Whoopin' With Orlanth Session 1

I've been planning an OpenQuest game set in Glorantha for a couple of weeks because of a confluence of events getting me interested in d% gaming again, including managing to get a copy of the new RuneQuest.*  I had a couple of ideas for what I'd want to run and had the players do a vote and this is what came out as the winner.

The premise is that the PCs are the young-adult children of members of a Sartarite clan ring.  Due to their family prominence, the ring uses the PCs as troubleshooters in hopes of grooming them to take over the clan one day.  They generated their clan a week ago using the system from HeroQuest Kingdom of Sartar (given to me by Jeremy Duncan, who should blog more).  That was probably a mistake because it was much longer than I expected and they seemed to get lost in a way that a shorter one I could've worked up of the questions from Dragon Pass + some stuff about the Lunars wouldn't have caused.  Live and learn.

Their clan is the Swan Song.  They have an affinity for all water foul (including the Durulz), a deep hatred of dragons, a less deep but still pretty deep hatred of the Telmori, and they think the Lunars should go home.  They are members of the Cinsina tribe.

The PCs are...

Amsi - A Vingan and daughter of the chief of the clan

Armind - A Stormbull known for his great strength and respected despite not having relatives on the ring

Henkel - A Trickster with the god-given power to make people vomit

Eirick the Chartreuse - An Odyalan hunter who desperately wants to impress his aloof "papa"

Sometime during Harmony Week of the Fire Season, a shaman named Ordag the Earless snuck into their clan's great hall, befuddled the ring members, and absconded with a sacred stone depicting the family history of one of the prominent families in the clan.  The ring kept this a secret from the rest of the clan, though people knew something was up because the chief and his family had been sleeping in the warriors hall.

Derek the Green, father of Eirick and member of the ring, had the party pretend to be assigned to the outer patrol and then meet him in the great hall.  It was Windsday of Deathweek, and on the previous day the ring sacrificed to Humakt using help from priests of the Malani clan to both keep at bay the angry ghosts of their ancestors and to divine the whereabouts of the sinister shaman.  Harvar the Striker, the chief of the clan, now informed the party that they must head about a days journey into the Telmori wilds to find where the shaman had taken the stone and then return it without alerting the village.

The party set off and after traveling through rocky hills they came to a belt of forest that lay between them and the open country before the Creek.  Heading into the forest, for it was there Ordag supposedly dwelt, they encountered a patrol of elves.  The elves initially acted with hostility, demanding the party "return their brothers," but after noticing the tattoos of an Odyalan hunter, they hesitantly asked for aid.  Unfortunately for the elves, the trickster had a different idea.  He forced the only one who could speak Heortling to vomit uncontrollably.  Seeing no other option, the rest of the party set on the elves and quickly slew them.  Henkel explained that "we already have our own problems, and it is best to not become involved in the problems of others."  However, he did not know how intertwined their problems were.

Thanks to the skillful navigation of Eirick, the party found the clearing in which the hovel of the shaman reportedly lay.  Around the clearing was a strangely "mechanical" patrol of four elves, who moved with strange symmetry and rotated sunwise around the center point of the clearing.  That center point was a large, dying tree with a hovel set at its base.  Henkel and Amsi were able to sneak by the elf patrol, and tried to investigate the hovel.  Unfortunately the dying light made it difficult to see.  Amsi, with few other choices, decided to make her way towards it, but her stumbling in the darkness caused Ordag to become aware of her present, and he quickly cast a spell that summoned one of the ancestor spirits whose deeds were described on the stone.

Seeing the apparition and realizing the jig was up, Armind set himself into a rage and set upon the nearest elf guard, breaking him into splinters in one blow.  Eirick supported Armind with bow shots, and Amsi was forced to rely on thunder-magic to face off against the ghost.  Amsi called on Orlanth's Lightning and blasted the spirit, who seemed affected by the battle magic.  While this use of magic aided the spirit in his attempt to possess her, the power of it dissipated the specter after a few short blasts.  Henkel now joined the fight against the elves, this time forcing one to vomit and causing it enough physical damage that it broke its spine (or rather its spine became crusted with cedar apple rust such that he could no longer move).  Eirick and Armind slew the remaining elves and then rushed upon Ordag and crushed his skull with a deadly blow.

