Tales from the Flooded Realms
A collection of narrative style session recaps (and rants)
Blog Moved
· ☕ 1 min read
Blog moved I’ve moved this blog to https://floodedrealms.substack.com/ for the time being. Recent life circumstances have made it difficult for me to continue self hosting here. I will be reposting all my old posts there but for now this site will be dead. Sail on!
You Play the Game to Win
· ☕ 8 min read
Playing the Game to Win In a previous post I discussed why people buy a given set of rules. While I agree with my original premise, I still felt as though there was something missing. It wasn’t until I saw this tweet from Krafty Matt that the missing bit clicked in my brain. What is the win condition of B/X, of ACKS, or anything else? Some even go as far as to say there is NO WINNING.
Home brewery vs Failed Game Designer Syndrome
· ☕ 7 min read
In a continuation from my last post let’s discuss from whence home brewery arises and why. As stated there, games (and their rules) offer certain play experiences. This is a combination of their explicit offer that is used to sell the game and the implicit offer, which is what the game actually delivers at the table when played rules as written. In a perfect world, these are in harmony but that doesn’t always happen.
You Buy the Rules to Play Them
· ☕ 6 min read
Consider this exchange between a player and a referee: Player: “Can you add [5e race] into [System]? I really want to play one.” Referee: “No, I bought [System] for a reason and don’t want to deviate too much.” P: “Then why are we using the sailing system from [different System] instead of these ones. Gunpowder isn’t in [System] either.” R: “Those are different because they are part of setting the campaign tone”
Poisons
· ☕ 3 min read
“Save vs Poison or Die.” says the bearded face from behind it’s screen. The clatter of dice follows, then a groan. The beard tilts downward slightly “Roll a new character, you’ll be in the next room. Everyone else, what are you doing?” A classic scenario in old school gaming, and a contentious one at that. Save or Die poisons are a staple in many old school adventures. They make dungeons seem deadly and dangerous, regardless of level; and they fit well into certain styles of play.
NAP III Sneak Peak
· ☕ 13 min read
This is the sneak peak of my No Art Punk III entry. It contains the first level of the keystone dungeon of the adventure. I will be looking to playtest this dungeon in the neat future, so heads up for that. Hope you enjoy! Region Background This region once was the personal domain of the king of a small country. A victim of location, this country is situated between several large empires.
Tomespire Session 2: Cold Reality
· ☕ 9 min read
Dramatis Personae Nemyt: Half-Celestial Bard Vexis: Elven Magic User Elbmes: Human Paladin Cheetah: Tiefling Magic User (played by a very young child who likes cats) After obtaining the word of the Doppelganger, who insisted on being called “Meg” for some inscrutable reason, the group turned to backtrack, on Meg’s words that both doors in room were impossible to open. In doing so, the elf and bard noticed four diminutive humanoid heat outlines lurking just outside the reach of the torchlight.
Tomespire Session 1: Welcome to Tomespire
· ☕ 12 min read
Rules and Setting Overview This setting sprang from my IRL group’s desire to play a game with the following qualities: Be more based on fulfilling contracts and hunting monsters, rather than direct Gold for XP Have a higher power level than the average OSR style game Lot’s of room for political and city intrigue. My players are generally good sports, and have played a few mudcore games at my behest, so I figured I would throw them a bone.
Half Celestial
· ☕ 2 min read
This is a quick write up of my custom Half-Celestial race for the Tomespire setting. The Race as Class version will be coming in a later post after I figure out the XP and a few extra goodies. Half Celestial Requirements - Minimum CON 9 Ability Modifiers: +2 CON, +1 DEX or STR Available Classes and Levels: Acrobat: 10th Bard: 10th Cleric: 14th Magic-User: 8th Fighter: 8th Paladin: 8th Abilities:
Gems and Jewellery
· ☕ 10 min read
A Pirate’s Booty In my home games, often like to have my hordes consist primarily of gems and jewellery. In my opinion, this adds to the feeling of piracy. Instead of mounds and mounds of Doubloons, players get crowns and necklaces and rings, which they must sell to a fence of otherwise utilize to gain that sweet sweet experience. Plus, in any good schlock pirate media, the chests they open wont be primarily gold pieces, there’s going to be a large amount of gems and jewellery in there.
Dungeon23 Day Four
· ☕ 1 min read
Dungeon23 Day Four: Wanted to add something a little mechanical to mess with today, and try my hand at drawing something more interesting than just a box or star. So I recycled something I used in No Artpunk II, natural gas pipe works. In this case it’s simply moving it outside instead of somewhere more interesting. This will likely be the entrance from outside, a water gushing out of a cave sounds like a neat set piece.