Brigid Fane and Bram van Gheist

Two NPCs in Krevborna who couldn't be more different: Brigid Fane, a rage-filled barbarian who approaches all challenges with murder in her eyes and a sword eager in her hands, and Bram van Gheist, a cowardly scholar who has the knowledge necessary to push back the tide of evil, but who is weak of body and resolve.

Brigid Fane

Brigid Fane is a barbarous woman hailing from the tribal lands within the Silent Forest. She was captured by slavers and sold into service at Winterholt in Sibersk, where she fought as a gladiator until her escape during a revolt in the fighting pits. She frequently travels with Cassie Mabcrowe and Anastasia Elanova, serving as their swornsword. Also known as the Red Fury due to her fearsome and unstoppable berserker rage, her skill with a greatsword is terrifying to behold, as is the sound of her savage war cry. 

    • Appearance: Brigid is a hulking woman with bulging muscles and a messy crop of red hair.

    • Personality: Brigid is loud, boastful, and generally jovial.

    • Motive: She is a simple creature who loves fighting, fucking, and drinking.

    • Flaw: Brigid believes that violence solves most problems.

Bram van Gheist

Bram van Gheist is the foremost scholar of the occult currently active in Krevborna, even though he was dismissed from his post at Creedhall University. Too physically infirm to fight against supernatural evil directly, he is overeager to share his accumulation of lore with those who battle against darkness.

    • Appearance: Bram van Gheist is an elderly gentleman with wizened features and a shock of white hair.

    • Personality: There is something undeniably impish about van Gheist’s behavior despite his academic demeanor, and he often laughs at inappropriate times.

    • Motive: He wishes to aid those able of making war against demons, the Unseelie fey, and the undead.

    • Flaw: Deep in his heart, Bram van Gheist knows himself to be a coward who uses others as proxies to fight evil.

Walking on the Moon

We've returned to finish the Shadow Moon adventure in my Krevborna campaign. 

Characters

Willard Corn, strange old man in search of his missing dog

Heck, revenant who punches things to death

Garazi, young witch with a bird familiar

Panthalassa, a necromancer out for vengeance against a death cult

Daytona, dhampir cowboy along for the ride

Khamaat, mysterious pyromaniac mummy 

Events

The session opened with the characters gathered at the mouth of a cave on the forbidden Shadow Moon. They had just traversed a portal in the dungeons below Geldingstone to arrive here. Now, as they gazed on the alien lunar landscape, they saw that the surface of the moon was so black it would have been indistinguishable from the sky were it not for the stars. 

In the distance, they could see a Vlaak fortress surrounded by a tall fortified wall. Between the fortress and the cave was a field of black boulders. They spotted a dragon flying above them in the sky. 

The group wisely decided to use the boulders as cover to zig-zag to the gate at the wall. The were successful at avoiding the dragon's attention. However, as they approached the wall they saw that there were six gibbets on poles erected before it; each gibbet held a Fraternitie du Cadavre cultist. Panthalassa cast her burrow spell so she and Heck could move beneath the ground and come up on the other side of the wall to remove the bar that kept the gate closed. 

The first chamber they entered was a Vlaak barracks. Twelve Vlaak soldiers and two officers were sat at tables playing an esoteric game involving polyhedral dice, books, and miscellaneous papers. Khamaat was able to incinerate a bunch of them before they could even rise from their table. The rest put up more of a fight and were able to deal out a few wounds to the party. 

Two of the soldiers ran into another room. Heck and Daytona followed and found that they had removed some strange metal rods from a glass case, presumably to activate the two skull-headed iron golems standing in the room. Daytona and Heck killed them before they were able to do whatever it was they were doing.

Back in the main melee, the party turned the tide. One soldier struggled to unentangle himself from Garazi's magical chains, and it turned out he'd rather die by his own hand than face the dreaded Willard Corn. He turned his psychic blade on himself and chose death over Corn.

Beyond the automaton room, they found a door of flowing shadow. Khamaat tried tapping it with one of the metal rods, but the rod immediately disintegrated. The murals in this room told an interesting story: they depicted Vlaak in ceremonial armor and neck ruffs presenting chained humans to a throned Vlaak queen. 

In an armory chamber, the group found suits of Vlaak armor, psychic blades, a diorama depicting miniature Vlaak figures fighting eldritch abominations, and a fissure in the wall leading to a narrow tunnel. They followed the fissure tunnel and ended up in what appeared to be a small cell with an observation window set into its iron door. Luckily, the cell was unlocked so they could enter the hallway beyond.

In the hallway, they saw that there were two more cells. One held a human-looking man who had something horrific crawling under his skin. The sign under the observation window to his cell read: "CORN HYBRID #8729, NON-VIABLE." The second cell contained a teenage girl who appeared to be a hybrid of Vlaak and human. The sign beneath her observation window read "CORN HYBRID #7639 !DANGEROUS DO NOT RELEASE!" She clearly recognized Willard and made a three-fingers-down gesture that he recognized as a way to symbolize his missing three-legged dog. 

Panthalassa picked the lock to the girl's cell, and she was very relieved to be released from captivity. They quickly discovered that the girl did not speak Krevbornski; she only knew the language of the Vlaak. Willard could read Vlaak, so they began to write messages to each other to communicate. The hybrid girl's name was Yarsi and there were two important things to know about her: she loves dogs and hates the Vlaak. She joined the party from there on out.

In another room the group caught five scarlet-robed Vlaak Lord Doctors in the act of experimenting on a live human subject with their alien surgical instruments. With the doctors were three hovering automatons bristling with hypodermic needles and bone saws. Yarsi immediately proved her worth by psychically bursting the head of a Lord Doctor. The rest of the enemies were dealt with handily. 

