Politics and war

Elerd is more of a benevolent God than an actual dictator. The thing is he's been around forever. Because he's a vampire. He built his keep long ago. He keeps his citizens happy, and doesn't kill them or rule over them with an iron fist. People are safe. Elerd doesn't have a army per se, but he has allies in the world.

And you thought this was a post about whatever hub bub was going on.

You might be wondering, how does this whole Elerd thing work? Why doesn't he kill the townsfolk? Ever play oblivion? There's a town with a vampire lord, and no one knows. He just goes about his business. In the grand scheme, he might be comparable to Louis (Anne rice).

In case you are even more confused, I'm writing a bit of detail about my campaign setting. Which I've mentioned I should do.

Obviously you may have clicked on this because of political reasons.

On the other end of the spectrum is the "big bad" gralag the hob goblin warlord. (why do I always use a g for bad guy names?

Gralag comes from North of the wyvern tooth mountains. He has assembled a massive army. He intends to destroy and dominate everything to the south. For reasons (mostly he's a dick).

Gralags army is moving on the elves in autumn wood, another force moves towards elerds keep. Small scouting bases are setup in the forward positions to help supply troops.

He hopes for a quick victory. But he's spreading his army to thin.

There are rumours at the keep that elerd has met with some unsavoury looking types. Is this a possibility of trying for a treaty perhaps.

Somewhere in the wild there are three witches who have the gift of prophecy.

One of them wakes from a disturbing dream, the Son of a barbarian slitting his father's throat. In the background is a shrine to Zeus. The rain pours down.

Another has a dream about Gralag and the destruction he will cause. She makes preparations to seek out a demon, to try and find answers.

The third rides for elerds keep.

The elves of autumnwood are in good relations with the hobbits of brymassen. However The Queen of the elves distrusts elerd. The hobbits of course are oblivious to the world around them.

And the dwarves are nowhere to be found, except underground.

Yeah my campaign was basically lotr wasn't it

Music and lighting a fire.

A few months back I talked with some friends of mine who are in the "Ash-Hats" and "Silent Dissonance" about possibly writing some music for me.  They are always looking for things to do.  At the time I was really working on a adventure sandbox, and my sorta idea was to create a video trailer for the adventure, and then when it was complete do a full length video detailing the whole book.  A lil bit of marketing and obviously fun for everyone! Two fold really, makes me do some video editing which I don't do often and gets the guys writing some music.

Fast forward to yesterday evening:  I haven't had a lot of time to do writing on this project, because I've been up to my eyeballs working on the blue baron (Which btw is getting very close, I have level 1 layed out, and I'm starting on level 2 today).  I however had this sandbox idea rolling around in the back of my head.

I get a call last night from the guys, conference call, three of them on the phone.

"K Shane, explain the adventure, and how much music do you need?"

Me: "Well I thought about doing a 1 minute trailer thing and then a full 3 minute video".

Guys: "Alright so we kinda thought what we be cool if it was like baroque acoustic metal, and then it sorta hits this bit, where it's like you are sliding down these crazy slide into darkness and then WHAM! it hits".

Me" Fuck yah".

I then go on to explain the entire premise around the adventure, and that I don't have everything quite concrete but that its fairly dark, etc.  There's lots of umms and ahhhs, and just "well this is sort of the idea, but it might change here", basically the coles note.

What I get when I finish...

"COOL WHEN ARE WE PLAYING????"

And I laughed so hard, and then said "well I'll need some playtesters, but its gonna be old school, you will die".

note:  one guy has played old school, the others have played 3.5 and 5. 

So now I have a fire.  After rotbb is complete it's full speed ahead on this project.

So I better get my shit together, cuz there's music coming for it! hahaha

photo credit: https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/titles/miltons-paradise-lost/

d100 Tavern Name List

Contributors John Hattan, Scott Charlton, Jaye Foster, As If,
1.  Balding Minotaur
2.  The Snakes Coin purse
3.  Guards Arms
4.  Stinkin Needle
5.  Happy Rhino
6.  Witches Wisdom
7.  The great bastion
8.  Red Road
9.  Knicker Fire
10.  Straw Sox
11.  The Sticky Parakeet
12.  The  Fluffy Weasel
13.  The Gerunding Noun
14.  The Snake and Arrows
15.  The Golden Cricket
16.  The Steamin' Demon
17.  The Glitterhole
18.  The Salamander
19.  The Reckoning
20.  Arumverax Bill's House of Sorrows
21.  The Sleeping Scorpion
22.  The Hangman's Daughter
23.  The Drowning Dog
24.  The Badger and Elbow
25.  The Winsome Cheese
26.  The Blue Ship
27.  cavern club
28.  hags stache
29.  flying tankard
30.  rusted wagon wheel
31.  dark nights
32.  grinning gatekeeper
33.  flogging madame
34.  nine outta eleven
35.  dry dock
36.  flint hearth
37.  noble nan
38.  glittering ladle
39.  steaming pot
40.  buried taxman
41.  The Secret Cellar
42.  The Maidenhead
43.  The Devil's Dew
44.  The Squeaky Wheel
45.  Pennywhistle
46.  Hard a-Lee
47.  Herringbone
48.  The Velvet Couch
49.  the yellowed yeller
50.  town crier
51.  The Craven Raven
52.  Ed's Head
53.  Morgan's Tarry
54.  Gutrot's
55.  The Stinky Eye
56.  Jack Jigger's
57.  The Dog & Grog
58.  Scrumptious Delights
59.  The Rat's Legbone
60.  Now Or Never
61.  End of the World
62.  Betty's Soup And Sleep
63.  God's Calling
64.  Devil's in the details
65.  Story teller's Loft
66.  Toodle's Poodles
67.  Salty Air
68.  Bard's Lost String
69.  Baker's dozen
70.  Nettle & The Stick
71.  Purple Tabard
72.  The Bastard Son
73.  Nowhere Road
74.  The Inn Of The Last Dance
75.  The Boglin's Goblet
76.  Patchworks!
77.  Waxed Angel
78.  Nev'r Do Well's
79.  This' Ain't Your Mama's Tavern
80.  Penny Parade's
81.  The Strikin Viking
82.  High Skirt Saloon
83.  Brisket & Bone
84.  Garden's Shine
85.  Sinful Sword
86.  The Alley
87.  Elf's Dream
88.  Bullrush & The Bog
89.  The Capn's Eyepatch
90.  The Pumpkin Patch
91.  Arena
92.  Bath and the bullfrog
93.  Alice's Hearth
94.  Night's dark mourning
95.  Rhino's stance
96.  Plaid Bachelor
97.  Ol' Ninety Seven
98.  Harry Hobber
99.  Swordfish and the fight
100.  Lights out

