DND Blogs

d100 - A Juxtaposition of Jellyfish: d4 Caltrops

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 21:14:42 GMT

Here is a fun one! A fellow Referee is running an “Ocean Themed” OD&D Campaign and requested some assistance with generating interesting Jellyfish for the Adventurers to encounter. When I heard that there was a D&D game themed around exploring the Ocean, the first thought that came to my mind was this old meme:

My first Random Encounter with a Jellyfish was pretty memorable: My father was stung quite severely by one at a beach when I was very young and required medical assistance from a Lifeguard, so I was always oddly angry with them, despite how compelling and beautiful they can appear to be.

Much like my Remarkable Birds or Fantastical Fishes, this seemed like a fun opportunity for more of a “Generator” approach. I’m not sure the math works out to be quite 12 million, but this should be a good starting point at least! 😊

I like to include a handy dandy “One Click” Generator for these types of tables:

Keith Baker Reveals New “Ecto-Punk Noir” Daggerheart Setting: TTRPG Fanatics

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 20:05:58 GMT

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Article Summary

Eberron creator Keith Baker and designer Jen Ellis have release new details on their upcoming Daggerheart campaign setting Eidolon: The Ghost Market.
The setting is described as “ecto-punk noir,” taking place in industrial city powered by the dead and ruled by corrupt necromancers.
The supplement is not an official Daggerheart product, but will be a third-party release published by Baker and Ellis’ Twogether Studios.
The project will first launch on Backerkit on October 13th, 2026, but you can sign up now for alerts and a free preview PDF.

Eberron creator Keith Baker is heading back to the crowdfunding scene with a brand-new project that blends gothic mystery, industrial revolution and the supernatural. First announced at Gen Con 2026 as The Night Market, the project has been renamed as Eidolon: The Ghost Market and is described as a complete “ecto-punk noir” campaign setting for Daggerheart.

Notably, the book is not an official Daggerheart product from Darrington Press, but rather will be published as a third-party release by Twogether Studios, the company which Baker founded with his wife and fellow game designer Jenn Ellis.

The project will officially launch in mid-October on BackerKit. Below, we break down everything you need to know about this new Daggerheart supernatural sandbox.

What is Eidolon: The Ghost Market?

Eidolon: The Ghost Market is a 200-page sourcebook and campaign setting designed for the Daggerheart tabletop RPG by Twogether Studios‘ creators Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis.

The setting takes place in the titular city of Eidolon, a sprawling metropolis built on the ruins of a massive cemetery directly connected to the underworld. The city is overseen by a group of powerful necromancers known as the Keepers of the Gate. Once they were dedicated to peacefully shepherding the dying into the afterlife. Now, however, they use dark magic to bind the spirits of the dead, forcing them to power industrial machinery.

The Keepers are also divided into multiple, tyrannical factions: The mercantile Castagars are vampires sustained by innocent blood. The wizards of House Antidora possess the bodies of their offspring. The Drakalovs are preserved by beautiful idols. And the Ashblind arcanists bind their souls to steel.

The book includes a range of lore, new Communities, character options, Adversaries, Environments, specialized Equipment and two full Campaign Frames: Boneriggers follows mercenary adventurers fighting to protect the worst parts of the city (channeling the vibes of Sweeney Tood and Peaky Blinders) and The Catering Crew follows heroic exorcists who must save the city through a combination of the supernatural and culinary skill.

When is Eidolon: The Ghost Market BackerKit launching?

Crowdfunding will launch BackerKit on October 13th, 2026. In the meantime, the official pre-launch page is live now. If you sign up for launch notifications you can snag a free four-page preview PDF. Playtesting is also actively underway via Twogether Studios’ online community.

Who is Keith Baker?

Keith Baker is an American game designer, author and world‑builder who is best known for creating the Eberron setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Notably, Baker submitted the initial concept to Wizards of the Coast for their “Fantasy Setting Search” contest in 2002, beating out over 11,000 other submissions. Eberron was officially launched for D&D 3rd edition in 2004, with Baker running point on the setting along with a number of other senior D&D designers. Baker also wrote several Eberron novels and continued to steer the setting well into the fourth edition of D&D.

Baker later parted ways with Wizards of the Coast (which still owns the rights to Eberron) but has continued to publish new materials for the setting via DMsGuild, including popular titles such as Exploring Eberron and Chronicles of Eberron. In 2024, he also briefly consulted on Eberron: Forge of the Artificer and wrote and released Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone under a third-party license, which he announced would be his last Eberron product.

In addition to his work on D&D, Baker has also contributed to several other TTRPG systems, including Pathfinder and 13th Age. In 2014, he co-founded Twogether Studios with his wife and fellow designer Jen Ellis, and developed a number of board and card games, including Gloom, Phoenix: Dawn Command, Illimat and TAZ: Bureau of Balance.

In August 2025 at Gen Con, Darrington Press announced that Baker and Ellis were joining the Daggerheart team, where they would be working on a new official unnamed product.

Final thoughts

Eidolon: The Ghost Market is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated third-party releases for Daggerheart to date. And it will also be the first taste of what we can expect from Keith Baker and Jen Ellis, with the two also working on an official as-yet-unknown Darrington Press product.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on Eidolon: The Ghost Market crowdfunder in the days ahead. In the meantime, you can sign up for alerts now and download the free four-page preview on BackerKit.

The post Keith Baker Reveals New “Ecto-Punk Noir” Daggerheart Setting appeared first on TTRPG Fanatics.

Writing some magical forests: A shrike for my dreams

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 17:57:36 GMT

The idea was that I am running an elfgame forest campaign for my young son and his friends, teaching them how to GM. They find a portal in the city, a la Ultan's Door, that takes them to a magical wood. But what is special about the woods? I wanted something that invoked wonder, fear, or awe; that invites them in to spend time there.

Coming up with one coherent, fully realized idea seemed daunting, and I have less than a week to the game. But a good blog told me that coming up with a bunch of diverse short ideas would be easier, and so it proved.

So in the spirit of Amanda Lee's fantastic cities, I speed-wrote a list of 101 notes on magical forests (Thank you for the inspiration Amanda! I used Trello, not post-it notes, but I type faster than I write).

I plan to use several of these for next week's game. Some are about forests, some about tree species or ferns or moss, and some adventure hooks and random oddities. I don't know, creating this fast is HARD. My brain go rest now.