Once their foes were disposed of, Heck took the opportunity to eat one of the Vlaak's brains and the human's brain to gain some insight into what was going on within the fortress. The human was one of the Fraternitie cultists, but unlike his fellows, who were rotting in a cave somewhere, he had escaped the Vlaak's initial massacre. As for the Vlaak, when they returned to their fortress and found it overrun with human cultists, they began to systematically hunt them down. There were still a bunch hiding in the complex, somewhere. 

They also found one of the Usher masks on the person of a dead cultist floating in a tube of yellow liquid. One mask recovered; two to go.

As they explored further, they found a chamber down a spiral ramp that was open to the air. Below the skyward opening sat an alien craft that vaguely resembled a fish made of metal and glass. Yarsi explained that they would need a key to operate it. There was another fissure in this room, and from it issued the sound of a dog barking. Willard wanted to go in to find his dog, but the passage was too narrow to admit him. Garazi send her bird familiar into the crevice and it ended up in the chamber Heck had seen in his vision after eating the cultist's brain--the chamber was piled with bodies. Unfortunately, the familiar's exploration was cut short when she was slain by the burning sword of an immense, shadowy figure wearing a twisted crown.

The group then decided that walking around without disguises was dangerous, so they outfitted themselves in Vlaak armor. This proved helpful when they blundered into a Vlaak mess hall. Thinking on his feet, Willard pointed and yelled "Willard Corn," which tricked the Vlaak into running out of the room in search of the hated and feared Willard Corn. The soldiers left behind one of the skull masks on the long dining table. Panthalassa ran in to get it--and just then the dragon swooped down into the room from an aperture in the ceiling. 

We'll find out what happens next time!

Sonja Barbarez

Veil’s most powerful villain is Sonja Barbarez, a demoness who gathers an army at Hell’s behest. My thought with Sonja Barbarez was that the setting needed a) a major villain who is a demon and b) a major villain who is militaristic and warlike. The notion of a monstrous army sweeping out of the north, which is where Veil is located on the map, is a classic campaign framework--and Sonja Barbarez and her Storm of Malebolge will get you there if you'd like that to be the flavor of your Krevborna campaign.

Sonja Barbarez

Sonja Barbarez is a diabolic soldier serving the demon known as Legion. She has come to Veil to recruit warriors to her army, the Storm of Malebolge, a force capable of subjugating the land and unitinge it under Legion’s banner. Sonja keeps a close eye on Veil’s gangs and the most violent members of its outcast population, always looking for promising conscripts. To Sonja, “promising” means a combination of discipline, sadism, and brutality. 

Sonja has taken the ruins of a former army barracks in Veil as the Storm of Malebolge’s headquarters. Once their numbers are sufficient, they will seize Veil as their own and begin to build larger battalions—ranks Sonja hopes to swell with summoned devils and other enslaved monstrosities who will march in Legion’s name.

    • Appearance: Broad-shouldered and imposing, Sonja is demon wearing the guise of an amazonian warrior woman only a fool would trifle with. 

    • Personality: She is a conqueror who brooks no dissent, which is why her fastness is surrounded by a forest of impaled corpses.

    • Motive: She wishes to see all of Krevborna annexed by the tide of her diabolic army.

    • Flaw: Sonja would rather die in battle rather than retreat.

Rick Swan's The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games

I was recently reunited with Rick Swan's The Complete Guide of Role-Playing Games. I had a copy in high school, but lost it somewhere along the way. The book's premise is simple: it's a collection of Rick Swan's reviews of the rpgs that had been published by that point in time, by which I mean 1990. Each game covered gets an entry describing what it is about, its level of complexity, and how good it is overall. 

Underneath that, though, is a fascinating snapshot of an era now long gone.

When I had a limited number of games available to me back then, based solely on what the local stores were willing to carry, the book was a revelation; it showed you just how expansive the rpg hobby was and had been since its inception. The book is full of games I would never have heard of otherwise. Who among us has ever played Swordtag? Or The Morrow Project? Or Sandman? I've met some Skyrealms of Jorune fans over the years, but Expendables? Never.

Returning to Swan's book now renders it a map of how batshit insane a lot of early rpg design really was. Check out KABAL's rules for determining your character's height:

Similar instances of madness: if you wanted to play a character of a gender opposite your own in DragonQuest, you had to roll for permission. The lowest end character type in the James Bond rpg has you spending 3000 points at character creation. Timeship apparently doesn't have rules for time travel.

If nothing else, The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games is a good reminder that your favorite game, yes, the one you think is the new revolutionary hotness, may also disappear beneath the shifting sands of time.

The Nightside

The Nightside is one of the additions to the revised Krevborna setting book that I'm most proud of. The idea of a dream-like realm of aestheticized horror has its appeal as a point of contrast from Krevborna's more standard Gothic atmosphere. Inspired by things like Thomas De Quincy's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and films like Jean Rollin's Fascination and Jim Henson's Labyrinth, the Nightside offers a change of pace where you can explore the thin boundary between the real and the unreal.

The Nightside

Among other more mundane intoxicants, Veil’s sordid drug dens peddle midnight bell, a greenish-gold, magically enhanced opium that allows the user to travel to the Nightside—a phantasmagorical dream of Veil as it was in better times. 

    • When midnight bell is smoked in Veil, one’s mind leaves their body behind as an inert and insensible husk in the "real" world as their spirit is clothed in new flesh to wander and explore what the town’s residents call the Nightside. 

    • The Nightside is an endless aesthetic dream; in the Nightside’s version of Veil, it is always the height of wondrous night, the stars emit their luster in the darkened sky, the city is lit by thousands of paper lanterns, and the shining outline of the Shadow Moon presides over all. 

    • Where the real Veil is a land of poverty and deprivation, the Nightside is a world of glamour, decadent pleasures, and thrill-seeking.

    • Nothing is ordinary in the Nightside—everyone is beautiful, fashionable, and stylish. 

