Quest World™ and The Uncanny Hinterlands

Quest World™ is my entry into The Great Troika! Pocket Sphere Jam. For the unfamiliar, a pocketmod is a small booklet folded from a single sheet of paper, and a “sphere” is Troika’s rough equivalent of a plane or a planet. Quest World™ is one part of a stew I’ve had simmering for the better part of a year now, which I call the Uncanny Hinterlands.

The Uncanny Hinterlands

The first ingredient in the Uncanny Hinterlands was the Mothership adventure Hideo’s World, in which the characters enter a decaying virtual world in the mind of a genius game designer (a “slickworld”). It plays with the narrative frames in some interesting ways, for example you can order a coke in the virtual world, delivered to your physical location by drone. It’s also an “excuse” to explore a different set of tropes and aesthetics while keeping it grounded in a larger setting.

The second ingredient was Jared Sinclair’s Prismot zine, which expanded the idea from “I should run Hideo’s World” to “I should convert Hideo’s World to Troika!” I liked the idea of a world like Hideo’s, but that you could also travel to physically,¹ a digitally constructed artificial realm of adventure.

That was on 11 March 2020, and on 16 March 2020 I started working from home in relative isolation. Eventually, I picked up RuneScape (OSRS) again, and that influence created the Uncanny Hinterlands, a larger, stranger setting.² With my notes becoming too unwieldy to usefully think about, the game jam gave me the opportunity to ladle out a manageable portion to share with others.

Quest World™

Quest World™ is most heavily inspired by MMORPGs. I’m fascinated by the morality of RuneScape, where advancement may force you to compromise your morals. In general, there are many one-off or narrow solutions that could not reasonably exist in a normal TTRPG. Debates about violence in D&D and coverage of The Last of Us 2 put the term “ludonarrative dissonance” in my head, which seemed like a natural exploration inside these more complicated narrative frames.

I haven't got to play it yet, but I also wanted to shout out PAGAN: Autogeny as apparently having a similar concept (abandoned MMORPG), although I'm sure there are others.

Kill Arena

The next area of the uncanny hinterlands that I’d like to explore is the Kill Arena: a sphere inspired by classic FPS games. I especially always loved the way that physics glitches become core parts of gameplay or entirely different ways to play. I don’t know if this exploration will be coherent enough to share, but I offer it as an example of other spheres in the Uncanny Hinterlands.

Making the Pocketmod

I composed my first pocketmod at A7 page size, because an A4 pocketmod printed on US letter paper will still fold correctly (the reverse is not true). This time, I did not remember that and started writing at ⅛-size US letter paper. Fortunately, I gave myself 0.25” margins, so I was able to adjust the margins and paper size at the same time for the A4 version.

I used pdfjam for the final layout, which was pretty straightforward. My distribution (Mageia) provides it in the package “texlive-collection-basic” and the command to assemble the US letter-size pocketmod was:
$ pdfjam --angle 180 -o /dev/stdout qw.pdf '1,8,7,6' | pdfjam --nup 4x2 --landscape --paper letter -o qw-us.pdf qw.pdf '2-5' /dev/stdin
where “qw.pdf” is the 8-page ⅛-size US letter layout and “qw-us.pdf” is the pocketmod output. Similarly, the A4 pocketmod was assembled by:
$ pdfjam --angle 180 -o /dev/stdout qw-a7.pdf '1,8,7,6' | pdfjam --nup 4x2 --landscape --paper a4paper -o qw-a4.pdf qw-a7.pdf '2-5' /dev/stdin

I used LibreOffice for writing and layout, GIMP for image editing, Kolourpaint for rough image sizing and cropping, and Pixel Studio on an Android tablet for original art.

I made liberal use of the free resources on itch.io. I used the fonts Nicer Nightie, Silver, and Fool, and I used free 1-bit fantasy sprites and pixel portraits.

I also used several sets of glitch brushes and textures by dataerase. It’s a bit of a hack, but this is how I made them work in GIMP:

1. Copy the .abr files to ~/.config/GIMP/2.10/brushes (you can leave them in subdirectories).
2. Copy the folders of patterns from the CSP brushes to ~/.config/GIMP/2.10/patterns (you can leave them in subdirectories and also leave them as pngs).
3. Using the clone tool, select "Pattern" as the source and select one of the glitch patterns. You can use any brush, but the new brushes will be square.

