More campaign brainstorming

 I had fun yesterday with Knave 2e creating so as a exercise to decompress from work today, I dug out my dice and tried some more creativity exercises.

Since my last post made references to a noble, I figured I needed to work up some details on that. I have a PDF called Noble House Creator that I picked up some time ago. Just a few simple random tables, but still good for brainstorming.

House Greymorn

House Crest: grey background, dark green perimeter, narrow green eye in center

House Logo: "Gilded Eyes Will Always Rule"

Family Trade: Armorers

Famed Family Member: Valerian the Bold, the Brave, the Beautiful; a skilled hunter said to have slain a dragon!

Family Deeds: Castle, Vineyard (run down, in disarray, mismanaged) control village of Seep and surrounding farms. 

Who Supports the family: Currently hold the Queen's favor (currently...)

Payment they accept: Gold, silver, coins!

Family militia/Specialists: Mounted Knights

Family Secret: Their funds are running dry...desperate for influx of cash to pay debts! 

Lord Archibald Greymorn of House Greymorn

Margot Vineyard- yes it is that bad

So there you have it, this didn't take long at all, I used Knave to fill in some gaps, and now I have a fun little addition to my growing region.

Have a great evening!

B.B. 

Knave 2E for Campaign Inspiration

 Hope everyone is doing well. I haven't posted in a bit.  Had a little time this morning while family slept in to do some gaming brainstorming. I grabbed my copy of Knave 2e. Rolled up a random NPC. Knave 2E is fantastic for helping a GM brainstorm ideas. In just a few minutes I had rolled up Bartholamew Brandybold, a down on his luck former jester/oracle. 

Maybe he once was the jester of the local noble and was kicked out on the street when he fell out of favor. Does he know secrets about the noble or the noble's family? Is there a secret way inside the noble's mansion that he knows about? Does he hold a grudge for his mistreatment?

Bartholamew Brandybold 

    Former Jester, former Oracle, now a  down on his luck "wretch".

Next, I wanted a location. Where would the players encounter this, down on his luck, fellow. Back to the wonderful tables in Knave 2E and I quickly had a unique and equally suitable (disturbing) location. The poor, unquiet village of Seep. A truly destitute place, where a black oily substance oozes up out of the ground and is slowing covering everything in a slick, oily coating. Many of the villagers are sickly and weak from the exposure but are too poor (or not allowed by the local noble?) to leave. What is the oil? Is it a curse? Well, that's where the players come in...

    

Village of Seep

And what makes a region even more interesting is a strange wizard's tower nearby. Once again, some random rolls and I have Xedu's Tower. A tall creepy stone tower on the far outskirts of the region. Stone vents are known to spew out a poisonous gas at irregular intervals. The gas has killed all vegetation in the immediate area around the tower. All sane folk give the place a wide berth. What is the gas? rumors say the wizard has a captured Green Dragon held below the tower and the poisonous gas is the dragon's breath weapon, but no one knows for certain...

Xedu's Tower

So next time your players go in an unexpected direction, grab Knave 2E make a few rolls on the great random tables and you will quickly have a memorable NPC/Encounter/Locale! The system your playing doesn't matter (although personally I'm an OSR guy). 

This encounter could easily be inserted into most any fantasy campaign regardless of the system you are using! Let me know how it goes!

-Good Gaming! B.B. 

I know some don't care for AI generated art, but the visuals help me come up with ideas. 

Iustus Vindicta : Solo Play!

 The Introduction

     My buddy Matt recently encouraged me to give Solo gaming another try.  I find myself burned out on 5E; it just isn't my style of game. I looked at the 2024 edition at the local hobby shop and it just turned me off, the art especially was a huge downer for me. It looked more marvel movie superhero stuff than sword and sorcery or Middle-Earth. I'm not knocking you if 5E is your thing, it just isn't mine. Played it, DM'ed it, just no more for me. So, with that said, I have a gaming library full of stuff I want to use, mostly OSR related or even OD&D/AD&D era.  Matt challenged me to run two solo sessions before I go back to work Thursday, so going to try to see what I can come up with. Basically, just going to sit down and "JUST DO IT!".

     I ended up spending more than a brief bit of time playing with random tables and generating stuff before I just started play, which probably wasn't what Matt intended, but you know what? I have had a blast!!! I realized I wasn't burned out on Fantasy gaming, just 5E and whatever the apparent current corporate "modern" take on gaming is... This Solo experience has so far been loads of fun. 