    • Sebastian Lee, an androgynous dandy never seen without his ornate cigarette holder, a foppish hat, and his crystalline walking stick, is the undisputed king of the Nightside’s electrifying nightlife. 

    • “Sebastian Lee” is a guise adopted by the Goblin King of the Unseelie fey.

    • Nightmarish monsters are born from the hazy smoke of burning midnight bell, which hangs in the air as a persistent miasma always fraying the edges of reality. 

    • The Nightside is entrapping; nothing but a yawning void exists beyond the forest that encircles the Nightside’s dream-like fantasy.

    • Smoking midnight bell is a vice known colloquially as “tolling the bell.”

    • Those who partake of midnight bell always eventually awaken from the Nightside’s lurid fantasia and must seek enough coin for another dose if they wish to return.

    • Few can resist the allure and mystique of Veil’s illusory echo, and those who try are wracked with the pains of withdrawal. 

    • If a mortal expires within the dream of the Nightside, their body also dies amid the squalor of its “real” iteration. 

PLANET MOTHERFUCKER IN PRINT

I used my own instructions (here) and printed myself a copy of PLANET MOTHERFUCKER: SATANICO PANDEMONIUM EDITION. 

It turned out great!

You know it's free, right? Check it out if you missed it.

I've seen one other person's personal copy, but I want to see ALL of them. If you do a print version of the book, I wanna see what kinda cover you knocked out for it. Send images to totgad @ gmail dot com. 

People who send in pics of their print copy might get something cool & free in their inbox in a couple months, just sayin'.

Tip jar if you want to encourage this sort of thing.

Lycans

I've begun figuring out what a "lycan" (aka Werewolf Lite) should look like mechanically in my Savage Worlds Krevborna games. Here's what I've come up with for an ancestry that has the werewolf flavor without being as busted-for-normal-campaigns and inconvenient-to-play as the werewolf rules in the Horror Companion.

Lycans

Also known as “wolfbloods,” lycans are folk who have inherited the curse of lycanthropy in a minor, but persistent and incurable, form that sets them apart from other mortals. Lycans appear to be members of other ancestries, but their bodies possess obvious bestial traits, such as sharp teeth, yellow eyes, or hair as thick as a shaggy pelt. When angered, a lycan’s form becomes more animalistic and fierce. 

Lycans as Savage World Ancestry

Lycans can usually pass as normal humans unless they are under close scrutiny. As a limited free action, they can transform into a more bestial, wolfish state; while in this form, they gain access to their Bite and Claw ancestral abilities.

Accursed Ancestry: Lycans suffer a -1 penalty to all Spirit rolls.

Bestial Rage: The beast is always ready to spring forth and cause carnage. All lycans possess the Berserk Edge.

Bite: In their bestial forms, lycan fangs cause Str+d4 damage and may be used on grappled foes.

Bloodthirsty: Lycans never takes prisoners unless under the direct order of the person they consider the leader of their "pack." 

Claws: In their bestial forms, lycans have claws that cause Str+d6 damage and are AP 2. 

Easily Angered: Lycans subtract 2 when resisting Taunt attacks.

Heightened Sense of Smell: A keen sense of smell gives lycans +2 to Survival rolls made to track if the target has a scent and the trail is no more than a day old.

Hunted: Lycans must always be wary of monster hunters who might mistake them for full-blooded werewolves. 

Low Light Vision: Lycans ignore penalties for Dim or Dark illumination (but not Pitch Darkness).

Monstrous Weakness: Attacks made with silvered weapons deal +4 damage against Lycans.

Konrad Draghul and Kassidy Durango

Two NPCs in Krevborna. First up is a take on the classic "dhampir vampire hunter"--my variation is, "make him a vengeful twink." (Happy Pride Month, everyone.) And then we've got everyone's favorite boots and leather cowgirl. (Happy Pride Month, everyone.) Seriously, I've written short stories about Kassidy.

Konrad Draghul

Konrad Draghul is the bastard child of Count Magnus Draghul. Konrad was sired upon a serf in Myrkrania; he was born a dhampir. Before his mother succumbed to a disease hastened by their poverty, she told her son the secret of his heritage. Enraged that his father had abandoned them after a loveless affair with his mother—a dalliance that Count Magnus soon forgot—Konrad vowed to become the sworn enemy of all vampires.

    • Appearance: His features have a feminine cast, especially his head of unruly blonde curls, and he radiates physical prowess.

    • Personality: Despite his desire to be different from his father, he can be snide and stereotypically aristocratic.

    • Motive: The only thought that brings him joy is imagining what it will feel like when he plunges a stake into his father’s heart.

    • Flaw: A particularly handsome man can distract him from his quest—but only momentarily.

Kassidy “Deathshot” Durango

Kassidy “Deathshot” Durango hails from a long line of members of the Knights Labyrinthian; her mother, in particular, was a famed gunslinger and High Warden of Fort Gilead. The last of her line, Kassidy Durango continues the family trade of protecting pilgrims traveling the wilds and righting wrongs where she can.

    • Appearance: Kassidy is a freckled woman with long brown hair and a crooked smile.

    • Personality: Despite the bloody-mindedness with which she pursues her mission, Kassidy is quite philosophical and loves to discuss the great mysteries of life. 

    • Motive: Kassidy feels evil is likely to triumph in the world, but she feels compelled to fatalistically wage war against darkness regardless of the eventual outcome.

    • Flaw: Kassidy is plagued by an infirmity called blisterlung that sometimes causes her to be monetarily incapacitated as she coughs up blood.

The Gang Wards

I feel like too few Gothic Fantasy settings really do much with the fear of criminality and banditry that suffuses much of the early Gothic canon. Veil is, of course, filthy with criminal activity, and the city's gangs form the largest locus of power in the city. The following gangs draw inspiration from The Witcher, Dishonored, Gangs of New York, various Batman comics, and Fallen London.

