Starships & Steel

Sci-Fi Dungeon Sticks

2024-01-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to the blog! 2024 is here and I'm done school, for now at least, leaving me more time to focus on gaming and my online presence! Near the end of 2023 the RPG Alliance held their annual convention, and I ran a couple of games: Vaesen online and Mothership in person. I had a great time running both and got to play some fun games.

Getting the game set-up at the convention.

Running Mothership in person prompted me to dig out my Ultimate Dungeon Terrain (check out how I built it!) and sci-fi scatter terrain so I could set up a few rooms on the fly if the players encountered the creatures lurking in the darkness of the derelict spacecraft. While I love the giant dungeon set-ups (both sci-fi and fantasy) I find them largely impractical, especially when it comes to traveling to and from a convention. Another aspect of many large dungeon set-ups I dislike are full-height walls. I find they make it hard for the players to see their miniatures and in the end, while looking cool, they just get in the way.

The sci-fi UDT with scatter terrain.

Of course, one solution is the 2.5d dungeon tile giving a hint of a wall without actually being a wall. This does not work that well with UDT-type setups. The solution to this is to use modular low or half-height walls, such as "Dungeon Sticks". Given the options I have stated so far it should come as no surprise that this is the method I employ. Digging out sci-fi terrain I haven't used since before the pandemic reminded me of a project I had worked on for an ALIEN game I ran: Sci-Fi dungeon sticks. Looking around I saw a few ideas (Check out this collection on Thingiverse) for this but I didn't love any of them, so I did what any self-respecting terrain-making GM would do, I designed my own solution.

Some new freshly printed scatter terrain for the game.

When I started this project I had a few ideas in mind. I wanted to leverage the 3d printer (Elegoo Mars), I wanted cool walls and I didn't want to print full-length walls to save on resin.

My solution was to print small end pieces that I could slot foam core into. I would then do some simple textures on the foam core and paint them up all the same. This ended up having two main advantages. The first was using less resin, and the second was to allow the walls to come apart for storage and transportation. Since I had the original STLs stored on an old computer I didn't have access to I had to redesign the STL, and at the same time, I created one that would accept straws as wall piping.

One of the 3d models for half-height walls.

I've made the basic stl files I used available on thingiverse if you are interested in trying these yourself.

One of the piping walls in action!

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ORBITAL DECAY: Mothershp 1e

2023-09-15T08:11:00.011-07:00

An original one shot with Mothership 1e, to be run at the RPG Alliance Convention in November 2023.

YouTube Trailer

The Known Galaxy

SECC AMBITION

Year Zero Engine: Twilight 2000: Success rates.

2022-11-21T06:53:00.004-08:00

I am almost certain there is some magical statistical way to figure this out, but although I have some knowledge of stats, I don't have that much. I do however have enough knowledge to write a simple script to generate a LOT of random numbers. So that is what I did.

The script rolled each die 100,000 times and assigned success based on a roll of 6+ on either die.

==========D6==============

d6 & d0

Success Rate: 16%

d6 & d6

Success Rate: 30%

d6 & d8

Success Rate: 47%

d6 & d10

Success Rate: 58%

d6 & d12

Success Rate: 65%

==========D8==============

d8 & d0

Success Rate: 37%

d8 & d6

Success Rate: 47%

d8 & d8

Success Rate: 61%

d8 & d10

Success Rate: 68%

d8 & d12

Success Rate: 73%

==========D10==============

d10 & d0

Success Rate: 49%

d10 & d6

Success Rate: 58%

d10 & d8

Success Rate: 68%

d10 & d10

Success Rate: 75%

d10 & d12

Success Rate: 79%

==========D12==============

d12 & d0

Success Rate: 57%

d12 & d6

Success Rate: 65%

d12 & d8

Success Rate: 73%

d12 & d10

Success Rate: 79%

d12 & d12

Success Rate: 82%

If you liked this article then don't forget to subscribe to get the next exciting installment on pulp gaming both Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

If you have questions or comments don't forget to hit me up on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube or Instagram!
Make sure you don't miss a single post and subscribe by e-mail today!

If you need to check out any of these great games stop on by DriveThruRPG and pick something up through my affiliate link to help support the blog!

Until next time! Don't forget to KEEP IT WEIRD!

Dragonbane: Quickstart

2022-10-25T13:35:00.004-07:00

Join us as a group of adventures seeking a great treasure within the ancient Riddermound!

Will you play a wolfkin, a halfling or, an elf... MAYBE a duck!? Choose from 1 of 5 pre-generated characters (first come first serve!) and join me on roll20 to experience the next edition of this RPG!

Quickstart adventure using pre-gens for the 2022 RPG Alliance convention

Check back for more info!

The Hunt: RPG Alliance 2022

2022-10-01T11:47:00.005-07:00

As the longship made its way up the narrow channel, darkness began to descend around the battle-weary crew. The Vanir knew it was time to take the ship to shore and make camp, for the river was treacherous at night. In a few moments, the ship was secured, tied securely to a large tree, and the men had set to making camp.

Before the total darkness of night, a small band of the Vanir set off to find some game for the fire. Into the dusk, these warriors went searching for rabbits or perhaps even a deer. After the hunt, the group made their way back to the camp looking forward to a warm fire and a belly full of mead. As they made their way back to the tents, all was silent. There was no laughter. There was no light cast by a warming fire...

You will be that small group of Vanir set off to hunt, returning to a silent camp...

System: ICRPG Master Edition
Setting: The Hyborian Age, Nordheim.
Location: RPG ALLIANCE: DICKENS PUB!

Convention Link: https://tabletop.events/conventions/rpg-alliance-nov-19-20-2022/schedule/4

ICRPG is a rules-light, quick-to-learn and play d20-based system. We will spend the first 10-15 minutes generating a unique Vanir warrior for you, and then you and your hunters will start deep in the forest tracking a deer, allowing you to get your heads around the mechanics before you return to your kin.

Never played ICRPG, NO PROBLEM.
Never played an RPG? NO PROBLEM.

Conan 2d20 : On The Grid

2022-08-29T04:01:00.012-07:00

Conan 2d20 on the Grid

Introduction

Without a doubt I have spent a good amount of time discussing zones and ways to get them to work easily within the context of a miniatures based game of Conan 2d20. It is no secret I am a fan of the zone idea, liking how it places the game somewhere between theatre of the mind and the tactical battlemap. The closest I have come to this alternate set of rules was back in August, 2018 with this idea around rulers for zone combat. Rulers can work well, and lots of people are proponents of them, still they do add another bit to have to deal with and locate when a move occurs.

