Curse of Strahd: Player Handouts

Player Handouts can add life to a game. If you are playing in person, you can hand a player a note card with a carefully designed burning sword to help them visualize the new magic item they've found. You can tea stain a map, and make it feel like a surviving relic of an ancient time. Or you can hand over a mole skin journal, a wizard's spell book.

I run most of my games online, so player handouts are digital instead of physical. But that doesn't mean there isn't a place for them. Visual aids are amazing to help with descriptions. Instead of describing the carving of a snake eating it's own tail, runes carefully winding around it's body, you can reveal a picture.

Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words.

This is the handout I'm using for a session coming out soon.

Homebrew Lore of Strahd: The Mists of Ravenloft

I talk about my Curse of Strahd game a lot on this blog, and I hint at a lot of the changes and additions that I've made to the lore. But I haven't had a place to really delve into those changes. Until now. Welcome to the official Homebrew Lore of Strahd column, where I dive into the personal tweaks I've added to the game. Today I'm going to jump into the actual Mists of Ravenloft, the strange fog that plays such a big part in the adventure.

If you have a character named Badger, Cyrus, Sparrow, Vaclav, Ariane, Flint, or Sascha I suggest you stop reading here. Otherwise continue forward at your own risk...

The Mists of Ravenloft are as capricious as they are ominous; and although Strahd has some control over them, they are not his creation. Indeed, the vampire lord loathes the mists with all his dead heart. For the Mists serve as his eternal prison, trapping him as much as anyone he brings to toy with in his realm.

But what are the Mists of Ravenloft? Why does Strahd have any control over them at all? Well... to understand that, you must understand the reason that Ravenloft exists at all.

You see, Ravenloft is not just the country that Strahd rules. The Mists are more Ravenloft than anything else. The Mists were created or formed for one reason only, to keep the most terrible monsters imprisoned, and to punish them for eternity. Was Strahd a vampire before coming to the mists? Maybe. Probably. Although no one knows for sure. What is sure, is that the vampire lord exists in a state of pure rage, forced to live out his most terrible nightmares over and over again.

Some scholars even believe that Strahd has no control over the mists at all, and they merely react to his whims to enhance his own punishment.

Barovia is the most well known country in the mists. But there are many others, each it's own island surrounded by the terrible fog. Each island is different, but each is ruled over by its own Dark Lord, each lord being punished for their terrible deeds on the material planes. Rumors claim that Lord Soth from Krynn exists somewhere in the obscured lands. Others claim that Vecna himself rules a land of his own from a cursed tower of melting bones. Only one thing is known for certain: there are many islands and many terrors hidden in the Mists of Ravenloft. One must travel with care... if they can travel the mists at all.

Venting 101: Your Memories Are a Lie

This is a blog about running pen and paper rpgs. It's designed to be about things I create, things I like, and pointers on how to improv during incredibly stressful moments. I don't think I'm supposed to write about my day to day life. That sort of thing belongs in my diary.

Only, I haven't had a pen and paper diary since high school, senior year. And the livejournal I created to replace it died off so long ago, it might as well be a different age. So I'm going to vent about life here, and at the end, I'll probably find some clever twist to apply it all to gaming.

That justifies things, right?

I want to start this with a single statement: I am not a bad person. If I had to assign myself a D&D style alignment, I would either be chaotic or neutral good. I believe that generally the law is in the right, and that people should be good to each other. But I struggle with depression and anxiety, which can lead to putting important things off.

But I would be far from the only person to struggle with procrastination. And lately, after getting on delicious, mind altering (but prescribed) drugs, I am dealing with things much better.

And then today happened, and the sky came crashing down.

The story starts on a dark September night. It's three am, overcast, and I'm driving along ill-lit roads. In front of me a rotary that I've driven through during the day a thousand times. But never from this direction. There's no other cars on the road. So I crawl up to the rotary entrance, look around, find that I'm the only traveler on the lonely road, and pull into the circle.

And suddenly there are flashing blue lights behind me, lighting up the night in strobes of near blinding light. I pull over, the police man asks me what I did, and I'm truly confused. Turns out that there was a stop sign before the rotary entrance, not a yield. Which is different than every other entrance onto the dang thing.

