Sekrit Santikore 2024 surreal science fantasy adventure seeds & more

I got kirt dankmeyer's curt and dank prompt "d20 surreal science fantasy adventure seeds, the weirder the better. Optional: A micro-setting that would tie them all together" for the OSR secret santacorn this year. 

This marks the second santicorn I've participated in in which I've gotten a scifantast prompt, which is fine by me. anything i write i gonna go that direction. the previous one was an o'neill cylinder hex crawl which grew into an entire hexcrawl setting generator and took me nearly a year to finish. 

now that my adhd is under control i have no more excuses for my derangement. i apologize in advance. please consult your doctor before on

Micro-Setting: The Splintered Kalpa

In the last gasp of a dying universe the remnants of time and space are tearing themselves apart. Fractured by aeons of misuse, the "Great Mechanism" that holds existence together sputters and leaks, spilling reality mutating fluid in great emerald rivers across the rocky barren landscape.  

What remains is a nightmare mosaic of quantum fragments: ancient ruins that shouldn’t exist, alien bio-machines from other dimensions, sentient time-locked cities, eldritch entities drawn to feeding on the cacophony and spawning unstable pocket realities from their festering asses. The very laws of the universe are corrupted: gravity bends in spirals, time loops and skips, the dregs of star-faring species have unravelled into schizophrenic diversity. Cultists worshiping the putrifid chrome ichor of dead gods stalk openly for live sacrifices, mutated humanoids of every possible incarnation scrape by scavenging relics of what once was/will be. The only thing edible is meat. Those born blind are considered Saints for they've never been tainted by the sight of this discarded hell.

The Splintered Kalpa is not merely a location but a state of existence: an endless landscape of decayed glory and cosmic madness feeding endlessly upon its own unraveling. The wise seek escape, the bold seek riches, and the stupid seek answers. 

d20 Surreal Science Fantasy Adventure Seeds

1. The Tower of Singing Suns

An obsidian tower hums with a thousand discordant voices: at its peak is a "living sun”, imprisoned and bleeding great lashes of magnetic energy. Touching it grants terrifying visions of other realms but permanently alters the viewer's form.

The Sun-Eaters, a cult of blind devotees, scour the landscape searching for sacrifices to "feed the sun’s hunger”. They believe the sun must never be freed, fearing its light will burn away reality. They refuse to acknowledge their efforts are actually destabilizing the sun's malfunctioning containment field.

2. The Fossil Womb

An enormous, fossilized animal fetus looms over a desolate plain, cracked open to reveal a glowing, organic core. Inside, embryonic monsters swim in a pouch of viscous fluid, mutating, growing, regressing, dissolving, perpetually exploring the infinite possibilities of evolution in hyperspeed. Any creature removed from the womb attempts to escape and multiply.

The Pale Remnant, a dying alien parasite, once fed off the living form of the fetus but became trapped millions of years ago when its host died. It feebly emits signals begging for rescue, promising access to immense power in return, but its true goal is to spread dominion and feed on souls. It will say and do anything to manipulate others into breaking containment.

3. The Ship of Falling Stars

A ship constructed from the bodies of ancient gods crashes into the desert. Its corridors are alive, pulsating with celestial ichor. The ship whispers the true names of those nearby, drawing them deeper into its heart, where an alien star is trying to be reborn.  

Scavenger-lords from the Blistered Iron Band have already claimed part of the ship, setting up traps and killing intruders. They will trade artifacts from the ship for survival gear but are heavily armed and paranoid. They seek desperately to find a way to harvest the ship's celestial energy for their interdimensional war machines.

4. The Black Pyramid

A towering black pyramid appears at random intervals, hovering over the land, insidiously rewriting the landscape anywhere its shadow falls. At its apex lies a single switch labeled "RESET." An echo of the pyramid exists in a parallel timeline, and actions in one affect the other. Temporal Knights patrol both versions, erasing any anomalies they deem dangerous (including the players).

Goal: Preserve their version of reality at all costs.

5. The Pale Caravan

A caravan of emaciated figures trudges across the wastes, carrying massive bone relics on their backs. They trade memories for protection. Following them reveals a hidden fortress where an immense skeleton sits upon a throne, awaiting tribute. 

A group of violent stim-addicted scavengers called “the Gravediggers” track and harass the caravan attempting to steal their relics. They are led by Hollow Garan, a skeletal figure in scavenged funeral garb, a cracked and scorched ceremonial burial mask welded to his face. Garan was once a mortal soldier who perished in the ruins of dying starship but was resurrected by the cursed Pale Caravan. He is driven for vengeance against the Pale Caravan for his undeath. Hollow Garan and his cadre may work with players or turn on them if the opportunity arises.

6. The Flayed Cathedral

An organic cathedral made from flesh and bone grows slowly outward, absorbing anything it touches, inhabited by choirs of skinless priests perpetually chanting the mantra of their god, the Flesh Cyclone.

The Flesh Cyclone is a mindless swirling vortex of human and alien body parts which roams the cathedral, assimilating those it touches. Survivors claim the cyclone whispers secrets of immortality, but the only way to hear it is to get dangerously close.

A wandering merchant-priest called the Skin Broker offers maps to treasure housed in the cathedral in exchange for a strip of the players’ flesh. If cheated, the Broker summons flayed assassins to relentlessly hunt the party.

Goal: To construct a skin suit for the giant skeleton in Seed #5. the skeleton doesn't want it.

7. The Machine That Dreams

A massive, partially buried machine dreams of an alternate timeline. Interfacing with it allows players to temporarily access "ghost echoes" of themselves from the past or future. But the machine’s dream is unstable and sometimes mixes up the identities of those it's had contact with in other dimensions.

Dream Thieves, a group of desperate refugees, already inhabit the machine, addicted to using it to continually rewrite their past. They’ll do anything to protect their sanctuary from intruders.

Goal: Prevent anyone from waking the machine. The machine considers them parasites but its mind is imprisoned in perpetual stasis.

8. The Glass Serpent

A titanic crystalline serpent sleeps, coiled around a ruined city, its body refracting chaotic beams of light from invisible suns. Inside its translucent body glitters artifacts from consumed worlds. Pieces broken off from the serpent form into dopplegangers who sleep until prey comes within scent. 

Goal: to sleep and digest undisturbed.

9. The Crimson Spill

A river of blood flows uphill, leading to a source deep underground: a colossal, beating heart. Eating a piece of the heart grants random mutations but marks the eater for an unknown predator that stalks the night.  

The Red Sisterhood, a coven of blood mages, guards the heart of the river. They demand seekers submit to replacing their own hearts with an alien biomechanical parasite in exchange for admittance into the main chamber, but curse those who refuse with uncontrollable bleeding.

Goal: Resurrect the Blood Titan.

