The Death Bat's 2025 Year in Review

2025 - Oh What a Long and Unpleasant Year

I have a confession to make, one which I think is a sentiment others might feel: when the world is going to hell in a handbasket, it can have a real impact on one's desire to enjoy simpler pleasures in life. Gaming, for example, requires a certain amount of personal time investment in both effort, thought and emotional commitment. It can be very hard to provide that level of commitment when Real World problems are sapping that time and energy away from you. So while this is not a blog where I write about all the other crap going on in the Real World, it is a blog where I try to focus exclusively on hobbies, interests and escapism...and this year was a challenging experience. I mean, I finally had to start assigning myself a quota on blog posts to force myself to write, because I could feel myself slipping away from these little entertainments in life. Hell, I got rid of my Saturday gaming night this year, because I simply didn't have enough energy left in me due to the interference of the Real World.

But luckily this is not a blog about the Real World, so lets talk about the noteworthy aspects of gaming in 2025:

Deathbat's Game of the Year for 2025: Starfinder 2E

Who knew....I really love this new edition of the game, and it is 100% compatibility with Pathfinder 2E. The new design and focus makes it a much easier and more accessible experience, and a real pleasure to GM. I am looking forward to running this one more than any other game (except maybe 13th Age 2E) in 2026.

The RPG I Played the Most in 2025: Pathfinder 2E

Close runner up is Mothership, followed by Tales of the Valiant and then there was that D&D 5.24 campaign I ran to give it a fair shake. 

Best New Sourcebooks in 2025: BRP Creatures, Monster Core 2 and Monster Vault 2

A three-way tie! Both Pathfinder's Monster Core 2 and Tales of the Valiant's Monster Vault 2 came out this year, and not a moment too soon. I love the updated stuff in the Monster Core 2, and I really love the Monster Vault 2, which is entirely new stuff, something I didn't think was possible given how many monster books Kobold Press has already come out with. Meanwhile there is the BRP Creatures book, which provides at long last a decade's long "most wanted" book for Basic Roleplaying, now providing enough content that a person could effectively replace their D&D life with BRP if they wanted to.

Best RPG I Didn't Get a Chance to Play in 2025: 13th Age 2nd Edition

I have only been able to read the PDFs, still waiting for physical books, but I am very much loving this mildly revamped new edition of one of my favorite D&D iterations, and it could not have come a moment too soon....I predict I will run a lot of 13th Age in 2026.

2025 PC Game of the Year: Deadzone Rogue

Look, there's not a lot to Deadzone Rogue, it's a FPS game about a dude on a derelict spaceship who has to solve the mystery of what's going on by shooting a million rogue robots and mutants. Every time he dies a computer recreates him and he starts over, but luckily carries his experience forward. It runs like a charm on every handheld I own which means its an essential game for my travel kit.

2025 PC Game I Played the Most: Tom Clancy's Division 2

Per my Steam metrics it turns out I have played this game a ton every single month. I did an entire second playthrough this year, in fact, and am working on the DLC expansions that came out. I like it, and similar to Deadzone Rogue it runs on all my handhelds like a charm (fair disclosure: I have not tried running it on the Xbox Rog Ally base model, but I may try it just to see; its surprising how well this device works with games, actually).

2025 Best Game I Played This Year That Was Not New: Little Nightmares I and II

Yeah, I tried them out on a lark and ended up loving them. Finally about to start the newest one. I understand purists don't like the new one as much since it not a continuation of I and II, but let's be honest, by the end of I (which II is a prequel to) left your little raincoat-clad survivor as Death Incarnate, so I am not sure where they'd have gone with an ending like that.... 

2025: The Year of the Next Generation of Handheld PCs

This year we got the Lenovo Legion Go S, the Xbox-themed Asus Rog Xbox Ally series, the Lenovo Legion Go 2, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and also I understand that all the usual suspects still pump out very nice high end (and high priced) handhelds, such as OneXplayer. Both of my Steam Decks suffered catastrophic failures this year, one of which was clearly a hard drive failure, and for my OLED model I am still trying to figure out what happened if it is recoverable. This motivated me to find replacements. First I sold my old Asus Rog Ally original model, then sold my Legion Go original model, which went to a good home. Then I snagged a SteamOS edition Lenovo Legion Go S with the Z1 Extreme chip, bought my wife an Asus ROG Ally X, and then as the year closed out I managed to get in succession (yes, I have a problem) a MSI Claw 8 AI+, Xbox Rog Ally base model, and a Lenovo Legion Go 2. After the Legion Go 2 I decided I was done for now; there was no purpose to getting the Xbox Rog Ally X model which was inferior to both the MSI Claw and the LeGo 2 (as the fans call it).