     I've used multiple different resources for this; Knave 2nd ed., F.O.R.G.E. Anniversary Edition, Old School Essentials, Ordure Fantasy, Mythic, Tome of Adventure Design, Worlds Without Number, random online generators and more...Oh and I can't draw worth a darn, so forgive my use of A.I. art generators to give this solo campaign a bit of visual spark.

     

     Let me introduce the party, all randomly generated. While doing this endeavor, I was listening to metal, so the character names and other bits of inspiration are pulled from songs, albums and bands. 

The Party

                                           Aryon King

                                            'Grevele'

                                           Elysion

                                            Solace

                                           The Volturian

     The Gathering...

     A small forest clearing, secluded within the Ravenwold, on the edge of the borderlands, an unkindness of ravens cawed in the distance. A chill breeze stirred the air, a dead leaves blowing in the wind to land on the sparse ground. A group of five had assembled, all very different, and in other circumstances might never have interacted with one another, but they all shared a bond, or rather a shared pain and a common foe!

      All had their reasons to hate her, they had all lost much to the vile creature, the foul one, The Baboon Witch.  Aryon had lost a kingdom, 'Grevele' his only son, Elysion the love of his life, Solace her Order and The Volturian..his people. The Baboon Witch had much to answer for, but she was cunning, and powerful, and never faced her foes directly. She would pay, but revenge is a dish best served cold.

     Aryon had sent out the summons, using the last remnants of his now lost wealth, and calling in old favors and debts he had assembled this band. Not all he reached out too had responded, some were no doubt dead, others seeking oblivion at the bottom of a bottle somewhere or worse. But these had come, whether out of curiosity or something else, these others were here. Hopefully they would be enough. 

     It was Elysion who had gotten the tip, from some of his less than scrupulous contacts. Elysion had learned from his contacts within the Shadow Lanterns that the minions of The Baboon Witch had captured a young sorceress, Amalien the Amaranthine, and planned to sacrifice her, bleeding off her power (and life) to add to the Baboon Witch's own. Time was short, the sacrifice would happen in three days, under the full moon at midnight, typical evil type timing at a typical evil place the ancient Trees of Sacrifice. 

     The party discussed this information. This ritual if successful would make The Baboon Witch even more powerful. Solace, called their quest an "Iustus Vindicta"... The dwarf 'Grevele' looked confused "Excusez-moi" ?...The elf Elysion muttered an answer in his typical soft voice, "Righteous Vendetta". Aryon replied his noble background apparent in the way he spoke, "Righteous? perhaps, that is for the gods to decide, but revenge will be had upon this vile monster, though it may mean my last breath, I vow to destroy her! who stands with me?!...then as a united group, all raised their swords into the air and said with a yell "Aye!!" (Elysion merely said the words, an Elf never yells).

To be continued...

Knave Solo Part 3

      

     The stinging crimson rain continued to fall, the wind whipping the drops about, even getting past Raze's Hazard Wrap.  Reepr burrowed deeper into Raze's backpack, as Raze continued to look about for shelter. He passed a wheeled cart of trade goods, it was knocked over, various small tools, bits and bobs, littered the ground, it's owner no doubt panicked by the dangerous storm had knocked over his cart, and abandoned it, seeking shelter.  Probably some decent loot there, but no time to stop and if the acidic rain continued the goods would be likely rendered worthless before all was said and done. 

     Rounding a side street he spies a little girl crying, she has fallen down in the street and crawled under a small, overturned wagon to try to get out of the stinging rain, a few drops were still splattering on her and burning her skin. Raze spied the girl's mother from the doorway of a shack across the way, frantically calling to the girl to come to her. The mother clearly had a lame leg and couldn't run. The girl was terrified. Raze ran over picked up the terrified child, sheltered her under his hazard wrap, which caused more drops to hit him, and ran to the girl's mother, the grateful mother took the child from Raze's arms, then promptly slammed the door in his face, and he could clearly hear the door being triple barricaded and locked from the other side. He paused in the stinging rain for only a second then kept running, looking for shelter...What's the old saying? No good deed goes unpunished?...

     Quickly moving down the streets, trying to use the nearby buildings to give him some measure of cover from the biting rain, Raze ponders his situation...some scout he is.. on the run from an acid rain storm while still in the city.. Idiot! Raze finds a slight overhang from an old building that gives him slight cover but not much, the wind is still whipping the stinging rain into his face, he covers himself with his hazard wrap as best he can. Its raining hard now, he catches his breath and looks about.  Down the nearby alley he sees a heavy-duty tarp flapping over what looks like a big hole in the side of an old building. He sees the flap move and a gloved hand pops out, motioning him to come that way..to come inside?!

