jeux de rôles

Worlds Without Number rpg – almost a review

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG, science fantasy

Edit 2024-04-09: I’ve refined a bit my thoughts after more sessions of play.

Edit 2024-06-25: idem

Worlds Without Number (WWN) is a 396 pages book by Kevin Crawford. It’s origins lies in the Stars Without Number sci-fi rpg system by the same author. This time the default setting « Latter Earth » is a science fantasy world in the vein of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun or M. John Harrison’s Viriconium (those are my own references, sadly the author doesn’t cites his inspiration sources).

What the book claims to offer is nothing less than everything you need to run a sandbox campaign, or about 2/3 of the book on worldbuilding, mostly in the shape of random tables. The worldbuilding part seems well done to me but I’ve only skimmed through that part, I might use some of this content some day but as of yet I didn’t. The reason why I’ve bought WWN is for the rpg system it offers – so my comments for today will focus on this (much slimmer) part.

What the WWN system is all about?

  • It’s a hybrid system. An old-school D&D chassis (i.e roll 3d6 in order for your six attributes) combined with a modularity (i.e foci (feats) that let you be an expert at something, combat or otherwise that also have hydrid classes) that you don’t find in most standard old-school systems.
  • It has only 4 main classes: Expert, Warrior, Mage, and the Adventurer (that lets you combine with one of numerous « part-classes » with something like 80 combinations). There’s sub-classes for the Mage: the classical High Mage, the Necromancer, Elementalist and many more. To be frank, I’m on the fence with this whole part-class thing, it offers a lot of options for customizing a character but it also feels a bit wonky. It’s like two systems of character creation instead of one, maybe not a bad thing per se but not the most elegant piece of design either IMO.
  • Human-centric world. You can play an elf or dwarf or WWN’s own brand of fantasy races, but only with a bit of fiddling.
  • The spells have Vancian names like: « The Coruscating Coffin » or « The Jade Palanquin of the Faceless God ». The magic-users have very few spells per day (only one at 1st and 2nd level!) but again, they’re a lot more impactful than your regular magic missile, i.e. Invisibility at level 1. Magic isn’t risky (like in DCC for example) but you have to choose your moment carefully for maximum impact. Aside from the spells, mages have Arts, lesser magical abilities, most of them utilitarian in nature (read magic + darkvision combined as one example). Each magic specialities have a good list to choose from.
  • Combat is d20 based but skill checks use 2d6 + attribute mod + skill level (1 to 4) to beat 6, 8 or 10 or more depending on difficulty. With this less random formula, the characters skill’s competency feels a LOT more relevant.
  • On the character’s sheet there’s a list for « readied items » based on the encumbrance capacity (strength-based) of the character. It’s great and efficient.
  • Combat is fast and deadly and in my impression it feels more chaotic than tactical (not necessarily a bad thing) unless you pay very close attention to the list of combat options provided i.e. screen ally, snap attack, etc.

Some things unique to WWN:

  • There’s a « Shock » mechanics in combat – martial melee weapons will often (except against an opponent with high AC or with a shield) do damage, even with a miss. It’s a bit conterintuitive but characters that are built for combat (warriors in particular) can do potent damage without ever succeeding with their d20 fight checks…
  • There’s a System Strain mechanics that put a limit (your constitution score) on the number of time you can be healed before having to recuperate in a safe place (i.e in town).
  • Levels are capped at 10 at which point you may (depending on the type of campaign) become a « Legate » and have access to new powerful abilities.
  • A lot of character features to mitigate randomness, including automatic hits, sucesses on skill checks, balancing of hit points the more you level up, etc.

So here’s a few from the hip comments after we had several sessions of play, this might change with further experience:

  • Overall WWN characters are as fragile (edit: not quite true, they have several options to mitigate damage) as your standard old-school one but feel a lot more capable.
  • The list of part-classes and foci available ensure a great customisation but that comes at a cost: if a player wishes to examine all the options then creating a character in minutes like in simpler systems would be impossible.
  • My players are a bit confused with the Shock thing. A low hit points character can easily die from just the shock damage and that seems a bit excessive. But overall I think it makes more sense than wooshing weapon swings half the time.
  • My brother Jason played an Adventurer (part-Expert, Part-Healer) and can do magical healing all the time, like every frikin round. He even calls his character a « healing tower » like in these tower defense video games… It’s an odd design choice, in stark contrast with the full Mages who have one big moment per session and I’m still on the fence on what to do with this character. (edit; removed the character)
  • The system strain is, as far as I can tell, designed to be implemented within an expedition of several sessions’ worth of play. With how we’re playing now with the PCs always back in town after their session of dungeon-crawling (and with downtime), it doesn’t come close to being relevant. I think I’ll have to adjust that.
  • My sister’s Necromancer has wiped out 20 out of 24 (1 HD) skeletons with her Smite the Dead spell in last session. Her unique spell of the day but certainly well-spent. The magic system is still fairly close to D&D but its tweaking of limited-use but POTENT spells is interesting. But don’t expect your main villain to fare well in this environment!
  • If most of the WWN system is perfectly okay for generic fantasy, the crafting system notably is pretty much designed with science fantasy in mind.
  • The Intelligence attribute isn’t linked to magic-using this time around so I guess you could have a dumb as a rock Mage? It feels wrong to me. Intelligence is linked with « efforts » which are used to fuel the « Arts », the lesser magical abilities.
  • The book lacks a proper bestiary, (edit: it has some creature base stats as well as options/powers to add but that’s it, creatures have to be « built », they are not ready to use). Edit: That’s still my biggest complaint to date.

