Adventure Time!

This coming Sunday there will be rather hastily organised online 'convention' for ConstantCon and Flailsnails games. I will be running 'Dinner with the Ito', a Tekumel game using the Advanced EPT rules I have been struggling with for weeks. I warn you the doc is long, but most of that is spell descriptions.


They are not finished, I doubt they ever will be, but there is enough done to run a one off game or two and once this convention is out of the way I will work on a conversion doc to enable Flailsnails D&D characters to come and get sozzled and/or killed in Jakalla.


In the next day or two I will be posting a character sheet and some pregen characters for the game on Sunday.


'Dinner with the Ito' will run from 19.00 to 21.00 GMT on Sunday 4th March. Anyone who wants to have a go, contact me at bazblatt@gmail.com.

Party Time in Jakalla

The following table is cribbed from similar efforts by Jeff Rients and Zak Smith.  It forms part of a document which rips off, in the most respectful possible way, Orgies Inc by Jon Pickens and was also inspired by the Downtime chapter of Bushido by Bob Charette and Paul Hume, which you will find at Jakallan Nights.


It references an as yet unfinished Empire of the Petal Throne meets Lamentations of the Flame Princess hack in case the piffle about stat bonuses, Noble Actions and Influence rolls are confusing. I will be using this for a few Jakalla Flailsnails games at least, and if it works, maybe a campaign...

Adventuring is tough, people get killed in nasty ways and then twitching bits of them are sucked up like soup by shambling monstrosities like Hra in front of your very eyes. Every now and again you need to unwind with a few beers, or maybe some spirits, or even a nice strong Tsuhoridu that makes absinthe look like rainwater, or a few 'powders' and a trip to the House of the Pleasant Hour is more your style.

You must spend Social Status +1d12 x 20kt on a good night out and gain the equivalent in XP.

If the d12 roll is higher than the character's level roll on the table below.

If you can't afford what you rolled, you spend everything you have and gain only half XP and get to roll on the carousing table below.

Smaller and less decadent cities and mere villages will have lesser quality entertainment. Roll 1d10 for duller cites like Penom and Jaikalor, 1d8 for backwaters like Chene Ho and 1d6 for small towns.

1 Can't hold your beer. Make a fool of yourself, lose 1 status and gain no XP

2 Get into a fight. Roll 1d10 + Str bonus + combat bonus. If you get 10+ you flatten the opposition and get 50XP, 7-9 You take a few lumps, lose 1d3 Comeliness for a week, 5-6 Get sued for Shamtla, your opponent has status 1d10 per level, if you lose fine is 5kt per social status of person you assaulted; if you can't afford to pay, you have a week to cough up or the law will take an interest. 1-4 you lose, you start the next adventure 1d3 HP down.

3 Insult some people. Their status is 1d10 times your level. Subtract your status from this number and roll that many d6 for the size of the fine. If you have more status than them they end up owing you.

4 Romantic entanglements. Roll 1d10 + Comeliness bonus on subtable below.

5 Play a bit of Kevuk. Roll a Gambling skill roll if you have it; win make back half your carousing money, full XP, lose lose all your carousing money for no XP gain.

6 Your drunken excesses are approved of by Dlamelish! Next time you go carousing you get a re-roll on this table if you don't like the result.

7 Acquire a dodgy tattoo at a market stall: 1-3 innocuous but badly drawn. 4 - misused Livyani kenemuz, you are now enemies with a random Livyani Shadow God sect, 5-6 - Swear word in Yan Koryani or Nlussa, 6 - peculiar sigil used by the Temple of Hrihayal to denote a 'swinger', 7 - different peculiar sigil used by Temple of Hrihayal to denote chronic infection with STD, 8-9 - 'Mum' inside a heart with a dagger through it, 10 - favourite Martolan team shield 11 - ominous looking black character, 90% chance some rubbish inspired by the Lament to the Wheel of Black, 10% a real symbol from the Sunuz alphabet and the tattooist can no longer be found, 12 - Re roll, but dirty needles have caused the tattoo to harbour a fungal infection akin to ergot; expect your limbs to rot off and to die writhing amid hallucinations of hell.

