Turning the Blog Around

Its been a long slog of a roller coaster, and I've been sporadic. Honestly, I just didn't have focus. The rules are in several documents, my life is in several locations, I'm all over the place.

So its time to clean it up. 

I'm going to turn this blog into what people used to expect from a Blog.. what I expect from a Blog.. a Web - Log of what happens in another aspect of your life.

This is called Dungeonworld Dev for a reason, it was the development blog, but when I wasn't developing, I was just throwing stuff at the wall, and seeing what stuck. There are over 100 'articles' that didn't. I didn't press publish. For a myriad of reasons, fears and the like.

I might still go back and click publish, but, like I've said before, I'll tag them, so you, dear reader, can see the difference.

What I'm going to do, is push forward with this like a proper log of events. When I Write, Draw, Create or do anything related to Dungeonworld, MY game. I'll blog it in here.

Why? Because I think its what I want to read.. someone else making a roleplay game, and all the trials and tribulations of that process.

Where I'm starting.. 

* I have a 99% complete map for my Kickstarter. since it took a year and a half to get here, that 1% will likely be another 2-3 weekends. I need to scan reworked images, crop them into the giant map, and publish it.
* I have Several, Half finished, roleplay documents. Core Rules for Dungeonworld v4/12, Core Rules for DD12 v0.7, Cataclyzm, barely a chapter, Pirate Cave, barely a chapter, Alita ripoff, some NPCs, Paladin Concept, a design draft. An Almost finished Magic Synopsis, written in by my in world alter ego.
* I have a card game, to help GMs make plots for that session/scenario/campaign, based on player input.

I have several ideas for several other things.. another map, but for a city, another map, but for a mega-dungeon.. these need to wait, til map #1 #2, #3, #4 and #5 are finished..

I might migrate this.. I think, a cleaner start might be a good idea.. but maybe not? I might duplicate this to another forum, such as medium or minds.. and 'start' from the next post, or maybe this one..

Good luck to me..

Lets see if this pans out, or its just the coffee speaking.

World Build October Part 29

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Monday the 29th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a ceremonial object"

In A time long gone, The Angels who flew the world left the 'candleholders'. They were collected and distributed amongst the churches of the Holy order of the Tree and are used in ceremonies to celebrate the festivals.

They are light weight, have a heavy pointed end and a hollow end. When placed in the ground or on a wooden table, they balance easily and the weight of the candle usually has no bearing on the balance.

When lit, they give off a glow toward the ground, some show special symbols and patterns, some a generic circle.

Some have been told, hold the bones of the angels and are regarded as holy relics, stored in ancient vaults beneath great churches.









unrelated..

The light weighted bird race invented a spear, that could be segregated into 6-8 parts, and carried on a belt at the waist, connectable in times of need as a dagger, or short bladed sword, a polearm or a full spear. 

World Build October Part 28

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Sunday the 28th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a common pet or companion animal"

I'm going to go with this from Players.

Typically you'd expect that players would go with a familiar or pet that matches something either easily accessable, OR something rare and exotic.. now while thats true for most players, a larger majority decided that declaring their horse as their pet/companion, was the best choice.

In that line of thread, it seems fair that at least amongst the more common folk, a riding beast or beast of burdern would be most likely as the commonest..

Which brings me to the Yakult. A six legged Oxen/beast of burden, quite friendly, mildly magical, and very strong when it comes to pulling heavy loads. They have tough skinned hands instead of hooves and have been known to grip trees and stones to pull themselves forward.

Since the wild Steppe of the Ashigaru plains have many nomdaic races, which use the Yakult for many reasons, statistically speaking, the Yakult is the most common animal companion.

World Build October Part 25

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Thursday the 25th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a prey animal from your world"

Besides all the standard earth world predator-prey examples that you can google, and all the ones that match, i.e. any animal that tries to catch and eat another, and this can include alot of ones that might be world-buildy.. i.e.

the plant that captures other plant/animals and eats them?

or the animal that captures sentient plants that walk around?

or the rock elemental that chases down dust-bunnies?

How about this one:

Living coins.

For some strange reason, magic tends to give everyday objects sentience and purpose, without any reason. The weirder variety of these are living coins.

They can cause themselves to roll, if they manage to fall from a shelf or high enough surface, in order to move themselves around the world. They tend to 'park' themselves upright against walls or furniture so they can move off at a later point, because if they ever end up flat on the ground, they are immobile.

They tend to want to be picked up by humanoids, placing themselves in places to get noticed. If they get into an empty bag of coins, they escape. Working their way up the sides with each jostle until they jump out. Sometimes, its noted that they take other coins hostage?

But they are, for the most part, trying to escape the dungeon they are located in, because eventually the mimic will find them and eat them. 

World Build October Part 20

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Saturday the 20th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) an important historical figure"

There was once a great king, He drew his people together to forge an empire. They cut down trees, cut stone, smoothed the land, and built a network of roads from the north of the empire to the south, but along the way, they disturbed an ancient vampire who lay sleeping in his crypt for a few hundred years.

At first the king thought it to be a crypt of ancient lore, like any other, and had it moved to his city of cemeteries, like the rest. A trophy city if you will, of all the lands that had been taken over by this king.

Well, the Vampire awoke, and at first thought that the city had merely grown up around his crypt, but as soon as he discovered that he'd been moved.. well there was hell to pay.