He runs my id, and comes back, hands it to me, and tells me I can be on my way.

Now, here's the thing. Memories are odd things. More and more science is realizing that memories aren't reliable at all. They get turned and twisted every time we think of something, tainted by our emotions. But if you had asked me yesterday, if you had pointed a gun at my boyfriend's head and demanded to know what had happened that night, I would have said this: he pulled me over. Informed me I ran a stop sign. We laughed about it a little, laughed even more that it's the only stop sign on the rotary. He left to run my id, came back, handed it to me, and sent me on my way.

I don't recall him handing me a ticket. Even now, after going through my afternoon, I just cannot get a visual of him walking out to my car, and handing me a ticket. Why? Well, I deal with pretty insane anxiety, and I loathe getting any sort of ticket. And I specifically remember a palpable sense of relief that flowed through me after I drove away. A feeling that said, "that went so much better than it could have."

So it makes no sense to me that the night went differently than I remember. But it must have. Because today I got pulled over for my inspection sticker being out of date. I know, I know. My fault. In fact, I knew it was out of date. So totally my fault. This is the pesky procrastination I was talking about.

Three blocks away from getting home today, blue lights flashed behind me. I rolled my eyes, because two or three weeks ago I got pulled over for going seven miles over the speed limit on the highway. Getting pulled over twice in a month is not like me at all, so I was annoyed. More, I hadn't been doing anything wrong.

So the officer comes up, and asks if I knew my inspection was out of date, and I wanted to smack my forehead. Of course I knew that. I was already resigned to the fact that I was going to get a ticket, MA is serious about their inspections. But the cop came over to my car after running my id, frowning.

"Excuse me, sir," he said (my id is still registered to my dead name), "do you know that the town of Ayer has a warrant out for your arrest."

I gaped at him. I am not a criminal. I don't rob convenience stores. I don't steal cars. I don't even trespass. So what in god's name would I have a warrant out for?!

"Well," he says, "do you remember getting pulled over?"

I did. I told him the story.

"And you know that was a warning?" he asks, and now I'm staring at him in horror.

"Uh... yes?" I say, trying to warp my memory into anything but what it's giving me without success.

"Wrong. You got a ticket. It looks like you had a Michigan licence at the time?"

"Oh. Yeah, I did, I was right in the process of moving."

"Well, you didn't pay your ticket. At because you haven't paid, as of last Tuesday you have an active warrant."

I'm panicking at this point. "Umm, okay, so... what does that mean exactly?"

"It means you're going to jail, sir. I need you to step out of the car."

So I stepped out, and got handcuffed, and put in the back of a police van. It was nice outside, and people walked all around, staring. And all I could think was, why is this happening?! What the hell?!

But I knew there was nothing I could do. So I managed to remain polite, and credit to the officers, they were all polite about everything too. They took me to the police station. Booked me. Made me take one of those profile picture things. Printed me. And then said, "alright, we're going to put you in a cell. But since you don't have a record, we just have to wait for the bondswoman to come release you. Your bail will be negligible since this is your very first arrest. She should be here in an hour or so."

Five hours later she finally arrived. Five. Hours. Later.

But the police did give me a tattered blanket and a tuna sandwich for dinner. They even gave me a soda to wash it down with. And as annoyed as I was, again, the officers were incredibly friendly about it all. So, happy privilege I guess.

I got out almost six hours after arriving, took a Lyft to get my car out of the towing company's lot where the police had stashed it, and finally I'm home. I have a court date tomorrow, and a brand new understanding of the entire arrest procedure that I would really like to refund.

So, how does this apply to gaming? Well, I did come away with all that insider knowledge, so, maybe we can go with that.

Town Guards and Police in Game

When utilizing the town guard and the police, most of the time they come in guns blazing or swords swinging. Rarely do they take the time to talk to characters about things. They are usually invoked because players have gotten out of control. But instead of throwing nameless mobs at your players, think about the following:

• Your security enforcement officers don't want to die. They will put their lives on the line if they have to, but only as a last defense. 
• Your security enforcement is just doing their job. They want things to move as smoothly as possible, because that means less danger for everyone.
• Instead of getting up in your face, many security enforcement officers will instead try to calm a situation down. 

