Dragons as dungeons and titan diving

My post at the House this week got a bit out of hand, trying to cover just a little too much. I did manage an approach to going inside the big kits, a look at character infection as a way to offset combat, and the idea of living delves and spaces.

But I had a lot more, so as a start on it, here are three related tables, for weird infections to replace more ordinary ones, for living landscapes, and for wargaming inside creatures.

Dragoncrawls and behavioural deployment

Still here. One of the posts I put up ahead of the lull was Dragons & Dungeons, on reversing the standard emphasis, and since then Red Orc and Jens D. have given the idea a bit more thought.

Suggested reading order would be the original post, Red Orc's follow-up then the latest.

I'm still wondering how it might work in wargaming. Maybe the forces would be set up based on likely unit activity, and the terrain simultaneously? Each force could be divided into a few categories, say Special, Scout, Column, Support and Patrol, which already happens to some degree in various games, with organisational charts, special rules etc.

Making bones about Nagash

The 'leak' is here for the new official miniature for Nagash, the necromancer in the Warhammer setting. It looks like a sleek, comfortably variable plastic kit, nipped and tucked neatly using CAD.

The previous one gets a lot of stick and seems widely regarded, online at least, as one of the worst ever Citadel miniatures. There's mention in this thread of the idea the skull was badly sculpted on purpose. If true, not badly enough for me. I've always been quite fond of the model, and I'd argue the skull's the key feature.

So this is an alternative perspective, a reappraisal for posterity, or possibly Midhammer.

From the Osteolix to the Inner Clumps

Underworld Lore #4 is coming this week, which means the Arcane Dwellings table needed to be done faster than expected, so I did the last nine myself, to be sure there are 30 ready to go.

If you want to add any, like Red Orc did with the Threshold of Eternity on Monday, go right ahead, and Greg can push that many of mine off the list.

At Offalmongers' Folly

I'm going to finish the Arcane Dwellings table at Gorgonmilk entry by entry. This is the first. If you want to jump in, no need even to ask: post here.

Here it is then, weird and maybe a little gross. If it's a mealtime, you might want to stop right now.

What scares the snakes and spiders?

Dogs aren't so fond of fireworks - quite a few might panic tonight in the UK. But some of them have been bred and trained to hunt with human masters, and accept their physics.

Beware of scrolling below this point unless you are an adult who is willing to be discomforted, possibly offended, and scared. There will be spoilers for Alien too.

Deep thought Friday

Resolving line of sight through areas like forest is a challenge in tabletop gaming. Trees? Or wood?

Heard of mycorrhizas? Turns out most plants are bonded at their root with a fungus, symbiotically. The fungus sends minerals up from the earth; the leaves send sugars down. Can these be divided?

We thought a tree was a tree - now we know it's more. But we still say 'tree', as if it's one, alone. How much interconnection does language hide..?
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The wombull - a possible new character class?

I read this. And with Saturday's round-up still fresh in my mind, it all started to happen.

Picture the scene. Late '80s, the UK, a temple of gaming near a rambling common. A creature looking rather like a Womble elopes with one looking a bit like a Citadel ambull into the folds of what could be a BECMI box. They dig a lair and start a character class.

If I was going to write up that character class - and why would I? - I might do it like this...

WOMBULL

Motivation  Likes holes in the ground. Drawn to the intolerable waste in forgotten spaces; prefers not to steal, but will to put a thing to better use.

Requirements  Strength and Wisdom of 13+

Nature  Wisdom is the prime, with dice, saves and levels as per the dwarf.

Equipment  May use any; has jaws and claws (1d4 dam.), and paws only a little clumsier than human hands (-1 with missile weapons and devices).

Abilities  Digs twice as fast as a human. Has infravision, the dwarven feel for structure and a 1-in-6 chance of identifying inconsistencies or later changes in the contents of a space. May combine suitable items into a new form given that form's gp value in minutes; the new form is one degree poorer for its type and has a 1-in-3 chance of failing with each use.

Knowing the creativity of the people round here, someone's already done it, but I think I'd be happy to play any version. Now, where could a party with a wombull go adventuring..?

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Then they came for the lizards with guns...

Check out this post at Faeit 212 for a look behind a curtain of fear. This time it's Blight Wheel Miniatures daring, it seems, to be inspired by what may be the same old ideas.

Have a read of this bold claim: "There are an infinite number of ways in which an armed mutant komodo dragon could have been depicted". There's one for the metaphysicists...

And get a load of the demands. The question may be: what doesn't GW potentially own?

If this is the best they can do, how will they cope when major opportunities come along?

Update: If that's not enough big boy bodyslamming for one day, there's this thing now too. Following up the thinking at Aldeboran yesterday, resistance ain't futile - it's fertile.