10. The Cosmic Chain

An enormous golden chain hangs from the sky, descending into the horizon. Climbing it leads to a void realm where figures frozen in agony float in stasis. It is said they guard a secret to escape this world into a new, infant universe.

A group of ragged ascetics called the Chainbound attempt to climb the chain endlessly, muttering prayers of salvation. They attack anyone who tries to pass them, believing only they are worthy to ascend.

Goal: Reach the chain’s end and ascend to godhood.

11. The Laughing Moon

A moon-sized, skeletal face leers from the night sky, laughing audibly. Its teeth occasionally fall to earth as immense structures carved with alien figures that pulse with necrotic energy. Touching them grants knowledge of eldritch rituals but risks drawing the moon's attention.  

The Laughter Cult worships the moon, seeing its falling teeth as sacred relics. They interpret the players' interest as heresy and seek to silence them or steal back any “stolen” knowledge 

Goal: Feed the cult's leader to the moon to gain its favor.

12. The Clock That Eats Time

A monstrous clockwork mechanism embedded in a ruined tower ticks backward, erasing seconds, minutes, and memories. At random intervals it disgorges piles of objects from forgotten eras which are slowly erased. Turning it off requires entering its gears.  

Chrono-Wardens, time-manipulating warriors, arrive claiming any intruding presence has already caused dangerous paradoxes. They seek to protect the clock and anyone tampering with it.

Goal: Maintain temporal stability at any cost.

13. The Bone River

A riverbed made entirely of bones stretches for miles. Some bones emit soft whispers when touched, revealing half-truths or riddles about the seeker's fate. The foolhardy seek answers from the bones and attempt to scavange truths. At night, the river animates and flows uphill.

Bone Reclaimers, a hive-mind colony of skeletal constructs, rise from the river at night, collecting anything they perceive as "misplaced bones." They’ll hunt the players only if provoked.

Goal: Rebuild their long-dead Bone King atop the Prismatic Ziggurat.

14. The Choir of the Hollow

Deep in a ravine, a choir of hollow, faceless figures sings a haunting melody that causes listeners to weep blood. Each song reveals hidden passages within the ravine, but singing along risks losing one's face.  

The Veil Dancers, cloaked figures immune to the choir’s effects, seek others to join their ranks. They trap victims in the ravine to harvest their faces for their own use.

Goal: Maintain control over the ravine and build their army of slaves. Cover the world in song.

15. The Veil of Hungry Stars

A shimmering curtain of starlight appears once per month. Passing through it allows travel to distant realms but leaves behind pieces of the traveler.

a faction of desperate exiles patrol the veil, demanding payment in memories for safe passage. They secretly plant seeds of paranoia among groups to control them.

Goal: Hoard enough memories to construct a new identity for their leader. Use the virulent implanted memories to construct a secret cabal of mindless soldiers and spies.

16. The Well of Shattered Skies

A bottomless well emits light of shifting colors. Dropping objects into it causes them to reappear elsewhere in the world, altered and corrupted. The well’s guardian claims to be an avatar of a dead sun and demands offerings.  

the Herald of the Abyss, spectral entity who traps the minds of those approaching it, forcing them to relive alternate lives endlessly. It uses these alternate lives to work out “the perfected universe”.

Goal: Use the well’s power to unmake reality.

17. The Iron Forest

Metallic trees hum with static, their leaves sparking with eldritch energy. Deep in the forest, a humanoid figure made entirely of rusted gears sits frozen, clutching an orb that distorts gravity.  

A rogue druid named Rustblight has claimed the forest as a sanctuary. It sends metal beasts to kill intruders, believing them to be agents of the old gods.

Goal: Preserve the forest by assimilating all organic life into metal.

18. The Whispering Chain

A sentient, endless chain wraps around a crumbling tower, its links engraved with alien symbols. Studying the engravings grants access to alchemical secrets but slowly calcifies the examiner's body from the inside.

A group of corrupted alchemists called the Chainwrights seek intelligent, magically attuned prisoners they can compel to study the chain for them. Prisoners are strapped into beds and hoisted up the tower using complicated machinery. They used the gained knowledge to produce powerful and addictive elixirs hoping to find the recipe for True Death. They're running out of prisoners and desire a formula to extend their lifespan.

19. The Dying God’s Blood

An ichor-filled crater faintly glows, filled with the decomposed ooze of a dead god. Drinking it grants fleeting power but causes the drinker to dream of a dying universe, their dreams erratically pulling spawning beings of pure entropy into this realm.  

Ichor-dripping spawn of previous imbibers haunt the wastes, having killed their birthers. They are guardians of the dying god’s essence, enslaved to enacting its final will. A cabal of wizards called the High Speakers are embroiled in an enternal rift: do they attempt to harness the power of the crater or find a way to destroy it?

20. The Library of Living Dust

A ruined library contains books filled with arcane knowledge which begin to dissolve into fine, animate dust when opened. Breathing the dust embues one with chaotic magical essence which slowly erodes their minds.

The Memory Keepers is a sect of librarians dedicated to maintaining the library. Once in a generation they grant access to it's kno

wledge for the duration of a single cycle. Otherwise they attempt to silence all who know of the library's whereabouts.

Species generator

roll d4, d12, d20

d4 body type

1 bipedal

2 quadrupedal

3 multi-legged (d20 if unsure)

4 floating/winged/limbless/swimmer (d4)

d12 lifeform

1 humanoid

2 reptilian

3 robotic

4 crustacean

5 plant

6 putrescence golem

7 undead or semi-undead

8 gaseous

9 prismatic 

10 elemental

11 humanoid and roll again to combine

12 roll d4 times and combine, ignore if re-rolled

d20 spiciness

1 mindless drone

2 exudes anti-magic aura

3 twin beings with hivemind

4 parasitic

5 breath/blood/plasm vitae highly toxic/corrosive

6 reproduces via budding

7 telepathic

8 transformation abilities

9 infected by noxious disease

10 aging backwards

11 limbs can disconnect and act independently

12 can produce small items from its bones

13 obsessed with pyramids

14 confuses creation and destruction

15 bionetic or cybernetic implants

16 multi-headed

17 ethereal/dimensional shifted form

18 worships rogue AI

19 this is just its larval form

20 feeds on inorganic material

d20 additional locations

1 vast sea of fuligin oobleck

2 plain pockmarked with craters, shards of satellites constantly rain down

3 honeycombed mountain so massive it juts out beyond the atmosphere, full of drone perpetually rebuilding machine cities 

4 a city built around an enormous glass orb showing ghostly forms within the most contained within

5 arcology pleasure-garden populated with hedonistic bat people

6 a gently rotating island in the center of a perfectly circular lake of motor oil

7 castle perched atop the back of a mountain sized tortoise

8 City built inside a whale skeleton

9 forest of humming crystal shards

10 village of shamans that hate technology beyond rocks and fire

11 field of skeletal limbs which grow like flowers

12 scattered village of mudhuts inhabited by an enclave of clones of the same person