Granted, all of those things are enhanced by my very white privilege, and wouldn't always hold true. But the most surprising thing of this evening to me, was just how friendly everyone was. No one there hated me, they were just doing their jobs. It was a perspective I've never thought about before.

But the real lesson here? Don't trust your memories. They will betray you at every point. Be vigilant. Never sleep. And never listen to your mind, it's a raving lunatic that can't be trusted.

So, uh, have a good night. I'll be back with regular content soon.

Name That Spell: Necromancer Edition!

Here is a cool thing I made! I suggest rolling one or two attributes. Sometimes one fits better than two. Good luck, and have fun!

DM Tool: 101 Traps, Puzzles, and Challenges

Sometimes I really like lists and random generators. I rarely roll on them, but they can be great inspiration for encounters. While brainstorming the Trials of Heart, Mind, and Might yesterday, I did some googling, and found a great list of suggestions that really inspired me.

In the end my encounters looked nothing like the suggestions, but the list gave me the jumping off place I needed to create some trials that I think are fairly unique, and will be lots of fun (or terrifying when my players fail).

I will put in a reminder though. Whenever you are dealing with traps, puzzles, and challenges, reward your players for their creativity and ingenuity. Even if you have a solution written down in front of you, don't get into the mind set that the solution is the only way to deal with the situation. Be open to player ideas... often what they come up with is better than anything you did. And if you play it off right, they'll think you made that the solution all along.

The Trials of Heart, Mind, and Might

My players in Curse of Strahd have been a chaotic mess. It's been an excellent game, but their ability to protect Ireena is in major question. For awhile, The Order of the Black Doves (a replacement for the Order of the Feather, that is exactly the same except were-doves instead of were-ravens) decided that the party couldn't protect her, and decided they would do it on their own.

So while the entire party had left Ireena behind at a tavern, the Order of the Black Doves kidnapped her, whisking her across the city to their hidden hideout.

Now the players have tracked them down, and they want Ireena back. And either they will have to kill all the lycanthropic birds, or pass The Trials of Heart, Mind, and Might.

The trials are designed to be tricky and difficult. Failure is a real consideration. And although failure might not result in death, it does mean that the order will not return Ireena without a fight (that isn't likely to go the character's way). 

The Trials

"If you want Ireena back, you must prove your ability to protect her. We will not give her back unless you pass the trials of Heart, Mind, and Might. They are dangerous, and they may destroy you if you do not pass them. Do you truly wish to risk your lives and souls?"

"You do? Very well, we go then."

The characters are led to a platform that descends into an underground chamber. The central chamber is small, just large enough for the platform to descend. But there are three rooms that you can clearly see.

On the left there is a long room. About twenty feet wide, the room starts flat, but then has an ascending slope that goes up in a sharp, sixty degree angle. The ramp leads upwards for fifty feet before flattening out again. At the bottom, where the room is still flat, there is an eight food wide circular crack in the floor.

On the right side, there is another were-dove. But this one is clad in a long black robe, with a cowl so long, that the only thing you can see of it's face is a sharp beak. In his left hand is a corked vial with completely clear liquid. In his right hand is a book, with the phrase Toralia deas Loridal, written on the cover. 

Finally, the room straight ahead of you is a huge circle. It's sixty feet wide in diameter, with crystalline walls that shoot straight up at least fifty feet. The reflection of room's contents shift endlessly around the walls, creating a dizzying rainbow like mirage.

Inside the room are six massive golems:

The first is a golem surrounded with glowing yellow energy, it has a cross shaped hole in it's chest where the energy Cascades out to surround it's fists and torso. The second is a golem of red crystals. It holds a gigantic sword in one hand, and a massive shield in the other, and it's eyes glow with crimson power. The third is a golem carved of ocean blue ice. It's surrounded by a cloud of mist as the warm air clashes with the Arctic chill the golem is formed of. It's tall and slender, and holds a bow formed of the same Arctic blue ice. Next is a golem formed of burning orange flames. It's taller than all the rest, and surrounded by an acrid cloud of sulfur smelling smoke. In it's hands is a massive great axe bigger than even a Goliath could wield. Then there's a floating golem that hovers on waves of sickly green energy. It's fists are surrounded with the energy as well, and although tall, it's slender and sleek. And finally there's a purple golem formed of crystalline spines sharp enough to draw blood with even the lightest prick. The tips seem to glow with arcane energy, and it's face is fixed into a grimace of pure rage.

