Adventures in Prepping

Lately I've found myself struggling to stay motivated on some of the nitty-gritty bits of running an ongoing campaign. I need a system for taking notes, staying organized, and making effective use of prep time. Often when I sit down to prep for a game, I hit writers block. Rather than being worried about the game being 'good', I suspect it's really about feeling overwhelmed and directionless about what I should be working on.

To correct this problem I've decided I should sit down and pick my own brain for answers.

To help myself and others sift through this rambling I'll notate each section with "$ Philosophical:" for when I'm rambling about things you think, and "+ Applicable:" for when I'm suggesting an practical thing you do. Then, at the bottom of the post I'll distill down the essence for ease of reference.

$ Philosophical: Why Prep?

My playstyle is typically improv-heavy but rather than throwing on tables and making stuff up as I go I find it helps to have something a little more structured to riff on. The continuum from prep-heavy to full-improv is a gradient, and I think I'm only slightly more towards the improv side than in the middle. What I really need is a cohesive head-canon of ideas to draw on, so I'm not just grasping at straws.

Another element that's important is having well-structured, concise play reference. Traditionally this is tabbed DM folder. The older I get the more I find that routine and structure is very important for my well-being. This is something I think is innate to all humans, but how it's best expressed is a learned behavior. It's going to be slightly different for everyone according to acculturation, experience, and temperament. Having a sensible structure takes a huge mental burden off, as a lot of your thinking is done ahead of time. When you don't have structure your brain is required to work double-time at solving problems over and over again. Without fitting those solutions into a framework you end up treading old ground, coming up with novel solutions each time. Routine and structure reduces mental load and stress, freeing up brain space to focus on newer, more interesting and meaningful tasks. This extra bandwidth increases enjoyment, flow, and satisfaction by allowing you to be more mentally present.

In the same vein, taking notes during game is a huge boon. That way you have a record of previous games to refer to when doing prep, and to jog your memory of past actions. DMs have a lot of hats to wear and jobs to juggle, in and out of the game. A simplified, planned system of note taking expediates this process.

My current system is an unstructured pile of notebooks, a jumble of half-finished dungeons, important prep, in-game notes, asides, doodles, and scratch. It's a headache to sift through.

...

+ Applicable: What do you need when you sit down to play?

World Map - a hexmap of the region play takes place in. Players generate their own version of this as they play. This gives you an overview of nearby locations and environments.

Maps of Expected Locations and Dungeons and Keys - All the nearby. locations you expect the players to visit this session, mapped out on graph paper and efficiently keyed

Encounter Tables - For said adventure locations and regions, including relevant wilderness and dungeon areas.

Relevant Generation Tables - Random tables, but just the most important and immediately useful ones.

Note-Taking System - Could be a spiral notebook with a planned system of how to take notes that you stick with. That way when the players defeat a monster or get a quest, it triggers a thing in your brain to write it down.

Adventure Hooks - A list of potential adventure hooks, and active quests, and where the players stand on them. Probably two sheets: active potential hooks (ones the player could trigger right now), and ones that have already been triggered with a sentence or two about where the players are with it. Update this each session, removing ones that are no longer important.

Notes on Current Adventure - Where the players are right now. You might keep a separate set of notes distilled from past adventures, just the key points. The current adventure notes are the insider view on what the players said they're working on, or what you expect them to be doing for the present session.

+ Philosophical: Two Kinds of Prep

There's two kinds of prep: Creation and Updating.

+ Applicable: Creation

This is what you do when you're making new stuff. If you're sitting down to start a fresh sandbox campaign, it's all creation. This is the fun joy part of the DM's job. 

Don't let it take over your life! I find that creativity happens better when you encourage yourself to do it at specific times. Daydreaming is unhealthy. If you train your brain to daydream it'll start throwing things at you when you're supposed to stay on task. Living a distracted life increases your mental load and stress.

Instead, train yourself to be creative when you sit down to be creative. Do this by shifting attention away from daydreaming when you notice it (I like to turn my attention to my breath for a moment). That way you save up that mental energy for when it's time to prep (DM solo play). Then you're less stressed in your daily life you'll have more energy and creativity when it comes time, because you haven't been squandering it all day. Mental energy is finite, like mana, use it well!

