PARIAH HEXGEN #13: JUNGLE/ TROPICAL FOREST

Continuing this series of hex posts by terrain type, following the previous posts about temperate plains...

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/09/pariah-hexgen-12-temperate-plains.html

...we now come to TROPICAL FORESTS...

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CHEAP TRICKS OF DMing - MANUALLY AGGREGATED

This post aggregates the DMing advice from all sources following the 15 more cheap tricks to liven up your game by Phlox, itself following up an earlier post of ten similarly cheap tricks. It includes "cheap tricks" from the following source: 

• Phlox
• Sahh
• Cosmic Orrery
• SunderedWorldDM
• Eldritch Fields 
• TheFirstGokun

If you can't see the generator, follow this link:
https://perchance.org/cheap-tricks-aggregator

Memory-Eaters: Giant Silkworms

Caterpillar-Worms

The caterpillar is a most voracious creature. It is known that a brood will strip a tree of all its leaves — if they are not pecked off by birds first, that is. But those worms that weave silk are prized and protected... and provided with as many mulberry leaves as their mouths can munch... 

Such caterpillars won't stop eating until it's time to change... but for some, the time to change doesn't arrive when it's expected: those worms do not stop growing...

PARIAH HEXGEN #12: TEMPERATE PLAINS

The last few posts in this series have opened with apologies: let's get things back on track. Last time out I brought you two mildly different river generators....

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/09/pariah-hexgen-11-rivers.html

...but now we travel to the prairie/steppe/grasslands of the TEMPERATE PLAINS:

HEART OF THE PRIMAL UNKNOWN: A One-Sheet Adventure Powered by Hex-Flower Tech

This has been available online for nearly a month and I haven't really mentioned it on the blog other than as a footnote to my recent posts. I would therefore like to announce that my this PARIAH hack of GH's In the Heart of the Unknown is currently available to download as a PWYW PDF on Drive Thru RPG:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/369092/Heart-of-the-Primal-Unknown

PARIAH HEXGEN #11: RIVERS

In the spirit of the previous post (which was all about giving a little more than is superficially apparent... maybe?....

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/09/pariah-hexgen-10-hex-with-solitary.html

...I'm providing not one but TWO river generators. Fact is, they're both very similar: one has hippos and crocodiles, the other doesn't. They both have Giant Otters (if you're lucky- there's a different encounter table generated each time, did you realise?

So read on to generate TROPICAL and TEMPERATE RIVERS for your PROTO-NEOLITHIC ANIMIST HEXCRAWLING...

PARIAH HEXGEN #10: A HEX WITH A SOLITARY CONIFER

This post was thusly titled in an attempt to differentiate it from the previous dense taiga and upland taiga posts but make no mistakes: this is about a slightly less dense and flatter version of those two territories... perhaps begging the question why.

Well I shall tell you.

You might have realised that I cut my RPG teeth on BECMI and the later Rules Cyclopedia in the late 80s and early 90s, and I have a strong affection for the gazetteer series and the beautiful maps that they included. I loved them so much I've recreated them (though ever-so-slightly different) for the production of these hex generators... but more than that, I've created these generators to honour these hexes in some way.

You see, when my players would embark on overland journeys through the Grand Duchy of Karameikos all they had to differentiate one hex from another was a slightly different journey time and a choice of 8 monsters. Yet (as other authors have pointed out more eloquently than I) a 6 mile hex can be an entire world... and that's what I'm trying to do here.

(Not evening mentioning that gazetteer hexes were EIGHT miles across)

So here is the SPARSE TAIGA: somewhere between the dense forests of the far north and the either TUNDRA of the farthest north. Stick this on your map:

PARIAH HEXGEN #9: HILLS

Yes then... the series continues. Hot on the heels of this...

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/09/pariah-hexgen-8-mountains.html

...we now have this:

Yep, it's the HILLS...

PARIAH HEXGEN #8: MOUNTAINS

I forgot to post a hex generator this week so I very quickly dusted off the volcano generator and re-purposed it for Mountains. Last time was upland taiga I believe:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/08/pariah-hexgen-7-upland-taiga.html

...but yes, this time it's MOUNTAINS. I'll give the generator another going over soon to make it more distinct from the volcano hex, but it's looking okay so far. Let me know your opinion below:

A Brand New Concept in Dice Rolling

Hands up, that title is bait. It's not brand new, I'm quite sure... but on Sunday this was new to me and sent me into a bit of a flurry.

• You have six dice
• Roll them
• Put them in ascending order

You have no idea how long it took me to get this result...

So the question I asked myself was:

• How many different combinations are there?
• What possible use is there for this mechanic?

Here's what I discovered—and the exciting tale of the friends I made along the way.

Nightmare Fruit

The world is changing: the way of life of the hunters,  herders, foragers and fishers is compromised by those that grow and plan. With this new subsistence strategy comes new ideas: not just about how to obtain sustenance but also about our individual rights and responsibilities.

These rights seem to vary from one person to another, rather than equal among all peoples.

It is a curious and alien thing for outsider to observe: people having stopped being people, transforming into the parts of a grander mechanism. Behind this transformation might lie many hands: the servants of dusk, or the emerging cult of the Sun & Heavens... but most insidious of all is the cult of the Nightmare Fruit...

To understand the cult, we must first understand the fruit: but be warned... wise-ones warn that while it offers great insights, its final gift is the greatest lie yet told.

CONTENT WARNING: mild body horror, descriptions of horrible things, death, drowning, reference to Lovecraft's racist story Polaris,  panic and being forced to swallow things.