So... tell me in the comments which room you think belongs to which quest. Because before even starting the trials, that's the first puzzle to solve.

Diablo TTRPG: Armor Points

Every system needs a good Armor Class/Defense system, and it took my awhile to figure out what I wanted to do with the Diablo system. Stacking point after point of armor from six different Armor slots felt like it would get excessive very quickly. Even if you were using dirt poor armor in each slot, that would still give you +6 to your AC, and in a system using a d10 to hit, that's insane! Then again, I thought maybe I could switch it over to damage reduction. But that's still a 6 point damage reduction per hit, and that was problematic as well.

But then my friend Skullboy sent me over to The Black Hack, and showed me armor points. I instantly fell in love. The system is perfect, and it feels SO Diablo.

So, without further ado, Armor Points:

Armor Points: When you equip a piece of armor, it has an Armor Point value. This is the amount of damage the armor can take before it breaks. At any time during an adventure, you can decide to spend armor points to reduce the damage you take from a hit, keeping the following in mind:

• You can only use one piece of Armor per hit. So if you have gloves that only have 1 AP left, you can't decide to use both your gloves, and your chest armor to reduce damage on the same hit.
• It costs money to repair items, and it is far less expensive to fix something that still has 1 AP left, than it is to fix something that has 0 left. It is often better to keep each piece of armor at a 1 AP value.
• Armor cannot be fixed by anyone except a merchant or blacksmith. 

It's a simple system, but it feels really awesome to me.

Diablo TTRPG: 1st Level Necromancer

This is the first draft of a first level character! I decided to start with a necromancer, because they have always been my favorite. You can look at the basic mechanics for the game in previous posts, but below you will find the descriptions of the different abilities that the Necromancer has at first level.

Blood Rush (Utility): Short range teleport. Take 1d4 damage. Can use as a reaction to being hit (avoid the hit), but cannot take a movement action next round.

Siphon Blood (Standard): Medium Ranged Attack. On hit gain 1 life. 1x Damage. Explosive Attack: 2x damage, heal half damage dealt.

Summon Skeleton (Full): Medium Ranged. Summon a skeleton, and give it some of your life (max 10 hp).
After you summon, the skeleton takes a basic attack if it’s in melee range with an enemy. Until the skeleton dies, instead of taking a basic action, you can make the skeleton attack.
Until the skeleton dies, instead of taking a Full Action, you can have all your skeletons attack a single target. Skeletons do not gain Explosive Attacks. You can control skeletons equal to your Intelligence modifier (max 4).

Corpse Explosion (Full): Long Ranged. Target corpses equal to your Intelligence modifier (max 5). Each corpse explodes, dealing 1x damage to anyone in 10 ft. Explosive Attack: Corpses deal 2x damage. Targets hit become poisoned.

Bone Armor (Utility): Summon armor of bones to protect yourself. The armor absorbs 3d10 damage until it explodes. Counts as a move action.

Bone Spikes (Standard): Short Ranged Attack (5ft radius). Pull spikes of bone from the ground to strike into anyone in the target area. Each spike deals 1/2x damage.

Diablo TTRPG: Character Sheet

I don't sit down to make a new game system often; but when I do, I always start with a character sheet.

Starting with a character sheet really helps me visualize the things that I need to work on. Beyond that, it makes the project seem more... real, like it has a place in reality, and not just in the twilight moments before I fall asleep. So here it is, the first draft of my character sheet, along with some basic descriptions for each field to fill out.

Before I get to far into it, let's talk about the font first. Almost all the font is in "Diablo Heavy" and "Diablo," fonts that you can easily find for download with a quick google search. I really do love how it calls back to the games.

