part of the book is about New York City after hurricanes Irene and Sandy, the reeling feelings we all had after these super-storms straight out of a scifi novel put the city on hold for days and weeks. The sense of "anything is normal while it's happening" comes through strongly. It's also beautifully written and includes some of the best writing on art that I've ever read.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Stand Still. Stay Silent.</i> by Minna Sundberg</h3>
A beautifully drawn and lovingly written science fantasy story about a world where the only survivors from a harrowing world-wide plague are small groups of people living in Scandinavia. It's a forever-winter world of the arctic crossed with pagan folk wizards. It's both twee and heavy metal at the same time. Definitely the best web comic I've ever read, up there with the best comics, period.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The Fifth Season</i> by NK Jemisin</h3>
A man beats his son to death, and a woman comes home to find his body. Across the world, a powerful mage sick of the enslavement of other mages creates a super-volcano which splits the world's only continent in two. Years before, a young girl is taken from her family to be taught how to wield her power which lets her cause and dampen earthquakes, and another young mage is sent on a month-long mission with a senior mage with whom her mage's society tells her she must procreate, against both their will. These are the four stories that start <i>The Fifth Season</i>, a story of the end of society in a world-ending cataclysm. In a genre which loves its "plucky female protagonists", the lead female character is a human instead of a caricature, a loving mother with revenge in her heart, seeking her husband and remaining daughter across an ash-blown landscape as society reels in the aftermath of the worst earthquake in recorded history. I just finished this novel and loved it so much. I am afraid I don't have many intelligent things to say about it because it's so fresh, but read it read it read it. You'll be glad you did and angry that the next book in the trilogy is not out yet.<br />
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<h2>
The Good</h2>
These are all post-apocalyptic novels that I think are worth reading. None of them is a favorite of the genre, but neither do any of them hold fatal flaws that keep me from recommending them. Alphabetical order by last name.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Oryx and Crake</i> by Margaret Atwood</h3>
I enjoyed this book, but find I have very little to say about it. The worldbuilding was fantastic if a bit heavy handed, and the story was totally engrossing. I've never really had any desire to pick up the sequels. A solid SF novel written by a literary author, although she does fall into the traps that literary authors tend to when writing SF.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The Martian Chronicles</i> by Ray Bradbury</h3>
I don't normally think of this novel as a "post-apocalyptic" story, but as I was compiling this list it became apparent that it actually contains three apocalypses: the first, and the most moving to me, is the death of the Martians themselves, followed by the nuclear war on Earth and the desolation on Mars after. The first apocalypse is, to me, the best explored. "—And the Moon be Still as Bright" + "The Settlers" combined makes one of my favorite short stories of all time, the story of a man who realizes he is complicit in the genocide of a native race and who can't take that realization. <i>The Martian Chronicles</i> is one of the few novels on this list to have internalized the lessons that <i>1491</i> teaches: that apocalypse has already happened on this planet, it's just that we don't know it because we were <i>the cause</i>. Other stories set on Mars after most people have gone back to Earth are also good, especially "There Will Come Soft Rains" which is perhaps one of the best stories ever written to feature no characters at all.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The Book of Strange New Things</i> by Michel Faber</h3>
The main story in this novel is about an evangelical priest who goes on a missionary trip to a strange new planet. It's a weird book, one that I 100% loved. One of the sub-plots is that the wife of the main character is left on Earth, and he and she can only communicate through faster-than-light emails to one another. As he has a wonderful if strange time on the planet proselytizing to his alien flock, climate change and political unrest get worse and worse back home, leading to some of the emails from her being harrowing stories of her times in a post-apocalyptic world which seemed normal just weeks or months ago (harkening to the themes in <i>Soft Apocalypse</i>). This book is amazing for so many reasons, and only doesn't make the "greats" because it's only the email stories within the story that contain post-apocalyptic elements.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Afterlife</i> by Simon Funk</h3>
This is a free, online novel (of which there are several on this list). A man wakes up in a strange world where people are happy and never sick, but from which they can't leave. He dreams of a past life where he was a computer researcher. As time goes on, he realizes that these dreams are more than just nightmares, and that the Earth he knows is long gone, replaced by (spoiler alert!) <span style="background-color: black;">self-replicating machines which cover the face of the Earth, doing inscrutable tasks—machines which as an AI researcher he laid the foundation for</span>. Really fascinating novel, definitely worth reading.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The Gone-Away World</i> by Nick Harkaway</h3>
I loved this book, as weird as it was. 1/3rd kung-fu coming of age story, 1/3rd corporate thriller, 1/3rd military apocalypse novel. Harkaway writes an incredibly fast, tight, and entertaining plot, but the speed and entertainment don't hide a lack of intellectualism. Instead, you get great ideas on every page. Great read and lots of fun.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Fine Structure</i> by Sam Hughes</h3>
Ultra-dimensional beings fighting to the death take out Earth as a casualty of their conflict. This is the story of what that looks like from our lowly 4-dimensional sight. Strange scientific experiments, super-heros being born stronger and stronger each year, and a series of dystopias and apocalypses. Fun, smart book which was written as a serialized novel and is available for free online.<br />
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<h3>
<i>A Feast for Crows</i> by George R.R. Martin</h3>
The 4th of GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire novels. It takes place after wars have ravaged the countryside of Westeros, and many of the chapters involve the fallout that the average person of this world deals with as a result of the wars that up until now you've only seen through the eyes of the nobles who caused them. While an interesting book from that perspective, it's the weakest of the ASoIaF novels over-all, and would be in the "meh" category if this were just a ranking of Martin's fantasy novels.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Cloud Atlas</i> & <i>The Bone Clocks</i> by David Mitchell</h3>
These are two very different novels, except each contains one story set in the same post-apocalyptic world (a setting which Mitchell has also visited in some short stories). These books are absolutely wonderful, and deserve to be read. They are only not in the "great" category because the so little of them actually focuses on the post-apocalyptic setting. But seriously, read <i>Cloud Atlas</i>, an experimental postmodern novel which follows six stories in six genres and has some of the best prose work you'll see this side of Nabokov.<br />
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<h3>
Apocalypsopolis by Ran Prieur</h3>
I liked this novel, but you could tell the author lost interest part-way through, and the story just sort of trails off rather than ending well. It's in some ways an experiment by the author to write a story of the apocalypse, rather than a post-apocalyptic story, and as he said: that's really hard to do well. However, the novel gets definite points for trying, for having some really creative ideas, and for having some awesome weird Native American shadowlands chapters. Plus, it's free online so the price is right.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Seveneves</i> by Neal Stephenson</h3>
I <i>loved</i> this novel, but based on feedback from my book club, it was a polarizing one. The moon explodes and we realize we have only 3 years before the shards rain hellfire down on Earth, so the whole Earth pitches in building structures in space and sending people up. After the Earth dies, the several hundred people in space slowly whittle themselves down to fewer and fewer due to accidents and politics gone crazy. I really enjoyed the near-future hard science of getting everyone into space and the politics that played out amongst the spacers.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Tales of the Dying Earth</i> by Jack Vance</h3>
Fantasy stories sent on a far-future Earth where technology is so advanced that it's actually become magic. These are fantastic adventure stories which don't get nearly enough love amongst genre fans. Vance's prose is astounding and the world he built, of techno-wizards and rogues, is a blast to read about.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Infinite Jest</i> by David Foster Wallace</h3>
What is easily one of the great 20th Century American novels contained some definitely apocalyptic elements. A "concavity" where Northern New England used to sit where giant babies and herds of feral hamsters run wild. Wheelchair-bound French-Canadian assassins. And a video so wildly entertaining, that anyone who watches it loses all will to do anything else. The novel is dense and rich and rewarding, and Wallace cares about his characters like no other novelist has. It's only here instead of in the "greats" because it's light in terms of being a post-apocalyptic novel.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect</i> by Roger Williams</h3>
Another free internet novel about AI run amok, although one in which the AI is all-loving, all-caring and still causes the apocalypse. It's short and fun to read (although _really_ gruesome at points), so rather than review it I'm just going to say that you ought to read it, it's fun and totally worth the price.<br />
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<h3>
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe</h3>
Another far-future, Dying Earth book. This, instead of being short stories, is four novels which form a single narrative (not unlike The Lord of the Rings trilogy). The Earth is falling apart under the weight of its own history, and a torturer is kicked out of his guild for showing compassion to a woman under his "care". This book is one of the densest I've ever read, full of puzzles and unreliable narrators. You really have to read between the lines to get what's going on. I had the strange sensation of actively disliking the books while I read all 1000 pages of their intensely dense prose, but loved it in hindsight.<br />
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<h2>
The Meh</h2>
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Some of these are books I love but which have fatal flaws. Some of them are good books, but not very good post-apocalypse tales. And some of them are awful and shouldn't be read. Happily, I've already figured out which is which for you. Although be forewarned, some of these reviews are not going to be very popular. In alphabetical order by last name.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Nightfall</i> by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg</h3>
A novelization of Asimov's wonderful short story by Silverberg. It adds a lot of new content to the end, after the stars come out, which when I read it in high school wasn't all that gripping and created somewhat of an anti-climax after the great reveal that ends the original story. I haven't read it in 15+ years, and am unlikely to again.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The Windup Girl</i> by Paolo Bacigalupi</h3>
I found the world just too unbelievable here. I have no problem with fantasy or mystical settings, but this was presented as straight SF inside the novel itself. The conceit of "energy is expensive, so we'll use human and animal energy and store it in springs" just doesn't make any sense: it's more expensive for animals to create energy than for an engine to do so, even out of the same fuel. In addition, the plot meandered too much and the only sympathetic character was killed off early on. I know it won the Hugo, but I just didn't like this one.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Nod</i> by Adrian Barnes</h3>
A cheap knock-off of <i>Blindness</i>. I wanted this to be so much better than it actually was, as the conceit ("suddenly no one can sleep") was so good. The insomnia, the waking dreams, the slow insanity that not sleeping causes. Such ripe territory to explore! But it just didn't come through, instead going over the same ground that <i>Blindness</i> did while being less well written and less well thought through.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The Painted Man</i> & <i>The Desert Spear</i> by Peter V. Brett</h3>
I enjoyed <i>The Painted Man</i> well enough, until a graphic and unnecessary rape scene was directly followed by the raped character working out her emotions by having graphic and unnecessary sex with the protagonist. Just a little too close to "wank fantasy" territory for my tastes, and one that is pretty sexist at that. Then <i>The Desert Spear</i> just wasn't as well written or interesting as <i>The Painted Man</i>, so I gave up on the series. I really wanted to love it though, as the setting was great: every night, demons come out of the Earth itself and so humanity only survives huddled in small villages and cities with anti-demon wards painted around them. Really great fantasy setting and world-building but really disappointing characters and story. Happily. <i>The Fifth Season</i> ended up being everything that I wanted <i>The Painted Man</i> to be, and so much more.<br />
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<h3>
<i>World War Z</i> by Max Brooks</h3>
I'm pretty so-so on zombies. I love a good b-movie zombie film, but whenever they get taken too seriously I start to yawn and lose interest. Some of the stories here were good, some of them were so-so, but too many of them were just boring. In addition, I'd hoped to see some of the characters show up in multiple stories so you'd see how they changed over time, and that never happened—even with the world changing so much, the characters were all remarkably flat. I know this isn't a character-driven novel, but that's just not something that I enjoy.<br />
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<h3>
The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher</h3>
I read these as a kid and loved them. I have almost no memory of them now, and doubt I'll ever bother reading them again. But hey, I said "every book" and some I'm leaving this shitty review here goddamn it.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The Hunger Games</i> by Suzanne Collins</h3>
Meh. Politicians make kids fight for... reasons? A "strong female protagonist" with no agency, a badass fighter who doesn't actually do any fighting and whose only meaningful choice is which boy she likes (spoiler alert, she doesn't make up her mind). Not my cup of tea.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Wool</i> by Hugh Howey</h3>
This is a novel fully based on a twist ending, a twist which was telegraphed from the very beginning and wasn't very well executed even then. Also, the setting is totally unoriginal, why do people harp on about how original it was? <i>Fine Structure</i> lampooned the setting and came up with the same twist, and was published years earlier, and is 100x better writing. Read that instead. Also, Howey is a misogynistic douchebag who treats people horribly. I don't understand why these novels are popular.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Footfall</i> by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle</h3>
Another novel I know I read and just don't remember at all. Aliens destroy Earth with kinetic weapons, I think? That was pretty bad-ass. And some people fight back and stuff? I don't know, but <i>The Mote in God's Eye</i> by the same authors was fucking phenomenal so this can't be all that bad right? That's my review, "I don't remember it but it can't be all that bad, right?"<br />
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<h3>
<i>Atlas Shrugged</i> by Ayn Rand</h3>
Yup, I read this whole thing. All 800 pages, 60 of which were a single fucking monologue. That monologue took me almost a week to read, it was so boring. Honestly, I really enjoyed some parts of the novel and Rand had a knack for straw-manning people in a way that really made you hate them, but even in high school I found her philosophy repugnant (still do!) and the novel has too many flaws to be worth reading as literature.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Endymion</i> & <i>Rise of Endymion</i> by Dan Simmons</h3>
These read like bad fan-fiction of the <i>Hyperion</i> novels, which is strange since they were written by the same author.<br />
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<h3>
<i>Cat's Cradle</i> by Kurt Vonnegut</h3>
I love Vonnegut, and I used to love this novel, but the truth is that it suffers from a number of internal inconsistencies that take me out of the story. In addition, while Bokononism seemed profound to 15-year-old angry atheist me, to 30-year-old Buddhist me it's a little... trite as far as philosophies go. <i>Slaughterhouse 5</i> is still amazing though.<br />
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<h3>
<i>The War of the Worlds</i> by H.G. Wells</h3>
I'm pretty sure I read this one too. I know I listened to the radio play on tape as a kid, because my grandfather would send me a bunch of old scifi radio plays every year. I loved that shit, Dimension X especially. You can find a bunch of them, including Dimension X, on Archive.org these days. They're a treat to listen to. But I don't actually remember much about this novel that isn't filter through the radio play and the two different movie adaptations that I've seen, so this final review is going to be a little bit anti-climactic.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-1322920093013752142015-04-03T05:49:00.000-07:002015-04-03T05:49:58.612-07:00Play Report: Amazonian RivercrawlMy first session of my more-or-less open table Amazon exploration LotFP game was this weekend. Seven friends from college came from out of town to play. We had a blast, spending about 4 hours on Friday night playing and another 12 hours on Saturday. When we game, we game seriously.<br />
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<b>Dungeon: The First Foray</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURON03iExuS65qbIkJN_hxxNA5GZQAMpAK8BrRzob9hW0X3CL02V3RJvSOX-6EecLjHATdcacTvlsqqEW7X7piKuMAkBd9C-WWfysERROWBJRTNfCDIu597MeILVdyzkI4BH_HSlqjT8/s1600/two-hour-ruins-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURON03iExuS65qbIkJN_hxxNA5GZQAMpAK8BrRzob9hW0X3CL02V3RJvSOX-6EecLjHATdcacTvlsqqEW7X7piKuMAkBd9C-WWfysERROWBJRTNfCDIu597MeILVdyzkI4BH_HSlqjT8/s1600/two-hour-ruins-large.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a>For Friday's session, I had them generate completely random characters using <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/110118815125792309582" target="_blank">+Ramanan S</a>'s <a href="http://character.totalpartykill.ca/lotfp/" target="_blank">Random LotFP Character Generator</a>, and then sent them through a version of <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/105182874766253582958" target="_blank">+Dyson Logos</a>'s <a href="https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/ruins-of-the-gorgon/" target="_blank">Ruins of the Gorgon</a> that was reskinned for the Amazon Rainforest setting. They ended up forcing one of the hostile native men that they encountered in the ruins outside to poke around the first few rooms of the dungeon with them. He had the wherewithal to escape the moment they turned their backs, but the party didn't get out of the dungeon until a giant capybara felled one of them. The surviving characters soon packed up and left, but not before digging through the capybaras' disgusting nests to pick up some silver trinkets, and then hauling out one of the beautiful ceramic statues in the entry room while under the watch of a ceramic fresco of a harpy eagle with a woman's head tearing apart a man's body under her talons.<br />
