Delta Rae: The Light and the Dark

Delta Rae is a band that I love. Their music in part inspired my Weird New World campaign. Specifically this song and video.

The recently left their label, the same one Taylor Swift is fighting with, and are now fully independent. Looking to fund their next album or two, they launched a kickstarter, hoping for $30,000 to fund The Light, and if they hit $60,000 it would fund The Dark. As of the writing of this, they're at over $333,000, and 2,856 backers.

There's a week to go. If they can hit $400,000 or 4,000 backers they'll write and record a southern gothic musical...



If this gets you, click here and join in on the magic of Delta Rae's The Light and The Dark! 

Happy Halloween!

I hope your Halloween is full of fun spooks, yummy treats, and a dash of unnerving horror!

Strange Magic - Embroidered Flesh

Magical tattoos are a fairly common type of magical enhancement. Various systems handle them in a wide variety of ways, but one of the more common ones is for the tattoo to be a temporary thing. Once its power is used, the tattoo goes away, or at least the enchantment does. 

A little while ago I was shown this website by Eliza Bennett called "A woman’s work is never done" where the artist says:

Using my own hand as a base material, I considered it a canvas upon which I stitched into the top layer of skin using thread to create the appearance of an incredibly work worn hand. By using the technique of embroidery, traditionally employed to represent femininity and applying it to the expression of it’s opposite, I hope to challenge the pre-conceived notion that ‘women’s work’ is light and easy. Aiming to represent the effects of hard work arising from employment in low paid ancillary jobs such as cleaning, caring, and catering, all traditionally considered to be ‘women’s work’.

Not only is this a fascinating project, it's also amazingly inspirational, or at least it was to me. I can easily imagine something like this being enchanted, and then being destroyed when the magic was used up.

I imagine the process both of embroidering the magical thread, and using it up would be... potentially painful?

Don't Panic!

Do you have your towel?

Temple of Time

That this is all foam... Inspirational... Very obviously not mine! All images from the Stonecutters Guild.









It's things like this that make me realize I need to step up my game.

Unlikely Inspiration: Crazy Music Videos

There is an entire adventure in this music video, complete with a crazy wizard, a somewhat inept thief, magical treasure, and an organ that shoots flames.

The Cloisters

I've been spending some time recently in NYC exploring around, and during one of my recent visits, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of medieval European art at The Cloisters. It's a really impressive collection, and well worth the visit.

 

I had no idea this was in the USA!

Old Friends

"Commander Jerald!" The smooth faced General Kevron called out across the courtyard. The heads of the city guardsmen milling about during the change of shift turned to look at either the general or the commander, and an opening in the crowd formed between the men.

Jerald took a deep breath. "Yes sir!" he replied as he walked to his *superior* officer.

"Commander Jerald, we've received numerous reports that the goblins have been harassing the good citizens of the city."

"According to the Duke, the goblins *are* good citizens of the city."

"The Duke say's they're citizens, but they're in no way the good citizens of our fair city. They smell, they're dirty, they can barely speak..." The general spit dramatically to the side. "They need to be kept in their place if they're to be allowed to live within the walls."

Jerald looked impassively at the general without reply.

After a too long pause, the general continued "As I said, there have been complaints, and you seem to be able to communicate with them, so I'm assigning you to deal with it."

"Very well sir, I'll speak with them."

"I don't want you to speak with them, I want you to tell them. And when they don't listen, and continue to harass our good citizens, I want you to deal with them."

"I understand sir."

"Good. Dismissed."

"I'm sorry Bugits. I'd hoped when the Duke made his declaration that things would go more smoothly."

"We're different than you. It will take time my friend. Probably time that neither of us will see the end of, but it'll happen."

"Not if the general and his ilk have their way."

"We were able to slay the Warlock of the Stormcrow Peaks, break up the Sisterhood of Blood, and drive off Vithorax The Red. Together. Human and Goblin, together."

"And how often did we get run out of villages and towns between our adventures?"

"Too often. Yet we're here now. Your Duke has allowed us to live here, because of you."

"I couldn't have done it alone."

"No, but if you hadn't told the truth, you might be general."

"And you and yours wouldn't be able to life here."