Also, that time that juggalos were deemed a gang by the feds wormed its way in there.

The Gang Wards

Four gangs ruthlessly compete against each other for territory, wealth, and power in the fallen city. Unfortunately, the people of Veil are often caught in the crossfire as the gangs make war against each other. The following gangs hold multiple wards of the city under their control:

The Butcher Boys

    • The Butcher Boys are dwarven thugs feared for their use of violence, terror, and intimidation. 

    • The Butcher Boys operate protection rackets and offer their services as bodyguards. 

    • Members of the Butcher Boys are immediately recognizable by the bloodstained leather aprons they wear.

The Firebrands

    • The Firebrands are a gang involved in the production and sale of patent medicines of dubious efficacy, the operation of brothels, burglary, and arson. 

    • The Firebrands are notorious for hurling flasks of flaming oil in combat and setting their blades alight prior to engaging in skirmishes. 

    • The boss of the Firebrands is Jackdaw, a ruffian who claims to have once been a surgeon of repute.

The Harlequins

    • The perverse Harlequin gang are motley-clad miscreants who run gambling houses and fighting pits throughout Veil. 

    • Their leader, Cyprian Wilde, is a disgraced nobleman who uses his inheritance to bankroll the gang’s criminal ventures. 

    • They disfigure the faces of those who cross them.

The Seamasques

    • Veil’s river and its stretch of coastline is dominated by the Seamasques, barbarous pirates and smugglers.

    • They also sell their services as mercenaries.

    • The Seamasques are led by Gretha Sigurdsdottir, who is in turn guided by her lover Iska Gaskill, a Polnezna fortune teller with the gift of foresight. 

Lubek Crodescu and Winter D'Averoan

My philosophy for creating NPCs for Krevborna is simple: I want them to be streamlined, boiled down to an essential thrust that lets a prospective GM know exactly what these people are about and how they can be used in a game, without an excess of history and detail. Plug-and-play NPCs, so to speak. You can't need to know Winter's favorite color, for example.

Below, you will find a plague doctor turned plague spreader and a fortune teller trying to find an heir to Krevborna's vacant throne to please her father.

Lubek Crodescu

Once a selfless plague doctor who worked tirelessly to cure and comfort the afflicted, Lubek Crodescu’s worldview changed when he contracted a fatal illness that began to slowly kill him. In his desperation, he turned to an evil power to save his own life—he prayed to the demon Pazuzu, and his prayers were answered. He now acts as Pazuzu’s agent of destruction, spreading pestilence throughout Krevborna. 

    • Appearance: Lubek was formerly judged a handsome man, but his face is marred by pustules and buboes; he hides his visage behind a plague doctor’s mask.

    • Personality: He is a deeply embittered man.

    • Motive: Lubek has been hollowed of any recognizable human wants or goals; he merely seeks to spread contagion.

    • Flaw: Part of him wants to die to end his misery; his death wish could be exploited. 

Winter D’Averoan

Winter D’Averoan is a young half-Polnezna woman who is the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman named Jeremiah de Cote. The de Cote family is pledged to the cause of the Hounds of Velun. When her father realized that her oracular abilities could be harnessed to find a true heir to Krevborna’s vacant throne, he brought her into his household and set her to the task. 

Winter is never without her velvet-edged deck of tarot cards. She uses them as a focus for divination and can conjure strange magics from the occult imagery depicted on the cards.

    • Appearance: Winter’s mess of dark curls frame a face that is perpetually caught in a scowl.

    • Personality: She is only loyal to those who are loyal to her; she is protective of her half-brother Jean de Cote.

    • Motive: She hopes that if she finds an heir for the Hounds her father will formally recognize her as his daughter.

    • Flaw: She views the Church as a hopelessly corrupt institution and is not shy in her criticisms of it.

Angolstad Cathedral and the Convent of Saint Rivka

Today's post features two dangerous religious sites within Veil. Angolstad Cathedral is inspired by the rumors that circulated about the Knights Templar during their downfall. I was absolutely obsessed with the Templars during my teenage years; I even wrote a term paper on the dissolution of the order in college at one point. The Convent of Saint Rivka was my excuse to add nun-based horror into the setting. The movie The Nun isn't good, but it was probably an influence in there. A much better influence I can cite is the story of the Bleeding Nun in Matthew Lewis's The Monk.

 

Angolstad Cathedral

When heavily armored warriors calling themselves the Knights of Saint Othric emerged from badlands north of Veil and entered the city, they immediately seized the abandoned Angolstad Cathedral and made it their keep. 

    • The knights make every attempt to portray themselves as Veil’s benefactors, providing food and medicine for the needy and unwell.

    • However, the knights secretly worship the demon Baphomet in the maze-like catacombs beneath Angolstad Cathedral.

    • Their unwholesome rites involving trampling and spitting upon icons of the saints.

    • Baphomet has commanded the Knights of Saint Othric to search Veil’s ruins for an extremely powerful artifact—the Spear of Longinus.

The Convent of Saint Rivka

Although Veil harbors many heretics and apostates among its population, it is also the home of the Convent of Saint Rivka, a religious community of female penitents who have chosen to withdraw from the world to repent of their sins. 

    • Despite the convent’s pous reputation, it holds a secret: it is haunted by a murderous ghost named Sister Agatha.

    • In life, Sister Agatha was sent to the Convent of Saint Rivka against her will.

    • Her parents, enraged at having caught her in the act of eloping with a mere miller’s son, brought her to the convent in chains, where she was forced to take the veil. 

    • Within the year, Sister Agatha had died of a broken heart.

    • The truth of Sister Agatha’s death was covered up; unable to handle the melancholy of being separated from her lover, Sister Agatha took her own life by drowning herself in a fountain on the convent grounds. 

