D and D-ish

I’ve got this Bingo XP variant that I’d like to test and thinking about how I’d like to interact with D&D. Homebrew? Hack? House-rule? Hack always sound harsh.

How about…

D&D-ish in metallic letters over a breastplate.

I’m taking Five Torches Deep and their Origins supplement, tossing them in a cauldron, fire stoked to high temperature. I’m dusting off that old Planescape idea. I’m not interested in grabbing old Planescape pdf’s. Nah, it’ll be what I remember and what we make up together as we go. We’ll add Planescape to taste.

I’m keeping that old Outlands map, though. That thing is cool.

Map of the Outlands by Todd Gamble, I think.

If you walk far enough in one direction, you can reach heaven or hell. If we need inspiration for a plane we’ll look at those strange 3 sentence poem descriptions in the 3rd Edition Manual of the Planes.

The Astral Plane – It is the space between everything. It is the road that goes everywhere. It is where you are when you aren’t anywhere else.
Manual of the Planes by Jeff Grubb, Bruce R. Cordell and David Noonan

The Outlands is where I’d like the adventures to happen but I do love Sigil, the city at the center of all things, a philosophical, godless place ruled by the mysterious and powerful Lady of Pain. Sigil is where downtime happens. There’s no gold to be earned there. In the city, onle adventurers and wanderers have wealth. Everyone else gets by on barter and penny-keys for trading. No central government, lots of little city councils with Byzantine relationships.

Speaking of Manual of the Planes, Jason Cordoba said the AD&D Manual of the Planes is one of his favorite books. I should peek at that for inspiration. And speaking of Jason, what from my past year of playing Trophy Gold is going to make it into this stew?

A silly thing I made to play with Affinity. The real cover to Trophy Gold will be WAY prettier than this.

I’ll probably bring the incursion format with me. As a librarian the bestiary brings me joy, a tome full of important information that outlives all of the treasure-hunters, binds them together across time.

Devil’s Bargains? I’m imagining someone casting a spell like, I dunno, Dragon’s Breath and needing more damage – offering them another d6 of damage for every 5 hit points they are willing to sacrifice but they will take another point of damage for every 1 they roll.

Bring it all to a boil at the table, see how it tastes.

Thinking about when and how to bring in notes for spell books from an old D&D hack’s notes.

Hidden Cache of Scrolls from the Mage Wars
Gifts from the Fae Queen
Wizard’s Guild Journeyman Archives
Olde Queen’s Druidaria
Fiendlands Relics
Black Market Imperial Cantrips
Lake Country Family Illusions
Elemental Artifacts
Copies of the Arch-Mage’s Great Works

Vague notes about becoming a deity and using levels for something other than your character, using them to build something concrete in the world, a nod to Crew XP from Forged in the Dark.

I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, let’s gather a few strange city-folk leaving Sigil, heading into the Outlands to deal with an imbalance, hoping to earn their fortunes and balance the scales of the universe, like trying to change the course of an ocean by throwing a stone in a pond.