Regarding Firewood for Gaming Purposes

From Here

As something of a backwoodsy person, I’ve gathered firewood on many occasions. Driftwood from Lake Ontario which had dried out on a rocky beach would often make up the bulk of any bonfire, and save for the spiders and occasional rusty nail, it was decent firewood but it was notably scavenged. 

I’ve also had the misfortune of preparing firewood from scavenged wood found in the forests of the same region, which is to say that I’ve been attacked by bees, wasps, fire ants, additional spiders, and no small amount of spores and dust which hid within the desiccated husk of what appeared to be nice dry wood. Which is all before we get into the issue of wet wood.

The good firewood that I’ve prepared was generally harvested from logs from a tree that was felled for this purpose. The timber was split into usable sized bits of wood, and the bark was either scraped off beforehand or left on because it wasn’t getting in the way. There wasn’t a lot of time for the spiders get into the wood. It made for pleasant burning.

This is all to say that firewood is interesting and important, maybe not worthy of great ruling considerations in your game; but worthy of the following considerations:

Is the firewood harvested/from civilization/from a woodcutter? 

If so, it burns well without any additional problems. You have a nice fire for the whole of your night. If you’ve somehow made an extremely good fire, roll on the following firewood comfort table.

Is the firewood scavenged/from the wilds/possibly wet or infested?

If so, then you roll on the following firewood calamity table and unless you can attend to the issue properly, you gain a level of exhaustion. 

For sake of definition: harvested wood has undergone some degree of quality assurance by a professional, it isn't wood stolen from a pauper's wooden grave marker or utterly/potentially infested with spiders. Scavenged wood makes no such promises.

Firewood Comforts [d6]

1. Pleasantly aromatic smoke. Foods cooked on the fire grant an additional dice in healing value.

2. Heavy, billowing smoke. Insects, mosquitos and other such vermin keep away from the fire for the duration of the night. 

3. Warm and comforting fires. Party members who rest by the fire gain a full night’s rest, even if they otherwise suffered exhaustion or were made to take watch.

4. Large and crackling fire. Forces a morale check on beasts, both benign and malicious, who wish to approach the campsite.

5. Low-burning and subtle fire. Casts little light out into the wilderness, 4-in-6 chance that intelligent beings outside camp will confuse it for a trick of the moonlight, fireflies, et cetera.

6. Humble, comforting fire. Perplexes small game animals who stumble towards the camp, allowing a 3-in-6 chance of catching/striking them before they flee off into the night.

Firewood Calamities [d12]

1. Burns brightly, quickly. Wood was filled with itching ants, ticks, fleas, and other blistering vermin. Fire-starter must strip or douse themselves to receive recovering benefits tonight. If the fire-starter does no such thing, they cannot rest and suffer Exhaustion. 

2. Explodes in a crackling burst of splintered wood. Those near the fire must Save or have their clothing and gear scratched up by the wood. Flammable goods will catch fire. The one who threw the wood on the fire must Save or begin loudly choking on the fumes.

3. Spiders, numerous and vile, crawl out of the wood and on to the hand of the fire-starter before they can burn the wood. Save or be bitten, suffering a point of damage and a reaction which makes that hand swollen and unusable for 24 hours. If already Exhausted, damage and duration is doubled. Wood burns otherwise just fine. 

4. Low flame with heady, miasmic smoke. A pocket of dried rot and spores in the wood carries with it the risk of poisoning and sickness. Those who breathe the smoke deeply or eat food cooked from this fire suffer a mild indigestion poisoning, granting them Exhaustion and forcing them some degree of dehydration.

5. Crackling flame which doesn’t seem to warm the bones. The tree this wood was taken from is furious and plotting its revenge. It will send creeper vines and hateful roots to drag away the harvester and fire-starter, causing them to Save or wake up far from camp in the middle of the night, crudely bound and suffering Exhaustion.

6. Burns white hot and in tall, anguished tongues of flame. The wood creaks and groans as the fire burns. This wood was not meant for burning. The forest will act with hostility to any who venture outside the light of the camp. Reaction rolls are rolled twice for the next 1d3 days, taking the more hostile result against the party.

7. Acrid, heavy, collapsing clouds of smoke. Becomes an issue once the party is asleep. Save or wake up choking, the fire out, and suffer exhaustion. 

8. Burns darkly, phantom figures in the smoke. Specters, demons, and other phantasmal beings find passage into the mortal world through the campfire. 3-in-6 chance they will try to possess the party and make them their thralls/hosts.

