Triads

 Welsh triads, a historical form found in Medieval manuscripts where folkloric and mythologic tidbits are presented in groupings of three seem a compact way of delivering some light setting info. 

Playing with the form, I came up with a couple related to the setting I posted about here. 

Three terrible spectres of the Realm:
Pendhol,who seeks his lost crown and lost head in the hills of Hern,
And Llaithwyn, Lady of the Night Mists, who the wise give courtesy but only fools embrace,
And Black Gawl, the hound loosed by the Beast from the Outer Dark to herald the doom of Men.

Three cunning folk of the Realm:
Morgna, witch and shape-changer, whose hut wanders the Marshes of Morva,
Wyrthegern the Mad, who lives in the wild and speaks in riddles,
And the Wizard Midhryn of Many Names, who was judged most cunning of all.

The Ruin of Mogh's Fort

Mogh's fortress is a ruin. Pigs root in the courtyard and roam noisily in his empty halls or drowse in sunbeams beneath a decaying roof. Mogh's once great chair is little more than kindling, crushed and splintered by generations of stout boars have scratched bulk against it.

The commote, a backwater of Hern trithing since its petty lords yielded to Arrn, is mostly the domain of the pig herds, which are both bane and boon to small and scattered villages. A few old folk have the knack of apprehending the grunting, snorting porcine tongue, and the pigs affirm (or so they claim) what the elders already knew: it is wise to stay clear of the ruins of Mogh's fort, particularly after dark.

The bandit lord and his bloody-handed reavers are long gone, but Mogh's doom is said to have come by a curse, and the curse may yet linger. Sometimes, the elders say (and the pigs, too, perhaps) that not all nocturnal visitors to the fortress come on four hooves. There are those demon swine that may choose to go about on two. 

The Omega Team

Here's an idea for a campaign for an action/covert mission rpg. Outgunned is what I'm thinking of, but it would work with something like Top Secret/S.I. too, I think. I see it as having something of the vibe of an 80s indie comic, so keep that in mind when reading the pitch:

In the "near future" (from the 80s, so maybe it's like mid to late 90s?) a young man with immense, psychic power has gone rogue, escaping the top secret facility he has been living in. His ultimate goals are unclear, but the first thing he does is make the world's nuclear arsenals inoperable. The Soviets (they're still around) suspect some sort of U.S. super-weapon attack (which isn't far from the truth, really). Everybody's paranoid and non-nuclear war breaks out in various places around the world.

That was just this guy's first trick. What will an unstable, poorly socialized individual with almost god-like power and a grudge against the U.S. government do next? The government doesn't want to find out. The PCs are the agents they send to solve the problem--with extreme prejudice. They're the solution of last resort: the Omega Team*.

The Omega Team would be an eclectic group of experts in various fields tasked with tracking this guy down and ending his menace. He probably has recruited others with paranormal abilities (but much lower powerful levels), and he moves around a lot, so it's no easy task.

The idea shameless lifts the basic plot idea from Marvel Comics' Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja, but Akira, Thriller (the comic), Odd John, and the anime Lazarus are also inspirations, as well as 80s team stuff in general like G.I. Joe.

*The Omega Team was the name of a comic my cousin, brother, and I created as kids about a group of mutants working for the government. I've recycled it before for this idea.

Religion in Middle-earth

Art by Falmarin de Carme

I came across this site a couple of weeks ago that compiles additional background material generated for a Finnish Middle-earth based role-playing campaign. What I found most interesting is its extrapolation and elaboration of the religions for Middle-earth. 

This is a perceived area weakness pointed out in Tolkien's work in the past. In Imaginary Worlds, Carter notes critically that Tolkien's world "has no religion in it." In Dragon #127, Rolston in his review of Lords of Middle-earth for MERP gets to the gamer brass tacks of it:

According to Lords of Middle-earth, Middle-earth has a "seemingly inexhaustible collection of deities, pantheons, practices, and religions." However, all of them are wrong. Eru is the only god, and the Valar and the Maiar are simply his servants. Enlightened folk (Elves and Dunedain) practice a nonritualistic monotheism with no formal clergy - pretty boring stuff by FRP standards. 

