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These are the places you can regularly hear and/or see me talking about gaming or doing the thing and streaming some play. Links are both in the pictures and in the text beneath.
In which Jason and I discuss the Trophy RPG and in doing so end up talking about game culture and techniques that link up to all kinds of tabletop RPG’s.
Municipal Dungeon Delving in the fantasy city of Jaquays (pronounced Jake-Ways) in the wake of the Sorcerer-Kings, who have abandoned this world and have left their toxic labs, wyrd towers and feral pets all over the city-scape. More about the making of this game here.
I’ve been honored to play so much on the Actual Play channel, a place where I’ve made wonderful friends and played wondrous games.
After years I’m getting together with old friends, Jeff and Storn, and playing an investigative D&D game set in the Domains of Dread from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and countless other supplements from my gaming youth. It is an experiment and it is working for us. Storn graciously illustrates characters in the game and his art is a lovely way to commemorate the game.
I have a Threadless shop, all artists’ proceeds go to amazing causes. My hope is that my nerdery will make the world a better place somehow. Design examples and links to collections below:
We played our first game in June, so it was a bit hazy. Luckily, it was a good stopping point, jumping to another world aboard an artifact throne. I asked folks to remember moments where they felt their character come forward and that led to a fun discussion about things we did in the last session.
We ended on the Throne of Air, with young Mallory, a runaway squire from a Temple of Telak (“No, it is tel-AK.”) the Swordbringer asking the artifact to bring them somewhere cool. I said that we’d start the game at the Temple of Ten Thousand Swords but I think there is an adventure with that name already, so in an ancient tongue, ten thousand is shorthand for, more swords than is reasonable to count. Many.
A nameless Necromancer with a co-dependent ghost named Rory, a Nunslinger named Sister Falconius Silvanus and Adamson ‘The Kraken’ Mallory, runaway temple knight of Telak the Swordbringer found themselves in a mountain range, near a temple. Mallory could tell it was a Telakite temple but something seemed off.
The Prep
Last time we played I rolled dice and inserted factions based on the d66 character types but this time I knew I wanted a temple to Telak the Swordbringer but with a dragon sleeping in it. When I opened the book to look over some rules, I found the Vengeful Child character type. Instead of making a mad libs and rolling dice, I wrote:
Vengeful Children are running amok, wanting to kill the dragon and avenge the burning and pillaging of their town.
BLANK has a spy among the Telakite Monks.
Telakite Sword-Monks are trying to avert the dragons’ wrathful awakening.
I grabbed a map from the amazing Dyson Logos and did a touch of editing. More on editing next time, we ended this session in the midst of some Big Decisions. When we sat down, I filled in the BLANK and it fit into the story whole mess perfectly.
I knew I’d need to make swords and so I made three tables.
Shit, do I now need a table of elements? Sure. Do I need two tables of elements? Yes.
These were dropped into a pretty format for the blog but were just jotted down into my notebook quickly so that I could get this thing down in hopes of getting in a workout and a shower before the game (I got both in!).
I only used the tables once during the game. When they met their first vengeful child, I decided that he had grabbed a sword off the wall and rolled. I got a katana that I called Spring Blossoms on the Wall. Later in the game, when Mallory would use this magical katana to try to thwart a 13 year old girl with a longsword from stabbing the abbot, he’d fail his roll. I asked if he wanted to Try His Luck and see if he could activate the sword’s arcane power. He declined, not wanting to hurt her by accident, which I really liked – felt like a soulful, very real reaction.
The Characters
The posse we’ve made are in their teens and early twenties and they feel very young. We laugh a whole lot at their shenanigans but it isn’t goofy. There is an emotional core there that I dig. Sister Falconius is a kind of old, cool sister with a laser pistol. The Necromancer without a name who is in an unhealthy relationship with a ghost feels so very much like a young woman before she comes into her own. Mallory is the teenage boy who wants to see the dragon, even though it might spell death for the entire party, because its cool. He carries around swords and has spent his life worshipping a sword-god but isn’t good at swordplay.
