Digging the Gravelands

Have you seen this? While I was in stasis, Hereticwerks released a first shortform module, GL-1, Taglar's Tomb.

It's a revised and expanded take on a site they posted for Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day last year. If you're a regular reader, you know what I think of Hw, and this is as accessibly weird and as dreamily expansive as ever.*

If you play a tabletop game, or like a speculative genre, you can probably do something with the contents. If you play a rules-light roleplaying game, like D&D or a game inspired by it, like S&W, you can probably do even more.

Even for wargaming, and not just for Oldhammer. For an unusual scenario, the tomb could be set in a hill in the centre of the field, with a scaled up version of the map on a side table and troops entering moving between. The objective would be to get in, hold the line while the diggers go to work and get out with more goods. Assign a tolerance to the surrounding slopes and walls, agree a rule for collapse and let the madness commence.

The trek with the guide could also work as a rolling road, with one side deploying hidden.

It's PWYW so you can get it for free and if you like it go back to pay what you think it's worth. They've also got a page of extra material, developing some of its vaguer elements.

As ever, check out their blog too, and Bujilli especially - he's got a big decision to make.
 
* As says André Breton via their sidebar: "Objects seen in dreams should be manufactured and put on sale."
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Quick ruinedcitycrawls - and Conan on Necromunda?

For a little background for this post, go read this one at The Tears of Isstvan then this one at Hill Cantons. It's aimed at tactical roleplaying, but you can find an introductory ruleset for that here.

It's all about managing the complexity of a ruined cityscape that's occupied and prowled, and the key elements are the map, faction territories, depth, locations and activity.

                                                                                                                              

Local made good - collaborative campaign locations

This is a simple tool for generating locations in a campaign collaboratively, whether at the start or partway through. It's intended for both wargaming and roleplaying campaigns and it relates to the recent discussion with bombasticus at this post.

It's been tested with a group of five players who barely know each other and went down very well.

The central idea is this: the forces or characters that the players are guiding are part of the wider landscape, so they reflect this landscape and have relationships with elements of it. This tool treats them as a kind of inverse function to find the known nature of a given location.

                                                                                                                              

You'll need all of the players, plenty of dice (I'll assume d6s), a sheet of paper and at least one pencil or pen. The key elements are size, links, centre and features, and generation involves rolling dice on the sheet and marking the positions to form a map.

The First and Last Die

Chris pushed back the deadline for the stronghold contest so here's a last-minute entry.

The architect in the intro is the one I created for the example in the last post, and the theme ties in to the fractal gaming idea. The site is also a path between worlds so I'll add it to the list for the Ends. It doesn't need a map and is more or less system-neutral.

                                                                                                                              

The First and Last Die

My memories began the day the adventurers first found me, the day I sensed that unearthly movement, as of great rocks crashing together. They knew of my ability, my work to date, and as they asked questions the knowledge flooded in. I draughted for them, oversaw the creation of the stronghold, and my past life grew. A pity they found out about the masterplan... Still. I took up with them for some time, triggering traps, searching out secret doors, building mausoleums. I studied the works of the ancient architects from within. Then the last adventurers died, a total party kill, and life began to grow faint. I'd lived through them, for their otherworldy needs. Compelled from beyond.

Time at last for my one great work.

Words for worlds (2) - getting on top of falling stars; tabletop curvature, troid warfare and the sphericrawl

Back in November I made a suggestion regarding the classification of celestial bodies, coining the term troid to group the many terms for objects of lower mass than the newly-minted dwarf planet.

Beyond the pressing and practical concerns, the meteor that broke up over Russia last week poses a supplementary question in this context: can the related terms 'meteoroid', 'meteor' and 'meteorite' be rolled into an expanded solution? We know they can be confusing, and the past few days have been a reminder.

So how about this then - a possible 1d3 table to go with the two 1d4s in the earlier post.

