Showing posts with label Setting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Setting. Show all posts

Wednesday, 24 July 2024

The Onomasticon Quernorum

Or; On the Names of the Quernfolk

A Wennish penny pamphlet pithily titled 'an unbelievable account of the atrocious apparitional attack on a sleeping and sickly Miss Dyedred by the headless bear demon 'Old Bossbelow' and her noble defense by Mistress Sharpday, Miss Arena Palatine, Jonwith Middlestone, Harque the Younger, Master Winwalloe and the Magic-User Lakelie'  

Above is the Onomasticon Quernorum; On the Names of the Quernfolk. Contained within are over 900 names and they are presented without any expository information. 

Recently, I have had names on the brain. In my post morpheme+word+epithet, (which has proved quite popular) I shared the eponymous formula for making an interesting name. This specific method works well for individuals but what if I need a great many names to build out a specific culture? 

I have previously written how understanding of the cultures of your setting can be impressed on, and implied to, players via the personal trinkets and pocket loot of NPCs that belong to those cultures. I used my personal setting of The Querns to explore this idea and did some implied world-building by detailing several cultures in this way. In this post, I have given names to the owners of those pockets. With the names themselves and the contents of their pockets, the reader should have a good feeling for these cultures already. Implication builds interesting settings that engage the imagination.

In the Onomasticon Quernorum I have given names to six, mostly distinct, cultures. In addition to this list I had a whole spiel written explaining my thought processes and inspiration for each of the culture's naming styles. I cut it all down and it still wasn't 'working' so I have slung it in a doc you can find here. I also recommend this post by Empedocles the Wizard of Elemental Reductions for some more lucid and interesting commentary on their naming process.

But, what do you do? What are your thoughts on creating names for RPG characters? Please let me know in the comments as I really enjoy this stuff.

Another Wennish penny pamphlet titled 'The Mightily True Report of Sergeant Bov Pangweather's victory over the hulking Aldish Birch-Crone known as Jennie Snatchelflynda and her dread-familiar who some call Black Froggebighter'. 

This post was written for Words! Linguistics, Etymology and Onomatology for July's RPG Blog Carnival

Sunday, 19 March 2023

The Failed Careers of Tetragrammatown - or - Failed Careers as Worldbuilding

Failed Careers are great. PC's get a random failed career at character creation along with the items someone of that career would have possessed. It doesn't need to be said that they are wonderful mediums for implied world-building that immediately involve and inform players in and about the world.  

When making failed career tables, I try to keep two things in mind. First, I try to make the careers so specific that a player can immediately grasp the concept - take ownership of, or define the career themselves. The world, however weird should be understandable and implied only, if a concept is too weird, prepscriptive or requires too much meta-knowledge to understand it shouldn't be available as a failed career for your players. Secondly, the weapon and item need to be interesting. It's ok to play fast and loose with the definition of 'weapon' and 'item' - especially if it's something a player wouldn't pick for their character off of an equipment list or something that isn't even on a equipment list. Interesting can mean strangely useful, something that produces new or odd situations - something that can be used for more than its intended purpose or even provides a narrative, character or adventure hook. You can fit a lot of flavour into the [name], [weapon], [item] format.  

While demographically unsound, failed career tables can make for useful encounter tables. I like an exploding d4 to determine numbers of an encountered career. 

Below is an example failed career list for a city called Tetragrammatown. Read it and you will get a good feel for the setting via failed careers only. 


UPDATE: I've been using this table for one-shot episodic play and slowly over the last year or so this table has expanded along with the setting itself. I think it started as a d66 table, then d68, then d88 and know a full d100. It's been really useful for supporting and expanding the setting and it's feel and has grown to reflect the play that has taken place. It's been a lot of fun. The 


Failed Careers of Tetragrammatown

Roll 1d100 to determine your character's backstory. The format is; [Failed Career/Backstory Name], [Weapon], [Item(s)]

