All subject to change before campaign starts. Also if this pitch sounds interesting feel free to join the discord, though this game is probably only goign to start summer 2024 at the soonest The First Assault International Legion of the Sunlit Realms upon the Autocracy of Night has failed! The dark powers of the Night Autocrats wielding the Five Dragon Orbs were too mighty, and a thousand would-have-been-heroes now lay dead in the depths of the Thrice-Sundered Mont. If the Dragon Orb ritual to raise Arrkohn the Dark Dragon succeeds, the New Sun will be eclipsed and the long night will return ..read more

AD&D Harpies- Derived from the grecian myths, AD&D harpies have an alluring song that allows them to slaughter all who fail their save vs magic and are lured to it. As usually, the entire adventuring party will not fail their save, the question becomes how to save the entranced party members from 2d6 flying monsters with 3HD and 3 minor attacks... though this is rather complicated by an additional, deeper 'charm' effect that takes place on touch, a rather rude surprise to adventurers who stuffed their ears with wax to dodge the song. Honestly, charm spam into being 'attacked, tortured ..read more

 So I just finished a short but spicy game of Esoteric Enterprises, playing roughly 20~ sessions (the players played more but more on that later.) As usual, it was warped heavily from the core concept, so there were certain mechanical and thematic inconsistencies with 'vanilla' EE that did somewhat erode some of the goals of the system.   The setting was in a fantasy world turned modern, as opposed to a modern world with secret fantasy elements. The inconsistencies with magic and nonhumans being woven into the setting could mostly be handwaved away as 'there are nonhumans who are ..read more

 AD&D Giant LeechSneaky creatures that suck blood with an anaesthetic bite, with only  1% chance of detection until the afflicted is reduced to half HP, slowly sucking blood at the rate of 1HP per HD of the leech (HD ranging from 1-4). They are very slow, so if they fail to attach via initial attack they are unlikely to pose much threat.They can be killed with salt, and attack people camping near leech infested waters at night. Unlike real life leeches, they also spread disease. I like the idea of warding off leeches with a circle of salt while camping at night in wet areas, or ..read more

 AD&D Gorgon In what cursory research suggests orginates from The Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes + accounts of grecian Khalkotauroi, the AD&D gorgon is a 'bull like creature' that breathes out a short cone of petrifying vapors, an attack they prefer to do over their 2d6 attack, presumably a gore/trample. Like many other petrifying creatures, they perceive into the astral and ethereal planes, and their petrifying effects extend to there. There is not too much to say about them, save that a favorable stratagem, once their breath limit was realized, would be to force them into com ..read more

 AD&D LamiaLamia are bulky, leonine, centauroid creatures with 9HD and armor as plate, who drain 1 point of wisdom permanently on hit, and have a handful of spells- charm person, mirror image, suggestion, and illusion. Characters drained to 3 or less wisdom do as the lamia says, but as no mention of lamia keeping such simps around is made, it seems like they only become food rather than slaves. It is also unclear if the wisdom drain works on everything, or just on prey species. While it has the usual idea of 'if you are alone and fail a save you die,' it has potential to use the envi ..read more

Three years ago I made this moderately popular post about past campaign worlds, and I think it's about time I updated it with what I've run since then and perhaps what was learned. CASTLE NOWHERE A drawing of the most active characters- Leah the thief and her goblin minions, Blix and her fairy and spider sidekicks, Aten Bast the mighty wizard (Later replaced by the also mighty Thirbaek Merrymace after Aten's many deaths cheapened his life in the players eyes), Olaf the wicked old usurper of the Sheriff position, Leo and Pilgrim/Lily the Witch, character and decoy replacement character a ..read more

 Is Godbound OSR? Honestly at this point who cares, but it is at least broadly compatible with OSR content. I ran two simultaneous campaigns for a rough average of 30-40 sessions each. One group leaned more 'philosopher-king refugee road-trip', while the other was more 'rock star adventurer vacation' I drew for this campaign instead of the blog this past year which is mainly why the blog has been ded The setting was the Sunset realm, as usual, but in an intersolar period, with no sun to chase off the infinite darkness and moon-madness normally kept at bay. This made for a worl ..read more

 AD&D Giant Lynx   don't sue me TSR games I own the monster manual and can show it to people if I want...! AD&D Mammoth, MastodonThese nearly identical entries (Mammoth has 13 HD instead of 12, does 3d6 instead of 2d8, and has AC 5 instead of 6) take up a good half of a page and are largely redundant with the Elephant entry earlier. More and more evidence for the existence of someone very interested in finicky details of the pleistocene being involved with early D&D. AD&D MasherProbably among the most forgettable monsters of all time, these are 8HD 'worm-lik ..read more

Something I experienced in D&D games where the players had access to spells of higher potency than the usual low level adventuring fare was that our understanding of defenses comes from a non-magical world, and as such, most locales are woefully underprepared for magical assault and infiltration. This can work in settings that are generally low magic, where hostile wizards and monsters are freak accidents akin to a natural disaster. But in the highly fantastical worlds most games take place in, one has to wonder why the world is not ruled by sorcerers by now, and then further ask why coun ..read more