Mutliverse Traveler Generator

Just a silly post, don't mind me.
You are traveler from the [d12] [d12, d12] verse.
(Roll and chose between the options provided)
Or just click there.

d12 Roll once

1. Dark / Gothic 
2. Fantasy / SciFi 
3. Cyber / Techno
4. Queer / Punk    
5. Cosmic / Mystical
6. Grim / Lighthearted
7. Lo fi / High 
8. Modern / Retro
9. Pulp / Gritty 
10. Bizarro / Poetic 
11. Tragic / Comedic 
12.  Post-Apocalyptic / Medieval  

d12 Roll twice

1. Western / Wuxia
2. Romance / Erotica 
3. Young Adult / Chick lit 
4. Noir / Conspiracy
5. Pastoral / Urban 
6. Space / Underground 
7. Picaresque / Heroic 
8. Medical / Legal 
9. Horror / Splatter
10. Political / Military 
11. Dystopian / Utopian 
12. Crime / Mystery

Rolling some examples

• Queer Chick Lit Noir Verse 
• Fantasy Political Young Adult Verse 
• Punk Noir Medical Verse
• Tragic Wuxia Conspiracy Verse
• Cosmic Splatter Mystery Verse 

Keywords maps

As a experiment I used keywords instead of names to fill up a map. I selected the keywords using free associations but I guess that you could also randomly generate them or use a mix of both techniques. Generating them collectively could also be fun.

I think that I like the result, I could easily use the map to improvise a point crawl session. The only annoying thing is that you have to figure out how to actually name things in the game world, I guess that you can combine the keywords with other words to craft names. Like the town with the keyword "sad" could be Sad Street or Sad Sparrow.

You could also use the keywords to generate random encounters. Let's try this.

The red keywords are regions or kingdoms, lets try with Diaspora of Remembrance. 

On one table we put up 20 keywords located in the region. 

1. Remembrance 
2. Sad
3. Moon
4. Quiet
5. Buried
6. Paintings
7. Healing
8. Light
9. Ghasts
10. Joy
11. Old
12. Memories
13. Abandoned
14. Forgotten
15. Ribbons
16. Milk
17. Exiled
18. Mourn
19. Roots
20. Rest

On a other table we put 10 types of encounters

1. Group of people
2. Loner or outcast 
3. Trader
4. Small beasts 
5. Large beast
6. Undead
7. Spirit
8. Monster
9. Conman 
10. Figure of authority  

If we combine some rolls to craft a d10 random encounters table we get:

1. Healing + Figure of authority 
2. Joy + Outcast 
3. Memories + Undead
4. Exiled + Spirit
5. Remembrance + Conman
6. Ghasts + Small beasts
7. Light + Undead
8. Buried + Group of People 
9. Milk+  Group of people
10. Forgotten + Trader

I could easily work with this. You can apply the same formula to generate treasures and magical items. 

Positive-Gross

The other day I was thinking back about the Skinned Moon Daughter B/X class that my friend Benjamin wrote for the Undercroft #9. I wanted to write a blog post about using the articles in the Undercroft #9 as the building blocks of a campaign but as I was rereading the zine I was taken aback by how nihilistic some articles were. I checked on the back cover and I noticed the “Compatible with Lamentations of the Flame Princess” logo. This made me think about the influence of the LotFP horror genre in the OSR and how it intermingled nihilism, gross out and horror together. By nihilism I mainly mean the dead trap nega-dungeon or settings and scenarios where everything is amoral, horrible and hopeless. 

In the Undercroft #9 there is a unstoppable sexual disease monster that contaminate everything it come in contact without any real hope of resisting it effects, there is a monster made of dicks that automatically turn people into copies of itself and finally there is a scenario about a entity that cause women to give birth to babies that spawn gigantic monsters that feature cults that control or use these women. All of these things had uncomfortable implications of abuses or cruelties and I thought: do gross things always need to be linked to these themes? Is there other kind of gross?

I thought about underground comics and the art of Julie Doucet, one of my favorite comic book artist who gleefully represented gross things in her comics but in a often playful way. Yes there was some self depreciation and angst in some of her strips but her art also feel positive and liberating.