A lot of epic fantasy has followed Tolkien's areligious example (Jordan's Wheel of Time series, for one) and as modern society becomes ever more secular, it probably is less and less seen as a deficit. Still, if you think of religion is a fascinating aspect of the real world well worth including in imagined worlds (where you at, Gloranthaphiles?) it's cool to see the work Sampsa Rydman has done here. The religions described build on the details provided in Tolkien's extensive writings and (so far as I am familiar with the lore) the new things added seem consistent.

For instance, the orthodox worship of Númenor is as described in terms of its simple ritual and insistence that only the king prays to Eru. The description of a Trinity of Eru, Word, and Flame Imperishable seems a credible extrapolation from details given. Likewise, the sort of Satanic faith of the Black Númenoreans is given a creed that is consistent with what me know about the downfall of their land but with reasonable details as to what Sauron might have convinced them to get them on his side. "Doing evil" (from the point of view of the doer) has historically not really been a common motivator for human religions, so it makes more sense that those that Sauron seduced to his cause were given some other line: "The Valar have wronged both you and the true god, and the true god will redress that wrong if you help him out."

Art by Angus MacBride

Of course, an issue with religion in Middle-earth is canonically we know what's true and what isn't. For a game campaign I think it might be more fun, as Rolston implies, if that weren't true. Going as far as Jacqueline Carey's The Sundering duology and switching the moral polarity of the two sides doesn't really help, but borrowing her idea that the Creator is out of the picture and the lesser gods have differing understandings or interpretations of how to carry out their mission leads to a more ambiguous situation with more possibilities for equally valid appearing religions. In other words, something like the sort of cosmologies or interpretations offered in fantasy works that utilize Judeo-Christian mythology as their backdrop. Really just making the complete truth unknowable to beings within the world (even immortal ones like the elves) would serve the same purpose, though I think most people familiar with Middle-earth would tend to make assumptions that would make this minimal change approach Less effective.

I don't think a Middle-earth game (or a game in any setting) has to have religion (unless you got clerics, in which case, you sort of already do), any more than you are required to explore any other element of culture, but if you're planning to run a long campaign I think it's an interesting facet to add.

Weird Revisited: Robot Dungeon

The original version of this post appeared in March of 2015...

I've written previously about a world where the dungeoneering was an done by androids who were the remnant of human civilization (all that's here). Well, there's another way to get dungeons crawling with robots, and that's by having a future, post-apocalyptic world that's been overrun by them. Instead of apes, or fairies, or vampires, let the robots take over something like Screamers (and the Philip K. Dick story it's based on "The Second Variety"), Terminator, or Magnus: Robot-Fighter. Unlike those examples though, human civilization can have been pushed back to pseudo-Medieval levels.

Say the robots have moved mostly underground, leaving humans to limp along on a damaged surface world. The underground bases of the robots would be a lot like dungeons. Robots would have made various robotic or bio-robotic guardians--monsters, of sorts. Maybe the robots are even aliens? A post-sentient, techno-organic swarm that landed and buried itself into the earth, spreading underground like roots, building robotic creatures in a myriad of forms as it went. You'd have a whole underground ecology of robots. Add "magic" (really psionic powers in disguise) and you've got a fantasy world, or close enough.

For a real fantasy world, assume that the alien robotic swarm invaded a fairly D&Dish world (except with maybe less conflict to begin with).

Planar Pilgrims

I've been listening to the audiobook of A Travel to the Middle Ages, and its description of what, by the late Middle Ages, is essentially a travel industry built up around pilgrimages to Christian churches and holy sites is really interesting. One fascinating detail is the cheap, metal pins or badges pilgrims could buy to commemorate their visits. There were also more risque, erotic novelty badges sold too, as a quick internet search can show you.

All of this religion-focused travel got me thinking of something interesting to do with the standard Outer Planes. Given their nature, they would certainly fit the bill as "holy sites." Maybe a lot of planar travel is in pilgrimage? This is a take that wouldn't be congruent with all views of the planes, certainly, but I think it would fit with a Planescapian sort of attitude, with planar types taking advantage of the clueless Prime visitors.

All you would need is these sorts of visitor-catering facilities and services to be present on each plane. They don't necessarily have to be particularly safe or even particularly customer friendly, really, if real history is any indication.

Of course, there would need to be things for pilgrims to see. Certainly, there are a lot of wondrous (super)natural phenomena described in any D&D planar book, but I think some sorts of dubious relics are in order here, just like in the real world. Accoutrements of gods? Maybe even relics of martyred ones?