All in all, WWN has some weaknesses and I might tweak a few things but I like it. It offers a solid core, with its main strengths being the handling of skills, character customization and idiosyncratic magic system. The main character classes are well thought out and you can easily create whatever you have in mind if you invest a bit more time. A D&D-adjacent game that has a pretty unique feel.

Not an Oathbow, a Hatebow

David Skelector D&D 5e, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, Ruins of chult campaign

I’m still committed to our D&D 5E Ruins of Chult campaign in case anyone wondered with our recent foray into OSR. Proof is in the pudding as the English say (I love these kind of silly sayings), here’s a little post about something that happened not too long ago.

I’d messed up badly with a magic item that the players looted in their last dungeon-crawling. I had put an Oathbow in the Master Archer’ sarcophagus fittingly enough; the fight was difficult and warranted a good reward. Sooo, I read the description of the Oathbow a bit too fast and ended up involontarily boosting it a lot. The Oathbow gives a potent bonus to damage (3d6) to an opponent that its wearer chooses as its « sworn enemy ». There’s an important drawback: as long as your enemy lives you have disadvantage on attack rolls with all other weapons (if an enemy ever succeed in fleeing you’re in for a rough time). If your enemy dies, you can choose another next dawn. And that’s the last part that I’d skip. Félix’s character, the owner of the Oathbow switched from one dead enemy to another continuously for a few fight at least, until I realized my mistake…

I could have just corrected it, adding the limitation I forgot earlier but it felt kinda wrong as it was my mistake and not the player’s. But then I had an idea, what if it’s not really an Oathbow but an Hatebow, its more powerful but cursed (homebrew) version?! The Hatebow causes its wearer to be so full of hate that he sees enemies everywhere! Use it too much and you won’t distinguish between friends and foes…

I LOVE cursed items.

Anyway, we have had similar situation earlier in the campaign with Rufb’s berserk axe and the players broke the curse with a suitable quest. This time I just told the player, Félix, that his character felt the danger posed by the Hatebow, that he had to be careful less he succumbed to the dark side so to speak. No mechanics, just roleplay, as long as the character behave accordingly. And young Félix was excellent all along, limiting himself and roleplaying an increasingly morose character when he did use it. It proved to be a very good decicion I think.

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan): Session 2

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG , ,

Short session, 2 hours only and the players did some shopping and recruiting first so not a lot accomplished. Still, they went to a new section of the castle, found a few trinkets, had a dangerous fight and lost a few people…

Castle Xyntillan, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products

System: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs):

  • Loic (Jason), Adventurer lvl 1 (partial expert/partial healer)
  • Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), Necromancer lvl 1
  • Paul Neref (Olivier), Warrior lvl 1
  • Noah (Isaac), Expert lvl 1
  • Monmon (Edmond), Warrior lvl 1

Retainers:

  • Eudes le Bâtard, Man-at-Arms (lgt), Comte de La Frenaie’s young bastard son, Morale 9
  • Bruno, Man-at-Arms (lgt), dreamy-eyed, Morale 9
  • Paul-Jean Paul, Man-at-Arms (hvy), cousin of deceased Jean-Paul Jean, Morale 5
  • Pierre-Jean Pierre, Man-at-Arms (hvy), escaped friar, Morale 9
  • Louis, Man-at-Arms (hvy), scrounger, Morale 7
  • Edgar, Man-at-Arms (hvy), have a pet hawk, Morale 8
  • Charles, Man-at-Arms (hvy), scrounger, Morale7

Crypt

  • Zachary, Elementalist, strangled by Malvina Malévol and electrocuted in front of the Anteroom
  • Jean-Paul Jean, Man-at-Arms (hvy), lackwit, ripped apart by stuffed animals

Previous Infractions:

Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. Smoked the Ruined Quarters Angered a werewolf washwoman. Stole the Reliquary of Bygone Kings. Infractions rating: 2

Rumors:

  • Fausseflammes? I would rather go to Malinbois, a much better place!
  • Wearing red will keep away the Scarlet Specter… for a while.

We start in Vyônes. The adventurers have a buyer for the Reliquary of Bygone Kings. Fortunately they found its secret before selling it; a hidden compartment held an antique spear tip. They sought a capable artisan to assemble the spear tip into a potent weapon. The artisan, Noah, joined them thereafter. They also recruited a few other Men-at-arms, amongst them is the cousin of deceased Jean-Paul Jean who wants to retrieve his corpse. Cordélia decides to triple their hiring fees (she has now 4 retainers by herself).

