Category: RPGS

Location seed: The Lake Niangua Extrusion.

The Lake Niangua Extrusion – Google Docs

The Lake Niangua Extrusion

 

Lake Niangua is an extremely shallow lake in Camden county, Missouri. Ostensibly. Well, yes, it really is a shallow lake.  You can fish there, and everything.  Just don’t do a chromosomal analysis of the fish, because their DNA is left-handed.

 

And it’s not just the fish; the entire ecosystem of that lake is left-handed — or, to (mis)use the technical terms: the ecosystem there displays mostly Z-DNA helical structures instead of Earth’s more usual B-DNA structures.  Which seems to make the fish look weird and taste a little funny, but that’s about it.  But what makes the situation very strange is that the effect is absolutely limited to that one lake; flora and fauna taken from it (or introduced to it) prove remarkably difficult to transplant.

Continue reading Location seed: The Lake Niangua Extrusion.

Item Seed: Healing Mortar Rounds.

Healing Mortar Rounds – Google Docs

Healing Mortar Rounds

 

There’s a case (sixty-four count) of these things, and Healing Mortar Rounds (HMRs) work just as advertised: shoot one out of a standard World War 2 8 centimeter Granatwerfer 34 mortar, and the shell will heal everybody within a ten foot radius, wherever it hits. ‘Heal’ is kind of subjective: the energy will close wounds, clean out infections and foreign matter, and repair minor breaks, but if your arm has gotten blown off the best one of these things can do is heal over the stump.  Still, the mortar rounds reliably work.

Continue reading Item Seed: Healing Mortar Rounds.

In the mail: The Black Hack / The Cthulhu Hack.

The Black Hack is a stripped-down game designed around first edition D&D, and The Cthulhu Hack… does the same for Call of Cthulhu, although it uses the same mechanics as The Black Hack.  What strikes me about both is how plug-and-play they are, and I don’t mean that as a criticism.  I think that you could probably run a game in either with nearly no prep time; they seems almost designed for impromptu convention games*.  Check them out.

Moe Lane

*Sorry if that sounds pompous; but ‘pickup con games’ sounded like I was describing something… darker.

The “WHO GOES THERE?” Kickstarter.

If I played board games OR had the disposable income, I’d back WHO GOES THERE?  It looks like it’s a lot of fun and they get full points for going back to the original story.  Mind you: I liked both movies just fine.  But the Campbell novella is something special.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/certifiablegames/who-goes-there/

Adventure seed: The Catallus Conspiracy.

Blame this.

The Catallus Conspiracy – Google Docs

The Catallus Conspiracy

 

Who?  Gaius Valerius Catullus. He was a Roman poet of the late Republic era.  His poetry only survives to the present via the timely copying of a mysterious found, then lost manuscript — ah, yes, you’re wisely nodding your head.  Yes, trust those conspiratorial instincts of yours.  They will serve you well, in the Order.

 

So. Yes, those weren’t actually Catallus’s poems. They only exist because Catallus was a real person, who wrote real poetry, and who happened to be referenced by enough public figures later that it was deemed necessary to do more that time than simply bierce his poems and blame it all on those pesky monastery mice.  So our medieval ancestors in the Order had some of their best people at the time put together a suitable body of work, and passed it off as being from the poet.  Back in 1300 AD, this was simplicity itself.

Continue reading Adventure seed: The Catallus Conspiracy.

Location seed: Anchor Station Medved.

Blame this. Also: The Secret World had an awesomely cool Halloween mission every year that involves radios playing old-style spooky stories in-game, numbers stations, and ghosts. Presumably, so will Secret World Legends.

Anchor Station Medved – Google Docs

 

Anchor Station Medved

 

Are you familiar with numbers stations?  They’re legendary among the conspiracy community: radio stations broadcasting nonsense on the shortwave bands, transmitting out gibberish that’s as tantalizing as it’s creepy.  One of the most infamous ones is whatever-the-is MDZhB (or UVB-76) station that the old Soviets (and new Russians) that has been broadcasting since before the end of the Cold War.  The first layer of the onion claims that the station is a caretaker for an espionage resource, which is to be activated in wartime and then used to transmit information that could be decrypted via the use of one-time pads.  At least, that’s what the Russian spy agencies solemnly tell the current Russian regime.  There are more layers to the onion, however.

Continue reading Location seed: Anchor Station Medved.

Item Seed: Ballistic Ivy.

Ballistic Ivy – Google Docs

Ballistic Ivy

Hedera helix munitionis

 

This hardy variant of English ivy is prized by the more discerning gardener and tactical security coordinator for its ability to actually reinforce the vertical surfaces on which it climbs — to the point where even a new transplanting of Ballistic Ivy can repel small-arms fire after a mere year’s growth.  A century’s worth of cultivation of this plant can produce an organic net that could shrug off an artillery shell.  Or at least keep the blast from penetrating the ivy.

Continue reading Item Seed: Ballistic Ivy.

Item Seed: Empathic Potatoes.

Empathic Potatoes – Google Docs

Empathic Potatoes

 

It is honestly by the purest accident that these vegetables look like Earth potatoes. Or that they can grow in Earthlike environments.  Or that, yes, they taste more or less like potatoes and that humans can gain nutrition from them — oh, why lie?  It is starkly incomprehensive how so many coincidences necessary for the existence of the Empathic Potato could have piled up. Which is why the Empathic Potato has been the official symbol of the Intergalactic Teleological Research Association since 2247.  

Continue reading Item Seed: Empathic Potatoes.

In Nomine Revisited: Salem, Mercurian Archangel of Civics.

This is over a decade and a half old at this point; it’s also based off of the canonical Angel of Cities for In Nomine. Nice to see that I was sensible, even back in the day.

Salem, Mercurian Archangel of Civics – Google Docs

Salem

Mercurian Archangel of Civics

 

The world is built from all of us.  Build it anew each day.

She is the newest Archangel; and from her point of view, her apotheosis comes none too soon.  For too long Heaven has permitted human governments and politics to develop and evolve without specific, Superior-level oversight.  This is not a criticism of the Host, of course: there is a War going on, and when one’s back is to the wall one is well-advised to emphasize utility over elegance.  Still, the matter required rectifying, and Salem is the avatar of that rectification.  There will be changes made, wrongs redressed — and not a few of the Enemy are about to suddenly discover that their control of human society is perhaps not so secure as they may have thought.

These are indeed interesting times.

Continue reading In Nomine Revisited: Salem, Mercurian Archangel of Civics.