Update: And if this decision and this one reflect a wider trend, the tide may be turning.

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200 grimdarkling personal features, minor mutations, gifts, devices, body mods and stylings (arms /1,000)

Yet more entries for the character detail project, which is an open project to produce a large range of options for figures in a grimdarkling world like 40K's. The whole thing was set off a couple of weeks back by Lasgunpacker's random warband creator for Inquisitor.

Since my last batch, Lasgunpacker has posted 200 each for bling and equipment, to make 700. With zhu bajiee's 60 minor mutations and my first batch we have around 950.

This is my next batch of 200 then, this time for the arms, which gets us to around 1,150.

If you don't have a d20 and/or d10, just roll 1d6: on a 1-3, roll for 1-100 as described in the fifth paragraph here; on a 4-6 roll for 101-200 the same way, adding 100 to the result.

To decide which arm it is, assuming two, roll 1d6: on a 1-3 it's the left, on a 4-6 the right.

Beware: there's some weirdness, a fairy tale-bad dream darkness and light body horror.
 

200 grimdarkling personal features, minor mutations, gifts, devices, body mods and stylings (head, /1000)

More entries for the character detail project, for individuals in a grimdarkling world like 40K's, set in motion last week by Lasgunpacker's random warband creator for Inquisitor.

Since my first batch, Lasgunpacker has posted 100 each for bionics, weapons and clothing. With zhu bajiee's 60 minor mutations that gets us to about 450 non-duplicates.

We're running parallel tables, aiming for 1,000 each to start and avoiding any overlap as far as possible, with the idea of combining them later. If anyone wants to join in, they're very welcome. Lasgunpacker's plan is here and I'm provisionally thinking the following:

• 200 for the head, including the face and neck

• 200 for the arms, including the shoulders and hands

• 200 for the thorax, i.e. the chest and upper back

• 200 for the abdomen, i.e. the belly and lower back

• 200 for the legs, including the feet

So here's the second 100 for the head, combined with the first 100 to make a list of 200.

If you don't have a d20 and/or d10, just roll 1d6: on a 1-3, roll for 1-100 as described in the fifth paragraph here; on a 4-6 roll for 101-200 the same way, adding 100 to the result.

Beware: there's some weirdness, a fairy tale-bad dream darkness and light body horror.
 

100 grimdarkling personal features, minor mutations, gifts, devices, body mods and stylings (head, /1000)

I may not be fond of using tables in play, especially in tactical roleplaying, but I still like big, baroque tables, most of all for prep. This is a fairly big one, and baroque in content.

It was inspired by Lasgunpacker's random warband generator for Inquisitor and the idea of crowdsourcing a d1000 table, but helped along by the recent musing re John Blanche.

Put simply, Inquisitor is a 'narrative wargame' published by Games Workshop in 2001, a blend of skirmish game and RPG set in the 41st millennium. Officially it uses 54mm miniatures, but actual play looks to be heavily 28mm (see INQ28). Inquisitor may be the loftiest crag in GW's modern history, the magical moment when it all came together and the nature of the drop became clear. But that's an argument for another day.

I'm game for a d1000 table whether or not anyone else is, and this is a first 100 entries, for the head only. They're personal features, minor mutations, gifts, devices, body mods and stylings for characters in a grimdarkling world - like 40K's - but system-free. They assume a human, or standard humanoid at least, but the list shouldn't be hard to adapt.

It's a d100 table, which usually means rolling 1d10 twice, once for the tens and once for the units. If you don't have a d10 but have a d6, you can use the method described here.

Beware: there's some weirdness, a fairy tale-bad dream darkness and light body horror.
 

Towards a 'new' encounter - reading, comprehension

Very interesting discussions on OD&D go down (like lead balloons?) at Untimately. I like the blog a lot. Today in the comments Gus L and Brendan suggested - if I'm reading right - that the encounter distance, surprise and reaction rolls can be just a little lacking.

For those who don't speak OD&Dese, encounter distance is the distance at which another party or situation is spotted, a surprise roll determines - surprise, surprise - whether each side is surprised and the reaction roll is a roll made to determine how a potential threat reacts, usually on 2d6 modified by charisma or an equivalent.*

Gus wonders if there's a way to generate more specific circumstances, like what exactly the goblins are doing other than "'goblin things'". I can improvise goblins okay, but I would be interested in a useful tool. I'm also the kind of guy who might help make it, even link to the project. But my worry is a new tool is more complication, especially when different settings and GMs have different takes on who or what a goblin actually is.

So I have a simple idea.

Build-your-own braner

Last week I posted a weird new monster, alien or supernatural being that references M-theory - the noö-braner. If you missed it, the basic braner is essentially a trans-Euclidean lifeform able to slip more or less freely across various dimensions.

