Posts

Appendix O(rdinary)

A setting lives in the details. Tell me that its characters are as human as I am. I want to know what they eat and how it's expelled. Give me a whole a chapter about someone shitting their guts out (don't). Give me the small things so the large grow and grow. Redwall by Brian Jacques is right at the top. Perfectly cosy until the rats the rats the rats. W hat someone eats, how they eat and where they get their food from are oh so important. See also Honoré de Balzac. Bring the white gooseberry wine! Fetch me some rosemary, thyme, beechnuts and honey, quickly. And now, friends, he squeaked, waving a dandelion wildly with his tail, I, Hugo, will create a Grayling a la Redwall such as will melt in the mouth of mice. Fresh cream! I need lots of fresh cream. Bring some mint leaves, too Moby Dick . Lots about the mundanities of sailing and whaling but here's a few lines about whale brains that I flipped to. In the case of a small Sperm Whale the brains are accounted a fine dish....
Post a Comment
Read more

Women? in a fantasy roleplaying game?

     We’ve moved on from negative strength modifiers. Classes and backgrounds are for everyone and all. Rangers, woodcarvers, foragers, barber-surgeons; women have certainly performed these duties in the past but where are the midwives and fishwives; milk maids and bal maidens; laundresses and herring lasses— backgrounds that are explicitly feminine and of course hugely important to their communities.      What if by excluding backgrounds associated with women we're implicitly saying that the women of history weren't significant and aren't interesting enough to roleplay.    Most people rightfully throw away gender roles in their fantasy settings. I assume, right? But the roles that women had would still be necessary for societies to function.         A few months ago I submitted something to the femininomenon jam. Two backgrounds inspired by the above thoughts; fishwife and herring lass. Today I finished another, Mil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Farmhouse Fantasy

Inspired by discussion in the NSR discord server a month or so ago. Our quest-goers are not gold-toting itinerants but townsfolk picking up arms to defend their village.  There's a lot you can do with the concept —  community building and abstract wealth were mentioned —  but it got me thinking about what old drama might arise when you're traveling with people you've known your whole life. Roll for bonds like you'd roll for eye color.  Everyone rolls twice, once for each person to their right and left.  1. ___ saved your life when you were attacked by wolves. 2. ___ is your child's spouse. You want to keep them safe. 3.  You have fond memories of youthful pranks with ____.  4. You know ___ was responsible for the fire 10 years ago. 5. You think that  ___'s religious practices are heretical. 6. __'s family took you in as their own when you were orphaned.  7. ___'s family and yours have a generations-long feud over something long forgotten....
Post a Comment
Read more

Tolkien, Cairn, Tolkcairn

I've always liked the idea of each class breaking the rules— system or setting— in some way.    Wizards change reality.  Knights ignore damage from swarms and humanoids.  Elves exhibit their elfliness with elfish feats. Spend fatigue to:            Roll damage twice and take the highest           Attack multiple enemies in a round           Perform an amazing feat of athleticism            Ignore damage for a round   Dwarves cannot gain fatigue or become deprived.  Halfling footsteps cannot be heard. They cannot trigger traps.  Give the wizard some limitations. T heir magic must adhere to a certain theme e.g. elemental or necromancy. Maybe a peril table. Or their limitations are narrative — laziness, casting attracts monsters, they want to encourage their charges to solve their own problems.  No exceptions for the ...
Post a Comment
Read more