Summer Games, by Request!

Some of my co-workers asked if I would run some games this summer, and who am I to pass up an opportunity to have my fragile ego stoked?!

So this summer, I am running another series of one(ish)-shots for some coworkers and their families.  The ruleset we are using is ye olde Moldvay Basic, because I own 4 copies of the book (yet only 1 copy of Cook Expert).  Table Rules come from this lovely download from Technical Grimoire - a great site.

We played our first session of Hole in the Oak Thursday night, and it was every bit as fun as the various reviews promised.  There will be spoilers in these session logs for those who have somehow missed this adventure since it was first released in 2019.  You have been warned!

Our PCs - a circle of friends and acquaintances from the outlying areas of Skara Brae: 

Gil, Fighter, deceased

Calicar, Magic-User, deceased

Ro-Ro (and Leonardo, her inner monologue), Halfling, deceased

Armina Ironfist, Dwarf

Lyrial, Elf

MacDuff, Fighter

Victor, Fighter (Gil's replacement)

Wo-Wo, Halfling (Ro-Ro's replacement)

Galicar, Magic-User (Calicar's replacement)

Shorny - charmed sheep-headed faun minion of Lyrial

My players have a mix of 5e, 3.x, and no experience, with the exception of Ro-Ro's player, who played a similar halfling with a similar name a few summers back - she said she has a type and I am not to judge her.

I am disappointed in myself as DM because I failed to make any Shakespeare references about MacDuff.  Next session, though, I am prepared!

The only houserule we used this session was the Big d30 - where each player (NOT PC) gets to substitute a d30 for another die - in tonight's case it was entirely for damage.  More on this later.

Next week, I plan on introducing Trollsmythe's Shields Shall Be Splintered rule.  Note that link travels into the distant past, all the way to 2008.  I feel old.

This explains my dotage.

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The session kicked off with the PCs gathered around the titular oak, staring at the hole. After trading rumors, they tied a rope to Ro-Ro and bravely let her poke her head and lantern into the hole to see what is what.  Declaring it safe, our intrepid explorers descended - each rolling to see if they fell, but all kept their grip on the notoriously loosely seated tree roots.  Once on the bottom, they observed a mix of boot and hoof prints in the sand.  They also saw that someone had carved NOLLY'S KINGDOM one a particularly thick root.  After some brief discussion about who Nolly might be, they moved forward.

DM Note: the rumors they started with drove much of the role-playing the rest of the game - if you don't incorporate rumors in your games, you totally should!  The rumors they heard involved a slave-keeping mutant ogre, delectable night-tomatoes, a water dragon, and something that I forget.  Sorry.  Note to self - take better notes (I had a pencil and should have just checked the rumors each PC heard).

Reaching an intersection, the band made use of Lyrial's and Armina's infravision and headed towards the warmth (in contrast to the sound of water or wind), finding slowly writhing roots blocking their path, but also able to see that after a bit, the path opens up and continued.

After some debate, the group attached a lantern to a 10' pole using rope and an iron spike, thrusting it into the roots.  The roots replied by yanking the pole from the hands of Arminia, pulling it into the soft earthen walls the roots spring from.  The PCs decided a better plan involved oil and fire, which forced the roots to withdraw into the walls.  DM Note: I guess none of my players have ever cleared brush - a sharp blade (like all the swords the PCs carry) would have forced the roots to retreat quickly.  Xin loi.

Once past these roots, our bold explorers found themselves in a chamber with the walls made up of mossy faces - faces that spoke in unison (and now in stereo!).  The faces spoke the following rhyme:

Give us gold and truth be told/Give us threats, there'll be regrets!

As the faces spoke, roots pushed out from the earthen walls, looking all the world like gnarly hands cupped together - presumably for gold.

After some experimentation, the PCs determined that 5gp buys one piece of information.  26gp later, the PCs learned the following:

A silver sword lies hidden in a pillar of stone.

Do not meddle with the hunter. His presence still haunts these caverns.

The horned ogre owns a treasure whose value he doesn't understand.

The gnomes are guardians of a secret god with great power.

Forgotten treasures lie buried by the river.

