Root Devil

Becoming More of a Sicko (and another Cairn 2e background)

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

I started writing fiction when I was 14, starting with a very melodramatic novella. My juvenalia, while decidedly not something I would be happy to publish today, definitely was done with a mix of love, fun, joy, and a mixture of I’ll show them and I’ll prove myself.

This YouTube video describes the differences between the questions:

“Why do you make art?”

“Why do you really make art?”

That soup of motivations and 15 years working in the publishing industry has colored my approach to the arts in my teens and twenties and thirties.

Recently I didn’t write fiction for a year. I was discouraged by the querying process and wondering whether I actually wanted to write at all. Was I only doing it for that second purpose, of proving that I could do it? Was this just a stranger’s dream now, a teenager long gone?

In the meantime, I continued TTRPG writing: prepping for game sessions, writing adventures, playtesting, etc. Within the past few months, I have been preparing a hacked Cairn 2e Open Table campaign with a megadungeon and overworld. I’m about 120 rooms through and I have finished the overworld map. It’s a lot.

And I’ve done this before (just the Open Table campaign idea, not the megadungeon) and it fizzled out quickly. This was discouraging, and it made me feel like I have before with writing, with art, with any creative pursuit:

I should be doing something productive with my time instead.

I had this doubt reaching to pull me out of the megadungeon. I took a break. And I read a blog post. This one: A Sicko’s Guide to Prepping D&D by Valeria Loves.

Whenever you’re doing any artistic pursuit and that voice creeps into your head, just remind yourself that you’re a gosh darn sicko.

It’s fun to write a story, it’s fun to draw a bird that no one is going to see, it’s fun to build a 200-room dungeon that might not ever even get played. It’s not even just that it’s practice or honing the tools or preparing you for something better. The act itself is fun.

Perhaps this is something that people know already or whatever, but it’s been my experience that the more times you come across an idea, the more times it coalesces in your head. Consider this another marketing touchpoint from the sicko coalition.

Coming from the publishing industry, I have found the DIY TTRPG space refreshingly collaborative, open, and generous. I teach a class and one of the lectures I do is on TTRPGs and the history of D&D and how so many innovations in game design have come from fans and enthusiasts just doing it for the love of the game.

I am writing again.

Here’s another Cairn 2e background. I scavenged some parts from when I had dwarves in my campaign to make this background.

Stone-Worker

Ever risking disturbing the Thousand Thousand Sleepers slumber, those of the Order of the Stone-Workers, a religious order/trade union, are among the bravest of Otani hillfolk. The Metal-Spoolers inducted you and inlaid your skin with metal threads. The earth speaks to you and allows you to mold, forge, and craft through it.

3d6 sp, imperial minted coins
Rations (3 uses)
Candle Helmet (+1A, dim, 6 uses)
Rope (30 feet)
Hammer (d6)
Metal bucket

What is your skin inlaid with?

Gold. Minersight: You can always see gold, silver, and gemstones in vivid colors.
Copper. Tremorsense: By taking 1 Fatigue, you can sense movements through the ground for as long as you concentrate on them.
Tin. Stonemeld: By taking 1 Fatigue, you can melt into stone surfaces.
Tungsten. Forge-hand: By taking 1 Fatigue, your off-hand can heat up to forge-hot temperatures (d6 damage). Must be quenched to be extinguished.
Iron. Magnetic Sense: By taking 1 Fatigue, you can align yourself to a piece of metal you have previously designated. You know which direction that object is.
Silver. Silverspool: By taking 1 Fatigue, you may extract strands of silver from your inlays. The strands are long enough to wrap around a weapon, as strong as wire, and as fine as hair. They disintegrate after a watch when separated from your skin.

What was your role in the depths?

Miner. Take a pickaxe (d6) and a fume-rat, a rat that glows green whenever exposed to toxins. It is immune to toxins. Name your rat.
Apprentice Metal-Spooler. Take fine metal-working tools and a sheet of the metal inlaid in your skin.
Blacksmith. Take a small anvil (bulky) and tongs.
Tinker. Take metal shears (d6) and a tube of liquid patching metal (3 uses).
Death-Urn Maker. Take the urn meant for you. Destroying it inflicts a generational curse: The cursed person physically deteriorates over the span of 2d20 months.
Union Rep. Take black powder bombs (d10, blast, 3 uses) and a crowbar (d6).

Use Tracing Paper

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Part of the blog bandwagon

Like a lot of people in this hobby, I love a good map. I am a map freak. I had a hard time figuring out what I was going to write about. I was really debating just putting up a bunch of maps I’ve made, but instead, in my rummaging through maps of yore, I rediscovered a set of maps I made for an overworld wargame set in one of my campaigns.

Background

In my pseudo-Classical Greek setting, the heroes had disappeared to a demi-plane and hopped around a bunch of islands (made a map for that too). While they were away on this high seas adventure, their hometown of Argot was about to be invaded by the Mineosi Empire, headed by the many-bodied Deathless One from beyond the Teeth of the Sun.

This was all in preparation for the last part of the campaign. After all of the fun sandboxy island-hopping stuff in the demiplane, they were going to be big dang heroes and save the city from certain destruction. Just how much certain destruction though would be determined by the results of a minigame.

Tracing Paper

Each of the players had a turn at fighting this war game with me to determine what had happened while they were away. And when I wrote the recaps, I wanted a visualization for what had happened.

Enter tracing paper. I placed some tracing paper over the map and drew troop movements and battles on it.

This may have been a really specific case, but I can see tracing paper being used for a lot of things, like as a secret GM layer; map overlays for climate, elevation, international borders, or spheres of influence; to track the PCs’ progress across the overworld; to slowly uncover secrets on a map you want to reuse; or for a disguise for your bear in Honey Heist.

Hope this inspires you to try out tracing paper in your map-making!

Here are some adventures I’ve written with maps I’ve drawn:

A foray into that classic hatching-style dungeon map for Return to Perinthos, The Sibyl of the Ascent
A forest with multiple layers in The Devil’s Millhopper
An isometric map in The Lost Treasure of Granny Snake-Eyes

Here are some other map-related links:

You got your setting in my background - The Regulator, background for Cairn 2e

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Worldbuilding through backgrounds

So, these backgrounds are part of my second attempt at an open table campaign. The biggest problem with the first one was geographical and I have solved that, but another problem may have been lore-dumping.