+ Applicable: Updating

This is when you add to, remove, or change things that you've created previously.

You refer to old notes, previous sessions, and change things in your current prep. You might keep a previous record of old, no-longer-important updates and retire them to the trash after a certain period. Maybe perform a routine housekeeping at the end of each month, only keeping the very most important beats for later reference.

Just forget about everything that goes in the trash or it'll continue taking up that precious brain space. The older I get the more useful I find it to be strict about stay trim and austere in this regard.

$ Philosophical: The Psychology of Writer's Block

This is where I hit that motivation wall. It's good to learn yourself well enough that you can identify why you hit a wall. There's a reason why for everything you do, and often we get stuck and frustrated when we don't let ourselves figure this out.

Often we hide the truth from ourselves by creating stories in our heads about "why", but the real answers are always Feeling and Needs. Here's a little bit of earned wisdom for you to take home. Frustration as a Feeling is always related to the need for Effectiveness. If you can connect with the Need for Effectiveness and create a Request for yourself of how to meet that Need, the Feeling gets dealt with. That's what I'm doing right now by writing this - I'm fulfilling my own Request.

It's obvious how to make a Request of others, but when it comes to DMing and writer's block, dealing with self, it can be a little sticky. You have to learn to empathize with and understand self effectively. If you're Anxious about prepping it's because you have a Need for Acceptance. Don't fall for the trick of thinking you want Acceptance from people who Aren't Right In Front Of You Actively Not Granting Acceptance!! You want the game to be good and your friends to like you, but YOU'RE the one not Accepting YOU! So rather than prep you procrastinate because you're unconsciously trying to avoid Accepting your own little self. Oh the webs we weave!

The only way to deal with this trap is to Give Yourself permission to be a regular, normal, flawed human. Really, being regular, normal, and flawed is the most beautiful, most perfect way you can be. Why? Because it's what you really, truly, actually are. The image you have in your head of being great, shining, and admired is a fantasy - it's really an inverted fear. People want to be Great because they don't want to be Alone. Luckily, there's plenty of middle ground and you have no choice but to Actually Live There. So just Live There.

The other form of writer's block is Frustration. Frustration, as I said, comes from the Need for Effectiveness. It's not that you Want to achieve your goal, it's that you think you're actively Not achieving it. If you stop to analyze the situation it becomes obviously absurd: Instead of actually Doing the Thing, you're sitting there stumped, frustrated, caught up in this fear of Not Doing The Thing. You're caught in another psychological feedback loop: I'm frustrated because I'm not doing the thing, and because of this frustration I feel stuck, and because I feel stuck, I can't do the thing, therefore I'm frustrated about not doing the thing...etc etc

The only way out is to switch gears and start doing something. You have to push through a wall of pain to do that. Therefore, make the wall of pain as small as you can. Get out some scratch paper and just start writing word-association style. ORC DRAGON CAKE SWORD COIN WITCH until you start getting momentum

Admittedly, my technique is often to get on Discord an complain about what I'm thinking. Someone inevitably chimes in to give me advice and it usually clears up immediately. Now I'm no longer stuck in a feedback loop of frustration problem, instead my brain is now working on the problem of criticizing their advice and thinking up better advice. Once I'm giving myself Better Advice I've broken the psychological chain and I'm free to start working, with the added benefit of having Better Advice. Human brains are weird.

Is that Chaotic Evil of me? Hell no, kill the demiurge!

+ Applicable: Okay But What Do I Actually Prep Though (Elements of Game Prep)

Below is a Food Chain ranked in order of data complexity. Things closer to the top are made out of things lower down.

Adventure Hooks - This is where you extract fragments of data from your keys and convert it into exciting tidbits that players want to investigate. Despite being extracts from lower levels of data, these are actually the most energetically complex element because they fractally compress a web of data in a small space. Hand these out like candy and keep the list updated. You might have different adventure hook lists for different regions, locations, or settlements. 

World Map - This is the highest level instrument. It correlates all data lower in the system in graphical form. This is your hexmap or gridmap or pointcrawl map or whatever map. It's a chart of symbols for orienteering imaginary space. It's the table of contents of your Shared Hallucination.