    • After her death, Sister Agatha rose again as a specter devoted to murdering lovers—she emerges from the convent at night to kill any trysting couples she encounters in Veil.

The Cherry Pit and the Bargain

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 84: The Cherry Pit and The Bargain

It’s time for Jack and Kate to explore their vintage paperback piles and trade tales from the yellowed pages of the past. Jack wades through the sweltering psychosexual Southern Gothickry of Donald Harington’s 1965 sex comedy (?) The Cherry Pit while Kate learns what happens when Hitler faces off with Dracula in Jon Ruddy’s 1990 shock-horror masterpiece (?) The Bargain.

Will we encounter the worst Van Helsings of all time? Why don’t the cool madams in exploitation novels get their own books? What are “big dinners” and how often will “big dinners” be referenced? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

Veil

The time has come to turn our eyes to the lawless sanctum of outlaws and heretics in Krevborna: the ruined and ruinous city of Veil! 

It took me a long time to figure out what Veil was really all about. It wasn't until I stumbled on the idea of a city given over to gang warfare coupled with Silent Hill aesthetic notes that things really got cooking for this area of the setting.

Veil

A Fallen City of the Downtrodden and Outcast

Once regarded as one of the jewels of Krevborna, Veil was originally a pomenysh city renowned for its beauty. Today, Veil is a shadow of its former self. Generations ago, the thriving city of Veil was put to the torch by the Church of Holy Blood’s Inquisition to flush out the blasphemous blood cult that had overrun it. It now consists of hastily repaired houses, looted ruins, and ramshackle shelters made from scavenged materials. The stout walls that protected the city in ages past are broken and in dire need of repair.

Greatly diminished from its golden age as a metropolis, Veil is haunted by the ever-present reek of smoke, soot, and ember, as the fire that razed it still burns in the tunnels beneath its streets due to the strength of a desperate man’s dying curse. Noxious fumes leak from cracks in the ground, and cold fogs obscure the city's ruined wards.

Veil is currently a haven for outlaws, heretics, and those who do not want to be found by the world at large. In Veil, the strong dominate the weak. It is expected that those with power will abuse it and that those without must suffer under oppression.

Hallmarks

The following elements and aesthetic notes define Veil:

    • Veil was once a grand Vlaak city, but it has since fallen into ruinous decay.

    • Veil is a vile den of crime and heresy; many of its residents are apostates and outlaws hiding from justice.

    • The city is dominated by criminal gangs who wage war against one another for territory and ill-gotten wealth.

    • A mercenary general has recently taken up residence in a former barracks; she is raising an army for an unknown purpose.

    • A strange, opium-like drug known as midnight bell is peddled in Veil; using the intoxicant allows entry into a dreamlike portion of the city that is otherwise inaccessible. 

    • The smell of smoke predominates throughout Veil due to a curse that keeps a fire raging beneath the city streets.

Superhero Comics as RPG Fodder: The "Good Stuff" Versus Trash-Tier

I've got capes on the mind as I'm currently playing in a very fun superhero game. This is the result. Forgive me. The results may, in fact, be applicable to other genres, but this is what is rolling around in my head currently.

I have a theory about the difference between mining ideas from "good" superhero comics (I'm thinking high-minded stuff like Daredevil: Born Again, Watchmen, Seven Soldiers) and mining ideas from trash-tier superhero comics: trash-tier comics actually make for better rpg idea-mines than the good ones.

My thought is that the intricate clockwork of a densely plotted superhero comic would likely fall apart at the table because of two factors:

A) The randomness of dice rolls in most game systems

B) Players inevitably making insane choices that throw the whole schemata out of whack because that's just what players do

Ideas gleaned from trash-tier comics, on the other hand, are already surprisingly resilient to dumb rolls and dumber decisions because they come from a place of inspired stupidity. They roll with the punches, they bob and weave like a drunkard, but ultimately they get the job done.

If anything, I think superhero rpgs are potentially the place where dumb comic ideas go to be redeemed and born anew.

Ivahn Katavarg

The Silent Forest’s most powerful villain is Ivahn Katavarg, a feral lycanthrope bandit.

Ivahn Katavarg and his clan were inspired by the crimes attributed to Sawney Bean. Plus, I knew I wanted a werewolf villain available in Krevborna, so this is how I fit that in--perhaps in a semi-novel way.

Ivahn Katavarg

Ivahn Katavarg is the patriarch of a clan of inbred werebeasts who prey upon travelers of Krevborna’s roads. The Katavarg clan’s victims are robbed and often eaten. Some are taken back to the Katavarg’s lair, a primitive haven within a trap-laden cave complex in the Silent Forest, to serve as slaves and future meals.

Each member of the Katavarg family bears a curse that makes them transform into a werebeast a night. The curse takes a variety of forms; werebears, wereboars, and wererats all number among the clan. In his bestial form, Ivahn is a gray-furred werewolf.

Among his family, Ivahn Katavarg lives like a king. He keeps the choicest riches taken from the family’s victims for himself, and treats his many wives and children as servants and playthings. His base desires and sensual appetites are both colossal and monstrous.  

    • Appearance: He is a slovenly man, stout as a barrel but as strong as a beast—even in his human form.

    • Personality: His manners are coarse and he spares little thought for the wants and needs of others. 

    • Motive: He believes that growing fat upon what be pried from the fingers of others is preferable to honest work. 

    • Flaw: His love of secrecy is contested by his desire to be infamous and feared.

The Wychbog Cottage and Yrd Dolma

Below are two more adventure locations within Krevborna's Silent Forest. The first is an expression of fairy tale horror: a forboding cottage in the woods where a coven of three hags trade supernatural healing for the flesh of live children. The second is a more mystical area inspired by my love of the old Robin of Sherwood show and, oddly enough, Dark Souls.