13 crashed freighter starship inhabited by terrified space marines. inside the freight pod is an enormous human with perfectly smooth alabaster skin, sleeping

14 herd of sleek robotic unicorns sporting 6 foot air-powered harpoon horns

15 the shifting amber labyrinth, home to moth-men obsessed with dissecting human social constructs

16 a single sentient tree capable of telepathic speech, desires world peace

17 a star-fort of pterodactyl riders

hermetic inoculation - Buddhism / Morrowind OD&D

 taking a break from the Internet, except for writing work, blog posts, research, and music. not doing anything social. those of you who know me on the discord are aware i retreat into hermetic semi-seclusion 3-4 times a year. i probably won't be very active again outside this blog until after Halloween, potentially until after new year. we'll see how it goes. if you really want to contact me for some reason I'm sure it'll happen.

in the mean time I'm tinkering with system stuff. my goal is to set up a system which matches my playstyle, which lends itself to quick generation of game content. i prefer to rely on randomization to cut down on prep time and increase player agency, and encourage me (the GM) to take a more backseat role in guiding the game. i like each session to be as much a surprise and discovery as my players. i don't like pretending to be in control or guiding the experience.

y'know, the reason why there are so many rulesets is because, if you want to do something other than totally vanilla rules as written d&d, if you wanna do *anything* out of the ordinary, you need houserules. if you have houserules you'll need a document of some kind. then, in order to educate players as to which rules you're keeping and which you're changing, you almost end up needing to rewrite the entire rulebook to some degree. 

thus, for every campaign there's the potential for a modified rulset to take shape. since GMs spend so much time tinkering with their stuff they get attached to it, make it wanna look nice, and before you know it they've put enough work in that, heck, i might as well put it out there.

the reason there's so few adventure modules, comparatively, is that at table play tends to be a mix of published stuff, original content, and heavily edited published stuff, stuff copied from elsewhere and spliced in. most people's games are pretty ad hoc compared to their carefully articulated rulesets, they take poor notes on what happened in the game, and their keying structure is often just what they need to run the game.

so then you have it people don't release as much of their adventure material. they crossbreed other people's content with their own gibberish and slop, and so it requires much more work to go back and replace all the recycled material with OC so people don't call you a thief 

of course, you could just take honor in being a thief and publish it anyway, hint hint. don't try to make money off it. just make it zines and fan work. this is a hobby, after all 

I'm not gonna lie, i really like the idea of skill systems for taking some of the weight off. i explain what that means below. Morrowind has a nice skill system, as does Worlds Without Number. What would happen if we mixed these things with my two favorite systems, OD&D and Knave? I'll be tinkering with these ideas over the next couple seasons.

=====

Attributes

Roll 3d6 for Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma

score (adj)

3 (-2)

4-7 (- 1)

8-13 (+0)

14-17( +1)

18 (+2)

Strength - Adjusts melee attacks, used for feats of strength.

Dexterity - Ranged attacks, speed, agility, reflexes

Constitution - Used to resist poison, illness, exposure. You can carry 1.5x this many slots. You can survive this many days without food.

Intelligence - You start with Int/5 languages. Languages include elements of cultural familiarity. Occultists start with Int bonus +1 spells

Wisdom - insight into karmic vicissitudes, intuition, ability to deal with spirits appropriately.

Charisma - Affability, charm, wit, leadership. Adjusts reaction rolls. You can have half your Charisma in followers.

Attribute adjustment

You may subtract 2 points from one attribute to add 1 to another.

Saving Throws

Fortitude - overcoming with strength, effort, endurance. Adjusted by the better of Strength and Constitution.

Reflex - overcoming with agility, dexterity, reflexes. Adjusted by the better of Dexterity and Charisma.

Warding - overcoming with spirituality, intelligence, esoteric science. Adjusted by the better of Intelligence and Wisdom.

Each saving throw starts at 15, adding or subtracting your best attribute adjustment for each. To make a successful save, throw d20 Equal or Over the relevant saving throw. Each level you can distribute 3 points between saving throws.

At level 2 Maghada the Wise distributes 3 points between her saving throws. Her saves are Fort 14 Reflex 15 Warding 16. She puts 2 points into Fort, reducing it to 12, and one point into Warding, reducing it to 15.

Skill System

Difficulty

Rating

Easy

7

Average

9

Difficult

11

Impossible

13

Roll 2d6 + Attribute + Skill Level

Without the appropriate skill some things are impossible, like casting magic. Other things you can still attempt, like Riding a horse in difficult conditions, but incur a -1 penalty when it's clear none of your skills or backgrounds fit the situation. Further penalties and bonuses can be applied for careful planning, appropriate or inappropriate equipment, less than ideal environments, timing, etc. this is worked out via conversation between players and GM.

Lots of people groan about skills in OSR games, so I’ve never tried using them. This system is lifted straight out of WWN. I’m wondering if it’ll take some of the guesswork out of dealing with niche situations and coming up with, and remembering, new rulings for every case. This way I can just assign a difficulty, we pick out which skill and attribute makes the most sense, and throw. In some cases, like Sneak, Speech, Perception, they’ll be rolled behind the scenes so you don’t know when you’ve failed. In some cases, different skills with both fit the situation and we’ll all have to figure out what makes the most sense. Shrug. That’s the game. If it sucks we can throw it out.

Skill List

Administer - Running an organization, handling bureaucracy, performing scribal duties, identifying incompetent or treacherous workers, analyzing records or archives. Handling anything an executive or middle manager would do.

Alchemy - Treat wounds, cure diseases, neutralize poisons, diagnose problems of body and mind. Produce potions and poisons using alchemical ingredients.

Athletics - Run, Climb, Swim, Jump, Labor for long periods. Strength, Stamina, Coordination.

Combat - Knowing the art of war, being skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Added to attack rolls. each time you take combat you put a point into blades, axes, polearms, or clubs. Warrior-types like Nomad Blades get two-for-one when they spend points in Combat.

Connect - Finding people who are useful to your purposes, know who to talk to for favors or services, calling on help or resources of an organization you belong to. Covers ability to find people you need, though convincing them to help may require more.

Craft - Craft or repair items / technology appropriate to PC’s background. GM is within their rights to prevent PC from building complex things outside their background and experience.

Dharma - Understand the fundamental cosmic underpinnings of the world, perform clerical and ritual duties, familiarity with daemons, saints, and taboos, identify iconography, understand local faiths and religious hierarchies.

Language - Speak and write in a language, understand the culture and context of native speakers.

Leadership - Inspire others to follow you and believe in your plans and goals. Manage subordinates, encourage loyalty and motivation. A successful skillcheck can prevent morale decay and route of followers.

Lore - Know matters of history, geography, natural science, zoology, and other academic fields appropriate to a scholar. Some might specialize in a specific field, otters may have a broad range of understanding.