There can be times during a battle where the zone idea can be a little confusing, players may not know exactly where they are in relation to the enemy and might feel like things are on the unfair side. If the GM handles things less than diplomatically it can make the table less fun to play at. I had this occur recently at my table, and so I was keen to find ways to fix it. Since I had been playing a lot of 5e, the grid jumped out as a possibility. At present the following rules have been tested once in game play and they worked well enough. We have not yet tested area effect, but we discussed it after the game, and my players thought it might be on the large side, so that might be something to keep in mind.

Conan on the Grid: The Rules, v0.5

The abstract nature of zones fits a nice niche between theatre of the mind and the tactical grid-based combat of many games. Despite this, the grid aspect of many games is enjoyable and can make combat more tactical for some people. I have played both types of games and find that they both have their place. One of the benefits of grids over zones is knowing exactly where your character is. Having a miniature on a zone-based map can, at times, lead to confusion. Conan as written is a zone-based game. Within a turn, a player may make a standard action, a minor action, and many free actions. All three of these have a movement type associated with them, but a player can only use one of the movement types in a given turn.

Movement

Using a base of 30’, stolen from 5e, all players in Conan will move this base level. The adjust action, in my mind, exists to allow characters to interact with items in the same zone due to the positional abstraction inherent in zones. With this system removing positional abstraction, it also removes the adjust move action. A minor action is a move represented by a move at 30’ (or the character’s base movement) (Move) A standard action is a move represented by a move up to 60’ (or 2x the character’s base movement), this increases the difficulty of all skill tests this round by 1 (this does not affect the defend reaction) (Sprint)

Splitting Movement

A minor action allows you to move up to your base movement, usually 30’. If you move part of that distance and then complete a standard action, you can continue to use the remainder of your movement, however, all movement rules still apply. Ie if you move into combat, leaving combat will trigger a retaliate action, unless withdraw action is used, as a free action.

Optional Fast Movement

Every 2 points of focus in Move (for NPCs) or Acrobatics (for PCs) grant an additional 5’ of movement. A character with an acrobatics of 4 could move up to 40’ as an adjust action, 40’ as a regular move, and 40’ to 80’ as a sprint action.

Difficult Terrain

Difficult terrain will count as double movement for each square it occupies, ie a 5’ square of difficult terrain costs 10’ of movement to move through it. Players can make athletics/acrobatics checks to avoid this penalty.

Range

Ranges will also be based on the same concepts of a basic move being 30’

Close range, ie within a zone, is closer than 30’
Medium Range ie the next zone over is 30’-60’
Long Range, ie 2 zones, is 60’-90’
Extreme Range, ie more than 2 zones, is 90’+

Shooting outside of your effective range class increases the difficulty by 1 for each class. Ie A close range shooting to medium range is +1 difficulty and +2 difficulty to long range.

Ranges for Mobs/Squads

When determining the range for mobs measure the range from the middle of the mob. If the mob is straddling two range bands, choose the further range.

The Diagonal

The easiest way to handle diagonals is to simply allow them as a 5’ move.

Melee Combat

In order to engage in melee, combat miniatures must be in adjacent squares, this can be adjacent orthogonally or diagonally, this is known as base-to-base contact.

Withdraw

This is a standard move action, a character can move up to their base move when using this as their standard action. If the side withdrawing outnumbers their opponents this can be completed as a free action.

Protect Reaction

To use the protect reaction, the character using it must be adjacent to who they are attempting to defend.

Retaliate Reaction

This is triggered when a PC or NPC moves out of base-to-base contact without using a withdraw action.

Mobs and Squads

As members of the mob/squad are eliminated the back ranks will move to fill the front ranks. The mob or squad cannot leave base-to-base contact with their attacker as a result of the loss of members. Each member of the squad occupies 5’.

Interpose

In order for a mob to interpose themselves, they must be in base-to-base contact with the target of the original attack.

Flanking (optional)

If two or more opponents are attacking with at least 5’ between them, they can each re-roll one of their melee dice for free, the second roll stands.

Areas of Effect

Weapons that normally affect an entire zone now affect a 30’x30’ square. Complications on the roll cause it to drift in a random direction (1d8) 1d6*5’

Forbidden Lands: Character Creation

2022-02-18T09:27:00.003-08:00

I wanted to put together a character creation walkthrough to help people build their Forbidden Lands Characters. The process is pretty straightforward, but as with all things, there are always questions about how things are actually done. In general the process involves 12 steps, but I am going to add a step 0.

Step 0: Get an idea of your character

It is always helpful to have an idea of the kind of character you want to play. A muscular barbarian with a long sword? A swift forest scout? A wrinkly old wizard with a grey beard?

Of course there are times going the random route and having a character appear in your mind is fun as well. The basic Forbidden Lands book doesn't have a life path system, but the Legends and Adventurers book does allow for a random life path creation system.

Step 1: Who are your people, pick your Kin.

Pretty basic decision here, have a look through the book and choose your race. Elf? Wolfkin? Human?

Each of the carious Kin will have a few things to take note of.

Key Attribute
Kin Talent
Typical Professions
Typical Names

Step 2: What do you do, pick your profession:

Your kin has some typical professions that are the most common for your people, but you can pick any you want. Choose one that best fits your character concept. Like Kin your profession will give you a few things to take note of.

Key Attributes
Skills
Typical Nicknames

Your profession is also going to give you some more information about your character. Three of them will influence your role play of the character and the people they interact with. These are dealt with later in the character creation process in more detail. You are free to make up your own, or choose from the samples.

Pride - Step 7 of character creation
Dark Secret - Step 8 of character creation
Relationships - Step 9 of character creation

The final thing your profession will give you is your basic gear, starting gold and resources

Step 3: How long have you been around, how old are you.

You can pick one of three categories here, the actual number is less important. Although there is a table that can give you an idea of this.

Young
Adult
Old

Age will determine how many starting attribute and skill points you begin with.

Step 4: How strong and smart are you, what are your attributes.

You have four attributes to assign points to. Each attribute must have at least a score of 2 in it. The maximum you can place into a score is 4.

