PARIAH HEXGEN #7: UPLAND TAIGA

 The last hex we looked at was the TROPICAL PLAINS.

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/08/pariah-hexgen-5.html

... NOW IT'S TIME FOR UPLAND TAIGA!

(Taiga uppercut? Properly this time? I know I've done taiga before but still... this time it's on a hill!)

PARIAH HexGen #6: Tropical Plains

The last hex we looked at was the SWAMP.

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/08/pariah-hexgen-5.html

... this time it's the turn of the TROPICAL PLAINS:

Cherry-Coloured Funk

 

Promo card for Brand New Cherry Flavor

I'd been thinking about an urban horror/fantasy campaign for some time. Maybe since she-who-is-known-as-Eldritch-Eternity has been describing her own burgeoning occult-modern campaign on various discord channels, maybe since I picked up a copy of Dark Streets and Darker Secrets with the "Old School Cool" from Bundle-of-Holding... maybe it was the build-up and excitement just before Garblag Games started their latest Vampire Campaign, set in the 90s...

...you know, because if I was going to run an urban fantasy campaign with horror under/over tones it would HAVE to be set in the 90s...

...and then along came BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR

PARIAH HexGen #5: Swamp

Last time I took a look at TAIGA

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/08/pariah-hexgen-4-taiga.html

... this time it's the turn of the SWAMP:

HUDLESS Adventure Gaming

Over the past 12 months it has been interesting to observe the rapid growth of the FKR: the reinterpretation of Free Kriegsspiel wargaming conventions in the indie RPG/NSR/OSR roleplaying spaces. Free Kriegsspiel  is a mode of wargaming whereby players are encouraged to immerse themselves more thoroughly in the "game world" by detaching themselves from the games' mechanics. Instead, an umpire or referee decides the outcome of the players' actions, cleaving as closely as possible to what they believe would be the "real world" outcome of such an action.

Giving a) the predilection for rules-light gaming/rulings not rules in the OSR and b) the preference for narrative over mechanics in many parts of the indie game scene the attraction of these 2 RPG "blocs"  towards free kriegsspiel is unsurprising. How such an approach is interpreted varies a great deal: last year I had the opportunity to speak at length to friend-of-the-blog Jim Parkin of   https://d66kobolds.blogspot.com/ on my very occasional podcast. He did a great job of explaining how such a philosophy might be applied, and it's well worth a listen if this stuff tickles your fancy:

https://anchor.fm/alonein-thelabyrinth/episodes/THE-JIMTERVIEW--Interview-with-Jim-Parkin-of-D66-Classless-Kobolds-enfrqm

..actually it was an off-hand remark Jim made about FKR on the NSR server he runs with Yochai Gal (https://yochaigal.itch.io/)  which prompted this post.

Index Update

EDIT JULY 2023:
The blog Index is now listed on this page:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/p/site-index.html

It's been... 8 months? Time I updated the blog index, which offers an alternative to searching by labels (at the bottom of the post) or trawling through the archive (on the left, underneath the shameless self promotion).

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2020/12/200-posts-before-2021.html

There's also a button at the top of the page: it says "index". 

See you next time!

PARIAH Hexgen #4: TAIGA

 What could be more exciting than the TUNDRA hex generator of yesterday?

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/08/pariah-hexgen-3-tundra.html

Why, TAIGA of course!

PARIAH HexGen #3: Tundra

 What could be more exciting than the WETLAND hex generator of last week?

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/08/pariah-hexgen-2-wetland.html

Why, TUNDRA of course!

(It's also a kind of wetland in the warmer months so hey-ho).

PARIAH HexGen #2: Wetland

What could be more exciting than the VOLCANO hex generator of last week?
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/08/pariah-hexgen-1-volcano.html

That's right, WETLANDS!

PARIAH HexGen #1: Volcano

 People often ask me: "What are you doing in my garden?"

...but that's a joke stolen from Michael Redmond, and another story entirely.

No, they often ask me: "Why do you keep using perchance when you can achieve the same effect with javascript AND you can just write it directly into blogger?

To which I reply:

Shut up...

...and take this hex generator for a volcano hex generator:

Statting a God: Death

This post follows up my earlier post on Aziza, Queen of Dawn, wherein I tried to turn an encounter with a goddess into a different kind of mini-game rather than a combat encounter. Using this as a template for each of the "ruling spirits" of the the other realms of Pariah, I set to work on Death...

Nergal: a Sumerian death god

Note: I almost immediately reneged on my original brief and ended providing options for turning this into a combat encounter... if only because the death of death is a fun and familiar trope.