101 notes on magical forests

Teleport between crystal trees, scattered in every grove
Animals all speak but different languages, balkanized war, no one speaks of the possum genocide
Blue trunks, red under-leaves, weep healing sap but under the new moon, causes madness
everything living in and near this forest is a plant, on the inside, including the people. Animals mimics or just plant-evolution, or a viral plague/curse. Sun bathing and eating plants.
The forest is full of tiny dragons, of many annoying varieties. Like chipmunks will eat your rations, tie that shit up WELL
Owlbears can fly: all live in fear of the annual owlbear migration. Only saving grace is they hate the sound of bells. Beware pepper spray dealers, they are largely charlatans.
The forest is the back hair of a sleeping giant troll. cut a tree down sure, but don't dig too deep. Rumbles and moves
The trees are their own society, alien and unforgiving. They watch and remember.
Brakes of bloodthorn vines snake through the understory: detour or donate your fluids, most animals sail over/through and the bandits have secret passages.
The forest is cursed, all who enter shrink down to mouse size. Beware the witch's cat!
Time passes oddly under the boughs of the wood, a day in an hour, an hour in a day. The moon shifts the time tides.
Elves made of briars and old bones claim these woods and live in great mounds of thorn, where they watch outsiders compete in games of agility and strength, with thorns waiting below.
Forests where animals pretend to be trees, illusory sight not sound. hide from the bandersnatch
Forests full of grazing cows, just full of them, you could walk from one cow back to another. And you should, because the ground is infested with heart grubs.
Forests so thick with vines you travel faster up in the canopy than on the ground. the ground vines move like vipers in the shade, higher up you go, the more they stay still in sunlight.
Forest gaps change the season: it's always late spring there, until the breach in the canopy is healed.
Children's laughter echoes through the forest, and shadows flit from place to place. You cannot see them, but they can touch you and play pranks. Keep them entertained, you don't want them bored.
Fire in this forest happens every day, at noon. The understory grows magically. No vines, no dead trees--you gotta climb a trunk or find a stream when the flames come.
In the middle of the forest there is a wide clearing, an old fire. Every day, fire-breathing deer walk it, keeping it from regrowing. Their golden pelts are magical.
Pigs roam this forest, all the size of two hands together. They are voracious and adorable, but nothing dares to eat them. They mass at the sound of a terrified oink.
the soil of this forest smells like sulfur, and the wind stings the eyes. Beware the old stump holes where trees died, if you step on the leaves you could fall into choking gas pockets.
The purple flametrees have explosive seeds, shooting out barbed seed shards for dispersal. If large mammals get too close on foot, they drop them. Clever climbers may harvest. Cut the trees down and the wood explodes in pieces.
The sap of the pines in this forest rusts metal like acid. Forget firewood: year after year, pines grow more abundant near the town.
The tree trunks move a little each day, a foot or two, stretching towards sunlight or a dead body. Camp carefully.
If humans eat of the fruit of the forest, its madness will take them, the beguiling whispers of trees. Their eyes and blood turn green and direct sun hurts, but they never need eat again.
The forest grows more dense than can be walked in many places. If the forest gods do not receive their offerings, it will grow dense wherever direction you walk, an hour hence.
the old trees send suggestions and messages into the minds of animals. Some are angry.
the forest has no floor, only roots and open space above the Dark. Falling through means falling down from above, most of the time.
The forest is inverted, hanging upside down from the back of the world. All the animals climb. If any fall, they make a soft landing on the orange clouds, but then how to return? and what is deeper down in the cloudstuff?
the forest is silent. the forest floor is warm and breathes, up and down. You walk on a titanic creature: its immune system will find you.
The trees have a Congress, and small trees don't have a vote. They want a vote, and are willing to fight for it.
The forest animals are sacred and indescribably delicious/power-inducing. Killing one summons the forest spirit, who hunts poachers and demands odd prices to restore the balance. Most prefer to die.
Mushroom rings in the forest constantly transport the unwary the underforest, the white reflection of the overforest, hanging down into the dark.
The rare forest jabberwock has been spotted, fleeing from the bandersnatch. Save it, or the kingdom is cursed for the next decade.
Forests where leaves are daggers, splinters from the wood slowly worm their way to your heart and the pollen is intoxicating. Beware spring and windstorms.
Every dryad is a trapped human, all want free, but the trees will defend their prizes. Do not lean on trunks.
Bandits hide in this forest, the shadows of the great white oak trunks lead to caves below, old sites of a forgotten time.
The swordwood is central to the local economy, a dense workable metal substitute. These woods are patrolled, permit-only, and where the kingdom's worst prisoners often disappear.
The raccoons are at war with the deer. Make peace, or they will shed blood on the summer equinox and the badger horde will be set free.
This forest shelters the last free goblin clan, where they craft in peace, free of the demands of the kingdoms forges. The Duke plans their capture.
The robber baron rules this dry forest with an iron fist. The frogs are his spies, and all pay the water tax.
The forest hugs a river. The bottom of the river is very dark blue, almost black. Sometimes, you see green eyes down there, looking at you.
A forest of green and brown flesh, where leaves are skin flaps and the bats all drink tree blood at night.
The forest is the body of its guardian spirit, a great white cat. It is angry. When you wound the cat in life, gashes open like ravines. Dare you kill it?
At the center of some trees, there is a round bar of gold, inscribed with symbols. The forest is under constant threat from loggers, and will soon vanish. The symbols describe what happens when the forest is gone.
Ornery goats of all colors roam these woods, eating everything they can reach. All are magical. If you try to stop one from eating your stuff, watch out.
Forest trees like feathers, drawing back into the ground when touched.
Forest trees like black holes, gravity pulling until its had a meal.
Forest trees whose pollen, leaves, nuts and bark all make you sleep for 100 years, during which time its roots eat you. Gather firewood at your peril.
Something hunts these woods in packs (velociraptors), grabbing children, taking down livestock, leaving behind scales and head-high claw marks on the trees. Sizzling blood, spitting in defense.
These woods are the lush territory of a protective ogre. His territorial Xs are everywhere on the trunks. Visitors are allowed, but they must keep to campsites and trails, and not hurt the woods. A boy is lost there, with a toy axe.
Every good campsite is cursed by old runes on the rocks; sleep on the forest floor at your own risk, and up a tree at your discomfort.
The longer you stay in the woods, the greener your hair grows. it is harmless but semi-permanent, but folk believe it is a contagious illness, and if you want to enter the city/town, you need to get clean.
Bury yourself in the mould of these woods for one week, and your skin will be like bark for a month. Folks will be afraid. Bodies buried here come back as wooden people.
Rare giant trees spot this forest. Each is a town dominated by a different clan of lizardfolk. All clans are currently at war. Bring a tree down and you can lead them all.
Squirrels here talk and repeat all that they hear. Be wary of what you say, and ask careful questions. They sometimes lie.
The forest trees are all many-headed serpents, the leaves frills and the buds mouths. Wake them at your peril.
Tree octopi infest these woods. Their camouflage is excellent, but their aim is terrible. Flee the wriggling tentacles, and watch for the big ones.
Two trees form an arch every few hundred meters. These are the elf-roads, walk them at your peril, but many have sheltered there when the dark knight rides by.
These woods were made by a wizard, and nothing works right. The trees grow densely at right angles, the sky is a distant memory, and the animals are all hybrids: bat-snakes, frog-foxes, owl-dragons. There is one female frogfox left, and the Princess wants to save it by breeding it with her male pet frogfox.
The forest is the cemetery for a great city. Each tree is a core memory of the buried dead, and burning smoke from their wood makes visions. The smoke also drives wildlife and monsters crazy, as the forest spirit seeks revenge. You must solve a murder done ten years past.
The forest is urban, home to a great elven city. The elves spit and shit on the underdwellers below the canopies, who do all the work for little pay.
Wyverns hunt the edges of this forest, their venom turning victims into trees. The forest expands, year by year, as rumors of gold dust in the streams spread wildly.
A gold rush threatens the woods, and the forest creatures debate war against the offenders. You have been captured and brought to the summit, and asked to defend your people.
The forest moves at night, small trees more than large. They take care not to step on animals or people, for the most part. Young thickets have been known to follow cute people around for days and weeks, however. Do you dare to hurt their feelings?
This tree was a vampire staked through the heart, and the stake grew. Stakes from it are extra deadly to vampires, but the bats that roost in its branches are bloodthirsty and dangerous.
The forest absorbs sound, no more than three yards for a whisper, ten yards for a shout.
The forest is swampy. Muddy quicksand is everywhere, as are giant leeches, mud snakes, and wary tiny fairy dragons. In every clearing lie the bones of greedy sorcerers.
Something moves under the forest--a great worm. All that walks on the ground is his prey. His tunnels lead places.
Hordes of nethershrikes migrate through the woods one week each spring and fall, drilling holes through anything and pollinating the trees. Refugees have come into the woods, unknowing.
Every tree is hollow and hosts a hive of killer bees. Smoking pots allow the kings harvesters to enter, but fire is a constant risk in dry years. Someone is setting fires--can you stop them?
Each different species of tree is colored brightly in one dominant hue, with magical wood. But sad blue is taking over the forest year by year, making the folk of the woodland villages cry.
As you pass through the woods, trees and shrubs feel you pass. They will block you way, turn you aside, just for fun. They enjoy jokes.
This forest was an ancient battlefield. At night under a full moon, magical energy seeps from the earth and ghostly warriors reenact battles amid the trees. But now it is happening more and more often, endangering local villages.
Forests have four names. If you know one of them, you may pass. If you know the second, you may harvest wood. If you know the third, you may speak to the trees and learn secrets. If you know the fourth, you may command the trees like an army.
Ferns in this forest will grow upward if you crush or harvest their fiddleheads, lifting interlopers into the sky.
Moss in this wet forest grows so dense and deep that it shrouds trunks and rocks, and hides caves, treasures, monsters, bandits, and old secrets. Some would not like those secrets un-mossed.
Tamaracks are conifers that leaf down once a year, and their needles dry out to be needles in truth, punching through boots and exacting a bloody cost from hungry mushroom hunters.
This forest is the roof of an ancient crystal palace, and when a tree falls, oftentimes a way down is ripped open for a season.
Little skeletal monuments dot this forest, at the base of nearly every tree; crush one at your peril.
The dense understory (bamboo, rhododendron) hides a hungry clan of tiny killers, who throw darts and spears to herd prey into bamboo stick traps.
A war was once won from this jungle, as halflings tunneled down to escape a flying army of invading elves. Find the tunnels and you have an easy walk from village to village, but don't get lost down there.
Night in the jungle brings out the grue-cat, who waits beyond the firelight.
The forest streams are enchanted. Some heal, some make you sleep, and some do stranger things still.
A forest bird from these woods will always know its way back home, and to its cage. The people here are the great mail clearing house of the region, but a warlord (or magical bird flu) threatens them.
Bloody-horned unicorns stand guard over these woods once a year, where the Forest Queen is reborn. To see her born is said to grant healing, wisdom, or youth, your choice--if you can escape after.
The forest extends over water, roots thick enough to walk on in most parts, rising and falling with the waves.
This jungle is where the walking fungus comes from, the one that assassins use to kill people after one year, their skin turning sallow, the fungus bursting from their skull. It is said a cure lies within.
In this flooded jungle, great feather-legged spiders skim the water between the trees, preying on all who paddle through.
The forest trees are massive hollow spheres of bark and leaves, where they root and blow with the storms. For some reason, they are now encroaching on the lands nearby.
This forest is endless, a hole at its center forever sloping down, gravity bending sideways, stranger and more dangerous as you go down. Bringing specimens of its exotic wildlife back to the emperor can make a career.
A forest floating in the sky, starting off normal at the edges, where it is young, and in the old center, floating upward and taking the earth in its roots with it. One can carve a tree out to fly it like a bird, but be careful, it's a long way down when you are deep in. And what lies underneath?
Forests that are black as a winter night even during the day. Follow the old paths, and pay any toll you must to stay on the trails.
Floating forests where vines and roots connect everything, above and below, and bringing the right species of trees together creates light shows that royalty clamor for.
When you carve something on the trunks of these trees, it disappears and reappears on the skin of your worst enemy.
When you carve on the trees, they read what you write, and respond to you in kind, with great wisdom and insight. Trees know many things. But a tree can only handle 100 carvings before dying, and the forest is very old.
The moss that hangs from the trees here is prized for burial shrouds, but it also can be used to cause a false death. The only way to wake them is to find the tree their shroud comes from.
Dwarves are found all over these woods, happily mining. They are kind, gentle, and helpful, and are slowly poisoning the local water with their copper extraction.
Every mushroom in these woods is bioluminescent, and some species make excellent lanterns that last for weeks. But their light is also attractive to some monsters.
When the wind passes through these woods, the seeds it transports sprout everywhere downwind, growing like wildfire across pastures and farms. It's dangerous to breathe here, lest your lungs grow an herb or vine. Normally beaten back with fire, the wind has shifted this year, putting a republic at peril.
The trees are massive, stretching up to the sky. The beasts are giants, and the understory, darkness. It's safer in the light, but getting there is challenging. An old vine road used to traverse it, but it has been years since someone returned on that road.

Thank you so much if you got this far, all comments are most welcome. And please let me know if you have any good combinations to suggest, I want to make a good impression in the first session.

What will people learn from the GFS II fighting?: Dungeon Fantastic

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 15:14:11 GMT

This post is a connected followup to Boss/Worthy/Fodder ranking the GFS II guys.
Meta-gamey concerns I have as a GM

The Master/Gith almost solo'd the whole group, even with them using potions and Great Haste. This was for a few reasons.

One, he was using buffs, too. Missile Shield for one, some spellstones and potions graciously donated by previous delvers for another.

Second, the players didn't have their cleric with them, which meant the Master/Gith wasn't trying to undo Curse over and over, and the PCs - used to constant and immediate healing - had the same problem the Master/Gith did, which was, no one to heal injuries.

Third, he was legitimately boss-level - some very potent advantages, some magical gear, excellent armor, and spells. His skills were also high - experienced PC level skills.

He lost anyway, for a few reasons.

His disadvantages dictated a way to fight and a way to handle the threats of the PC. He couldn't just do the most efficient thing in the moment, although he generally had a lot of good options.

The PCs outnumbered him in the end, and it didn't all that much to take out what forces he could muster to help him. With no one to watch his back, the PCs kept after him tightly, forcing him to hit and move and hit and move until he made a mistake (disads are disadvantageous, it happens) and was taken down.
But still, he managed to kill one PC, and knock out two others, before going down.

My game concern is that the players will react by thinking, well, if DX 25 (!) and Skill 25-28 wasn't enough to overwhelm this guy without taking losses, we need to be at least skill 25-28 before DX potions. Slams didn't work well on this guy because he was very strong for his slight build, so people might start thinking, we also need more strength on everyone. You know, what if - just what if - everyone else got killed and one of the PCs had to solo one of these guys. Better for all concerned that the PC has more skill, more ST, and more DX than this guy, right?

That will work.

But then it means instead of a foe like this being interesting, a foe like this has to become the new baseline. Otherwise, any foe with attacks that work on mundane lines - roll to hit, apply defenses, apply DR on a hit, inflict injury - will likely be total wastes of time. Crit-fishing will still work just fine, but their defenses won't when a skill-30 guy succeeds by 20 on average and their defenses don't even reach 20. In fact, defenses in the mid-teens are rare on foes. 12-13 are more common, and 10-12 more common, still. In an attempt to make a boss (one on many a match for PCs) like this more like a worthy-level foe (one on one a match for a PC), it came mean just about total overkill against everything else. When that happens, as a GM, I really have no choice but to make high skill and high defenses and Feints less or not at all relevant. More trick monsters, less like-on-like challenges for the PCs. This is the Invulnerability Trap I have discussed before.

So I am considering skill-capping. Sure, that means more people pushing to DX 20, but they're going to do that anyway. But DX+10 as a skill cap is on my mind.

Might be seen as unfair, because I won't promise you'll never find a skill-25 guy with DX 14 on the other side, but it might stop people from pouring more and more and more points into a single axis of power and groaning when the adventures present broader axes of demand.

Another possible issue is, we can't do it without (blank.) That might be (our cleric), or (another wizard), or (buff spells on everyone), or (a fountain of DX and ST and Speed potions). It's a dangerous road ahead, for sure, but it's going to be tough if no one is willing to go without a massive amount of buffs. It will become a logistical hurdle to delving in new areas. This I am less concerned by. If PCs achieve overkill by spending thousands of dollars per delver per fight, it'll naturally become a bleed for excess cash. It's annoying as a GM when it means you can't really gauge the strength of the PCs - are they ST 15-20 or more like 21-25 due to potions, or DX 20+ due to potions, or immune to missile fire due to Missile Shield, or are they not? But it's not a problem.