If you have an attribute defined as a key attribute from your kin or profession it can be elevated to a 5.

If you are of adult age and have 14 attribute points, you place 2 points into each of the 4 attributes leaving you with 6 points to elevate your scores.

Step 5: What do you know how to do, what are your skills.

Like attributes your age determines how many skill points you have. Unlike attributes these all start at 0. You can still make attempts to use them, you just gain no extra dice.

Any of the skills listed under your profession can have up to 3 points assigned, while the others can have a maximum of 1 point placed into them.

Step 6: Why are you a beautiful and unique snowflake, choose your talents.

You start with a number of talents.

Kin Talent
A profession talent of your choice (detailed in the Talents section)
A number of general talents, which is again dictated by your age.

Talents all have 3 ranks of ability in them, and you normally start with a rank of 1 in any talent you posses. You can however choose to give up a general talent to gain a rank 2 in another. This includes professional talents. You can use one of your general talents to achieve rank 2 in a magic talent, for example.

Step 7: PRIDE!

You have had a look at this, and perhaps chosen what your pride is, this section in the rules details how it is used mechanically

Step 8: What lies in your closet, the dark secret.

Again this is looked at previously, this section simply details how it works within the game

Step 9: Who are you to me, who am I to the, relationships matter.

Simply a quick short sentence about how you feel about the other members of the party to help guide interactions and role play

Step 10: It is a harsh world and you are a tool using kin, get your gear!

You had some gear listed under your profession, you start with that. If presented with a choice you are required to choose basic items. Nothing rare, nothing magical.

You are assumed to have a knapsack and waterkin.

You can use your starting coins to buy additional gear before the game starts.

Step 11: What do you look like, choose your appearance.

Pretty straightforward here. Choose how you look.

Step 12: What do they call you, choose your name?

Pick a name. There are samples provided for each kin, and nicknames for each profession. Choose one of these or make up your own.

Final thoughts.

With that you should have a character ready to go. I haven't dug deeply into talents, as each talent and its abilities gained with ranks are individual, but with the main book and this you should be able to create a basic character fairly easily.

If you liked this article then don't forget to subscribe to get the next exciting installment on pulp gaming both Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

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Help Thy Neighbor!

2021-11-06T07:37:00.005-07:00

During most 2d20 games you have ability to store momentum in a group pool, which maxes out at 6. From that pool your friends can pull points and spend them on effects that can help them in their quest for glory: buying extra dice on a skill check, doing more damage on an attack etc.

How momentum is spent is largely up to the players and GMs. The game certainly lists some ideas and uses for how you might spend it but really it is a measure of how well things are going for the players, and I have written several articles on how you might use that momentum, such as chaining attacks for cool narrative effects or re-enacting a common trope we see in Fantasy.

Conan of course already has assistance rules, but this is not that. This is inspired by such ideas as the "Master of Tactics" in 5e and 5e's Help action in general as well as adding a boost die to the net allied attack in Genesys. Still I think it would be cool to allow a specific spend of momentum that might be able to assist your allies.

This has yet to be play tested, so this is just a rough idea, but I feel it goes something like this.

MINOR ACTION

Tactical advantage: 1m. Give an ally within reach (same melee combat) 2 bonus d20s.

Well, that is the basic idea, just another way to get players to creatively spend the momentum. Ideally
the spend is incorporated with some minor description of how the advantage is gained, as that just makes it more fun for everyone!

If you liked this article then don't forget to subscribe to get the next exciting installment on pulp gaming both Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

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Make sure you don't miss a single post and subscribe by e-mail today!

If you need to check out any of these great games stop on by DriveThruRPG and pick something up through my affiliate link to help support the blog!

Until next time! Don't forget to KEEP IT WEIRD!

Calamity at House Ralto

2021-10-28T12:05:00.005-07:00

Two House Minors, Vondar and Ralto once stood as allies. That time has since past, now a bitter rivalry burns between them. Once the pharmaceutical industry of Ralto and the scientific equipment and engineers or Vondar created profit for both houses. As is the way of such things, the delicate balance of friendship can be tipped by the slightest flap of buttefly wings.

Since the announcement that House Harkonnen was to give up Arrakis to House Atreides, the politics of the Landsraad has begun to shift and change. Now House Ralto has begun to gain favor with some of the House Majors. The Marquis and Marchioness of Vondar has seen this as a dire turn for Their House and has sent emissaries to House Ralto in an attempt to gain favor with the house once more.

Knowing that an end of the rivalry, even at some cost to the house is better than the potential destruction of the house They have chosen an entourage, you, to carry Their words to the Baron and Baroness of Ralto...

Can you help ensure the continuation of your House?

Choose one of four agents: Bene Gesserit, Sword Master, Mentat or Suk Doctor and join us on a Spacing Guild heighliner to travel to the House Ralto to bring the will of your Marquis and Marchioness to House Ralto.

Conan 2d20: GRAPPLED!

2021-10-28T09:26:00.005-07:00

The blackness of the abomination rears up above you lashed out with inky blobs. Your shield barely defends against the horrific attack warding off any serious damage, despite this you find yourself hopelessly entangled in the things grip!

**WHAT DO YOU DO?**

Player: Umm. Can I try and break the tentacles from my friend so they can fight this round instead of having to break free?

GM: Ummmmmm. Not directly....the rules say you can assist their effort, or you could attack it and hopefully gain some momentum to allow them to roll better.....but no....there is no direct way to help....

Yes. This was an actual encounter in my groups last game. My response was correct as per the rules, yet it took a little direct agency away from the player. They couldn't directly lift a finger to help their friend. Sure they could have done a few things that might have lent some help to the player, is their attack ferociously struck into the abomination creating a momentarily opportunity to escape its grasp (Gain 1 momentum from the attack, grappled player uses that to create an opportunity to break free.

For the players though, it would have been *COOLER* if he could have directly assisted, directly attacked the thing with the express purpose to break his ally free.

If you go back a few posts I make mention of being too rigid in my decisions, too literal to the rules. Clearly this has not changed in the meantime. Since then I have come up with three different house rules that work within the existing game mechanics to help break someone free of a grapple when you are not the one being grappled.

Each of these are a skill roll and take a standard action and you could adopt one or more of these ideas to your game.

Idea 1: Spend Momentum to tear the character free.

