PressTheBeast

Last year I started running a campaign, titled Daemonium. It ended near the start of this summer. Here I will reflect on the campaign. Daemonium was set in the Kingdom of Cashua on the continent of Ambern. This kingdom was in the process of being invaded by the Empire of Aeon, a magitech fueled empire with the major advantages of having firearms and airships.  I hadn't run a TTRPG for a while, as most of my irl friends whom I played with had moved away or lost interest. I figured it was time to run a game online! I had played a bit in a friend's 5e game, and decided that I could make online refereeing work for me. My first interest was just to get players. I spoke to my brother and the other prospective players and folk were most interested in 5e so we played that. I had three players initially. A Bard, a Paladin, and a Monk. A Fighter and Druid later joined. THE FIRST PHASE: The campaign was first made up in a linear fashion, and then became an open sandbox. The goal was to va...

Old School Stylish is a supplement that "replaces [the typical OSR] class system with one that focuses on what your characters do and find in the game world." Characters begin classless, and gain Styles, which grant a package of advanced abilities, in play. The author provides lots of examples of how to use these, ways to implement the styles, etc. You get the sense that the author has really played around with the mechanics here. I feel like the majority of OSR blog posts and supplements are virtually unplayed, so this is good to see.  The supplement comes with lots of stuff, but there are two main pillars to the supplement: changes to the magic and Styles. Part A - Styles: Lots of people have thought through diegetic advancement with varying degrees of success. Games like Cairn boil it down to "figure it out." This actually works very well in my mind, though may be unsatisfying for some. Delta Classes are on the other end. Basically, classes progress by performing...

And so, the NatheQuest bestiary continues. Something I've been thinking about is appropriate descriptions for monsters, particularly in terms of appearance. There are two main issues I've noticed in bestiaries. The monsters rely on artwork, text description, or player presuppositions. The latter is okay in some cases. We know what a Viper looks like, so it doesn't necessarily need that much description; an Orc is different. I don't know what an Orc is in a concrete sense. Given the way RPGs come alive at the table, I think there is a strong argument to made that games should avoid using artwork as a crutch . The imagination of players at the table ought to be inflamed by the text and the dreams they inspire, more than the art.  The other issue is disharmony between the mechanics and the physical description of the monster. That is: the cause and effect is unclear. When running a challenge oriented style of game, as I do, its important that the monster description indica...

Luke Gearing wrote a blog post about writing a limited bestiary and designing your campaign " monster first ." My current Daemonium campaign used that approach for the game's first and most significant region, Cashua. The end result was a relatively cohesive feel: NPCs within could talk about and reference regional threats and monsters in a concrete way because they were solidified by the game's structure. As I wrote up the monsters, I included regional bits of folklore and references to Cashua.  While that was great, the Treasure Table suffered because of a lack of preparation. I simply used the generic OSE Treasure Table and when something like, say, a magic sword came up I would give it a name, backstory, and on a 2-in-6 some additional special ability (This number was hit with remarkable frequency). While this worked it definitely felt like a bit of a hack job. The magic items lacked the "life" of the bestiary and because I didn't have time to sit on...

RPG reviews are completely messed up. The vast, vast majority of reviewers have no experience with the actual product in question. They've never run the module, never run a full game with the system, and only have conjecture about the content and comments on the art. It seems like just an extension of marketing, rather than an actual look at the merits of a given work. The juice comes out in play, not speculation. I don't watch video reviews, but I imagine the problem is even worse in that god forsaken realm. Every day I am recommended a Questing Beast video, in which his mouth is agape beside an image of the latest greatest RPG book. Instead of these, I tend to favour play reports and, especially, retrospectives. They aren't common, and good ones are rare, but even a poor retrospective is worth more than a hundred reviews. Table Top RPGs are enjoyable to me in part because the experience of them is "slow" compared to other mediums. Different player groups and cam...

A few months ago, Cadillac Monteau saved enough coin to purchase his very own galley. He wrangled up some orphan children and found a strange foreign merchant with a few sailors to come on board. I then got to work designing the South Seas, where the goal of his voyage lies in wait. Procedures in use for sea travel are from Wolves Upon The Coast. They are very easy to use: if you can run a normal hexcrawl this is not much different. Things get easier if you make sure the players are the ones handling ship logistics. They are responsible for repairing it, tracking supplies, etc.  The start of the session was about 40 minutes of accounting. This side of the campaign hadn't been played in a while, so logistics needed to be worked out. Supplies were tallied up. The main difficulty is food. Using the standard ration cost (From Knave) things get pretty pricey. I am considering offering discounts for bulk purchases. I don't mind the upkeep costs, I just think it seems reasonable to of...

