December 25, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Into the Odd Open Table Delve: Along the Holy Road

Pre-game Pitch: Along the Holy Road, people are going missing, both in the lowlands and in the High Moors.

I read over 2 monsters from A Folklore Bestiary and we took two and a half hours getting through the resolution of the cursed People of the Holy City.

I didn’t have to use both monsters but in blending the two together and deciding that they were in the same world and same stretch of haunted highway to a ruined Holy City, both monsters grew more interesting. As mentioned in the post-game Stars & Wishes video below, I did my damnedest to get enough information into the players’ laps so they could make interesting decisions.

Cog Icon in a circle in a similar palette as the Into the Odd cover.

Marcus, Iain’s character, is in his third session of this (open table, east marches, whatever) campaign-shaped thing. I love prompting him to describe the previous adventures to hear what the character has taken away from them. Marcus had a scar/mark from his oath with the Dusk-Elves. Going out into the Odd makes you Odd.

Jay and Sam were both playing Into the Odd with us for the first time and it was great seeing them fish out details about their characters, Arnhem & Zachary, from the sparse but evocative info chargen provides. Zachary’s urn with ashes became a centerpiece of the character.

Arnhem was a second generation adventurer/treasure hunter who was in the family business to clear his parents’ debt.

Zachary had been a holder of a few odd jobs, including rat killer and bill collector. When a bill collection went bad, he was prompted to take this job with the Adventurers’ Guild Cooperative to get out of town for a while. Sam’s details about Zachary’s gear-related religion were amazing.

Clearly, bills and debts are on our minds.

There was one fight with a young zealot with a knife and it was harrowing. Two characters very nearly got dropped. They found a notebook and a charcoal pencil in his pockets; 13 names were written and crossed out. This young man had killed more than a dozen people before his 20th birthday.

There was one fight with a zealot with a knife and it was harrowing. Two characters very nearly got dropped. They found a notebook and a charcoal pencil in his pockets; 13 names were written and crossed out. This young man had killed more than a dozen people before his 20th birthday.

The character’s interactions with locals, from Farmer Beth to the Widow Kemp to the People of the Holy City’s elder woman with two notebooks.

If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below:

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/guilt-free-t-p-k

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/talk-sh-t-roll-crits-d20-edition

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/psychic-tiger-fodder

Tabletop Role-Playing Game Collection — https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/collections/tabletop-role-playing-games

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/bastion-free-library

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/the-floating-skulls-a-fictional-band-we-made-up-in-a-gaming-session

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/heraldric-beast-that-is-displaced

December 24, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Into the Borgenwold on Actual Play

TEXT: Into the Borgenwold

Some tables for playing the old school role-playing adventure,
The Beast of Borgenwold by Harry Menear
using Into the Odd by Chris McDowall with some slight changes to character creation.
If any of this looks interesting, please support these creators by purchasing their work.
This was put together by Judd Karlman

PIC: Manticore from medieval manuscript mauling some poor lad.

Wrote this up earlier this month. Hacked at Into the Odd, thinking about how I’d use it to play the new OSE module, The Beast of Borgenwold.

We played it last week and should finish it up on the first Sunday of 2023. Youtube playlist below.

Nice to get a kind word from the adventure’s creator:

Comment from Youtube:

Author here! Holy crap it is genuinely surreal to see someone playing my adventure and an absolute pleasure to see it being run so well. You're absolutely right that Yuri is Joe Pesci, by the way.

If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below:

December 16, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Low Earth Orbit Threats

Aaron and Jay – you don’t want to read beyond the line.

Continue reading →

December 8, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Kill Acererak 5: Afterglow Spending, Building and Partying

In which the Sigil 6 spend a dragon’s hoard in Greyhawk, Faerun and Sigil.

Who are the Sigil 6 – Trundle, Helewynn, Bugwump, Kuru, Jusko and Shepherd what have they been up to?

We discussed the party breaking out in the Free City of Greyhawk.