1) Must be in reach of the player/creature
2) Grapple value is the difficulty of the grapple, ie the number of effects rolled.
3) Choose the skill - Melee or Athletics.
4) Roll - Reduce the grapple effect by 1 per Grapple Value, additional momentum can be spent as normal.

Idea 2: Tear your opponent free!

1) Must be in reach of the player/creature.
2) Grapple value is the difficulty of the grapple, ie the number of effects rolled.
3) Choose the skill - Melee or Athletics.
4) Roll - Succeed in the test to break the grapple, additional momentum can be spent as normal.

Idea 3: Strike your blow!

1) Must be in reach of the player/creature.
2) Grapple value is the difficulty of the grapple, ie the number of effects rolled.
3) Roll Melee & succeed.
4) Reduce grapple by each point of damage. Damage over and above is inflicted onto the enemy.

Looking forward to getting back around the table with everyone!

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Welcome to the RPG ALLIANCE Convention!

2021-10-24T10:07:00.002-07:00

Welcome to the RPG Alliance Convention! I am excited you found your way to my little space on the Internet. If you haven't played met me or played any games with me, I hope we cross paths soon! I am hosting an ICRPG Blood & Snow game this weekend (Nov 20 & 21st, 2021) and will be around the Gather Town platform to chat.

If you want to know a little bit more about me, jump on over to the ABOUT page and learn all there is to know!

If you are interested, I run a small bi-weekly newsletter highlighting what I found interesting over the last couple of weeks and also what I am working on. I generally try to include some art or rollable tables as a little fun inclusion for all my subscribers. It is totally free, just a way to keep in contact with everyone out there! You can check out the latest issue and subscribe by clicking!

I also offer a few odds and ends for purchase over on DriveThruRPG. Sale from those items allows me to keep picking up new rulesets and adding new ideas into my games as I strive to be a better GM and help my players tell the best and most exciting stories that they can. The largest series of items I sell are my terrain decks, you can check out the Corrupt Cliffs for free by subscribing to the newsletter.

You can also jump over to TeePublic and pick up some cool t-shirts or custom Starships & Steel Merchandise to support my creative endeavors as well, every little bit is appreciated!

Games I am running this year at the Convention

A few of the games I like.

Some podcasts of note

Where to find me on Social Media

Facebook

Twitter
Instagram

Have a great time at the convention and don't forget to KEEP IT WEIRD!

Wrath of the Shaman

2021-10-01T06:15:00.003-07:00

Your hunting party returns from the lowlands to find your village destroyed and the chieftain's son gone. Only smoking ruins remain...

Welcome to Blood & Snow, a stone age RPG setting for ICRPG Master Edition, with a twist! Welcome to Stone & Sorcery!

Join me as members of a stone age tribe in a twisted realm where men, dinosaurs and other unholy terrors roam the lands. Can you and your hunting party find the lost heir to your tribe and bring some semblance of order back to your world? ICRPG Master Edition from Runehammer is a rules light, intuitive d20 based system. So light that we will complete character generation and then begin our adventure!

What do you need to do if you want to play beyond signing up? Simply get an idea for your character. Do you want to be a fur clad caveman with a big club, all brawn and no brains? A slender intellectual type that knows the ways of nature? Perhaps an expert archer, that rained hunting mammoths?

Brand new to RPGs? Then this rules lite game might be for you! Come join us and tell a story!

This is largely a place holder that will have information about the game as it becomes available.

Conan 2d20, Character Attributes

2021-08-14T07:08:00.005-07:00

If you are used to rolling 3d6 or using a point buy system, as is common in many RPGs the approach Conan 2d20 takes to determining attributes is going to be a little different. I suspect that might even be why you are here; the entire process of character creation is much more narratively driven. As such it is a good idea to have an idea before starting, although the process of creation can easily create a well-rounded back story.

The process is straight forward, and I think it is described pretty well in the core book on pages 16 -18, still I see people being confused by it and I know I was one of those people.

Base attributes

All attributes start at 7.

Mandatory attributes

Characters are defined by attribute aspects are they strong and resolute or eagle-eyed? Characters get two of these aspects which can be chosen or rolled for. A character can have the same aspect twice. The table defining these are on page 17.

Once determined the aspects will define 4 attributes that are above the base of 7. If we are Strong and Resolute as well as Eagle-Eyed our attributes are brawn and willpower as well as awareness and coordination.

I think the confusion often comes from having doubled up attributes. The Brave aspect gives us agility and willpower. While the Dexterous aspect gives up us agility and coordination. Now our 4 attributes are: agility, agility, willpower, and coordination.

Now that we have 4 attributes, we determine which of these is the best and which of them is the worst. This is the best and worst of these 4, not all your attributes.

• Add 3 to your best.

• Add 1 to your worst.

• Add 2 to the other 2 attributes.

With our example of agility, agility, coordination, and willpower we can't make agility both the best and worst.

• Agility = best, +3

• Agility = +2

• Coordination = +2

• Will power = worst, +1

Optional attributes

Each aspect also defines 2 optional attributes, choose 1 for each aspect and add 1 to each of them. Brave defines brawn and coordination as optional attributes and dexterous defines them as brawn and willpower. So we can choose brawn twice since it is an optional choice for both aspects.

• Brawn = +1

Ancient bloodline

If an attribute is greater than 12 the character gains the ancient bloodline talent. This is described on page 17 of the core book as well as other supplements.

Max

Characters cannot exceed 14 in any attribute. This is the maximum they can have.

Additional Bonuses

· During the nature step characters gain an additional +1 to an attribute (page 35- 37)

· In the final step a player can increase an attribute by 2 or 2 attributes by 1. (Page 42)

Crom doesn't care, but I hope this helped!

And that is all there is to character attributes in Conan 2d20. Since it is a narrative process with descriptors around why things are chosen it allows you to gain a better feeling for the character you are creating. Alternatively it allows you to tie a character concept into the game mechanics in a simple manner as well.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

The Quest for Approachable Narrative Dice

2021-07-02T08:50:00.004-07:00

The Quest for Approachable Narrative Dice

I was introduced to the Genesys system a few years ago, and have since played it a few times with a GM who was experienced with the system. It took all the things I loved about 2d20 and added to them; success by measure, complications on successes, plus failure with benefit. Once you played the system the dice were pretty straightforward. Coming into the game for the first time? woah. Those dice were cryptic, can we just play D&D 5E?

Building ideas around how to make a simpler version of this idea rattles around in my brain from time to time, and it appears not only in my mind. Recently a friend replied to a post on Twitter, which made it clear that other people have it rattling around in their minds as well. How can we get all of the flavors of the Genesys system in an approachable system that can bolt onto a d20 game? How can we do it with basic dice?

Ideas on the issue

I think a lot of systems do *PART* of the Genesys narrative dice well. Generally, the part where we determine how well you succeeded: Savage Worlds with its raises, 2d20 with its momentum, AGE with its stunt dice, to name a few. 2d20 even allows for negative effects on successes. None that I have seen incorporate everything, and generally don't have any positive outcomes from failing, ie you are climbing a cliff, and you fail the roll, but in doing so make it easier for your party member to climb because you created a handhold as you dislodged a rock.

Further down in the Twitter thread this was suggested...

My ideas

My first thought was that it was an interesting idea, but it didn't scale. No matter how skilled or how easy or difficult the task was your narrative effects chances were exactly the same, but I thought it had a good idea behind it.

Keeping with that idea, what if we scaled the number of dice we are rollings? Add 1d6 to the pool for each of the stat bonuses? Subtract 1d6 for each step of 5 around the DC of 15, with a minimum roll of 2d6? In the end, I don't think that works particularly well either.

My next idea involved the first idea, but using multi-colored d6s. Start with 2 pools of d6s, one for skill, and one for the task. Each of these pools starts with 1d6 in them. Add 1 skill die to the pool for each stat bonus, ie +3 strength gives 3 good dice +1 in the pool for a total of 4 dice. Add 1 task die to the pool for each step above a DC of 5, ie a DC of 15 adds 2 task dice to the pool, for a total of 3 bad dice in the pool. When the d20 is rolled the d6 pool is rolled with the d20. Subtract task die total from skill die total. A positive total gives an advantage, a negative total yields a disadvantage. Going back to Jason's idea, we could incorporate double of either yielding a triumph or despair as well.

My final idea is essentially the same as my second idea. but with no math. It uses multi-colored fate dice. One pool for the task, and one pool for the skill. Compare the two dice rolls, A "+" in one pool can cancel out a "+" or two "-" in the other pool. 1 "-" dice face can cancel out 1/2 of a "+" face. Whichever pool has remaining value determines advantage or disadvantage. Finally, if there were 2 "+" dice faces n the original roll then we can add a triumph or despair to the roll, depending on the pool it was rolled on.

Let's test this out, and say we have a barbarian named Grunar trying to climb a snake tower. The GM rules that since they have a rope it will only be a DC 10 test. Grunar has a strength of 15 giving him a +2 to his athletics check.

Skill dice = 3. (2 from a strength of 15 + 1 for default)
Task dice = 2. (1 from a DC of 10 + 1 for default)

Roll 1
So we roll a d20 and 5 fate dice.

D20 roll: 14+2 = 16 = SUCCESS

Skill dice = _,+,+
Task dice = -,+

"+" from Task dice cancels out one skill dice "+".
"-" from Task dice cancels out 1/2 of the "+" from the Skill dice. Resulting in an advantage.

Additionally, since the Skill roll has 2 "+"s a Triumph is also generated.

Roll 2

D20 roll: 10+2 = 12 = FAILURE

Skill dice = _,_,_

Task dice = _,_
Straight failure.

Roll 3
D20 roll: 7+2 = 10 = FAILURE
Skill dice = -,_,_

Task dice = +,_
"-" from Skill dice cancels out half of the "+" from the Task dice. Resulting in a disadvantage.

Conclusion

I think this might be a good starting point but would definitely need some testing and tweaking. One of the other large parts of this puzzle would be to determine what exactly an advantage, disadvantage, triumph, and despair look like in your game. If you have thoughts on this or have implemented something similar in your game, drop a note below. I would love to hear your thoughts on the whole idea or what you have done.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

The Rescue of Gunnlief

2021-06-13T14:20:00.001-07:00

The following is a write up from a recent Conan 2d20 game I ran over roll20 for my local group. I hope you enjoy!

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Travel Interludes in Sword & Sorcery

2021-05-25T12:06:00.006-07:00

Welcome back to another exciting blog post! Today I want to share the first pass of my ideas behind travel interludes. Way less overhead than a hex crawl, way more story telling then waving your hands and bein at the end of the journey. This represents my first pass at the idea with no real testing.

After a quick chat this afternoon, something I was aware of but had completely forgotten, was that this system was inspired by Savage Worlds as well.

The Interlude

When characters travel from one location to another, a common question is often, “How do we resolve this?”. Is it a hex crawl? Do we just wave our hands and say it happens? Both of these are valid and have their place, but both have weaknesses as well.

If your adventure is not focused on the outdoors, and you just need to move the PCs from one city to another, hex crawls introduce too much time, energy and wasted narrative that isn’t part of the sword and sorcery tale you and your players are telling.

On the other hand, simply waving your hands and saying it happens and you are not in Tarantia solves the logistic aspects of the hex crawl but it also removes ALL of the narrative qualities of a trip.

This system is inspired by Sword & Sorcery films and a card mechanic that I first encountered created by Chris Hartigan, who took the idea from Savage Worlds and adopted it into his games. It was a system I enjoyed and went on to adopt and modify into my narrative terrain cards system. This is unsurprisingly a variation of that system. It will utilize a standard deck of 52 cards, as the original system used for a chase mechanic.

Phases

The first part of this system is to determine how many phases of the interlude exist? This answer is simply 1 phase per player. This system will require each player to tell a short tale of the adventure with the cards steering the direction it goes. The order the players go can be any that is desired.

If you know how the distance between the two points and the length it takes to travel between A and B, you can determine the time each phase actually takes, but it isn’t important to the overall system.

The Cards

As discussed above, the cards will denote the basic idea of the phase.

The suit will determine the overall classification, and the number how intense the encounter is.

Hearts - Interaction (Story teller, Bards, Village, Fortune Teller)

1982 Conan example - Witch/Subedei.

Diamond - Trade (Wandering sales, Hub city)

1982 Conan example - City with lizards on a stick, Zamora.

Clubs - Conflict

1982 Conan example - Dogs chasing him.

Spades - Environmental

examples - Storms, flash floods, earthquakes, tornado

Ie drawing a 10 of clubs would indicate that the party encountered some sort of major conflict along the way. What story makes up that conflict, even what that conflict was, is up to the player. These narrative phases will generally have no effect mechanically on the overall story.