1. troid     2. introid     3. postintroid

It's fairly clear I imagine. The first is the term for a troid outside of an atmosphere, the second while inside but still in motion and the third when in contact with the other body or an immediately adjacent entity, e.g. held by one of us, or on a display cabinet shelf.

Forget the 'stalactite' / 'stalgamite' trouble of 'meteor' / 'meteorite': it's now 'in-', or 'in-' and 'post-'. The Greek-derived root for the whole is altered by the Latin prefixes. Seems apt.

It also leaves an opening for the preintroid, as well as the intriguing idea of an extroid...

You could see this is a form of Newspeak of course, but it needn't be. If science wants all of our minds, and if English is a lingua franca for scientific discourse which non-native speakers have to learn, and if clarity of construction helps young minds comprehend, and if these terms supplement existing terms in the language rather than replace them, enriching the language rather as borrowings from other languages do, we only gain by it.

40K OSR? (20)

It's been a while since the last fuller 40K OSR? post, even if the list of Epic-related links came close. Maybe it's the summer, or maybe sixth?

But what is an OSR anyway? A good question.

If you think you might be a part of it, feel free to use Colonel Kane's logo, here to the right. If you do, consider giving him credit and putting Tales from the Maelstrom in your blogroll. They have 1, 2 reports up since last time and more minis.

So here we go, with some fine fusion this time...

• Relic at Lead Space is mixing Rogue Trader - that's first edition 40K - with the Lovecraftian skirmish game Strange Aeons and playing at 15mm scale with classic factions: a genestealer cult and Squats. And he's using 6mm Epic models to play skirmish games, with some good-looking marines here.

• Von is getting into Epic and has some first impressions at GAME OVER...

• ... and something could be up because two other bloggers recently posted about starting too, MANGAMAX here at 2000 AD and Closet Gamer here...

• ... and Zac posted a report from an Epic tournament with a lot of pictures, and a little further back also played another game using second edition.
  

• FrDave at Blood of Prokopius has gone from the idea of using Rogue Trader - the RPG this time - to explore Christianity in M41, to planning a campaign set around Black Reach using Stars Without Number and D&D categories for 40K factions - with some abhumans up already - onto detailing Black Reach, with 1, 2, 3 posts up so far on mapping a hive like a megadungeon.

• James S at Warp Signal has even more examples of custom background.
  

• Dallas at Fawcett Avenue Conscripts has been posting on RT-era minis and fought the Battle at the Farm in a campaign for 40K's 25th, in 1, 2, 3 posts.

• Dave Bone gives examples of campaigns mixing systems at The Wargate.

• Oddleg reported on a final campaign game that used their Space-Munda system and has some thoughts on count-as Chaos marines and guard.

• Griffit is building a set of characters for In the Emperor's Name, with stats.

• The M42 Project is still building an alternative to 40K - updated goals here.

• At Confessions... dwez has 1, 2 marker sets for sixth, and possibly beyond.

• Thor at Creative Twilight has been updating the entries in the mission set.

• At Warpstone Flux jabberjabber posted fortification power source rules.

• Virtual Stranger at The Grim Cheapness... builds a thunderbolt in card...

• ... and Loken highlighted a scratchbuilt blasta bomma at Apocalypse 40K.

• Rictus at Recalcitrant Daze is all but scratchbuilding an Ork kopta karrier.

• Mordian has been very busy, but to pick a few highlights, he converted and painted his own version of Angron, painted up a knight errant and finished even more of his adeptus mechanicus, and is now building a leviathan.

• Warhammer in Progress has some excellent plague marine conversions.

• Mike at Santa Cruz Warhammer is converting up a traitor guard force.

• Ron at From the Warp looks at souping up kit rhinos and builds the turret and the sponsons of the original predator, but in the style of the FW version, and has the start of a heresy-era jetbike and death korps-inspired unit.

• TheAmbit has a marine command squad on jetbikes of a different pattern and converted a Cruorian war beast for Dark Heresy, with the intro here.

• Master Bryss just posted the first part of his revised creature creation rules.

