Missteps in creating Asian and African Settings

There a few primary missteps which I believe many designers make in

creating settings based anywhere in the real world other than Western Europe

is the amount of text required to inform players about a completely new

culture, religious beliefs, economy, lore, etiquette, hell, the civilization in

general. In this sense, content creators are not world-building per se, but

rather re-stating or informing players of a place or region that already has a

real-world history. But describing a civilization unfamiliar to most beyond

pop culture perspective from the ground up takes words….a lot of em.

Designers, usually first include all the stuff that they know from pop culture

and either; 1. Stop there, or 2. They realize that what they have is  not nearly enough

context for a whole setting. So, then they deep dive on the locale`s history

and start including almost everything from agriculture to plumbing.

The end result is usually something they are proud of in terms of historical

accuracy, but then they usually must contend with three important

considerations:

-First they may face the real-life ire of folks from the location or its diaspora of

the setting, especially if the designer does not hail from the source of the

setting.

-Second, historical accuracy often isn’t game-able and even if it is, it often

just isn’t fun unless you are of a simulation-ist mindset.

-Third, and probably the most important hiccup is that PLAYERS JUST

DON`T READ!

If you hand a player a hefty tome of 400+ pages and tell them this is the

required reading for just the backdrop of a new setting, you might as well be

talking to a rock, they simply aint gonna read it! (If you are lucky enough to

play at a table of history nerds that will actually read it and get as geeked as

you are about it, then I congratulate you.) The brand-new player, or an

average player who plays a few times a month to drink a beer and hang with

friends simply aren’t going sit down and read the setting if you give it to them,

let alone go out and buy it on their own and read it. So therein lies the rub,

players maybe interested in the setting, but they aren’t going read enough to

embody the setting they claim to be interested in. So, what to do??

This is how I handle, and I would venture to say I run more Asian, African or

Island-themed settings than the average bear. First, I usually insist that most

players simply play their existing characters or roll-up a standard LotFP,

Swords and Wizardry, Dragonslayer or BX character that arrives into the new

setting however the Referee sees fit. (Within the Nebulith I allow new players

to play the Pirate Class as a pirate may hail from any foreign location.) In this

way, the player experiences the new world with something familiar, but this is how I handle, and I

 would venture to say I run more Asian, African or Island-themed settings than the average bear.

 First, I usually insist that most

players simply play their existing characters or roll-up a standard LotFP,

Swords and Wizardry, Dragonslayer or BX character that arrives into the new

setting however the Referee sees fit. (Within the Nebulith I allow new players

to play the Pirate Class as a pirate may hail from any foreign location.) In this

way, the player experiences the new world with something familiar, but that

familiar character is now a fish out of water as foreigner in a new setting. Use

that! Players can now adventure in a new setting with a natural sense of

wonder without it being assumed that they now the setting as a local.

If the referee provides a player a new setting and a new character class, and

new combat or magic mechanics and says “go!"   it is usually too mentally

overwhelming for newbies, and the player at best will try to run their new

character the only way they know how = the same as they did in previous

settings, and at worst, they just kinda sit there flipping pages trying to do or

say something that “fits” within a setting they haven’t read.

Players don`t read, but the Referees do! They are the ones that will read your

400-page setting lore, culture, etiquette, history etc. And often will read it 2

or 3 times. Lean into that. Develop the setting so the referees can unveil the

new setting to the players. In other words, don`t get angry at a player

because their character did not keep their head below the head-level of an

African King because they didn’t read or remember the royal court

procedures on page 272. Foreshadow, hint and/or directly show them the

resulting punishment of locals who committed the same offense as the

characters are entering the palace. Coming into a new setting as outsiders

usually grants the players some leeway against social and setting faux pas in

a new and different society, and allows the players to learn how this world

functions and how to play their characters in-game as opposed to reading 50

pages about the treatment of honor in Japanese society.

Allowing players to experience the setting as foreign newcomers also serves

to dampen the naysaying of those that would seek to denigrate or accuse the

setting of cultural appropriation. It’s easy to say “your setting has players

assuming the roles of characters of real-world races without the players

understanding the context, history or culture of what they are doing.” That is

a difficult argument to make if the players are coming into the setting

roleplaying as unknowing foreigners. At that point detractors can only attack

the setting, which if you have done your homework is as historically accurate

as it needs to be for what you want to achieve. Unfortunately, many Asian

and African settings are only designed around a player being able to

participate by building a brand-new character of a class within the aesthetics

of the new setting, and to compound the matter, there often aren’t places or

methods to introduce foreigners because that possibility wasn’t a part of the

creator`s original contemplation within their homogeneous vision of an

African, Chinese, Japanese setting as it needs to be for what you want to achieve. 

Unfortunately, many Asian and African settings are only designed around a player being able to

participate by building a brand-new character of a class within the aesthetics

of the new setting, and to compound the matter, there often aren’t places or

methods to introduce foreigners because that possibility wasn’t a part of the

creator`s original contemplation within their homogeneous vision of an

African, Chinese, Japanese setting.

After the player`s foreign character dies (and they will die) then allow them to

roll-up a new, cool, character local to the new setting. (Or sometimes I find

that they enjoy continuing to play a foreigner in a faraway land, thats fine too.)