"This is truth. You're good at that, truth telling. Come, have dinner. Grilka would love to have you in."

"Another time. I'm on duty tonight."

"Another time then. Be well Jerald."

"Be well Bugits."

 

Mary Poppins and D&D

Aside from the original bag of holding, I think there's a lot of potential inspiration from Mary Poppins that you could incorporate into your game. One thing in particular struck me recently though: not Mary Poppins, but rather Bert the chimney sweep.

Bert is a seemingly itinerant man who works a variety of jobs, yet knows the magical Mary Poppins. What if neither Bert nor Mary Poppins are human? What if they're fay? Mary from the Seelie Court, and Bert from the Unseelie Court?

Focus on the bit from 1:25-2:14.

Or if you want to take it a step further, what if Bert is actually from the Shadowfell, and so thrilled to be in the Prime Material Plane that he's irrepressibly happy? Yet, like the clip above suggests, still haunted a bit by things he's seen... haunted and awed even...

I can't be the only one who's gotten some inspiration from Disney. What have you been inspired by? And bonus points if it's not one of the cartoons!

Ghost Ships and Cannibal Rats

The companions rode back into the small walled town on the coast at midday. The head of the orc warchief tied to Rathgar’s saddle bounced as they trotted through the gate, passing several overladen carts heading westward along the coast. The peasant families startled as the companions went past.

“It’s alright!” Feris called out to them, slowing his horse. “The orcs aren’t coming anymore.”

“Forget the orcs! Death and disease come from the sea.” The peasant flicked the reins and the cart lurched a little faster out of town.

“What’s going on?” Rathgar asked, wheeling his mount to face Feris.

“I don’t know… let’s find the burgomeister.”

---

Rathgar held the head by the jaw “So now that she’s no longer your problem, what is? You’ve got people streaming out of town.”

“Two days ago an abandoned ship was spotted out at sea, and headed this way.”

“A ghost ship?” Nimble asked.

“I’ve specifically not been calling it that.” the burgomeister said quietly. The fishermen who spotted it sailed close enough to it to see that it wasn’t crewed, but that it wasn’t empty either. Rats swarmed the deck. Enough to cause the ship to list toward the fishing boat.”

Allianora warded herself “Gods…”

The winds and the seas are pushing it toward the coast… towards us.”

“Can’t you sink it?” Feris asked.

“We don’t have any military ships here, and no one else is willing to get close enough to try.” He paused. “I was hoping that if you came back from facing the orcs that maybe you… could do something.”

Rathgar nodded “Probably”

“The fear at this point is that it’s close enough to land that the rats could make it to shore, especially if they floated in on wreckage.”

“So you want us to… what?”

The burgomeister pursed his lips, looked down at the head in Rathgar’s hand, and sighed. “Take the ship back out to sea, away from the coast, then destroy it.”

“It’s literally swarming with rats.”

“Yes”

“Rats who’ve been trapped for gods knows how long, eating gods know what.”

“Probably each other.”

“Any idea what else is on it?”

“No”

---

Ghost ship full of cannibal rats could be about to crash into Devon coast
or maybe it isn't...
No, an Abandoned Ship Full of Diseased Rats Is Not Floating Towards Britain

Real life, or at least real headlines make for some great inspiration.

Here are 1d10 other things you might find on a ghost ship full of cannibal plague rats:
1. (Rat)Shit Demon aka Golgothan
2. Rat King
3. Ghosts/Spirits/Shadows
4. Vampire/Plague Ghoul
5. Warpstone/Chaos focus
6. Carrion birds
7. Undead Plague Rats
8. Insect swarms
9. Insane crewman w/ ring of vermin protection/control
10. ???

What else should be on this list?

Setting Idea: Tortuga Asteroid City Pacification

I had a dream last night that I remember quite vividly. I was a character living in a small city in a hollowed out asteroid. The city was independent from any other government, and something of a Tortuga type place. Not quite lawless, but pretty close. Yet in the city there were lots of regular people just living their lives, going to work, having families, etc. Late night corner shops selling coffee, or ice cream, or fries with cheese and gravy. Living space was crowded and somewhat cramped with more dark alley ways than real streets. The feel of it was very Spike Lee Do The Right Thing crossed with Ice Cube's Friday... only inside an asteroid.