There is a inherent power in daring to represent and to explore gross things, underground comics certainly understood this. There is also waves of women artists who try to appropriate the right for women to be as gross as they wish. They dive in the trashy and gross out but still, there is often sometime positive to retain from their work, not just emptiness.

While working at the library I also often see children books about farting and other gross things, these books tell kids that it is ok to be gross and that gross things are not scary. Daring to be gross can be sometimes cathartic, liberating and even empowering.

Gross things don’t have to be about abuses and cruelties or nihilism, I think that it is important to also be able to explore the gross in a positive way. I wish there was out there, creators or publishers that balance the nihilist-gross popularized by LotFP with material that explore a more playful and positive gross. I am not saying that nihilistic-gross should never be explored but that balancing it is important. I don’t want to see the nihilistic-gross balanced only by materials that move away from the gross to explore different things, I also want to see products that balance it by embracing the gross without linking it with forms of abuses and cruelty.

How to do that?

A good starting point could be to explore your own darkness. The video that Contrapoints made on this question is good food for thoughts. Try to explore your own gross or darkness first.

Some possible paths to explore:

• Feature the gross as something liberating. Something that break stiff social norms or that is good to vent out or to unleash in a cathartic way.
• Gross, like chaos don’t mean evil. If we can have chaotic-good things, we can have gross-good things too. Chaos is also often about change, transformation and revolutions, same for the gross.
• Present the gross as allies, tools or resources instead of presenting it as threats.
• Play characters imbued by the gross. Make the gross personal and familiar instead of about otherness and external fears.
• If you make the gross external and scary make it so that you can communicate with it in some way. Present the scary gross as something that you can make peace with instead of something that you have to destroy.
• If you present the gross as something to be fought, contrast and balance it by making the characters or their allies gross too. Motley of cheerful-gross friends vs the evil-dangerous-horror-gross.
• Don’t link the gross with abuses, keep it consensual, let the players trigger it or dare them to dip their toes in it. Same for the NPCs, don’t force the gross on them, make them embrace it through their emotions or actions.
• Empower the gross, don’t always link it with misery and suffering, make it sometimes amazing or wonderful in it own grotesque way. 
• Humanize the gross, don't always make it comical or ridiculous. Diversify it expressions or it reactions.
• Develop safety tools about gleefully grossing each other out, tools that let us safely dare each other. Tools that let us safely push our comfort zone to explore gross things. Maybe something inspired from the emotional safety flower. Read about the tools that already exist, hack them if needed. Thinking about content warnings could also be a good thing. I feel like there is exploration to be done here, especially for the OSR who often shy away from these tools.  

I don't consider myself a gross person, I am pretty shy and all but as a trans woman, the gross sometimes speak a lot to me, dysphoria often lead to self depreciation and I often find part of me gross (less often now that I am transitioning). I also often tried to identify with gross monsters to kind of accept myself. Making peace with what we perceive as gross is not always easy (and we are not always in a position to do so). I think that there is a lot to gain from exploring the gross in a way that don’t leave us numb and empty.

Gross as a ally and something personal and scary that you need to accept or make peace with:

The gross as player characters and as the familiar and the mundane:

Gross as something neutral that the characters can interact with:

Gross as someone that the characters can gain as a ally:

There is a lot to explore.

Insects from Shaggai

Using the Insects from Shaggai in a fantasy setting. 

Campaign premise: 

The player characters are young from the same village, they will be soon initiated into the local cult. Years ago the insects landed in their temple ship, they domesticated the more useful monsters to use them as servitors. This was a good thing at first, while the woods gained the reputation of being haunted, the area became more peaceful. But soon the insects implanted their cult into the local human populace. To answer their need, the insects taught some technological innovations to their cultist while carefully controlling the villages' populations. The lands around the landing area became a sacred and forbidden place. Thing would go well but factions among the insects have different plans for the villagers. There is also these foreigners that were found in the woods, near the forbidden lands, a family is healing their wounds but the foreigners sinful influence have already infected some of the young, they call them adventurers.

• Each village is under the influence of d3 Insect's factions.
• Local families have their own petty ambitions.  
• The wounded adventurers want to use the young to get what they want. 
• (The surviving adventurer are ill or crippled, it will take them weeks to recover) 
• The players determine a personal temptation that push their characters toward the forbidden area.  