Let's start off with Attributes. Right now there are four, although I'm thinking about adding a charisma statistic in as well. The TTRPG can't be just about combat, especially not with some of the more creative aspects of the mechanics. There really needs to be a decent social stat. I could combine it with Intelligence, but that doesn't feel right to me.

Anyways, at first level you get 7 attribute points to assign however you want. But you must place at least one in each.

• Strength increases your melee attack and damage.
• Dexterity increases your ranged attack and damage. It also increases your Armor Class. Although in the next character sheet, armor class will be changed to defense bonus. 
• Intelligence increases your magic attack and damage. It might grant you some resistances, but I might just make resistances gear dependent like in Diablo 2. 
• Vitality increases your hit points. 

Hit Points: Determined by taking 10 and adding your Vitality attribute.

AC Bonus: Equal to your dex attribute.

Armor: You have six armor slots on your character: Head, shoulder, torso, wrist, legs, and feet. To get your total armor bonus, add all slots together and take the total. When you take physical damage, subtract your armor total from the damage.

Resistances: Your resistances are determined by your armor. If a piece of armor gives you a type of resistance, record it in the appropriate box. Resistance stack, so if both you have a Ashen Helm (Head) that grants 2 fire resistance, and Boots of the Sleeping Salamander (Feet) that grants 1 fire resistance, your total fire resistance is 3.

Actions are the abilities that should be recognizable from the game. Things like the Paladin's Thorns aura, or the Witch Doctor's Summon Gargantuan. Actions come in three types:

• Utility Actions are actions that are either part of a move action, or are used in place of a move action.
• Standard Actions are actions that can be used if you have moved or used a utility action this round.
• Full Actions take an entire round to complete.

Each round the player decides between a movement (or utility) + standard action, or a Full Action.

You can only have a few actions equipped at a time. One utility action, one standard action, and one full action (although I may end up making that two). You will know more actions than you have equipped, and can spend an action to swap actions out. So if a Necromancer has the Blood Rush Utility action equipped, but wants to equip the Bone Armor utility action, they must spend a utility action to swap.

Utility actions swap for utility. Standard actions for standard actions. Full actions for full actions.

Diablo TTRPG: Base Mechanic

So, I love the idea of playing a fast paced Diablo table top game. I imagine combat being fast and explosive, and instead of being super crunchy, the game would be rather simple. I've wanted to do this for a long time.

And then last night while I was going to sleep, I remembered a system that me and my friend Jim were trying to come up with ages ago. The idea was to create a system based around d12s, because at the time we felt like they were somewhat ignored. And why not take the least common die and make a system out of them?

I'll probably switch to d10s, but I'm really excited about the base mechanic of the game.

Roll 3d12.

If you're making an attack roll:

• Pick one die for your attack
• Pick one die for your damage
• Pick one die for your defense
• If triplets, apply Explosive Attack

If you're rolling for a skill:

• Pick one die for success/fail
• Pick one die for Entanglement
• Pick one die for Action Die

Now I'll define some of the terms:

Explosive Attack: Is an attack specific effect that makes the attack much better. If your firebolt usually targets one creature, now it explodes and does damage in a radius. Or it sets the creature on fire. Something like that. The effect is defined in each attack description.

Entanglement: This is a die that determines if something interesting happens. If it lows between 1-4, the GM introduces something that makes the situation more complicated. If it rolls between 5-8 there nothing happens. If it rolls 9-12 the GM (or player maybe? That might slow the game down though... still working stuff out) introduces something that makes the situation easier.

• I like making Entanglement die separate from success and failure. By separating it out, it lets someone succeed in a skill check, while still making things more complicated. The Demon Hunter does get the door unlocked, but because they picked a high number for Entanglement, something else happens which also makes the situation easier. (Maybe the lock didn't break, so you can use it to slow down demons on the chase, things like that).

Action Die: Action Die are class specific moves that drive the action forward while making skill checks. An example might be a Necromancer balancing on a narrow rock ledge above the fire's of hell. But the Action Die allows one of his minions to continue attacking.