Magic - Cast or analyze magic, know things about famous magicians or magical events. non-occultists with this only obtain intellectual benefits. there's like d8 schools of magic and you have to spend skill points for each style.

Marksman - Firing a crossbow, maintaining ranged weapons. primitive, black powder, hurlant.

Mercantile - Running a successful business, buying/selling, identifying the worth of goods/treasures, dealing with merchants, finding blackmarket, knowing smuggling law

Perception - Identify ambushes, hear distant sounds, notice small details or concealed objects, find secret doors or traps. Frequently rolled secretly as a result of PC actions.

Perform - Sing, dance, orate, perform impressively for an audience. Compose music, plays, writings, or other performance arts. Most have a field they specialize in, though polymaths may exist if PC’s background is appropriate.

Profession - Pick some mundane workaday job thing you did in your past life. Bricklaying, Blacksmith, Incense Roller, Midwife, Well Digger, whatever. Make something up or I’ll get a list.

Ride - Handling riding animals and beasts of burden, driving carts / wagons, carriage repair, judging a good horse, shoeing.

Sail - Sail or reair ship, build small craft, navigate by stars, read sea weather, manage sailors.

Speechcraft - Persuade a listener. The more implausible or repugnant the claim, the more difficult. How they act on their new conviction is up to them and their motivations, not always predictable.

Stealth - Moving silently, hiding in shadows, picking pockets, disguise, pick locks, defeat small mechanisms. Hack security bots?

Survival - hunt, fish, navigate by the stars, deal with environment, identify plants / wildlife, craft survive tools and shelter.

Technology - familiarity with hyper-advanced technology from bygone ages. may be able to identify, use, or even repair ancient relics.

Unarmed - Fighting unarmed. Pugilism, grappling.

The Use of Skills

 The function of skills is intentionally loose and open to interpretation. some of them overlap with each other to cover different bases. for instance, a character with lore and one with technology may both be able to identify an alien artifact, but the character with technology may have better odds since the specifics align more closely with his domain. on the flip side, a character with lore+4 may have better odds than a character with tech+1 for identification, history, and source of said object, but likely wouldn't know how to use or repair it, as lore is considered of a more scholarly than practical knowledge. 

Skills are intended to aid in making more consistent rulings and support diegetic play, rather than act as strict rules or replace at-table discussion. The GM is encouraged to pick the closest option and move on rather than stick a player with a -1 penalty for not having the right skill.

D20 Background (will flesh these out later)

1

Artisan

blacksmith, tanner, carpenter

2

Barbarian

savage, hermit, wildman

3

Carter

hauling goods, riding post

4

Courtesan

prostitute, geisha

5

Criminal

thief, conman, burglar

6

Hunter

trapper, recluse

7

Laborer

skilled or unskilled worker

8

Merchant

trader, peddler, shopkeeper

9

Noble

spare son, exile, black sheep

10

Nomad

raider, tribal wanderer

11

Peasant

Peasant farmer, rural laborer, serf

12

Performer

bard, dancer, singer

13

Physician

village healer, chirurgeon

14

Priest

monk, ascetic, holy hermit

15

Sailor

bargeman, fisherman, pirate

16

Scholar

Scholar sage, mage’s apprentice

17

Slave

indentured laborer, runaway

18

Soldier

bandit, mercenary, guardsman

19

Thug

ruffian, gang member, village bully

20

Wanderer

exile, explorer, traveler

though a few interesting details are nice, long character back stories are discouraged.at most a quick paragraph in broad strokes is plenty. if you need an exact number keep it at 5 sentences or less.

 the game is about facing difficult dilemmas, making the best of bad situations - more about how our values come into conflict with reality, and how the goals we achieve in the end often aren't the ones we set out after. How you change, and the world changes with you, for better or worse.

karma

a character's karma can be chaotic, neutral, or lawful. how this is interpreted is up to the player. karma has background mechanics invisible to the players which affects various situations. it's possible a PC's karma can change enough to warrant a shift in alignment, though this will likely be rare and you'll never be held accountable for sticking to an alignment designation - you're always free to change your ways at any moment. if you're unsure, just pick neutral.

Leveling up

all classes use the same XP progression. prime requisites offer extra features and better abilities rather than XP adjustments.

PCs earn XP by defeating enemies, showing mercy, upholding difficult vows, finding clever ways around obstacles, recovering valuable treasures, completing quests, restoring shrines, purifying corrupted areas, and making personal sacrifices for the benefit of strangers. 

100xp is average, though it can be more depending on the potency. XP is awarded at the end of the session. this is less about playing to your particular character concept and more about making meaningful decisions and development as a person in the world. don't ask “what would my character do?” ask “what would *I* do?”

1g = 10xp

treasure and XP is split between the entire party, including henchmen who each take a 1/2 share for themselves first, the rest divided between the players. some henchmen may make additional demands according to their personality, karma, and morale. henchmen tend to be scrupulous and may behave unreasonably if they feel cheated.

an easy way to figure this is to divide the treasure by twice the number of total people in the pot (PCs+henchmen) to get the value of a half share. multiply it by the number of hechmen to get their earnings, which is subtracted from the total pot. the remainder is divided evenly by players.

a party of 3 PCs and 5 henchmen loot 200g.

200 divided by 16 = a half share of 12.5. times 5 henchmen is 62.5 total paid to the henchmen

the remaining 137.5 is divided between the players for 45.8g each.

if you wanted henchmen to get a third share instead you could multiply the total number of party members by three and divide the treasure by that to get the henchman's share.

i used to avoid doing this because i thought math was scary, but it's a lot of fun to imagine the hechmen’s greedy faces, sticking out their tongues and rubbing their hands together, as they eagerly wait on the PC that can actually do basic math to divide the treasure.

thinking about separating class types into warrior, magician, specialist, or adventurer types, allowing them to get two-for-one when they put points in appropriate skills.

OR maybe they pick major, minor, and misc skills like in Morrowind.

whatever will be fastest. 

I'll probably come back and add some art later.

The Rain Game

 I was inspired to write this solo wilderness exploration / survival RPG based on an outdoor adventure my three-year old took me on at our neighborhood park. I let her lead me through a pretend exploration in which we gathered nuts, built campfires, caught monsters in traps, protected our nest using magic herbs, stored away food, gave gifts to buddhas, and hid from the rain underneath trees. I'm so lucky to have such a being of pure light in my life. 

A note about the name: she initiated our adventure by saying "Come play the rain game with me, daddy!"

I haven't playtested it, I don't know how fun or functional it is. If you play it, tell me about your adventures.

The Rain Game Link

 

dungeon generator

d20 rooms split between d4 floors. Alternatively you got d6 floors with d8 rooms each.

You can expand a dungeon easily but it's hard to fill a dungeon that's too big when you run out of ideas. Start small and don't use up all your ideas in one place.