No longer willing to spend gold, the PCs forged ahead.

Moving forward, the PCs found themselves in a small chamber with two exits - one leading to an ammonia smell (which kicked off a discussion about what dragons breathe, and then chlorine gas, and then a bit of WW1, but we got back on track) and the other to NOT that smell.   They opted for the no ammonia and found themselves in a curving, cobblestoned path.  Stopping at a series of alcoves, the PCs boldly looted a key from a coat pocket, matching red fezzes, and cut a portrait of a gnome out of its frame.  Note that this portrait led to continuing confusion and jokes about gnomes and halflings and how they are the same, minus shoes.  Ro-Ro was not amused.

The Doctor in a Red Fez!  Just like what our PCs looted discovered!

Looting successful, the PCs found themselves in small chamber featuring a table, stool, and a bell.  They rang the bell (but surprisingly didn't take it).  A distant voice called out, "I'm coming, please wait."

They waited and soon a ram-headed faun appeared, sporting a fancy tweed jacket and majestic curved horns.  MAJESTIC.  He introduced himself as Ramius and offered tea and crumpets. Of course, the PCs followed him deeper into the complex, ending in a kitchen. 

Waiting in the kitchen were Ramius's two wives: Docile Ewely in a polka-dot dress and matching hair bow, and suspicious Shorny in a black lace dress.   The PCs sat down around the kitchen table and at Ramius's request, his wives brought tea and crumpets, alongside the finest cream and butter made from sheep's milk.  The FINEST, I tell you!

The only PC that took the bait drank the tea was Arminia, who made her save and didn't fall asleep.  Visibly frustrated, Ramius excused himself to get 'something awesome' and then returned with FOUR rune-carved sheep skulls with wickedly barbed horns floating above him.

Of course, they attacked, but the PCs won the initiative (by 1 point on the die) and were able to dispatch Ramius before he could connect.  His skulls, though, wreaked havoc.  One skull, in particular crushed the chests of Calibar, Ro-Ro, and then Gil before Lyrial charmed Shorny, who in turn called back the surviving skull (DM Note - that skull leveled up).

The battle itself was a slugfest, with MANY misses and deaths before Lyrial decided her spell was mightier than her sword.  

Blank-faced Shorny called back the sole skull, then revealed (under questioning) that Ramius's corpse held a key to the larder in the bedroom.  Some of the PCs followed the cobblestones back to a room featuring a bed large enough for three AND a massive chest.  Opening up the chest revealed a variety of loot, some recently butchered (human) meat, and - most importantly - three living humanoids that were bound, gagged, and wearing naught but loincloths.

DM Note: Surprisingly, no gimp, BDSM, or generic Pulp Fiction jokes were made.  The DM may need to turn in his game-master card....

While the others were looting the larder, MacDuff ripped a horn from Ramius's head, in order to make a shofar.  There is no way that this shofar won't end up with some interesting magical quirks, given its origin. 

A variety of shofars.  No doubt the silver-chased and the enameled ones are magical items.

The mostly nekkid replacement PCs were busy stripping the fresh corpses of Ro-Ro, Gil, and Calicar when the bell rang.

Shorny was sent to check on things, and then returned with a Gnome trading party in tow.

DM note: Voicing sheep (and goat) people is fun, because I am not ba-a-a-a-a-ad at it.  My favorite example came after the PCs slew Ramius, then Ewely and Shorny made their morale check and cried out in unison, "you ba-a-a-a-a-a-astards!"  Because there is no more appropriate response in such a situation.

DM note 2: while the PCs ended up with the sleeping herbs for sleepy tea (now known as roofies), they missed the hidden potion and cookbooks.  Alas....)

Go watch this Twilight Zone episode.  Despite my spoiling it!

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Gnomes

The Gnome trader took in the carnage in the kitchen, particularly the blood-spattered 'heroes' sitting casually around the kitchen table.  After a moment, he then offered to trade something good for the bodies. 

Good being a magical sword.  A magical sword in the possession of a terrible ogre - the same ogre the PCs had heard rumors of.  Those same rumors suggested the ogre was a slaver, and that (plus bloodlust, who are we kidding) was enough for the PCs to agree to follow the Gnome body train (two gnomes to each corpse) back to the Gnome headquarters.