Either way, they should have a deeper understanding of how your world

works and their fit in it. There are always exceptions, you may get a player

that knows more about samurai armor construction than is even in the

setting….. fine, I will let this type player enter the game with a local character

from the beginning. I also run Japan-based settings in Japan for Japanese

people, so in that context I don`t have to explain a lot of cultural things to

them like the smell or significance of boiling getto leaves, they already know,

so I will let them play new character classes, day one. But most others need

to be spoon fed your world. (The inverse is also true, I have to constantly

explain to the Japanese players what holy water is and does and the different

types of weapons within western settings)

White Deer Dojo

Sneak Peak-  As the little, Okinawan, OSR setting by Zak S. and I prepares to hit stores later this summer, here is a sneak peek at one of the dojos....

With the clashing of various Asian cultures (not to mention wherever player-characters may hail, in-game) the need for language translation quickly arose (there is a trade-tongue, but no Common) within Nebulith.  So while pondering the subject of translation, I thought back to my youth on island in the late 70s/80s and was inspired by the beautiful, international young ladies of 宮森小学校, 山内小学校・中学校 , Kadena Elementary School and Kubasaki High School. These Half-Okinawan, Half-Japanese, Half-Filipino, Half-Thai, Half-Vietnamese or Half-Korean girls had a foot in two cultures, yet often, were accepted in neither. They were constantly summoned to be translators and guides for parents, teachers, and sometimes even the authorities as a go-between among parties in disputes, school functions and basically whenever new kids arrived on island.  But why make them just boring administrative, in-game translators?!?

Accordingly, members of the White Deer dojo are an international consortium of women; damn-near surgical in the ways of the bow; often hired as translators for meetings between different factions, and; useful in deciphering found scrolls and texts from almost any locale, including some of the Lost Humanoids, an ancient mysterious civilization that once inhabited the island.  

Player characters may roll-up a character to become  a member of the White Deer; hire a member of the White Deer to accompany the party, translate texts and speech, or; any fighting character class may train in the White Deer Archer Style at the dojo (by making a random D100 roll once per level) to increase proficiency and skill with bow and/or languages.

*Note, translation skills are collective amongst the dojo/no single member knows all languages.

Tentōki and Ryūtōki

 Tentōki and Ryūtōki

 

In Japan there are a pair of heavenly demons called Tentoki (天燈鬼) the Celestial Lantern Demon; and Ryutoki (龍燈鬼) the Dragon Lantern Demon, and the myth is that they started out as evil Amanojakus or evil servants of the wicked deity Amanosagume (天探女)

 

But these demons were caught and literally stomped into submission by the 4 Buddhist Kings over a period of thousands of years.  The demons ultimately recognized the error in their ways and repented.  And as penance, they now carry the huge lanterns that put forth the pure white light of stars, benevolent souls and dragon fire to light the path in front of the Buddha, so that he can travel and spread his word.

 

However, in a more sinister retelling, evil demons can never be truly rehabilitated and the two, pre-historic, amanojaku demons are secretly using the celestial laterns as a beacon for the evil over-demon, Amanosagume to directly find and counter Buddha.  Of course the all-knowing Buddha is keenly aware of this deception, but allows it to occur so that Amanosagume can be confronted and defeated once and for all.

 

Adventuring in Island Jungles at Night

One of the things that grounds me in the tropical archipelago setting of the Nebulith is the sound of the island jungle. Jungles are different, they look different, feel different and smell different than any place Ive ever been. This is especially true at night ….the nighttime jungle is eerie to the point of being scary at times. And most importantly it is loud, almost deafeningly so. Deep jungles aren't new-age relaxation listening material as Youtube would have you believe.   It is a cacophony of warnings, mating calls, carnivorous hunts and their subsequent kills.  It has strange crescendos and de-crescendos at random intervals all night, every night with the possible exception of typhoon periods.   Here is a small sample I recorded on my cell phone by just stepping outside at 2am.

In this context,  it would be extremely difficult for a character to perceive someone or something creeping-up on them before it is very close, especially if that creeper is adept at moving through a jungle.  Items traditionally used to aid perception often have the polar opposite effect in the jungle.   A fire or torch has multiple unintended consequences: 

1. Illumination and the bright reflection of firelight off of nearby dense foliage (usually moist and damp) renders sight beyond a few feet virtually impossible.  
2. The jungle moves.  Winds, falling canopy water, rain, insects, amphibians, rodents, and larger animals set the leaves and hanging vines in motion causing constant, moving elongated shadows.  
3. Light is a beacon for life.  Light in the jungle attracts things..... like flying insects or far worse, and lot of them….  Things that buzz, bite, sting and swarm; as well as those things eat the things that buzz, bite, sting and swarm! ...like giant spiders, bats, frogs, mongoose and geckos. The amount of insects is only tempered by the amount of smoke (if applicable) from the light source suppressing them. 

Jungle Light and Sound, Effects on Characters

For characters, insects will lower their perception. One simply cannot see or hear effectively through hundreds of various types of insects constantly swarming a jungle light source. Insects are annoying, if not worse, trying to sleep or rest in the vicinity of a night time jungle light is an exercise in futility. And some insects will harass or attack en masse to the point of minor damage upon characters that remain in the same position in the presence of a light source. Lastly, a light source and any associated rising smoke against a canvas of relative darkness will stand out like a sore thumb in the jungle ecosystem attracting larger predators and possibly much worse, people, as it flickers and glows under the foliage viewed from a distance.

Historically in these islands, no one ventures through the jungle at night. Period.   But if unavoidable, it is best to let character eyes adjust and use no light if the path is known; or, use some type of overhead light (mechanical, magical or otherwise) at a distance away from the characters on an as needed basis then douse, proceed cautiously and repeat.  Sporadic use of paper lanterns on the end of a ten foot bamboo pole is one of the best and classic examples.   