These aren’t true brushes: the pattern doesn’t scale with brush size, nor does the current foreground color matter, but for painting on pixel-scales in black & white, it worked very well.

Into the Uncanny Hinterlands

There is a lot more in the uncanny hinterlands, so I’m collecting some of the other ideas that inform them here for reference.

• Early in quarantine, I finished digitizing all my old VHS tapes, where I rediscovered the Beyond the Mind’s Eye series of videos.
• This collection of early CGI.
• Glitch TV Bot and Crooked Cosmos
• The Art of PNG Glitch
• The Misremembered Men from I Don’t Remember That Move were one of the larger “game” references for the glitch aesthetic. I like the way it creates “digital” problems in an analog game.
• MissingNo. and other glitch pokemon strongly inform the glitch aesthetic, but I also appreciate the simple weirdness of Porygon, a pokemon created in “compressed” form.
• Mojibake
• Parsely, which I found through David Schirduan’s review. I haven’t played it yet, because I’m bad at pitching ideas to people and this is a tough one. But I’m genuinely excited by the ideas.
• I am interested in the way that MMORPGs handle glitches and hacks, both officially and communally, and in the long term effects of those glitches on the games. I remember the Corrupted Blood Incident and the Partyhat Duplication Glitch especially.

---

1 While some inhabitants of the Uncanny Hinterlands are there via neural uplink, some are using PC terminals, astral projection, or spaceships. Some could be considered “native,” even. ^back

2 I still have not lost track of my other OSRS-inspired projects, as they are tending in a different direction. ^back

Chuckleheads and The ’Valizzi

Dan D. at Throne of Salt requests from the jackalope:

d6 Chuckleheads you have to deal with from the local wizard mafia

The Plan

This should be easy:

1. Binge-listen to Crimetown.
2. Define the Local Wizard Mafia.
3. Write up some chuckleheads.

Wizard mobsters are probably like normal mobsters, but with funny hats. (Funny hats are by Lorc and Delapouite via game-icons.net, used under a CC-BY 3.0 license.)

The ’Valizzi

Description

The ’Valizzi is the local wizard mafia, an organized magical crime syndicate. Even when their ends are mundane, their means are supernatural. They run extraplanar smuggling rings, deal in apotropaic protection rackets, and arbitrate disputes between wizards and godlings. Where magic is illegal or disreputable, they have business with necromancy, fortune-telling, and the manufacture of consumables (potions, scrolls, drugs, and so on).

There is no requirement of blood relation to join the ’Valizzi, only magical ability. Because of their persecution, proper members of the ’Valizzi are magically bound to never verbally confirm if an individual is or is not a member of the ’Valizzi. This curse is taken voluntarily, and has never been known to be broken. Current members will also never knowingly risk letting an outsider know who is or isn't in the ’Valizzi through other means.

Motto

Anything in the world is ours to take, and in exchange we offer order.

Beliefs

• Always repay debts.
• All magic and all crime should be conducted under our auspices.

Goals

• Enrich selves.
• Control all forms of magic.

Hooks

• The PCs need a divination, and the only purveyors in town are ’Valizzi.
• Returning to town, the lone guard at the gate doesn't remember them at all. He is being memory-wiped with some regularity by potion smugglers.
• The flood of magic items brought back to town by the PCs has upset a local wizard, who calls in a favor from the ’Valizzi to see about cutting off the supply.
• The PCs perform some minor magical service in town, for example a healing or a detection spell. The ’Valizzi won't be happy to hear about upstarts cutting in on their turf.

The Chuckleheads

1. Father Corx

Overview: Father Corx is a dapper priest who goes way back with the ’Valizzi.

Appearance: He has neat salt-and-pepper hair and a low booming voice.

Abilities: He has the spellcasting ability of a low-level cleric.

Talents: He assuages people's guilt, including his own.

Mannerisms: He takes long pauses between sentences (or as dramatically appropriate).

Interactions: He is very understanding of others, to the point of condescension.

Knowledge: He always knows how to make things right and who to set up meetings with.

Ideals: A strong, if twisted, belief in hierarchy governs his actions.

Bond: He is childhood friends with the current leaders of the ’Valizzi, and sees no conflict between his religious teachings and their actions.

Secrets: He has covered for the ’Valizzi in several large court cases, using his station to sway the jury.

2. Jerry "the Ferret"

Overview: Jerry used to be a smuggler and a burglar with the ’Valizzi.