They are a hot mess and I adore these teens. Will we see them grow up? Will they survive?
Even without dragons, how did any of us survive those decades growing up?
Dice
For whatever reason, I don’t like the roll under option and use the versus roll for everything. I need to think through what exactly I’m doing when I do that and write that down.
As the game began, I wasn’t sure how the Vengeful Children were doing as they tore through the Temple. I rolled 2d6 for the Sword-Monks and another 2d6 for the Vengeful Children. It was clear that the Sword-Monks had the upper hand and so the game began with a few monks tossing out a bruised and battered kid. I used those numbers I initially rolled for the first few conflicts where the characters tried to use their skills to get some kind of upper hand.
At one point, Sister Falconius tried to kneecap a Sword-Monk and failed the roll. A miss felt wrong. She shot the monk in the head, killing them instantly and accidentally. The monks dropped their staves and put their hands up after that but I feel like we’ll need to see a consequence of that death at some point. I’ve got ideas. I want failed rolls with firearms to be messy affairs.
Next Time…
This is what happens when you send teens out into the worlds with only laser pistols, swords and necromancy to solve their problems but they also have tools, right out of the Troika! chargen that are better suited for solving actual problems – skills like Awareness, Etiquette and Relationship Counseling.
When we left the group, they had the vengeful children and the Sword-Monks rounded up. The abbot had been stabbed by a child. The six-step countdown clock for the dragon waking up had a few ticks on it. As always, I have no idea where this is going.
After our next game I’ll write about how this mess resolved and will also peel back the curtain more on the prep without worrying about spoiling any sense of mystery for friends at the table.
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I spend time on the DM’s Academy Subreddit and lots of folks ask questions about how to start a game. This is very much inspired by the Situation model I learned through Burning Wheel and was also championed on the Alexandrian in his blog post, Don’t Prep Plots.
Here’s one take on it.
Tell the players what the game is going to be about.
You’ve all learned that the Iron Lich is trying to take over the world with their manufacturing tombs.
Ask them to make characters who are bound to that plot.
I was the apprentice of the Iron Lich when they were mortal.
I’m a paladin who is sworn to destroy all undead.
I’m an elf ranger sent by the queen so the Iron Lich’s manufacturing tombs don’t destroy the forest.
During character creation, ask questions. Make shit up together. Write down names. The DM role is important during character creation. Help the players flesh out their characters and use this as an opportunity to flesh out the world. I am very open to learning about the world at this point and want player ideas about the part of the world where their character comes from and how the Iron Lich damaged that community. Through character creation I want to grow the antagonist and the world the antagonist threatens. There will still be plenty of blank space on the map and mysteries to learn in play.
I’m not precious about timelines or vague ideas about the Iron Lich. I don’t want to get rid of the main concept, “Industrialized Undead Wizard,” and don’t want to play in a tone that doesn’t work for me. If a player makes a Halfling named Dildo Haggus, I’m going to speak up and say that joke characters don’t fit. But as above, if my ideas about the Iron Lich said that they became a Lich three thousand years ago, I’m going to re-think that because having a wizard who was the Iron Lich’s apprentice when they were mortal is just so damned cool. If the Iron Lich being three thousand years old is key to the concept, maybe talk to the player about having a character who had been tossed outside of time in a void prison and just got out.
Once the characters are made give them a few choices that seem interesting to you. I like to do this the week before we play, so I have time to prep and daydream.
Do you all want to look into the devil-lich’s mountain lair where the Iron Necromancer became the Iron Lich or scout out the manufacturing tombs where caravans have gone missing or look into the duke’s counselor who is said to be a necromancer?
There’s no WRONG answer but sure, clocks will be ticking and things will change based on their choices. Also, maybe they have another idea or the first adventure becomes very clear during character creation. That is cool. Give yourself some time to prep but don’t over-prep.
The examples above were written quickly but looking them over, they feel like different kinds of adventures. The Devil-Lich’s Lair feels like a dungeon crawl. The Manufacturing Tombs is more stealthy and sneaky but also a bit dungeon crawlish. The duke’s counselor is very political, rooting out spies and cultists in the duke’s court. Each one would mean fleshing out a different part of the world.
