Monster Entries Inspired by Dragonbane

As I compile information for my fantasy setting into a document for tabletop use, I find inspiration in the Dragonbane Bestiary entries. Instead of merely listing stats and descriptions for each monster, I'm incorporating quotes from in-game characters about the monsters. My rough drafts for each monster in the setting are ready, but I'm considering adding multiple quotes to some entries to showcase diverse experiences. Not all encounters must escalate to combat; alternative perspectives can illustrate positive interactions. Perhaps a character has negotiated a trade or received unexpected aid from a creature. Below are some examples of what I've compiled.

Graxian Cultists
  "The offers of peace and unity from the Graxian Cultists are seductive lies. Their peace comes from fear and intimidation. Their unity comes from blind obedience to the tenets of their dark lord. They offer a life bound to service of the world snake – not to convert followers but to CONQUER! Be mindful and wary of these charlatans. Do not entertain their offers and stray from the true faith. It will cost you everything - up to and including your very soul!” - Thomas Salinas, High Priest Church of the One God

Slarn
"I’ve never seen one, but my uncle has – I KNOW they’re real! It wasn’t in this small town. He was in the capital on a job and worked with one of them. He says they’re like us – not really like us but if a lizard looked like us. They walk like us and talk like us but don’t wear armor because their skin is tough as steel. He even shared a meal with one of them. We don’t see many of them because they keep to their own places mostly. Even more so than the Elves. At least that’s what my uncle said.”- Serafina Ericson, young local girl (gossiping with her friends)

Goatrils
“Pa says they ain’t all bad – he even trades wit’ some uv ‘em from time to time. He says they look scary at first but ya get used t’seein’ their goat heads un fur the more ya see ‘em. Out here ‘way from the big city ya have t’ trade wit’ those ya can. We don’t have the lux’ry uv nearby merchants. Pa also says t’ stick t’ the one ya trust. Some uv 'em ARE jus’ as foul as they look.”- Abby May, rural girl (talking to a friend)

The three quotes will exemplify my goal. Currently, I have created about 10 monsters, but I aim to design 20 to 30 by the time I complete all the entries. I'm undecided whether to use Delving Deeper for the actual statistics or another system.  

Do you incorporate similar elements in your games? How do you approach it differently?

September is a Go...

August is done and now September is here.  I'm going to jot down a few thoughts about moving forward. 

I completed reading Night Shift by Stephen King.  Overall, I found this short story to be pretty excellent. Reading it made me realize I don't read enough short fiction.  I think it works really well and is an underappreciated writing form in this day with 1,000 plus page epic fantasy tomes.  Ironically, I've started reading The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. during this holiday weekend. I say ironic because there are over 20 books in the series, but I've always intended to give it a shot. After finding the first three books in excellent condition at the local used bookstore it seemed like the obvious next selection. 

My son and I watched ALIEN: Romulus at the local theater.  We both enjoyed it and thought it was great. We're big ALIEN fans in this house.  I have 5 volumes of the omnibus collections of the ALIENS novels, the ALIEN RPG, play several of the video games, and own all of the movies on DVD.  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten the chance to play the role-playing game but I'm going to remedy that soon. 

It's great to see that Venger has decided to stick around and go into the print on demand format for several of his existing products.  After reading two of his latest blog posts, End of and Aeon and Do You Believe in Unlikelihoods?, that explained his original decision and then the reversal has nudged me to buckle down.  First, I have some things I've been working on - slowly but surely - and I need to finish them.  Even if they wind up as print on demand there is nothing wrong with that at all.  I just need to get them out there.  Second, I need to finish reading and do some blog posts on the Cha'alt hardcovers.  

Happy gaming!  I'm off to do some more reading...

 

2024 is Going Fast...

Between work and other life demands, this year is going by so quickly.  I aimed for a weekly posting this year, but I haven't been able to maintain that with any regularity so far. In fact, I completely missed the month of July so consider this post a bit of catch up around here. 