My final concern is the caution trap, which is the two above plus more. If this was so hard here, what about a couple levels down . . . is it worse? Yes. Will that mean people insist on doing to this level what they did to every level above? That is to say, loot it down to the door hinges and not move on until they've "cleared" the level to maximize their point value before taking a further risk? They may. I sincerely hope this teaches them that a forward risk is the way to go - the big loot, the big fun fights, the cool exploration and insight into Felltower's internal logic as rewards for pushing the envelope a bit.

We will see.

The Chaos Vault Opens Once Again to Offer Up a 'Magic: The Gathering' Commander Deck: ICv2 RSS Web Feed

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 14:28:30 GMT

'Odds and Ends' Includes Desirable Reprints; WotC to Apply Lessons Learned from 'Hatsune Miku' Deck Sale

d100 - Assorted Alchemical Gimcrack & Enchanted Ephemera: d4 Caltrops

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 14:16:01 GMT

Here are a hundred Minor Magical Wonders that didn’t quite fit nicely into lists of their own. The intention was to provide some ideas for stocking the shelves in your typical “Magic Shop” or some trinkets to represent an Itinerant Alchemist or Medicine Show's Wares. Most of these are intended to be single-use and not too terribly expensive. They fall under the framing of permitting the Player Characters to spend some of their hard-earned money in order to potentially improve their chances of success in an Adventure. As always, most are very specific Tools for Problems that are undefined, so it is often up to the reader to imagine situations where they might be found to be extremely helpful to have on hand.

As I rounded it out, I began to notice that many of these items might serve as a substitute for systems that invoke Cantrips to perform minor magical deeds, or some could even stand-in for those neglected “utility” spells that often go unprepared. If you decide that these aren’t too dreadfully dear in price, they might even help pad out a party’s arsenal to make a Magic User feel more Magical at those lower levels. Prices, Availability, and Reliability can always be seasoned to table taste.

Podcast #416 livestream: Warcraft x D&D previews, Dragonlance world book, UKGE bans AI: EN World: D&D & Tabletop RPG News & Reviews

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 11:59:00 GMT

Livestreaming as always Monday at 8pm UK time (3pm Eastern)!

Crear 3 personajes de Troubleshooters: Runeblog

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 11:03:39 GMT

Después de jugar la primera partida de The Troubleshooters, coincidimos en que queríamos seguir jugando. La siguiente aventura que dirigí fue El asunto minoico, pero en vez de seguir con los personajes pregenerados del reglamento: Frida, Paul y Eloïse, los jugadores prefirieron crear sus propios personajes de cómic francobelga. Así también pudimos ver cómo funciona la creación de personajes en este juego de rol. A continuación puedes leer cómo fue el proceso de creación y ver los tres personajes que crearon.

Crear personajes del juego de rol The Troubleshooters es sencillo. Al contrario que en otros juegos, no hay que hacer ninguna tirada de dados, solamente elegir varias opciones. Para ello, lo mejor es tener una idea lo más clara posible del personaje que quieres crear. Te puedes inspirar en los protagonistas de los cómics francobelgas que se sitúan en el mundo moderno, como Spirou y Fantasio, Tintín o Blake y Mortimer, pero también en otras obras de ficción, sobre todo si son del género de aventuras.

El reglamento también hace hincapié en pensar cómo será el grupo de protagonistas y que no se solapen en sus funciones principales. Para ello ofrece una lista de varios arquetipos en los que puede encajar cada personaje. Con esto en mente, hay que elegir una plantilla de personaje, que vendría a ser como las profesiones de otros juegos de rol. El reglamento incluye unas cuantas, como «explorador intrépido», «abogado justiciero» o «atleta de élite», y reglas para crear más. Como jugamos en la plataforma Roll20, creé una ayuda de juego con los arquetipos y luego les pasé la lista de plantillas en PDF. También les pasé recorte con los talentos y complicaciones en PDF.

Karjedon eligió la plantilla de «periodista inquisitiva» y apuntó en la hoja de personaje (que tiene forma de pasaporte) la serie de puntuaciones en habilidades concretas. Al contrario que en otros juegos de sistema D100, los porcentajes ya vienen prefijados, aunque luego puedes hacer algún retoque quitando de un lado para añadirlo a otro. En cada plantilla también se sugieren talentos y complicaciones. Hay que empezar con al menos 2 talentos y 1 complicación, pero todos los jugadores eligieron tener uno más de cada. En su caso, Karjedon eligió los talentos «Empatía», «Credenciales de prensa» y «Cinturón negro de judo». El primero potencia las habilidades de Encanto y Subterfugio para obtener más información o engañar mejor; las credenciales te pueden abrir puertas y permite crear una rueda de prensa para obtener pistas, y el cinturón negro te permite acabar antes un combate, todo ello previo gasto de puntos de historia, claro. Para recuperar esos puntos de historia, eligió las complicaciones «Exceso de confianza», que te impone un penalizador en las habilidades altas, y «Mala reputación», que hace que te echen de una escena cuando al PNJ de turno no le gustan los periodistas entrometidos. Con todo esto, el personaje ya daba la idea de ser una persona segura de sí misma y que no se rinde a la primera de cambio. Tras rellenar varios huecos más, nació Charleen «Charly» Deveraux, una periodista nacida en Bruselas y residente en París, a quien le gusta mascar caramelos de regaliz, nunca se separa de su cámara de fotos (su marca personal), y siempre anda tras la pista de misterios interesantes para escribir reportajes. Sus mejores habilidades son Encanto 75%, y Alerta, Contactos, Investigación y Pelea 65%.

Haz clic para ampliar esta parte de la hoja de personaje de Charly en Roll20 (imagen de Lois Lane de Phil Cho)

Por su parte, Thorkrim (del blog Murallas Blancas) empezó con la idea de hacerse una especie de Indiana Jones, pero poco a poco fue derivando a alguien más parecido al mejor amigo de ese personaje de cine. Para empezar, eligió la plantilla «académico aventurero» e imaginó un profesor de arqueología nacido en Luxemburgo al que llamó Luc Jungels. Eligió los talentos «Buena reputación», que te da algo de ventaja en situaciones sociales; «Políglota», que te da un idioma extra y ventajas para entender cualquier otro; y «Espadachín», que permite luchar mejor con una espada (o algo que se le parezca) y desarmar al adversario. Entre las complicaciones escogió «Honesto», que te permite ganar puntos de historia si te pones en una situación difícil por decir la verdad. Para la segunda complicación se inventó una que le encajaba muy bien: «Meticuloso con las antigüedades». Esta le permite ganar puntos de historia cuando pierde los papeles al ver que alguien trata mal objetos antiguos. Y así surgió este profesor de universidad muy inspirado en el personaje Marcus Brody de la saga Indiana Jones (ese de la mítica escena que se baja del tren y grita «¿¿¿Alguien habla mi idioma???»). Es gracioso ver a Thorkrim interpretarlo porque da charlas de historia aunque no le interese a sus interlocutores (¡incluidos sus compañeros de aventuras!) y actúa como el alivio cómico, al estilo del profesor Tornasol u otros parecidos. Sus mejores habilidades son Humanidades 75%, y Contactos, Investigación, Lenguas y Ciencia 65%. Como elemento físico característico, se puso unas gafas enormes de miope y que descuida un poco su vestimenta.

Luc es un experto en idiomas, que preferimos dejar sin especificar hasta que sean necesarios (¿te recuerda a alguien?)

Finalmente, a Germán le encantó el personaje de Eloïse que incluye el reglamento y se lo pasó en grande con ella en la primera aventura. A pesar de todo, también creó un personaje nuevo muy interesante. En su caso, se inspiró mucho en el protagonista de la película Atrápame si puedes. Quería que fuera un estafador y falsificador, pero como no había ninguna plantilla específica para eso, lo que hicimos fue tomar la de «ladrón de guante blanco» y modificar un poco la lista de habilidades. Luego, en el punto donde puedes mover arriba y abajo algunos puntos, distribuyó puntos entre varias, aunque entonces no empezó con una al 75%. Como se hace pasar por un playboy ricachón, tomó bastantes elementos de equipo de la plantilla «diletante cosmopolita», ¡como el fajo de billetes, que es un marca personal! Respecto a los talentos, eligió «Acróbata» que potencia las tiradas de Agilidad y frena las caídas, «Seductor», que encajaba muy bien con la idea del personaje que interpreta Leonardo DiCaprio y también «Actor», que permite adoptar el papel de otra persona. En este caso hicimos una excepción, ya que en principio para actuar se usa la habilidad de Entretenimiento, pero le dije que podía usar la de Subterfugio. El hecho es que las dos habilidades se solapan un poco en la función de imitar o hacerse pasar por otra persona. Para las complicaciones eligió «Exceso de confianza» (igual que Charly) y «Antecedentes criminales», que hace que la policía lo pueda reconocer y lo detenga, lo que le obliga a ausentarse de una escena de la aventura. También se apuntó el talento «Doble nacionalidad (soviético)» para ponérselo más adelante. Germán decidió que el personaje sería irlandés (o eso dice ser) y así nació Sean O'Sullivan, un apuesto estafador al que todo el mundo conoce como «Harry». Como imagen del personaje, se lo imaginó como el protagonista de la serie viejuna Remington Steele. Sus habilidades principales son Agilidad, Prestidigitación, Seguridad, Sigilo y Subterfugio, todas a 65%. Para terminar de redondear el personaje, eligió los ganchos de trama «Amigos en las alturas» ya que es experto en mezclarse con la jet-set y «Servicio secreto» porque está metido en asuntos de espionaje (puede que algunas agencias lo extorsionen para aprovechar sus dotes para el espionaje).

Parte del pasaporte de «Harry», el playboy falsificador con cara de Remington Steele. Puedes hacer clic para ampliar.

Aún falta un detalle. El reglamento de Troubleshooters establece que después de crear las hojas de personaje y decidir el rasgo físico característico, hay que decidir en qué circunstancias se conocieron. Para ello tiras en una tabla de ciudades del mundo y dos de los jugadores explican cómo sus personajes se conocieron allí. Primero tiramos por Charly y Harry, que se conocieron en Melbourne (!). Se inventaron que Charly estaba indagando sobre las operaciones fraudulentas de unos mafiosos y cuando la pillaron metiendo las narices donde no debía, apareció Harry de repente haciéndose pasar por un tratante de arte y la sacó de allí. Luego hicieron otra tirada para ver en qué ciudad conocieron al profesor Luc Jungels y salió Leningrado, así que decidieron que lo conocieron cuando lo contrataron para que verificara la autenticidad de unas obras de arte antiguo que iban a vender unos mafiosos a los que Harry conocía y que Charly estaba investigando. Mientras escuchaba esta historia, pensé que sus personajes iban a encajar muy bien en la aventura que íbamos a jugar a continuación: ¡El asunto minoico parecía haberse escrito expresamente para ellos!