9. Loud, crackling fire that burns too high. 3-in-6 chance of attracting unwelcome company, roll a d8 to determine what. 1-2: Wayward judgmental pilgrims. 3: Bandits (who thought this was their camp. 4: Bandits (looking to rob campers). 5: Wolves in search of sleeping prey. 6: Bears in search of easy food. 7: Some terrible woodland cryptid who wishes to cause havoc and fear. 8: A wayward wyrm of the wood who is very cruel as they took this fire to be a mating flame.

10: Explosive and powerful fire. 5-in-6 chance it will catch the surrounding area on fire once everyone is asleep. If the surrounding area is wet, it will create a great wall of smoke which will not dissipate for 2d6 days and causes disadvantage on all rolls to get out of the wilderness; as well as bleary-eyed exhaustion to all players present.

Why should you use such rulings?

That’s entirely on you. This is meant for use with a Into the Wyrd & Wild type of woodland where it is notably your antagonist. Much like drinking from a well in a dungeon rather than from your canteen, risks should be plentiful. I’d likely use these sorts of rulings in my inevitable Dolmenwood campaign for use when starting fire in places like the Domain of the Nag-Lord or the Fever Marshes. 

Knave's Guide to Eberron: Familiars

I absolutely forgot to put these in the document, so I’ll be putting them in here. Monsters too, shall show up at some point. Familiars are meant to be weird oddities, strange things you can use to your advantage but often attached in some way to spells or that would be too cumbersome to use all the time like a weapon proper.

They take up an Equipment Slot each and can be used once per day at your instruction directly, though many of their powers can be used in a latent capacity if one is clever enough to learn.

Robo-doggo is a monster, not a familiar, IMO TBH.

Bantam Fastieth

A small sauropod, with vicious teeth and patterns upon its snout that resemble a Halfling’s hunting mask. 

Boon: Clinging a Bantam Fastieth with both hands allows its user to jump twice their movement rate. Users feel awash with a spiritual power. 

Bound Element

A carved form, vaguely humanoid though abstract, sculpted around a bottle of Khyber dragonshard’s deep binding. Within swirls elemental motes.

Boon: Using a spell with a similar elemental quality as the bound element increases the damage by one dice degree when cast. The Bound Element can be thrown as a grenade.

Buzzing Gadfly

A colorful though disconcerting large insect of vaguely mechanical make, its tones are hard to acclimate to. 

Boon: It buzzes with strange rhythm, those who spend time to learn the buzzings can be alerted to specific types of creatures within 300’ of the owner. Its buzzing sounds pleasant if you let it drink blood.

Clockwork Scorpion

The workings of long lost empires in Xen’drik, a mechanical scorpion of black metal that moves in ancient rhythms.

Boon: If you have the scorpion on your person, when you are struck in melee combat you may allow the scorpion to inject poison into your enemy freely. You may put any sort of poison within it.

Crawling Clot

It lingers inside its host, expelled upon the slightest of pains. Like an expelled tumor of red, it throbs with sinister purpose.

Boon: You may enter a meditative state to see, hear, smell, and taste anything the crawling clot is able to sense. If you swallow the clot, you gain 1d3 hit points and may spit it out again freely in 24 hours.

Dragonmark Reflection

An abstract symbol, inverted and reversed from the true one displayed upon its master. It exists somewhere between the second dimension and the third, shimmering in the air when it can be perceived at all.

Boon: You may concentrate to display the mastery and benefits of aligning with your Dragonmarked House to those who look upon the reflection. (Yes, this is essentially just a holographic advertisement of your abilities and that’s potentially useful for trade purposes.)

Floating Implements

Magewright’s must often defend their workshops, those who do not possess the same touch will often find themselves attacked by the artificer’s latest projects.

Boon: You may use your floating implements to assist you in repairing the quality of an item. In the event that someone tries to touch or steal them, you may have the implements become a swirling mass of professional tools that have 6 HP, DEF 1 and deal 1d4 damage per turn until the thief flees. If defeated, it can be re-calibrated by a day of arcane work, blood, sweat, and toil.

Horror of Xoriat

A lingering foulness upon the world, a sentient polyp, a mass of flesh and teeth and timeless purpose. It whispers madness and tempts with power.

Boon: Playing host to a Horror of Xoriat makes you immune to the insanity of the foulspawn and their daelkyr masters, granting you a 2d6 damage defense when creatures try to manipulate your mind. It wants you to carve yourself with strange symbols though...

Lingering Nightmare

It hangs upon the head like a sullen depression, a black aura of broken promises and trauma to come. When in unison with its host, nightmares become reality.