It's never this bright inside the asteroid

In the dream I was one of 2 guys just doing our thing, pretty aimless, when the asteroid city comes under attack by another state's police force. It's very clearly NOT a military action, at least visually. As the riot police move in, my guy gets separated from his friend by the police moving in. They might have captured him, but in the process, I piss off a particular policeman, who spends the rest of the dream trying to capture me. This leads to a cat and mouse game through the city. It wasn't quite slapstick, but it came close a few times, and often involved running through peoples apartments, hiding in trash bins, generally experiencing the growing chaos caused by the police.

Since this is inside an asteroid, gravity doesn't work like normal, and people are able to basically fly, if they jump off from a spot high enough. Very useful, you understand. Of course, because you're jumping, you don't actually move very fast, and it's still possible to hurt yourself, so most people don't do it, especially since the ground cars are usually faster, even if you need to get around the other side of the city. That is, until the police showed up!

I ended up at the residence of the mayor/governor of the asteroid, who's sick (just a bad cold really) and trying to deal with the police invaders via comm. Somehow I get inside (through an upstairs balcony that is being ignored in favor of the doors the police are trying to get through), still trying to avoid the policeman who's following me. I overhear a bunch of stuff going on, as no one is worried about me being there since I am clearly not police.

Unfortunately this is pretty close to where I woke up, so I don't know where the dream would have gone from here, but it seems like a fantastic start to a new campaign. I could see using d6 Star Wars to run it, but I think that something more like Tales from the Floating Vagabond might be a better fit. There is some very serious shit going on, but that doesn't mean the PCs are going to be either taking it all that seriously, or going to be in any way directly involved or pivotal in the outcome.

Dungeon High Fashion

While it's true that you probably don't want to wear your couture robes or bespoke suits when you're exploring sewers and dungeons, or mucking about in the untamed wilderness, there are times when it pays to look good.

Now, there have been some weird fashions over the years. Take these for example.

Narrow but very wide dresses

Crazy hair

Even crazies hair/hats

These are mens shoes.

Kind of crazy... On the other hard, D&D is full of crazy, so really, not so out of place. But not everyone wants to look like that.

Here are a few examples of modern takes on what I would describe as quasi-medieval style.

Source

Source

Source

Adventure Time: Land of the Dead

via thefrogman originally by finalellipsis

What's it like to be a dwarf?

Richard Armitage, the actor who plays Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, did an interview recently where he talked about what it was like to be a dwarf. This particular quote struck me as being exactly what being a dwarf is all about:

The one thing I didn’t expect was the fact that we were going to be bigger. When we get into costume, we’re all massive. So these dwarves are huge. I was a bigger version of myself. I was taller and wider than I am (obviously, because Pete shrinks you on the computer). I always thought that I would be small, but I was big. But it was very useful, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but in retrospect, it’s become clear that the growth in size has really helped to form this subconscious ego that I think dwarves have.

When you look at the designs for Erebor, it looks like Mount Rushmore. They built massive monuments to themselves, they accumulate huge amounts of wealth, they think a lot of themselves because they are a forbidden race. They are secondary to elves in the Legendarium.

Without allegory (because Tolkien is just not interested in it), it’s possible that they are like the Jewish people of Nazi Germany. I don’t think Tolkien intended that at all, but that’s how they feel. There’s a pride to them that’s like, “We will not be defeated. We will go back to our homeland and we will reclaim what was taken from us.”

Dwarves build huge underground complexes because dwarves are big!

I'm so looking forward to seeing The Hobbit tonight!

Quick poll - are you going to see it this weekend?

S.S. Waratah - Ghost Ship

On July 28, 1909, the SS Waratah disappeared after leaving Durban for Cape Town. There were 211 people on board, and no trace of the passengers, crew, or the ship has ever been discovered.

The Waratah was named for the emblem flower of New South Wales, Australia, and built to serve as a mixed cargo/passenger liner between England and Australia. Not nearly as large or impressive as the Titanic, it still boasted 100 first class cabins, eight state rooms and a salon whose panels depicted its namesake flower, as well as a luxurious 'music lounge' complete with a minstrel's gallery. The cargo area could be converted to carry over 600 steerage passengers.