I tried to get cute with the lore, writing most of it in-world to solve problems I have seen with long and dense player primers. But still, it was a long primer and probably daunting to get into. It was fun to write and I don’t begrudge anyone not reading it. Writing is its own reward!

I was already more and more leaning toward trimming the lore and embedding it into the custom backgrounds, which is already the case in the Cairn 2e backgrounds for the Vald. But there were a few Rise Up Comus posts that motivated me further on this sneaking-lore-into-other-places thing, like embedding lore in your classes. It’s like hiding broccoli in your kid’s food or whatever. You get it.

I decided to also season the character creation guide with background info, in-world commentary, lore, and so on. One easy place to put it was in the guide on creating personal character quests, which I took from His Majesty the Worm.

I preface this quest section with the following:

All delves lead into the Hollows. The imperials mined deeper and deeper, hunting for silver, hunting for secrets, until they became the hunted. What they found in the center of the maze destroyed them.

What you’re looking for is down there.

What is the Hollows? Who are the imperials? What is the maze?

And also here’s the spark table:

Roll 3d6 and work with the referee to create a quest.

d6	Verb	Noun	Reason
1	Study / Explore / Map	Monster	Vengeance / Grief / Nostalgia
2	Use / Sample / Transform	Wonder	Illness / Curse / Condition
3	Take / Steal / Release	Person / Group	Debt / Business / Oath
4	Destroy / Defeat / Hunt	Place	Pride / Honor / Standing
5	Return / Repair / Restore	Item	Family / Love / Friend
6	Meet / Protect / Influence	Resource	Religion / God / Tradition

Regulators, mount up!

While the Exorcists fight on the battlefield of the human soul and Witch-Finders persecute magic users (and folk healers and other innocent people), the Regulators seek out mundane violators of Church doctrine. Their victims are heretics and practitioners of other religions. Their tools are steel, shackles, and a magic chalk that creates a zone of truth for interrogation.

This background is for a former regulator because these guys are obviously bastards. This uses the GLOG Magic Dice hack for Cairn and takes some cues from the Cairn 2e backgrounds, probably mostly the Marchguard. The parrying move is from the Cairn Adventurer’s Guide.

The setting info is not just in the intro text, but in the PC options as well, with specific major NPCs named as potential hooks, complications in play, and quest inspiration. Replace Harald Between-the-Seams and Chief Regulator Regina with another major NPC, or make your own versions of these characters.

Regulator

The Visions of the Lady Beyond the Teeth of the Sun have been revealed to all. Prayers between pressed hands: do they sin, do they speak to other hidden gods? Do the mouths that pray today spew heresies in secret meetings? You swore an oath to seek out and punish non-believers and heretical enemies of the Church. But your relationship with the Order soured over time, and you turned your back on them.

Rations (3 uses)
Torch
Badge of your order, tarnished: a Scapular of St. Ormund (petty)
Spear (d6)
Bolas
Confessor’s Chalk (petty, 3 uses). Draw a circle around a creature, compelling them to tell the truth so long as they remain in the circle.

Why did you join?

To prove your family are not heretics. Take a disguised heretical grimoire (bulky) with the spell Speak with Dead: The caster can speak freely with the target (a dead creature) for {dice} minutes (using a real timer). Once a target has been spoken to, it cannot be spoken to again.
Your family has a long tradition of serving. Take your ancestral longsword (d10, bulky). Your lifelong training allows you to parry: You ignore damage rolls of 1 and 2 against you while wielding it or any longsword.
Born a noble, you escaped the potentially deadly machinations of your family. Take a scroll of pedigree (petty) and a disguise kit.
In place of a noble’s child whose parents paid you to serve. Take 80sp, a vial of poison (STR save or die in 2d12 hours; else, become deprived for 1d6 days), and a grudge.
You were saved by a Regulator during an Aegerling raid. Take a journal with a drawing, description, and leads on Harald Between-the-Seams, the murderer of your kin.
You were a street brawler and the Order recognized your aptitude for violence. Your unarmed strikes deal d6+d6 damage.

Why did you leave?

Cowardice. Your commanding officer was killed in an Aegerling ambush and you fled. Take the officer’s effects: brass pin (petty), ashes (petty), stamp (petty), spyglass.
Politics. Your commanding officer was jealous of the respect you had in the company, and you were put on dangerous assignments. Take a helmet (1A) and shield (1A, +d4) with your company’s insignia on it.
Bullying. They did not accept you. You were thrown into a river, tied down with stones, but you escaped miraculously. Take a water stone (1 charge). Place in a body of water and it will point to the nearest settlement. Recharge: Put inside of a living sea creature.
Corruption. You witnessed Chief Regulator Regina taking a bribe from Torgrim Skull-Splitter and were forced to partake. Take a stolen silvered chest containing a ruby.
Violence. You stopped a needless attack by your comrades on unarmed civilian non-believers. Take a medical kit (bulky), which contains implements for basic first aid and rudimentary surgery.
Boredom. Disappointed by the tedium and pointlessness of hunting down non-believers and heretics, you deserted your post one day. Take the horse who spirited you away (4 GD, 12 STR, 16 DEX, 4 WIL). Name your horse.

We are so back

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Hi! I think I fixed the comments section! I switched to zoomment from cusdis. Looks like it should work. Feel free to try it out. I’d like to thank everyone who did manage to try to send something via cusdis (there are no comments that actually made it to the blog posts and I didn’t get any notification emails about those either).

Other comments and attempted comments were for my post Six-Room Dungeon Diagram Generator, based on BSD by Traverse Fantasy. Here are links to those two:

A mirror for the generator I made, but this one adds additional wings! Really cool: https://bsd-dungeon-generator.web.app/

This was inspired by my generator: Introducing the Dungeon Layout Generator by GramaryeGames

The Exorcist and the Possessed, backgrounds for Cairn 2e

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My 2025 was very personally tumultuous so I did not make time for blogging. I did manage to go to my first Gen Con and Arcane Con. I also playtested The Last Hunting of the Boar three times. This is the adventure we are working on at Tabletopped, and I will be running it for Somercon, whenever that gets rescheduled. The ashcan version is available on the Tabletopped Patreon, I think under the free tier? I don’t know, I’m just a co-host.

Anyway, here is my promised follow-up to the Witch-Finder, the Exorcist. Since I was thinking about demons and possession, I also put together a background for a possessed person.

Demons are seen by the Order of Exorcists as something external to the possessed that must be removed. Some people, however, end up making space for these demons, being kind to them, giving them a blanket and some soup and a spot on the couch. This allows the possessed to live their lives in coexistence with their demons. They are a hum within that at times is exacerbated to a deafening drone. The demon sees something that makes it jump off the couch, spilling popcorn everywhere. It grabs you and says, “Look! Look!” It grabs your attention. What does the demon say about you? What does it tell you?

Possessed

The exorcists couldn’t save you (or you didn’t want them to save you), so you made space for the demon within.

Rations (3 uses)
Candle (10 uses)
Curved ceremonial dagger (d6)
Hand mirror

How did the demon come to possess you?

You unwittingly cast it out of the Juniper Witch by following her steps. Take the unshapen lump (1 use) you stole from her hut as you escaped. Mold into shape and affix to permanently replace a missing body part. It has the tacky consistency of clay, even after attaching.
They were your imaginary friend. Take a fatigue to cast an illusory version of yourself somewhere within sight. You are at 0 HP while doing this and you can speak and see through the double, but when touched, the illusion is broken.
After you threw a party so legendary, hell heard about it. You can never get drunk. When affected by poisons or venoms, you can choose to take on a fatigue rather than suffer its effects.
Via a family heirloom, looted from the grave in desperation. Take a devils-ore helmet (1A) passed down by an ancestor who supposedly fought against the legions of the demon lord Zulon a thousand years ago.
You were cursed by a school rival and failed all your classes. Take your school notebook, a debt, and a grudge.
You summoned it to help you cheat at school. Take a diploma (petty) and a diary thread (petty) which encodes a book’s worth of information at a time. The information can be retrieved by running it across a mirrored surface.

How do you keep your demon from fully taking over?

Blood. Whenever someone bleeds in front of you, you become deprived until you drink their blood. Attacks you make against bleeding creatures are enhanced.
Confusion. Take a sulfur stone. It stinks, but it makes the demon think it’s in control. Demons think you are one of them.
Prayers. Take warding circle (as spell (petty), in a Prayer Book (Grimoire, bulky)) which forbids demons from entering a circle you designate.
Bedtime stories. Take a shifting novel (3 charges), which can be used to create a small paper minion (4HP, 4 STR, 14 DEX, 4 WIL). It can manipulate things, fold itself down, and follow simple commands. Using all the charges makes the book unreadable. Recharge: Wrap the empty cover around paper.
Coins. Any treasure you win, it wants half. You can sniff out the value of any item. Whenever you offer the exact value and allow the demon to take over (by taking a fatigue), the seller is compelled to sell you that item for the price.
Snacks. Take a package of gourmet desserts (10 uses). The demon has expensive tastes. You can eat any non-food object by taking a fatigue.

When the demon takes over your body, your friends may be able to convince it to help. The referee should note that the demon and you are friendly enough with each other that it wouldn’t necessarily put you in harm’s way without a compelling reason.

You find yourself waking up the following morning, back in control, but

You’re in jail. Your bail is set at 10 x d100 coins.
You slept outside. You are 1d4 towns away.
You insinuated yourself into a wealthy person’s confidence and are waking up in a cushy guest bed.
You’ve spent all of the money you were carrying.
You summoned another demon and it is missing.
You have a stolen artifact (bulky) worth 1,000 x d10 coins. It has been reported missing.

If you’re tired of having the demon around, call an exorcist.

Exorcist

You were once a member of the Order of Exorcists, an investigator, a healer, wrangler of the demonic, and wielder of divine power. Though you left the order, you know well the dangers and horrors of demons and unholy.

Rations (3 uses)
Torches (3 uses)
Censer (d6)
Holy symbol (Turn undead (3 charges): weak undead must move away while stronger undead make a WIL save. Very strong undead are immune. Recharge: A watch spent in prayer.)
Badge of your order: a Scapular of Saint Pencarrow (petty)

What was your last case before you were forced out of the order?

A noble’s teen child. Successful, but it uncovered a trend among the teens making pacts with the Demon Witch. Take warding herbs (3 uses) you took from the witch. Burn (e.g. in the censer) to ward off undead and demons.
Your sibling. A failure. Take the saber (d8) wielded by the Regulator sent to finish off your sibling. Bears Regulator insignia.
A crime lord. Cursed by a traitor. Take a gambeson (1A) you wore for protection
The Archbishop. You uncovered that he summoned the demon himself to control it. Take a stack of documents (petty), indicating a vast conspiracy.
A false possession. You were set up to condemn a patsy. Take a coal (petty) from the patsy’s pyre that they told you to take in a vision. It glows hot in the presence of magic.
An Elf-lord. It was successful. The expelled demon now inhabits a mandrake root. It’s unfriendly, but 1/day, you can invoke its powers to cast Levitate, Immolation (d10+d10, fire, spreads), or Inflict Visions (WIL save or suffer visions chosen by the wielder). Recharge: Converse with the demon for a watch. Starts with no charges.

What tool is invaluable in exorcising demons?

Cold iron chain. The chains glow white-hot when touching an outside presence or a possessed creature.
Jug of holy water (10 uses).
Holy Flame (as spell (petty), in Prayer Book (Grimoire, bulky)). A bright flame that is cool to the touch, but inflicts burns (per Magic Dice) on outsiders like demons and fairies.
Your hands. You can take 1 fatigue to lay on hands and heal 1d4 STR. Take gloves (petty). You become deprived after using this ability.
Anointing oil. Protects a creature from possession or control from any outside influence for a day. 3 uses.
Heart Swap (as spell (petty), in Prayer Book (Grimoire, bulky)). Remove up to {dice} STR from yourself to heal another creature up to the same number.

Rootin', Tootin', Shootin', and Barkeepin' on the Borderlands

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Some folks over at the Prismatic Wasteland Discord server decided to do a Secret Santa, but rather than physical gifts, we followed Explorers Design’s gift guide and played, wrote about, or designed supplements for one of our Santee’s published works. I pulled the Prismatic Wasteland himself.

When deciding what to write about, it seemed a little easy to just review Barkeep on the Borderlands, so I decided to do exactly that! But I also did something for the Boot Hill blog post, so that’s also here.