Pues bien, espero que te haya gustado ver estos 3 personajes por dentro. Pronto publicaré una crónica de sus aventuras propias de cómic. ¿Qué te parecen? ¿Te los imaginas como personajes de cómic viviendo aventuras de una viñeta a otra? :-)

Conquering the Barbarian Altanis: Session 194: Attronarch's Athenaeum

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 07:38:44 GMT

Adventurers

Character	Race	Class	Description
Ainsley	Human	Ranger level 1	An older gentleman with a groomed moustache and a wooden pipe in his mouth, covered in dark green cloak.
Ambros	Human	Cleric level 7	Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Balarus	Human	Fighter level 4	An ex-woodsman, quite a crack shot with his bow.
Hedwig Hogwarts	Elf	Fighter / magic-user	An always alert owl masquerading as an elf.
Ivor	Human	Cleric level 1	A young, soft-spoken worshipper of Umannah with thick black beard.
Tam o' Shanter	Human	Cleric level 4	A boisterous wine-lover of Losborst on a Great Crusade of the Grape.
Tarkus the Promising	Human	Cleric level 5	Follower of Bachontoi, God of Red Wisdom.
Thorinda Bung	Human	Monk level 4	She has blonde hair done up in a tight pony tail and wears light, loose suit.
Volkard	Human	Ranger level 1	Bushy hobo from the wilderness.
Wilbalt Abendeurer	Human	Fighter level 3	A burly blonde barbarian; Warmund's younger brother and a better swordsman of the two.

Flowerbloom 17th, Waterday

“Come, touch me some more...” brass door face beckoned Ivor.

But Ivor was busy—busy staying alive!

Balarus, Ainsley, Thorinda Bung, Aurella, Tam, and Ivor had just finished fighting five muscular green brutes. The beasts had no head, eyes instead of nipples, and wide mouth crossing their chest.

Bright light flashed before them, blinding them. Ambros, Wilbalt, and an unknown bushy man appeared in the chamber ahead of them. The trio was flanked by four pits filled with content most foul: excrement, bile, and something yellow.

“Watch out!”

Another headless brute approached from the east.

“Oh no!” Thorinda gulped as she ran around the corner only to illuminate two more. But with her lantern they got a feeling for the whole chamber. It was seventy feet long and sixty feet wide. A total of five potential egresses: three framed stone slabs with a musical note on them, two on the north wall, one on the west wall, and one framed waterfall to the south, east from the corridor they came through. And a dozen of iron-ringed pits filled with dizzying contents.

Three brutes were present in total, two walking towards them between the pits, and one standing in a semi-circular alcove to the far east. The last one held a crossbow.

Adventurers fanned out. Balarus, Volkard, and Ainsley ran to the shit-pits, and shot at the crossbow wielding monster. They noticed it looked slightly different, wearing broad nipple-goggles.

“THROW THEM INTO THE BILE!” the goggly brute yelled. Two other brutes complied and began grappling with their opponents. Thorinda, an experienced martial artist, contorted and dodged the clumsy beast, tripping and stunning it in the process. Drunkard Tam, on the other hand, got manhandled, like he is used to.

The brute lifted Tam like a little child; it carried him as others slashed and smashed it; and it chucked the cleric into a vat full of concentrated bile. Dressed in chainshirt, Tam sank like a rock.

It burned. It burned a lot. And it hurt. It hurt a lot.

“EAT SHIT!” goggly brute yelled and shot back at Balarus. The man was hurt, but the monster was soon put down, looking like a dead porcupine. Ivor the Brave smashed the chest-mouthed beast that chucked Tam. He hit it just bellow the mouth, where a normal man's solar plexus would be, caving its chest in. Thorinda glaived the stunned one through its nipple-eye, exiting through the ribcage.

Wilbalt threw his axe to the side, grabbed a polearm, and ran to the pit containing half dissolved Tam. In panic, and cursed by soberness of pain, Tam attempted to doff his chainmail. But his eyes burned, and his fingers were clumsy. When he felt something hitting him on the head he grabbed on that in desperation.

This was a fine decision, for it was the blunt side of the polearm. Ambros, Ivor, and Ainsley jumped in to help Wilbalt, and dragged the cleric out.

A flash or red light blinded everyone. Tarkus the Promising and Hedwig of Hogwarts materialised in the centre of the chamber.

Victorious but battered, the clerics cast healing spells, while others bound their wounds, counted the dead, and took a breather. They organised into two groups, one led by Bily Tam and another by Ranger Ainsley.

Tam was joined by Wilbalt, Balarus, Thorinda, and Hedwig.

Ivor, Volkard, Ambros, and Tarkus joined Ainsley.

The teams spread out and began investigating the chamber.

There were twelve pits in total, organised into four columns and three rows. All had an elevated iron ring around them. In the first row, from left to right, pits were filled with: a grey and foetid, soupy mix of bone chips and necrotic flesh; a sticky, yellowish-orange liquid that quivers; a pale, slimy, milky-white liquid; and what looked and smelled like stomach acid. In the second row: two pits with liquid excrement with floating chunky bits; a misty, silvery, see-through substance; and another bile pit. Third row, same order: a bile pit that Tam took a dive in; another yellow-orange pit; another bile pit; and one more silvery, wispy pit.

Arrow-filled brute laid dead in what could, at best, be described as some sort of magical circle. Nobody dared stepped into it, so they dragged the corpse out of it instead. They took its goggles and attempted to convince Thorinda to wear them. Alas, she was way too lithe.

Stone slabs looked pretty much like the slabs on the lower level; the ones they had to blow in order for them to open. Yellowish, sticky substance was baked into the floor right in front the north-east slab. Finally, a corridor was visible beyond the framed waterfall.

Tam and his men investigated the yellowed doors. Once at safe distance, Ivor passed the blood-caked, filthy, flute to Ambros. Cleric blew on it. Barbs tore into his lips and tongue, injuring him. No divine words will be spoken coherently for some time.

Slab slid upward, and yellowish fumes billowed out, dissipating in the chamber. Thirty foot corridor led into a circular chamber with four skeletons stirring something in a pit below them. The skeletons wore thick goggles, aprons, and gloves. They used long pitchforks to stir a mass of something.

Tam gang rolled in, while Ainsley crew investigated beyond the waterfall. A wondrous sight, down a corridor leading into a pool of clear water, filled with colourful corals. Natural light shining through two horizontal slits illuminated the whole chamber. An opaque membrane was in each slit, softening and diffusing the sunlight.

“Hold me back, I am going for a swim!” Hedwig was eager.

“No, let's see if there is anything inside first!”

“Good idea. Let's chop up some of those guys!”

And it was indeed a good idea. A swarm of long, slimy, crimson tentacles tore the severed arm to pieces. They retracted to the sides. Serene blue has been violated with frothy red.

Drawing by Anthony.

Balarus shot at the membranes, shattered each like they were glass.

“I still wanna go for a swim!”

“No, come on, let's go.”

Once back into the pit chamber, Ainsley team quickly realised that the stone slab had shut behind Tam's gang. One of the clerics banged on it. Ambros blew Ivor's flute once more, and the doors opened.

Four skeleton-chefs were destroyed; the mass they stirred bas a smouldering, brewing concoction of fungi, large, shrimp-like insects, and some herbs and lichen. Doors to the north east led into another circular chamber. This one was filled with barrels containing highly flammable military oil.

“Let's burn the vats.”

“Let's burn octopus!”

“No, let's burn EVERYTHING!”

“Guys, this place seems very organic. It might collapse.”

“LET'S BURN EVERYTHING!”

Whilst discussing, nearly two dozen giant flying krills invaded the chamber, causing confusion and mayhem. Stone slab shut behind them. Many got stabbed and nibbled upon. Ivor succumbed to his wounds. But ultimately, adventurers prevailed, adding the the unholy paella brewing in the chamber.

Doors were shut. Toxic fumes were filling the chamber. An barrels of oil beckoned some more than others.

Will they fulfil their burning desire?

Or will it be quenched by others?

Only one way to find out.

Meme by Lord Jubalon Flux.

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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Marvel To Release Premier Collection of Grant Morrison 'X-Men' Run: ICv2 RSS Web Feed

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 07:30:42 GMT

'X-Men: E Is for Extinction'

Kirkman Reveals Energon Universe Sales: ICv2 RSS Web Feed

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 06:58:15 GMT

And They're Impressive

Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Companion (First Look): TTRPG Fanatics

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 23:53:22 GMT

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Article Summary

Chaosium Inc. has just released more details about the upcoming Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Companion.
The supplement offers new investigator creation rules, revised sanity mechanics and enhanced optional rules for combat and chases.
The book also provides a range of Keeper advice and includes three new scenarios to showcase the updated rules.
The hardcover will retail for $54.99 USD and will be released on October 28th, 2026.

Running the Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPG is about to get a little easier, with Chaosium recently unveiling new details about the upcoming Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Companion. The upcoming sourcebook is packed with new rules options and advice, in addition to including three brand-new scenarios that are designed to showcase how the new optional mechanics work.

The book will be hitting shelves in October 2026, but you can pre-order it now in hardcover and PDF from your local game store, Chaosium, DriveThruRPG and Amazon.

Below, we take a closer look at what to expect when the book arrives this fall.

What is the Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Companion about?

The Keeper Companion is a new optional rules supplement for Call of Cthulhu 7th edition written by Chaosium Creative Director Mike Mason and veteran designer Paul Fricker (both of whom were instrumental in building out the CoC 7E system). The book is designed to expand on the existing advice and toolkit provided in the Keeper Rulebook which was published back in 2016. The new Companion includes:

New Investigator creation methods: Fresh ways to roll up and conceptualize characters before they end up dead.
Investigator organizations: New systems for building investigator organizations, secret societies and paranormal government agencies.
Streamlined optional rules: New mechanics designed to speed up skill rolls, tactical combat and high-stakes chases.
Revised sanity rules: A new version of the game’s iconic mental fragility mechanics.
Advice for online play: Modern guidance and options for running games online using VTTs.
Keeper advice: New tips on scenario design and suggestions for creating memorable NPCs and encounters.
Updated character sheets: Revised investigator sheets, pulp hero sheets and new physical/digital play aids.

What are the scenarios like in the Keeper Companion?

In addition to its new rules options and Keeper advice, the book includes three brand-new scenarios, each of which designed to showcase the new mechanics presented in the Companion. These includes:

Little Miracles: A beginner-friendly scenario set near Arkham, revolving around a missing professor from Miskatonic University.
If I Had a Hammer: A chilling narrative that proves how quickly a comfortable Friday night at home can turn into an absolute nightmare.
What a Puzzler!: A clever investigative scenario centered around the era’s new, highly addictive fad for jigsaw puzzles.

How much is the Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Companion?

The hardcover retails for $54.99 USD (not including shipping, handling and taxes). A price has not yet been confirmed for the PDF, but it will likely be $29.99 USD and sold via DriveThruRPG.

When will the Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Companion be released?

The book is officially scheduled for release on October 28th, 2026, at which point you’ll be able to pick it up directly from the Chaosium website, local game stores and online retailers.

Final Thoughts

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a Keeper Companion, with Chaosium releasing a similar book back in 2008 for Call of Cthulhu 6th Edition. With CoC 7th edition, now over a decade old, however, providing Keepers with more modern advice and some new mechanical options feels like a smart move.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the new supplement in the days ahead and will provide a full review closer to launch. In the meantime, you can pre-order the Keeper Companion now in hardcover and PDF from your local game store, Chaosium, DriveThruRPG and Amazon.

The post Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Companion (First Look) appeared first on TTRPG Fanatics.

APA-1 / So, i'm running a megagame.: The Garden Below

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:10:34 GMT

Its called Arbor Point Antiquity, its starting on October the 16th 2026, and its running for 10 days via Discord. It is a science fiction game set on the titular Arbor Point Station, a frontier outpost of the late capitalist and utterly reprehensible Mauran Concern, with the players will take the role of its many squabbling citizens as they struggle for power during the annexation of a mysterious and hostile planet.