• Carjacked Seraphim posted some rules for a very familiar-looking 'Catachan firebreather', examples of counts-as land speeders in the style of the RT grav-attack vehicle and some pics of the original land raider instructions.

• demi_morgana has some great scavvies and got their bunker into a zine.

• Lasgunpacker used an odd mix of parts to get Neo-Soviet power armour.

• Adeptus-B posted a good-looking Dark Heresy report at Zorcon's Word.

• Mercer at Imperius Dominatus has some ideas for enhancing Planetstrike.

• Fritz posted on experiments with a multiplayer approach to Space Hulk and some musings on Dark Heresy and the current state of D&D and 40K.

• LuckyNo.5 shows some inspiration - it's dark, and could even be horrifying.

• Josh Graboff at The Signe of the Frothing Mug offers up some thoughts on violence in gaming and 40K, also looking at the nature of space marines.

• Hungry Ghosts reminds us of the comment on the Squats that made a 40K myth, has a Ratling and Squat size comparison, completes the series on Squats in Epic and shows another bold conversion, a rust monster biker...

• ... and with chariots back and Chaos big again, there's more inspiration for mounted character conversions in this set of tables at The Dungeon Dozen.

• Finally, Big Jim at Galaxy in Flames reports the Killzone update is close...

I can't possibly have got more than a fraction of it with the length of time involved, so as ever, feel free to leave links to anything else you think should be in, even your own work.

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40K OSR? (19)

What's a 40K OSR? There's some basic info on 40K here and a definition or two for 'OSR' here.

Colonel Kane's logo is to the right, and ready for anyone who identifies with the idea. If you use it, consider giving him credit and adding Tales from the Maelstrom to your blogroll for the inspiration.

Like the Inq28 battle report posted yesterday, which also has news on a July event at GW HQ.

Here's the list, with a lot of new rules especially.

• As per yesterday, The M42 Project lives on, still looking to improve on 40K.

• Big Jim over at Adventures in Wargaming updated the Soul Reapers codex.

• Bryssling has core rules for Kill Team IV, and a fix for Necron destroyers.

• At Warpstone Flux jabberjabber posted a blended ruleset for Mighty and Planetary Empires and has the map and background for the campaign.

• Hum_Con at Wargames & Stuff looks at creativity and random tables, covering emergence and narrative in wargaming and Ghazghkull's history.
  

• At Do You Have A Flag? Headologist gives us rules for a space marine chariot attack bike - conversion here - and more on the world of Mawdryn.

• Brian at A Gentleman's Ones has a Killzone roster and trails the tables.

• At Confessions... dwez has the story of techno-archeologist Avro Vulcan.

• A while back I forget Dark Magenta's new Inquisitor pdf - the full list is here.

• At Spiky Rat.. izeColt finishes the Rifleman and okkiW begins Nicodemvs.

• Ron at From the Warp has another sculpting guide, this time scrollwork.

• At Heresy Workshop Will Wright explained how to make icicles, introduced the counts-as Sly Marbo and showed an old-and-new mixed entourage.

• Pedro Kantor at 2nd City Warzone has some mechanicus weapon teams.

• LuckyNo.5 continued the Mariners Blight nautical marines at Eye of Error.

• Godfrey at Rites of Battle looks at marine body size in concept and minis.

• Apocalypse 40K posted a preview for a possible pre-Heresy jetbike...

• ... while Desert Scribe at Super Galactic Dreadnought showed IG originals.

• Outremer has been posting part-sculpt Nurgle conversions at The Back 40K, including sorcerers and a dread, and just posted scratchbuilt vindicators.

• Warhammer in Progress posted ideas for spawn and wants obliterators. 

• ShotDownMind converted a batch of Dark Eldar grotesques from all kinds.

• Fine Detail Miniature Painting have been busy, with 1, 2 more video battle reports for Necromunda, an ash nomad with long rifle and some spyrers.

• Odd-Leg has another Necromunda report, this time a multi-player game.

• Linked with that, 40Korigins posted some work in progress hive terrain.

