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.  

Kingdom Death Monster

TL;DR: I bought the game, and both love it and regretted it. Why? because it works so well and is broken in so many places, and its just like my game for the concepts, but none of the clarity. 

Kingdom Death Monster

I bought Kingdom Death monster, no, let me get that right..

I 'bought into' kingdom death monster when it was v1. The idea that you could choose your mini based on your equipment, and swap and change the weapons and armour, oh wow.. so when it came out in 2016, I bought into it, bad.

Choose your weapons, your armour, then pick out the mini parts, glue together and viola, here's your hero.

When I opened it up and played it? Oh Wow, did I love it.. it felt just like a setting I was working on..  I was like, Wow, Cool, This is what my game it going to feel like when I publish... It has a cool kind of combat System... like my game..

And a Crafting system, in a roleplay like game, cool, thats what my game does too...

And  with a location based system, that's what my game does, oh and a damage based system, that's what my game does, and your home base, being as important (if not more so) than the characters? Also, exactly what my game is all about.. 

In case you don't want to google 'what is KDM'

Unarmoured vs a stage II boss? TPK!

Kingdom Death Monster is a tight, focused game on major events, not the day by day or even the small regular events, they get refined into a die roll, no, you pretty much hand wave away all the story and plot of how your characters got to the boss monster, and you fight him/her/it as the main event, and its brutal and wild and the AI system is gorgeous, Death is the only escape from the battle, his, or yours.

Once you survive you take the corpse of the monster and cut it up into resources to be used by your village of survivors, to fashion a better set of equipment. Again, its hand-waved away the food, resources for building huts, its like the basic costs are all done in the background, and whats left over is given to you to choose with.

All prepped and ready? new armour, new weapons? Cool, Off on the next hunt.. The small events leading up to the boss monster are quick, sometimes (often) nasty, very thematic, but you end up at the next boss monster ready to fight

Those three paragraphs above are what you typically do in one game session and are called lantern years. It can take between an hour or three to do, so you might do two lantern years with your mates on a sunday arvo, or you might play solo each night. But it'll take around 8 lantern years if you suffer bad luck, to lose the game, or 30 lantern years to win.. and its a rush.

Since fights are very likely to end with at least one maimed if not dead character, tension is high to play. There are still moments in the village phase and the hunt phase where you might lose a character to death, insanity or worse.

Now its Not perfect, No, Its most definitely a hobbyist game, the minis are designed for people who like minis, wanna make minis, paint minis, its awesome for mini maker/painter/show offs, its like the ultimate trainset, but for violent fantasy. I (as a hobbyist) enjoyed scraping back the flash, aligning the parts, cutting, gluing, choosing the bits, undercoating on the sprue, layers and layers of paint, until they look like little people, ready to be eaten.

Yet the game, stands alone, maybe because no-one has had the audacity to make each and every single item, upgrade, skill, bonus, equipment and resources to make said equipment as a card. random draw? shuffle and draw is so much more pleasing than roll and consult a chart.

And for the same reason, its horrid. do you sleeve them all? trying to find each set to draw from, should you glance at a card as your looking for a specific card? oops, spoilers, too late, ruined that future surprise. Can't keep it all out and set up, but the hassle to take out the character sheet & then all the cards that match your character.. Argh

Hundreds of item cards, playing cards, bits of plastic, hundreds of each, literally.. its 9kg!

So you can't play straight away, yet funnily enough, the rule book is the fastest one I've gone from open to play.. its literally, open, and play.. don't read ahead the rules teach you tutorial like, the first battle, but like a plot..

I try to run my game at conventions, and to do so, character creation is either part of the flow of the game, or you pre-gen characters for people.. So when I saw KDM? a blank character sheet IS a standard character, I was like.. Yeah, that's right.. start fast and furious..

When the game arrived, be a hobbyist, Make the first 5 minis, they have to dry, and it takes an hour, at least.. if you're friends are due to come play another day.. paint? but don't spoil the rules by reading ahead, no no no..

Yet, when you do.. seriously these are the rules? knockback does what? knock down does what? and when you leave the board you just die? or don't? There are so many flaws, its obvious that they could have, should have, done a version 0.5 and published that, with the caveat that they'll redo the rules later and republish for their audience. I was rather dissapointed, but, then a little glee came in, because my game would not be like that.. no..no..no..