“How do people know?”

“The gods tell their priests and the priests tell the people. ‘For the next 6 days let us celebrate the end of the archlich, Acererak.'”

We didn’t play the party as much as discussed it. Rival opera houses, someone sticking their phallus in the chocolate fountain, Lord Silverfox’s manor burning to the ground.

The group decided they’d find and fund a Greyhawk 7, an adventuring party to carry on the Sigil 6 tradition in this world. Maybe we’ll play a game with these characters when someone can’t make it.

In Port Nyenzaru they founded a bank with half of their dragon’s hoard, headed by Tefnek’s sister, a capable assassin turned Merchant Prince. We’re going to read over old Dungeonomics articles and again, a fun adventure possibility if not everyone can attend – playing bad-asses defending their bank that is investing in Chult.

It felt like we were putting the epilogue in Book 1 and we’re heading into the final book. I’d like to get more into some in-the-character’s-boots playing and creative problem solving.

Quarace, the team’s handler, went ahead to the Radiant Citadel before them. I’ll write up a letter from her about the different worlds orbiting the citadel and we’ll jump in next game.

Next Game: The Sigil 6 will arrive at the Radiant Citadel

If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below:

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/the-treachery-of-mimics/masc/t-shirt/classic

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/i-survived-the-satanic-panic

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/mistakes-were-made-it-was-fun

November 25, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Into the Odd Delve #6: Under St. Mugrunden’s Abbey

Pre-game Pitch: Over in the Cathedral District, Abbot Van-Wolff at the St. Mugrunden’s Abbey, seems to have been experimenting with Arcanum and something has gone wrong. Locals are complaining of green energy and restless dead. The Adventurer’s Co-Operative has won a bid to delve into the catacombs, find out what we can and take whatever isn’t nailed down. The Cathedral District Councilors are not pleased with this decision but their neighbors insist.

Found a One Page Dungeon in this reddit thread – The Mad Abbot’s Lair by Mark Murphy.

Added some chtonic details about the portals, decided that the portals happened when green-lightning zombies were killed and we were off to the races.

The players, John and Aaron, had both played in different sessions of this campaign but they and their characters had never met. Aaron’s character, Glim, had gone on the adventure where they explored a portal that John’s character, Roscoe, had shut and left alone when an otherworldly dooksalf fired its bow at him. I like the way the campaign world is slowly building and the characters could discuss their adventures with some context.

The players solved problems creatively, using tables and alchemical flasks to destroy the green-energy-overwhelmed-abbot. They out-thought the the rival Cathedral District’s knightly constabulary who were waiting to kill and rob them outside the catacombs. Good stuff.

I loved the very human reaction Glim had when he saw the results his bomb had on green-energy-possessed priests and acolytes. And the collection, “NOPE,” when they looked at one last cave and found giant spiders as they backed out and left. “Too bad there were not other areas to explore,” Glim said as they backed away.

When a treasure was described as a magical treasure, I rolled on the tables below and got Blood and Hibernation. I decided the magical staff had a needle in it and when it took blood from its wielder (1d4 HP damage) it didn’t kill or knock those it hit unconscious but knocked them into a months-long hibernation.

I came up with a story about who St. Mugrunden was, a saint who would find young women about to be burned and she’d offer herself up in their stead. After being burned to death she’d show up at a witch hunter somewhere else and do it again. I like this story and will have to use it again. I also wanted to make sure the players didn’t decide this green otherworldly energy wasn’t somehow about this saint and so I used the advanced technique of saying to my players, “This backstory is just a red herring and has nothing to do with the rest of the adventure.”

The random table offered a cool bit at the end where they found a penny Roscoe had thrown through a portal near the entrance they had first come through. Nice creepy moment, totally randomly rolled. The players missed a few rooms and that was just fine. It was a fine delve and a fun dungeon.

If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below:

November 17, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Kill Acererak 4: Dragonslayers & Lich-destroyers

In which the Sigil 6 slay a Black Dragon and dissolve Acererak’s Soul Jar in the dragon’s acidic drool.