Armind, still feeling the rage, then set about the trees with his maul, smashing them and screaming.  The rest of the party investigated the hovel, finding that the spirit-talker had somehow burnt a handprint into a part of the tree where he had removed the bark.  He also had the stone surrounded by rudimentary rushlights.  Armind had been wounded by the elves, so the party decided to rest at the hovel for the night and return with the stone the next day.

The next morning, Armind gave Ordag funeral rights - burning the body and placing the remaining... remains under a cairn.  While he was doing this a group of Red Cow warriors - better equipped and clearly of high station - came into the clearing and expressed shock at what they saw.  Apparently they had been attracted to the location by the magical thunder from the night before, and had also been hired by the elves to rescue their brethren from Ordag.  Henkel "explained" that all the damage had been done by the shaman, and that they could have the paralyzed elf to return to his kin.  They didn't seem to trust the word of a trickster, but it allowed them a socially convenient "out."  They left carrying the elf.

The party then struck camp and head back home.  They returned without further incident but before reaching the tula had to decide how to sneak in such a large stone without it being recognized and causing alarm.  Henkel cast mischief on it, turning it into rubber and causing it to make silly farting noises.  This new, frankly bizarre object was totally unrecognizable to the carls and cottars they passed.  It greatly disturbed the ring, but after seeking out Henkel's mentor and... father? Randan the Reckless, they were assured the measure was temporary.  Randan then utilized the farting aspect of the rubber stone to be a weirdo.

At that point we stopped.  The players said they enjoyed it and found the setting "weird, but in an interesting way."  They liked the OQ rules and advancement system so we'll keep using that for now.

However, later one of the players confided in me that the antics of the trickster bothered them a bit because it made it too hard to getting anything done.  They compared it to the problem of having the asshole who plays the overly lawful good paladin that makes it where you can't actually play D&D.  This made a certain sense to me so I plan on talking to the trickster's player and asking him to tone it down a bit or perhaps come up with another solution.

*I decided to stick with OQ because I vastly prefer its skill list and simplicity, though there are lots of things about the new RQ I like.  I may do a review of it in the near future.

Sinister Science Seeds

At the suggestion of Huth I have created a number of hooks for investigative/horror games based on 1950s sci fi and horror movies.

1950

• Reports of flying saucers in a remote area of the country attract government officials, but the intelligence behind the saucers may not be "otherworldly" at all (The Flying Saucer)
• A government investigation into piracy leads to an island dominated by life from another epoch (Two Lost Worlds)

1951

• Scientists observing a mysterious body passing through our solar system believe an intelligence from it has landed in a remote location on Earth.  This intelligence must be apprehended, and interrogated! (The Man from Planet X)
• Strange substances found in the South American jungle awaken alien parts of a white overseer's genome (Bride of the Gorilla)
• A group of arctic researchers and military personnel uncover a spaceship and the entity it contained (The Thing from Another World)
• A cosmic object is on a collision course with our solar system and threatens to wreck havoc.  Experts must work to prevent the disaster or to otherwise ensure the survival of humanity. (When Worlds Collide)

1952

• Strange extraterrestrial transmissions seem to be coming from intelligent life.  Is it a hoax or a genuine alien?  Either way it could throw the world order into chaos. (Red Planet Mars)
• One of a number of lost airman is recovered, raving about a strange civilization unknown to man. (Untamed Women)

1953

• Investigators attempting to stop an alien plot find their inquiries blocked by the police.  Could this be the result of mind control? (Invaders from Mars).
• Freed from its body, the brain of a sinister madman find it has new and terrible powers. (Donovan's Brain)
• Atomic testing awakens a creature not seen in millions of years.  The creature begins a rampage through mankind's greatest cities. (The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms)
• Investigators learn mankind may be the true threat when they must decide what to do with the discovery of a benign group of extraterrestrials. (It Came from Outer Space)
• Astronauts threaten the Earth after being mind-controlled by extraterrestrial entities discovered while on a mission. (Cat Women of the Moon)
• Investigators awake to find that they are the last survivors of humanity and that the automated engine of man's destruction is seeking them out. (The Robot Monster)
• An unintelligent but seemingly monstrous phenomenon baffles scientists and threatens lives as it seeks to engulf a town (The Magnetic Monster)