Boon: This vestige of a quori grants you the ability to conjure an illusionary scene of a creature’s nightmares and deepest trauma, dealing 1d3 damage to you per turn you keep this activated. 

Living Infusion

Sculpted within the form of this homunculus is a jar of succulent red which sloshes with each awkward step. Beneath the creature is a stinger, or more accurately, a syringe.

Boon: With adequate instruction beforehand, the Living Infusion will inject its contents at your discretion during times of crisis, combat, or worst case scenario. You must, of course, place something within its vial. It becomes inert when empty. 

Saddle Squire

A locking saddle of leathers and metals, emblazoned with nationalistic patterns. It holds deep upon a mount and stabilizes its rider.

Boon: Riding upon a Saddle Squire makes the wearer nearly impossible to be dismounted by anything other than their own volition. 

Silver Lamp

This simple lantern, when lit by the pious, emits a flame that emulates the Silver Flame.

Boon: Casts light as a lamp, makes lycanthropes uncomfortable, makes Shifters unhappy, makes the pious feel as though you are truly chosen by the Flame. Rouses something in the zealous.

Tri-Gorgon Hammer

Powerful mauls, emblazoned with the Cannith emblem, a mark of the three-headed gorgon, emitting similar fumes when it temps at the ground.

Boon: Can be used to expel a petrifying gas in a 10 foot aura, that slows or hastens constructs, repairs items by a quality level, and chokes vermin. Usable once per day. Functions as a Quality 6 Warhammer if not expended.

Summoner Homunculus

An astrolabe in the form of a miniature man, whose movements swirl and churn with the cosmic movements of the spheres.

Boon: When properly observed, it will display the directions of nearby manifest zones and align itself to movements in the spheres. Can be used to determine the influence plane of outsiders.

Tinker Feyling

A petty sprite, a gremlin in truth, no large than a beetle and golden in color. It bloats itself on latent magical energy, and like a wasp, it regurgitates arcane sealant when it has had its feel.

Boon: Can repair damaged magical items, but makes them unusable for a number of days equal to the Quality level repaired. Can nullify another’s magical item for a combat, but makes it more potent when next used.

Tome Caddy

A somber lectern, its face a grotesque of sorts. It floats, always within reach but out of the way, hoping to be granted attention.

Boon: Tome Caddy’s can carry a spellbook for you, allowing you to cast from it while still using your hands for weapons, shields, wands, or spellshards. 

Warforged Faceplate

The face of a Warforged, derelict from the Forges or perhaps a pilfered trophy from the battlefield. It watches, unable to speak, its mind still very present.

Boon: Will attach to your face while you sleep, granting you clarity of all events that take place while you’re asleep and rousing you from slumber in the case of an enemy approaching. You may also yet dream the memories of the Warforged, which is invasive and strange but will prevent your mind from entering Dal Quor. 

Xen’Drik Bloodthorn Creeper

A red vine that swirls and constricts, one thorn into its host, and many more on the ready to be put into its prey. 

Boon: You take 1 point of permanent Constitution damage (until the creeper is removed), but all melee attacks you make against unarmored or bleeding enemies now heal you for 1 Hit Point per turn. 

Dolmenwood: Names & Family Foundings

I'm to be starting up a new Dolmenwood campaign shortly, and as such I felt to add some material to my character generation documents. What follows are some listing of surnames and family foundings, for use with some of the generator content for Henchmen found in Wormskin #7. There's more content to come (I've been working on some Level 9 Stronghold/Gift stuff, but that's taking quite a bit of time), so here's some stuff in the mean time for making human characters for the setting.

Names & Families

Not all family lines are created equal, and even those of prominent means can fall into languid ruin. Use the following tables to determine your family name, common or vaunted.

Roll a d20, on a roll of 11+ your family was once vaunted and held power. On a roll of 10 or less, your family is common, but ambition only might change their stars.

If the roll was even, the founder of your family line was a woman, and her surname is what you carry. If the roll was odd, the founder was a man, and you bare his surname.

Only those knowing deeply of bloodlines and titles can tell the distinction, and seldom is there power to be gained in this.