You can read all about that planet, that station, and the stellar empire that seeks to rule it by taking a peak at the APA wiki. A massive project i’ve been chipping away at for months now in the wake of my blog post about the lessons Discord megagames can learn from Larp. Its informed heavily by lessons learned from games like Empire Larp, Over/Under, Vanguard, Vanitera, and Baseline Drift.

The major shift in design between APA and other live text roleplaying megagames is that it is seasonal in structure, and has no defined ending. This means that it will run for 10 days, every three months, until the station explodes or I am unable to support the game any more. There are no set goals or win conditions beyond those players set for themselves, and the game is engineered as a sandbox to enable player ambitions grounded by the fiction rather than top down design.

For anyone worried about life consuming in game deadlines and hour by hour troop movement monitoring, be not afraid. The games structures are built around a total absence of real time order processing. Elections, debates, and the decisions of state have a minimum processing time of 48 hours, and are all scheduled in advance of a given season so you can work them around your day to day life. What is more, for those players who achieve executive status aboard the station the highly impactful orders that you can give are processed over the three month gap between seasons by the game team, meaning your actions can blossom with the full attention of a GMs that are well slept and well fed.

If your still on the fence about checking it out, here is a smattering of the games key art, and a list of its major fictional inspirations. Hope to see you soon aboard the Arbor!

If your excited by the pitch, you can now join the APA Discord Server ahead of play start and read more about the game on the APA Wiki.

Main Inspirations:

- Ancillary Justice [Novel]
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant [Novel]
- The Culture Series [Novel]
- The Dispossessed [Novel]
- Deep Space Nine [TV Show]
- Andor [TV Show]
- A Pound of Flesh [TTRPG]
- Dune [Various]
- Scavengers Reign [TV Show]
- Neon Genesis Evangelion [TV Show]
- Starship Troopers [Film]
- Citizen Sleeper [Game]
- Armoured Core 6 [Game]
- Tyranny [Game]

Key Art

Concrete Cow 26.5: Savage Spiel

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 17:01:12 GMT

I arrived at the Old Bath House in warm sunshine and a gentle breeze, a nice change from a lot of 2026's conventions, and unloaded a few books onto the Bring and Buy table. It was a smaller turn-out than usual, but I did still manage to sell one book.

Game 1: Call of Cthulhu

Having sorted out all the handouts and props for Kane's Tone for previous events, I was determined to make the most of them. I was lucky enough to get the small meeting room, meaning that I was able to deploy both sound and light effects.

This was by far the most paranoid group I've had for this scenario, and I did wonder if we were going to get into a PVP situation (not unreasonable given the events of the story) but ultimately the need to prevent the end of the world prevailed, and with some very good dice rolls, disaster was prevented.

Game 2: Shiver

It was a tough choice for the afternoon games, and I was tempted by Pirate Borg, but ultimately I picked Shiver as the scenario promised the horror of working at the bottom level of a corporation.

I picked Bobby Briers, a new intern and eager to please her managers. Soon she was teaming up with the janitor, security guard, and health and safety officer, as an outbreak in the labs caused everything to go a bit Resident Evil. By the end we'd implemented good workplace health and safety standards, along with some highly effective mop skills, and escaped the facility with most of our body parts intact. Although we were all going to need to find new jobs now, and the chance of getting references from our previous employer was looking pretty slim.

Then it was off to the takeaway for dinner, and while we did have an evening game on the schedule, not many people were sticking around and it was ultimately decided to call it. My fellow Concrete Cowncil member, Amy, handed over responsibility for the venue and we closed up, collected our bread, and headed home.

...Bread. Once again the MK Community Fridge found themselves a little over-supplied, this time in the bread department, so quite a few of us ended up going home with a loaf or two. I got a stonebaked white boule and a tiger baguette.

A smaller cow than usual, which I know is partly due to clashing with the Innsmouth Literary Festival, which I would otherwise have been attending, amongst other events. So if you're reading this and know someone who might enjoy Concrete Cow, tell them about us! As I said on Facebook recently, we're small, but perfectly formed.

Dan Plays Games 13: Throne of Salt

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 16:37:13 GMT

Index

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante

A visual novel of sorts, where you follow the titular character over the whole course of his life through the waning years of a brutal fantasy empire and its theocratic caste system. The mechanics, as they are, are fairly standard: make choices, choices affect your relationships and skills, relationships and skills influence what choices you make, cycle continues. The story and setting work for what they’re aiming for - fairly standard dark fantasy vernacular, with a couple elements thrown in for pizazz. The VA who does Brante’s monologues in the inter-act cutscenes has a distinct southern US accent and it’s nice that they didn’t default to “fantasy = English”, even if the line reads aren’t the best. In the dire age we live in, a human doing a decent but flawed job should be celebrated.

I like that you can turn the notifications for what effect a choice will have on or off - I turned it off early on because I didn’t want the numbers influencing my story choices, and it’s worked out for me so far.

Moonlighter

It just feels bad to play on about every criteria I can judge a game of this type on. The combat is stiff, the dungeon delves are repetitive, the grind is enormous to get even minor upgrades to your gear, patrons in the shop waste time standing around admiring the floorboards. It’s built for a roguelike gameplay loop but lacks the meaningful progress and or variety that makes that loop work. I can see the vision, but it’s not working.

The Message from Deep Space (Update)

Finished the game. There’s a dip in enjoyment once you get to the back third and messages start getting more abstract. You get fewer tips from the other characters, the puzzles are more obtuse, and you spend a lot of time trying to brute-force answers because either you forgot a word from 150 transmissions back or have a definition that is slightly off from what’s intended or just can’t follow the logic of the question. I found myself relying on the guide more and more as time went on, and there are a couple puzzles in there where I don’t know if it’s possible to figure them out without a guide pointing you at the answer.

Still, it was a fun time. There were some very strong narrative moments in there, though if the achievements are anything to go by only ~9% of players have actually reached the end. So take that into account. Definitely keep the guide on hand if you get frustrated (and turn off the scanline effect if your graphics card is struggling.)

Decade

Recommendation from friend of the blog Semiurge. One o’ them artsy games by a solo Finnish dev with an incredible premise: you’re locked up in a bunker at the end of the world with 3 younger children. You also have a time machine, which can send people back in 10-year intervals. So you send your child soldiers back in time, filling in a mad-libs mission of item + objective + target, and seconds later they return ten years older and maybe the course of history has shifted. There are a lot of timelines out there, and all of them that I’ve found are a different kind of bad.

The game elicited some moments of actual discomfort from me during the first few rounds, and that’s a gold star on the good noodle board. The disjointed, distorted, deep-fried collage-mess of the graphic and sound design helps in that regard. The many dystopian futures are interesting, and it’s fun watching how different ideologies mutate over time and which ones can seize the spotlight given the right circumstances.

From a gameplay angle, though, the game’s just plain bad. The clues are obtuse (if they’re present at all), most combinations of item + objective have no purpose but wasting your time (you don’t even get lore for most of them), most dialogue is repeated, and progressing without a guide is going to involve a frankly ridiculous amount of trial and error that the game doesn’t have the content to support. The discovery and experimentation of the first few rounds quickly turns to tedium, and once you start using a guide there’s really no reason to stop using it.

Thousand Hells

A game that should have been my bag (narrative-focused heists of hell), but I ended up refunding it after 24 minutes because the resolution system felt way too obtuse to be fun.

Each of your four party members has a collection of traits, represented as tiles that you draw from a bag, which you apply to the challenge at hand and will give you a bonus or penalty to the dice roll - but the traits are vaguely worded, there’s no feedback as to what effect they had even after you use them. In order to pass a skill check you have to:

Be lucky enough to draw a relevant trait tile
Figure out if the game thinks the very vaguely-worded trait is relevant to the challenge
Succeed at the die roll, factoring in the lasting penalties you’ve accumulated from previous failures (which are handed out like candy)

The tile-drawing mechanic effectively means you have to get lucky in an extra layer of RNG just to be allowed to use a character’s skills; my shaman was a nature specialist, and ate shit three challenges in a row in the jungle because I never pulled “so-and-so is a nature specialist” tile. In 24 minutes I succeeded at one die roll, but since all challenges require multiple die rolls, I still failed. If success and failure are going to be this arbitrary and obscured, why even bother with skills? Just make it a CYOA.

Sovereign Tower

Mythic Bastionland: The Management Game. I love basically everything about it, except the time loop mechanic that is an unfortunately large component.

The basic cycle of “hold court > send knights on missions > check results of completed missions” feels good at a base level, in a “slip into a zen state” sort of way. Art style is wonderful. Some of the writing is a bit on the nose but overall it’s enjoyable and some of it is very good.

Very early on, you’re offered a demon who can kick you back to any point in the current act. You keep any knowledge you’ve obtained, but nothing else: I cannot stress enough how, for the sake of your enjoyment with the game, don’t engage with the time loop mechanic unless someone dies, you really fuck up and hit a fail state, or you reach the end and want new game +. Using it outside those contexts will swiftly drain all the fun out of a very fun game by running you running through the same dialogue, buying the same items, trying to remember the stat upgrade you had the previous time through. There’s no real penalty to using the power in-game, but there sure as hell is one on the player side, and I don’t feel like the occasional “ooh I get to solve the problem with foreknowledge” moments justify the tedium of fiddling with everyone’s inventory again.

Another thing that ended up irksome is a specific issue with how the romance works in the game. Most of the NPCs are romanceable; locking yourself into a romance does not lock you out from pursuing other ones, but the game doesn’t make it clear that this isn’t the Sovereign tower of free love fun times and yes, you will fuck things up for cheating (there’s a heart icon to designate if a dialogue choice is flirting, but no icon with a broken heart and the person’s face); normally this wouldn’t even mean doing a time reset, you can just exit the game and go back to the last autosave, but it’s possible to fuck yourself over and have to replay a chunk of an act - if you lock in a romance with one of the knights before you lock in with the Lady of the Tower (who is more or less the canonical choice & doesn’t care if you have another partner), and you don’t cut things off with the Lady on a specific cycle early in act 3, which no one in their right mind would do because there’s nothing in the game indicating you should, you’ll be forced to either reset or lose a knight in the breakup. And with the number of knights available already too few to handle the late-game workload, that’s not a cost anyone can really afford. So now I’m locked out of a satisfying ending with the Lady.

It’s a very fun game, but it is frustrating in almost equal measure. But it does make me want to see a solo hack of Mythic Bastionland based on the fun parts.

Halo 2 (MCC)

We used to make fucking video games.

I had somehow skipped Halo 2 as a teen (Halo 2 had a bad PC port + I didn't have an OG xbox), so my only real memory of it is watching the first level and a half at my cousins’ one Christmas.

It’s such a tightly wound and tightly paced experience. I'll gladly handle some Jackal snipers (on normal, I am not a maniac) for a singular, complete package.

Halo 3: ODST (MCC)

I really, really like wandering around New Mombasa at night. I like the way that wandering paces out more frenetic flashback levels, I like how it is almost a prototype blueprint for an immersive sim that never was. I never really felt much more fragile than Chief, but I found myself going out of my way to duck behind cover and sneak around the edge of the map even if I didn’t really need to. The piss filter in VISR mode is annoying but it was 2009, everything had a piss filter back then.

However: I hate every single one of the characters, sans Rookie (who is blessedly silent) and Vergil (who is the best). If the entire game had just been those two, it would have been perfect. But no, we’re stuck with Manchild McGee and the One Notes.