Greyhawk: The Horned Society

The origin of the so-called humanoids of eastern Oerik is something of a mystery. They first entered history as mercenaries and foederati of the Suloise and Baklunish in their wars. When the conflict toppled both empires, the humanoid groups fell upon their former patrons as well as their enemies as every people scrambled for their own survivable. A confederation of hobgoblin comitatus and various allies of other humanoid groups settled in the steppe north of the Nyr Dyv between the Veng and Ritensa Rivers.

In recent decades, one or more high priests of a diabolic cult have managed to convert the fractious tribes and bring them under their sway, forming the Horned Society. While the name is applied in human lands to the region, only a portion of the humanoid tribes residing there are actually directly in the service of the Horned Society Hierarchs. Though much has been made of the superstitious fanaticism of humanoids, it seems likely that the Hierarchs rule as much by their success in delivering lucrative plunder through banditry and by canny manipulation of rivalries between groups. The theatrics employed by the Hierarchs, to say nothing of the invocation of diabolic power, likely serve as a deterrent against would-be usurpers, however.

Ergodic RPG Setting Presentations

Going back to the Greyhawk Folio has made me realize how it differs from modern setting material and perhaps why I bounced off of it when I first encountered. I believe it falls into a category of published setting I would call "ergodic settings." Ergodic settings are analogous to ergodic literature, that is that are settings whose form of presentation requires nontrivial effort on the part of the reader to make sense or understand the setting.

I'll concede that "understanding" in this context can be kind of fuzzy. Different perspective DMs likely have different expectations and desires of a setting. I'm sure there are a lot of people that loved Greyhawk from the moment they encountered the Folio or the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, to name another setting I find ergodic. But I don't think that changes the quality of ergodicity, it's more about how much work you're willing to do (or have already done) to meet the setting where it is.

So what do I mean by ergodic? Well, Greyhawk in its initial present is brief, which is often touted as a virtue, but in that brevity its ability to develop an easy sense of place is impaired. It also consistently refuses to take the modern route of focusing on "juicy" details or hooks. It's not that there aren't things going on in the Flanaess, but as far as we know from the Folio, they aren't really things for low-level treasure seekers. When seeds of adventure are there, they tend to be more Game of Thrones clash of armies and intrigues. There's also perhaps a focus on wargame realism over fantasy. A careful read with an eye toward history can suggest Gygax's models and sources, but he doesn't make it easy, like say, Robert E. Howard or the first introduction to the Known World in Isle of Dread (which just tells you the inspiration, so you don't even get to feel smart!)

Well, I don't know the primary export, but these places seem cool!

 Wilderlands is similarly fairly opaque in that department, but at least you can read hexes with a crashed spacecraft, mermaids or giants. And lots of them. The Folio is dressing your set with backdrops and a few props, but with scant actual prompts for adventure and very little enticing fantasy spectacle. This is just the facts; you do most of the fantasy.

But modern settings require work because they are often too completist and too wordy! Getting through all that cruft requires work! Sure, but it's a different sort of work. It's the work of separating wheat from chaff, perhaps, or just the work of reading homework, it isn't the conceptual work of "what does this mean and what do I do with it?" The Folio approach makes it harder to distill "the good bits" for your own thing, if that's what you're after.

This Strange Stars OSR has a good approach. Wonder who wrote this?

Now, this can be a virtue for the seasoned DM. It's easier to make it your own, perhaps, or even run it differently with the parameters that exist in different campaigns. And if all you need is the barest background to sink your dungeons into, it doesn't matter. But looking at the more recent DMs Guild Greyhawk presentations, there's more of an effort to put player-engaging material in, even as they hew fairly traditionalist.

Greyhawk: Rel Astra

Rel Astra is one of the major port cities of the Great Kingdom. It is an old city of the Aerdy, the original seat of the early Aerdian Church of Law and once a capital of an Aerdi kingdom until the crowning of the Overking. Once the Great Kingdom was declared in Rauxes, control of Rel Astra was given over to a ministerialis who served as constable and mayor in the Overking's name. The post continues, but it now belongs to a hereditary noble line whose interests have diverged from those of the Malachite Throne.

Like the lords of the Iron League region, the Constable's financial interests lie with the burghers and trade, and he resents the grasping and peremptory ways of the Overking. He is also wary of the covetousness of Medegia's Holy Censor.