Common Surnames [Man d20]

1. Slangbunke

2. Hoggswaddle

3. Falconkrief

4. Toppleman

5. Silver

6. Swift

7. Rumcraven

8. Doggersea

9. Alderlash

10. Redlock

11. Lobspound

12. Motherall

13. Blaggbook

14. Ginswain

15. Tumultide

16. Muckworm

17. Skegwit

18. Woodsmen

19. Culpit

20. Saints-Day

Common Surnames [Woman d20]

1. Nacky

2. Pittock

3. Owl-in-Ivy

4. Pannamloaf

5. Trantum

6. Clovers

7. Pensioner

8. Quipcove

9. Redletter

10. Lockbonder

11. Hearshill

12. Ragrattler

13. Sacheverel

14. All-a-Gog

15. Dugdropper

16. Mackelmace

17. Elmsown

18. Bridecrown

19. Switchgoggle

20. Wappenswhid

Vaunted Surnames [Man]

1. Dorian

2. Grimmcleu

3. Seldomsythe

4. Keyeslake

5. Magelfylte

6. Gravefend

7. Abbesser

8. Tosham

9. Bugaroch

10. Carvelring

11. Erlenger

12. Highpipple

13. Gorm

14. Skwilhammer

15. Yetch

16. Quartis

17. Blackwood

18. Aiderwine

19. Wolf-in-Womb

20. Salamie

Vaunted Surnames [Woman]

1. Pursons

2. Faustoon

3. Cromlechter

4. Silvershear

5. Wapperwash

6. Scratch

7. Woomblette

8. Garfengeld

9. Eench

10. Hardwater

11. Sternholm

12. Breunbrokkle

13. Xantippe

14. Yaffleneck

15. Zedland

16. Bowernock

17. Leddlemont

18. Pastor-Prudence

19. Toddy

20. Karnality

Common, Family Founding [d12]

1. Your ancestor took care of their spouse after a bandit raid on the settlement almost saw them dead. They held bitterness to those marauders, long after age and circumstance would’ve seen their enemies dead.

2. Your ancestors worked the same trade, they drank together, and soon enough were betrothed. They never really loved one another, but they respected none more than the other.

3. Your ancestor married the sibling of their true love, who was lost in a botched exorcism which saw the family line forever blighted in the books of witch-finders. Long has this whim of cruel fate tarnished the family line.

4. Your ancestors were hated enemies, forced to cooperate in the face of a greater threat, which lead to friendship and eventually to love. In their dying days, they laughed at the hate which once clouded their hearts.

5. Your ancestors met at the burial of a mutual friend, and though the weight of loss always seemed to bedraggle them, they wrote many a letter about their scant happy years. They seemed happy towards the end, as if appreciating a cessation of miseries.

6. Your ancestor was a brute, a vicious creature of rough hand and cold heart. How their spouse survived them all those years is a matter of family lore which changes depending on who is asked. The most common theory is the spouse murdered your ancestor, for their own survival.

7. Your ancestors were friends since childhood, raised on the same wet nurse some have said. They had a penchant for mischief and greed which followed them well into adulthood, and though they died penniless; their ambitions were always of note. Perhaps as a cautionary tale.

8. Your ancestor started their bloodline on a whim, because they could, because they wanted to forge something greater than themselves. It didn’t matter what anyone else wanted, or how they felt. Your ancestor took what they wanted, and your family line is still harangued by those actions.

9. Your ancestors served the Church, and their buggery was a breach of conduct which nearly saw them excommunicated. A sermon on the nature of mercy and hospitality towards the injured and tired was a controversial choice for your ancestor to preach, but it saved them from the lash.

10. Your ancestor was a nearly divine fool, often nude, often drunk, often freezing to death in the streets. They met their partner on a cold winter evening, shared a warm wassailing cup of cider and mint; and things felt less foolish soon after that.

11. Your ancestor stole their spouse from the Elflands, or so the family claims. It’s why your line is comely and beautiful to gaze upon, but also why the lot of you are sorrowful and prone to wanderlust. The Faeries have their own thoughts on this, most of which are mocking.

12. Your ancestors fought in a grand territorial dispute, Only after they’d claimed some degree of supremacy over all others would they marry and make merry. They were eventually undone by their many enemies, but the family line lives on.

Vaunted, Family Founding [d12]

1. Your ancestor was a bon vivant, powerful of word and aflush with coin. They had many suitors, and many more lovers. It is unknown if your branch of the family were the true born or the bastard born, but few in your family are as kind and carefree as its founder.

2. Your ancestors fell into diabolism and hedonism. They were debauched, sadistic, and felt that no righteous hand could ever stop them. One in your line was fierce enough to put the rest to the torch, to claim their filthy lucre, and to rebuild a more chatse and humble kindred.

3. Your ancestor held an estate of antiquated stone, and in isolation found only madness. They would marry, first their spouse, then the children produced by that spouse. They would create a brood, malformed and sick of mind. In recent years, things have been...cleaner.