The Wychbog Cottage

A tumble-down cottage perched atop creaking wooden supports emerges from a flooded fen in the Silent Forest; the cottage’s occupants, the Wychbog Sisters, are three ancient crones who can miraculously restore the health of those who dare to visit them.

    • The Wychbog Sisters are named Yubella Greentongue, Old Vasaga, and Mother Malaryn. 

    • All three sisters are corpulent and wear ragged dresses made of human skin, though they disguise their terrible natures under palatable illusions. 

    • When their aid is sought, the Sisters make their visitor a poisonous offer—they will cure whatever ailment besieges the sufferer, but in return that person must bring them a living child as payment. 

Yrd Dolma

Within an obscure clearing in the Silent Forest stands a circle of weathered gray sarsen stones known as Yrd Dolma. 

    • In the center of Yrd Dolma, a sacred bonfire is kept burning by blind pagans of the old faith. 

    • The druids give credence to a prophecy that states that a great warrior will one day willingly sacrifice themselves to their holy bonfire; this martyr will die upon the flames and be born again, emerging from immolation as a sacred undead champion.

    • The druidic priests of Yrd Dolma believe that their ordained champion is fated to free Krevborna from the grip of supernatural evil.

SATANICO PANDEMONIUM EDITION (it's free, like your mom)

It's gonna be a long four years, ain't it?

Between the threats of insane tariffs and other moves to destabilize the global economy, who knows what's gonna happen to the tabletop gaming industry.

Luckily, we can always DIY our good times.

To that end, below you'll find a link to PLANET MOTHERFUCKER: SATANICO PANDEMONIUM EDITION. This pdf contains the original PLANET MOTHERFUCKER zine and all four supplements for the game: BLACK SUNSHINE, DEMONOID PHENOMENON, DEAD GIRL SUPERSTAR, and PUSSY LIQUOR.

Oh, that last one doesn't sound familiar? That's because no one besides me has ever seen it.

Here's the link to PLANET MOTHERFUCKER: SATANICO PANDEMONIUM EDITION.

I'm making the game available to everyone who wants it, for free, in the spirit of "Fuck this nonsense, let's do fun shit with our friends just to spite every joyless moron trying to make the world a worse place." Yeah, that's right, a full game, a two-hundred page book, and you can just have it on the house. 

That said, if you want to buy me a beer in thanks, I wouldn't say no. Here's my Ko-fi virtual tip jar.

Fair warning: PLANET MOTHERFUCKER is not for everyone. It's brash, crass, and patently offensive--just like America, baby. It's a post-apocalyptic rpg that is a love letter to trash culture, a scathing take on the peculiar strain of homegrown American madness, and a sadly prescient comment on the ways things are going.

Oh, you want a print copy? Here are some instructions on how to make one yourself that you can get here.

You're welcome.

But seriously, if you wanna buy me a beer you can do it here--lord knows I'm gonna need it. It's gonna be a long four years, like I said up top.

Got questions? Want to say 'sup? Email totgad AT gmail DOT com

Old Sepulcher Road and the Seven Citadels

Two more adventure locations in Krevborna's Silent Forest. Old Sepulcher Road is my attempt at practicing what I preach: I think they idea of a "treacherous and/or haunted road" is under-utilized in world building. Part of the inspiration was passing a road called Hungry Hollow Road in my travels and being taken aback by how menacing that name was. The Seven Citadels is my nod to putting a little something into Krevborna for the sword & sorcery fans.

Old Sepulcher Road

Old Sepulcher Road cuts through Vargovishta Pass in the Karthax Mountains, stretching from Hemlock Hollow to the Silent Forest. 

    • The road is the hunting ground of the Bloody Bishop, a dullahan searching for his severed head. 

    • In life, the Bloody Bishop was a defrocked priest turned bandit who offered his victims no mercy. 

    • When he was captured by a local militia, he was tortured and decapitated—as an undead rider astride an undead steed, he  continues to terrorize the living.

The Seven Citadels

Seven tribes of heathen savages live within the Silent Forest. Each barbarous tribe’s territory centers around a tower of black stone that they both fear and protect from adventurers who wish to plunder the relics and ancient treasures within them.

    • The members of barbaric tribes decorate their skin with swirls of blue pigment; they practice cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice. 

    • The tribes’ territories encircle the black citadels, but even the most foolhardy tribal members never venture inside them to explore. 

    • Each citadel is the prison of one of the Fallen Lords—witch queens and princely warlocks who now exist only as shadowy wraiths lost to madness and despair.

Rogue Moon

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 83: Rogue Moon

Algis Budrys’s 1960 novel Rogue Moon is a masterpiece of Sweaty Sci-Fi, a freshly-patented subgenre that will be revealed during the course of this episode. Jack and Kate take a trip to the dark side of the moon to ponder the meaning of life, love, the universe, and manly perspiration.

What happens when you get some Jim Thompson in your moon mystery? Are women more dangerous than a murderous labyrinth on the moon? And what, exactly, characterizes a work of Sweaty Sci-Fi? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

Lynbury

The adventure location described in this post about Krevborna's Silent Forest takes British "hauntological" works such as Children of the Stones and The Stone Tape as its point of inspiration.

Lynbury

Lynbury is a small village on the outskirts of the Silent Forest. It is surrounded by a circle of eldritch standing stones inscribed with druidic runes and sigils. 

    • Once the circle of standing stones has been breached, is is impossible to leave Lynbury; any attempt to leave shunts those seeking an exit back into Lynbury.

    • The people of Lynbury are unfailingly polite, kind, and welcoming. They encourage newcomers to make themselves at home and to consider settling down permanently.

    • Amiable companionship is used as a lure; those who enter the Lynbury Circle find that the populace of the village coax them to join in nights of drinking and singing at the village pub and offer to induct them into the village’s troupe of folk dancers. 

    • Any unattached visitors will discover that an attractive and attentive villager has set their eye on them as a romantic prospect.