Before leaving Durban, one passenger disembarked. An engineer and experienced sea traveler, Claude Sawyer, felt the ship was too top heavy.

---

There are always numerous ways to use a ghost ship in an RPG: The ever popular classic ghost ship encounter, to an even more supernatural, possibly Lovecraftian, situation. The 211 deaths could have been sacrifices to the old ones.

The ship might have been carrying a mystical treasure, possibly an Egyptian artifact?

A Time/Space hole may have swallowed the ship and sent it to the past, the future, another planet, or even into another dimension, say Gamma World, or a lake in the Underdark of D+D.

It could also have been an preliminary move in the years leading up to the Great War.

---

Thanks to Dr. Grumpy for the topic of today's post.

Zeteh Zandana - Cosmology of my Home Setting

More thoughts on my home setting:

As cool as Planescape is, I hate the cosmology that goes with it. The idea that everything fits neatly into a plane of a specific alignment, that it’s set up as a giant wheel, that there are elemental planes, para-elemental planes, quasi-elemental planes, energy planes, etc. is both stupidly overly complicated, and for the most part incredibly boring!

Look at that mess! And somehow it all wraps together in Sigil...

Now, 4e cleaned things up quite a bit. The Mortal world has a pair of reflections, the Feywild and the Shadowfell, and they are pretty much what they sound like. Ravenloft? In the Shadowfell. The court of Oberon and Titania? Feywild. It fits together with the implied cosmology of most fairy tales so much better than the Great Wheel ever did.

The Astral Sea will be much like it’s usually portrayed, including dead gods, strange worlds, demi-planes, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe/Callahan's Bar/The Captain’s Table/etc., and of course Sigil itself. The currencies of the realm are magical power and souls.

What about the gods? I’m going to stick with the idea that there are no gods, per se, but rather the immortals from classic D&D. Mortals who have become so powerful they ascend to demi- and lesser-god like status. They live in realms that float in the astral sea, and interfere as much or as little as they like in the mortal realms. Clerics and other “divine” characters may worship these immortals, and their worship does have an impact on the immortals’ power and standing, but divine power does not derive from individual immortals, but rather from all of them. That isn’t to say that an immortal can’t focus on one individual and boost or block them, but it takes effort and energy on their part. This will allow divine characters to choose just about any god or ideal to worship.

Demons and devils? I’ll stick with the 4e idea that they all come from the elemental chaos. The upper levels of it resemble the classic idea of the underworld, and the deeper you go the more twisted and chaotic it becomes. Players will never visit the lowest levels, as reality breaks down if you go too deep, and this blends right into the far realm - aka outside the player’s universe. I’ll never send my players there, but it’s a great place for *things that are not meant to be* to come from.

Still need a hero - part 1

Back in December I wrote about heroes, and then I started a followup post which never saw the light of day. Now, months later, it crawls forth like a monster from a primordial sludge...

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I’m always astonished at which posts get comments and views, and which ones don’t. For example, I had absolutely no expectation that my post on Heroes would receive the attention and discussion that it did. Even now, I’m not quite sure why! On the other hand, I’m always thrilled to have sparked a lively discussion!

In my original post I wrote about how it’s hard to play a hero or to find people playing heroes in Dungeons and Dragons. I think the post may have come off sounding stronger than I actually feel about the subject. I actually don’t mind (now) that D+D doesn’t really support heroes. What I minded was the impression that 2e and later editions (via its artwork) were all about heroic deeds.

Now I don’t want to get into a big debate about what makes good artwork, or whether it shows too much skin, or anything like that. That’s for another time and another place. What I want to talk about is the tone that the artwork conveys.

Outside of the old school/OSR stuff, most fantasy RPG artwork tends to be fairly to extremely heroic. Below is a small sample of RPG artwork (that I like) that illustrates this point.

I think that one of the big draws of the OSR for me is the more... I almost typed realistic... genre accurate artwork style. Character’s are shown doing all sorts of questionable things like tomb robbing, setting traps, and messing with nasty nasty things. Some examples below...

Part 2 will explore and reply to the many wonderful comments I received on the original post. I just wanted to get the context of the original post out there first.