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The next day, all my players were available and we began running through the actual rivercrawl. I took a hint from <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/108448112033159270812" target="_blank">+Zzarchov Kowolski</a>'s <a href="http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=39&product_id=184" target="_blank">Thulian Echos</a> and placed the dungeon from the night before on the map of the river, and gave the players vague directions on how to get there. They'd encountered one of the last party back in town, who gave them their map and some warnings about hostile natives, giant rodents, and valuable statues. The players then got to start the exploration of the tributary they've been assigned to map and conquer for the Spanish crown by the Viceroy of the Maranon, the one-eyed conquistador Francisco de Orellana.<br />
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The players choose to go back to the dungeon from the night before to try to loot more of it. Being as this was the main adventure and for them was going to be a one shot, they were playing 2nd level characters and each had a 1st level NPC retainer (whose gear was chosen by running through <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/117775142559140896132" target="_blank">+Jeff Russell</a>'s Gears and Careers <a href="http://santicore.blogspot.com/2015/03/secret-santicores-vile-volumes.html" target="_blank">Secret Santicore</a> entry). They had a riverboat they'd pooled up to buy, as well as a number of oarsmen, dogs, horses, and personal retainers. This was as I'd hoped, and the amount of loot they had mimicked the conquistador expeditions of the early 16th century—as did the losses they would later suffer.<br />
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<b>Crawling the River: Social Encounters</b><br />
The first day on their way to the probable location of the dungeon, they had to scare off an otter that was trying to gather food from their stores. The next day they saw a pink river dolphin shapeshift into a native and join what looked to be a festival at a particularly large river village. They made landfall and contact with the natives in order to discover more about the shapeshifting dolphin, but were distracted by the excitement of their first native contact going so well that they were invited to join in with the festivities. Since this was a festival, I gave them the chance to give away their possessions as gifts in return for gaining their worth in SP back as XP, then had them save verses Poison or roll on <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/107387558095034231503" target="_blank">+Jeff Rients</a>' <a href="http://jrients.blogspot.com/2008/12/party-like-its-999.html" target="_blank">Carousing Table</a>.<br />
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The next morning they woke up hung over, closer to level 3, and with a Magic User beaten up and naked, and a Native Guide madly in love with a local Indian girl. A few of their oarsmen had gone native (failed morale checks), but four of the natives, young cocky men, wanted to come explore and adventure with these crazy white people (successful morale checks).<br />
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It was only then that they remembered about the dolphin that had brought them there in the first place, just in time to hear the commotion caused when one of the women in the village found out that she was unexpectedly about to give birth even though she had only had a one night stand with a stranger the night before. Turns out those dolphins don't necessarily have the best intentions. (This outcome I DnDified from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_river_dolphin#Cultural_references" target="_blank">an actual Amazonian myth about the river dolphins</a>.) The party made the mistake of admitting that they'd known about the dolphin's presence without telling anyone, and were asked to leave under less pleasant terms than expected.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirrLB_pB-zpdayEtzgNNwenbaBcWbwEAvx5aPT28Qb_EyHWkgZvtCT8QzsJxP_h580IiN4k4f7X2OxaolSKun8Wm539YT_UyEmBm6LWXjDfQL6Og4z9jNtKdihjlW6drhXOhn5swJrm_Y/s1600/36-amazon-archers-epa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirrLB_pB-zpdayEtzgNNwenbaBcWbwEAvx5aPT28Qb_EyHWkgZvtCT8QzsJxP_h580IiN4k4f7X2OxaolSKun8Wm539YT_UyEmBm6LWXjDfQL6Og4z9jNtKdihjlW6drhXOhn5swJrm_Y/s1600/36-amazon-archers-epa.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bobs</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
They then continued up the river with their new native hirelings (who they called "the Bobs"). They did some exploring, and came across another small hostile native village who drove them off, then to a final friendly native village near the dungeon. This village was cold but not hostile, and gave them reports of strange black magic that had happened up the river, and promised to convert to Christianity if the party could resolve it.<br />
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<b>The Jungle and the Dungeon, Again</b><br />
So into the forest they trudged, dogs, retainers, and Bobs in tow. On the way, a jaguar and a poorly-aimed crossbow shot managed to take down one of the party's henchmen. Once they got to the dungeon, they left the Bobs, a retainer, and one of the dogs up top, fought off the dungeon's guardian tree which had regrown since the last party's foray under ground, and descended below the forest's floor.<br />
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Below, they found the remaining ceramic statues re-arranged, and the entrance to part of the dungeon they'd cleared before now blocked off. An Open Doors check catastrophically failed thanks to my <a href="http://spectology.blogspot.com/2015/03/helping-houserule-for-lotfp-skills.html" target="_blank">helping houserules</a> and one of the fighters sprained a wrist, so they went the other direction to explore new parts.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyT7MIA7W3NwZSW9xAvojHCNdHFYqbQDn8SjLyc9sVsxuy__F0qTMXPHtPlaqF0FNL_iBI-PJcc_0vGU6EtMoLPKrxXhebW9druW15nZGf4yWkemKIQ1Vb9bRaGtQfJYqr_q4sUhIK0nc/s1600/Harpy_Eagle_copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyT7MIA7W3NwZSW9xAvojHCNdHFYqbQDn8SjLyc9sVsxuy__F0qTMXPHtPlaqF0FNL_iBI-PJcc_0vGU6EtMoLPKrxXhebW9druW15nZGf4yWkemKIQ1Vb9bRaGtQfJYqr_q4sUhIK0nc/s1600/Harpy_Eagle_copy.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
They found a storeroom with more smaller ceramic statues, and then came across a party of warrior women with feathered bodies and taloned feet who tried to drive out the invading party. While the carnivorous Harpy Eagle Women had won a surprise round, some earlier smart thinking on the part of the Magic User—blocking off a door with an unseen servant that was not being used—managed to prevent too much damage from happening.<br />
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In the resulting combat (which, quite frankly, took much too long because of my own poor handling of combat with such a large party—lessons learned for future sessions), another henchman died and some of the PCs were taken out of combat with spells or taken down in HP, but they eventually got the upper hand of the five harpy eagle women due to good tactics and overwhelming numbers. At one point an expended Magic User brought a set of hand puppets into play, and it actually did the party good.<br />
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The party was supremely disappointed to find out that the dreadful black magic harpy eagle women were defending nothing more than the dungeon's fresh water supply, so went back to loot the dungeon they'd explored so far. They set up guards on all the doors and had the remaining party (+ the Bobs) ferry the statues out. They made easy work of all the wandering monsters the commotion brought to them.<br />
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<b>Back to Civilization: Dealing with Consequences</b><br />
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On their way back to the boat with all their loot (statues made of glazed ceramic which were more beautiful than any ceramic work they knew of in Europe), they encountered a golden lion tamarind. Another of the party's Magic Users cast darkness on its eyes—a spell he hadn't used in the big fight for some reason—and the party managed to capture the creature. The spectacle of the characters running around chasing a monkey was one of the funniest things the Bobs had ever seen. <br />
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They made it back to the last village that afternoon, and after some negotiating and giving a gift of one of the statues, the village agreed to be converted. They spent the night there after erecting a large cross in the middle of the village (an actual tactic of the Spanish missionaries when converting native populations).<br />
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They traveled downriver quickly, making it to the Bobs' village before nightfall. They gave each of the Bobs a small looted statue as a parting gift. The Bobs' tale of adventure was the talk of the town, and their favorite part was recounting the party running around in circles trying to capture a blinded monkey.<br />
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The next day, the village made a gift of one of the finest bows that the party had ever seen, and they left having established excellent diplomatic ties with one of the larger villages on the lower reaches of the river. On the way back down the river, one of the specialists (a gnarled old Greek sailor who doesn't speak any Spanish, the only non-Spaniard European in the party) spent the whole time trying to teach the monkey pickpocketing skills.<br />
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The party made it back to town quickly, and sold off their loot for a pretty penny. They declined to sell the monkey, hoping instead of fetch a better price by finding a female of the species and selling them together as a mating pair. The Greek sailor specialist, who had stolen some extra loot when others weren't looking and had made full use of the carousing rules, managed to just level up to level 3, and after that succeeded in teaching the monkey just enough pickpocketing skills for it to be dangerous.<br />
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<b>Conclusion: What Does it all Mean?</b><br />
We left our adventure there, as it was nearly 10pm and time to meet some other friends for drinks. Overall, the adventure had been a lot of fun. The players all told me they enjoyed the exploration and social encounters more than the dungeon, and in the future they will likely seek out more exploration. Part of that was probably my own fault for letting the combat drag as much as I did, and in the future I'm going to be more limiting of who can go into dungeons and who can participate in combats, while still allowing the players to have a large party that is necessary for jungle-based overland scenarios to work out.<br />
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One thing that I was quite pleased with was the way that the game mechanics came together. Gaining silver and gold through adventuring is the only way to level up in <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/112262093672917983853" target="_blank">+James Raggi</a>'s <i><a href="http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/products/lotfp-weird-fantasy-role-playing" target="_blank">Lamentations of the Flame Princess</a></i>, and it encourages the players to be greedy in a way that puts them in the conquistador mindset much better than any storygame rules could, I believe. Multiple times out of game they discussed wanting to play the game in a way that was not exploitative or overtly colonialist. They wanted to do first contact right. Even so, they were willing to exploit the natives the characters encountered both directly and indirectly, even as the players discussed openly the discomfort they felt with those actions. It was interesting to me to see the players' moral guilt at the actions of their characters, even while they enacted Raggi's principles of <a href="http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2008/05/making-your-campaign-metal.html" target="_blank">Heavy Metal DnD</a>. It was exactly the kind of game I wanted to run.<br />
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The average Spanish explorer of the new world was someone out for dangerous work in order to gain lands, a name of themselves, and most importantly a fortune. Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana's quest into the Andes that led to them discovering the Amazon river started as a search for cinnamon trees, whose spice would have made Pizarro a rich man. His older brother Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca was predicated on extracting as much of the gold form the civilization as he could, and in return for those riches the Spanish crown granted him governorship over the Peruvian province that conquest created. The conquistadors were truly the original murderhobos: they went to people's homes, killed and enslaved their men, and took their things.<br />
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In some ways, this makes it the ideal setting for an open-world DnD game. It is the age of exploration and adventure, and some of the stories of the Spanish conquest of the new world are more DnD than DnD is. (For instance: A group of four Spaniards lead by Cabeza de Vaca were shipwrecked in Florida in 1527 and trudged their way across N. America to the Pacific over the next eight years, the first Europeans to do so. They started out occasionally enslaved by and escaping various tribes, but by the end of their journey were known as shamans and messiahs amongst the native populations.)<br />
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It also makes running a game of DnD in this setting problematic, but in a way that is hopefully useful and good. In DnD, every player is accountable to only themselves. Their choices are completely their own and are not constrained by the rules. No player has to try to level up, and even further no player has to try to harm others, enslave natives, take what isn't theirs, etc., even if they are trying to level up. While the characters did bad things, and did so at only the conscious urging of their players, it's useful and good to be able to ask why they did.<br />
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When a group whose players are variously Christian, atheist, Buddhist, and Jewish; are male and female; are progressive, conservative, and libertarian; are white, black, and even Native American; when that group still opts in-game to exploit native characters, all because its in their best interest in-game due to the structures of that game, it hints at the importance of structure and ideology in our day to day lives.<br />
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This is why a work of art's being problematic can be a good thing, and should not be a reason for us to shun that art. It gives us a somewhat safe space to actually examine what makes it problematic, how it got to be that way. It can fully be enjoyed as art, analyzed as a piece of ideology, and used to better understand the world, all at the same time. That said, I do think that one can have badwrong reactions to art. The moral discomfort my players felt was good—an enjoyment of those same character actions, an unwillingness to admit that they were wrong or to further analyze the inputs that went into making those decisions, would all be terrible reactions to the problematic work we created together.<br />
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Anyway, this is all a longwinded way of saying that the game went very well, and I'm very much looking forward to running more in this setting, with these and other players. Anyone who wants to play in person or on G+ should get in touch—I hope to get to the point where the rivercrawl is a living open table, a sort of New World West Marches.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-28805561204404472022015-03-23T18:02:00.000-07:002015-03-23T18:02:42.703-07:00"The Archery Skill": A Houserule for LotFP<b>Archery Skill</b><br />
<i>All classes start out with a -1 in Archery, except Fighters who start out with a 0. Any character with skill points to spend can increase their Archery Bonus by +1 for each skill point that they spend in Archery. The Archery Bonus is added to the Ranged Attack Bonus when the character is firing a bow, but is not applied to crossbows, guns, or other ranged attacks. The maximum Archery Bonus is +4. </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasoverland/14430115156/in/photolist-nZ97uU-bMME3t-p6vfeW-dQbLDE-oWewkF-j4wkh-9MA1XH-bzG7oC-br9mXx-j4why-bAJy3G-btLJkK-bZsKLy-8i9Ubx-djrHkV-aa8jqf-8biHru-jJN3qg-cxfBFA-f7McCZ-etHe9s-6bFaho-5zFrmc-fFaXkb-djrGiM-7f3KFQ-i1er9G-pMNkSt-etJRCb-ccGBRj-pYqehH-5zFnPt-rqUpVf-br9s3c-KKWVu-etE2Dc-br9pwV-84YWom--9RgTSs-pSkxgJ-5zFjjR-aLKn6M-8468jo-dtzv8C-dtzuTW-dttYka-btnK3y-8jxHka-4H38Rt/" target="_blank">Andreas Øverland</a>.</td></tr>
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<b>Graphic Design Note</b><br />
On the character sheet draw a horizontal line underneath the first two pips of the Archery skill. This line represents skills parity: pips beneath the line bring Archery to 0, and pips above the line represent positive bonuses. This makes it easier to calculate the bonus in play, and stops advancement at +4. So one pip = -1, two pips = 0, three pips = +1, so on up to six pips = +4.<br />
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<b>Mechanical Notes</b><br />
Firing a bow is hard. Not only does it take strength and dexterity, it takes a lot of skill to get an arrow to go where you want it to go. Guns changed warfare not because they were more effective than bows (they were less effective for a very long time), but because it's so much easier to train someone to use a gun. Put it in their hand, show them how to point and shoot and how to reload, and they're good to go.<br />
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The Archery skill has the benefit of making guns and crossbows more valuable to the players. I've had people ask me why they'd want guns or crossbows when they don't do more damage, have penalties to reloading time, and are more expensive to boot. Now the tradeoff is clear: you buy a crossbow or gun because you are more likely to hit with it.<br />
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In addition, with the Archery skill, a "ranger-type" Specialist becomes more feasible. Specialists are now the only class other than the Fighter that can possibly get better at fighting, but the way in which they get better is very tightly constrained.<br />
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Fighters start out with a 0 in Archery because it is assumed that their weapons training includes basic training with bows. If your game allows Elves, then they should start at 0 as well. My Amazon Rivercrawl game allows Native American characters to also start at 0, for thematic reasons. You should do the same with any homebrew classes that it makes thematic sense for.<br />
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<b>Playtest Notes</b><br />
Overall, I was very happy with how this houserule ended up in play. It didn't add much more power to the party as a whole, but it did differentiate the classes and offered some interesting tactics.<br />
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I liked the range that this brings to the Specialist a lot, and found more players attracted to this often overlooked class. I also liked that it helped make the tradeoff between bows and mechanical projectile weapons more intuitive.<br />
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The one thing to note is that when Sneak Attack and Archery stack, it can often lead to nearly guaranteed one-hit kills of even 3HD creatures. I wouldn't allow anything other than the very first arrow fired from a completely hidden location count for Sneak Attack. Once a single arrow is loosed the enemy knows an enemy exists even if they're under cover, so the whole party is considered no longer sneaking.<br />
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I had added both this and another skill (Boating) to the skill list, so I gave Specialists 5 skill points at character generation. Having 12 skills and 5 points allowed the Specialists to differentiate from each other better than I've seen in other games. In the future though, I'll add the restriction that first-level players cannot be at 6 pips in any skill.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-38554110778415320242015-03-18T07:29:00.000-07:002015-03-23T18:03:09.938-07:00"Helping", a Houserule for LotFP Skills<b>The Rule</b><br />
One player's character can attempt to help another's at a skill test. To do this, the <i>helping</i> player rolls a d4 on their skill. If they succeed by rolling at or under their skill, then the <i>helped</i> player gets +1 pip for their skill roll.<br />
<br />