• Rictus at Recalcitrant Daze has three posts on an alternative to Forge World interiors - basics, scatter pieces and a setup - and no. 25 on the wagons.

• This time too there's a Ragnarok, a past build newly souped up by Hudson.

• TheAmbit posted plenty of conversions, including a buzz saw deffkopta, warbikes and an unusual deffrolla, as well as a scratchbuilt warhound.

• Mordian7th has a command trench built around a separated titan head.

• Wargaming Workshop finished the Epic Squats and moved on to the Eldar.
  

• Still with Squats, Tentakel Games posted a trio of classic images, showing Squat bikers, Khornate Chaos marines and a Bloodthirster with stats.

• And Space Crusade art keeps coming at All Things Fett, with 1, 2, 3 more. 

The usual applies: if I've missed anything at all, just leave a link, even to your own posts.

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40K OSR? (17)

Yet another batch of 40K OSR? links, because the posts are coming thick and fast. There are some definitions for 'OSR' here, but my current mood has me thinking 'Other School Revelation'.

Colonel Kane's logo is to the right. If you identify with the idea and want to use it, consider giving him the credit and adding the great Tales from the Maelstrom to your blogroll as an inspiration.

• The Hogs of War finished the fortress walls and posted 1, 2, 3 scenarios - the first for the table with the walls - and a set of 18 mission cards per player.

• Stealthy Stealth posted entries for fire warriors and the devilfish, the second part of the Tau Fandex being developed over at Creative Twilight.

• Brian has more Killzone design at A Gentleman's Ones, the themes, and Loquacious at World of Wonder posted the full interview for the ID series.

• The current army list challenge at Warpstone Flux uses deep darkness...

• ... and Odd-Leg played 'Space-Munda' with a new rule for flickering lights.

• Curis at Ninjabread looks at costing Squat thunderers in the current Epic.

• Gothmog has ideas for moving the history on at Sepulchre of Heroes.

• Bryssling has some unfinished fiction not posted at Rules Manufactorum.

• The DH campaign at Kenzie's blog reached an agriworld and a starport...

• ... and Gotthammer has an update on the RT campaign at Collegia Titanica.

• Ron over at From the Warp sculpted a Tyranid spore mine in greenstuff, ...

• ... Spikey Bits showed a screamer-killer conversion from the current kit...

• ... and LuckyNo.5 at Eye of Error posted a tutorial on sculpting tentacles, with thanks again to Dave G at Wargaming Tradecraft for putting up the link.

• For help casting your work, Tallarn at still practicing_ has an introduction.

• Krisken has part three on the DIY rhino chassis at Scratchbuild 40K...

• ... and Redscorps finished work on a modified design for the predator.

• One I missed last time is Fire Broadside! on alternative IG vehicles...

• ... and The March Rider at Codicium Aeternum also reviews a six-wheeler.

• Following all of which, I'll give a mention to my own crewbrew expansion.

• Brovatar is working on a female C'Tan, with parts here and a video here.

• Cameron at Rust and the city converted a plague marine champion, and the trio of WIP marines seen in that post are shown finished in this one.

• Warhammer in Progress shows 1, 2 obliterators built from starter set rat ogres, but if you prefer ready-made, The Hogs of War found a fine batch.

• Fine Detail Miniature Painting has some finished ash waste nomad conversions for Necromunda, with pics of the basecoated minis here.

• Rictus at Recalcitrant Daze posted part eight of the ongoing series on 3D printing defensive walls and 17 and 18 on converting Ork looted wagons.

• At Confessions... dwez added a terrain template to the archive page.

• At The Dark Workshop Cursed13 is building an spaceship hull turret.

• Infamous at Cobblestone Chaos looks at grocery store terrain materials.

• Apocalypse 40K has an update on the legal situation re Chapterhouse and Paulson Games and reports Quantum Gothic is back, with plenty of pics.

• Colonel Shofer linked to this solid video on the Pig Iron System Troopers.