Appearance: Even bent over a cane, his wiry frame is still tall.

Abilities: He can open a door to any other door in the same building, one-way, provided they both have doorknobs.

Talents: He misdirects at every scale.

Mannerisms: His teeth whistle slightly, enough to stop him casting spells (part of the terms of his release).

Interactions: Jerry is faultlessly polite and fabulously generous, so long as he thinks he might learn something from you.

Knowledge: He can get into and out of any building, or at least knows how.

Ideals: Jerry is a self-made man and values that independence.

Bond: Jerry's only loyalty is to his immediate family, to the chagrin of his former compatriots and cell-mates.

Secrets: Jerry knows where the gold from his last big heist is buried, and intends it to be his son's inheritance.

3. Nicalos, Old Fredward's Boy

Overview: Nicalos is a goon and errand-runner employed by the ’Valizzi.

Appearance: His personal grooming is impeccable, but he wears outdated, fraying clothes.

Abilities: Nicalos is slightly un-magical, and if a spell can fail around him, it will tend to.

Talents: Nicalos has a real knack for hiding and sneaking.

Mannerisms: His speech is heavily-affected cartoonish mob-speak (Nyah, see?).

Interactions: He always seeks to make himself look good, and to win approval from others.

Knowledge: Whatever the characters' business with the ’Valizzi, Nicalos will have a better understanding of the implications and repercussions than they do.

Ideals: Nicalos has aspirations to run the show, and will take initiative given the opportunity.

Bond: Nicalos keeps his mother sheltered from his activities a ways outside town.

Secrets: Depending on the characters' goals, Nicalos' are either exactly the same or exactly opposite. He will not let on to this.

4. Barb, the Lightning Witch

Overview: Barb is an electric witch, an invaluable asset to the ’Valizzi.

Appearance: Short middle-aged woman, long blond hair always floating on end with static charge.

Abilities: Barb can unerringly send one-way messages to the deceased.

Talents: Barb has a flair for the theatrical, which serves her well in séances and rain-calling.

Mannerisms: Cackles.

Interactions: Barb's interactions with others are purely transactional, and she works to maintain her image at all times.

Knowledge: Barb has a finger on the pulse of all the metaphysical movers and shakers, like who is researching what spells, where Excalibur was last seen, which godlings haven't been properly appeased, etc.

Ideals: Barb delights in the exercise of power.

Bond: Everyone owes Barb something, and it makes them uncomfortable, and she knows it.

Secrets: She can no longer charge the batteries that power her magical equipment, and is currently running on fumes.

5. Buddy, the Actual Elected Mayor

Overview: Not a wizard, not a mobster, but in deep with the ’Valizzi regardless.

Appearance: A broad-shouldered, square-chinned, deep-voiced, white-toothed perfect politician.

Abilities: Buddy commands local law enforcement and municipal services.

Talents: People trust Buddy, unless they know him well.

Mannerisms: When he's thinking, Buddy fiddles with a fancy gold fountain pen, occasionally dropping it and surreptitiously retrieving it.

Interactions: Buddy will readily agree to any seemingly-fair deal, but won't do any work to uphold his end of a bargain.

Knowledge: Buddy knows just the right words to sway an audience, or the right gestures to get their attention.

Ideals: Buddy believes in the status quo and in his city. He believes that all of its faults are necessary, and that he can protect it.

Bond: Buddy knows who got him elected.

Secrets: Buddy knows where the bodies are buried.

6. Ruby

Overview: Ruby is a promising young wizard that the ’Valizzi is actively recruiting.

Appearance: She has ankle-length black hair and wears baggy clothing, but she's in there somewhere.

Abilities: Ruby knows a charm to silence her movement at will.

Talents: Ruby learns quick, be careful what spells you let her see.

Mannerisms: When she's not talking, Ruby stands unnervingly still.

Interactions: You can rely on Ruby if she says she'll do something, but she doesn't say much.

Knowledge: She has some idea what the magical abilities of everyone else in the wizard mafia are, and how they work.

Ideals: Ruby values novelty, and will want to try anything new that she hasn't seen before.

Bond: The ’Valizzi bankrolled her magical education, and she's working off that debt one job at a time.

Secrets: Ruby wants out, and will leave once her obligations are fulfilled.

Thoughts

I really like the 5e method of defining an organization, which I first saw used in Krevborna and Cinderheim, so it was a natural fit for defining the organization. Then I thought I'd try the 5e method for defining NPCs also, which ended up being a lot more work than I would normally put into a single NPC.

