Worlds of Adventure, Classic Tabletop RPG Resources, and More...
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Token 1 (Tread-Bot:Beamer)
Tomb Complex 47g Map
In the process, I missed the deadline for the really cool Tomb of the Rocket-Men contest over at the always excellent Dungeon of Signs blog. I was able to finish a map, you can see it there on the left. But you really need to click over to the Dungeon of Signs blog and take a look at the Winnners! Wow! There are some really amazingly cool maps over there. One of my favorites is the one drawn by J. Burnett from the Bernie the Flumph blog. Logan Knight's map is simply incredible, a really engaging bit of cartographic artistry. Excellent stuff.
Fruggar: A Minor Servitor Fungi for Petty Gods
Minor Servitor Fungi
No. Enc.: 2d4* (1d100+100)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Movement: 60' (20')
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 1+2
Attacks: 1 (weapon)
Damage: As weapon
Save: F1
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: Random Low-End Loot
XP: 12
2-3' tall bipedal mockeries of humanoids, Fruggar are mindless fungal foot-soldiers in service to any number of Petty Gods of Fungi and related things. Blind, bulbous and boneless, they are immune to Charm, Fear, Illusions, Sleep and most life-draining attacks. They Move Silently and Hide in Shadows as if they were 4th level Thieves, an ability that they use frequently and often to ambush likely looking victims in the deep dark places.
One or two Fruggar are of little consequence and can usually be ignored, especially while still close to the surface (1-4 levels below the ground). When Fruggar are first encountered only one or two are likely to be seen, but there almost always are more near-by. Unless these scouts are destroyed or run off, the Fruggar will follow any adventuring party that appears to be lost, weak or vulnerable.
Fruggar are entirely incapable of speech and go into battle quietly and calmly. They wield whatever random, often broken weapons and armor they have been able to recover from their past victims.
Upon being slain a Fruggar collapse into a 3' diameter pool of frothy ooze that remains pungently active for 1d4 hours, during which time anyone coming into contact with the wet frothy ooze must Save or have their skin become horribly mottled and break out with 1d4 colonies of tiny fungal masses that can only be removed by use of a Cure Disease or Remove Curse spell, but otherwise are mostly harmless. The dried powder made from these secondary growth can be consumed in order to experience a Commune With Fungal Gods effect (treat as Cleric Spell Commune, but with triple chances of insanity).
It is believed that every purplish patch left behind by a slain Fruggar somehow extends the vile reach of their masters into the world.
Goblinoid shamans are known to gather-up or otherwise extract the purplish froth (often called 'bruise broth') from captive Fruggars and use it to remove the flesh from carcasses in order to get at the bones they then shape into various magical implements. Some suspect that they also use this horrid froth in the brewing of their most noxious potions and distillations, but that is a tightly-kept secret few will share outside of their immediate kin.
* Every subsequent check for wandering monsters, there is a 30% chance of an additional 1D4 reinforcements have been successfully called-in by the Fruggar tracking the party. They tend to wait until the odds are more than 6-to-1 in their favor. They also are more likely to let a well-equipped party to pass and lie in wait for them as the party attempt to return to the surface.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Underworld Passages (Set 1)
Here is our first set of three Underworld Passages, just click over to our Free Stuff folder at BOX.
We'll be doing a few more of these...
Friday, March 29, 2013
Paths Not Taken
"To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time "
Rob Conley / Bat in the Attic
This remains a most intriguing sentiment, and something of an inspiration for going back to the roots and looking at things that could be done differently, expanded upon or opened-up, made new again perhaps. I cannot guarantee how regular a feature this particular exploration/experiment will be here at Hereticwerks, but I'll aim to do one new installment at least once a month. What I intend to do is this; go back to some classic module or whatnot from back in 'Ye Olden Daze,' lift-out some specific element or feature or idea from that item and then attempt to 'imagine the hell out of it,' as Matt Finch would say. It may only be a vaguely interesting thought experiment or a waste of time, or maybe it will lead somewhere or to something. I don't know. but I intend to find out.
Here goes the first foray...
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| D1-2: A Double-Decker Creature-Feature |
Descent Into the Depths of the Earth
This is the revised and combined re-release of modules D1 (Descent Into the Depths of the Earth) and D2 (Shrine of the Kuo-Toa). I couldn't locate my tattered copy of D1, and I never owned the stand-alone D2. The Combo-Edition was a gift from a player in one of my old games.