1954

• An expedition into the remote wilds of the Amazon discovers a monster whose biology is completely inimical to human science. (Creature from the Black Lagoon)
• The bottom of the ocean may hold more terrible creatures than the farthest stars, especially when they decide to attack those on land. (Monster from the Ocean Floor)
• A mad scientist uses advanced (perhaps extraterrestrial) technology to create towering robot monsters. (Gog)
• Scientific experiments create horrendous monsters out of normal earthly creatures. (Them!)
• Aliens secretly encourage human exploration into science in the hopes that the resulting monsters will wipe out mankind. (Killers from Space)

1955

• An alien intelligence extends its hive mind to the animals and then humans of a small, isolated town. (The Beast with A Million Eyes)
• A criminal organization uses a scientist to create technology to aid in their crimes - including immortal zombies. (Creature with the Atom Brain)
• An astronaut returns to Earth infected with an alien organism that threatens the whole of humanity. (The Quatermass Xperiment)
• An attempt to put an inhuman monster on display ends disastrously when the creature is freed and terrorize the area. (Revenge of the Creature)
• A think-tank of scientists and politicians turns out to be a front for an alien conspiracy. (This Island Earth).

1956

• A mad doctor creates mutilated horrors out of human test subjects in order to better understand the nature of the body and the mind. (The Black Sleep)
• A mad dictator uses super-science to engineer his people into the perfect subjects. (The Gamma People)
• An alien invasion replaces people with identical replicas. (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
• Explorers discover a subterranean civilization similar to a lost empire, but adapted to its fantastical surroundings. (The Mole People).
• Mysterious deaths in a mining community are the product of creatures awakened by nearby atomic testing. (Rodan)

1957

• An alien entity seeking to make contact with Earth comes from such an unearthly environment that its physical presence is poisonous to humans. (The Astounding She-Monster)
• Creatures created by atomic testing absorb the memories and intelligences of those they devour, allowing them to plan a world-wide empire. (Attack of the Crab Monsters).
• An alien renegade uses its powers to help it control humans in a remote town but is soon pursued by an alien of the same species that seeks justice. (The Brain from Planet Arous)
• A strange substance brought to Earth by a meteorite threatens to destroy a small town as it replicates incessantly. (The Monolith Monsters)
• A creature terrorizing an isolated village in a remote part of the world is actually a normal insect that was exposed do strange radiation when NASA shot it into space. (Monster from Green Hell)
• A group of seemingly-human like aliens attempt to take over the world with an advanced robot. (The Mysterians)
• An alien's mutilation of Earth creatures (including humans) is actually its attempt to find a cure for a terrible blood disease ravaging its home planet. (Not of this Earth)
• A man is turned into the living embodiment of a monster from folklore after conducting experiments on himself using animal blood. (The Vampire)

1958

• An organism deposited by a meteorite may hold the clues to early life on this planet, but the conditions now are such that the creature grows exponentially and becomes dangerous to humans. (The Blob)
• A sinister scientist uses advanced hypnotherapy to turn those seeking treatment into mindless slaves. (The Electronic Monster)
• A scientist's experiment turns him into a half-man half-monster and relegates his intelligence to a place incapable of dealing with his new form. (The Fly)
• An alien entity seeking to sabotage mankind's scientific advancement takes possession of human children. (The Space Children)
• A mysterious fog in a remote area is actually the portal to another world, and it unleashes a terrifying monster. (The Crawling Eye)
• Radiation gives a man strange powers that he turns towards crime and violence. (The H-Man)
• The strange behavior exhibited by a number of townsfolk may be evidence that they have been replaced by alien entities. (I Married a Monster from Outer Space)
• Experiments into ESP, telekinesis, and atomic radiation go awry, creating a thought-creature hungry for human brains. (Fiend Without a Face)