Oh yeah, and the family upgraded to the Switch 2 when it came out. My son uses it exclusively as a Pokemon device, but my wife plays a lot on it. I continue to enjoy Switch 2, even though I am not really a good Nintendo guy, but I concede....I really love the new Kirby games that came out on it. 

This may sound excessive....and it is. I could have stopped with the Legion Go S which does everything I want, but I really enjoy messing around with this handheld tech, and I know it goes back to my youth when I would dream about the idea that one day this level of gaming fidelity in a handheld model could ever exist. Seriously, I was thinking about how cool handheld devices were when I was ten or eleven years old, and I have owned pretty much every handheld device for gaming that ever came out in the following decades. It's an illness, I know.

I'll probably be writing more about my experiences with this new generation if Intel 7 and Z2 Extreme powered chips in January. 

2025: The Year of the Walled Tabletop Gaming Garden and the Collapse of D&D 5.24 as the One Game to Rule Them All

   This year really saw the division rise between gamers who play D&D 5E, and those who play D&D 5.24, Tales of the Valiant, Daggerheart, Pathfinder 2E, or "insert here." The end result of the WotC OGL kerfuffle from two years back has born much fruit, but gaming now feels a bit corralled. Of these different options I feel like Paizo is working hardest to keep their corner of the market, as if Kobold Press, while D&D 5.24 moves forward on the momentum of a fanbase that is divided in a way I haven't really seen since the 4E days, albeit with less vitriol....probably because 5.24 didn't really change enough to merit anger, but what it did change just feels pointless, unfun or stupid. The number of times I have read an argument about why 5.24's method of "all humanoids are represented by a generic set of NPC stat blocks" is just fine, actually, and the system doesn't have any depth in stat blocks so there is totally no difference between a thug or scout and an orc warrior or lizardfolk is totally normal; the argument for the fans is literally, "The game isn't deep enough, get over it." Meanwhile, an even slightly more thoughtful design on the game could have simply included the customization by species rules from the original 5E DMG and it would have solved everyone's problem here, even mine. Unfortunately almost all of the changes in 5.24 ultimately feel like this: poorly thought out, solving a nonexistent problem, or tackling the problem (if there was one) poorly. I suspect 2026 will see D&D collapse further, and I hope the Daggerheart guys, Paizo and Kobold Press are there to scoop more players up.

2025: If Tabletop was a Hot Mess, Computer Gaming was a Dumpster Fire

From Games as a Service models collapsing to Microsoft publicly trying to murder the Xbox Console in favor of their Game Pass subscription model, to developers taking flack for using AI tools in their development, while other developers use AI generated voices to replace voice actors, its just a hot mess. To be clear: AI (or rather, the programs such as LLMs which are coming out of generative designs) as a tool for programmers to use makes sense to me. But the thing that freaks people out the most is when it looks like AI is used to replace human creativity; because the only people who don't seem to recognize slop for what it is appear to be Big Tech. (EDIT: That's not fair to Big Tech, they know exactly what they are doing, which is theft; it's the tech bros who will argue that slop is fine actually and not theft.)

On top of all this, the rapid development of AI Data Centers are causing RAM shortages and price spikes, and making the prospect of affordable computers in 2026 look dim. Just in the last two months you can see prices spike, and I'm actually really happy I managed to both upgrade my own personal tech and do a ton of hardware upgrades at my place of business earlier in the year, before the prices went out of control. You can find cheap laptops and desktops now, sure, but those machines have specs that were embarrassing in 2019, let alone now. 

2025: Was a Year of All Time

It sure was. I'd like to think things will be better for 2026.....but yeah, I don't think it's going that way. I think 2026 will unfortunately be the year that makes us look back on 2025 and go "Wow, remember when all the stuff we were dealing with in 2025 was just silly stuff like dumb game issues, short sighted and malicious Big Tech decisions driven by accelerationist philosophies, corporate greed and cowardice, life in a kleptocracy and a never ending river of AI slop? Yeah those were great times."

Deathbat's Goals and Predictions for 2024

 Well the new year is here and along with it comes a slew of blogs and vlogs talking about new year predictions, goals and rampant, wild speculation. For my part of this, I am going to lump my post into a list of predictions and goals for myself:

Goal: run Mothership - easily achieved! I am starting the new campaign next Saturday (sesh zero was last Saturday, obstructed by work).