8 You couldn’t really see the rash in the candlelight. Roll Constitution check to avoid venereal disease.

9 Got into an arm wrestling match with an Nluss; He or she had 12+1d8 STR, each roll STR + 1d4 to see who wins. If you win gain 10XP per level and roll vs 1d6+Com bonus. 6+ N'luss respects you, +1 to influence roll, 1-, Nluss has been embarrassed and vows bloody revenge. If you lose you have -1 to hit and -1 damage for your next adventure.

10 Got into a cussing match with a Pygmy Folk. Enemy has Foul Mouth rating of 10+1d8. Beat this with your Comeliness bonus + 1d10 + 1d6 per Etiquette skill to win. Gain 20XP per level if you win and automatically gain the Pygmy Folk as an enemy. If you lose, -1 status for being stupid enough to get into the slanging match in the first place.

11 Got into a drinking contest with roll 1d10: 1-3 Some ordinary drunks, Con 3d6, 4 Some people from the Chiteng temple, 2d6+6 Con and will definitely start a brawl if they lose. 5 Soldiers from a random legion 2d6+6 Con, 6 Some Nluss or Ghatoni, 1d10+8 Con, 7 Some people from the Hrihayal Temple, 2d6+6 Con will definitely try to seduce you if they win, 8 Some Pygmy Folk Con 12+1d6, will try and rob you if they win. Roll 1d10 + Con for each side.

12 Reckless gambling. Lose all gold gems and jewels, save vs Intelligence for each magic item or lose that as well. Roll vs Intelligence again or end up in debt for 1d100kt per level. Pay up within a week or face the consequences. Gambling skill adds +4 to save per level. Blessed by Niyunen, an aspect of Hrihayal, gain 1 luck point.

13 Target of lewd advances turns out to be a follower of (d6) 1-3 Chiteng 4-6 Hrihayal, +1 if yourself a follower of Dlamelish or Hrihayal. -1 if yourself a follower of Vimuhla or Chiteng. Chitengi like S+M, roll 1d6+ Com bonus. 2+ Beaten senseless, lose 1d3 HP and -1 to Str or Dex bonus for next adventure, gain 10XP per level if a follower. 1- kept captive for sacrifice to the demon Jneksha'a, the Scythe of Flame, will need ransom or rescue. Hrihayalites like all sorts of kinky things, roll 1d6 + Com bonus. 7+ kept as a sex toy on temple grounds, will need rescue, +25XP per level if a follower. 2-6 a peculiar and exhausting night, lose 1d3 HP and -1 to either Int or Con bonus for next adventure, 1- kept as a sacrifice to the demon Ru'utlanesh, the Hairy Legged Mouth, will need rescue or ransom.

14 One of Us! You are initiated into some kind of freaky sub cult, roll on the Gods table from the character creation doc for which god it is allied with. If 'Choice' comes up the deity is Livyani, a demon or one of the Pariah Gods. You have scars in unusual places and vague memories of certain passwords, though you may have been Mind- barred. Roll Int or less on 2d20 to recall the details.

15 You have bought 1d6 packets of powders of various colours. 50% chance they are genuine.

16 Shanghaied by a Pakalan pirate crew; 30% want you as a deckhand, 50% want you as a sacrifice to She who Strides the Ocean, 10% want you for purposes well known in the nautical trades, 10% will sell you as a galley slave/snack food to the Shen.

17 Major misunderstanding with the law. You will be impaled within a week unless you can win a status contest with an accuser of status 20+1d20. Lots of bribes and the hire of a smart and expensive lawyer may prove necessary.

18 You are in love with someone beyond your social class, 75% married with 1d6 spouses already.

19 Some lousy rotten bastard (yes, it was probably the Temple of Sarku) has put you under a high level Domination spell. Save vs magic of you find yourself on a mission.

20 Accidentally start a conflagration. Roll d6 twice. 1-2 burn down your favourite inn 3-4 some other den of ill repute is reduced to ash 5-6 a big chunk of town goes up in smoke. 1-2 no one knows it was you 3- 4 your fellow carousers know you did it 5 someone else knows, perhaps a blackmailer 6 everybody knows. +1 Noble Action and 100XP per level if a follower of Vimuhla or Chiteng, +1 status if it becomes public knowledge.