Game Jams and More to Fight Social Isolation Blues

I added art to my entry in the Troika! Tarot Jam (11 days left at time of writing), and I now consider it finished. For these I wanted to communicate a lot of flavor without the standard explanatory preamble, to help them fit in such a small space. I think a lot of the backgrounds would be better remixed, but can stand alone as-is. I only hope that the illustrations aren't so specific that they interfere with anyone's interpretations of their own characters.

I don't technically have more time during social isolation because of work. But I still need things to occupy my mind, so here are some RPG-related activities:

• Troika! Tarot Jam
• Good Morning Apocalypse Game Jam
• The Great Khan's Celtic Adventure Contest
• Cone of Negative Energy: Please Stay Home Bundle
• Free PDFs from Exalted Funeral

There are also lots of other things:

• Entertaining Yourself in Times of Quarantine
• Virtual School Activities (all kinds of cameras and virtual museums)
• The National Mall [Cherry Blossom] Bloom Cam
• The Localhost Gallery (A Minecraft Art Gallery)
• Streaming Concerts
• A Streaming Variety Show
• Catch a Sourdough Starter

Please, stay safe and support each other.

Secret Santicorn 2019

Sky Seeker asked:
Dear Santicorn,
Please bring me

New ways to mess with time/space/fate, be it mechanics, spells, worldbuilding or beyond. If pokemon can reboot the universe to patch in a baby god we can do better: https://youtu.be/GxC1kXm_AVs

The Slipsoul – a Character Option

Infinite parallel universes teem around us, multitudes branching out with every decision and movement. Normally, these worlds are inaccessible and inhospitable. But when you die, your mind does not go gently into the night, but casts about wildly to find purchase on any reality that will take it. When you’re lucky, it’s relatively close to the world your remember.

These rules assume a D&D-ish game, but could be easily adapted to others. Mechanical effects, if any, are left as an exercise for the referee and the effects of further re-rolls are left open to negotiation.

Whenever you fail a death save, roll on the slide table and appear stabilized, but in a different reality. That this reality is different is apparent only to you. For example, if you roll “No eyes” the wound is old, and your companions may remember how you lost them. If you later re-roll the same number, you find yourself instead in the universe the next column over, as your mind reaches for further and further branches of reality. For example, if you roll a “1” a second time, then you still have no eyes, but find yourself able to see spirits.

The Slide Table

d12	First	Second	Third	Fourth
1	No eyes.	See spirits.	See the past.	Something else sees what you see.
2	Covered in tattoos.	Know and can cast random spell.	Spell casts itself when you take damage.	No one else can cast the spell.
3	Dave loyally follows you everywhere.	Davinia also follows you everywhere.	Dave & Davinia are retired in the city.	Nobody has ever heard of Dave or Davinia.
4	Pockets full of money.	Warrant for your arrest.	Owe a criminal favor.	Run a small gang.
5	Forsaken by religions.	Resting grants no benefit.	There are no stars.	Free from the wheel of death and rebirth.
6	No fingers on off hand.	Off-arm is a tentacle.	+d6 tentacles.	You are an octopus.
7	Lycanthropy.	Contacts despise you.	Covered in scars.	+d6 wolf companions.
8	Slide on any failed save.	Slide instead of save.	Optionally, slide instead of skill check.	Roll twice when sliding.
9	Super nice clothes.	Parents look for you.	Assassin targets you.	Inherit a small estate.
10	Require double rations.	Do not need sleep when you rest.	Cannot heal naturally.	Begin to rot.
11	Very short.	Darkvision.	Stonecunning.	Ancestors will aid you.
12	False leg.	Key hidden in leg.	Compartments in limbs.	Need regular maintenance.

Printout

I also made this printout of the table, so that you might have the satisfaction of striking the universes you've already rolled.

Licking the Bowl

Taking the prompt as "petty uses of cosmic power", I also sketched out two other ideas.

Fold Self – a GLOG Spell

When you rest to heal, you can choose not to heal any number of HP, instead leaving part of yourself (astrally) in that location. When casting the spell, roll [dice] over (max HP - HP at that location) to transport yourself and your carried objects to that location. This isn't really teleportation, it's more like squeezing a four-dimensional water wiggly.