Once there, the PCs met King Grimm and Witch Gribbl of the Gnomes.  Gribbl charmed MacDuff, and he followed her behind the curtain, where he got into a shouting match and then a fight with an Evil Tree Stump god.  With that door open, everyone in the throne room could hear the exchange, and Galicar charmed the King Grimm before the king could force an issue with his troops.

Heading behind the curtain to help MacDuff, Galicar pledged himself to Evil Tree Stump god.  In return, ETS commanded Galicar to kill MacDuff.  As might be imagined, things got complicated as players tried to follow the charms while minimizing how much damage they might do to fellow PCs.

Ultimately, it was a great time as players tried to keep each other in the game without breaking the story of the game (all the charms).

In the end, the solution (besides a high damage axe attack) was placing a glass vial of lantern oil in the sole remaining skull and forcing it to slam into ETS.  It hit, and the oil went everywhere.  Lighting it was a challenge, due to all the single digit attack rolls trying it.  Finally, Wo-Wo fired a crossbow using a d30 for damage, shattering the oil-soaked skull over the oil-soaked ETS with a flaming crossbow bolt.

So, ultimately, setting things on fire IS the solution to problems.

Their god slain, the Gnomes offered a bedroom to rest in.  MacDuff was excited until he learned that a 'full rest' doesn't heal all HP.  Still, 1 hp is better than 0 hp.  

We ended for the night at this point.  

DM note: these Gnomes whistle a marching song that sounds suspiciously like the Seven Dwarves "hi-ho" song.  The Gnomes also have a certain cartoon mouse's verbal tic of going "huh-huh".  This was a good idea at the time, and is now canon in my world.  Blasted Gnomes.

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Ultimately, MacDuff's player was most happy to leap from his chair and act out whatever his fighter was up to - typically killing or fighting something.   If I could hand out MVP xp, it might be to him.  

Everyone laughed lots and are eager for this week's session - an ogre is definitely in the offing, and we shall see what else they get up to (without revealing spoilers).

I am certainly happy that we are playing this summer - it's the joy I didn't know I needed.

Propping Up Your Game with Maps

It's been a while since my last post - where I ambitiously declared I'd not only post thrice a month, but also that I would publish something by year's end.  That plan failed miserably, as public declarations tend to do.  So we'll see how many posts I write before falling off the blogging wagon again.

As it happens, the Blog of Forlorn Encystment, and through there, Prismatic Wasteland, are welcoming bloggers to join them on the writing-about-maps bandwagon.  So this is a good enough reason for me to write again.

Much like our favorite Hobbit, I do love maps.

"Oh, I do love maps.  I have quite a collection of them!" - Bilbo Baggins, according to the 1977 Rankin-Bass TV movie The Hobbit.

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While online games have their place and purpose, by their nature they prevent the use of tangible props that players can hold and feel and manipulate (and taste and smell and break).  My favorite prop at the table is maps.  (My second favorite is scrolls in general, as both scrolls and maps look the same until unrolled and read.)  

Unrolled maps are examined by all players (and presumably PCs) and provide not only directions to new treasures and locations, but are an efficient means to loredump on your group without boring them to tears with 30 minutes of read aloud box text.

In theory, these at-table props can be elaborate and represent hours of work using fancy inks and fonts and artificially aging paper using coffee and heat (mine aren't) or just hasty markings with enough color, symbols, and words (my maps) to get the party to seriously consider heading that direction as soon as possible (but preferably not until next session, so I have time to better prepare the following of said map).

Regardless of what the actual prop looks like, players love them.  So before your next in-person session, I recommend you grab some paper, sketch a map, roll or fold it up, and hand it to the players the next time one of them searches a body, book, or box.

Watch their eyes light up and your game-world expand with a simple sheet of paper. 

Even if PC curiosity won't get them moving, player curiosity will.  As RPGs are games for players and not PCs, take advantage of this meta curiosity and use maps.

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A cursory search on YouTube found several videos on how to make fancy maps for table props.  Maybe I should take the hint and make a proper map instead of crayons on printer paper the next time we play.