  1. Whipping-Boy, whip, a wooden sign listing the ways you've been a naught boy/girl.
  2. Trench-Brother, sharpened shovel (as axe), permanently muddy military uniform.
  3. Dare-to-Die Duelist, pistol with no bullets, black coat with white 'duel me' painted on it.
  4. Riot Police, tear-gas grenade, plastic see-through shield.
  5. Reluctant Zealot, cat o' nine tails, prescription rage-juice.
  6. Living-Book, tattooing needle, an entire book tattooed onto body.
  7. Satirist/Polemicist, razor sharp wit (0 damage), head and arms locked in a pillory/stocks.
  8. Faerie-Realm Polluter, oil drum full of chemical by-products, map of local fairy rings.
  9. Elf-Hater, elf-basher (as club), 'hate' and 'elfs' tattooed on knuckles.
  10. Puddle-Prophet, lead rod, electric pouring crucible.
  11. Vehicularist, a pike (to prod people out of your way), a slow and primitive iron car.
  12. Amateur Aeronaut, a helmet with a big spike on the top, a heavy wood and canvas gliding-suit.
  13. Natural Philosopher, poisonous bug/plant/element (single use), specialist's tools.
  14. Gruel-Giver, heavy ladle, keg of gruel (20 rations).
  15. Noir Detective, twin knuckle-dusters, chainmail-lined trenchcoat (+2 AC)
  16. Gladiatorial Vampire-Baiter, wooden stake gauntlets, wooden plate armour painted with crucifixes (+3 AC).
  17. Veteran-Brother, beam-rifle in a locked box (no key), a pocketful of medals.
  18. Clerical Assassin (official), crucifix with concealed dagger, mitre hat with pistol stitched inside.
  19. Clerical Assassin (unofficial), poisoned needle, shabby imitation vestments.
  20. Most-Wanted Warlock, pet anaconda, edgy eldritch tattoos.
  21. Ratman Exterminator, rat-poison, vicious tunnel dog.
  22. Puritan-Procuress, spanking-paddle, trunk of spare puritan clothing.
  23. Puritan-Bothering Pacifist Revolutionary, fruity trombone, book of jokes.
  24. Dissolute Paladin, bejewelled knightly longsword, plastic bag full of laughing gas canisters and naughty printing-press pamphlets.
  25. Demon-Fumigator, hand-pump sprayer, holy-water.
  26. Rocket Smuggler, pocket-rocket, fistful of solid rocket-fuel.
  27. Prostitute Gangster, switchblade, fish-net stockings.
  28. Old-Town Rioter, bag of bricks, knitted balaclava.
  29. Wicked Noble, thumbscrew, flamboyant feather hat.
  30. Atomic Fisherman, glowing harpoon, radioactive fish.
  31. One Man Speakeasy, blinding bath-tub gin, backpack distillery.
  32. Involuntary Rocket Tester, molten weathervane, exhaust-blackened parachute.
  33. Paramilitary Goon, percussion cap rifle, camouflage tunic and cap (camouflage gives stealth bonus in matching environment).
  34. Political Congregant, swagger stick, a pamphlet listing the benefits of the new ideology you've invented.
  35. Industrial Congregant, huge and consecrated spanner (as a mildly holy, two-handed club), sackcloth gasmask.
  36. Itinerant Explosives Workman, big shard of shrapnel (as dagger), huge hand-cranked iron bomb that explodes instantly after three cranks.
  37. Agrarian Congregant, ploughshare, emergency ploughshare weaponization kit and manual.
  38. Book-Burner, single-use spray canister of napalm, slightly singed book (rolled randomly).
  39. Creature-Collector, Cattle prod (target saves vs paralysis or becomes slowed and loses 1pt of hp), vicious and toothsome creature in a small cage strapped to your back.
  40. Penal Legionary, metal-pipe arquebus with 2 shots, black and white striped fatigues.
  41. Quadruple Agent, garotte, d4+1 fake identity papers
  42. Scientific Congregant, two vials of unstable chemicals, badly repaired spectacles.
  43. Latest Technology Inquisitor, electric cattle prod (target saves Vs paralysis or becomes slowed and loses 1pt of hp), EZ-lite bonfire with portable stake.
  44. Authoritarian Thug, heavy hobnail jackboots for stamping, an imposing black uniform.
  45. Industrialiser, single-use glue gun, furnace-powered engine (to glue onto something).
  46. Morality Play Thespian, false metal god marionette (as flail), black renaissance theatrical costume and morph-suit.
  47. Satellite-Botherer, laser pointer, tinfoil hat.
  48. Indentured Window-Washer, 100-foot pole, bucket of caustic soaps.
  49. Self-Abusing Flagellant (get it?), stinging-nettle cat o’ nine tails, medieval smut.
  50. Computational Congregant, soldering iron, huge and humming electronic calculator carried on the back.
  51. Hypno-Pressganger, hose with bricks in the feet, a paper spinning black and white spiral on a stick.
  52. Sixteenth-Story Man, clawed gloves, 500 feet of rope
  53. Clerical Congregant, spiked processional cross, aspergillum of holy water.