PIC: The Free City of Greyhawk's heraldry surrounded by vines.

TEXT: The Sigil 6 are in a nameless bog just east of the Free City of Greyhawk. They have made this journey to... KILL ACERERAK.

Who are the Sigil 6 – Trundle, Helewynn, Bugwump, Kuru, Jusko and Shepherd what have they been up to?

When the Sigil 6 gathered in Sigil to share a magical meal created by Shepherd, their Cleric, they had no way of knowing that this last merry meal would offer a magical effect, making them immune to fear effects, would make what could have been a difficult battle much easier.

They had no reason to know that Acererak had arranged to have Āeksio hen lōz Tegun (the King of the Swamp in Old Valyrian) lair in the archlich’s tomb so that any who came here to attempt to destroy its Soul Jar would have to contend with a dragon and its kobolds.

Aeksio hen lōz Tegun lasted 1.5 rounds. The Sigil 6 was on point. Crits were rolled, good decisions were made and the dragon’s kobold guards did not make it in time. Bugwump stuck the final blow, though he was reticent to take on any fancy titles like dragonslayer or the King of the Swamp.

Orune, their wizard friend from the Free City of Greyhawk, died in the battle. Shepherd raised dead, using a diamond from the dragon’s hoard. I asked Shepherd’s player to describe the hour-long ritual and he did so, offering vivid details. He described the diamond, placed on the wizard’s brow disappearing.

I said, “You can see a pale, ashen angel of death with black bone wings taking the diamond and putting it in a satchel, filled with such diamonds. From the satchel on its other hip, it took out Orune’s soul and put it back in his body. ‘We have watched you and your friends face down death time and time again. Know that from here on out your enemies will grow far more dangerous…’

“In-game, that totally happens. Out of game, I’m going to make an effort to make the combat encounters a bit more difficult. I’m not going to be a jerk about it but I’m going to try to raise up the challenge level a touch.”

I’ve asked some strategic minded friends to join a small FB group to help me brainstorm about these kinds of fighty encounters. I’m not frustrated the the players won. I wonder if I could have made some of these fight encounters a more fun challenge.

How are we counting up the dragon hoard? Like this:

Text:
The coins you swept off the blood-stained floor coated with acid, pryed from the scales of the dragon's corpse and dragged out of the swamp are not only coins. They are a catalogue of civilizations destroyed by the dragon’s greed. Spending this kind of ancient coinage attracts attention. Your dreams have been strange since acquiring it, as if the dragon's arcane blood has seeped into the gold.
When you spend money from the the Dragon's Hoard, tell the DM what you want to buy and in what marketplace you are trying to purchase this item. The DM will set a DC if it is possible to find such a thing in the marketplace. If not, the DM will let you know who the merchants' gossip networks say might have such an item or a map to a tomb where such an item could be found. If the item is common, the DM might just ask you to check off a gold coin or two (maybe three if it is really opulent) without a roll.
When you roll, mark a gold piece off of the fortune below. You may add +1 for every gold piece you mark off of the fortune.
If you succeed, you purchase the item without a problem.
If you fail the roll the player may choose to take on the Dragon Greed:
• Spending from a dragon's hoard puts one in touch with terrible greed. The character becomes obsessed with whatever they purchase.
Or the DM will choose one more more:
• you draw attention from a dangerous faction
• purchase an item/service that has a complication attached to it
• the merchant demands an exchange of services, wanting the skills that adventurers are known to possess.
1 Gold Coin = 1 month room & board in most cities for 6 adventurers.

Dragon Rampant and 10 rows of 4 gold coins to check off.

Next Game: The Sigil 6 will party, from the Free City of Greyhawk to Sigil and deal with some of the fallout of their amazing actions.