For each floor take as many random dice shapes as you need rooms and drop em on grid paper. Draw a room around each die. The numbers can be influence size, shape, and/or exits. Even numbers mean empty (no monsters) odd means a monster inhabitant.

Next, connect the rooms. I let the points on the die, the number facing, the orientation to other dice, and my own whim dictate the direction and angularity of the corridors. Remove each die as you finish drawing the connections, marking rooms that have monsters with some sign 

Look at what you have so far. Are there any choke points, issues, improvements, or features or ideas that jump out? Write down all your impressions stream of consciousness on a separate sheet of paper. Make any adjustments to dungeon layout now.

If you had any ideas for room keys start writing them. You can be verbose if you like but try to trim them down to a few sentences max as you continue iterating. Forget worrying about being good or fun at the table, just have fun right now.

Remember the golden rule: quit and come back if it stops being fun.

TIP: set yourself a timer, say 15-20 minutes. Try to finish a whole floor before the timer ends. If you stop and you still have some ideas going just let it be and come back to it. You'll jump back into the flow quicker next time. If you run out of time just erase the extra rooms or fill them with monsters, statues, collapsed columns, furniture, mushrooms, robot parts, bottomless pits, and rivers of acid.

Theme

The organizing idea of a dungeon is the theme. Each dungeon should have a principal theme, and each floor could have a variation of that theme. You may or may not have an initial theme at this point. If not, roll on the spark table below for ideas. To make a variation roll on one or both spark tables again and smash the result with the previous theme.

#rolled | element 1 | element 2

1. | Military | Fire

2. | Famine/plague | Earth

3. | Graveyard | Water

4. | Factory | Forest

5. | Experiments| Sky

6. | Grandeur | Galactic

7. | Melancholia | Caves

8. | Medicine | Hollow

9. | Forlorn hope | Swamp

10. | Crystal | Vapor

11. | Ancient Magic | Conjoined

12. | Solitude | Stone

13. | Primordial | Poison

14. | Prison | Building

15. | Beasts | Withering

16. | Weather | Knowledge

17. | Machines | Mutated

18. | Mushrooms | Hidden

19. | Precipices| Separated

20. | Hallowed | Organs

Filling the rooms

For each monster room, roll a monster.

For each empty room, roll for contents:

1-2. Really empty

3. Really empty, with treasure

4-5. Trick/Trap/Obstacle

6. Trick/Trap/Obstacle, with treasure

Decide on the contents, whether it's random bric a brac or traps, based on the theme. Here's another spark table for room contents. You can throw on the first table once for a simple usage, twice for a "what was it originally? what was it now?", the same on the second table for more ephemeral ideas, or combine the two and even mix with the first table to go really far out. The second table is good for trap effects.

It can help to take the spark you roll and free-associate some names based on it, and use that to get an idea for the room. Example: for "Abandoned Drift" in a dungeon whose theme is "Melancholia Poison" you could call the room "Prison of Oaks" "Void distemper" "Revolving catastrophe" "Slime warren" "Ocean of Dreams". You might roll one more spark element to help break a block, but avoid rolling on the tables a bunch of times.. all the extra detritus just muddies the waters.

Remember to just take a break if you feel a serious block coming. Many times if you quit before the ideas stop all together it'll start flowing again more quickly.

Try to keep a description of the room itself to a single sentence! Remember that 15 minute timer? You might be the kind of person that shuts down when the pressure is on. It can help you as a person to practice working through those feelings.

Oh, sorry, did you think this blog was only about d&d? Haha.

Sorry, here's that table:

#rolled | element 1 | element 2

1. | Barracks | Gravity

2. | Apothecary | Vaporized

3. | Workshop | Evoke

4. | Ballroom | Decrepit

5. | Leisure | Drift

6. | Jail | Sewage 

7. | Library | Crushed

8. | Storage | Ransacked

9. | Judicial | Overrun

10. | Foyer | Sealed

11. | Refectory | Unstable 

12. | Office | Split

13. | Clinic | Contaminated

14. | Atrium | Buried

15. | Agriculture | Dissolved

16. | Disposal | Deluge

17. | Mine | Torched

18. | Abandoned | Forgotten

19. | Mistake| Mistake

20. | Economy | Temporary

If there's rooms containing monsters next to each other consider making them a faction or at least allies. Decide what they're doing in the room and what nearby rooms they know about/have influence over. Give them things they want, as well as problems and enemies. A single room entry might look like this:

Room 6 - Prison of Oaks 

12 blind mushy mushroom men make out with rotting trees growing thru cracks in walls, fed by a continuous light cast on a brass idol of a monkey. The monkey idol is burning hot to the touch. The mushroom men are drowsy/drunken and barely hostile to interrupters. In the middle of each is a blue crystal worth 50 gp.

Once you get the first draft done go over it again, see if any new ideas come up. Next, cut out stuff you hate. Don't be afraid to just leave some rooms totally empty. Add some locked or secret doors, extra corridors, dead ends, more dangerous obstacles, weird effects, highways that connect disparate sections, flooded or caved in areas, alternate entrances, and elevators/stairs/chutes that skip whole floors forming shortcuts.

How much treasure should you put in? Here's my formula:

( Number of expected players * dungeon floor * 2000 + 20% )

I rarely though sometimes make treasure in the form of coins and gems, though that can have some great old school flavor. Mostly it's furniture, weird junk, or pseudo magical junk that players often walk right past.

Half of it is in monster possession, half of what remains is hidden where nobody would look, and the rest is just laying around under/in stuff, or is heavy or bolted down.

Oh yeah last thing make a d6 or d8 encounter table for each floor. You might save deciding what monsters to use until you get your table, or draw the monsters in the table from what you already keyed, or pick totally new monsters for the encounters. I like my encounter tables to have one or two entries from main dungeon factions, then the rest be unique encounters.

The rules for making monsters in Worlds Without Number is great for when you're feeling dumb. Actually WWN is just great.

(PS All art is made by AI because I'm lazy as fuck)

How to start adventuring

 Draw a map. Use whatever format inspires you the most. I like the freedom of a blank sheet of printer paper and a nice mechanical pencil, or thick sketchbook paper and micron pens. Let the ideas flow as you go. If you get stuck quit and go do something else.

Once you've got your map pick the place the players will start. Choose 4 nearby locations to be important.

Who lives there? What do they want/need? What are they afraid of? What's something that makes them different from their neighbors?

Write 3 sentences for 3 different settlements. They can be human trade down, elven bastions, evil war-barons, or a city of zombies leftover from the demon wars who are just trying their best to mimic their old way of life. 

Whatever you do, avoid the temptation to be good, to write something others would enjoy, or to make something that would bring you accolades. If you catch yourself thinking at any point "that's not good enough, so-and-so on that blog said ideas like this are stupid" or "if I bought this product on drivethru would I be disappointed?" just stop and go do something else. Take a shower, drink some water, go for a walk.