I was reminded of all the paths I went down, and had to back-track, all the things I tried and failed with, my horrific worst case combat round that took 4 actual hours of real life for a mere 6 second of combat ... that was such a pain to test.. 

My players (god bless their hearts) would put up with so much crap, rules changes, rule edits, everyone had their limits, and it broke them down, then 3 months later I'd make enough revisions to start again and we'd all be like "oh, this works, oh, this doesn't all over again.. so I can just imagine what Poots went through to get his game to where it is.

The cost of Kingdom Death Monster

The cost, well ALL-IN pledges in games cost like $250-$400 these days, because of the limited first (1.3) edition, people just had to buy 1.5 (FOMO), and the models are expensive, not just because he's gotten awesome artists to make the models, the art and the lore, but because he prints only 500 of the pinups, and supply vs demand, he always sells out, so why not sell them for $40 each.. if Warhammer can do minis for $30 each, and they're lower quality (underpinnings)

The Main Box, and the Mini boxes in black, and eleven of the maybe 40 expanions.. $2,000 on ebay

If you were looking for a Folklore/Gloomhaven style game, I'd get that instead, I have Massive Darkness, I played it, and if I didn't want to use all those $1.60 each minis for roleplay, I'd sell it, much better dungeon crawlers out there.

This game is awesome, for the few people that its made for. For everyone else, its a bloody expensive hobby. 

The thing is, all those FOMO buyers, they bought the game or the lot, some found out, they were not actually so keen, but for all the people who missed the campaign, they bought the games from those who didn't want it, at stupid increased prices, and that hype, brought in more people..

There is just now, a turn, people who have the game, but just can't see themselves playing 30 runs of the thing, deciding to sell out, and the price is starting to drop. Might see some half priced versions in another year.

Funny part is.. the hype & price gouging matches the dot-com bubble and the crypto currency bubble.

If you paid full price, or worse, you're self-preserving brain will justify your purchase, maybe by claiming its the best game in the world.. because heck, if you forked out the price of a small car for a game you might realistically only get to the table 4-6 times.. you're going to be soooo pissed at yourself.

If you're honestly interested in playing KDM, try to find a group that is playing it, play it and get a feel for it, if you really like it.. the 1.3 versions are selling at 75% of cost these days (I picked up one myself, for 50%) give it another 6-12 months and you might get a 1.3 for half again.. when 1.7 or 1.9 or v2 comes out, 1.5 will drop in price again.. delayed gratification will always pay off.

Then again.. hang in there, Dungeon Delver Twelve Cataclyzm is a little more PG, has much of same mechanics, just done with different dice in a roleplay environment, no cards and minis, but more than enough content to roleplay a KDM styled campaign with some tweaks.

Fudge that's a big post.. maybe I'm self-justifying too.. I'll TL;DR at the top.

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.. 

World Build October Intro & Part 1

Its World Build October.. So I'm going 'to try' to Blog Daily, .. with some short sharp, snazzy bits of the Coyn World as per the World Build October Prompts you see above:

Monday the 1st - World-build-tober

Draw your worlds non-human Sentient Occupants.

p.s. I know it says Draw, but its a blog, so I'll draw in your imagination..

In a Time long forgotten, the world was a spinning lump of hot lava, from which the first lifeforms grew. From this mountain sized lifeforms pulled themselves from the molten sludge and walked? some crawled, some slithered, some attempted to bounce. The ones that could move, act and even think quickly dominated over those who could not.

They called themselves, Krowzp.

Thousands of years later, lifeforms alien to the world, started to appear, some microscopic, some as big as a Krowzp thumb, they buzzed around their ears, their bodies, they sometimes bit at them, but for the most part they just moved around chasing one another, ignoring the Krowzp.

Thousands of years again, the Krowzp are rare, almost non-existant, There are now a myriad of races that come and go from the planet, why? because the energy of the world allows warp gates to appear and even move around the world, people from other worlds accidentally (or purposely) have come to this place. They form new settlements, now structures, new place.

As a result, every form or being ever thought of by any creative mind probably exists here. The more dangerous ones are often hunted by the more resilient and inventive ones.

Yes, there are Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes, as often as much as Caitshee, Snirfneblin, the Fey and the Formless.

Some Notable races might be the mighty Lionshee, the Lion-bipeds. The Gelflings, with their winged females, the Dryads and their tree-affinities, the Croconians, huge 9 foot tall crocodile-bipeds, or the rare Krowzp born, a strange rock strata that walks and talks.

Part II

Part III

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7