If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below:

Lich Collection — https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/collections/the-lich-collection

mimics https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/lich-queen

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/freelance-necromancer

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/undeath-wand

November 17, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Second Session of Mythic Bastionland

Our first session was back in August but after digging through our schedules, we found time to play again. The more structure in the game (maps, myths, etc.) the easier it is to jump back into a game after a long layoff.

Mythic Bastionland title card
Protect the Weak
Seek out Myths
Honor the seers

Pic of a trio of hexes with pictures of terrain in them. — https://drive.google.com/file/d/18qOLDK6GifFGljetTI0NLho8RIFmVtnl/view

Folks are going to be studying the techniques Mythic Bastionland has for creating a hexcrawl for a long time. The way we pepper the landscape with Myths and then the Omens offered in each Myths one-page entry is incredible. Already the Myths are starting to cross pollinate and become a tangled web of arcane stuff occurring all over the map.

Wild Travel Tabel
1 Encounter next Omen from Random Myth in this Realm.
2 Encounter the next Omen from the Nearest Myth.
4-6 All Clear.

The trio of knights started out looking into a stone archway to another world and ended up making a deal with an otherworldly creature and heading to find a Seer frozen in Ironwood to get answers on how to pay off this creature and end the debt one of the characters took on.

On their way to the Seer’s village, after doing battle with a chymerical pack forest guardian we rolled the dice on the Travel rules and an Omen from another Myth popped up. The Omen from this Myth was a trio of knights guarding a Seer.

The tools the game offers (Myths and Omens, the different types of knights and the way it all intersects with the rules) are evocative and are inspiring interesting choices.

Three hexes with terrain in them.

Terrain is from drone shots of a bog, a forest and a castle.

If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below:

T-shirt with an old pic of a Griffon on it. — https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/just-a-gryphon

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/lets-nerd-out-about-arthurian-myths

T-shirt The world BLUNT in metallic letters with a flanged mace on top of it. — https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/blunt

November 10, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Kill Acererak 3: Just South of the Cairn Hills

In which the Sigil 6 get to the Free city of Greyhawk and purchase a flying carpet to head to the swamps south of the Cairn Hills.

Who are the Sigil 6 – Trundle, Helewynn, Bugwump, Kuru, Jusko and Shepherd what have they been up to?

They made solid rolls in getting out of the negacano, avoiding the 48 Days Later Frost Giants and the grasping undead hands. Gord the Rogue took them to a portal under a bridge that led to the Free City of Greyhawk. All they know is that in a swamp east of Greyhawk City is Acererak’s tomb – this is where they can destroy the lich’s Soul Jar.

Gord told them a bit about the Free City of Greyhawk…

The Free City of Greyhawk's heraldry surrounded by vines.

“Do you have any pterodactyls? Flying zebra? War Ravens? What is going on with this place?”

The Sigil 6 were not interested in hoofing it. They checked the harbor for flying ships and when they saw none they sought out other flying options.

They bought a flying carpet from a smug wizard from the Society of Magi for a small fortune from their Ravenloft Fortune. As they were leaving an earnest wizard who had had a run-in with a vampire wanted to know about the coin they used to purchase the carpet. Orune the young wizard hitched a ride with them. Everyone is trying to figure out, is Orune a Red Shirt or is he the survivor who shares the Sigil 6’s story with the world.

A Roc came out of the clouds, grabbed a Froghemoth from the nearby swamp and fly northward to drop the creature against the hard rocks and eat the remains. They circled the skull hill within which was the Tomb of Horrors. One of the entrances was collapsed with adventurers’ corpses. There were discussions of using Rock to Mud to get into the tomb, digging until they hit a room. We had a few missing party members, so we decided to end there and start at the entrance to the tomb next week.

Next Game: The Sigil 6 will enter the Tomb of Horrors.

If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below:

November 4, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Dragonslayers: What would Jim do?