World Key - This is the Words that explain what the symbols mean.

Adventure / Dungeon Maps - A zoomed in graphical overlay of bits of your World.

Adventure / Dungeon Key - Corresponding Words that explain the Adventure / Dungeon Maps.

State of the World - This is the factsheet for over-arching adventures you have sort of planned out. This exists, though you might not use it at the table, because it can be hard to parse out "Fazlod the Mage wants the Silver Sword from the Lady of the Lake, but it was Stolen from Her by the Goblin King, Only 3 dudes in different places know how to get there, there are 4 other NPCs that also want the sword, oh and the Hobgoblin army is marching thru the Goblin Kings territory, oh and wyverns are attacking the Hobgoblins etc" based on information scattered across your prep material. This can be as simple as a list of headlines of current events happening outside the view of the players, maybe with details for how they connect so you know how to look up the information you need. Think: WHO WHAT WHERE WHY COMPLICATION

Random Tables - Tables for adding life and color to the world. These have varying levels of complexity somewhere between Null and Adventure Hook. They can be anything from bits of fluff, to Monsters, NPCs, or entire Adventure / Dungeons.

Faction Profiles - the egregore of a collective of NPCs. Includes similar data to an NPC, but from a corporate level.

NPC Profiles - Mobs, critters, denizens. This includes data sheets for NPCs as well as monster stat-blocks. A picture, name, statblock, profession/background, cute details/quirks, motivations, likes/dislikes, resources, allies/enemies, whatever. This could be as simple as a blackbook entry like "Orianna Flux, 24F,  Human, Gloaming Spire, Tinker's Guildmaster. Love: Technology, Hates: Orcs".

Treasure Tables - Shinies.

Background Lore - This is actually the lowest level of data because it's basically the white noise at the base of everything. These are the deranged scrivenings you make when you're dreaming up shit and writing it down. Later you go back and extract stuff, combine it with Structure, and add it to one of the higher-level data sets. Make sure you don't let this stuff stick around too long or you end up with reams of notebook you don't even want to look at.

So that's basically what you need to play the game. Maps, Keys, Hooks, Factions, NPCs, Random Tables, and something explaining How This Stuff Connects Together and What's Going On. Maybe a shame-inducing notebook of Ideas or Background Lore.

I like to use folders and notepad files or google docs to track all this stuff on a grand scale, and copy into a DM folder for using at play. It's nice to keep a digital archive so that updating is easier. Only pen and paper can be messy unless you're very disciplined.

+ Applicable: Taking Notes

It can be hard to know which game elements to trigger for a note. Often I just don't even take notes because I'm busy playing and I don't want to stop to write. I suppose this is a Need I should investigate. Maybe it's related to Acceptance: I want Acceptance that the game will be fun and my players won't be bored while I stop to take notes. My players can't give that to me, only I can give that to me. If they're not having fun because I stop for 5 seconds every so often to write something down maybe I need new players.

So what things trigger a note?

Meeting an NPC, PC / NPC Death, Monster Encounter, Monsters Slain, Adventure Hooks Received, Locations Visited, Treasure Obtained, Faction Moves, Important Events. What's an Important Event? Anything that conceivably be a headline or a diary entry. Keep each note under d12-ish words. Maybe shoot for a VERB NOUN format, like a MUD.

ENTERED GREEN VILLAGE

MET WIZARD MIKE

KILLED WIZARD MIKE

GOT 1000GP AND WIZARD MIKE HAT

RAN FROM GUARDS

RAGNAR DIED

NEW QUEST: REVIVE RAGNAR - LADY OBELISK HAS MAGIC DOODAD

+ Applicable: Organizing Reference Folder

Okay this post is getting long and I'm tired. Let's wrap this shit up. This where I'm gonna overview.

Reference Folder is a fancy way to say DM Folder.

It should have tabs and a ream of notebook paper and graph paper in the back.

