DEAD BIRDS #3: COLLECTED NOVEMBER UN-THOUGHT

 

A burnt headless zombie chicken, walking upright on its stumps

I have a twitter account. If you're wondering why I'm not posting to it—and perhaps also why I'm not following you—you need to go outside more.

1. ADICE TO WOULD-BE WRITERS: listen to more drum 'n' bass while working. It  will make you type faster.
   
   
2. TRYING TO GET MY DESIGN COLEAGUES into random tables during the production stage, not just as outputs. A bit like oblique strategy cards but with dice.
   
   
3. For the record, find oblique strategy cards quite dry. Of course I love Eno (and Bowie) but I was expecting more... pictures?
   
   
4. For the above, you can do worse than re-purposing Dixit cards.
   
   
5. The OSR. Thoughts? I mean... is it actually a thing? I'm not sure. I think it might not actually be anything.
   
   
6.  

DEAD BIRDS #2: COLLECTED OCTOBER UN-THOUGHT

Two dead crows, hung by string from Chris Packham's gate. Image courtesy The Guardian

I actually did restore that twitter account, purely to protect my burgeoning brand, man. Follower count is a proud zero. You're here instead, welcome to my mind, October 2022. 

1. SEA TROLLS: Barnacle-encrusted and carrying driftwood clubs, they hide beneath the sands (or shingle, if you live on the Blighted Isles). Regenerate only by bathing in seawater. Courtesy Louis and family 
   
   

Inktober 2022

2nd "Cartography"

A friend on the Garblag Games discord asked if there were any D&D/fantasy based inktober prompts. Instead of looking them up, I suggested we write a set together, and waited.

I’m quite impatient.

I wrote this list:

DEAD BIRDS #1: COLLECTED SEPTEMBER UN-THOUGHT

Still Life with a Dead Bird by Marina Dormidontova

 It's good to have a filter. Here's what would happen if I did not.

1. OSR IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM: there's a post in this, it may become one. What FKR newbies don't realise is that old school D&D is just a framing device. DISCUSS. 2022.09.02
   
   

BECMI Intelligent Swords

During a recent discussion on the NSR discord server the subject of intelligent magic items popped up, and I was immediately reminded of the rules for generating intelligent swords in the Frank Mentzer Expert Set.

Drawing of a  magical—possibly intelligent—sword by Larry Elmore

There are other, similar rules for intelligent swords in Moldvay. Seeing as this is the go-to old-school ruleset (and likely the basis for any similar rules in OSE or Basic Fantasy), I'm ignoring those. Likewise—as with my [positively ancient] post about dwarf clerics— this is a paraphrasing of existing mechanics. I'm not adding anything original here.

...and yes, it's swordtember, so I suppose the timing is germane.

Villainous Sidekicks

 

A villainous sidekick if ever I saw one

This was supposed to be several 1d100 tables spliced together, but I ran out of time. Enjoy my villainous sidekick generator, available below.

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What I write about when I think about Zedeck Siew (a poem called pome)

 

The image above is a spread from Mr Kr Gr (Zedeck Siew, Centaur).
Illustration by Munkao

The people of the old world made these as prisons for their gods. They made them beautiful, so captivity would sting.

Wear your gold bells, o Lord of Dances, and leap for our pleasure! Cherish your ruby garlands, o Lady of Loves, chained to our bed!

The old world was drowned by the river. But its slaves could not be set free. So they wander buried hallways and vine-choked pavilions – maddened, hateful, plotting.

- Mr-Kr-Gr (Page 20) by Zedeck Siew

What has that wise one got on their head?

Wise-ones and witches, sorcerers and summoners, ghost-talkers and spirit-walkers...

...they've always got something on top of their head.

Sketch of a drawing of The Sorcerer, a 13,000 year-old cave painting

(Even as I write this I realise masks would be much more interesting, but I don't want to jump on the bandwagon of the latest psychedelic mesolithic RPG, Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland CW: images are "AI generated")

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Atop the Wailing Dunes: A PARIAH adventure for Zine Quest 4

Since the publication of GENIUS LOCI in June, I've been "teasing" hexes from the sandbox adventure ATOP THE WAILING DUNES.  However, this has been something sitting in my slushpile since last autumn, and I think it now comprises enough material to publish as a complete set.

Partially completed hex map of the sandbox

My original intention was to have PARIAH: CITY OF GHOSTS ready in time for Zine Quest 4, but owing to the commitments of my collaborators it won't be ready in time. However, with so much work already complete on Atop the Wailing Dunes, I thought it would be a good chance to release my little sandbox.

Here's the link to the Kickstarter, now live:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sofinho/atop-the-wailing-dunes

The Ikau Mangrove (a hex for PARIAH)

A four-page pamphlet mini-hexcrawl, part of an ongoing series.


This will be the last of these small-format individual hexes: I'm finding that I want to go into more detail with the actual hex features, but can't because space is being taken up by information repeated from elsewhere. When I put them all together in ATOP THE WAILING DUNES I'll be able to avoid this problem!

If you want a PDF of this to print at home or to use with a text-to-audio programme, it's free to download via itch.io:

https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/the-ikau-mangrove

If all goes to plan, all 24 hexes (with additional notes for sites of interest) will be compiled into a zine for Zinequest 2022. Hope to announce that soon!

Links

Blogposts in this series:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/search/label/Atop%20the%20Wailing%20Dunes

All the itch.io PDFs:
https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/genius-loci
https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/hills-of-the-demon-bear
https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/ebua-and-the-spirit-mountain
https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/valley-of-mui-eiru
https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/the-ikau-mangrove

Valley of Mui Eiru (a hex for PARIAH)

 I've been working on making the larger map for Atop the Wailing Dunes more legible, as well as building it up into a more comprehensive sandbox. As I go through, 6 mile hex by 6 mile hex, I'm sharing them here as A4 double-sided zinis, which you can fold enough to make a 4-page pamphlet.

As with previous issues, there is a small map with key to the front, and several paths crossing the hex. The back page contains additional flavour for wilderness exploration, and might provide a template for additional hexes. This is designed to printed on two-sides of A4 and folded in half to make a zini.

A link to a PDF version will be posted here in the coming days.

Other links:

Genius Loci and FOOTHILLS OF THE TEETH

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2022/06/genius-loci-and-foothills-of-teeth.html

Hills of the Demon Bear:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2022/06/hills-of-demon-bear-pariah-hex.html

Ebua & the Spirit-Mountain

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2022/06/ebua-spirit-mountain-pariah-hex.html

Pariah character classes for OSE or Basic Fantasy

Made by Igor Gadreaud 

If you prefer to explore the implied setting of PARIAH with a more faithful old-school system (as hinted at in my previous post, a design analysis of my own game, it's perhaps worth giving the players something they can sink their teeth into. I'm more than a little wary of doing this, but in the words (paraphrased) of Skerples of Coins and Scrolls:

Writing a... class is easy. It meets what I'd call the "minimum creativity threshold". To write a wizard you just need about 20 decent ideas. To write any other kind of class you need between 4 and 10. It's not difficult to make a class based on any random idea you've ever had. It's also a lot easier to think of elements of a class than it is to, say, a fill in a d100 table or write a dungeon.  

It is known.