• Steve at Bleaseworld posted 1, 2, 3, 4 batches of newly-painted early IG.

• Old School Terminator interviewed Goatboy over at Dark Future Games.
  

• There's an at-a-glance archive for the John Blanche art at gothic punk.

• For Old Stuff Day Griffit linked to a tumblr for the Rogue Trader era.

• And finally, another 1, 2 images from Space Crusade at All Things Fett.

You know how it works: if I've missed anything, just leave a link, even to your own posts.

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40K OSR? (15)

Another flood of 40K OSR? links. I let them build again, but I'd like to get this weekly to fortnightly.

Various definitions of 'OSR' are here and Colonel Kane's logo is to the right. If you use it, consider giving him the credit and adding Tales from the Maelstrom to your roll as a fine example - since the last time they've posted on Rogue Trooper.

And away we go then - just don't look down...

• First a PSA: Inquisitork is moving blog, to The Maddening Words of C M Forde.

• A Night Lords playtest codex developed via TCP was announced at Galaxy in Flames, the blog now renamed Big Jim's Hobby Adventures.

• Chaos Gerbil released his Codex: Lost and the Damned Fandex v4.

• Tabletop Fix announced an Inquisitor sourcebook from Dark Magenta.

• Rules Man Bryssling has an unfinished post from Rules Manufactorum on rules design for tournaments and a reworking of Necron flayed ones.

• Kraggi at The Varcan Cluster posted the 36-entry events table for the campaign as well as parts 7 and 8 of the rules and pics of 1, 2 maps.

• The campaign is underway at Terminus Omega, with 1, 2 parts of an IG v. Harlequin battle report, details of a solo approach and throne agents.

• Thor's final versions of the King of the Hill, Search and Destroy and Target Priority missions were posted at Creative Twilight, along with updated versions of The Long Haul and Attack and Defend.

• At Warpstone Flux the current army list challenge uses a fiery scenario.

• Nurglitch is looking at a card-based approach to Adeptus Titanicus.

• Naftka at Faeit 212 reports the sixth edition leak is real and part of a plan.

• There's a celebration of 25 years of Rogue Trader at Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, and thanks to Dave G at Wargaming Tradecraft for the link.

• Not so far back, Stillfrosty at White Scars has the Movie Marines rules.

• Also re old rules, HoP has links for 'flash 40K' via Dracus' Journal.

• Gotthammer at Collegia Titanica has the second Koronus Gazetter.

• Kenzie's blog has 1, 2, 3 more write-ups for the Dark Heresy campaign.

• Miniature-wise the big news was Mantic's human Corporation range, ideal for counts as IG, and the Privateer Press Colossals, possible knights.

• Eldar Addict has some dangerous-looking Dark Eldar grotesques in 1, 2 parts so far based on this approach by Lucky No. 5 at Eye of Terror.

• Warhammer in Progress has an unusual Ork trukk build, the Grot Rod, and a work in progress on the wider Ork army, with all kinds of conversions.

• Unite All Action has an old, bits-heavy feral Ork warboss conversion.

• Ron at From the Warp sculpts detail to get a fuller Mk. 6 power armour, and has an Eldar corsair based on Forge World's, modelled and painted.

• Hungry Ghosts has the Chaos Squat bikers on parade in 1, 2 parts.

• Cameron at Rust and the city is building a spectacular Imperial renegade force and looking for some advice on going with counts as Grey Knights.

• Laughing Ferret is working on a scary counts as genestealer cult.

• Mordian7th finished a whirlwind built the good old White Dwarf way and now has a Magnus the Red as well, with possible rules in the post.

• At Spiky Rat Pack izeColt is part-sculpting a mutie and companion.

• Apocalypse 40K linked to work on a scratchbuilt Eldar superheavy flier and a Nightwing and mentions the Necron-like Cyber Bike and Orc Gruberwagen from Puppets War and Chaos pauldrons from Kromlech.