     The rain slackens just a bit and Raze makes a run for it.  He has no idea who this is, but if he stays out here his gear will be ruined at best, at worse... well better get moving... Stinging, acrid rain bites his face as he races for the flapping tarp on the side of the old building. He ducks inside, just as the rain starts to pour down even harder.  Darting inside, it is dark, musty and he smells something...something that smells like...an animal of some sort?!!!! 

To be continued....

Knave Solo Part 2

           

         Now out of coin, but happy with his new "pet" Hunting Eel, Raze Harrow realizes he needs to earn some coin.  Thankfully he bought provisions for his Wasteland scouting mission before he blew the last of his coin on his new pet. He wonders if he should also try to recruit an adventuring companion or two to accompany him? All he could offer them at this point is an equal share of any loot they might find. He could definitely use some extra muscle on this adventure, the wastelands were nothing to trifle with... 

         He passes the Temple of the Wondrous Worm...that odd religion that worships the massive carnivorous sandworms that live in the wastelands...odd folk, seems like a good way to get eaten to him. Raze picks up his pace to quickly move past the strange cultists proselytizing out in front of their temple. 

         Rounding the corner Raze smells something delicious, "Reepurrr" his Hunting Eel sniffs the air from its hiding place in his backpack. "Yeah, that smells good, sadly its rations for us until we can get some more coin." Raze spots the source of the smell, a little food vendor stall tucked in the alley by the temple. "Two Cheesy Rats" was the name of the place, although their attempt to provide a drawing/image of what two cheesy rats looked like left much to be desired.  Hmmm... cheese fried rats...Not a combo he would have thought of. Didn't matter he was broke so keeps walking. 

        While passing the food vendor, Raze overhears some merchants talking. He catches them mention problems with caravans reaching the city.  Apparently, bandit activity is a real issue. The Twisted Teeth Bandits were causing a lot of problems, more so than normal. They were hitting caravans heading through one of the few "safe" passages across the wastes that avoids Sand Worm territory. And to make matters worse the Zebra Gnolls were moving into the area as well. Not to mention The Jackals! Their raids though sporadic, only makes things worse... Raze would file that information away, good to know what factions are out there stirring up trouble. 

        Raze notices storm clouds moving in...a breeze stirs up, it has a strange acrid taste to it...It generally doesn't rain here, especially this time of year,, and those storm clouds don't look good. they have a strange dark red hue to them.. his recruiting efforts would have to wait, Raze needed to get to shelter and by the looks of the clouds and winds picking up...soon!  

          Raze had been staying at the Sleeping Hog Inn, wasn't the best place to stay, but by far it wasn't the worst. Now that he is broke, he can't even afford to stay at The Loathsome Fingerbone, its claim to fame was flea ridden beds, roach stew, backed up latrines, and a foul looking weird fingerbone kept in a jar of green goo behind the counter. Hmmm...storm was moving in pretty quick now, folk were clearing out of the streets and alleys, heading to shelter, wind was picking up, the acrid smell increased, even the air had a acrid taste about it...and why did the clouds have that strange reddish tint to them? This wasn't good...not good at all. 

         Raze gets concerned and looks about for some sort of shelter.  The wind whips up more, bits of gravel and sand are blown about, a misty rain begins to fall, but it isn't a normal rain, it has a reddish tint to it. And as it rains harder the drops get thicker and start to smoke where they hit the ground, where they hit Raze's bare skin it stings and burns. Raze realizes his hazard wrap, while shabby, is giving him some protection, but he can't stay out here indefinitely....  The streets are empty now, doors closed, windows shuttered... stinging crimson rain starts to come down hard, his hazard wrap helps, but he has to find shelter and soon.....         

To be continued...

                                             Crimson Rain

     I used Knave 2nd ed. tables for much of this process. With some inspiration from The Weird Wastelands (yeah it is 5E) book. 

I'm also incorporating things from Vaults of Vaarn, because..Why Not? 

     I'm enjoying solo play more and more. I'm able to squeeze in a quick session here and there. Oh, and for anyone paying attention, yes, I updated Raze's picture and tweaked his name a bit, included some additional rolls out of Vaarn for some extra gear and stuff. I like the character much better now.  Stay tuned for more!

Knave Solo Part 1

                 Continuing my Solo play of Knave 2nd Edition.  