Johnny Luckturner – an NPC Outline

Recently broke off from a larger organization and they're not happy about it. All their best people have returned broken or not at all. Maybe a bunch of bumbling patsies could get the job done?

Whenever multiple dice are rolled against Johnny, only the worst value is used (even if they would normally sum). Sneak attacks, advantages, fireballs, etc. all fall flat before his absurd luck. He doesn't know how this works though, and he's a pretty average combatant.

Discourse & Discord

“The Discourse”

I can't keep up with The Discourse. There's always something happening, and I mostly don't care. But I try to be a good person and also to not support shitty people, so I have to care a little.

I stopped using the "OSR" tag on this blog, because it has been associated with a lot of terrible people, and also it seemed unnecessary¹. This was an imperfect solution because "OSR" has a defined sensibility that it was useful to have a name for. (*DREAM is a cool group, but I think it's turning into something different—compare a game like Songbirds V2 with a game like Bastionland.)

Then Zedeck had a thread and pointed out that it was selfish to continue playing in the space but to disown the label. I still respect people who used to be "OSR" and then decided that it didn't actually describe the games they enjoy, or that it wasn't worth dealing with the people. But I'll try to use the "OSR" tag for my stuff where it seems relevant, and also to be a decent person.

Discord

Where is the OSR community now? As far as I engage with it: mostly Discord. Many Discord servers are runaway reactors of creativity. Unfortunately, they're also transient, and brief conversations get lost. Here's some things to come of them that I hope others might find useful.

Troika! Backgrounds Jam

I may never play Troika! proper, but it's an infectious idea. Similarly, I don't know if I'll ever sell my games, but itch.io seems to be where the cool games are these days. The Troika! Backgrounds Jam was apparently the push I needed to throw something together and put it on itch². The jam is over, but this clip of how-to seems worth keeping:

(Instructions from Jared Sinclair, used by permission.)

And here is my entry, loosely inspired by Dial H:

I went ahead and put Bloodring up there too:

Alternate Beholders

Something about a beholder demands an answer. "Dungeons and Dragons" is nominally about dragons, but you know you're really playing D&D when you see a beholder. The 5e Monster Manual has three or four variant beholders. The AD&D Monstrous Manual has twelve. Everyone wants to do their own take³.

So the OSR Discord server was brainstorming alternative "beholders": burning wheels of eyes, disco-laser robots, etc. And I had what I thought was a pretty good idea, and now a bona fide meme: An Octopus with Too Many Wands. Now that we've survived one in Spwack's game, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share the idea here for posterity. It's a great monster: it's weird, it's dangerous, it's intuitive, and it makes its own treasure.

(Art from Nate Treme, used by permission.)

---

1 I call all the games I play "D&D" in speech, even things like Mothership. It's just easier sometimes.^back

2 Looking back at my blogging, I find I am unexpectedly motivated by challenges and competitions, even though I am not a competitive person by nature.^back

3 What I can find on short notice includes:

• The Panopticium
• The Lookyloo
• The Ones Left Behind
• Improved Beholders

But there are many many more, I'm sure.^back

The City of Emination, a Newer Crobuzon

Following Anne at DIY & Dragons, I've made a city out of some monsters (three "humanoid" minorities and three "bizarre" creatures).

Humanoids

Doppelgangers

Recent refugees of distant war, they are not trusted. Good merchants, negotiators, tour guides. Some rumors about doppelgangers:

• They bleed a different color (true, but so do some Aasimar).
• They can read minds (true).
• They can't stand garlic (false).
• They'll replace the recent dead (sometimes: they consider dead people's identities "unclaimed").
• They'll leave you to raise their children for them (false).
• They'll steal your stuff (rarely: they have different ideas about property).
• They can't drink alcohol (true, or at least, they can't keep it down).

Ghouls

Unable to enter the inner city (which is hallowed ground) sprawl has forced the ghouls to integrate. Well-fed, they work as laborers. Otherwise they don't think so good and eventually go dormant. Those that let hunger drive their actions are swiftly dealt with.

Aasimar

Aristocratic upper-class, descended from celestials that followed Wormwood (they claim). The original celestials have long since moved on, leaving their progeny to manage the city.

Bizarre

Aboleth

In the city square, a mound of unrotting flesh. It spasms in the rain, and it's good luck if it twitches when you spit on it. It's unknown how it got there, as Emination is landlocked.

