{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Save vs. Total Party Kill", "home_page_url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/", "feed_url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/feed.json", "description": "An OSR blog.", "icon": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/apple-touch-icon.png", "favicon": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/favicon.ico", "expired": false, "items": [ { "id": "7a8730e5409a8566513e13ec27674797c1e604e6", "title": "John Blanche 1948–2026", "content_text": "\nI am sad to learn about the passing of John Blanche. My friend Tim has written a nice article about him for Wargamer and Kelvin remembers the time Blanche sent him a postcard. The documentary The Grim \u0026amp; The Dark has posted the entirety of their interview with John Blanche. It’s quite lovely listening to him speak.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t know if I really understood who Blanche was and his impact and influence until I got into the OSR and every other person was obsessed with the grimdark. As a child I would have encountered his artwork in Fighting Fantasy, alongside some of the other greats of British fantasy illustration, but I don’t know if I was cultured enough to dig into what I was seeing beyond thinking it was cool. Getting into Warhammer exposed me to even more of his art and who he was as a creator. He was an incredible artist. There are so many drawings of his I love, but this one of a Sister of Battle is one of my favourites. What a legend. A real loss.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/blanche.webp\" alt=\"Sister of Battle by Blanche\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI am sad to learn about the passing of John Blanche. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wargamer.com/warhammer-40k/john-blanche-obituary\"\u003eMy friend Tim has written a nice article about him for Wargamer\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://kelvingreen.blogspot.com/2026/06/blanchitsu.html\"\u003eKelvin remembers the time Blanche sent him a postcard\u003c/a\u003e. The documentary The Grim \u0026amp; The Dark has posted the entirety of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqNLBQ17wlA\"\u003etheir interview with John Blanche\u003c/a\u003e. It’s quite lovely listening to him speak.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t know if I really understood who Blanche was and his impact and influence until I got into the OSR and every other person was obsessed with the grimdark. As a child I would have encountered his artwork in Fighting Fantasy, alongside some of the other greats of British fantasy illustration, but I don’t know if I was cultured enough to dig into what I was seeing beyond thinking it was cool. Getting into Warhammer exposed me to even more of his art and who he was as a creator. He was an incredible artist. There are so many drawings of his I love, but this one of a Sister of Battle is one of my favourites. What a legend. A real loss.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/john-blanche-19482026/", "tags": ["warhammer","blanche","40k"], "date_published": "2026-06-03T19:58:36-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-06-03T19:58:36-04:00", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "b4676c5e0adc8cf6c1e6cd6012db2702841d1e04", "title": "Horus Heresy Squads Pack", "content_text": "\nLast summer Games Workshop released the 3rd edition of Horus Heresy. For those keeping score at home, I managed to play three games of 2nd edition before they moved on. I find their urge to constantly churn their rulesets annoying, but that seems to be how it goes with their games. I probably don’t play enough Horus Heresy to justify all the boxes I have bought, but I have bought some boxes. The heart wants what the heart wants: I love those weird looking terminators.\nI have managed to play a few games of 3rd edition now with Evan. We discovered that the Honest Wargamer shared some house rules for low point games that are kind of perfect for the amount of models we want to think about. The house rules for this format he has dubbed Squads restricts the game to 750 points, with further restrictions around the sorts of models you can bring, and some small changes to scoring. The house rules pack also includes some sample missions. The tweaks are quite small, but work well to scale the game down.\nThat said, with Heresy a small game can still feel quite big. My 746 point list was:\nCenturion Tactical Squad (10 models) Tactical Squad (10 models) Tactical Support Squad armed with Plasma Guns (10 models) Contemptor Dreadnought armed with Gravis Chainfist with in‑built Heavy flamer, Gravis Melta Cannon, and a Havoc Launcher. 32 models across 5 units still felt like a lot of minis on the table. Evan’s AdMech included even more models.\nWe are pretty out of practice playing the game, and unfortunately the rule book doesn’t make the game particularly easy to quickly pick up. The rule book has some of the most dreadful rules writing. So much word soup. Everything feels more complicated than it needs to be. Of course we are playing because there is still a lot to love about the game and how it works. The rules encourage a lot of flavourful situations—once you manage to parse what those rules are trying to say.\nIt took us a little under 3 hours to get through the game. I can’t imagine how long it’d take us to play a full 3000 points game. A lifetime, presumably. We would probably be better off playing with some experienced players. That’s what made my first experience playing at the tournament work so well.\nThis is currently the game Evan and I have been focused on playing. There is time for us to figure it all out. I need to name all my guys and figure out the narrative for these games. That’s where the real fun of playing lives.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/horus-heresy-squads-1.jpg\" alt=\"A Horus heresy fights\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast summer Games Workshop released the 3rd edition of Horus Heresy. For those keeping score at home, \u003ca href=\"/play-report/horus-heresy-age-of-darkness/\"\u003eI managed to play three games of 2nd edition before they moved on\u003c/a\u003e. I find their urge to constantly churn their rulesets annoying, but that seems to be how it goes with their games. I probably don’t play enough Horus Heresy to justify all the boxes I have bought, but I have bought some boxes. The heart wants what the heart wants: \u003ca href=\"https://www.goonhammer.com/goonhammer-reviews-horus-heresy-third-edition-saturnine-launch-box\"\u003eI love those weird looking terminators\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have managed to play a few games of 3rd edition now with \u003ca href=\"https://gamepieces.blogspot.com/\"\u003eEvan\u003c/a\u003e. We discovered that \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngOBcye7IUg\"\u003ethe Honest Wargamer shared some house rules for low point games\u003c/a\u003e that are kind of perfect for the amount of models we want to think about. The house rules for this format he has dubbed \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1daVDBYMx1ktHrCb-5y2pRnNDdc5EkpeDPEGVZHzVM7o/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.fkc7rrxzfboc\"\u003eSquads\u003c/a\u003e restricts the game to 750 points, with further restrictions around the sorts of models you can bring, and some small changes to scoring. The house rules pack also includes some sample missions. The tweaks are quite small, but work well to scale the game down.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat said, with Heresy a small game can still feel quite big. My 746 point list was:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCenturion\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTactical Squad (10 models)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTactical Squad (10 models)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTactical Support Squad armed with Plasma Guns (10 models)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eContemptor Dreadnought armed with Gravis Chainfist with in‑built Heavy flamer, Gravis Melta Cannon, and a Havoc Launcher.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e32 models across 5 units still felt like a lot of minis on the table. Evan’s AdMech included even more models.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe are pretty out of practice playing the game, and unfortunately the rule book doesn’t make the game particularly easy to quickly pick up. The rule book has some of the most dreadful rules writing. So much word soup. Everything feels more complicated than it needs to be. Of course we are playing because \u003ca href=\"https://www.goonhammer.com/goonhammer-reviews-horus-heresy-third-edition-core-rules/\"\u003ethere \u003cem\u003eis\u003c/em\u003e still a lot to love about the game and how it works.\u003c/a\u003e The rules encourage a lot of flavourful situations—once you manage to parse what those rules are trying to say.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt took us a little under 3 hours to get through the game. I can’t imagine how long it’d take us to play a full 3000 points game. A lifetime, presumably. We would probably be better off playing with some experienced players. That’s what made my first experience playing at the tournament work so well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is currently the game Evan and I have been focused on playing. There is time for us to figure it all out. I need to name all my guys and figure out the narrative for these games. That’s where the real fun of playing lives.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/horus-heresy-squads-2.jpg\" alt=\"My dreadnought fighting\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/horus-heresy-squads-pack/", "tags": ["warhammer","30k","horusheresy"], "date_published": "2026-05-24T21:40:40-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-24T21:40:40-04:00", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "2c9d8891bcc2da58432413efb7275f5f53aeb3a5", "title": "Emergence", "content_text": "\nIt is our patriotic duty to buy Canadian Mothership modules. Emergence is a funnel adventure—like you remember playing in DCCRPG. Emergence takes place Henko Acquisitions Correctional Complex. Players play inmates who wake up after some unknown accident has damaged the facilities. They must try and escape to the surface. There is a whole lot more going on, some of which I’ll discuss below, so if you are thinking of playing stop reading now!\nThe game was written by Carson Brown, with art by the always excellent Brandon Yu. This is one of the books I grabbed at this years Breakout Con, which was honestly mostly me shopping. Brandon’s cover is amazing. You can almost always judge a book by its cover.\nThe prison complex is quite dynamic. Carson has done a lot to make prison an interesting space to explore. To start, it’s flooding! The rooms in the prison will fill with water as the players explore the space, eventually ending up mostly submerged. Every 30 minutes of game time the players will roll a d10 and increase the flood level of the location by 1. (There are 10 locations that can flood within the subterranean portion of the prison.) The power in the complex is also fluctuating. The adventure begins with the power barely functioning. Certain locations and actions by the player can move the power level up or down, which also impacts what the players can do in various locations.\nThe prison map is presented abstractly. Because of the flooding and damage, the route the players took to get to the starting location of the module, at the bottom of the facility, isn’t one they can follow back out. To model the confusion and unknown, each path between two locations passes through an additional location, which is determined randomly. Once determined this new location is fixed. Four of the locations in the prison are cell blocks, and a random table is used to determine what are two notable locations with the cell block. You would likely roll up these cell block locations before play, so you can figure out what’s up and which factions control them. The map in the book is nicely put together, with space to track the connection locations, cell blocks, and the the flood levels of the rooms.\nThe descriptions of the connections and cellblocks are more my speed, a handful of sentences, easy to quickly read. The descriptions of the ‘proper’ locations in the prison are longer: not walls of text, but also not the quickest to parse. Some room descriptions talk about the geometry of the space, where entrances and exists are located, or how one location relates to the others in the physical space of the prison. I personally don’t love this when the maps are all abstract. In this module you don’t even know what new location players will find while travelling between the spaces.\nThere are 6 factions described in the module, each highlighting one aspect of the prison. They are flavourful, but as presented it’s not often obvious how each would feel about one another, or about the players. To my mind, the descriptions would also be better if they focused on how the factions are reacting to current drama at the prison. Before running I would probably flesh this out more.\nThe rules for creating simpler funnel characters for Mothership are featured early in the module, after introducing the DM to the events taking place and the nature of the prison. Each of the characters a player creates is a prisoner. You roll 3 sets of d100 to determine their 6 digit serial number. These numbers will be used to help determine stats, and also tell the DM the truth behind a characters crime (eg: they did it, they were framed, they had a sham trial, etc). There is a new “Cohesion” stat specific to these funnel characters that begins at 3 and moves up and down during play. Players won’t know what this stat is actually for initially. The adventure includes your classic 4-up funnel character sheet.\nCohesion is tied to the underlying secret of the module, a fun twist that will help make this funnel feel like a funnel. The players are all clones! They will turn into mindless fungus monsters if they don’t find stabilizer drugs. These drugs are littered throughout the complex here and there, but certainly not enough to keep all the characters alive. The players may end up having to run away from the fungus zombie monster version of themselves. A character that reaches 20 cohesion is free of the curse.\nThe module ends with some suggestions on what concluding the adventure may look like, and possible future adventures. The back interior cover page is a search the room table. Something the players might do often so it’s handy to have there. The front interior cover page has stats for all the monsters, and sums up what the flooding and power levels mean. The map of the adventure is found dead centre in the module, so it’s also easy to find. Good job team!\nI really liked this module. It seems like a great way to get introduced to Mothership: it’s kind of bleak, there are weird monsters, corporations being dirt bags, etc. There will be lots of chances to sacrifice one of your characters to save the rest. Also lots of chances for ignoble deaths. That’s what you want in a funnel adventure.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/emergence-1.jpg\" alt=\"Emergence zine on my bed\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is our patriotic duty to buy Canadian \u003ca href=\"/tag/mothership/\"\u003eMothership\u003c/a\u003e modules. Emergence is a funnel adventure—like you remember playing in \u003ca href=\"/tag/dccrpg/\"\u003eDCCRPG\u003c/a\u003e. Emergence takes place Henko Acquisitions Correctional Complex. Players play inmates who wake up after some unknown accident has damaged the facilities. They must try and escape to the surface. There is a whole lot more going on, some of which I’ll discuss below, so if you are thinking of playing stop reading now!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe game was written by \u003ca href=\"https://ssto.press/\"\u003eCarson Brown\u003c/a\u003e, with art by the always excellent \u003ca href=\"https://chaoclypse.carrd.co/\"\u003eBrandon Yu\u003c/a\u003e. This is one of the books I grabbed at this years Breakout Con, which was honestly mostly me shopping. Brandon’s cover is amazing. You can almost always judge a book by its cover.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe prison complex is quite dynamic. Carson has done a lot to make prison an interesting space to explore. To start, it’s flooding! The rooms in the prison will fill with water as the players explore the space, eventually ending up mostly submerged. Every 30 minutes of game time the players will roll a d10 and increase the flood level of the location by 1. (There are 10 locations that can flood within the subterranean portion of the prison.) The power in the complex is also fluctuating. The adventure begins with the power barely functioning. Certain locations and actions by the player can move the power level up or down, which also impacts what the players can do in various locations.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe prison map is presented abstractly. Because of the flooding and damage, the route the players took to get to the starting location of the module, at the bottom of the facility, isn’t one they can follow back out. To model the confusion and unknown, each path between two locations passes through an additional location, which is determined randomly. Once determined this new location is fixed. Four of the locations in the prison are cell blocks, and a random table is used to determine what are two notable locations with the cell block. You would likely roll up these cell block locations before play, so you can figure out what’s up and which factions control them. The map in the book is nicely put together, with space to track the connection locations, cell blocks, and the the flood levels of the rooms.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/emergence-2.jpg\" alt=\"Portion of map\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe descriptions of the connections and cellblocks are more my speed, a handful of sentences, easy to quickly read. The descriptions of the ‘proper’ locations in the prison are longer: not walls of text, but also not the quickest to parse. Some room descriptions talk about the geometry of the space, where entrances and exists are located, or how one location relates to the others in the physical space of the prison. I personally don’t love this when the maps are all abstract. In this module you don’t even know what new location players will find while travelling between the spaces.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are 6 factions described in the module, each highlighting one aspect of the prison. They are flavourful, but as presented it’s not often obvious how each would feel about one another, or about the players. To my mind, the descriptions would also be better if they focused on how the factions are reacting to current drama at the prison. Before running I would probably flesh this out more.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rules for creating simpler funnel characters for Mothership are featured early in the module, after introducing the DM to the events taking place and the nature of the prison. Each of the characters a player creates is a prisoner. You roll 3 sets of d100 to determine their 6 digit serial number. These numbers will be used to help determine stats, and also tell the DM the truth behind a characters crime (eg: they did it, they were framed, they had a sham trial, etc). There is a new “Cohesion” stat specific to these funnel characters that begins at 3 and moves up and down during play. Players won’t know what this stat is actually for initially. The adventure includes your classic 4-up funnel character sheet.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCohesion is tied to the underlying secret of the module, a fun twist that will help make this funnel feel like a funnel. The players are all clones! They will turn into mindless fungus monsters if they don’t find stabilizer drugs. These drugs are littered throughout the complex here and there, but certainly not enough to keep all the characters alive. The players may end up having to run away from the fungus zombie monster version of themselves. A character that reaches 20 cohesion is free of the curse.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe module ends with some suggestions on what concluding the adventure may look like, and possible future adventures. The back interior cover page is a search the room table. Something the players might do often so it’s handy to have there. The front interior cover page has stats for all the monsters, and sums up what the flooding and power levels mean. The map of the adventure is found dead centre in the module, so it’s also easy to find. Good job team!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI really liked this module. It seems like a great way to get introduced to Mothership: it’s kind of bleak, there are weird monsters, corporations being dirt bags, etc. There will be lots of chances to sacrifice one of your characters to save the rest. Also lots of chances for ignoble deaths. That’s what you want in a funnel adventure.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/review/emergence/", "tags": ["osr","mothership","funnel"], "date_published": "2026-03-25T21:38:40-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-03-25T21:38:40-04:00", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "4de0c628e738f5b3c6d886a95fcd674a01ebba2c", "title": "Webrings", "content_text": "I find it hilarious that there are two OSR blogging webrings you can join if you are so inclined. The 90s are back, in webring form. Daniel Sell of Troika set one up first, the New Old Gaming Blogring. Shortly after, Elmcat created rootr.ing, which serves the same purpose, but felt easier to customize, so you can its widget at the bottom of this page. If you dislike both of these options, Daniel shared the tutorial he followed to create his blogring, so you can make your own for you and your friends. The world needs more webrings.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eI find it hilarious that there are two OSR blogging webrings you can join if you are so inclined. The 90s are back, in webring form. \u003ca href=\"https://dsell.me/\"\u003eDaniel Sell\u003c/a\u003e of \u003ca href=\"https://www.troikarpg.com/\"\u003eTroika\u003c/a\u003e set one up first, \u003ca href=\"https://dsell.me/join-the-new-old-gaming-blogring/\"\u003ethe New Old Gaming Blogring\u003c/a\u003e. Shortly after, \u003ca href=\"https://elmc.at/rootring-is-live/\"\u003eElmcat\u003c/a\u003e created \u003ca href=\"https://rootr.ing/\"\u003erootr.ing\u003c/a\u003e, which serves the same purpose, but felt easier to customize, so you can its widget at the bottom of this page. If you dislike both of these options, \u003ca href=\"https://allium.house/garden/onionring/\"\u003eDaniel shared the tutorial he followed to create his blogring\u003c/a\u003e, so you can make your own for you and your friends. The world needs more webrings.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/microblog/webrings/", "tags": ["blogging"], "date_published": "2026-03-23T21:58:45-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-03-23T21:58:45-04:00", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "4185bcb89b83034d7e47f5a91861a423a787c6ea", "title": "Apoologia for Plain Paragraphs", "content_text": "Once again the keying of dungeons is the topic of day. Sam Sorensen writes in defence of the humble paragraph. In doing so he pits the paragraph against the bulleted list, a false dichotomy. In his post the examples of bulleted bolded lists are bad because they are word soup, not because they are lists. There is nothing precluding people from writing strong prose while also leaning on structure. Silent Titans and Gradient Descent both do this well.\nSam believes people consume text with more patience and thought when it’s presented in prose: bullet points and styled text encourage the reader to zip around skim. I can see that argument, but it’s almost certainly the case different people consume information effectively in different ways. A while ago I wrote about how Patrick’s approach to writing is a form of usability, which I think relates to this core point Sam is trying to make. Orthopraxy’s Eat the Book remains a great recent read on this topic.\nA lot of caveats and comments on a post I’m sharing, but I’m sharing it because I often dislike the same sort of writing Sam does! We can do better, whether you choose to do better with a paragraphs or bullets.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eOnce \u003ca href=\"/microblog/prose-vs-bulletpoints/\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e the \u003ca href=\"/blog/keying-dungeons/\"\u003ekeying of dungeons\u003c/a\u003e is the topic of day. \u003ca href=\"https://samsorensen.blot.im/apologia-for-plain-paragraphs\"\u003eSam Sorensen writes in defence of the humble paragraph.\u003c/a\u003e In doing so he pits the paragraph against the bulleted list, a false dichotomy. In his post the examples of bulleted bolded lists are bad because they are word soup, not because they are lists. There is nothing precluding people from writing strong prose while also leaning on structure. Silent Titans and Gradient Descent both do this well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSam believes people consume text with more patience and thought when it’s presented in prose: bullet points and styled text encourage the reader to zip around skim. I can see that argument, but it’s almost certainly the case different people consume information effectively in different ways. A while ago \u003ca href=\"/review/deep-carbon-observatory-storytelling-as-information-design/\"\u003eI wrote about how Patrick’s approach to writing is a form of usability\u003c/a\u003e, which I think relates to this core point Sam is trying to make. Orthopraxy’s \u003ca href=\"https://orthopraxy.bearblog.dev/eating-the-book-a-response-to-we-need-to-talk-about-goodman-games/\"\u003eEat the Book\u003c/a\u003e remains a great recent read on this topic.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA lot of caveats and comments on a post I’m sharing, but I’m sharing it because I often dislike the same sort of writing Sam does! We can do better, whether you choose to do better with a paragraphs or bullets.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/microblog/apoologia-for-plain-paragraphs/", "tags": ["osr","advice","design"], "date_published": "2026-03-13T21:33:44-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-03-13T21:33:44-04:00", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "f240bde98dbfdad0379cd235afe9e32a81f1fe8e", "title": "Crawl Mega Edition", "content_text": "The original DCC RPG zine is back, bigger than ever. (Literally.) You can help Dak Ultimak publish a new edition of Crawl\u0026rsquo;s first issue, with an alternate cover by Doug Kovacs. Long time readers may recall that Crawl! was the first thing I wrote about on this blog. I was lucky enough to receive one of the limited edition black-on-black versions of the zine. Maybe one day I can sell it and buy a Kia.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"https://crawlfanzine.blogspot.com/\"\u003eoriginal DCC RPG zine\u003c/a\u003e is back, bigger than ever. (Literally.) You can help Dak Ultimak publish \u003ca href=\"https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/straycouches-press/crawl-collectors-edition-no-1\"\u003ea new edition of Crawl\u0026rsquo;s first issue\u003c/a\u003e, with an alternate cover by Doug Kovacs. Long time readers may recall that \u003ca href=\"/review/crawl-fanzine/\"\u003eCrawl! was the first thing I wrote about on this blog\u003c/a\u003e. I was lucky enough to receive one of the limited edition black-on-black versions of the zine. Maybe one day I can sell it and buy a Kia.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/microblog/crawl-mega-edition/", "tags": ["osr","zine","dccrpg"], "date_published": "2026-03-12T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-03-12T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "124406604ee29286d108ab28ac5fbd555f541a4d", "title": "Tephrotic Nightmares", "content_text": "\nIs Luke Gearing too powerful? Joined by Johan Nohr and Jarrett Crader, Luke has written a hex crawl adventure for Mork Borg, Tephrotic Nightmares. That’s a solid posse of RPG people. I had impossibly high expectations for this book.\nTephrotic Nightmares is about the sea of ash, a region that was ruined by The Arsonist. Dark Sun had a Sea of Silt, so perhaps I am already biased towards liking this book. The very first thing we learn about this place is water is the currency of note, letting us know what is important and valuable up front. (I was reminded of light in Veins of the Earth.)\nThe order elements of an adventure are presented in is something I find intriguing. After the introductory page explaining you are exploring a sea of ash, we jump straight to rules for sailing this silt sea in Mork Borg. Luke writes about the various modes of transport available to the players, Mad Max like boats, and the various weapons and defences available to trick them out. The book came with a map and chits so you can play a wargame. Hells yeah!\nFactions come next. There are several. Their bases are placed on the hex map of the region. Each faction is described briefly, with a goal, their current challenges, offerings and rituals. These are a sentence or two, and hint at how players may end up interacting them. None are presented in a way that they are explicitly in conflict with one another. The typical units that make up the faction are described, with stats for Mork Borg, along with the vessels each faction uses for travel. Between Luke’s writing and Johan’s art, we get a vivid picture of these groups without too much faffing about.\nA bestiary follows. Everything is flavourful, starting with a small and vicious dog, the ash mink. Luke lets you know people are harvesting bodies for water, like Dune. Johan draws some cool witches.\nThe back half of this book are locations of varying sizes found in the ash sea. There are 22 places in all, starting with the headquarters of 5 of the 6 factions. The region is fairly large, most hexes aren’t described. As this is a sea, that makes sense. Ships move 1-3 hexes per days, so there will be a fair bit of multi-day travel to get from location to location. There are random encounter tables, but I think a GM would want to think about how they want to run the parts of the game that are sailing between locations.\nThe Bloodhunter Fortress has NPCs who can let the PCs know where to find various monsters. Perhaps the campaign becomes a monster hunter game for a while? The Urniversity will pay PCs to go map a region of the sea. Perhaps the its a game of exploration for a while. The Pyromancers of the Cold Hearth, home of the Burnt Offering faction, will reward players if they find the holy book secreted away within the hidden fortress of the Arsonist, the person who created the ash sea. The Necromancers of the same faction want that book as well. More adventure for the PCs. Locations can feel a bit disconnected from one another, but I found them cool all the same.\nThe first big dungeon detailed is the faction headquarters of the Cannibal Count. His mount-manse is detailed over 12 pages, with art and maps by Johan. Maps are repeated so you don’t need to flip pages when running, a nice touch. Room descriptions are short and punchy, as I like them. Luke informs the reader that unless the players are hostile encounters should be social, but these people are cannibals: there’s gonna be tension there. These are strange bureaucratic cannibals. Lots of departments and assistants to assistants, working despite their boss seemingly being long gone.\nHex 11 describes a shipwreck, a creature within may take a character hostage and demand the captain of the boat return. But where is the captain? I thought this might be an exercise for the reader. The GM will make something up, maybe some random NPC in one of the faction bases is the captain. Reading ahead, we learn he is a prisoner in Hex 18, The Grinding. So this is still an exercise, just not the one I thought: make note of where they are!\nThe book concludes with another big dungeon, which takes up 20 pages of the book. The “big boss”, the Arsonist, is found here. As with most everything in this book, there is nothing pushing the players here, though I imagine through the course of play they may find their own reasons.\nI was reminded of a False Machine joint based solely on the amount of cannibalism in this book. It feels like every other group you meet eats people.\nTephrotic Nightmares is interesting object: the spine is exposed: you can see the stitched binding and it will lie perfectly flat. The other pages aren’t cut, you need to peel them apart as you read. Your first encounter with the book is a bit of an experience. The hardcover book is genuinely lovely, and if you can afford its price I would recommend it wholeheartedly over a boring PDF. Johan has done an incredible job with the art and graphic design—unsurprisingly.\nIt was interesting to read this book after reading His Majesty the Worm. In contrast to the exposition and support in HMtW, Tephrotic Nightmares really doesn’t hold your hand. Here are rules for sailing around, here are a bunch of weirdo factions, here are some monsters, here are some places. How you thread it all together is left up to you. Proper OSR nonsense! I really love books like this. A sandbox of stuff. The writing is strong. The art is great. It’s all very atmospheric. But is it too static? If there is criticism to be had, I suspect it will fall here. I think this sort of adventure is perfectly fine. The GM will figure out what’s up, along with the players, through play. From running adventures like this, stuff gets messy when the players get involved.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/tephrotic-nightmares.jpg\" alt=\"Part of the Tephrotic Nightmares Cover\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIs \u003ca href=\"https://lukegearing.blot.im/\"\u003eLuke Gearing\u003c/a\u003e too powerful? Joined by \u003ca href=\"https://nohr.se/\"\u003eJohan Nohr\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://spacepenguin.ink/\"\u003eJarrett Crader\u003c/a\u003e, Luke has written a hex crawl adventure for \u003ca href=\"https://morkborg.com/\"\u003eMork Borg\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/tephrotic-nightmares\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eTephrotic Nightmares\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e. That’s a solid posse of RPG people. I had impossibly high expectations for this book.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTephrotic Nightmares\u003c/em\u003e is about the sea of ash, a region that was ruined by The Arsonist. \u003ca href=\"/tag/darksun/\"\u003eDark Sun\u003c/a\u003e had a Sea of Silt, so perhaps I am already biased towards liking this book. The very first thing we learn about this place is water is the currency of note, letting us know what is important and valuable up front. (I was reminded of light in \u003cem\u003eVeins of the Earth\u003c/em\u003e.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe order elements of an adventure are presented in is something I find intriguing. After the introductory page explaining you are exploring a sea of ash, we jump straight to rules for sailing this silt sea in Mork Borg. Luke writes about the various modes of transport available to the players, Mad Max like boats, and the various weapons and defences available to trick them out. The book came with a map and chits so you can play a wargame. Hells yeah!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFactions come next. There are several. Their bases are placed on the hex map of the region. Each faction is described briefly, with a goal, their current challenges, offerings and rituals. These are a sentence or two, and hint at how players may end up interacting them. None are presented in a way that they are explicitly in conflict with one another. The typical units that make up the faction are described, with stats for Mork Borg, along with the vessels each faction uses for travel. Between Luke’s writing and Johan’s art, we get a vivid picture of these groups without too much faffing about.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA bestiary follows. Everything is flavourful, starting with a small and vicious dog, the ash mink. Luke lets you know people are harvesting bodies for water, like Dune. Johan draws some cool witches.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back half of this book are locations of varying sizes found in the ash sea. There are 22 places in all, starting with the headquarters of 5 of the 6 factions. The region is fairly large, most hexes aren’t described. As this is a sea, that makes sense. Ships move 1-3 hexes per days, so there will be a fair bit of multi-day travel to get from location to location. There are random encounter tables, but I think a GM would want to think about how they want to run the parts of the game that are sailing between locations.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Bloodhunter Fortress has NPCs who can let the PCs know where to find various monsters. Perhaps the campaign becomes a monster hunter game for a while? The Urniversity will pay PCs to go map a region of the sea. Perhaps the its a game of exploration for a while. The Pyromancers of the Cold Hearth, home of the Burnt Offering faction, will reward players if they find the holy book secreted away within the hidden fortress of the Arsonist, the person who created the ash sea. The Necromancers of the same faction want that book as well. More adventure for the PCs. Locations can feel a bit disconnected from one another, but I found them cool all the same.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first big dungeon detailed is the faction headquarters of the Cannibal Count. His mount-manse is detailed over 12 pages, with art and maps by Johan. Maps are repeated so you don’t need to flip pages when running, a nice touch. Room descriptions are short and punchy, \u003ca href=\"/blog/keying-dungeons/\"\u003eas I like them\u003c/a\u003e. Luke informs the reader that unless the players are hostile encounters should be social, but these people are cannibals: there’s gonna be tension there. These are strange bureaucratic cannibals. Lots of departments and assistants to assistants, working despite their boss seemingly being long gone.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHex 11 describes a shipwreck, a creature within may take a character hostage and demand the captain of the boat return. But where is the captain? I thought this might be an exercise for the reader. The GM will make something up, maybe some random NPC in one of the faction bases is the captain. Reading ahead, we learn he is a prisoner in Hex 18, The Grinding. So this is still an exercise, just not the one I thought: make note of where they are!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book concludes with another big dungeon, which takes up 20 pages of the book. The “big boss”, the Arsonist, is found here. As with most everything in this book, there is nothing pushing the players here, though I imagine through the course of play they may find their own reasons.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was reminded of a False Machine joint based solely on the amount of cannibalism in this book. It feels like every other group you meet eats people.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTephrotic Nightmares\u003c/em\u003e is interesting object: the spine is exposed: you can see the stitched binding and it will lie perfectly flat. The other pages aren’t cut, you need to peel them apart as you read. Your first encounter with the book is a bit of an experience. The hardcover book is genuinely lovely, and if you can afford its price I would recommend it wholeheartedly over a boring PDF. Johan has done an incredible job with the art and graphic design—unsurprisingly.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was interesting to read this book after reading \u003cem\u003eHis Majesty the Worm\u003c/em\u003e. In contrast to the exposition and support in HMtW, \u003cem\u003eTephrotic Nightmares\u003c/em\u003e really doesn’t hold your hand. Here are rules for sailing around, here are a bunch of weirdo factions, here are some monsters, here are some places. How you thread it all together is left up to you. Proper OSR nonsense! I really love books like this. A sandbox of stuff. The writing is strong. The art is great. It’s all very atmospheric. But is it too static? If there is criticism to be had, I suspect it will fall here. I think this sort of adventure is perfectly fine. The GM will figure out what’s up, along with the players, through play. From running adventures like this, stuff gets messy when the players get involved.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/review/tephrotic-nightmares/", "tags": ["morkborg","lukegearing","johannohr","osr","hexcrawl"], "date_published": "2026-03-12T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-03-12T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "065a26738b41ac190d5cfc7f4633358ab6214707", "title": "Moving to Hugo", "content_text": "I’ve migrated this site from Jekyll to Hugo, something I’ve wanted to do for ages, but haven’t been assed to do till now. I’ve been running the Hugo version of the site on beta.save.vs.totalpartykill.ca, which I may keep around as a place to muck around in public. I think I’ve caught all the issues that arose with the migration, but if you spot anything let me know. I’m curious if the change is seamless for feed readers.