However, if the helping player rolls a 4, they must check their skill on a d4 again. If they fail the second check, the helped player immediately suffers a catastrophic failure caused by the ineptitude of the helper.<br />
<br />
Once one player has make a skill check to attempt something, no other player can make a skill check to attempt that same thing. Either help out, or accept that you've used your one chance to use the rules to get something done for you, and you'll have to come up with more creative solutions if you fail.<br />
<br />
<b>Clarifications</b><br />
Players with a 5 or a 6 in a skill don't need to roll to help, they automatically give +1 pip in help.<br />
<br />
Players with 4 pips in a skill cause a catastrophic failure on double-4's, and otherwise successfully help.<br />
<br />
If the helped player's skill moves beyond 5 pips due to help, they roll another d6 for each additional pip beyond 5, and only fail if they receive 6s on all the dice that they roll. 2d6 at 6 pips, 3d6 at 7 pips, etc.<br />
<br />
Catastrophic failures are context-dependent and up to the GM. On a "bushcraft" roll this might mean an immediate random encounter roll, on a "language" roll it might mean a hostile misinterpretation. The general rule is that more or less the opposite of what the players wanted to happen, will happen.<br />
<br />
Multiple players can help if it makes sense in-game, but a single catastrophic failure means doom for the attempt. Roll all the help rolls together first.<br />
<br />
Helping characters must have the same or fewer pips as the helped character.<br />
<br />
NPCs, retainers, etc., cannot help or be helped by these rules, even if they have skill points. The exception is henchmen, who can help or be helped only by their corresponding PC.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-45881419847098162622015-03-17T17:30:00.000-07:002015-03-23T08:06:22.830-07:00What's up with that random Amazonian village?<b>Village size (1d20):</b><br />
1d20 x 5 dwellings, except on rolls of a 1. Then, 2d20 x 10 dwellings.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZKRkNRF-CAlibBvgXT9rGau47Z3Ui5iJQgpd9bDV8hFIb0KvxoZL3NcOQ4MHzhNfKppg2JOmBXGcCcURQ2XRZGol0kCaGjBAgl3QF121zEDFC4Kaodg-jbsZrenRfYPxSpC_ICE5hUTY/s1600/amazon-village.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZKRkNRF-CAlibBvgXT9rGau47Z3Ui5iJQgpd9bDV8hFIb0KvxoZL3NcOQ4MHzhNfKppg2JOmBXGcCcURQ2XRZGol0kCaGjBAgl3QF121zEDFC4Kaodg-jbsZrenRfYPxSpC_ICE5hUTY/s1600/amazon-village.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><b>Dwellings are (2d4):</b><br />
2. Treehouses<br />
3. Floating on the river<br />
4. Grass huts on stilts<br />
5. Wooden, set back from the water on a high bank<br />
6. Wooden, abandoned during floods<br />
7. Buoyant grass huts, so they float during floods<br />
8. Watertight with rooftop entrances<br />
<br />
<b>Wealth (2d4):</b><br />
<style type="text/css">
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<table class="tg">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th class="tg-031e"></th>
<th class="tg-e3zv">2. Great</th>
<th class="tg-e3zv">3-5. Healthy</th>
<th class="tg-e3zv">6. Hard</th>
<th class="tg-e3zv">7. Sickly</th>
<th class="tg-e3zv">8. Starving</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-e3zv">Food</td>
<td class="tg-031e">d6 rations / dwelling</td>
<td class="tg-031e">d4 rations / dwelling</td>
<td class="tg-031e">d2 rations / dwelling</td>
<td class="tg-031e">d4 rations / dwelling</td>
<td class="tg-031e">d2-1 rations / dwelling</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-e3zv">Warriors</td>
<td class="tg-031e">+5%</td>
<td class="tg-031e">+0</td>
<td class="tg-031e">-5%</td>
<td class="tg-031e">-10%</td>
<td class="tg-031e">-15%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-e3zv">Decoration</td>
<td class="tg-031e">Silver, rare woods</td>
<td class="tg-031e">Animal pelts</td>
<td class="tg-031e">Grass, wood</td>
<td class="tg-031e">Grass, wood</td>
<td class="tg-031e">Decrepit</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLY4BqkjpQQAxw6gKQXEVnSOmQCcLSlyncOlDj07BUePBaJaXFNzRnkpKhQj1QQHygDoM8XD1MQN7LznGY2NraZVivbka31Y5GipEW431nJ7vqgASzbXDYRn5oWuInteLOepT04KDi7U8/s1600/amazon+hunters+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLY4BqkjpQQAxw6gKQXEVnSOmQCcLSlyncOlDj07BUePBaJaXFNzRnkpKhQj1QQHygDoM8XD1MQN7LznGY2NraZVivbka31Y5GipEW431nJ7vqgASzbXDYRn5oWuInteLOepT04KDi7U8/s1600/amazon+hunters+2.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a><b>Population:</b><br />
Average 4 people per dwelling.<br />
15% 1-lvl fighters<br />
1% 3-lvl fighters<br />
1% 2-lvl magic users<br />
0.1% 5-lvl magic user<br />
75% women/children/elderly<br />
The rest are 0-lvl fighters.<br />
<br />
<b>Contacted before (1d8):</b><br />
1. Yes<br />
2-8. No<br />
<br />
<b>Weapon types (1d8, 1d4):</b><br />
<br />
Warriors wield:<br />
1. Spears (d6, thrown or melee)<br />
2. Atlatl and dart (d8 thrown)<br />
3. Bow + arrow (d6 distance, 1 in 12 poisoned)<br />
4. Clubs (d4 melee, d6 if sharktooth)<br />
5. Poison blowdarts (-2 to hit, save vs. poison or fall ill)<br />
6. Net + spear (save vs. paralyze or get trapped and stabbed)<br />
7. Trickery<br />
8. Roll 2d6.<br />
<br />
Made of:<br />
1. Wood<br />
2. Sharktooth<br />
3. Bone<br />
4. Stone<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGXmuamAPHhyphenhyphenhDMYaip3xGJbyc56bXiUERSGmQoBtP5kRX99G1_g9WLAsuLNtSSXNWgN1FNihdMKahdKJee3oR1_6kLv5Tk24XC4Jo0HMerUMJeEG7N0BntTC-Id3HHuYhZ5lMQ4737I0/s1600/amazon+ritual.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGXmuamAPHhyphenhyphenhDMYaip3xGJbyc56bXiUERSGmQoBtP5kRX99G1_g9WLAsuLNtSSXNWgN1FNihdMKahdKJee3oR1_6kLv5Tk24XC4Jo0HMerUMJeEG7N0BntTC-Id3HHuYhZ5lMQ4737I0/s1600/amazon+ritual.jpg" height="216" width="320" /></a><b>Reaction Roll (1d4):</b><br />
Word of the party travels more quickly than they do. For each of the last two encountered villages, apply a modifier of -1, 0, or +1 to this roll based on whether the encounter <i>ended</i> as hostile, neutral, or friendly.<br />
<br />
-1. Hostile (active)<br />
0. Hostile (active)<br />
1. Hostile (passive)<br />
2. Standoffish<br />
3. Cautious<br />
4. Curious<br />
5. Friendly<br />
6. Friendly<br />
<br />
<b>Encounters (d12):</b><br />
Roll on this table if the party is able to land. Whether they land in peace or in the fray will determine how it plays out. Once an encounter is rolled, cross it out and add the next down on the list in its place. Or just roll d20 and accept that you'll get repeats.<br />
<br />
1. Young girl wants to be taken away.<br />
2. "Christians? Oh yeah, we got some of them, funny looking guys who live about 50 miles inland."<br />
3. Giant turtle farms.<br />
4. Giant tree trunk with map of the area carved on it. At least one point of major interest. Vassal village of the "amazons".<br />
5. Shaman warriors. Every two turns the shaman go uninjured, everyone in the party must save vs. magic or suffer -2 to hit for d6 rounds.<br />
6. The leaders wear gold jewelry. Total 2d100 GP worth of gold jewelry and decorations in the village.<br />
7. Temple with prayer idols made from brilliantly colored sewn feathers. The temple itself is made from two kinds of wood, one perfectly white and one perfectly black.<br />
8. Weapons storeroom. Sharktooth clubs, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear-thrower" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">atlatls</a>, manatee skin shields, etc..<br />
9. Chief owns a diary from a fallen conquistador from Pizarro's trip.<br />
10. As a protest against colonial rule, a monkey has been appointed chief.<br />
11. Someone stole their writing, and they want it back.<br />
12. They're in the middle of a potlatch, players can join if they bring gifts. Treat as per carousing rules.<br />
13. Ambush! 2d8 1-lvl fighters lead by 1 3-lvl fighter.<br />
14. Beautiful pottery with lifelike figures painted on it.<br />
15. Everyone wears silver jewelry. 10 SP worth of silver jewelry per person in the village.<br />
16. A freshly killed tapir rests in the town square. ~100 rations worth of meat, ~50 of offal.<br />
17. Players are offered a gourd of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">yajé</a>.</i><br />
18. The indians plan on capturing and enslaving the characters in order to harvest their knowledge of metallurgy.<br />
19. The village is having major skirmishes with some villages further inland.<br />
20. The villages need some sacred item buried with <a href="https://rpgcharacters.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/onepagedungeon-burial-mound.pdf" target="_blank">Esur the Red</a> but it's taboo for any of them to set foot in the burial mound.<br />
21. The village is in shock as one of its lost children just returned telling tales of <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/145008/The-Pale-Lady" target="_blank">the Pale Lady</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-3284054207045624432015-03-09T19:48:00.000-07:002015-03-11T15:22:28.138-07:00Bronze Shiva<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
This is a three inch high bronze statue of a young man with three closed eyes sitting in lotus position, a snake coiled around his neck. Some well-traveled PCs might know that this is a depiction of the Hindu god Shiva. Shiva is the god of death and rebirth, of balance and transformation brought about by destruction. Detect Evil shows nothing evil about the statue (it is a holy relic), but detect magic works and even gives the player a hint about how to use it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFmq4pXEJjCwIhfr5CopL27-q3LxOnD7QUJg5eEkIjVPA033MppWPPCpKyH-kAbwEJI6Jpt5JCRNHJ2ExEGS1rBQIlVwpSqPoYhOaQlT0O5nz5gOMfB-8LgPjh8sL8Lkyu1oqBOFEOi7U/s1600/shiva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFmq4pXEJjCwIhfr5CopL27-q3LxOnD7QUJg5eEkIjVPA033MppWPPCpKyH-kAbwEJI6Jpt5JCRNHJ2ExEGS1rBQIlVwpSqPoYhOaQlT0O5nz5gOMfB-8LgPjh8sL8Lkyu1oqBOFEOi7U/s1600/shiva.jpg" /></a></div>
Any sentient creature can use the statue as a yogic meditation focus. When focusing on the statue and stilling the mind, they will regain one hit point every 30 minutes, for up to their level in hit points. Alternatively, someone magically inclined who focuses on the statue while preparing spells will take only half the normal time to do so.</div>
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If someone focuses on the statue after it has already been used that day, then those who previously used it lose their effects. Hit points are reduced, spells are dispelled, and where possible the rolled effect is transferred to the new beneficiary. If multiple people meditate on it at the same time, then only the one who mediates the longest receives any benefit or effect. The exception to this is when a Cleric of Shiva is leading the meditation process—then all receive the full benefits of the meditation, but the GM should roll on the effects table separately for each participant.</div>
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If a Cleric of any other god blasphemes by meditating on the statue in order to prepare their spells more quickly, they will immediately lose favor with their old god and become a Cleric of Shiva. It's a good idea to prepare a new list of spells focused on destruction and re-creation for this eventuality. Feel free to use some Magic User spells, but remember that Shiva and his clerics stand for Law, not Chaos. It just happens to be the law of Entropy. </div>
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Each time the statue is used, the GM should surreptitiously roll a d100 on the table below and play out the effect as makes most sense. The purpose of these effects is to add some of the destructive transformation that Shiva represents to the campaign. While a character might receive an immediate bonus from the use of the statue, it is only by causing the entropy of the world around them to increase to preserve balance.</div>
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As a GM, do not give your players reasons to associate these effects with the statue. Each should have a normal cause in-game, even if it means ret-conning, fudging, or changing plans. Does a wound not heal? Then that must have been a magic sword. Are the bees going to attack? Wait until the next encounter check and fudge the roll. Did their house burn down? They won't find out about it until they go back or a hireling seeks them out. </div>
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<br />
Once an effect is rolled, scratch it out and add something new. </div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
1-74: Nothing happens.</div>
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75: The next time the character wants something from an NPC, no matter how well they negotiate or roll the answer is "no".</div>
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76: The next time initiative is rolled, increase the hit dice of all the creatures the players are fighting by 1.</div>
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77: Before the end of the day it will begin raining. If it is below freezing where the characters are, it will not fall as snow, but rather ice rain.</div>
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78: The next time it thunders, lightening will strike the most heavily armored character in the party.</div>
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79: The character's closest relative just died.</div>
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80: The character's house just caught fire.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
81: From the next blow to the head, the character will develop prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces) for 5 days.</div>
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82: The next time the character takes damage, they permanently lose that damage from their total hit points.</div>
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83: The character is unable to close their next wound without magical healing.</div>
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84: One of the character's hirelings (or close contacts) will sever all ties and never speak to the character again.</div>
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85: The next time the character is outside for more than an hour, they will be attacked by a swarm of bees.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
86: If the character is a magic user, they mysteriously gain the summon spell the next time they prepare spells en lieu of one of their first level spells. It will continue to take a first level slot until it is used. If the character is not a magic user, then at some point today they are going to step in some poo.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
87: The next time the character levels up, they do not gain a new hit die. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
88: Alcohol no longer gets the character drunk. It is still a poison, however.</div>
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89: The character's hair will permanently turn grey over the next month. Any attempts to dye it will result in it falling out.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
90: The character develops stage fright and must save vs. paralysis to speak in the presence of more than 15 people. Public places and fights included. This lasts 6 sessions or until leveling up, whichever is longer. </div>
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91: Horses absolutely refuse to be ridden by the character. Donkey's don't mind.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
92: With the next blow to the head, the character loses the ability to read for 5 days.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
93: The next time the sun sets, it will not rise for another 29 hours. </div>
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94: The next time the character attempts a disguise, a childhood friend will recognize them at an inopportune time and attempt friendly discourse.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
95: The character will receive a vision of love and aid from a dead love one.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
96: The character gains one hit point to their total the next time they accept magical healing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
97: A lost item or pet unexpectedly and happily returns.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
98: The next time the character negotiates when selling items, they will receive 25% more than the expected amount. This counts towards XP.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
99: The next three days are beautiful weather.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
00: The statue is lost and will not be found again.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-65508612095862822182015-03-08T14:06:00.002-07:002015-03-08T14:07:51.818-07:00Secret Santicore Reference: "Places"Here's my final installment of the <a href="http://santicore.blogspot.com/2015/03/secret-santicores-vile-volumes.html?showComment=1425823571441">Secret Santicore</a> table of contents. You can find it all together, with added information, in <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11nXs4Tv-XkKC2RD8Y3f5g4MQnnTclm7bzXZ2s7hPiGo/edit?usp=sharing">this viewable google spreadsheet</a>.<br />
<br />
James has posted the <a href="http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2015/03/santicore-breakdown-adventures.html">Adventures</a> table on his blog, and will be bringing us all Monsters soon.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #ccc; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup><col width="211"></col><col width="44"></col><col width="465"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Title"]" style="background-color: #d9d9d9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Title</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pages"]" style="background-color: #d9d9d9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Pages</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Description"]" style="background-color: #d9d9d9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Description</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Trollheim"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Trollheim</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"2-3"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">2-3</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A city inhabited by a Dark Dwarf and his followers. Description and lore type text, + monster statblocks and some NPCs. A sort of arcane lovecraftian architectural horror city."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A city inhabited by a Dark Dwarf and his followers. Description and lore type text, + monster statblocks and some NPCs. A sort of arcane lovecraftian architectural horror city.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Fort Delierium"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Fort Delierium</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"4-5"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">4-5</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A keyed map of a walled fort and surrounding small village. Map itself is perfectly detailed, the keys offer the most bare of building names. Will require some GM work, but the right kind of GM work."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A keyed map of a walled fort and surrounding small village. Map itself is perfectly detailed, the keys offer the most bare of building names. Will require some GM work, but the right kind of GM work.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Across the Mountains"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Across the Mountains</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"6-8"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">6-8</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Notes on several cultures \"across the mountains\" from your current campaign location. Includes rules for gunpowder, special spells for the location, setting lore, and more. A mini-campaign setting."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Notes on several cultures "across the mountains" from your current campaign location. Includes rules for gunpowder, special spells for the location, setting lore, and more. A mini-campaign setting.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Portal Collector"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Portal Collector</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"9-12"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">9-12</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Various pieces of fine art that also act as extra-dimensional portals. Their function is related to their form. Includes a dice drop table where you drop dice on one of the pieces of art, an included collage. "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Various pieces of fine art that also act as extra-dimensional portals. Their function is related to their form. Includes a dice drop table where you drop dice on one of the pieces of art, an included collage. </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Fantasy Shoppes"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Fantasy Shoppes</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"13-14"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">13-14</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d20 table of shops you might find in a fantasy city. Includes info on shopkeeper, how they are, what they do."