Like most men's magazines, the real meat of this publication is the centerfold section. Not the Jermlaine or other critters, not the map of the Kuo-Toa Shrine (in that gloriously hideous 'non-repro blue'), not the really thoughtful blank page provided for Player's Notes. Nope. It is the centerfold that features a set of modular mini-maps for various passages, tunnels, caverns and so forth that interests me. If anything it is the single most memorable thing from the module, at least for me, here and now. I do also remember vividly the complaints of several players who were grievously disappointed that there wan't a full entry for Blidoolpoolp, the lobster-headed goddess of the sea (but with underground temples) who just happened to walk around topless. I suspect they may have been suffering from Green Boobie Syndrome; this was a social affliction very prevalent at SciFi conventions where many a nubile young woman was somehow convinced to paint her breasts green and parade around as an Orion Slave Girl.
Ahem.
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| D1-2, Pi:" Tunnel-Morphs" |
This doesn't seem all the big a deal now, but back in '78 when these mini-maps were first released upon the gaming population, this was really a cool development. We did Not have to draw-out every detail, nook and cranny of every tunnel, cave and chasm under the earth--we could map out the significant sections and play connect-the-dots on a hex map (as shown on p. iii of the module's map insert).
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| D1-2, P.iii: An Early Node-Map |
Chris over at The Hill Cantons has started-up a Wilderness Hexcrawl that has player characters heading out from the already-mapped area into the great wide unknown regions of the Weird...a vast expanse of blank, empty hexes on his map...very reminiscent of the Player's Map from D1-2, only his players are exploring a sun-lit above-ground wilderness. It looks and sounds like a great game, for those doing the G+/web cam thing.
Much like how Chris is handling the exploration of a howling wilderness, the Node-Mapping/Hexcrawl idea is pretty useful and works just as well for Underworld Adventuring, or for gigantic space arks, planetary-scale habitats, impossible architectural monstrosities on other planes, even for setting up a Megadungeon, all of which I've done at one time or another over the decades since I first was exposed to those pernicious Little Brown Books. Again, it's not a new idea, in and of itself, see the Player's Map above there from 1978. It's a tried-and-true approach. Definitely not the only one, and there could well be an even better approach out there. But I haven't found it yet. I really like the notion of actively exploring an Underworld using a Hex Map like it was a Hexcrawl; the Underworld as Wilderness...an Undercrawl, if you will. It wouldn't be all that difficult to adapt the familiar mechanics of a Hexcrawl to the subterranean exploration process. We've made a few Cave and Tunnel Hazard Tables available here at the blog. More of that sort of resource is in-the-works.
In addition to raiding tombs, breaking into buried cities and delving through some megadungeon, going with the Undercrawl approach to an adventure framework expands upon the possibilities open to a group as it makes locating or exploiting (even preying upon) subterranean trade routes and other such things more than just a few random encounters. Knowing where the main underworld passages are located would be essential information to merchants, raiders, and others. That map your group worked so hard to put together over the course of various harrowing adventures is now a treasure item in and of itself. Perhaps this form of exploration can result in better loot that monster-killing, or maybe it just enables more strategic and efective monster-killing. Either way it's a win-win.
Another feature of building-up a stock of mini-maps and tunnel-sections that I really liked back then and have been re-examining all over again, is the way that multiple smaller areas can be connected or integrated into a larger whole in a sort of network. Like in the old maps I used to do, for example Tanch, which I posted about a while back, was a major dungeon-site that connected into quite a few other sites. I would leave sections of the background 'hatching' empty and un-filled-in so that new passages or connections could be drawn-in at last-minute. Several of my old players were devious about digging their own tunnels or setting-up their own fortified positions within the tunnels and dungeons. A few of them were able to rake over a section of a smaller dungeon and convert it into a formidable base of operations. this was something that I heartily encouraged. Dungeons should not be static, dead things, but rather dynamic and reactive spaces that changed through interaction with the player characters. That's an opinion, of course, but one I still hang on to. I very much prefer for the choices of the players to be meaningful, their actions to leave some trace or mark upon things. Doing so has certainly increased certain aspects of the workload, but it has also engendered a form of collaborative interaction. Why is there an elephant in the sewers beneath Wermspittle? Simple; a player character summoned the thing (using a peculiar mechanism they had found in a deserted, burned-out cellar beneath a sanitarium) during a fight with a pack of roaming Wormiacs. The elephant survived the fight and someone has taken it upon themselves to feed the thing (entry 6). No one has bothered to inquire too closely as to who would be doing that just yet.