Nothing about any of this is original. I don’t get an eff about originality. The game will become something original once out friends interact with all this stuff when we come together at the table.
Excited to see that the blog that wrote a bit about encounter tables that really changed the way I use them has updated its thoughts and techniques. I’ll be digesting that for a bit.
For some reason I switched it around and had 12 as the dragon and 2 as the wizard but the numbers work out the same.
Here are a few of the 2d6 tables I’ve made lately.
The terms one enters to algorithmically inspire these images is in a discord server, so you can see what other people are doing and what terms they are using. Seeing someone else’s blueprints inspired me to try my hand at creating Lamordian cash bills for our Gothic Fantasy investigative game, Dread Domain Detectives Illustrated. Here’s what I ended up, good cash for a steampunk horror game inspired by Mary Shelley’s seminal science fiction novel.
full page scan of detailed steampunk money + human anatomy + clockwork in the style of the British pound note
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
You can see a few where I got interesting results but the form factor was limiting. I used the same terms but changed the size, so it was more of a cash size and shape.
I looked around and noticed that we can change the height and width and then we were cooking with gas. How will I use these? Maybe as subject dividers in blog posts or maybe as strange stickers I give my friends who are playing in that game with me. I’m really not sure.
Now we’re talking.
If you dig the above images, there are stickers for sale and all artists’ proceeds go to the National Network of Abortion Funds (and then Threadless tosses in some more).
I’ve been digging into the Midjourney algorithm for creating images, or as I like to think of it, painting with search terms. I’ve been having fun and thought I’d share one narrow group of things I’ve made, sharing some Midjourney stuff I’ve made every Monday.
I started with a really basic term and for whatever reason, the doors under these terms I liked are all orange. I’m not sure why.
doorway to a dangerous dungeon in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
After that I changed it up and made a door with a bit more guidance and loved these skull doors, especially the two grey slate doors with a skull on it below.
skull shaped doorway to a lich’s tomb in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
Tried to get something for my favorite monster but it wasn’t really successful, the only door I really liked was this one.
doorway into githyanki citadel in the style of Dungeons and Dragons + Fiend Folio cover art
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
I’m interested in doing more Tiefling-related world-building. Got a pair of solid doors for a Tiefling barrow.
devil-shaped doorway to a tiefling monarch’s barrow in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
Why, you might ask, were the alien Illithid doors the most successful? Why more Illithid doors than anything else? Because when the algorithm makes up something odd, it doesn’t have to look like a door as we know it. Making surreal and alien things is a strong suit.
alien door to illithid spawning chamber in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
If you use these doors in your gaming, I’d love to hear from you about how things shook out at your table.
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Having game designer friends means that sometimes finding a game to play can be a real ordeal. Primal Quest threaded that needle with solid design and a fun stone & sorcery concept. We were sold as of the dinosaur on the character sheet and the game delivered on that promise. Hard copies of Primal Quest are now for sale at Exalted Funeral.
Below are the full videos in the Actual Play Primal Quest playlist but I know full well that not everyone has the time nor the inclination to listen to other people play.
With these folks in mind, below I’ve set aside a few moments – things I want to think about, do better, and moments that I just think are cool. Notes are in the captions below each video.
Bite Sized Video Bits
A check-in would’ve been smart here to avoid a t-rex eating a Jay’s baby later. As it was, it worked out but it is a mental note for me to check in with my friends.
Stras is a huge help all game. It wasn’t that Primal Quest is all that complicated; it isn’t but Stras picked up on it fast and was a huge help in getting the table to engage with the system and use it wisely. Some folks might call that Rules Lawyer but I prefer to think of it as a Rules Gandalf.
In which Sean flesh out my idea about the star. I already knew it was scifi star-people but until that moment, I didn’t know that their sister had joined them.
In which Sean shows how to talk to friends about a part of the setting that vexes him and in doing so, makes the game better. Thank you, Sean.