Gatehouse:

  • Dozens of ravens perched on the gatehouse.
  • They go at the double doors, two skeleton sentries are quickly dispatched.
  • Past the double doors is an entrance passage with murder holes, door at their right is stuck, Monmon kicks it in.
  • There’s loud singing coming from further away but first they stop by an ominous statue depicting a zombie or leper. Cordélia notices a hidden compartment in the pedestal. Inside is a brain in a jar, she breaks the jar and smashes the brain into a pulp.
  • Next there’s a mess hall full of cobwebs with singing skeletons acting like they’re drunk. Cordélia destroys most of them with a Smite the Dead (necromancers can be potent undead hunters in WWN). But the remaining skeletons pick up their rusty swords and charge. New retainer Charles is slain in the ensuing melee.
  • The PCs search the mess hall but are interrupted by the sounds of rattling chains, a red specter appears, barely visible and demanding a blood sacrifice! Most weapons they have don’t seem to work at all against it. He inflicts a terrible bleeding wound on Monmon but Loic heals him with magic. Monmon counters with a stab of his powerful spear and hurts the specter. Paul hits it with his magical dagger. The PCs hears the chains fading away, they follow.
  • They’re now in a chapel with a strange procession of monks. The red specte,r already waiting for them, goads the monks in taking a « blood toll ». One monk points the PCs with a clawed hand. Combat ensues. The adventurers manage to slay the dark monks but lose Edgar and Pierre-Jean to their sharp claws. Fortunately the red specter did not join the fight.
  • On an altar, Paul finds a fossilised ammonite and as he takes it he gains primordial insights (xp) at the cost of his sanity…

Wrap up:

  • XP: Participation: 1 Treasures: 0 Secrets: 1 Total: 2
  • Treasures:
  • Crypt: Charles: skewered by a drunken skeleton, Edgar: throat slashed by a dark monk, Pierre-Jean Pierre: clawed to death by a dark monk
  • Quote:
  • Infractions:

Castle Xyntillan

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG , , , ,

I took a day off last friday and decided it was time to try something new for our scheduled gaming session.

Some months ago I had bought Castle Xyntillan, directly from its designer in Hungary.

Now, Castle Xyntillan is an Indie/OSR megadungeon from game designer Gabor Lux, and is very much UNLIKE the D&D 5E books that I’ve purchased the past few years (albeit the last one I bought was like 3 years ago). Being nothing like a 5E book is in my present state of mind, a very good thing.

Its an adventure module set in haunted castle, not entirely serious but not a pure funhouse either. At the heart of the adventure is, of course, the impressive castle, but also its twisted and wicked inhabitants, the Malevol family members, truly a malevolent bunch!

As designed the module offers no clear end goal (indeed, goals should emerge from play) but it has TONS of delightful content to throw at the players. I think we could do easily 12-15 sessions just with the castle. Or dozens of session if I add side-adventures and whatnot.

I’ve decided to put Castle Xyntillan in author Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne, only the slightest of divergence from the default Valley of the 3 Rainbows setting anyway.

Set in a fictional medieval France. Averoigne is a forested and backwater region, beset by monsters, particularly witches, werewolves, vampires, and huh, beasts from beyond the veil…

I’m a big fan of CAS but I won’t be the first to use Averoigne. Tom Moldvay, in his 1981 module Castle Amber did just that.

The capital of the region is the gargoyles-infested city of Vyones. The other city is Ximes in which resides the Archbishop Azédarac, a dark sorcerer and demonologist.

(Aside: I’m pretty sure Gygax distorted the name Azédarac into Acererak, his infamous demi-lich of Tomb of Horrors fame)

There’s the cursed woods of Malinbois, the smaller town of Périgon with its monastery and then there’s the disquieting Château des Faussesflammes. Indeed, Castle Xyntillan will in fact be this very Château.

Now, I’m using the Worlds Without Number rpg system (which I might talk about in a future post). Learning how to play with both a new system and new style of play wasn’t effortless on my side or my players’, mistakes were made and a few tears were shed even, but our first session was certainly memorable and worthwhile.

Stay tuned, play report coming soon!

Supreme Headdress not fashionable enough?

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG

One treasure the players found in Iyayo’s tomb was the latter’s « Supreme Headdress », a magic hat that gives +2 to all 6 attributes.

No character have claimed the Supreme Headdress yet.

It’s pretty good, even if it does compete with load of magic items accumulated in 45(!) sessions of play. It’s D&D 5E so there’s a limit of 3 « attuned » magic items per character. I’ve houseruled that at 10th level (as most of the PCs are now) they can have a fourth.

looks like the one at the bottom right, nice beard heh!

But that’s not the crux of the problem. My players all agreed that their characters would look weird with this hat on.

I did want something that looked ancient and it does seem, huh, impractical, but in-game there’s no real drawbacks…

And I mean, both Shin and Leon have wore a hat that looks like a dead spider but somehow that’s the one that is too weird? Is that the line they won’t cross? I find this all very funny!

