Elemental Reductions

  I wrote this was an experiment with the following goals:  To try to put together a setting that was useful for a game master using an old school game such as B/X or Old School Essentials , or a game  inspired by them, such as Knave or Shadowdark . To create a setting for the invertebrate ancestries I made. Put together something that can be used physically, as a trifold pamphlet. To provide something for this month's Blog Carnival, hosted by Errant Thinking , on the topic of " Tiny Epics ".   I've copied the text from the trifold pamphlet document, for your reading pleasure.  You can find the actual trifold document here: https://empedocles.itch.io/underlog . Sheila Brown, “Moss On Fallen Tree” released under CC0. Source: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=314623   Underlog - A Pocket Setting Somewhat like our world, the creatures are about fifty times larger. The people player characters interact with are intelligent...

Back near the end of January, for our last game, my face-to-face group tried something new:  A Quiet Year . Designed and written by Avery Alder. Design insights from Jackson Tegu. Illustrations by Ariel Norris. First released 2013. This iteration 2019. 2-4 players, 3-4 hours, ages 12 up drawing, imagination, apocalypse About A Quiet Year   For those who haven't heard of it, A Quiet Year is a collaborative map-making about rebuilding a community after the collapse.  It uses a standard deck of cards as an Oracle for coming up with thoughts.  From the game's website: The Quiet Year is a map game. You define the struggles of a community living after the collapse of civilization, and attempt to build something good within their quiet year. Every decision and every action is set against a backdrop of dwindling time and rising concern. The game is played using a deck of cards – each of the 52 cards corresponds to a week during the ...

 << Previously PCs Anthony "Loco" Diaz (SAMAS pilot) - A street rat captured and raised by the Coalition, now in his late 20s, and a fugitive SAMAS pilot from CS El Dorado, wanted for stealing his SAMAS suit, Stella, along with some other things.  He fled north towards Castle Refuge, and joined with Shan, Layla, Faith, and Midnight. Layla Lacoi (DB Mystic) - A tall dimensional mystic being with a bit of a catfish face.  Her gentle demeanor belies how powerful she is. Midnight (Psi-stalker variant) - A dark and mysterious stranger, riding a strange horse.  He seems to have influence over lightning, and is a man who lives off the land.   Faith Macavoy (covert Psi-ghost) - A non-descript vagabond woman, who seems to be quite capable and full of supplies.   Shan Medsans (Cyber-doc, I think) - A hardcore cyberdoc apparently from a long line of traveling healers, renowned enough to know Erin Tarn personally.  Her clinic is in ...

  ( << Previously ) Dramatis Personae  PCs Anthony "Loco" Riaz (SAMAS pilot) - A street rat captured and raised by the Coalition, now in his late 20s, and a fugitive SAMAS pilot from CS El Dorado, wanted for stealing his SAMAS suit, Stella, along with some other things.  He fled north towards Castle Refuge, and joined with Shan, Layla, Faith, and Midnight. Layla Lacoi (DB Mystic) - A tall dimensional mystic being with a bit of a catfish face.  Her gentle demeanor belies how powerful she is. Midnight (Psi-stalker variant) - A dark and mysterious stranger, riding a strange horse.  He seems to have influence over lightning, and is a man who lives off the land.   Faith Macavoy (covert Psi-ghost) - A non-descript vagabond woman, who seems to be quite capable and full of supplies.   Shan Medsans (Cyber-doc, I think) - A hardcore cyberdoc apparently from a long line of traveling healers, renowned enough to know Erin Tarn personally....

One of my submissions for Santicorn 2026 was for Cold Waste Encounters.  It's here . I'm not happy with it, so here's some additionally brainstorming for this.  There are numbers here, but I haven't had a chance to game them out.   Time The cold wastes are at the ends of the world.  Days pass differently there.  In the middle of summer, a day lasts for weeks.  Similarly, in the middle of the winter, a night lasts for weeks.  Those times are close to normal during the equinoxes. Body Heat In the extreme cold, characters have a freezing track.  It starts at 0, meaning they are kept warm, and goes to 6.   Lose Freezing by Gaining Heat During combat, characters actually get warmer from the motion. Eating a warm cooked meal that fills the belly and carresses the spine as often as once a turn. Drinking a pint of a hot beverage as often as once a turn. Sitting at a warm fire or a stove for an hour. Staying in a winterized shelter. Gain F...

Hello Friends! This year I was privileged enough to be able to co-ordinate the RainbOSR Discord's Secret Santicorn, and get to see some absolutely delightful prompts and clever and intriguing gifts fulfilling them.  I was hoping that I'd have time to at least pocket review the submissions here, but due to a week with unexpected lack of Internet connectivity, that didn't happen. To wrap up, I'm sharing the gifts here, along with the topic donors, to share for Internet Posterity.    For Topic 500poundsofnothing The origin of undeath. Aggie (Gourd Dwarf) Never Meet Your Heroes: Encountering Infamous Adventurers Arnold Fun diseases and/or curses! You'll be sad once you recover. Connor A table of Crimes and Punishment, as specific or general as the chef prefers. Random or weighted random generation would be a plus. Domopunk Mundane looking objects and the pocket dimensions that exist within them (like a book that can pull people into the story) energycrow666 Carousing t...

I spent too long looking trying to generate a random horse system.  After taking a break from it, I thought about how to handle dogs (war, riding, hunting, and tracking), guard geese, hawks, elephants, and riding apes.  I decided I wasn't smart enough to get too into the weeds with them, and came up with this, which is far too simple for what I want it to do, and is probably still too complicated, but kind of gamifies shopping. Pets & Service Animals This is for every kind of animal Tricks Dumb animals can learn 2 tricks, smart animals learn 4.  They either follow a visual signal or a sound.  Each trick takes 1d6 weeks to learn. Most useful animals are already trained. Here is a sample listing of tricks: Attack : Move and attack on their own when opportunity arises. Battle Trained : Does not check morale at the start of battle. Defend : Attack hostiles that get too close. Guard : Make noise when creatures it doesn’t know well gets too close. Hunt : Predators hav...