It could be the basis of a Lovecraftian horror, or an alternative to a warp entity for 40K, or a very different tactical challenge for adventurers and armies, the kind of thing you might find in Call of Cthulhu, sword and sorcery or a wargame like this, maybe a demiurge...

The original post has a few more suggestions too, thanks to John Till and garrisonjames.

I want to generalise the concept through a simple tool, so below is a table for six general braner aspects for mixing and matching. The noö-braner is now a 'waker-weaver-wisher'.

A random approach to making your own could be rolling 1d6 for the number of aspects it has and 1d6 on the table for each, treating duplicates as greater intensity in that aspect.

      Braner aspects (1d6)

1. Waker - The osmotic or conductive structure of this braner allows the absorption, mingling or transfer of material among those regions currently located adjacent to it, enabling the formation of a reservoir or conduit for transdimensional interaction.
2. Weaver - Highly elongated or filamentary, this braner binds manifolds, perhaps forming a basis for a reality by bracing its fundamental particles, macrostructures or universal shell; its loss, transformation or relocation may lead to local collapse.
3. Whiler - Whether hibernating, pupating or paralysed, perhaps lying in wait, this braner is more or less inactive, representing a temporary hindrance to travel via the region and gifting its current transdimensional location a misleading stability.
4. Whisker - This braner hooks, envelops or dislodges elements of nearby regions, stretching or carrying them out across a dimensional horizon, perhaps shifting, telescoping or inverting the local form; they may be returned, irrevocably altered.
5. Winder - The tension, mass or construction of this braner warps the coils of the dimensions it spans or crosses, thereby spontaneously reordering, separating or fusing these dimensions and sparking sudden shifts in reality for the inhabitants.
6. Wisher - Possessed of a morphic structure - perhaps plasmatic, gelatinous or nanitic - or capable of transdimensional lensing, this braner is able to generate, modify or mimic any or all of the elements of a region, including the inhabitants.

They're building blocks only of course, for you to decide the wider nature and the detail of the manifestations. For general mechanics, assuming they'd apply, you could look at the ideas in the first post. For less usual contexts, the possible new genres might be a good start, especially body noir, glossed world, retro time travel and sword and reinette.
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Noö-braner

This post at False Machine reminded me of noisms' recent suggestion that "Creating a truly new monster is difficult, and perhaps impossible". I thought I might have a go at it.

A noö-braner is a trans-Euclidean being able to bleed freely across any and all dimensions in pursuit of hylozoa. It tracks likely targets from dimensions largely beyond their own, initially inserting only quanta to scan, later perhaps more complex observational and manipulative tendrils from multiple points. Having identified a potential node, a noö-braner strikes from within, either endowing an awareness which extends via the noö-braner and all existing nodes, or altering awareness if a similar being has already entered.

It's a lifeform Mr Lovecraft might recognise, or possibly a distant cousin of GW's Umbra.

It doesn't seem to need stats, and could be best used to bring elements of a landscape to life, to modify mental and spiritual attributes, or psychic or magical ability, or to allow lifeforms to draw on deeper resources. Individuals and units with a heightened sense or advanced sensors could be allowed a check to observe those tendrils before the strike.

For wargaming, you could look at the 'compromised' idea from the GM substitute deck.

For tactical roleplaying, a noö-braner has no real lair, its treasure is the awareness - but could be the recognition of the awareness - and lots of rumours are already out there...

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The Betwixt

It's Monstrous Monday so here's my contribution. With so many new creatures already created throughout the month and more due today, I've decided not to add another one to the list, but suggest a way two existing creatures can be combined in a single form.

                                                                                                                              

The Betwixt is an outlandish fusion of two living beings, perhaps the work of a vengeful bolt or a mishandled magic, or capricious spirits stitching together the sleeping with ethereal threads, or a strange attraction in nature, even an outer power.

Tolerances being what they are, a fresh Betwixt may be cast out or hunted down by one or both of its former kin, forced to seek out a remote seclusion or lair. Less often these beings will find some degree of acceptance, perhaps be admired for the gifts gained or revealed, or even worshipped as proof of some formerly abstract ideal. More rarely still, they may bring together two alien peoples as one, shaping the world in their own image.

A Betwixt has a profile on which each stat is an average of the two on the profiles of its constituent beings, rounding down. If one has a stat the other does not, this is its usual level. In addition, a Betwixt retains any original abilities not prevented by the new nature.

If the constituent beings survive long enough, they will grow into their new form, and may become potent indeed: each appropriate period of time following their fusion - perhaps a week, perhaps a year - each stat improves by one point to the best of the two originals.