Benefits of Travel (optional)

Players can come up with a sort of hook that might be helpful in the upcoming adventure. This should be a minor advantage gained under a specific set of circumstances. Since the players do not know what is coming up in the adventure it can be difficult to necessarily know what sort of advantage they might incur.

It should be sufficient for the players to specify they have found a piece of equipment or gained some information that might be useful later.

If you want the players to be more specific, you as the GM should be sure to present them with an opportunity to use it.

Some examples might be that the party encountered a wandering fortune teller who foretold them of some bad event. You could then allow the player to gain inspiration in 5e, or an extra die in Conan 2d20, when attempting to avoid something, ie an ambush, trap, etc.

Face Cards (optional)

If a face card is flipped up during the interlude you can provide the central player some sort of newly found equipment based on the story they tell. An example of this from the 1982 Conan might be Conan finding the burial chamber of the Atlantean king when being chased by the wild dogs. With this system he would have flipped a king of clubs, denoting a conflict, the dogs, and an upgrade, the sword.

The level of the equipment should be tailored to the face card pulled with Jacks being a very minor upgrade to the king being a major piece of equipment.

Conclusion

Overall the drive of this mechanism is to quickly move players from one end of the map to the other with out. Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Torch Hexflower

2021-05-08T15:48:00.005-07:00

Welcome back everyone! It has been a little while since I made a post here, but fear not I haven't forgotten about the blog or my readers! My morning blog time has been largely (completely) replaced with doing some more post secondary training!

A little while ago Matt Hayles, who I know through the local RPG community, was making posts about hex flowers. He in turn picked them up from Goblin's Henchman. Goblin's Henchman has an instruction cookbook on these things as a mechanic, which I haven't read, but you can grab a copy here!

Looking at the idea, I thought they looked fun and wanted to look into them deeper. At the same point I was working on a way to make torches more fun in my sword & sorcery games without it turning into a resource slog. At present I haven't actually attempted this as a mechanic, largely because I think it will work way better during an in person game.

The basic idea is when the players light a torch you place a marker in the middle of the hex flower, and as they progress through the dungeon they roll 2d6, each roll moves the marker through the flower. If the marker moves off the flower simply place it back on the other side of the flower.

The players get to watch and make the rolls seeing the torch staying lit or eventually going out. My hope is that it will make the torch a fun little mini game and add a little bit of tension to the torch.

Depending on the system you are playing you might even opt to let players re-roll if it is going badly for them. Perhaps in D&D 5e you could allow them to burn inspiration or an action to get a re-roll as they fight to keep the torch lit. In Conan 2d20 or other similar games you could use momentum or advantage to allow the players to influence the torch.

Either way I hope this idea will be useful or at least get those creative juices flowing!

Looking forward to getting back around the table with everyone!

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Conan 2d20 on Roll20: Custom Sheets

2020-12-15T15:18:00.011-08:00

NEW: Youtube Introduction to the Custom Sheet!

UPDATED: January 12, 2022.

- Fixed an issues with ranged damage being calculated with coordination instead of Awarness.

- Switched right and left soak on armor panel

- KNOWN BUG. Submitting a NULL value when spending gold causes an API crash.

Alright, if you follow me at all, anywhere on social media, you are likely aware I've been working on a Conan 2d20 sheet for Roll20. The sheet won't be available via the standard channel since it requires the API and there are already two free sheets available directly. For those of you who expressed interest and wanted something with a little more automation, I still wanted to make this available.

Requirements: Roll20 Pro Subscription. No way around it, the sheet uses the API extensively.

Set-up Requirements: Like most Conan games on Roll20 we will need a few roll tables.

CD for combat dice with the following entries: 1, 2, -, -, 1 + effect, 1+ effect.

HITLOC for hit locations with the following entries: Head, Torso, Right Arm, Left Arm, Right Leg, Left Leg. These entries need the following weights as well: 2,6,3,3,3,3.

Finally you will require a character named GMPANEL. This is the Doom pool. This is the player momentum pool. The Character sheet makes calls to the API using this object by name. It must be named this or the sheet will not work.

Basic Game Setup

Ok, now that we know what we need lets walk through the steps. I have a video detailing these steps here: VIDEO LINK

Copy and paste the HTML code into a game's custom sheet HTML.
Repeat this for the CSS code.
Save these.
Switch to your Game's API input and add a new script, I normally named it Conan.js
Copy and paste the API code here.
Save it.
Open the game and create the two roll tables
Create the GMPANEL character.
Open the GMPANEL, go to the character sheet and select the GMPANEL tab.
Click Initialize.

The GMPANEL

To make the panel more useful I generally create a token the represents the character and link the tokens bars to doom and momentum. I also allow the players to see the text on the bars and set the DOOM max to 1, so it always displays a bar with the numbers on showing doom.

Creating a character

!!IMPORTANT!! Anytime you create a new character you need to go to the GMPANEL on that character sheet and click initialize. This sets up the characters attributes so the API can call them when it needs to. If you do not do this, the API will likely attempt to get attributes that do not exist, resulting in a crash.

HELP

!help will bring up some basic help and a few API commands you will find useful as GM.

The Code:
I will update the dates on these as I make modifications and release new versions.

Last updated these on May 9, 2021. I inadvertently broke the combat dice without realizing it. That is fixed. Also noted the pay upkeep was not working properly due to sheet workers. Still has some issues. The main UI for the character sheet has been updated as well (I believe the last update had the original version)

HTML CODE: Updated January 12, 2022
CSS CODE: Updated January 12, 2022
API CODE: Updated January 12, 2022

Going forward the sheet can be found here: https://github.com/starshipsandsteel/Custom_2d20Sheet-roll20

If you open the code and simply copy and past it as is, it will mostly be fine, but I have found it will append a little snippet of code to the end of the copy and paste. This doesn't seem to affect the HTML and CSS, but it breaks the API. After you paste the API into the API window, scroll to the bottom and delete the bad part of the code.

All graphics are hosted on IMGUR.

And one final note. If you go looking through the code, you will most assuredly find references to things and classes that are no longer used or commented out. Some things need to get reimplemented still, others need to get removed. Code cleanup is the least fun part, and so the last thing I do...IF I do it. :)

If you have feedback or ideas of improvement, I would love to hear them, even if I don't use them.
Stay strong!

