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...

    This is post is for this month's  RPG Blog Carnival topic: End of Times  hosted on Advantage Arcana .  I'm going to examine the topic  Games that have to do with an imminent and/or ongoing Apocalypse , specifically causes of potential apocalypses, and what can be done about it, in broad brush strokes.      This is more about thinking about how to run these situations as a Game Master than it is about mechanics or specific details.

This is post is for this month's  RPG Blog Carnival topic: feasts and festivals hosted on Of Dice & Dragons .  This post covers a beggar's feast as part of the Feast of Winter Solstice. Feast of the Winter Solstice This feast is done on the evening of the longest night of the year, right before New Year's day.  During the day, people seek to pay off debts and settle grudges. Everyone also makes sure their fellows all have an invitation to a feast gathering, as it is believed those left out will easily invoke Hekate for a curse on those who have spurned them. The wise among the wealthy and powerful ensure a beggar's feast for the destitute and the sheltered, supplying good food and inviting the everyone in their area to make sure they have a place to socialize and make merry. In the evening, people gather for their feast. An hour before midnight, they take a good serving to a crossroad, and lay it out in honor of Hekate.  It is usually eaten by dogs.  If al...

Fantasy Stones This month's Blog Carnival prompt from Wobblerocket is Magic Rocks . I have catalogued stones less commonly known by people of our wondrous city. Some of these are only known to those of us who travel frequently, while others are already well known to us from songs and stories, but with their impacts vastly exaggerated. Read on and learn. -E Large Stonework & Boulders Oracular Stone A large,  hollow stone with diagonal lines decorated with a particular type of insect or small animal. Random decoration type: Animal : 1. Mouse, 2. Wren, 3. Owl, 4. Ferret, 5. Asp, 6. Spider. Insect: 1. Bee, 2. Ant, 3. Butterfly, 4. Moth, 5. Grasshopper; 6. Beetle. Benefit :  An oracle puts their head in the stove, inhaling the smoke, then sharing their oracular statement.  These statements are often cryptic and open to interpretation, and so allow the GM to play both sides of the outcomes with the same message, while providing guidance to the player characters on where...

    This is post is for last month's  RPG Blog Carnival topic:  hosted on Sea of Stars .  The gods have continued to laugh at my plans, so I'm a little late. Nobody is sure what dragons really are. Some believe they are related to demons: that they are merely agents required for the creation of the universe.  As evidence of this, they posit: A common language they are all born understanding, even if the least of them are incapable of speaking that tongue.   The universal pride and avarice even the most virtuous of their kind demonstrate. Their incredible affinity with certain forms of magic that dragons have, and  Their fecundity with creatures of other kinds. In contrast, others, including most of the scholars of the Southern Sands, argue that unlike demons or other outsiders, dragons  Can breed true amongst themselves.  The most powerful of them lay small clutches of eggs incredibly rarely, while the more common kinds freque...

    This is post is for this month's  RPG Blog Carnival topic: Other, Between, and Under hosted by vdoughnut .  Once again, the gods laughed at my plans, and the full work is beyond the scope of a single blog post, so I'll share a link to the GDocs draft, of course down below.       First, let me say that for a setting I have never had a chance to play, I really love the concept of Spelljammer .  I like creating wild fantasy settings that go beyond another hex crawl on a world, to a world crawl.     So along these lines, I decided to make a setting that takes place on a pocket plane between the elemental planes of air and water.  Here's the introduction which paints some broad brushstrokes of what's going on: Stormheart is a small but cosmopolitan trading town that mostly exists in a pocket on the border of the Planes of Air and Water, on a plane one hundred miles in radius that separates the Sky from The Deep , l...