21 Imbibe a really stonking glass of hallucinogenic Tsuhoridu. Roll your Psychic Ability or less on 1d20. If you succeed temporarily gain +1 to saves vs magic OR 1d6 pedhetl points. If you fail you have -1 on your Int bonus for the next adventure and lose 1d6 pedhetl points.

22 That hengka was off! Drink a humungous amount of beer, hungover for next adventure, with loss of 1d3 Con, -1 on all initiative rolls and spell casting rolls. On the plus side you gain 1d3 + Comeliness bonus luck points from the blessing of Dlamelish.

23 You gamble and win a scroll of Whisperings in the Velvet Dark, cryptic but accurate predictions from a particularly odd sect of the Temple of Ksarul.

24 You have your fortune told by a Scarabomancer. On your next adventure you have a particular form of death to avoid (-4 on saves or to AC vs attacks by it), but if something else kills you, you have a 25% chance of miraculously avoiding it. Forms of possible death may be a given type of monster (Hra, undead), a weapon, a kind of person, a trap or spell, anything the evil DM wishes to unleash.

25 Ambushed by the Order of the Absolute Light of Justice, a bunch of tract waving busybodies from the Temple of Hnalla, who seriously waste good drinking time and disperse some mighty fine parties. Halve your spend on carousing and half your XP.

26 Feast! A high status clan has a feast at their clanhouse, with the hoi polloi like you lot given food and drink free from stalls in the street outside, or in a pavilion in the yard (for middle clan members). Chance to use your etiquette skill to make a useful contact.

27 Festival! One of the Temples holds a huge procession cum booze up in the streets of Jakalla, roll randomly for which one. Make a donation of 20kt a level out of your carousing money and roll on the Sacrifices table.

28 Wake up in an alley stinking of Kuruku piss. The Kuruku have run off with all your remaining money and jewellery and the pungent aroma gives -2 to any stealth rolls and -1 to any chance of surprising an enemy.

29 You have drunk, smoked or snorted something you are now addicted to. Treatment may be possible, but unless you get regular doses of whatever it is you have -1 on all rolls.

30 More romantic entanglements. Roll on table below.

Romantic entanglements, 1d10+Comeliness bonus.

-3 You have been acquired by a high status follower of Dlamelish as part of a menagerie of exotic lovers for the next 1d6 months. You get +1 status and will get an allowance for carousing and clothing and may be able to wangle a few extra benefits. You may also end up being sacrificed or expected to take part in some of the riskier of the 32 Unspeakable Acts.

-2 A huge ignorant barbarian oaf loves you very much, or possibly wants to marry you to gain citizenship papers. Roll on Nakome table for nationality.

-1 An old lecher of a local shopkeeper has taken a shine to you. You might get a discount.

0 Desperate house-spouse with problem husband(s)/wife (wives) and/or 2d3 problem children.

1 You are now married to a person of lower social status than you, and with 1d6 less comeliness than you.

2 Wake up in bed with an undead. +1 noble action if a follower of Sarku or Durritlamish

3 You are not really sure who you took up with, but they have a jealous boy/girlfriend/spouse who is now pursuing you with 1d6 thugs in tow.

4 Person of lower social status, relatives after you to marry

5 Person of same social status, relatives may be for/against.

6 Pretty girl called Pa'iya with expensive tastes. Save vs spells or spend all your spare cash on carousing, gaining half usual XP. Will keep seeking you out whenever you are flush.

7 Acolyte of a Temple, roll randomly, Other indicates an odd sect or foreign deity.

8 Member of a military unit.

9 Member of the Clan of the Emerald Circlet.

10 Person of higher social status, relatives discourage match.

11 A random NPC you have already encountered as a contact.

12 You are married to a person of higher social status than you.

13+ You have been acquired by a high status follower of Dlamelish as part of a menagerie of exotic lovers for the next 1d6 months. You get + 1 status and will get an allowance for carousing and clothing and may be able to wangle a few extra benefits. You may also end up being sacrificed or expected to take part in some of the riskier of the 32 Unspeakable Acts. 

