Having recently shared an additional hex for the Atop the Wailing Dunes sandbox (title: randomly generated) it occurred to me that I hadn't posted the second hex in the series, despite it being up on itch already. Anyway, here it is in JPEG format:
Monday, 27 June 2022
Sunday, 26 June 2022
I heard a rumour: seeding a sandbox
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A very silly superpower, now on Netflix. You might be better off playing Molotov College by WH Arthur |
This post has nothing to do with Umbrella Academy, and everything to do with how to randomise rumour-mongering in a TTRPG sandbox. Sandbox in this context refers to any open-world campaign where narrative is emergent rather than plotted, though writing that maybe it's better to say it's "character plotted" rather than "player plotted". Anyway, another discussion, for another post.
Saturday, 25 June 2022
EBUA & THE SPIRIT MOUNTAIN (a PARIAH hex)
A fortnight ago I shared GENIUS LOCI, a wilderness exploration procedure based around territory-as-spirit. I included an individual hex to a) demonstrate how the procedure could be further "fleshed out" and b) to provide a bit of "gameable" content to PARIAH fans and readers.
Here's another hex: a volcanic spirit-mountain protected by the guardian EBUA.
Friday, 17 June 2022
Review: Gangs of Titan City Quickstart
THE BEST THING RPG bloggers can do to support RPG creators is to make additional gameable content for those games—especially adventures. The second best thing to do to offer one's support is to review their content, bring it to one's readership and allow them to make a judgement as to whether or not it might be for them. Over the next few months I intend to do a little bit more of both, starting today with a review of the Gangs of Titan City—Quickstart which is available to download for free, now:
https://soulmuppet-store.co.uk/products/gangs-of-titan-city-quickstart
Disclaimer:
- This game is published by SOULMUPPET, who currently distribute the print edition of PARIAH Volume 1[a game I wrote]. I have no other commercial stakes in this house however...
- ...the game is currently being kick-started, I backed it, and part of the reason for me posting this review is that YOU back it and get it over the line so I can get my hands on the hard copy.
Thursday, 16 June 2022
Index Update June 2022
Nearly a year since my last update to the index. This is now done and can be read here:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2020/12/200-posts-before-2021.html
Looks likely I'll have published 300 posts before the year is out. Any ideas for what I could for a milestone?
(BTW, index also accessible from the top of the blog)
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Heart of the Primal Delve: ANOTHER One-Sheet Adventure Powered by Hex-Flower Tech!
Announcing Heart of the Primal Delve, a one-sheet procedural generator made with PARIAH in mind (but easily adaptable to other systems):
Sunday, 12 June 2022
GENIUS LOCI and FOOTHILLS OF THE TEETH
I think I've managed to distil the ideas of previous posts concerning landscape/hex/environment as NPC into a much neater package. Given that I've been enthusing the virtues of Michael Prescott's MOSAIC Strict I thought it would be a nice challenge to see how much of the concept could be squeezed onto a single spread:
The concept being that as a party of travellers moves through an unfamiliar territory, there actions and conduct impact the environment: the spirit-of-place responds to their presence.
Saturday, 11 June 2022
The word "shaman"
For clarity: I have taken this decision for a number of reasons, all which pertain to real-world cultural sensitivity rather than aesthetic or game-related reasons. Apologies if you clicked on this hoping for a post about a "word-shaman" character class, but I think this is important.
Tuesday, 7 June 2022
PARIAH XX
Towards the end of last year I found myself fantasising about playing face-to-face RPGs again, and toyed with the idea of rocking up to a FLGS with a copy of PARIAH, a mini-hexcrawl and my winning (if somewhat crooked) smile. It did occur to me that the character sheet and the rules might be daunting for a new player... and wanted something lighter.
Prior to that point, also last year (or the year before? Time is bendy) JFUR explained she'd made a game called 17XX as part of a micro RPG jam all using the same SRD, which happened to be Jason Tocci's SRD 24XX. This was hot on the heels of my interview with Jim Parkin and a growing.. murmuration...about the FKR scene.
It took me until last week to finally bring these facts together and produce a lo-fi version of everyone's favourite psychedelic animist proto-Neolithic RPG...
Wednesday, 1 June 2022
HEART: Delving into the world of story games
Here's a shift in.. well, certainly not tone, but... game philosophy? Regular readers will know that my main frame of RPG reference is the OSR, meaning that the mechanical chassis to which I default is 1980s D&D. However...
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Heart: the City Beneath is available to buy |
Sunday, 29 May 2022
ANIMA: MOSAIC Strict Spirit Magic
What's This?
I'm fond of the free-form magic system that was included in PARIAH Volume 1 and have written multiple posts about using hit dice in a similar way to GLOG magic dice, a number of ritual magic posts (including this one) and an attempt at summarising free-form spirit-magic for the post-kickstarter crowd.
Fond, yes, but not in love... and perhaps it's time to take some advice from Jim Parkin (via William Faulkner) and kill my darlings...
Sunday, 22 May 2022
PARIAH VOLUME 2: City of Ghosts
I had planned to write a long-winded post explaining the major changes to my RPG design philosophy and other nonsense that would not be fun for me to write and possibly much less fun for you to read.
Given that a picture paints a thousand words, please take this image instead:
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City of Ghosts cover image, WIP by Jef Cox |
We'll be launching a kickstarter for this at some point next month.
Sunday, 2 January 2022
Interview by Weird & Wonderful Worlds
I was simultaneously honoured and humbled by Maxcan7 (of Weird and Wonderful Worlds) offering to interview me last month. That interview is available NOW via the following link:
https://weirdwonderfulworlds.blogspot.com/2022/01/alone-in-labyrinth-weird-wonderful.html
Be warned: it was conducted via instant message, so my tendency to ramble was indulged.
Hope you enjoy it.
Check out the whole series, there's some great interviews including ScrewHead McDuff, Spwack, Semiurge and some other people whose names don't begin with "S" — including Patrick Stuart.
https://weirdwonderfulworlds.blogspot.com/search/label/interview
Saturday, 1 January 2022
Demi-Humans & Alignment: Dwarfs
Continuing my extrapolation and twisting of original material to create a new chassis to run old school modules I'm jotting down some notes about so-called "demi"-humans.
This was originally meant to be part of the "alignment" post. Likewise my post about elves (forthcoming) was supposed to go on the end of this one, but I started to ramble...
Previous posts in this series:
- Hit Points, Hit Dice, Death and Dismemberment etc.
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/11/generic-adventure-game-hit-protection.html
- Most pertinent to this post... alignment:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/11/alignment.html
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Image courtesy The Internet |
DEMI-HUMANS
What is a Demi-Human?
Demi-Humans and Alignment
When I first started to think about alignment again, may brain did this:
- Law vs Chaos
- Clerics vs Magic-Users
- Dwarfs vs Elves
As with other binary pairs, there are (multiple and interesting) exceptions, but I like this set up as a foundation.