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d20 table of shops you might find in a fantasy city. Includes info on shopkeeper, how they are, what they do.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Other Side of Mirrors"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Other Side of Mirrors</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"15-16"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">15-16</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rules for entering the other side of a mirror. Includes a spell, \"Window Walk\", and what to do with Vampires and mirrors that face each other. Behind the mirror is the world of the ID and Ego, those animal instincts that bubble up to our minds in our fantasies."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rules for entering the other side of a mirror. Includes a spell, "Window Walk", and what to do with Vampires and mirrors that face each other. Behind the mirror is the world of the ID and Ego, those animal instincts that bubble up to our minds in our fantasies.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Zero-G Encounter"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Zero-G Encounter</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"17"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">17</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A zero-g encounter / room in a Wizard Tower. Added rules for combat make it more tricksy than usual. Hilarious description text."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A zero-g encounter / room in a Wizard Tower. Added rules for combat make it more tricksy than usual. Hilarious description text.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Cosmic Sinkhole"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Cosmic Sinkhole</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"18"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">18</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A neat little encounter created when the room the players are in phases in / overlaps with a giant ant colony, and the only way out is to let the pupea they face kill them."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A neat little encounter created when the room the players are in phases in / overlaps with a giant ant colony, and the only way out is to let the pupea they face kill them.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Just Another Town"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Just Another Town</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"19-21"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">19-21</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Three d20 tables for generating an interesting happening at any given random village, as well as an NPC who can introduct the players to that happening."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Three d20 tables for generating an interesting happening at any given random village, as well as an NPC who can introduct the players to that happening.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Welcome to Fantasy Islands"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Welcome to Fantasy Islands</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"22-24"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">22-24</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tables and worldbuilding information to help you build islands quickly. Includes a random encounters table for each island type."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Tables and worldbuilding information to help you build islands quickly. Includes a random encounters table for each island type.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Interstellar Discoveries"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Interstellar Discoveries</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"25-27"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">25-27</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d17 (?) table of random encounters on uncharted planets. What happens when your spaceship lands?"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d17 (?) table of random encounters on uncharted planets. What happens when your spaceship lands?</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Plurality of Hives"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Plurality of Hives</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"28-29"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">28-29</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Description of a multi-dimensional portalway ruled by sentient insects who allow traveling caravans to trade between the plans. Each doorway enters a different RPG system."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Description of a multi-dimensional portalway ruled by sentient insects who allow traveling caravans to trade between the plans. Each doorway enters a different RPG system.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Drawing: Dank and Slimy Location"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Drawing: Dank and Slimy Location</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"30"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">30</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A great ink drawing of an adventurer being killed by some slimy slime in some dark underground dungeon cavern. "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A great ink drawing of an adventurer being killed by some slimy slime in some dark underground dungeon cavern. </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Prisons on the Vegland Borders"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Prisons on the Vegland Borders</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"31-35"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">31-35</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rules for creating and stocking prisons of vegetable people. Since veggiefolk don't exist in any OSR RPG, there are also rules for creating and running them and how they should interact with animalfolk."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rules for creating and stocking prisons of vegetable people. Since veggiefolk don't exist in any OSR RPG, there are also rules for creating and running them and how they should interact with animalfolk.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Orobor"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Orobor</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"36-40"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">36-40</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rules for running a 7-roomed, 7-inhabitanted extraplanar dungeon thing. Reading it is better than me trying to sum it up in any way, so go do that."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rules for running a 7-roomed, 7-inhabitanted extraplanar dungeon thing. Reading it is better than me trying to sum it up in any way, so go do that.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Wilderness Area Trap Generator"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Wilderness Area Trap Generator</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"41-43"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">41-43</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tables and rules for creating and running both hunting and defensive traps in wilderness areas."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Tables and rules for creating and running both hunting and defensive traps in wilderness areas.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Jessup's Tree"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Jessup's Tree</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"44"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">44</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"This is one of the best secret santicore instructions I've ever read, and the entry lives up to the ask. A description of a tree that has seen so many lynchings that it wants more, and is corrupting a nearby village so that it can feed on more hanged souls."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">This is one of the best secret santicore instructions I've ever read, and the entry lives up to the ask. A description of a tree that has seen so many lynchings that it wants more, and is corrupting a nearby village so that it can feed on more hanged souls.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Turtle Monestary"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Turtle Monestary</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"45"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">45</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"What appears to be a monestary built into the shell of a giant three-headed turtle. Sadly, the image is a little washed out so it's hard to see too much detail. "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">What appears to be a monestary built into the shell of a giant three-headed turtle. Sadly, the image is a little washed out so it's hard to see too much detail. </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Citadel of the Goblimites "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Citadel of the Goblimites </td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"46"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">46</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Detailed isometric one-page dungeon style map. Includes various rooms with adventure suggestions in the name. Map = detailed, descriptions = sparse, perfect combo."]" style="font-size: 100%; padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Detailed isometric one-page dungeon style map. Includes various rooms with adventure suggestions in the name. Map = detailed, descriptions = sparse, perfect combo.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"All the Greats on Your Favorite Station"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">All the Greats on Your Favorite Station</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"47-49"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">47-49</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Two space stations for a Star Wars-esque getting, both with a fantasy/horror vibe. One is keyed and mapped as a node map, the other is pure description. Both are clever and would make a good session of play."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Two space stations for a Star Wars-esque getting, both with a fantasy/horror vibe. One is keyed and mapped as a node map, the other is pure description. Both are clever and would make a good session of play.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Taking Trap"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Taking Trap</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"50"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">50</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A trap inspired by \"The Giving Tree\". You befriend a creature who gets you out of a deadly trap, but then asks a little bit too much in return."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A trap inspired by "The Giving Tree". You befriend a creature who gets you out of a deadly trap, but then asks a little bit too much in return.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-38216587289859625812015-03-08T10:09:00.001-07:002015-03-08T10:10:28.784-07:00Secret Santicore Reference: "Things"And so is finished the table of contents for the "Things" <a href="http://santicore.blogspot.com/2015/03/secret-santicores-vile-volumes.html?showComment=1425823571441">Secret Santicore 2014 PDF</a>.<br />
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There were a tonne of great rules and systems in here. "Diseases and Cures" is definitely finding its way into my Rivercrawl game, and "Gear and Careers" is just going to be my new normal for "defining player gear at chargen".<br />
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<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #ccc; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup><col width="203"></col><col width="54"></col><col width="470"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"When the Monster is the Treasure"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">When the Monster is the Treasure</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"2-3"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">2-3</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rules for harvesting parts from monsters/animals. Tables for what you get, what they do, what it's worth, etc.."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rules for harvesting parts from monsters/animals. Tables for what you get, what they do, what it's worth, etc..</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Things Found in an Abandoned Hospital or Asylum"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Things Found in an Abandoned Hospital or Asylum</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"4-5"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">4-5</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A d66 (or 11d6?) list of things found in a modern abandoned medical facility. Each item comes with a modifer to make it work for a horror or medieval game."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A d66 (or 11d6?) list of things found in a modern abandoned medical facility. Each item comes with a modifier to make it work for a horror or medieval game.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"An Arsenal and Armoury Pertaining to the Shed and Stolen Nails of Giants, Giantesses, and Giant Brood"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">An Arsenal and Armoury Pertaining to the Shed and Stolen Nails of Giants, Giantesses, and Giant Brood</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"6-7"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">6-7</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A listing of items created from the use of the finger and toe nails of Giants. Arrayed in several tables depending on if found wild or as spoils of war. All pretty nasty in a body-horror type way, but also useful if you're OK with the nasty. Includes rules for several weird diseases you can catch from using the objects."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A listing of items created from the use of the finger and toe nails of Giants. Arrayed in several tables depending on if found wild or as spoils of war. All pretty nasty in a body-horror type way, but also useful if you're OK with the nasty. Includes rules for several weird diseases you can catch from using the objects.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"What is That up There, My Lord?"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">What is That up There, My Lord?</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"8-9"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">8-9</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Four d10 tables that can be used to generate a \"Buck Rogers-type\" spaceship, including the craft, the pilots, the weaponry, and its mission."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Four d10 tables that can be used to generate a "Buck Rogers-type" spaceship, including the craft, the pilots, the weaponry, and its mission.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Deep Dungeon Transports"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Deep Dungeon Transports</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"10-14"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">10-14</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Discussion of the viability of various types of non-magical transport options in the deep underdark. Breaks the general problem into more specific instances, describes ways of solving each instance. Includes putting something in the belly of a Purple Worm, getting transport across the deep underground sea, and using Beholders to carve out large tunnels."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Discussion of the viability of various types of non-magical transport options in the deep underdark. Breaks the general problem into more specific instances, describes ways of solving each instance. Includes putting something in the belly of a Purple Worm, getting transport across the deep underground sea, and using Beholders to carve out large tunnels.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Black Magic Alphabet"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Black Magic Alphabet</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"15-16"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">15-16</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d26 alphabet tables for generating tomes of black magic, including their name and what's contained inside them."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d26 alphabet tables for generating tomes of black magic, including their name and what's contained inside them.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Alchemist Store"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Alchemist Store</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"17-18"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">17-18</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Eight d6 tables for generating an alchemist's store, including items in the shop, other customers, the owner, etc."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Eight d6 tables for generating an alchemist's store, including items in the shop, other customers, the owner, etc.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Games of Irradiated Wastelands"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Games of Irradiated Wastelands</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"19"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">19</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Five short descriptions of games played by peoples in a post-apocalyptic setting. Gonzo/silly in the best way. "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Five short descriptions of games played by peoples in a post-apocalyptic setting. Gonzo/silly in the best way. </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Dangerous Technology for Stupid People"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Dangerous Technology for Stupid People</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"20-28"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">20-28</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"100(?) dangerous technology items, such as the Fez of Protection, the Soup Bowl of Death, and a Spinning Bow Tie that knocks down missle attacks. Great fun list."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">100(?) dangerous technology items, such as the Fez of Protection, the Soup Bowl of Death, and a Spinning Bow Tie that knocks down missile attacks. Great fun list.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Seven Vestments of Sutoyar the Mad"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Seven Vestments of Sutoyar the Mad</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"29-32"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">29-32</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Seven magical clothing items enchanged by a mad historical figure. Each has advantages and disadvantages when worn, as well as a magical and mundane history."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Seven magical clothing items enchanted by a mad historical figure. Each has advantages and disadvantages when worn, as well as a magical and mundane history.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Amulet of Flawed Majesty"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Amulet of Flawed Majesty</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"33-35"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">33-35</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A magic item which gives the character a permanent +1 to Charisma and the occasional +6 to charisma and random super power, but at the cost of the characters' soul."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A magic item which gives the character a permanent +1 to Charisma and the occasional +6 to charisma and random super power, but at the cost of the characters' soul.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"12 Wizard Hats"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">12 Wizard Hats</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"36-38"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">36-38</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Twelve wizard hats, each with an image and a description, each of which offers certain advantages and disadvantages in play."