A student who spends 200 days training full time with a Master can earn a blackbelt in Karate. This training makes their hands and feet strike as daggers in combat. Additionally, if you are fighting barehanded enemies or those with small arms, such as clubs and knives, you defend as if you were wearing light armor even if you are unarmored. An alternative means of learning Karate is for a starting Fighting-type character to give up all their starting resources. This represents someone who used their family's wealth to pay their way into a dojo. They will begin play with the clothes on their back, a blackbelt, and a sleeping roll.  Once a blackbelt is earned, the Karateka must go out into the world and hone their skills. Once the 5th experience level is reached, they may choose to spend 1 year isolated in the wilderness, dedicating themselves to rigorous training. If they complete this task, their hands and feet will strike as swords, they will gain an advantage in any grappling exc...

This blog has mostly been me posting session reports (I still have some more to do lol), but there is lots of other stuff I'd like to post haha. My current campaign, Daemonium, has centred around the Kingdom of Cashua. I've uploaded the hexcrawl I've so that you can use it for what you will. Context: Cashua is on the Island of Ambern. To the North is the Fae Woods and the west is the Dinosaur Coast, which will be separate Hexcrawls (Fae Woods is done, Dino Coast will only be finished if my players go there). In ancient times, Ambern was a land dominated by Giants who enslaved the humans. However, when the Cashuans crossed over the sea from Galanthar, they defeated the Giants and liberated the humans. Now the technological powerhouse Aeon, also from Galanthar, has come to conquer Cashua. The eastern portion of Cashua is occupied, and the rebels at Fort Cheswick are Cashua's last hope. If you decide to actually run this Hexcrawl, it is up to you to decide how you situate ...

For the first session, our characters are the following: Redmond Frionbarr - Bard Za'vak Al-Hadim - Paladin/Fighter Gene Erikson - Fighter Cadillac Monteau - Ranger Helmut - Druid --- These session reports will be written somewhat tersely, as I have many to write. My RPG time has primarily been spent on fleshing out the world and fillin' hexes.  - Session 18 began with a funeral for Vamp Testy, the first dead player character. The traditional Cashuan funeral is meant to be a time to air your grievances regarding the deceased, and also remember the good times. Before the funeral there were some little character moments: Redmond prayed to a statue and got lectured by a priest, Gene got grumpy and Za'vak tried to comfort him, and Cadillac chilled out and drank beer. During the funeral, a bunch of individuals gave lil speeches. Gene's player actually wrote out their's beforehand, which was a nice touch. Redmond gave the most impassioned speech and, contrary to everyone ...

Wolves upon the Coast weapons all have different skills. This is quite fun, but more choices is not always better. Some of the weapon skills either overlap or clearly outshine others. This isn't really a problem, but it got me thinking about a simpler weapon system. A common antidote to what some perceive as the fighter "problem" is adding effects onto their weapons. I think that, while Wolves does a good job of it, most systems that attempt to do so are very clunky. For a weapon system to work, each weapon type needs an obvious use case. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has three broad categories of melee weapons: one handed weapon (Swords/clubs/axes), spears, and heavy weapons. Each of them is obviously good in a certain area. Swords can be used with shields, spears have amazing range and are super fast, and greatswords can knock away shields and deal the most damage. Spears are great against quick foes, swords against groups or many bosses, greatswords are a little ...

Today I was quite tired from working consecutive late nights. I'm bouncing at a bar and New Years Eve was a particularly tiring night. I decided I wanted to do nothing but chill today and, to aid in those efforts, asked my sister, her girlfriend, and my partner if they wanted to play. My sister and her girlfriend said yes, while my partner did not want to. My sister tried to peer pressure my partner into playing, and I repeatedly assured them that they don't need to play but, given that table top gaming takes up the living room, they decided to play given that there wasn't much else to do. Mechanically, I just ran a simplified OSE with only a single saving throw. On reflection, I would've not had the players roll for attributes, and I would have quickly whipped starting equipment to make sure they had everything they needed for the dungeon delve. My sister is an experienced gamer, so I let her take charge in terms of hirelings and equipment. My sister played as her homb...

Characters: Redmond Frionbarr - Level 4 Bard Cadillac Monteau - Level 3 Ranger Za'vak Al-Hadim - Level 4 Paladin/Level 1 Fighter - This session introduces the player of Vamp's new character: Cadillac Monteau. He's a Ranger who comes all the way from the western land of Utahia. While Gene and Za'vak were exploring in the last session, Monteau rolled up into the village of Homble on horseback looking for Vamp. Monteau is a bounty hunter, with a mission to find Vamp Testy. After introducing himself to the mayor of Homble, Harold Koomer, and his wife, Monteau learned that Vamp had went north into the Fae Woods. He went to the top floor of the tavern/inn, the Swan, and polished his guns while murmuring to them. Note: Monteau's player uses the funniest character voice, with both a lisp and an underbite. Almost everything he said in his character voice caused me to laugh hard enough that I had to mute the mic. Redmond, meanwhile, was tasked with transporting Vamp's bod...