  54. Out-Of-Town Gangster, a crude weapon wrapped in barbed wire, helmet with your gang's motif.
  55. Expeditionary Brother, long-rifle, wearable waterproof black bivvy-onesie
  56. Radicalised Protester, disposable rocket launcher with 1 HEAT round, placard
  57. Gutter Groveller, sharpened spoon, tattered blanket
  58. Fugitive, pocket pistol, roll a second failed career- gain their items - this is your cover identity or why you are wanted
  59. Puritan Black Ops, silenced caplock pistol, perfectly boring disguise with belt-buckle-balaclava in the back-pocket.
  60. Proxy Doxy, concealable single-use blackpowder SMG, pre-contact licence
  61. Reconstruction Congregant, wrecking bar, hardened cement-stained overalls and shroud, (+2 AC)
  62. Assembly-Line Congregant, a handful of screws and bolts, stimulant pills (roll a second failed career, this was your second job)
  63. Folk Hero, ancient acid-stained longsword, soot-covered white stallion.  
  64. Overworked Peon, roll twice and take both failed careers.
  65. Psalm Singer, you needed no weapon, entire bible memorized.
  66. Gunpowder Cultist, dodgy hand-gonne (crits you on a critical failure), singed robe
  67. Corporate Stooge, long-arm stapler, demotivational poster
  68. Corporate Enforcer, concealable whip-sword belt with factory logo belt-buckle, factory branded sunglasses 
  69. Proto-CEO, a pistol next to a half empty bottle of gin in a desk drawer somewhere, a big cigar
  70. Lone Gunman (for hire), scoped takedown arquebus in a case, keys to a fancy apartment 
  71. Theocratic Commando, your choice of any pre-1830 firearm, your specific faith's paramilitary uniform. 
  72. Warmachine Welder, Blowtorch, d4+1 armour plates.
  73. Chain-Ganger, rusty pickaxe, a convict you remain chained to by the ankle.
  74. Factory 'Hand', a fistful of nuts and bolts you pulled from industrial machinery, d4+1 severed fingers that you keep in a jar (if 5 is rolled you can have a hook hand)
  75. Alleywayman, two flintlock pistols, masked ratman accomplice/occasional steed
  76. Soldier of the Sex Worker's Battalion of Death, any historical pre-1815 personal weapon of your choosing, an imperious black military uniform with silver crucifix
  77. Dragoon Brother, prototype lever-action rifle (breaks irreparably on a roll of 1 damage), cloned horse
  78. Dogmatic Vigilante, a small non-lethal weapon of your choosing, thematic dress-up, roll a second career for your unassuming alter ego.
  79. Motorbike Knight, lance, crude poison/goblin powered motorbike
  80. Deforestation Congregant, crude poison-powered chainsaw, sharpened grappling hook and chain
  81. Cull Girl, your choice of any historical sword type, skimpy bloodstained clothing 
  82. Snake Handling Acolyte, two snakes with woozifying venom (if swung as a weapon will die), vial of anti-venom 
  83. Law Brother, hand-gonne truncheon, insta-pillory kit (flatpack, probably takes 10 minutes to assemble)
  84. Logistics Congregant, multitool, iron dolly 
  85. Snail Farmer, snail hammer, very large snail
  86. Boschian Hell Muralist, large paint encrusted palette knife, rejected proposal sketch of Hell
  87. Goblin Smasher, really big rock, a glass jar of green slurry
  88. Keeper of Cursed Books, attack book on chain (d6 reach weapon, knows only to bite) random book - cursed (flipped information as if from evil alternate dimension)
  89. Tragedian, fencing foil, sad mask with dark and dramatic cape
  90. Exorcist, heavy chain and padlock, demonic voice in the back of your head
  91. 'The Free Press' (hahahaha), crutch, a black eye and a broken leg in cast +1 additional broken limb of your choice.
  92. Polluted River Pirate, acid stained cutlass, NBC resistant coracle
  93. Bunker Buster, d4+1 stinky sticks of sweaty tnt (d6 impact explosive), a crowbar with flint and steel keyring
  94. Conscript Brother, pike, iron puritan hat shaped helmet 
  95. Landlord's Retainer, fancy looking musket (tiny calibre, d4 damage), tabard with landlord's symbol (and/or face) on it
  96. God-playing Scientist - Biologist (or) Engineer, mostly dead human arm (or) haywire automaton arm, reanimated head that babbles madness (or) schizophrenic AI skull.
  97. Slum-Knight, length of pipe with crossguard, corrugated steel armour
  98. Anarchic Bomb-Thrower, 2 grenades, get-away mule robed in a punk caparison.
  99. Weapons Maintenance Congregant, large vat of atramental lubricant, ballistic-weave NBC suit and sackcloth gasmask.  
  100. Underworked Punk, roll two careers, this is your parent's stuff that you’ve borrowed.