Also: I grant Halo 3 ODST the “second most racist game of 2009” award for somehow setting a game in a major city in Kenya and having two, maybe 3 characters who are actually from Kenya, all of whom are entirely off screen. I saw one word of Swahili the entire time. I can understand the marines being from all over, but the local police? Like if you were really making a point about the neocolonial hellscape of the UEG’s junta government I can see it working, but the story is mostly “Buck whines because he can’t get over his ex."

Halo 4 (MCC - Campaign)

Jesus Christ and all the saints in heaven how do you fuck up Halo this badly. What lunacy would possess a dev team with the budget of a small country to go “you know what Halo needs? Combat that isn’t fun.”

Everything I brought up when I played some Spartan Ops a couple years ago is still in effect: Forerunner guns feel like shit to use and Forerunner enemies feel like shit to fight. The former feel weaker than their equivalents and don’t have a unique sandbox niche (which even the sentinel beam did as an anti-Flood weapon); the latter are all visually-monotonous erratically-moving damage sponges. The Knights appear with the frequency of Elites, and they can teleport, soak a shit-ton of damage, and be revived by these flying drone assholes who move like fruit flies and have more armor than the fucking tarrasque. They don't respond to being shot, there's no ammo anywhere to the point where just picking up a new weapon every time you have to reload is a good strategy.

It’s very 2012. Video games are Big and Important and Cinematic. They have QTEs and scripted climbing sequences. Everything is very pretty, but greebled into incoherent visual noise. The plot is mostly pressing buttons, which isn’t new but there’s nothing to zhuzh it up. Didact is a nothing antagonist, and Cortana's rampancy doesn't really becoming a meaningful factor until the last two missions and even then there's barely anything more than crumbs.

The post-war era was the perfect opportunity to change things and introduce new elements - there was a blank slate to add new aliens and say they were from the Covenant fringe, or were non-military clients, or even that they had been fighting the Covenant on the other side of their territory. Power vacuums are great for shaking things up, but instead get the Forerunners! Bland, bland, boring blah. At least Javik had the decency to be an interesting twist on expectations (and also had more than two colors). The Covenant splinter we fight here gets fucking nothing.

For all the lavish detail on Chief’s suit, Cortana is done dirty by the design department and looks worse than she did in 3 or even 2. The disparity in quality really exaggerates the uncanny valley effect. She’s always had a solid amount of fanservice (all of her previous designs are basically a tight bodysuit), but she’s just straight up nude in this one in ways that don’t feel great. Like the plot is about how her brain is cooking itself alive and 343’s preferred way to emphasize this is to just realllly focus on how well-defined her tits and ass are. The vibes are bad.

Needler and plasma pistol are the best they’ve ever been, though.

The Gameable Content Bit

Hardlight gun (for Mothership)

A shifting assemblage of gold and fuligen; angular components re-assemble themselves to align with the image in the wielder's mind. There is no trigger or firing mechanism, simply point and think and a burst of burning argent light will burn through whatever is in its way.

May act as rifle, SMG, revolver, sniper rifle, or shotgun; transforming requires 1 round of focus.
Deals 5 + 1d5 rather than d10 damage; # of dice remains same as basic version.
Effectively infinite ammo: however, using it generates an extreme amount of waste heat and renders it searing hot even through moderate protective gear (1d5 damage if not immediately dropped) and will take2d5 rounds to cool off before it can be safely short again.

100 Hooks and Rumours for an Urban Fantasy Setting, Locales of Sundara: Up, Up and Away and 100 Hooks and Rumours for the Impossible Lands VIII Now Available: Azukail Games

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 15:21:48 GMT

100 Hooks and Rumours for an Urban Fantasy Setting and Locales of Sundara: Up, Up and Away are now available on DriveThruRPG and 100 Hooks and Rumours for the Impossible Lands VIII is available on Pathfinder Infinite. Characters may hear things in an urban fantasy setting that they know indicate something odd is going on. … Continue reading 100 Hooks and Rumours for an Urban Fantasy Setting, Locales of Sundara: Up, Up and Away and 100 Hooks and Rumours for the Impossible Lands VIII Now Available →

The post 100 Hooks and Rumours for an Urban Fantasy Setting, Locales of Sundara: Up, Up and Away and 100 Hooks and Rumours for the Impossible Lands VIII Now Available first appeared on Azukail Games.

These Words are Accepted: A Review of the Cosmere RPG Stormlight Archive Starter Set: The Rpg Gazette

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 12:00:54 GMT

Let me put it straight away: I’m a Cosmere fan, and have been for a long time before there was even any news about this game coming out. The announcement by Brotherwise and Dragon Steel of their Cosmere RPG filled me with an excitement I haven’t felt for many other TTRPG announcements in quite some time. The chance to sit at a table and do actual dice rolls in a world that I’d read about for years was precisely what I didn’t know I wanted until I got the promise of it. This hasn’t changed at all once I finally got my hands on the Starter Set. If anything, it has evolved. I’m no longer wondering whether it will be a good experience but rather how much more is in store because Stormlight is only the start. Mistborn is on its way, along with probably even more Shardworlds after it, and this box is my first proper look at the system behind all of it.

Without further ado, ladies, gentlemen and everyone else, grab your diamond marks and ready your sprens and let’s jump right into this storming review!

What’s in the Box:

No big deal and it’s good for a starter’s set. You’ll get rulebooks for basic mechanics, a ready-to-play adventure scenario, premade characters, dice (with a plot die, which is explained below), a few punch-in tokens, maps for the one shot scenario and always nice to see, some cheat-sheets. It’s well-designed and organized exactly how you would want this to be, when you’re passing this game to a person who doesn’t know how to play TTRPGs, and who should be able to sit down and start playing in twenty minutes, not two hours.

But what I need to talk about right now, because it would be unfair to skip, is the art of this game. It’s beautiful and very much reminiscent in quality to those found in the Leatherbound books. Character art especially adds a lot to make Roshar come to life without even rolling a single die. If nothing else made you buy this game, the art definitely would.

The Scenario, the Rules, and the Characters of Roshar:

The one shot plunges you into the Alethi warcamps of the Shattered Planes, prior to book one, which I quite enjoyed as an option. It’s a point in the timeline that we don’t know much of, so it is prime real estate for exploring it at the table. One of the most notable aspects in the scenario is the ability to attract spren through the course of the adventure, and if you pull it off, the sprens will have a small active role in the story which is a good way to explore the world’s signature mechanic without getting you everything on your first try.

Nonetheless, there’s one area that disappointed me the most regarding the scenario, and that’s what it doesn’t contain. In other words, there’s no hands-on experience of using the magic system, nor any sign of Shardblades or Plate. I have found this slightly odd, considering that the magic system is one of Sanderson’s selling points. Of course, one might understand why that is. as the Surges and Radiant powers are rezerved for the core book, and providing an inexperienced player with too much information upfront is asking for trouble. Still, it’s one of the aspects I was looking forward the most to see in actual play.

Regarding the actual core mechanics themselves, they work just fine. While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with the mechanics, there’s also nothing that’s especially innovative with them. The system comes across as a very cautious design in my opinion, and in one sentence, I would describe it as a blend of D&D 5e, D&D 4e, and Pathfinder 2e wrapped up in a Stormlight coat. This is your typical d20 roll with your ability and skill modifiers against a DC set by the GM, and it’s going to be immediately recognizable to anyone with experience with 5e over the last ten years. You have your normal 2 or 3 actions per turn depending on if you take a slow or fast turn (more on this later), along with your reaction, and you have a nice variety of options for what type of action you can use that’s going to be very reminiscent of PF2e’s action economy. There are also a couple of clear 4e fingerprints, most notably Endeavors, which function a lot like Skill Challenges, and a minion-rival-boss enemy classification system that’s basically 4e‘s monster roles with the edges sanded down.

The two mechanics that really did get me interested were the initiative system and the plot die. The initiative system revolves around the fast turn versus slow turn concept I mentioned earlier. If you opt for the fast turn, you only get two actions, but you get to do things before others; in case of the slow turn, you will get three actions but will get to do them late. The sequence goes Fast Turn Players, Fast Turn Enemies, Slow Turn Players, and Slow Turn Enemies. You choose which one to take every single turn, so there’s a real layer of tactical planning in deciding whether to strike first and light or wait and hit hard. It’s a small rule that does a lot of work, and I’d love to see more games borrow it.

The plot die is the other standout. Whenever the GM decides a roll matters enough, you throw in an extra d6 alongside your normal roll. Land a 5 or 6 and you get an Opportunity, land a 1 or 2 and you get a Consequence. It functions as a kind of hybrid between a crit/fumble system and a soft meta-currency that both players and the GM can spend in different ways. It’s simple, it’s elegant, and it adds just enough unpredictability to keep fights and big moments from feeling like a pure math exercise.

On the character side, the pregens give you a nice mix of both races and classes, each with their own talents and toolkits to play with. It’s a good spread for a one-shot, giving everyone at the table something distinct to do without overloading anyone with choices before they’ve even learned the basic action economy. I would have liked a bit more room to see how the classes diverge at higher power, but for a three to four hours introductory scenario, the variety on offer does its job well.

How Does It Fare as an Adaptation?

All considered, I would say quite nicely, at least in terms of setting. Everything feels authentic, the tone hits where it should, and little touches such as the inclusion of spren help make sure this feels distinctively Stormlight and not just a standard fantasy setting slapped onto the name of Roshar. If you have read the books, there will be no mistaking the feel of the setting right away, from how NPCs refer to status and darkeyes versus lighteyes to just the feel of a prolonged conflict.

On a mechanical level, it is slightly more difficult to pinpoint anything that the system is doing to make it Cosmere in any distinctive way. There’s nothing within the core mechanics that just cries out “Stormlight” from anywhere, and that is probably due to the fact that, as I mentioned before, the portions of the system that would give the greatest amount of Cosmere flavor, namely the magic and the Shards, are largely missing in this game. However, I do believe that the developers have done an excellent job in general terms. The tone is correct, the pace of the scenario fits perfectly well the style of tension that the books are famous for.

Verdict:

They played it safe, and I don’t think that’s an accident. This system feels tailor-made for someone who’s already played D&D and already loves Stormlight to pick up and run within an hour of opening the box. From a business standpoint, that’s a smart call, and I don’t fault them for making it. But as a player, I’ll admit I wanted something a little more daring, maybe something closer to a lighter Burning Wheel, a system willing to bend its rules around the specific weirdness of Radiant powers and Shardic magic rather than fitting them into a familiar d20 chassis.

That said, the mix they landed on works, and the game is genuinely fun to play. I can recommend this Starter Set to newcomers and Cosmere veterans alike, and I’m already looking forward to seeing how the system stretches to cover Mistborn‘s very different flavor of magic. If Allomancy gets anywhere near the treatment I’m hoping for, this could turn into one of the most interesting multi-setting systems on the shelf.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a warcamp to go wander around in a few more times before my Stormlight itch is satisfied. If you liked this review, toss a coin, or a gem chip, to your favorite Gazette!

Patchwork Newsletter (Volume 2, Issue 39): Patchwork Paladin

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 09:47:48 GMT

Welcome to your weekly TTRPG newsletter! The most popular posts on the blog this week were Running Red Dragon’s Tale, Dolmenwood Resources for You, Close and Distant Playstyles, Prepping Myths in Mythic Bastionland, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love 5e. Like this newsletter? Subscribe to get it in your inbox every Saturday, and please share it with your friends!