Alternate option: the players play a group of adventurers who stop in one of the cult's villages. They are probably seeking something in the forbidden area. Young befriend them while local families want to use them to achieve their petty ambitions. The insects don't care about them at first but once the adventurer get troublesome, the insects will want to control them or may have other uses for them depending of their faction.  

Alternate option: the players play the insects. This option is naturally harder to play but quite tempting. The player characters are insects who fused with the mind of villagers to influence their community. Since their fused mind tap into their victim memories, this help the players make sense of their characters (vs playing truly alien ones). The insects have to deal with rival insect factions, their servitors becoming more erratic, the petty ambition of the villagers' clans and the presence of adventurers.


The Insects from Shaggai

Castes d9

1. Oracles (Command & administration)
2. Seers (Navigation)
3. Shapers (Engineering)
4. Priests (Science)
5. Scribes (Archives)
6. Weavers (Medicine & biotech)
7. Shepherds (domestication and bioengineering of alien species)
8. Singers (Operation)
9. Watchers (Security & Intelligence)

Factions d9

1. Seeders: want to create multiple colonies on imperfect worlds. Secret sub faction: research Shub-Niggurath to adapt their biology to these new worlds and secretly want to remain on their present world.
2. Seekers: seek only the perfect new Shaggai and ways to divine it location. Secret sub faction: research Yog-Sothoth and Daoloth to create the possibility of the perfect new Shaggai. 
3. Mentors: want to uplift indigenous species to imprint them with Shaggai culture to make backups saves of their history and culture. Secret sub faction: believe that the uplifted specie can revitalize the Shaggai culture if they are allowed to retain some form of agency. 
4. Harvesters: fear indigenous species revolts and influence, want to harvest them as raw materials or to exterminate them. Secret faction: research necro-animation technologies to develop a new servitors and are secretly worshiping Mordiggian.
5. Puppeteers: believe that the insects should infiltrate and control indigenous species and never reveal themselves. Secret faction: believe in monitoring the indigenous species to actually learn from them. They sometimes influence them to observe their behaviors but to gain meaningful data the specie must retain it agency and not be controlled or modified.   
6. Renders of the veil: want to find new deities to ally with and new dimensions to explore. Secret faction: want to use local species to use as interfaces to contact and summon new deities and dimensions. 
7. Heralds (or Pipers): want to fully summon Azathoth into the material universe to create a new Shaggai, oppose alliance with other deities. Secret faction: research Nyarlathotep to use local species to interface with Azathoth.
8. Dreamers: want to enjoys sensorial stimuli and indigenous memories. Believe that they will never find a new Shaggai. Secret sub faction: devise drugs from indigenous brain matters and genetically alternate their brains to create different drugs. Secret sub faction: want to fuse with indigenous species to live their life and explore their Dreamlands.
9. Guardians of the twin suns: want to preserve the past and pre-Azathoth worshipping culture, favor science but are very conservative and traditional. Secret sub faction: research Liao drug and time travel to return to the original Shaggai and the golden age of science.

The Coven, campaign setup

I was rereading some old blog posts that I removed for personal reasons and I thought of rewriting the campaign setup that I wrote to play a coven of witches. To do so I want to get rid of the material linked to the LotFP book Vaginas are magic (VAM).

VAM could have easily been trans inclusive, I mean magic... you can easily writestuff to include trans women. This is a book about spells, you can even write a transition spell (even with all the nasty miscast effects) and add it to your spells list. Or you know, you can simply avoid writing that vaginas and fertility are the only ways of defining womanhood in your magical cosmology.

At the time of publication of VAM, some of us defended VAM by saying: "the book don't have to include trans women, this is the OSR, you can simply hack who can cast these spells or devise your own magical means for trans women to gain a vagina and a fertile womb if they really want to cast these spells." And at the time I was feeling uncomfortable but I thought: yeah I guess this is the OSR way of resolving problems…

At that time I was really trying hard to like VAM and to continue to like LotFP, I even ran a campaign entirely built around VAM. But as I took some distance from my initial love for LotFP, I saw how trans exclusive and shitty the game text of VAM was. Looking back on how I was ok with these excuses, I cringe a lot at my past self.