      Although a skilled scout and trapper, Raze realizes heading out alone in the Wastes is unwise. He decides to see if he can acquire a hunting beast to assist him in his endeavors. Not having much luck in the regular trader's markets and stalls around Bethmoora, he tries his luck along the fringes of the city. 

     On the outskirts of Bethmoora, Raze finds a refugee camp where his coin may be a bit more valuable. Although he holds his coin purse tightly, concerned about pickpockets and thieves. These refugees are a strange lot apparently fleeing an invasion of their homeland and ending up on the outskirts of Bethmoora. They are scarlet skinned, with white wavy hair and unusual yellow eyes. Most having several piercings on their bodies, and oddly enough none appear to be older than middle age... He notes that the communities' sexual behaviors are much more open than he is accustomed too, he decides to not judge these folk (to each his own) but avoids being alone with any of the individuals he encounters that try to entice him. 

     After some time, he finds Krah; a sort of trader, apparently this refugee was some sort of beast tamer in his previous life and indicates he has a hunting beast that may be of interest to Raze. Krah shows Raze a strange beast, a Cerlulean Hunting Eel! a blue furred, serpentine creature that takes right to Raze and gives a soothing purr as it gently wraps around his arm and licks his cheek with its long tongue. Raze decides he must have such a fantastic creature, and before he realizes it, he spends all of his coin to buy the beast.  Krah smiles and tells him the eel is named Reaper.  Raze likes that and departs the camp, poorer in coin but happy with his purchase. He ponders for a moment, he never asked how big the eel would get??...

     Short little session tonite, before some family time. This was loads of fun! I used Knave 2nd ed, some random tables from Worlds Without Number and the One-Page Mythic rules.  Raze has an awesome furry companion but is now broke.  I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!  

Knave 2nd Ed. (starting a Solo Campaign)

      Being a sucker for random tables and generators, I backed the Knave 2nd Edition Kickstarter, having a little downtime today, I took the tables for a spin.  Just using the plethora of random tables you can have a ton of fun with this!  I also recently watched a Youtube video about using Knave 2nd ed to develop a campaign (great video).        

     First, I need a character.  Fortunately creating characters in Knave is super quick.  A few rolls later and I had a character. First level characters are dubbed Wretches!  Love it! Behold Raze Harrow! Oh and I added a few things from Vaults of Vaarn, why not, its cool!

Raze Harrow

Background:  Trapper, Scout

Str 0  Dex 0  Con 2 Int 0 Wis 1 Cha 0

Armor : Shield 1 Ap       5 Hit Points

Shabby Hazard Wrap (Immunity from radiation and toxins, AC 12 for OSR games, Vaults of Vaarn)

Basher (Mace)   1d6 damage

Plinker (Short Bow)  1d6 damage  

Equipment: Quiver 20 arrows, 2 torches, 130 coins, 2 rations, 50’ rope, Bear trap, Bear pelt, 300’ twine, signal flags, black grease, dice

Additional Gear (Vaults of Vaarn): Cast Iron Skillet, Skin of Wine, 

Crystalline Knife (Vaults of Vaarn): 1d6+1 damage (razor sharp) +d6 damage on mineral-based creatures or automatons and on a critical hit inflicts an extra d6 damage and the blade snaps off into the wound and a new blade "grows" from the hilt 

Exotica (Vaults of Vaarn): Mirror Ring - Projects a hologram copy of the wearer that mimics their actions.

     So that took me to the next step... where would Raze be adventuring?  

     I rolled on the Wilderness Region table and was excited to roll Wasteland!  Long time blog readers will know that I LOVE wasteland settings!  So very cool.  I decided that given Raze's background as a Scout and Trapper he has been hired to scout out and explore the Wasteland! Maybe he may try to trap some of the exotic beasts he encounters during his explorations, rare pelts and strange beast partscould fetch a nice price in certain markets...markets like those found in Bethmoora! 

     I've become rather intrigued by Matt's Bethmoora Campaign idea. So maybe Raze is setting out from Bethmoora to scout the wastes near Bethmoora, 

     I'll expound more on this concept in future posts.. I've not really done "true" Solo play, so that's where the next book comes into play.  The Mythic Gamemaster Emulator Deluxe, 2nd Edition will be the next resource I use.  Matt Jackson has been posting about Solo play over on his blog,   I'm trying to decide if I want to go with the full Mythic GME, or maybe just the Mythic One Page option instead. More to come!

Update: added some additional gear and things using the random tables from Vaults of Vaarn, great game by the way!