Navigating the City of a Hundred Gods—Another Approach to the City

In ancient times a man named Patrick Stuart shared a post about wrapping a dungeon around a die to create a non-Euclidean adventure site: http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2011/09/did-i-invent-this.html

I think about it a lot, and have been playing with multiple iterations of the concept for a number of years... but only recently did I consider it an interesting way to approach the "city crawl", specifically the settlement slowly being described in the City of a Hundred Gods series of posts. 

A hex map of a city, repeating endlessly.

CITY OF A HUNDRED GODS: Part 2/10... the remaining gates and the Ladders

The Sea of Tents, the Black River and Dusk Gate have previously been described, alongside their patron deities the Shit-Beetle, the Goddess of the Lime-Slake and more. Have a look at that post before coming back here:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/02/city-of-hundred-gods-part-110-city.html

Actually, read THIS post and come back here. The Bad Doctor shared this just as I was writing my slightly undercooked entry for the RPG Blog carnival, and I had to postpone reading it until I'd finished it, lest I gave up entirely. I'm glad I did: this is damn fine. Excellently selection of augmenting images, too:

https://wasitlikely.blogspot.com/2024/12/gods-of-stolen-world.html

Oh and then read THIS post, too, because Shuttered Room has come up with something very, very good for Secret Santicore: an ice age (past? present? future? it'll work as each of those) settlement, partly inspired by module B4. Another great example of minimalist worldbuilding:

https://shutteredroom.blogspot.com/2024/12/no-holidays-this-season-secret.html.

Sometimes it's hard not to feel like the ugly sister to Cinderella when stood beside such luminaries. I don't know if you ever get similar feelings but—assuming that you also have an RPG blog, which is likely—whenever I do I try to be thankful that I'm at least at the ball. 

Anyway, here's some more of my own gods, native to a sprawling Neolithic proto-city.

Ruins of Çatalhöyük—which could be the title of YOUR next adventure, couldn't it?

In defence of false rumours [#deadbird]

I'm not a huge fan of RPG Design discourse. I know what I enjoy in tabletop games and my openness to embracing new ideas extends to adventures and rulesets rather than abstracted diatribes and forge-era "theory". I love hearing about the obscure media and radical thought that inspires the brilliant worlds practitioners of this weird hobby continue to create, but for the life of me I can't recall an occasion where anyone's Appendix N included a patronising twitter thread.

So let's keep this brief.

False rumours can be bad. Exhibit A:

RUMOUR: 

The Bewilderbeast can only be harmed by ROOT VEGETABLES

CONSEQUENCE:

Player 1: My fighter attacks the Bewilderbeast with a carrot.

GM: Roll to hit. 

Player 1: 15... hits AC3! Am I good?

GM (makes performatively furtive eye movements, giggles etc.) uhhh... yeah. I mean.. you HIT the beast... with a CARROT! The Bewilderbeast remains unharmed!

TPK ensues. Sad!

But they can also be FUN (if not GOOD):

RUMOUR:

The colonialists plundered the Old Kingdom's mines, loaded their wagons and headed to the hills. They were set upon by Winged Terrors near CREEPERS CREEK and the wagons of gold were never recovered.   

CONSEQUENCE

The party head to Creeper's Creek to recover the lost gold... but the legend is false, the gold was recovered long ago. Nonetheless there's a weird druid guy, a cool place to build a fort and a cave network that they can go and check out now that they're here. 

Why not just post a rumour that Creeper's Creek has a cool place to build a fort and a cave and a druid?

Because uniformed idiots are part of what makes a world seem real, and the promise of gold that isn't there will compel them to continue to explore in a way that vague notions about a weird druid will not. 

Festive Anomalous Media Post

I am a horrible philistine: my media consumption is mostly trash. What's worse is that on a surface level I maintain an ironic disconnection from my filthy habits, shovelling garbage into every available orifice while claiming to possess a discerning palate that really objects to all this filth, thank you.

This I blame entirely on my spirit being crushed by the twin evils of capitalism and siring offspring. 

Given these gross habits (which exceed my net income arf arf) it should come as little surprise that thoughts concerning anomalous media circulate through my head constantly. I think I first saw this post:

https://throneofsalt.blogspot.com/2020/11/d20-anomalous-media.html

...which while it certainly originated the theme on OSR blogs, I may have actually encountered linked to that post via this post:
https://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/2020/11/d20-additional-anomalous-media.html

...I think in some way both Dan and Semiurge wouldn't begrudge credit to this guy:
https://rememberdismove.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-black-auction.html

Consider that the preamble: before diving in the main event please be aware that all entries relate to the 1992 Movie Home Alone 2. This is my penance for an earlier claim that Home Alone (the original) was the "ultimate" OSR movie.

This is also in pretty poor taste (see: opening paragraph). I've had a run of bad luck this year and I'm ashamed to say this is what it takes to raise a smile these days. Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals.