Class: Nightmare

One of the players in my just-finished D&D 5e campaign rides a nightmare. In preparation for switching to GLOG, I want to let them play as the nightmare.

from D&D 5e

 

A: Nightmarish, Fiery, Horse That Leaps Over Land And Sea And Sky

B: choose one of Dream Travel or Dimensional Travel

C: Fiery Steed, Trample

D: Fiery Breath and the other Travel ability

Nightmarish

You are a horse, but scary. You cannot speak, but can communicate with those you know well.

You have no hands, but can run really fast (double standard Movement Speed) and count your Strength Might twice for the purposes of Inventory Slots.

Your teeth are razor-sharp and your hooves smoulder - deal d10 damage "unarmed". You can only eat meat.

Fiery

Your mane and tail are on fire. You have fire resistance and shed light as a lantern.

Horse That Leaps Over Land And Sea And Sky

You can walk on water. You can also run on air, but must end each movement action on a solid ground, or fall.

Fiery Steed

You are now immune to fire and may confer fire resistance to one rider.

Trample

You can move through the space of any creature smaller than you and test Might. On success, they are knocked prone and get no attacks of opportunity against you.

You may trample multiple creatures in a single movement, as long as you fail no Might test. On a failed Might test, you lose the rest of your movement.

Fiery Breath

Deal 2d8 fire damage in a 15 feet cone. You can breathe again once you devour a ration's worth of raw flesh.

Dream Travel

Instead of a long rest, you and your rider may dive into the Dreamlands. You can follow the scent of anyone whose blood you have ever tasted and enter their dreaming, if they are currently asleep. Dreamers will remember their interactions with you as strange nightmares.

Sidebar: Willpower (wp) is basically mental hp or sanity, decreased by stress rather than damage. Once you run out of wp, you start freaking out and may gain Vice if you take further stress. I should post the full rules one day.

In a dream, your attacks deal stress rather than damage. If your target is reduced to 0 wp, they wake up covered in cold sweat, their rest forestalled, and gain a Vice of phobia towards you.

Should your dreaming form be reduced to 0 hp or wp, you wake up. This may strand your rider, if they were not riding you at the moment of your return to the waking world.

Dimensional Travel

You can smell dimensional intersections - fey crossings, thin places, inactive portals, etc. Take 1 Fatigue to kick open a rift in such a weak location. It stays open for d6 minutes.

In most of Creation, Twilight is close enough that you can always open a portal there.

Twilight

Just beyond the first veil, where the living heartbeat of Creation fades into stillborn silence, lies Twilight, also known to different people as the Shadow Realm, Darklands, World-Shade, Penumbra, Upside-Down, Abyss, Stíny, or the Other Side. It is a dark and decaying mirror-realm, an uncanny echo that clings to the living world like a black mould. A shadow that hungers.

Indeed, Twilight shadows and mirrors Creation, but imperfectly and slowly, always struggling and failing to catch up to the endless changes of the real world. Twilight cities are hollow, their streets silent and broken. Permanent structures - mountains, temples, great trees - are always present, yet everything ephemeral is fragile, or missing, or found in states of ruin. Shattered cups, torn banners, books whose pages crumble to dust at the lightest touch and whose ink spells only madness-muddled nonsense.

Some say that Twilight lies at the very edge of Creation, where it meets the Dead Dimensions and the endless Void Beyond. That this uncanny mirroring is a universe's defence mechanism, a thin layer of corrupted reality that, just like tarnish, seals and protects the healthy reality beneath it.

Upside Down concept art from Stranger Things

 

There is little light in Twilight. No sun, no stars, nothing but the suffocating blackness of perfect night. Torches sputter and even magical flames grow dim. Only occasionally is the realm's cimmerian firmament punctured by thunderstorms of red lightning, or contaminated by creeping clouds of bioluminescent, carcinogenic spores. Sunlight, if somehow cast into this realm, does not illuminate - it burns and scours away creatures and matter of Twilight, leaving behind only drifting motes of soot.

There is no water in Twilight, at all. While blood will remain in the veins and liquids in their bottles, any spilled drop or free-flowing stream rapidly dissipates into nothingness. Attempts to conjure water end in failure and water elementals perish screaming.

The vegetation of Twilight is sparse and terrible. The only things that truly grow there are black mould and wrixling vines, which feed on warmth and magic, respectively, rather than light. Trees stand as pale ghosts of their counterparts in Creation - dead and petrified, their branches twisted skyward in eternal agony. Leaves or grass collapse into ash when touched.

Yet Twilight's ashen bedrock bears one treasure the living world cannot produce - black iron ore that, once smelted with captured souls, can be forged into spectre-slaying soulsteel weaponry.

And rarely, strange monuments can be found in Twilight that are not a reflection of the mortal realm. Obsidian monoliths, inhuman statues, sprawling complexes of bleak geometry. Necromancers claim that these mark the entrances into the Labyrinth, a vast under-realm of impossible angles and shifting gravity. The Labyrinth is said to touch most worlds - including the Land of the Dead, the Dreamlands, and perhaps realms even older and odder.

Class: Fashion Wizard

No orb-fondling tower-dweller, you are not. Halfway between an artificer and a socialite, you have the correct attire, taste, but most importantly, opinions.

 

by sundae_jck

 

You are Chartered and likely from a good family.

Items:

• lavish clothes of your own design,
• another set of clothes of your own design,
• yet another set of clothes of your own design,
• needles and thread,
• a pre-approved business loan from a local bank, though at a truly draconian interest rate.

Skills: Fashionista and two topics of trivia that you can keep talking for hours about

Perks & Flaws:

While wearing a fancy and expensive clothes, cape or hat, you can destroy it to reduce an incoming attack's damage or spell's [sum] by 2d6.

Moaning and raging about the irreplaceability of the lost piece of apparel is optional, but highly encouraged.

You cannot use magic while dirty or badly clothed.

For example, falling into water will prevent spellcasting until you can dry off, unless you were already wearing a fancy swimming wear.

Cantrips:

• Interesting: With concentration, you can prevent others from leaving a conversation with you. There is no save, but remember that concentration can be broken by punching you in the face.
• Important: Make your clothes billow dramatically or a faint, pleasant music follow you.
• Inspired: Telekinetically control needles and thread within 30 feet, though your control is not forceful enough to cause damage.

 

Spells:

This spell list draws heavily on the elf wizard, handsome wizard and silk wizard traditions.

1. Flying Needles

R: touch; T: [dice] needles; D: concentration

Enchant [dice] needles, connecting them to your fingertips by invisible, ethereal thread. Enchanted needles can be used as throwing knives and they will attach the thread to anything they strike. Save negates, but only if the target could see the thread. You count as touching anything connected to you by a thread.

The thread can be stretched effectively infinitely and can only be severed by effects that can harm ghosts. At will, you can make the thread visible and tangible, but also only as strong and stretchy as a silken rope. It cannot be changed back and disappears when your concentration is broken.

2. Clean

Up to [highest] touched creatures or objects no larger than a child/man/horse/dragon are instantly cleaned, groomed and perfumed.

One may specify the grooming, e.g. shaving, shaping or trimming of the beard; type of perfume, etc. This does not destroy the filth, merely puts it into a neat pile on the side.

3. Mend

R: touch; T: object or construct

Fix a target with [dice] or less Cracks. This does not affect a target with more than [dice] Cracks at all (no "partial fixes") and cannot replace missing pieces. Alternately, instantly remove up to [dice] malfunctions. Complex objects (clockworks, magic contraptions) might require a skill test to be properly mended.

4. Beautify

Touched creature or object no larger than a child/man/horse/dragon is altered into a more beautiful form of the same type (e.g. humanoid, chair). The new form must be considered more beautiful by either the caster or the target.

This also restores [sum] points of damaged Charisma Presence, or grants +[dice] Presence bonus if it was undamaged. No other characteristics or abilities are affected.

The effect lasts for [sum] hours and can be made permanent at 4 [dice], but is always broken when the target is killed or shattered.

5. Feather Fall

R: 30'; T: [dice] creatures or objects; D: until each touches the ground

Rather than falling, the target slowly (possibly alarmingly so) descends, their clothes beauteously billowing around them. Can be cast as a reaction.

6. Choose one of:

Silk to Steel

D: [sum] minutes

Touched silk object becomes as steel. Silk clothes grant armour as leather/chain/plate/plate and shield, silk thread can serve as wire, silk rope works as a steel rod, etc.

Works on other fabrics as well, but only for [sum] rounds. With 4 [dice], you can make the effect permanent.

Steel to Silk

D: [sum] minutes

Touched steel object becomes as silk. This makes weapons fairly useless, steel bars as silk ropes, armour as clothing, etc.

Works on other metals as well, but only for [sum] rounds. With 4 [dice], you can make the effect permanent.

7. Speak with Fabrics

Talk to clothes and cloth for [sum] minutes, or ask [dice] questions they must answer, save negates. Textiles only know about things that touched them, but they can tell a lot from a simple touch.

8. Powerful Presence

T: self; D: [sum] hours

You project an aura of magnificence and poise. Gain +2×[dice] to saves against charm, domination and fear. Easily impressed creatures (peasants, lesser fairies and petty nobles) must test Morale or fawn and grovel.

9. Silken Servant

R: touch; D: [sum] hours

Enchant a set of clothes or a fabric doll no larger than a child/man/horse/dragon to serve you. It can follow complex instructions, but cannot fight and will collapse after a single blow.

10. Mirror Mirror

D: 10 minutes

Reach into a mirror-like surface and pull out [dice] illusory copies of a creature mirrored on the surface. The mirror must be large enough for them to pass through. The mirror clones behave as you wish. They can walk and talk, but cannot pick anything up and burst like a bubble if struck. You can alter their clothing, grooming and styling at will.

If you mirror yourself with 3+ [dice], you can see through your clones' eyes and hear through their ears, cast your spells through them, and switch places with your mirror twin as a half action.

 

Shadows of Arezzo Giulia Ferraro
by Bruce Luan

 

Emblem Spells:

You have access to a powerful crowd control and a single-target save-or-die emblems, but both are tools of art and admiration, not crude and callow murder.

11. I Expect You To Dine

R: 30'; D: concentration

Up to [sum] total HD of creatures find themselves unable to move, no save. If sitting, they will be tied to the chair with ribbons; if standing, their shoes will be sewed to the carpet, etc. As an action, they can attempt to tear themselves free with -[dice] penalty, and any hostile action against a target also breaks the spell.

12. My Lovely Doll

Touched creature of 2×[dice] or less HD is turned into a tiny puppet of themselves, save negates. They are helpless but fully aware. Lasts for a minute/hour/day/eternity, but any damage suffered by the doll reverts the transformation.

by Chelsea Boy

 

Dooms:

1. Your eyes turn into buttons for 10 minutes, leaving you blind.
2. Your skin turns into skin-coloured silk, permanently. Take double fire and slashing damage.
3. You transform into a tiny, beauteous doll. You are helpless but fully aware, forever.

You can prevent (but not revert) all your Dooms by discarding and forswearing all your worldly possessions. Once you take this vow, you may only own and use simple, mundane clothes and tools; and may not own, use, or even carry money and valuables, properties and deeds, or magical and masterwork items of any kind. On the bright side, as a mendicant ascetic you are no longer bound by your Flaw and may keep your magic no matter your appearance and apparel. On the bleak side, this is considered a fate worse than death by many a fashion wizard.

Should you ever break this vow, you immediately suffer your final Doom. Maybe finding a way to animate your doll-body or transmigrate your soul into a more suitable vessel is the better solution.

 

Miniature Ranni from Elden Ring

RadMans

So, deadEarth... Such an incredible marvel of insane game design. Reading this thread, I fell in love with the idea that if you just completely reworked the main resolution mechanic, removed the sexism, reworded most of the rules so that they made a semblance of sense, replaced... Yeah, I started to hack it, because the characters that survive character generation are incredibly amusing and worthy of being played, just not in the deadEarth engine.

I have regained my sanity before getting too far, but I still have this automated character generator with a revised list of skills and no rules to accompany it. If ever a strange mood compels me to refine the nearly two thousand radiation manipulations (i.e. reality-warping mutations) into a format and content I would be happy with, I will let you know. But don't hold your breath.

The Last Stand: Diceless Pseudo-Wargame

Caput Caprae has reminded me of a game we used to play with my brothers when I was about twelve years old, which could be considered an extremely rudimentary kind of wargame. Maybe. We have built many a fortress from LEGO and wanted to have a nice siege, but knew nothing about wargames. So we made our own. These are the rules reimagined from what I remember, because of course there were no written rules.

You only need LEGO blocks to play this game. I will refer to the block names from here.

Units:

• Soldier (1x1 Brick or 1x1 Brick, Round) is the basic unit.
• Rider is a soldier on a horse (1×2 Plate). They are better in melee.
• Hero is a soldier with a coloured cap (1×1 Plate, Round). They get superpowers.
• Catapult (1x2 Brick) allows you to use the Missile action.
• Siege tower (2+ stacked 1x2 Bricks) allows soldiers to move over bulwarks.
• Dragon (2×2 Brick) is a bit overpowered.

The rest of the blocks should be used to build forts and fortifications.

Setup:
Prepare your terrain. We usually had a carpet as the dry land, with the floor around standing for the sea. Books and boxes and whatever else you have at hand can make for nice cliffs and mountains. And of course, don't forget to prepare your LEGO castle.

Decide how many units of which kind each player will get. There were no unit prices in our game, we made up a scenario and each player would take whatever units seemed appropriate. The Last Stand actually refers to a popular scenario of ours - one player gets the castle, the other player gets a much bigger army besieging it.

On the other hand, the number of caps for heroes and mages should be about the same for all players. If you don't have enough caps for everyone to have the same choice of hero powers, then the player who will go last in turn order picks one cap, then go in reverse turn order until the desired number of caps is chosen.

The players then deploy their units at will. Once again, in a pre-made scenario, this didn't matter that much. Units cannot be attached to the bulwarks they stand on - either cover the walls in smooth tiles or put the units across the pins. We want not-so-stable, free-standing units for the Missile action.

Turns:
Determine who goes first, then players alternate turns. On your turn, take one action chosen from the following types:

1. Missile
2. Move & Melee
3. Magic

Missile

You can only take a Missile action if you have a catapult on the battlefield. You also have limited ammo per turn - we played with 2 or 3 shots, I think.

Put your hand over any of your catapults, then throw a projectile. Any unit, friend or foe, that gets knocked over is killed. If a unit is knocked back but not over, it survived. Note that units that are harder to kill in melee get no such protection against missiles, and fortifications can also be knocked down by missile fire.

Our projectiles were usually 2×2 Brick or 1×3 Brick, but sometimes we also had glass marbles or bearing balls. We never did this, but you could have several kinds of siege engines with different ammo, like making a ballista by shooting a rubber band. Or use dice as missiles.

Move & Melee

Move one group of units across the battlefield. They cannot pass through enemy units, bulwarks or castle walls, or other impassable terrain. Otherwise, you are the judge of what counts as "too far to move in a single turn". Forts and fortifications should have some access point that you can conquer. Or you can move a siege tower next to a wall, then on your next turn move your units inside. Riders and catapults, however, cannot use siege towers.

Castle gates, by the way, can only be destroyed by missile fire (don't attach the gate firmly), a Shatter spell, or by a hero with Might. We didn't use any battering rams.

When (groups of) units end up adjacent, a melee ensues. Sum up the number of kills each side achieves, then remove that many units - the resolution is simultaneous and the sides can achieve mutual wipe out.

• Each soldier causes one kill.
• Each rider kills two and takes two hits to kill. One hit alone does not cause them lasting harm.
• Heroes cause [1 + number of caps] kills and take the same number of simultaneous hits to kill. This can be further modified by their powers.
• Dragons are a bit of a special case, see below.
• Catapults and siege towers cannot attack in melee, and get "killed" in a single hit.

For example, Alice moved 2 riders and 8 soldiers next to Bob's group of 10 soldiers and a catapult. Alice gets 12 kills, Bob gets 10 kills. Bob's group is completely wiped out, while Alice keeps 1 rider.

The active player decides which units from a group (both their own and enemy) are killed, but should start from the closest units. Especially if a group of soldiers is guarding a hero or a siege tower, you cannot kill the protected unit before removing its guardians.

Magic

You can cast one spell per action by removing one cap from any of your heroes. This may cause them to become a normal soldier.

• Berserk: The hero's group deals double damage until the end of your next turn.
• Protection: The hero's group cannot be harmed until the start of your next turn. If the units are knocked down by a missile, they must be restored to their original positions.
• Curse: Choose a player to curse. If the cursed player wants to use a Missile action on their next turn, they have to do so blind.
• Brambles: Choose a player; their units cannot Move & Melee on their next turn.
• Fear: Move an enemy group of units.
• Construct: Build and place a new structure somewhere near the hero. For example, a ramp to the castle walls.
• Shatter: Remove (a part of) a structure.
• Summon: Deploy a new group of units. The group is placed around the hero. You may not add more units than you had at the start of the game, so either you have kept some in reserve, or you are summoning the reanimated bodies of your dead soldiers.

Heroes:
Heroes get superpowers (in addition to the Magic action), denoted by the colour or shape of their cap.

• Might: Counts as a catapult and may destroy structures by attacking them.
• Shield: Cannot be killed by missiles or magic. If the unit is knocked down by a missile, it must be restored to its original position.
• Immortal: When killed, remove one of their caps and re-deploy them at the end of your next turn.
• Assassin: Can scale walls and terrain, so can Move pretty much anywhere on the table.

By the way, you can put a hero on horseback for that extra bit of power.

You can also make fun hero combination like an immortal assassin - move them behind enemy lines to kill a valuable unit in melee, and though as a lone unit they will be killed, they will just come back for another assassination.

Dragons:
Dragons are like heroes on magical steroids. They can fly (as Assassin) and use fire breath (as Might). They also kill 10 units in melee and have to be hit by 10 units simultaneously to die*. They can also be ridden by a hero.

*) I think. I don't remember the exact number, but it was something like this.
 

The Square Kingdom of South America prepares for battle...

 

...with the hundred heroes of the Round Realm...

  

...who serve the accursed Skull Titan...

 

...while the immortal Dragon Queen of Africa
watches from afar, ready to pounce on the weakened winner.

The Orb of Wishing

This might be one of the most fun magic items I have ever given to my players:

A larger crystal orb (1 Slot) that glows with strong inner light.

When you first touch the orb, you are flooded by strange visions that paralyse you until you succeed on a Will save. Once you pass, you gain control of the orb and may channel a sliver of its power - you have three wishes. It is not possible to wish alternatingly; once somebody else gains control of the orb, you lose any of your remaining wishes and may never again control the orb.

Zuran Orb from MtG

 

So far, the players have wished to:

1. Destroy the orb's guardian, averting a looming TPK.
2. Cure 50 years of unnatural ageing.
3. Regrow both hands of one unlucky companion.
4. Be cured of all ills. (Said character was severely injured and double-cursed.)
5. Become rich. (Wish pending completion, wait for the next session.)
6. Be young forever.
7. Grant human speech to their dog companion.
8. Resurrect a long-dead scientist for his lost knowledge.
9. Cure a fatal anaphylactic shock. (On the same character who had previously lost both of his hands...)

These wishes are in no way a monkey's paw. They follow the spirit of the request and sometimes even go a bit further, when the wording of the wish would needlessly weaken its beneficial effect. And yet my players are already paranoid, carefully planning on what to do with their effectively unlimited wishes. But are they truly unlimited? Who can they trust with the power of the orb, once everyone in the party has had their wishes granted? How can they compel anybody to wish for them? What if a word gets out? The schemes are piling up and up and up.

I must thank Skerples and Archon for the idea of giving the players a campaign-wrecking item early on and letting them loose. It is working gloriously.

Mythic Weapons

I love the idea of specialist weapons and how this is used in Mythic Bastionland. Here are d100 such weapons.

 

by Wayne Reynolds

 

This weapon is...

1. a sword
2. an axe
3. a bludgeon
4. a polearm
5. flexible
6. unusual
7. ranged
8. tricked-out

...and deals +d10 damage...

1. in a duel
2. in a battle formation
3. in a cramped space
4. in a wide-open space
5. in the first round of combat
6. in defence of (d4) innocents/the ruling class/secrets and lies/your home
7. in pursuit of (d4) knowledge/forgiveness/renown/revenge
8. in untamed wilderness
9. in water
10. in pitch darkness
11. at night
12. while in (d4) sun/moon/twi/candlelight
13. while at full hp
14. while at 0 hp
15. while bleeding or injured
16. while leaping or falling
17. while above your foe
18. while below your foe
19. while the foe is in their home
20. while the foe has attacked you first
21. while lavishly clad
22. while near-naked
23. while masked
24. while mounted
25. while music is playing
26. while singing
27. while praying, loudly
28. while leading a charge
29. while mocking your foe
30. while already dead
31. while possessed
32. while (d4) hungry/filthy/drunk/blinded
33. when outnumbered
34. when also using a shield
35. vs people with a shield
36. vs people with no shield
37. vs people with no helmet
38. vs people wielding a one-handed weapon
39. vs people wielding a two-handed weapon
40. vs people wielding no weapon
41. vs mounts
42. vs mounted
43. vs armoured
44. vs unarmoured
45. vs known liars
46. vs known debtors
47. vs oath-brakers
48. vs law-breakers
49. vs law-enforcers
50. vs warriors by trade
51. vs magic-users
52. vs sword-wielders
53. vs virgins
54. vs nobles (+2d10 vs royalty)
55. vs women and children
56. vs friends and family
57. vs wild animals
58. vs animal people and talking animals
59. vs humans (50% chance of only a specific ethnic)
60. vs demi-humans (50% chance of only a specific ethnic)
61. vs greenskins (50% chance of only a specific ethnic)
62. vs elves and plants
63. vs dwarves and fungi
64. vs creatures smaller than you are
65. vs creatures larger than you are
66. vs creatures of magic
67. vs creatures of darkness
68. vs the Dark Ones
69. vs celestial spirits
70. vs terrestrial spirits
71. vs chthonic spirits
72. vs infernal spirits
73. vs undead
74. vs dragons
75. vs constructs
76. vs man-made monstrosities
77. vs extradimensional horrors
78. vs unseen foes
79. vs prone foes
80. vs poisoned foes
81. vs disarmed foes
82. vs fleeing foes
83. vs superior foes
84. vs uninjured foes
85. vs bleeding or injured foes
86. vs the sick and the deformed
87. vs flying creatures
88. vs aquatic creatures
89. vs summoned creatures
90. vs scaled creatures
91. vs horned or antlered creatures
92. vs shelled or boney creatures
93. vs poisonous or venomous creatures
94. vs many-limbed creatures
95. vs a foe you have already battled before
96. vs a foe that has wronged you
97. vs one specific nemesis from your backstory
98. vs those whose full name you know
99. vs those you have broken bread with
100. vs your employer

Handkerchief of Holding

As my current campaign is nearing its end, I would like to share the contents of the party's "hankie of holding", their portable hole, after seventy-something sessions. As a bonus, it is nearly a d100 table.

 

I love Munchkin.

1. A bronze prosthetic arm. Once grafted, the hand can be shot out on a chain (30 ft) and controlled even when extended.
2. A golden coin with a lightning-like emblem
3. Silver coins with a runic cobra emblem, 4
4. Half of a treasure map
5. Hand mirror and comb, both embellished with dragon motives
6. Chess table, heavily scratched
7. Chess pieces, magical, missing a white pawn
8. Bottles of aged wine, 10
9. Lots of dirty books, to be sorted
10. A book titled "A Practical Guide to the World of Little Fairies: All Fey from the Thumb-Sized Sprites to the Exceptionally Large Toddler-Like Gnomes", in Elvish
11. A book titled "Balalán: The Myth, the Legend", badly translated into Hinnish
12. A book titled "Ley Lines 201", in High Imperial
13. A book titled "Being a God", in Dark Speech
14. A book titled "Getting Started with the Undead", in Dark Speech
15. A book titled "Conversations on Primordial Magic", in Dark Speech
16. A book titled "Magical Batteries in Theory and in Practice", in Dark Speech
17. A book titled "Biomancy and Biokinetics: An Exposé", in Dark Speech
18. A book titled "Of Beateous Peoples and their Mist-Shrouded Isles", in Elvish
19. A book titled "A Dragon Tale A Day", in Draconic
20. A lexicon of trollish runes
21. A book titled "How to Quickly and Easily Exterminate the Dark Ones", written in an eclectic mix of Draconic, Hinnish and Thieves' Cant, but using exclusively trollish runes. A thousand page tome written by a harengon alchemist who was often described as stark raving mad. It seems he truly was. His entire magnum opus is built on the unwavering assumption that the Dark Ones are physiologically and psychologically identical to the common household rat. On the other hand, it does contain a few genuinely excellent alchemical recipes for rat poisons.
22. A book titled "The Triune Divinity: Two Truths and a Lie", in Low Imperial
23. A book titled "All the Drugs and their Effects: A First Hand Testimony", in Elvish. Authored by Tamlin Nerri, with a hand-written inscription reading: "To my dear friend Tardinal, with platonic kisses always yours, Tamlin". The prose is passable, but feels like the author was high the whole time.
24. A huge tome bound in black leather; its title "The Aristocrats" is emblazoned in tiny letters on the spine. Still chained to a wooden lectern.
25. Bag of 1771 gold pieces and 50 silver pieces
26. Rope, 15 yards
27. Pieces of a shattered jade statue, 5
28. Silvered letter opener
29. Four of diamonds, chewed up
30. Saxophone
31. Torches, 14
32. Tinderboxes, 3
33. Underdark spices, 2 doses
34. Gel of regeneration, 2 doses
35. SuperSunScreen™, 3 doses. Offers resistance to radiant damage and protection from sun-based vulnerabilities for 8 hours.
36. Depetrification salve, half a dose
37. Decontamination pills, 2
38. Elixir of invulnerability
39. Potion of death ward
40. Potion of lesser healing, 2
41. Potion of lesser restoration, 3
42. Potion of maximum power, 2
43. Vial of poison, unidentified
44. Vial of holy water
45. Vial of silver dust
46. Truth serum, 4 doses
47. Pipe weed, 14 doses
48. Black lotus, 3 doses
49. Shadow fairy dust, 3 doses
50. Clean change of clothes
51. Crowbar
52. Hammer
53. Pick-axe
54. Wooden stake
55. Body pillow, stolen from the Antling Citadel
56. Longsword
57. Manacles
58. Spell scroll, empty
59. Spell scroll, Guards and Wards
60. Spell book, shot through
61. Mithril plate armour, shot through
62. Cloak and feathered cap with a monogram "H.M." (Hubert Malévol)
63. Signet ring of the Malévols, their chalice has been defaced with crude scratches imitating thorny brambles
64. Box warded against magical radiation
65. Egg that summons a purple worm when crushed
66. An enchanted quill that writes down what you dictate
67. A tea set, magical
68. Herbal tea, 10 doses
69. Black tea, 10 doses
70. Violet tea, 3 doses
71. Blue tea, 4 doses
72. Fairy dragon coffee, 2 doses. When drunk, the drinker's speed is tripled, they have +5 AC, an advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and gain +2 Actions. In the next round, however, the character loses their Action and suffers one level of Exhaustion.
73. Wood infused with god-power, 1 cord
74. Backpack, embroidered with "❤️ From Mum"
75. Food rations, 2
76. Slingshot
77. Basilisk tooth dagger, counts as +3 against stony creatures
78. A magical staff made from a gnarled branch, with a crystal set into its tip. It is wrapped in several layers of cloth and carefully bound, with a tag reading: "Warning, cursed item. Do not touch!" and "Seriously, don't touch it. It's not worth it." handwritten beneath it. When a magic-capable character touches the staff, they are dematerialized and imprisoned within the crystal. A character trapped inside the crystal can still see and hear the outside. They may expend a spell slot to materialize for a number of hours equal to the spell slot's level, but once that time expires, they dematerialize again and, regardless of distance, are instantly drawn back into the crystal. Any number of characters may be imprisoned within the crystal.
79. A black iron quarterstaff. Requires attunement by a spellcaster and serves as a spellcasting focus. While wielding the staff, the bearer: a) Has resistance to fire and necrotic damage. b) Gains the Hellish Rebuke spell. c) Whenever they cast a spell that deals fire or necrotic damage, they may suffer one level of Exhaustion to make that spell automatically deal maximum damage.
80. A demonic cup. When filled with fresh innocent blood, allows communion with any demon whose true name you know.
81. Tears of Irias, 2. Pearls that allow communion in dreams when swallowed.
82. Uniform of Irias' personal guard. Black with yellow decorations and a faceless mask.
83. Uniform of Xiximanter's army officer. Black with emerald and orange embellishments.
84. Stolen suitcase of viscount Lucius Malévol. Filled with frilly clothes, plus 122 gold in a pouch.
85. Golden medallion bearing the visage of a sleeping elf princess, wrapped in Malévol's silken undies
86. Scroll case with the maps of Xiximanter's military headquarters, thaumic bomb factory and the sewers of Balalán
87. Wine bottle filled with the antimagic blood of Eldjárn Wrixling, 2 doses
88. A fragile glass sphere filled with vitriolic acid
89. Shadowy copies of a fistful of jewelry
90. Lard
91. A cursed short sword of the plague. Every successful hit applies the Contagion spell, but the curse has a harmful effect on any wielder not immune to diseases. Such wielder must, at the end of each battle, succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be afflicted with a random disease as per that spell.
92. Simple gold stud earrings. Once both are put on, a strange curse takes effect - the wearer cannot remove the earrings without the Remove Curse spell, and at the same time becomes incorporeal. They remain normally visible, only slightly translucent.
93. Brooch of beauty. The bearer is covered by a permanent illusion that functions like a makeup, concealing any imperfections in appearance - undeath, mutations, etc.

Campaign Pitch: Lost in Carcosa

Along the shore the cloud waves break,

The twin suns sink behind the lake,

The shadows lengthen

        In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies

But stranger still is

        Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

Where flap the tatters of the King,

Must die unheard in

        Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead;

Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

Shall dry and die in

        Lost Carcosa.

Cassilda's Song

"The King in Yellow", Act I, Scene 2

Robert W. Chambers (1895)

Carcosa is a malignant planet 153 light years away from Earth, orbiting a nameless, dying binary star in the Hyades Cluster. Carcosa is also a foreboding city in the middle of the black lake Hali, a pallid and sepulchral metropolis of whose inchoate inhabitants one better dares not speak. Carcosa is a tale of far-future technology and magnificent, maleficent architecture and inhumanly horrific sorcery and the primitive tribes that eke out a meagre existence amongst these remnants of awesome, awful yore.

 

  

So, is this a...

Actually, I don't really have a simple reference for this setting. Carcosa mixes weird science-fantasy, Lovecraftian horror and swords & sorcery adventuring into a game of psychedelic wasteland survival in a world full of radiation, mutation, dinosaurs, mutant dinosaurs, killer droids, psionic oozes, alien martial arts, ray guns and other lost wonders of stupendous science.

Have some pictures:

 

Temple Entrance by BeastScrollGames

 

All unsourced images are from Pinterest,
where the original source was not found.

  

by Noriyoshi Ohrai

 

from Morrowind

 

by Richard Hescox

 

 

by Wayne D. Barlowe

 

from Universum: War Front

  

 

You will play as...

A wasteland scavenger and survivor, one of the rainbow-coloured "humans" that brave the death-filled wilderness sprawling between the fortified villages that dot this planet's broken landscape, searching for treasure (certainly), glory (ostensibly) and perhaps even a meaning. Any meaning at all.

There are no people except the fifteen races of Man - Alabaster, Blue, Bone, Bronze, Dolm, Fuchsia, Gold, Green, Jale, Onyx, Orange, Purple, Red, Ulfire, and the ever-elusive Space Men. Twisted by millennia of travesties and tribulations, they are a combination of hunters-gatherers, mutants, cyborgs, maddened cultists and even more peculiar folk. Some would argue that these "humans" are human no more.

Sidebar: Humanity is not native to Carcosa and there are next to no other mammals. You will find no sheep or wolves, but you might certainly encounter giant reptiles, terror-birds, weird insectoids, alien fungi, etc.

There are no classes except four: Fighter, Trickster, Tinker and Psyker. Why? Because the classes serve as merely a chassis for the tricks and talents that you will uncover during your wanderings. Indeed, this should be a game of discovery. You will be exploring the merciless expanse of Carcosa, where every path leads to danger, every crumbling monastery houses a sage and every foreboding ruin hides a secret. Butcher the dangers for their cybernetic parts, force the sages to teach you their techniques, steal the secrets to unlock phenomenal cosmic powers. You will gain abilities by travelling, training, investigating and taking a risk.

Basically, mix a bowl of grotesque horror, pulpy trappings and gonzo comedy, then sprinkle it all over a big hex map. That is Carcosa.

 

 

 

 

Do you want to...

• Travel between xenophobic village-states ruled over by cybernetic god-kings and psionic witch-queens? Every village hoards rumours about strange Wonders - scraps and shards of alien gadgets - just waiting for someone foolish enough to try and claim them.
• Win these Wonders and listen to their whisperings? Such whispers are said to be the blessings of the Black Monolith that bring great fortunes and far greater ruin.
• Descry monuments that chronicle the failings of incomprehensible civilizations long extinct and their horrid rituals that could bind gods to your will, if you are willing to leave your humanity behind? You will never dream of pleasant things again.
• Follow your nightmares towards resplendent, repugnant places where one might glean transcendental truths, such as how to punch really really hard? Insanity will nip at your heels.
• Pretend that you are fine while getting addicted to lotus and tearing killbots apart with your bare mind? You will need someone to bring you back.
• Deal with whatever strange forces may threaten the survival of the small village that is your newfound home, maybe improve the lives of your friends, and perhaps even lead them to a better future?

 

by Dark Fables

 

Once again, here are d20 questions and answers about the campaign and setting, courtesy of Jeff Rients:

What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

There is no divine magic, no otherworldly benevolent beings and no centralized religious organizations. Religion on Carcosa is more about awe and appeasement - some cults worship the Old Ones and their spawn, others ancient technology and AI angels, or powerful monsters and extraterrestrial entities. Sometimes, these cultists are spared, or even rewarded.

Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

The party will soon find themselves in the town of Lon Barago which houses a large market every weekend. The Bronze Women village of Jahara to the west may have other items that are trickier to track down, especially medicine and drugs.

Few people in Carcosa are interested in gold, by the way. Rather than any single currency, goods are usually bartered, with food, bullets or energy cells, and especially Wonders all being good bargaining chips.

Where can we go to get plate mail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

You are unlikely to find anyone who knows how to produce plate armour, even if you could find the metal to make it in the first place. Carcosa is an eclectic mix of bronze age villages and rotting alien super-tech, where few people have the time, opportunity and resources to master a skill such as armour-crafting. That being said, you could have something fashioned out of dinosaur leather, and should you be lucky in scavenging some irradiated ruins, there are many stranger armours to be had - from laser-resistant synth suits to hulking powered exoskeletons.

Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?

The most evil of all the Purple Men, Ikhon the Judge, is known for his unmatched mastery of the Four Arts: Killing, Psychic, Scientific and Sorcerous. He rules a small village far to the south-west, protected by advanced weaponry and soldiers clad in power armour. The Old Ones yield to his will.

Who is the greatest warrior in the land?

You know of no finer masters of the Killing Arts than Lon "the Brightest Terror" and Barago "the Swift and Silent Beginning", the two leaders of the town of Lon Barago. They have forged a sanctuary for escaped slaves and refugees of all kind, forming a small but growing community. This is quite an unlikely situation - people of all races living and working together, spared from the common xenophobia that permeates the wastes.

Who is the richest person in the land?

Ikhon the Judge is said to possess vast amounts of wealth.

Where can we go to get some magical healing?

You surely mean technological healing. Medical Wonders do exist, but they are not easy to come by. In all other cases, you must make do with crude surgery and lotus.

Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?

The many-coloured lotus can cure many ailments, but may also kill the unwary. Ask your local dealer, likely from the Red Temple near Lon Barago.

And while sorcery is usually used only for conquest and perversions, it is capable of amending afflictions that nothing else can ameliorate - at a price. For example, petrification can be undone by the Lurker Amidst the Obsidian Ruins, the dead can be raised (in a manner of speaking) by the Desiccating Slime of the Silent Halls, and radiation sickness may be lifted by the Weird God.

Is there a magic guild my magic-user belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?

There is no magic in Carcosa - in the traditional sense. Fireballs, divinations and protective wards are replaced by rocket launchers, psionic prescience and mutated bone plates. There also exist the grand rituals of the long-vanished Chirrappakka that allow a sorcerer to humble the elder gods and draw upon their powers - at a sickening price. Finally, there are many local marvels found only in a single village or cave, such as infernal pigments, sorcerous sourdoughs, or memetic chants.

Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert?

Ali-ilil the Apiarist is a lotus-seller, apothecary and sage who lives in the village of Jahara. He also deals in maps. He may be addicted to the philters he sells.

Specialised experts are scattered in various other villages. There is no central hub of hubbub.

Where can I hire mercenaries?

Lon Barago maintains an informal standing militia. Most of the men and women in the town know how to fight. For a good wage or a share of treasure, it should not be hard to find people willing to have an adventure.

Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from the Law?

Sorcery is universally considered wicked, so you are best to hide any such tendencies. Some villages broaden their idea of magic to include not just the ancient, eldritch rituals, but psionics and mutations as well. On the other hand, no villagers are likely to complain about a person carrying an axe or rifle; it's rough out there.

Bone Men are pretty much always regarded with suspicion, if not outright reviled.

Which way to the nearest tavern?

The Hole in Lon Barago serves fermented drinks and is the place to go for all sorts of shadiness.

What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

A large spherical hunter-killer robot stalks the wastes just south of Lon Barago. No one knows who created it or for what purpose, but it has been stealing away travellers for month now. Few have encountered the machine and lived to share their tales.

The rulers of Lon Barago will also pay for proof of any killed slaver or spawn and the town of Jahara is said to have its own share of troubles with monsters.

Are there any wars brewing I could go fight in?

She of the Lake, an up-and-coming techno-priestess, has just started assembling a petty empire for herself via brutal conquest. She lives on an island far to the east and, if rumours are to be trusted, offers great power to those who swear their fealty to her.

How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

A nearby castle of Jale Men runs gladiatorial games of sorts. The prize is that the winners gain the honour and privilege of being fed to the Jale Men's god.

If you wish to prove your martial prowess, a better bet would be to find a monastery and challenge the monks for the knowledge of their secret technique.

Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

Yes. They are exactly the kind of secret you might want to investigate should you wish to master unnatural powers.

What is there to eat around here?

Not much. Most villages subsist one stretch of bad weather away from the brink of starvation and a well of clean water is a treasure that can buy a lord's favour. Wheat and fruits are not common; people live off mushroom stew, lizard eggs and meat, fish, insect paste, sweet cacti, bitter tubers and all sorts of strange roots. Dinosaur meat is a rare feast.

On the other hand, drugs are relatively easy to acquire, with chewing lotus, worm spice and alcohol available pretty much everywhere. What is often called beer or wine on Carcosa is actually a kind of kombucha, various organic remains fermented with the help of certain yeasts and fungi.

Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?

The Elder Signs, rune-inscribed metametal tablets that keep the Old Ones at bay and compel b'yakhees to do your will, would probably be quite handy. Other than that, the most common reason to brave the decidedly deadly ruins of yore is a chance to find a Wonder such as a plasma blaster, holo-projector, shield generator, robot scrambler, alien mutagen injector, or a car.

Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with a hoard of treasure?

If by a dragon you mean a laser-breathing dinosaur, there are rumours of such a beast's lair to be found in the mountains to the north-west. It is questionable what kind of a treasure hoard might such a monstrosity possess, but one could tear the many alien cybernetics out of its body and instigate their own ascension into eternal chrome.

 

 

And here are d12 assorted questions from the other lists, where the answers differ significantly from my previous pitch:

What class knows the most martial arts? Are they real martial arts like kung fu, or made up ones like krav maga?

There are only four classes available, but they serve simply as a chassis for the various special techniques you can learn from masters and manuals found across the wasteland. Thus basically all of the classes, save for maybe Tinkers, have some form of martial Killing Arts to learn.

Oh, and they are real techniques like the Jedi force push.

Can I start out having already made a deal with the devil or do I have to do that in game?

As a starting boon, you can choose a sorcerous ritual capable of compelling an elder evil to do your bidding, but you have to perform it during play.

Do you want me to write an 8-page backstory? Can I write an 8-page backstory, if I want to? If I write something down in it like I'm the time-lost princess of the brass city and the daughter of the Sun and I commanded legions in the Hell War but was betrayed by my father's vizier but I don't know that, or that I'm elf Conan and cooler than everyone else, will that be true?

You don't need a backstory or character concept for this campaign, at least in the beginning. You will start as a nameless slave thrown into a dungeon of an indescribable god. Make a name for yourself during play.

On the other hand, there are no impregnable fortresses, no ancient organisation that will hunt you down with an army, should you upset the local balance of power, and no powers that be to uphold the status quo. Few things are impossible for a small, well-armed group with a plan. Few rulers are immune to being shot in the head with a laser rifle, and taking their village for yourself once you murder them is par for course. You can achieve renown, you can quickly amass power and you can start changing the world, if you are willing to take risks.

These classes are boring, can I be one from somewhere else? What about from a different system entirely?

Not at first, no. I am too invested in the theme and tone and it would ruin the discovery aspect of play. But you can always tell me what you would like to see and if it fits the flavour at least a bit, I will hide it somewhere in the world for you to find.

So anyway, how do I win in general?

That's a good question which I don't really have an answer to. Maybe you could:

• Take over a village and build it up into a beacon of civilization and/or a military powerhouse.
• Repair a flying saucer and leave this planet for greener pastures.
• Wish upon a bound Outer God to have a grand palace and slaves aplenty.
• Shed your mortal flesh and ascend to pure conceptual form, cyber-heaven or other higher sphere of existence.
• Overdose on lotus and delve into the deepest reaches of Dreamlands.
• Drive your tuned-up nuclear-powered car into the binary sunset, never to be seen again.

What language stands in for Common? Or what are we all talking to each other in? Like the party, mostly, but also everyone else?

Every race of Man has its own coloured language, but the most common are certainly Red, Green and Blue tongues. They are somewhat mutually intelligible, but have very different ways of writing. Speaking of which, literacy is rare on Carcosa. You are considered illiterate until you reach rank 6 in a given language.

Lon Barago is split roughly half and half between Green and Red.

What do birds know?

The bird people, Chirrappakka, have brought humanity to this planet and ruled over them for eons. It is their ruins that you are desecrating, their technology that you are stealing and their mistakes that you are paying for. They knew everything.

Is there weaponized Squid?

Given how many Lovecraftian monsters roam these lands, you can expect to encounter all manner of dangerous squids and squid-like organisms. How much they can be weaponized is entirely up to your ingenuity.

What cultures approve of cannibalism?

Many. For some, it is a matter of staving off starvation, for others a religious rite. It is polite to ask before eating someone's fallen brethren, but such a question will not spark outrage - cannibalism is uncommon but widely accepted.

Which is the Rome but with lava? Like the fire country in this world?

Mount Voormith'adreth to the far north-west.

How much money can I make inventing siege engines?

There is nobody to buy such machines, but you can certainly use them for your own enrichment by razing other villages.

What is the most significant tree to the economy of the starting place?

All quality wood is precious. While firewood can usually be gathered easily enough from the brittle wasteland bushes, forests are deadly hives of horrors and wood logs are thus hard to come by. Villages are built from adobe or stone and clay, and instead of wooden furniture, you can expect sitting mats of reed and tables of stone.

  

by Don Lawrence

  

 

Beast of Burden Parasaurolophus by Raphael Meireles

 

 

 

by Tim Molloy, from Empire of Bones

 

Insectoid Statue by macteg

 

from Valerian

from Barry Sonnenfeld's Dinosaurs vs Aliens

Lost Carcosa by Laura Mazza