He summoned up all the dead from the city.. which was alot.. and lay waste to the entire land, searching for the king.

Eventually, the king was defeated, the vampire approached him, and whispered in his ear. The King was appalled. Aghast, he attempted to fight back, but the Vampire turned the king into his own kind.

The Vampire king, as the story goes, strolls the land in search of something, somewhere.

Little children are told this tale to teach them not to forget where they put things, lest the vampire king come find it first. 

Like most historical figures, much is lost of the reality, and only the 'interesting bits' remain.

World Build October Part 16

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Tuesday the 16th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a powerful or high ranking individual"

My players know of some individuals, who like Voldemort, should not have their name spoken. We refer to them as Mr.D, Mr.B and "her".

There are many people who could be considered powerful, high ranking yet powerless. I do like a good trope, and having seemingly innocuous folk be ultra powerful (like yoda) is good fun, yet done too often is boring.

There is a guy though, that is powerful, yet doesn't really understand it.

See back year ago, we decided to roleplay ourselves in my game, We stat-ed our characters, argued about how it sucked that we were not herioc, and in the end the 'portal' opened in my lounge room and we all traveled to this fantasy Coyn world to play.

It lasted about 2 sessions. It became obvious, that being our real selves in a world, didn't give us the skills to survive the world, It wasn't fun playing a bunch of geeks and nerd, who had very little real combat training, no spell ability, no actual lore of gods, and the only thing going for us, was our meta knowledge.

The game stopped, but one player kept it going with a kind of offline play by email game.

The thing was, not being born in the world, of the universe everything resided in, it made no sense that the gods could be aware of him. Without that, death could not come for him. 

See gods are responsible beings, responsible for the day to day goings on, that we in our world call physics. So without the 'god of physics' around.. he became immortal.

He's still there, tending bar, he now owns the bar.. he's aware that he can't age, and suspects he's immortal, but doesn't want to test the theory, and he can't ask anyone since he's the only one this applies to, he can't find out for sure.

He knows alot about the world in general.. Imagine being cast back in time now, to 0 B.C. How much history of the world do you know, basic physics, maths, science, etc etc.. alot..

He (in real life) knew a lot about my world, so in the game, he knows ALOT about the world.. 

But while he can't make things happen to gods.. if he tells someone, and they believe it.. then that affects the gods.. which means he can influence, without repercussion..

Now that is powerful.

World Build October Part 15

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Monday the 15th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) what your inhabitants wear in cold weather"

There Are Three Winters, One is due to the huge pillar of ice in the centre of the world, and the shadow that it casts across the land, Every season, there are several days when the sun doesn't peak out from behind the crystalline structure and the world as you know it becomes colder than you've ever felt before..

In the middle of Summer, the Blistering Sands of the Omfg Deserts cool enough to walk on, then the rare rock pools freeze, cracking the rocks they sit in. As the sun returns to heat everything once again, water seeps into the cracks, providing small life recluse locations to grow away from the 60c+ deserts

In the Town of Amishandor, Far enough North, that the shadow passes for a mere 3 days, people come out to celebrate in Summer, as the cool winds and chill temperatures are a respite from the hotter summer days, Yet in Winter, when its already cold enough to freeze ice left outside, those three days become dangerous.

During these few days, Amishandor crack open their winter chests and bring out the Rattain Furs.

The Rattain are a race of giant rats that live in the hills to the north, mutated by the demonic powers that reside there, to be able to live in the cold caverns and protect the treasures. While dangerous, the fur has an amazing property, that even after death, the fur creates warmth for the wearer.

When Adventurers came to Amishandor, and travelled to the Demon caves, they returned often with skins, and items raided from the tunnels. At first the townsfolk shunned the fur as it was strange, smelled and gave of an eirie warmth, yet with a good wash and skilled stitching, has become a sought after cloak by travellers.

World Build October Part 14

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Sunday the 14th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) what your inhabitants wear in warm weather"

Describe Warm Weather?

In Australia, Warm is 30-39c, In Russia, Warm is above 15c to about 30c.

In the Highland Swamps of the Kukuru mountains, the reflections of the sun on the mountain ranges, means year round warm weather, muggy, humid, The soil composition has left the valley in a perpetual swamp like pond, it rarely rains, just constant moist weather.

Clothing clings to the body, restricting movement, so most clothing is made from vines, weaved together to form a mesh, its not worn for protection from weather, but from the bites of fish.

Often, mud is worn on the skin to protect from bugs, and coloured mud has been sought after by several inhabitants, creating a trade in rarer shades of red and white (from the normal range of browns)

Celebrations often bring out the women covered head to toe in a variety of patterns of mud, in varies stages of drying out. clever 'dressmakers' have layered the mid so as a layer dries and breaks away, it reveals another colour beneath.

----

Deep in the mines of Karak-Dune, The Dwarves sweat when it gets above 20c. Maybe because its due to the varied layers of leather armour and mail, maybe its the forge tunnels are full of warm foggy air, so often Dwarves sweat. When the lava pits or forge halls get roudy, the rest of the tunnels start to get really warm, up to 40c, Dwarves can put up with alot, temperature included, but their clothing can't. So, when the temperature gets high, leather can rot, so off comes the leather.

But Dwarves are very traditional when it comes to gender relations. What with the beards and all. Often Dwarves mating rituals involve years of getting to know if the person you're friends with is a male or a female. Its considered extremely rude (at point of death) to imply, let alone ask a Dwarves gender.

As a result, in the warm tunnels, revealing anything that could imply gender would be extremely upsetting. So the dwarves invented a chainmesh, smaller links with the link gaps fused closed. Its slightly heavier, more comfortable than plain mail and still conceals enough of the body to remain respectable.

p.s. With my house-move-issues, I thought I scheduled these to post on their respective days, but obviously failed to do so, hence the block of posts all in a row

World Build October Part 9

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Tuesday the 9th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a common game or sport"

Sport, for the most part is a derivative of the violent games played in medieval times, which are a derivative of war. So it seems a little strange to assume that sport would exist in a medieval environment at all..

Look at the Romans, unless you count Gladiator battles and lions eating Christians sport.. (Yes I am aware that in reality these things were not common events like movies & TV shows us)

It does make sense, however, that many games and sport-like events would have happened locally. groups of boys in the street would most definitely have invented their own games, some of which may have continued into early adult life.

But the game I'd like to discuss is the one, inspired by Robert Asprin, in his Myth.inc books.

Dragon Poker.

When I first read about dragon poker, I was highly intrigued. The idea of playing a game of cards that, the more rules you knew off by heart, the better your hand would be, and an adjudicator was needed to prove each rule quoted.

For example:

I might have a run of diamonds, 4,5,6,7 and 8, while you have a run of spades, also 4,5,6,7 and 8.. but, because I'm wearing predominately red clothes, but you have blues and greens, my red cards are worth more to me, counting my run as 5,6,7,8 and 9.. so I win..
But, you then point out that in the city of Maine, (where we're playing) red clothing is counted as negative, so my cards are now 3,4,5,6 and 7.. I lose.

Other factors include, time of day, number of players, city you were born in. hundreds of possible variants.

Also you would not point out rules that would be negative to you, that's your opponents job, you'd point out rules that gave you an advantage and rules that would negate your opponents cards.

So that's my inspiration:

Dungeon (draw) Poker, is a 7 card, with a 3 card open and 1 card closed (to you) game of poker like rules. There are a total of 12 suits in the game, and special wild cards, but unlike normal games, you bring your suit to the table yourself, submit it to the dealer, they shuffle in the wild cards available, and hand out the cards as a normal game of poker

You try to make the same kind of runs, sets or otherwise, like any poker styled game you've seen before.

The fun part is, there is always that 1 card you have no idea about, 3 cards that everyone 'has' and the wild cards.

Wild cards, allow you to mix up the rules along the way (like fluxx) some might allow you to change the open cards, view your closed card, view an opponents card, but as often as not, wild cards might boost certain hands, modify the cards worth based on factors.

Lastly, because paper is expensive, card stock is rarer, many of the Dungeon Draw cards are worth a bit more than a gold, so much so, that some nobles use the cards as currency in certain circles. This has created a supply demand curve on certain cards and even parties arranged for the exchange of cards, akin to world politics.

One kingdom traded a Dungeon Draw/Dragon Poker card in part to complete a marriage arrangement and bring peace to the lands. The card went on to win a tournament and bring untold wealth to the now merged kingdom and two generations later the same card swapped to another noble house brought about the ruin of another kingdom.

Heroes, often find cards, sealed in chests, in tombs, in dungeons, sometimes unaware of their wealth, they use them to light fires or pick simple locks.

If your heroes find a treasure, the most common cards are the suit of Peasants, or the Suit of Soldiers, throw in a card or two.

GMs: roll a 2d6, or d8+8 for rarer cards, In order: Ace/Void, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, Lord, Knight, Baron, Count, Prince, Duke, King, Emperor, Dragon, Suit-wild. Don't tell your players what they're from, just see how long til they destroy it or use it for strange reasons.

Sub-note: The Wizards, being interested in such things have invented their own similar game, which brings forth illusions to fight out over what cards were played, but it is a highly complex game, only for wizardly minds who like complex things.

World Build October Part 8

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Monday the 8th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a food that's eaten on special occasions"

There is a cake, its round, soft centred, crisp shell, with a white icing and sprinkled chopped apricots, cherries and mint berries, that is made in the winterlands of the centre. Its unknown where the recipie comes from, especially since the winterlands do not typically have wheat, barley, yeast, sugarcane, eggs, milk, apricots, cherries or mint berries. All these ingrediants must be imported, and since the winterlands are so far and remote, they must be imported magically.

Maybe, because of the bleeding effect magic has on all things,

Maybe because of the nature of narrative magic,

Or maybe the gods just think its funny,

This cake, is magical. Not just any kind of magical, but supremely magical.

Its is said, that if you start to eat this cake, on your name day, and continue to eat it, at least a crumb per mouthful, and finish it exactly on winter solstice, when the folk are out celebrating the cracking of winter and the spires shadow, then the magic will multiply your powers, you will grow a fuller whiter beard, your belly will swell and you'll gain several magical powers, usuable as often as you wish, some of which include instant teleportation at will (or is it at wink) up to 250m. detect good and detect evil and speak with animals.

That aside, people across the lands make up cakes resembling the unknown cake (some say the cake is just a myth) and eat it from morning til night of the winter solstice, a mouthful here and a mouthful there, waiting until midnight to eat the last bite.

World Build October Part 7

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Sunday the 7th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) the decorations used for a holiday"

The Coyn World has a very large number of humans from a large variety of times, as the time of the Cataclyzm was not fixed to a specific time point, more of a blurred seven dimensional mess.

As a result, many earth customs from many times and place ended up being part of human culture in the Coyn. You can find Holly wreaths, kissing under mistletoe, pumpkins on all Hallows Eve (though they tend to talk).

But whats interesting to us mere magicless mortals on earth is the decorations done by non humans.

 Imagine if you will, Humans use plants, berries, inks, gemstones to create decorations, yet to some cultures, some races are made of plants, berries, inks or gemstones.. Imagine if they used humans and or human parts to decorate their houses.. urgh.

Luckily, its more common to use magical illusions to decorate, its easier to 'put up' and 'take down'. Some small hedge wizards might manufacture trinkets that create the illusions for people who have little to no access to magic.

Typically, symbols of the holiday, steamers of light or colour, maybe sounds or even a taste in the air, are the most common... that said..

There is a small cult, that celebrates the seventh day of the eleventh month with a strange set of decorations made of paper (with permissions of the dryads, its bark shavings, not wood). They decorate their main hall with furniture, covered with this paper, some represent goods, such as bags of wheat or a small sheep, but some, go a step further, including meat sausage to be eaten in a bread log, cold snow with coloured sugar. people of the cult, travel to each others homes, and purchase the items from one another, decorating the next house with those goods. All sending them off with the greeting "Come again".

World Build October Part 6

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Saturday the 6th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a Custom, surrounding Death"

Death is an entity, black robes, scythe, bones, When you are at your deathbed, he arrives microseconds before, severs the lifeline to the universe and you are dead.

But, Heroes are granted one reprieve from Fate, another entity, who stands by deaths side and bumps him at the exact 'wrong' time.. the hero lives, escaping his death.

Magi can usually sense death and often as a last resort they expend all their magic in a burst of energy, creating a small patch of unusual effects. Why? because as often as not, the random burst of magic might prevent the death in the first place, and also its fun to go out with a bang.

As a result, some magi schools in the land have started to practice their 'final thoughts' and try to focus them into an actual realised effect, rather than just creating multi-coloured rabbits who burst into fire and smoke when you say the word "elephant".

In Rel'Whenderfel, the Humid lands of the East continent, they have an amaxingly colour filled festival where the magi dress up in bright colours, skull motifs and cast off illusions and fireworks all night. Ending with a grand finali, where the magi try to cast the most elaborate 'big bang' firework they can. They tend to expend all their magic, and sometimes the magic gets mixed up and non-illusionary effects change the landscape, but by weeks end most things are put right and every agrees they had fun running away from the bull-eels and old man McGee was dying anyway.. 

World Build October Part 5

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Friday the 5th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a Custom, surrounding Birth"

Interesting.. Being a dad I'm familiar with a few of our own customs, having a wife from another country means I'm also aware of some strange customs of other countries.

I think, in a world where gods literally exist, where magic exists even if its rare, there would be all manner of traditions, customs and the like, that actually have meaning, rather than pagan rituals that used to mean something when we believed in forest gods and sun gods, but now, are just things we do because we've always done them.

So how about this: In the lands of the Water God Innusi, He who was mortal and raised to god status by the sky gods and stone gods at the temple of blood. Innusi decreed that birth is of his domain, as he heralds the coming of new life. The father of the child must build a mound of earth, raked from the swamp floor, and upon it mould a bath, calling on the sky gods to dry it and the stone gods to make it as rock. Once complete, he sheds a small patch of blood into the bath and paints it with the name of his child. When the mother is ready to give birth, As heralded by a prayer to Innusi (the breaking of water) The father fills the bath with the purest water he can, and blesses it with Innusi's name, for his child to be born into the waters of life. If Innusi deams it worthy, the waters will be purified and the child will not be sick for the first 3 months of it life. If the child is sick, the father was not diligent enough in his bath, or the naming ritual or the purity of the water and the village will not let him hunt, or work, but instead must care for his child each time it is sick instead of the mother.

World Build October Part 4

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Thursday the 4th - World-build-tober

"Draw (or describe) a Cultural rite of passage"

Every Year on Their Name Day, the Children are gathered around the great circle, They look on in fear, fretting their hands, From the year of their 10th until the year of their 16th, they are walked through the eye of Wailing.

Its unknown how long the eye of Wailing has been there, but its well known, Children who pass through unharmed are good children, those who have evil in their heart are banished.

Its rare that children fail to pass through of their 10th, it has happened, but maybe once every few years, more often than not, its the children of the 15th or 16th year, and even then, barely one in a few hundred might perish.

As a result, the towns are usually devoid of delinquents, Children before their 16th year are well behaved, they do not wish to be banished on their Name Day.








Thousands of miles away, on a castle floating in the sky, children appear at the summoning portal. They are quickly gathered, consoled and informed that they have been enrolled in the college of magi.  

World-build-tober Part III

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Wednesday the 3rd - World-build-tober

"Draw a Small Village in your world."

p.s. The Updated World-build-tober says 'draw or describe'.. 

Welcome to the Village of Breyvern, 

Located in the south of the Lake of Brey, Home of the city of Breylake. Breyvern is home to many of Breylakes Denizens, because of Land.

Breylake is an island in the middle of a lake, it has two major bridges and several smaller ones, upon which people have built their homes. Almost every part of the main bridges are used as support beams to these homes, and as they are the main thoroughfare, they have become business-fronts, shops, locations for trade, cafes and the like.

But this means that land is expensive.

So the local fish farmers have to live somewhere, So several Villages and even small towns, have appeared on the outskirts of the lake, built up from the swamps and shacks, so the locals can eek out a living, catching the famous Beefish.

But I digress, back to the village of Breyvern.

Breyvern is barely a village. They have a Tavern, a Main Hall and a Blacksmith, So they qualify. Sure the Main Hall is the Mayors Dining room, open to the public, and the Blacksmith is only open two days a week, but it qualifies.

Visitors to Breyvern are rare, you'd need to know how to operate a skip and pole your way through the dangerous Beefish filled waters of Breylake, but if you can make it, the locals are a friendly lot, open to travellers and keen on stories from afar.

The Smith, Ghurlock Fleshcer, is more of a tinkerer, a wiry thin man, who uses pulleys and pumps to heat his forge and hammer the metal, he fires up on weekends to nut out some tools or parts for the locals. That said, he has been known to forge a blade or two in his time.

The Bartender Durthy Glasser, Son of departed Bartender Maxim Glasser, Is a large but quiet man, his wife runs the kitchen and his kids help around the bar. Locals visit as a place to meet there partners for the evening, The night before weekends is usually a small gathering to drink away the cold nights of winter or participate in village games in the summer.

The Mayor, or Mayoress depending if you talk to a traditionalist or these new age modern types, Is Lady Kybuttz Flescher, related to Ghurlock through their great grandparents. She took on the role when her husband passed away and since she was pretty much doing it behind the scenes while he was alive, everyone just assumed she'd be mayor anyway.

The Rest of the town are Fisher-folk, they rise early, check their traps and head off to market, 2 hours sail/rowing to the city, to sell to the merchants. If they make enough, they buy local goods with their meagre haul, and return to the lake to see if they can't take in an extra bite to take home for dinner.

The partners of the fisherfolk, dry out the fish into jerky and travel over to the nearby village of Holmesbridge, inland, to sell to any traveller who has left Breylake in the morning, as they'd arrive at Holmesbridge by lunch and Beefish jerky is a good travel food, that can last a few weeks.

Their life is hard and harsh, Beefish stampedes kill at least a few fisherfolk of the lake each year, usually young types without properly skill or old folk who can't get out of the way in time, but the lifeblood of the region is Beefish..

As to date, no-one has taken the time to check with locals as to what a beefish looks like, let alone draw it. everyone assumes its just a fish, that tastes a little like beef.. 

but... 

World-build-tober Part II

Its World-Build-Tober: 

Tuesday the 2nd - World-build-tober

Draw an Example of magic usage in your world.

p.s. The Updated World-build-tober says 'draw or describe.. 

I've been building up a few articles on my worlds magic, so I don't want to give away spoilers, but heres a teaser.

There are over 50 leylines, They cross-cross the world in weird and strange ways, but every now and then, some magi notice that they align, They (the magi) have tracked some of these moving lines and formulated patterns that might happen.. 

Yet like a child's kaleidoscope, predicting patterns based on a few visible elements, doesn't always work out when you turn the knob.

Players will rarely be affected by the leylines, The magic within a leyline recharges the planets natural magical elements in a predictive pattern, in elemental and non-elemental forces.. the effect of any given leyline on any one individual would be bare .1%, if we were to assign a point based system of magic, where a fireball were to cost 10 points, even a rare event of being in a cross-over leyline event, in the right place, would adjust the 10 point cost either up to 11 or down to 9, Magi have been known to feel a surge or a drain from time to time from many known and unknown forces (GMs take note) So the likely hood any magi could harness or benefit from such an event is small, yet some have tried.

One such event, where great magic users from around the coyn, came together to a place which may have been the central nexus for over 20 leylines, with the hope to tap into those powers and unlock potential magics for the world.. while some 'strange and bizarre' things happened, the majority of what actually happened was that instantaneously, thousands of non magic users suddenly were able to cast a wish spell, and minutes later, were once again normal mortals.

The Next such event is due to happen sometime soon, Magi from Earth, probably trapped there as Earth has no magical fields, might be planning to tap into the power in the year Two Thousands and Nineteen on their calendar, in the Eighth month on the Eighth Day between the Eighth Hour of the morning and the Eighth hour of the evening, To open a portal to be able to return home to their world. Maybe.. 

The Gorgon: DD12 Cataclysm & Beyond

Backstory: DD12:Cataclyzm is the survival horror scenario for Dungeon Delvers Twelve world/system. Your group has 'arrived' on this world, and before they have time to even think, something in the shadows and darkness has decided that you are its next meal.

The Male Gorgon.. minus snake hair...

The Gorgon:

So what is a Gorgon?

According to several mythological stories, the gorgon gets a wide variety of descriptions, from snakes, snake haired, bulls with volcanic or metallic flesh, other things with scales, wings, claws, tusks, mixtures of all the above, even the sphinx, satyr, hippocampus and mermaid are considered a gorgon.

All of the above.. maybe

So likely gorgon means demon, more than specifically Medusa and her sisters, of which they are likely demons.