    • The villagers of Lynbury are happy, but only because all other sentiments and emotional responses have been drained from them by horrid sorcery. 

    • Lynbury is a snare for the unwary and weak of will: Simon Glaston, Lynbury’s country squire and unofficial magistrate, taps into the magic of the standing stones to siphon away his fellow villagers’ emotions and feelings to feed an ancient pagan god.

    • This “god” is actually an eldritch entity from the Outer Dark known as Crom Cruach—also referred to as the Crawling King and the Conqueror Worm. 

    • If an outsider probes too deeply into the nature of the standing stones or the villagers’ unnatural happiness, Lord Glaston hunts them down with monstrous worms gifted to him by Crom Cruach.

    • The only way to escape Lynbury is to slay Simon Glaston and offer his blood to the standing stones. 

    • Although killing Lord Glaston will allow visitors to escape the confines of the Lynbury Circle, it does not banish evil from the village; once the current squire is dead, a villager will be elevated to his position and begin his malign work anew. 

Aeldentree and Camp Lovelorn Lake

Today we've got two very different locations within Krevborna's Silent Forest: a hidden city of insurgent fey and Gothic fantasy take on the slasher genre, complete with an unstoppable (???) masked killer. Aeldentree adds a bit of morally gray political terror (and terrorism!) to the setting. Camp Lovelorn Lake is, obviously, inspired by the Friday the Thirteenth franchise.

Aeldentree

Magical wards keep the once-proud city of Aeldentree hidden from the world. The city is built among the boughs of massive white birch trees and is home to a confederation of elves, goblins, and fairies from both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. 

    • Aeldentree’s populace are descendants of fey who were victimized by human pogroms and usurped from their ancestral lands in Krevborna.

    • Aeldentree is a sanctuary, kept secret from the prying eyes and vicious intent of mankind.

    • The most militant of Aeldentree’s citizens belong to the Wild Hunt, a secretive cabal of insurgents.

    • The Wild Hunt fights a guerrilla war against mankind in Krevborna, hoping to one day reclaim the land as their sole dominion.  

    • The Wild Hunt ventures forth from the safety of Aeldentree to raid human settlements and wage a war of terror against humanity.

    • Powerful fey such as the Erlking, the Green Knight, and Baba Yaga support the Wild Hunt.

Camp Lovelorn Lake

Beside Lovelorn Lake, a placid pool of crystalline water in the Silent Forest, sits an eponymous campsite consisting of wooden cabins, a dilapidated dining hall, several fire pits, and a small jetty. A hand-carved sign hanging above the entrance of the site reads “Welcome to Camp Lovelorn Lake.” 

    • The cabins are well-constructed, but they show indications that they have witnessed violence in the past, such as aged bloodstains and the tell-tale marks left behind by a fearsome woodman’s axe.

    • Something unnatural in Camp Lovelorn Lake calls to teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, exerting a pull that draws them to come and stay during the golden months of summer—even if that means shirking their responsibilities.

    • The campsite is, of course, a trap; anyone who stays at the camp will be hunted by a demonic, mask-wearing killer who is bound to the site by a lingering curse. 

    • The masked killer believes that every soul he claims from a murdered victim furthers the goal of resurrecting his dead mother—whose decaying head he keeps in a woodland shrine deep within the Silent Forest.

Adventure Design Checklist

Since I write most of my own adventures, instead of running prefab material, people sometimes ask me how I go about it. Without really meaning to, over the years I've developed a pretty straightforward process where I work through a checklist of ideas; by the time I get to the end of the list, I've usually got a scenario that's fleshed out enough to run without any hassles. Below is what I do; it may work for you, it may not. That's none of my business. It does, however, work for me.

Adventure Design Checklist

This is my checklist for designing an adventure:

• What is the character’s goal in the adventure?
• Are the characters meant to kill something? 
• Stop something from happening?
• Obtain information?
• Explore a location?
• Obtain an item?
• Note: you don’t really need to figure out how the goal must be achieved–that’s on the players
• What locations are likely to be visited in the adventure?
• Make a list of places the characters are likely to go in this session
• What NPCs are likely to show up?
• Make a list of NPCs they might meet over the course of the session
• What events might happen?
• Are there any “set pieces” you want to detail in advance?
• You might been to invent a few events to push things along or put on pressure if they players spin their tires for too long
• Is there any mood or atmosphere you want to establish with an event?
• Do you want to use any events that foreshadow events to come?
• Is there any cool loot?
• What above-the-ordinary items might they uncover?

Locations

These are the things I keep in mind while designing an adventure location whether I’m thinking generally of a whole building or site and when zooming in on specific rooms or chambers

• Basic set dressing
• Purpose of room or area
• Furniture
• Decorations
• Sensory details
• Cleanliness
• Temperature
• Important and/or hidden items
• Are their people in this room?
• Any strange or noteworthy objects?
• Exits
• Where does this place lead to?
• What comes next after visiting this location?
• Hidden doors or hiding spots?