There is still a ton of work to do on this. I would really like to incorporate all the classes from both Diablo 1 and 2. I'm still not exactly sure how I want to go with attributes and skills, which skills I want to include, and stuff like that. But I'm really excited about the base mechanic here, I think it has potential to be lots of fun. I especially like letting people pick where to assign dice they rolled, I think it might push some very interesting story decisions. Ie: The Barbarian is almost dead, but the corrupted angel is on it's last legs. He rolled a 6, 2, and 12. He can pick the 12 for attack, and the 2 for damage. But if that doesn't kill the angel, a defense of 6 isn't great, and he risks getting obliterated on the angel's turn.

Artist Spotlight: JonasDeRo

Deviant Art can be an amazing place to find inspiration for you games. I love browsing through the art work of amazing authors. Their ability to create mood and feelings sculpted from lightwaves of varying lengths amazes me. In the past when I did an Art Spotlight, I featured a bunch of different artists. But today I've decided to show off one of my favorites, an artist by the handle JonasDeRo.

Sit back, and enjoy these phenomenal works of art.

Cerulia

Gods of Sound

Railroad

Dystopia

Entombed

Bonus Content: Fanburst and the Podcast

I spent most of the afternoon looking for a hosting platform for the podcast that I'm happy with. So far I haven't really found anything I'm interested. I was excited by the idea of using Amazon Web Services, and Google Drive to host content, but either I'm not techy enough or both services have stopped allowing people to stream from them that way.

So the options right now are to stay on Fanburst, which has unlimited storage space, but not a way to export out to itunes, stitcher, and google play like we probably should do; or throw money at libsyn, which is probably the best way to go, but also a bit more than I wanted to spend.

I'm still looking, but it's very likely we will stay on Fanburst for now. But I'm looking at libsyn, and my guess is we'll eventually end up there.

Banshee and Skullboy: The Podcast

So, I've decided to start a podcast with my friend Skullboy! It's going to be focused on our thoughts and experiences in the dungeon master world, and will likely cover many systems... although the majority of conversation will likely be about different editions of Dungeons and Dragons.

On the first episode we introduce ourselves, and then talk about how awesome one shots are.

It isn't on itunes yet (we are still exploring some hosting options), but if you want to listen to it now you can find the podcast here!

Hero Forge Character Art

As someone who runs most of their games online, mostly using roll-20, I'm always on the look out for good art assets that will make my game look good. Alas, I'm not really a map person, so my games never have the professional polish of dynamic lighting, but I like to have decent looking tokens, character art, and setting art to show off to the players. It adds atmosphere to a game nearly as much as theme appropriate music playing softly in the background.

Before

Today I found a way to create character art that I fell in love with. It's super simple. First you head over to Hero Forge and use the character designer to make the perfect character. After that I opened the screenshot in Gimp (you could use Photoshop, or any number of other graphic design programs). I made a new layer, set the opacity to 55%, and then just used a brush to color in the miniature. It's like coloring in a color book, and because the opacity is set so low, the shadows are preserved in decent detail.

After

I've used other character creators in the past. The Guild Wars 2 character creator is fantastic at designing characters if you happen to own the game. And the creator in Elder Scrolls games are usually pretty good as well, although a bit more grim than I usually like. Elder Scrolls Online is free to download if you want to give that a look too.

Quick post today, but wanted to share something I just discovered that I'm likely to get a lot of use out of.

Homebrew Lore of Strahd: Death Rituals

I talk about my Curse of Strahd game a lot on this blog, and I hint at a lot of the changes and additions that I've made to the lore. But I haven't had a place to really delve into those changes. Until now. Welcome to the official Homebrew Lore of Strahd column, where I dive into the personal tweaks I've added to the game. Today we are starting off with death rituals in Ravenloft.

Death in Ravenloft is the only escape from Strahd's realm. But even then, escape is not easy. Through the Crucible of Souls, Strahd has the ability to trap any soul leaving Ravenloft, condemning it to an eternity of torture.

He has made the eternity of torture public knowledge, although he keeps information about the Crucible to himself. Still, Strahd loves his games, and he has set up a way for souls to escape: when a person dies, they must be buried by an approved priest before the third midnight after their passing. If it is done, he allows the soul to travel on to the afterlife. But if not, the soul is his to do with as he will.