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eI’ve migrated this site from \u003ca href=\"https://jekyllrb.com/\"\u003eJekyll\u003c/a\u003e to \u003ca href=\"https://gohugo.io/\"\u003eHugo\u003c/a\u003e, something I’ve wanted to do for ages, but haven’t been assed to do till now. I’ve been running the Hugo version of the site on \u003ca href=\"https://beta.save.vs.totalpartykill.ca\"\u003ebeta.save.vs.totalpartykill.ca\u003c/a\u003e, which I may keep around as a place to muck around in public. I think I’ve caught all the issues that arose with the migration, but if you spot anything let me know. I’m curious if the change is seamless for feed readers.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/microblog/moving-to-hugo/", "tags": ["meta"], "date_published": "2026-03-10T21:44:31-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-03-10T21:44:31-04:00", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "dadfb803ad540975d99e61bec57009e4ea9360b5", "title": "His Majesty the Worm", "content_text": "\nMy friend moved to New York City for work. A weird time to head South, I suspect most people want to travel in the opposite direction. I’d rather he was still here, but there is one perk from his being away: I can mail books to him. On his last trip back he brought with him a copy of His Majesty the Worm (HMtW), by Josh McCrowell. HMtW is an OSR game designed for dungeon crawling. The expectation for the game is you’ll create a megadungeon that your players will explore over many sessions. Unlike most dungeon crawlers, it borrows very little from D\u0026amp;D. Grab a tarot deck, because this game doesn’t use any dice. Wild!\nThere is probably no world where His Majesty the Worm is someone’s first game, but the book does all the work of introducing itself to a reader new to RPGs all the same. A little later in the book Josh presents a player’s manifesto, which serves as advice to the players for how to approach the game. I love RPG books that approach teaching their game without making assumptions about the audience and their past experience and competency. The books has the games principles up front, setting expectations for the reader. I have lots of experience playing OSR games, but HMtW is quite different, so I believe these sorts of first principles introductions can still be broadly useful.\nCharacter creation feels far heavier your typical OSR game, there is a bit more to do, and Josh encourages you work through the process during a Session 0.1 As part of session 0 players will flesh out characters together, narrating snippets of their past to settle on scores for their character’s attributes, and fill out other parts of their character sheet. I kind of hate anything that feels like it’s adjacent to backstory, but at least this time you’re coming up with it together with your friends. I also find more involved character creation can put players at odds with the “your character can die at any time we will make a new quickly” ethos of OSR play. I think part of the social contract when it comes to killing player characters is that if it takes a long ass time to make a character it’s a little impolite to kill them. Josh does provide a new adventurer checklist for players to use to jump back into the game after a character dies, or if a new player joins. I haven’t actually tried making a character, so me imaging how fast or slow it might be is all you get.\nCharacters have Bonds tying them together, charged when acted upon, those charges spent for benefits in play. Bonds feed into the mechanics for camping. This is a part of Torchbearer that I thought was interesting, but I am not that big a fan of how Torchbearer actually works in play. It’s nice to see other games try and do something meaningful with this activity that feels like it should be a bigger part of play.\nMoving past character creation we get to an explanation of the crawl phase of the game, where you go adventuring in dungeons. Josh does a great job of breaking down tropes for the unfamiliar. Another example of building something that’s broadly accessible. There are rules for social encounters, and far more involved rules for combat. There is lots going on with how combat works. It seems like bluffing would be a big part of the game since it’s card based, everyone has a random set of 4 to work with, some cards are played face down, etc. There is advice for playing online, but I suspect the game would be far more fun in person, with physical cards. (I suppose all RPGs are more fun in person.)\nShopping, the scourge of all RPGs, is handled in a nice way in HMTW. You pay for upkeep when you return from the underworld, deciding on an impoverished, common, or luxurious lifestyle. To buy new gear you select anything from gear lists that match each lifestyle, limited only by what you can carry. I love this idea, something easy to steal for other games.\nHMtW is a very procedure heavy game. Play is structured into 4 phases: the City phase, the Crawl Phase, the Camp Phase, and the Challenge Phase. During the City phase you’ll make preparations for your dungeon crawling, deal with any events that may be taking place, and perform any downtime actions. The Crawl phase is your typical dungeon crawling session, moving through the dungeon in search of adventure. The Challenge phase is this games name for combat: you’ll fight monsters of the underworld. Finally the Camp phase is where you will rest and recuperate in the dungeon, bonding with your fellow adventurers.\nThe game\u0026rsquo;s structured play loop (city, crawl, camp, challenge) will likely feel familiar to those of you who have read Torchbearer. Of course, Torchbearer itself was modelling the play loop of old-school D\u0026amp;D, so there is some about of the snake eating its own tail here. Both camping and downtime in the city are given some mechanical heft uncommon in many OSR games. When I asked Josh if he was inspired by Torchbearer he said not really, he was far more inspired by OSR blogposts. My theory is that a lot of the OSR’s obsession with procedures around the time Brendan wrote his seminal post on the topic is all from people borrowing ideas from Torchbearer, but I have no real evidence to back any of this up.2 There is perhaps a layer of distorted inspiration?\nWe get GM’ing advice at the midway point of this chonky book. Like Apocalypse World, time is spent articulating what the GM is even supposed to do, what doing a good job will look like. It’s funny this feels like an obvious section to include in an RPG, but it is one that is often glossed over. Josh covers most everything a GM will need to know to run the game effectively. It’s a well written GM section. There is practical advice for each phase of play. That’s what I like to see in these sorts of GM guides.\nThe book ends with some fantastic appendices. I really like the city creation rules and sample districts that are Appendix D of His Majesty the Worm. (Appendix C was Dungeon Denizens. Josh could have swapped those two: a real missed opportunity.) Each Tarot card details a district ready to be used. Another things you can steal for other games. The next appendix is advice on how to create a megadungeon: again, eminently stealable. The book concludes with some dungeon seeds and a sample dungeon to put everything you have learned along the way together. Everyone should include an adventure in their game.\nIt’s interesting to read a game that is trying to hit the same notes as other OSR dungeon crawling games, but that is coming at it from a totally different place. You can’t carry forward assumptions from other games when it comes to the rules, there is no d20 roll high to fall back on. That said, a carousing table is included so no one will question the game’s OSR bonafides. HMtW isn’t the sort of game I typically play nowadays. I often reach for games with almost no rules, and then struggle to run them all the same. This is a game I do want to run or play, though. It’s so unusual and different. It’s also clearly the option if you want to run a Delicious in the Dungeon game.\nSession 0’s are for cowards. People should dive right in and figure out their friend Rebecca is the most annoying player in the world during the crucible of play.\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nI suppose I can ask Brendan next time I see him.\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/hmtw-cover.jpg\" alt=\"His Majesty the Worm Cover\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy friend moved to New York City for work. A weird time to head South, I suspect most people want to travel in the opposite direction. I’d rather he was still here, but there is one perk from his being away: I can mail books to him. On his last trip back he brought with him a copy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.hismajestytheworm.games/\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eHis Majesty the Worm\u003c/em\u003e (HMtW)\u003c/a\u003e, by \u003ca href=\"https://riseupcomus.blogspot.com/\"\u003eJosh McCrowell\u003c/a\u003e. HMtW is an OSR game designed for dungeon crawling. The expectation for the game is you’ll create a megadungeon that your players will explore over many sessions. Unlike most dungeon crawlers, it borrows very little from D\u0026amp;D. Grab a tarot deck, because this game doesn’t use any dice. Wild!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is probably no world where \u003cem\u003eHis Majesty the Worm\u003c/em\u003e is someone’s first game, but the book does all the work of introducing itself to a reader new to RPGs all the same. A little later in the book Josh presents a player’s manifesto, which serves as advice to the players for how to approach the game. I love RPG books that approach teaching their game without making assumptions about the audience and their past experience and competency. The books has the games principles up front, setting expectations for the reader. I have lots of experience playing OSR games, but HMtW is quite different, so I believe these sorts of first principles introductions can still be broadly useful.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCharacter creation feels far heavier your typical OSR game, there is a bit more to do, and Josh encourages you work through the process during a Session 0.\u003csup id=\"fnref:1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:1\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e1\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e As part of session 0 players will flesh out characters together, narrating snippets of their past to settle on scores for their character’s attributes, and fill out other parts of their character sheet. I kind of hate anything that feels like it’s adjacent to backstory, but at least this time you’re coming up with it together with your friends. I also find more involved character creation can put players at odds with the “your character can die at any time we will make a new quickly” ethos of OSR play. I think part of the social contract when it comes to killing player characters is that if it takes a long ass time to make a character it’s a little impolite to kill them. Josh does provide a new adventurer checklist for players to use to jump back into the game after a character dies, or if a new player joins. I haven’t actually tried making a character, so me imaging how fast or slow it might be is all you get.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCharacters have Bonds tying them together, charged when acted upon, those charges spent for benefits in play. Bonds feed into the mechanics for camping. This is a part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.torchbearerrpg.com/\"\u003eTorchbearer\u003c/a\u003e that I thought was interesting, but I am not that big a fan of how Torchbearer actually works in play. It’s nice to see other games try and do something meaningful with this activity that feels like it should be a bigger part of play.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMoving past character creation we get to an explanation of the crawl phase of the game, where you go adventuring in dungeons. Josh does a great job of breaking down tropes for the unfamiliar. Another example of building something that’s broadly accessible. There are rules for social encounters, and far more involved rules for combat. There is lots going on with how combat works. It seems like bluffing would be a big part of the game since it’s card based, everyone has a random set of 4 to work with, some cards are played face down, etc. There is \u003ca href=\"https://www.hismajestytheworm.games/playing-online\"\u003eadvice for playing online\u003c/a\u003e, but I suspect the game would be far more fun in person, with physical cards. (I suppose all RPGs are more fun in person.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShopping, the scourge of all RPGs, is handled in a nice way in HMTW. You pay for upkeep when you return from the underworld, deciding on an impoverished, common, or luxurious lifestyle. To buy new gear you select anything from gear lists that match each lifestyle, limited only by what you can carry. I love this idea, something easy to steal for other games.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHMtW is a very procedure heavy game. Play is structured into 4 phases: the City phase, the Crawl Phase, the Camp Phase, and the Challenge Phase. During the City phase you’ll make preparations for your dungeon crawling, deal with any events that may be taking place, and perform any downtime actions. The Crawl phase is your typical dungeon crawling session, moving through the dungeon in search of adventure. The Challenge phase is this games name for combat: you’ll fight monsters of the underworld. Finally the Camp phase is where you will rest and recuperate in the dungeon, bonding with your fellow adventurers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe game\u0026rsquo;s structured play loop (city, crawl, camp, challenge) will likely feel familiar to those of you who have read \u003cem\u003eTorchbearer\u003c/em\u003e. Of course, \u003cem\u003eTorchbearer\u003c/em\u003e itself was modelling the play loop of old-school D\u0026amp;D, so there is some about of the snake eating its own tail here. Both camping and downtime in the city are given some mechanical heft uncommon in many OSR games. When I asked Josh if he was inspired by Torchbearer he said not really, he was far more inspired by OSR blogposts. My theory is that a lot of the OSR’s obsession with procedures around the time Brendan wrote \u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/2014/05/22/proceduralism/\"\u003ehis seminal post on the topic\u003c/a\u003e is all from people borrowing ideas from Torchbearer, but I have no real evidence to back any of this up.\u003csup id=\"fnref:2\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:2\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e2\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e There is perhaps a layer of distorted inspiration?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe get GM’ing advice at the midway point of this chonky book. Like Apocalypse World, time is spent articulating what the GM is even supposed to do, what doing a good job will look like. It’s funny this feels like an obvious section to include in an RPG, but it is one that is often glossed over. Josh covers most everything a GM will need to know to run the game effectively. It’s a well written GM section. There is practical advice for each phase of play. That’s what I like to see in these sorts of GM guides.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book ends with some fantastic appendices. I really like the city creation rules and sample districts that are Appendix D of His Majesty the Worm. (Appendix C was Dungeon Denizens. Josh could have swapped those two: a real missed opportunity.) Each Tarot card details a district ready to be used. Another things you can steal for other games. The next appendix is advice on how to create a megadungeon: again, eminently stealable. The book concludes with some dungeon seeds and a sample dungeon to put everything you have learned along the way together. Everyone should include an adventure in their game.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s interesting to read a game that is trying to hit the same notes as other OSR dungeon crawling games, but that is coming at it from a totally different place. You can’t carry forward assumptions from other games when it comes to the rules, there is no d20 roll high to fall back on. That said, a carousing table is included so no one will question the game’s OSR bonafides. HMtW isn’t the sort of game I typically play nowadays. I often reach for games with almost no rules, and then struggle to run them all the same. This is a game I do want to run or play, though. It’s so unusual and different. It’s also clearly \u003cem\u003ethe\u003c/em\u003e option if you want to run a \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_in_Dungeon\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDelicious in the Dungeon\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e game.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\"\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSession 0’s are for cowards. People should dive right in and figure out their friend Rebecca is the most annoying player in the world during the crucible of play.\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:1\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI suppose I can ask Brendan next time I see him.\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:2\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/review/his-majesty-the-worm/", "tags": ["osr","hmtw"], "date_published": "2026-03-08T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-03-08T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "f8ed3615d21596e24352fc5c85363887313551ac", "title": "Bloggies 2026", "content_text": "Clayton has done an amazing job organizing the Bloggies this year. Everything is neatly organized on his blog, with little infographics to help you follow along with what\u0026rsquo;s happening and what you need to to participate. The first round of voting is happening right now. As before there are four main categories: advice, reviews, gameable, and theory. He\u0026rsquo;s added a new \u0026lsquo;meta\u0026rsquo; category, to highlight posts that are a little bit meta. There are too many good blog posts, and Clayton has done a great job making some thematic and Sophie\u0026rsquo;s Choice match ups? How are you supposed to choose between The OSR Onion vs. What is an OSR? That was my hardest pick this round.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.explorersdesign.com/\"\u003eClayton\u003c/a\u003e has done an amazing job organizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/\"\u003eBloggies\u003c/a\u003e this year. Everything is neatly organized on his blog, with little infographics to help you follow along with what\u0026rsquo;s happening and what you need to to participate. The first round of voting is happening \u003cem\u003eright now\u003c/em\u003e. As before there are four main categories: advice, reviews, gameable, and theory. He\u0026rsquo;s added a new \u0026lsquo;meta\u0026rsquo; category, to highlight posts that are a little bit meta. There are too many good blog posts, and Clayton has done a great job making some thematic and Sophie\u0026rsquo;s Choice match ups? How are you supposed to choose between \u003ca href=\"https://dododecahedron.blog/2025/11/22/the-osr-onion/\"\u003eThe OSR Onion\u003c/a\u003e vs. \u003ca href=\"https://thegardenbelow.blot.im/what-is-an-osr\"\u003eWhat is an OSR?\u003c/a\u003e That was my hardest pick this round.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/microblog/bloggies-2026/", "tags": ["osr","bloggies","blogs"], "date_published": "2026-02-16T20:10:37-05:00", "date_modified": "2026-02-16T20:10:37-05:00", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "5d35d3566ba03ac41fa94a4232d9921430cc6420", "title": "Dominant Mechanics", "content_text": "An interesting post from Clayton discusses what he calls Dominant Mechanics: “Dominant Mechanics are rules that cannot co-exist in a system without monopolizing play and overriding other rules.” My favourite example of this would be skill checks in later editions of Dungeons and Dragons. This idea relates to one of my big complaints about 4E, where your characters various powers end up being the sum total of play.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.explorersdesign.com/dominant-mechanics/\"\u003eAn interesting post from Clayton\u003c/a\u003e discusses what he calls Dominant Mechanics: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.explorersdesign.com/dominant-mechanics/\"\u003eDominant Mechanics\u003c/a\u003e are rules that cannot co-exist in a system without monopolizing play and overriding other rules.” My favourite example of this would be skill checks in later editions of Dungeons and Dragons. This idea relates to one of \u003ca href=\"/blog/4th-edition-powers/\"\u003emy big complaints about 4E\u003c/a\u003e, where your characters various powers end up being the sum total of play.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/microblog/dominant-mechanics/", "tags": ["osr","design"], "date_published": "2026-01-20T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-01-20T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "ea4249ca88ae7f97654649f87e5d8d1f87f537c7", "title": "How to Not do Zines Wrong", "content_text": "The man that brought you Fuck You Design brings you a rant about fancy-ass zines: “Am I language policing here? Sure, why not. I think the original sense of the word matters and is worth preserving, worth insisting upon. I think zines, as a non-luxury print media are important.”\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eThe man that brought you \u003ca href=\"https://todistantlands.github.io/2022/05/30/fk-you-design.html\"\u003eFuck You Design\u003c/a\u003e brings \u003ca href=\"https://todistantlands.github.io/2026/01/15/how-to-not-do-zines-wrong.html\"\u003eyou a rant about fancy-ass zines\u003c/a\u003e: “Am I language policing here? Sure, why not. I think the original sense of the word matters and is worth preserving, worth insisting upon. I think zines, as a non-luxury print media are important.”\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/microblog/how-to-not-do-zines-wrong/", "tags": ["zines"], "date_published": "2026-01-17T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-01-17T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "d3f4bf4741794ae03574f662c448f00f79a142ad", "title": "The OSR is trapped in Hexes it is addicted to Jaquaysing", "content_text": "Press the Beast shared a criticism I enjoyed of some parts of the OSR, and the obsession with products as the output of the hobby. The post is a bit of a rant—to put it mildly—but I also think it\u0026rsquo;s good advice all the same. When I was posting my Carcosa session recaps, notes, and advice, I was trying to highlight just how little I had done to make that game go. It shouldn\u0026rsquo;t take much to start playing!\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://pressthebeast.bearblog.dev/the-osr-is-trapped-in-hexes-it-is-addicted-to-jaquaysing/\"\u003ePress the Beast shared a criticism I enjoyed of some parts of the OSR, and the obsession with products as the output of the hobby.\u003c/a\u003e The post is a bit of a rant—to put it mildly—but I also think it\u0026rsquo;s good advice all the same. When I was posting \u003ca href=\"/tag/mocrecap/\"\u003emy Carcosa session recaps\u003c/a\u003e, notes, and \u003ca href=\"/blog/advice-for-running-a-hexcrawl/\"\u003eadvice\u003c/a\u003e, I was trying to highlight just how little I had done to make that game go. It shouldn\u0026rsquo;t take much to start playing!\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/microblog/the-osr-is-trapped-in-hexes-it-is-addicted-to-jaquaysing/", "tags": ["osr"], "date_published": "2026-01-17T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-01-17T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "00d975237a3f1f48a028837f7fdae16f45a03004", "title": "My First Mythic Bastionland Session", "content_text": "\nI spent a little bit of time over the last two days getting ready to play Mythic Bastionland. I made a map over the holidays, but didn’t finish filling it with stuff at the time. I was writing down NPC names, rolling on spark tables, and getting enough notes down so that there was some solidity to the world the players were going to explore. Mythic Bastionland encourages some amount of improvisation with its structure, but if you lean too deeply into that games can start to feel meaningless. (Chris has a small blurb about this risk in the book as well.) There was more I wanted to prep before this game, but my personal brand is not doing that extra work. Honestly it all worked out.\nI asked some friends I hadn’t played games with in a while if anyone was free to play, people from back when G+ was a thing:\nAlex is playing Sir Creed, The Masked Knight Ben is playing The Pearl Knight Ian is playing Renard of Red Velvet, The Hooded Knight Kyana is playing Sir Turquoise, The Turtle Knight Zzarchov is playing The Fanged Knight A few of us had played the game when it was being play tested, but no one had played recently, so it was all new to all of us.\nThe engine of the game is exploration. Mythic Bastionland is a game about exploring the wilderness, travelling from hex to hex in search of adventure. A day is divided into three phases: morning, afternoon, night. You roll for a wilderness complication at the end of each phase of the day. On a 1 you encounter an omen for a random myth in the realm. On a 2-3 you encounter the omen of the nearest myth. On a 4-6 you’ll stumble upon the landmark inside the hex, if one exists. As you move through the world you should expect the myths causing trouble in the land to bubble up. The game should create situations for the players to resolve.\nIn theory, half the time the players should be bumping into something weird like they are exploring the Southern Reach. This session the players rolled too well: they encountered an omen for a myth with their first wilderness exploration roll, and then never rolled a 1-3 for the rest of the session. Sometimes that’s how it goes. The result was a quieter session, but I used that as a chance to better introduce the world they were exploring.\nIt can be tempting to try and inject some drama into a game when the dice and your notes say otherwise, but I generally like to play things straight. You need quiet sessions or moments so that there is real contrast when the drama does arrive. I am not a fan of trying to manicure a perfect story up front. It’s almost always more satisfying when these things happen organically.\nWe played for 2 hours, ending our session in one of the holdings. I actually had good notes for the holdings, having rolled up many NPCs and other drama about the places. (This was easy thanks to all the spark tables and online generators.) I forgot to roll for the local mood when the party arrived at the town. A lesson for next time. That might have been the only rule I forgot today.\n[Update] When I shared my experience with running the game online, I mentioned that I had the players rolling the wilderness event rolls. This is normally how I play. I like to have the players roll the hazard dice. In this game that’s likely not the right approach. Knowing that you have encountered an omen seems fine to me, I normally run games where I try and be clear and telegraph what’s happening. But knowing it’s a random omen versus the nearest one maybe tells the players a little too much about what’s going on. That knowledge may make the myths and omens feels a bit less mysterious.\nThe plan is to play for the next few weeks. An enjoyable start to a new campaign.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/mythic-bastionland-session-1.png\" alt=\"session 1\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI spent a little bit of time over the last two days getting ready to play Mythic Bastionland. \u003ca href=\"/blog/making-a-mythic-bastionland-realm/\"\u003eI made a map over the holidays, but didn’t finish filling it with stuff at the time.\u003c/a\u003e I was writing down NPC names, rolling on spark tables, and getting enough notes down so that there was some solidity to the world the players were going to explore. Mythic Bastionland encourages some amount of improvisation with its structure, but if you lean too deeply into that games can start to feel meaningless. (Chris has a small blurb about this risk in the book as well.) There was more I wanted to prep before this game, but my personal brand is not doing that extra work. Honestly it all worked out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI asked some friends I hadn’t played games with in a while if anyone was free to play, people from back when G+ was a thing:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://todistantlands.github.io/\"\u003eAlex\u003c/a\u003e is playing Sir Creed, The Masked Knight\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://questingblog.com/\"\u003eBen\u003c/a\u003e is playing The Pearl Knight\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://textgolem.blogspot.com/\"\u003eIan\u003c/a\u003e is playing Renard of Red Velvet, The Hooded Knight\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://noisesanssignal.blogspot.com/\"\u003eKyana\u003c/a\u003e is playing Sir Turquoise, The Turtle Knight\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.patreon.com/zzarchov\"\u003eZzarchov\u003c/a\u003e is playing The Fanged Knight\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA few of us had played the game when it was being play tested, but no one had played recently, so it was all new to all of us.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe engine of the game is exploration. Mythic Bastionland is a game about exploring the wilderness, travelling from hex to hex in search of adventure. A day is divided into three phases: morning, afternoon, night. You roll for a wilderness complication at the end of each phase of the day. On a 1 you encounter an omen for a random myth in the realm. On a 2-3 you encounter the omen of the nearest myth. On a 4-6 you’ll stumble upon the landmark inside the hex, if one exists. As you move through the world you should expect the myths causing trouble in the land to bubble up. The game should create situations for the players to resolve.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn theory, half the time the players should be bumping into something weird like they are exploring \u003ca href=\"https://www.jeffvandermeer.com/book/area-x/\"\u003ethe Southern Reach\u003c/a\u003e. This session the players rolled too well: they encountered an omen for a myth with their first wilderness exploration roll, and then never rolled a 1-3 for the rest of the session. Sometimes that’s how it goes. The result was a quieter session, but I used that as a chance to better introduce the world they were exploring.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt can be tempting to try and inject some drama into a game when the dice and your notes say otherwise, but I generally like to play things straight. You need quiet sessions or moments so that there is real contrast when the drama does arrive. I am not a fan of trying to manicure a perfect story up front. It’s almost always more satisfying when these things happen organically.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe played for 2 hours, ending our session in one of the holdings. I actually had good notes for the holdings, having rolled up many NPCs and other drama about the places. (This was easy thanks to all the spark tables and online generators.) I forgot to roll for the local mood when the party arrived at the town. A lesson for next time. That might have been the only rule I forgot today.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e[Update]\u003c/strong\u003e When I shared my experience with running the game online, I mentioned that I had the players rolling the wilderness event rolls. This is normally how I play. I like to have the players roll the \u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/2017/11/22/hazard-system-v0-3/\"\u003ehazard dice\u003c/a\u003e. In this game that’s likely not the right approach. Knowing that you have encountered an omen seems fine to me, I normally run games where I try and be clear and telegraph what’s happening. But knowing it’s a random omen versus the nearest one maybe tells the players a little too much about what’s going on. That knowledge may make the myths and omens feels a bit less mysterious.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe plan is to play for the next few weeks. An enjoyable start to a new campaign.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/my-first-mythic-bastionland-session/", "tags": ["intotheodd","mythicbastionland","chrismcdowal"], "date_published": "2026-01-14T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-01-14T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "cc4d8164078755e77c636228c4fd4178becf756a", "title": "Keying Dungeons", "content_text": "I have written about keying dungeons in the past, when discussing Dwimmermount, and when talking about Deep Carbon Observatory. This topic seems to be in the news again, after Ben shared an enjoyable video of his dislike of Goodman Games’ house style for their modules.1 DCC RPG is quite text heavy, and uses simple two column layouts reminiscent of old TSR modules. They are essentially the best version of an old TSR module. I love many of the DCC RPG adventures, but I don’t love all the walls of text. On the flip side, I am not a big fan of the Old School Essentials house style Ben advocates for either. I find the excessive bolded text and bullet points harder to parse than straight forwards sentences. I also think it’s much more enjoyable to read plain prose.\nAll the room keying hacks you see really aren’t necessary if your room keys are short and quick to read. You should start room descriptions with the things players will notice right away. Don’t bury the lede. You should cut anything extraneous. You could take the time to list out all the torture devices found in the torture room, but I would only bother if there is some value in letting the GM and players know about the particulars. A GM can likely ad-lib there is a rack and iron maiden if those things are simply there to provide colour.2 To me, there is more value in trying to write something short and evocative, than try and turn it into a deconstructed sandwich.\nOrthopraxy has written a great blog post in response to Ben’s video, defending Goodman Games’ approach.\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nOf course, once ad-libbed into existence, they become part of the fictional world, something players can take advantage of in play.\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eI have written about keying dungeons in the past, \u003ca href=\"/blog/room-descriptions/\"\u003ewhen discussing Dwimmermount\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"/review/deep-carbon-observatory-storytelling-as-information-design/\"\u003ewhen talking about Deep Carbon Observatory\u003c/a\u003e. This topic seems to be in the news again, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9w8YVqYs5I\"\u003eBen shared an enjoyable video of his dislike of Goodman Games’ house style for their modules\u003c/a\u003e.\u003csup id=\"fnref:1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:1\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e1\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e \u003ca href=\"/tag/dccrpg/\"\u003eDCC RPG\u003c/a\u003e is quite text heavy, and uses simple two column layouts reminiscent of old TSR modules. They are essentially the best version of an old TSR module. I love many of the DCC RPG adventures, but I don’t love all the walls of text. On the flip side, I am not a big fan of the Old School Essentials house style Ben advocates for either. I find the excessive bolded text and bullet points harder to parse than straight forwards sentences. I also think it’s much more enjoyable to read plain prose.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll the room keying hacks you see really aren’t necessary if your room keys are short and quick to read.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou should start room descriptions with the things players will notice right away. Don’t bury the lede.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou should cut anything extraneous. You could take the time to list out all the torture devices found in the torture room, but I would only bother if there is some value in letting the GM and players know about the particulars. A GM can likely ad-lib there is a rack and iron maiden if those things are simply there to provide colour.\u003csup id=\"fnref:2\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:2\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e2\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo me, there is more value in trying to write something short and evocative, than try and turn it into a deconstructed sandwich.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\"\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://orthopraxy.bearblog.dev/eating-the-book-a-response-to-we-need-to-talk-about-goodman-games/\"\u003eOrthopraxy has written a great blog post in response to Ben’s video, defending Goodman Games’ approach.\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:1\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course, once ad-libbed into existence, they become part of the fictional world, something players can take advantage of in play.\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:2\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/keying-dungeons/", "tags": ["osr","advice","design"], "date_published": "2026-01-11T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-01-11T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "7f6a422ba60f6f824fecf42d24d0c60db72f6e88", "title": "The Lonely Fun of Mythic Bastionland", "content_text": "Long time readers may recall I had started an Arthurian Dark Souls sort of setting I never finished called Misericorde. A year or so later Chris started sharing his work for Mythic Bastionland, and it was more or less exactly what I wanted to do, but better in basically every way. (I mean, for starters, he finished it all.) So anyway, I want to play Mythic Bastionland. The first step is making a realm.\nChris outlines how to create a realm on a single page in the book. Elm Cat has an incredibly thorough post about getting started with Mythic Bastionland that also discusses making a realm. They expand upon Chris’s advice with their own, based on their experience having run the game for a while. Chris’s video of preparing a realm for play is also great. He walks you through his process. You can watch how he uses the spark tables to flesh out a setting. 1 Chris preps his realm in an about an hour. It took me longer—but not that much longer! These two resources are well worth reviewing.\nI started by making a map in Hex Kit, a fun activity in and of itself. I decided to start a fresh map rather than continue off the one I had made a few years ago. In my head this campaign could be a prequel to the game I had thought of running, where the king is dead and knights wander the wilderness as transformed monstrosities. I can come back to that idea later, perhaps informed by how this Mythic Bastionland campaign unfolds.\nWith the map done, I got to populating the realm with some holdings and landmarks. I followed Chris’s advice and examples. The system works! I enjoy the act of building something out of random seeds, trying to figure out how everything could fit together. My first ruler was interested in gambling. So was my second. And so was my third. I thought of re-rolling, but the fact that three of the four leaders in the land are gamblers feels like the seed of a story. These sorts of connections bubble up as you work through the tables. I think our brains are just wired find a way to make everything make sense.\nI need to actually play Mythic Bastionland, so will try and avoid being overly effusive, but even in this lonely fun of prepping the game it feels like Chris has made something really spectacular. I don’t consider myself particularly creative, but the book will make sure you can build something weird and interesting. Making a realm and figuring out what’s going on before the players show up was fun. Will it all work in play? I gotta assume so, since everyone else can’t shut up about how great the game is. Stay tuned!\nAnother excellent resource is the Mythic Bastionland Referee Companion. All the spark tables are available online, and it can roll on all the tables for you in one go, which can speed up the process of building a realm. I just used the book, but I can see how this could be useful. It’s cool seeing other people making digital tools for RPGs.\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eLong time readers may recall I had started an Arthurian Dark Souls sort of setting I never finished called \u003ca href=\"https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/gygax-75/\"\u003eMisericorde\u003c/a\u003e. A year or so later \u003ca href=\"https://www.bastionland.com/\"\u003eChris\u003c/a\u003e started sharing his work for \u003ca href=\"https://bastionlandpress.com/products/mythic-bastionland-hardback-book-plus-pdf\"\u003eMythic Bastionland\u003c/a\u003e, and it was more or less exactly what I wanted to do, but better in basically every way. (I mean, for starters, he finished it all.) So anyway, I want to play Mythic Bastionland. The first step is making a realm.