Session 45: Lake Luo

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Longue session de +- 12 heures, beaucoup d’action, je vais faire simple et la résumer en format bullet…

Personnages Joueurs (PJs)

  • (Félix) Flyzus, (level 9>>10), Wood Elf Ranger (hunter), Outlander, n’a plus de famille ni de patrie, là pour l’aventure et se forger une nouvelle vie. Accompagné de son Dire Kakapo juvénile qu’il a sauvé.
  • (Chris) Pax Double-Poches, (level 7>>8), Halfling Rogue (arcane trickster), Criminal, fuyant un passé criminel, a vu de ses yeux les trésors merveilleux qu’a rapporté le ranger Flyzus de sa dernìère expédition et s’est immiscé dans le groupe depuis
  • (Chris) Rufb (level 9>>10), Half-Orc Barbarian (berserker), Mercenary Veteran; capturé par des pterafolks, seul survivant de sa bande de mercenaires, délivré par Flyzus au sommet du Firefinger
  • (Jason) Shin, (level 9>>10) Tabaxi Fighter (arcane archer), Outlander, veut devenir le plus grand chasseur de tout les temps + Vorn, Shield Guardian
  • (Marjorie) Kalohan, (level 9>>10) High Elf Wizard (evoker), Inheritor,  doit trouver un sort inconnu jusque là avant de pouvoir obtenir son héritage
  • (Isaac) Anfi, (level 9>>10) Locathah Fighter (eldritch knight), Outlander, venu sur la terre ferme en passant par la Caverne-Tunnel, là pour découvrir ce nouvel environnement + Salamandre Géante

Rivière Turbulente

  • Kalohan coule 2 pyrogues d’hommes-grenouilles avec un sort de Control Water (1)
  • Les PJs tombent dans une embuscade d’hommes-grenouilles revanchards. Il y a un Froghemoth dans la rivière au pied d’une chute, des archers sur les rives et un shaman qui se transforme en élémental d’eau. Au cours du combat le Froghemoth avale Rufb, puis Pax. Rufb utilise sa Hache du Cyclope, met toutes ses charges dans un Gust of Wind qui gonfle l’estomac du monstre, forçant l’expulsion de Rufb et Pax (par les 2 bouts)!
  • De nuit, une lumière sur la rivìere se révèle être un Flaming Skull. Une sinistre barque s’approche. Des goules encapuchonnées veulent discuter avec les aventuriers. Si les PJs volent un artefact au village d’Hommes-Lézards, ils seront récompensés.
  • Les PJs décident d’ignorer le canal menant vers les Jardins de Nangalore.

Marécages

  • Combat contre un Moss Lord (2) et deux Shambling mounds.
  • De nuit, combat contre des lucioles géantes explosives!
  • Shin, à grande distance, abat un brontosaure qui servait de monture à des humanoïdes non-identifiés, avec plusieurs flèches magiques empoisonnées. (3)
  • Kalohan fait une Tiny Hut pour protéger le groupe contre les lucioles.

Village sur pilotis au Lac Luo

  • Combat contre des « iguanes » à 8 pattes (des basilisks) sur la berge
  • Les PJs doivent d’abord voir le sorcier dans la maison d’entrée, avant d’avoir la permission de visiter le village sur pilotis des Hommes-Lézards. Des statuettes en argiles sont façonnées à leur image. (4)
  • Les PJs attendent l’arrivée de leurs alliés Aarakokras qui doivent les renseigner sur leur objectif.
  • Sergu, un humain pas tout à fait sain d’esprit, leur sert d’interprète et de guide
  • Les PJs investiguent sur l’artefact que les Goules voudraient obtenir. C’est une roche volcanique qui ne semble pas protégée outre mesure. Ce qui a le don d’inquièter les aventuriers…
  • Brittletoe, un capitaine Gnome du Flaming Fist, arrive au village à bord d’un crabe-mecha. Lui et les PJs échangent des politesses, tout en méfiance sur la présence de l’autre.
  • Brittletoe parle également à Sergu. Les PJs sont suspicieux. Le Gnome quitte le village peu après.
  • Les Aarakokras arrivent, l’objectif (l’équipage du bateau-volant écrasé) est à l’Est.
  • Les PJs quittent vers l’Ouest au cas où leur départ est surveillé (il l’est) avant de tourner vers l’Est.
  • Shin, avec un sort de Fly fournit par la magicienne, abat des harpies aux langues coupées qui les suivaient à distance.

Montagnes de Feu

  • Les PJs laissent leur bateau sur la rive du Lac, dissimulé.
  • Combat contre des démons calcaires qui les ont entourés d’un mur de sel (5).
  • Ils pénètrent dans une jungle dense et pesante.
  • Ils sont suivis par des Hommes-Scorpions.
  • Les PJs tendent une embuscade à ceux-ci, le plan d’attaque (qui fonctionne à merveille) implique un pont artificiel créé par un sort de la magicienne retiré soudainement après que plusieurs des créatures aient traversées.
  • Les PJs arrivent en vue de la montagne et le repaire des Pterafolks pyrophiles. Ils éliminent une patrouille de Firenewts sur Striders.
  • Ils entrent dans le repaire sans se faire repérer et un Cone of Cold bien placé élimine un pterafolk et ses sbires firenewts. Les PJs trouvent plusieurs coffres au trésor et prennent le temps de les piller. (6)

À suivre, dans le Temple du Feu…

Notes du DN:

  1. qui voulaient simplement commercer, oups
  2. treant modifié et hostile
  3. des habitants du village sur pilotis, les joueurs craignaient que ce soient des compétiteurs. Encore des dommages collatéraux…
  4. ce qui va tracasser les joueurs énormément!
  5. c’est le monde à l’envers, des démons qui aiment le sel
  6. ce qui donne du temps aux défenseurs

Humanoids of Chult – tactics and fluff

David Skelector Bestiary, D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Ruins of chult campaign

Another page fell off my Jungle D&D notebook so, again, I’ll just copy it over here. It’s a just few broad strokes to help me use humanoid encounters in my campaign in a more creative way.