The priests approved by Strahd must complete the entire ritual of death by themselves. They are responsible for preparing the bodies, digging the graves, administering the last prayer. They are allowed no help, and if aid is given Strahd's contract is null and void.

In a land where almost no divine magic persists, Strahd has still created a place for the priesthood. And although he makes sure that the priests are almost always behind in their work, the priests are given great honor and respect. For it is only through them that escape from the horrors of Ravenloft is possible.

Homebrew Lore of Strahd: Divine Magic

I talk about my Curse of Strahd game a lot on this blog, and I hint at a lot of the changes and additions that I've made to the lore. But I haven't had a place to really delve into those changes. Until now. Welcome to the official Homebrew Lore of Strahd column, where I dive into the personal tweaks I've added to the game. Today we are starting off with divine magic in Ravenloft.

Divine magic is powerful in the hands of the righteous and the faithful. It thrives on hope, even in the darkest places. After all, without light there can be no darkness. Without hope there can be no despair. Except in Ravenloft. For there are some places dark enough to extinguish even the last ember of hope in a darkened heart.

Besides, darkness is the natural state of the universe. Those who say that without light there can be no darkness have it backwards. Without darkness there can be no light.

The Crucible of Souls

Deep in the bowels of Castle Ravenloft there is a room containing the Crucible of Souls. The Crucible is a power artifact. Powered by the agony of a thousand souls, maintained by a cult of thirty two dark cultists, the Crucible form a block between Ravenloft and the divine. No god has been able to overcome it's power, and the only divine magic in Ravenloft is that which Strahd allows.

When Strahd wants to let a god have power in his land, he can place a divine symbol of that god into the crucible. Until he takes it out again, divine power from that deity can flow into his realm. But cutting it off is as easy as removing the symbol.

Strahd often places the symbols of the deities that his toys play with. After all, it wouldn't do to allow new divine casters in Ravenloft to believe that he could cut off their magic in an instant. He often lets them keep their power until the final confrontation, and then leaves the clerics and paladins helpless before him.

Taco Tuesday: Lamentations of the Flame Princess

Welcome to Taco Tuesdays, where I add more meat to your gaming tortilla by featuring cool, new systems! This week I asked my friend +Sam Mameli to make a post. He runs a blog over at Skullboy Rolls the Dice, and when I told him to pick a fun system to feature he told me he was going to write about "Everything is Dolphins." Then he wrote about this instead... maybe it's a dolphin too? I don't quite get it...

Okay so Mute asked me to do a guest post for her blog and I was like "that's a good idea I'll do that" then I sat around like a bum for a while because I'm terrible at doing things. BUT WHAT HO!? Is this a blog post I see? Something meaty or full of salsa or something because this is a day sometimes related to the humble taco???

Okay that was exhausting, I can't capture Mute's energy but I can write about a game that I like in what sure will be a much drier tone than you're used to. I'm gonna break this up into a couple of different categories to make it easier to digest.


Lamentations of the Flame Princess

System

LotFP is at it's heart a clone of the Moldvay Basic D&D ruleset. If you don't have any idea of what that means from a rules perspective let me break it down-


Race as class - You can play as a Fighter, Specialist, Magic User, Cleric, Dwarf, Elf or Halfling. Each of these classes functions differently and the classes that are non-human function sort of like hybrids of the human classes.

High Mortality - Death is a very real possibility. Old school play is meant to be dangerous and thrilling, your character dances on the edge of a knife and has like 2 hit points maybe so it forces you to be clever to survive.

Rules Light- Another trademark of old school play is "rulings not rules" which lends itself to systems that don't spend a lot of time with fiddly rules. I personally love this, because half the time a player asks to do something wild it's not covered in whatever crunchy ruleset I'm playing in and I end up just coming up with something on the fly anyways.




Vancian Spellcasting- The term "Vancian" references Jack Vance, writer of "The Dying Earth" "The Eyes of the Overworld" and numerous other pulp fantasy tomes. He wrote magic to be weird and fleeting and extremely dangerous, and his characters would spend hours memorizing their spells only to have them flee from their minds after casting them. I like this system for magic because its fast and easy. You can memorize so many spells per day and after that, they're gone until you can rest and re-learn them. This can make magic users feel pressure to save their spells for important moments, and creates a decent amount of tension.