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChris outlines how to create a realm on a single page in the book. \u003ca href=\"https://elmc.at/running-mythic-bastionland/\"\u003eElm Cat has an incredibly thorough post about getting started with Mythic Bastionland that also discusses making a realm.\u003c/a\u003e They expand upon Chris’s advice with their own, based on their experience having run the game for a while. \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKLYaBLi6hs\"\u003eChris’s video of preparing a realm for play is also great.\u003c/a\u003e He walks you through his process. You can watch how he uses the spark tables to flesh out a setting. \u003csup id=\"fnref:1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:1\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e1\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e Chris preps his realm in an about an hour. It took me longer—but not that much longer! These two resources are well worth reviewing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI started by making a map in \u003ca href=\"https://cone.itch.io/hex-kit\"\u003eHex Kit\u003c/a\u003e, a fun activity in and of itself. I decided to start a fresh map rather than continue off the one I had made a few years ago. In my head this campaign could be a prequel to the game I had thought of running, where the king is dead and knights wander the wilderness as transformed monstrosities. I can come back to that idea later, perhaps informed by how this Mythic Bastionland campaign unfolds.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/mythic-bastionland-player.jpg\" alt=\"Mythic Bastionland Realm\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the map done, I got to populating the realm with some holdings and landmarks. I followed Chris’s advice and examples. The system works! I enjoy the act of building something out of random seeds, trying to figure out how everything could fit together. My first ruler was interested in gambling. So was my second. And so was my third. I thought of re-rolling, but the fact that three of the four leaders in the land are gamblers feels like the seed of a story. These sorts of connections bubble up as you work through the tables. I think our brains are just wired find a way to make everything make sense.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to actually play Mythic Bastionland, so will try and avoid being overly effusive, but even in this lonely fun of prepping the game it feels like Chris has made something really spectacular. I don’t consider myself particularly creative, but the book will make sure you can build something weird and interesting. Making a realm and figuring out what’s going on before the players show up was fun. Will it all work in play? I gotta assume so, since everyone else can’t shut up about how great the game is. Stay tuned!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\"\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother excellent resource is the \u003ca href=\"https://mythicbastionland.a-dark-place.io/\"\u003eMythic Bastionland Referee Companion\u003c/a\u003e. All the spark tables are available online, and it can roll on all the tables for you in one go, which can speed up the process of building a realm. I just used the book, but I can see how this could be useful. It’s cool seeing other people making digital tools for RPGs.\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:1\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/the-lonely-fun-of-mythic-bastionland/", "tags": ["intotheodd","mythicbastionland","chrismcdowal"], "date_published": "2026-01-02T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-01-02T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "f156e0edbba7b236379ab8552770bbe01a04b171", "title": "2025 in Blogging", "content_text": "The past year ended up being the biggest year of blogging on this site. At the start of the year I shared my thoughts on blogging in the post Blogging is Forever, a reminder that social media is transient and you should own and control the writing you care about. I was posting fairly consistently throughout the year, but kicked things into high gear in November. This is almost certainly motivated by seeing Elmcat’s blogging map. It’s incredible seeing the web of people that contribute to this scene. The map is a nice reminder of what makes blogging fun and cool. I visited my brother in the UK at the end of November, and blogged more or less every day through to the New Year.\nI had wanted to get my Carcosa session recaps back online for some time, and decided to do that for the month of December, using it as an opportunity to talk about running the campaign at the same time. After posting them all I finally wrote a post I had intended to write back when the campaign concluded: Advice for Running a Hexcrawl, A Decade Too Late.\nI also wrote 10 reviews in 2025. I haven’t written this much about games since 2013. I ended up reviewing as many war games as RPGs and modules last year. Wargaming has ended up becoming where I spend a lot of my time and energy. Those games were: Xenos Rampant, Trench Crusade, MAC Attack, Space Gits, and Blood Bowl. For RPGs I wrote about: Skorne, Constant Downpour Remastered, Nirvana on Fire, Wandering Blades, and Crown of Salt to close out the year.\nThere was one post I wanted to write before the clock ticked over to 2026 that I didn’t manage to get in under the wire: a comparison of Carcosa with Mythic Bastionland. I feel like there is something to say about both those games, I just need to think a bit more about what exactly.\nHopefully 2026 continues the trend of more blogging: for myself and for all the other people I see starting blogs and returning to their old ones. 2025 feels like it was a big year for blogging.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eThe past year ended up being the biggest year of blogging on this site. At the start of the year I shared my thoughts on blogging in the post \u003ca href=\"/blog/blogging-is-forever/\"\u003eBlogging is Forever\u003c/a\u003e, a reminder that social media is transient and you should own and control the writing you care about. I was posting fairly consistently throughout the year, but kicked things into high gear in November. This is almost certainly motivated by seeing \u003ca href=\"https://elmc.at/mapping-the-blogosphere/\"\u003eElmcat’s blogging map\u003c/a\u003e. It’s incredible seeing the web of people that contribute to this scene. The map is a nice reminder of what makes blogging fun and cool. I visited my brother in the UK at the end of November, and blogged more or less every day through to the New Year.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had wanted to get my \u003ca href=\"/tag/mocrecap\"\u003eCarcosa session recaps\u003c/a\u003e back online for some time, and decided to do that for the month of December, using it as an opportunity to talk about running the campaign at the same time. After posting them all I finally wrote a post I had intended to write back when the campaign concluded: \u003ca href=\"/blog/advice-for-running-a-hexcrawl/\"\u003eAdvice for Running a Hexcrawl, A Decade Too Late\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/review/\"\u003eI also wrote 10 reviews in 2025.\u003c/a\u003e I haven’t written this much about games since 2013. I ended up reviewing as many war games as RPGs and modules last year. Wargaming has ended up becoming where I spend a lot of my time and energy. Those games were: \u003ca href=\"/review/xenos-rampant/\"\u003eXenos Rampant\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/review/trench-crusade/\"\u003eTrench Crusade\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/review/mac-attack/\"\u003eMAC Attack\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/review/space-gits/\"\u003eSpace Gits\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"/review/blood-bowl/\"\u003eBlood Bowl\u003c/a\u003e. For RPGs I wrote about: \u003ca href=\"/review/skorne\"\u003eSkorne\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/review/constant-downpour-remastered/\"\u003eConstant Downpour Remastered\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/review/nirvana-on-fire/\"\u003eNirvana on Fire\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/review/wandering-blades/\"\u003eWandering Blades\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"/review/wandering-blades/\"\u003eCrown of Salt\u003c/a\u003e to close out the year.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere was one post I wanted to write before the clock ticked over to 2026 that I didn’t manage to get in under the wire: a comparison of Carcosa with Mythic Bastionland. I feel like there is something to say about both those games, I just need to think a bit more about what exactly.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHopefully 2026 continues the trend of more blogging: for myself and for all the other people I see starting blogs and returning to their old ones. 2025 feels like it was a big year for blogging.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/2025-in-blogging/", "tags": ["blogs","osr"], "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "e7caa35f1e9630fca5178fb5b8be80ea931854f3", "title": "2025 in Minis", "content_text": "\nBack in 2024 I decided to track all of my purchasing and painting of minis. This was an attempt to buy less and paint more. It was a nominal success. This year, not so much. Whenever my life becomes too busy I find I channel my hobby output into pure consumerism. I ended up buying box sets that will certainly be fun to paint, but that remain unpainted (and often unbuilt!) as we come to the end of the year: Kill Team’s new Tomb World set, the Horus Heresy 3rd Edition Starter Set, the Dark Oath Slaves to Darkness army box, and the Fangs of the Bloodqueen box. Those last two I really only bought because Meeple Mart was having an “everything needs to go” sale. I ended up with 161 new models between those boxes and a few other small purchases. That’s a lot of new models!\nMy painting happened in small bursts: the Stormcast at the start of the year so I could play Spearhead; my Trench Crusade Heretic Legion in the spring, when the minis arrived; some orks from Slade, which I thought I might use for Space Gits; the rest of the Stormiest in the summer to finish painting the Skaventide box; the Wildercorps Hunters so I could use them for a Warcry game. I managed to play a lot of games this year, but nothing that required me to do a lot of painting. I played lots of Spearhead and Warcry, but primarily using minis I had already painted.\nI’m disappointed with how the year ended when it came to my painting. It’s a hobby I really enjoy, so I should make more time for it when I can. It’s often easier to play video games or watch TV, which are also enjoyable activities, but ones I probably put more time into than I should.\nMy goal to start 2026 is to start painting the Darkwater boxed set. The game looks like a lot of fun, and I managed to get a good chunk of them primed when the weather in December was a little bit warm. My friends and I have started playing Blood Bowl, so I’ll need to get my team primed and painted as well. Hopefully getting those things out of the way will serve as some motivation to keep going.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/2025-in-minis.png\" alt=\"My 2025 mini painting stats\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBack in 2024 I decided to track all of my purchasing and painting of minis. This was an attempt to buy less and paint more. \u003ca href=\"/blog/2024-in-minis/\"\u003eIt was a nominal success.\u003c/a\u003e This year, not so much. Whenever my life becomes too busy I find I channel my hobby output into pure consumerism. I ended up buying box sets that will certainly be fun to paint, but that remain unpainted (and often unbuilt!) as we come to the end of the year: Kill Team’s new Tomb World set, the Horus Heresy 3rd Edition Starter Set, the Dark Oath Slaves to Darkness army box, and the Fangs of the Bloodqueen box. Those last two I really only bought because Meeple Mart was having an “everything needs to go” sale. I ended up with 161 new models between those boxes and a few other small purchases. That’s a lot of new models!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy painting happened in small bursts: the Stormcast at the start of the year so I could play Spearhead; my \u003ca href=\"/review/trench-crusade/\"\u003eTrench Crusade\u003c/a\u003e Heretic Legion in the spring, when the minis arrived; some orks from Slade, which I thought I might use for Space Gits; the rest of the Stormiest in the summer to finish painting the Skaventide box; the Wildercorps Hunters so I could use them for a \u003ca href=\"/review/warcry/\"\u003eWarcry\u003c/a\u003e game. I managed to play a lot of games this year, but nothing that required me to do a lot of painting. I played lots of Spearhead and Warcry, but primarily using minis I had already painted.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’m disappointed with how the year ended when it came to my painting. It’s a hobby I really enjoy, so I should make more time for it when I can. It’s often easier to play video games or watch TV, which are also enjoyable activities, but ones I probably put more time into than I should.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy goal to start 2026 is to start painting the Darkwater boxed set. The game looks like a lot of fun, and I managed to get a good chunk of them primed when the weather in December was a little bit warm. My friends and I have started playing \u003ca href=\"/review/blood-bowl/\"\u003eBlood Bowl\u003c/a\u003e, so I’ll need to get my team primed and painted as well. Hopefully getting those things out of the way will serve as some motivation to keep going.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/2025-in-minis/", "tags": ["28mm","minis","warhammer"], "date_published": "2025-12-31T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-31T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "002829b223d08630cfbaf2fb1c877ab2fa913ed1", "title": "Crown of Salt", "content_text": "I have wanted to buy a copy of Crown of Salt for ages. Nova wrote a pretty glowing review some time ago. Months later Jason and Tom talked about it on Fear of a Black Dragon, and were both so euphorically enthusiastic I knew I needed to check it out. I came close to buying it several times, but getting it from abroad with shipping always felt too pricey and decadent. And then I saw it at the Melsonian Arts Council shop at Dragonmeet and that was that.\nCrown of Salt is an adventure for Mork Borg, written, illustrated, and laid out by Tania Herrero. This is seemingly the first adventure she has written, which is kind of bananas. This is such a strong first showing. Update: Tania let me know this is their second adventure! I\u0026rsquo;ll have to check out their Bottle Rocket, The Pit of Blasphemy.\nThe book has these little cut scene moments. I love it. — Me on Bluesky\nThe intro to the adventure is prose and art, luxuriously spread over several pages. A nice bit of story telling that is very reminiscent of video game cut scenes. We learn about an arrogant king, cursed by the gods to become a monster. I wonder if he will show up later? Tania isn’t going to tell us right away. But if you’ve read a book no doubt you’re aware of foreshadowing.\nI don’t think I’ve seen another module approach breaking up the various sections that make up the adventure in this way. It’s very dramatic: it really help demarcate the various points in the adventure. Each section has these pages of bridging art and text that reorient the reader for what is to come. I really enjoyed the graphic design of these sections.\nA different sort of module would tell you if the crow’s master is lost in the rifts or not, rather than leave it as a hash tag no spoilers mystery for the GM. — Me on BlueSky\nThe module opens with a description of the small town of Saltburg, where the adventurers can meet some hirelings, the crow above, and get ready to venture out into the wilderness. There isn’t too much to this town, which is fine, it’s not the main event for this module. The hirelings are interesting and dynamic. They feel like the main reason this town is described at all. We also learn what makes them particularly interesting on the page after they are all described.\nTania’s approach to writing Crown of Salt reminds me very much of the work of Patrick Stuart, especially Deep Carbon Observatory and Silent Titans. Not so much in terms of the modules content, but more around how the module is structured. Patrick often hides details from the GM, so that the act of reading the module comes with a sense of discovery that is mirrored by the players. Some people find this annoying, they have a vision of maximum table utility that demands tidy summaries of everything that’s going on. Certainly one way to make an adventure, but I think it’s reductive to think a more creative approach won’t work.\nIn the case of the crow mentioned above, knowing its backstory likely won’t impact how the encounter is run at the time the party first meets the bird. (And if you read the whole module, you’ll perhaps recall its deal.) With the hirelings you are a similar position. Even if you slavishly flipped from page to page only when required, you could run the encounter where the party does their recruiting, not knowing the hirelings share a dark secret. Tania’s approach makes for a much more engaging read of the module, and in general I think she avoids some of the issues that arise from being coy with all the details.\nWe in the business might call this a Flux Space™. I can see why Jason enjoyed running this with Trophy Gold, it feels like a great fit for how that game works, and its vibes. The exploration rules remind me of climbing from Veins of the Earth, perhaps an inspiration. — me on bluesky\nThe start of the module shares d12 reasons to risk ones life, each pushing the players to search for the fallen king (the Cantigaster), his temple, etc. I generally don’t care if an adventure includes hooks or not. I think the only hook you need is the social contract, “I bought this module so that’s what we’re doing,” but the hooks included in this book are good all the same. They do a good job tying the party to the adventure, and also help speak to the larger world. Regardless of how it comes to pass, the party will venture from the town to the rifts, in search of the adventure.\nThe rifts are presented as a sprawling unmappable space. My friend Nick calls this sort of site a flux space. Tania shares her rules for exploring such a space, which are very reminiscent of the climbing rules from Viens of the Earth. I’m curious to see how they work in play. Reading them I like them. She manages to capture a lot: how much time passes while travelling, if the players are injured along the way due to the route, the loss of provisions, the loss of equipment, and random encounters. To reach the temple, where they should expect to find the fallen king, the players will need to experience 4 exploration events. This approach is meant to simulate travelling through a weird messy underworld.\nThe encounters here are all pretty fantastic. There are 4 types of events, and 6 possible encounters per event. When you explore you will roll a d4 and a d6 to see what the players encounter. The encounters are all really engaging. It’s hard to pick my favourites. Many will lead to fun situations during the course of a game. I can see how this adventure would work so well with Trophy Gold. The module’s loose structure lends itself well for the similarly unstructured exploration rules of Trophy Gold.\nThere are a few places where the challenge of the module feels like it veers into rocks fall you all die territory. For example, one of the monsters has a random power that increases gravity in the area: the players must pass a DR12 test or die. There isn’t really anything the players can do to prepare for this situation, it’s a random power that might occur on a random round of combat. There are a few places where it felt like the module was challenging in a way that might not be fun.\nThis section has some layout choices I found a bit confusing, or places where the placement of information is a hinderance. There is a mini dungeon within the rifts, the Tomb of the Promised Princess. Instructions for finding the tomb are included with the description of the temple, and those are found well after the instructions for exploring the rifts: “only reachable by the guidance of the Latrofax or by rolling a repeated result in an exploration event.” It’s not unreasonable to imagine someone running the rifts portion of the adventure, unaware they need to watch out for duplicate entries. (Earlier, there are instructions on the page following the instructions for exploring the rifts, “Roll a d6 before determining the Exploration Event. On a 1, skip directly to the Promised Princess event. The chance increases by 1 each time.“ Is the intention to use both? I’m not so sure.)\nCrown of Salt concludes with a small temple dungeon. You are stalked by the Cantigaster. Tania suggests he shows up when convenient or interesting, but offers up some simple random chance rules if just having him jump scare the players offends your no quantum ogres OSR sensibilities. — me on bluesky\nThe adventure ends with a small dungeon. The cut scene that introduces this section explains more of the background for the whole adventure. One last twist: a primordial god! The adventure really leans into Mork Borg’s vibes. Like Deep Carbon Observatory, the players will be stalked by the main antagonist of the dungeon, the Cantigaster. This dungeon is flavourful, like the rest of the module. Tania switches to a more straightforward layout at this point. I find the keys a little long to my taste, but I am a fan of tweet sized room descriptions.\nWe have made it this far and I haven’t even talked about the layout and art. Crown of Salt is beautiful. A lot of people try (and fail) to ape Johan Nohr’s style when it comes to making modules for Mork Borg. Often books just look messy and half assed, they don’t have the graphic design chops to pull off what Johan accomplished with Mork Borg. With Crown of Salt, Tania’s made a really lovely book. There are are occasional missteps, but in general I think she’s made something where the graphic design contributes to the story telling. Her art is fantastic. Like Gus or Luka, it’s always impressive to see someone who can do it all.\nI really loved Crown of Salt. One of the coolest modules I’ve read this year. I regret not grabbing it sooner. I wanted to make sure I talked about it before the year was done. Telling you about it feels like a good way to close out 2026.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eI have wanted to buy a copy of \u003ca href=\"https://tania-herrero.itch.io/crown-of-salt\"\u003eCrown of Salt\u003c/a\u003e for ages. Nova wrote \u003ca href=\"https://idlecartulary.com/2024/11/04/bathtub-review-crown-of-salt/\"\u003ea pretty glowing review\u003c/a\u003e some time ago. Months later Jason and Tom talked about it on \u003ca href=\"https://foabd.libsyn.com/website/crown-of-salt\"\u003eFear of a Black Dragon\u003c/a\u003e, and were both so euphorically enthusiastic I knew I needed to check it out. I came close to buying it several times, but getting it from abroad with shipping always felt too pricey and decadent. And then I saw it at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.melsonia.com/\"\u003eMelsonian Arts Council\u003c/a\u003e shop at \u003ca href=\"/blog/dragonmeet\"\u003eDragonmeet\u003c/a\u003e and that was that.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrown of Salt is an adventure for \u003ca href=\"https://morkborg.com/\"\u003eMork Borg\u003c/a\u003e, written, illustrated, and laid out by \u003ca href=\"https://tania-herrero.itch.io/\"\u003eTania Herrero\u003c/a\u003e. \u003cdel\u003eThis is seemingly the first adventure she has written, which is kind of bananas. This is such a strong first showing.\u003c/del\u003e Update: Tania let me know this is their second adventure! I\u0026rsquo;ll have to check out their \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_Rocket\"\u003eBottle Rocket\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://tania-herrero.itch.io/the-pit-of-blasphemy\"\u003eThe Pit of Blasphemy\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/crown-of-salt-1.jpg\" alt=\"Crown of Salt cut scene\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book has these little cut scene moments. I love it. — \u003ca href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/post/3m7bmmqs2bc2s\"\u003eMe on Bluesky\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe intro to the adventure is prose and art, luxuriously spread over several pages. A nice bit of story telling that is very reminiscent of video game cut scenes. We learn about an arrogant king, cursed by the gods to become a monster. I wonder if he will show up later? Tania isn’t going to tell us right away. But if you’ve read a book no doubt you’re aware of foreshadowing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don’t think I’ve seen another module approach breaking up the various sections that make up the adventure in this way. It’s very dramatic: it really help demarcate the various points in the adventure. Each section has these pages of bridging art and text that reorient the reader for what is to come. I really enjoyed the graphic design of these sections.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/crown-of-salt-2.jpg\" alt=\"The crow from Crown of Salt\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA different sort of module would tell you if the crow’s master is lost in the rifts or not, rather than leave it as a hash tag no spoilers mystery for the GM. — \u003ca href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/post/3m77g4l6nn22c\"\u003eMe on BlueSky\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe module opens with a description of the small town of Saltburg, where the adventurers can meet some hirelings, the crow above, and get ready to venture out into the wilderness. There isn’t too much to this town, which is fine, it’s not the main event for this module. The hirelings are interesting and dynamic. They feel like the main reason this town is described at all. We also learn what makes them particularly interesting on the page \u003cem\u003eafter\u003c/em\u003e they are all described.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTania’s approach to writing Crown of Salt reminds me very much of the work of \u003ca href=\"https://falsemachine.blogspot.com/\"\u003ePatrick Stuart\u003c/a\u003e, especially \u003ca href=\"/review/deep-carbon-observatory-storytelling-as-information-design/\"\u003eDeep Carbon Observatory\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/blog/silent-titans/\"\u003eSilent Titans\u003c/a\u003e. Not so much in terms of the modules content, but more around how the module is structured. Patrick often hides details from the GM, so that the act of reading the module comes with a sense of discovery that is mirrored by the players. Some people find this annoying, they have a vision of maximum table utility that demands tidy summaries of everything that’s going on. Certainly one way to make an adventure, but I think it’s reductive to think a more creative approach won’t work.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the case of the crow mentioned above, knowing its backstory likely won’t impact how the encounter is run at the time the party first meets the bird. (And if you read the whole module, you’ll perhaps recall its deal.) With the hirelings you are a similar position. Even if you slavishly flipped from page to page only when required, you could run the encounter where the party does their recruiting, not knowing the hirelings share a dark secret. Tania’s approach makes for a much more engaging read of the module, and in general I think she avoids some of the issues that arise from being coy with all the details.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/crown-of-salt-3.jpg\" alt=\"Crown of Salt Flux Space rules\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe in the business might call this a Flux Space™. I can see why Jason enjoyed running this with Trophy Gold, it feels like a great fit for how that game works, and its vibes. The exploration rules remind me of climbing from Veins of the Earth, perhaps an inspiration. — \u003ca href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/post/3m7amc6rkp22k\"\u003eme on bluesky\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe start of the module shares d12 reasons to risk ones life, each pushing the players to search for the fallen king (the Cantigaster), his temple, etc. I generally don’t care if an adventure includes hooks or not. I think the only hook you need is the social contract, “I bought this module so that’s what we’re doing,” but the hooks included in this book are good all the same. They do a good job tying the party to the adventure, and also help speak to the larger world. Regardless of how it comes to pass, the party will venture from the town to the rifts, in search of the adventure.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rifts are presented as a sprawling unmappable space. My friend \u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eNick\u003c/a\u003e calls this sort of site \u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/flux-space/\"\u003ea flux space\u003c/a\u003e. Tania shares her rules for exploring such a space, which are very reminiscent of the climbing rules from \u003ca href=\"https://falsemachine.blogspot.com/search/label/Veins\"\u003eViens of the Earth\u003c/a\u003e. I’m curious to see how they work in play. Reading them I like them. She manages to capture a lot: how much time passes while travelling, if the players are injured along the way due to the route, the loss of provisions, the loss of equipment, and random encounters. To reach the temple, where they should expect to find the fallen king, the players will need to experience 4 exploration events. This approach is meant to simulate travelling through a weird messy underworld.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe encounters here are all pretty fantastic. There are 4 types of events, and 6 possible encounters per event. When you explore you will roll a d4 and a d6 to see what the players encounter. The encounters are all really engaging. It’s hard to pick my favourites. Many will lead to fun situations during the course of a game. I can see how this adventure would work so well with \u003ca href=\"/review/trophy-gold/\"\u003eTrophy Gold\u003c/a\u003e. The module’s loose structure lends itself well for the similarly unstructured exploration rules of Trophy Gold.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are a few places where the challenge of the module feels like it veers into rocks fall you all die territory. For example, one of the monsters has a random power that increases gravity in the area: the players must pass a DR12 test or die. There isn’t really anything the players can do to prepare for this situation, it’s a random power that might occur on a random round of combat. There are a few places where it felt like the module was challenging in a way that might not be fun.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis section has some layout choices I found a bit confusing, or places where the placement of information is a hinderance. There is a mini dungeon within the rifts, the Tomb of the Promised Princess. Instructions for finding the tomb are included with the description of the temple, and those are found well after the instructions for exploring the rifts: “only reachable by the guidance of the Latrofax or by rolling a repeated result in an exploration event.” It’s not unreasonable to imagine someone running the rifts portion of the adventure, unaware they need to watch out for duplicate entries. (Earlier, there are instructions on the page following the instructions for exploring the rifts, “Roll a d6 before determining the Exploration Event. On a 1, skip directly to the Promised Princess event. The chance increases by 1 each time.“ Is the intention to use both? I’m not so sure.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/crown-of-salt-4.jpg\" alt=\"One last cut scene\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrown of Salt concludes with a small temple dungeon. You are stalked by the Cantigaster. Tania suggests he shows up when convenient or interesting, but offers up some simple random chance rules if just having him jump scare the players offends your no quantum ogres OSR sensibilities. — \u003ca href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/post/3m7djqdbw5k2g\"\u003eme on bluesky\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe adventure ends with a small dungeon. The cut scene that introduces this section explains more of the background for the whole adventure. One last twist: a primordial god! The adventure really leans into Mork Borg’s vibes. Like Deep Carbon Observatory, the players will be stalked by the main antagonist of the dungeon, the Cantigaster. This dungeon is flavourful, like the rest of the module. Tania switches to a more straightforward layout at this point. I find the keys a little long to my taste, but I am a fan of tweet sized room descriptions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe have made it this far and I haven’t even talked about the layout and art. Crown of Salt is beautiful. A lot of people try (and fail) to ape \u003ca href=\"/blog/art-by-nohr/\"\u003eJohan Nohr’s\u003c/a\u003e style when it comes to making modules for Mork Borg. Often books just look messy and half assed, they don’t have the graphic design chops to pull off what Johan accomplished with Mork Borg. With Crown of Salt, Tania’s made a really lovely book. There are are occasional missteps, but in general I think she’s made something where the graphic design contributes to the story telling. Her art is fantastic. Like \u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"https://www.wizardthieffighter.com/\"\u003eLuka\u003c/a\u003e, it’s always impressive to see someone who can do it all.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI really loved Crown of Salt. One of the coolest modules I’ve read this year. I regret not grabbing it sooner. I wanted to make sure I talked about it before the year was done. Telling you about it feels like a good way to close out 2026.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/review/crown-of-salt/", "tags": ["osr","morkborg"], "date_published": "2025-12-31T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-31T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "86ad73c212ebc8a08ee7281e320d8d7e87315052", "title": "Blood Bowl", "content_text": "\nWhenever I say Warcry is the best game Games Workshop has made, someone always chirps up to reply that I am wrong, that title belongs to Blood Bowl. It was hard to argue about a game I have never played. Blood Bowl is Games Workshop’s skirmish fantasy football game. You are basically playing Jervis Johnson’s take on American Football. Now having finally played, I have to admit it is pretty wonderful.\nMy friends and I decided to get start a league. I grabbed the Imperial Nobles team, and a rule book. I more or less instantly regretted not just grabbing the starter set, as I could have sold one of the teams, gained a pitch and tokens, and come out ahead price wise. So, don’t make the same mistake as me. The Third Season of Blood Bowl has tweaked the composition of all the teams so you can field a reasonable team from one box. This small change is what got my friend excited about playing. It’s really what sucked us all in.\nMy friend had played Blood Bowl in the 90s, so helped the game move along. When I first looked at the rule book I felt there were a lot of rules to make the game go, something I mentioned to my cousin who played in twenty years ago. He scoffed and replied the game was easy! Now having played, I would agree. It’s all quite intuitive. It does feel a bit like football. There was some looking stuff up here and there, but we got into the swing of the game quite quickly.\nBlood Bowl is played over two halves. One team will kick the ball to the opposing team: place the ball on a square and roll to see where it ends up and bounces. It’s then up to the other team to grab the ball and move it up the pitch. If you make it to the end of the field, the end zone, you score a touch down. You activate all your minis one by one until there is a turnover. There is a long list of cases that can cause you to lose your turn, but they all eventually boil down to: one of your models falls down or you lose the ball. When this happens play flips to the other player and they take their turn. Each half is composed of 8 turns in a normal game of Blood Bowl.\nYour players can move, pass the ball, hand-off the ball, catch, block, secure the ball, and foul players who are knocked down. The actions do what they say on the box. Because you are trying to avoid turnovers, you will generally attempt safer actions first, before riskier ones.\nMovement simply has you move down the pitch (a grid) a number of squares as dictated by your move stat. You can rush up to two times, letting you move an additional square each time on a roll of 2+ on a d6. But if you roll a 1 you fall over. In our game my fried Dylan’s catcher fell over getting into position. Play turned over to me, and my turn ended the exact same way. We somehow rolled 1s back to back when rushing. That’s Blood Bowl.\nAdjacent players can block, attempting to attack the other player. There are custom block dice to roll that tell you what happens. Hopefully you push the person out of the way and/or knock them down. It’s possible you might get knocked down yourself. Like typical skirmish games there is an advantage gained by having more of your players adjacent to the combat. The offensive players gains strength for their friends, similarly for the defensive player. You roll one block dice if you match the opposing players strength, two if you beat it, three if you more than double it. The player with the higher strength choose the result. (So tackling stronger players is a bad idea.) A lot of the game is positioning to try and gain extra dice for your block roll.\nMoving the ball down the pitch will involve passing, catching, and hand offs. The further you attempt to pass, the more difficult the dice roll required. Players have a pass stat, and need to beat their attribute score. Catching and picking up the ball require making an agility score roll. So you could make a perfect throw, but still fumble the catch. You could run to pick up a ball off the ground and fall over. That’s blood bowl.\nThe secure the ball action is new to this edition of the game, a way to help teams with low agility gain control of the ball in a more conservative way. You secure the ball if you roll a 2+ on a d6, it doesn’t require a roll against your agility stat. The catch is the action triggers a turn over. It never came up in our game, but I can see how it would be useful if you have strong guys who can protect the ball and move it up in the subsequent turn.\nAfter two halves the player with the most touchdowns wins. I lost my first game. That doesn’t matter. I had a lot of fun all the same.\nBlood Bowl plays more or less exactly the same as it did in the 90s. An impressive piece of game design. The game is fast and feels really dynamic. There is a lot of back and forth due. Grid movement and no line of sight to worry about helps keep everything snappy.\nWe were playing sevens, a smaller version of Blood Bowl. You play on a smaller pitch with a smaller team and a smaller number of turns per half. It’s a way to speed up the game. The rules are basically unchanged. Was great, no notes.\nI will report back once we have started playing our league and have played more games. Like Mordheim, the campaign system for Blood Bowl is apparently a source of much fun. Is the game better than Warcry? I’m not so sure, but it is certainly one of the greats.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/bloodbowl.jpg\" alt=\"Blood Bowl rulebook at a pub\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhenever I say \u003ca href=\"/review/warcry/\"\u003eWarcry\u003c/a\u003e is the best game Games Workshop has made, \u003ca href=\"https://kelvingreen.blogspot.com/\"\u003esomeone\u003c/a\u003e always chirps up to reply that I am wrong, that title belongs to \u003ca href=\"https://start-warhammer.com/blood-bowl/\"\u003eBlood Bowl\u003c/a\u003e. It was hard to argue about a game I have never played. Blood Bowl is Games Workshop’s skirmish fantasy football game. You are basically playing \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jervis_Johnson\"\u003eJervis Johnson’s\u003c/a\u003e take on American Football. Now having finally played, I have to admit it is pretty wonderful.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy friends and I decided to get start a league. I grabbed the Imperial Nobles team, and a rule book. I more or less instantly regretted not just grabbing the starter set, as I could have sold one of the teams, gained a pitch and tokens, and come out ahead price wise. So, don’t make the same mistake as me. The Third Season of Blood Bowl has tweaked the composition of all the teams so you can field a reasonable team from one box. This small change is what got my friend excited about playing. It’s really what sucked us all in.