While the more fierce-tongued members of the city's council urge swift action, the Constable chooses to slowly build his forces and bide his time.

The original Folio had an apparent editing mistake that listed Rel Astra as the capital of Medegia, so a thought it was worth making a nod to that in the history. Though the Folio never mentions it, the title of Overking suggests their were (at least once) subordinate kings. I figure there must have been multiple, petty Aerdian kingdoms that were united.

The Fruitful Inconsistency of the Hyborian Age

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997) describes Howard's Hyborian Age and similar imagined worlds as "fantasylands" in contrast to the more serious, Tolkienian worldbuilding of "secondary worlds." This perhaps undercuts the quite serious world-building Howard did in places like his "Hyborian Age" essay but also obscures the fact that all world-builders (Tolkien included) borrow or are at least derive inspiration from history or other works of literature.

Still, it's hard to deny that the Hyborian Age tends to wear its undiluted influences or antecedents proudly. Perhaps not as totally as say D&D's Known World or some other rpg settings, but to a greater degree than Middle Earth or most other literary fantasy settings. I can't be too critical of these game settings as it allows people to get a handle on different lands or cultures quickly, but it does strain suspension of disbelief for some folks.

The Hyborian Age does those similar gaming settings one better, however. In what I think was possibly Howard's best world-building idea (at least so far as things to steal for gaming), the overall action and theme of regions come through, even when his cultural inspirations are less clear. Visiting different Hyborian lands may not just mean travel through history with Fantasy Vikings here and a Fantasy American Frontier there but travel through different subgenres or modes of pulp/adventure fiction.

In his Conan yarns he gives us Golden Age of Piracy adventure stories, tales of the Crusaders and the Outremer, Frontier stories in the vein of the Leatherstocking Tales, and a few stories recognizable as just fantasy in today's genre standards. He does this often by dispensing with a lot of the historical things that led to these settings and situations and just gets down to the action readers (and presumably players) are looking for.

Vague or passing homologies are all he seems to need to get going. He doesn't worry about establishing a Christendom or an Islamic World--or even really a Holy Land to get his Outremerish setting. He handwaves some former colonies (now independent) of Koth (which is vaguely Italic maybe, but hardly Imperial Roman and with a capital whose name is borrowed from the Hittites) on a borderland coveted by Turan, and he just describes the players, setting, and action in a way that the vibe of crusades and Crusader Kingdoms comes through, regardless of the background differences.

Likewise, "The Black Stranger" deals with pirates and a treasure, sure, but to drive home we are now in Treasure Island territory, he dresses Conan for the part:

The stranger was as tall as either of the freebooters, and more powerfully built than either, yet for all his size he moved with pantherish suppleness in his high, flaring-topped boots. His thighs were cased in close-fitting breeches of white silk, his wide-skirted sky-blue coat open to reveal an open-necked white silken shirt beneath, and the scarlet sash that girdled his waist. There were silver acorn-shaped buttons on the coat, and it was adorned with gilt-worked cuffs and pocket-flaps, and a satin collar. A lacquered hat completed a costume obsolete by nearly a hundred years. A heavy cutlass hung at the wearer's hip.

Does this undermine the essential Medieval character of the Hyborian Age? Probably! Does it weaken one's ability to think of it as a sustained and complete world? Could be! Does it make it clear "we're now on the Pirates of Caribbean ride, behave accordingly?" Yep!

I feel like this tool can be put to good use by GMs. Even ones that are more interested in setting consistency perhaps than Howard. Even small details can do a lot.

Greyhawk: The Iron League

by Anna Meyer

The Iron League was a separatist alliance formed in 447 CY for mutual defense against the Great Kingdom. While the members made much rhetorically of the demoniac apostasy and madness of the Naelax, the League's greatest concern was economic. None of the trading cities wished to allow the profligate Aerdy nobility to root like pigs in their accumulated wealth.

The association's core members had histories stretching back to ancient, Suloise, maritime city-states. While the Aerdi gained suzerainty over the region, the regional lords were content to allow a great deal of local self-rule (so long as they benefited from the ongoing trade), and in time became intertwined with the Suloise population through marriage and alliance with the local oligarchic families. Intra-region conflict between local nobles, powerful families and guilds was a more pressing concern until the Herzog's heavy-handed treatment prompted the member states to set aside their differences. At least for a time.