The Angel Wormwood (Solar)

Millenia ago the angel Wormwood came to the mountains and there made itself a throne. It never speaks. It has not moved. Ancient pilgrims cut paths through the mountains from all sides, making Emination into an important crossroads.

Earth Elementals

Before the city were the mountains, and the elementals there. Taking the forms of rams and bears, they cut swathes through the outer city until they smash on the inner city walls, raining down charged earth. They always travel in a North-South direction and are more active around geomagnetic reversals.

Other New New Crobuza

• New New Crobuzon (Githyanki Diaspora)
• The City of Stones & Spirits (DIY & Dragons)
• New Twain (Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque)
• The Last City (The Sorcerer's Skull)
• Thaw (Archons March On)
• [Unnamed] (Dead Tree, No Shelter)
• Styx (Games of the Void Rust Medusa)
• Pandeimos (Throne of Salt)
• Deadwind (Goodberry Monthly)

There are also some entries from 2009 collected at The Book of Judd. Sphinxcorland (Sea of Stars) was a late addition (2010).

Other Palaces

I entered the 200 word RPG challenge! I nitpick and revise constantly, so you can see the final version here, and past versions here (I am bad at GitHub). I wanted a widget to see my revisions side-by-side, so there's also this:

PALACE RUN Swapper

(Art from Evlyn Moreau, used by permission.)

Notes

• In the swapper, I did not mark the changes when lists were re-ordered. Between versions 0.4 and 0.5, I made all the lists alphabetical, because I worry about limiting my imagination by consistently "matching" e.g. "kitchen" and "food". I also think it's more presentable. (In longer lists I do this to catch duplicates.)
• Due to my personal refereeing style, CHECKs are very rare in practice, so I had a hard time deciding a good value for STAT. The expected damage of an attack that causes a CHECK is 4, occurring on 5 in 6 attacks. Therefore, if STAT=18, there is a 1 in 4 chance of failing a CHECK as a result of the first attack. At STAT=16 this is 1 in 3, and at STAT=12 this is 1 in 2.

The Future

I've been working on the set-up of a specific palace, "The Palace Semi-Infinite". I had some wonderful playtesters who were willing to just mess-up a a palace, but I think something with more direction might have better staying power. I'm keeping the palace generation parts, but I may end up scrapping the game system for Into the Odd or something.

That said, the system is a svelte 61 words in the official word-counter, so it may make a reasonable base for future entries. I'm eager to see what other people have cooked up when I have a chance to sift through them.

PALACE RUN 0.2

I wrote this game that I'm very pleased with. I'm hoping to enter it in the 200 word RPG competition when submissions are open. Until then, I'll be playtesting it and tweaking it on Discord, and you should hit me up for a link to the server if you're interested.

Rules

The current version, at time of writing.

One player is REFEREE. Others, CHARACTERS.
"d6" means "six-sided die". "d20", 20-sided.

CHARACTERS
===
Choose name, POSSESSION. STAT=18.
CHECK or SAVE: roll d20<=STAT.
(CHECKS do; SAVES avoid.)
Attacks auto-hit, d6 damage to STAT.
After 2+ damage, SAVE. Failure --> STAT=1.
STAT<=0 --> death.
REST --> STAT=18.

POSSESSIONS

• Sword (+1 damage)
• Hand-mirror
• Marbles (100)
• Chalk
• Glue
• Flute
• Rope
• Wine
• Bucket
• Hammer

ROOMS
===

d6	ROOM	CONTENTS
1.	Courtyard	Plants
2.	Gallery	Sculptures
3.	Ballroom	Pillows
4.	Bedroom	Baskets
5.	Kitchen	Banquet
6.	Library	Fountain

d6	EXITS	FEATURE
1.	N-E	ENCOUNTER
2.	N-S	GLINT
3.	N-W	TREASURE
4.	S-E	TWIST
5.	S-W	Way UP
6.	E-W	Way DOWN

ENCOUNTERS
===
2-in-6 whenever CHARACTERS dawdle, REST, or clamor.
Flight auto-succeeds, CHECK or become lost.

d6	Mood	Encounter
1.	Sleepy	Guards
2.	Happy	Nobles
3.	Sad	Animals
4.	Afraid	Servants
5.	Hungry	Intruders
6.	Angry	Supernatural

GLINTS
===
Encounter clues.