Prediction: D&D One will release but D&D Beyond will be in poor shape for an "early access" portal of online graphics-focused gaming - I actually think that we won't be anywhere close to seeing a properly ready product on D&D Beyond in the way most gamers imagine it will need to be. We're going to see a product that only hints at that demo WotC showed us, instead.

Goal: run Dragonbane - also easily achieved! I will plan to run this, probably on Saturday, after the Mothership campaign.

Prediction: Tales of the Valiant will arrive and be a big hit, may eat in to Pathfinder's market share but won't steal casuals from D&D. Much as I'd like to imagine it could, I don't see it happening. But I do believe that Kobold Press is well known for putting out good products, and that will garner attention within the more "core" RPGer crowd that may be seeking a D&D alternate. It's target of 5E compatibility will make it an easier sell.

Goal: run Traveller! Now that the newer release books are all in my hands I have a keen interest in building out a new Traveller campaign, and I might consider using The Great Rift set to do it. Probably a goal for later this year due to my interrupting the flow with Mothership in January.

Prediction: We will get D&D-like (what we used to call heartbreaker) fatigue in 2024 as numerous other D&D-inspired games finally release in response to the revamped D&D plus the post OGL kerfuffle. Examples include Tales of the Valiant, of course, and the second set of Pathfinder 2E revised book, but Shadowdark is a thing, as is a 2nd edition of 13th Age allegedly supposed to release some day, and there are a fair number of other D&D-based post-OGL products named last year which I recall as being scheduled for release this year.

Goal: Try to get at least 2 posts out every week this year on the blog. I'll try! It is a good writing exercise, this as always has been less about writing for an audience (yeah, may explain some posts lol) and more about writing for myself to keep my own interest engaged.

Prediction: We will not see a lot of new IP or gaming properties this year as the market is too knotted around D&D at the moment. Once the new D&D books and whatever happens with D&D Beyond finally drop, we will see a sag in the market for a bit, and possibly some waning interest over time, followed by maybe some more creative endeavours in 2025. This will be my "bold" prediction. Will see if it comes to pass next year.

Goal: pace myself. I am honestly getting older, so I keep reminding myself, and it can be hard to run two games a week these days while managing a business and family. I need to keep that in mind and not be shy about letting my gamer cohorts know that sometimes Wednesday or Saturday nights are just not good for gaming. Also, whenever possible, I need to foster more local IRL gaming because the VTT experience is just never really going to cut it for me. 

Okay, that's it for my gaming predictions and goals of 2024! I wish I had more of a non-D&D sort for predictions, but it's hard to come up with anything noteworthy. To that end:

--I could say "Chaosium will give up on Rivers of London" for example, but that's hardly a prediction and more just an observation that they backed a really esoteric IP (for the states, at least) and didn't do enough promotion. 

--Or I could speculate that we'll reach January 1 2025 and still be waiting for the third Esper Genesis book to arrive (I am going to call that one now), but that's mostly just a recognition that something on the business/publishing end of the publisher for that book series has gone very south and that I suspect the real reason that they haven't produced the book is lack of funds. 

--Likewise I could predict that Steve Jackson Games may announce a new edition of GURPS this year but I doubt it; I think the core developers/writers at SJ Games are too old and tired to take up the mantle of a new edition, and GURPS has languished in its own special corner of the cottage industry for so long that no new blood exists to come take up the task. 

--I could also predict 13th Age 2nd Edition won't see release this year, because they probably want to wait until well after D&D's next edition has saturated its way through the audience and generated a new group of expats for a different variant edition, but who really knows, Pelgrane Press publishes to the toot of its own horn. 

--I could also predict that Pathfinder, despite now having better, more organized and comprehensive books out, will flounder in the market due to the perceived buy-in being too high for most gamers, but it will still appeal to the subset of D&Ders who crave a bit more dynamic mechanical flair in their games. We'll see!

Anyway, Happy New Year!  

13th Age Escalated Edition is in the Works

 This is brief but exciting news: According to ENWorld.org, presumably posting from a Gen Con announcement, 13th Age Escalated will be a new edition of the 13th Age RPG from Pelgrane Press.

I really enjoyed my time with 13th Age....it had some specific issues (in fact I posted them on the Enworld site, won't reiterate them here), but the core chassis of the system and its freeform design was pure gold, both fun to play and designed to encourage improv style gaming which is very much in line with how I like to run and play RPGs. It took many of the best elements of 4th edition D&D's design approach that made for fun gaming and gave it a new home with a strong emphasis on smart Theater of the Mind encounter design....also another preferred approach of mine.

Just thinking about it makes me wonder why I get stuck so much running systems like Pathfinder 2E when I could, say, just run 13th Age more. 

The single biggest problem, I feel, is taking the deceptively simple icon mechanics, and retooling them into something that is a smart way of contributing to the dynamic story rather than (as it tended to become over many sessions of play) an unwelcome burden on the GM.

Too Many Campaign Worlds - Analyzing 20 Years of Campaigning in Various Editions of D&D and Pathfinder

 

I did a little number crunching last night, and while I have no doubt skewed this a bit I found it interesting to determine that my most used campaign world is Realms of Chirak, by a wide margin, over the last 20 or so years (a number picked because prior to 2001 there were only 2 campaign worlds and one game system: AD&D). Realms of Chirak has been the center of at least 21 significant campaigns since 2001, most of which were medium or long in length (meaning lasting 5-10 or up to 15+ levels in development, respectively, which is typically 6 months to a year of play or more). One campaign, now retired, made it all the way to level 27 in D&D 3.5 back in the day, and ran across multiple editions over a period of 14 years.

#2 is Lingusia, which as my original and most venerable campaigns has seen the most transformation and revivals, in that I have three timelines/epochs of play, and it rests squarely at about 11 campaigns in the last 20 years. At least one of those campaigns (Warlords of Lingusia) retroactively became non-canon after a change in the timeline instigated by the players.

#3 is Enzada, with 7 campaigns since roughly 2010. Unlike Chirak, which started in 1992 as a Runequest campaign that then migrated to AD&D 2E where it took off on a wild roller coaster ride, and unlike Lingusia which started in 1981 as my default AD&D world, Enzada was custom built to be the core setting for my Pathfinder 1E campaigns when that edition first came out. I rapidly expanded Pathfinder to the other worlds, too, but Enzada was exclusive to PF until D&D 5E arrived. I migrated it over to that system for a couple campaigns, but it just didn't feel right; Enzada's core theme is "nonwestern fantasy in all forms" and Pathfinder supported that much better than D&D 5E did.

The two new campaigns, of course, are The Ironvast/Selentar campaign (using 3.5 edition) and Oman'Hakat (for Pathfinder 2E). I am quite in to exploring these two worlds, though I have not done much to post anything on the blog (yet). The Ironvast/Selentar setting is a fantasy version of a world with a lot of mirror analogies to Earth in the fifth century AD. Oman'Hakat is an archaic fantasy world with a weird history and mythology that ties closely to Lingusia, and it's built squarely on a fantasy reinterpretation of the archaic area from the Late Bronze Age on down to the rise of Rome. Both worlds are fantasy analogs for these time periods so they are better considered derivative; I much prefer to run "fantasy, but themed with historical derivations" that you can spot if you squint closely, rather than "history, but tinged with fantasy." If I want to run an actual campaign in the archaic Late Bronze Age, I will run an actual campaign set in that timeline with as much historical authenticity as possible, using something like GURPS. But for both of these campaigns the idea is to create disguised fictional analogs of these timelines, then let the fantasy elements take hold and go wild. 

To some degree it may be hard for my players to keep track of all the campaigns I run. I even have some which were short runs and may never return (Pergerron, Irkalla, and Isomular are a few), or ones which I have not yet found a good way to represent by system (Sarvaelen, which never quite gets a proper trial run outside of a one shot here and there). This all probably matters more to me as GM than my players, because I will most benefit from the world which lets me springboard the best scenario and campaign ideas off of it, but my long time players do get quite invested in these worlds, especially The Big Three.

These days, with the proliferation of options, I have thought a bit about which campaigns are best suited to which game systems. With my experiment this year running a Chirak campaign using Cypher System with the Godforsaken sourcebook, I've found that it does allow for some interesting focus on flavor and details that could (in theory) get muddied with more conventional D&Disms. Likewise, I designed the current Selentar/Ironvast campaign specifically with D&D 3.5 in mind.....the idea is that literally anything that is part of conventional D&D lore should have a place somewhere within that game's cosmos; not all such D&Disms, by contrast, have made it in to Realms of Chirak. And my Keepers of Lingusia campaign will eternally suffer an identify crisis, being a world built on AD&D 1E blocks, a universe where dwarves rarely cast much magic, paladins are supposed to be human, and weird racial options are exceedingly uncommon. Yet....I only ran a couple campaigns in this world using 13th Age but you know what? It was kind of a really good fit. I only wish the Icon System of 13th Age was less exhausting (and gimmicky) to me as a GM. 