The text of VAM present the spells as women's magic and state that you need to have a fertile womb to be able to cast them (the book title also imply that you need a vagina).

"Now about this “only women can cast these spells”
thing. When creating new spells, It is perfectly fine
to say that certain spells can only be cast by one sex,
or people with brown hair, or people with no eyes.
Or by those in certain moods, or who are wearing/
not wearing jewelry or clothing made of certain
materials, or who are covered in squirrel shit. It can
be that arbitrary, that simple. If a caster wants to use
these spells without the specific restriction, she can
recover a spellbook with the spell in it and research
her own version without the restriction. Spell
research rules aren’t just there to fill out a page count.
For the purposes of being able to cast the spells
in this book, “woman” is defined as someone (or
something, non-human magicians can cast these
spells too) able to be impregnated and carry a child to
term. Is a character Postmenopausal? Prepubescent?
Infertile for any other reason? These spells are not for
them. Exceptions are made for those normally barren
if they have been infected with parasites which are
then naturally expelled through their normal birth/
life cycle.
Yup, these spells will have players of male Magic-
Users (and old crones, and etc.) begging you to run
Alien for them, just so their characters can get face-
fucked. Isn’t gaming grand?"
-VAM

What I get from the text is that in LotFP, the cosmic magical forces of the universe align with some of the arguments that TERFs use to exclude trans women. If I play a trans woman, VAM tell me that my character need to get impregnated by a alien parasite for the magical laws of the universe to consider her a woman or that she need to do some magical researches to rewrite these spells so that a “non woman” can cast them.

Again with all the trans people playing and creating gaming material in the OSR, I think that our allies can show more creativity and do better than this.

COVEN CAMPAIGN SETUP

The characters are all witches (magic-users) and they are all members of a secret coven that researched the dangerous spells list of a long dead Elder Witch. Something happened and the coven have been recently dismantled, the player characters goal is to rebuild their coven and to find a way to deal with what menace them. While doing so, there should be plenty of opportunities to impact the campaign's setting.

The campaign can be run as a sandbox build around a small town and a situation that is affecting everyone in the area. The player characters could first try to find back their former allies and resources, then personal goals would surely emerge and the game could become more about dealing with the big situation (or other emerging stuff). Naturally dealing with the legacy of the Elder Witch and other supernatural elements will come in to complicate everything.


THE ELDER WITCH

The Elder Witch should have lived some generations ago, she was a brilliant witch that grew obsessed with her magical researches and accessed dangerous planes of existences. After her death her spell book became a precious artifact, copies were made but errors slipped in. The original book eventually gained a “soul” of it own and became a magical entity, a bit like the necronomicon in Evil Death but maybe more alien than “evil”. Finding back the Elder book is something that witches booth desire and dread.

Keep the Elder Witch history vague and shrouded in mystery and rumors, give her some scary traits but also some positive and relatable ones. Echoes of herself still survive, trapped between the planes, she feel anger and regrets, her feelings are conflicted, maybe she can be redeemed or maybe not.

Crafting the Elder Witch’s spell list

The Elder Witch discovered a plane of existence that she explored until some of it secrets consumed her. This plane have it own ecosystem and rules, think of the Upside Down of Stranger Things or the Otherworld of Silent Hill.

Her spells are about accessing and manipulating the energies of this strange plane, define the plane and maybe around 10 spells to start with.

Spells effects (d20)

1. Perceiving the plane
2. Accessing the plane’s background energy
3. Locating portals to the plane or toward it orbiting sub planes.
4. Travelling to or through the plane
5. Using the plane to affect our reality
6. Contacting and influencing denizen of the plane
7. Imbuing someone with the essence of the plane
8. Unleashing the energy from the plane
9. Manipulating the plane energy or essence
10. Controlling a positive or beneficial effect of the plane
11. Controlling a negative or dangerous effect of the plane
12. Reaching or accessing the plane’s core, lower or higher levels
13. Harvesting the plane’s primordial or forbidden energy
14. Awakening sleeping parts of the plane
15. Contacting a primordial and elder entity of the plane
16. Draining or corrupting the plane to achieve a major effect
17. Warding or protection against the plane energy, influence or hazards
18. Sensing or harvesting the plane’s natural resources or hazards
19. Summoning minor flora or fauna from the plane
20. Imbuing a traditional feminine craft, art, activity or item with the energy of the plane.