Barkeep on the Borderlands Review

Barkeep on the Borderlands is a barhopping, fantasy adventure amidst Mardi Gras-like festivities, including 20 detailed pubs and dynamic drinking rules.

What Drew My Interest?¹

I was really intrigued at first by the blog post about a pubcrawling procedure, which is probably what originally led me to getting the book. Procedure Perverts > Rules Lawyers, am I right? Anyway that really hooked me. Skullboy’s cover art is also sick. All the art is sick.

What Was the First Thing I Noticed?

The pubcrawling procedure felt so novel, and so did the sobriety die, a very clever use of the usage die mechanic². These mechanics looked like they would work really well together, so I was excited to use them.

Could I Easily Run This at the Table?

I could and I did! I easily slotted this into my 5e game. As a side note, I was delighted by how quickly my players understood usage dice. I had them play a different game where they found a spray bottle and one of them suggested using usage dice instead of “counting sprays”.

Because the adventure is basically a scavenger hunt, they were less likely to just fight everything they saw and resolved things with their words and the power of dance. This helped with not having to run so many combats (since we were doing 5e) and pull up or improvise stat blocks. I don’t think they actually fought anything at all.

From a player recap:

We get the REDACTED INGREDIENT after several rounds of karaoke and some spider climbing. Helewynn dances with a fop that’s giving “Eyes Wide Shut” meets the steerage dance scene from Titanic.

Do the Ideas Feel Exciting, Novel, or Well-Executed?

This being a compilation of many different creators, it was impressive that it felt so cohesive and had a clear vision that came together. The easter eggs and references that played off each other were wonderfully done.

What Was My Favorite Part?

The absolute chaos that can occur from the blackout rules. The surprise on everyone’s faces when they realized two of the characters (Buck and Helewynn) are just gone until the next morning because they left the others.

From a player recap:

In the morning, Blikz and Bartok find Helewynn swimming after ducks in river. Hungover Helewynn feasts³…, and we learn the Heir has put out Wanted posters for Helewynn and Buck that say “shoot on sight.”

They managed to save the lord and were knighted. Now they own a piece of land on the Marches and have made some bargains with the marauders on the frontier. We’ll see how that goes.

Which Part Needs Work?

For me, it may have been helpful to have some kind of index or something for the various characters and items that connect across the different pubs. Without it though, it does leave room to be delighted by the surprises that you come across when running the game.

Stuff Worth Stealing

The sobriety die and pubcrawling mechanic can easily be slotted into any game to add some more dimensions to carousing.

Conclusion

Anyway, you don’t need me to tell you to pick this game up, but I will anyway. Easily one of the best and (just as importantly) most versatile adventures to use for your games. Find it here.

Cowboy Coda

OK, here’s something completely different. I was working on a game based on Prismatic Wasteland’s Boot Hill blog post, and I haven’t tried it out yet, but here is the character creation:

Goal⁴

You need 5,000 dollars. Roll d66:

1. You owe money to ruthless creditors

Tax collectors for back taxes
The Warlocks of the Red Dust for your resurrection
Crookhollow Creek Speculators for a gold rush investment gone wrong
CanCare Medica for a treatment you underwent
The White Hand for an extortionate loan you took out and promptly lost or squandered
Lucky Stars Casino after a bad night of gambling

2. You need money to finance an endeavor

Emigration (arranged by the Copperhead gang) to another country where they have not heard of your crimes
Surgery for your long-term fatal illness by CanCare Medica
Healing for your fatal curse by the Warlocks of the Red Dust
College fund for your eldest child, estranged
Investment in the Cordillera Blanca Silver Mining Company
Buying back your family’s land

3. You want to go legit and start a business that no one else believes in

Acting company
Circus troupe
Orphanage
Cafe
Publishing company
Haberdasher / Milliner

4. You’re being extorted by someone who knows your crimes

They framed you for it
They are a corrupt government official
They are a well-protected witness
They are an influential member of the Church of the Exalted Doom Manifest (Doomers)
They are your ex-partner who betrayed you
They contracted you for the job and are disappointed at your failure or sloppy methods

5. You want to buy or build a home

Cattle ranch
Modest farm
Townhouse
Mansion
Hermitage
Houseboat

6. You promised to help someone

Your sibling. They have been kidnapped and are being held for ransom
Your ex-spouse. They have mounting medical debts
Your parent. They have a chronic condition that requires expensive medicine
Your very young children. You don’t want them to end up like you
Your best friend. They owe money to the wrong people. Roll for their creditors above
Your family. Separated by long distance, they need money to rejoin you and start a new life

Traits

Roll every die (d4, d6, d8, d100, d12, d20) for your traits.

d4 hat
d6 overclothes
d8 reputation
d100 trinket
d12 bounty
d20 connection to the buckaroo on your left

d4 Hat

Black
White
Brown
Tan

d6 Overclothes

Duster
Denim Jacket
Leather Jacket
Poncho
Hide
Animal Skin Vest

This is not added to your inventory. You can also be assumed to own footwear, gloves, and something to hide your face. Choose what those are or bring them up on the spot when necessary in the fiction.

Any additional outfit not worn takes up 2 slots (bulky) and may consist of shirts, shoes, gloves, bandannas, hats, and so on.