1959

• A scientists experiments on himself allow him to access other dimensions.  At first he uses this for self-advancement (and even criminal pursuits) but soon realizes it has a horrible toll on his body and mind. (4D Man)
• A sink hole in Florida reveals that ancient monsters aren't just found in far flung locations. (Attack of the Giant Leeches)
• Invaders from another planet seek to conquer Earth using their power to make items invisible to the human eye. (The Invisible Invaders)
• A doctor seeking to end world hunger accidentally makes a group of giant, ravenous shrews.  (The Killer Shrews)
• A scientist unlocks the secret to eternal life, but it requires him to take the brain tissue from living subjects. (The Man Who Could Cheat Death)
• Aliens take on the form of adolescent humans to hopefully catch human authorities with their pants down. (Teenagers from Outer Space)
• An attempt to arrest the aging process turns a woman into a hybrid insect creature. (The Wasp Woman)

Here's a bonus one from 1963, since Blue Oyster Cult wrongly thinks its from the '50s.

• A scientist's experiments with vision allow him to see things normally outside the human possibility space.  What he sees causes misery and madness. (X: The Man with X-ray Eyes)

Unfocused Thoughts on Karse

Normally I do these posts for something I haven't developed as much as I have Karse, which I've posted about a few times, but I want to nail down some of the bigger picture stuff and think about how I would actually run it.

The name, I should note, comes from taking Sark and Gygaxifying it.  After hearing it said "Cars" by a number of blog readers I play online games with, I added the E to make it clear it rhymes with arse.  Apparently there is a place in the Forgotten Realms called that, but I haven't thought of a better name yet.

• Karse is made up of a set of islands - a largish main island shaped like southern Britain, smaller islands that are like a split off version of Wales and Cornwall, and an archipelago like the Heberdies stuck at the top.
• The main island is home to a fair number of towns and one city - the capital of Nindle.
• The area between these towns is sparsely populated moors and marsh or the occasional greenwood. 
• These between-spaces are the haunts of giants (leftovers from the first race to live on the islands), fairies and elves (the second race), the undead, and vicious bandits.
• In a crater lake north of Nindle there sits an island.  On that island are the ruins of Llamalot, the capital of Rutha the Unconquered who united the peoples of Karse long ago.  This acts as a large dungeon/ruincrawl for those who like that sort of game.
• Travel between towns is fraught even in the day time.  Visibility is rough due to the almost ever present mist which is only occasionally banished by the Sun, whose glare then blinds the Karslish eye unused to its presence. 
• The most famous giant roams the remains of the road between Nindle and the ruins of Llamalot.  His name is Headless Jack.  Once he had two heads, but Brutus, the son (or maybe father?) of Rutha took off one of the heads and now he roams the countryside mourning the loss of it.  If you hear his cries come from across the moors you'll get the shits.
• The idea, in case it was not clear before now, is to create a kind of spooky/miserable setting based on British folklore, folk songs, Arthurian Myth, Celtic Mythology, and filtering that through the World of Nightwick as already established.
• Other monsters include fomorians, linworms, nuckalavees, and any number of other British or Irish bugaboos.
• Social class would play a big part in town - where the gulf between the nobles and the peasantry is vast - but very little part in the misty wastes between them.
• Brian Froud and Alan Lee are major visual influences but you kinda have to imagine them with meth mouth.  The over all effect, I hope, will be something like a mix of Excalibur, Jabberwocky, and Hammer Horror.
• I'm not sure if I would use some version of D&D for this (either OSD&D or 5e) or some WFRP derivative, given the tone.

Wounds and Criticals in WFRP

That goblin is feeling it.

I am what is know in horror movie circles as a gorehound.  During some theater-going experiences it has taken all my willpower to not throw up the horns and scream "Rad!" at the display of human viscera.  Spewing blood, glistening intestines, and swinging limbs - I like it all.*

Naturally this propensity has made it into my refereeing.  Nightwick's rooms are often blood-spattered abattoirs and enemies often fly apart like the clay and goo effects of Evil Dead.  In the early days of my DMing the PCs were just as likely as the monsters to be described as walmart bags full of blood and wet chicken parts.  This led to my having a reputation as a killer DM even more than I do now.