Note: One particular thing I had in mind when wrting this stuff was not to fall into lazy association i.e assigning giant frogs to the frogmen gripplis or giant spiders to Araneas, etc. To some extent only, associating fishmen with water magic is just too natural to pass by.

Jungle Folks

Batiri Goblins

Themes/Fluff: adaptables, hermaphrodites, clever

Tactics/Tricks: hit & run, poison, barbed arrows, hidden lairs

Often seen with: Giant insects, insect swarms, troodons

See also: A note on batiri goblins

Gnolls

Themes/Fluff: overeating/gorging, wasteful killing, weird (Alien-like) reproducing cycle: gnoll >> demon maw >> hyena >> gnoll

Tactics/Tricks: blitzkrieg, harassing, target weaker foes, overwhelm

Often seen with: hyenas, demon maws, shoosuva, whiterlings, clawing hands

Troglodytes

Themes/Fluff: underground, disgusting, slimy, awful stench, decay

Tactics/Tricks: ambush, camouflage, attrition, acid (trap and spitting), invisible to darkvision, resistance to cold

Often seen with: subteranean lizards, rot grubs swarm, carrion crawlers, gricks, oozes, brown mold

Gripplis

Themes/Fluff: dimorphic, river pirates, harmonious village, preyed upon

Tactics/Tricks: poison, water/mud magic, Infinite Leap martial artists

Often seen with: mud mephits, mud elementals, river dragon turtles

Lizardmen

Themes/Fluff: isolationnists, non-religious, omnivores

Tactics/Tricks: necromancy, crayfish armors, firefly nocturnal signals

Often seen with: giant crabs, brine zombies, animated mangrove, salt basilisks, giant flashing fireflies

Aarakokra

Themes/Fluff: long-range traders, female leadership, open-minded, cooperative

Tactics/Tricks: spears, dive-attack, fly away from danger

Often seen with: quetzacoatlus pack animal, assassin vines to protect their villages (high above ground)

See also: A Note on Aarakokra

Pterafolks

Themes/Fluff: crude magic, Kossuth (volcano) worshipping, witch brewing, capture folks to sacrifice or experiment on

Tactics/Tricks: potions, magic wands, poisonous pollen bombs, ressitance to fire

Often seen with: Fire elementals, fire mephits, smoke quasit

See also: Pterosaurs

Jungle/Albino Dwarves

Themes/Fluff: resilience, anti-civilization, many taboos, ground huts, survivors

Tactics/Tricks: monstruous plants, magic tatoos, heat metal spell, druidic magic

Often seen with: triflowers, razorweed (around their village), Giant Chameleon, Girallon

See also: A Note on Jungle Dwarves

Kuo-Toa

Themes/Fluff: humans transformed into fishmen to survive great flood, dogmatic

Tactics/Tricks: water magic trident as spiritual weapon

Often seen with: Chuuls, Hydra

Ghouls

Themes/Fluff: minions of a powerful necromancer, can be talked to but dishonest, unscrupulous, careful

Tactics/Tricks: fell magic, patrols, archers, cursed weapons

Often seen with: undead dinosaurs, flaming skulls, deathlocks

Serpent Men

Themes/Fluff: tomb guardians, well-prepared, astute

Tactics/Tricks: flee deeper if hard-pressed, use charm magic but also susceptible to charm, positioning with traps, blindsense, use darkness spell

Often seen with: other dungeon denizens

See also: A Note on Serpent Men

Araneas

Themes/Fluff: astronomy, astrology, female superiority, village behind web walls, silk weaving, xenophobia

Tactics/Tricks: female sorceresses, male canon-fodders

Often seen with: N/A

See also: A Note on Araneas

Vegepygmies

Themes/Fluff: mold-infected batiri goblins, symbiont, different types of mold have different results

Tactics/Tricks: hit & run, ambush, use favorable terrain

Often seen with: thornys

See also: A Note on Vegepygmies

Myconids

Themes/Fluff: psychic, hive-mind, confusion

Tactics/Tricks: mind affecting spells

Often seen with: controlled creatures

See also: A Note on Myconids

Outsiders

Dwarves (Northern)

Themes/Fluff: greedy despoilers, gruff, xenophobia, use demonic magic fueled by precious stones

Tactics/Tricks:, heavy armors, crossbows

Often seen with: large pack animals, imps, summoned demons

Company of the Flaming Fist

Themes/Fluff: greedy despoilers, unscrupulous, devious, East Indian company equivalent

Tactics/Tricks: battle mages, archers, tough veterans, patrols

Often seen with: ratfolk skrimishers, ettins, tongueless harpies

Nelanthir Pirates

Themes/Fluff: pirates!