Drift and Aedler meet up in Crone’s Pass, make a plan, and then chaos…

PIC: Cool-ass dragon eye made from an alligator eye pic.
TEXT: Dragonslayers / Military fantasy built on Into the Odd

This past Sunday, an old and dear friend of mine, Jim, died. I had started this game because he was hungry to play again. I don’t want to use this feeble actual play blog post to write an obituary about what he meant to me. He deserves better than that. But I do want to talk about how continuing to play despite our loss, has been a lovely way to remember him. If he could see our game today, he’d have smiled and pumped his fist at the decisions Aaron and Jay made, having been inspired by his fearless play.

We fast forwarded a bit, deciding that playing Draven as an NPC was ghoulish and so he died suddenly in the night of his wounds. Aedler and Drift met at the rendezvous point in Crone’s Pass, with a battalion of fully kitted out gryphon riders. The plan was to find a pass where they could taunt the Young Storm into action but the ground would cause his elite dragonguard knights to be slowed down. Killing the Young Storm would cause The Dragon to come out without an army, without back-up.

Then I rolled some dice to see how their gryphon-riding scouts did and it was clear to me, through the behind-the-screen dice that the first scout had encountered The Dragon and died. Captain Modesto, leader of the Gryphon-riders, flew Aedler and Drift out to the valley where the scout had died, showing them where the rider and its mount had gone down.

“We think The Dragon is hidden in this valley somewhere, waiting for us to attempt to retrieve our fallen comrade.”

In honor of Jim’s fearless play as Draven, Aaron and Jay decided that this was where they would face down their enemy. They sent Captain Modesto back to Crone’s Pass to rally the rest of the gryphon-riders. The session ended with both players nearly out of Hit Protection due to an avalanche The Dragon caused the flush them out. In the cloud of stone dust and snow, Aedler climbed to a high position where he could jump onto The Dragon as it flew past. Drift found the fallen rider, who was alive but with a pair of broken legs.

And that is where we will start next session. An angry dragon in the skies above, a battalion of gryphon-riders en-route and two rebels in the valley with named weapons gripped with white knuckles.

Jim would’ve liked that. I’ll miss him.

If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below:

k https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/ouroboros

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/dragon-sky-cavalry

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/designs/pegasus-sky-cav

October 27, 2022 by juddthelibrarian

Kill Acererak 2: The Knife, the Jar and the Eye

In which the Sigil 6 find Acererak’s Soul Jar, hidden near the Eye of Vecna – also Lord Soth gains power and a gaggle of necromancers gain the resources they need to make wealth management plans so they can start thinking about saving for their retirement.

TEXT: Traversing the Shadowfell's coldest mountains, the Sigil 6 are attempting to KILL ACERERAK.

PIC: Black and White negative volcano

Who are the Sigil 6 – Trundle, Helewynn, Bugwump, Kuru, Jusko and Shepherd what have they been up to?

With them help of Kuru’s abilities as an Arcane Trickster Rogue and Trundle’s abilities as a Ranger with levels as a Cleric of a God of Portals, the Sigil 6 made their way past the vicious Frost Giant clans whose mountain fortresses surround the archlich’s sanctum, a volcano in the Shadowfell that spews negative energy rather than lava.

There were two gates, big enough to welcome a Frost Giant host in the side of the negacano. Shepherd communed with the Raven Queen to know that the doorway with the green limestone eyes was the true door and the doorway with thousands of green gems representing Acererak’s eyes as depicted on the gate’s carvings was the deathtrap. But even the true door had a Wraith Lord within it.

Jusko stepped up, with a dagger given to him from Lord Soth, as a way for the Knight of the Black Rose to find the fallen knight of House Hajek should he perish. Jusko invoked his noble background and addressed the wraith as a still-living king. “The Knight of the Black Rose is seeking you and your host.” I had him roll a Persuasion. It worked.

Why did this work? I’m thrilled you asked.

Before the game, while eating dinner I grabbed an empty Hex Flower sheet I made ages ago. I set it up with 3 circles, with different resources the factions within Acererak’s mountain might fight to claim once they realized their Lich Lord was dead.