D30 folksy rumours of treasure locations

1 the bottom of an old well

2 the tallest tree

3 the last farm before the swamp

4 North of the giant skull

5 where the wind doesn't blow

6 the glass spire

7 in the burnt out ruins of the thieves guild

8 the UN pickable chest

9 in the boot of a statue

10 in the captain of the guards attic

11 haunted stable

12 secret compartment on the gate of a castle

13 below the nearest island

14 wreckage of ship stuck on a cliff

15 lost in a public library

16 follow the clues on the paving stones

17 the dream labyrinth

18 in “plain sight “ the tavern of the same name.

19 buried with a Siamese twin

20 wrapped in a blanket on the bank of a river

21 inside a lute

22 inside a keg of ale

23 on the left hand of a old priest

24 a cold meadow in a large forest, ringed with evergreens

25 the location is drawn in a painting on the wall of a chapel (roll again)

26 unmarked grave on a mountain path

27 the basement of a house of Ill repute

28 tied under the dock

29 a puzzle using the last names on headstones

30 invisible map tattooed on a horse.

Mashup Campaign Idea

I've been watching a lot of TV lately.  Just finished up West world season 1, The Alienist, and season 1 of the Frankenstein chronicles.  All of which are really good! I highly recommend them.

So here's the idea, I've always been a HUGE fan of the old horror movies, Lon Chaney, Bella Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Claude Rains, the list is never ending honestly.  Another movie I absolutely loved when I was a kid was Monster Squad! Of course you can throw in some Penny Dreadful into the mix as well.

Setting: Early 1800's English Countryside, and England (well sort of).
System:  Lotfp (with black powder guns), or maybe Call of Cthulhu.  I just realized this could totally work for DP&D as well!

The PCs are in a virtual environment, much like West World, It's England in the early 1800s.  They are fully aware that they are in the environment, it's an escape from everyday life in the year 3000.  The evening is foggy, the oil lanterns burn low in the tavern.  There is a scream from outside, the PCs rush to see what happened.  Lying in the street is a prostitute, her body is crumpled, head twisted almost all the way around.  No human could do this.....

The rabbit hole leads the PCs to all the great monsters from the horror movies, Frankie, Dracula, Werewolves, etc.  It's up to them to find out what's happening and stop it.

It's going to be campy, just like those movies, it's going to be scary.

The twist of course, unlike West World, and much like Total Recall the PCs can die in the world.

Halfway to layout city and goodies!

Alright, so we have basically finished editing "the return of the blue baron" ie volume 2.  I had originally named it "part deux", but figured that might confuse a few people.  Note that there is the Queen's English in the document however, examples include "Armour".  In those instances you should know that a Canadian may have written that section. 

As we were doing some editing we were also doing some last minute writing.  I am almost positive that there maybe a few little rewrites happen while I work on the layout.

I've sent off a copy to Michael at Dreamscape Design, to basically rules lawyer it.  I mean he's the guy who wrote the blueholme rules, so it's our best bet to get it right!

I would like to thank Scott Charlton for majorly stepping up to the plate and basically editing more than half of this! As well for coming to the table with a lot of rooms, ideas and the general concept.  If it wasn't for him, this would not have been done.  at all. 

Here's a screen shot of the cover.

Yesterday, I had a crap day.  Then I got home, and I had more crap to deal with.  It was just one of those days.  I finally walked to the front and opened up the mailbox and to my absolutely surprise, I found a package waiting for me!

This wonderful person, sent me a copy of Whitebox FMAG and Swords & Wizardry Continual Light!

Thank you very much wonderful person! That made my day.

I will be doing a review of SWCL in the next week or so.  I'm sure both of these books will find room at my table.  Thank you again!

Detailing my home campaign

It's been forever since the old school group got together.  They last left off trapped in a dungeon by a demon, attempting to rescue a witch.  Sound familiar?

After reading a few blogs detailing peoples home campaigns, I think I may spend some time and effort and work on detailing our old school world.  Mostly for the sake of writing, and archiving for future use.  As well for coming up with a few new ideas! 

When we started the game we played thru "Beneath Brymassen" a BFRPG adventure.  After that the players did my "Lizardmen of Illzathatch" and "Tomb of Gardag The Strange".  The story arc I wrote detailed an invading hobgoblin army from the north, with world ending consequences on their minds. 

I briefly wrote a post about Elerd's Keep here. 

The rest of the play reports can be found here.

While this is a nice map, I think I may create a hexcrawl version of it.