Although the League was founded primarily for military purposes, it did possess a confederal civil government. The ruling council, composed of representatives of the individual states, was fairly limited in its power outside of military matters, but was given the ability to control custom duties and adjudicate disputes between regions.

This is a follow-up to this post. I drew inspiration for the Iron League from the Lombard League and communes of North Italian and their relationship with the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperors. Given their Suloise history and their climate (Hot summer Mediterranean, according to Anna Meyer's climate map), I felt like their Suloise history might well amount to something like the Phoenician city-states. Visually, the continental states would look something like Sicily, Southern Italy, or parts of the Iberian Peninsula, except the Lordship of the Isles which is more humid and more like Florida.

Thinking Greyhawk

Over the past month, I've been reading some historical fantasy (Between Two Fires and His Black Tongue), some straight historical stuff (rpg supplements from Codex Integrum and the season on Frederick II of the podcast History of the Germans), and most recently, taking a real look at the World of Greyhawk (1980) folio.  All this stuff knocking around in my head led me to believe it might be interested in borrowing an old idea from Miranda Elkins and doing a series of blog posts developing a version of Greyhawk derived from the folio, with a Medieval history sort of feel.

I'll be using the 1980 folio as the only "canon" though I'm not opposed to taking material from the 1983 boxset and the Dragon articles written between and around the time of both publications. I'm trying to avoid more recent Greyhawk material. In keeping with the other recent inspirations, I'm going channel the historical wargamer Gygax over the pulp fan Gygax, and also I'll be using some of the ideas derived from examination of the pre-Greyhawk implied setting of D&D.  

A More Realistic Middle Earth

Listening to the History of the Germans podcast in episodes about the struggle for power between the Papacy and the Hofenstaufen Holy Roman Emperors, when reading a bit of a MERP supplement started me thinking about righting a post about a grittier, more realistic Middle Earth. Then I discovered I already sort of had written a post like that, back in 2020...

If we take The Silmarillion as Elvish mythology (which it is) promoting a slanted point of view, then most of the doings in Middle Earth are a proxy conflict between two super-powers: Sauron and his minions and the Valar and the Elves. We needn't assume either side is particularly good, In fact, we know the Valar unleashed a devastating weapon of mass destruction against their former allies in Numenor just for getting too cozy with Sauron.

In the modern era, Sauron's forces have been engaged in a protracted occupation of  Eriador. Through the action of the Mordor proxy Angmar, the Western kingdoms of Man were shattered, much of the population fled south, but fanatical bands, the Rangers, structured around the heir to throne of Arnor and Gondor, and supported by the Elves, continued to fight an insurgency against Mordor's Orcish forces and her allies.

Sauron has been a distant and not terribly effective leader for some time. He has been unable to consolidate Angmar's victory over Arnor (a victory that saw Angmar destroyed in the process) and unable to wipe out the remaining Elvish enclaves and human insurgents.

You get the idea. Shorn of much of its epic fantasy trappings, Middle Earth becomes a grittier place, where Men, Orcs, and local Elves, are all dealing with the aftermath of a terrible war wrought by super-powers that they perhaps only have the smallest of stakes in but yet are forced to take most of the risk.

Seems like an interesting place to adventure. It's certainly place where you can get a more interesting mix of adventurers and adventures, perhaps.

They Came From Beyond the Grave!

This weekend, in the spirit of Halloween, I plan to run a one shot (well, probably two shot before it's over with) of the Onyx Path game They Came From Beyond the Grave! It's part of their series of They Came From games, each made to sort of emulate some cinematic genre from 50s to monster movies, to Italian Sword and Sandals pictures, to (in this case) 60-70s horror films of the Hammer, Amicus, or AIP variety.

All these games use the Storypath system which is basically a descendant of the old White Wolf d10 dice pool system, but lighter and with some mildly narrative mechanics, like Rewrites which players can use to change the results of bad rolls or get a bit of narrative control. One of the things Rewrites can be spent on (though this is an optional rule) are Cinematic Powers which imbue the game world with the elements of the low budget films it's emulating. For instance, there's Dangerous Liaison wherein a player can pay for an awkwardly inserted scene (utterly free of danger!) to romance an NPC.