I finished reading The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee yesterday. I really enjoyed this epic fantasy novel.  I took a chance on this previously unread author just from his YouTube videos.  I'm ordering the next two books in the series and will continue reading. This brings my total reading for 2024 up to five out of a goal of eight, so I still have plenty of time to reach my goal. 

I started reading Night Shift by Stephen King.  It wasn't on my planned reading list for this year, but I bought it when I saw at the bookstore.  There were two main reasons for purchasing and reading this book now. First, 'Salem's Lot if probably my favorite King tale and this book has two stories related to it - one being a prequel and one being a sequel.  Second, this book is a collection of short stories, and I believe it is an underappreciated storytelling form.

I still owe several posts about the Cha'alt trilogy from the kickstarter.  I went all in, and I've found the books interesting and entertaining.  I just need to make time to post about them.  I also picked up the Dragonbane boxed set, Bestiary, and some accessories. I really dig this game, and it has served as inspiration on some of my own stuff. 

I have a few creative projects underway as well.  I've assembled some guidelines for alternate layout system for detailing characters and monsters in many of the old school style games.  It's not really hard rules but just some statistics and guidelines for use in a generic sort of way rather than tied to a specific game system. Yes, it's been done by others several - many? - times before but it's just something I wanted to experiment with and see what developed.  I'm also assembling all of my house rules and world information into my own old school style supplement.  Of course, there is no hard and fast timeline for this, but it will show up sometime.

June 2024 in a Nutshell

This month has been somewhat of a wash.  Early in the month, a tornado passed through this area.  Tornadoes are a pretty common occurrence here in Oklahoma, so it seemed like this would be a case of "another storm, another alert".  When the sirens sounded, I tried looking out of my window, but all I could see was total darkness. The nearby transformer blew, and I could hear metal dinging that I thought was a neighbor's shed flexing in the storm. We did our best to take cover in the house and ride it out until the morning.  Eventually, my son and I dozed off at some point in the night.

When I woke up the next morning, I realized how close the tornado had been.  The metal clanging I heard was a neighbor's barn scattered around my backyard.  A tree had also split and fell on the privacy fence on the west side of the lawn, so the fence came down between that and the high winds that were coming off the tornado. The craziest thing I saw was a piece of my fence that had been blown around and then forced into the ground.  I would let it stay for a few days just to see how long it would stay.  A week later, I pulled it out of the ground and a solid foot of that board had been shoved into the ground.  It wasn't easy to get out and took several minutes of pushing and pulling that board back and forth to get it out. 

We were without power that morning and remained so for the next ten days.  Most of the town was without power but it was slowly restored during this time.  We were fortunate that we had a place to stay with power after the first 3 days due to a friend on the other end of town getting their power back.  I discovered we were only 6 blocks away from the main path of the tornado, but it did zig and zag around so that's why all the damage occurred nearby.  Fortunately, our house wasn't damaged at all.  I'm very thankful for that.

I did get a little reading done this month after everything calmed down.  I'm almost 50% complete with The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee.  I am confident that I will buy the other two books in this trilogy because I'm digging the story and I want to see how it ends.  More to come on that.

Something else I will cover in a future post is the Dragonbane game. I bought the boxed set and was so impressed that I went back a few days later and bought the Bestiary and the Monster Standees as well.  this game has really captured my attention and I plan on buying the supplements and expansions as they are released.  More to come on this also.  

What about you?  Have you been impacted by a tornado or some other natural disaster?  What are you playing?  What are you reading?

[Miniature Monday] Another Giant Mushroom

 

I decided to paint another giant mushroom, but I did it differently this time. I used standard acrylic paint applied in several layers on this one rather than the Vallejo Xpress Color (a speed paint) on the first one.  After it dried, I applied a Green Tone from The Army Painter to give it a tainted or poisonous appearance.  I will probably paint some more mushrooms for caverns located deep below the surface with all manner of subterranean threats.  I'm going to keep this short as this post is basically a continuation of the last post.  The top picture is the new mushroom while the bottom picture is a comparison between the two.