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through a proven methodology for fighting a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

John Carter of Mars for Roll20

2020-11-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to Starships and Steel!

It has been a little while since the last post, but I want to assure everyone that I am still here and I am still playing and creating my own personal RPG experiences. Most recently I ran a game of Conan 2d20 and a game of Vaesen at the RPG Alliance Convention (online) up here in Calgary. It was a solid weekend of gaming, playing in two other games.

I have never been a large fan of the original roll20 Conan sheet. Although functional I always felt it wasn't the best way to go about things, and that combined with its creation during the quickstart rules has directly lead to this John Carter project.

Moving forward to run a Conan 2d20 game for all experience levels I elected to write a new Conan sheet that ended up leveraging the Roll20 API. This means it is not exactly user friendly, but it is functional (It has not support for Alchemy or Sorcery at the moment) and I will most likely make it available in another format for Pro level Roll20 accounts.

After playing Conan 2d20 the sheet was tweaked and the result left me with, what I think is, a decent framework for 2d20. Of course in creating this sheet for John Carter I have ripped out all the API functionality, basically the sheet no longer tracks momentum and threat, leaving that to the players and GMs.

Without further pre-amble, below is the top-half of the roll20 sheet.

One of the largest modifications I made to the layout was to favor a sheet that scrolls down the page. During the convention game of Conan I hosted it was determined it was easier for the players to scroll up and down vs. left and right. The other largest change I made was simpler and larger button iconography.

As we go over the sheet I will explain it's basic functionality, what it does and what it doesn't do. We shall start at the top and work our way down the sheet, skipping the top player name box, as it is pretty self explanatory.

Repeating Fields

If you are new to Rol20, this is something that you will figure out, but I thought I would make a quick note about it. Below lists of items, such as Core Equipment, Weapons, Talents etc, you will see a plus and a lock.

Clicking the "PLUS" will allow your to add a new entry. I find that sometimes it has trouble accepting a value, if it does, just try again and it will take it, usually, on the second try. This is a roll20 quirk.

Clicking on the "LOCK" will unlock the table and allow you to sort or delete items from it. Clicking "LOCK" again will finalize and relock the table.

Stress & Afflictions

The stress panel is a fairly straight forward affair.

Max stress for each of the three tracks is calculated from the character's stat block.
The two attributes each one effects is listed below its name.
Each stress track has a unique color, this is handy to color code the 3 red circles above a roll20 icon for a character and link them appropriately left to right for simple reference.
Each track has 5 checkboxes below it to represent the various afflictions.
Finally the reset stress button resets all stress tracks to full.

The heart of the sheet: Attributes & Die Roller

This section is broken into two major sections. On the left is the attributes panel that allows a player to enter their character's attributes and on the right, the rolling interface. We will focus on the right. The top 3/4s allows us to choose the attributes, difficulty and dice, and the bottom 1/4 shows us the number of d20s we are rolling.

The first thing you do is click the check's difficulty. This number will populate below in the step 2 section, "> vs. difficulty".
Next we will pick our two attributes. Back over on the attributes side we will note there are two buttons an A and a B, click "A" next to your first attribute and "B" for your second. These will populate and update the Target Number and Focus values for the roll. Back to the difficulty line we see that after our base difficulty we have a box listed as "+ Harms (Max D5). This box will populate based on your afflictions and chosen stats. It may not show all afflictions, ie if you have a difficulty 3 check and have 3 afflictions, it will only show 2 of your afflictions and max out the test at D5.
Choose bonus dice. 4 options are available: Momentum (gem), Threat (skull and crossbones), Luck (gold coin), Other (Question mark). Clicking these will update the total dice we are rolling in the bottom 1/4. It will max out at 3. Below these is a "Reset Dice" button. This will clear out any dice you have picked from previous rolls and allow you to start again if you change your mind on how you are buying your dice.

One of the things to note, is that this doesn't actually track your Threat and Momentum, it simply reports what was used in the check roll so you and your players/GM can track it how you please.

Finally once everything is set, clicking roll dice will roll the requested check and output a result to the chat window.

Here we see Johnny has rolled a "Cunning + Might" test, using 2 threat. His difficulty was 1 and he got a total of 3 listed successes. NOTE: Since the result in Roll20 is highlighted you *MUST* hover over it to see the actual result. Complications and bonus successes are *NOT* added into the result.

This result is actually 5 total successes, giving Johnny 4 momentum.

Talents, Flaws and your Weapons.

The next two portions are pretty self explanatory as well.

Flaw gives you a simple place to store your characters flow.
Talents:

Name: Talent name
Grade: Talent grade
Circ: Circumstance when the talent becomes useful
Eff: The effect the talent has.
USE button: No real effect beyond reporting the talent to the chat box to allow others and yourself easier reading of the talent

Equipment:

Name: Equipment name.
Type: Core or non-core equipment.
Description: Description of what the item does.

Weapons:

Name: The weapon name.
Type & range: Melee, Near, Away, Threaten
Dmg: Base damage listed in Combat Dice.
Bonus Damage: Bonus dice to be added via momentum or other factors.
Roll Damage Button: Rolls damage for the weapon and reports it to chat
Notes: A place to store effects etc. Also reported with the weapon's damage roll.

For damage to work properly you will need to set up a roll table named "CD". with the following entries "1","2","-","-","1 + Effect","1 + Effect". This will allow the character sheet to roll appropriately and report the correct amount of base damage. You will still need to hover over the result to see any generated effects.

With this result we see it is 2 damage with 1 effect. The weapon's notes tell us it gains +1 fear on an effect.

Momentum, Renown, Allies and Luck

The final part of character sheet.

MOMENTUM: This is simply a place to record it. It is NOT automated in any way.
LUCK: Again, simply a record field. It is NOT automated in any way.
Renown: Currently simply a place to keep track of your renown, nothing it updated here at the moment.
Experience: A basic field to store you XP.
Allies: A basic place to store a list of your allies.

Final thoughts, Momentum and Threat.

This is the first half of the John Carter character sheet, "Character". A second sheet exists to allow the GM to record The Beasts of Barsoom. Players will have no reason to use that tab. I will try and get a blog post written about that sheet as well, but if you understand this sheet, that one will be no problem.