d8 Reputation

Ambitious
Boor
Dangerous
Charismatic
Honest
Loafer
Oddball
Respected

d100 Trinket

Novelty Snuffbox (Shaped like an alligator, filled with the ashes of a loved one)
Three ID booklets (Same picture, different names)
Fake Ruby Necklace (Stolen from someone you accidentally killed)
Bottle Opener (Made from the metal of a decommissioned steamship you once lived on)
Cigar, Uncut (Gifted by your best friend before they disappeared the night before their wedding)
Bandana (Purchased at a theme park you visited as a child, decorated with a cartoon)
Dog Tags (Taken off the first person who died in your arms)
Religious Book (Family heirloom, hollowed out)
Train Ticket (For a trip never taken to visit someone you decided not to marry)
Two Glass Cups (Decorated with a strawberry print, replacements for your ex-roommate’s glasses which you broke)
Loose Papers (Covered in sketches and notes of an cryptid you once saw at a distance)
Spool of Thread (Purchased to repair a coat the buttons of which always go missing)
Fountain Pen (Found in the jacket pocket of a long dead traveler)
Ring (From a happy marriage, given willingly)
Packet of Seeds (Your favorite fruit)
Rusted Horseshoes (From a horse long dead)
Shot Glass (From a bar that no longer exists)
Conch Shell (From a beach that no longer exists)
Daguerrotype (Photo from your last vacation)
Pocket Watch (Stolen from a parent)
Penny Dreadful Comic (Purchased long ago with your sibling who you’ve lost touch with)
Tickets to a Circus (Past date, you meant to go to it with your parent)
Candle (Burned-down)
Dried Flowers (Preserved in resin)
Gator Skull (Of the gator who killed your mentor)
Antique Coin (From a nation-state that no longer exists)
Ocarina (Poorly-made, permanently out of tune)
Academic Achievement Medal
Bookmark (Made of bamboo)
Deck of Divination Cards (Always pulls the Tower when you draw for yourself)
Figurine of a God (Long forgotten)
A Single Chess Piece (From a game you lost)
Pack of Gum (Discontinued)
Pack of Cigarettes (Lucky one sticking out)
Playing Cards (Trick deck)
Lock of Hair (From a missing loved one)
Jar of Teeth (Yours, mostly)
Lucky Rabbit Foot
Marble (Taken from a kid you bullied when you were young)
Hand mirror (Heirloom)
Empty glass bottle (From the bar you used to go to with your mentor)
Prism (Refracts rainbows from light, but it’s missing blue)
Dice Set (Loaded)
Harmonica (Borrowed from a sibling who stopped playing)
Bundle of Incense (Pungent)
Taxidermied Squirrel (Gifted by a former friend, now enemy)
Friendship Bracelet (From a friend whose face you’ve long since forgotten)
Ripped Bridle (From your first horse)
Restaurant Reward Card (One more punch until you get a free sandwich)
Prayer Book with a Heretical Working Scrawled Inside
Banjo (Sized for a child, but still playable)
Chewing Tobacco (You promised to quit)
Binoculars (Found in an abandoned caravan)
Sheriff’s Badge (Caked in blood, belonged to a parent)
Rancher’s Gloves (Worn on the last honest job you had)
Single Glove (Embroidered or stamped with a distinctive mark, given by a lover as they disappeared from your life)
Comb (Used to brush your child’s hair)
Treasure Map (Stolen off a pair of corpses who died entwined in a struggle)
Pomade (Purchased for when you had to attend a fancy party)
Perfume (Purchased for when you had to attend a fancy date)
Shaving Kit (Stolen secretly from a barbershop)
Fishing Rod (Found)
Herbalist Kit (Assembled over years, includes random herbs)
Weeping Statuette (Weeps crystals every full moon)
Golden Disc (Etched with an arcane symbol you’ve not been able to interpret)
Pouch of Sand (Recovered from a graveyard)
Golden Spurs (Cherished)
Magnifying Glass (Formerly paired with an encyclopedia)
Daguerrotype (Photo of a cryptid, blurry)
Daguerrotype (Photo of a ghost, blurry)
Brass knuckles (Bloodied)
Bundle of Dead Letters (Found in an overturned postal wagon)
Mortar and Pestle (Owned by a mentor)
Wolfsbane
String of Garlic
Oversized Crucifix (Silver, valuable, gifted by a kind monastic who gave you refuge)
Teapot
Flowers Pressed in a Book (Found in the empty home of an elderly person who once gave you refuge)
Portable Camera with Flash Powder (You stole it from the inventor)
Heavy Steel Orb (Found in a crater)
Quilt Square (Torn off your cousin’s quilt)
Corn Cob Pipe (Hand-made by you)
Egg Timer (Shaped like a big)
Incandescent Light Bulb
Potted Cactus (Name it. It is your faithful companion)
Security Blanket
Bundle of Pencils
Jar of Pickled Limes
Jar of Face Paint
Pair of Bunny Slippers
Empty Picture Frame (Shattered, no picture, inscription to you from a loved one written inside)
Silver Spoon (Made for an infant)
Toy Soldier
Etiquette Manual (Filled with your notes)
Scorched Doorknob (Only remaining piece of your previous home, destroyed in a fire)
Cameo (White on pink)
Case of Buttons (Different sizes)
Diary (Written in a foreign language you don’t recognize)
Mummified Hand (In a pine box, stolen from an abbey)
Dragon Scale (Iridescent)

d12 Bounty

Refer to the d100 result above. Make note of the resulting number. This is your starting bounty price. Modify it with the table below:

d12	Crime	Who put up the bounty	Modify d100 result by
1	Mugging	Local community	x10 + 50
2	Assault	Local community	x10 + 50
3	Heresy	The Church of the Exalted Doom Manifest and local community	x10 + 100
4	Arson	Local community	x10 + 100
5	Debt	A bank	x10 + 500
6	Horse Theft	Family	x10 + 500
7	Breaking and Entering	Wealthy family	x10 + 500
8	Murder	The State	x100
9	Bank Robbery	A bank	x100
10	Train or Coach Robbery	Railroad or wealthy family	x100
11	Prison break (roll again)	The State	+500
12	Roll x 3

There’s a bounty on your head. Whether you did the crime or whether it was justified is up to you.

d20 Connection to the Character on my Left

Blood relation
In-law
Childhood friends
Carousing / drinking buddies
Colleagues / Fellow enthusiasts
Retrieved something for me I wanted
Stopped me from doing something foolish
Helped me escape
Saved my life
Helped me save face
Kept a secret for me
I owe them
Defended a friend of mine
We fought alongside each other
I admire them for their skills
Caught me committing a crime
Former rivals
We fought on opposite sides of a conflict
Former customer
I lost a bet to them

Here are some of my favorite Prismatic Wasteland posts:

Apolitical RPGs Do Not Exist. Probably the first post that I saw. “Don’t Wake Daddy is anti-authoritarian.”
Of Mysteries, Monsters and Mosquitillos. A dig deep into the murky past of D&D and a forgotten monster rediscovered.
Shopping, Listing, Picking and Gambling. Ways to get starting load-outs. I’m a sucker for a method that makes you roll every die (see above).
Encounter Checklist. Very useful!
The XP Bowl and XP Bubbles. Novel way to mark XP and advance.
The Keep on the Borderlands is Full of Lies.
Overloading the Damage Die. Combining to-hit with damage rolls. Pretty fun.