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy friend had played Blood Bowl in the 90s, so helped the game move along. When I first looked at the rule book I felt there were a lot of rules to make the game go, something I mentioned to my cousin who played in twenty years ago. He scoffed and replied the game was easy! Now having played, I would agree. It’s all quite intuitive. It does feel a bit like football. There was some looking stuff up here and there, but we got into the swing of the game quite quickly.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlood Bowl is played over two halves. One team will kick the ball to the opposing team: place the ball on a square and roll to see where it ends up and bounces. It’s then up to the other team to grab the ball and move it up the pitch. If you make it to the end of the field, the end zone, you score a touch down. You activate all your minis one by one until there is a turnover. There is a long list of cases that can cause you to lose your turn, but they all eventually boil down to: one of your models falls down or you lose the ball. When this happens play flips to the other player and they take their turn. Each half is composed of 8 turns in a normal game of Blood Bowl.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour players can move, pass the ball, hand-off the ball, catch, block, secure the ball, and foul players who are knocked down. The actions do what they say on the box. Because you are trying to avoid turnovers, you will generally attempt safer actions first, before riskier ones.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMovement simply has you move down the pitch (a grid) a number of squares as dictated by your move stat. You can rush up to two times, letting you move an additional square each time on a roll of 2+ on a d6. But if you roll a 1 you fall over. In our game my fried Dylan’s catcher fell over getting into position. Play turned over to me, and my turn ended the exact same way. We somehow rolled 1s back to back when rushing. That’s Blood Bowl.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdjacent players can block, attempting to attack the other player. There are custom block dice to roll that tell you what happens. Hopefully you push the person out of the way and/or knock them down. It’s possible you might get knocked down yourself. Like typical skirmish games there is an advantage gained by having more of your players adjacent to the combat. The offensive players gains strength for their friends, similarly for the defensive player. You roll one block dice if you match the opposing players strength, two if you beat it, three if you more than double it. The player with the higher strength choose the result. (So tackling stronger players is a bad idea.) A lot of the game is positioning to try and gain extra dice for your block roll.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMoving the ball down the pitch will involve passing, catching, and hand offs. The further you attempt to pass, the more difficult the dice roll required. Players have a pass stat, and need to beat their attribute score. Catching and picking up the ball require making an agility score roll. So you could make a perfect throw, but still fumble the catch. You could run to pick up a ball off the ground and fall over. That’s blood bowl.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe secure the ball action is new to this edition of the game, a way to help teams with low agility gain control of the ball in a more conservative way. You secure the ball if you roll a 2+ on a d6, it doesn’t require a roll against your agility stat. The catch is the action triggers a turn over. It never came up in our game, but I can see how it would be useful if you have strong guys who can protect the ball and move it up in the subsequent turn.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter two halves the player with the most touchdowns wins. I lost my first game. That doesn’t matter. I had a lot of fun all the same.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlood Bowl plays more or less exactly the same as it did in the 90s. An impressive piece of game design. The game is fast and feels really dynamic. There is a lot of back and forth due. Grid movement and no line of sight to worry about helps keep everything snappy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe were playing sevens, a smaller version of Blood Bowl. You play on a smaller pitch with a smaller team and a smaller number of turns per half. It’s a way to speed up the game. The rules are basically unchanged. Was great, no notes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI will report back once we have started playing our league and have played more games. Like Mordheim, the campaign system for Blood Bowl is apparently a source of much fun. Is the game better than Warcry? I’m not so sure, but it is certainly one of the greats.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/review/blood-bowl/", "tags": ["warhammer","28mm","bloodbowl","skirmish"], "date_published": "2025-12-28T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-28T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "f9d2d6f96ab625af8eff29dc2f510cfc69ceb594", "title": "“Weekly” Gaming", "content_text": "\nThis isn\u0026rsquo;t the focus of your article, but it feels really good to see someone saying that their longest campaign lasted 23 sessions over roughly a year and a half. Way too many people seem to believe that the average gamer plays every week, without stopping, for years. — @vaskrag.bsky.social\nIt’s true! We can’t all be James. Those 23 sessions felt long and epic, and become more mythic in my head as time passes. The most successful campaign I have participated in was Pahvelorn. We managed to play weekly for the course of year and change. Even then we were imperfect, and that game hit 46 sessions before things petered out. When I ran Gradient Descent we started off strong, the first 7 sessions happened weekly, but the following 5 happened over the next 4 months! I have many stalled out campaigns under my belt. One day I’ll post about running Silent Titan, or Deep Carbon Observatory. Those games were fun, and we played for weeks \u0026hellip; until we didn’t. There is nothing wrong trying and failing to get a game going. I appreciate when people speak plainly about their failures, along with their successes.\nI always laugh when people talk about whether games support high level play, that this or that mechanic is broken past this or that level. Who are these people that play games that go long enough any of that matters? I can probably count on one hand how many characters I’ve played that have made it past level 3.\nIt can be challenging to keep a steady schedule, but I really do believe that the ability to do so is what leads to these campaigns that last for years and years. The game becomes a part of your life, you schedule around it the same way you might schedule around a soccer league. To quote myself:\nGames stall out because people can’t get their schedules to match. Picking a schedule and sticking to it is really the only “mechanic” you need for long term play. This is The Fundamental Theorem of Gaming.\nMaybe one day I’ll get there.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/g-plus-pin.jpg\" alt=\"G+ Button\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis isn\u0026rsquo;t the focus of \u003ca href=\"/blog/advice-for-running-a-hexcrawl/\"\u003eyour article\u003c/a\u003e, but it feels really good to see someone saying that their longest campaign lasted 23 sessions over roughly a year and a half. Way too many people seem to believe that the average gamer plays every week, without stopping, for years. — \u003ca href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/vaskrag.bsky.social/post/3maw7ylskrk24\"\u003e@vaskrag.bsky.social\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s true! We can’t all be \u003ca href=\"https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2025/10/coda-part-i.html\"\u003eJames\u003c/a\u003e. Those 23 sessions felt long and epic, and become more mythic in my head as time passes. The most successful campaign I have participated in was \u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/tag/pahvelorn/\"\u003ePahvelorn\u003c/a\u003e. We managed to play weekly for the course of year and change. Even then we were imperfect, and that game hit 46 sessions before things petered out. When \u003ca href=\"https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/momship/\"\u003eI ran Gradient Descent\u003c/a\u003e we started off strong, the first 7 sessions happened weekly, but the following 5 happened over the next 4 months! I have many stalled out campaigns under my belt. One day I’ll post about running Silent Titan, or Deep Carbon Observatory. Those games were fun, and we played for weeks \u0026hellip; until we didn’t. There is nothing wrong trying and failing to get a game going. I appreciate when people speak plainly about their failures, along with their successes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI always laugh when people talk about whether games support high level play, that this or that mechanic is broken past this or that level. Who are these people that play games that go long enough any of that matters? I can probably count on one hand how many characters I’ve played that have made it past level 3.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt can be challenging to keep a steady schedule, but I really do believe that the ability to do so is what leads to these campaigns that last for years and years. The game becomes a part of your life, you schedule around it the same way you might schedule around a soccer league. \u003ca href=\"/blog/advice-for-running-a-hexcrawl/\"\u003eTo quote myself\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGames stall out because people can’t get their schedules to match. Picking a schedule and sticking to it is really the only “mechanic” you need for long term play. This is \u003cstrong\u003eThe Fundamental Theorem of Gaming\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaybe one day I’ll get there.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/weekly-gaming/", "tags": ["osr","campaign","advice"], "date_published": "2025-12-27T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-27T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "e19cb534d2f9ac73f72a5282d903e89d35d327f7", "title": "Advice for Running a Hexcrawl, A Decade Too Late", "content_text": "\nMasters of Carcosa is the longest campaign I have run. My friends and I played 23 sessions, starting at the end of 2014, ending near the start of 2016. The game began after Brendan took a break from running Pahvelorn, likely to focus on his PhD. I hadn’t run a game since I was a kid! Playing in Brendan’s Pahvelorn campaign was hugely inspirational, and has informed how I have run games since. With Pahvelorn we were exploring a megadungeon, with the occasional trips out to explore the larger world. I wanted to run a hex crawl, but wasn’t completely sure how to start. In 2014 it didn’t feel like there nearly as many resources available compared to talking about dungeon delving.\nMy plan was to run a game set in the world of [Carcosa][], a gonzo setting by Geoffrey McKinney, originally published as a small zine, in the style of old Judge’s Guild hex crawls. I was running from the fancier version put out by LotFP, which featured Rich Longmore’s incredible art. We learn about the setting via hex descriptions like the following:\nVillage of 240 Yellow Men ruled by “the Fullness of Benedictions,” a chaotic 10th-level Fighter. 2 B’yakhee. On a natural stone outcrop is a 2 high statue of Hastur, made of an indestructible dull black stone. In front of it is a human skeleton. If anyone touches the statue, he will be cursed to carry the 40 pound statue with him always. The only way to lift the curse is to give the statue to a willing recipient, but no one wants the vile thing. The book was pretty polarizing for lots of reasons, one being how phoned-in some of the hex descriptions are. I loved it all the same. You would be surprised how far “2 B’yakhee” can take you in a session. I enjoyed improvising off the small hard facts presented in the book and my own notes.\nAt the time I wrote a second review of Carcosa, after having run the campaign for few sessions. It’s interesting to look at the review now, as it focuses almost exclusively on how I went about setting up the campaign we would play. But how do you even run a hex crawl?\nSandbox play is long term play. A hex crawl is about exploring the world, and that’s hard to do in an interesting or meaningful way in a handful of sessions. If there is one lesson to be learned about running a sandbox, it’s that whatever rules \u0026amp; mechanics nonsense you come up with to make your game go, none of it will matter if you don’t actually play. I was inconsistent when it came to scheduling the game, and it was likely the biggest reason we finally stopped playing. Players would regularly miss sessions because they thought we were playing the following week, miss a game because I had to push it out a week at the last minute and they already had plans, etc. People will tell you that this or that game isn’t suited for long term play. “Mothership is only good for one-shots.” Bull shit. Games don’t stall out because the levelling mechanics aren’t interesting enough, or because high level fighters become too dominant, or the wizard knows too many spells. Games stall out because people can’t get their schedules to match. Picking a schedule and sticking to it is really the only “mechanic” you need for long term play. This is the fundamental theorem of gaming.\nRelated to the above, running an open-table will make it easy to keep a game going when people lead busy lives and can’t commit to regular play. For those unfamiliar, an open-table simply means there are no fixed set of players participating in the game. Session to session you’ll have a different roster of players playing. Masters of Carcosa had 16 players over its 23 sessions. Eric made every single session save 1, and the one he missed was over scheduling confusion, my mistake. Gus, Nick, and Dion were other core players, making most games. If we had kept playing Chris likely would have become another core player. Everyone else played a few games and moved on with their lives, dropping in and out. Brendan would require us to return to a home base at the end of each session, and I had the same rule for my own game. The players always returned to a safe settlement at the end of each session, which made the juggling of players work in the fiction. (Mind you, I think it’s best not to be too fussed about how Dwarf Icefingers suddenly appeared when he wasn’t in the dungeon last session.)\nYou shouldn’t prepare too much to start. Chgowiz says this best in his classic blog post Just Three Hexes, but this blog post didn’t exist when I started playing. Lucky for me, not prepping enough is how I live my whole life. I drew a mini campaign map focused on a smaller section of Carcosa, where I expected the game to begin before the players ventured off into the wider world. The players never left. They didn’t even explore all the hexes in my mini-map! A small region can provide years of play.\nThere is lonely fun to be had in prep, and you can often find ways to repurpose work you’ve done that will clearly never find the light of day, but it takes a lot of energy to keep a game going for a long time, so best to spend your time wisely. Prepping too much before you’ve even played a game feels like writing an elaborate backstory for your player character before a campaign begins. Good advice for players remains good advice for game masters: let things evolve over time.\nYou shouldn’t front load too much. When you finish a session, take copious notes. I would write recaps of each session, so I would remember what took place. Anything important for the future I would add as notes for the given hex. A throw away NPC can suddenly become crucially important. This is a more dynamic and interesting way to run a game—both for yourself and your players. You just need enough hard facts for the choices the players take to be meaningful. You can always build upon these facts as the game moves along.\nWhen I shared the invites for my games on Google+ I would include rumours, things the players were made newly aware of, and reminders of loose threads from previous sessions. I maintained a Google+ post of all the open threads and rumours, so they wouldn’t forget about a weirdo they met in the wilderness, or a dungeon they might want to go back and explore. There was no overarching “plot” for the campaign. Everything that happened was player driven. For that to work you need a world without enough juice that there are different avenues for the players to pursue. In Masters of Carcosa the players were obsessed with destroying the Jale Slavers. There is a parallel universe where the campaign instead focused on exploring the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods.\nI would seed information about the world and its machinations wherever I could. NPCs would tell the players about nearby settlements, or factions they encountered in the wilderness. The players would find letters on dead bodies, discussing what was happening in the wider world. In one Sages in town would trade information for gold, or send the players on little quests. I made an effort to try and always reinforce that there was a lot going on completely divorced from the players and their immediate actions.\nI have written on this topic in the past, but it’s a mistake to be too coy about what’s going on in the world, what your factions are up to. There is a fine balance here. Some of the fun situations that occurred during the campaign came from my players being unaware of what was happening off camera. They set one of the villains of the game free in the first session. Many sessions later the same villain returned to recapture the base he was imprisoned within. Later still the players would liberate that base, unaware they had set this all in motion until after they had succeeded. A different faction was exploring the dungeon the players had no interest in exploring. They would find the occasional missive or hear a story about the cult looting in their place, but only if they travelled to areas where such news would be more likely to be found. I had another faction messing around in the region, Snake Men who had travelled forward in time to save their people. I was so secretive about their machinations the players never really knew they existed, just brushing up against the aftermath of their actions. If we had played longer, perhaps this would have made for a good reveal. Or perhaps the lack of information would continue to make it too difficult for players to make any meaningful choices about how to engage with them. Sometimes it’s fine for things to be a little gamey. I eventually moved to sharing what was happening off camera in my Carcosa-style recaps that featured hex descriptions and encounter tables.\nI enjoyed being as surprised as my players when it came to what would happen during a session. I made extensive use of random tables to make the game go. This was perhaps partly an artifact of how terse Carcosa is, partly due to my own terse notes, and partly just my own preferences for how I like to run games. With wilderness exploration this feels like the most effective way to drive the game without relying on laborious prep. Groups of hexes would share a unique encounter table. The area around the players starting base began with: slavers and escaped slaves, a merchant caravan and their guards, bandits, Spawn of Shub-Nigguraths, and a unique spherical hunter robot that captures people in the wilderness to take back to its base. This table already tells a story about what’s happening in the region.\nMy secret sauce was expanding on these tables as we played the game. If an encounter with bandits was memorable, and they didn’t kill them all, they would return as a future entry on the encounter table. When the players desecrated a space alien tomb, stealing some armour, I added the Space Alien Strike Force who were trying to track down the culprits to the encounter table. This group ended up becoming an important mini-faction in the game, and close allies of the players. On multiple occasions the players released giant Spawn of Shub-Nigguraths, worshiped as gods, into the wilderness. Of course I added them to the encounter tables. It made the world feel alive when the players would bump into old friends or enemies, keep running up against factions they hated, or have to run away from giant god-monsters.\nPlayers actions should impact their place within the world. If they are dirt bags to the slavers (as they should be) then the slavers will be dirt bags to them. I had a reputation system to track how the players were regarded by the various factions. I would give the players positive or negative reaction rolls modifiers based on their reputation, which was based on their actions in the game. I would stop rolling if it felt like their actions had firmly placed them on a faction’s good or bad side.\nFactions should have their own goals, sometimes at odds with the players, sometimes at odds with other factions. They make progress towards their goals unless actively impeded by the PCs. The world should feel like it’s moving independently of the players. I was running things so long ago it didn’t feel like there was an obvious system to steal. Nowadays I would just use the rules from Mausritter. There doesn’t feel like much else to say here, they are so simple and good.\nWhen I started running Masters of Carcosa I didn’t have any real rules in mind for how exploration of the world would actually work. I codified a procedure for adventure a few sessions into our gaming. This was heavily inspired by the work Brendan was doing in this space, what he would write up as the Hazard system.\nI decided from the start that in the barren wastes of Carcosa travelling through any hex would be as difficult as travelling through any other. I didn’t want to fuss around with different travel times for different types of hexes. In Carcosa they all felt roughly the same. Brendan had written a post called Solipsistic Hexes that may have been some of the inspiration for this choice. A decade later, Mythic Bastionland takes the same approach. There are interesting choices to be had if your setting has roads, or varied terrain that encourages particular routes through the wilderness, but I think you can get far just having hard barriers the players need to navigate around. In my Carcosa game I had huge valleys, mountains, toxic rivers, etc, to block the player’s way.\nThe rules for how I ran wilderness exploration were quite short:\nThere are 4 wilderness actions: move, camp, hunt \u0026amp; forage for food, and explore. Characters may take two actions during the day, and one at night.\nThe DM’s map of Carcosa is divided up into 10 mile hexes. There are no short simple trips through the wilderness. The world of Carcosa lacks proper roads, with much of the planet a rocky badland. Moving allows players to travel from hex to the next. (Some hexes, like those covered in mountains or filled with swamps, may require characters use more than one move action to get through.) Characters generally rest at night by Camping. Skipping a camp action puts the characters at a -2 for all rolls during the following day. Hunting and Foraging for Food can be done to attempt to find food (rations) in the wild. Exploring will reveal a random unknown location within the hex. The players may instead attempt to find a specific location they know is somewhere in the hex. If the location is well hidden, doing so requires the character with the highest wisdom score roll under their wisdom. Re-reading this now, it isn’t that far and away from what Chris would settle on in Mythic Bastionland. It’s a shame he hadn’t written his game at the time, I could have just started from his work. After each action the players would roll an overloaded encounter die to see what complications arise. I settled on encounters on the 1 \u0026amp; 2, a complication on a 3, lost on a 4, and safe on a 5 or 6. These rolls ended up being a big driver of action in the game, because as noted above, each region had their own wilderness encounter tables, and they tied back into the game world.\nAnd that was the game! The players would plan out goals for the session. Wander off into the wilderness. Get lost. Fight bandits. Rescue slaves. This was all driven from this loose process and framework for play. I started with almost nothing, and figured it out as I went along. You shouldn’t let a fear of doing it wrong stop you from playing. It’s honestly pretty hard to play wrong.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/carcosa-hexkit.jpg\" alt=\"mini map of carcosa\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/\"\u003eMasters of Carcosa\u003c/a\u003e is the longest campaign I have run. My friends and I played 23 sessions, starting at the end of 2014, ending near the start of 2016. The game began after \u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/\"\u003eBrendan\u003c/a\u003e took a break from running \u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/tag/pahvelorn/\"\u003ePahvelorn\u003c/a\u003e, likely to focus on his PhD. \u003ca href=\"/blog/coming-out-of-retirement/\"\u003eI hadn’t run a game since I was a kid!\u003c/a\u003e Playing in Brendan’s Pahvelorn campaign was hugely inspirational, and has informed how I have run games since. With Pahvelorn we were exploring a megadungeon, with the occasional trips out to explore the larger world. I wanted to run a hex crawl, but wasn’t completely sure how to start. In 2014 it didn’t feel like there nearly as many resources available compared to talking about dungeon delving.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy plan was to run a game set in the world of [Carcosa][], a gonzo setting by Geoffrey McKinney, originally published as a small zine, in the style of old Judge’s Guild hex crawls. I was running from the fancier version put out by LotFP, which featured Rich Longmore’s incredible art. We learn about the setting via hex descriptions like the following:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVillage of 240 Yellow Men ruled by “the Fullness of Benedictions,” a chaotic 10th-level Fighter.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2 B’yakhee.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOn a natural stone outcrop is a 2 high statue of Hastur,\nmade of an indestructible dull black stone. In front of it is a human skeleton. If anyone touches the statue, he will be cursed to carry the 40 pound statue with him always. The only way to lift the curse is to give the statue to a willing recipient, but no one wants the vile thing.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book was pretty polarizing for lots of reasons, one being how phoned-in some of the hex descriptions are. I loved it all the same. You would be surprised how far “2 B’yakhee” can take you in a session. I enjoyed improvising off the small hard facts presented in the book and my own notes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/review/carcosa-review-reprise/\"\u003eAt the time I wrote a second review of Carcosa\u003c/a\u003e, after having run the campaign for few sessions. It’s interesting to look at the review now, as it focuses almost exclusively on how I went about setting up the campaign we would play. But how do you even run a hex crawl?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSandbox play is long term play. A hex crawl is about exploring the world, and that’s hard to do in an interesting or meaningful way in a handful of sessions. If there is one lesson to be learned about running a sandbox, it’s that whatever rules \u0026amp; mechanics nonsense you come up with to make your game go, none of it will matter if you don’t actually play. I was inconsistent when it came to scheduling the game, and it was likely the biggest reason we finally stopped playing. Players would regularly miss sessions because they thought we were playing the following week, miss a game because I had to push it out a week at the last minute and they already had plans, etc. People will tell you that this or that game isn’t suited for long term play. “Mothership is only good for one-shots.” Bull shit. Games don’t stall out because the levelling mechanics aren’t interesting enough, or because high level fighters become too dominant, or the wizard knows too many spells. Games stall out because people can’t get their schedules to match. Picking a schedule and sticking to it is really the only “mechanic” you need for long term play. This is the fundamental theorem of gaming.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelated to the above, running an open-table will make it easy to keep a game going when people lead busy lives and can’t commit to regular play. For those unfamiliar, an open-table simply means there are no fixed set of players participating in the game. Session to session you’ll have a different roster of players playing. \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eni3aEQDCGJtKssjAZ_0iwl3y8i1LnwusZGmj4YHbn8/edit?gid=0#gid=0\"\u003eMasters of Carcosa had 16 players over its 23 sessions.\u003c/a\u003e Eric made every single session save 1, and the one he missed was over scheduling confusion, my mistake. \u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eNick\u003c/a\u003e, and Dion were other core players, making most games. If we had kept playing Chris likely would have become another core player. Everyone else played a few games and moved on with their lives, dropping in and out. Brendan would require us to return to a home base at the end of each session, and I had the same rule for my own game. The players always returned to a safe settlement at the end of each session, which made the juggling of players work in the fiction. (Mind you, I think it’s best not to be too fussed about how Dwarf Icefingers suddenly appeared when he wasn’t in the dungeon last session.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou shouldn’t prepare too much to start. Chgowiz says this best in his classic blog post \u003ca href=\"https://chgowiz-games.blogspot.com/2017/11/just-three-hexes-campaign-starters.html\"\u003eJust Three Hexes\u003c/a\u003e, but this blog post didn’t exist when I started playing. Lucky for me, not prepping enough is how I live my whole life. I drew a mini campaign map focused on a smaller section of Carcosa, where I expected the game to begin before the players ventured off into the wider world. The players never left. They didn’t even explore all the hexes in my mini-map! A small region can provide years of play.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is lonely fun to be had in prep, and you can often find ways to repurpose work you’ve done that will clearly never find the light of day, but it takes a lot of energy to keep a game going for a long time, so best to spend your time wisely. Prepping too much before you’ve even played a game feels like writing an elaborate backstory for your player character before a campaign begins. Good advice for players remains good advice for game masters: let things evolve over time.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou shouldn’t front load too much. When you finish a session, take copious notes. I would write recaps of each session, so I would remember what took place. Anything important for the future I would add as notes for the given hex. A throw away NPC can suddenly become crucially important. This is a more dynamic and interesting way to run a game—both for yourself and your players. You just need enough hard facts for the choices the players take to be meaningful. You can always build upon these facts as the game moves along.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I shared the invites for my games on Google+ I would include rumours, things the players were made newly aware of, and reminders of loose threads from previous sessions. I maintained a Google+ post of all the open threads and rumours, so they wouldn’t forget about a weirdo they met in the wilderness, or a dungeon they might want to go back and explore. There was no overarching “plot” for the campaign. Everything that happened was player driven. For that to work you need a world without enough juice that there are different avenues for the players to pursue. In Masters of Carcosa the players were obsessed with destroying the Jale Slavers. There is a parallel universe where the campaign instead focused on exploring \u003ca href=\"/blog/masters-of-carcosa-session-21/\"\u003ethe Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI would seed information about the world and its machinations wherever I could. NPCs would tell the players about nearby settlements, or factions they encountered in the wilderness. The players would find letters on dead bodies, discussing what was happening in the wider world. In one Sages in town would trade information for gold, or send the players on little quests. I made an effort to try and always reinforce that there was a lot going on completely divorced from the players and their immediate actions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/blog/have-them-act/\"\u003eI have written on this topic in the past\u003c/a\u003e, but it’s a mistake to be too coy about what’s going on in the world, what your factions are up to. There is a fine balance here. Some of the fun situations that occurred during the campaign came from my players being unaware of what was happening off camera. They set one of the villains of the game free in the first session. Many sessions later the same villain returned to recapture the base he was imprisoned within. Later still the players would liberate that base, unaware they had set this all in motion until after they had succeeded. A different faction was exploring the dungeon the players had no interest in exploring. They would find the occasional missive or hear a story about the cult looting in their place, but only if they travelled to areas where such news would be more likely to be found. I had another faction messing around in the region, Snake Men who had travelled forward in time to save their people. I was so secretive about their machinations the players never really knew they existed, just brushing up against the aftermath of their actions. If we had played longer, perhaps this would have made for a good reveal. Or perhaps the lack of information would continue to make it too difficult for players to make any meaningful choices about how to engage with them. Sometimes it’s fine for things to be a little gamey. I eventually moved to \u003ca href=\"/blog/masters-of-carcosa-session-9/\"\u003esharing what was happening off camera in my Carcosa-style recaps\u003c/a\u003e that featured hex descriptions and encounter tables.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI enjoyed being as surprised as my players when it came to what would happen during a session. I made extensive use of random tables to make the game go. This was perhaps partly an artifact of how terse \u003cem\u003eCarcosa\u003c/em\u003e is, partly due to my own terse notes, and partly just my own preferences for how I like to run games. With wilderness exploration this feels like the most effective way to drive the game without relying on laborious prep. Groups of hexes would share a unique encounter table. The area around the players starting base began with: slavers and escaped slaves, a merchant caravan and their guards, bandits, Spawn of Shub-Nigguraths, and a unique spherical hunter robot that captures people in the wilderness to take back to its base. This table already tells a story about what’s happening in the region.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy secret sauce was expanding on these tables as we played the game. If an encounter with bandits was memorable, and they didn’t kill them all, they would return as a future entry on the encounter table. When the players desecrated a space alien tomb, stealing some armour, I added the Space Alien Strike Force who were trying to track down the culprits to the encounter table. This group ended up becoming an important mini-faction in the game, and close allies of the players. On multiple occasions the players released giant Spawn of Shub-Nigguraths, worshiped as gods, into the wilderness. Of course I added them to the encounter tables. It made the world feel alive when the players would bump into old friends or enemies, keep running up against factions they hated, or have to run away from giant god-monsters.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlayers actions should impact their place within the world. If they are dirt bags to the slavers (as they should be) then the slavers will be dirt bags to them. I had a reputation system to track how the players were regarded by the various factions. I would give the players positive or negative reaction rolls modifiers based on their reputation, which was based on their actions in the game. I would stop rolling if it felt like their actions had firmly placed them on a faction’s good or bad side.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFactions should have their own goals, sometimes at odds with the players, sometimes at odds with other factions. They make progress towards their goals unless actively impeded by the PCs. The world should feel like it’s moving independently of the players. I was running things so long ago it didn’t feel like there was an obvious system to steal. Nowadays I would just use the rules from \u003ca href=\"https://mausritter.com/\"\u003eMausritter\u003c/a\u003e. There doesn’t feel like much else to say here, they are so simple and good.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I started running Masters of Carcosa I didn’t have any real rules in mind for how exploration of the world would actually work. \u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/adventuring/\"\u003eI codified a procedure for adventure a few sessions into our gaming.\u003c/a\u003e This was heavily inspired by \u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/2014/02/03/overloading-the-encounter-die/\"\u003ethe work Brendan was doing in this space\u003c/a\u003e, what he would write up as \u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/2017/11/22/hazard-system-v0-3/\"\u003ethe Hazard system\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI decided from the start that in the barren wastes of Carcosa travelling through any hex would be as difficult as travelling through any other. I didn’t want to fuss around with different travel times for different types of hexes. In Carcosa they all felt roughly the same. Brendan had written a post called \u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/2013/04/10/solipsistic-hexes/\"\u003eSolipsistic Hexes\u003c/a\u003e that may have been some of the inspiration for this choice. A decade later, \u003ca href=\"https://bastionlandpress.com/products/mythic-bastionland-hardback-book-plus-pdf\"\u003eMythic Bastionland\u003c/a\u003e takes the same approach. There \u003cem\u003eare\u003c/em\u003e interesting choices to be had if your setting has roads, or varied terrain that encourages particular routes through the wilderness, but I think you can get far just having hard barriers the players need to navigate around. In my Carcosa game I had huge valleys, mountains, toxic rivers, etc, to block the player’s way.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rules for how I ran wilderness exploration were quite short:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are 4 wilderness actions: move, camp, hunt \u0026amp; forage for food, and explore. Characters may take two actions during the day, and one at night.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe DM’s map of Carcosa is divided up into 10 mile hexes. There are no short simple trips through the wilderness. The world of Carcosa lacks proper roads, with much of the planet a rocky badland. Moving allows players to travel from hex to the next. (Some hexes, like those covered in mountains or filled with swamps, may require characters use more than one move action to get through.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCharacters generally rest at night by Camping. Skipping a camp action puts the characters at a -2 for all rolls during the following day.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHunting and Foraging for Food can be done to attempt to find food (rations) in the wild.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExploring will reveal a random unknown location within the hex. The players may instead attempt to find a specific location they know is somewhere in the hex. If the location is well hidden, doing so requires the character with the highest wisdom score roll under their wisdom.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRe-reading this now, it isn’t that far and away from what \u003ca href=\"https://www.bastionland.com/\"\u003eChris\u003c/a\u003e would settle on in \u003cem\u003eMythic Bastionland\u003c/em\u003e. It’s a shame he hadn’t written his game at the time, I could have just started from his work. After each action the players would roll an overloaded encounter die to see what complications arise. I settled on encounters on the 1 \u0026amp; 2, a complication on a 3, lost on a 4, and safe on a 5 or 6. These rolls ended up being a big driver of action in the game, because as noted above, each region had their own wilderness encounter tables, and they tied back into the game world.