Advancing NPC Parties

Many DMs add NPC Adventuring Party to their Random Encounter tables or deliberately add them as rivals/allies/enemies/all of the above to specific adventures and/or campaigns, because recurring NPCs are often a good thing.

Truly recurring NPCs tend to be leveled by DM fiat, but not everyone wants or needs that in their games.

I know I don't.

So here is a 2d6 table for us all.  NPCs are PC-equivalent adventurers and retainers are their hirelings and henchmen.

* Casualties are probably dead, but could also be captured, stoned, missing, turned, cursed, quit, fired, retired, or otherwise not returning.  Whether or not any casualties are recovered falls under DM fiat, although recovering said casualties makes for a solid adventure for PCs seeking a purpose.  

** Magic items can be permanent, single-use, or charged. 

*** Magic items are lost through use, destruction, or actually being lost (to bribery, capture, whatever). These latter are potentially recoverable.

**** Monetary rewards is straight cash value of coinage, gems, jewelry, and art objects.

***** Non-magic, non-monetary rewards are statues, lands, titles, marriages, favors, trade goods, etc.

****** One or more NPCs and retainers gain a level, which ones are DM fiat.

******* I highly recommend using Hobgoblinry's Last Lantern-bearer mechanic for your games.

Art by David A. Trampier - I believe from the AD&D DMG or PHB

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This table is inspired in part by Battletech's lifepath tables.  

Reading through the list suggests a high-magic world, which is kind of true for me.  That said, most of the permanent (and many non-permanent) magic items in my games tend to be double-edged, bringing quirks, flaws, and imperfections along with the useful abilities, so I don't mind more magic items in the game world.

Especially when the PCs get ahold of them, because such items make most players think before using them.

 

Arik of the Hundred Eyes

Arik of the Hundred Eyes is an Immortal who shows up in a passing reference in the adventure B3: Palace of the Silver Princess.  The Vaults of Pandius write-up hits the highlights, which are not many.

Official information:

Arik - Celestial, sphere of Entropy, imprisoned for unspecified crimes heinous enough to get him locked away from the multiverse for eternity. Banished to a prison dimension, he seeks ways to return to the multiverse. (B3, WotI)

Arik uses giant rubies the size of a large man's fist as his eyes - the Hundred Eyes in his tile. These are detachable at will, and function as conduits for the Immortal's power. This conduit functions across dimensions and allows Arik to wield Immortal-level power in a location without being actually present.

His clerics customarily wear blood-red robes with hoods hiding their faces, decorated with a hundred eyes - wearing plate mail underneath. All carry shields with his symbol - a single large red eye.

Kobolds and orcs are attracted to his service, and he has some influence over minor undead like skeletons.

And that's it.

There are other versions of Arik, such as those here, here, and here on page 23 of the Codex Immortalis.

(As an aside, The Vaults of Pandius have - and continue to provide - an excellent overview of all things Mystara-related.  If you are curious about what a proper fan-base supported game world looks like, look no further than the Vaults of Pandius.  Adventures, resources, the Threshold e-zine, and more make for a richer game world.)

Presuming that all of Arik's Eyes appear as large rubies, it becomes simple to find and place them elsewhere, like in the Shrine of Evil Chaos in B2: Keep on the Borderlands.  Specifically, in room 58. 

At the western end of the temple area is a dais of black stone, with four lesser chairs on its lower tier and a great throne above.  The chairs are of bone; the ivory throne is set with gold and adorned with gems of red and black (10 black stones each worth 100 gold pieces, 10 red stones each worth 500 gold pieces, and one large red stone worth 1,000 g.p.).

In my games, that large red stone is an Eye of Arik, and is what draws the monsters to the Caves of Chaos, just like in B3.  Just describe it as pulsing with light - a red strobe light that pulses faster or slower depending on circumstances.

Furthermore, I extrapolated that while officially his eye attracts orcs and kobolds, other Eyes may do other things, or many other things, in addition to or instead of attracting orcs and kobolds.

But rather than list out the 100 Eyes, a random table seems more fitting, so I present 12 powers an Eye of Arik might provide its wielder.