Casting and miscasting spells

A part of the fun of the campaign is to see how much the witches are willing to use these dangerous spells and how using them will affect and impact their live, their world, the plane and reality itself.

You will have to hack a bit the game system that you use. Character of any levels should be able to cast spells of any levels. Spell of higher level than your own should be more dangerous to cast.

When casting a spell, a witch need to make a saving throw, depending of your system, greater spell effects should be harder to save against. On a failed roll the witch lose control of the spell and she must roll on the miscasting table. There is also the possibility of casting spells when you expanded your magical spell slots for the day, this should automatically lead to a roll on the fumble table. 

The conditions in which a character is casting a spell could also impact the miscasting save. But keep in mind that casting spells should always involve some risk. 

Miscasting Table (higher results are potentially more dangerous)

1. The area of effect is larger than anticipated (in a bad way)
2. The spell effect someone else you know, a ally (or a enemy depending of the effect).
3. The effect become contagious or move travel through potential targets
4. The effect have a extra horrible side effect
5. The effect is corrupted, twisted, toxic or dangerous
6. The effect is too potent and out of control (in a bad way)
7. The effect attract hostile supernatural creatures
8. The effect hide in someone you know, emotions may trigger it
9. Casting the spell displace things between reality and the plane
10. Casting the spell mess up your mind or perception
11. The spell imbue a object and create a cursed item, scroll, tattoo or mark
12. The spell effect become a dangerous elemental or construct
13. The spell create a doppelganger of the caster
14. The spell germinate inside you like a parasite (ask the player how it manifest).
15. Casting the spell mutate your body
16. The spell awoken a terrible threat
17. The spell rewrite itself and it effect and become a new spell
18. Casting the spell edit a part of your the local area, ecosystem or reality
19. Casting the spell edit a part of your personal life or history
20. The spell try to rip you apart (save or die)

THE WITCHES

Players characters are women (cis or trans) magic-users.
Characters can be from level 01 to 03
>Level 01 characters can reroll 2 stats and keep the best
>Level 02 characters can reroll 1 stat and keep the best
>Level 03 characters don’t get a reroll.
Any character can switch a stat with their magic casting score (probably INT).

Starting ages:
Level 1: 15 +1d6
Level 2: 16 +2d6
Level 3: 17 +3d6

• Each character choose one spell from the Elder Witch spell list.
• Each character roll a number of spell equal to their level on the magic user spell list of your game system. This spell can also trigger miscasts and is linked to the plane discovered by the Elder Witch or one of it sub planes.
• No duplicate spells between character are allowed (reroll duplicates).
• Character understand better the spells they chosen and rolled and get +1 to save against miscasting these spells. All the characters’ spells are pooled together to create the master spell book of the coven.
• The referee add a extra spell from the Elder Witch’s spell list that is harder to master and that always inflict a penalty when saving against miscasting it.
• All characters can use the master spell book to prepare spells.
• Your personal spell books start with level+2 spells written in it selected from the master spell book.

THE TOWN

The referee should name the town.
Go around the table and answer these questions together.
If a question don’t inspire you, pass it to the next player.

• What is the town main landmark?
• A local product that you appreciate?
• A local product that you find cringy?
• A local tradition?
• A place where you feel safe in town?
• A place where you feel unsafe in town?
• Someone in town who abuse of their power?
• Someone in town who try to restrain them?
• Someone new and ambitious?
• A old incident that disturbed the town?
• A distant calamity that is starting to affect the town? (war, natural disaster, plague, revolution, etc)
• A rumor about it? (ask each player)

THE COVEN

The game will be mostly about rebuilding the coven…
Go around the table and answer these questions together.
If a question don’t inspire you, pass it to the next player.

• Who founded the coven?
• How did she learn magic?
• What was her relation with the memory of the Elder Witch?
• Where was the coven situated?
• What special resource the coven had?
• What magical artifact the coven lost?
• What spell did the founder was never able to master?
• What native beings from the other plane the coven feared?
• Who was secretly allied with the coven?
• Who betrayed or abandoned the coven?
• Who raided the coven?
• Who of your sisters died in the raid? Who still perceive her?
• Who of your sisters ran away?
• Who of your sisters was captured?
• How the founder failed the coven before her demise?
• How the founder perished?
• Where were you instructed to go if things go wrong? (were the game will start…)

Personal questions for each characters

• How the coven recruited you?
• What did you glimpse from the other plane during your initiation?
• You admired or feared the founder?
• Who are you close with within the coven?
• Who do you trust in town?
• Who do you fear, hate or avoid in town?