Throw a d6, make that many adventure locations. Every location needs:

- a physical thing marking the location

- something valuable

- something dangerous

- a trick

- a living or non-living being to befriend

- a connection to something else on the map

Draw a map if you feel inspired, or make a diarama out of clay, or make a playlist on Spotify.

At this point put everything down and go watch a movie like Secret of Nimh, the Bakshi LoTR movies, or Castle in the Sky. Go for a walk in the woods, or sit at the subway and people watch.

Come back, doodle more. Eventually work your way toward a dungeon. For inspiration go play NES Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid, or Dragon Warrior.

Make a dungeon of 20 rooms. It should have:

- 8 empty rooms

- 5 rooms with monsters

- 4 traps

- 8000 gp worth of treasure, broken up into chunks and scattered randomly (2000, 1000, 1000, 500, 500, 500, 500, 250, 250, 250, 250, and the last 1000 in small change tucked in little places or in the form of cutlery)

- 3 things that aren't traps that are obstacles and only potentially dangerous (if you can't imagine what that looks like go for a walk by the train tracks, sewers, river, docks, or junk yard)

Play some D&D. Start the players at the dungeon. Run them on it. Let them decide what they want to do. If they seem stuck give them two options. Don't be afraid to wait. Take notes.

Afterwards start making connections between everything seen, said, done, talked to, heard about. Go forth and prosper.

Tales of Mordhearse on Itch.io

I wrote up a fancy 2 page pdf for the Tales of Mordhearse hyperlite ruleset, slightly altered, and containing an example dungeon. It's hosted on itch.io. The game owes its chassis to Into the Odd and Zelda & is intended to get people playing with little to no experience. All the gaping holes are on purpose--you're supposed to make up the stuff that fills in the blanks.

Shields & combat hack rules

If you let your shield get sundered you get hurled 10 feet and land on your ass, dazed. It doesn't just fall to matchsticks harmlessly at your feet while you reach for another one. Also in my games stopping combat to dig around in your backpack leaves you open to free attacks from everybody within reach, and they get a +2 bonus.

Here's some fun combat houserules for you straight from my hacked OD&D campaign:

• Make unarmored AC 8, so plate+shield is AC15. That'll speed up combat.
• Make all 1-3s different degrees of utter failure and 18-20 degrees of critical success. Very high/low rolls should dramatically affect combat. No whiffs--every combat turn there's some kind of fictional repositioning.
• You can't move & reload a crossbow at the same time, also you lose a turn.
• Getting flanked means -2 AC, and maybe higher damage.
• Use d6 for single-handed weapons, d8 for 2-h. All HD are d6.
• Fighters can chain extra attacks when they land a killing blow. At 4th level fighters can make 2 attacks. At 8th level they can fight two enemies simultaneously (they can't be flanked)
• Flavor your weapons by changing what they do on good hits: Maces shatter armor, crush bone, inflict mangling trauma. Axes can grapple shields and easily sever limbs. Daggers are quick, can be thrown if they're in hand as a free action,and slice arteries. Swords parry and flash quickly and often get extra attacks. Polearms are long, get first strike, and can be swung in a wide arc to hit multiple dudes but leave you wide open.
• Close ranged attacks get a +2 bonus instead of long-distance ranged getting a penalty.
• Double damage for crits and sneak attacks. (Alternative; crits are dCarcosa). Chaining crits or especially risky successes add extra dice.
• All dice explode. All of them.
• Getting exactly 0 HP means you survive but get some kind of horrific trauma.
• Characters with 13+ Dex can dual wield; roll with advantage on attacks or make two attacks at -2.
• Anybody can attempt to cast a spell from a scroll but they have a high risk of botching it which means you get to roll on your most fiendish magical mishap tables.
• If you have never, try using miniatures. It's fun.

HYPERLITE D&D // TALES FROM MORDHEARSE

Roll d6, that's your HP.

1-2 Wizard
3 spell slots. Roll on this table x3. You can re-roll any spell each morning. <dice> is the amount of HP spent on the spell. <sum> is rolling that many dice and adding.
Wizards can Sense Magic on 3in6, getting a feel for the nature & source of magical energies.

Roll Twice for Starting Freakishness:
2. Extra spell
3. Stretchy limbs
4. Blood corrodes metal
5. Limited Read Thoughts on 2in6
6. Knows the general vicinity of lost things
7. Cat like you a lot, Bat nest in your hair, your fingernails grow really fast
8. You can transfer your HP to others
9. When you die your companions can pull an embryo out of your stomach and raise the child in 2d6 months into a clone of you
10. Pet snake lives in your throat. Has poison bite (one per session, victim rolls under HP or die), speaks in lies.
11.  Freakish crab claw/dragon head/tiger fangs/eye stalks/bat wings/octopus tentacles
12. Faerie companion. She can talk and fly. Sucking out her internal ichor saves the dying

3-4 Burglar
You can Hide in Shadows as long as you stay quiet. Enemies are surprised by you unless you roll a 1in6. Add current HP to surprise attacks.
You can Sense Danger on 3in6. DM tells you the feeling you get.
If a trap goes off on you Jam it Shut by rolling under your Current HP. You have that many turns before it goes off. If the success number is 6 trap is reset instead.

Roll 3 times for Starting Toolkit:
2. Grappling Hook/50' rope
3. 10' pole
4. Everglowing buglight
5. Bag of Caltrops
6. d6 sleeping gas bombs
7. Bag of Holding (extra 5 item slots)
8. Boomerang
9. Bow & 20 arrows, d6 are magic.
10. Glue/Grease/Acid
11. Survive Poison death, you're now immune to that poison
12. Talking Rat familiar

5-6 Warrior
Add your current HP to your damage roll. You start with a Shield (+1 armor, sunder to avoid attack) and Spear.

Your Warrior Code allows you to (roll once)
2.  Speak with the dead
3. Immunize fear
4. Command minor humanoids
5. Befriend gnomes
6. Ride wolves
7. Shrug off one death
8. Hurl knives with unerring accuracy
9. Fight two enemies at once
10. Restore d6 HP to anybody once per session
11. Hold Undead at bay
12. Bless a friend once a day (+1 rolls one hour)

Level Up every 100xLevel XP you collect.
Gain 1 max HP.

Monsters are worth HPx5 xp

Treasure is worth GP value (common: 10, uncommon: 50, rare: 100) 

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Every character starts with a bundle of 3 torches OR 3 days worth of food.

 If you carry more items than your max HP you're Exhausted. All saves rolled are at half current HP rounded up.

Restore 1HP per 10 minutes rested. Roll encounter checks every 20 minutes of dungeon time. Attacks do d6 damage, minus Armor.