There's another thing I noticed while crunching the numbers on the last twenty years of campaigning. I found plenty of abandoned campaigns, which all fell into the following categories:

--Campaigns I wrote up but never actually ran

--Campaigns I started, but then immediately lost steam on (too soon from last campaign, the concept didn't seem to click after the first few sessions, I was experiencing GM fatigue, player attendance sucked, etc.)

--The campaign started and persisted, but player/GM issues led to its demise (I've had at least one campaign I'd like to restart one day which led to a group meltdown, mainly due to two players who did not really get along tanking it for the rest of us; I think enough time has passed now that I could rekindle that campaign once more)

--The campaign started but was aborted when something newer and shinier came along, or I realized I needed a break from that particular genre, but not until after firing up the campaign. Usually these quickly turned into short scenarios and wrapped quickly instead of withering on the vine.

By my count there are around 18 of these over the last 20 years, though likely there are more I simply don't remember due to their being so...well....unmemorable. Not all ideas are worth pursuing! 

Still, when I trawl through the thousands of pages and hundreds of files of notes I have on hand, I see some interesting gems pop out and I wonder to myself why I don't just go back and re-explore some of these aborted concepts. 

There was a great campaign I started that would explore the lands of the Xoxtocharit in Chirak, a land loosely inspired by a pulp version of Mayans, long serving as sideline villains in prior campaigns. The campaign itself was designed to focus on the actual region of the Xoxtocharit, and to explore what life was like in an extremely hard environment, dominated by priest-kings of demonic gods that treated life as cheap and expendable for their purposes. It would have been an interesting campaign, I think, but an unexpected (and rare) TPK left us interested in a new pursuit. All the material is there, though, just waiting for a better start to explore from a future group.

Another campaign, wrecked by inter-player issues (it ended up tanking an entire group and left me more than a little irritated with the two players in question) involved a complex plotline in Enzada exploring the mysteries of the so-called Star Gods and a stellar convergence of heavily Lovecraftian horror. It was sufficiently good that I still think about where it could have and should have gone, had not the players in question created so many issues that I shut it down and tried (briefly) to run something far more vanilla and plebian, before realizing the problem was irreconcilable and I simply stopped gaming with those two players. It's been a few years, I think I'd really like to take a shot at a reboot on that one now, maybe this time powered by Pathfinder 2E.

Anyway....just some thoughts for the week. Of the many systems used over the years, I do find it interesting that right now I find D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 2E the most captivating (for different reasons), and I am surprised to notice that I have sufficiently fond memories of 13th Age that I may be tempted to revisit that system again someday.

Ornamentation in Rules

After playing the latest D&D 3.5 game last night, I had a thought: games often require, maybe even demand something I would describe as ornamentation.

For some games, ornamentation is done by including specific elements which, if not really necessary, nonetheless create some of the game's unique flavor or style. An easy example of this is 13th Age, a game which functions just fine without it's Icon Mechanics, but because of the Icon Mechanics it makes 13th Age stand apart from other iterations of D20. 

If you aren't familiar with 13th Age, the Icon System provides for 12 distinct archetypal personalities who represent the major movers and shakers in the campaign world. These aren't gods, as such; they are literally iconic beings comparable in role to Sauron, Gandalf, Belgarion and the Wizard of Oz....they are prominent and important fantasy characters who define the world as much as anything, and are critical to the plot elements of the story in obscure and sometimes inscrutable ways. 

The Icon System  in 13th Age is designed to simulate these big movers and shakers behind the scene, giving a simple mechanic for GMs to introduce relationships with the Twelve iconic personalities to the player characters, and a way to determine if the influence is positive, negative or weird. It takes what is otherwise a "D&D 4.5" game system and makes it unique. But...you could remove the Icon system entirely and the game remains fully playable for the most part, suggesting to me that the Icon mechanic is essentially an ornament....you hang it on the core system to sparkle it up, and in theory could move the icon mechanic to another game.

Dungeon Crawl Classics has a bunch of ornaments hanging off of it. The patron system for wizards is key, providing a rather elaborate way to make spellcasting distinct from other D&D systems. It reminds me of some of the old magic ideas introduced in 3rd edition's Tome of Magic, but with a much more dramatic flare. You could in theory port it to other games with some work, too. That said....an item like the patron system is one of DCC's ornaments. It's distinct art style, designed to evoke memories of Erol Otus's drawings is also an ornament of DCC. Likewise with its choice of weird dice, funnel crawls for level zero gangs and other such features....DCC is full of ornamentation.