Esoteric Arts

Michael Moscrip, the Grumpy Old Troll,  mentioned Tarot card reading in D&D in a Google+ post a few days ago. It just so happened that I have written an article about this very thing for Fight On! #6. Here is the original version (it was cut slightly for the magazine).

You can, according to some occult writers, make perfectly valid Tarot card sets based on almost anything. King Arthur, cheesy soft-porn Vampires, cute liddle kitty-cats, all kinds of bad taste baloney has been employed, all you really need is a basic knowledge of the Qabbalah, the flexibility of mind to fit stories and images to the 22 paths of the Tree of Life and the lack of moral compass to market such tosh to the gullible.

I had a go at this myself many years ago in an effort to persuade a hippyish girlfriend to come back down to planet Earth by showing that any piffle could be turned into tarot, and created the bare bones of a 60's Pop Culture Tarot; the arrest of Mick Jagger on drugs charges was number 20, Judgement, Ken Kesey's infamous bus was The Chariot, The World was The Trip - I lost the notes many years ago (probably used them as rolling papers), but you get the idea.

In the article I mention a Carcosan Tarot, which Jeremy Duncan, the Dandy in the Underworld, said he'd like to illustrate. What other Tarot decks might be fun to inflict on unsuspecting gamers? Could they be turned into game aids you could sell?

GM Questionnaire

I hate filling in forms, but Zak Smith asked reasonably nicely so I will.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

Working the infamous South London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray seamlessly into Glorantha, and getting it published in Tradetalk.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Last Sunday 17.00GMT-20.00GMT, players, Alex Willamson, Michael Moscrip and Stephen Goodman, trogging round Balazar.

3. When was the last time you played?

Saturday 17.00GMT-19.30GMT, AD&D Against the Giants G1

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Lady Isho, sorceress of the Dlamelish Temple and one time subject of the spiciest gossip in Jakalla, has died and the PCs are in the funeral procession/peripatetic orgy taking her to her final resting place.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Rattle dice, sharpen pencils, sip tea.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

Nothing.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

No, but it does give me a mental buzz that makes it hard to sleep afterwards.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

Noggin Threeteeth utilised pickles bought in the Hill Cantons to detect quicksand on his way to sack the Shining Tower.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

No, they don't make it too unserious, though I might be guilty of laughing up some other GMs serious ideas.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Convert them to Reform Calvinism and teach them some rousing hymns.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

Used a bit of the Dying Earth as inspiration for a D&D spell.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

Plotting to turn a dungeon full of excess furniture into an out of town shopping 'experience' for the locals rather than carting all the bloody stuff away. I suspect some of it has found its way into that bawdy-house that has opened up near the Caves of Myriddin.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

The Mongoose Runequest Elves book, because I was looking for inspiration for further stuff to unload on the brave souls schlepping through the wilds of Balazar. Not much cop I'm afraid, but at least it only cost me a dollar for the pdf.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

William Turner, the old British landscape master. Evokes place and atmosphere like no other painter; too much RPG art is figurative, needs more landscape and impressionism, IMO. Show me the place and I will imagine myself into it.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Not really, I'm not running those kind of horror games at the moment, but I managed to wig a few people out with an old CoC game I ran.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

Having a party start a slave revolt in the old 'D' series AD&D dungeons, resulted in pitched battles all over the vast 'Underdark' map.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

Upstairs in an old British country pub with proper beer on tap, an open fire to burn the dead PC character sheets and home cooked steak and ale pies to finish the session.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

The Book of Ebon Bindings, the classic MAR Barker tome of horrible demons and horrible ways of summoning them, and the ultra-bucolic MERP Shire background book, which made those snivelling little oiks the hobbits actually look interesting.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Different things with different games, but for my current Gloranthan game on the serious side we have The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer, an examination of ancient religion and magical beliefs, is certainly in there, as is the Rustavi Choirs album 'An Oath at Khidistavi', a collection of indescribably ancient Georgian folk songs and chants, contrasted with the B-movie 'Million Years BC' and the BBC/HBO toga wearing soap 'Rome'.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Ones willing to roleplay, who try to act and react as ancient and medieval people would, not just Joe from Huddersfield doing what Joe would do if he met an Ogre outside Tesco while he happened to have a meat cleaver in his hand.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

I have worked with real criminals, so whenever such types turn up in my games I can't but help play them as scrotes I have actually known.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

The City of Jakalla worked up from MAR Barker's notes into a book with design elements from the Players Guide to Kaiin from the DERPG line, bits along the lines of Vornheim and yet other bits from the RQ2 treatment of Pavis and the Big Rubble.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

Don't really know anyone who is into RPGs who doesn't play.