Monsters have 2d6 HP and some kind of special ability. Lesser monsters have 3HP but attack in hordes. Big ass monsters have 3d6 HP and +1 Armor.

Traps are puzzles. Roll under current HP to Save from Dire Effects.




YOUR QUEST: humanity is dying. You have been sent by your village to clear the Ancient Temple of Evil  and make a safe fortress to rebuild society. Things aren't what they seem.

Monsters only immediately attack on a 2in6, but they mistrust you and know about your quest.

Cugel Greymouse and the Forty-Two Thieves//MORDHEARSE

I'm never satisfied with anything. I have a need to constantly tinker with and change things in my rules. I can't just run a module or pre-made dungeon, I have to adapt the whole thing to fit my own sensibilities. I'm a little obsessive.

Tomes have been written about how thieves destroy agency by automatically doing adventurer stuff while the other PCs have to roleplay everything. What's the point of interacting with stuff if we can just have the thief it?

Here's my attempt at a non-agency destroying thief. You can read the Reddit thread that started this here.

MOUNTEBANK

Prime Requisite: Dexterity
XP growth as OD&D thieves, not the LotFP one. I want them to shoot up in level cos they're constantly getting maimed.
 
Weapon proficiency Thieves can dual-wield a dagger and a small weapon if they meet their Prime Requisite. This lets them roll two attacks and pick the best roll. Prime Thieves also get an additional +1 with missile weapons.

Lockpicking Thieves are the only class that can pick locks, as this requires special training. (The idea is that the adventurers are deadbeats who 'fell into' adventuring by accident or need, they didn't go out of their way to become adventurers, and thus only bring to the table skills relating to their past lives. Every class deals with situations differently; Fighters can smash locked doors better, Thaumaturges can cast Knock, Thieves pick locks)

Backstab They deal double damage when they backstab like everybody else but they also add their level to the to-hit and damage roll. Damage dice explode by adding another die on a 6 as always. (Combat is quick and deadly. Misses usually result in a change in fictional positioning and Hits are usually effective. Fumbles and Crits exponentially so.)

Thieves can only wear Leather armor, but they can use bucklers*, daggers, staves, short spears, bows, crossbows, daggers, shortswords, cudgels, and handaxes.

HD as Magic User. (Thieves are squishy and opportunistic fighters)
Saves as Hobbit. (Thieves have good saves because they're the trap finders. This lets them relatively fearlessly explore dangerous situations)

Listen at Doors successful on 2in6. Thieves get better details on what they're hearing than other classes.

Sense Danger/Secret Doors
On a 2in6 Thieves, Elves, and Dwarves use their attuned senses to detect strange things, such as secret doors, hidden traps, enemies lurking in the darkness, or scrying attempts. This is only the whisper of a detection "You feel something odd/ominous" about the thing they're examining. Only happens if its successful and there's something to be found.


Trap Jamming
This is the big change. Shout out to ktrey at d4 caltrops for the idea to the Clerical Turning mechanic here.

Thieves can't disarm traps any better than anybody else, that has to be done within the fiction by interaction & trial and error. They do, however, get a saving throw to Jam sprung traps for a few moments or temporarily sabotage them. When a Thief jams a trap their only options are to sit there and keep holding it while the rest of the party tries to figure it out quickly, or take the effect. Each turn the thief is holding the trap they have to remake the save to see if they can successfully keep it Jammed.

The trap jamming chart is the same as the Turn Undead chart for clerics. Roll 2d6

Trap HD	L1	L2	L3	L4	L5	L6	L7	L8
1	7	J	J	D	D	D	D	D
2	9	7	J	J	D	D	D	D
3	11	9	7	J	J	D	D	D
4		11	9	7	J	J	D	D
5			11	9	7	J	J	D
6				11	9	7	J	J
7					11	9	7	J
8						11	9	7

Trap HD = Dungeon Level, or maybe just some random dice, or maybe you have an idea how complicated the guts of this trap are.
D=Temporarily Disabled. The trap is considered "disabled" for an unknown period of time. Whether the trap "goes off" after this time, or simply resets awaiting for reactivation is up to the DM. DM adjudicates here.
J=Trap is 'Jammed' the thief has their fingers/specialist tools jammed inside the release mechanism of the trap or whatever, they're somehow holding it back from going off, and they're slipping. The other players have to figure out a way to stop or disable the trap or it's gonna go off. The thief is basically fucked and about to die. HELP SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING. Make a new roll every "round". Maybe its every few minutes, maybe its every full 10 minute round, maybe its every d4 or d8 or d12 minutes according to Thief level. I kind of like the idea of the thief holding a screwdriver in a wall panel, holding a falling block back, while the party frantically searches nearby rooms for a large iron bar.

Disappear into Shadows Thieves can merge with shadows and sneak around as long as they aren't encumbered. They move as if invisible, but only within shadowy areas, if they move into a lighted area they are no longer "invisible" and have to sneak like normal (adjudicated). A crafty thief can "freeze" and blend into their surroundings on a successful save. They can also sneak out of sight and "vanish" during combat to maneuver into a good position for backstabs.

Keen Eye Killjoy Thieves can spent a turn studying an enemy's movements while out of sight. During this time they continue making sneak checks as normal. Each turn they get a +1 to-hit on their backstab in addition to their regular bonus. This only works with ranged attacks.

Climb Impossible Walls Thieves can climb impossible surfaces a la Taurus from the Conan story "Tower of the Elephant". To do this they have to be naked, perhaps with only a dagger belted to their waste and some rope.

Read Scrolls at 6th level because it's fuckin cool and adds to the 'dabble at everything, suck at everything' deal they got goin on. 1in6 they fuck up the spell for every level over 2. Also considered just letting them have a single spell slot at 8th, cos Cugel managed to force a couple spells in his brain that one time.

I think it's important to leave a lot of room for adjudication here. Fuck percentile rolls. Thieves can do things that other classes can't, but they still have to roleplay it and haggle with the DM on their rolls. I don't want thieves to just get a free pass on shit because they're thieves. They're the disposable human can-openers, the failsafe, the decoy.

I'm probably/definitely gonna edit this shit and update it as I have more ideas. I'm gonna be running an open table campaign at a local bar starting next week and I wanna make sure I got all my funky OD&D homebrew shit in a row before then. In a rush now to get the ideas out.

Something all this is missing is improvement by level. I think any ole DM can handle throwing level bonuses into the mix. God forbid we tell the players what their chances/risks are before they start throwing dice. Just improve the odds by a third level for stuff on a d6 or full level on a d20.


