@drevrpg Maybe there's a region that's somehow attractive to live in (fertile land or something), but periodically clouds of heavy toxic gas roll through. People have built tall homes to wait out the ground-hugging fumes. Over the past 50 years the clouds have become thicker, necessitating taller and taller buildings. Maybe the players can get to the bottom of WHY it's been getting worse and correct it.
I got Amaya in 2005, she is now a 19 year old cat and was Jennell’s kitty. Amaya is barely eating and showing her age. I’m letting Amaya enjoy the outdoors for her final days. Good kitty
@burgerbecky did Amaya get outdoor time in her younger days, or is this a new experience for her? Either way, it's nice to see her exhibiting that classic cat curiosity
#dnd#ttrpg#osr folks: I'm looking for a good supply of maps that would work for a long-forgotten city in a steaming jungle. I really just want the maps - I can make a normal dungeon map myself, but I'm less confident in above-ground ruined cities.
Any suggestions? I'm looking at Ruins of Adventure and Dwellers of the Forbidden City (gonna grab the pdfs online) but if you can think of anything that fits the bill please let me know!
Oh damn, I have just had a REVELATION regarding my West Marches game. I felt like there was a gap I could not figure out how to fill in the setting that justified more dungeon-crawling and danger. By gum, I've got it!! Something that lets me pepper the map with dungeon-like stuff that I had not considered before, and another genre of weird monsters.
@bwebster haha it's very setting specific so not widely applicable.
It's a 17th century piratey game. There's a whole lost merfolk city below the sea off the coast, and the waterways are teeming with fish-folk and weird human-animal hybrids, and stuff. But I felt like there wasn't a clear way for me to include dungeons.
I've realized that the old civilization likely interfaced with humans, and maybe humans had a twin city on the land. So that gives me something to build dungeons and stuff from.
@bwebster I'm thinking that there was a big falling out between the humans and the merfolk, and that's part of why both cities fell to ruin and obscurity. So now I get to sort out how exactly they walloped each other with their weird ancient magics. What cursed people still wander the halls of that lost city?
Here’s a WRITING TIP for you, something simple but which catches many of us out: If you have a great/fun idea for your story, use it now.
Don’t save your ideas for some nebulous other story which you might write tomorrow. You’ll have more ideas, I promise. Instead, make this story the best it can be.
Go ahead and break your fiction’s status quo. Go a step further and upend your narrative. Don’t hoard the big idea – use it now.
@antonyjohnston it's also worth remembering that ideas can be revisited in future work. Many artists revisit themes, trying to capture different aspects of the subject.
Give those literature students of the future something to write essays about!
Soliciting more #westmarches advice! This time about NPCs.
My feeling is that West Marches games benefit from being outside of civilization and safety. Danger is the whole point. So it can be difficult to justify the existence of non-hostile NPCs in that setting without undermining the challenges upon which the whole format hinges.
However, I have played plenty of adventure games set in hostile worlds (WoW, BoTW/ToTK, Mad Max, etc) that have funny little NPCs. They work, but tend to feel very video-gamey: "help me do xyz and I'll toss you some coin."
How do you do it in your WM games?
Whenever I have any kind of sinus related illness like I do now (just a head cold, nothing serious) I am constantly haunted by the fantasy that I could use a drill or a needle or something to lance into my face in various places to relieve the pressure. I'll often just sit there in bed miming the procedure, hand on an invisible cordless drill, driving it into the spot where my nose meets the corner of my eye.
Brains are weird.
@nora The thoughts aren't intrusive enough to ever be at risk of winning, so to me they are just kinda neat to observe.
"What are you doing, brain? What are you gonna come up with next?"