There are a few ways to track momentum.

The most common way I have seen is with a deck of cards, simply handing out the cards as PCs gain and lose momentum. This works, but I have found it to be slow.

Another way is to simply record it with a pencil and a piece of paper, which works ok for John Carter of Mars as players maintain their own momentum pool.

The method I am currently favoring is using custom token markers. Adding a marker set with 6 gems allows a PC to turn momentum on and off as they store it from turn to turn. This way is fast and simple.

No momentum

Custom Token Set, selecting Momentum

Assigned 3 momentum to be saved till next Turn

Without automation this provides a simply way for players and GMs to track momentum from turn to turn.

As for Threat, the Conan 2d20 sheet this is based on has a GM panel character sheet, which I will probably turn back on simply to give the GM a place to record doom and give them an easy way to report it back to the chat window so the PCs can have feedback on how much threat they have saved up.

Lacking that You can still create an Icon called "THREAT" and choose one of the status bars as your threat bar. Make it visible to players and allow them to see the text overlay. Finally always update the "Value" and "Max Value".

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through a proven methodology for fighting a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Tool Trunk Thursday: Gas Arrow

2020-10-01T04:37:00.004-07:00

Dog Brothers and Sword Sisters! Welcome back to another installment of Tool Trunk Thursday! I have been absent the last few weeks and so the Tool Trunk has remained firmly closed, but today we shall open it once again!

We have a local convention that will be running online this year so I have been madly prepping a Roll20 sheet to run Conan 2d20 at it. Yes Yes, I know there is already a Roll20 sheet. I just don't like it much.

Don't forget to grab your free narrative terrain deck! I have used them to add more challenges to my game beyond combat and to exercise my player's narrative muscles. I hope you like them and find them useful. I would love to hear what you think!

Gas Arrow

Arrows prepared with poison tips are fairly common, but these arrows are a little more interesting. They are prepared similarly to exploding arrows, but carry a payload of spores and other toxins that explode in a puff of toxic gas. As the GM you can have this simply act like a persistent 1 poison, or you could mark the zone as gasses, requiring a resistance roll to pass through without taking damage.

If you have questions or comments don't forget to hit me up on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Instagram!

Make sure you don't miss a single post and subscribe by e-mail today!

If you need to check out any of these great games stop on by DriveThruRPG and pick something up through my affiliate link to help support the blog!

Equipment icons are found on https://game-icons.net/ and are provided under CC BY 3.0.

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through a proven methodology for fighting a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Tool Trunk Thursday: Medicine

2020-08-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

BY CROM! It is Thursday again! Let us open this ancient trunk full of wonder and mystery and see what lies within its walls today!

Don't forget to grab your free narrative terrain deck! I have used them to add a little more skill challenge to my games and would love to hear what you think of the system!

Medicine

Designed to aid those who are injured, these concoctions are prepared by expert alchemists with some knowledge of healing. By taking various ingredients and combining them they are able to create a wide variety of effects, though the most common of these is to provide numbing and the removal of infection from an injured area. Make special note that these are not anti-toxins are antidotes.

If you have questions or comments don't forget to hit me up on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Instagram!

Tool Trunk Thursday: Sorcerous Symbol

2020-08-21T04:52:00.000-07:00

Busy days ahead for Starships & Steel! Which of course pushed the tool trunk back to Friday this week! But I did not forget! I hope everyone is doing well out there!

Don't forget to grab your free narrative terrain deck! I have used them to add a little more skill challenge to my games and would love to hear what you think of the system!

Sorcerous Symbol

These objects are sometimes very ancient, and other times gifts given by those that might bestow power, patrons from the beyond. Either way these objects allow a wielder of magic to more clearly focus the twisting of reality.

Using such an object is not without risk though. It could easily turn against the user causing burns or something worse ...

If you have questions or comments don't forget to hit me up on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Instagram!
Make sure you don't miss a single post and subscribe by e-mail today!

If you need to check out any of these great games stop on by DriveThruRPG and pick something up through my affiliate link to help support the blog!

Equipment icons are found on https://game-icons.net/ and are provided under CC BY 3.0.

Remember this isn't the end times, this is humanity working together to save as many lives as we can through a proven methodology for fighting a new virus. Stay Strong.

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Tool Trunk Thursday: Acid Flask

2020-08-13T04:44:00.002-07:00

Welcome back to all of the Dog Brothers and Sword Sisters that are stopping by to read these words, before we dive into the Tool Trunk I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for any comments that reach my ears.

NOW onto the Trunk, what strange concoction, tool or weapon will be unearth today?

Don't forget to grab your free narrative terrain deck! I have used them to add a little more skill challenge to my games and would love to hear what you think of the system!

The Acid Flask

This alchemical concoction is favored by rogues and thieves, but others can certainly find uses for it. It can be intensely satisfying to watch the thing that stands in your way, dissolve into nothing.

Tool Trunk Thursday: Moon Scorpion Husk

2020-08-06T04:50:00.003-07:00

By Mitra! Thursday is here again. Time moves ever forward, and so it has brought us another look into the tool trunk.

When I started these I thought I would just look over at game-icons.net and I would be able to find some random icon and from it make some new piece of equipment, and for the most part I have.

Many of them are inspired by my adventures in the Exiled lands of "Conan Exiles", and I suspect this is one is as well. I only suspect because, really, this actually originated in a dream. But I have been spending time around scorpions in Exiles, so I suspect that dream was inspired by the game.

Don't forget to grab your free narrative terrain deck! I have used them to add a little more skill challenge to my games and would love to hear what you think of the system!

Like the plants, the animals of the Hyborian Age, and those that came before it, often contain poisons compounds and venom that can be used for nefarious purposes. These scorpions are no different, and their ancient remains still contain a highly toxic venom that can be used to create a poison even deadlier than that of the black mushroom.

Tool Trunk Thursday: Black Mushroom

2020-07-30T07:21:00.002-07:00

Thursday again Conan fans! I hope you are having a good week and have something fun planned for the weekend. Out into the deep swamps of the Hyborian Age this week to see what kind of interesting plant life we can come across ...

The plants of the Hyborian Age are not that different than the plants of the modern world. Some of our mushrooms are delicacies and some are deadly if consumed. A cunning thief or alchemist might seek these out in a market or in the depths of a stygian swamp and use them for some nefarious purpose.