Each tab should correlate to an Element of Game Prep. I think this might be a good arrangement:

1. Adventure Hooks

2. State of the World

3. World Map / Key

4. Adventure / Dungeon Maps / Key

5. Faction Profiles

6. NPC Profiles

7. Encounter Tables

8. Treasure Tables

9. Random Tables (d4caltrops.com)

10. Scratch Paper

- Notes in its own Notebook so you can keep it open in front of you while flipping thru DM folder

- Background Lore in its own Notebook so you're not wrestling with it while playing

Creation Work Flow:

- Draw Map

- Create Encounter Tables for Region

- Generate Starting Settlement

- Populate Settlement with NPCs

- Generate Starting Dungeon (1-3 floors if you do that thing)

- Populate Dungeon with Monsters and Treasure

- Generate d6 Adventure Locations close to the Starting Settlement

- Connect stuff, make Factions w Goals, allies/enemies

- Generate d6 Adventure Hooks

Update Work Flow:

- Refer to notes

- Update Adventure Hooks

- Fill out Area players are heading to

- If they discovered a new site, prep it out

- Populate new profiles (expanding on NPCs, factions, events you made up during game)

- Recall the hooks and Whispers and Lore you Spouted during the game and add those things to your World

- Drink water, get good sleep, meditate

- Comb through your stuff and cut out half of what you wrote. Try to condense things down. Music is made by the spaces between the notes. When there's room to breathe you also have room to imagine. Don't paint yourself into a corner. Only prep 1-2 games ahead of the players. 

- Update the State of the World factsheets so you don't get lost.

squandered world

Smile of Hiroshima, Santiago Caruso

Throne of Chaos, Santiago Caruso

crumbling ashes of a mummified planet, forgotten about itself. drifting mounds of hills which curl and crash as waves on rocky strewn shoulders of dead titans, maws open teeth stench gurgling up from dank pits of their stomachs, from which infernal parasites creep. smoldering campfires left behind mimicking in tiny form the blackened ruins of villages, and if the weary gaze too long tiny memories of faded souls whimper from within.

nothing grows but black brambles and stunted weeds. place to place each drifts lazily into the sky, rubbish of tables and stone and broken bodies floating freely in paths sucked into the near white orb. no true humanity beneath the searching eyes of stars, only withered half-mutant camps clustered in dung hiding in shadows, half shelters, just roofs really, slapped together of tarps and rotten wood and scraps of rust-pocked metal, lonely among the constant dust storms,  there is no day, no night, only the faint drab light which trickles through inky dark.

strange technology and relics are sometimes dug up in the ashes, offering some faint senile help or hateful curse to those hopeless enough to tinker with it. hoarders with rotten teeth offer scraps of silk, dried meat, and embers nurtured to life in clay pots in return for cold obsidian necklaces etched with queer runes and knives which turn blood to fertile soil.

the last clutches of humanity fear to leave their tiny sanctuaries of tenuous life, for just beyond sight of home creep whispered rumors of child faces in the sand, worm puking skin blisters, hands in the night which stroke and soothe, insectile skittering, cannibal tendencies spreading like disease..

but some do, a few who can't stay and watch the pitiful last remains of human ilk fester. they wander, suicidally throwing themselves against the forces which dance. hunters who hope without to recapture some idea of what has happened, or to lash out in frustration against the wall of infinite unknowing.

ATTRIBUTES:
3d6 each, record score and mod
3:         -2
4-6:      -1
7-14:     0
15-17: +1
18:      +2

STR- violence, overpowering, hatred
CON- enduring, body, health
DEX- cleverness, agility, flexibility
WIS- awareness, connection, hope, pity

HP: hit dice add CON modifier, first level only.

FILTH: measure of incorporeal cosmic sin & degradation. constantly in flux. gained for a variety of things which stain the mind/body/soul. removed by purification. high amounts of filth cause mutations and strange effects. diabolists use filth as currency for their spells, others gain it as a result of dabbling in esoterica.
filth is mostly bad, but some good things can result from it. filth modifiers work according to this chart:
0-2: +/-0
3-5: +/-1
6-8: +/-2
9-11: +/-3
12-14: +/-4
15-17: +/-5
18: +/-6

when characters are told to gain filth roll 2d6: 6- +3 filth, 7-9 +2 filth, 10-11 +1 filth, 12 no filth
filth starts at zero unless otherwise stated.

ARMOR CLASS: 9+DEX modifier+armor bonus

LEVEL UP:
buy a level by spending 12*lvl XP. (2nd costs 24XP, 3rd costs 36XP, 4th costs 48XP etc). Levels may not be skipped and only one level may be gained per session.