So what is a demon? well, for a medieval peasant, anything that's scary enough to have come up from the depths of hell (if that's their local religion).

So Gorgons are just labels for demons.. but more commonly, demons that are mashed together bits of other animals. So, a hybrid right?

More like the Colchis Bull or the D&D gorgon here

Except, not theriocephalic, because that's just head of an animal, body of a human. and we're not talking humanoid, because that's a whole nother set of monsters.

So Gorgons, are hybrids, Heads like humans, or at least faces like humans, and then a whole mixed bag of what the rest of it is..

Except also, that any of those body parts, could be parts of humanoids, or theriocephaloids?

Whoa, where is this going?

So In Cataclyzm, the idea is that anything could come from anywhere, and as such, alot of it, might not so do well on a world with gravity, or air, or sunlight or a lack of sunlight (like nighttime) and so, a Gorgon, in this context, is any creature of anything that the GM comes up with, a mishmash of bits and peices, resulting in something the players might run away from, get eaten by or manage to hack apart and use.

Cataclysm was about lack of resources, cave-people of the Coyn World, you start with nothing and you build something, on a wider scale than a standard RPG where you start in an existing culture, and rise a little bit in comparison to all that is around you, to a well known hero.

Catacylsm won't have grand overarching bag guy plots, or heroic status when visiting nearby towns, not instead people will probably just have a general Awe and Fear for someone who managed to travel from one location to the next, and not get eaten.

Googling Gorgon can produce many varied results

So, The Gorgon is a multi-roll (or choice) on a chart that gives the GM a thing that he can describe, maybe its a bull body, a fish tail, arms of a rhino and the face of a chicken, it breathes air, but lives in a 0.5x gravity. As a result the GM can double the creatures Initiative costs, making it slow, it has a peck attack, and horns, it stomp around on two legs and maybe has a slap attack with its tailfin.

More interestingly, when you defeat it (if you do) you've gained access to cow leather, fish scales, large fore-arm bones, horns and probably a strange beefy-fish meat, with intestines, organs and the like.

Surprisingly, no Heart as Meat Potion images exist in google

While Early DD12 Cataclyzm notes had leather, horns and bones, more recently I've added in the organs, intestines and such so you can play as a shaman who gathers strange exotic liquids and meat sacks to attempt to brew up some very weird things indeed.

The Gorgon, gives us the ability to create some truely weird things, without the need for the exotic locations and the plot on how your group got you there.

Cataclyzm works well as a "westmarches" style game, each week you can have a whole new set of players, make up characters based on the villagers that still exist. They go out into the wilds to discover whats around, maybe they survive, maybe they don't, they bring back information, resources and new skills, so that hopefully, an established location can be added to the historical maps.

Gorgons should be used somewhat sparingly, once a month if you're playing weekly, its a freak of ... well not of nature.. it might be defeatable, it might be able to live in the world and become a re-occuring nightmare.

While the name Gorgon, brings up images of snake headed women, or metallic bulls for some, I do wonder if the controversy of keeping the generic "abomination" called a Gorgon would be a good idea or maybe the old adage, "All publicity is good publicity", if they're talking about my game, who cares if its trash talk?

[worldbuilding] Discovering old maps part 2

Having discovered my old maps and deciding to rework them, I continue on my path to create a new.. old world

Part One

The Canvas

To really get a feel for what I was doing, I gathered all my maps and looked over them, drew out sketches of things, very very general sketches.. making sure certain issues were dealt with..

The first was simple world physics. The Original Coyn World was far smaller, the sun would pass overhead which would mean very long days, very hot days.. or the sun would need to move so fast you could watch it shift shadows. So I needed to 'set' the sun to match the more current world maps which I worked on the physics for months before I got it all right.

So the sun rises and falls on the rim of the coyn, but now a new problem.. in the centre of the world is a spire (because remember, that this world was more directly a copy of Terry Pratchett's Discworld). So with only a 30. degree rise, the spire would blot out the sun on the other side of the world, making winter in some areas deadly.. while interesting.. was going to break too many maps..

Zoom in to see details.

So I adjusted the rules of the sun, 40. degree, sped it up slightly to ensure an earth approximate temperature, checked the maths, then started measuring the spire. (see the little image below.. it had to get shrunk..60%)

As you can see from the image, the spire shadow would (from the 16 different months) only cover half of the world in winters shadow.

Now, since I was going to use the zoomed in section, I needed to ensure that any nearby mountain ranges might not interfere with the suns rays.. there was.. you can see the mountain with the green sun lines to determine its midday ranges..

Next, I plotted out the suns direction to give me some workable lines. I no longer had the cad program I used before and I calculated the time it would take to make a new program to work the maths, would exceed the time I would take to simply draw lines on a map myself. So I drew the lines myself.

One Shadow Map

I'm not going to bore you with 16 variants of map, just one. What I did was work out the distances the sun was from the local hills, and the height of the sun at 9am, midday and 3pm, and "shifted" the mountain peaks lines in an art program and filled in the shadows with a darker colour.

Shadow Lines, Shadow Months & Sun Levels

Then I blended all images together to give me a colour coded map for the 4 months of summer, winter, spring and autumn so I could determine biomes. If an area got 2-3 hours of sun, mid-autumn, but remained in the shadow of the local mountains, its going to be a colder region, and will less likely to have temperate forests, so I'd colour those zones with a light green/blue, if it got sun all 18 hours of the day, all times of the year, its going to be a desert.