TREASURE (d6)
===

1. Jewels
2. Wine
3. Porcelain
4. Tapestry
5. Letters
6. Gold

TWIST (d6)
===

1. 1 damage crossing (example: thorns).
2. Secret Door: CHECK locates.
3. Oubliette: SAVE or fall (d6 damage).
4. Non-Euclidean: exits to far rooms.
5. Unique room-type (example: laboratory).
6. Palace exit.

(194 words!)

Inspirations

• Into the Odd (free)
• Bastionland
• DIE TRYING
• The Witch Woods Microdungeon
• The Gardens of Ynn

Sparks

Tables are rough to fit in the game because each number also counts as a word. A d6 table is a minimum of 14 words. So I put this together, but can't even begin to fit it in. I worry that some of the words are too similar anyway though.

d20	Spark 1	Spark 2
1	ancient	banquet
2	black-market	ceremony
3	crystal	chandelier
4	dancing	chivalry
5	decadent	diplomacy
6	exotic	education
7	foreign	espionage
8	gambling	façade
9	gilt	gift
10	hidden	history
11	honorable	hunting
12	illegitimate	inheritance
13	ivory	intrigue
14	legal	marriage
15	luxury	money
16	mahogany	music
17	marble	piety
18	painted	taxes
19	social	tradition
20	usurping	war

Notes

It works well so far. I'm running a game on discord that's a mostly-straight whimsical fantasy palace. One of my players is putting together another game that's flavored after Darkest Dungeons. We haven't yet used the combat rules in anger, and running a game on Discord takes getting used to, but I'm optimistic.

A Town Called January

The challenge this week on the GLOG Discord channel was to detail a city or village or quarter or similar. This is my attempt.

Apollo speaks through his oracle at Delphi, Aphrodite through Dodona, and even the gods of the Celts and the Norsemen all have their own seers. So Janus, among the highest of the Roman pantheon, he too has prophets, established in a town called January. Once, upon the discovery of this gift from Janus, the town grew at an enormous rate. Surely, visions from the gatekeeper of the gods himself must be of a purer, stronger sort, it was reasoned. And they are, for his oracles are two, and both prophecy only the truth. But one will only see the past and one the future, and even they do not know which is which. So the city fell into disrepair and is now mostly a curiosity.

Downtown

The core of January.

• Joram runs an aging, but still upscale hotel, The Golden Fleece. He is also an expert on military defense and sieges.
• Hiram is a mask maker who sells them from his cart every day. In the past, the locals would all wear masks on the backs of their heads, but these days it's mostly for tourists.
• Mayors Miriam and Beelzebub won the least and the most votes for mayor respectively (that's how it works here). They get along together regardless.
• Pam is the law and head priest around here. She will defer to the oracles on all matters, but they usually don't interfere.
• Elam is a sculptor of growing renown. He claims not to know where the Wandering Adonises come from, but this is obviously a lie. His main income is sculpting large marble body parts to be offered to the temple (e.g. a large marble foot for foot for a foot problem).

The Temple

A short ways away up a small hill. Here there is a hot spring where people throw lead curse tablets, and then also drink the water for their health. You could probably get some good dirt on people from the accumulated curses, if you're willing to risk a god's disfavor.

• Seppha and Piper are the two oracles, who all this fuss is about. They used to have more attendants and they're not pleased about the change.
• Gerontus is the historian. For a not insubstantial fee, he can offer you some insight into which of the prophecies applies to the past, and by extension, which applies to your future.

The Old Town

The ruins of a massive city surrounding the core downtown. Unsavory sorts lurk here, but also just people trying to get by. There's a 50% chance that anything can be found here, albeit in rough shape (blacksmith, horse stable, observatory, waterpark, etc.).

The Quarry

An uncommon bright spot in January's future, Januarian marble is becoming trendy in some circles. The impurities give it distinctive purple veins.

The Orchards

Januarian farmers graft their trees relentlessly, such that something is always in season, and they can practically tell what day of the year it is by what's in bloom. Empty doorframes dot the landscape, but they are not magical and the locals will think it's very funny if people walk through them to check.

Encounters

1. Boram, a political up-start. He's spreading positive propaganda about Miriam, hoping to snag last place in next year's election.
2. Hephelot, a general of little renown. He can't afford the pricier oracles, but still wants to know about upcoming battles.
3. A wandering marble Adonis. They don't speak. There's a few of them around.
4. A caravan of pilgrims with various ailments, thirsty for the healing waters of the temple.
5. Filiam, a disaffected local teen attempting to run away to a "real" city. Keeps getting lost in the ruins, but won't admit it. Claims instead that he's looking for something important.
6. Poram, a massive quarryman. Wears the Janus mask on the back of his head, so looks quite frightening from behind. Needs people to check out a scary cave for him, but won't phrase it like that.