Format stolen from Mindstorm’s very nice Secret Santa review of my supplement to Barkeep on the Borderlands, Gatorbarge. Check out the other entries to the Barkeep Jam, more DLC for Barkeep on the Borderlands. ↩
Usage dice: Roll a dice. On a specific value (usually 1 or 1-3), decrement the die size by 1. For example, roll 1d8. On a 1-3, the usage die becomes a d6. This is useful for abstracting quantities of things like ammunition or water in a spray bottle, or for measuring progress, like how drunk someone is. ↩
On blood. Is vampire. ↩
These goals are inspired by Into the Odd by Chris McDowall and Hireling by PelleP. ↩

The Witch-Finder, Monster and Background

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Founded centuries ago, the Order of St. Sigford, known as the Witch-Finders, is one of the three militant religious orders on Isurholm.

This monster and background is largely inspired by The Witch-Hunter by Monster Garden. Highly recommend a watch to be inspired and think of your own fun curses.

The Order is highly politicized within the Church. Often the witch-hunts are excuses for these bastards to commit petty theft, abuse people, or exact vengeance, but on the fringes and in the depths of their sanctums, the most seasoned veterans demonstrate a deep devotion to the elimination of evil sorceries, like St. Sigford did in the stories.

Witch-Finders are not allowed to use magic. The fanatics will go further and have any latent magical abilities jammed by embedding cold iron nails up their arms, under their shoulderblades, and at the top and base of their spines. The art of cold-forging is kept secret within the inner sanctums of the Order. Due to the occupational hazards of fighting witches, veteran Witch-Finders also bear heavy curses and some have learned to harness those curses to their advantage.

Encountering Witch-Finders

Mechanically speaking, I have created a set of random tables to determine what an encounter with Witch-Finders looks like. They travel in groups of d4 + 1, along with a donkey pulling a cart with a cage containing 1d4 - 1 prisoners.

1d6	Prisoner
1	Mossling¹ herbalist
2	Fortune-teller
3	Diabolist
4	Aegerling² seer
5	Red Warlock
6	Mossling mould oracle

When statting for Cairn, I have given 3 HP per curse, representing their experience. Green Witch-Finders are the most common and have no curses. For loot, include 1d4 confiscated magic scrolls and 4d20 coins.

Since I’m using a randomizer inside of Obsidian, all of this stuff is taken care of pretty easily.

Witch-Finder

3 HP, 12 STR, 1A (thick leather), steel bastard sword (d8), shackles, lantern and oil, 1 special gear

Brown duster, thick black gloves, tall buckled hat, belts, grim and religious. Almost exclusively human
Quick to discriminate against magic-users but won’t attack unless they know they can win. Take down, shackle, and cage; throw oil and burn.
Critical Damage: Divine sear, burning white flames inflict 1d6 WIL damage.

d6	Special Gear
1	silver-arrow crossbow (d8)
2	flare (1 use)
3	silver powder bombs (3 uses): suppressed magic in the area
4	mallet and cold iron nails (intimate range, 3 uses): insert to jam magic
5	cold iron long sword (d10)
6	clay cat (ward, break to nullify a spell)

d6	How many curses?
1-3	None
4	+3 HP, 14 STR, 12 WIL, 1 curse
5	+6 HP, 14 STR, 14 WIL, 2 curses
6	+9 HP, 14 STR, 16 WIL, 3 curses

d12	Curses
1	Bee-hive face
2	Gills
3	Barnacle hair
4	Covered in feathers
5	Riddled with spying hag eyes (covered or maimed)
6	Skinless face, covered in bloody linens
7	Green warted skin, hard as stone +1 Armor
8	Third arm
9	Pig nose, oinks and squeals
10	Tentacle arm
11	Candle-light eyes, must be shut in darkness
12	Mouthless

What if I wanna be one?

You’re in luck! Here is a Cairn 2e style background for a Witch-Finder. The assumption is that the PC is no longer part of the Order since they’re generally pretty shitty people, tbh.

You have broken with the Order of Witch-Finders for dabbling in the craft. Your interactions with witchcraft have left you forever altered.

Rations (3 uses)
Torch (3 uses)
Silvered dagger (d6)
Shackles
Badge of your order, tarnished: a Scapular of Saint Sigford (petty)

What is your best defense against witches?

Flametongue. Longsword (d10, bulky) with Witch-Finder insignia, burns hot near witchcraft or dark magic. When hot, it may ignite flammable items.
Lucky Pebble. Petty. While squeezed in your hand, you resist fairy charms, including those of witches. Squeezed longer than 10 minutes, it becomes unbearably cold.
Witch Bottles. Filled with small bones, iron nails, and shells. Break to counter the effects of a spell. 3 uses.
2 hand crossbows (d6+d6, concealable, bulky).
Ley Line Blindfold. Petty. Wear to see the outlines of ley lines, arcane sources of power, and magical creatures.
Copy Book. Copies a spell or magical effect used against you. Once the spell is used, it disappears from the book.

Who was the witch that cursed you and what mark do you bear forever?

The Moth Witch. You hid in the cracks of their cottage. A fine film of gray dust covers your skin. Take 1 Fatigue to create a cloud of dust around you (choking, obscuring), unless you are wet.
The Blood Witch experimented on you. Your blood is green and acidic. Your eyes are green and raised spidery blood vessels cover your skin. Your blood inflicts 1d4 damage to anyone who touches it, apart from yourself. Performing medicine on you risks harm for the healer.
The Sea Witch tried to drown you. Your arms and legs are finned. You can breathe underwater, but you must quaff saltwater 1/day or become deprived. Take a pitcher of saltwater (3 uses).
The Woods Witch encased you in the Dying Oak. Your skin and bones are like kindling. You move faster. You are lighter, but more flammable.
The Crow Witch. An incomplete transformation. Your legs bend backwards. Your hair is black feathers. Take a Fatigue to see through the eyes of a bird. Take a palliative remedy (10 uses) and its recipe (3 ingredients, petty). Missing a dose leaves you deprived. Miss 3 doses and become a crow.
The Candle Witch tried to make you into a candle. Your skin is waxy and slowly melts when near open flames. You may slough off wax-flesh (1 STR) and mend yourself with wax (restoring 1 STR for every STR lost in this way).