If characters must camp, smoldering fires work the best as the smoke will keep the insects at bay and the smoke will dissipate among the foliage and canopy creating a layer as opposed to a distinct plume which will identify a party’s location. 

For the GM

All of the foregoing, I would let the characters discover or deduce for themselves unless they interact with a local NPC and specifically inquire.  Local NPCs traveling with the party will know these things instinctively.  Characters that move, or generate light, or smoke will cause a dead-spot in jungle noise unless practiced at moving in such terrain, but disruption of the natural audio of the jungle maybe preferable as the lesser of potential evils!   

However, the inverse is also true. Things not adept at moving through the jungle will face the same hurdles as the party.  GMs can use the absence of sound (sudden or otherwise) as a warning;  for tension;  or simply as an indicator that something is not quite right.

Mermaids in the Southern Reach

 Mermaids  

-A lone mermaid = dreamy, mythical, titillating, bewitching.

-An infestation of mermaids that stalk a ship, silently stare at those on deck and multiply exponentially in number every hour  =  Terrifying.

     

Photo courtesy of Peter Pan, 1924, (Silent), Paramount Pictures.

Mermaids in and around the waters of the islands of the Southern Reach, Awa Nikko, and Nebulith have an almost unnatural obsession with metal!  They can taste and detect it in the water and are drawn to large quantities of almost all metals from miles around.   

A mermaid will feverishly try to remove any metal from a person, beast or thing in the water through use of their hands or simply gnawing it free with razor sharp teeth without regard to the subject’s life, limb or condition.  Persons who find themselves in mermaid infested waters are advised to immediately remove any and all metal weapons, items, armor and ornaments to prevent injury.  Of course, the scent of rarer metals in the water serves as a concentrated attractant.  Mermaids will swarm in a frenzied-mass anyone in full metal chain, scale or plate armor that enters infested waters.

Mermaids have the ability of vocalization, but do not speak any known language of man, instead they speak in a series of ultra -high pitched screeches, whines and clicks  (think Darryl Hannah in Splash!) which may be heard up to half a mile underwater even through the pounding surf.  

They are mesmerized by floating metal (ship and boats) and have been known to silently stalk ships while carefully observing and noting the metal visible on board both above and below the waterline while relaying information back to their underwater colony.  When enough mermaids are present, they will set upon the boat.  Prying, gnawing and taking every metal nail, fastener, casting, joint etc in sight.  The removal of a boat’s structural metals combined with collective weight of hundreds, if not thousands, of mermaids clamoring up the sides and on to the decks has caused more than one boat to lose its integrity, and quite simply and completely be pulled under the waves.

Mermaids in a stalking pattern will cause all other wildlife (above and below water) to scatter, rendering the situation as unnaturally quiet.

Mermaids in heavily trafficked human waters have been observed mimicking limited basic human speech and/or use their human attributes to attract, persuade, and unburden those that are visibly laden with metal.  Mermaids are ambivalent to those without any visible metal. 

GM Notes.

-Metal in reasonable volume may be used as an attractant or decoy by players when encountering mermaids.  Ie Dropping a metal ship anchor or throwing a suit of plate mail overboard will sufficiently divert mermaid attention for 1D4 hours. (Possibly allowing passage or escape of person boat.) 

- A new, large infestation of mermaids at a locale may indicate something of note (getting through the infestation is another story!)

Nebulith Mermaids

-Mermaids fear and will flee the approach of Izumi, the Seasnake Medusai……..   However, also out of fear, all mermaids in audible range will heed the call of Izumi…… if so commanded.  Izumi…… speaks their language, or probably more accurate, they speak Izumi’s…….. language.

New Setting by Zak S and Boonie Dog!!

To do my part to decancel Zak, I will be publishing a major LotFP-compatible product with him…..and here it is……

The setting is a love letter to Okinawa, the island where I grew-up beginning in 1978 as a pre-schooler and continuing to graduation from high school, summer breaks during my university and law school days, and every year since to visit my wife’s Okinawan family.  I retired from the legal profession about 10 years ago to the island as a restauranteur to help preserve the indigenous cuisine and a dying local culture.    

For this setting, I pulled from almost every source available to me: Histories and folklores of various groups on the main and outer islands of the Ryukyu chain, mainland Japan, China's Fujian Province, Taiwan, Hong Kong, my gaming groups which are, depending upon the group, local Okinawan, Japanese, American and European expats gamers, my experience as a TTRPG player, GM, my  experience as an attorney, my experience in researching and preserving ancient local foods, my 89 year old Okinawan mother in law, Japanese college professors, linguists, calligraphers, local karate and kung fu masters, dietician, folklorists, traditional hajichi tattoo artists, and lastly, my dear, wife. I originally conceived a “Japan Only” release, but Zak has encouraged me otherwise, so there will definitely be an English version.

The impetus of the setting and theme came to me after reading a 2016 article.  The article discusses how archeologists working deep within an Okinawan cave unearthed a Roman coin dating to approximately the 4th century A.D.    What in God’s ( Yaweh, Buddah, Allah; or your deity of choice) name was a Roman coin doing buried on the far side of the world on a tiny pacific island, deep inside a cave!?!  There are countless theories, but I romanticized (pun intended) that some Roman envoy had circumnavigated their way all the way out here as explorers, traders, conquerors, seekers of treasure or enlightenment; or all of the above. But what must foreign eyes have glimpsed of this subtropical island in those times? I pulled a few books and websites concerning the island’s history and found that in those days, the island suffered quite a bit from volcanic activity. In fact, the whole island chain was believed formed from extinct underwater volcanos in prehistory.  But those fault lines and resultant volcanoes are not really extinct, we still suffer through a number of significant earthquakes and active eruptions on the outer islands, as well as from the effects of new underwater volcano formation every year.  