The ruby-red forcefield that features in B3 is powered by DM-fiat, so is not included in this list.

Fire Diamond by Gaboleps

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1 - summons giants (hill, frost, fire, stone - storm hear but can ignore the summons) and giant-kin (ogres, trolls, cyclops); their collective appetite soon strips the land.  (note that Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff might provide solid inspiration regarding what this looks like).

2 - summons corporeal undead who move towards the location regardless of time of day and weather; all that die in its glow reanimate as 1-3: zombies, 4-5: ghouls, 6: wights; wielder becomes an incorporeal undead when slain, bound to the gem. 1-2 wraith, 3-4 ghost, 5-6 spectre.

3 - this eye pulses raw arcane power, tinting everything in shades of red and transforming normal creatures into monstrous beasts and abominations that rage and feast darkly in the area.

4 - plant life grows riotous and verdant, becoming alive, sentient, malicious, and hungry.  The various plant monsters begin sprouting; the wielder quickly turns into a black hag that can control it all.

5 - troglodytes creep and tunnel towards the gem, worshipping the wielder (who in turn transforms into a giant frog-thing).

6 - summons beastmen (pig-head orcs, kobolds, gnolls, minotaurs, etc) to serve; the wielder becomes a beast-king (hill giant stats with the head of a lion).

7 - summons goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears and wolves (wargs); thouls often slip in with the hobgoblins and act as enforcers; the wielder's skin peels away to reveal a hobgoblin underneath and reigns as a potent goblin king.

8 - pulses after specific rituals (Arik winks the eye) and humans in the light transform into 1-4: wererats, 5-6 werewolves; orcs become wereboars.  Clerics of Arik become Devil Swine.

9 - magic warps the area, granting spell-like abilities to creatures normally without, spawning living spells that drift about wanting to be cast, awakening the spells of spellcasters in the area (these spells demand to be cast and on a failed save by the caster, will be cast), and clouds of wild magic that drift on the wind, changing (and infecting) magic used and encountered.  (DM Note: this could be an excuse to change rulesets in a campaign).

10 - raw magic permeates the area, animating objects and twisting insects and animals into giant and mutant versions of themselves.  As might be imagined, they are ravenous.

11 - inspires dragonlust for gold and hoarding; gold sickness; transforms beings of sufficient greed and power into red dragons

12 - calls Chaotic dragons to it, but mostly reds (but also black and green); dragons that sleep and bask in its glow grow more powerful in time (maxing out HP and other die rolls).

Fire Diamond by Lindsey Look

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The various monsters all come from the Rules Cyclopedia - originals are a fortune, but pdfs and POD hardbacks are quite affordable - and is a great example of what a one-book game should look like.

Anyhow, since so many of these options attract some type of nasty to it, it stands to reason that dungeon-building magic-users would be interested in acquiring one (or more) Eyes of Arik.  Given the potential power of magic-users in Mystara (level 36!), Arik doesn't mind his Eyes being used in this way and might even send his clerics as emissaries to magic-users with domains in order to "gift" them with an Eye for their dungeon.  

Maybe this time, the cultists will succeed in recruiting someone capable and willing to free Arik from the prison dimension! 

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Given the trouble that Eyes of Arik cause, destroying or containing one is a noble quest for heroic (or at least pragmatic) adventurers.

By way of example, the Eye of Arik in B3 (green cover) provides several specific methods:

The ruby can only be destroyed in three ways: (1) Three particular notes played on the Ice Harp will shatter the ruby.  (2) If the party brings two (or more) statuettes of the silver dragon into the room, the dragon Ariksbane will be freed from the Dimension of Ice.  The dragon's breath will disintegrate the ruby (without harming anything else in the room). (3) If some character touches the ruby Sword of Arik to the ruby Eye of Arik, both will crumble into worthless powder.  

Following the example of B3 suggests that each Eye's destruction requires significant effort, even if Ariksbane and the Ice Harp exist in your world, because they would still need finding. 

Venting (and a book list)

I need to write, but I don't know that I want to or what to write about - too many thoughts and ideas buzzing around in my head.  Not nearly enough of them game-related.