More Orders

I’ll write something up in the future for the Exorcist and the Regulator, the two other Orders that feature in my game. I plan on writing an adventure set in a nunnery that will include these as backgrounds for PCs. Let me know what you think of the Witch-Finder as a background. Not sure how well it’ll work out in practice (particularly the Candle Witch curse).

OK bye!

From Dolmenwood. ↩
Analogous to Danes of the Danelaw. ↩

4 Merchants You Meet on the Road

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Meet some of the many rotating traveling merchants I have slotted into the 7 on my 2d6¹ random encounter table. I use a silver standard and stats for Cairn.

Hannah Grimsdottir

8 HP, 2A (chainmail), 16 STR, flamberge Beloved One d10 + d10

Stony-eyed, yellow-haired, silent, does not suffer fools, in her 40s, scarred from battle, livens up with a drink or a funny story. Fair and even-tempered.
Her flamberge Beloved One contains the soul of her mother, the pretender queen Hilde the Rebel.
Critical Damage: Hilde the Rebel emerges from the sword and inhabits the target’s body.

Travels with her trusted mule, Biter, and 3 Poison-Eaters (below). Has d12 x 20sp on her.

Rumors: Has heard of weapons masters who can teach you certain techniques. See Weapon Skills from Block, Dodge, Parry. Knows of the Shaper on the Mountain (below). Will only tell you if you seem particularly skilled in fighting.

Sells whetstones, ammo, and non-sword simple weapons (d6), and today, also has an array of something on this table:

dice:1d6	For Sale
1	Plate armor
2	Chain mail
3	Shields
4	Axes
5	Helmets
6	Swords: 1-in-6 chance 1 sword is magical²

Poison-Eater

Poison-Eaters are berserkers who eat toxins to go into their frenzy. Refer here or go to berserker from the Cairn bestiary.

10 HP, 1 Armor, 14 STR, 13 DEX, 15 WIL, twin axes (d8+d8)

Ruthless warriors with black-veined skin from ingesting toxins.
Ignore the Morale rule and are never treated as part of a detachment.
Dosed: A poison-eater’s first attack has both the enhanced and blast qualities.

The Shaper on the Mountain

Not a traveling merchant as such, but I mentioned him above so I’ll add him here with a subheading.

A legendary dwarf swordsmith who lives in the Anfwin Mountains. Gruff. Never offers tea (impolite) but always has a kettle on (very rude).

10 HP, 16 STR, 12 WIL, Forgehand 1d6

Critical Damage: Melts target’s flesh away.

To consider crafting a legendary sword for you, the Shaper demands that you master at least 1 sword weapon skill. To craft them, he requires monster parts: The more powerful, the better. Dragons are best.

Legendary swords are delicate: On a roll of 1 on the damage die, they suffer a notch. After 5 notches, a special magical property of the sword is disabled.

He sells regular swords at double the normal price. His regular swords for sale are everhoned: Treat any damage roll of 1 as a 2. He has 1d6 - 1 swords for sale at any time. When the swords are in his presence too long, he obsesses over their imperfections and ultimately destroys them with his forgehand. The path up the mountain is littered with these “mistakes”.

Has d20 x 100sp on him.

Penny Swamps

3 HP, 11 DEX, quarterstaff 1d6

Wears a floppy hat, gregarious and talkative; quick to argue, but she finds it fun. Member of the Grenouille Rouge Merchants Guild and carries guild stamps.
Frogling (as seen in Nightwick Abbey). Leaps twice as far as a human.

Rumors: Knows about any goings-on across the sea or on waterways.

In addition to any gear related to home goods and the like, she is also selling 1 specialty item from Hoppland today:

dice:1d6	Specialty Item
1	Giant lily pad (bulky). Unfurl as a bedroll. Floats. Supports two without sinking. 5sp.
2	Honeyed flies, a delicacy, as rations (3 uses), 6sp.
3	Kettle, 3sp. Pouch of mud coffee (3 uses), removes a Fatigue when drunk. 9sp.
4	Fishing rod, 1sp. Tackle, 2sp. Illegal lure (3 uses, petty), 9sp: Increases yield for catching fish by 1 step (from 1d4 to 1d6, for example).
5	Banjo (bulky), 50sp.
6	Treasure map, 100sp.

Travels with a silent Hopknight (5 HP, 2A (helm and shield), 12 STR, 8 WIL, spear and shield (d6+d4)) assigned to her by the Merchants Guild. “He’s good company but not much of a talker.” Every time she is encountered, she is not sure if it’s the same Hopknight who was assigned to her the last time you met.

Mina Rahman

7 HP, 2A (chainmail + helm), 14 STR, cold-forged bastard sword Fiel 1d8 (enhanced vs faeries)

Braggart, insecure, highly perceptive and intelligent. Polyglot.
Warns against combat with her. Quickened boots: Moves at twice the speed of other people
Critical Damage: Fiel inflicts 1d8 WIL damage.

Rumors: Knows the general locations of some dungeons. Can give leads to hoards.

Trades in relics. Only carries one at any given moment. All of the relics must add a recharge condition, which is only discovered later (after being used; to give the referee time to come up with one).

Otherwise sells general adventuring and outdoor gear, and offers language lessons.

Has d8 x 300sp on her at all times.

Travels with 3 Hopknights: Ghim, Warble, & Ponk

For relics, I roll on a table of d4 Caltrops magical items tables and then roll on the resulting table. Prices vary but are in multiples of thousands of silver coinage. Refer also to the relics list on the Cairn website

Red Warlock

4 HP, 8 STR, 12 WIL, dagger (d6), elemental attack scroll (2d6, needs protection to cast)

Hooded red robes, stinks of sulfur and saltwater

The Red Warlocks are resurrectionists. They charge 5,000sp and biological material for their services (“death insurance”). They give you a soul jar in exchange. Keep it on you to catch the soul.

They charge 10,000sp if you die without retaining their services (“emergency services”). They need the body.

All resurrected stink of sulfur and saltwater. Refer to Prismatic Wasteland’s We Live Again for more on resurrection.

Red Warlocks are openly hostile to Church officials, who consider them heathens. They are brazen because of their steadfast belief that they will be reborn.

Has d10 x 50sp today.

It’s really entries 42-58 on a d100 table. It’s fine. It doesn’t matter. ↩
I use 4d20 Swords Which Are Not +1. ↩

Neither a Borrower or Lender Be

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 04:00:00 +0000

For blog Friday, folks are doing currency stuff. I had two ideas, so I’ll be putting up 4 merchants you meet on the road next week too.