I really, really enjoy participating in the ongoing evolution of a dungeon or other fictive shared space where things continue to develop as yet another group interacts with it. It is a great deal of fun. I'm incorporating the notes and feedback from our play-testers (including Porky's excellent Circle's Turn series of enhanced play recaps) regarding Zilgor's Repose and there are some additional encounters included in the revised and expanded version we hope to have available in a few more weeks. That poor, poor mule...
Ahem.
Back to the maps of the 'Tunnel-Morphs,' or whatever you want to call them. I was looking at those mini-maps in Module D1-2 and some of the old magic woke up again I guess. I started to draw-up some fresh, new tunnels, caves, and other such stuff.
The exploration of subterranean trade-routes, finding Lost Cities, learning the real source of a particular underground river; this is the very stuff of groping through black pits under Barsoom, and all that sort of thing. There are a ton of really interesting and fun opportunities for adventuring deep below the surface that a lot of great books deal with...but we didn't see too often in the classic 'modules.' And that in a nutshell is the inspiration for
A lot of my older attempts at Hexcrawls have been lost or given away as gifts. It has been a long time since I started-up a brand new Undercrawl like what I've described above. In-between the current projects, I've been jotting down notes and making sketches for an strange sort of Undercrawl adventure that would really make the most of some of our various Monsters, Random Tables and other stuff. My personal goal is to make it link to the Hidden Chambers Beneath Zormur's Palace, from the first series of stories featuring Bujilli...and go on into places that we've only hinted at so far, like right into the heart of the Kalaramar Drifts and beyond.
But first I need to finish the Worldboats pdf and then there's that little secret-project we're working on with Needles as a add-on to Space-Age Sorcery, in addition to the Expanded Edition...so this is going to take a while to bring together, but in the meantime I intend to do a series of Underworld Passages. Hand drawn, easy to use with any system/edition. You could use these maps to extend some of those old modules, if you're interested. The first set is available as a sample and you can grab a copy by clicking on the PNT1.pdf in the BOX widget in the right-hand side-bar. And yes, I plan on re-drawing those old UnderRiver-Morphs as part of this project. I'm also working on revamping that old map from Tanch and have plans for a sort of networked-megadungeon based upon what I've outlined above.
Very likely someone out there already has drafted-up a whole treatise on the topic of 'How To Conduct An Undecrawl,' it wouldn't surprise me one bit. People have been playing around with this sort of thing since the Seventies after all. So if anyone knows of some particularly well-done Underworld-as-Wilderness / Undercrawl (as described above) resources or adventures, please do leave a note and link in the comments. In the meantime I'm going to focus on building my own set of tools and resources, like we old-timers tend to do, and like how it used to be back in the early days.
fnord
Space-Age Sorcery: Updated Version 1.5
You can download the most up-to-date version directly from the widget-thingy over on the right-hand side-bar of the blog.
We've also received our first review, some referrals and an unabashed plug!
Sniderman over at the Savage Afterworld (a Really Great Post-Apocalyptic Gaming blog!) has given Space-Age Sorcery a positively glowing recommendation. Thank you Sniderman! You can read the review HERE.
They Might Be Gazebos has started thinking-up ways to put the spells in Space-Age Sorcery to good use in a space-based adaptation of the DCC RPG or possibly as a add-on to Machinations of the Space Princess, and possibly others. We're glad to have helped get some of those devious thoughts bouncing around and we're looking forward to seeing how this all develops!
Brutorz Bill over at Green Skeleton Gaming Guild says that Space-Age Sorcery is 'Awesome' and 'Jam-packed with cool ideas for your Sci-Fantasy campaign.' Thanks BB! We really appreciate the kind words and all your support!
Space-Age Sorcery has been adopted by over at No Signal as a major component of the magic system for their proposed Warriors of the Crypto Earth campaign! Sounds like great good fun to us!
Trey over at From the Sorcerer's Skull has given Space-Age Sorcery an unabashed plug that simply made us blush. Thank you the very kind words sir!
Also John Till at FATE SF has posted what is probably the mother of all Mugwump stories in the course of spreading the word about Space-Age Sorcery. We understand that john may be posting a few ideas for how to adapt some of these 'arcane abominations' to a certain other newfangled RPG...