Fantastically and rhetorically speaking, what if the someone or “someones” could magically or druidically stop a volcanic eruption? What form of magic in the current gaming-world canon could do that?? …..and who would be powerful enough to wield it? And, what if that magic wasn’t quite perfect?  E.g. a ritual’s timing was off by only a few seconds or minutes??……the idea of the “Nebulith” was thus conceived…… a plume of volcanic ash turned to stone, mid-eruption..,,containing creatures from above; the living (and dead!) on the surface that were thrust skyward; and foul creatures from the deep that need now only climb the walls of the cavity created.  A billowing, vertical mega-dungeon that touches the sky, if you will.

The Nebulith is for me, a mistake borne of magic and good intentions that has created a physical, philosophical and metaphorical tendril between the heavens and hells of this world and all that lies in between.  A tangible, bi-directional ladder that may be traversed by humanoids, beasts, demons, gods and goddesses.  It has the billowy texture, color swirls, and dream-state magical qualities of a solidified cloud and the inhabitants to match.  

The Nebulith is set against the backdrop of the island that I love and which: 

-is the birthplace karate; 

-is an intersecting port of ancient Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean (and possibly Roman!:-) trade, settlements, culture, art, cuisine, folklore and ideas that have functioned to produce a wholly new and unique culture that is intermingled, yet simultaneously, wholly individual and original; 

-mysteriously houses the longest lifespans of any human population in the world;  

-and, has one of the worlds few primordial religions still in existence.

In the game besides the fantastical Nebulith itself, there is a whole island to explore with mysterious characters, philosophical conundrums, bizarre encounters, 1000 year old temples built atop 1000 year old temples, political drama, pirate-infested coastlines and new bad-ass, martial arts fighting mechanics with weapons and leveling. 

Compiled with LotFP* in mind, it can easily be converted to any OSR setting. Campaign or one-shot, bring your existing characters and weapons by boat to the Nebulith or roll -up new ones local to the island chain.

*For the LotFP crowd and those that like it, a lot dark and a little twisted,  take the trails down to the lower Nebulith, we’ll have few surprises waiting ;-)

Im really geeked for this new setting…. New player classes, monsters, items, magic, karate dojos, female samurai, ninja, pterodactyls, royal houses and that’s tip of the iceberg…..plus brand, new art, design and crunch by the one and only Zak S!    Zak games are back! 

More details as they become available…..

 

~Boonie Dog

Always Cross the Streams! Zak S' God Creator complementing MCDs Flee Mortals Creature Pack 2!

 MCD's latest Flee Mortals, Creature Pack fleshes out humans and Lizardfolk pretty damn well. Love it!!     ...... but I was left wanting a pantheon of gods for each group.   But fear not, Zak S has just dropped the sickest God Generator that Ive come across!   A little mix and match and boom!! Instant Gods with grit!   

I did a test run for both a human god and lizardfolk god and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome and depth after a few rolls on roughly half a dozen well-planned tables.  In short summary, you make a combination of d100, d20 and d10 rolls (occasionally d4 times for each) to establish your God's base form, gender, age, body type, physical traits, unnatural physical traits, if any, and anything that your god carries /accompanies it and your God's Domain (which includes spells for clerics)

There is also a table for your God's/followers taboos which adds some real color for your players and world building.   That being said.......

My first creation was a god intended to be worshipped by humans and came out as a Stag Demon in humanoid form but with the head of a stag. It was an adult female with unusually dense, curly, coarse, rust colored hair; no eyes, a tail, wings, a full left leg (I imagined it with hoof) and a right leg sheared off at about knee level.  (I improvised the amputation as I rolled a "no right leg") and a chain/manacle secured to the left leg but dragging and bloody on the right side where a leg once existed.  

She carries a javelin in her right hand which she uses as a counterbalance / cane to her shorn leg. (I'll add the stats to a javelin befitting a God later!) 

Her domains are Wisdom (pairs well with her having no eyes (blind sage trope and all)) which grants the spells: bookspeak, detect magic and remove fear; and the domain of Wrath/Suffering (which fits well with the whole severed leg/empty manacle thing!) which grants the spell: cause/inflict light wounds

As for the flavor.... she was/is entangled with another god romantically, is a parent to another god, sits atop a throne of scorched wood, is always fighting a (all?) chimeras. Taboo-wise, followers must only use pointed weapons (again nice tie-in to the javelin) cannot eat any form of wild berries and must bow to all foes before attacking or face her wrath... or at least her disdain.

As a first run, I thought the god came out awesome!  I will probably use her for clerics, hunters and rangers of a small enclave of MCD-spec'd humans isolated by time and distance in a backwoods corner of almost any adventure setting; or, if a player is looking for a unique type of cleric with unique god.... but I could just as easily user her for a big-city paladin!  The God Creator also lays the groundwork for other gods in a pantheon already creating links and relationships. I've coined this goddess The Scorched Antler of the Grove (mainly on account of her throne) but I'll easily come up with a backstory now that the basic Goddess tent stakes are in the ground.   

I only wish I had an inkling of artistic ability to sketch her out in visual form!

God Creator available at Zak Smith is creating Game stuff | Patreon

Flee Mortals!  was available by Kickstarter only by MCD.