That was until what remains either my first or second favorite rpg: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (2nd edition).** In WFRP (1e and 2e anyway) instead of hit points you have Wounds (which are basically hit points but their name is taken from the wargame rules).  When a character runs out of Wounds, they do not die as they would in OSD&D, but instead they go to something like a OSR Death & Dismemberment table.  These are called critical hits.

It is a bit more detailed than a typical Death & Dismemberment table, with hit location mattering (though usually only for crits) and some optional tables differentiating results based on the type of weapon used.  This is maybe a bit much for many refs, but I found reading off the hideously detailed descriptions of evisceration very appealing.

Another difference between a WFRP critical and a Death & Dismemberment table result is that the character could very easily still be alive and capable of taking actions, though at a penalty.  A character who has had their knuckles jammed can push on if they feel brave enough, but may end up losing a leg or dying of gut rot.

This is an obvious inference from what I've already said, but I think it bears reinforcing: WFRP crits were not like D&D crits.  They did not happen on a special die result, they happened when you ran out of wounds.  They were a buffer between the character and death, but they were a buffer that allowed me to revel in spilled blood.  The characters no longer had to die to satiate my desire for gore; in fact, the means by which I got to describe the gore usually meant the PCs were alive longer.

For a lot of you this may be common knowledge - though I know from various G+ conversations that their role as a buffer is often lost on people. I bring all this up because of my disappointment with the modern inheritors of WFRP.  Zweihander has exchanged this beautiful system for one that is much more like the damage track in d6 star wars and having special wounds occur on special rolls.  This makes combat in that game more dangerous than it would be in old school WFRP.  A preview of Cubicle 7's upcoming edition, which I had been looking forward to, states that

"Critical hits are a staple of WFRP, and in Fourth Edition occur on especially successful blows, as indicated by the roll of a double. In addition to extra damage and special wounds, critical hits can inflict a variety of Conditions that change the way combat works for those who receive them."

To my mind, that misses a lot of what made the original system good, and when combined with the weird meta resource of "advantage" it looks like I'll be sticking to 2e for any adventures I want to have in the Old World.

*I suppose I am not one for scenes of torture, preferring instead the explosion of sudden violence.

**One of my players in my first WFRP campaign said that "[I had] been waiting for the system my whole life" in order to express his view that WFRP fit me like a glove.

5e Froglings

Froglings are frogs that walk and speak in the manner of men.  They are short, only about 4' in height on average, and range between thin and stout.  Froglings make their home in a distant, marshy country known as Hoppland; however, they are found throughout the World of Nightwick as brewers, merchants, and adventurers.  Their skin ranges between slick and bumpy, and is usually a dull green or brown - though more exotic colors and patterns are not unheard of.  They favor flamboyant clothing and jewelry in garish colors.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age. Froglings reach maturity by age 10 and live to be as old as 60.

Alignment.  Most Froglings are neutral, caring more about profit and hedonism than the fight between good and evil.  In worlds with the full nine point alignment they sometimes tend towards Law, because of their belief in personal honor, but often still seem capricious and madcap to the other races.

Wary. You have proficiency in the perception skill.

Size. Froglings grow between 3' and 4'.  Your size is considered small.

Speed. Your have a walk, climb, and swim speed of 25'.

Amphibious.  You may breath both air and water.

Resilience. You receive advantage on saving throws made against poison and disease.

Standing Leap. You may long jump 25 feet and high jump 15 feet from a standstill.

Water Dependency. If you are unable to immerse yourself in water for at least 1 hour a day, you suffer one level of exhaustion.  You may only recover from this exhaustion through magic or by being immersed in water.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Croakish. You may speak the language of Bullywugs.

Unfocused Thoughts on the Fyrdlands

For a bunch of reasons I don't want to get into I wrote a new setting that would allow me to hand someone the PHB and make a character without my telling them X or Y thing was off limits.  It started out as a C&C project but quickly became a 5e one for more reasons.

Anyway here's some stuff to know about it and to help me crystallize some of the ideas in my head.