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Twelve wizard hats, each with an image and a description, each of which offers certain advantages and disadvantages in play.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Alien Bionics"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Alien Bionics</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"39-43"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">39-43</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A d20 list of alien bionics with descriptions on how to use each. These are fairly serious scifi technomagic items, and rules are provided for using each one in play including advantages and disadvantages."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A d20 list of alien bionics with descriptions on how to use each. These are fairly serious scifi technomagic items, and rules are provided for using each one in play including advantages and disadvantages.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Thirteen Tomes"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Thirteen Tomes</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"44-45"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">44-45</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A list of 13 magical books, each with a paragraph description detailing what they do. Any would make great loot in a D&D campaign."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A list of 13 magical books, each with a paragraph description detailing what they do. Any would make great loot in a D&D campaign.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Random Effects for Eating Mushrooms or Other Bizarre Foods"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Random Effects for Eating Mushrooms or Other Bizarre Foods</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"46-49"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">46-49</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d100 table of effects from eating weird, dangerous, rotten, unknown, etc foodstuffs. Most are short and fun in play, offering more flavor than mechanical (dis)advantage, although mechanics are there."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d100 table of effects from eating weird, dangerous, rotten, unknown, etc foodstuffs. Most are short and fun in play, offering more flavor than mechanical (dis)advantage, although mechanics are there.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Magic Cutlery"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Magic Cutlery</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"50-51"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">50-51</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Backstory and a list of 15 magical eating implements. Can be left in a wizard's tower, a magical school, etc.. The effects tend to be small but useful in a dining setting. I'm sure players can find a way to make them useful for killing things and taking their loot."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Backstory and a list of 15 magical eating implements. Can be left in a wizard's tower, a magical school, etc.. The effects tend to be small but useful in a dining setting. I'm sure players can find a way to make them useful for killing things and taking their loot.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Five Blades of the Dead Titan"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Five Blades of the Dead Titan</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"52-54"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">52-54</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Five magical, sentient swords, each with different magical abilities that they grant their users, but also each has its own goals and will attempt to take over the character to acheive those goals."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Five magical, sentient swords, each with different magical abilities that they grant their users, but also each has its own goals and will attempt to take over the character to achieve those goals.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Clerical Spells"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Clerical Spells</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"55-57"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">55-57</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A number of clerical spells for three different dieties: The Builder (Structure and Self), the Lady (Blessing and Light), and the Shipbuilder (Sails and Storms). Excellent list to help add flavor to different types of clerics."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A number of clerical spells for three different deities: The Builder (Structure and Self), the Lady (Blessing and Light), and the Shipbuilder (Sails and Storms). Excellent list to help add flavor to different types of clerics.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Organizational Events for a Fantasy City"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Organizational Events for a Fantasy City</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"58-61"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">58-61</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A d100 table of events that might happen in a fantasy city that pertain to its management and government. Often will affect a party of PCs, lead to adventure hooks, etc.. Great way to make the city feel alive and bureaucratic."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A d100 table of events that might happen in a fantasy city that pertain to its management and government. Often will affect a party of PCs, lead to adventure hooks, etc.. Great way to make the city feel alive and bureaucratic.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Gear and Careers"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Gear and Careers</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"62-64"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">62-64</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A method for determining starting gear of a newly rolled character that doesn't involve buying it. The character will get different gear depending on their ability scores and their class. Low scores don't get bad gear, just different gear. Really neat, versitile, and fast system."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A method for determining starting gear of a newly rolled character that doesn't involve buying it. The character will get different gear depending on their ability scores and their class. Low scores don't get bad gear, just different gear. Really neat, versatile, and fast system.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Accessories of Exacerbating Transformation"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Accessories of Exacerbating Transformation</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"65"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">65</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Three magical clothing items that in some way transform their wearer. Switch mental/physical attributes, mutate them, etc.."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Three magical clothing items that in some way transform their wearer. Switch mental/physical attributes, mutate them, etc..</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Plastic Model Spaceships"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Plastic Model Spaceships</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"66-67"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">66-67</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tables for quickly rolling up Gonzo Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy style spaceships of varying size and functionality. Comes with illistruations, is both hillarious and functional."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Tables for quickly rolling up Gonzo Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy style spaceships of varying size and functionality. Comes with illustrations, is both hilarious and functional.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Magical Medical Marvels"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Magical Medical Marvels</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"68-72"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">68-72</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Various items, spells, NPCs, and adventure hooks, all of questionable healing power. Oh, they'll heal you all right, but they'll also grow you weird limbs you didn't know you wanted (and probably didn't)."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Various items, spells, NPCs, and adventure hooks, all of questionable healing power. Oh, they'll heal you all right, but they'll also grow you weird limbs you didn't know you wanted (and probably didn't).</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Uncommon Skills of the Second Age of Adventuring"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Uncommon Skills of the Second Age of Adventuring</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"73-74"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">73-74</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A list of narrow skills / non-weapon proficiencies for your Old School game. All are helpful, most are a little funny too. Great way to round out a skill or feat list."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A list of narrow skills / non-weapon proficiencies for your Old School game. All are helpful, most are a little funny too. Great way to round out a skill or feat list.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Random Potion Effects"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Random Potion Effects</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"75"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">75</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d20 effects a random potion might have. Some are gross and deadly, some are useful, and some are window dressing. Given the context of \"Wizard creates these, force feeds them to prisoners to see what's up\", that's a pretty good mix."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d20 effects a random potion might have. Some are gross and deadly, some are useful, and some are window dressing. Given the context of "Wizard creates these, force feeds them to prisoners to see what's up", that's a pretty good mix.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Quick and Dirty B/X Vehicle Rules for Science Fantasy or Sci-Fi"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Quick and Dirty B/X Vehicle Rules for Science Fantasy or Sci-Fi</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"76-77"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">76-77</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Really quick and easy to use rules for deteriming the speed, handling, cargo load, etc of random vehicles in play. "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Really quick and easy to use rules for deteriming the speed, handling, cargo load, etc of random vehicles in play. </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Strange and Terrible Artifacts from the Bleak"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Strange and Terrible Artifacts from the Bleak</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"78-79"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">78-79</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d19 magical scifi artifacts. The short descriptions leave a lot to the GM to decide, but give some great flavor text."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d19 magical scifi artifacts. The short descriptions leave a lot to the GM to decide, but give some great flavor text.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Diseases and Cures"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Diseases and Cures</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"80-83"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">80-83</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Two d20 tables. The first is long descriptions and rules for various diseases that a character might catch. Some might even appear to be helpful on the surface. The second is a d20 list of \"rumors of cures\", which do a good job of suggesting adventures for the player to go on to get cured."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Two d20 tables. The first is long descriptions and rules for various diseases that a character might catch. Some might even appear to be helpful on the surface. The second is a d20 list of "rumors of cures", which do a good job of suggesting adventures for the player to go on to get cured.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Galdr Rune Magic"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Galdr Rune Magic</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"84-87"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">84-87</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A totally new magic system + class for DnD-type games. Uses runes, which can be either invoked by speaking them or inscribed on something. Different effects come about depending on how they're used. "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A totally new magic system + class for DnD-type games. Uses runes, which can be either invoked by speaking them or inscribed on something. Different effects come about depending on how they're used. </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tapestries, Murals, and Mosaics"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Tapestries, Murals, and Mosaics</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"88-89"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">88-89</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Various wall decorations. Mostly flavor, no real mechanical effects. Really great flavor."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Various wall decorations. Mostly flavor, no real mechanical effects. Really great flavor.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Mundane Magic"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Mundane Magic</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"90-94"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">90-94</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"30 items whose magic focuses on day to day life, rather than adventuring or combat. Magic as daily technology, if you will. Great list."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">30 items whose magic focuses on day to day life, rather than adventuring or combat. Magic as daily technology, if you will. Great list.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Wizard Treasure"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Wizard Treasure</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"95-97"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">95-97</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tables detailing wizard loot! This is what Seclusium of Orphone should have been. Great system that emergently allows for having more, and more rare, loot for higher level wizards."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Tables detailing wizard loot! This is what Seclusium of Orphone should have been. Great system that emergently allows for having more, and more rare, loot for higher level wizards.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Yuletide Playbook for Dungeon World"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Yuletide Playbook for Dungeon World</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"98-100"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">98-100</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Moves, monsters, and more for your Christmas-themed Dungeon World game."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Moves, monsters, and more for your Christmas-themed Dungeon World game.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Items that Grow with the Characters"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Items that Grow with the Characters</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"101-102"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">101-102</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Six whimsical magic items that grow more powerful as the character who is weilding them levels up."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Six whimsical magic items that grow more powerful as the character who is wielding them levels up.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
<div>
The whole table of contents can be found in our handy-dandy Google Spreadsheet link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11nXs4Tv-XkKC2RD8Y3f5g4MQnnTclm7bzXZ2s7hPiGo/edit?usp=sharing</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-90667186528301826162015-03-08T08:19:00.001-07:002015-03-08T10:04:10.626-07:00Secret Santicore Reference: "People"<div>
A table of contents of the "people" PDF for this year's <a href="http://santicore.blogspot.com/2015/03/secret-santicores-vile-volumes.html?showComment=1425823571441">Secret Santicore</a>. </div>
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #ccc; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup><col width="181"></col><col width="44"></col><col width="453"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Flower Devils vs. Silk Demons"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Flower Devils vs. Silk Demons</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"2-4"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">2-4</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Two \"meta-organizations\", decentralized occult alliances that are somewhat at odds with each other. Each organization has several abilities, flaws, items, etc associated with it. Gives rules on generating NPCs of each organization. Describes how they interact with each other, and gives a timeline of events that are happening in the background of the campaign world."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Two "meta-organizations", decentralized occult alliances that are somewhat at odds with each other. Each organization has several abilities, flaws, items, etc associated with it. Gives rules on generating NPCs of each organization. Describes how they interact with each other, and gives a timeline of events that are happening in the background of the campaign world.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Order of the Machine"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Order of the Machine</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"5"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">5</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A \"meta-organization\" for Fate games. Occult group that worships AI. Gives several NPC templates for high-level occultists."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A "meta-organization" for Fate games. Occult group that worships AI. Gives several NPC templates for high-level occultists.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Eternally Young"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Eternally Young</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"6-7"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">6-7</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Description of an early modern herbal health company/cult. Ideas on how to use this in a campaign. Includes stat block for \"Grace Meeks, Undead Beauty Guru\" and an alien/god thing which is using the company to its own ends."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Description of an early modern herbal health company/cult. Ideas on how to use this in a campaign. Includes stat block for "Grace Meeks, Undead Beauty Guru" and an alien/god thing which is using the company to its own ends.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Death Cult"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Death Cult</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"8-9"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">8-9</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Description of a death cult. Details its founding and evolution into several states. Includes punishment for those found worshiping death: eternal life."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Description of a death cult. Details its founding and evolution into several states. Includes punishment for those found worshiping death: eternal life.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Secret Cults and Guilds of the Desert Kingdoms"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Secret Cults and Guilds of the Desert Kingdoms</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"10-14"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">10-14</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d30 Cults and Guilds for a desert setting. Each gets a long paragraph description. Laid out to be easy to roll on."