Frankly, the news keeps me anxious and depressed, but my typical response (retail therapy, my daughter calls it) brings guilt as I think I should be spending on more useful things.

Like ammunition.

Or food, booze, medical supplies, and books.

Just not RPG-specific books (despite there being many awesome kickstarters out there, right now).

RPG-adjacent books, though, I might can justify. 

But what to buy?

The Hesperian Health Guides are a solid start - not that I don't trust where the American health systems are headed, but I don't trust where systems as a whole are headed.  For me, at least, the popular Foxfire series of books are not the answer, as the varied contents of each book are too much a chore for me to read through. 

Dave Canterbury's Bushcraft books are neat and useful and well-illustrated, but I already own them.

From experience, the books from Paladin Press are always ... interesting.  I remember ogling the titles in the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine when I was a kid.

Then again, whatever Field Manuals and Training Manuals I don't own from a few terms spent in the military might be a useful pick-up.  Often dry reading, though.

All in all, I am trying to get past a writing block, and this post hopefully does it.  

Thanks for reading.

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Since you read through all that, here is my Joesky tax.  A d30 table of books for a kinda-modern game, be it The Morrow Project, Twilight 2000, Aftermath, The Walking Dead, maybe Car Wars, or something else along those lines.  The books are heavily US-centric, though, so there is that.

These books might be found in an old ammo can sealed in individual gallon ziploc bags; a footlocker under old uniforms and other military memorabilia; a bookshelf; the door, central console, or glove box of an abandoned vehicle; someone's backpack; or all of them together in PDF format on a thumb drive or external hard drive.  

Regardless, none of these are useful unless the reader can actually read English.  Each book may provide a skill bonus of some sort - I won't be suggesting any particular ones.  