Last, but not least, Porky has also given Space-Age Sorcery a rather nice endorsement over at The Expanse. Porky has been very supportive of this project before it even was this project. We really appreciate it. Thanks dude!
More Space-Age Sorcery is on the way...
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Bujilli: Episode 59
Previously...
Finally on the verge of getting some answers from his erstwhile mentor Gnosiomandus, hand-in-hand with his partner Leeja, Bujilli was leaving the Arena beneath the Academy at Wermspittle only to find himself unceremoniously dropped into an all-too familiar cave...
Snow scoured the air of everything but a swirling whiteness as the wind howled through the desolation outside the cave. It was not good to be back 'home,' if that was really the right word for this place. Bujilli looked down upon the forsaken wilderness he had grown up within. With some effort he could almost discern some faint traces of the towering black-needled conifers that marked the boundary of Yeren territory. Maybe he was just remembering. The blizzard was burying everything. He didn't much care to risk traveling through it. He had a good idea of where his mother's kin were encamped, but it would be a lot easier to track them down after the storm subsided.
He went back inside the cave. Picked up the bundle that contained his severed braid from long, long ago. Slipped it into his pouch. He scuffed the chalk lines into a bleary mess with his boots. No sense leaving the diagram intact. First rule of attrition; deny your opponent any and every advantage or resource. Whomever summoned him here was no friend of his. No friend would use him like some demon. He spat in disgust. He'd been raised amid demons and worse in his Uncle's yurt. The illegitimate half-breed by-blow of a human sorcerer, he'd been raised by his Uncle solely because he might have some measure of power that could be harnessed, or some value as a possible hostage. To his Uncle, Bujilli had only ever been a tool, a resource, some sort of token to be traded when the right opportunity presented itself.
Bujilli grinned. He'd learned a few things since leaving this place, these mountains, his mother's people. If someone intended to drag him back from his place in Wermspittle they would find themselves facing something worse than a demon. He wasn't some broken-soulled fragment or twisted distortion or reflection of something else--he was his own person and a sorcerer in his own right. He had freewill and he intended to use it.
"Uncle!" the hateful word echoed through the cave.
No response. Only the wind roaring outside.
He stretched his fingers, drew out his hand-axe. One look back to the entrance decided things for him. He would head deeper into the cave. He knew the way through the chasm below to a cleft where he could make his way around to a chimney-shaft that would take him very close to one of his Uncle's favorite campsites. It might not be the right time of the year, but it would be better than sitting in this cave and starving.
"Impatient, Petulent Child. Put away your axe. We have things to discuss."
Bujilli turned to face his Uncle. The grizzled old bastard was even uglier than usual. A livid new scar, and a fresh one at that, curled down the left side of his heavily wrinkled face and down his wattled neck. He also looked shorter, frailer. Older.
"Why have you brought me back to this place?" Bujilli considered which spells he might use and how best to counter whatever spells his Uncle might be using already. He knew all too well the futility of employing fixed or pre-cast wards when dealing with his Uncle. The cagey old Almas was adept at twisting such things back upon their caster. He'd made Bujilli watch him strangle or crush more than a few of his rivals. The only way to face his Uncle was in the moment, improvisational casting. Raw. Unstable. Volatile. Extremely dangerous. But it was the only real way to beat him. He knew it from having watched dozens of others try, and fail, always with gruesome, terrible results. He wasn't going to make any of their mistakes.
"It certainly wasn't to kill you nephew, else you'd be a corpse already, as you well know."
Bujilli slipped his hand-axe back into the loop on his belt. He nodded. His uncle wanted something from him, something that he wasn't willing or able to just take by brute force or out-right murder. Bujilli was intrigued. This could get interesting.
"Good. We don't have a lot of time to be wasting it on a pointless pissing match. You've grown. You're a man now." The elder Almas scratched himself as he appraised his nephew. Bujilli was uncomfortable with the compliment. The first his Uncle had ever bestowed upon him.
"Don't let it go to your head. I'm still a better sorcerer...though you've done well for yourself in that regard, haven't you boy--no, not boy, not any more--Bujilli?"
"I've gained a few scars, just as you have, since I left these mountains."
"Aye. Scars. You've left a fair share of them behind as much as any you've taken on."
"What do you mean old man?"