Monday, 11 April 2022

Doomed Polar Expeditions to Dread Hyperborea

The emperor has commissioned an expedition to explore the icy north of the continent – to reach the ruined, sorcerous realms of darkest Hyperborea. What exotic provisions are provided? What hazards will they encounter? What happens when the ice freezes the expedition in place?


This post should provide a host of ideas to kickstart your own doomed arctic campaign. The campaign is by definition - doomed, it’s a bleak and uncaring experience. AMC’s The Terror is quintessential Appendix N viewing for this blogpost. While the series features the paranormal, transposing the doomed arctic expedition concept into a low-fantasy world, where magic is supposedly more common, only increases the potential for fantastically misery inducing experiences and phenomena.

Below you will find several tables that can used to generate your own unique polar voyage. Starting with the number and type of ships, the personalities of the ship's officers, the supplies and crew (that sound good but will inevitably backfire), the strange and deadly phenomena of the arctic circle and a list of terrors that will doggedly hunt and destroy your wayward ships and ever diminishing and decreasingly sane crew. Soundtrack 1 or Soundtrack 2.


The Black Ruins of Hyperborea

A mysterious and ruined civilization known for it's black stone architecture. Great polished inky stones that sometimes defy gravity. While this is the ultimate destination of the expedition, reaching the ruined cities of Dread Hyperborea is not the point; failing on the way is. Should the expedition reach that desolate place, they'd be met with even greater and insurmountable struggles than they faced on the journey - demons awaking from millennial slumber, infinitely ancient sorcerer-kings, floating labyrinthine complexes of ever changing cyclopean and flawless stonework, the waking of countless cold-mummified Hyperborean thralls, of swirling neon blackholes and eldritch UFOs.


Ships of the Expedition:

The expedition should be comprised of 1-3 ships, two is most recommended. The ships are likely sturdy, albeit small, ex-military combat ships with complements of 50-75 men each.

If you’d rather roll, your expedition is comprised of d3 ships. Roll for each ship’s type using a d6.

1. Ex-Merchantman, crew 50, well-travelled with ample storage – roll one additional specialist item.   

2. Old Gun-Brig, crew 70, slow with one additional high-ranking officer.

3. Sloop-of-War, crew 100, still possesses a full battery of 20 cannons.   

4. Bomb Ship, crew 60, sturdy and hard to sink, still carries a bombardment gun and rockets.

5. Arctic Schooner, crew 20, fast and designed to withstand the pressure of being trapped in the ice.

6. Fly-Ship, crew 40, old fashioned but with an experienced crew.

(7. Something more exotic like an airship, balloon, strange beast, exotic ship or even a great many canoes)


Roll an extra detail for each ship with a d8. The ship…

1. is coated in crimson paint.

2. has black sails.

3. has a small shrine to minor god.

4. the ship’s crew has a fantastic animal mascot.  

5. has a monstrous figurehead.