Rainy City Hacked with Cube World Beasts

 Rainy City Hacked with Cube World Beasts

“It’s the end of the world. It always rains. Rain beats against the walls. It seeps through the shutters. It pours off the mossy backs of the gargoyles. It turns streets into streams and rivers.” The opening lines of the Guide to the Rainy City, an RPG zine setting that is just …. well ...amazing! It is also soooo relevant because our little island in Southern Japan had 17 days of straight rain which can make it feel like the rain will just never end. I ran an adventure for what I`ll call Group C, which is basically some players from my Cube World, Land of the Southern Daimyos group plus a some new players that were unlucky enough to be visiting our island during rainy season. 

The session started with the players as refugees on a ship, months at sea in constant driving wind, rain and monstrous, churning waves...... when they finally spotted an apparent lighthouse on a little speck of land in the middle of the great gray ocean, but “to see it is to know it’s wrong, one knows it in their bones. The water just around it seems too rough and too deep, the shoreline too regular and rounded, the trees too stiff and bristly for such high winds. The light is right where it ought to be, but it’s just off somehow. The lamp itself looks like aspic, a ball of blue-white light propped up on a column of cloudy-clear jelly.” 

The players didn't know it, but what they stumbled across was not land at all, but the Aspic Lantern, which is a cross between a fabled aspidochelone sea creature, this one a tentacled cephalopod and a deep-sea, angler fish that hunts by dangling a false bio-luminescent light to attract prey. The unsuspecting prey in this case are the characters, what they thought was a place, was actually a beast! And a beast this large usually attracts other smaller predators looking for leftover tidbits!

 Drawn to the false light, the players made for the little island until they were too close to turn back. And that was the rub, they knew something was amiss, but they could see signs of life on the “island”; birds, movement, greenery and their supplies were so low they almost couldn't pass it up. The swells were too powerful to attempt to land the ship, so they dropped the life boats and four of the six players along with a few NPCs jumped in. A monumentally bad decision because the aspic lantern`s tentacles fell upon these tiny boats as soon as they were in range. None of the three boats remained intact and the players were thrown bloodied and bruised into the raging seas and the “gauntlet of predators” surrounding the Aspic Lantern.

 I could have used stereotypical reef sharks…. But meh! I turned to my “go-to content”, Cube World!! for some monsters with a little depth and gnarl. So I filled the waters with Cube World's Albino Lampreys and Dragon fish (See the Cube World Bestiary) I wanted monsters that cause lingering damage. And the albino lampreys converge en masse towards anything that is near them in the water @ speed of 120` a +1 to hit and do 1d6 bloodsucking damage (I used that for the entire swarm, not not per lamprey, (low level characters and all) but once they lock on they stay latched to the characters body even if killed, until removed. This may not seem like much, but imagine of the extra weight of having 4-5 lampreys 3-5 feet long each attacking or just adding literal dead weight to character in the open water. Once attached,  I had characters roll strength checks each round, if they failed I said they were pulled under the water for the succeeding round; and if they remained underwater for 3 consecutive rounds, plus a failed con check…… they drowned.

Simultaneously some characters ran up against Dragonfish… "a strange, ornate fish, 10’ long that squirm through the debris field surrounding the Aspic Lantern. +2 to hit, bite at 1d8 PLUS their needle-like teeth break off and stay in doing the victim doing 1d4 damage per round until removed. Removal requires Sleight of Hand or a Dex check at disadvantage. Failure does d4 extra damage." 

The players that remained on the ship watched all this from the deck and believed themselves safe, that was until the ship was knocked…. by something from below that was large enough to change the direction of a 60` ship. They sent an NPC below deck to check for damage and leaks, while giving an all clear call her voice was drowned out by the sound of splintering wood and rushing water because the ship was hit so hard that those on deck had to make dex checks at disadvantage of 17 or higher just to remain on their feet. And then the ship began to sink .....without life boats amoungst the large outer swells in the strange blue-white light of the Aspic Lantern. 

 As they prepared to jump into the water from the highest remaining part of the ship, they saw a shadow about 50` long in the trough of giant swell, What they didn't know was the boat had been hit by a Gargantuan Black Lantern Shark which is known to bite the hull out of a ship ….and then eat the passengers. After seeing what happened to their comrades trying to get to shore, these two successfully climbed on to floating pieces of their recent ship. I let them jointly roll a d8 (one side per each 45 degrees compass segment) to see which way the currents were driving… unfortunately for them they didn't roll on to the direction of the Aspic Lantern and were drifting away, so they lowered their legs into the water and began kicking toward shore, which immediately attracted the attention of the Black Lantern Shark who bore down on their position with incredible speed and attacked…..miserably! I handled the 1 on the attack roll by describing how the gargantuan shark opened its gigantic, megladon-sized maw for a devastating attack, but was lifted out of the water at the last moment by one the giant tentacles of the aspic lantern and had the life and guts squeezed out of it just above the character's heads. These two characters ultimately made to the “shore” albeit with a few dragonfish teeth in them.

 In the end, all characters had 6hp or less, no food or water and no way off this strange little island. (The players know this place is strange but I don't believe any of them have put the pieces together that this is not an island, but an aspidochelone.) They climbed the small mound of on island and perceived 3 things: 

    a) a line of boats ( in an apparent shipping lane heading to some intermittently visible lights on a far mist obscured horizon) ...but all these ships seem to be staying well away from this little is place…hmmm.

     b) what appears to be a giant, calcified 5' -blow hole next to the gelatinous stalk that anchors the false light high in the air at the apex of this island mound. It has enough ledges and footholds extending downward into the darkness of the mound that a descent is not out of the question. (Also provides a nice little conundrum, if the players pick up on it…if the blow hole is calcified and no air coming in or out, is the creature to which it is apart still alive? But if its dead, what is powering the bioluminescent light atop the gelatinous stalk providing the luminosity of small sun for miles around in the darkness of rainy nights.)

     c) Occasionally on the wind driven rain, can be heard what appears to be singing or whistling carrying up from an area of shrubbery at the bottom of one of the island slopes . 