This got me to thinking about D&D 3rd edition and its ornamentation. At the time, its design feature was "unify and clean up AD&D 2E." But twenty years on, I sort of feel like taken as its own thing D&D 3/3.5 has some distinct ornamentation of its own. One which was artistically evident back then was its dungeonpunk design aesthetic....the art deliberately tried to depict what actual adventurers laden with gear might look like. 

More noteworthy, though, is what I call the "tactical minutiae," an element of design in which lots and lots of distinct little factors apply to modifying combat. An archer in D&D 3.5 has to worry about what feats he has, as they affect how effective he is in combat against opponents at range and engaged with allies. You can see a variety of modifiers stack up. Back in the day I'd have called this a legacy of D&D's origins as a wargame, and chalked it up to an elaborate combat mechanic. Today, I sort of feel like it's retroactively become an ornament of that edition. 

The relatively intense mechanics of tactical combat in 3rd edition led to simplified future editions, culminating in D&D 5E which eschews almost all of those old rules in favor of the most streamlined experience possible....it attempts the bare minimum to still feel like you have some tactics in combat without burdening the players with any more details than is minimally necessary. In 3rd edition however, going back to the system you realize suddenly just how much of this stuff is missing from the current edition, and how different the older system feels as a result in contrast. 

Last night's session evoked for me simultaneous moments of deep satisfaction and grim annoyance. We're suddenly worrying about things like -4 penalties for firing into melee and the group had to hide out for a couple days to heal and recover. These are worries that are built in to 3rd edition as a natural process, but were essentially expunged from later editions. The notion that any character might have wounds that require healing over more than a day is essentially anathema to D&D 5E and Pathfinder 2E.....but in 3rd edition this stuff matters again. 

This gets me to thinking that, barring the actual timeline of development, going backwards to choose an older edition like this (or AD&D, or B/X D&D) is a form of ornamentation. These older editions can literally hang off of their designs "mortal consequences and tactical rigor" as features now, not bugs like they were once considered. Sure, maybe D&D 5E is essentially the most popular edition ever because the current player base does not need or want "realistic" damage and tactical choices, but some portion of the player base (and plenty of old grognards) might. These older editions, once derided for their complexity and attempts at verisimilitude, now stand out for this offering, as current game design has essentially gone too far in removing such layers of detail from the experience. 

I can't say I am 100% excited about resuming D&D 3.5 as I understand that the minutiae of the process can slow things down, and must be enjoyed for its ornamental value as much as anything. Still, it is nice to play a game where players (and DMs) need to factor in the fact that players may bite off more than they can chew, and may need to plan for some hiatuses to recover at times. This changes the pace and feel of the game in a manner which current editions (even PF2E with its downtime rules) have trouble emulating. To some this might seem weird, but risk/reward factors in a game can actually make the players feel like higher stakes means greater personal investment. I'm not suggesting risk doesn't exist in current editions --it does-- but that risk is mitigated fairly rapidly, and it is rare to see 5E or PF2E characters nursing wounds for more than hour or two. I admit that from my own perspective as a DM it means I can't rely on certain story beats as I could in a system like, say, Call of Cthulhu in which surpassing adversity becomes a core component of the experience. As a player it readily explains why I have no interest in 5E as a player, preferring instead more baroque systems such as 3.5 or DCC.

Anyway....more random musings. I will get this nostalgia trip with D&D 3rd ediiton out of my system sooner or later, I promise!

On The Masks of Nyarlathotep and other Gigantic Campaigns

I am just now diving in to this, having picked it up --like-- an hour ago, but just wanted to comment that this is a monster of a tome. Like...huge. Two massive volumes of campaign plus a folio of what looks like more than a hundred glossy, full color hand outs and a custom Keeper's Screen.

I dream of running this campaign, but I also dream of having lots of free time, a prerequisite for the former, so who knows if I'll ever get to do more than read through it. Still, this is a really impressive looking tome, and some serious effort went in to making this the definitive edition of Masks of Nyarlathotep.

This seems to be a book that is part of a trend, though....is it just me, or is this an increasingly common thing? By thing, I mean the periodic and distinct manifestation of gigantic, immense, almost overwhelimgly large scenario books, featuring campaigns that test the memory of the GM, the attention span of the players, and the will of humanity to survive an experience longer than a Steven Erikson or Robert Jordan epic novel series.