6. is rumoured to be haunted.

7. the ship’s mast is covered with priestly sigils and carvings.

8. has a small scientific and alchemical laboratory with specimen jars of strange, preserved creatures.  


Roll for each ship's name using a d4 and a d12 on the table below.


Leadership

Next, name and generate the personality of each ship's captain and their second in commands. Then determine the order of their seniority. Both these things will be very important should anyone die or become incapable of leadership. All ships are assumed to have a medical officer/surgeon and a cook among many other positions. Larger ships will have a complement of marines. These NPC’s can be fleshed out as they come up in play.


Mundane Resources and Provisions:

A huge, detailed list of gear and provisions is not necessary to prepare. Assume you have 3 years of rations for the expedition’s full complement and if any player requests or searches for a specific item, decide by fiat if that item is or is not available. If unsure, give a x-in-6 chance of that item being aboard.


Fantastic Resources:

Each ship also carries 3 specialist items or crew, roll for them randomly on this d20 table, decide on a case-by-case basis if you reroll the same resource or crew member. These resources take the form of items, crew, additions to the ship or missions the expedition must complete on its voyage. They are all damning and despite best intentions will all actively make the journey more difficult or drag it into complete ruin.  

1. A repaired metal man, a special gift from the emperor. An ancient war-relic of forgotten millennia, now simply working as a tireless stevedore. Let us hope the black stonework of Hyperborea not reawaken his memory of primordial, emotionless violence.

2. A lunatic veteran of a failed expedition, he says he feels of sounder mind now and is surely safe and stable. I've heard at night he sleeps in a lead lined coffin; heard he screams in an unknown language too.

3. Half of our provisions are preserved via a new alchemical method! These strange untested chemicals will doubtlessly ensure our rations keep fresh and uncontaminated. Whoever keeps whispering about side-effects and a 'mutation of the brain' are just fear mongers. 

4. We are accompanied by a cruel witch, aboriginal to these regions. She will surely protect us from the dread weather and malicious spirits that inhabit this polar region

5. The mummified body of a dread Hyperborean. For reasons unknown to us, we are to return it to the black, funerary halls of his eldritch empire. The men joke expectantly about him coming back to life. They also say if he doesn't resurrect and the ship runs low on good rations, they'll try eating him

6. A local folk oracle, one of those cunning-folk from back home whose visions will advise us and help guide us through the ice. The crew are enamoured with him. He couldn't possibly be a messianic sham who gives terrible advice. 

7. A giant, mysterious egg found on a previous expedition. Scientifically, we are meant to find whatever laid it, but it could feed the crew for two weeks. Let us hope it doesn't hatch, or we eat it and the mother find us!

8. A polished Hyperborean stone, recovered from the captain's last expedition to Hyperborea. He uses the floating stone as a mirror in his cabin. Surely it doesn't show him strange dread-visions. The captain’s mind must remain sane for this expedition to be a success! 

9. The ship's fighting-marines have been gifted dire-wolf fur coats by the Emperor himself. The wolves were worshipped by some nameless cult of our empire's tribal enemies - their wolf-god's furs are not inhabited by the beasts' ferociously vengeful, possessive and animalistic spirits. 

10. Astrovox. A modified astrolabe that will supposedly be used to listen to the voices of the outer planets. Their voices are said to better permeate our world in its most northerly region. Let us hope their cosmic messages are kind, induce sanity and that their ire is not drawn against us. 

11. Our ship is fitted with a Borealis Attractor. Some hitherto untested and arcane machine that will call down those alien lights so they we may better study and understand them. One would suppose the lights are just that - light, but is the world not strange and cruel? Great mysteries await.

12. Why are we loading so many barrels of blood onto the ship? Is it a new, ghoulish alternative to lime juice? I'd rather get scurvy if that's the case... and why do we never see the captain’s second above deck during the day? 

13. Our ship is fitted with an experimental Solar Engine. The machine will melt the ice in the path of our ships. It is surely a reliable, safe and stable machine and well worth the 6 months of food and supplies we had to leave behind so we could store the Solar Engine's eminently corrosive fuel. 