• The Fyrdlands is a coldish border region north of the Realm of Man.  It was previously colonized by some humans who wanted to escape the Realm of Man but now the Realm has begun to push into the region itself.
• The area lies on the southern border of what was once the land of a powerful entity referred to primarily as the Prime Evil but also as the Dark Enemy and the Shadow.  He was destroyed long ago but many of his lieutenants and evil spawn remain.
• Some of the most famous of these surviving "lieutenants" are Elemental Evils, which some ancient texts believe only came about when the Prime Evil was destroyed.
• There may be other big-time lieutenants (Vecna maybe?) who have quasi-god like powers.
• There are also the races he created: Goblins (from Dwarves), Hobgoblins (from Elves), and Orcs (from Men).
• Some evil wizards have used the work the Prime Evil did to create their own monsters, such as the Dragonborn which may only be chromatic due to their being an evil experiment (though their personal alignment is up to them).
• Elves and Dwarves lived in peace for a time but warred because the Dwarves supposedly did not actively help in defeating the Prime Evil.  Both those races dwindled and it allowed for the servants of the old Enemy to return, filling the Fyrdlands with goblins and orcs again.
• Tieflings are the descendants of Men who chose to side with the Prime Evil.  They founded a strange culture known as the Nations of Night which flourished sometime before the birth of the Realm of Man and ruled the goblinoids of the Fyrdlands through governors.
• The Nations of Night collapsed for reasons unknown to Realmish folk.
• The original wave of Realmish settlers (actually fleeing the Realm) came a few hundred years ago.
• The PCs are assumed to have arrived in a Realmish settlement from the direction of the Realm.
• Some new evil is stirring in the wilderness in the area causing orcs and goblins to return and breathing out fresh horrors.
• The local town (which I think I need to rename) is ruled by a Marques (who also needs to be renamed).  He generally would like to control the old settlements as well.
• The chief religion is the Unconqured Sun who, in addition to having other divine aspects, allows for the worship of smaller gods.
• Many of the setting elements not present here will be stolen from the Jennell Jaquays penned Forgotten Realms supplement "The Savage Frontier," which is a book I think is phenomenal attached to a setting I basically hate.

That's probably enough for now, though this one might need multiple posts.

Unfocused Thoughts on the 5th Millennium

A Traveller thing I've been working on to fight the Blues.

• It's a homebrew Traveller setting that keeps as many of the assumed setting elements of Traveller as possible.
• I'm keeping the name "Imperium" but it is not set in the "Third Imperium."
• The overall political situation of the Imperium in the 5th Millenium is not unlike the Roman Empire during the Crisis of the Third Century.  The imperial throne is contested (and most people in the further provinces of the Imperium don't even know who the candidates are) and large swathes of territory are becoming de facto independent.
• There are also parallels to later Roman history - for example, Terra has been "sacked' by human and alien "barbarians," but since it is no longer the Throneworld its relevance is mostly psychological.
• Play will focus on the Zenobia sector, which lies close to (on?) the border with [Click] Space.  It is normally ruled by a Warduke, but due to the confusion about the emperors there are currently two Wardukes in the sector gearing up for war.
• I'll be using the aliens from the Directorate setting I made because I like them and don't really have a good sense of what the OTU aliens are like.
• The players will start in the only subsector I've developed so far, Palmyra.  Here's a map:

• The Palmyra subsector is at the heart of the dispute between the two Wardukes.  Warduke Ignatius Casso has built a powerful defensive line at the capital of Palmyra and the planets of Hannibal and Sinbad.  His rival's primary toehold in this subsector is Al-Mahdi
• In addition to the the looming presence of the [Click] (subbing in for Sassanids) and the two Wardukes threatening to war with each other, the region also holds a large number of ruins of an ancient alien empire. 
• The [Click] claim to be the successors to this empire, but archaeological records clearly show it was ruled by a different species.
• I'm using Mongoose Traveller (1st edition) because it's the one I have and I like it.
• I'm not sure I'll actually keep the time as the "5th Millennium" because it seems too distant from our time for a lot of the references in the planet names. 
• However, the far off date allows me to explain some of the clunky technology of Traveller.  Progress is a myth.
• One thing I want to establish very clearly is that there is no FTL communication.  If you want news from another planet you need to get it from a free trader who has been there recently.

That's more or less what I've got for now.