Tactics/Tricks: sea witch magic, swashbuckler captain, prefer not having to fight

Often seen with: mimic treasure chest, rogue aarakokra, blood hawks, water elemental

Lantanese Gnomes

Themes/Fluff: magitech, submarines, underwater city, artificers

Tactics/Tricks: mecha, energy beam

Often seen with: automatons

Next D&D session prep – tropical waters

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Nature, Roleplaying Game, RPG, session prep ,

Next session won’t be sooner than next month. Summer is Garden Time and my already sparse gaming schedule always take a big hit. Anyway, I’m still doing some prep in advance.

The PCs will be going south on the Olung river. They’ll have a few river encounters en route, one that is set with the events of last session (can’t talk more about this for the moment!). They are on board of the Inexorable Barge, a magical boat that can cross the steepest of riverfall without a sweat, so they’ll advance at a steady pace without having to do perilous portage.

One major site that can be found along the way is the Gardens of Nangalore. It’s a location that comes from Tomb of Annihilation, one of the good ones, that I’ve modified/expanded a lot (still working on this). The PCs know that explorer Castigliar lost his life while exploring the site. They also know that there’s some kind of powerful demoness or sorceress at the heart of this place. They don’t need to go there. They do have a few incentives to explore it though, we’ll see if they will be tempted…

They’ll eventually reach Lake Luo and from there, they’ll have to find the Star Princess airship or its crew kept captive by pterafolks, or both.

Does the river look like this?

It’s not very clear from the ToA book what the Olung (or any other rivers) look like.

Or like that?

A tendancy that I’ve seen often in rpgs is to downsize things just so they’ll fit a hex map or a decor prop. There’s moments when Theatre of the Mind is the way to go, but you have to first visualize what you’re gonna describe to the players!

Here’s a link that I thought was very useful:

(saw this on reddit, posted from user RaRaAcererak)

https://rainforests.mongabay.com/06-rainforest-rivers-lakes-swamps.html

I’ve learned that a section of the Congo river is called the « Gates of Hell », a « 75 miles long canyon of impassable rapids ». That’s pretty impressive. Another case of Nature being more awe-inspiring than fantasy.

Which is one reason why I’ll be gardening instead of gaming. See ya!

The Sword of Roele review- crappy adventure, good dungeon pt 1

David Skelector Birthright, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I couldn’t find any review of this adventure so maybe I’ll fill a tiny little niche with this, I dunno…

The Sword of Roele, Wolfgang Baur, 1996

This is probably one of the most obscure adventure of 2E D&D. It was written for Birthright, a fantasy setting heavily inspired by Tolkien’s Middle-Earth (with a dose of Highlander soul-stealing in the mix) and purportedly the least popular of the many settings there was at the time. Birthright had a unique focus on domain play; a prerequisite was that at least one player would play as a ruler, with the characters sharing responsabilities of governing, dealing with the many problems arising on their lands and perhaps going to war with neighboring territories. The mechanistic part of the domain play was a bit of a mess but fascinating at the same time, or at least it was for teenager me.

The Birthright line had many books but most of them were player-facing domain splatbooks, with only a handful of adventures ever made. The sword of Roele is one of those few.

And boy if it’s a weird one…

Adventure Intro:

  • The Chimera, a powerful immortal being, tries to coerce the player characters, mostly with thin-veiled threats or open war if needed, and promises of riches too, in helping to defeat her most bothersome ennemies, the Three Brothers, audacious mages that are continually encroaching on her territory and sources of magic
  • The Three Brothers also try to enlist the player characters with the appeal of finding the eponymous Sword of Roele, an ancient and prestigious sword (more symbolic than powerful) before the Chimera does (note that the Chimera isn’t reaaly interested in the sword, it’s just a way to entice the player characters). It’s all a lie, the Sword of Roele is in fact kept far away in one of the Gorgon’s treasury (the Gorgon is the Big Bad of the setting). What the Three Brothers really want is access to the Gate to Heavens (!) hidden somewhere in the Chimera’s lands in an ancient tomb, so that they could somehow skip their earthly existences and become divine beings or some such. They want the player characters to secure the tomb and planted rumors about the magic sword to confuse the Chimera (and would-be DMs too).

So, two rival factions trying to recruit the player characters to their cause, one evil, one non-evil but self-serving and dishonest about its true motives. Not a bad hook entirely, I think.

Except, there’s also:

  • The Monkey King (the chinese Monkey King? yes, the same) , an Animal Lord (?) who knows all about the Three Brothers and the Chimera because he was spying on them for some reason. He wants access to the Gate of Beastland (of course he does) to return home. Where’s the Gate? In the same aformentionned tomb, with the other gate! He also wants to mess with the Chimera so that she finally gets the last little nudge towards complete madness, for the fun of it. Oh! And speaking of fun, he stole the Sword of Roele and put it right where it was claimed to be but wasn’t before! He may be the one that convince the player character to embark on the adventure as he will present himself to them in the guise of an astrologer who foretells great events and all.