Players have other, less game-reality bending extras to employ like Tropes, Trademarks, and Quips that lend bonuses in specific situations. In fact, if I have any criticism, it's that the system is perhaps a little overstuffed with options for an otherwise "at the light end of rules medium" game.

Anyway, I plan to run to run Cthulhu Dreadfuls Presents #1 - Kiss of Blood, which is a very Hammer Horror flavored scenario. It seems easy enough to adapt.

Weird Revisited: Middle-Earth in Blacklight

I've been thinking about this sort of material again, recently. The original version of this post appeared in 2021...

It's well known that hippies were into Tolkien's work. Some of its themes appealed to them, certainly, but like with Lee and Ditko's Dr. Strange comics, there was also the idea that the works might somehow be drug-influenced. The author, it was assumed, might be taking the same trip as them. This was, of course, a false belief, but it was one that existed.

I this appreciation of Tolkien filtered through 60s countercultural and mixed with the prevalent cultural representations of fairytale fantasy led to a subgenre or aesthetic movement within fantasy, most prevalent in the late 70s and early 80s, before D&D derived fantasy came to ascendancy. While this subgenre likely finds expression in literature and even music to a degree, I think it is most recognizable and definable in visual media. It's evident in works like Bakshi's film Wizards and the Marvel comic Weirdworld (both in 1977), and in the Wizard World sequences (starting in 1979) of Mike Grell's Warlord. Elfquest (1978) shows the influence to a degree. Bodē's Cheech Wizard (1966) and Wally Wood's Wizard King (introduced 1968 but significantly presented in 1978) are either the oldest examples or its direct progenitors.

Essentially, the subgenre eschews the serious world-building of LotR for a more drug-influenced riff on The Hobbit, often with greater use of anachronism, camp, and sexiness, and often with a degree of psychedelia. Beyond the Tolkien influence, these works tend to share a number of common features:  a "traditional" visualization of elves and dwarfs as "little people," arising in folklore and classic illustration, but coming more directly from Disney animation and the fairytale comics of Walt Kelly; the influence of Denslow's Oz illustrations or the design aesthetic of The Wizard of Oz (1939); absurdism and humor borrowed from underground comics and Warner Brothers cartoons; unreal landscapes and visually alien settings informed by Sword & Sorcery and science fiction comics rather than historical or mythic sources of Tolkien.

Given they were contemporaries, D&D shows some in influence from these sources, primarily in its early art and occasionally humorous tone. But as a game that arose from wargaming there was always a thread of verisimilitude or equipment fixation that runs counter to this freewheeling psychedelic adventure vibe. Also, the violent, heroic narratives tended to have less room for the silly or less competent characters of psychedelic fantasy works.

When In Inaust

Gray, misty Inaust on Whulggan Sound is a place few choose to visit except on the most important of errands. If by some strange fortune you should find yourself in that city, here are several ways to pass the time:

• Enjoy a meal of grilled slug skewers with fermented fish sauce. We recommend the establishment Respa's Hearth as a superior venue for the dish. If your finances allow for such luxuries, the salt-cured glount roe makes a sublime antipasto. The glount roe trade can be cutthroat, and sabotage of a competitor or attempting to gain an advantage by substitution of roe of less desirable fish can occur. The glount themselves are edible, though it is considered lower class fare.
• Marvel at the spectacle and clamor of the mating combats of the morhuk on several sandbanks and islets.  The bellicose and lustful creatures pose a risk to navigation at such times, but the local nobility view them as totemic and forbid their harm under serious penalty. The fishers and boat operators are less favorably disposed toward the creatures and sometimes hire groups of ruffians to hunt the beasts with clubs under cover of night. 

• Acquire a coat, cape, or hat of fur and be the talk of the town in more Southron climes as you cut a figure of exotic, rustic fashion. Be sure to consult your furrier (we recommend Omer Zwirn & Sons) regarding the current status of sumptuary ordinance. The upper classes reserve some pelts for their own use, and the most prized varieties change frequently.