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d30 Cults and Guilds for a desert setting. Each gets a long paragraph description. Laid out to be easy to roll on.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Horror Barbarians"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Horror Barbarians</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"15-16"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">15-16</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Three horror/weird-themed barbarian tribes. Description, flavor text, and some campaign tie-ins."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Three horror/weird-themed barbarian tribes. Description, flavor text, and some campaign tie-ins.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Interplanetary Pirate Ragamuffins"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Interplanetary Pirate Ragamuffins</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"17"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">17</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Seven NPCs biographies. Each a sort of pirate ragamuffin. Given 4e classes but no other stats."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Seven NPCs biographies. Each a sort of pirate ragamuffin. Given 4e classes but no other stats.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Garden Sports Oriented Combat and Dungeonering Moves"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Garden Sports Oriented Combat and Dungeonering Moves</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"18-19"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">18-19</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Moves built for Dungeon World that are all focused on some form of garden sport. Also gives a list of moves for Robot Characters (\"Danger, Will Robinson\") and Mi-Go Characters (\"Wretched Humans\")."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Moves built for Dungeon World that are all focused on some form of garden sport. Also gives a list of moves for Robot Characters ("Danger, Will Robinson") and Mi-Go Characters ("Wretched Humans").</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"What Does This NPC Do in His / Her / Its Spare Time?"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">What Does This NPC Do in His / Her / Its Spare Time?</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"20-23"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">20-23</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Various tables to roll on to deterimine the hobbies, activities, and abilities of general NPCs."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Various tables to roll on to deterimine the hobbies, activities, and abilities of general NPCs.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"30 Reaons not to Murder NPCs"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">30 Reaons not to Murder NPCs</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"24-25"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">24-25</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d30 table of reasons a party might not want to randomly murder a given NPC."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d30 table of reasons a party might not want to randomly murder a given NPC.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rival NPCs"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rival NPCs</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"26-28"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">26-28</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"An essay on the nature of what makes a good \"nemisis\" or \"big baddy\" in play, how to build them up and get the players invested while still leaving them agency, etc.. Includes several nemises of different form from the author's own game (statted for 3.5 from what I can tell?)."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">An essay on the nature of what makes a good "nemisis" or "big baddy" in play, how to build them up and get the players invested while still leaving them agency, etc.. Includes several nemises of different form from the author's own game (statted for 3.5 from what I can tell?).</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Lonely Heir "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Lonely Heir </td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"29-33"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">29-33</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A fully-statted class for Dungeon Crawl Classics that is modeled after the typical Lovecraftian protagonist: a lonely pampered young man who falls into something greater than himself, which slowly destroys him."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A fully-statted class for Dungeon Crawl Classics that is modeled after the typical Lovecraftian protagonist: a lonely pampered young man who falls into something greater than himself, which slowly destroys him.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d12 Sorceror-Queen Generation Table"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d12 Sorceror-Queen Generation Table</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"34-35"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">34-35</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Seven d12 tables that, when rolled on together, generate a playable Sorceror-Queen."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Seven d12 tables that, when rolled on together, generate a playable Sorceror-Queen.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Super Powers in D&D Type Fantasy"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Super Powers in D&D Type Fantasy</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"36-40"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">36-40</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Various tables and rules for generating and playing D&D characters who have super powers. Presented as \"things to do after usual chargen\"."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Various tables and rules for generating and playing D&D characters who have super powers. Presented as "things to do after usual chargen".</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Table of Adventuring Parties"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Table of Adventuring Parties</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"41-46"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">41-46</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d10 table of adventuring parties, each with a short back-story and multiple fully-statted NPCs for LotFP."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d10 table of adventuring parties, each with a short back-story and multiple fully-statted NPCs for LotFP.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Four Monastic Orders"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Four Monastic Orders</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"47-50"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">47-50</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Descriptive text + rules for 4 different monastic orders, including a 5e \"path\" for each one. Includes schisms and relationships amongst the orders. "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Descriptive text + rules for 4 different monastic orders, including a 5e "path" for each one. Includes schisms and relationships amongst the orders. </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"NPC Faction Cartomancy"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">NPC Faction Cartomancy</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"51-52"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">51-52</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rules for using playing cards to build various types of NPC factions\u2014whether nations, guilds, etc.. Describes how to lay out the cards and what different types of cards mean in context. Elegant and fast. Includes examples."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rules for using playing cards to build various types of NPC factions—whether nations, guilds, etc.. Describes how to lay out the cards and what different types of cards mean in context. Elegant and fast. Includes examples.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"People"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">People</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"53-57"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">53-57</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"d100 tables for generating NPCs to be found at a market quickly. Includes name, business at the bazzar, and a secret for each."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">d100 tables for generating NPCs to be found at a market quickly. Includes name, business at the bazzar, and a secret for each.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Three Robbable NPCs"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Three Robbable NPCs</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"58-60"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">58-60</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Descriptive text of three rich/robbable NPCs, what they have, and how they hide/guard it. Each scenario could lead to muliple sessions of play."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Descriptive text of three rich/robbable NPCs, what they have, and how they hide/guard it. Each scenario could lead to muliple sessions of play.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The Hunted\u2014A Gonzo Racial Class for OSR Games"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Hunted—A Gonzo Racial Class for OSR Games</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"61-64"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">61-64</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Instructions for building a racial class of forrest-dwelling giants for your OSR system of choice. Includes descriptive text of their culture, rules for their special abilities, and how to generate the class regardless of your system."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Instructions for building a racial class of forrest-dwelling giants for your OSR system of choice. Includes descriptive text of their culture, rules for their special abilities, and how to generate the class regardless of your system.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rats!"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rats!</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,1]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"65"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">65</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A picture of a party lowering one of their own on a rope into a well, while giant rats at the bottom scramble for his delicious flesh."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A picture of a party lowering one of their own on a rope into a well, while giant rats at the bottom scramble for his delicious flesh.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div>
More information and references for other PDFs is / will be available in this spreadsheet.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11nXs4Tv-XkKC2RD8Y3f5g4MQnnTclm7bzXZ2s7hPiGo/edit?usp=sharing</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-75982086450880790632015-02-25T22:01:00.000-08:002015-03-09T10:14:27.056-07:00Summon AntsThis is a first-level MU spell for my Amazon Rivercrawl game.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKHIDfzrJ1M4_pf1iH3boOmCWPzKwrf8y1NxvjFdLH0EZJn5sG0zRKq__9DByqQolACmNVx0ie9pmr3Lrt_W3mYTGPbS46moR7BSTxJ6qffo1PduDX9yS_K94zaL5IaeYY76DVbwObu8o/s1600/800px-Army_ants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKHIDfzrJ1M4_pf1iH3boOmCWPzKwrf8y1NxvjFdLH0EZJn5sG0zRKq__9DByqQolACmNVx0ie9pmr3Lrt_W3mYTGPbS46moR7BSTxJ6qffo1PduDX9yS_K94zaL5IaeYY76DVbwObu8o/s1600/800px-Army_ants.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Caster summons a swarm of ants whose HD is equal to the MU’s level. Nearby ants gather through the forest to come to the Caster’s magical pheromones. The swarm lasts as long as the caster is concentrating, and the caster can direct them to various foes. The swarm has one attack, the largest on <a href="http://spectology.blogspot.com/2015/02/someone-asked-me-about-how-to-create.html">this table</a> for its HD.<br />
<br />
Once the caster’s concentration is broken (by attacking, being successfully attacked, casting another spell, or pretty much doing anything that isn’t walking slowly), the swarm will lose one HD per round until it has dissipated, and it will fully dissipate if its current foe falls. To attack the swarm, the foe must make a grapple attack vs. the swarm’s HD. If it succeeds, the ant swarm loses 1HD regardless of the caster’s concentration.<br />
<br />
While swarmed, a foe is at -2 to hit anything that is not the swarm itself.<br />
<br />
When casting, the player roles 1d4 on the following chart to see what kind of ants respond.<br />
<ol>
<li>Fire ant. On successful attack, the foe saves vs. poison. On success, half damage is done. On failure, full damage is taken. If an attack does 6pts or more of damage, then save vs. paralyze or be paralyzed for d6 rounds in pain.</li>
<li>Leafcutter ant. On successful attack, no damage is taken. Instead, leafcutters attack the skin and clothes of the foe. -1AC for each successful attack.</li>
<li>Weaver ant. On successful attack, no damage is taken. Instead, the foe must save vs. paralyze or be stuck (-4 to attacks, AC, and can't move) for d4 rounds (cumulative) in the ants’ sticky gauze. </li>
<li>Army ant. On successful attack, ants do full damage. </li>
</ol>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-51463771939715455502015-02-23T10:06:00.000-08:002015-02-26T16:27:14.562-08:00Xena's Grasping MawWhen read or researched, this spell appears to be the following first-level spell:<br />
<blockquote>
A five-gallon hollow floating sphere of energy appears. This sphere can be moved by the will of the Magic User at her running speed, and exists for the MU’s level x 10 minutes. (So a level six MU can conjure the sphere for an hour.) <br />
<br />
This sphere has “jaws” as it were: the Magic User can will a variable semi-circle opening to appear or disappear either on the top of bottom of the sphere. This opening can be used to fill the sphere with items or liquid, and can also be used to grasp large items. Their closing will not crush anything, but will hold up to 200lb objects tightly enough to pick them up and move them. When closed completely the sphere is air- and water-proof.<br />
<br />
Xena was not the magic user who originally crafted this spell, but rather his cat whose ability to grasp items in her mouth was the inspiration for his research.</blockquote>
When the spell is memorized for the first time, everything seems good until the Magic User decides to cast the spell. They will find that they rather prefer having the spell memorized for later than using it now, and won’t cast it.<br />
<br />
To the character, the desire to keep the spell memorized “for later” will be stronger than any want, need, or coercion to cast it.<br />
<br />
Story-wise, the spell is a sentient memetic virus of sorts, one that once memorized cannot be unmemorized because its desire to live (aka, stay memorized) is too strong.<br />
<br />
Mechanically, the player just lost a first-level spell slot. If they memorize it again, they will lose that one too. Each spell is independently willful.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
There is a plus side to this, however. Unbeknown to anyone living (except maybe one of the players’ antagonists), the spell’s will is so strong that even a changeling, once it has changed into a magic-user who has this spell memorize, will find itself itself unable to change again. The changeling will effectively become the magic user, and the two of them won’t even be able to tell each other apart.<br />
<br />
What any person decides to do in such a situation depends on how fully they’ve given themselves into their magical studies and desire for power. I’ve <a href="http://spectology.tumblr.com/post/106969521668/the-clone-big-baddy" target="_blank">written up one option</a>, I’m sure you and your players can think of more.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-52707945145916369962015-02-19T09:38:00.000-08:002015-03-23T18:17:02.425-07:00Someone asked me how to create monsters in LotFP, this is what I answered.First off, if what you have is the “rules and magic” book then it’s not really useful for GM-focused rules. For instance, no where does it tell you how to generate creatures. It’s pretty simple: You assign Hit Dice and AC to the creature more or less based on size and agility, then to-hit bonus, attack strength, and HP are derived from the HD. Here is a handy-dandy table that is in the Referee book (which is no longer available but should be again soon):<br />
<br />
<table>
<tbody>
<tr> <th>Weight</th> <th>HD</th> <th>Attack 1</th> <th>Attack 2</th> <th>HP</th> <th>To-hit</th> </tr>
<tr> <td><100</td> <td>1/2</td> <td>d4</td> <td>d2</td> <td>1d4</td> <td>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>100</td> <td>1</td> <td>d6</td> <td>d3</td> <td>1d8</td> <td>+1</td></tr>
<tr><td>250</td> <td>2</td> <td>d8</td> <td>d4</td> <td>2d8</td> <td>+2</td></tr>
<tr><td>500</td> <td>4</td> <td>d10</td> <td>d6</td> <td>4d8</td> <td>+4</td></tr>
<tr><td>1000</td> <td>6</td> <td>d12</td> <td>d8</td> <td>6d8</td> <td>+6</td></tr>
<tr><td>2000</td> <td>8</td> <td>d12+d4</td> <td>d10</td> <td>8d8</td> <td>+8</td></tr>
<tr><td>5000</td> <td>10</td> <td>d20</td> <td>d12</td> <td>10d8</td> <td>+10</td></tr>
<tr><td>10,000</td> <td>12</td> <td>2d10</td> <td>d12+d4</td> <td>12d8</td> <td>+12</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Don’t assign an AC over 18, and don’t assign AC based on how tough the creature is: that’s what HP is for in creatures. So a monkey might be a one-hit kill but be really hard to hit because it’s so nimble, while a rhino only has an AC of 12 so you hit it almost every time, but boy that fucker can take the hits no problem.<br />
<br />
For 99% of NPCs, they should just be 0-level fighters with 10’s across the board in terms of ability scores. Even like common soldiers are 0-level: it’s only exceptional people who have any levels in anything at all.<br />
<br />
For particularly memorable NPCs, you might give them a +1 ability bonus somewhere. For super-duper awesome NPCs, you can give them up to +3 bonus points (so like an 18 INT, or 12s in CON, STR, and CHA, up to you). If you want to give more bonus points, you have to give some negatives as well. And feel free to give them abilities that “break” the rules, NPCs don’t have to work exactly that PCs, particularly if they have access to magic.<br />
<br />
But what about magical creatures? The general rule of thumb with LotFP is that magical creatures are rare and dangerous. Any magical creature should be an adventure in itself, not just some mook in a dungeon. Like, a good monster isn’t a tactical mini-wargame, it’s a puzzle: and the prize for figuring out the puzzle is not having to play the tactical mini-wargame, because that unit in the tactical mini-wargame is wicked OP and unfair. And that puzzle can take an entire session and involve all sorts of crazy shit if done well.<br />
<br />
So while the rulebooks don’t have a lot of guidance here, what does are the LotFP adventures. I’d recommend picking up <a href="http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/116452/Better-Than-Any-Man" target="_blank">Better Than Any Man</a>—it’s free, and probably the second-best adventure I’ve ever read (after Vornheim). It’s huge, <a href="http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2014/08/so-youre-running-better-than-any-man.html" target="_blank">as this guy attests</a> he got a dozen sessions out of it. I ran a 12+ hour marathon with it, and we only started getting into the shit towards the end. Just reading it will make you a better GM.<br />
<br />
Then there are the OSR blogs. I read a bunch of these. My favorites are:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://rolesrules.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://rolesrules.blogspot.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thealexandrian.net/" target="_blank">http://thealexandrian.net/</a></li>
<li><a href="https://lurkerablog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">https://lurkerablog.wordpress.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.rolang.com/" target="_blank">http://www.rolang.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://recedingrules.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://recedingrules.blogspot.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jrients.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://jrients.blogspot.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://grognardia.blogspot.com/</a></li>
</ul>
In some vague order based on awesomeness vs. how often the post.<br />
<br />