Table of Contents

Discord Discussions

This week we talked about the importance of art to the appeal of a game. The context was a kickstarter where the art was in full focus but the game seemed — unfinished, at best. But nevertheless we agreed that for many people, this probably didn’t matter, as a lot are buying games to look at, rather than play. Really, you might see the game as a kind of poetic accompaniment to the art. Perhaps the game inspires the artist, as it were. Along these lines it is interesting to consider the Minimalist TTRPG game jam on itch where pictures, drawings, and diagrams are forbidden, and Tania Herrero’s award winning and nearly all-picture Menagerie of Unbearable Things as experiments in altering the balance between text and art.

There was a long discussion all about running and making cities, obviously of interest to me as I work my way through my own eight-district city. You’ll find some blog links below where various “solutions” are proposed to the “problem” of the city, which seems at its heart to be that the city is an information-rich (e.g., high-prep) environment with a low propensity to open violence. One desire was a city that is ready-to-play, that is, where you have enough detail already present to be able to run pretty much anything. But then, the cities get so big! Other people are content to just have cities as a kind of menu of choices. I like a city where each district is naturally home to a different kind of genre of play, and that’s how I’m writing mine. Within each district are points of interest. One point of discussion also is the procedure for play – are there city turns (like dungeon turns or wilderness turns)? How long are they? What are the actions?

We were grumbling over on another discord about how WoTC keeps including this villain wizard Venger from the 80s cartoon in stuff. Short summary: no one cares about this, and it’s annoying. One this that particularly stuck out is that Venger has no real characteristics, so I proposed the following, which I hope you enjoy, and which will at least make Venger more memorable:

Catchphrase: “Let’s make them cry!”
Look: one broken horn. Dashing.
Magical signature: Smells like bad salad dressing.
Obsession: Orbs. The more the better.
Lieutenants: spiders. all of them.
Great rival: Lolth.
Ultimate wish: Rule the Orb of the Heavens
Adventurers hate him because: he plucks out eyes.

We got to discussing Daggerheart, now that we’ve played it for a while, it’s had a new supplement, etc, etc. I would say that the pool of discord users is fairly divided between those who like it and those who really don’t see the point, and it often comes down to Daggerheart’s use of what I call “theatre kid crunch.” Daggerheart is even less of a simulation of reality than D&D, but it does have certain very specific rules that kick in, especially during combat. For some people, this is game-breakingly weird. Why have a loosey-goosey system with very specific very technical rules in combat? While for others, this seems to make perfect sense and the combat is more like rules-with-flair. This divide is also present when people talk about Fear. One group says, why do I need Fear when I as GM can do everything anyway? The other group says, Fear gives me the chance (and indeed the spur, and perhaps the permission?) to change the world in a clearly communicated and dramatic way. I don’t think either group is misunderstanding the game, I have to think this is a stylistic or table difference.

Some good news from Wizards of the Coast this week with their hirings of Celeste Conowich, a luminary from Kobold Press, and Lyla Fujiwara (a winner of the Diana Jones award). As Wizards builds a young and diverse team full of talent, the discords are really hopeful for a new flowering of creativity from D&D to make up for a series of lacklustre adventure designs. Fingers crossed!

Blog Posts to Read

Riley at Natural 7 writes Show You Care, some advice for players!
Seraphine at Dice Exploder with even more advice for players in RPG Table Skills: Goals, Listening, Reincorporation and Sharing Characters
Marcia B at Traverse Fantasy writes Stationery and Maps which gives you a resource that helps you “see” better in the wilderness (from February 2026)
Sam at Dice Exploder writes Reaching the Horizon, about that ineffable moment when the game becomes invisible
Serket at Fluorite Guillotine writes the dungeons of final fantasy, an interesting and fun piece of analysis
Riley at Natural 7 writes Exploration in Mythic Bastionland from June 2026, a very useful and helpful post if you’re thinking about running Mythic Bastionland
Jon Peterson at Playing at the World gives us The Origins of Dice Notationj from August 2013
The Usual Tongues writes Dead-Simple OSR Solo Gaming
Dice in the North gives us 1d30 magical tattoos
The Woefully Encysted Creature at the Blog of Forlorn Encystment writes Developing Sandbox Rumor Tables
Ibrahim at Pelgrane Press writes Pillars, Spines and Connective Tissue with advice about hooking together anthology-type adventures
Juddthelibrarian at Githyanki Diaspora wrote some love letters to their players in Tuesday Night AWBO S13: A Fishwife in Lock

Some city posts:

A classic post from 2020 from Ben L. at Mazirian’s Garden: Rules for Citycrawling
Pool Time with Swim Allen tells us Do Not Overthink the City
Nael Fox-Priebe at Billhook Blog gives us Cities, fixed at last

Projects to Bookmark and Download:

Unnamed Worlds 5 (free, itch.io). A “collaborative collection of new and twisted worlds suitable for roleplaying” . Looks beautiful, and fun!
Wolves of the Aegean (free, blog) is a set of rules for a bronze age hack of Wolves Upon the Coast. You can also buy the first volume of the hexcrawl for $5.00 on itch. I just found the rules fascinating.
Bastardica (free) is a “foundry for bastard web fonts,” or a way to make your own unhinged true-type fonts. Awesome for the font-obsessed.

Play Reports

In Magical Murder Mansion (Shadowdark), Session 37, the players went to great lengths to retrieve a telescope from the destroyed tower, but a natural 1 on a key roll sent the fighter crashing down onto rubble and crushing the telescope, which turned out to have been made from cardboard and tin foil. I think I laughed for an hour. They went back to town to regroup, paid a fee to have some magic items identified, and restocked.
In Szass Tam Stole My Life (5.5e), Session 9, a second hour of battle against Golju, their Red Wizard nemesis, and the sea maiden (who turned out to be a very very scary sea hag), turned into a grim struggle for survival. Golju had his head bitten off by the giant squid wizard to much rejoicing, but two Wishes were used to keep the party alive and healthy and in the end the confrontation was a draw. Oh, and the paladin drew a card from the Deck of Many Things and got sucked into the Donjon. Oops.
In Castle Automatic (His Majesty the Worm), Session 5, we got a bunch of treasure but our hatmaker fell into a spike-covered pit and needed a quick rescue! We decided to head back to the city but on the way fell upon the remains of a mimic, which the alchemist ate, alchemists are gross. He said it tasted like peanut butter. Also we got six mimic eggs. We got back to the city, everyone is thin and wasted from a poor harvest, but we managed to sell some of the treasure and have enough to build ourselves a guild house.
Session 0 of Stonetop! We have a Judge, a Seeker, a Heavy and … someone else (player called away) and I think we’re going to investigate a cave bear cave. Maybe. The system, setting, and players are all great, I’m very much looking forward to this game.

Paladin Projects

This week I finished the first draft of Snoopside, the professional district of the city in Shadow & Soot, my arcano-mechanical city. Snoopside is where you go to find out about all the contracts and so forth, and of course if you want to find a good old fashioned murder. I made this murder table, which you read as: Roll or read: [Motive] [murderer] killed [standing] [victim] by [method] for [stakes]. Of course, the murder will probably unearth clues to other plots.

Poem

from The Wanderings of Oisin, 1889.
— William Butler Yeats

Sad to remember, sick with years,
The swift innumerable spears,
The horsemen with their floating hair,
And bowls of barley, honey, and wine,
Those merry couples dancing in tune,
And the white body that lay by mine;
But the tale, though words be lighter than air.
Must live to be old like the wandering moon.

Caoilte, and Conan, and Finn were there,
When we followed a deer with our baying hounds.
With Bran, Sceolan, and Lomair,
And passing the Firbolgs’ burial−mounds,
Came to the cairn−heaped grassy hill
Where passionate Maeve is stony−still;
And found on the dove−grey edge of the sea
A pearl−pale, high−born lady, who rode
On a horse with bridle of findrinny;
And like a sunset were her lips,
A stormy sunset on doomed ships;
A citron colour gloomed in her hair,

But down to her feet white vesture flowed,
And with the glimmering crimson glowed
Of many a figured embroidery;
And it was bound with a pearl−pale shell
That wavered like the summer streams,
As her soft bosom rose and fell.

“Why do you wind no horn?’ she said
“And every hero droop his head?
The hornless deer is not more sad
That many a peaceful moment had,
More sleek than any granary mouse,
In his own leafy forest house
Among the waving fields of fern:
The hunting of heroes should be glad.’

‘O pleasant woman,’ answered Finn,
“We think on Oscar’s pencilled urn,
And on the heroes lying slain
On Gabhra’s raven−covered plain;
But where are your noble kith and kin,
And from what country do you ride?’

“My father and my mother are
Aengus and Edain, my own name
Niamh, and my country far
Beyond the tumbling of this tide.’

“What dream came with you that you came
Through bitter tide on foam−wet feet?
Did your companion wander away
From where the birds of Aengus wing?’
Thereon did she look haughty and sweet:
“I have not yet, war−weary king,
Been spoken of with any man;
Yet now I choose, for these four feet
Ran through the foam and ran to this
That I might have your son to kiss.’

“Were there no better than my son
That you through all that foam should run?’

“I loved no man, though kings besought,
Until the Danaan poets brought
Rhyme that rhymed upon Oisin’s name,
And now I am dizzy with the thought
Of all that wisdom and the fame
Of battles broken by his hands,
Of stories builded by his words
That are like coloured Asian birds
At evening in their rainless lands.’

O Patrick, by your brazen bell,
There was no limb of mine but fell
Into a desperate gulph of love!
‘You only will I wed,’ I cried,
“And I will make a thousand songs,
And set your name all names above,
And captives bound with leathern thongs
Shall kneel and praise you, one by one,
At evening in my western dun.’

“O Oisin, mount by me and ride
To shores by the wash of the tremulous tide,
Where men have heaped no burial−mounds,
And the days pass by like a wayward tune,
Where broken faith has never been known
And the blushes of first love never have flown;
And there I will give you a hundred hounds;
No mightier creatures bay at the moon;
And a hundred robes of murmuring silk,
And a hundred calves and a hundred sheep
Whose long wool whiter than sea−froth flows,
And a hundred spears and a hundred bows,
And oil and wine and honey and milk,
And always never−anxious sleep;
While a hundred youths, mighty of limb,
But knowing nor tumult nor hate nor strife,
And a hundred ladies, merry as birds,
Who when they dance to a fitful measure
Have a speed like the speed of the salmon herds,
Shall follow your horn and obey your whim,
And you shall know the Danaan leisure;
And Niamh be with you for a wife.’
Then she sighed gently, “It grows late.
Music and love and sleep await,
Where I would be when the white moon climbs,
The red sun falls and the world grows dim.

‘  And then I mounted and she bound me
With her triumphing arms around me,
And whispering to herself enwound me;
He shook himself and neighed three times:
Caoilte, Conan, and Finn came near,
And wept, and raised their lamenting hands,
And bid me stay, with many a tear;
But we rode out from the human lands.
In what far kingdom do you go’
Ah Fenians, with the shield and bow?
Or are you phantoms white as snow,
Whose lips had life’s most prosperous glow?
O you, with whom in sloping vallcys,
Or down the dewy forest alleys,
I chased at morn the flying deer,
With whom I hurled the hurrying spear,
And heard the foemen’s bucklers rattle,
And broke the heaving ranks of battle!
And Bran, Sceolan, and Lomair,
Where are you with your long rough hair?
You go not where the red deer feeds,
Nor tear the foemen from their steeds.