For transgender witches

• How do you transition? (socially and or physically) 
• Do you use potions, herbs, rituals or other magical means of transition?
• Who taught you this secret? 

Chromatic Soup 03: Turtles and Birds

Contributions by Christopher Potter and Evlyn M

The Caravan of the Crystal Carapace Chant

The Great Tortoises of the Crystal Carapace accumulate mineral growths on their shells from their habit of bathing in the Chromatic Soup of the Prismatic Swamps.

These form crystals which resonate to the songs of the Finchfolk or Fringu (of the family Fringillidae). Known throughout all lands for the sweetness of their songs, the Fringu refine their melodies through the harmonics of the crystal shells, honing their voices to the most pleasing pitch.

Now with the world's ending new songs are being sung as the Fringu seek to attune to the music of the sphere's and rendezvous with the Astral Turtle so that the Celestial Chant may not be silenced.

Human musicians and singers who can contribute to the celestial chants are welcomed into their caravan.


Contributions by Dan D, Jeremy Duncan, Shel Kahn, C Huth, Robbert Raets, Richie Cyngler, Perttu Vedenoja and Evlyn M

Astral Egg of the Walking Flock

The Walking Flock are a tribe of sentient giant carnivorous land birds.
They wear exaggerated artificial head crests -- especially prized by breeding males. Status indicated by size, color, gaudiness, rarity of materials, etc. They wear saddlebag pouches to hold and protect eggs, retain and channel heat or use chariot nests. No time to sit and brood while on the move. They use decorative bibs with heraldry to identify their clans.

Some members of the flock display a kind of 'flock sentience' with multiple members cooperating to perform complex dexterous tasks with their beaks.

The flock have a symbiotic relationship with a specie of sentient Meekats who use their dexterous hands to craft things for them.

Some clan members wear tiny head howdah with their meekats allies riding in them.
Some others wear baroquely crafted harnesses bordering on sculptures reminiscent of birds of paradise's flamboyance. Hunters like to wear eyewear to protect their eyes from the blinding sun.

Their collective bird cries can be intimidating as bagpiping.

A few human mercenaries families also accompany their caravan into the astral plains.

Their portal to the astral plain is contained in magically imbued astral egg that from which a astral gate will hatch. 

The Cosmic Worm Blade

Ruleset: B/X

The Worm Blade is a bastard sword +1

Special: +1d4 dmg VS fleshy and rotting undeads.

Each level the blade holder can summon the Cosmic Worm Maiden a number of times equal to their current level.

The maiden is a agent of the cosmic balance, she is in charge of maintaining the natural cycle of decomposition and she seek to return undeads back to their natural states.

When summoned the maiden imbue the character with her cosmic essence for the duration of a combat. 

When under the influence of the maiden a wave of worms crawl on the character, they devour anything the character wear and form a wondrous dress of woven worms, the character is transfigured and take the form of the maiden and receive:

• a healing 1HD of hp (the transfiguration heal the character). 
• AC as unarmored (the worm dress offer no protection).
• The maiden form can use the worm blade like a dancing sword.
• The worm blade can harm any undead. 
• The maiden form can turn undead and speak with worms.
• While touching a rotting undead with her bare hands the maiden form can absorb all the worms that crawl in their flesh, doing 1d8+LV dmg while healing the sword bearer by d8+LV hp. 
• If something harm the maiden, a cosmic worm crawl out of the astral plains to protect the maiden. The worm (stats as displacer beasts) protect the maiden with it displacing power. The worm can not attack while transferring it displacing effect to the maiden. Each round the player must choose if the worm attack or apply it displacing effect. 
• Foes slain by the worm blade can not be re-animated or become undead.
• Worms (including carrion crawlers) will not harm the maiden form and will seek to protect her. Corrupted or chaotic worms will roll a reaction test.  