For those who arrive in Inaust in a state of embarrassment regarding their finances, we offer the following means of acquiring funds which are somewhat unique to the region:

• Compete in a birling contest. There are gambling establishment in the coarser areas of town where the woodsman's diversion of trying to stay standing upon a free-floating log while pushing an opponent from theirs. Entrants are paid a sum for competing and may win larger purses for performance. Would-be competitors are urged make every effort to discern the parameters of the any contest they may participate in, as some entrepreneurial-minded hosts have enhanced their offerings by pitting traditional contestants against wild beasts.
• Find employment as a boatman. No extensive knowledge of sea or maritime lore is necessary to serve as a cranksman or treadman on one of the many paddle wheel boats that ply the Sound. Stamina is the only prerequisite, though you would do well to pay the modest dues for membership in the Propellers Union, lest you face a beating and dunking from those toiling with you.

Way Up North

Art by Vsevolod Ivanov

While I was vacationing in Alaska a couple of weeks ago, I got though idea for a campaign inspired by the Klondike and other Alaskan gold rushes. To give something for fantasy rpg PCs to do besides turn prospector (though they could do that) I figure the forbidding northern wilderness would have once been part of a prehistoric empire whose great works and lost wonders have been buried.

To complicate matters and make for some interesting factions, there would be a current empire filling the "haughty Elvish jerk" niche that claim suzerainty over the region but spend most of their time fighting a rebellious faction of their own people. There would also be a more technologically primitive native people (maybe Neolithic dwarves or something) who naturally resent the invaders from afar.

Setting Ideas I'll Probably Never Run, but Still Think About

I've posted a lot of setting riffs on this blog over the years and others on various social media platforms. Most of these are just ideas. All of them I think would be cool, but some definitely speak to me as something I would want to run more than others.

Here are a few that I have definitely considered running but for various reasons have never got around to and honestly, probably never will.

Talislanta: Planet of Adventure: Using Talislanta's world as a Planetary Romance setting for the players would be crashed space travelers.

Wuxia-fied Fantasy: Not in way of the old OA, more creating a secondary world with a number of wuxia traits. For added fun (or madness!), I'd like to use a fairly heavily modified version of MERPs Middle-Earth as the setting.

Solar Wars: Star Wars set in our Solar System, either pulpy or more hard sci-fi. Actually, it's a toss up between which I'd want to run more: Solar Wars or Solar Trek.

Cold War Planescape: A bit like a combination of Planescape, White Wolf's Mage, and some John Le Carre novel, with an appropriate dosage of William S. Burroughs.

Spelljammer by way of Flash Gordon: Spelljammer that feels a bit more like early sci-fi or Sword & Planet fiction.

Clerics and Druids

A little bit more about a couple of types of spellcasters in the Elden Urd setting Elden Urd setting I have been working on.

Clerics wield the power of the gods, the form of magic brought forth by Aion Demiurgos when he created the Cosmos. How clerics came to possess this power is one of several mysteries contemplated and debated by theologians of their faith. As instruments of the church, they preform rituals, mediate with the spirits, cast out demons, return ghosts and undead to rest, tend the sick and wounded, and always strive to make human kin virtuous of admission to the Higher Heavens where the gods reside.

The also tend to wear distinct headgear as part of their vestments.

Druids are the priests of the titans who remained neutral in the War and did not forsaken the world: primarily Earth Mother and the tripartite Moon. They are also the prophets of the great spirits to human kin. 

Druidic cults mostly found in the wild places and rural hinterlands. Their association with the titans of old put them at odds with the Church of the clerics and their tendency to resist modernizing authorities has made them enemies of the Draconic Empire.

Notes on the Common Kin

 Here are some notes on the standard D&Dish races (focused on the "how our [x] are different," as you do) for a world I've been blogging about recently, a world which I'm now calling Elden Urd (inspired by Tad Williams' Osten Ard in his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy).

Dwarves

Warrior mercenary companies, distilled spirits, artisans in metal and gems. They mostly dwell above ground though not entirely. The dwarven throne has been empty for ages; they are ruled by a republic.

Elves

Descendants of fey trapped in the Cosmos when it was made. To this day they care little for the gods. Extremely long lived and slow to reproduce so they are a dwindling people.

Gnomes

Preservers of some of the knowledge of the Age of Wizard-Kings. Artificers and makers of mechanisms.

Halflings

The people of the plains and meadows, sometimes called "grass runners." Some are settled in sod house villages, work farms and tend flocks, others are itinerant traders and entertainers. 

Tieflings

Descendants of Fiends, the fallen Titans. They sometimes face prejudice from the common folk, but among the sorts of people that consort with adventurers their ancestry hardly merits notice.