Unfortunately, with character creation, session zero crap and brand new player learning curve this is as far as we got. My characters are still in the Outer Swells and havent even made it into The Rainy City-proper, but we had such a good time that it doesnt even come close to mattering!

 I cant recommend Beasts of the Outer Swells and The Guide to the Rainy City enough. Ive read the entire initial zine and its progeny cover to cover, and love the setting, the quirkiness, the beautiful writing (I think the author is an English prof), the cast of characters, monsters, oozes, locations, wizards, gangs and factions, I hope to get immersed in this world for many, many sessions. All the materials are relatively inexpensive and available on DriveThru.  

The CubeWorld Bestiary comes with each edition of CubeWorld and is updated as new content is released. I think all the monsters that I used here are a part of the core bestiary so should be in there no matter what version you might pick up. All the monsters are alphabetized and you can do word searches if you are looking for monsters on specific theme or type as I was for this encounter. No matter what Im running I always seem to find an original or interesting monster in the Cube World content. 

In fact, CubeWorld has become my core content all around, it covers everything from classic medieval tropes, Japanese themes, swamps, mountains, desert, dungeons, hex crawls, factions, mysteries, jousting tournaments, naval ships, royalty etc etc. It has an entire world atlas, and when paired with his blog posts on character generation, kung fu fighting styles, combat mechanics, scores of tables, magical items, not to mention creative, original art etc,  I actually dont need WotC or anything else to have immersive, unpredictable, deadly-fun sessions. I run and hack other OSR material to maintain a quiver of ideas, philosophy, perspectives and bad-assery. But at the core its CubeWorld that Im running over  and over. Again highly recommended, especially for the price! 

Currently, Im playing around and designing an augmented PirateBorg! beta setting with Cube World hacks and the Aspic Lantern from the Beasts of the Outer Swells. Due to the demands of work and mismatching schedules Im unable to run or play in my A group (Dark Sun), and our B group, (the ones currently running in the Cube World,  Lands of the Southern Daimyo) has been unable to meet. So, the grand finale of Forest of 500 Shadows and Serene Temple of the White Octopus Maiden is currently on pause! But one of our players has been prototyping some T-shirts based on an original Zak S design for when we play again!

Images and quotations courtesy of:

-The Beasts of the Outer Swells, A Visitors  Guide to the Rainy City by Superhero Necromancer Press, LLC

-Cube World Bestiary, Vol. 47 

Cube World 41 -The Forest of 500 Shadows in the Lands of the Southern Daimyos, Play Report /Review

The Forest of 500 Shadows (2nd adventure in the Lands of the Southern Daimyos)

· 3 page adventure including Hex map,  Encounter key, Monster art and full bestiary, and D1000 Treasure table
· Written for LOFP but can be used with most old school game systems.
· Played about one-half of the forest in a single, 3 hour session

At the end of the last adventure session, in one of the highest rooms of Sleeping Crane Castle in the chambers of Lady White Crane, herself,  one of the party members found a treasure of immense value. The coolness of said treasure was that it:

1. Came from a D-1000 (yes, one thousand!) table. 

2. It was awesome to see the excitement of new players get something slightly beyond their levels and for lack of better words just effin sick!! Kudos to the author for creativity on this table, and;

3. The treasure provides a link (via its name) to another, yet unknown area in the Cube World which granted me the flexibility to come up with some gruesome details for a future adventure hook.

In the Lady White Plain’s chamber locked in a cloisonne box the players found written whispers to  another potentially grand treasure.  But the next piece of the puzzle is somewhere in the Forest of 500 Shadows, which is known to be the former home of clan that mysteriously vanished long ago. (This player also availed herself to a number of Lady White Plain’s finest kimonos; not in the printed adventure, but I thought, what the hell, why not??  let her roll a d4 as to amount and I may come up with some special properties for the kimonos before next session…or not, lol, haven’t decided, but I digress….)

So with new formal kimonos, Lord White Plain’s captured black panther, Kasha; and two ex-samurai, the party set off. (I allowed the players that died last session to roll back into the game as disgraced, surrendered samurai from the  battle…. Since they surrendered they can no longer be considered samurai, but they get to live, and as such can choose a new character class, or try to regain their honor, if they want to remain of “fighter/samurai” class.) 

The Forest of 500 Shadows is the second adventure in this edition of Cube World and is a hex crawl,  which is cool because it’s a completely different format than the first adventure which was a political game of evil options (with enough drama to make Telemundo novella producers shed a tear) And, the third (yet unplayed) adventure appears to be completely different as well... a dungeon/temple crawl with battles, traps, puzzles and the like, but more about that later. As a fledgling DM, I really appreciate the change of pace offered by the differing formats, yet still having these varied adventures all contained within a single Cube World installment.   The 500 shadows adventure comes with a color, hand drawn map linked to a full page, easy-to-read encounter key and artwork for some of the more formidable foes.  