Treasure = XP- You gain experience by delving into dungeons and getting treasure, which I personally prefer to getting xp from killing things, it encourages players to think outside the box and resort to all sorts of capers to retrieve their treasure and get their levels.

Setting & Tone

The default setting of the game is 17th century earth, with some extra weirdness like monsters and elves thrown on top of it. I absolutely love this because it gives players an automatic foothold in the world, which if you've spent any time learning about, is just about twice as weird as most fantasy worlds, and 100% easier to explain. I've found it actually gives me a reason to read up on things like "what was Prague like in the 17th Century". This of course is totally optional and the setting is by no means married to the system, hack it as you please without much trouble at all.

As far as tone goes, LotFP is solidly in the fantasy/horror camp. If you dig the overly gruesome and grotesque, blood spewing horror flicks and body horror, this is the game for you. If you don't dig that, maybe this isn't the game for you, use your noggin, you're an adult.

Art

Lamentations art is rad as all get out. On top of that it tends to feature powerful female characters, which is also awesome. I know for a fact that these artists are well paid, which is something you should care about if you have a heart in your chest.

Cynthia Sheppard

Jason Rainville

Zak Smith

Design

Above all things, Lamentations design sensibility is what stands out to me. As a graphic designer I often find myself in physical pain attempting to use a WOTC or other large publishers game book simply because they aren't designed right. I think it was Zak Smith who said that RPG books are more like cook books than anything and it's completely true. A book should be useful at the table and I've found more often than not that Lamentations books are easy to read and digest without much prep. The most shining example of this I can provide is how LotFP utilizes the inside front and back covers of their books.

LotFP Player Core Book - Rules & Magic

Blood In The Chocolate - Kiel Chenier

A Red & Pleasant Land - Zak Smith

Broodmother Skyfortress - Jeff Rients

If you have every run even 10 minutes of any RPG you know how valuable quickly accessible and easy to parse information is. Which is why most RPG design is such a slap in the face. LotFP design is more like a nice kiss on the cheek.

Inspiration: Endurance, A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

I read a lot of books. Like, a lot. Last year I hit over one hundred and twenty before losing count half way through November. And one of the great things about reading is that it can be amazing inspiration for a game.

So I've decided that when I read a book that I like, and that gives me good ideas for a game, I'll drop in and express my inspiration. Today I'm going to start with a book called Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery.

I know, it's a long title. But the book itself isn't that long, and the story of a man that goes into space just to find out what the long term health ramifications are is amazing. Scott Kelly is a man devoted to space travel, to science, to family and friends.

The book itself is told in a sort of frame, switching between Scott's current time on the International Space Station, and his time growing up down on Earth.

And as I was out on a walk catching Pokemon today, I had a thought. His story would make an interesting setting for a game if it gets switched around a bit.

Picture a world where magic was a literal sea of arcane and divine energy. Land masses exist on the surface, floating islands of self contained civilizations. But there is little travel between the islands, because the Seas of Magic destroy anything it touches.

But then one of the islands comes up with a shield of sorts that protects a ship (or a special metal alloy, something along those lines). Suddenly travel between the islands is possible, but journeys can often take months at a time. And traveling on the Seas of Magic isn't like traveling on an ocean. The traveling crafts sink beneath the surface, gravity is a thing of the distant past, and traveling through the Magic has... consequences. Maybe it seeps into a person's spirit, forming one into a sorcerer. Or maybe the magic slowly eats away at your sanity, driving you to the brink of madness.

Little is understood, and there is a need to know more. So a small team of people is put together, not to travel in the sea, but rather to exist in it on an immobile station. The goal? Spend a full year in the magic to discover how it affects mortals over a long period of time.

The game itself switches between the quiet sessions on the craft (except for the rare emergency), and flash back scenes that delve into each character's story. I kind of like the idea that each character's story has the players running different characters, switching as the stories shift from person to person. The campaign becomes a string of linked together one shots, but with the back drop of the station always in the background.

I'm pretty full up on games I'm running right now, so this will likely sit on the back burner and never get used... but I really like the idea, and wish I had the time to run every idea that came into my mind.