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd that was the game! The players would plan out goals for the session. Wander off into the wilderness. Get lost. Fight bandits. Rescue slaves. This was all driven from this loose process and framework for play. I started with almost nothing, and figured it out as I went along. You shouldn’t let a fear of doing it wrong stop you from playing. It’s honestly pretty hard to play wrong.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/blog/advice-for-running-a-hexcrawl-a-decade-too-late/", "tags": ["hexcrawl","advice","osr","carcosa","mastersofcarcosa"], "date_published": "2025-12-26T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-26T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "8117cb846dc922b216db60948d9db7624fa2f314", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 23", "content_text": "\nAnd so we come to the end. Did I know this would be the last session of the campaign? Hard to tell, but I posted about it going on hiatus shortly afterwards. This session ended up being a fitting conclusion for the campaign. Gus and Eric were both in attendance. We ended on real cliffhanger. The whole campaign had been building towards this moment: the party decided to attack the Jale Slaves based.\nI had shared a dispatch from Space Alien Strike Force after the previous session, a couple weeks before we played, which might have nudged them towards this showdown.\nThe session ended with a giant mass battle, which I was once again unsure how to play out. I know I was tracking how many rounds it took to win the fight, and that would tie into casualties and other post-fight shenanigans. Maybe I have notes on G+ somewhere. Oh wait.\nMy map of the slaver’s base is incomplete, which is pretty funny since it was obvious early on that this was the one thread the party was most interested in pursuing. As it stands, my not finishing things worked out alright in this case.\nMasters of Carcosa is the longest campaign I have run. 23 sessions, starting at the end of 2014, ending near the start of 2016. Sharing all these old play reports has been a lot of fun. I haven’t thought about this campaign in some time. Revisiting it now, all these years later, has me wanting to play Carcosa once again. It really is the fucking best.\nPlayers:\nGus: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter Eric Boyd: Orange Julia - Orange Women Fighter Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Dispatches from the Space Alien Strike Force\nAll troop movement occurs via the large \u0026ldquo;front\u0026rdquo; door. The aliens suspect there must be at least one other exit, unless the slavers are idiots. 12 raptor riding guards always patrol the exterior of the slaver base. They think there are at least 18 raptors, based on how the guards rotate in and out of their shifts. They think they can get better intel with more time. 16 Jale Slavers took a group of 28 slaves North East. There are currently 13 slaves that remain chained outside. There have spotted one person that they suspect might be the leader. Unlike the rest of the slavers he was shirtless and wearing a large lizard’s head as a helmet. There has been too little troop movement for them to guess at troop size. They think there must be at least 60 slavers in the base, but likely more. Recap:\nThe party mills around in Invak for an extra two weeks, prepping for a big battle, thinking hard about what to do next when it comes to the slavers. Further news from the Space Alien Strike Force reveals that some slavers have returned with additional slaves (13 Red Men), 17 Jale Men look to have come to join as new recruits, and that’s about it. The party decides, “Fuck it, let’s just kill those mofos.” They ride out with an army of 120! A make shift pontoon bridge is built to cross the river. They leave part of their force behind, and approach with the most bad ass looking laser pistol wielding men and women. They approach the slaver citadel, and begin making demands of the guards out front. That doesn’t go well: laser fire is exchanged. Normangina manages to blow a hole in one of their “arrow slits”, exposing part of the base further up the mountain. They leave their demands staked to the ground and flee. The party makes camp, and waits for a fight that doesn’t happen. The next day they advance with their whole army on the slavers base. A slave is sent out from the base to parlay with the party. He informs them they must flee and never return. “the Overqueen of Small Petals” is an evil women, clearly one steeped in the ways of vile sorcery. The party isn’t having none of that. They decide there isn’t much point waiting further, and launch their big attack. One group of their number head up through the hole Normangina created earlier. The other bust through the front door after a bazooka is fired to make the entry easier. The army of Invak and Jahar pour into the base. The party come face to face with a group of 6 raptors and their riders. A vicious fight where several of their hechmen die, and Normangina is knocked out cold. (Though not before hoping onto the back of a raptor and commanding it to bite someone!) Dion’s character (name?) is almost killed, but the injury just makes him angrier. (Hulkamania Save vs. Death Rule!) The party is victorious after 4 rounds of combat. Orange Julia revives Normangina with a desert lotus potion. What will happen to our fearless heroes?!\nComments:\nRamanan S (2016-04-26 04:29): I wanted to write it out before I forgot what happened. Gus you\u0026rsquo;ve used two bazooka blasts. Everyone else who still has weapons with explicit ammo counts remember to mark off how many shots you have left. We ended in media res. Gus you can attempt to quickly tame the raptors before you end up embroiled in another fight. It took you 4 rounds to end that fight. So that effects what your next encounter will be FYI. Chris G (2016-04-26 04:54): +1 for Hulkamania! Ramanan S (2016-04-26 04:55): First time that\u0026rsquo;s ever happened (natural 20 when making a save vs. death). Logan McCormack (2016-04-26 06:06): I just love to read your game reports! :D Gus L (2016-04-26 17:24): Oh yeah totally taming the raptors! We ride to victory! Also collecting a solid mob of extra combatants. Post-Session Post:\nThe bodies of Jale Slavers lay motionless on the ground, their velociraptor mounts mill about confused. Fighting rages all about. The armies of Invak and Jahar have joined forces to fight the scourge of slavery once and for all. The fighting will be vicious. This day was coming: the Rainbow connection crosses the threshold of the Jale Slaver’s mountain citadel.\nTo be continued \u0026hellip;\nThe game is on hiatus \u0026hellip; for now! The Rainbow Connection fights the slavers for the last time. We will have to wait till next season to find out what happens.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/masters-of-carcosa-base.jpg\" alt=\"slaver base, maybe\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd so we come to the end. Did I know this would be the last session of the campaign? Hard to tell, but I posted about it going on hiatus shortly afterwards. This session ended up being a fitting conclusion for the campaign. Gus and Eric were both in attendance. We ended on real cliffhanger. The whole campaign had been building towards this moment: the party decided to attack the Jale Slaves based.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had shared a dispatch from Space Alien Strike Force after the previous session, a couple weeks before we played, which might have nudged them towards this showdown.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe session ended with a giant mass battle, which I was once again unsure how to play out. I know I was tracking how many rounds it took to win the fight, and that would tie into casualties and other post-fight shenanigans. Maybe I have notes on G+ somewhere. Oh wait.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy map of the slaver’s base is incomplete, which is pretty funny since it was obvious early on that this was the one thread the party was most interested in pursuing. As it stands, my not finishing things worked out alright in this case.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMasters of Carcosa is the longest campaign I have run. 23 sessions, starting at the end of 2014, ending near the start of 2016. Sharing all these old play reports has been a lot of fun. I haven’t thought about this campaign in some time. Revisiting it now, all these years later, has me wanting to play Carcosa once again. It really is the fucking best.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia - Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDispatches from the Space Alien Strike Force\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll troop movement occurs via the large \u0026ldquo;front\u0026rdquo; door. The aliens suspect there must be at least one other exit, unless the slavers are idiots.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e12 raptor riding guards always patrol the exterior of the slaver base. They think there are at least 18 raptors, based on how the guards rotate in and out of their shifts. They think they can get better intel with more time.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e16 Jale Slavers took a group of 28 slaves North East. There are currently 13 slaves that remain chained outside.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere have spotted one person that they suspect might be the leader. Unlike the rest of the slavers he was shirtless and wearing a large lizard’s head as a helmet.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere has been too little troop movement for them to guess at troop size. They think there must be at least 60 slavers in the base, but likely more.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party mills around in Invak for an extra two weeks, prepping for a big battle, thinking hard about what to do next when it comes to the slavers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFurther news from the Space Alien Strike Force reveals that some slavers have returned with additional slaves (13 Red Men), 17 Jale Men look to have come to join as new recruits, and that’s about it.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party decides, “Fuck it, let’s just kill those mofos.”\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey ride out with an army of 120!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA make shift pontoon bridge is built to cross the river.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey leave part of their force behind, and approach with the most bad ass looking laser pistol wielding men and women.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey approach the slaver citadel, and begin making demands of the guards out front.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThat doesn’t go well: laser fire is exchanged.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNormangina manages to blow a hole in one of their “arrow slits”, exposing part of the base further up the mountain.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey leave their demands staked to the ground and flee.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party makes camp, and waits for a fight that doesn’t happen. The next day they advance with their whole army on the slavers base.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA slave is sent out from the base to parlay with the party. He informs them they must flee and never return. “the Overqueen of Small Petals” is an evil women, clearly one steeped in the ways of vile sorcery.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party isn’t having none of that. They decide there isn’t much point waiting further, and launch their big attack.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOne group of their number head up through the hole Normangina created earlier. The other bust through the front door after a bazooka is fired to make the entry easier.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe army of Invak and Jahar pour into the base.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party come face to face with a group of 6 raptors and their riders.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA vicious fight where several of their hechmen die, and Normangina is knocked out cold. (Though not before hoping onto the back of a raptor and commanding it to bite someone!)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion’s character (name?) is almost killed, but the injury just makes him angrier. (Hulkamania Save vs. Death Rule!)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party is victorious after 4 rounds of combat.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOrange Julia revives Normangina with a desert lotus potion.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat will happen to our fearless heroes?!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-04-26 04:29): I wanted to write it out before I forgot what happened. Gus you\u0026rsquo;ve used two bazooka blasts. Everyone else who still has weapons with explicit ammo counts remember to mark off how many shots you have left. We ended in media res. Gus you can attempt to quickly tame the raptors before you end up embroiled in another fight. It took you 4 rounds to end that fight. So that effects what your next encounter will be FYI. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris G\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-04-26 04:54): +1 for Hulkamania!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-04-26 04:55): First time that\u0026rsquo;s ever happened (natural 20 when making a save vs. death).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLogan McCormack\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-04-26 06:06): I just love to read your game reports! :D\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGus L\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-04-26 17:24): Oh yeah totally taming the raptors! We ride to victory! Also collecting a solid mob of extra combatants.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePost-Session Post:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe bodies of Jale Slavers lay motionless on the ground, their velociraptor mounts mill about confused. Fighting rages all about. The armies of Invak and Jahar have joined forces to fight the scourge of slavery once and for all. The fighting will be vicious. This day was coming: the Rainbow connection crosses the threshold of the Jale Slaver’s mountain citadel.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTo be continued \u0026hellip;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe game is on hiatus \u0026hellip; for now! The Rainbow Connection fights the slavers for the last time. We will have to wait till next season to find out what happens.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-23/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-23T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-23T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "9498463217152b00541534fb52481e893f6b1961", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 22", "content_text": "\nThis session was all about trying to make friends. The players had a zany scheme: dress up a slaver in the space alien amour they had stolen from a tomb in order to convince the space aliens it was in fact the slavers that were out there desecrating their holy sites.\nThey once again returned to the Space Alien outpost, no longer abandoned. They had returned to their experiments, making use of the deranged, spherical, hunter robot that stakes the wastes at night. The Carcosa book has this to say about the robot, which is what I used as the seed for my ideas for the this whole space and how all the parts fit together: “It will seek to abduct stragglers and take them to a small, hidden outpost to be shackled in close proximity to radioactive waste. Each hour spent thus requires a successful saving throw to avoid mutation.”\nThis is the session Asha Rey dies! I remember the session, but don’t recall if this was a surprise round followed by an instant kill due to the dice. Harsh if so. In my head this game was a real meat grinder, but there weren’t actually that many player deaths over the course of the campaign.\nWish I could remember the context for, “Chris P gets 15XP for just being an all around great guy.” He really was, though.\nPlayers:\nGus: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter Eric Boyd: Orange Julia - Orange Women Fighter Chris P.: Bone Crone - Bone Women Sorcerer Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Recap:\nThe party puts the space alien armour on one of the Jale Slaver bodies they killed and jam the body in a barrel with some salt and rocks to try and stop the body from decomposing too much. They travel south towards the space alien outpost, no looking much less abandoned. A group of space aliens—those the party \u0026ldquo;freed\u0026rdquo;—have gone to work repairing the outpost and continuing their experimentation. The spherical hunter robot exists to bring specimens to the wastes: they will consider turning it off, but promised to stop sending it West towards Jahar and Invak. The Aliens are far stranger than the ones you have met thus far. They seem cold and emotionless. The party gives them the heads up that people on Carcosa are fucked up, and then head on their way after learning the space alien strike force headed south east (towards their leaders tomb) As they get closer they see the same giant translucent T-Rex they saw last time they explored the tomb. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t see them and wanders South. The space aliens are nowhere to be seen, but look to have headed south, so they head that was as well, taking care to avoid the dinosaur. They come upon the poisonous swamps, which stretch out for miles. The aliens are long gone, so they decide to head back and wait for them to return to the tomb. On the way back they spot 4 savage Mi-Go who dive out of the sky. Asha Rey is killed instantly — RIP The fight quickly turns, as the party manage to kill the Mi-Go one after another. They camp near the alien tomb, waiting for the space aliens. The aliens come upon them in the middle of the night. They show the aliens the armour on the slavers body. The space aliens are disgusted with what was done and will join their fight against the slavers. Led inside to sleep, but party elects to sleep outside No overnight drama, they awake safe and sound. The Space Alien Strike Force head North, planning to scope out the slavers. Treasure:\nThe good will of the Space Alien Strike Force Chris P gets 15XP for just being an all around great guy. Comments\nRamanan S (2016-03-16 04:09): Let me know if i\u0026rsquo;ve missed anything. I\u0026rsquo;ll make an event thread for the next session. We can do the stuff that happens between sessions there. Dion Williams (2016-03-16 08:57): I was tempted to draw a picture of Asha-Ray exploding with the Mi-Go coming though \u0026ldquo;Chest Burster Xenomorph\u0026rdquo; style. Ramanan S (2016-03-17 05:27): Dion Williams do it! ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/masters-of-carcosa-site.jpg\" alt=\"Carcosa site\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis session was all about trying to make friends. The players had a zany scheme: dress up a slaver in the space alien amour they had stolen from a tomb in order to convince the space aliens it was in fact the slavers that were out there desecrating their holy sites.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey once again returned to the Space Alien outpost, no longer abandoned. They had returned to their experiments, making use of the deranged, spherical, hunter robot that stakes the wastes at night. The Carcosa book has this to say about the robot, which is what I used as the seed for my ideas for the this whole space and how all the parts fit together: “It will seek to abduct stragglers and take them to a small, hidden outpost to be shackled in close proximity to radioactive waste. Each hour spent thus requires a successful saving throw to avoid mutation.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the session Asha Rey dies! I remember the session, but don’t recall if this was a surprise round followed by an instant kill due to the dice. Harsh if so. In my head this game was a real meat grinder, but there weren’t actually that many player deaths over the course of the campaign.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWish I could remember the context for, “Chris P gets 15XP for just being an all around great guy.” He really was, though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia - Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P.: Bone Crone - Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party puts the space alien armour on one of the Jale Slaver bodies they killed and jam the body in a barrel with some salt and rocks to try and stop the body from decomposing too much.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey travel south towards the space alien outpost, no looking much less abandoned.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA group of space aliens—those the party \u0026ldquo;freed\u0026rdquo;—have gone to work repairing the outpost and continuing their experimentation.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe spherical hunter robot exists to bring specimens to the wastes: they will consider turning it off, but promised to stop sending it West towards Jahar and Invak.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Aliens are far stranger than the ones you have met thus far. They seem cold and emotionless.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party gives them the heads up that people on Carcosa are fucked up, and then head on their way after learning the space alien strike force headed south east (towards their leaders tomb)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAs they get closer they see the same giant translucent T-Rex they saw last time they explored the tomb. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t see them and wanders South.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe space aliens are nowhere to be seen, but look to have headed south, so they head that was as well, taking care to avoid the dinosaur.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey come upon the poisonous swamps, which stretch out for miles. The aliens are long gone, so they decide to head back and wait for them to return to the tomb.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOn the way back they spot 4 savage Mi-Go who dive out of the sky.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAsha Rey is killed instantly — RIP\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe fight quickly turns, as the party manage to kill the Mi-Go one after another.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey camp near the alien tomb, waiting for the space aliens.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe aliens come upon them in the middle of the night.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey show the aliens the armour on the slavers body.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe space aliens are disgusted with what was done and will join their fight against the slavers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLed inside to sleep, but party elects to sleep outside\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNo overnight drama, they awake safe and sound.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Space Alien Strike Force head North, planning to scope out the slavers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe good will of the Space Alien Strike Force\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P gets 15XP for just being an all around great guy.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-16 04:09): Let me know if i\u0026rsquo;ve missed anything. I\u0026rsquo;ll make an event thread for the next session. We can do the stuff that happens between sessions there.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDion Williams\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-16 08:57): I was tempted to draw a picture of Asha-Ray exploding with the Mi-Go coming though \u0026ldquo;Chest Burster Xenomorph\u0026rdquo; style.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-17 05:27): Dion Williams do it!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-22/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-22T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-22T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "a8c92c77404ed7ed0dfa650cbebe7dd100f5a04c", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 21", "content_text": "\nMore slaver killing antics, as the party heads north to investigate rumours of slaver activity. The party had liberated the Orange Man citadel North of their home base of Invak many sessions ago, but hadn’t returned in some time. This was another fairly vanilla session, but was a good setup for the next one, as they had plans for the body of one of the dead slavers.\nThough the party was still completely uninterested in exploring the Putrescent Pits of the Ameboid God, I wanted to make it clear that there was another faction exploring the space in their stead. A note they find amongst the dead indicates someone out there was in search of as many slaves as they could get a hold of to explore “the pits”.\nMy notes for the first floor of the dungeon describe two factions. Lawful Yellow Man cultists who are trying to prevent access to the pits, and Chaotic Purple Man cultists that worship the Ameboid God and want to venture down. There were two entrances down to a level I never bothered mapping (smart!), once guarded by the Lawful cultists, the other a secret entrance discovered by the Purple Men. These Purple Men cultists were operating in the wilderness, though North of the players, so they never really encountered them.\nMy notes of the dungeon from that time. Maybe I’ll revisit this one day:\nThere are two levels of caverns above the actual Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid God. These natural caverns were built by the Snakemen thousands of years ago to cover the actual pit that leads to the Amoeboid God.\nWho is here? Ameboid God Cultists. (Two factions: one inside the pit proper, the other trying to find their way down.) Mushroom Men. Space Aliens. Irrational Space Aliens. Primordial Ones. Shohgoths The pit travels from level 3 all the was to the lowest levels of the dungeon, terminating at the giant Ameboid God. Several entrances to other levels via the pit. God is several (hundred?) feet below the lowest level Rival cults distributed between levels 3,4,5 Shogoths on lower levels Aliens on 5,6,7 fighting irrational aliens Fungus Men distributed throughout? Primordial ones 8, 9 battle shogotths Yeah, that could have been a fun time too.\nPlayers:\nEric Boyd: Orange Julia - Orange Women Fighter Chris P.: Bone Crone - Bone Women Sorcerer Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Recap:\nThe party leaves Invak and heads north to Investigate rumours about more slaver activity. They are accompanied by 20 Bone Men from Invak, who will reinforce the citadel to the North. At the ford where the party normally crosses the river they spot two fish like dinosaurs. After some investigation it looks like they have just fed, and ignore the party The citadel welcomes the party. They inform them of two settlements near by that are friendly to slavers: a citadel of Blue Men to the North, and a Village of Green Men to the North East (South of the Putrescent Pits of the Ameboid God) The party decides to head to the Green Men village, along with two soldiers from the citadel. Along the way they come upon 13 Bone Men, and 14 slaves manacled together. The party skirts around and rolls down some rocks onto the slavers below, killing one person and somewhat blocking the path forward. A big fight breaks out! The Bone Crone is wounded, but manages to survive a blast from a laser gun. The party manages to fall back and pick off the slavers in smaller groups, finally killing them all. The party leads the captured slaves back to the citadel, where they sleep for the night. They head to Invak in the morning. They dig up the old space alien armour, which they plan to put on a dead slaver and present to the space aliens. Treasure:\n13 dead slavers can be claimed for the slaver bounty (1300 GP) 14 slaves freed (1400 GP) 2 Laser Rifles (\u0026ldquo;long\u0026rdquo; range, d10 ammo die, 2dCarcosa damage) 13 Obsidian Swords 13 Black / Brown “Leather” armour 14 manacles with chain and two sets of keys 200’ of strong rope 20 bone spikes A letter requests \u0026ldquo;as many slaves as are currently available\u0026rdquo;. A price of 50GP per slave is mentioned, some sort of bulk rate. \u0026ldquo;Must be reasonably able bodied, as they are to be sent down to explore the [putrescent] pits [of the ameboid god].\u0026rdquo; Comments:\nEric Boyd (2016-03-01 17:37): And two laser guns, d10 shot die, if I recall correctly. Ramanan S (2016-03-01 17:38): Ah yes you are right! Bryan Mullins (2016-03-01 19:44): Nice one you all! Chris P. (2016-03-02 04:05): Gus L The tidbit about us finding a Jale slaver corpse and preparing to deliver it next session with the armor is probably relevant to you. Chris P. (2016-03-02 04:09): Also of note, that letter requesting the slaves, and buying at bulk rate, some jerk is REALLY interested in exploring the pits of the amoeboid god. We should look into this. Whomever is getting the Costco discount from the Jale slavers is not somebody I think we want breathing. Gus L (2016-03-02 06:46): Chris P. Indeed it is - with a day more notice I will certainly be there - I don\u0026rsquo;t mind giving up the armor for friendship and protection from the alien death squad. ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/putrescent-pits-maps.jpg\" alt=\"Pits\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore slaver killing antics, as the party heads north to investigate rumours of slaver activity. The party had liberated the Orange Man citadel North of their home base of Invak many sessions ago, but hadn’t returned in some time. This was another fairly vanilla session, but was a good setup for the next one, as they had plans for the body of one of the dead slavers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough the party was still completely uninterested in exploring \u003ca href=\"/blog/masters-of-carcosa-session-3/\"\u003ethe Putrescent Pits of the Ameboid God\u003c/a\u003e, I wanted to make it clear that there was another faction exploring the space in their stead. A note they find amongst the dead indicates someone out there was in search of as many slaves as they could get a hold of to explore “the pits”.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy notes for the first floor of the dungeon describe two factions. Lawful Yellow Man cultists who are trying to prevent access to the pits, and Chaotic Purple Man cultists that worship the Ameboid God and want to venture down. There were two entrances down to a level I never bothered mapping (smart!), once guarded by the Lawful cultists, the other a secret entrance discovered by the Purple Men. These Purple Men cultists were operating in the wilderness, though North of the players, so they never really encountered them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy notes of the dungeon from that time. Maybe I’ll revisit this one day:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are two levels of caverns above the actual Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid God. These natural caverns were built by the Snakemen thousands of years ago to cover the actual pit that leads to the Amoeboid God.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWho is here? Ameboid God Cultists. (Two factions: one inside the pit proper, the other trying to find their way down.) Mushroom Men. Space Aliens. Irrational Space Aliens. Primordial Ones. Shohgoths\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe pit travels from level 3 all the was to the lowest levels of the dungeon, terminating at the giant Ameboid God. Several entrances to other levels via the pit.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGod is several (hundred?) feet below the lowest level\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRival cults distributed between levels 3,4,5\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShogoths on lower levels\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAliens on 5,6,7 fighting irrational aliens\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFungus Men distributed throughout?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePrimordial ones 8, 9 battle shogotths\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYeah, that could have been a fun time too.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia - Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P.: Bone Crone - Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party leaves Invak and heads north to Investigate rumours about more slaver activity.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey are accompanied by 20 Bone Men from Invak, who will reinforce the citadel to the North.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAt the ford where the party normally crosses the river they spot two fish like dinosaurs.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAfter some investigation it looks like they have just fed, and ignore the party\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe citadel welcomes the party. They inform them of two settlements near by that are friendly to slavers: a citadel of Blue Men to the North, and a Village of Green Men to the North East (South of the Putrescent Pits of the Ameboid God)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party decides to head to the Green Men village, along with two soldiers from the citadel.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlong the way they come upon 13 Bone Men, and 14 slaves manacled together.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party skirts around and rolls down some rocks onto the slavers below, killing one person and somewhat blocking the path forward.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA big fight breaks out!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Bone Crone is wounded, but manages to survive a blast from a  laser gun.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party manages to fall back and pick off the slavers in smaller groups, finally killing them all.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party leads the captured slaves back to the citadel, where they sleep for the night.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey head to Invak in the morning.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey dig up the old space alien armour, which they plan to put on a dead slaver and present to the space aliens.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTreasure:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e13 dead slavers can be claimed for the slaver bounty (1300 GP)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e14 slaves freed (1400 GP)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2 Laser Rifles (\u0026ldquo;long\u0026rdquo; range, d10 ammo die, 2dCarcosa damage)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e13 Obsidian Swords\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e13 Black / Brown “Leather” armour\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e14 manacles with chain and two sets of keys\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e200’ of strong rope\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e20 bone spikes\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA letter requests \u0026ldquo;as many slaves as are currently available\u0026rdquo;. A price of 50GP per slave is mentioned, some sort of bulk rate. \u0026ldquo;Must be reasonably able bodied, as they are to be sent down to explore the [putrescent] pits [of the ameboid god].\u0026rdquo;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Boyd\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-01 17:37): And two laser guns, d10 shot die, if I recall correctly. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-01 17:38): Ah yes you are right!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBryan Mullins\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-01 19:44): Nice one you all!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-02 04:05): Gus L The tidbit about us finding a Jale slaver corpse and preparing to deliver it next session with the armor is probably relevant to you.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-02 04:09): Also of note, that letter requesting the slaves, and buying at bulk rate, some jerk is REALLY interested in exploring the pits of the amoeboid god. We should look into this. Whomever is getting the Costco discount from the Jale slavers is not somebody I think we want breathing.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGus L\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-03-02 06:46): Chris P. Indeed it is - with a day more notice  I will certainly be there - I don\u0026rsquo;t mind giving up the armor for friendship and protection from the alien death squad.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-21/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-21T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-21T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "0bcc4855ecf7caeb2c7b1fd864e4916dc1db8e89", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 20", "content_text": "Another session with no treasure, which was starting to become a point of tension with the players. In my mind Carcosa was really grim and grotty: rich PCs didn’t make sense to me. In hindsight, I think we could have made it all work. Dark Sun imagines the fighters raising armies and becoming warlords. This was a direction the PCs had started to think about. We could have leaned into that more. Live and learn.\nThe session was another zany one, with a Godzilla-esque monster destroying a town and escaping into the wilderness. Of course the monster Yog would end up on the wilderness encounter table.\nSession 20\nAlex: Bug Juice - Green Man Fighter Chris P.: Bone Crone - Bone Women Sorcerer Beloch Shrike: Renoir - Red Man Fighter Eric Boyd: Orange Julia - Orange Women Fighter Dion joined late, and caught the end of the mayhem.) Recap:\nThe party heads west towards Torok, to investigate it’s relationship with the Slavers. The trip West is uneventful. They arrive in the evening, and decide The Bone Crone will play Queen Zelda, the Bone Men henchmen her guards, the rest of the party her slaves. The towns people are willing to buy her story, and put up their illustrious host in what amounts to a fancy hovel. The party visits a nearby bar and proceeds to buy boozes for the towns people. They learn about the strange creature Yog that lives in the centre of town, that it is placated by a steady diet of slaves and the sweet singing of maidens of the village, and that the town buys slaves from the Jale Slavers. That’s enough for the party to decide it’s time to burn this mother down! They pay some patrons to get the word out to the militia there are free booze going around at the bar. They investigate Yog and come up with a plan: they will torch the bar and hopefully a good chunk of the towns militia, kidnap the singing maiden, and book it. This more or less works out: they are stopped by 6 towns people, but 2 of that group are convinced this whole Yog thing is really dumb, the remainder are vaporized, with one survivor running off into the night. The party hops the wall and watches Yog destroy the town in the moonlight. They head back to Invak with two wandering monster encounters worth of complications! Comments:\nChris P. (2016-01-27 02:57): No XP, right? (Since we didn\u0026rsquo;t actually get any gold) Ramanan S (2016-01-27 03:19): Yeah \u0026hellip; I need to see what people do for alternate / additional means of gaining XP. I feel like treasure hunting hasn\u0026rsquo;t really been a focus of the game for a while. Though the initial slaver animosity may have been due to the bounty on their heads. Gus L (2016-01-27 03:45): I would say Ramanan S​ that while treasure might not be the game\u0026rsquo;s focus neither is leveling. The rules are clear, the only thing I\u0026rsquo;d say is that when we finally sack these town we should get gp value for supplies and useful properties seized. Chris G (2016-01-27 05:26): How about giving an XP award for discovering a new settlement? Your game has a fair amount of exploring/getting lost. Chris P. (2016-01-27 20:03): Gus L If the reward for the game has reflected something that is no longer the focus of the game, then the reward should either be removed or changed. If the intent is to stay first level/low power forever, then we should remove all pretense otherwise and eliminate the XP mechanic entirely. ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eAnother session with no treasure, which was starting to become a point of tension with the players. In my mind Carcosa was really grim and grotty: rich PCs didn’t make sense to me. In hindsight, I think we could have made it all work. Dark Sun imagines the fighters raising armies and becoming warlords. This was a direction the PCs had started to think about. We could have leaned into that more. Live and learn.