In my 5e home game, my players opened a university/vampire nightclub (naturally). On their many adventures, they will often end up hiring a professor or bartender along the way.

Morgamelly, professor of alchemy
The dad of one of the PCs (a human fighter farmboy), professor of agriculture
Ellie the vampire, poached from the bar the Whirling Mummy in Barkeep on the Borderlands
Yelena the vampire, the villain from one of the first dungeons they went into
Gorobash (an orc monk my brother-in-law guest starred as), martial arts teacher

I regret not setting up a more robust system of domain management here. I just randomly determine whether they’re running at a profit or loss, but it’s not quite the focus of the game, so it is what it is.

The PCs of my fledgling Cairn(ish) open table campaign are fairly impoverished right now, but perhaps one day they will have to contend with my very robust banking and taxation system when they build their own university/vampire nightclub.

Banks

Banks and other lenders can safely hold onto your coin and important items. Certificates of Deposit or Bank Notes (petty) can be carried to cash out at other banks.

Bank Withdrawn From	Withdrawal Fee
Same bank, same branch	1%, minimum 1 silver
Same bank, different branch	2%, minimum 1 silver
Different bank	5% or 20 silver, whichever is higher

Any unsecured and unhidden caches of wealth will be targeted every downtime cycle by local thieves. Flashing wealth can attract unwanted attention.

Available Lenders

The following are lenders in my home game (which does feature Nightwick Abbey, so Hoppland and Froglings are a thing):

De Sapo House, a Hopplander bank and merchant house.
Grenouille Rouge, a Hopplander merchant and lending guild.
Deep Rock, a Dwarven bank backed by the mines of the Anfwin Mountains.
Gewisse Royal Treasury, the royal treasury which only issues loans and accepts deposits of over 5,000 sp.

Borrowing

Borrowing silver may be necessary for major activities or upkeep. Payments are collected monthly at an offered interest rate. Most banks won’t take on high-risk loans like those to adventurers. Some examples follow:

Lender	Interest Rate	Term Maximum	Penalty
Bank, standard	5%	1 year	Debtors’ prison
Bank, adventurer rate	10%	3 months	Loss of collateral
Loan shark	15%	6 months	1d6 STR or DEX damage (broken limb)
Pawn shop	5%	1 month	Loss of collateral

Pawn shops accept collateral for short term loans at 1/3 the value of the collateral.

Taxation

Tax farmers patrol the major settlements for coin and harass smaller settlements for tithes in livestock or produce. The Church and the state both extract wealth from the populace. When taxes are exacted, expect a flat rate of 5% of any wealth in a bank. Tax days occur quarterly on the first day of a season and can be ignored easily with little consequence to the game. Once adventurers gain renown and are rumored to have substantial wealth, tax collectors may become more of a problem. Bribes also go a long way.

Anyway, that’s how I plan to use banking and taxes when it comes up in my new campaign. We’ll see how it goes, and let me know if you try it out or have your own system.

Some other posts that came out today:

Yes Chef! Chef background for Cairn 2e

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Skip to the recipe

Maybe a lot of us have been watching Dungeon Meshi. I put together this Cairn 2e background inspired by the show, the blogs I’ve read about cooking in TTRPGs, and my own love of cooking. As a sidenote, I recently injured myself on a mandolin and subsequently ordered a chainmail glove, so now I’ll own some chainmail! Now that’s D&D.

Some of my favorite posts about cooking in RPGs:

My go-to pollo a la brasa recipe: Pollo a la brasa

My unhinged recipe for baked mac and cheese (where I misspelled flour), annotated for my friend, who thanked me for making it “so user friendly and accessible”:

And finally, here’s the background:

Chef

You are an expert of the cooking arts. You belong to an order of chefs whose knowledge is passed down from generations.

Rations (3 uses)
Torches (3 uses)
Flensing knife (d6)
Badge of your order (petty)
Cookpots

What order of chefs were you initiated into?

The Poison Order. You were trained in how to cook with common poisonous ingredients and neutralize or minimize their effects for safe consumption. Take a jar of Deep Charcoal (10 uses), which expels toxins from the body in a fairly debilitating manner. Rations or fresh meals you prepare using neutralized toxic ingredients remove a Fatigue.
The Forager Collective. Your order specializes in foraging. Take the Herbalist’s Primer. When you forage, your yield dice is stepped up by 1 (1 becomes 1d4, 1d4 becomes 1d6, etc).
The Gaming Gamers. Your order specializes in game animals and how to snare, trap, dress, and prepare them. Take scent cover, a scent-removing salve (10 uses). When you hunt, your yield dice is stepped up by 1 (1 becomes 1d4, 1d4 becomes 1d6, etc).
The Ghost-Eaters Society. A society of heretics who commune with the dead and feed on the energies of ghosts and other strange spirits. Take a snow churner (bulky): Can churn ethereal material into an edible treat (and can also make ice cream). Rations you prepare using spirits remove all Fatigue.
The Alewives. This brewers’ organization is widespread. Take fermentation gear (bulky), which may include hoses, funnels, jars, and packets of yeast. Fermented rations you prepare remove a Fatigue.
The Order of the Brigade. Take the Brigade Manifesto, which details how to organize, establish, and run a kitchen brigade, written by elite chefs over the span of centuries. Writing a question on the final blank page of the book makes the writing disappear and a response appear (how long depends on if or when another chef can take up the answer). Occasionally questions will appear in the book, usually related to cooking.

What cooking gear could you never part with?

Wok shield. 1 armor, +d4 to attacks, hand. Handy in cooking, can withstand heat as hot as dragon breath. Gets very hot.
Curing gear. Bulky. Jars, brines, solutions, herbs, and salts necessary for curing meats and pickling vegetables. Can be used to preserve game and vegetables. Turns any fresh food into rations.
Bone cleaver. Inflicts d8 damage, can cut through bone.
Fireproof apron. Protects against flames. Can be thrown over fires to smother them.
Chainmail gloves (petty). Protects hands against slashes and cuts.
Portable smoker. Take a donkey and a wagon (4 slots) which carries the smoker. The smoker (bulky) takes up 2 slots on the wagon and can be moved. Name your donkey.