Griffin Mountain: The Story So Far...

It's been fun playing Runequest again after so long away, and nice to introduce a couple of new players to the classic setting of Griffin Mountain.

Griffin Mountain for those poor souls amongst you who haven't heard about it, was the first large campaign pack produced by Chaosium for Runequest 2nd Edition. It was originally put together by Paul Jaquays and Rudy Kraft as an alternative to Glorantha and then adapted and rewritten with Greg Stafford to place it firmly in Greg's game world. One nice feature of the book was the three authors giving their own story of how they came to create it. The setting is a bit of a 'cheat', in that it looks like it was never played out as a whole campaign before publication, though Greg Stafford says in his intro that he did use it as part of his ongoing Dragon Pass game.

Statement of Intent

This blog will update anyone interested about my current projects and RPG games, as well as acting as a repository for gamey links and materials, and, who knows, maybe a bit of fiction if I feel brave enough.

Things on the Go

G+ Griffin Mountain Campaign
A great success so far with half a dozen players happily ambling round the wilds of Balazar getting themselves ever more deeply involved in the politics of the Citadels. A couple of the players are new to Glorantha, but they have quickly found their feet in a confusing world. This is very much a sandbox game,  but so far I have dangled sub-plots and adventure hooks and used the mechanism of being in the Citadel guard to assign outright missions. I have high hopes that we will reach what I regard as the 'ideal' sandbox state where the players will develop their own goals with regards to the background material and setting and generate their own adventure ideas.

Tékumel Tournament
Tékumel is one of the best RPG settings there is, but gets relatively little actual play. There has been a resurgence of interest of late due to its origins in the days of Old School gaming, and some actual games using the original Empire of the Petal Throne rules. These rules leave something to be desired and the games so far have been exotic dungeon bashes. I am hoping to be able to take the players of these games to the 'next level' so to speak and immerse them more in the baroque aspects of Tsolyáni culture.

I am struggling a bit with a suitable rules set at the moment; I definitely want to update OEPT's magic rules, and I definitely want some kind of game-mechanical way of introducing the concepts of Noble Action and measuring Social Status, but my current draft has run away with itself and I am scrapping the lot and going back to basics.

The aim will be a tournament, sets of different players going through the same adventure and being scored on how they do against the social and natural environment in which they find themselves (and possibly each other for the more skulduggerous types). I have a spare copy of Barker's The Man of Gold I will be offering as a prize.

The Expanding Universe
And if all that wasn't enough I would like to start a Traveller pick up game based on a new cooperatively designed setting.

The nice thing about G+ gaming is that you can start a game at the drop of a hat, just see who is online and at a loose end and in no time you have a game on the go, in whoever's favourite setting with whatever player characters can be shoe-horned into the rules set in operation. Chatter on G+, reports of missions in the most popular dungeons, between session map sales and banter is all great stuff, and I hope to take it a bit further.

The game background will be sketchy, and the map will be all but blank, but participating GMs and players will fill it in as they go along, writing their additions up on a Wiki. When you generate your PC, you invent a homeworld for them and give the planet a name and some basic details. As the background gets fleshed out, starting a new game will be a matter of looking up a place, current adventure hooks, dragging in a few established NPCs and you are off, anyone can come and play and add to the material available.

I intend to retain overall editorial control, but only to chuck out bits that jar against the groundrules of the setting (No giant robots! No friggin' wookies!) and try and keep some kind of consistency.

Now does anyone out there know how to set up a private Wiki?

Enough blathering, onward, upward and outward into the Expanding Universe!