XP is gained by repaying favors, learning secrets, or extracting true names of things, which often come in the shape of strange trinkets buried deep in the catacombs which fill the soil, though sometimes they may be locked within the heads of people, or encoded in lost tales. The players search for these scraps of meaning which increases their connection to the dying world and feeds a growing hunger for more secrets.

Every hidden object, learned secret, repaid favor, or discovered true name has a die value (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or d20) which is rolled with the thing is shared.

when leveling up:
-roll hit die and add value. CON mod is only added at the first level.
-roll d20 for each attribute, if it goes over score get +1 to that score.
-Choose: reduce filth to max of next lowest value, raise filth to lowest of next highest value.

CLASSES

Labyrinth Maker, Santiago Caruso

NOBLE- possibly the far flung descendants of elves, whose blood has mixed nearly out of existence, but in whom some faint glimmer of magick remains. Their bodies are bony and grey, spiderwebbed by pale blue veins, hair like spidersilk, teeth flat, eyes black. Their faces carry a shred of pride locked within a mask of emptiness.
They are waiters, whisperers, and watchers. The moon and sun have abandoned the earth but they name the dimly winking stars as the growing list of dead. Nobles have no shared culture or language, but stride from this land to that in search of a shadow which follows them. Nobles hide secret names and emblems to identify themselves. They know what comes next.

Gain: four minor knowledges of far away places, a crest symbolizing your purity.
If this symbol is lost corruption begins to spread through the blood and. Gain filth each day. Do not reduce. The day 18 filth is reached transform into horror absolute. The Noble is lost.


damage dice: d6
hit dice: d6

roll 3 dice on starting equipment. Select that item or an item to either side for each roll.

abilities:
-PURITY: So long as they have their crest any time a noble rolls gains filth, reduce filth by 1. when a noble sleeps subtract 1 filth from total.

-PSIONICS: all nobles develop some kind of psionic ability, for which they are feared and given consideration. all psionic abilities can be used once per day, per level, minus FILTH modifier (so a level 4 noble with 11 filth can only use their ability once, instead of 4 times)

roll 2d8

2. time well- (instant) psychically generates up to a man-sized depression in time-space anywhere within sight, increasing or decreasing the relative speed of things within it. Spend more casts to affect more/bigger things. The time well can be made to stick to a target or stay in one spot. Lasts d4*10+wis minutes
-hasted targets gains an extra attack, +1 ac, and +1 to dex rolls, and x2 movement speed.
-slowed targets can only move OR attack each turn, but not both, have -1 ac, -1 on dex rolls, and move at half their normal rates.

Can also be used to slow or speed up falling or moving things/peoples. A falling person can be made to float safely to the ground, a flying arrow's speed can be supercharged by passing through the time well, increasing its damage die size by one.

3-4. psychokinesis- (instant, range: 25') user can manipulate up to 10ibs*level of material with their mind, slowly pushing/pulling it, carrying it around, or hurling it with force. A platter carrying objects could be made to follow user. A hurled sling or arrow could be caught in midair and launched back. A knife could be flung from a table across the room. Fine-tuned movements require considerable concentration and time. It's much easier to drag something heavy or fling something light than say fit a key into a lock. If concentration is disrupted the power ends.

5. restore- (round) by meditating deeply the user can send tendrils of their life energy into the target via touch and sew wounds closed. Incredibly chilling and sickening feeling on part of recipient. remove 1 wound, lower a mangle 1 in severity. Poison or disease can be encapsulated in a polyp which is passed through the recipient's digestive tract.

Each 10 minutes of contact heals 1 point of damage up to user's level.
Removing poison or disease depends on extent of malignancy, from 30 minutes for a weak poison to several days for a life-threatening cancer.

6-7. quickstep- (instant) the geometries of space bend, all attacks have 50% chance to miss, 1 use point per turn this ability is maintained. user can also spend a point to instantly step up to half their movement speed in any direction (can go over any gaps between, even up onto ledges, but not through solid walls).