Other Cities

This is only my entry in a second GLOG challenge, these are some others:

• Garren Styn (Words for Yellow)
• Nahemot (Alone in the Labyrinth)
• Ezra (Alone in the Labyrinth)
• Angler Mothers (Parasites and Paradoxes)
• Stones (Two Goblins in a Trenchcoat)
• The Grain District - a Part of the Yellow City (Of Slugs and Silver)
• Sword (The Whimsical Mountain)
• Lakamha (The Oblidisideryptch)

Restless Dreamer

A GLOG class for the cursed class challenge.

Now you've done it. Maybe you pricked your finger on a magic spinning wheel. Took a bite of an enchantress' apple. Stole a perfume from the wrong alchemist. Desecrated a fairy ring. Whatever it was, you're gonna be comatose for a while, so you might as well make the best of it.

This is a cursed class. Once you have a template in Restless Dreamer you can't gain templates in anything else until you wake up.

1. Asleep, Beautiful, Well-Rested
2. Somnambulant
3. Sandman's Touch
4. Manifestations

Asleep

You're asleep. You cannot move on your own and must be carried everywhere. You are still aware of your surroundings, but only what they dream themselves to be: you see the ruins on the hill as a glorious stately palace and the mayor's cat as a fearsome panther. The thief in the night is a smooth constellation of shadow and the paladin literally radiates sunlight. You can speak softly and coherently or loudly and incoherently.

Beautiful

Fortunately, you are a graceful sleeper. Whenever you gain a template in Restless Dreamer, add one to your Charisma. You are non-threatening to animals, if obviously vulnerable, and people will do things to help you or your companions when asked that they might not otherwise.

Well-Rested

If the curse is broken, you resume your normal sleep schedule. You can only use your Restless Dreamer templates while sleeping, but while awake, bonuses to Charisma from Beauty become bonuses to Constitution. (Such beauty could only last as an idea of a person, not a real person.)

Somnambulant

With great effort, you can move under your own power and take actions no sleeper could normally undertake—cast spells*, swing swords, sing songs, etc. Each round you are up and about you must make a Charisma save to avoid drifting off to dream again, and take a -1 penalty to this save for each preceding round you've been moving.

Sandman's Touch

Your stillness and calm are contagious. You can cast human and beast into a deep sleep at the touch of your hand whenever you so choose. The only limit to this ability is what you can reach.

Manifestations

You can call creatures of the dreaming to aid you in the waking world. They range from clever doormice to crawling vines to rolling nightmare machines. Each day you can call dream creatures with total HP equal to the total number of templates you have, and they have morale as retainers. They return to the dreams of others when they are needed (usually within the next 24 hours).

Methods of Waking

• True love's kiss.
• Find the little fairy that did this and wring their little fairy neck.
• Dream a world so real it replaces the one you're asleep in.
• Really a lot more ammonium salts than advisable.
• Ride it out—you don't seem to be aging, so you might as well find out what the future is like.
• Get yourself kicked out of the dreaming.
• Bargain away your ability to sleep.
• Have your corporeal form brought to the dreaming to take your place.

Notes

I was told it's easy to write GLOG classes and this did go fast. I haven't played the GLOG proper yet, so please let me know if I missed something obvious.

There are many other entries in this challenge. These are the ones I am currently aware of:

• Curses (Words for Yellow)
• Nanoweapon Poisoned (Archon's Court)
• Skablin (ふかひれスープ)
• The Ogre (Of Slugs and Silver)
• Holding Out for a Hero (A Blasted, Cratered Land)
• The Oath Cursed (Anxious Mimic)
• Mirror-Struck (Princesses & Pioneers)
• The Doppelgänger (Parasites and Paradoxes)
• The Abattoir God (Bugbear Slug)
• Wizzard Bidness (Meandering Banter)
• Curse of the Undying (Nuclear Haruspex)
• The Fading Curse (Whimsical Mountain)

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* How do you rest to regain spells when you're always asleep? Easy: you fall asleep in your dreams. Just be sure you don't only dream you fell asleep in your dreams, and be careful not to learn the spell that your spell dreams it is, which might be something else entirely…^back