"E Is for Eccentricity". John Leighton, 19th Century. I recently started a new campaign of Electric Bastionland with friends. This is a sort of "science fantasy" game with OSR roots, though mostly unrecognizable from the Original D&D from which it ultimately started. More precisely, EB represents the latest iteration of Chris McDowall's game "Into the … Continue reading Into the Bastionland
Troika! is a science fantasy OSR game with some really cool ideas in it. Several of them you could pull out and put in your own game even if you don't play Troika! per se. Here are four of them.
I'm thinking about a slight hack of Trophy Gold to change up Burdens. The gist of it all is that I want the adventurers to be trying to "push back darkness" - think hunting monsters, destroying profane summoning circles, etc. They each have their own secrets and aren't heroes, but the focus is on trying … Continue reading Thinking about Communities in Trophy Gold
I have been thinking on how to include Christian mythology (used in the sense of "sacred stories", not in the sense of "false stories"). I have an extremely complicated relationship with Christianity, certainly, but I also want to treat people's belief systems with respect. My thoughts very much do not turn in the direction of … Continue reading Christian Mythology in gaming
For "Gates of Despair", I designed a simple mechanic to represent the influence of the Unseeable God on the minds of the folks there. So as to keep things extremely straightforward, the mechanic is just a track of conditions as you go down it. After discussing it in the Mothership Discord, somebody pointed out that … Continue reading Indoctrination and Sanity in Mothership
For the Enceladus Research Facility in Gates of Despair Session 6, I didn't want to pre-populate with NPCs. One of the players had already established that their character knew several people there, and I wanted them to have some creative control over that. Additionally, the facility had lots of places and it made more sense … Continue reading Mothership NPC Generation
I originally wrote this while preparing for a Mothership game, but it has no game statistics whatsoever. Feel free to use it in whatever science fiction game you're playing! Photo by Matt Benson on Unsplash Micrometeoroids. Think like particles of dust or smaller, not large objects that could destroy the ship. These may cause oxygen … Continue reading 1d10 Realistic Space Hazards
As I’ve previously noted, my Blades in the Dark games require low amounts of preparation. One of the reasons that can work is that I try to have reusable prep. When a score comes up, or when free play gets dangerous, I need to have a list of dangers (complications, consequences, etc.) already handy. These … Continue reading Dangers and complications for Blades in the Dark
This is a ritual I created together with my friend Jessie, a player in my Blades in the Dark campaign, for her Whisper character "Aleizabel" ("Eyes"). "White Ghosts Walk in a Row" by Florence Harrison 1. What does the ritual do and how is it weird? The ritual wards the caster and someone else from … Continue reading Ritual: Ghost Ward
Emmessi Tome by Craig J Spearing For an upcoming campaign focused on hunting monsters, I started putting together a list of variant or house rules I'd like to use. Some of these are "official variants" directly from the books; others come from friends; and others are things I just wanted to include. The current version … Continue reading Draft of variant rules for a new campaign