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe session was another zany one, with a Godzilla-esque monster destroying a town and escaping into the wilderness. Of course the monster Yog would end up on the wilderness encounter table.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSession 20\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://todistantlands.github.io/\"\u003eAlex\u003c/a\u003e: Bug Juice - Green Man Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P.: Bone Crone - Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eBeloch Shrike\u003c/a\u003e: Renoir - Red Man Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia - Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion joined late, and caught the end of the mayhem.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party heads west towards Torok, to investigate it’s relationship with the Slavers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe trip West is uneventful.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey arrive in the evening, and decide The Bone Crone will play Queen Zelda, the Bone Men henchmen her guards, the rest of the party her slaves. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe towns people are willing to buy her story, and put up their illustrious host in what amounts to a fancy hovel.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party visits a nearby bar and proceeds to buy boozes for the towns people. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey learn about the strange creature Yog that lives in the centre of town, that it is placated by a steady diet of slaves and the sweet singing of maidens of the village, and that the town buys slaves from the Jale Slavers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThat’s enough for the party to decide it’s time to burn this mother down!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey pay some patrons to get the word out to the militia there are free booze going around at the bar.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey investigate Yog and come up with a plan: they will torch the bar and hopefully a good chunk of the towns militia, kidnap the singing maiden, and book it.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThis more or less works out: they are stopped by 6 towns people, but 2 of that group are convinced this whole Yog thing is really dumb, the remainder are vaporized, with one survivor running off into the night.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party hops the wall and watches Yog destroy the town in the moonlight.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey head back to Invak with two wandering monster encounters worth of complications!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-01-27 02:57): No XP, right? (Since we didn\u0026rsquo;t actually get any gold)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-01-27 03:19): Yeah \u0026hellip; I need to see what people do for alternate / additional means of gaining XP. I feel like treasure hunting hasn\u0026rsquo;t really been a focus of the game for a while. Though the initial slaver animosity may have been due to the bounty on their heads.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGus L\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-01-27 03:45): I would say Ramanan S​ that while treasure might not be the game\u0026rsquo;s focus neither is leveling. The rules are clear, the only thing I\u0026rsquo;d say is that when we finally sack these town we should get gp value for supplies and useful properties seized.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris G\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-01-27 05:26): How about giving an XP award for discovering a new settlement? Your game has a fair amount of exploring/getting lost.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2016-01-27 20:03): Gus L  If the reward for the game has reflected something that is no longer the focus of the game, then the reward should either be removed or changed. If the intent is to stay first level/low power forever, then we should remove all pretense otherwise and eliminate the XP mechanic entirely.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-20/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-20T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-20T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "114d6278bb924ad1325c67eb8690d949a51048ef", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 19", "content_text": "The players decide to head East, further into the territory friendly with the Jale Slavers. The town the players learn about, Joi, may have been lifted straight from an episode of Masters of the Universe. As sessions go this was pretty straight forward. Lots of chatter in town, and then an encounter in the wilderness. It feels weirdly short reading the re-cap below.\nAt this point I was so far behind on writing my Carcosa recaps that I stopped! I should try and do it retroactively from my notes now.\nPlayers:\nGus: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter Stephen M - Chongo Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Eric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Chris P.: Bone Crone - Bone Women Sorcerer Recap:\nIn town the Bone Crone examines the dead Bone Men bodies, brought back from the snake men ruins. The party debates for some time on what their next course of action should be, before deciding to leave the snake me ruins alone to explore the slaver friendly towns to the East. The journey is uneventful: the party makes it to Joi unmolested They decide to set up a fake camp to lure people out of the town, who they hope to capture. Sure enough, a group of 10 Orange Men and Women make their way towards the campsite. The party wait for them to get close, than attack. Their apparent leader is knocked out in the course of battle, their second in command vaporized. Both leaders are women. The remaining men are captured, and marched back to Invak. Notes:\nThe captured orange men reveal the following: in Joi men are forced to work as slaves in underground mines while the women live in luxury in the beautiful city above. Comments\nRamanan S (2015-12-29 03:04): Let me know if I am missing stuff please: I waited too long to write this up. Eric Boyd (2015-12-29 03:16): What did the Bone Crone determine again? Ramanan S (2015-12-29 03:20): Ah yes, the dead bodies have decomposed to a point beyond what one would expect. They look and smell like they have been dead for weeks, despite being newly dead when they were brought to town. (When you guys were fighting them they appeared some what gaunt, but otherwise seemingly normal looking.) Chris P. (2015-12-29 03:22): You forgot me. I sad now. Ramanan S (2015-12-29 03:23): Ah yes: you beat me to my own game. Chris P. (2015-12-29 03:23): Also, Ramanan S they had the sensation of some kind of bad magic (or the equivalent of some other unknown force) that I had no familiarity with at all. Ramanan S (2015-12-29 03:24): Yes that\u0026rsquo;s right: the Bone Crone feels the mark of sorcery over all of this, but is aware of no such ritual. Chris P. (2015-12-29 03:36): We also found no biological markers inside of the bones or anything, at least not that we could identify. If there was any sort of wound reflecting what turned them into the monsters, it was lost among the many wounds we inflicted upon killing them. Chris P. (2015-12-29 03:37): Also no more radioactive than anything else. Eric Boyd (2015-12-29 03:40): Earworms or similar parasites would be really obvious with Bone Men, one presumes. Chris P. (2015-12-29 03:45): Hmmm, BY JOVE, Eric Boyd you may have it! MUSIC! Ramanan S were they ever humming or moving unusually, like they were rocking back and forth or something? Beloch Shrike (2015-12-29 03:53): There was a session tonight? I never got an invite. Ramanan S (2015-12-29 03:53): No this was from last week. I just never wrote up the recap. I\u0026rsquo;m in holiday mode. Eric Boyd (2015-12-29 03:56): Chris P. I was thinking literally, not metaphorically: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Ceti_eel But you might have something there\u0026hellip; Chris P. (2015-12-29 04:29): Eric Boyd yup, I knew, I just will use any excuse I can get for a pun. (Bonus points if it produces a good lead.) Ramanan S (2015-12-29 06:47): Music would be cute, but no they were basically totally stationary when encountered. ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eThe players decide to head East, further into the territory friendly with the Jale Slavers. The town the players learn about, Joi, may have been lifted straight from an episode of Masters of the Universe. As sessions go this was pretty straight forward. Lots of chatter in town, and then an encounter in the wilderness. It feels weirdly short reading the re-cap below.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt this point I was so far behind on writing my Carcosa recaps that I stopped! I should try and do it retroactively from my notes now.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStephen M  - Chongo\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P.: Bone Crone - Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn town the Bone Crone examines the dead Bone Men bodies, brought back from the snake men ruins.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party debates for some time on what their next course of action should be, before deciding to leave the snake me ruins alone to explore the slaver friendly towns to the East.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe journey is uneventful: the party makes it to Joi unmolested\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey decide to set up a fake camp to lure people out of the town, who they hope to capture.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSure enough, a group of 10 Orange Men and Women make their way towards the campsite.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party wait for them to get close, than attack.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTheir apparent leader is knocked out in the course of battle, their second in command vaporized. Both leaders are women.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe remaining men are captured, and marched back to Invak.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe captured orange men reveal the following: in Joi men are forced to work as slaves in underground mines while the women live in luxury in the beautiful city above.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:04): Let me know if I am missing stuff please: I waited too long to write this up.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Boyd\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:16): What did the Bone Crone determine again?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:20): Ah yes, the dead bodies have decomposed to a point beyond what one would expect. They look and smell like they have been dead for weeks, despite being newly dead when they were brought to town. (When you guys were fighting them they appeared some what gaunt, but otherwise seemingly normal looking.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:22): You forgot me. I sad now.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:23): Ah yes: you beat me to my own game.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:23): Also, Ramanan S they had the sensation of some kind of bad magic (or the equivalent of some other unknown force) that I had no familiarity with at all.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:24): Yes that\u0026rsquo;s right: the Bone Crone feels the mark of sorcery over all of this, but is aware of no such ritual.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:36): We also found no biological markers inside of the bones or anything, at least not that we could identify. If there was any sort of wound reflecting what turned them into the monsters, it was lost among the many wounds we inflicted upon killing them.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:37): Also no more radioactive than anything else.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Boyd\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:40): Earworms or similar parasites would be really obvious with Bone Men, one presumes.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:45): Hmmm, BY JOVE,  Eric Boyd  you may have it! MUSIC! Ramanan S  were they ever humming or moving unusually, like they were rocking back and forth or something?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBeloch Shrike\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:53): There was a session tonight? I never got an invite.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:53): No this was from last week. I just never wrote up the recap. I\u0026rsquo;m in holiday mode.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Boyd\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 03:56): Chris P. I was thinking literally, not metaphorically: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Ceti_eel But you might have something there\u0026hellip;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 04:29): Eric Boyd  yup, I knew, I just will use any excuse I can get for a pun. (Bonus points if it produces a good lead.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-29 06:47): Music would be cute, but no they were basically totally stationary when encountered.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-19/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-19T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-19T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "bdf7a123a7baaffdd532d1107e9f5619db5e927e", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 18", "content_text": "The previous session the players rolled a 1 on the Hazard Die when travelling back to town. We didn’t want to play out the encounter at midnight, so I told them it’s how the session would start. I had an idea in my head: the blue men the players had saved were actually bandits! The session opened with a fight through the town.\nA circle of Bone Men stand watch around ancient Snake Men ruins. They exist in a state of undeath, and will not attack the party, but simply scream when they spot someone.\nThe Bone Men the players encounter were a magical trap guarding the now reoccupied Snake Men ruins. They surround the ruins and warn the Snake Men when people approach. The Bone Men were those taken from the Castle of Decline. If the campaign ran longer I think the players would have done more with this thread, but as it stands these ruins would remain unexplored.\nThe lack of treasure in most of this game was a running joke the entire time we played. I wouldn’t change a thing.\nYou can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.\nPlayers:\nEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Gus: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Stephen M - Chongo Recap:\nThe 3 injured Blue Men from last session were in fact bandits! Their leader Aboye killed the person who runs the towns infirmary, and ran off into the town to try and flee with some supplies and a new weapon. The party aides in the capture of the bandits, killing the leader. The town guards execute the other two bandits You fear the incident may play into the towns already existing rampant xenophobia. The next day the party decides to head to Invak, but travelling towards the Snake Men ruins first, to investigate the strange bone man sightings. On the way there, they bump into the Space Alien Strike Force, which has been laying low recently. It turns out they had been exploring to the East, in the towns the party rarely frequents. Many towns to the East are friendly with the slavers—someone has to be buying the slaves, after all They think the party are foolish to be heading towards the Snake Men ruins—they seem to be superstitious when it comes to the Snake Men The party continues on, coming upon a solitary bone man standing alone. As they try and move past him they see that there are other such bone men in the distance. Chongo decides to investigate what’s up with these Bone Men by cutting the first one they saw down. As he charges the man spins his head around and starts screaming—perhaps they have some sort of supernatural alertness Chongo kills the bone man, no problem, though even in death the creature seems ‘off’ The party hide to see if anyone comes to investigate the murder, and sure enough a group of bone men sprint out to the scene, and then proceed to sprint off in search of the perpetrators. The party attack! In the melee Chongo is killed, but his death is avenged by Normagina! The Bone men are all butchered in the end, their bodies piled on pack lizards as the party races off to Invak to investigate who or what they may be! Treasure:\nNone! Classic Masters of Carcosa. Monsters Killed:\n6 (Mysterious) Bone Men 1 Blue Man Bandit Post Session Notes:\nSome of the Bone Men in Invak, originally from The Castle of Decline, recognize the bodies as their former friends and allies! The two towns the Space Aliens mention to you in their travels to the East are Joi (an Orange Men village) and Torok (a Bone Men village) Comments:\nEric Boyd (2015-12-16 01:49): Seems to me it would be easy to bait those Bone Men into a tripwire/pit trap/etc. Chris P. (2015-12-16 02:57): So how come all of you haven\u0026rsquo;t all been strung up for murder yet? Ramanan S (2015-12-16 03:46): They have done enough good stuff for the town people believe their story. (And it would match what the merchants shared the previous previous week.) ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eThe previous session the players rolled a 1 on the Hazard Die when travelling back to town. We didn’t want to play out the encounter at midnight, so I told them it’s how the session would start. I had an idea in my head: the blue men the players had saved were actually bandits! The session opened with a fight through the town.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA circle of Bone Men stand watch around ancient Snake Men ruins. They exist in a state of undeath, and will not attack the party, but simply scream when they spot someone.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Bone Men the players encounter were a magical trap guarding the now reoccupied Snake Men ruins. They surround the ruins and warn the Snake Men when people approach. The Bone Men were those taken from the Castle of Decline. If the campaign ran longer I think the players would have done more with this thread, but as it stands these ruins would remain unexplored.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lack of treasure in most of this game was a running joke the entire time we played. I wouldn’t change a thing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-18/\"\u003eYou can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStephen M  - Chongo\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe 3 injured Blue Men from last session were in fact bandits!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTheir leader Aboye killed the person who runs the towns infirmary, and ran off into the town to try and flee with some supplies and a new weapon.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party aides in the capture of the bandits, killing the leader.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe town guards execute the other two bandits\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou fear the incident may play into the towns already existing rampant xenophobia.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe next day the party decides to head to Invak, but travelling towards the Snake Men ruins first, to investigate the strange bone man sightings.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOn the way there, they bump into the Space Alien Strike Force, which has been laying low recently.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIt turns out they had been exploring to the East, in the towns the party rarely frequents.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMany towns to the East are friendly with the slavers—someone has to be buying the slaves, after all\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey think the party are foolish to be heading towards the Snake Men ruins—they seem to be superstitious when it comes to the Snake Men\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party continues on, coming upon a solitary bone man standing alone.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAs they try and move past him they see that there are other such bone men in the distance.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChongo decides to investigate what’s up with these Bone Men by cutting the first one they saw down.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAs he charges the man spins his head around and starts screaming—perhaps they have some sort of supernatural alertness\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChongo kills the bone man, no problem, though even in death the creature seems ‘off’\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party hide to see if anyone comes to investigate the murder, and sure enough a group of bone men sprint out to the scene, and then proceed to sprint off in search of the perpetrators.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party attack!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn the melee Chongo is killed, but his death is avenged by Normagina!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Bone men are all butchered in the end, their bodies piled on pack lizards as the party races off to Invak to investigate who or what they may be!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNone! Classic Masters of Carcosa.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMonsters Killed:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e6 (Mysterious) Bone Men\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1 Blue Man Bandit\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePost Session Notes:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSome of the Bone Men in Invak, originally from The Castle of Decline, recognize the bodies as their former friends and allies!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe two towns the Space Aliens mention to you in their travels to the East are Joi (an Orange Men village) and Torok (a Bone Men village)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Boyd\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-16 01:49): Seems to me it would be easy to bait those Bone Men into a tripwire/pit trap/etc.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris P.\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-16 02:57): So how come all of you haven\u0026rsquo;t all been strung up for murder yet?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-12-16 03:46): They have done enough good stuff for the town people believe their story. (And it would match what the merchants shared the previous previous week.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-18/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-18T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-18T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "897ec9f18fa57920ad53a1bf382c92eb18b69b5e", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 17", "content_text": "I forgot the man himself Daniel Dean also made an appearance during this campaign. This might have been the only session he managed to play, but the nice thing about G+ was people would sometimes drop into games if they happened to be free on a particular night.\nEric and Gus had it in their minds to start building a keep, recruiting an army, and just moving on to a sort of domain type of play as they plan to go to war with the Jale Slavers. They had discovered their hide out in an earlier session. I hadn’t really thought through what that would look like. I made notes to myself to re-read the last OD\u0026amp;D book the Underworld \u0026amp; Wilderness Adventures to see what it had to say on the topic. Not bloody much, but it does tell you how much gold it takes to build a keep.\nThis session the party returns to the hidden citadel they had spent a few sessions trying and failing to enter, constantly battling Mi-Go in the process. Here they finally came face to face with another faction I had active in the region: the Protector of Truths and his war with the Mi-Go on the other side of Carcosa. This is discussed in my Carcosa-style recap of the session. I hadn’t fleshed out much about what this Mi-Go war was even about, which was good because the players didn’t want to figure it out either.\nWe ended the session with a roll of 1 on the settlement hazard die. Next session the players would learn what transpired!\nPlayers:\nEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Beloch Shrike: Renoir, Red Man Fighter Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Chris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer Gus: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter Daniel Dean: ???? Recap:\nThe party starts work on a small keep in Invak, recruiting some labourers to gather and repurpose materials. The speak with the Speaker of all Graces, who agrees to let them recruit in town to form a militia. He fears an assault on slavers is too risky, but will give the idea more thought. Nick’s Blue Man henchmen (name?) \u0026amp; Mr. Whyte recruiting and training a militia in town. Hearing rumours about Mi-Go bothering the merchants the party head South to Jahar. Encounter 3 injured Blue Men in the wilderness. They heal them and bring them back to Jahar, who are really not too happy to be hosting random Blue Men within their walls. They return to the citadel, and climb through a large pane window to enter the Castle. They enter a large dorm style room, which they start to search when 6 Yellow Men walk in. Another Yellow Man, who appears to be a commander of some sort, and a Mi-Go join the fray. There is some talking, and then much fighting. The Mi-Go is killed. The leader flees down some stairs! 6 more Yellow Men join the fight. More murder, but then a call to stop fighting. The party meets the Protector of Truths, the person in charge of this Castle. They are fighting a war against the Mi-Go on the other side of Carcosa. They travel to the castle via a strange crystal device. They have been lobotomizing the Mi-Go and setting them free inside a cavern that connects to this castle, because of their leaders beliefs about killing. They are working with a handful of Mi-Go that are also fighting against this particular group of Mi-Go, for reasons unknown. He gives the party 1000GP gem as a ‘sorry for all the Mi-Go’ gift. Treasure:\n1 Black Gem (1000GP) Monsters Killed:\n5 Yellow Men 1 Migo Note:\nWandering monster check at the end of the session means future drama for the party! (I know what it’ll be.) ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eI forgot the man himself Daniel Dean also made an appearance during this campaign. This might have been the only session he managed to play, but the nice thing about G+ was people would sometimes drop into games if they happened to be free on a particular night.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEric and Gus had it in their minds to start building a keep, recruiting an army, and just moving on to a sort of domain type of play as they plan to go to war with the Jale Slavers. They had discovered their hide out in an earlier session. I hadn’t really thought through what that would look like. I made notes to myself to re-read the last OD\u0026amp;D book the Underworld \u0026amp; Wilderness Adventures to see what it had to say on the topic. Not bloody much, but it does tell you how much gold it takes to build a keep.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis session the party returns to the hidden citadel they had spent a few sessions trying and failing to enter, constantly battling Mi-Go in the process. Here they finally came face to face with another faction I had active in the region: the Protector of Truths and his war with the Mi-Go on the other side of Carcosa. \u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-17/\"\u003eThis is discussed in my Carcosa-style recap of the session.\u003c/a\u003e I hadn’t fleshed out much about what this Mi-Go war was even about, which was good because the players didn’t want to figure it out either.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe ended the session with a roll of 1 on the settlement hazard die. Next session the players would learn what transpired!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eBeloch Shrike\u003c/a\u003e: Renoir, Red Man Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDaniel Dean: ????\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party starts work on a small keep in Invak, recruiting some labourers to gather and repurpose materials.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe speak with the Speaker of all Graces, who agrees to let them recruit in town to form a militia. He fears an assault on slavers is too risky, but will give the idea more thought.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNick’s Blue Man henchmen (name?) \u0026amp; Mr. Whyte recruiting and training a militia in town.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHearing rumours about Mi-Go bothering the merchants the party head South to Jahar.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEncounter 3 injured Blue Men in the wilderness.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey heal them and bring them back to Jahar, who are really not too happy to be hosting random Blue Men within their walls.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey return to the citadel, and climb through a large pane window to enter the Castle.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey enter a large dorm style room, which they start to search when 6 Yellow Men walk in.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnother Yellow Man, who appears to be a commander of some sort, and a Mi-Go join the fray.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is some talking, and then much fighting.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Mi-Go is killed. The leader flees down some stairs!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e6 more Yellow Men join the fight.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMore murder, but then a call to stop fighting.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party meets the Protector of Truths, the person in charge of this Castle.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey are fighting a war against the Mi-Go on the other side of Carcosa.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey travel to the castle via a strange crystal device.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey have been lobotomizing the Mi-Go and setting them free inside a cavern that connects to this castle, because of their leaders beliefs about killing.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey are working with a handful of Mi-Go that are also fighting against this particular group of Mi-Go, for reasons unknown.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHe gives the party 1000GP gem as a ‘sorry for all the Mi-Go’ gift.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1 Black Gem (1000GP)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMonsters Killed:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e5 Yellow Men\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1 Migo\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNote:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWandering monster check at the end of the session means future drama for the party! (I know what it’ll be.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-17/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-17T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-17T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "fde608c851c20661df2e7a5992bed875cee0de5a", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 16", "content_text": "Some important discoveries this session. The Rainbow Connection finally discover the lair of the Jale Slavers. They had first learned of it after rescuing some slaves in the wilderness. They would begin to plot its downfall starting now.\nThey meet my Carcosa take on Trap-Jaw. I had written up a Carcosa style He-Man encounters, though I didn\u0026rsquo;t end up using too many in my game: 16 Encounters on Carcosa \u0026amp; [16 More Encounters on Carcosa][h2]. Master\u0026rsquo;s of the Universe was meant to be core to the whole game, and I tried to inject littles bits and pieces of that world when I could. I wrote these encounters after reading Richard\u0026rsquo;s [How Brightly Coloured Should Carcosa Be][color]. This post about Carcosa and Masters of the Universe was one of the biggest inspirations for my game. It\u0026rsquo;s what got me thinking about Carcosa in a completely different way.\nThey also discovered that the Castle of Decline was empty. The Bone Men from that town had said they would join them in Invak many sessions ago, but never made it. The party would learn what happened to them for a few more sessions. (Half travelled south to Snake-Men ruins, others were captured by Slavers on route to Invak.)\nFinally the players find the Orange Citadel’s former “God”, the Frog Spawn Llothali. They killed the creature so hard I would end up having lots of discussions with them about whether the laser guns in the game were too over powered. Probably, but we never ended up changing any of the rules.\nYou can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.\nPlayers:\nEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Beloch Shrike: Renoir, Red Man Fighter Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Chris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer Terry: ??? Recap:\nQuiet in Invak, the party head south towards Jahar to inquire about raptor trainers and their staff. On the way they encounter 11 Blue Men, one shouting about wanting their metal. They chase them off once they produce their armaments. In Jahar they learn their staff has the power to summon the evil old one Molkrom: the sage doesn’t know how exactly, but thinks vile sorcerers may. Merchants are readying themselves for a trip South to Cron. Head back to Invak to go after some slavers! No one will join them! Or will they? The Lawgiver of Winds joins the party after a rousing speech about slavery. Encounter a group of 12 slavers on the road while looking for the Slaver encampment! A battle breaks out, of course. The Slavers are aware of the Rainbow Connection and aren’t fans. Midway through the fight an old crone shows up, ready for battle! It\u0026rsquo;s Chris P. This battle is bloodier than most: almost no misses till the every end! A jerk ass slaver wounds Renoir, and makes his escape with 3 of his friends. Capture 7 slaver heads and the vaporized remains of another They find the slaver encampment. As they were told, it is a base built into a hillside. Slaves are chained up outside, and raptor mounted guards are outside. The party decides now isn’t the time to attack. They make their way over to the castle of decline, stopping along the way at the former Orange Men citadel. Continuing to the Castle of Decline, they come to learn it has been abandoned. They aren’t sure where the Bone Men may have went, as Invak seems like the obvious choice. Meet 4 Red Men on the road back to the Former Orange Men citadel, who they escort with them. Head back to Invak without incident Oh, the party also killed the Llothali without breaking a sweat. What? Treasure:\n800 GP in bounty for the dead slavers 1000 GP for killing the Frog God Llothali 8 Obsidian Swords 1 Laser Pistol (2dCarcosa, shorter range) 1 Laser Rifle (2dCarcosa, long range) 4 Waterskins 2 Lantern 8 flasks of an oil like substance 7 Week Iron Rations 16 Manacles 20\u0026rsquo; Chain 50\u0026rsquo; Rope 4 Small Sacks ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eSome important discoveries this session. The Rainbow Connection finally discover the lair of the Jale Slavers. They had first learned of it after rescuing some slaves in the wilderness. They would begin to plot its downfall starting now.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey meet my Carcosa take on Trap-Jaw. I had written up a Carcosa style He-Man encounters, though I didn\u0026rsquo;t end up using too many in my game: \u003ca href=\"/blog/carcosa-encounters/\"\u003e16 Encounters on Carcosa\u003c/a\u003e \u0026amp; [16 More Encounters on Carcosa][h2]. Master\u0026rsquo;s of the Universe was meant to be core to the whole game, and I tried to inject littles bits and pieces of that world when I could. I wrote these encounters after reading Richard\u0026rsquo;s [How Brightly Coloured Should Carcosa Be][color]. This post about Carcosa and Masters of the Universe was one of the biggest inspirations for my game. It\u0026rsquo;s what got me thinking about Carcosa in a completely different way.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey also discovered that the Castle of Decline was empty. The Bone Men from that town had said they would join them in Invak many sessions ago, but never made it. The party would learn what happened to them for a few more sessions. (Half travelled south to Snake-Men ruins, others were captured by Slavers on route to Invak.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFinally the players find the Orange Citadel’s former “God”, the Frog Spawn Llothali. They killed the creature so hard I would end up having lots of discussions with them about whether the laser guns in the game were too over powered. Probably, but we never ended up changing any of the rules.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-16/\"\u003eYou can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eBeloch Shrike\u003c/a\u003e: Renoir, Red Man Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTerry: ???\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eQuiet in Invak, the party head south towards Jahar to inquire about raptor trainers and their staff. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOn the way they encounter 11 Blue Men, one shouting about wanting their metal.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey chase them off once they produce their armaments.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn Jahar they learn their staff has the power to summon the evil old one Molkrom: the sage doesn’t know how exactly, but thinks vile sorcerers may.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMerchants are readying themselves for a trip South to Cron.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHead back to Invak to go after some slavers!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNo one will join them! Or will they?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Lawgiver of Winds joins the party after a rousing speech about slavery.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEncounter a group of 12 slavers on the road while looking for the Slaver encampment!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA battle breaks out, of course. The Slavers are aware of the Rainbow Connection and aren’t fans.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMidway through the fight an old crone shows up, ready for battle! It\u0026rsquo;s Chris P. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThis battle is bloodier than most: almost no misses till the every end!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA jerk ass slaver wounds Renoir, and makes his escape with 3 of his friends.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCapture 7 slaver heads and the vaporized remains of another\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey find the slaver encampment. As they were told, it is a base built into a hillside. Slaves are chained up outside, and raptor mounted guards are outside.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party decides now isn’t the time to attack.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey make their way over to the castle of decline, stopping along the way at the former Orange Men citadel. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eContinuing to the Castle of Decline, they come to learn it has been abandoned. They aren’t sure where the Bone Men may have went, as Invak seems like the obvious choice.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMeet 4 Red Men on the road back to the Former Orange Men citadel, who they escort with them.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHead back to Invak without incident\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOh, the party also killed the Llothali without breaking a sweat. What?