I wont bore you with a blow by blow of our session progression through each hex, but the map includes all sorts of scenic and haunted terrain which comprise the forest of 500 shadows from bamboo thickets, eerie Japanese gazebos ruined and in disrepair, silent graveyards, lakes; streams of varied widths and depths which the characters must figure-out how to cross to continue on "the path"; ancient haunted battlefields, Japanese arch-bridges, waterfalls and an Japanese-style keep, centuries abandoned.

I used the encounters to slowly drop hints to the characters’ ultimate destination within the wood, a decrepit stone keep rumored to be haunted by the shadow warrior, Kagemusha.  But the party has to get there first, and to do that they will have to beat the Dry Widows!  (one of my fav monsters ever in my short DM career!)    Spoiler Alert!!! Skip the next section if you want to keep the suspense blinders on…..   

The dry widow is deceptively two monsters in one; they approach and engage as undead zombies ----a little concerning but no need for party panic-- until …..they are defeated and unleash whats inside their hollow forms, a swarm of needle spiders that have consumed the viscous, wet previous lives of their victims and left them as dry, eaten-out zombies roaming the forest of 500 shadows! (My new players tend to ask why?  How come? a lot ….in any event, I created a little history that the dry widows in these woods were originally the wives and girlfriends of long-since forgotten samurai that came to the forest to find their lost lovers who never returned from battle… but you can embellish your own narrative) So with the release of a spider swarm by all foes the enemy count is very effectively and immediately doubled before your players eyes, and without revealing too much... the needle spider swarm packs a stronger punch than the zombie cadaver on an already weakened party.... the worst case scenario being that any character overcome by a spider swarm becomes a dry widow themself! 

The party lost nearly half their number to these wicked widows and they aren’t even half way through the adventure!  The best part and the rub is, if a character becomes a dry widow it behaves and attacks the remaining party like a zombie, so the living party members at a minimum are forced to defend themselves and their dwindling hit points, or run.  Should they mistakenly slay the new dry widows and release the swarm, the situation becomes that much more dire for their own prospects for living, let alone the possibility of returning their recently slain friends to life. (they don’t even know how to do a resurrection, but they are pretty sure they need an intact dead body)   What to do!? What to fucking do!??   

Due to schedules, we had to call the session at this point, half the party defending itself from the undead needle spider swarming other half of the party!    Despite the living characters not having a plan of attack for this newly-developed dilemma;  and the players that are now dry widows pleading  out -of -game for the living characters not to destroy their former character's carcasses ………all  are clamoring for another session……. Mission accomplished!  

 I love this Cube World!!!! full stop. Highly Recommended.   Its just pure, off-kilter, feudal Japan bad-assery!!!  And my players are invested hook, line and sinker….. asking questions, wanting more and more details and backstory, having little meetings amongst themselves for strategy, coming up with their own ideas (the kimonos), etc.  Cant really ask for more as a DM! 

PS In honor of E.T.’s 40th anniversary, Japanese television played the movie in primetime over the weekend and I completely forgot there was a D&D scene in that movie until one of the couples in our group excitedly called me up to say that "our game" (D&D) was on tv! Had to remind myself that many new players (especially in Japan) don’t know the history or how far back the game goes…..but just another example of the excitement level these adventures are generating!

The obligatory pre-game, ramen stand planning session and Japanese E.T. 

Stacking my favorite Content Makers

One of the things that bugs me in traditional D&D is that when playing with long time players they often know the monsters, the traps the tropes.  I can change-up a monster's predation a la The Monsters Know What They are Doing,   or adjust their hit points, but that doesn’t change the fact that the old players know this monster, there is no Shock and Awe factor when presented, et cetera with dungeons, taverns, towns, pit traps, mimics and so on.   

Finding a solution to this issue is one of the many things that lead me to OSR.  There are some really creative folks out there putting out brilliant content that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own in a hundred years.  I also really admire the philosophical and/or dreamy, beautiful, dark edge that many OSR creators provide to settings and encounters.  Its one thing to brute force attack a monster, but it’s a completely different battle if there is a moral or ethical cost to the fight that dooms the soul or the souls of others. You OSR fuckers are really good at making encounters and creatures more than one dimensional, literally and figuratively… and I at least, appreciate it!    To that end, I have subconsciously  (and now consciously, I guess) divided my favorite content makers into tiers:

UPDATE 2/3/24:  I have become aware that some of the creators that I previously admired have (by their own words) engaged in hate-mobbing, as such I am reticent to promote their works.  While I still think their content was/is good, I wont promote them nor this type of behavior until they've apologized to the subjects of their harassment at a minimum.  I don't condone cancelling them or anybody without just cause, but personally I will strip their material from my personal games until they make amends.   I'll go ahead and just say it, any call to cancel somebody is immediately sus.  If you are going to cancel someone's livelihood and life, you damn sure better be able to back it up with evidence. I will leave their names here for a snapshot of my gaming history, but will remove the promotion of their blogs/websites. I have also removed non-OSR creators

Top Tier. I’ll pick up these folks’ content immediately sight unseen on general principle based upon their past work concerning philosophical dilemmas, unique creativity in mechanics or monsters, setting, or just quirky, immersive world building.  I`ll backfill my coiffures with their old stuff join their kickstarters, patreons, blogs, youtube channels etc. and generally support them however they choose to avail themselves socially.  In no particular order within the tiers:

-False Machine- cant wait for Demon Bone Sarcophagus! 

Zak Sabbath- cant wait for more Cube World!!!   

https://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/ 

-Noisms cant wait for Hall of the Third Blue Wizard!