Rainfall Levels

Next I started adding Water. Simple google searches explain how water evaporates off the ocean, flows across the land, then when it hits mountains it becomes rain and produces forests and rivers and the like. So I mapped out the general flow of the clouds and map a map of that.

Forests in Green, Deserts in Yellow

Next I made sure my river beds on the original maps matched the flow of water coming from the mountains. I had made some mistakes, but mostly it was ok, so I matched the rivers to the shadows to the biomes and drew in the spots where forests could grow (not would.. just could).

Then I scanned all these, and overlayed them in the art program, and this gave me the 'concept' of where the forests 'would be' before humans started chopping them down and building places.

Not that its easy, but you might be able to see that my original 1991 maps have quite different forest lines to the new more legit maps

Lots of little trees, all those green dots.. (yes I'm using copics)

So far so good.

So my new map now has a very cool desert like terrain, not exactly Sahara, but more Australia/Arabia/Egypt, so that unlocks some opportunities. Also the larger expanses of plains on the east, could be used for some battles.. European style.. and now the central valleys are all cold.. snowy cold.. so I can also make some cool little Russian/Mongolian Taiga locations.

Plot-hooks

The Main draw card for this island, is the History. 12 gigantic Ziggurats from an ancient civilization of 9ft tall crocodile people, built of gold, (based on the 'cities of gold t.v. series when I was a kid). Heroes across the world catch boats here, travel through the cities, spend their money, and some return from the ziggurats with a gold brick the size of a dog, enough to retire the entire group, if they so wish.
My notes are sketchy as to what they contain, but I have some maps and a few pages of notes, so I just need to piece it together (and re-watch the t.v. series to see if it sparks any memories). the main point comes from one line at the top of the page:

"The Ziggurats are heavily guarded, not by living creatures, as they would have died eons ago, no but by traps, ingenious deadly traps, that are designed for 9ft tall priests, who know the correct path, to be able to traverse safely, at the right time, in the right season."

My notes only included traps that players came across, (I used to make everything up as I went). Chessboard battles, Illusionary chasms, a Cart-Voodoo puzzle and some giant cat statues that shoot lazers? So now I just need some ingenious traps to flesh out the rest of the rooms..

Lastly, because I never got around to finishing it, I'm putting the dead remains of one of my old roleplay groups, in a set of Crypts that guard ancient treasures that they collected

[Worldbuilding] Discovering Old Maps Part 1.

Have you ever packed up all your stuff, moved, and then forgotten to unpack one box, stuck in storage, back room or shed or some place, then you open it years later and say "oh wow, I forgot I had all this?" Tag that emotion..

The Discovery

I left my mums place when I was 19, packed a lot of things in boxes to move, but my new place was big enough to expand into. I wrote a lot of notes into old books. At the start of a new year, around  February / March, Diaries become cheaper, so I picked up what was $20 hard cover, leather bound business diaries for maybe $2.

In these I would write my game rules, notes, adventures, everything. I even have old receipts and budgets for my lifestyle..

When I moved from that place, I had to go home for 6 months to sort out my finances, so most of my stuff, unable to fit into my small room, had to get put in boxes.

Digital Version of my world and how I made it

When I moved from there to my next place, I had the room, but I sorta maybe forgot about the older stuff, I maybe felt like my old notes were not as good as my newer notes, I was more grown up.

Also I had decided to make things digital, I could map things in the Civilisation game, sort out what was where and structure things more systematically.. so why would I ever use all my old maps again?

So they stayed in their boxes and I made all new maps.

Fast forward >> I GMd for several years, made a whole new version of my rules, shelved the old version, and with it, made all new maps >> Then I left Australia, travelled Europe to understand more of what makes roleplay interesting and returned to start the whole next version of my rules to match the growing and changing landscape that is the roleplay community >>

So 2013, I move into a new place, and take all my boxes stored in my mothers roof and put them on my shelves.. but I'm studying so hard, I have no time to actually check them

The Orginal (Upper Right) Albius, Drawn 1991

And now its 2015, a month ago I opened up a few boxes and started to sift through.. Cue tagged emotion.. WOW!

What to do with it all? a lot of it was almost useless.. maps we never got around to using, places that had no names.. is it worth it to bother to use a map because I made it 25 years ago?

Is it any different to making a new one?

Well I decided to stick to my original plans.. History is written by those who survive, so whose to say that the world map I had was 'legit' It could be a map that someone could have drawn based on theory and conjecture, rather than the actual world map.. that allowed for some 'adjustments for reality'

Then also, we had stories about characters from ages ago.. players who played in our games and I could ask them to recall their events and write them in this blog or put some together as 'histories' all manner of creative ideas can come from it.

The Lands of Albius, Drawn June 2015

So, I decided.. since my blog has been a bit sparse of late, that I would document the 're-creation' of my game world, using original maps, updated maps, notes, structures of ideas and things from 1989-1996, prior to the Civ Maps, and use them as my "original world" series.

My endevour, to 'match' enough of the maps and map notes together to make one cohesive world, without breaking any of the history, (but maybe breaking a tiny bit of continuity, but creatively) and document the process.

Link to be Added:

Coins Part One: Currency, Weight and Stealth.