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e800 GP in bounty for the dead slavers\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1000 GP for killing the Frog God Llothali\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8 Obsidian Swords\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1 Laser Pistol (2dCarcosa, shorter range)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1 Laser Rifle (2dCarcosa, long range)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e4 Waterskins\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2 Lantern\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8 flasks of an oil like substance\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e7 Week Iron Rations\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e16 Manacles\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e20\u0026rsquo; Chain\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e50\u0026rsquo; Rope\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e4 Small Sacks\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-16/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-16T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-16T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "e0d9db011d1dfd7fc27cd773c44e6dc5a0d9c8ef", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 15", "content_text": "\nThe players had their home base in Invak, and had a strong relationship with the merchant town to the south, Jahar. At this point in the campaign they wanted to try and unify the region around the common aim of dealing with the slavers. There was a lot of travel between the two towns session, as they tried to negotiate an agreement. This was the session the Space Alien Strike Force finally made an appearance. They had been hinted at over the previous session, and were an entry on my random encounter table for some time. They were looking for whomever desecrated their tomb and stole the armour of their hero. Bad luck for the players: Gus’s character was wondering around in that armour. Had been since they found it. Hilarity ensues.\nThe players also reconnected with the women who escorted them to Invak at the start of the campaign, Queen of Autumn. Another random encounter roll? I don’t remember anymore.\nYou can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.\nPlayers:\nBeloch Shrike: Renoir, Red Man Fighter Chris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Eric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Evan: The Spangled Inquiry, Bone Man Sorcerer Gus: Normangina, Yellow Women Fighter Recap:\nThe party heads South from Invak towards Jahar to learn more about the Staff of Avion and try and set up an alliance. The Speaker of all Graces seems disinterested in this idea, but doesn’t say no outright. Along the way they stumble upon the the Space Alien Strike Force: they are caught in a moment of rest. Gus hides behind a rock because he is wearing the amour they are looking for. The aliens have him sighted, so he ends up using his Solid Snake skills to sneak away. Meanwhile the rest of his team are friendly, and show the aliens they don’t have the armour. (And in fact saved their friends.) When they investigate where Gus was, they see no one was there. The party continues South, while Normangina takes a wide route to avoid the Aliens. Along the way she stumbles upon a dead body off in the distance, which she decides to avoid as well. Travelling further still she see a large Insectoid Spawn. She manages to distract it with her smell squid, and sprints further away. Finally she makes it back to the party. They travel back to the dead body, to see if it has any loot. They quickly learn there are several dead bodies, arranged in a circle head to toe with their arms reaching out to the centre. (So it looks like a spoke of a wheel.) They take one of the bodies, a Red Man. Evan’s character is loitering near by, he joins the group—strange. No one mentions it. In Jahar the party run errands. They convince the guard guild to recharge their weapons. Gus\u0026rsquo; Bazooka and Evan\u0026rsquo;s teleportation Ray are fully charged. Drink with guards ends with crazy mayhem. The guards are even more friendly with the party now. Chris P\u0026rsquo; character steals small change from all the revellers, earning 60 GP The next day the guards get the party an audience with their leader. “The One” gives the players a letter saying he will support a military alliance with Invak the party travels North, actively searching for trouble, but end up finding the Blue Menhirs They arrive in Invak and give the Speaker of All Graces the letter of support. Travel East looking for Slavers. Find Queen of Autumn and the group that had went searching for her led by The Illustrious Prince of the Bone They had actually just rescued her from a Spawn, which they fled. The party is looking for trouble, however, so they head back in search of the Spawn they were fighting Kill that thing so hard. I need laser proof spawn. Other notes:\nGus puts out a bounty for raptors! And Eric will match that! And a hiring bounty as well! Eric looking for binoculars, Geiger counter, which will be set aside in Jahar if the merchants find one. Staff of Avion is left with the Sage. Owed 200GP if he learns anything about it. Treasure:\n1000 GP in Spawn Bounty (200 GP for them, 800 GP split between the party) so that\u0026rsquo;s 133 XP each Comments:\nRamanan S (2015-10-13 04:49): The Queen of Autumn tells viewers to admit their mistakes rather than lying to cover them up.\nWait, you guys didn\u0026rsquo;t learn that lesson.\nGus L (2015-10-13 04:51): Maybe - more lies and a few dead bodies will bury a mistake pretty deep?\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/masters-of-carcosa-aliens.jpg\" alt=\"aliens\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe players had their home base in Invak, and had a strong relationship with the merchant town to the south, Jahar. At this point in the campaign they wanted to try and unify the region around the common aim of dealing with the slavers. There was a lot of travel between the two towns session, as they tried to negotiate an agreement. This was the session the Space Alien Strike Force finally made an appearance. They had been hinted at over the previous session, and were an entry on my random encounter table for some time. They were looking for whomever desecrated their tomb and stole the armour of their hero. Bad luck for the players: Gus’s character was wondering around in that armour. Had been since they found it. Hilarity ensues.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe players also reconnected with the women who escorted them to Invak at the start of the campaign, Queen of Autumn. Another random encounter roll? I don’t remember anymore.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-15/\"\u003eYou can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eBeloch Shrike\u003c/a\u003e: Renoir, Red Man Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://gamepieces.blogspot.com/\"\u003eEvan\u003c/a\u003e: The Spangled Inquiry, Bone Man Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e: Normangina, Yellow Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party heads South from Invak towards Jahar to learn more about the Staff of Avion and try and set up an alliance.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Speaker of all Graces seems disinterested in this idea, but doesn’t say no outright.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlong the way they stumble upon the the Space Alien Strike Force: they are caught in a moment of rest.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGus hides behind a rock because he is wearing the amour they are looking for.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe aliens have him sighted, so he ends up using his Solid Snake skills to sneak away. Meanwhile the rest of his team are friendly, and show the aliens they don’t have the armour. (And in fact saved their friends.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhen they investigate where Gus was, they see no one was there.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party continues South, while Normangina takes a wide route to avoid the Aliens.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlong the way she stumbles upon a dead body off in the distance, which she decides to avoid as well.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravelling further still she see a large Insectoid Spawn.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShe manages to distract it with her smell squid, and sprints further away.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFinally she makes it back to the party.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey travel back to the dead body, to see if it has any loot.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey quickly learn there are several dead bodies, arranged in a circle head to toe with their arms reaching out to the centre. (So it looks like a spoke of a wheel.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey take one of the bodies, a Red Man.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEvan’s character is loitering near by, he joins the group—strange. No one mentions it.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn Jahar the party run errands.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey convince the guard guild to recharge their weapons.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGus\u0026rsquo; Bazooka and Evan\u0026rsquo;s teleportation Ray are fully charged.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrink with guards ends with crazy mayhem. The guards are even more friendly with the party now.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P\u0026rsquo; character steals small change from all the revellers, earning 60 GP\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe next day the guards get the party an audience with their leader.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e“The One” gives the players a letter saying he will support a military alliance with Invak\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe party travels North, actively searching for trouble, but end up finding the Blue Menhirs\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey arrive in Invak and give the Speaker of All Graces the letter of support.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravel East looking for Slavers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFind Queen of Autumn and the group that had went searching for her led by The Illustrious Prince of the Bone\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey had actually just rescued her from a Spawn, which they fled.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party is looking for trouble, however, so they head back in search of the Spawn they were fighting\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKill that thing so hard. I need laser proof spawn.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOther notes:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGus puts out a bounty for raptors! And Eric will match that! And a hiring bounty as well!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric looking for binoculars, Geiger counter, which will be set aside in Jahar if the merchants find one.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStaff of Avion is left with the Sage. Owed 200GP if he learns anything about it.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1000 GP in Spawn Bounty (200 GP for them, 800 GP split between the party) so that\u0026rsquo;s 133 XP each\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-10-13 04:49): The Queen of Autumn tells viewers to admit their mistakes rather than lying to cover them up.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWait, you guys didn\u0026rsquo;t learn that lesson.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGus L\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-10-13 04:51): Maybe - more lies and a few dead bodies will bury a mistake pretty deep?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-15/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-15T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-15T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "ccf0e50d195129f62635294c4cfa3ab58d7bddf7", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 14", "content_text": "\nAs you’ll see in the comments, I had been reading Blood Meridian, and the book and its mood started seeping into the game. I wrote about this a few years ago: A Carcosan Western. The game was meant to be light-hearted Masters of the Universe themed game, and while there was a fair bit of that, the game was probably more cowboys than He-Man. (That said, the Staff of Avion the players find this session is from Masters of the Universe.) The players were wandering the wastelands, having shootouts with bandits.\nThe dead man they find on the road was meant to be a clue something was amiss at the castle, but maybe not enough of a clue. The Snake Men ruins were another important site in the game the players would ignore. Kheret ils Nu’s Reliquary, which I wrote for the Trophy Gold megadungeon, borrows ideas from this campaign and these ruins my players never explored. The Snake Men would end up freed by the Dominant Reflection. They would restart their war with the Old Ones, so nominally aligned with the players, except to the Snake Men the players were just reagents for spells.\nMy rules for getting lost seemed to only come up when the party would leave their home base. They were constantly getting lost right next to their home. A little silly, but I kept with it because I thought it was funny.\n[You can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.][s14]\nPlayers:\nBeloch Shrike: Renoir, Red Man Fighter Eric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Gus: Normangina, Yellow Women Fighter News and Rumours:\nTrade has resumed between Jahar and Invak. The merchants are happy to hear you dealt with the cultists. The Illustrious Prince of the Bone, former head of the Bone Man village in the outpost, has not been heard from since heading South in search of The Queen of Autumn. Traders speak of wild aggressive Migo wandering in packs to the South, harassing their caravans. The Black Man rescued from the Cultists is planning on leaving for the Castle he is from to the West. (And wouldn’t mind company for the trip.) No word from the Citadel of Decline to the West in weeks. Aggressive group of Space Aliens continue to stop and search travellers to the South. Plus all the open threads from the open thread thread. Recap:\nThe party rests in Invak, having emptied out the (no longer abandoned) space alien outpost. Black Man “the Speaker of Benedictions” needs help getting home. Was hunting when captured by slavers. The party agrees to take him back to his home, being promised a modest reward for their efforts (and good karma, of course) On the way West they get a little bit lost—par for the course when leaving Invak, apparently. They wait till the evening to re-orient themselves using the stars. While searching for a place to camp, they find some ruins of the ancient Snake-Men. The place fills them with foreboding. The leave it alone. In the morning they head Northward. On the way they encounter a long line of Giant ants heading South West. They leave the ants alone and continue North. Further along they find a dead body, a Black Man whose head has been blown clear off (from laser a gun), gear scattered everywhere. They continue to approach the castle. The “the Speaker of Benedictions” goes ahead to get the gates opened. He is promptly shot at by two men on the parapets of the Castle. Attempts at parlay are for naught, so the Bazooka comes out. The doors to the castle are blown open. 4 riders on velociraptors ride out, two armed with pistols, two with clubs. Are long fight breaks out, but eventually the party succeed in driving away the remaining Purple Men who had taken over the castle. (6 flee into the wilderness) The party capture two of the raptors during the fight and by searching the wilderness for one that ran away. The party create a pyre and burn the dead Black Men that litter the castle. They, along with the “the Speaker of Benedictions”, take all the valuables and head back to Invak. Treasure:\n8 Laser Pistols (but “the Speaker of Benedictions” claims two as side arms) 9000 GP = 2250 GP each (since “the Speaker of Benedictions” claims a share of the gold) “Staff of Avion” Two raptors (4HD, AC 12, MV 160\u0026rsquo;), Feathered Orange hide. Immune to poison. Comments:\nRamanan S (2015-09-15 04:31): Feel like I remember more when I force myself to write them down right away. I should sleep for real now, though.\nChris G (2015-09-15 05:33): Dang! I would have shat a brick when dudes on velociraptors came out of the gate.\nDion Williams (2015-09-15 07:30): Sounds like a great session. Wish I could be making these.\nRamanan S (2015-09-15 12:24): Me too. One day Dion!\nRamanan S (2015-09-15 13:33): This session feels heavily informed by my reading cowboy books right now. (Though now when I look back at all the seasons they start to feel like Westerns.) You guys have good success killing over confident cultists and bandits.\nChris G (2015-09-18 05:25): I remember you mentioning Blood Meridian. What other cowboy books are you reading? I\u0026rsquo;m on a major Western kick right now.\nRamanan S (2015-09-18 11:22): Chris Geisel I said books I really meant that one, which should count for several. Hah.\nChris G (2015-09-18 23:26): lol, too true. I got excited for a cowboy book recommendation.\nRamanan S (2015-09-19 12:25): Gus can recommend several! There were some Elroy books he had mentioned a little while ago I have been meaning to check out. If you haven\u0026rsquo;t seen Unforgiven you should go do that now, though. There is a Japanese remake with Ken Wanatabe which is also cool.\nGus L (2015-09-19 16:26): Chris Geisel The cowboy books I\u0026rsquo;d recommend are actually very limited:\nPete Dexter\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;Deadwood\u0026rdquo; (1986) is just a great book. It\u0026rsquo;s the inspiration for the series of the same name, but very different.\nCormac McCarthy \u0026ldquo;Blood Meridian\u0026rdquo; is amazing - is it a Western? Mostly. In form certainly, but it\u0026rsquo;s very surreal at times, and very strange.\nAs to Elroy, that\u0026rsquo;s more historically researched hard-boiled pulp detective stuff. The darkest there is. Very good - especially the LA ones about greed corruption and lurid crime. Elmore Leonard wrote a mess of Westerns and I know I\u0026rsquo;ve read a couple, but they\u0026rsquo;re pretty standard fare, well written and amusing though in his jaunty style.\nRamanan S (2015-09-19 17:08): I\u0026rsquo;d actually say Blood Meridan is a post-apocalypse novel. I\u0026rsquo;m sure someone has written an essay about that.\nChris G (2015-09-20 03:03): Gus L I\u0026rsquo;ve read Blood Meridian. I\u0026rsquo;ll check out Deadwood, thanks. There\u0026rsquo;s a collection of Elroy\u0026rsquo;s Western stories at a local book store here, do you think it\u0026rsquo;s worth checking out.\nGus L (2015-09-20 03:17): Chris Geisel I haven\u0026rsquo;t read a lot of his Westerns, I like the guy\u0026rsquo;s writing and he\u0026rsquo;s pretty much at the core of that genre.\nRamanan S (2015-10-07 12:32): I think i\u0026rsquo;m going to start using my alternate time line re-stocking tables as a way to do rumours going forward. Sort of like meta-rumours, I guess.\nEric Boyd (2015-10-12 03:25): Gus L Beloch Shrike How are we splitting up the haul, here? Two people get velociraptors and a low-charge pistol each, someone else gets the Staff of Avion and four laser pistols? Orange Julia would prefer a dinosaur if we go with that split.\nGus L (2015-10-12 16:00): Well I figure dinos would be based on the mechanics. Normigina has Animal Handling 3 - what\u0026rsquo;s needed to ride the raptor?\nRamanan S (2015-10-12 19:39): The raptors you have are domesticated enough you can hop on them and ride around. None of you would likely have practice riding them around for a fight, though. Maybe Normangina would be a bit better here? So you would need to practice that. They will likely run away if left unattended. They need to eat 3x the rations you guys do, but will happily eat the lizard meat available in Invak. Gus can try and train them to get used to your troupe so they know to stick around. Or to try and fight on command. Etc. Would probably take more time than a week?\nRamanan S (2015-10-12 19:41): The Staff of Avion is 6\u0026rsquo; long and inscribed with runes, clearly of snake men origin to any sorcerers in the group.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/masters-of-carcosa-laser.jpg\" alt=\"dude getting blasted\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs you’ll see in the comments, I had been reading Blood Meridian, and the book and its mood started seeping into the game. I wrote about this a few years ago: \u003ca href=\"/blog/a-carcosan-western/\"\u003eA Carcosan Western\u003c/a\u003e. The game was meant to be light-hearted Masters of the Universe themed game, and while there was a fair bit of that, the game was probably more cowboys than He-Man. (That said, \u003ca href=\"https://he-man.fandom.com/wiki/Staff_of_Avion\"\u003ethe Staff of Avion\u003c/a\u003e the players find this session is from Masters of the Universe.) The players were wandering the wastelands, having shootouts with bandits.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dead man they find on the road was meant to be a clue something was amiss at the castle, but maybe not enough of a clue. The Snake Men ruins were another important site in the game the players would ignore. Kheret ils Nu’s Reliquary, which I wrote for the Trophy Gold megadungeon, borrows ideas from this campaign and these ruins my players never explored. The Snake Men would end up freed by the Dominant Reflection. They would restart their war with the Old Ones, so nominally aligned with the players, except to the Snake Men the players were just reagents for spells.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy rules for getting lost seemed to only come up when the party would leave their home base. They were constantly getting lost right next to their home. A little silly, but I kept with it because I thought it was funny.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[You can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.][s14]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eBeloch Shrike\u003c/a\u003e: Renoir, Red Man Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e: Normangina, Yellow Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNews and Rumours:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTrade has resumed between Jahar and Invak. The merchants are happy to hear you dealt with the cultists.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Illustrious Prince of the Bone, former head of the Bone Man village in the outpost, has not been heard from since heading South in search of The Queen of Autumn.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTraders speak of wild aggressive Migo wandering in packs to the South, harassing their caravans.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Black Man rescued from the Cultists is planning on leaving for the Castle he is from to the West. (And wouldn’t mind company for the trip.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNo word from the Citadel of Decline to the West in weeks.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAggressive group of Space Aliens continue to stop and search travellers to the South.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePlus all the open threads from the open thread thread.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party rests in Invak, having emptied out the (no longer abandoned) space alien outpost.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBlack Man “the Speaker of Benedictions” needs help getting home.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWas hunting when captured by slavers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party agrees to take him back to his home, being promised a modest reward for their efforts (and good karma, of course)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOn the way West they get a little bit lost—par for the course when leaving Invak, apparently.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey wait till the evening to re-orient themselves using the stars.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhile searching for a place to camp, they find some ruins of the ancient Snake-Men. The place fills them with foreboding. The leave it alone.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn the morning they head Northward. On the way they encounter a long line of Giant ants heading South West.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey leave the ants alone and continue North.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFurther along they find a dead body, a Black Man whose head has been blown clear off (from laser a gun), gear scattered everywhere.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey continue to approach the castle.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe “the Speaker of Benedictions” goes ahead to get the gates opened.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHe is promptly shot at by two men on the parapets of the Castle.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAttempts at parlay are for naught, so the Bazooka comes out.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe doors to the castle are blown open.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e4 riders on velociraptors ride out, two armed with pistols, two with clubs.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAre long fight breaks out, but eventually the party succeed in driving away the remaining Purple Men who had taken over the castle. (\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e6 flee into the wilderness\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/em\u003e)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party capture two of the raptors during the fight and by searching the wilderness for one that ran away.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party create a pyre and burn the dead Black Men that litter the castle.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey, along with the “the Speaker of Benedictions”, take all the valuables and head back to Invak.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8 Laser Pistols (but “the Speaker of Benedictions” claims two as side arms)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e9000 GP = 2250 GP each (since “the Speaker of Benedictions” claims a share of the gold)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e“Staff of Avion”\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTwo raptors (4HD, AC 12, MV 160\u0026rsquo;), Feathered Orange hide. Immune to poison.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-15 04:31): Feel like I remember more when I force myself to write them down right away. I should sleep for real now, though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris G\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-15 05:33): Dang! I would have shat a brick when dudes on velociraptors came out of the gate.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDion Williams\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-15 07:30): Sounds like a great session. Wish I could be making these.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-15 12:24): Me too. One day Dion!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-15 13:33): This session feels heavily informed by my reading cowboy books right now. (Though now when I look back at all the seasons they start to feel like Westerns.) You guys have good success killing over confident cultists and bandits.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris G\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-18 05:25): I remember you mentioning Blood Meridian. What other cowboy books are you reading? I\u0026rsquo;m on a major Western kick right now.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-18 11:22): Chris Geisel I said books I really meant that one, which should count for several. Hah.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris G\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-18 23:26): lol, too true. I got excited for a cowboy book recommendation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-19 12:25): Gus can recommend several! There were some Elroy books he had mentioned a little while ago I have been meaning to check out. If you haven\u0026rsquo;t seen Unforgiven you should go do that now, though. There is a Japanese remake with Ken Wanatabe which is also cool.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGus L\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-19 16:26): Chris Geisel The cowboy books I\u0026rsquo;d recommend are actually very limited:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePete Dexter\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;Deadwood\u0026rdquo; (1986) is just a great book. It\u0026rsquo;s the inspiration for the series of the same name, but very different.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCormac McCarthy \u0026ldquo;Blood Meridian\u0026rdquo; is amazing - is it a Western?  Mostly. In form certainly, but it\u0026rsquo;s very surreal at times, and very strange.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs to Elroy, that\u0026rsquo;s more historically researched hard-boiled pulp detective stuff.  The darkest there is.  Very good - especially the LA ones about greed corruption and lurid crime. Elmore Leonard wrote a mess of Westerns and I know I\u0026rsquo;ve read a couple, but they\u0026rsquo;re pretty standard fare, well written and amusing though in his jaunty style.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-19 17:08): I\u0026rsquo;d actually say Blood Meridan is a post-apocalypse novel. I\u0026rsquo;m sure someone has written an essay about that.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris G\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-20 03:03): Gus L I\u0026rsquo;ve read Blood Meridian. I\u0026rsquo;ll check out Deadwood, thanks. There\u0026rsquo;s a collection of Elroy\u0026rsquo;s Western stories at a local book store here, do you think it\u0026rsquo;s worth checking out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGus L\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-09-20 03:17): Chris Geisel I haven\u0026rsquo;t read a lot of his Westerns, I like the guy\u0026rsquo;s writing and he\u0026rsquo;s pretty much at the core of that genre.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-10-07 12:32): I  think i\u0026rsquo;m going to start using my alternate time line re-stocking tables as a way to do rumours going forward. Sort of like meta-rumours, I guess.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Boyd\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-10-12 03:25): Gus L Beloch Shrike How are we splitting up the haul, here? Two people get velociraptors and a low-charge pistol each, someone else gets the Staff of Avion and four laser pistols? Orange Julia would prefer a dinosaur if we go with that split.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGus L\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-10-12 16:00): Well I figure dinos would be based on the mechanics. Normigina has Animal Handling 3 - what\u0026rsquo;s needed to ride the raptor?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-10-12 19:39): The raptors you have are domesticated enough you can hop on them and ride around. None of you would likely have practice riding them around for a fight, though. Maybe Normangina would be a bit better here? So you would need to practice that. They will likely run away if left unattended. They need to eat 3x the rations you guys do, but will happily eat the lizard meat available in Invak. Gus can try and train them to get used to your troupe so they know to stick around. Or to try and fight on command. Etc. Would probably take more time than a week?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-10-12 19:41): The Staff of Avion is 6\u0026rsquo; long and inscribed with runes, clearly of snake men origin to any sorcerers in the group.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-14/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-14T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-14T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "802e6f538cc61329abfa09b012710c7f6aedc10e", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 13", "content_text": "\nThis session the players explored the rest of the Space Alien outpost. When the returned I had re-stocked the space differently, because it had been captured. The rooms that they had not explored previously were sealed, so that area was unchanged.\nThis session feels like some stereotype of an OSR game. The party wakes up all the Space Aliens that manned the outpost, who were in cryropods. Nick decided the best course of action was to knock one out while he was still disoriented, and run away with him. Maybe they were unsure what the deal would be with these particular aliens, and wanted to chat with one of them alone? This Space Alien ended up living in Invak, convinced he had been saved by the party and that all his friends were dead.\nThe rest of the session is typical Carcosa hijinks. They stumble up on the Frog-God Llothali that they had let loose in the wilderness when they freed the Orange Man citadel.\nSpotty attendance after the last game because I moved the session a week, and didn’t create a new event. Once again, my biggest advice for running a long running campaign is playing on a consistent schedule. People will often say this game or that game have the mechanics required for long term play. Fuck that, the only mechanics you need are a calendar and actually showing up.\nYou can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.\nPlayers:\nBeloch Shrike: Renoir, Red Man Fighter Dael Nyxon: Bargo, the Dolm Fighter Eric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Recap:\nThe party begins in the newly liberated space alien outpost. Before it becomes truly abandoned, they decide to investigate the remainder of the complex. They recruit a couple Bone Men to act as henchmen, who are a bit wary of exploring this portion of the complex. Prying open the locked door that leads north from the basement stairs, they find a small corridor, with 3 more doors. To the East is a room full of pods. Examining the pods they realize they each house an alien in some sort of stasis. Renoir attempts to shatter the glass door on top of a pod. His sledgehammer bounces right off. The party leaves the room, heading to the West most room. Inside they find a room full of strange plant life. The floors are littered with some dead plants and fruit, but not enough considering no one has been in here for years. While picking fruit the party sees that various autonomous robotic arms, etc, look to be taking care of the plants. The party moves to the centre room, the last remaining unexplored room. There is a large cylinder in the centre of the room that extends down into the ground. It pulses with red light. It’s cordoned off by a circular railing. The room is full of computers, and everything looks to be in working order. Orange Julia pushes a big red button! Slowly the pulsing of the cylinder comes to a halt. The lights in the complex turn off, and the sound of doors opening can be heard throughout the complex. In the dark, the PCs here another sound, the sound of the pods full of aliens opening. The party waits a beat to see what happens. They hear the sound of an alien retching. Realizing the aliens might be disoriented from being in stasis for so long, Renoir decides to cold-cock one and kidnap him. Alien on his shoulder, the party book it out of the complex. Everyone else is milling around outside, confused by the loss of power. Seeing the party running away, they join in. Once a reasonable distance away, the two groups of captives head off: the Orange Men to their town to the East, Joi; the Brown Men to the merchant town Jahar. About half way to Invak the party spot what looks to be a giant frog off in the distance. That’s strange. Could it be the Frog-God Llothali, worshipped by those crazy Orange Men to the North. Yes, it probably is. How many giant-ass toads could there be? The party decide to take a longer detour to reach Invak. On the way they startle a group of 4 slavers. Bargo charges in and completely brains one. The rest flee post-haste. The party gives chase, but without more range weapons pursuit seems fruitless. (I should look up the LotFP chase rules, they might have been a better option for that part of the game.) The party regroup and head to Invak, where they are greeted as heroes. The Swift and Silent Beginning thanks the players for ridding the world of more cultists, and for helping fight the slavers. (You have more renown in the town.) Upon learning there is a space alien that was “rescued” from the complex, he asks that the creature be brought to him to be freed. The party wake up the alien, who has a surprisingly positive disposition. He is confused about where he is, what the date is, and what has transpired since his last week long shift at the space alien outpost. The party informs him that they saved him, that the rest of his comrades presumably died years ago. He decides to stay in Invak for now. The new bone men also start to settle in to their new home. The party travels South to Jahar. Orange Julia’s pack lizard is worn down from all the travel and dies in Jahar. (The merchants will buy his body to be turned into rations for 50GP—I forgot to mention in the session!) The party sell their weird alien fruit and call it a day. Treasure:\n100 GP for killing a slaver 550 GP for weird fruit 50 GP for pack lizard body. ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/masters-of-carcosa-aliens.jpg\" alt=\"aliens\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis session the players explored the rest of the Space Alien outpost. When the returned I had re-stocked the space differently, because it had been captured. The rooms that they had not explored previously were sealed, so that area was unchanged.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis session feels like some stereotype of an OSR game. The party wakes up all the Space Aliens that manned the outpost, who were in cryropods. Nick decided the best course of action was to knock one out while he was still disoriented, and run away with him. Maybe they were unsure what the deal would be with these particular aliens, and wanted to chat with one of them alone? This Space Alien ended up living in Invak, convinced he had been saved by the party and that all his friends were dead.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rest of the session is typical Carcosa hijinks. They stumble up on the Frog-God Llothali that they had let loose in the wilderness when they freed the Orange Man citadel.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpotty attendance after the last game because I moved the session a week, and didn’t create a new event. Once again, my biggest advice for running a long running campaign is playing on a consistent schedule. People will often say this game or that game have the mechanics required for long term play. Fuck that, the only mechanics you need are a calendar and actually showing up.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-13\"\u003eYou can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eBeloch Shrike\u003c/a\u003e: Renoir, Red Man Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDael Nyxon: Bargo, the Dolm Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party begins in the newly liberated space alien outpost. Before it becomes truly abandoned, they decide to investigate the remainder of the complex.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey recruit a couple Bone Men to act as henchmen, who are a bit wary of exploring this portion of the complex.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePrying open the locked door that leads north from the basement stairs, they find a small corridor, with 3 more doors.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTo the East is a room full of pods.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExamining the pods they realize they each house an alien in some sort of stasis.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRenoir attempts to shatter the glass door on top of a pod. His sledgehammer bounces right off.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party leaves the room, heading to the West most room. Inside they find a room full of strange plant life.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe floors are littered with some dead plants and fruit, but not enough considering no one has been in here for years.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhile picking fruit the party sees that various autonomous robotic arms, etc, look to be taking care of the plants.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party moves to the centre room, the last remaining unexplored room.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere is a large cylinder in the centre of the room that extends down into the ground. It pulses with red light. It’s cordoned off by a circular railing. The room is full of computers, and everything looks to be in working order.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOrange Julia pushes a big red button!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSlowly the pulsing of the cylinder comes to a halt. The lights in the complex turn off, and the sound of doors opening can be heard throughout the complex.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn the dark, the PCs here another sound, the sound of the pods full of aliens opening.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party waits a beat to see what happens. They hear the sound of an alien retching. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRealizing the aliens might be disoriented from being in stasis for so long, Renoir decides to cold-cock one and kidnap him.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlien on his shoulder, the party book it out of the complex. Everyone else is milling around outside, confused by the loss of power.