14The crow’s nest (which is manned by a dark, unpopular and slightly unhinged man) is fitted with an array of astronomical and nautical gauges along with a sniper's rifle. It's a bespoke heavy-sharpshooter's rifle with quick breech-loading and dense, armour-piercing bullets made of meteoric iron. The gun can shoot at all angles, even down into the rigging and onto the deck, though that would be very dangerous for the crew! Let us hope this malicious fellow remains of sound, loyal and patient mind.

15. Ninety-nine great-turtles, stacked alive. They're very hearty, long-lived and make for excellent long-term supply of meat. They're imported from a single, southerly island and soon there won't be many left. I've heard tales also of some parasitic-come-predatory leech from those parts that gestates within the great-turtles. God-forbid it infect one of the men, it would mean a blood-curdling end for him and hideous, killer creature for the rest of us.

16. Diving Suits for our mission to find evidence of a supposedly lost race of mythical, arctic-ocean dwellers - the Deep Elves. We hope (should we encounter any) that their nature is merciful, their intelligence comprehendible and benevolent (and their architecture euclidean)

17. The Resurrection Pills. Though unpopular with the men, the chief surgeon has been ordered by the naval academy to employ the use of Resurrection Pills. Why waste dead men when we can bring them back? True, the resurrected aren’t good for thinking or talking and after a while they start to act… peculiar but orders are orders. We have brought many hundreds of these pills. Enough for each man aboard to be brought back twice over.

18. A crate of featureless, whalebone masks. They were obtained from a polar culture contacted 50 years prior to this expedition. The tribe had just begun a mask cult and these masks were integral features of this tribe's newly burgeoning religion. Anthropologically, We are to check on them to see how they have developed. Hopefully their faith has grown to promote hospitality and non-violence.

19. A 'gift' for the natives to keep them diplomatic, engaged and pliable. It’s an open secret but in storage we have bushels and bushels of Yellow Zeng – the narcotic. It’s always guarded but I’m sure the captain won’t mind us taking the odd pinch of the stuff. It tastes like a good batch too, not that paranoia inducing cheap stuff.    

20. The Captain's pet indigo-tiger. God forbid we are unable to feed it. 

What terror doggedly pursues the crew?

This is the main threat to the expedition that will hound it mercilessly. It is clever, has mastery over and immunity to the hostile landscape and is almost unkillable. There is only one threat of this magnitude per expedition. Roll a d10  

1. The Bake-kujira, The Bone-Whale. A huge skeletal creature interested in the souls of mortal men. It exudes debilitating protoplasm and chalk-board screams. It is capable of swimming through the frigid wind in pursuit of men to devour.

2. The Flesh-Golem. 12 foot to the shoulder, this charnel beast of a ‘man’ lives an exiled half-life of self-hatred in the polar north. His self-loathing tempered only by his steely desire to visit abject vengeance upon mortal men. It is highly intelligent, cultured and literate. Its fists can pulp a man’s skull in a heartbeat.     

3. The Corpse-Mammoth. A wind-dried mammoth cadaver possessed by necromantic energies. A purposeless, primeval lich-creature created by dark cosmic chance.

4. The Monolith, high up against the white-grey sky a huge featureless black stone drifts across the horizon. It whispers in men’s minds, makes them do things to their compatriots. Anyone that touches the stone has the blood drained from their bodies.

5. The Star-Spawn. A writhing mass of tendrils and eyes that flies and swims on membranous wings. It’s as old as time. It was there when the Hyperborean Empire fell.  

6. The Inupasugjuk. Twelve stories high, the Inupasugjuk is a cannibal giant from beyond the northern ice sheet.

7. The Savage King, a swirling ice mist of fang, tooth, fur, talon and tusk. The Savage King of Wild Hyperborea embodies the primal destructiveness and territoriality of its native fauna. It hates us and our civilised ways.

8. The Polar God. At first, we thought it was just an idol. One of the aboriginal’s carvings, only much larger. We were wrong – it’s alive.

9. The Wendigo. We picked this fellow up off the ice. He was naked, very gaunt and thin and wild but after warming him through and feeding him he spoke in our accent. Says he’s the only survivor of his expedition but he’s not being specific with the details. His eyes glint with preternatural malice. He ate his previous crew. He's a monster now.