Now, let me say that this whole convoluted business with the Monkey King is completely incongruous. The Chimera/Three Brothers conflict was perfectly fine by itself. I’ve nothing against the Monkey King as a character but to put him in here, in this context? Why? I also think he’s avery bad fit for the Birthright setting thematically speaking.

That said, regardless of which faction convince the player characters to act, the next phase of the adventure will happen inside the Chimera’s domain.

They may choose to fight marauding gnolls that have been causing troubles in the region lately, in which case even if they brought their armies (a real possibily in Birthright), the number of gnolls will just match the number of soldiers they have. Sigh. But anyway, this part is just a sideshow.

aside: the adventure kind of forget about the possible players’s armies after that, too cumbersome?

What they’ll really have to do to advance in the adventure, after having some random encounters and passing through the territory of the « Lizard King » and his lizardmen, is going into the Cryprus Valley and find one specific tower of one of the Three Brothers and either speak with him or maybe kill him and his brothers (if they chose to work for the Chimera, nice to have the choice) and they’ll obtain the location of the Tomb of the Order of the Sun. This section could be accomplished really fast, depending on where the PCs land in the region, if they speak to NPCs and what the DM throws at them.

Whilst in the valley, the PCs will also encounter Jamila the bird maiden and her tribe of carnivorous apes. A bit of an odd NPC but if the adventurers agree to give a (subtantial) amount of meat to her apes, she’ll cast a divination spell that points to a « tower of the eye » (not to confuse with three other towers that they’ll come across…) and « speak to the stones ». Armed with this knowledge, the PCs will then go at the tomb site.

Around the Tomb

However, the entrance is hidden and as designed there’s two ways to find it. One is to go at the ruined temple in the vicinity and there the PCs will come upon the ghost of the good-aligned high priest of the Order of the Sun who will immediately try to possess one character to get inside the tomb. His goal is to accomplish the last rites he never had time to do properly on the corpse of a hero-knight. If the adventurers manage somehow to convince the ghost of their good will, they could gain an invaluable ally that knows a lot about the tomb (albeit one that wouldn’t tolerate tomb-robbing). Tricky, tricky.

The other way, also a complicated one, is to spot the aforementionned « tower of the eye » and, crossing the bridge leading to it, they’ll see Kengri the « petrified sleeping giant ». With a transmute rock to flesh or dispel magic, the adventurers would then have to convince the giant (he’s been put there to guard againts tomb-defilers the text says) to reveal to them the entrance of the tomb. What would help to convince him (the text also says) is the PCs to say that they’ll help the ghost of the high-priest to get in… Phew…

I think that my players (my sister in particular) would just let possess one underling to find the entrance and then to hell with the ghost… So not an impossible situation for savvy players but wow, if this adventure isn’t overly complicated in all the wrong places.

Next, the pièce de résistance, the dungeon/tomb!

Vampire- Dark Ages – Return to Badajoz pt 3

David Skelector Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG, vampire: dark ages

I’m rather happy how the session turned out all in all. There’s some weaker parts for sure, but mainly because I had decided to condense a lot of things in one week-end that could have warranted an entire session each. I’d figured, if we were doing this once a year or so, no need to slowplay it. Also, I was rusty rulewise but vampire (white wolf) has a very forgiving system (it has been said that its lack of clarity is also its weakness) and so, it could have been worse.

Player Characters (PCs)

  • Harold Necros (Ben), 7th generation Cappadocian ancilla, Road of Bones, contacts with the Lazarenes
  • Johan Grimes (Pascal), 7th generation Malkavian ancilla, Road of Sin, member of the Ordo Enigmatis
  • Krad McClaleen (Chris) , 7th generation Gangrel ancilla, Road of the Beast, multiple diablerie
  • Adhémar (Jason), 7th generation Kiasyd ancilla, Road of Caine, member of the Cainite Heresy

Downtime

  • A snake comes to Harold and delivers/expels a scroll, it’s written in old aramaic. With some research at the University of Lisbon and the help of his Hand of the Humble Scribe (the severed and preserved hand he found at Merìda), He successfully decrypt the message. It’s from a group of outcast cappadocians based in Egypt named the Lazarenes (after their enigmatic leader Lazarus). Harold accepts their invitation and go to Egypt where he’ll stay for 12 years.
  • Rodrigo (lasombra), a neonate but less of a fool than his sire Vicente, will be the PCs’ contact in Oviedo, as part of the Silver Road’s commercial cooperation.
  • The Jardines de la Galera, a place where criminals condemned to death can have a brief respite before leaving this world, serves as a feeding ground for Badajoz’s vampires.
  • Prince Johan (Juan Grimeso), sponsors an orphanage to serve as his own feeding ground. Evil!
  • Anastasio of Pampalona, a fellow malkavian, asks Prince Johan to stay in his city for a while. He wants to find and study some esoteric arab texts in the area.
  • Harold comes back from Egypt, all he says is that he laid down in the sands and learned quite a few interesting things.
  • Pretty much at the same time of the return of Harold (can’t be a coincidence, can it?), the Black Plague strikes the Iberian peninsula, causing immense suffering among the population.
  • The PCs learn that Prince Macario has been ousted in Lisbon and has left for the city of Coimbra further north. They soon learn that the new Prince, Calypsia of the toreador clan, doesn’t have them in good esteem…

Portuguese Attack

The year is 1336, war is unleashed upon the land! The Portuguese have crossed the border (and the river) and are preparing to assault both Badajoz istelf and Barcarrota castle not far south. Envoys are sent to ask for help and the city have its gates closed. The PCs quickly learn of the irrititating presence of dominican Inquisitors within the enemy’s camp, limiting their actions (i.e. slaughtering an entire army) less they attract undue attention to themselves.