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSeeing the party running away, they join in.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOnce a reasonable distance away, the two groups of captives head off: the Orange Men to their town to the East, Joi; the Brown Men to the merchant town Jahar.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAbout half way to Invak the party spot what looks to be a giant frog off in the distance. That’s strange. Could it be the Frog-God Llothali, worshipped by those crazy Orange Men to the North. Yes, it probably is. How many giant-ass toads could there be?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party decide to take a longer detour to reach Invak.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOn the way they startle a group of 4 slavers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBargo charges in and completely brains one.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe rest flee post-haste.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party gives chase, but without more range weapons pursuit seems fruitless. (I should look up the LotFP chase rules, they might have been a better option for that part of the game.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party regroup and head to Invak, where they are greeted as heroes.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Swift and Silent Beginning thanks the players for ridding the world of more cultists, and for helping fight the slavers. (You have more renown in the town.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUpon learning there is a space alien that was “rescued” from the complex, he asks that the creature be brought to him to be freed.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party wake up the alien, who has a surprisingly positive disposition.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHe is confused about where he is, what the date is, and what has transpired since his last week long shift at the space alien outpost.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party informs him that they saved him, that the rest of his comrades presumably died years ago.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHe decides to stay in Invak for now.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe new bone men also start to settle in to their new home.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party travels South to Jahar.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOrange Julia’s pack lizard is worn down from all the travel and dies in Jahar. (The merchants will buy his body to be turned into rations for 50GP—I forgot to mention in the session!)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party sell their weird alien fruit and call it a day.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100 GP for killing a slaver\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e550 GP for weird fruit\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e50 GP for pack lizard body.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-13/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-13T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-13T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "93b7a93fc6d7881d7f59256b2656c325bc69c560", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 12", "content_text": "\nMy Carcosa-style recap of this session was as follows:\nThe Bone Man sorcerer, The Dominant Reflection (AC 16, MV 90\u0026rsquo;, HD 4, Chaotic) has taken over the abandoned Space Alien outpost, along with a sizeable group of Bone Men cultists. They worship the long dead Snake Men.\nI had been teasing Bone Men cultists operating between the party’s home town of Invak, and the merchant town to the South, Jahar, for a few sessions. The Space Alien outpost was between the two towns, and was also home to secret village of Bone Men. It was time to finally scope out what was going on!\nI had fun seeing this long running thread from [the start of the game][s1] finally lead somewhere. As I have mentioned earlier, the Bone Man the party freed from a cell in the very first session was actually a dirt bag sorcerer, the Dominant Reflection, imprisoned by the rest of Bone Men that lived in the outpost. While the players were wandering Carcosa, he was gathering up a crew of cultists, who then took over the outpost, making it their base of operation.\nThe players some how managed to steam roll their way through the outpost, building up a posse as they freed captives. The session concluded with them saving the town. One of the more He-Man sessions in the game. In the commotion the Dominant Reflection escaped! There is chatter in the comments about what happened off camera, whether it was cheesy or not to let the character escape. I thought not, and the players agreed.\nThe players convince the town’s leader to come back with them to Invak in the post game discussion. We would sometimes play out things like that in post game chat between sessions.\nThis would end up being the midpoint of the campaign, though I didn’t know it at the time. Kind of fitting we looped back to where we started.\nPlayers:\nDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Brendan: Missave Rage, Yellow Women Fighter Gus: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter Chris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer Eric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Recap:\nThe party travels from Jahar North towards the “abandoned” space alien outpost. They see that it is guarded by two Bone Men, so they venture in via the radioactive wastes. The large centre room is filled with 9 bone men, reviewing maps and papers on large tables. The characters surprise the group, and kill a few before they can even retaliate. A few manage to flee to the basement. A long drawn out fight takes place on the main floor. Bone Men from various rooms join in. The party also encounter Bone Men from the original tribe that were living here, who join them in trying to shake off these cultists. The characters make their way to the basement, making quick work of two guards below. Moving forward they make their way to where they believe they will find the leader of the cult. More cultists are killed, and tribesman recruited, as the party marches forward. In the middle of the battle, the The Dominant Reflection looks to have made a break for it, his “throne room” sits empty. The party continue to travel around the basement in search of the sorcerer, but only encounter other former members of the Bone Men tribe, whom they free. By the time the party makes it back up to the top floor, and out the front door, the sorcerer looks to have fled. The party rest in the Space Alien Outpost, where they are heralded as heroes. Notes:\nThe Queen of Autumn was not amongst any of the people killed or freed. The leader of the Bone Men believes she escaped when the Sorcerer originally returned with his band of cultists to take over the ‘town’. The leader of the town, the Prince of Bone, gives your characters a 500 GP blood red ruby from the vault you passed when you first entered the basement. The Prince of Bone reveals that while they have no power over the Spherical Hunter Killer robot, they quickly learned that it can not “see” Bone Men. It completely ignores them. They also confirm your suspicion that it only hunts at night. They leave it alone. The Prince of Bone reveals that the sorcerer was previously imprisoned by the Bone Men here, because he was crazy-ass-crazy. They don\u0026rsquo;t know how he escaped, though they think it probably happened around the time Gus and Eric were previously here. He doesn\u0026rsquo;t put two and two together, because he\u0026rsquo;s so happy to be free. (You will recall you freed a naked Bone Man from a cell and fed him, before letting him run off into the wastes.) As before, the Prince of Bone asks that you not reveal to anyone the location of the town. Treasure:\nThe heads of 23 bone men cultists, whose bounty will be collected in Invak. (100GP per cultist killed or 2300 GP once you return to Invak) 500 GP gem 173 GP in random coinage from the 23 dead cultists. One laser gun (Brendan’s character has it) Comments:\nBrendan S (2015-07-21 04:28): For my records: Laser gun has 9 charges.\nRamanan S (2015-07-21 04:28): The leader had several rounds on you guys and ran around and back up the stairs. I don\u0026rsquo;t think you guys would have been able to catch him and his (now small) crew. How would you have handled pursuit like that? (He was the other 6 I rolled for initiative when you guys were fighting in the basement hall way.)\nRamanan S (2015-07-21 04:30): You guys also managed to kill most of the bone men, which seems crazy. Whenever I read these old TSR modules with giant mobs of monsters I\u0026rsquo;m always at a loss for how it won\u0026rsquo;t just turn into a shit show.\nEric Boyd (2015-07-21 04:32): Yeah, that\u0026rsquo;s tracking, not a chase per se, and you\u0026rsquo;ve let the party get away in craters and badlands enough times that I\u0026rsquo;d call this a fair call. We should\u0026rsquo;ve sent some of the freed captives back around to keep watch\u0026hellip;\nRamanan S (2015-07-21 04:47): On the one hand it seems lame to save my NPC, but on the other it seemed dumb to have him just wait for you guys when it was probably clear the tide was turning.\nGus L (2015-07-21 06:05): I\u0026rsquo;d say this leader needs a talking to. The city to the South of some non-bone men know where his people are, the sorcerer who kicked his ass last time knows where his people are. The slavers will undoubtedly soon know where they are.\nWe won\u0026rsquo;t come back and save him next time he gets taken over by a sorcerer - we\u0026rsquo;ll just bring the town guards and Invakians to kill everyone. Everyone. They won\u0026rsquo;t be a nuisance to trade anymore. The major power in the area - the one we nominally work for/with is boneman - he needs to bring his people into Invak, and set up a life there - they should be welcoming. We can help arrange that. If not, since he was a dude in a cell recently Normagina will encourage the other survivors to come with us to to Invak and let the crazy leader and the crazy sorcerer fight it out before we come back and murder the winners/survivors with Invak\u0026rsquo;s militia in a few months.\nThis should not really be a choice for them, small communities get slaughtered, mutated or taken over by nuts. They are not even a small community now - time to join up with someone bigger.\nAlso mumble mumble something about strategic hamlets.\nRamanan S (2015-08-07 04:57): Alright!\nYou can convince this fellow that staying here is a dumb idea. The group is still very suspicious of outsiders, but since you have shown up and saved them from cult-stupidness they are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.\nThe leader and 5 of his followers are going to search for \u0026ldquo;The Queen of Autumn\u0026rdquo;, the women who escorted Gus L and Eric Boyd back to Invak during that first session. Everyone else will come with you. (I\u0026rsquo;ll look up numbers.)\nAlso I realise I made a mistake with the people you were freeing from the cells. Not everyone is a Bone Man. Some people are captives from the region. They will also come back with you to Invak. I need to double check my notes for where people are from.\nThis dungeon is basically cleared except for the central locked section in the basement. (The doors to the North when you go down the stairs.) The bone men have also not entered the area, lacking the appropriate pass key. They assume it\u0026rsquo;s where the power comes from. There is a strange symbol that they say means power embossed on the door.\nI should give you guys XP for messing up the cultist faction as well.\nEric Boyd (2015-08-07 04:59): Do any of our assorted key cards open the basement?\nRamanan S (2015-08-07 05:16): Sadly no. It\u0026rsquo;s the same sort of metal sliding door you see throughout, just locked. You can try and bust it open if you are so inclined. The Bone Men are superstitious about it, but won\u0026rsquo;t interfere if you want to mess with it.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/assets/img/masters-of-carcosa-bone-man.png\" alt=\"Bone Man\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-12/\"\u003eMy Carcosa-style recap of this session was as follows:\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Bone Man sorcerer, The Dominant Reflection (AC 16, MV 90\u0026rsquo;, HD 4, Chaotic) has taken over the abandoned Space Alien outpost, along with a sizeable group of Bone Men cultists. They worship the long dead Snake Men.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had been teasing Bone Men cultists operating between the party’s home town of Invak, and the merchant town to the South, Jahar, \u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-12/\"\u003efor a few sessions\u003c/a\u003e. The Space Alien outpost was between the two towns, and was also home to secret village of Bone Men. It was time to finally scope out what was going on!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had fun seeing this long running thread from [the start of the game][s1] finally lead somewhere. As I have mentioned earlier, the Bone Man the party freed from a cell in the very first session was actually a dirt bag sorcerer, the Dominant Reflection, imprisoned by the rest of Bone Men that lived in the outpost. While the players were wandering Carcosa, he was gathering up a crew of cultists, who then took over the outpost, making it their base of operation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe players some how managed to steam roll their way through the outpost, building up a posse as they freed captives. The session concluded with them saving the town. One of the more He-Man sessions in the game. In the commotion the Dominant Reflection escaped! There is chatter in the comments about what happened off camera, whether it was cheesy or not to let the character escape. I thought not, and the players agreed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe players convince the town’s leader to come back with them to Invak in the post game discussion. We would sometimes play out things like that in post game chat between sessions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis would end up being the midpoint of the campaign, though I didn’t know it at the time. Kind of fitting we looped back to where we started.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://necropraxis.com/\"\u003eBrendan\u003c/a\u003e: Missave Rage, Yellow Women Fighter \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/\"\u003eGus\u003c/a\u003e: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party travels from Jahar North towards the “abandoned” space alien outpost.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey see that it is guarded by two Bone Men, so they venture in via the radioactive wastes.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe large centre room is filled with 9 bone men, reviewing maps and papers on large tables. The characters surprise the group, and kill a few before they can even retaliate. A few manage to flee to the basement.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA long drawn out fight takes place on the main floor. Bone Men from various rooms join in. The party also encounter Bone Men from the original tribe that were living here, who join them in trying to shake off these cultists.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe characters make their way to the basement, making quick work of two guards below.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMoving forward they make their way to where they believe they will find the leader of the cult.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMore cultists are killed, and tribesman recruited, as the party marches forward.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn the middle of the battle, the The Dominant Reflection looks to have made a break for it, his “throne room” sits empty.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party continue to travel around the basement in search of the sorcerer, but only encounter other former members of the Bone Men tribe, whom they free.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBy the time the party makes it back up to the top floor, and out the front door, the sorcerer looks to have fled.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party rest in the Space Alien Outpost, where they are heralded as heroes.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotes:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Queen of Autumn was not amongst any of the people killed or freed. The leader of the Bone Men believes she escaped when the Sorcerer originally returned with his band of cultists to take over the ‘town’.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe leader of the town, the Prince of Bone, gives your characters a 500 GP blood red ruby from the vault you passed when you first entered the basement.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Prince of Bone reveals that while they have no power over the Spherical Hunter Killer robot, they quickly learned that it can not “see” Bone Men. It completely ignores them. They also confirm your suspicion that it only hunts at night. They leave it alone.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Prince of Bone reveals that the sorcerer was previously imprisoned by the Bone Men here, because he was crazy-ass-crazy. They don\u0026rsquo;t know how he escaped, though they think it probably happened around the time Gus and Eric were previously here. He doesn\u0026rsquo;t put two and two together, because he\u0026rsquo;s so happy to be free. (You will recall you freed a naked Bone Man from a cell and fed him, before letting him run off into the wastes.)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAs before, the Prince of Bone asks that you not reveal to anyone the location of the town.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe heads of 23 bone men cultists, whose bounty will be collected in Invak. (100GP per cultist killed or 2300 GP once you return to Invak)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e500 GP gem\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e173 GP in random coinage from the 23 dead cultists.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOne laser gun (Brendan’s character has it)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eComments:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBrendan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-07-21 04:28): For my records: Laser gun has 9 charges.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-07-21 04:28): The leader had several rounds on you guys and ran around and back up the stairs. I don\u0026rsquo;t think you guys would have been able to catch him and his (now small) crew. How would you have handled pursuit like that? (He was the other 6 I rolled for initiative when you guys were fighting in the basement hall way.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-07-21 04:30): You guys also managed to kill most of the bone men, which seems crazy. Whenever I read these old TSR modules with giant mobs of monsters I\u0026rsquo;m always at a loss for how it won\u0026rsquo;t just turn into a shit show.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Boyd\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-07-21 04:32): Yeah, that\u0026rsquo;s tracking, not a chase per se, and you\u0026rsquo;ve let the party get away in craters and badlands enough times that I\u0026rsquo;d call this a fair call. We should\u0026rsquo;ve sent some of the freed captives back around to keep watch\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-07-21 04:47): On the one hand it seems lame to save my NPC, but on the other it seemed dumb to have him just wait for you guys when it was probably clear the tide was turning.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGus L\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-07-21 06:05): I\u0026rsquo;d say this leader needs a talking to.  The city to the South of some non-bone men know where his people are, the sorcerer who kicked his ass last time knows where his people are.  The slavers will undoubtedly soon know where they are.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe won\u0026rsquo;t come back and save him next time he gets taken over by a sorcerer - we\u0026rsquo;ll just bring the town guards and Invakians to kill everyone.  Everyone.  They won\u0026rsquo;t be a nuisance to trade anymore.  The major power in the area - the one we nominally work for/with is boneman - he needs to bring his people into Invak, and set up a life there - they should be welcoming.  We can help arrange that. If not, since he was a dude in a cell recently Normagina will encourage the other survivors to come with us to to Invak and let the crazy leader and the crazy sorcerer fight it out before we come back and murder the winners/survivors with Invak\u0026rsquo;s militia in a few months.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis should  not really be a choice for them, small communities get slaughtered, mutated or taken over by nuts.  They are not even a small community now - time to join up with someone bigger.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso mumble mumble something about strategic hamlets.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-08-07 04:57): Alright!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou can convince this fellow that staying here is a dumb idea. The group is still very suspicious of outsiders, but since you have shown up and saved them from cult-stupidness they are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe leader and 5 of his followers are going to search for \u0026ldquo;The Queen of Autumn\u0026rdquo;, the women who escorted Gus L and Eric Boyd back to Invak during that first session. Everyone else will come with you. (I\u0026rsquo;ll look up numbers.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso I realise I made a mistake with the people you were freeing from the cells. Not everyone is a Bone Man. Some people are captives from the region. They will also come back with you to Invak. I need to double check my notes for where people are from.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis dungeon is basically cleared except for the central locked section in the basement. (The doors to the North when you go down the stairs.) The bone men have also not entered the area, lacking the appropriate pass key. They assume it\u0026rsquo;s where the power comes from. There is a strange symbol that they say means power embossed on the door.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI should give you guys XP for messing up the cultist faction as well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Boyd\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-08-07 04:59): Do any of our assorted key cards open the basement?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRamanan S\u003c/strong\u003e (2015-08-07 05:16): Sadly no. It\u0026rsquo;s the same sort of metal sliding door you see throughout, just locked. You can try and bust it open if you are so inclined. The Bone Men are superstitious about it, but won\u0026rsquo;t interfere if you want to mess with it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-12/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-12T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-12T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "345fd99a48dec51af2b0b6379e64fb52fe1d3641", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 11", "content_text": "This is the first session Chris P joined the fight. There were two Chris’s on G+ that were consummate players. Like Eric, they were almost always down to play whenever you would post a game. Players like that make running a poorly organized campaign work.\nWhen I would share invites on G+ for the Masters of Carcosa sessions I would include rumours and news the players had learned. There was also a post on my G+ community for the game where I would keep all the loose threads up to date. For this session the players knew the following:\nTrade between Invak and Jahar presumably remains on hiatus for now while Jahar\u0026rsquo;s merchants waits for this cult to move on or be replaced. The merchants will travel East to the Citadel of Brown Men known as Lessel. Deep One sightings at the Lake to the South. During the session they would learn more about the deep ones, who apparently had emerald belts. (The deep ones in this game were effectively Mer-Man from Masters of the Universe.) This was the rumour the players decided to follow, resulting in a very straight forward session compared to some of the others: kill some cultists, free some captives, find some treasure.\nThe party finally learned some more rituals, not that it really mattered. The rituals didn’t really match the vibe of the game, even though Chris’s character was a real dirt bag sorcerer. He was constantly trying to learn and find more, and I basically didn’t really want them in my game so was kind of a real dick when it came to having them show up in play. For the most part playing a Sorcerer was just the hard-mode version of playing a Fighter. The classes were the same, but Sorcerers had harder XP requirements.\nThe next session the players will return to the “abandoned” Space Alien outpost that kicked off the campaign. It’s kind of neat that it happened to happen at what would be the midpoint of the campaign.\nMy Carcosa-style recap for the session is quite terse, because the session itself was very to the point.\nPlayers:\nChris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer Eric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter Beloch Shrike: Renoir, Red Man Fighter Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Willie Burke: Grenn, White Man Sorcerer Recap:\nThe party decides to remain in and around Glom for the time being. The city is clearly built within snake men ruins, but no one in town seems to know or care—or at least won\u0026rsquo;t talk to the party about it. Rumours of emerald wearing deep ones send the party south to the lake. There they see a group of cultists camped near the statue and pillars visible last session. They approach closer and start examining the pillars: rituals! Then they get shot at. A fight! The obvious cultists put up a mediocre fight, missing like the cast of G.I. Joe. The party are victorious after a protracted fight. Captives are freed. New rituals learned. Success! Treasure:\n500 GP 5 Gems: 2700 GP 6 wax figurines of deep ones 4 Naginatas (6 grabbed by captives) Rituals:\nSummon Amphibious Ones - This eleven-hour ritual can be completed only on a fog-shrouded night. The Sorcerer must obtain the root of potency found only in ruined apothecaries of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a virgin White girl. As her life leaves her body, 10–100 of the Amphibious Ones will coalesce out of the mists.\nThe Blasphemous Sacrifice (to Bind Amphibious Ones) - This ritual cannot be performed on its own, but only as an adjunct to the SUMMON THE AMPHIBIOUS ONES ritual. It adds an hour to the time required to complete the ritual (thus twelve hours total). The sacrifice is further subjected to an hour of unspeakable tortures before being slain. At the end of the rituals, the Sorcerer will have complete control over the horde of Amphibious Ones for 24 hours.\nThe Call of Cthulhu (to Summon Cthulhu) - This 24 hour ritual must be cast while waist deep in the polluted waters of Carcosa. Once the ritual chanting and genuflection begins, the sorcerer must drown a Purple Men at the end of each hour of the ritual. All the victims must be a willing sacrifices to the Great Old One Cthulhu. When the life leaves the last of the Purple Men, Cthulhu will rise up from the waters.\n", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eThis is the first session Chris P joined the fight. There were two Chris’s on G+ that were consummate players. Like Eric, they were almost always down to play whenever you would post a game. Players like that make running a poorly organized campaign work.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I would share invites on G+ for the Masters of Carcosa sessions I would include rumours and news the players had learned. There was also a post on my G+ community for the game where I would keep all the loose threads up to date. For this session the players knew the following:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTrade between Invak and Jahar presumably remains on hiatus for now while Jahar\u0026rsquo;s merchants waits for this cult to move on or be replaced.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe merchants will travel East to the Citadel of Brown Men known as Lessel.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDeep One sightings at the Lake to the South.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring the session they would learn more about the deep ones, who apparently had emerald belts. (The deep ones in this game were effectively Mer-Man from Masters of the Universe.) This was the rumour the players decided to follow, resulting in a very straight forward session compared to some of the others: kill some cultists, free some captives, find some treasure.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe party finally learned some more rituals, not that it really mattered. The rituals didn’t really match the vibe of the game, even though Chris’s character was a real dirt bag sorcerer. He was constantly trying to learn and find more, and I basically didn’t really want them in my game so was kind of a real dick when it came to having them show up in play. For the most part playing a Sorcerer was just the hard-mode version of playing a Fighter. The classes were the same, but Sorcerers had harder XP requirements.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe next session the players will return to the “abandoned” Space Alien outpost that kicked off the campaign. It’s kind of neat that it happened to happen at what would be the midpoint of the campaign.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-11/\"\u003eMy Carcosa-style recap for the session is quite terse, because the session itself was very to the point.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.paperspencils.com/\"\u003eBeloch Shrike\u003c/a\u003e: Renoir, Red Man Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWillie Burke: Grenn, White Man Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party decides to remain in and around Glom for the time being.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe city is clearly built within snake men ruins, but no one in town seems to know or care—or at least won\u0026rsquo;t talk to the party about it.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRumours of emerald wearing deep ones send the party south to the lake.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThere they see a group of cultists camped near the statue and pillars visible last session.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey approach closer and start examining the pillars: rituals!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen they get shot at.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA fight!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe obvious cultists put up a mediocre fight, missing like the cast of G.I. Joe.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party are victorious after a protracted fight. Captives are freed. New rituals learned. Success!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTreasure:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e500 GP\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e5 Gems: 2700 GP\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e6 wax figurines of deep ones\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e4 Naginatas (6 grabbed by captives)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRituals:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSummon Amphibious Ones - This eleven-hour ritual can be completed only on a fog-shrouded night. The Sorcerer must obtain the root of potency found only in ruined apothecaries of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a virgin White girl. As her life leaves her body, 10–100 of the Amphibious Ones will coalesce out of the mists.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Blasphemous Sacrifice (to Bind Amphibious Ones) - This ritual cannot be performed on its own, but only as an adjunct to the SUMMON THE AMPHIBIOUS ONES ritual. It adds an hour to the time required to complete the ritual (thus twelve hours total). The sacrifice is further subjected to an hour of unspeakable tortures before being slain. At the end of the rituals, the Sorcerer will have complete control over the horde of Amphibious Ones for 24 hours.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Call of Cthulhu (to Summon Cthulhu) - This 24 hour ritual must be cast while waist deep in the polluted waters of Carcosa. Once the ritual chanting and genuflection begins, the sorcerer must drown a Purple Men at the end of each hour of the ritual. All the victims must be a willing sacrifices to the Great Old One Cthulhu. When the life leaves the last of the Purple Men, Cthulhu will rise up from the waters.\u003c/p\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-11/", "tags": ["carcosa","mastersofcarcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-11T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-11T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } }, { "id": "280048445e975504b2aeda30a7f09cec2c45cf78", "title": "Masters of Carcosa - Session 10", "content_text": "I remember this session really well, because it was another weird one. Only Dion and Willie could make it, and they didn’t want to do anything risky. The players travelled with the merchants on their trip South, stopping in the village of Glom. There they met affable Carcosans and got totally wasted. The description for the settlement in the hex is as follows: Village of 310 Ulfire Men ruled by “the Unapproachable Radiance,” a neutral 6th-level Sorcerer. A lot of the Carcosa book is villages like this. That somehow transformed into what is described in the recap below. I am quite certain that going into this session I thought the players would return to the cavern they had been exploring, and so when they didn’t I had to spin something out from my most meagre of notes. Besides the description in the Carcosa book, the only thing I knew about this town was its name, which I had given it when drawing the initial region map for the campaign. In my notes I had something about Mer-Man cultists worshiping Cthulhu by the lake. I’m pretty sure I came up with the idea of evil Cthulhu lake water as a type of booze, and then just extrapolated everything else from that. Sometimes that’s what you gotta do.\nThis is the first session Eric missed! There was a mixup because I kept on rescheduling. This is why you need to be consistent when you’re running games!\nIn my Carcosa-style recap for the session, I’m much more explicit about what’s going on in the town.\nPlayers:\nDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter Willie Burke: Grenn, White Man Sorcerer Recap:\nThe party begins the session in Jahar, where they returned with the body of a dead amoured space alien and a Bone Man cultist who attacked them on the road. They learned of the base the cultists presumably operate out of. Since there were only two players today the group decided to avoid the cultists enclave and head South with the traders. The party ended up in the city of Glom, the trip South was uneventful. The merchants stay in a quiet Inn, with no name but a strange ancient symbols etched on its door. Sorcerers will recognize this as the snake man word for Torture Gallery. The party wanders around town, which seems to be a surprisingly easy going place. They come upon a louder and more boisterous tavern. The bar servers two drinks, “lake water”, and a purple lotus concoction. Asha-Rea samples the lotus drink, Grenn the lake water. Each gets plastered in their own way. They wake up the next day back in the original inn. (TODO: make a carousing table!) The next day they explore the town. “the Joy-Giver of All the Living” sells tonics and potions made out of the lake water. They buy a “healing potion” “the Inestimable Fullness” is a tailor that is built like the Kingpin. They buy fancy hats from him, and Asha-Rea buys a set of clothes. They will be ready in a week. The party decides to trek to the near by lake to collect water for sale to the Alchemist. This occurs without incident, but the lake gives them a thoroughly creepy vibe. There are rumours it is full of Deep Ones. They see a monument of statues in the distance, surrounded by pillars. They don’t investigate! They return to town with two barrels of the bizarre lake water, which they sell for 50GP a pop. ", "content_html": "\u003cp\u003eI remember this session really well, because it was another weird one. Only Dion and Willie could make it, and they didn’t want to do anything risky. The players travelled with the merchants on their trip South, stopping in the village of Glom. There they met affable Carcosans and got totally wasted. The description for the settlement in the hex is as follows: \u003cem\u003eVillage of 310 Ulfire Men ruled by “the Unapproachable\nRadiance,” a neutral 6th-level Sorcerer\u003c/em\u003e. A lot of the Carcosa book is villages like this. That somehow transformed into what is described in the recap below. I am quite certain that going into this session I thought the players would return to the cavern they had been exploring, and so when they didn’t I had to spin something out from my most meagre of notes. Besides the description in the Carcosa book, the only thing I knew about this town was its name, which I had given it when drawing the initial region map for the campaign. In my notes I had something about Mer-Man cultists worshiping Cthulhu by the lake. I’m pretty sure I came up with the idea of evil Cthulhu lake water as a type of booze, and then just extrapolated everything else from that. Sometimes that’s what you gotta do.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the first session Eric missed! There was a mixup because I kept on rescheduling. This is why you need to be consistent when you’re running games!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/masters-of-carcosa/session-10/\"\u003eIn my Carcosa-style recap for the session, I’m much more explicit about what’s going on in the town.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlayers:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWillie Burke: Grenn, White Man Sorcerer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecap:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party begins the session in Jahar, where they returned with the body of a dead amoured space alien and a Bone Man cultist who attacked them on the road. They learned of the base the cultists presumably operate out of.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSince there were only two players today the group decided to avoid the cultists enclave and head South with the traders.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party ended up in the city of Glom, the trip South was uneventful.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe merchants stay in a quiet Inn, with no name but a strange ancient symbols etched on its door. Sorcerers will recognize this as the snake man word for Torture Gallery.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party wanders around town, which seems to be a surprisingly easy going place.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey come upon a louder and more boisterous tavern.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe bar servers two drinks, “lake water”, and a purple lotus concoction.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAsha-Rea samples the lotus drink, Grenn the lake water.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEach gets plastered in their own way.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey wake up the next day back in the original inn. (TODO: make a carousing table!)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe next day they explore the town.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e“the Joy-Giver of All the Living” sells tonics and potions made out of the lake water. They buy a “healing potion”\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e“the Inestimable Fullness” is a tailor that is built like the Kingpin. They buy fancy hats from him, and Asha-Rea buys a set of clothes. They will be ready in a week.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe party decides to trek to the near by lake to collect water for sale to the Alchemist.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThis occurs without incident, but the lake gives them a thoroughly creepy vibe. There are rumours it is full of Deep Ones.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey see a monument of statues in the distance, surrounded by pillars. They don’t investigate!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey return to town with two barrels of the bizarre lake water, which they sell for 50GP a pop.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n", "url": "https://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/play-report/masters-of-carcosa-session-10/", "tags": ["mastersofcarcosa","carcosa","mocrecap"], "date_published": "2025-12-10T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2025-12-10T00:00:00Z", "author": { "name": "Ramanan Sivaranjan" } } ] }