Examples I have on my shelf include:

D&D's Waterdeep (Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage)

13th Age's Eyes of the Stone Thief

Traveller's Pirates of Drinax and The Great Rift

And now Call of Cthulhu's Masks of Nyarlathotep

I have others, but these all stand out by volume, weight, and sheer audacity.

So one thought I have is that some of this is a throwback to the old days of boxed campaign sets, but with the modern disposition toward excessive word count and minutiae in design. Where once a boxed set might have some handouts, maps, and three books usually of 32, 64 and maybe 96 or so pages, now we have multiple hard cover tomes and accessories, often totalling hundreds of dollars in cost. See Invisible Sun for a fine example.

Maybe some of this is spinning off from the dominion of board games? Board games often command significantly more money for a boxed set, then yet more for supplements....or maybe it's the manifestation of the Kickstarter, which often heaps a metric ton of additional goodies into the mix, leading to an escalation of content. Never mind that the books I list above were not purchased from Kickstarters, and I'm not even sure if they were Kickstarted....but it certainly could make sense.

In the end, I'm not really bitching (um, much), there remain plenty of shorter campaigns and modules for all such games. But....it's interesting seeing this trend toward expansive, elaborate and lengthy campaign scenario books, designed to take a great deal of time. I could argue that I wish I had the time to read and run these, but then I am reminded of an important fact: I have never really had this time to run such a monster of a module. Indeed, the last time I attempted (and even succeeded in doing so) was the much smaller and more focused (relatively speaking) Return to the Tomb of Horrors for AD&D 2nd edition, many many years ago.

The irony of this rant sounding like an old gamer complaining about new trends is not lost on me...ah well, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Five Genres That Game X Can Handle (But You Might Not Have Thought It Could)

There's a tradition among some gamers to find a game they like, then change it utterly and irrevocably. "This is the fantasy game I want...let me just modify the rules until my houserule index is longer than the rulebook." Or, "This is an amazing world and setting for fantasy, but I think these rules would be much more interesting if I modded it out for my dystopian future SF idea I have."

This list is not about that; it's about pointing out some games that actually provide a sound structure (without modification) for running some alternative genres that you wouldn't necessarily expect to see in the game's advertising. No rules changes necessary! No elaborate system hacks required. This list eschews game systems that traditionally brag about their multi-genre emulation. Here goes:

White Star is Actually a Really Good Mecha Anime Game

White Star Galaxy Edition isn't just a decent OSR space opera game. I turns out there are plenty of rules for giant mecha, their pilots, talking and transforming robots, plucky sidekicks, and any other number of genre tropes that you will find fit comfortably in your own emulation of Gundam, Armored Trooper Votoms or Robotech. White Star has you covered!

Traveller is a Perfect System for Lovecraftian Horror

Although you could cheat a bit by simply grabbing Cthonian Stars, which is an actual emulator for science fiction horror tainted by the mythos, the truth is that Traveller has all of the necessary bells and whistles to pull this off. Indeed, the fact that Traveller traditionally encourages an extra or customized statistic by race allows you to effortlessly add a Sanity score to your UPP without ay need to modify the mechanic. The rules for creating alien denizens are just another fancy way of creating terrifying flora and fauna in your mythos-tainted Travellerverse.

Call of Cthulhu is An Ideal Play-It-Straight Historical Emulator

Not only does Call of Cthulhu have nearly endless supplements focusing on different locales and time periods, it's designed to be a realistic game from the ground up, and there's a general agreement among most CoC Keepers that the best way to run the game is to "play it straight" for as long as possible before introducing the horror and ramping up the sanity meter. Indeed, if you want to simply eschew any real need for anything other than the horror of the human condition, in any time period you like, Call of Cthulhu has got you covered.

13th Age Is a Secret Super Hero RPG

The core conceit of 13th Age is "larger than life fantasy heroes who are at the center of the story," and it works exceedingly well. You could, with no actual mechanical changes, reskin the base classes and create a perfect emulator for super hero gaming. Seriously! Take a look and think about it. Weapons are less important in objective terms, but rather in effect terms. Abilities in the system are named but not defined beyond their mechanical relevance. The GM's side of the table is ridiculously easy. This might sort of break the rule up top about not changing the mechanics or setting, but if that's a concern, simply play the game straight from level 1 as a game about demigods (and simply remind the players to incorporate something about their demigod status in their One Unique Thing.) It handles this conceit remarkably well.