Here we negotiate how a new magic system works for us at our table. Feels like this is an important table skill that doesn’t get talked about much. We’re used to doing this from our Blades in the Dark, Position and Effect conversations.
The game ran a bit long, quite a bit longer than any of us had wanted or planned for. I reckon, looking back, I could’ve cut out the time in the lake village but I liked that, dammit. It was good world building. We created river-ball and met the village elder with her triceratops friend. I’d rather take some time, enjoying being in a new place and interesting moment, knowing that it will pay off later. This is why I’m not good at one-shots.
Watching this again, I can see missed opportunities. Buren could’ve been haunted by the dead in the village by the lake. It happens.
Stras, Jay and Sean are some of my favorite people to game with, on or off stream but we’re all really busy. I hope we find time to gather around our digital fires and hunt down some sky wizards.
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I didn’t sleep last night, so when we got together to game, my prep wasn’t where I wanted it to be for a return to the Roots of Old Kalduhr. I grabbed Attack of the Phase Spider, definitely the strangest adventure I have written. Reading about the False Hydra, I see that the concepts have something in common, though the False Hydra stuff goes a bit further than I’m comfortable with in blurring in and out of game.
Lots of cool stuff happened but I want to playtest Attack of the Phase Spider and don’t want to spoil it. In the end we discovered that Aaron is not a fan of time travel stories but for a meal he wasn’t wild about, it was a fun game.
As written now I feel like this adventure’s text is a hammer to traumatize one’s friends. It needs a ferocious re-write but there is a good idea in there that I can’t wait to get right.
We had a character hit 6 Ruin (but pulled it back with clever temporal magic problem solving). I love the rules for hitting 6 Ruin as they are written and wish there were more games where we had moments for folks to step up and co-GM a bit. I feel much less nervous about a character dying now. Now I want full rules for players stepping up and running an incursion for when their character becomes a monster and shacks up in a dungeon and starts eating folks.
When this adventure is working, it should use the characters’ backgrounds to create a surreal otherworld, blend character’s histories together in confusing and interesting ways and confront parts of characters’ past while thinking a bit about the future (something the desperately in-debt treasure hunters rarely have time to do). As it is, I think I managed to do that but the text isn’t helpful just yet. Still, a good first step.
Devil’s Bargains from this session:
If Baso goes to 6 Ruin he’ll become a Temporal Monster of some kind…
What is a Devil’s Bargain, you ask? From the book:
Gloomwrought: City of Midnight / Session 3 / The Second Wave
In which the Sigil 6 loot the vault of the late vampire gang, kill the last surviving vampire, stuff 2 vampire spawn accountants in a bag of holding and face Innistradi Vampire Assassins.
Tearle, last of the vampire criminal syndicate known as the Barovian Sabbat died on his knees. His last words were, “Get on with it, motherfu-” as Helewynn beheaded him with the same blade she used to kill Strahd. He had said, “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Who are you to be so eager to deal out death in judgement.”
“We’re the Sigil 6, motherfucker.”
In one of the most prudent moves in the campaign, they stuffed vampire spawn accountants (Salem and Star, which upon reading it even SOUNDS like an undead accounting firm) in their bag of holding, hoping to utilize their skills as wealth managers once they are safely at home in Sigil.
Kuru threw water on the rats as he hit them with a wand of lightning bolts. Thought that was fun. He did a sleight of hand in order to not catch his friends in the lightning’ed water.
The Innistradi Vampire Assassins struck from the shadows and as many opponents do, they struck hard but the Sigil 6 weathered that initial storm and hit back. The trio of assassins (Opal, Liam and Lucius), who I pictured as a throuple, turned to mist once the first of them took 109 points of damage and get out of the vault.
In the quiet of the battlefield, as all vampires were mist and the rat swarm was dispersed, dirt fell from the vault’s ceiling as an iron golem with a demilich in its chest stomped its way to the well-entryway to the vault and crashed into view.
bright fantasy city with tiers growing around a central cyclopean diamond shard in the foreground + dark, surreal astral in the background + ornate + highly detailed + inspired by Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
And got the following:
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Githyanki Diaspora 
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