[Miniature Monday] Giant Mushroom

I'm still dabbling with the Vallejo Xpress Colors and I used them to paint this giant mushroom.  I've watched several videos about using speed paints.  I've made several attempts to match the coverage and the results I see in those videos. For whatever reason, I can't get the same kind of results.  I seem to be more in tune with the more traditional layered approach to painting miniatures.  I haven't abandoned the speed painting method.  

After the Xpress Colors dried, I used Dark Tone from the Army Painter line.  I like how dark and grubby this giant mushroom looks after using this wash over the Vallejo Xpress Colors.  These miniatures are available at one of the local stores for 99 cents each so I'm going to pick up some more of them to use for a cavern with several large mushrooms on the floor.

If you paint miniatures, have you tried any of the speed paints from the available brands? Do you have a method you developed on your own or do you follow something you saw in a video?  Do you have any suggestions for people learning this method?

April 2024 Reading Progress

I caught up on some reading this month as I completed two books and I have started on a third.  

People of the Dark: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Volume II was the first book I completed reading in April.  I should have finished it much sooner but between work, my daughter's competitive cheer commitments, and every day demands that I wound up dragging my feet.  It certainly wasn't due to a lack of interest.  Simply put, I've never read a Howard tale that I didn't enjoy tremendously. I'm always pulled in by his storytelling and I have completed his books in a single setting back in my youth before I had other real-world commitments.  I may not be able to give a truly objective review of his work and I will no try.

Dave Arneson's True Genius by Robert J. Kuntz is the second book I read in April.  This book is a good read, but I ultimately felt like it lacked a little meat on the bone.  Don't get me wrong at all, I enjoyed it tremendously, but it was just too short and a little too light in some areas.  I'm guessing it's meant to serve as a teaser for his planned book, A New Ethos in Game Design, that I suspect will be much more detailed.  I'm waiting...

I have begun reading The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee.  I'm a big fan of his YouTube book review channel.  His reviews are always entertaining, so I decided to see what he had to offer in the realm of fantasy fiction.  I've read almost 100 pages so far and I'm looking forward to reading the rest.  that has me at 3 books read out of a goal of 8 this year; 37% to be exact.  

Now that my reading is updated, what else is coming up?  I will do at least one post each about the Cha'alt trilogy. and I'm working on a post about the Cults, Sects, and Faiths of my campaign world.

March 2024 Reading Progress & General Update

March has been topsy turvy at work so I haven't been able to post as much as I would like to but here's a general post over a few subjects that will serve as an all-encompassing update.

Gaming: I still have no face-to-face group, but I am playing in two different play by post campaigns at The Ruins of Murkhill forum and blog.  The first game is an OD&D campaign ran by Halenar Frosthelm  celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons.  It's interesting because I have never actually played OD&D.  I've done Basic (many forms), Advanced, and 3E.  The second game I am playing in is the sequel campaign to the original Sunflower campaign.  I am playing the son of my character in the original campaign so it's definitely making for an interesting campaign as well.

Reading: I had planned to be finished with People of the Dark, The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Volume Two and well into my third book of the year by this point but that has not happened.  I am currently at 55% but that is not from lack of interest.  As stated previously, work has been so hectic the last month that I have been wiped out every day and couldn't give the book the attention it deserves.  I always find Howard interesting and the tales he weaves have always caught my attention.  

Writing: I have three projects that I'm currently working on completing as well as diving into the Cha'alt books in finer detail.  I will post on these as they are completed.

That's it for now.  Maybe April will prove to be more fruitful.

A Little Catch Up...

I had planned on posting about my reading progress through the end of February, but my son and I came down with a wicked case of strep throat. That should have provided the opportunity for some prime reading time, but it did not happen. Consider me paused at the last update for anyone keeping score. Both of us were wiped out and he missed a week of school while I missed a week of work.  I've been focused on getting us both caught back up in our respective responsibilities.  It seems to be the case now, so I will return to regularly sporadically posting from time to time.  