This newsletter is an independent and volunteer production, meaning, nobody pays me for my time. If I include links to products on DriveThru RPG or DMsGuild, those are affiliate links, meaning I get 8% of the purchase price (but the author continues to receive their full cut). The primary discords I participate in are the Sly Flourish patron discord and the Prismatic Wasteland discord. I write this newsletter and all my content by myself, not with the aid of AI. If you’d like to support me, buy my games or buy me a coffee on ko-fi!

Props driven investigations for Imperium Maledictum #City26: Seed of Worlds

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 07:18:59 GMT

Two sessions in to the IM City26 game I have been having a go at conveying the atmosphere with physical printout for some of the things they find during their investigation - partly to reflect the grinding bureaucracy of the Warhammer 40k Imperium but also to convey some of the voices of the factions through vox-log transcripts.

Engagement seems ok, getting everyone to read a handout is a bit of a time sink but when there is a handful of them in play that people can rotate between them it seems to work. At player request I have set up a thread on our gaming society forum with all those uploaded, we will see if that gets much interaction.

Formats for a future yet to come

I combed through official sourcebooks to get a standard handout format - starting with the old Rogue Trader '87 and working up through Dark Heresy and Imperium Maledictum. There is happily a lot of content out there on 40k lore which puts lots of the icons and images easily to hand.

One of my favourite things I learned doing this was how the date format worked - the first digit is a check-sum type confidence interval depending on how close the connection is to Terra. Up to 5, it is a continuous chain, 6-8 are increasing levels of 'we can tie it back to a date we think we know when it happened' by margins of less than a year, less than ten years and more than ten years. Lastly we have 9 which is 'a xenos wrote this, do not trust it' which is entirely apt for the setting.

I worked some things up in Word with basic fonts, used the formats I pieced together - headers of subject, date, classification, who transcribed it, ancillary references at the bottom. For drafting Imperial documentation one does well to channel the stereotypical secret policeman - the content is one thing but precision about who, where, when is critical so whoever is responsible can be found and blamed afterwards.

To reflect the vast timescales for the setting I aged up some of the documents to reflect how noone had looked at the issue for ages - this involved printing it off then scrubbing the inside of the heating furnace with it, with particular attention to the edges which worked well.

Progress logs at table

Since vox-transcripts are so prevalent in the setting I am also trialing a new means of session logging - I throw down a voice recorder at the end of the session and get the players to record their report to their Patron. This is then transcribed and I clean it up and give it an appropriate header to become another handout. I would not be entirely regretful for this campaign to flare-out and another party to have to try and pick things up from these ... terse... activity logs.

So far it is working, the table has logs to work from at the start of each session, let us see how it evolves over the half dozen sessions we have left. That sentiment broadly stands for the props in general - good so far, not sure about the overall effort-reward ratio, will hold off

Overall #City26 progress tracker stats:
Progress: 44/52 wards completed
Completion vs target: 85% vs 73% target
Population covered: 87%

News Digest for September 26, 2026: EN World: D&D & Tabletop RPG News & Reviews

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 07:18:00 GMT

D&D World of Warcraft previews, Bahamut has a new look, UK Games Expo bans "AI", and more!

Star Trek Adventures RPG Beams Down 60th Anniversary Boxed Set: TTRPG Fanatics

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 05:35:48 GMT

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Article Summary

Modiphius Entertainment is releasing a 60th Anniversary Core Rulebook Box Set for the Star Trek Adventure Second Edition RPG.
The limited edition set contains a premium version of the rulebook, along with reference cards, galaxy poster map and bonus material.
The box set will retail for $169 USD (not including shipping and handling) and will be released in December 2026.

It’s been six decades years since Star Trek first boldly went where no one has gone before, and as part of the ongoing celebration of the franchise, Modiphius has officially unveiled a new 60th Anniversary Core Rulebook Box Set for the Star Trek Adventure Second Edition tabletop RPG.

The set is currently slated for release in December 2026, but you can pre-order it now from your local game store and the Modiphius website. Below, we fire up our sensor array and take a deeper scan of what’s inside.

What’s in the Star Trek Adventures 60th Anniversary Core Rulebook Box Set?

The limited-edition box set contains the following:

A premium rulebook for Star Trek Adventures Second Edition with foil debossed thermal leatherette cover
A lenticular-holographic box featuring iconic Starfleet characters.
15 double-sided game reference cards, featuring the original series crew with new STA 2E stats.
A double-sided poster map depicting the galaxy in the 23rd century on one side and the 24th century on the other.

How much is the Star Trek Adventures 60th Anniversary Box Set?

The box set retails for $169 USD (not including shipping and handling), which isn’t a bad price point consider that the Star Trek Adventures 2E Core Rulebook retails for around $71 USD.

When is the Star Trek Adventures 60th Anniversary Box Set coming out?

The book is currently slated for release in December 2026, at which point will be available online and local game stores. We’ll update this page with an exact release date once it’s been confirmed by Modiphius.

Final thoughts

Star Trek has left an incredible mark on pop culture over the past 60 years – including with tabletop RPGs – so it’s only fitting that Modiphius is rolling out this new collector’s edition box set to celebrate.

We’ll be doing a complete review closer to launch, but in the meantime you can pre-order your copy now from your local game store and the Modiphius website.

The post Star Trek Adventures RPG Beams Down 60th Anniversary Boxed Set appeared first on TTRPG Fanatics.

Microblog: d10 Mothership Fashion Trends: Fail Forward

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 01:16:24 GMT

Roll d10 for a futuristic fashion trend for Mothership, Traveler or whatever your preferred spacefaring horror or horror-adjacent game is:

1) O2 Deprivation - Purpled fingertips run across compressed tracheas. Vacuum fashion to take your breath away.

2) Exo-Osteo Chic - Why simply get a shoulder reduction when you can wear those extra bones as a collar?

3) Noo-Sophistica - Belts and jewels and ties layered and wrapped between sleek monochromatic upscale classics.

4) Microdust - Shifting micro-bots reorganize and recolor fabrics into a tantalizing sheer nebula delicately drapes over the human form.

5) Paleogrunge - Scaley torn jackets marked with pungent oil stains. Raptor splicing optional.

6) Lux Militar - Crush your feelings beneath void-forged boots, hand stitched camos and sharpest murder-tech money can buy.

7) Satellite Sport - Rimspace sportswear, honed into a trim and breathable expression of virility.

8) Fluorescent Rein - Strapped with dazzling tube lamps, masked behind blinding bulbs. Matched with a signature fan to take control of your shadow.

9) Terra Functional - Minimalist. Practical. Earthly.

10) Sapper - Born from the makeshift insulations and hand-me-downs of asteroid miners. Distressed and solar burnt with expert precision.

Two 'Ascension' Games Head to Retail: ICv2 RSS Web Feed

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 21:08:30 GMT

'Ascension: 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition' and 'Ascension: Dreams & Nightmares 7th Collector's Edition'

Preview: 'Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives' #1-4 Connecting Variant Covers by Luana Vecchio: ICv2 RSS Web Feed

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 19:12:01 GMT

From Image Comics

'Secret Wars' Battles Come to 'Marvel HeroClix': ICv2 RSS Web Feed

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 18:56:36 GMT

New Booster Set Based on the 1984-2015 Comic Event

Microblog: The Elf's Detect Secret Doors: Rise Up Comus

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 18:15:48 GMT

OD&D elves have the ability to automatically Detect Secret Doors.

I do not like hidden information rolls and prefer my rule systems that do away with them. I would also prefer for the referee to not have to make a Detect Secret Door roll every room for every elf in the party--this also seems like needless overhead and extra rolling to keep the game going.

Instead, I propose the elf's automatic chance to Detect Secret Doors be built into the backend. Put it into the tables, mechanics, and procedures of generating a dungeon instead of the act of exploring a dungeon. Then, the referee can remember the elf's special ability and key the dungeon appropriately.

Every secret door placed has a 2-in-6 chance of being of elf-make. It was either placed there during the long ages where elves ruled the world or placed by a previous elf ranger exploring the dungeon for the convenience of elven folk who came after them.

Note elf-made secret doors in your dungeon keying. When an elf enters a room with an elf-made secret door, they automatically notice it. They seem to glow with starlight, to their eyes. Non-elves can detect the secret door using the normal procedure.

Dystopian comedy RPG Paranoia takes aim at social media influencers in its latest adventure: EN World: D&D & Tabletop RPG News & Reviews

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:45:00 GMT

The Troubleshooters are tasked with handling a pair of troubling celebrities,

Preview: 'Vampirella X Witchblade Special' #1 (One-Shot): ICv2 RSS Web Feed

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:42:28 GMT

From Dynamite Entertainment

Discover more in Underworld: Descent into Darkness: Kobold Press

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:31:56 GMT

The depths are calling, and there’s still plenty more to discover in Underworld: Sunless Depths! Whether you’re looking for a complete adventure path, new character options, or a chance to see Underworld in action, there’s something waiting for you below.

What to expect from Descent Into Darkness

Underworld: Descent into Darkness is a complete adventure path featuring 10 connected adventures that take characters from level 1 to 12.

Two intertwined stories guide the party through the depths. The first half follows the trail of an ancient dwarven explorer, who searched for a legendary artifact hidden in the mysterious Vault of the World—an artifact said to be powerful enough to kill a dragon.

The second half begins with a Cave Dragon Sovereign whose insatiable hunger has transformed into an obsession with treasure. He has sent his dragonborn and kobold minions throughout the Underworld to claim its greatest treasures for his hoard.

As the two stories collide, the heroes must uncover the truth behind the explorer’s journey and rally the Underworld’s factions against the Dragon Sovereign.

The PC’s journey takes them through Azer lava forges, mushroom forests, crystal caves, the Market of Broken Things, Drow and Dwarven strongholds, and a city under siege before finally descending into the farthest depths to confront the Cave Dragon Sovereign. And the choices your players make along the way can shape how difficult that final confrontation will be.

Take Your Gameplay Even Deeper

The Underworld Survivor’s Kit pairs perfectly with Descent into Darkness, giving GMs a collection of physical tools designed to bring the adventure to life at the table. It includes 10 in-world puzzle handouts, 15 encounter and realm maps, 30 monsters with full stats, 5 location sheets, 10 NPCs, 16 pages of pregenerated characters, and dozens of monster tokens across four punch-out sheets.

Prefer to keep your game digital? The JPG Map Pack includes digital maps for every map featured throughout the Descent into Darkness campaign, making it easy to bring the adventure to your virtual tabletop.

Scouting Party #2: New Player Options

Want to know what kind of characters you can build for Underworld? Scouting Party #2 is coming to YouTube Friday, September 25 at 11:00 AM PT/2:00 PM ET!

Kendo sits down with the designers to explore the new Lineages, Subclasses, and Heritages found in the Underworld sourcebook and the character options waiting for players in the depths.

Kobolds at the Table: Underworld Playtest

Later that evening, it’s time to venture into the Underworld and roll some dice with the Kobolds. Join Brian, Anya, Jeff, Kendo, and Chris for a special Kobolds at the Table: Underworld Playtest. Premiering on YouTube Friday, September 25 at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET. See the Underworld in action as the crew takes on the dangers lurking beneath the surface!

Back Underworld and Underworld: Descent into Darkness are now on Kickstarter!

BACK NOW ON KICKSTARTER

The post Discover more in Underworld: Descent into Darkness appeared first on Kobold Press.

Dav Pilkey Celebrates 10th Anniversary of 'Dog Man' with 'Dynamite': ICv2 RSS Web Feed

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:13:35 GMT

Activity Book with Puzzles, Games, and 3D 'Dog Man' Comic