Check out False Machine and Monsters and Manuals, both have recently published adventures that are really great and have some awesome monsters in them.<br />
<br />
Also, most the blogs are really good at tagging their posts, so find the like “monsters” or “encounters” or “rules” tag and follow the rabbit hole.<br />
<br />
So in conclusion: (1) Dangerous is good. (2) Weird is better. (3) Follow things to their logical conclusions. (4) Don’t pull punches. (5) The rules are easy. (5a) Don’t mistake following the rules for playing the game.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-91880483405299913322015-01-06T12:49:00.000-08:002015-02-26T16:19:05.462-08:00Lord Skullcleave RavenshadowLord Skullcleave Ravenshadow’s skeletal nightmare jaunted saunterly over the mooring meadows. The air vibrated with cleanliness, and with each step that his morose steed misgave, he felt his lungs empty of the sulfur from his home. It was a startling feeling of freshness, a lifting weight he’d not known was there before.<br />
<br />
His orcish entourage—Febrar; Maker of Mincemeat, Grinchwin the Basher, and Dolt—fanned out behind him. Ever alert, their ceremonial gauntlet spikes shone like the black diamonds they were, embrued with the souls of the orcs who had served faithfully the Ravenshadows since time immemorial.<br />
<br />
Suddenly, Lord Skullcleave’s lingam clutched inside his onyx codpiece. Danger was near. There was a bustle in the hedgerow beside him. A pale white fleshman tumbled from his hiding place. These, who had been but hairless apes when the Ravenshadows had build their glorious crystal castles ‘neath the sulfur puts, had taken over the countryside with their squat stone dwellingplaces in recent millenia.<br />
<br />
Lord Skullcleave thought back to his tutelage under master Crackwhip so many centuries ago, and brought to his lips what little monkeytongue he remembered from his lessons.<br />
<br />
"Fart nary, wee meatcreature. Though brazen am bashful, and wish you no mincery." His words froze the very air they touched, and had the opposite effect as what he’d wanted on the little creature. It began to whimper and release liquids from various orifices. For a moment he felt pathos for the small monkeything quivering below his exsanguinous mount. Then Grinchwin’s overzealous warhammer came down, and its suffering ceased.<br />
<br />
Amends would have to be made. He would personally see a retinue under the black flags of peace, carrying the body of the fallen victim on the ends of pikes, as befit one who died a warrior’s death. He would make Grinchwin set torch to the stonedwellings in penitence for his brash bashing, and once the village was razed would erect the finest black towers from molten minemetal for the squalid meatcreatures to occupy as an offering of peace, that they might better their lot in life.<br />
<br />
Surely they would be thankful. He wouldn’t want to be a bad neighbor.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-31645513707595504322015-01-02T11:51:00.000-08:002015-02-26T16:20:22.288-08:00The Clone Big BaddyThis is re-purposed from a <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2bk1uc/dd_i_want_to_make_a_bbeg_based_around_the_powers/" target="_blank">reddit comment</a>.<br />
<blockquote>
I want to make a BBEG based around the powers of the X-Men character Multiple Man, need a little help on the execution… </blockquote>
<blockquote>
I was just thinking it would be interesting if, when finally able to confront the BBEG of the campaign, instead of just the party vs. one big powerful boss, he splits and the clones work together or have some type of synergy between them. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
I guess I was just wondering if anyone knows of a Monster that can already do this, or things I could use to make the clones seem unnaturally able to work together (hive mind style)?</blockquote>
One way I can think to hack this is to use changelings.<br />
<br />
Changelings are chaotic creatures that take on the form of other nearby beings. Their goal is usually to cause mischief, insomuch as they have human-understandable goals. The way they work is that when no one is looking, a changeling can change appearances to be similar to anyone within their line of sight. They don’t just change outward appearance—they actually change into the person they’re mimicking, so their thoughts, memories, manerisms, memorized spells, etc., are all 100% the same. The only differences are that 1) detect magic/evil works on them and 2) where their heart should be, they have a solid black gemstone instead.<br />
<br />
Changelings are the kind of creature that are as much trap as monster, and whole sessions can be taken up by the political, personal, and physical chaos that ensues when a few changelings are thrown into any regular situation. The intro adventure included with Lamentations of the Flame Princess is pretty much exactly that. The players don’t know who are who, everyone is freaked out by the fact that all of a sudden there’s two of some guy, both of whom are exactly the same and can’t be told apart. Imagine if you had a perfect double of someone just <em>appear</em> some day. Fucked, innit?<br />
<hr />
Enough introduction, <strong>here’s the idea for the big baddy</strong>:<br />
<br />
The way it started, the big baddy was originally but a simple wizard who’d memorized a specific spell that works as a kind of memetic virus, such that anyone who has it memorized is compelled to keep it memorized. Lost the spell slot, kind of a bummer. But he alone has discovered something else about this spell. When a changeling changes into a person who has this spell memorized, they find it impossible to change again. In essence, the desire to keep that spell memorized is stronger than their desire to wreak havoc, so they essentially become that person.<br />
<br />
The first time this happened, it was by accident, and he freaked out about having a changeling clone. However, being a (soon to be) big baddy and smarter than your average bear, he and the clone eventually realized that in being the same person, they could trust each other implicitly as long as they always took the attitude that they were indeed the same person. They always knew what the other one was thinking or would think given a situation, because that’s what <em>they’d </em>think.<br />
<br />
Once they agreed, they began searching out other changelings at great cost, and forcing a change by putting the changing and the big baddy in the same room until they changed into him, and then bam, he had another him running around. They discovered that any clone could make another clone of the clone and the same would happen. A changeling truly becomes the person they are mimicking.<br />
<br />
So through this process, the baddy slowly became an actually <strong>big</strong> baddy. He and the other changeclones work in perfect harmony towards the same goals, always perfectly trusting each other because they are the same person. If one dies, that’s too bad, but they’re all the same so as long as it’s for the greater good of the cohort, even the one dying is usually happy with it. They’ll even lay down their life for the greater good of the hive if they need to.<br />
<br />
<hr />
So, <strong>how do you play this</strong>? I’d recommend a few things.<br />
<ol>
<li>Have an adventure that is completely focused on changelings at some point. Get your hands on the Lamentations of the Flame Princess one if you can, at least to read about them in-depth. This shouldn’t in any obvious way be about the big baddy, it should seem like a stand-alone adventure, but it will introduce the players to most the key concepts.</li>
<br />
<li>The mimetic virus spell should also come up at some point. Maybe the wizard accidentally memorizes it as part of a trap (and thus loses a spell slot). Maybe it’s just mentioned as lore. Again, it shouldn’t be directly tied to the big baddy in any way—this is giving your players enough info to later figure things out without spoon-feeding it.</li>
<br />
<li>Have the players meet up and fight a single wizard at some point. Make it a fight that’s hard for them, but that they should with some cunning win. Once they have, they’ll think they’ve won against a pretty big baddie. Then once they see him again later, or hear that his trade is still booming or plans are still percolating or whatever, only then will they know that something else is up. Maybe they’ll think it’s a resurrect spell, who knows. Make sure to let them think what they will.<br /><br />The easiest way to do this, I think is to someone involve the players in the changeling trade.<br /><br />How does the baddy find new changelings? Is there a cottage industry built up around this? Can the party use that to sniff him out potentially, or find some of his non-clone lieutenants to learn information about him. Does he even use non-clones in his plans any more? <br /><br />This is what I personally would use to give the players a chance to figure out what’s going on, but only through really good research on their part. In addition, make sure the baddie changes his plans based on what the players learn. If they gain info from a human lieutenant, maybe that’s when the baddie stops using non-clones. That kind of thing.<br /></li>
<li>You’ll have to figure out some of the details. Are the changeclones telepathically linked? I’d play it that it seems that way, but in reality they just always know what they would do, so they know what their clone is going to do. But, that doesn’t mean that they know where they are or what they are doing.<br /></li>
<li>Is the original wizard still around pulling the strings, or did he die at some point and now it’s all changeclones acting as him? Does that even matter? If the original wizard dies, what happens to the changeclones? I’d play it as it doesn’t even matter, and even they don’t know who is who. Maybe even that once they did know, the original would willingly kill himself off for the good of the hive.<br />
<br />Finally, this is what special power he has, but what is his final goal? To rule the kingdoms? To make money? To make everyone a subject to his clone army? In other words, this power is what makes him big, so what makes him a baddy? Or is he simply someone who crossed the players at some point, so they’re going to crush him regardless of whether he’s really that bad or not.</li>
<br />
<li>The then big fight. This should be pretty epic—tonnes of wizard clones all fighting the party. One interesting thing is that they might be at a weaker level than the party without the party realizing it. So any individual baddie is only level 3 or so, but their acting together is what makes them <em>big</em>. They also don’t have to have resurrect spells, healing spells, etc, that the party might think that he does have from previous fight where they thought they killed him, then he came back later. Will make for a slightly more fair fight too.<br />
<br />Then you throw a bunch of them at the party and see it go. A few notes on tactics: any individual baddy will gladly lay down its own life, but only if it (and thus all of them) thinks it’s for the greater good. This probably means they’ll come in waves, not all at once, in order to minimize damage to the hive. That is, they’d rather 4 die outright than 25 get injured. The goal is always that the hive continue and achieve it’s goals, not that any individual baddy does.<br />
<br />If they’re telepathic, then all the clones should have the same spells memorized. If not, then they can all have different spells. Even if they’re not telepathic, they should work with more coordination than most enemies, because they know how the others will think.</li>
<br />
<li>What does winning look like? Sewing dissent? Breaking the changeclones free, turning them back into changelings by tricking them into using (thus un-memorizing) the virus spell? Does killing the original big baddy to release the other clones, or does that not do anything anyway? Is he even still alive? Does it even matter? If a few changelings change into someone who also has the spell memorized, will that get the other clones not to trust each other? Is there any other way to do that?<br /><br />If one of the party, or someone else, did memorize the mimetic virus spell, then can the changelings change into them? Maybe even against their (human) will? Does the big baddy know this is a possibility, or is it an unknown weakness? A potential reward for a wizard who is down one spell slot for session after session, or for players who figure out the background details of <em>how</em> the baddie is managing all this. Just don’t spoon-feed it to them.<br />Ideally there is a better way to win than just “the party fights them all and beats them all”. I’ll bet your party will come up with a few you and I never will together once they learn all the facts, so listen to them.</li>
<br />
<li>And don’t let them forget that the gemstone at the heart of a changeling is worth beaucoup bucks. Wouldn’t want to deprive them of the scene where they’ve covered themselves and the baddy’s lair in inches of blood while hacking through the check of each captured baddy, looking for the gem.</li>
</ol>
<em>Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.</em>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-50087899154820736412014-07-24T03:21:00.000-07:002015-03-08T14:11:17.003-07:00Bureau DwarvesOriginally published in <a href="http://metalvsskin.blogspot.com/2014/01/secret-santicore-2013-pdf-volume-1.html" target="_blank">Secret Santicore 2013, vol. 1</a>.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Lore</span></strong><br />
<br />
A dwarf without work is a sorry dwarf indeed. Miners must break rock, architects must build great halls, and kings must fill them with revelry. A dwarf finds meaning in having a task and performing it well, and it content to work hard and then take his meal and mead along with his brethren in the great hall.<br />
<br />
But some deviants do not find satisfaction in the daily grind. For them, work is painful and tiring rather than joyful, and the din of their dim-witted colleagues unbearable. It is these dwarves who, through training or accident, learn that the average dwarf is easily influenced—one must simply give him a task to perform.<br />
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Bureau are thus these disenlightened spirits who have seen that there is no meaning in the world. In doing so, they can often see bigger picture goals than other dwarves can, and this combined with their ability to corral many dwarves towards a single project makes them dangerous.<br />
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—<br />
<br />
Bureau are regular dwarves who do not find meaning in work, but can thus rise above it and assign work to others. They are the taskmasters, project managers, administrators, and bureaucrats of the dwarven world. They are extreme nihilists who attempt to fill the hole left by their lack of purpose through influencing and crafting purpose for others.<br />
<br />
Bureau often have neither hair nor beards. Some argue this is because a beard represents the dwarven spirit, which the bureau have lost. Others will counter that many bureau purposely shave, to which the former answer, “exactly!”<br />
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When in the presence of a bureau, most common dwarves feel supremely uncomfortable, and even after having been given (and while executing) direct commands, will insist that it is their own idea. As such, bureau’s influence is often under-estimated by all those around them.<br />
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Bureau prefer not to deal with most common dwarves, and instead have their tasks relayed by intermediaries. These are common dwarves too stupid to serve well at performing tasks, and who instead must be made to feel important as they run about, bossing other dwarves around.<br />
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Bureau are quite rare, and offer much respect to one another. Even while rallying entire dwarven tribes to war against each other in their nihilistic games, two opposed bureau can chat calmly over a cup of tea.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Mechanics</span></strong><br />
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Mechanically, a bureau is a dwarf who, in lieu of all dwarven racial traits except dark vision, has several spell-like abilities (called “social moves”) at their disposal. Bureau gain levels and saving throws as a dwarf, but gain social move slots as a cleric. What this means exactly depends on the system, but generally a bureau should not have dwarven constitution, fighting, or skill modifiers. A bureau requires a positive Charisma modifier (+1 or above), and uses Charisma as its primary stat.<br />
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Unless otherwise noted, social moves do not require typical charisma or loyalty checks. Indeed, the whole point of the bureau is to have a class that does not require loyalty in order to get its way. Most social moves can be attempted also through role-play or charisma checks (depending on the system, group, and/or context), in which case they do not take a move but also have a chance of failure.<br />
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There is a single exception to the efficacy of social moves: they do not work on PCs, and must be roleplayed. They do work on hirelings, henchmen, and other PC-friendly NPCs, and played right they will work on the players as well.<br />
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A bureau must meditate after a good sleep in order to clear her social move slots. The form this mediation takes is up to the player—some exercise, some practice mindfulness, some play solitaire games. Some may even pray to the Gods they don’t believe listen.<br />
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There are no 0-level bureau; before they gain levels, they are but dwarves like any others.<br />
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Whether a player can play a bureau is up to the DM, although it is this author’s suggestion that the specifics of the player class be hammered out by the DM and her player ahead of time.<br />
<br />
The bureau is a combined race+class, as per Basic and its clones. Making it compatible with other races or classes is left as an exercise for the reader.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Social Moves</span></strong><br />
<br />
Below is a sampling of bureau-specific social moves, followed by a list of cleric and magic-user spells that can easily be used as social moves. Original social moves are usually more powerful, but also more specific, than spells of the same level—this is by design.<br />
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Social moves are NOT magic. They reflect the charisma, social capital, and systematic authority of the bureau. This holds true also for spells used as social moves. A bureau cannot read magic nor use scrolls.<br />
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The creation of other social moves is left as an exercise for the reader. Hopefully between this list and the “works cited” below, I’ve given you enough inspiration.<br />
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—<br />
<br />
Quell Crowd – 1st Level <br />
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With a powerful voice and well timed gesture, you can get a group of people to stop being agitated and look at / listen to you for several seconds. Useful for settling a crowd, stopping a riot, starting a speech, distracting a group, etc.. This can also be used to stop a single person dead in his tracks, regardless of what he’s doing. While they are only influenced by the move for several seconds, the caster may attempt to keep their attention through other means (which may be conventional or other social moves).<br />
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The size of the crowd that this will work on is a function of the bureau’s level using the equation 3^level. So 3 at level 1, 9 at level 2, 726 at level 6, etc. If there are more people in the crowd, then only the closest number will be under the effects of the move—but again, a talented bureau can use this to their benefit regardless.<br />
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<br />
<br />
Give Task – 1st Level<br />
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A bureau can give a task to any dwarf in her own clan, bureaucratic unit, or other appropriate social hierarchy which that dwarf will perform, regardless of his opinions on the bureau and the task. The complexity of this task is limited by the bureau’s level. A level 1 bureau can only force a dwarf to work at the taks for 1 day, and at each level that number doubles (2 days at level 2, 4 days at level 3, etc). The dwarf will try his hardest to complete the task while under the effects of the move, but if it is not completed within the allotted time, the dwarf makes a loyalty check, and if it fails he no longer has to attempt it. This loyalty check recurs each time the length of the move has passed (so for a 2nd level bureau, the dwarf makes a loyalty check at the end of every 2 days).<br />