- A Thousand, Thousand Islands

https://athousandthousandislands.com

-Scrap Princess

 

And my most recent find … the crew behind  A Visitors Guide to the Rainy City, cant wait for the Beasts of the Outer Swell!   

http://www.superheronecromancer.com

Im sure there are others out there of the same caliber that I have yet to discover, but that’s my list so far!

Tier 2. I will purchase most works by these folks, perhaps not in the opening kickstarter, but at some indeterminate time. I check their sites bi-weekly for new developments and cherry pick their past offerings and work for what I like.

-Elf Maids and Octopi. 

https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com

-Old School Essentials.  Cant wait for new Post apocalypse setting /currently waiting for kickstarter core books. 

https://necroticgnome.com/products/old-school-essentials-basic-rules

-Mork Borg-  Cant wait for Pirate Borg!  The beta pdf was awesome!

https://morkborg.com

-The Merry Mushmen-  Waiting for Knock 3 to be released beyond the kickstarter crowd!

https://www.themerrymushmen.com

-Lamentations of the Flame Princess = I’ll ride the storm and see if they can re-ignite and continue putting out some quality stuff of old!

https://www.lotfp.com/RPG/

-Questing Beast- I like this muthafucka  despite some of his reviews of less than stellar offerings, his biggest likes actually tend to lean toward the esoteric and bizarre, so we are eating from the same plate.  

http://questingblog.com

 

Tier 3. I will acquire and view this category of content in order to forever keep an open mind. On the rare chance that I come across something decent, useful and that I can actually harvest for my games, I'll go back and purchase the material.  But other than that, I have no intention of ever giving WoTC another dime as they continue their campaign of slashing old material;  seem to be whole-heartedly committed to putting out uninspired drivel in a transparent marketing attempt to take over the world with computer generated artwork, cute avatars and pre-pubescent storylines.

Right now Im using the core rules, settings, mechanics, and monsters at a rate of about: 80% Tier 1, 15% Tier 2 and 5% Tier 3. just to keep my worlds weird, fun and dark .......

 

Cube World 41 -A Fistful of Silver in the Lands of the Southern Daimyos

 

 A Fistful of Silver  

· 3 page adventure with maps, NPC descriptions/stats/spells/weapons proficiencies etc, and abestiary

· Written for LOFP but can be used with most old school game systems.

· Played in a single, 4.5 hour session

Human stories driving a grand political narrative, create enough verisimilitude that you can layer the most fantastically wretched, whimsical, magical and evil elements atop them, and still walk away with a dark and gritty, real-feel game night. Hell, GRR Martin made a whole career out the same formula. Such is the case with A Fistful of Silver, which at its essence can be boiled down to the distinct pulls of Gold, Politics and Love upon human desire….. but damn… thats a serious understatement as to how fun this adventure was. 

Loosely set in a mythical archipelago of feudal Japan, it brings cool old school Japanese weapons like the naginata, wakizashi, and katana back to the forefront of the D&D battle …..and even cooler, they are wielded by samurai, ninja, clan lords, and high-born ladies rockin the finest kimonos. I live in Japan and I ran this session for my game wife and a few of our Japanese friends (first time players) and they ate it up……..the twisted Japanese folklore, western archetypes of Asia, magic, monsters, all of it ...just all of it!!! The set -up is simple, but the devil is in the details (literally … and he goes by the name of either Lady Nine Island or Red Iron, take your pick!) But there are:

3 different Clan Lords of differing demeanor and loyalty; 

2 different Clan Wives (one magic, one shrewd); 

2 Clan sons (one traitorous, one stupid) and; 

1 Badass Clan daughter: loyal to family, martially-trained, brutal, bloodlusty and beautiful,

1 retinue of ninja; 

1 host of samurai; 

…….and your party, which is wrapped up with all of them in individual covert negotiations. All parties, schemes, truths and lies will ultimately collide at a beautiful Japanese castle, (Sleeping Crane Castle) in a few days time at a meeting of the Clans.  And if your session goes anything like ours, all hell will break loose! Oh and did I mention! one of the clan wives is a futakuchi-onna / has two mouths, and a Clan Lord has a panther on a chain just to let folks know he means business!?! 

 The party is enticed via coin and/or morality to make decisions and take certain courses of action, but there are no totally right answers here, and therein lies the rub. This will push the players to make the “better” decision either financially, politically or for their souls. And if they cant decide as a group, each player can exercise their player agency and set an individual course for glory or death …..their own or the entire party.

 I cant overstate how exquisite the dilemmas in the adventure are orchestrated, these new players got so involved in strategizing with in- and out- of game discussions, when the appointed clan-meeting time came, they all took a shot of alcohol! Obligation and Honor are on full allegorical display, because the whole adventure is pretty much based upon the decisions made, coin accepted, promises exchanged and how well the players role play their characters towards those ends, and of course the luck of the die. Needless to say, nothing went as planned, former allies became formidable enemies and that was before the master of the naginata showed up! In total 2 of 5 characters died, and 1 of the remaining characters has the dead characters' blood on her hands! ….the snowball effect of dishonor. And one character found a valuable secret set deep within Sleeping Crane Castle. 

Good times, Good stuff!!!

One of the new players asked if this was Dungeons and Dragons all the time?? (I wish it was, but didn’t want to lie to him) I told him no, this level of intrigue, fighting, plot immersion, and character involvement is hard to create and maintain every session. But the good news is there are 2 more adventures already available In the Lands of the Southern Daimyos.…… all the players are returning at the end of Golden Week in Japan when I run Forest of 500 Shadows in same setting!

         Mandatory, pre-session adventure review at the ramen stand!