10. The Doomed Expedition. Generate a new expedition with a single ship, a captain, special equipment/crew and the things they encountered. Their undoings have become twisted strengths in their forlorn undeath.


The Weird Ways of the Polar North;

Weather and other atmospheric/paranormal or environmental effects to be encountered with a degree of regularity. Roll a d10 every 4 months after the expedition’s first year.

1. Arctic Pollen. Strange neon spores cloud the polar winds drifting in streaks across the grey-white sky and settling on deck, on your clothes, on your face. All we know is that we should burn it out before it starts to grow.

2. Carnivorous Ice. Ice that eats. Nearly indistinguishable from any other ice flow save for the faint streaks of seal blood frozen into it. The flesh and bone-eating ice cracks under its intended prey and quickly refreezes crunching and slicing away as a means of attack and mastication. Carnivorous Ice is not alive as far as we can tell.

3. Razor Lights. Angled shafts of faint light, comparatively bright against the dim polar twilight, litter the seas and stony beaches of the polar north. Beware the lights as they slash through cloth and flesh at the gentlest touch. 

4. Blizzard Watchers. Sometimes during blizzards, we see them. Black specks that move through the snow-grey clouds and hang above our ships. An officer observed them through his looking glass and said they looked like men in flowing black robes and would answer no other questions about what he saw. 

5. Screamers. The first rescue party sent to investigate the cries never returned. We don’t know what they are but after sunset and during the long sunless winter we hear them screaming. These things scream out on the ice, usually they are far from the ship and their shrill cries echo across the frozen waste. But recently, they’ve been getting closer. The men are getting unnerved. 

6. Anti-Sun. During the long night, when the sun sets and doesn’t rise again for months, another alien sun takes its place. An inverted solar eye, of a deeper black set against the darkness of the night, it emanates cold and malice. It wends elliptically across the inky sky sometimes halting to glower above us. 

7. Creeping Snowdrifts. Crawling across the ice fields or up your fur coat towards your face, the snow is trying to asphyxiate you. 

8. Messenger Columns. Huge pillars of solid, translucent ice thrice the height of a man stand isolated against the flat, pebble strewn islands and cracked spines of the ice-field’s bergs. Gazing into the column’s ink-swirled depths reveals shimmering, hallucinatory images of distant lands, of your home. Nerve-shot sailors find it hard or impossible to look away and will be found the following morning frozen into the icy column. 

9. Flesh-Stripping Pseudo-Waves. Great, mindless, moving hills of sea-grey jelly, rimed will polar frost that slowly circle the seas, icefields, tundra and rocky islands of the Hyperborean north swelling and sweeping up unfortunate seals, bears and sailors alike to be devoured in its colossal mass. These rare phenomena emerge from the depths of the ocean to float across its surface or press through cracks in the icefield sweeping the land for things to consume.

10Poltergeist. Whether an effect of the strange magnetism that confuses our compasses or something altogether more supernatural, objects have been being stacked, rearranged and thrown. All men must be wary should rigging be knotted, the anchor dropped or an invisible hand carry a candle to the powder store.  


Vignette Encounters

These things are typically only encountered once per expedition. Roll a d8 for each year of the expedition, reroll results that have already been encountered or use it as an opportunity to revisit them.   

1.  Downed Monolith-Ship. We’d thought them only fanciful stories - of men, sky-pirates taking to the biting wind atop Hyperborea’s floating black masonry. But here they are. Their crashed rock’s rope bindings and wooden platforms lie smashed on the rocky shore. The crew’s skeletons scattering in the wind.   

2.  Night Fliers. Tens of thousands of them, these flying things - like jellyfish filling the entire night sky.

3.  Northbound Souls. Pale bodies move just below the ice and float ever northward. I wouldn’t touch them; they make me feel sick.

4.  Isle of Skulls. Those aren’t stones…

5.  The Abandoned Ship. Roll a new ship, name and one fantastic resource. The ship is completely abandoned, food and beds might still be warm. If the fantastic resource is a crew member, they are the soul survivor and shouldn't be trusted.    

6.  Friendly Aboriginals. Gods be praised. A tiny family of friendly natives. They have too little food to spare to so many of us but they might teach us a thing or two about how to survive.