While travelling across Europe, as it changed from local currency to the Euro, I was constantly thinking about how currencies would work if players crossed from one culture to another. Forget language, we've got that covered with "comprehend languages" but Coinage? Exchange rates? that doesn't convert with a spell.

How do you work your coins & currency in your game?

In France, I managed to pick up a few of their tourist coins, large heavy things, matched the size I thought of as my 'gold coin' until I checked how much gold would be needed for such a coin. 

34mm diameter & approx 21grams for these ones. (not gold)

Such a coin would be 34grams of gold, priced around $2,100 vs the 2 Euro I paid for my French coins. so at 21 grams each, I just 'counted' the weight as 30% less for my quick calculations.

much smaller 16mm & 8 grams

I bought around 20 of them myself, put them in a leather bag I got from a medieval fair, and threw in some Estonian Crowns (Kroon) because they looked cool (and I figured matched the more common copper or silver coins of my world) and noticed now that I had a fair weight hanging from my belt. almost 2 kilos. ok sure, I had over 100 Kroons (there were so cheap when I bought them) and the leather bag itself is 300grams. 

So how in the world, would I not notice this being stolen from me?

Stealth & Weight

I have been pick pocketed thrice in my life, the first time was so fast, and unnoticed, I wouldn't have known had the man not realised that he'd stolen a tourists hand book (the same size as the wallet) and returned to give it back. I was in Mongolia and went to the bank with a fellow traveller, we exchanged cash for local currency, put away our wallets, took out the guide, took a look at where to go, and as we left, the guide went away into the front pocket of my jacket. A local, bumped into my friend, raised his hands in apology, patted my shoulder as a re-assuring, I'm sorry, please don't have me arrested, and walked away.. within seconds he returned, handed back the travel guide he'd taken, and walked away again.. we looked at it, first thought was.. did we drop it? checked the pocket, and viola, .. empty.. impressive skills..

The second time was so skillfully done, I practically applauded the man, before I gave chase in a taxi. I had (stupidly) taken out my wallet in the evening, as I exited a Moscow supermarket, took out the cash I was about to use to pay for a taxi, and put the wallet back in my front pocket, tucked my jumper down over it, adjusted my bag on my shoulder and walked to the main street. The spotter had obviously seen me, somehow tipped off his friend, who approached me as a 'out of towner' looking for a bar. My helpful Australian attitude was to point out where it was, he asked (in poor Russian, but hey, mine was worse) where was my accent from.. I replied, and he started talking about his favourite boxer.. Kosta Zu (Russian emigrated to Australia).. even offered to show me how Kosta would win.. I declined, he shook my hand, and walked away.. then it struck me.. my pocket was empty.. my wallet had ended up in the hands of this man, in such a way that I could not, even now, fathom. Somehow, he'd knocked the wallet up from my pocket, down my jumper and into his hand, without me knowing til seconds (or even more) later.. I think he might have even managed to hand it off to a guy behind him, so I could not accuse him (because his hands were empty when we backed away and walked off)

The Third Time, I had a thicker wallet (I learnt to keep more receipts for other reasons, and this helped in this third instance) The man and his girlfriend approached me on the street, asked about cigarettes or something, I refused, it was cold, I wanted to get home quickly. she asked about my accent, and when told, they were amazed that an Australian would be here in -31.c Moscow.
He patted my shoulder, like a friendly person does, then my wallet, and my wallet moved in my pocket, 20/20 hindsight, seemed he could see the outline in the pocket, somehow grabbed the shoulder and lifted it with a tug (as he patted the same shoulder?) and my wallet would rise up with it.. No longer being oblivious as to what was about to happen, I pushed him away and yelled, and some other very choice words I had learnt since. He understood quickly that he had the wrong kind of foreigner, the look of a scared man entered his eyes, and he backed away, I gave enough of a chase to ensure they would not follow me, and went home via a different path..

But for years afterwards, I always thought about this.. A heavier wallet is always on your mind, bumps your leg, its annoying.. but also, harder to pick pocket. (but also more noticeable to thugs).

So, lets say you have a coin purse, larger gold coins are going to jingle a certain tone, while smaller less valuable coins have higher pitch. So a half decent theif will know if you're carrying a purse of 10-20 gold coins vs 10-20 copper. Also the difference between 5-10 coins and 50-100 coins based on weight & noise.

So my first conclusion is, When characters are traveling through a city, if they are carrying anything above 10 coins and the currency is gold or platinum, I make stealth checks for local thieves to attempt a pick pocket.. above 50 coins, the pickpockets will notice, but the likely hood of their success in stealing drops considerably, the mark is likely to notice. While a Thief might abandon a low chance of success, they might alert some thugs (and get a coin for the info).. typically a thug is going to ask.. whats the risk vs reward.. How dangerous does the mark look, vs how many coins they're carrying. In some of my larger cities, My Thugs might be 4th level, I'll set the chance at 25% +/- 10% @ 5 platinum / per level of the heroes, i.e. if you're a 4th level hero and look it, and you're carrying 9-12 platinum worth of coins, I'll put a 45% chance of encounter, same circumstances with 7th level heroes, drops down to 15%, but triple the cash, and 55% those thugs might try anyway, and makes for a quick little city encounter.

A lot harder to cut this kind of purse, send in the thugs, he's obviously got some wealth in there!

Part Two of Coins: Currencies and Culture