1. FM 7-8 Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad - 100-mile-an-hour tape reinforces the spine, and a bookmark made of several pieces of 5-50 paracord attached to a grenade pin show this to be well-used book.  The name LT Smith is written in black sharpie, above several coffee rings that stain the cover.
2. FM 21-150 Combatives - hand-to-hand combat, the US Army way!  Remember, folks, the person that wins a melee is the first person to have a friend show up with a gun!
3. FM 21-76 Survival - a thick catch-all manual for pilots and others that may spend a long time far from friendly lines.  This copy shows wear and tear, and uses a variety of pine needles and leaves as bookmarks.
4. Where There is No Doctor - this book might be in any number of languages, but the illustrations ensure at least a small bonus; in fact, it might actually be any of the Hesperian Health Guides, depending on GM whim. 
5. Boy Scout Manual (1982 edition) - this dog-eared book has the name BEN JAMMIN stenciled on the inside cover.   The year of printing dictates the skills covered in the book.
6. The Human Powered Home - several illustrated suggestions for enhancing your homelife without electricity.  Bicycles and treadles feature in many of the ideas.
7. Ragnar's Ten Best Traps - more than ten, actually, for fish, fowl, game animals, and people.
8. Bushcraft 101 - if you are lucky, you might instead find the Bushcraft Boxed Set, likely without the box, instead.
9. The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs - a useful book for those forced into the outdoors, rather than having grown up in them.
10. Pocket Naturalist Guides - One (or more) pocket-sized illustrated foldables covering a range of information, from foraging to knot-tying to the birds of Northeast America, so they may not always prove useful. 
11. Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine: The Definitive Home Reference Guide to 550 Key Herbs with all their Uses as Remedies for Common Ailments by Andrew Chevallier  - this thick book is full of pictures and tips
12. FM 23-10 Sniper Training - it's not just how to shoot at a distance, but also infiltration and exfiltration and camouflage.
13. Storey's Basic Country Skills - from the label on the side and library card on the back cover, it is apparent this tome is well overdue from the North Shelby Library, located in Birmingham, Alabama.
14. The Anarchist's Cookbook - the first edition is from 1971 and is full of information that most folks probably should not really need to know.  Fun conspiracy - the explosives formulas in it are deliberately wrong and designed to blow up the would-be anarchist!  I lack the background (and desire) to test this conspiracy. 
15. The Joy of Home Distilling - a useful picture-filled guide to distilling spirits, either for drinking or fuel.
16. English-to-LANGUAGE, LANGUAGE-to-English Phrasebook - Polish is the linked example, but depending on the game's setting, most anything is possible.
17. AAA Road Atlas - while small roads and even road names may change, the major roads don't, and regardless of the age of the AAA road atlas, it can get you where you want to be, as long as you don't need to be there.
18. Foldable state maps - these may lack the grid squares of military maps, making calling for fire (and ordering pizza from drivers with a GPS) difficult, but these laminated maps make navigation all the easier.
19. FM 4-25.11 First Aid - despite the bloodstains, slight water damage, and tears, this book is complete and hella useful to those trying to save a life.
20. Propaganda by Edward Bernays - this thin paperback is notable for its marginalia relating to specific historical figures making use of different aspects of the book.  Studying this might enhance one's persuasion skills.
21. Carpentry for Dummies - this well-worn book always produces a bit of sawdust when shaken, and its spine is broken from being pressed flat numerous times.  Illustrated and presumes access to tools that might not be available.
22. The Art of War by Sun Tzu - just a translation of the basic book; The Art of War with Commentaries by Sun Tzu - this English translation also includes commentaries from the ages, making it a more interesting read than the basic translation.  Folded pages from a legal pad stuffed in throughout the book add the last owner's insights to the commentaries.   
23. TM 31-210 Improvised Munitions - this yellowing copy is older than you are and may have been used in Viet Nam.   
24. Mask of Command and Face of Battle by John Keegan - this pair of books addresses both sides of battle, and would-be combat leaders can benefit from reading them.  Weapons change, but the people fighting don't.
25. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - a textbook on Stoicism.  Studying and adopting this mindset may reduce stress and make it easier to survive torture or other stamina-checking extremes.  This particular copy is a well-read paperback with "key" lines underlined.
26. Cheap Shots, Ambushes, and Other Lessons by Marc MacYoung - reading this and putting it into practice makes life just a bit more survivable in urban environments.
27. FM 5-31 Boobytraps - when you need to protect somewhere or something, but lack the personnel for complete coverage.
28. The Trapper's Bible: Traps, Snares, and Pathguards - a useful mix of traps for game, fur, and people.  For protection only, naturally.
29. Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning - without food, people die.  This book shows a variety of ways to preserve food for the winter months.  It smells faintly of salt.
30. Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants:Eastern and Central North America, first edition - there are more recent editions of this book, and many more Field Guides, but this is one of few that might be useful in a game.

There are a wealth of other books and topics that can fit, but I think most of these would be easily gameable, especially in rulesets with skill systems.  

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Note that owning/researching some of these titles might put you on a list - but I am right there with you.  Also, I presume most established militaries have their own versions of the FMs listed, so replace as needed.  

If you're into particular timelines for your games, some of the items linked above may not have been printed yet, while others may just be more recent editions.  Either way, check edition and print date if you are into that level of authenticity.  

Speaking of food for thought, I found this foraging website aimed at those foraging in the UK.  Kinda neat.

RPG Carnival: Dragon Neighbors

The current RPG Blog Carnival is hosted by Sea of Stars and involves Dragon Neighbors. 

It stands to reason that having one or more dragons for neighbors makes people smart, tough, subservient, or dead.  Maybe all four.

Still, dragons are sentient (at least in most game worlds, and certainly in mine), which means they might be reasoned with, should the right negotiator be available, and the right terms struck.  After all, dragons understand that sometimes there are better options than naked aggression and extreme violence (too bad most PCs never figure that one out).

Barring deliberate killing, dragons can live for centuries, if not millenia, which is more than enough time to engage in the same pastime of many elves: breeding the perfect human, much like how humans do the same with dogs, horses, and other animals.

While I have written about this topic before as a thought experiment, here it is better fleshed out.

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What this means in practicality is that the Elves, specifically the elf mage-king Lathril of the Gilt-Leaf, made a bet with the Dragon Mage Intet, the Dreamer that they could breed a more perfect champion than the dragon could.  Winner gets control of the continent, loser publicly accepts defeat and leaves the area.  Until the bet reaches a conclusion, all open hostilities are ceased.