 After the combat the character must make a reaction test toward the maiden. 

(bonus for neutral alignment and charisma, penalty for losing the fight or for acting against the cosmic balance)

• On a good result the maiden can answer one question before leaving. 
• On a negative result she inflict a mutations linked to her nature and appearance.
• On a very good reaction she may transfer one of her physical traits and grant a blessing or a extra summoning. Her favored champions slowly take on her appearance. 
• She can also restore level drains in exchange of a quest, the reaction roll should influence the nature of the quest. Her quests usually involve burials, singing to summon worms and mourning. She will not answer summons when a character is questing for her.   

Chromatic Soup 03: Structuring the means of escape.

I think that I need to structure more how the means of escape of the world are presented to make Chromatic Soup 03 more gameable.

I am thinking of adding to each entries:

• What is happening when the group arrive?
• What is happening when people escape to astral plains? 
• How the caravan form in the astral plains?
• Who accompany the caravan? (who are helpful, who cause trouble) 
• How the caravan reach and exit pocket worlds?

I will have to keep these answers briefs as we wrote 30 means of escapes. 

I will probably do that after blogging all the material I have collected, I think that I have enough stuff to regularly post for months. 

So first I need to blog everything (this already require me to do some edition and additional writing to glue things together as the raw material I am working with is a collection of G+ posts and comments). After that I will have a good idea of the content and I will do a second round of edition to structure things a bit and to make everything more gameable. 

EDIT: well thinking of it, I guess that I could simply write a series of questions for the GM to help them define the situation that is building around the mean of escape. 

Campaign: Mothers of the Borderlands

I thought of revisiting my first blog post: a illustration of room #B12 of the B2 module Keep of the Borderlands.

For me, the most interesting thing in B2 are all of these "non combatants females" and their young, I often wondered what was their stories. Why not play them to find out?

"Orc losses cannot be replaced"

This detail gave me the idea of running a campaign about the survivors of the Chaos Caves.

Mothers of the Borderlands Campaign

Supported by the keep, adventurers raided the Caves of Chaos multiple times, the dust settle but the orcs tribe have been decimated, forgotten by the adventurers, the orcs females gather their young and try to rebuilt the tribe.

The players characters are the orcs females who survived these raids.

I would use Macchiato Monsters to run this campaign as the system is flexible and can easily be used to create different orc characters. But naturally any old school system could work.

Character creation (Macchiato Monsters) 

1) Roll your attributes but don't determine anything else. You start with the trait "orc".

2) Generate your family
You have 1d4-1 mates (you can add -1 or +1 if your prefer fewer or more mates)
(Roll 1d6 to determine their gender: 1-4 male, 5-6 female)

2A) If you have no mate chose one option or roll a d6

1. You took the blood oath and follow the path of the warrior. (start with a wound)  
2. You took a spirit as a mate and follow the path of the shaman. 
3. You did a crime and are shun for it, you follow the path of the outcast. 
4. You vowed to take no mate to follow the path of the witches. 
5. You consume the moist mother shrooms and follow the path of the gender change. 
6. Your mate died and you follow the mourning path of the wailing. 

3) Determine how many young you have. These young may be your natural or adopted children. If you have female mates, they gave birth to some of these young but you all consider them as your children.

Add +1 by mates (you may take a additional -1 or +1 if you want a smaller or bigger family)
You have:

• 1d6-2 daughters  
• 1d6-2 sons 

Young are 1d10-1 year old (0 year olds are d10 month old babies)

You also have  1d4-1 elderly parents. (Roll 1d6 to determine their gender: 1-3 male, 4-6 female) 

4) Roll who survived the raids.

• Adult males survived on a roll of 1 on a d6, survivors are wounded and incapacitated. 
• Adult females survived on a roll of 1-4 on a d6
• Young survived on a roll of 1-5 on a d6
• Elders survived on a roll of 1-2 on a d6, survivors are wounded and incapacitated.

Your surviving family is represented by a d6 risk die. When the risk die fizzle out, someone in your family is starving, sick, lost or troublesome. Reset the risk die to d6. You can step up your family risk die beyond d6 by taking care of them, providing them with: food, shelter, comfort and pride.