"When you left. Some took it as a sign of you're weakness. Proof that you were unfit. Jorra beat three of her cousins senseless when they started in on it."
"Jorra? But why? She hated me...ever since Stril.." Just saying her name was a stab to his heart. He'd gone after her. He tried to save her. It was Stril's hand-axe he carried. Now. After he retrieved it from the Yeren. The blood had been...
"Ha. Jorra not only beat them unconscious, she went down after you. Spent three weeks looking and only returned after barely escaping a Yeren ambush after losing your trail. Lost her left eye to a Yeren who dies before he could eat it. She took several weeks to recover. She would not give up. Finally I took her to Pao Tharim. We arrived a month after you'd already booked passage across the Sea."
"I didn't know..."
"Of course not. How could you. But it happened."
"Am I to feel guilty then? I didn't ask Jorra to follow me. She never bothered standing up for me when it might have mattered."
"She wasn't sticking up for you. She wanted revenge for her sister. Stril."
Bujilli bowed his head. So. Jorra never did forgive him. Never would. Well, he never forgave himself either. He'd been young, dumb and stupid. Gone off after some rabbits because he was hungry and wound-up getting cornered by some Yeren. He'd fought, but he was only a youngling at the time. A table knife sharpened against a rock wasn't much of a weapon. Not against a pack of Yeren.
"Fair enough. Is that why you brought me here?"
"Most certainly not. I don't give a steaming piss about Jorra and her idiotic feud. I called you back to address a difficult matter of great personal importance to us both."
"Like what?" An unpleasant shiver went down Bujilli's back. He had a bad feeling about this.
"It's about your father."
"What?!?"
"Your father. He's dead."
"Good."
"No. Not good." Mazamir scowled. His shadow twitched convulsively like an angry cat.
"You're serious. How is it not a good thing? I would have thought that you of all people would be dancing merrily, drunk on gapf after plundering his house."
"Ha. I did drink a good bit in celebration, at first. But that did not last for very long."
"What? What happened?"
"When his rival destroyed your father's redoubt...they gained access to certain things..."
"Things? Such as what? Why should I care?"
"Are you going to revert to a bitter little bot all over again, or are you going to start thinking like a sorcerer, like I taught you?"
Realization slammed into Bujilli. Hard.
"You didn't summon me here..."
"No. I did not. They did."
Series Indexes
About Bujilli (What is This?) | Who is Bujilli? | How to Play
Bujilli's Character Sheet | Leeja's Character Sheet | Cast of Characters
Bujilli's Spells | Little Brown Journals | Loot Tally | House Rules
Series Two (Episode 20-36)
Series Three (Episodes 37-49)
Series Four (Episodes 50-68)
Series Five (Episodes 69-99)
Series Six(Episodes 100-ongoing)
Labyrinth Lord | Advanced Edition Companion
Series Six(Episodes 100-ongoing)
Labyrinth Lord | Advanced Edition Companion
Monday, March 25, 2013
Space-Age Sorcery Now Available For Download
Space-Age Sorcery is ready for download via our Free Stuff Folder at BOX.
The FREE pdf contains:
- More than 100 strange new spells suitable for use with most Old School RPGs
- Magic User & Cleric Spell Lists
- A table for Optional Dire Consequences
- 1d6 Spell-Based Scenario Seeds
- 1d6 Magic Items
- 1d6 Encounters
We're working on an Expanded Edition of Space-Age Sorcery which we hope to make available in softcover format. We'll keep you updated as things develop. In the meantime, We hope you enjoy Space-Age Sorcery! More fun stuff is on the way...
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Petty Gods and Our Imminent PDF
So, once we have Space-Age Sorcery out there as a free pdf, I'm hoping to have some time to write-up a Petty God or two. Then it's on to the Worldboats pdf and the expanded and even weirder Space-Age Sorcery sourcebook/supplement that we're hoping to make available in print because Brutorz Bill asked for it. Irving was pretty insistent that we do this as well.
EDIT: Serious OMG! Moment--Over the course of the last week or so, Grogonmilk has managed to elevate the Petty Gods project from a simple revival of a stalled-out community effort to a truly amazing (and effective!) rallying cry for old school gamers everywhere. And he has somehow managed to get Michael Moorcock to join in the fun! Wow! Way to go Gorgonmilk! This is the most mind-blowingly exciting OSR project ever...which just goes to show how much can really happen in a week. Incredible, simple incredible.
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