I did receive a copy of the three Cha'alt tomes from the recent kickstarter by Venger Satanis so I will be making some posts on those books as I make my way through them.  As far as first impressions go, he made some excellent choices with artist and the book construction.  These manuals are top notch quality and much better than many of the professional products I have purchased over the years.  They are sturdy and I am not concerned with being overly cautious as I read through the contents.  More to come on these in the future and I look forward to the fourth Cha'alt volume when it is released. 

One of These Days.....

I think all of us have some games in our collections that we have never played for one reason or another.  I'm listing my top four games.  Some of these games are new and some are old.  I'm leaving out games that are similar to other games but vary in how they handle some aspect of the game system. Without further delay, let's look at the games. 

ALIEN The Role-Playing Game: I have the starter set and the core rulebook so far and I would buy more books.  I've been a fan of the original Alien movie and Aliens for many years.  I have all 6 of the movies on DVD and I've read 10 of the novels so far.  While opinions on later films differ, I find something of interest in all of them.  

Ars Magica Third Edition: I bought a copy of the core rulebook and Mythic Europe last year from a friend that was thinning out his collection.  I was intrigued by the focus of the game being on wizards when it was originally released, and I always intended to buy a copy.  Years later and I finally own a copy.  The reading has been interesting so far.

The Dark Eye: I have the three main rulebooks.  I picked up the digest-sized versions because I could buy all three of them for basically the cost of the standard sized core rulebook.  TDE fascinates me because it's basically "Germany's D&D" and the world is open and growing with fan contributions.  

Lejendary Adventures: I bought the three main books upon release.  I know some complain about this game because it is so different from D&D in the rules, but I actually like the differences because it makes the game unique.  I admit that it was a little challenging upon my first reading, but I did get it figured out when I changed my approach.  I started with the definitions at the front and expanded out from there and everything clicked.  I would have to refresh my memory, but I would play the game if the opportunity came.

The reason I havne't played these games is simple.  I don't currently have a group and I haven't had one for years.  I'm sure there are games that you have but you have never played so what are they?

Crafting Ultima-inspired Runes

Continuing on with crafting inspired by the Ultima series of role-playing games, The old boxes used to come with all sorts of little extras in them.  I remember getting cloth maps, a coin, an ankh, and other stuff. I thought it would be cool to have some of these props to use in my games. 

I decided to try using Crayola Model Magic for some Runes.  After a few attempts I stumbled upon the method to use to get the desired results. I started with a piece that was approximately the size of a ping pong ball.  I flattened these pieces until they were about half their original thickness. Then I turned the clay with the thin sides up and down and flattened it down to approximately one-quarter of the original ball size.  Crayola Model Magic takes a while to dry, so I let the pieces sit while I searched for the Ultima Runes.  I cut these Runes into the flat side of each piece and primed the entire piece with basic grey craft paint.  I put a Strong Tone wash over the pieces of clay and let them dry.  I used basic black to fill in the symbols.  After they dried, I coated all of them with matte varnish.  Now I can pull these out if the player character characters visit a fortune teller and use them as a prop.  I ran out of Crayola Model Magic and need to buy some more to complete this set of Runes, but the stores around here have been sold out lately.

 

January 2024 Reading Progress

I started off 2024 by reading Murtagh by Christopher Paolini.  This is the fifth book written in the world of Alagaesia but not the fifth book of the series.  I've read and enjoyed the original four books in The Inheritance Cycle and was looking forward to reading this book as well.  My daughter bought it for me at Christmas, so I began reading it a few days after the holiday.