• On the subject of alternatives, specifically Ork buggies, Whelp Slayer likes the Mantic Raptor; thanks to Miniature Musings of a Bear for the link.

• Old School Terminator at Dark Future Games has some uses for the new Mantis Tank from Blight Wheel Miniatures, with the measurements here.

• Imaginary Life shows off some 28mm bits good for cultists and marines.

• An alternative to buying new of course is refurbishing old, and Sign of the Aquila is doing that with a marine dreadnought in 1, 1.5 parts so far.

• There are sci-fi interiors at Hudson, for a Space Hulk, BFG and 40K mix.

• Hogs of War posted a work in progress on a set of large fortress walls.

• Vitor at Aurelius Legion finished the ventilator, inspired by Necromundicon.

• At Confessions... dwez painted the modular plug and the second man-made hill, and posted 1, 2, 3 updates on the plasma generator.

• Goblin Mini-Mart has some work in progress Necromunda scrap wastes. 

• Redscorps has research station terrain, with a weathered stormraven.
  

• On the 3D printing front, Apocalypse 40K also has a shout-out for a pioneer.

• Rictus at Recalcitrant Daze looks at using 3D printing for defensive walls in 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 5a, 6 parts, as well as building elements in 1, 2 parts so far.

• How 3D printing might change things is suggested by this story at TGN.

• CounterFett has 1, 2, 3, 4 more pics from Space Crusade at All Things Fett. 

In case you haven't read it yet and you have an interest, I'll also plug my recent post on ownership of IP. It's closely linked to the essence of this and possibly 3D printing most.

As ever, if you think I've missed anything, even your work, drop a link in the comments.

Update: Here's the first, a link to a series of posts at The Retired Adventurer on using Stars Without Number to run games set in the 40K universe; the introduction is here.

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Small in-game hunting

Here's a possible approach to deal with hunting in open mapcrawls and wargaming. It's modular and hopefully fairly simple. I was wondering how to create a real haze for a game with true line of sight, then tracks for navigation. I got the tracks, but the haze I still haven't worked out.

There are two elements to it, the idea of wandering, given that a player may see a goal but the protagonists the player is guiding may not, and any tracks left in the landscape.

Wandering

If the system you're using doesn't allow for this, here's a simple die-based approach. The larger the range of numbers on the die used, the finer the gradation. If the die has an even range, the midpoint should be known, specifically the mean, e.g. 3.5 with a 1D6.

When moving a character or unit, the player chooses a direction to be taken. If there's a landmark visible in-game that way, including another unit or character, it is taken. If not, a die is rolled. If the result is below the midpoint, movement is off to the left; if above, off to right. If the range on the die is odd and the midpoint is rolled, there's no deviation.

The number of points above or below is the size of the deviation. Depending on the die, each point represents a number of degrees, e.g. with 1D6, 1 point might be 45°. The protagonist may be able to modify the result, by a number based on a characteristic.

Tracks

Each character or unit is assumed potentially to be leaving tracks. In every location in which time is spent, a die or counter is left with a number facing up, this determined by some mix of the following factors: landscape type; protagonist number and skill; activity in the location; length of time present. The higher the number, the more evidence left.

For example: loose sand, 1; up to five protagonists, +1; attacking or being attacked, +1; each extra turn, +1; in the case of melee, scores for the groups involved are combined.

Hunting

Combining the two mechanisms then, whenever a character or unit is forced to roll for wandering, the total of any tracks in a given range may be used to modify the result.

*     *     *     *     *     *

This all needs adapting of course, but hopefully makes a useful starting point. As ever, I could have missed something so if you can see it, or have any thoughts at all, feel free to say so, and if you have ideas for that haze or other real effects, I'm very interested.

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In Search of the City of the Serpent Queen

Digging through old ideas I found this, my entry for Chris Kutalik's last Asinine Adventure Contest at Hill Cantons, which it turns out I never posted. It's silly, clichéd and has very dodgy jokes, enough to scrape a joint second place overall. All the winners are here.