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Notice that this works only on dwarves, and only on those who recognize the bureau as an authority of some sort (although it does not require that they respect that authority).<br />
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<br />
<br />
Public Oration – 2nd Level<br />
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Get a group of people to listen to you and agree with what you’re saying. The effect will last as long as they’re all together (and longer if they’re predisposed to the message). The size of the group upon which this works is the same as Quell Crowd. Useful for getting information across, influencing societies, marking arguments in front of courts or parliaments etc.. Can also be used to start a riot, although this will be an uncontrolled one whose purpose will be wanton destruction.<br />
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<br />
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Stonewall – 2nd Level<br />
<br />
Anyone asking questions or trying to get their way with the bureau is pushed off politely, gently, but firmly. They will think that they have gotten their goals achieved, and it will only be on later close reflection that they will realize that they have not. This can be attempted on other bureau, but will only work on those of a lower level (and they will be aware that it is working, although will be powerless to stop it).<br />
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<br />
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Bind Henchman – 3rd Level<br />
<br />
Upon the leveling up of a henchman, the bureau can choose to bind that henchman to his will. The henchman now has the highest loyalty to the bureau as set by the rules of the system, and can cast one 1st-level social move per day (at his own level), as long as it is done in service of his master. Upon each level the henchman takes, he can cast one more spell per a day (but can never cast spells higher than level one).<br />
<br />
Casting this spell permanently uses up one third-level spell slot. The only way to free this spell slot is to unbind the henchman. The henchman will be unbound only if he dies by the hand of the bureau who has bound him—his dying in pursuit of his master’s goals (or of old age, etc) will not free up the slot.<br />
<br />
Upon the death of their master, a bound henchman will go mad.<br />
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<br />
<br />
Public Influence – 3rd Level<br />
<br />
Get a group of people to listen to you, agree with you, and act on your suggestions. Useful for causing a controlled protest, swinging a vote your way, getting unpopular work completed, etc..<br />
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<br />
<br />
Turn to bureau – 4th Level<br />
<br />
After much discussion, cajoling, and psychological damage, a dwarf loses half his/her XP but becomes a bureau of the appropriate level (a zero-level dwarf becomes a first level bureau at 0 XP). This will require a number of hours of discussion equal to the dwarf’s level multiplied by 10 (so 20 hours for a second-level dwarf), but these may be spread out over time. As long as the dwarf listens (whether willingly or under duress) for the right amount of time, he will be turned.<br />
<br />
As long as the process of turning is underway, one 4th level spell slot is taken up by the process. The bureau can chose to regain this slot by normal meditation, but in that case all progress towards turning is lost and the process must start anew.<br />
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If a bound henchman is turned, he becomes a bureau and can make all social moves as a bureau except “bind henchman”. He remains bound in all other ways. Upon the death of their master, a bound bureau is set free (although often chooses to continue their master’s plans).<br />
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<br />
—<br />
<br />
In addition, all the following magic-user and cleric spells can be performed as social moves by a bureau. In some noted cases, the social move has a different level than its equivalent spell. All of the spells saves and restrictions do apply. However, these are not magic when used by bureau, and all saves must be vs. paralyze or charisma checks.<br />
<br />
All spells were taken from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but other sources should work fine.<br />
<br />
<br />
Charm Person – 1st level magic-user spell <br />
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Command – 1st level cleric spell <br />
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Confusion – 4th level magic-user spell (3rd level bureau social move)<br />
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Detect Lie – 4th level cleric spell (2nd level bureau social move)<br />
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ESP – 2nd level magic-user spell (5th level bureau social move)<br />
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Forget – 2nd level magic-user spell (5th level bureau social move)<br />
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Power Word Stun – 7th level magic-user spell<br />
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Remove fear – 1st level cleric spell (social move only removes non-magical fear)<br />
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Suggestion – 3rd level magic-user spell (1st level bureau social move)<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Further Inspiration</span></strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duergar_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duergar_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)</a><br />
Evil, psionic-using dwarves.<br />
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<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derro_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derro_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)</a><br />
Evil dwarves who influenced the bureaucratic machinations of Nazi Germany.<br />
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<br />
<a href="http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/" target="_blank">http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/</a><br />
Particularly Parts I and VI. Bureau are the “sociopath” layer of Dwarven society.<br />
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<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire" target="_blank">A Song of Ice and Fire</a> (books) / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones" target="_blank">Game of Thrones</a> (TV show)<br />
Varys is a prime example of a bureau dwarf.<br />
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<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards_(U.S._TV_series)" target="_blank">House of Cards</a> (netflix series)<br />
Kevin Spacey’s character? Definitely a high level bureau. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards_(UK_TV_series)" target="_blank">The British version</a> of the show (also on netflix) gets bonus points for better portraying how a bureau hides his true nature from those around him. Stanhoe in the British version is definitely a bound henchman.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-24460989495172977312012-12-09T14:08:00.000-08:002015-02-26T16:24:44.776-08:00Leaps, bounds, and falls.<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Strong AI never shows up. It turns out it’s just too hard to code human-like cognition from scratch. By the same token, it’s nearly impossible to build any sort of mind uploading system due to the complexity of the system of nerves, impulses, chemicals, and abstract networks that form the human mind, nor does information uploading or “jacking in” ever work effectively.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Luckily, none of this matters. The human body can be augmented with machinery, and the human mind can augment machinery. Robotic armor is produced that works in a perfect feedback loop with muscle impulses to magnify human strength and constitution. High-bandwidth connections and user interface technology allow people to pilot unmanned robots (drones, spiders, trucks, subs, and more) in dangerous territories. People wear holographic glasses that provide an always-persistent heads-up display or any other visual overlay. Electrodes buried under the skin report data on orientation, time, or even alerts—these eventually become imperceptible as sensations as the mind correlates the data, leading to perfect senses of direction, duration, and even subvocal communication.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Masses of rat stem cells stimulated to become neurons are connected to small electrodes and let to form their own networks around them. They interpret the data fed to them, respond, and are conditioned. Mindgoo takes over the most menial and repetitive of tasks using its robot fingers.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Much of the menial yet skilled work is done from home, remotely, through large-screen visual displays and suits that sense movement and can give feedback. Workers communicate over audio link from miles away as they drive dump trucks, fly planes, and perform surgeries.</div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Augmentation becomes a way of life. Virtual and real are no longer seen as a dichotomy. Everything has a computer on board, everything is connected wirelessly. Mindgoo not only controls physical processes, but also abstract ones over the web. It mines financial data for patterns and organizes warehouse deliveries to be more efficient. People no longer tie their identities most closely to their bodies, but rather to the web of information that constantly surounds them. They can throw their awareness across the world or into abstract spaces.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Some countries clamp down on this, and new technofascist states pop up, using this connection to exert top-down control of their populace. Other areas completely decentralize, forming ad-hoc networks of information and resources. The technofascist states ruthlessly expand in order to secure resources, but the computing load placed on the network of mindgoo and augmented overlords who control the whole mess becomes too much as the network grows too complicated. It is not external democracy but internal technological limits that sends asunder the newest wave of totalitarianism as its networks fragment and violently collapse inwards against their most powerful nodes.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>As the human mind becomes more abstract and less aware of the physical world, its physical footprint doesn’t shrink. People are still just as large and made of meat. So are the cows that feed them. Computers are still constructed of silicon and gold. And oil and coal plants still power them while spewing carbon into the sky. Storms become worse and worse on the coasts. The weather inland varies between scorching hot in the summer to freezing cold in the winter. Food production stagnates as the weather makes farming less efficient by percentage points a year while the ocean slowly is drained of readily edible fish.</div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Space exploration continues mostly through robots, both classical and goo’d. Some genetically modified humans fly pilot swarms of ships, each sitting weightless in a central hub as they direct their eye’d tendrils to mine asteroids and dump resources to Earth orbit. The networks of drones, computers, and goo are each headed by one solitary human, her awareness spread throughout the system.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Energy, minerals, and metals are abundant, but food is a dwindling resource as the ecosystems on the Earth are overtaxed, malnourished, and wasted. Humanity has lost all pretense of thinking the physical world is somehow more real than any of the others it has created for itself. The Earth slowly chokes itself until a tipping point is reached where first food becomes expensive, then largely unavailable, then the electricity becomes scarce. Humanity is unaccustomed to living without its overlays and instant communication, and many people violently unplugged from the maelstrom go mad, unable to handle the banality of being but a single, fleshy human being. A runaway positive feedback loop then consumes the whole system as the humans it so depends on no longer have the resources and skills they need to be physically self-sufficient.</div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>It is the poorest countries which see the least change. In the deep Amazon, the last uncontacted tribe continues its business as it has for the past tens of millennia. Steppe hordes rain south on a China whose populace has grown weak and unfocused after the collapse of technofascism. African villages subsisting on farming find their cheap text devices no longer feed them information, and so they throw them away and do not think back. Meanwhile, the so-called self-sufficient distributed networks that were once the United States violently collapse as during one rolling brown-out just enough vital network nodes are brought offline than power stations loose their connections to their workers, Mindgoo looses its human interpreters, and soon 90% of the networks are without power and never coming back online, sending a shockwave through the developed world as it realizes that their delicate import-export economies are going to collapse themselves within a year.</div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>In the distributed Americas, uncoordinated mass suicides take place as connected abstract beings realize that they will forever be trapped in one single body and find it an existence worse than death. In France a coordinated mass suicide takes place as the country pulls its own network’s plug. Many people spend their last days enjoying their monuments, cathedrals, and countrysides before settling in for bed without the will to rise in the morning.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Five years later and the world has reverted to barbarism. Many are dead, there is no government beyond that of the strong and resourceful, and all but the most analog of technologies are beyond the understanding of most to fix or even use. Tribesmen view their days pre-collapse as a sort of dream state, a collection of disjointed images, sounds, and sensations from senses they no longer posses. Meaning can be gleaned from some memories, but not from others. Existence is no longer a shimmering haze of glitz and information, but just what surrounds them: a bleak landscape of tribal warfare over scant food, rarely potable water, and deteriorating technology. Another ten years and the weakest tribes are scattered and assimilated. The time before is referred to in sacred tones, its images and lessons framed by a religious worship of the omniscient beings that all men once were. The few networked, technological compounds designed to survive just such a mess do, but without the worldweb they are a faint echo of humanity’s former glory, living monuments to a time gone by.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>The asteroid miners survive on. Long used to radio relay communication and the black of space, they use their stored libraries and self-repairing fabricant shops to build more drones, ships, and germinated people. As the centuries drag on, they engineer their physical, formerly human component to be smaller and smaller, a jar of bone and fat to preserve a human brain. They build fusion engines and rockets. They grow and plug in multiple human components to each other, children to mothers, so that even as one dies another can take over. These immortal ship-beings work on a long time scale, and eventually in their move towards the ort cloud engineer out all their strictly human components, opting instead for the cool efficiency of goo. They engineer out their own consciousness to play the long game, building ecological systems out of themselves from the minerals they find at the edge of the solar system.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>On the Earth, the planet becomes more hostile to human inhabitants each decade as the feedback loops of weather system, permanently changed by humanity’s presence, fall into new equilibria. Over much of the globe tribes become smaller and disappear. The last technological enclaves fail after a collapse that has lasted longer than even the most pessimistic had bet on. The polynesian islands become the last retreat of a humanity which survives by brute force alone, moving from island to island while taking from the sea all they can. Their culture remembers little of humanity’s past, and the fallen wonders they sometimes come upon are explained as being artifacts from when the gods roamed the Earth.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-48623443507785518922012-09-07T01:55:00.000-07:002015-02-26T16:31:32.128-08:00Light of a Thousand Suns; or, By Sacrifice Will You Procreate!Link: <a href="http://www.backspac.es/r/tlSWd9EgLa">Light of a Thousand Suns; or, By Sacrifice Will You Procreate!</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.backspac.es/r/tlSWd9EgLa" target="_blank" title="Light of a Thousand Suns">A visual essay</a> composed using <a href="http://www.backspac.es/" target="_blank" title="Backspaces">Backspaces</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-32528750589509389102012-09-01T19:04:00.000-07:002015-02-26T16:29:29.623-08:00An Almost-Cube Made of 16 Smaller Metallic CubesAn almost-cube made of 16 smaller metallic cubes. These cubes display a omnidirectional magnetic-like attraction to each other. When pulled more than a foot apart they do not attract with any discernable force, but the closer they come the harder it is to pull them apart. When an organic object is placed between two attracting cubes it begins to warm steadily. The cubes cannot be melted, but the hotter they get the stronger the attractive force. They do not attract to regular metals, but may weakly interact with some metallic weird items.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6783747354044885408.post-39710277457901748162012-08-30T13:22:00.000-07:002015-02-26T16:26:35.898-08:00At the very center of the city is the water park.<div class="p1">
<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>At the very center of the city is the water park. For three acres trees explode in green leaves. Vines hang like clotheslines above, and underneath flow streams through the dark ground. In the center of the park is a lake deep enough to wade in where children go to play as young couples stretch out along its banks, shaded by the trees.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>They say that if you walk far enough away from the city, you can find a water park that is as big as the whole world. That pools so large you cannot see across them exist beyond where trees grow in the millions and water falls from the sky as does sand.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>When I was a child my gramp told me his childhood memory of when a storm, wet instead of dry, blotted out the sun. Thunderous and grey, it passed overhead instead of enveloping the city in its whirling mass, and then let forth a flurry of water hurling through the dark air over our orange walls, pounding against the beaten sandy paths, streaming through kitchens and roads and ruts, filling the city with its presence, soaking into the dry essence of where we live to mix and form gunk and froth and quags. Residents were forced inside, then upstairs, then to roofs, which then fell in and apart as the water ate away at them. Men plunged to their deaths, families were buried under gelatinous chunks of their home. Upon its passing, my grandfather ran up and down streets that had run away in huge gouges and ripples that now settled in their sinuous deformation. All day the city stank, and it took weeks and months to restore order and function. “Rain is hell,” his voice rasped. “Do not wish for rain.”</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But I do. I wish for cold aqueous sheets to clean my skin. I wish for my mouth to ever taste sweet and my throat never to parch. I wish for verdure and erosion and decay.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Soon I will leave the city and its sharp shade to venture under the sun parked permanently in apex. I will walk until even its oppressive force begins to wane, to where it sits off-kilter in the pale blue plane above us. I will arrive in the afternoon lands of forrest and creek. I do not know if my ancestors will be there to greet me as the bibahb preaches, as he also preaches that the only way to arrive in heaven is through death.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I cannot believe that.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01066409334411354268noreply@blogger.com0