I enjoyed this fantasy tale quite a bit.  I welcomed the change in focus from Eragon and Saphira to Murtagh and Thorn.  I have no doubt there will be more books focused on Eragon but it's nice to see the series feature other characters.  Although Eragon and Murtagh are both Dragon Riders - and half-brothers as well - there are plenty of differences between the two.  They approach situations and obstacles differently.  Murtagh is a little bit rougher in execution and a bit of a darker hero.  Just as this book changes the central character, this book is also about change.  Murtagh and Thorn are fighting to change by overcoming their enslavement by Galbatorix and the reputation that followed.  

I find Paolini works to be a smooth read.  I don't mean that in a negative manner at all.  I mean that it's easy to follow and easy to read large chunks at one time.  There is world building and lore sprinkled throughout the book, but it's not labor intensive to keep the facts straight.  There are also several illustrations, a small section on Runes, and another brief appendix or two.

Rating: I gave the book a 5-star rating on Goodreads.  The site only allows full star ratings so that somewhat limits how accurately you can rate your experience. I definitely thought it was better than a flat 4 and somewhere closer to 5 so a 5 seemed closer than rating it lower.  I'm not a professional reviewer by any means so when I rate a book, I'm just looking at stuff such as "did I struggle with staying interested" or "would I read more books in the series" and similar topics.  

Progress: I have completed 1 out of 8 books on my planned reading list this year.

Next: My second book is People of the Dark by Robert E. Howard.  I'm ending January with completely 24% of this book.  Let's see what next month brings...

Crafting a Moon Gate

I'm a big fan of the Ultima series of computer role-playing games.  I spent many hours playing them on various platforms over the years.  One of the most memorable things about the older releases was the lore and the extras included in the boxes.  They used to have small rulebooks reminiscent of the OD&D little brown books, cloth world maps, and maybe other stuff like coins.  Of course, this type of stuff would influence my fantasy gaming and I would include similar items in my worlds.  

The screenshot here shows a moon gate that has manifested in an open area of the game world. The idea behind the moon gates is simple.  You can enter a moon gate when it appears to be instantly transported to another location.  A simple form of fast travel that has appeared in many other games up to the modern day. The scroll of town portal from the Diablo series is one such example. I've used something similar in my games but it a very limited form; I didn't want an automatic get out of jail card for the players.  I did, however, want some sort of magical gate that would show up in some locations depending on "if the stars were right" or some other arcane reason.  

I got into miniatures a few years ago.  You can clearly tell from my paint jobs that I am focused on utility and function rather than winning any competitions.  I also downloaded the complete Ultima series from Good Old Games some time ago.  Between these two events, I decided to try some crafting with some cheap clay so I would have a moon gate miniature to use in my games.  I was going to do the entire thing in this clay, but I found some small wooden circles for just about a dollar that could serve as the base.  I also stumbled across some cheap grass, sand, and rock at a local hobby shop, so I decided to go ahead and add those to the mix.  

My results are pictured here.  I'm not disappointed with the results as a first attempt.  I'm going to do another one in the future and there are things I would do differently.  First, the boulders with the runes and the moon gate were glued down first.  On the next one, the first thing will be the moon gate, but the boulders will be glued down after the base terrain. I think that will help with the few small voids that can be seen.  The small yellow spots were added to show a "magical effect" but I don't like how it turned out.  I used several coats of gloss varnish to give it a gleaming appearance and I will do that again rather than using the yellow paint spots. I may try some more expensive clay on the next moon gate as well.  I'm pretty pleased with this first attempt but I see areas to improve.  I will add more stuff inspired by Ultima in the future.  I'm not entirely sure what it will be but I think the runes might be on that list.

Chance Cards

I've owned Champions of ZED and Dragons at Dawn for a while now.  I enjoy pulling them out and reading through them both for inspiration. Both of these games have sections discussing chance cards and how to use them. The idea behind chance cards is pretty simple.  The DM and the players use a stack of index cards to write down events that could take place in their campaign. At certain points in the campaign - the start of every game month, every 90 days in game, etc. - the DM will draw one of these cards and apply it to the campaign. The group could also use these cards to generate a background history for the campaign world as well.  For example, the DM could want to use two events per year for the last 12 years of game time to develop a history for the campaign world. 16 cards would be drawn from the cards available and then the DM would string them together and get the history they wanted.