                                                                                                                               

Where does a Maelstrom go?

Hereticwerks recently looked at the Maelstrom in gaming, with ideas for treating it as a monster or hazard to navigation, a basis for a terrain piece.

They also suggested it could be a gateway, maybe to a strange sea, or even a Weak Point between the worlds, possibly one of the more final Ends.

I'll definitely add this take on it to the Ends list, but it would be good to explore the idea and get some options, maybe a table to roll on for each descent.

That could be used in roleplaying for an encounter, or in weird wargaming for a campaign event, maybe as a way to move a long-term game to a new setting or transform it. In fiction overall it could be a good source of inspiration.

As an example destination, the original post gives the fluidic space of Voyager's species 8472, and I suggest it could be somewhere a flood washes up, like the Deadly Desert in Return to Oz, or that a traveller could become a water baby, as in the novel or 1978 film.

Like the portals list and the Ends itself, it's a good subject to crowdsource. If you have a suggestion, leave a comment. I'll expand the table and credit you with a link.

     The descent into the Maelstrom... (1d8)

1. ... carries the traveller into fluidic space. (Hereticwerks)
2. ... washes the traveller up in the Deadly Desert.
3. ... transforms the traveller into a water baby.
4. ... becomes a water chute pouring into a cavern holding a galleon, an Inferno.
5. ... with a hideous pause on the very threshold of bearability gives way to a cataract of surging, turgid unseen green waters cascading with a mighty roar into the heart of a fog-bound estuary just on the very verge of visibility. Some place long abandoned. Deserted. But very much alive. (garrisonjames)
6. ... wakes the traveller - who is afloat and wired up in a sensory deprivation tank.
7. ... fades to calm as the traveller emerges from a long-overgrown spawning pool.
8. ... builds to a convulsion, ejecting the traveller either into or from a bodily cavity.

There's more inspiration in the original post, and the first for the Ends could also help.

Update: Entries 4+ are being added now, as per this post. 

Update: All done - it's now one of the Ends.

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New genres A-Z - from archeopunk to zombie derival

Here then are all of the entries for the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2012, 26 posts with the theme of possible new genres for fiction, maybe in gaming but also beyond it. Some are deadly serious, others may just be silly, but as so often, it depends on you - the person.

The underpinning was this debate, on themes that have been running through a lot of the posting at the Expanse, and the discussion has spun out across the months. The latest instalment could be this recent back-and-forth. Feel free to join in, anywhere and -when.

Apocalypse come (1) - Your actual eaters of worlds

In sixth edition 40K some factions can only ally come an apocalypse. Trouble is, a 41st millennium apocalypse might just end up being moar of everything available, rather than something suitably eschatological and worthy of the game that gave us Realm of Chaos.

But then a lot of apocalypses can seem fairly samey. In an effort to help I thought I'd run a series with a few slightly lesser-spotted ideas, but not for any one system or setting.

The first theme I've had in mind a few weeks, but a comment at BoLS recently prompted me to post. The context was the idea that the new Horus Heresy releases mean people start playing what is effectively a new game - Warhammer 30,000 - just space marine on space marine. The commenter joked there could be a Warhammer 50K of Tyranids only.

In case this is all new to you, and don't feel bad about that, the Tyranids are a biological, self-evolving, nomadic civilisation from the intergalactic gulfs or beyond, directed by their psychic hive mind. They consume pretty much everything and evolve around problems.

That was a pretty freaky idea once, but today, for me - and without the infiltration of the genestealer cults especially - they're just a more colourful, general purpose armed force.

So how to get the horror back, but without the cult body horror? It could be by homing in on the broader existential aspects, and going for a more save-or-die cosmological tone.

Find that blog!

It's been quiet at the blogs lately. Not so many people are posting, and not as often as they did, and it seems there aren't so many newer blogs either. A lot of posts seem related directly or not to all those Chaos marines, or Dwimmermount, or new monsters.

(I'm not digging the new Chaos for various reasons, on the subject of Dwimmermount I like empty space, partly for this reason, and I love homebrew stuff like the monsters.)

I'm guessing it's just the cold and the darkness, an autumnal, getting-back-into-college blip. Trouble is, this could set off a downward spiral of less reason to check in, less jumping from blog to blog, so less traffic and fewer comments as positive reinforcement, which could mean bloggers spending more time away, or elsewhere, or just moving on.

In case it isn't the time of year, and to brighten things up, I want to enlist the help of one of the most consistently stimulating gaming bloggers I've had the pleasure to read. The posts are in my view generally excellent, often very rigorous and at times highly personal. They push the limits too. The person likes the games that many of us do, and is knowledgeable and engaging, and a theorist and philosopher. So who is it?