Stuff's that’s I’ve been's doing's lately

Two things have been eating my design time in recent days. The first is the sword-and-plant crawl I’ve been dreaming of since the Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu kickstarter dropped. Here’s how I’m making that happen:

A big hex map was my first stop (thank you hexographer):

While I was making it, I noted that tropical things felt very Barsoom-y to me, but deciduous forests and the like did not. This made me realize that, when going to my sourcebooks:

That I would need to edit the monster lists to exclude creatures that didn’t fit my planetcrawl theme. Also, taking some inspiration from the “(color) men” of this fine product:

I re-painted the elves as “Purple Men” (might have been channeling the drow there, but I mixed in a healthy dose of Moorecock’s Melnibonians) and my hated orcs became the savage Orange Men. I also retrofitted the fascinating ACKS-race of the Throgrin as Chaos-worshipping Green Men. Finally, I re-purposed gnomes as the rare and diminutive race of pterodactyl-riding Grey Men.

Next, I wanted to put some muscle into making a city crawl. And what better city than dim, distant Carcosa?

I used a variation of the techniques in my supplementary books (most notably Vornheim) to make the map, charts and tables. I also yoinked some of the amazing ideas on Urbancrawls from the Alexandrian.  (I had to cut and paste two different takes on the city together on a bit of cardboard to complete the map)

Each of my supplementary books had a particular bit that I loved:

About Vornheim, much has been said . I find the charts in the back to be excellent templates to use when designing a city:

I yank NPCs from Red and Pleasant Land pretty commonly (I re-purposed the hatter as a priest of Thoth, to give one notable example). But the break-out star was the Guests, who you generate with these great tables as your players watch in horror:

Yoon-Suin is the book which keeps on giving, but a favorite bit of mine is the humble artifacts section:

It provides great grist for “we’ve found a weird device and we don’t know what it does”. Probably my most-consulted chart in the book, up there with the Opium section (also referenced with alarming frequency!)

And what Carcosa would be complete without mega dungeons within the city walls?

You’ll note the first-draft blueprints (top left) follow a ball-and-stick model, which is my take on some excellent advice I got a while back.

I am not above re-purposing dungeons as weird houses!

….

Now… Wait, what folder is this?

So monolithic and mysterious! And what is this? Hidden writing?

How intriguing! What strange documents could be concealed within?

Why, it appears there is almost an entire manuscript within…

More updates as the situation unfolds, dear readers!

I was recently talking about RPGs in a forum, and I was asked the following question:

"What do you want from an RPG that differentiates it from moderated freeform roleplay?"

Which is a super good question that I am happy to answer!

Shared Mindspace

Beyond mere moderation, the gamemaster creates a milieu: A living, imaginary universe. This milieu is shared and occupied by the players but is in no way responsive to them outside of the agency of their characters. So that, while a player may have their character swing from a chandelier, they could not suggest one into being; the GM, in their sole discretion, determines whether one is there.

This contrasts starkly with freeform moderated roleplaying; there can be no “offer”: As a player, I can’t say “I am going to swing from the chandelier!” and expect the rest of the players and moderator to accept or reject my assumption.

If there is a chandelier, and I am within swinging distance, I can attempt whatever fool thing I want. Further, I can ask the GM if there is one, and they at their sole discretion can reveal that yes indeed there is one or reject the notion; when they do, it becomes part of the mindspace; something that is real to the characters we play.

Discretionary consultation of rules systems

Additionally, the GM is a referee of the rules systems which govern a game. They can and should deviate from them at their sole discretion, but that deviation and adherence forms part of the ongoing conversation of the roleplaying game.

The addition, exclusion, adherence from, deviance from, et al of rules is part of the running and playing of the game. If we, as a collective roleplaying group, want to use a set of mechanics from an entirely different game system, narrate the outcome, or whatever, we agree that that system represents an agreeable abstraction which governs the outcome of actions within the shared mindspace. Should a deadly chess match be decided by an actual, played-in-real-time chess match? That’s for us to say.

Aside: I feel like it is acceptable courtesy to get agreement from everybody before radically altering the agreed-upon activity (playing a given game and system) in this way. Just the way you wouldn’t want to demand a round of badminton be played for the second inning of a rugby match with your mates. But as a group activity, group consensus rules; you want to play a round of risk to determine the outcome of this war in D&D? That sound pretty rad to me.

The rules and game that people agree to play (say, D&D) are a living part of the conversation of the game. Its understood what someone means when they say “I cast X spell” or “I’ll use my X ability to Y”. This isn’t bad; in fact, it’s extremely clear and useful language. It doesn’t exclude chandelier-swinging; it is the other way we talk about the shared activity of roleplaying.

I want to be surprised

Here’s the great thing about roleplaying games; they are cake that you have and eat forever. They are ouroboros cake.

If I want to have an aerial battle in my sword and planet D&D campaign and modify the rules for a WWII dogfighting game to accommodate pterodactyls and spells? We can do that. It’s roleplaying.

If you’re a 1 HP, first-level thief and there’s a platoon of angry gnolls in an abandoned grain silo, you can totally seal them in and set fire to the thing without the need to ever touch dice. That is roleplaying.

If you want to use your cleave feat with two-weapon proficiency to scythe through an advancing goblin horde in an orgy of mechanical and martial prowess, that’s awesome. And it is roleplaying.

RPGs don’t exist in neat, concise boxes; they’re big, messy, wonderful things. The term “roleplaying game” is as huge and encompassing as the term “art”, or “game”.

Jerry Holkins (or it might have been Mike Krahulik) once commented, concerning a documentary chronically different aspects and peoples in the roleplaying hobby, that they were clearly not all doing the same thing. But that’s the thing; they are. All of these things fall under the grand umbrella of roleplaying games, and that is awesome.

Running RPGs for me, is a wonderful experience of having my expectations defied by the creativity and ingenuity of my players, while never abandoning a shared game or a shared imaginary universe. It is the neverending cake.

Ahhh, sweet art: here are the returns for the Tiang Shang characters From the fantastic Chistof Grobelski

I really, really dig Pigsy here. There's been some subtle "pig" elements added in from here earlier draft, including her "hoof-like" boots, which brings her visuals nicely in line with her description.

Sandy's skulls here have been upgraded nicely. The artist asked us to provide some characters for his body tattoos, so I'm going to get with David and the team and see if we can't find some appropriately cool ones.

The designs on Tripitaka's robes look fantastic here. All the lines and shading made his face look old, though! Otherwise a magnificent piece.

Some fiction from Parliament of Crocodiles

The grin spread across his face like cancer “Thanks for meeting me so late, Bob”

Bob shook the offered hand “I didn’t know you were doing business in this part of town, Frank” he regarded the crumbling project buildings with a contempt reserved for rotting teeth “You’re punching below your weight class, don’t you think?”

Frank kept smiling, his eyes hard and glassy “Oh I’m not selling down here Bob” behind his head, the insectile horror in his brain snaked a chitinous tendril from the base of his skull

Bob pulled his fingers from Frank’s uncomfortably tight grip. A note of unease crept into his voice “So what are we doing out here Frank?”

“This-” Frank plunged the tendril into Bob’s eye socket “-Is talent acquisition, Bob”

Also, here's the latest cover mockup:

That font is Endor, which is made by the good people at Apostrophic Labs