*Bucklers: small shields that allow you the use of your free hand. They are light and small and thus don't increase your AC. They are useless against missiles. Bucklers can splintered to avoid one attack.

the World of Quarthon // MORDHEARSE

 Background info, Humans & Dwarves for my personal OD&D homebrew "MORDHEARSE"
The name was inspired by BLACKMOOR and my intention is to throwback to the earliest proto-D&D gaming expectations. Most of the dungeons will be randomly populated with zero consideration given to survivability and very little given to realism (although I love Gygaxian naturalism, so there'll be a bit of that). You can find monsters and items out of depth. XP comes from spending your money on carousing and philanthropy. Players will be expected to build or steal fortresses at the higher levels. There's a heavy post-apocalyptic swords&sorcery super-science bent. Damage dice and HD are all D6. Wizards aren't TOTALLY useless when they run out of spells.

I'm also considering letting everybody where any armor they want and just making it horribly painful to lug around or do adventuring, which mostly requires you to be light and quick if you wanna survive.


This is our Earth billions of years into the future. Humans have risen, fallen, been reduced to the stone age, risen, fallen, been enslave for millennia, discovered, forgotten, and rediscovered sorcery, technology, religion, culture, art, in all it's various multiplicities. The planet has been reduced to glass and grown back a half dozen times. What was old becomes new. We've mutated into a thousand different species, been reduced to ashes, and re-congealed back into our original form, only to do the same thing over and over. We've colonized space, discovered, enslaved, and obliterated extraterrestrial life, discovered time travel, traveled to other dimensions, given birth to universe spanning AIs, incinerated whole galaxies, played out every conceivable game to its bitter conclusion. Time after time we've fallen back to old Earth, our home, our mother, built and rebuilt anew.

The sun is dying. We've kept it alive through technology and sorcery, completely rebuilding it a few times along the way. Things have gone on too long, all those ways are unknown now. It's burning out for good. The night sky is empty and lonely, and more stars wink out every year. There's an enormous tear in the sky where it seems to pinch itself together, a seam of lost 'space' that collapses inward, like a mirage in the corner of the eye, and that patch grows larger every year. NEMESIS--All see it but none may know it.

In the morning the flickering, feeble sun rises and drifts weakly across the lower horizon. Some days it doesn't even rise at all. Its feeble light sheds gold and ruby and sapphire in every direction. At night all is dark and grey and men and beast shiver and hide in their holes. Unearthly noises fill the air and things hunt in the jungles which envelop the globe.

Humanity is unimaginably old and senile. We've changed as a race along the way, but not as much as you might think. We've built perfect Utopias that lasted eons, and perfect Hells which spanned solar systems. There's nothing left to try, but we flounder onwards.



HUMANS come in many shapes, colors, and sizes, of even more complexity than we do now. At the basic core we are still human, fighting and fucking and living as we always have. Though perhaps a bit more cynical if not wiser for the trouble.

Their societies are spread across the globe, mostly lost and disconnected from each other, and forming an ever-changing face of complexity. Villages and towns near to each other may speak a different language, wear different clothes, pray to different gods, and have totally different rituals and customs to their neighbors. Between some groups these differences are seen as healthy diversity and respected. Between others it is viewed as evil and strange.

Humans have a multiplicity of different living styles. When creating a human settlement roll:

Society type
1. Hunter/gatherer
2. Fuedal
3. Industrial
4. Technomantic
5. Hedonistic
6. Raider

Organization style:
1. Anarchist/Utopian
2. Tribalistic
3. Theological/Diabolic
4. Kingdom
5. Aristocratic/Caste
6. Sorcerous

Other tables for various societal creation will be given at a later date.

The territory of this given society is also in 6 mile hexes. More hexes may indicate a more powerful society, centrally constructed, or of a spreading/diverse collection of varying but similar groups which consider themselves relational. To determine the territory of a group roll on a d4, d8, or d12.


Humans may begin play as any class: Fighters, Pilgrims, Thaumaturges, or Mountebanks. They may switch to a different class later on, as long as they have a 16 in the Prime Requisite for that class. They may not, however, switch back to their original class unless they also have a 16 in that Prime Requisite as well. Humans are ever-learning and endlessly adaptable, but even they have limits.

Humans may reach any level.




DWARVES a relative of man, though none know it. They hail from the continent-wide Silver desert, where they build canyon-side edifices and carve intricate hidden tunnels in the rock, craftily hidden from any but those with the eyes to see them. They harvest potent Mercurial water from the sands themselves using processes which combine plant, animal, and technomatic forms. This water is a jealously guarded and holy product of the dwarves. To use this water for a wrong purpose, or to give it to others is a deadly sin to the dwarves. No dwarf may live without it, and all dwarves carry a bit with themselves, held in special organs inside their bodies.

Dwarves are nomads and tend horse-sized locust creatures, and hairy behemoths which graze the fallow sands, traveling from hidden keep to hidden keep. They are shepherds of the sandworms which make travel through the desert perilous and regard these titanic creatures as living gods, the perfected Dwarf-form which creates tunnels and consumes all and hoards endlessly

Many Dwarves choose to leave the desert, for their own reasons, and travel the world abroad. They are a common sight as roving bands of hustlers, thieves, bards, and traders. They are often used as ranch hands, or animal tamers, or beastmasters because of their inclination for animal husbandry.

They do not have a written language using runes or symbols, but their words are melodious, and they can speak with virtuosity using instruments of varying style. Dwarves paint and tattoo their bodies and wear elaborately detailed textiles and weave tapestries of delicate complexity, and the colors and shapes and images therein breathe meaning with every shade. A Dwarf can 'read' music and color created by another dwarf, and absorb the meaning and feeling the one who created it intended, though through the lens of their own individual perception. They believe they were given life by the sound of the wind whistling through water-made caverns.

In addition, Dwarf players may start knowing the languages of THREE beasts or beastmen. Dwarves are highly in tune with the movement of the earth and the creatures which dwell in it. They may calm an enraged mundane animal on 3in6, and converse with animals they know the language of, though such animals may not be very intelligent or talkative.

 "Man Magic" is considered strange and dark to dwarves, who weave their own form of magic into every facet of their lives, guarding it in secrets and moonlight. Dwarves may not learn spells or develop as Magic-users. They are, however, capable of telling which direction is North, their general elevation level, the humidity, and seeing in the dark by the wan light of the feeble moon or by using the memory of sun-dappled sands. In total darkness Dwarves may activate their dark vision for up to d4 hours before it must be recharged in the sunlight.

Dwarves may consume Mercurial water to restore their wounds, even from the brink of death, and sate their thirst and hunger for days. Hoards of Mercurial water are kept in deep vaults far under the Silver desert sands, though all dwarves carry a sip of it within their bodies. To remove this sip is to kill the dwarf, and it is deadly poison to all non-dwarves. Dwarves ritualistically drink the sip of their closest friends upon death and to die forgotten and alone, with the sip intact, is the only fear a Dwarf knows.

Dwarves are immune to fear attacks from Undead creatures, but not to fear-inducing illusions which work upon the mind in a different way.

All Dwarves are of the Fighter class, up to the 6th Level. They also have a +4 bonus to all saving throws.