7. The Shaman, a funny fellow of the native sort – strange, esoteric rituals and behaviours. If the shaman is mistreated by the crew a second terrible thing from the terror table is unleashed on the expedition. If he is treated well the shaman abates whatever is harrying the expedition for several weeks before departing further north.

8. Cannibal Shrine. The captain ordered us trusted crewmen to destroy it. It was built from (and possibly by) our own kin folk and countrymen, we could tell because the skeletons were wearing our nation’s uniform. It’s better the widows back home keep thinking that their men just disappeared.   

Sunday, 20 December 2020

Simple Magic House Rule for Low Fantasy or Pulp Setting Flavour

Low Fantasy. Magic is rare. Those that wield magic are burnt at the stake or revered as cult-lords. How to simply represent this through your game's mechanics?

Reaction Rolls.

Immediately reroll any NPC's reaction after a character uses magic in front of them for the first time. This means a group of initially friendly peasants can start to reach for their pitchforks when they see a PC casting spells or a gang of brigands can become hospitable (from fear of being obliterated by a powerful sorcerer). It is your discretion whether to include the magic-wielder's charisma modifier in this roll.

Rerolling reactions should only be done once and rolled only for appropriate NPC's. A group of hardened adventurers or the king's finest veterans probably wouldn't reroll reactions, they are too experienced or brave or loyal to do so. Likewise, non-sentient creatures (undead, automatons) are unaffected as are NPC magic-users and many (but not all) dungeon denizens. Cultists should only reroll reactions if the PC's do magic more impressive than their cult leader is capable of. 

To simulate more intensely inquisitorial, witch-hunting societies reroll reactions with a -2 or -4. An average reaction roll indicating a certain fearfulness or anxiety in the NPC's. Positive magic could mean the reaction roll is made with a +2; despicable magic with a -2.


If your game looks like this, don't use this house rule


Saturday, 21 December 2019

Societies, Gangs and Cultures of the Post-Apocalypse




Roll 2d6 three times, once for the ‘Descriptor’, ‘Form’ and ‘Home’ of your post-apocalyptic tribe.  The first die designates the table, the second designates the result. 



1
Descriptor
Form
Home
1
Drowned
Mouths
Of the Petrolate
2
Broken
Teeth
Of Gastown
3
Blooded/Blood
Knives
Of Knifetown
4
Idiot
Apes
Of the Poisoned Lands
5
Painted
Men
Of Rig-City
6
Junk
Folk
Of the Man-farm



2
Descriptor
Form
Home
1
Burnt
Worms
Of Coffin Valley
2
Red
Freaks
Of Spree City
3
Blue
Creeps
Of Glowing Rock
4
Bruised
Eyes
Of the Necrodome
5
Flaming
Kings
Of the Skull Throne
6
Dirt
Bones
Of Scrap Mountain


3
Descriptor
Form
Home
1
Bitter
Clan
Of Bonetown
2
Biting
Gimps
Of the Uranium Potentate
3
Dead
Eels
Of Slick River
4
Motor
Freaks
Of the Carcinogate
5
Fucked
Punks
Of Bulletville
6
Smoking
Dogs
Of Smog Spire


4
Descriptor
Form
Home
1
Whispering
Kids
Of the Pollution Palace
2
Chemical
Boys
Of Spilled-Gut Valley
3
Noxious
Brothers
Of the Stinking King
4
Acid
Gang
Of the Weeping Territory
5
Wicked
Band
Of Sulphur Road
6
Whacked
Spine
Of the Cannibal Alliance


5
Descriptor
Form
Home
1
Laughing
Hearts
Of the Wrecked Hulk
2
Big
Suckers
Of the Narcocracy
3
Steel
Youth
Of the Orphan Emperor
4
Sick
Bugs
Of the Final Revelation
5
Hard
Schizos
Of Warhead Nation
6
Flayed
Moths
Of the Lunatic Tribe


6
Descriptor
Form
Home
1
Masochist
Army
Of Vile Luridity
2
Stoned
Frogs
Of New Sodom
3
Razor
Legion
Of the Pill Republic
4
Predator
Queens
Of the Trash-God
5
Old
Slashers
Who Maim
6
Heinous
Horrors
Who Screech