I know I could do this with some simple brainstorming, rolling on tables, or some other method but I want to do something different. I've become really interested in using the chance cards in my game for the physical aspect of it. I think that comes from two influences.  First, I watch a lot of the videos put out by Game Methuselah on his YouTube channel.  He mentioned writing the monster information on index cards and using them in game; basically, a map, notes, and a box of index cards to run his game.  Second, since I began painting miniatures a few years ago I really want to start using them in my game as well.  I never used them back in the day, but I've gotten the itch to use them now.

Do you use chance cards or something similar in your game?

2024 Reading Plans

After the disappointing low number of books read last year, I got motivated to do better this year. I typically read 12 or more books in a year, but I set a goal of 8 for 2024 because several of these novels are epic length fantasy over 1,000 pages.  I am keeping a reading journal to help with this goal.  If I can read more, I will. Without further delay, here are the novels I plan on reading this year.

Poul Anderson (Three Hearts and Three Lions): I've always wanted to read this for two reasons. I remember it being referred to as a fantasy classic by many readers and - I hope I'm recalling correctly here - it seems that many claim this has the best representation of a Paladin. This book was read in 2023 and will be replaced by Murtagh by Christopher Paolini to keep my reading plan at 8 books for the year. 

Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles): I remember seeing this book on the shelves of my middle school library and I also caught some of the PBS television mini-series.  I've always intended to read it so 2024 will be the year I do so.

Brian Lee Durfee (The Forgetting Moon): I stumbled upon his YouTube Channel while browsing the various "booktubers" looking for reviews of fantasy novels.  This guy reads a ton of books, has an impressive home library, and has completed a trilogy of novels.  His videos are funny because he doesn't hold back about how passionate he is about books, and he doesn't take things so seriously that he does a hundred takes to "get it right".  

Frank Herbert (Heretics of Dunge and Chapterhouse Dune): I enjoyed the first four books so I'm going to complete the original six books.  Maybe I'll give the expanded Dune universe novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson at some time.

Robert E. Howard (People of the Dark): Howards' Conan tales are amazing!  I enjoyed Shadow Kingdoms so I'm sure this collection will be excellent as well.

Christopher Paolini (Murtagh): I got this as a Christmas gift from my daughter, so I added it to the list of books for 2024.  I've read the entire Inheritance Cycle so I might as well continue on.  They have always proven to be smooth reading that doesn't require a stack of notes to keep up so that's a bonus.

Brandon Sanderson (Oathbringer and Rhythm of War): I really enjoyed the first two novels in The Stormlight Archives, and I need to get caught up with the series.  The series is planned to be ten books at completion so it's a good time to not fall behind any further.

Happy New Year!

It's a new year and I've been doing some reflection to see what I want to change in 2024.  I have a short list spread over several areas that I could explain in this post.  I'm not going to do that because it all boils down to just one change that will help me achieve the changes I want to make.  I am striving for a better work/life balance in 2024.  

I allowed work to become all-encompassing last year and this blog, my reading, and my creative endeavors suffered because of that decision.  Don't get me wrong, work is important and there will be times that I have to completely focus on it at that time but working 55 to 65 hours a week for months at a time will burn you out. 

Having the last three weeks off work recovering from having my gall bladder removed let that lesson really sink in.  I had planned to bring my laptop home and be available "just in case" but my backup told me to "...relax and not do that.  We got this while you're gone.  I can always ask one of the other guys for help if I need it.".  I did take my laptop home, but I didn't turn it on even just once.  I didn't receive any texts saying the plant had to close down and I didn't see any stories on the news about my absence causing undue hardships to production.  

The point? Take your time off and enjoy it.  You can't be replaced at home, you can and will be replaced at work. I hope everyone has a great year!  I'm looking forward to being more active.