Category: RPGS

Adventure Seed: Sam’s Dojo.

Sam’s Dojo – Google Docs

Sam’s Dojo

 

Sam’s Dojo is located in a strip mall convenient to the campaign. It’s not much to look at, visually: the Dojo is essentially a big open space with a lot of mats on the floor, an office in one corner, and a bunch of karate equipment scattered about.  The place is clean and well run, and its owner Sam Cohen is a genuinely nice guy and good teacher of American Kenpo, but he’s also about as generic a karate instructor as you’re likely to ever see. You kind of have difficulty remembering what he looks like, once Sam’s out of your field of vision.

 

And he has almost no paper trail.  Neither does the dojo, come to that. And nobody can quite remember when Sam started teaching students.

Continue reading Adventure Seed: Sam’s Dojo.

Adventure Seed: Calling in the Other Cleaners.

Calling in the Other Cleaners – Google Docs

Calling in the Other Cleaners

 

Blame this.

 

Who does the cleaning up after a major necromantic event is one of those things that nobody ever really thinks about before they join one or another of the groups in the Great Game. The assumption always seems to be that somebody must be responsible for it, so clearly somebody already is. And never mind the piddling little details, like methodologies, safety protocols, staffing, overtime rates, time cards, scheduling, HR, annual certifications; who joins the Illuminati to do all of that?

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Item Seed: Doctor Marrane’s Wondrous Traveling Carnival.

Doctor Marrane’s Wondrous Traveling Carnival – Google Docs

Doctor Marrane’s Wondrous Traveling Carnival

 

This magical artifact appears as an eighteen wheeler, truck-tractor rig.  The trailer is weathered, but in good shape; on one side there are the words “Doctor Marrane’s Wondrous Traveling Carnival” written in bright gold-red letters, with the logo of a cornucopia flanked by two ravens beneath it. Don’t bother trying to paint over the logo. Or checking the tire pressure. Or filling the tank up with gas, for that matter. Why? Because it’s a magic item.

Continue reading Item Seed: Doctor Marrane’s Wondrous Traveling Carnival.

A week and a half to go on the Conspiracy Theory Kickstarter.

Conspiracy Theory, for those who don’t remember, is a card game from Steve Jackson Games about, well, conspiracy theories:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/847271320/conspiracy-theory/description

This sort of thing is more or less firmly within SJG’s wheelhouse, and I have high hopes for it.  Less than two weeks to go and still needs a couple more grand to fund, so if it sounds interesting, go ahead.  I plan to break this out with my regular gaming group…

Item seed: Roseate Boots of the Sauromatian Queen.

Blame this.

Roseate Boots of the Sauromatian Queen – Google Docs

 

Roseate Boots of the Sauromatian Queen

 

This particular artifact was first described by an obscure 19th Century German folklorist researching various equally obscure tribes in the Crimea.  He came across one such tribe who claimed to be descendants of the servants of an ancient royal family, who ruled far to the East. The folklorist wrote of them:

Continue reading Item seed: Roseate Boots of the Sauromatian Queen.

Location Seed: Massacre Mirages.

Massacre Mirages – Google Docs

Massacre Mirages

 

Typically: deeds are evil, places are not. The distinction is important, even though the residue for extremely evil deeds can linger in a particular place for a long, long time.  Since evil is not an intrinsic feature of the landscape, it acts as an irritant on the universe itself.  Left untreated, the universe typically responds by trying to expel the evil somewhere else. Anywhere else; it doesn’t really matter.  Put more simply: places where Bad Things Happened make passageways in reality.  Passageways that others can use.

Continue reading Location Seed: Massacre Mirages.

John Wick’s “DragonCon Part 2: Antitheism and Forbeck’s Law.”

Did you wince at the ‘antitheism?’ Come, I will conceal nothing from you: so did I.  But it’s all right; John Wick was merely discussing how to handle a problem RPG player who likes to go around, in-game, trash-talking another player’s deity.  The solution to that kind of jackwagonry is quite elegant: go ahead and read it.  As for Forbeck’s Law:

 

“Whenever the panelists outnumber the audience, 
the panel moves to the bar.”

 

This is… brilliant. More of a rule of thumb than a law, but still brilliant. I must remember it for future conventions.

 

Item Seed: Practical Demon Breeding.

Practical Demon Breeding – Google Docs

Practical Demon Breeding

 

This book (written by one “Mary O’Brien, Jermyn Chair of Exotic Zoology, OBE”) is not for the faint of heart.  Not that Practical Demon Breeding is actively pernicious; indeed, it is scrupulous about presenting a strong, credible, and practical case against encouraging evil behaviors and traits in one’s demons.  It’s just that it’s profusely illustrated; and… it’s a book about breeding demons.  Some of the pictures are nigh-impossible to credit.

 

And what are demons?  Well, they’re pretty much what people think of when they hear the word ‘imps:’ small, rather humanoid, supernatural creatures with an aptitude for destruction, and the native intelligence of a fairly bright dog.  From context clues, ‘demons’ have been a side effect of ‘spontaneous Hellmouth incursions’ since ‘the Monte Bello Disaster of 1952.’  Fortunately, demons are also apparently fairly tractable, and easily enough bred.  The book was published in 1990, which was enough time for the breeding program to reach its fourth generation.

Continue reading Item Seed: Practical Demon Breeding.

Item Seed: Reverse-Gravity Bullets.

Reverse-Gravity Bullets – Google Docs

Reverse-Gravity Bullets

 

The name says it all: getting shot with one of these bullets (which can, quite inexplicably, fit into virtually any chemical-reaction firearm, somehow)  will cause gravity to reverse for the target for about five seconds. In practical terms, on Earth the target will accelerate upwards at about 30 feet per second, go up about 150 feet or so, then probably fall right back down again as gravity reasserts itself.  All of which assumes that there isn’t a ceiling or something in the way.  

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Savage Sell-Blades of Dayton [The Day After Ragnarok]

City_ Dayton, Ohio – Google Docs

 

Savage Sell-Blades of Dayton

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

City: Dayton, Ohio

Population: 30,000/180,000

Controls: Montgomery County

Government: Democratic, for the moment

Problem: Hostile City

Heroic Opportunity: Mercenary Work

City Aspect: Militaristic and Mercantile  

Continue reading Savage Sell-Blades of Dayton [The Day After Ragnarok]