5) The tribe have been decimated, chose the path you will now follow (or roll a d6)
(If you already have a path, skip this step)

1. You will take the blood oath and follow the path of the warrior.  
2. You will take a spirit as a mate and follow they path of the shaman.
3. You will consume the moist mother shrooms and follow the path of the gender change. 
4. Your will mourn the deaths and follow path of the wailing. 
5. You will protect the tribe and follow the path of the guardian. 
6. You will take care of the young and follow the path of the mother. 

6) Generate your equipment with the Macchiato Monsters' tables. Your starting equipment represent what you salvaged after the big raid.

When you roll a piece of equipment determine who it belonged to...

1. my family or clan
2. a dead or wounded orc 
3. a adventurer 
4. a denizen of the caves 
5. no one, I found it while I was exploring area ... 
6. myself, I crafted it

The gm can ask you questions to get more details to craft plot or exploration hooks. 

7) Your path determine your character options, you start with your path as a second trait plus the option associated with your path. (These are your two starting character options)

• The warrior (take martial training, you are good with war and weapons) 
• The shaman (take magic training, you are good with spirits, bones and blessings)  
• The outcast (take specialist training, you are good at sneaking, tricks and traps) 
• The witches (take magic training, you are good with herbs, curses and the occult) 
• The change (add d6 to a stat of 10 or less, you are transitioning and you are good with mushrooms, drugs, poisons and transformations)  
• The wailing (take specialist training (wailing), you are good at mourning, remembering, raging and scaring others) 
• The guardian (take martial training, you are good with defenses, protecting and armors) 
• The mother (gain a hit die, you are good with healing, nurturing, teaching and organization) 

8) Make rolls to see if your character speak extra languages. Your character speak orc and the chaos tongue. The chaos tongue is very crude and using it often impose a disadvantage when dealing with other chaotic creatures.

1. Humans (common tongue) 
2. Lizardmen or Troglodyte 
3. Spider or Boar  
4. Kobold
5. Goblin
6. Hobgoblin
7. Bugbear
8. Gnoll
9. Troglodyte 
10. Ogre
11. Minotaur
12. Ghoul or Harpy 

9) Roll a event that happened during the last raid (d6) (these work like rumors or goals)

1. You lost something that you need to find back. 
2. You lost someone that you need to find back.   
3. You saw a opportunity to gain something. 
4. You found something that you must keep secret. 
5. Someone helped you, could they help you again? 
6. You saw something that worry you. 

The gm can ask you questions to get more details to craft rumors.

10) Players should write goals about their tribe, their family, their path and the caves.  

Running the Campaign

The Caves of Chaos have been hit hard by adventurers from the keep, those who are still alive are those non combatants that the adventurers ignored. Now that most of the combatants are dead, the survivors must reorganize themselves to survive.

Run the B2 Module as a sandbox, present the caves as a place that have been hit by a disaster. Monsters are protective and desperate, this may open doors to new alliances.

You can start play in room C15.

• Monsters survived the adventurers raids on a roll of 1 up to their HD on a d6. 
• Combatant humanoids only survived on a roll of 1 on a d6. 
• Non combatants humanoids survived on a roll of 1-4 on a d6. 
• Neutral creatures or NPCs survived on a roll of 1-3 on a d6. 
• You may also decide that a important or interesting creature is severely wounded and can be nurtured back to health with assistance. 
• Treasures have not been looted on a roll of 1-2 on a d6. 
• Traps are still activated on a roll of 1-2 on a d6, activated traps contain the corpse of a adventurer on a roll of 1-3 on a d6.   

The keep consider the caves as being under control now, they moved their attention to other issues. Don't trigger a other raid on the caves unless the keep notice something worrying or worthy of their attention.

Present the chaos cult as a cursed gift, gaining it favor bring power but it will also corrupt the tribe and endanger the young. Deciding to follow the cult or to abandon it should be a major theme.

Present the chaotic humanoids as brutal and territorial but also give them things that they respect and care about. They are more like people with a lot of issues than evil ones. Show that they have a lot of resentments toward humankind and how chaos is feeding on these wounds.

Use random encounters as troubles that need to be deal with. Like if they encounter a carrion crawler maybe this is the sign of a carrion crawler infestation coming up, encountering other humanoids or NPC may be signs of all kind of troubles.