The Grisly Grotto

For last week's post at HoP Von recorded a video on what roleplaying is, and it's worth a look. When I clicked through I found it linked to a vid on Quake, a seminal first-person shooter from back in 1996, and watching more reminded me how good the design was.

This is a walkthrough of the fourth map, the Grisly Grotto, built around a flooded cavern, one of my favourites for the character of the spaces and the clever setups. Quake never seemed especially complex in how it populated levels or reacted to events, but the bad guys and locations were arranged well to draw players on and keep them off balance.

This is the PC version and as far as I can tell it's not using the DarkPlaces mod or any texture packs. Watch out if you don't know Quake - it's pretty gory, and could be scary.

If you're wondering why all that infrastructure might be there, Callin at Big Ball of No Fun has a lot of options, and for more cavern inspiration check out the links at this post.

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Join up, see the wood

Here's a way of managing line of sight and cover in groups of trees, columns and other obstacles.

It's a supplement to the park, garden and farm post, inspired by seeing the Pi Day geomorph again - here on the left. For more ideas on using it there's a list of great sources in the last post.

The problem is how to suggest individual hiding places and lines of sight in a mass of cover, in a situation in which specific number and location are unknown or unimportant, as with area terrain pieces in wargames, or in map-free roleplaying.

It should work for trees in woods, columns in vaults or consoles and so on in engineering compartments, but possibly also for groups in a crowd, at a party or demonstration say. In the last case it could be especially useful in playing out chase scenes or infiltrations.

The solution expands the Into the depths! idea. It involves rolling dice to find position; more faces should suggest a bigger cluster, and more dice a higher density at the core.

Scenario - Flash flood

This is an example of how the vector counters from yesterday could be used in a more complex way, to suggest movement of water across a landscape. Here it's a battlefield for a possible wargaming scenario, but it could make a roleplaying encounter too.

Oooh, pretty... - Living table (3) - Entries 1-10

I don't know if these crystal cave pics are doing the rounds. If you haven't seen them, they're well worth a look for the wonder as well as inspiration.

The shapes remind me a little of obelisks, most likely because I still have in mind the Obelisk at Dawn scenario for Risus at engine of thwaak and that fallen obelisk terrain tile at NetherWerks.

It got me inspired enough to think about a cave contents table for DM Muse, like Small Creatures and Bodies of Water, but again NetherWerks are on it with their own Cave & Tunnel Hazards.

Then I thought of a table of rocks and crystals, maybe weird ones. Greg's totems for Novarium, explained here, and the post on the jeweller up at the moment at The Tao of D&D have that covered in part, but there's always scope for strange new types.

The idea ties in with the mines posts here too, the intro and nascent list of fictional mines and resources. The material might have effects of some sort, desirable or not, and if mined could impact the local community and area, later the wider world.

Needles deals with the subject in science fantasy with the Fuel Traders of Nimbus IV, maybe as satire. That theme of exploitation is also there in Moon too I remember now, a good film. A Field Guide to Doomsday also posted the borer blimp recently, not to mention back in February the very imaginative quarilla, an organic crystalline blend.

Thinking about those crystals then, here are some ideas to start off a living table.

1. These formations bleed a palpable energy into the surrounding space.
2. These formations absorb energies of all kinds, but whither do they go?
3. These formations are soft to the touch, flexible and strong.
4. These crystals sparkle, but to the rhythm of no light that falls upon them.
5. These crystals leak - no, whisper - the knowledge of aeons.
6. These crystals are hollow, the larger forming the passages of a strange network.
7. These structures are growing visibly, branching and filling the space.
8. The structures seem to convey something - are they a vast communications grid?
9. These structures extend filaments into rock and flesh alike, growing on within.
10. The pillars here support the world, perhaps even... Yes, even the fabric of reality...

I've just added all of these to DM Muse and they should be up soon. It's a living table, which means anyone can add new entries - if you have a good idea, don't hold back.

Update: How about treating that crack on Talysman's latest geomorph as a crystal?

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