NPCs

I make notes on each important NPC in an adventure in this format:

• Basic abilities
• What can this person do?
• How good are they at fighting?
• Do they have any magical or special ability?
• What do they know?
• Depending on the system, this is the stuff you might need to stat up ahead of time
• Appearance
• Basic description of physical appearance
• Clothing
• One noteworthy physical characteristic
• Personality
• General note on their basic demeanor (secretive, jovial, angry, etc.)
• One noteworthy quirk that stands out
• Motive
• Most NPCs only really need one strong motive that they are laser-focused on
• Flaw
• Tragic flaw or exploitable weakness

Events

Things that could happen outside of the players’ control–the world moves around the characters whether they want it to or not

• NPC encounter
• Potential ally or enemy?
• Chance encounters
• Trading for information or a necessary item
• Fight
• If you know what fights are likely, you can get your stats organized ahead of time
• Also, it’s not a bad idea to have a few fights lined up to move things along if they dither 
• (Guards or other patrols are especially good for this aka “Orcs attack!”)
• Foreshadowing
• Is there anything you want to hint at that is coming later in the adventure?
• You can use fortune telling, omens, symbolism, etc. to establish future tangents
• Pressure
• Anything that makes the players feel like they need to act now or get the show on the road
• Anything that puts them in mind of a ticking clock
• Or indications that if they don’t make a move, things will get worse or harder down the road

Loot

What stuff might they pick up on the way to their goal? I think of this broadly, not just in terms of physical items

• “Magic” items
• Equipment that bolsters their abilities
• Or is at least better than their current gear
• Keep in mind what they have, what they need, and what they want
• (These are very different categories in practice)
• If you anticipate the adventure being dangerous, seeding a few one-use healing items is a great idea
• Information
• Knowledge that helps them make better decisions is a kind of loot!
• It could be where the thing they want is, an enemy’s weakness, the answer to a mystery that has been vexing them, the location of a shortcut, etc.
• Allies
• Allies are tools that can be leveraged for direct aid, information, guidance, healing, etc.
• Keep in mind what their allies will be willing to do and what they won’t
• Not every ally will stand by your side in combat
• Also, the characters will need to put in work to maintain those relationships
• Or at least be able to offer the ally something in return for their aid
• New abilities
• Occasionally, rarely I’d say, an adventure might even offer new abilities outside the scope of the usual “advancement” rules

Geldingstone

We had a one-session break in the superhero game we're playing, so I filled in with a return to Krevborna to advance the players nearer a goal one of them have set. I prepped just about the perfect amount of material for a single session, I gotta say.

Characters

Willard Corn, a man of mystery looking for his three-legged dog

Panthalassa, necromantic dinosaur summoner with a grudge

Garazi, precocious witch with a possibly dark destiny

Heck, revenant out for revenge against witchhunters

Daytona, dhampir gunslinger always along for the ride

Khamaat, ancient mummy revived for unknown purposes

Events

The characters all emerged from a mental haze within a forested grove--with no idea how they had gotten there. It was night, and moonlight shone down from a gap in the trees. Khamaat had a vague memory of an unknown bearded old man putting his hands on her and Willard's shoulders as they did research at the university library at Creedhall, but everything else was fuzzy.

Peeking out of a gap between trees, they saw a downward slope leading to a long rectangular building. In front of the main door were six figures wearing bronze breastplates and bearing longswords; they stood beside a gnarled old tree. From the skull masks they wore, they were likely members of the Fraternitie du Cadavre. 

Willard's attempt to approach the figures peacefully failed--they drew their swords and attacked! Additionally, the gnarled tree uprooted itself and joined in the fray. Their foes hit hard, but the party hit harder--although the armored guards were undead, they fell to the group's weapons and the animate tree was left little more than a burning stump. Panthalassa had summoned two raptors, and though they took down the tree, they were stuck to its sap-bleeding wounds as they also expired.

Now able to enter the building they saw that its name was etched in the stone above the doorway: GELDINGSTONE.

Garazi summoned Txori to scout the available windows so they an idea of what to expect in the rooms inside. In the library, among the theological works on the shelves, Panthalassa found one volume that just had a series of numbers on the spine as a "title." Removing it caused a section of the shelving to shift aside, revealing what appeared to be a small dungeon cell. The book was full of equations, but one--31-3=28-- was circled every few pages. It also matched a scrap of paper Panthalassa found in her pocket.

In the nearby office, they found a ledger with a list of boys' names and dates from long ago. Moving aside a painting revealed eyeholes that could be used to look into the next room unobserved. The room appeared to be a dormitory of monk-like cells.

When they entered the dormitory they discovered that hanging behind the desk was an iron rod and a number of switches. They also found a loose floorboard, under which was an old, folded-up piece of paper that read "Meet me by the tree tonight. Bring the book." in a childish scrawl. 

In other rooms they found evidence of the Fraternitie du Cadavre's necromantic activities, such as bones laid out on work surfaces and a room with tables full of preserved meat. Heck smashed the skeletons to prevent future animation attempts. While the destruction occurred, Willard remembered the bearded man telling him that there were Vlaak in Geldingstone and that the Vlaak definitely remembered who he was--as it turns out, Willard Corn is something of a bogeyman to the Vlaak. 

Additionally, Garazi remembered being paid a visit by a woman who kept one of her hands conspicuously out of sight.

As the ventured further into Geldingstone, three Cadavre cultists exited a room with their hands up. They just wanted to leave in peace, but Panthalassa wasn't having it--she summoned raptors and set them upon the three men, wrecking an unholy slaughter in revenge for them cutting off her arm months ago.

In the chapel, the uncovered the origins of the name Geldingstone. They found an ornate chair, with a hole cut out of the seat, that was used for turning boys into castrati for the Church's choirs.

Before they were killed, the three surrendering cultists had told the group that the key to the door they wanted was being guarded by a skinless monstrosity in the basement, so that's where they headed next. Wounding the creature caused it to expel a red mist that flooded the room; those within the mist found their vitality sapped. The skinless man killed every minion Panthalassa sent against it; each time it killed one it peeled a strip of skin from its victim, consumed it, and healed its wounds. 

The group did eventually prevail, and they could see the key they needed within its corpse, but the mist still pervaded the room so they retreated for the moment. Heck eventually decided to draw upon his undead vigor and run in to grab the key, wrenching it from the corpse. 

The key unlocked a chamber with a vast stone archway--the center of it was pure black. When they passed through the archway, they found themselves in a strange place. The ground beneath their feet was black. Emerging from a cave, they saw a fortress in the distance and heard the beating of great wings overhead.

They were now on the fabled Shadow Moon.