8-9. command- (action) in a booming voice with a character and pride unfamiliar to this world the user makes a single command of one capable of language. The hearer makes a saving throw (the type is dependent on their disposition to the user) or is forced to complete the action to the best of their ability, even against their own will.

10-11. psychic invasion- (round, range 30') user inserts a section of their consciousness into a target's mind, from this position they can shut down their target's senses and attempt to take over their body. target. (the target gets a saving throw to resist). during this time neither user nor target may take no other actions. roll d6 to determine effect. add +1 to roll for each consecutive turn spent inside target's mind.

if target dies some way other than by the effect of the user's psychic invasion user must make saving throw vs death or have their own mind split in two, rendering them in a coma until their mind is restored.

1-3. bind. both target and user may take no other actions as their minds wrestle for control.
4-5. shut down sense. target loses one random sense for d6 turns.
6-8. psychic torture. inflict d6 psychic damage to WIS
9. coma. target drops unconscious for d6 turns.

12. erase memory; (instant) the noble's eyes pierce the target's veil, scorching away all memories from the current day. Target falls unconscious for ten minutes as their mind attempts to restart.

13. sever motor function, (instant) target's motor function is severely inhibited and must make a saving throw at -2 to perform any action including walking and talking. A failed throw means the target collapses in a heap of flailing limbs and gibberish.

14. seed of the wretch, after a lengthy spiraling convoluted conversation which hints at secrets shared between user and target, a noble may leave a fragment inside target's mind. target gains 1 filth each day until death occurs or seed is removed.

15. take control, user gains control of target's mind for d6+target HD hours and can control their body, mind, and memories the way they control their own. the user's consciousness is effectively duplicated in the target's body. each hour the target is allowed to make another attempt to regain control of their body. after the allotted time, if the target has not regained control, their mind is erased and permanently replaced with a copy of user's.
this clone of the user is able to form their own memories from this point on, and their personality, filth score, and experiences may diverge as necessary. during the first year of life the player may control the copy exactly as they control their original character.
after the first year the copy rolls a loyalty score like a normal henchman.
after that the copy makes loyalty checks like a normal henchman, and may eventually desert or betray the original.
both minds do not share thoughts, but are capable of detecting the presence and direction of their 'other' if they are within ten miles of each other.

16. sever life, target saves vs. death or dies.

HERMIT-

wandering wasteland ascetics whose perpetual self-harm brings them closer to the muttering madness of a lost god. Hermits seek enlightenment through union with a personal crawling void. In wonderings they seek the dissolution of frailty, in obsequence the restoration of life. They dwell quietly in the virtue of pity and make piteous all things around them, so to bring forth joy. The total abandon of hope may yet awaken a strength beyond loss.

maintaining a deep connection with the gibbering of their god(s) is of utmost importance to a hermit. they are compelled to enact all demands whether real or false which they glean from the understanding of this gibbering. for this reason many consider hermits to be both sources of all knowledge and truth, and deluded, dangerous heretics.

damage dice: d4
hit dice: d6

roll 2 dice on starting equipment

abilities:
-FLAGELLANT: once/day, hermits may spend a number of health through lashing, burning, cutting, strangling, or other self-destructive methods, to remove that many filth from anybody (including themselves). hermits may spend 5hp to remove curses, afflictions (poison, blindness..), 1 point of attribute loss, or other effects as curse diseases.

-REPENTANT: through an act of deep prayer and meditation a hermit may beseech their god(s) to bestow healing life-force upon any wounded. spend 1-for-1 filth to increase anybody's hp. spend 4 filth to reduce a mangling by 1 severity level, or to erase 1 wound.

-COMMUNION: once/day a hermit can enter a state of deep meditation for d6 hours, in which they become completely numb to all outside stimuli and have a natural ac of 13. during this time the hermit may listen to the gibbering voice of their god(s) for any helpful information. ask what you want to know.
(GMs should ask questions as the god to understand the meaning and context of the query but give only one answer of vague images, shapes, and sensual impressions)

-PIETY: whilst a hermit maintains a STARVING condition they gain a number of tokens equal to the days they have been STARVING. these tokens can be spent to heal d6hp on any target (including themselves). casting this healing takes only minutes. upon eating any nourishment a hermit loses all unspent tokens. Tokens may also be spent to prevent incoming damage on self or ally within sight.