Badajoz is besieged. The city is heavily fortified, with one side against the river, it cannot be easily taken but still, the meagre castillan garnison and militia will be hard pressed resisting the portuguere assault for a long time.

The PCs have a plan, cutting off the snake’s head so to speak. Krad will to try to kill Prince Calypsia of Lisbon, the one who controls these events from behind the scene. Krad is the only one of the group who can reach Lisbon fast enough (in bat form) and not worry during the day of being disturbed by marauding soldiers. Fortunately for Krad, Prince Viriath of Cacerès will join him as he knows he would be the next target if Badajoz falls.

The two gangrels fly to Lisbon and reach Calypsia’s tower. The prince is surrounded by her court and Krad and Viriath immediately fall prey to her powerful presence. She laughs haughtily at them, she will have her revenge for the death of her grand-childer Baldomar! She compels the two gangrels to fight to the death! Viriath wounds Krad severely with his claws but the latter willingly enters frenzy to break the enchantment put upon him and jumps on Calypsia with a supreme effort of will. He manages to wound her but her bodyguards put hard steel into Krad’s body, downing him. Viriath, who also recovered his senses with the attack on the prince, seizes Krad and jumps off the tower into the night. The commando mission is a failure…

But in a incredible turn of events a Sevillan messenger announces the arrival of a large moroccan fleet landing an army in the South with the aim of attacking the christian kingdoms! The Portuguese abandon the sieges and, with the soon-to arrive Castillan army, that had been previously levied to defend against them, they go together fight the invaders. The Moroccans were defeated and Badajoz was saved.

Note: the siege of Badajoz, the Moroccan invasion and the subsequent alliance of Portugal and Castille were all historical events. I had a hard time following these events and still trying to let the players have their own agency.

Downtime

  • A few weeks later, the war ends
  • The PCs confront Inês the lassombra on her role vis-à-vis the recent events, she begs for mercy and is allowed to stay
  • Anastasio the malkavian is slain by Inquisitors
  • His thaumaturgical studies are picked up by Johan, who will add them to his repertoire
  • Prince Johan is attacked by Inquisitors but is saved by his companions

Chess Game: Prince Johan vs Archbishop Monçada

Prince Johan seeks counsel with Archbishop Monçada in Madrid. As is his habit the powerful lasombra gives cryptic advices through the analyses he makes in a game of chess… As Johan isn’t much of a chess player, Monçada chooses to remove his own queen and will even « guide » Johan to victory. Removing the black queen is some sort of approval to Johan’s query about his enemy Calypsia, no doubt. Monçada also makes the point of letting the king be checkmated by a bishop… Foreshadowing some important events to come.

The Black Queen

The PCs are on the loop for a Castillan attack on Portugal. Nastasio the ventrue, second-in-command to Silvester de Ruiz, the lasombra leader, leads the attack against Calypsia’s domain. After some intensive fighting, the castillan army is finally ready to besiege Lisbon. The agreed role of the PCs will be to infiltrate the city amidst the confusion and eliminate the toreador elder. The latter is no longer at her haven but they soon learn that the prince is preparing to flee aboard a ship. The PCs hurry to the port and reach the ship just before it could leave (of course!). Some of Calypsia’s minions are sent to slow down the attackers but Adhémar (in shadow form) and Harold get through while Krad and Johan deal with them. One knight in front of Krad, another grand-childer of Calypsia, is a very good swordsman and gives some difficulties to the gangrel but he ultimately succumbs to savage claw attacks. Harold is surrounded by enemies and defends himself by inflicting withering touches to whoever approach. Johan slashes at defenders with a sword that seems too big for him and provoques confusion with his dementation to many.

Meanwhile, Adhémar use obtenebration to plunge the area where Calypsia is on the ship in total darkness, and then proceed to swing his 2-handed sword at her, crippling her with a fury of attacks. She’s an elder vampire though and she heals herself back enough to make a mighty jump outside of the ship and darkness. Unfortunately for her, she’s intercepted by Krad and Johan who strike her down again. This time Krad jumps on her and plunge his fangs on her neck and add another diablerie to his résumé…

Calypsia suffers final death. Her minions lose the will to fight their implacable foes.

In the aftermath of the siege, Nastasio his installed prince of Lisbon. In Madrid, Monçada shocks the vampire world as he kills (diablerie) his sire, the elder lasombra Silvester de Ruiz.

The end.

Coming next: the Age of Conquistadores