4. Your ancestors were heroes, champions of the realm who waged blade against wicked foes. The family estate changed hands many times over the years, but you still bare a set of colors which any noble of worth can recognize from the stories of old.

5. Your ancestors wagered with coin and mercenaries at a time of great need. It earned them further coin and the force of arms to protect it, as well as the enmity of the ruling nobles. Even now they plot against your family for deeds done in ages long past. They call you an upstart.

6. Your ancestry can be traced to the upper echelons of the Church, to bastards born of bishops and cardinals, redeemed in the eyes of martyrs, and left to found a family with indulgent coin and unearned comfort. Many in your family find it hard to hold faith as easily as they hold a coin.

7. Your ancestors waged war against the heralds of Hell and all those who would bend the knee to infernal powers. They fell into paranoia and infighting, dark pacts with lesser fiends in exchange for the means to defeat greater beings. Your estate is in ruins, your family scattered or corrupt, and a dark hate clouds your heart at the worst of times.

8. Your ancestor was a fetch, a mock, a changeling; and you were born from its lines. It is a family secret, learned upon the passage into adulthood. You are a servant of an Elfland lord, a slave despite the wealth festooned about you. Your free will is your own, though it does not often feel that way.

9. Your ancestors were explorers, adventurers, and looters. Your family estate was built on the wealth pilfered from tombs raided and people’s plundered. You are in many ways devoid a sense of family identity that is not built upon conquest and the extortion of others.

10. Your ancestor was related to royalty, and though their claim was distant then and distant further still now, it saw them reason to hide among the common man. Your estates were never lavish, though they were comfortable. Your family line and colors appear more in ancient scholarly works than upon any banners.

11. Your ancestor was made to bed a progeny of the Goatlords, so as to secure an alliance of power between your factions. Every so often one in your line is born Goatish, and this is a mark of shame in these modern times. The Goatmen still acknowledge your house colors, for sake of hospitality between your people.

12. Your ancestors were scholars, aides to true nobility, and gained their name and power from noted discoveries at the start of now prominent crafts. They were skilled in their craft and skilled further in their studies. You know their penmanship, and those of their students, from countless hours spent reading their works as a child.

State of the Goblet - October 2017

Just a small update, as things are actually happening. I'm working on a Horror game which I hope to have finished tonight and properly laid out shortly thereafter.

Firstly, the second Chromatic Soup is done. Grab it here! Its a nice slice of Americana goodness, hobos, demons who fell up to earth, and floral hellscapes.

The Wildwood Manuscripts are nearing completion. The goal is to do a zine proper, cover a region, and then cover that region through various seasons of change and threat pack/module based incidents. But first things first is to make a gameable material product, which is what the first issue will be.

Part I: Eight Classes, 200 spells (all designed without levels), Random Generators for Class-Specific Gear, and Class Specific Rumors. Basic rulings spelled out in two pages, this is an OSR game with ascending AC (base 10) and d6-based (Number-in-6) Skills.

Part II: Random Generators for Shoddy, Exquisite, and Mundane Arms, Equipment, and Armour. So each character can have a bit of style to them beyond just "short sword." Plenty of fluff to it, but I think that's useful.

Part III: Given the WWMs are inspired by Beyond the Wall's choice of rulings (on some level, there's some LotFP in there) it felt only right to do some Adventure Party Generators for how you all know one another or have met in the past. Generators are for: The Mercenary Outfit, the Expedition, the Pilgrims, and the Deserters. Different classes have some specific options of fluff to choose. Used to generate starting hirelings/henchmen, and rumors the party knows.

Part IV: The Journey. Finalized "Wanderlust" rules from my first post on the blog, with random generic encounters for each of the roles. This took a bunch of effort to write. It was very tiring to do so. I think it'll be fun to have the encounters/incidents, even if you don't run with the system.

It is long at the moment, it might be trimmed a little. Not much setting to it beyond implications in the classes, but that's sort of the point. Ultimately even if folks don't like my choice of rulings, I hope they can at least use the rulings.

Working with an illustrator on it too. Art order for: the Eight Classes, Weapons, and Armor.
Maybe some spot art if need be. We're trying to cultivate an aesthetic for this, while not making it so colorful that none can afford it being printed.

That being said, may as well be lavish if I can.

I want this out by Late November at the latest. Its about 75% done text-wise, just a matter of making sure it all vibes well and has a semblance of balance. I hate writing spells, but they're important enough.

Depending on how dead I am at that point, it'll likely be a quarterly thing.

Should have a few more things for the blog shortly, but I'm busy at the moment. I'll also be participating in this year's Santicore. Should be fun.

- Brian.