Intent, the Dreamer, by Dan Murayama Scott

To make it interesting, other near-immortal beings were also invited to the table: lichlords, vampire mages, lesser extraplanar beings, fey nobles, other dragons, other elves, and at least one sphinx. 

(These gatherings of near-immortals can be contentious but serve to alleviate the boredom of ages that result in them succumbing to torpor and eventually fatal ennui.  While these near-immortals unlikely to admit it, after a few centuries, they look forward to these gatherings.)

The terms of the bet are simple: each bettor has seven centuries to breed the best human champion.  There are other details regarding particulars, but that is the gist of the bet. 

Dius Fidus, the deity of contracts, oaths, and deals, presided over the final signing of the contract, using the same type of contract materials that fiends use to guarantee mortal souls.

Tempting Contract, by Tomas Duchek

Each of the Elves believes they will win, as this is akin to how they create other elves, merely over centuries and with the endstate being someone that is still human.  All of the other bettors believe that they will win, because they believe they are better than Elves. 

Of course, the Dragon Mage Intet will win, because they plan to cheat as needed.

At least, that is their plan.  Other champions that prove more competent than theirs will throw a wrench into the works.  

As will other participants cheating just as much.

After all, with fey and fiends at the contracting table, lots of loopholes based on wordplay, denotation, and connotation were included in the final contract for the express purpose of trying to cheat to victory.

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In the early centuries of the bet, champion bloodlines would be guided to attack others, seemingly by fate more than direct guidance.  But after several centuries, the bettors have lost track of one another's bloodlines, so it is almost inevitable that some become allies, or at least nonaggressors.

Even the dullest among the bettors understands that it is not just genetics, but life experiences that shape a human.  So each of them ensures that there are plenty of physical, mental, and social challenges to forge their bloodlines into the best they can be.  Unfortunately, most of the bettors consider traumatic experiences to be learning opportunities, so those are the lion's share of the challenges.

As the goal is a champion that is likely to see combat and death, having the wildlands be wild actually helps immensely, so all bettors have a vested interest in ensuring that the area doesn't become too settled.  As such, the wildlands around Skara Brae teem with all sorts of trouble for the beleaguered port city, to include the ruins of past would-be conquerors who failed in their efforts to tame the land.

The bet requires a cessation of direct attempts to conquer the continent, but nothing about hostile beings making their lairs in the area.  Besides, these creatures (un)wittingly help shape the various champions that the bettors have been breeding.  Intet itself has ensured that some of its 'children' reside near enough to participate in the forging of this champion, and while it has favorites, it will not go out of its way to assist any of them.

This bet is the reason that Skara Brae's history is one of fire and bloodshed, but also resilience and perseverance.  

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The timeline of the bet grows to an end, and as I type this, the champions of the various bloodlines converge on the city of Skara Brae, where they will unwittingly compete to determine just which champion is, in fact, superior.

Once that is decided, the winner of the bet will claim the continent, and open war will likely break out, as most bettors have no intention of honoring the deal. 

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In short, dragons, much like elves, are jerks.

Quantum Everything

Part of PC creation is determining languages known, skills known, and spells known.

In the interest of faster PC creation and in the interest of player choices not being wasted, I started using Quantum rules for these options.

By this, I mean I do not require the players to choose these things before the game starts, but rather they declare them and fill in the blanks on their character sheet as the game progresses.  This not only feeds into the emergent stories that I prefer, but it also guarantees that players make useful choices.

As a bonus to me, the DM, it means I don't have to be overly concerned with adventure contents, as odds are good - especially early on - that a player can just declare their PC knows a language, spell, or skill to further the adventure.

For me and my games, this is a fine option.

I will say that part of my job as DM is to remind players that they have X amount of blank spaces left.

These work best with lower-level PCs, but in theory, someone could hold one of those languages until a higher level... but our adventures don't go that high before TPKs with the scheduling beast, so use these with a grain of salt.

And if it turns out that someone else came up with this before me, please tell me, so I can give credit where credit is due.  I have read lots of blog posts over the last decade, and I know I am not smart enough to come up with this in a vacuum.