EMBITTERED
Guilt-ridden brooding cyclopses and maneaters torn between a thirst for flesh and a need for solitude and peace. The Embittered seek low dark lonely places to gaze deeply at the question of suffering, but their dwellings are often foiled by the intrusions of others. The Embittered use their bulk to lash out violently against perceived threats. They feel no pain of the flesh. They explore the tunnels in the earth searching for reprise and thus know some of its shallower secrets.

In their search for respite and freedom the Embittered sometimes happen upon a band of wanderers and follow them for weeks, observing them from afar to learn the ways of other folk. In time the Embittered may join the group as a bodyguard or watcher. They never seem to sleep, only gaze.


damage die: d8
hit dice: d12

roll 1 die on Starting Equipment.

abilities:
-STRANGLING GRIP: If wounded either physically or emotionally by a smaller creature the Embittered may enter a rage once per day. During this rage the Embittered may scoop up their victim and begin strangling the life from it. The victim must pass a CON save each round or have their windpipe crushed. During this rage the victim is at the helpless mercy of the Embittered. the Embittered may not move or react to any other stimuli, only crush, but has +2 armor. The rage may end prematurely if the Embittered suffers damage equal to half its max HP. After such an episode the Embittered falls into a dark depression in which they may not speak. This depression may be ended with a Deep Gaze.

-WILD BLOWS: In combat, upon successfully killing a smaller foe in a single hit the Embittered must immediately make an additional attack upon another target at d12 damage. If that target is killed the Embittered must make another attack until a target is not instantly killed. If another target, either friend or foe, cannot be found the Embittered falls into a dark depression in which they may not speak. This depression may be ended with a Deep Gaze.


-DEEP GAZE: the Embittered may deeply gaze for an hour at anything thing, or upon any subject, inner or outer. At the end of this gaze the Embittered receives a single word which contains the meaning, purpose, nature, value, or property of the thing gazed upon. After this the Embittered is considered to know the subject and in the future the subject may whisper further sympathies.

If the subject of the Deep Gaze is a small harmless animal that animal may become a companion to the Embittered. This companion is psychically linked to the Embittered and they share each other's pain. The companion may act on the Embittered's behalf, transmit thoughts to them, and nurture each other. If the companion is killed the Embittered loses one HD max HP and falls into a dark depression in which they may not speak. This depression may be ended with a Deep Gaze but the HP is lost forever.

-SILENT EMPATHY: If the Embittered sits and calmly strokes a dying creature as they pass from this realm they gain one empathy token. This empathy token may later be spent to lower a Mangling by one severity level, to prematurely halt a Wild Blows, or to calm an enraged person or creature. The Embittered may only have one empathy token at a time.

HARMONY

STARTING EQUIPMENT
The world is blasted and pock-marked by endless falling meteors. The vast oceans are lank and black and lifeless. All industry and creation has been abandoned. Nothing new is being made, except scrap halfheartedly mashed together to meet an immediate need. There is no concept such as money or bartering. Everyone has a thing they crave or yearn for and valuable objects are traded for favors and secrets.

accessory:
1. softly glowing shard, necklace
2. vial, weak acid
3. condensed, metal
4. vegetable/dessicated
5. frayed shirt
6. skullcap of dried fungus
7. tasteless sprout grit
8. two flint arrows
9. obsidian knife
10. tallow candle
11. small pouch, 3 pewter coins, different currencies
12. a chipped cup
13. a clay doll
14. tumor growth
15. one ruined eye
16. rotting teeth

Space Age Sorcery

SPACE AGE SORCERY

from the PDF:

"If you’re looking for some wicked-twisted spells that a cyborg sorcerer from a shoggoth-haunted nuclear wasteland might have on-hand or you want to give the next bunch of foul cultists something with a little more oomph than a few magic missile spells, we’ve got you covered. 

Here is a collection of over 100 strange new spells that combine magic and technology in bizarre, unsettling and often horrific ways best suited to Lovecraftian Space Opera, Eldritch Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic Sword & Planet campaigns, settings or games."

I love the hyper-science 80s cartoony feel of these spells. Might work well for a planetary picaresque. Most of them are combat oriented.