Zweihander is A Grim Historical Dark Ages Emulator

It is! And it's not even really a hidden trait if you read through the GM's advice in the book. Zweihander appears to be built not only to emulate the grim world of Warhammer fantasy (or a suitable clone), but to emulate the dark ages of Europe in it's most inglorious form. Even the core setting appears to be aimed at a sort of "alternate medieval Europe" which is even closer to the mark than the faux Europe of classic Warhammer. Using this as the core while riffing from a couple Medieval manuals and atlases seems almost trivial. How much (or how little) you want to involve supernatural elements is entirely up to your own taste.

That last one feels like a bit of a cheat, so here's a bonus suggestion:

Dungeons & Dragons 5E can do Post-Apocalypse Just Fine

Go read up on the advanced weapon tech options in the DMG, then look at each character class and modify their spell choices to reflect only spells of a psychic or potentially psychic nature. Only allow magic items and options which could reflect future tech interpreted through the superstitious view of primitive distant survivors, and either pick monsters of appropriately mutated nature, or reskin to your heart's desire....it's actually easier than it sounds. Or just play it straight and run a Swords of Shannara style future apocalypse in which magic is the source (or product) of the end times.

Extra Bonus: White Star is Star Wars In All But Name 

It's fairly obvious that White Star will work to serve as a Star Wars RPG emulator in a pinch; I'm considering the possibility of using it for exactly that purpose while I draw on the Star Wars RPGs for source material.

Death Bat's 2017 Year in Review and Gaming Plans for 2018

2017 In Review

Well, 2017 was a rough year for me for a lot of reasons, and I suffered from a lot of burn-out, I will admit. I have been growing tired of the standard level/class formula of D&D and it's myriad clones. I had some turmoil in gaming throughout the year which, without going in to detail, meant that fewer campaigns were completed with the consistency that I might have desired, and certain friends with whom I might otherwise have enjoyed gaming more with have fallen to the wayside for many and varied reasons. Sometimes, unfortunately, a person may be a great and interesting personality but that can also translate into deep frustration with how they function as a gamer....we'll just leave it like that.

The highlights of the year were getting much more involved with the D100/BRP systems, specifically a long running Call of Cthulhu campaign which remains ongoing, and a short stint with a Mesopotamian Adventures campaign using Mythras. Running Mythras again reminded me that in the end I prefer the simpler combat mechanics of other BRP games, but luckily I have a solution to continue that campaign in 2018: OpenQuest 2, which will be a ridiculously easy conversion thanks to it being built on the RQII OGL Mongoose put out years ago, which is the same framework from which Mythras springs.

I also ran a 13th Age campaign which also concluded in a spectacular and very satisfying manner, and in so doing convinced me very much that 13th Age will remain one of my eternal favorite systems. Ironically I did not feel class/level burnout while running 13th Age.

Also, Traveller this year was a lot of fun! Traveller has some weird limits in its implied universe and tech, and Mongoose failed to deliver on some pivotal supplements (the Companion, especially, or any alien books), but it's a robust system and with the core books out now (Rules, High Guard, Central Supply Catalog and Vehicle Handbook) I essentially have all I really need going forward.

I have, of course, run multiple D&D campaigns this year. But my drive on running these is, I admit, based more on familiarity and ease of the system than any special interest I have in the D&D-style fantasy genre right now. I just haven't felt as excited for my campaigns this year with D&D as I should be, and it's not because I lack interest in the game or worlds...it's just over-saturation, burn-out. I need to give it a break.

The weird dark horse experience of 2017 was Starfinder. By all rights I should not be bothering with this system anymore: it's full of the sort of anachronistic blend of fantasy and SF that drives me nuts, and dovetails nicely with other games such as Shadowrun and Rifts, games which I like in principle but don't run in fact because as a GM I personally have a hard time sustaining my suspension of disbelief when running them. But...damnit,  I keep thinking about Starfinder and what I can do with it. Even while being annoyed with the anachronisms and the Very Big Questions of how the frickin' universe functions while running my test games on Starfinder I was still enjoying it. Every time I finish working out a new idea for it I am reminded that I would, in fact, prefer exploring real SF....but Starfinder just has a demented, fun simplicity to it that I keep getting trapped by. Grrrrr.

Plans for 2018

So what's up for 2018? I'm going to try very hard to be more considerate of my own time and my players' by staying more focused and avoiding so much bouncing around. Some of this can be accomplished by actually....you know, playing games I have genuine interest in and not buying so many other games that end up as distractions. For 2018 this means the following:

More Call of Cthulhu

And lots of it. I want to continue the ongoing Weird Oregon Campaign, and then I want to tie that in to an old west campaign using Down Darker Trails, and maybe later in the year see if people are interested in a Cold War era campaign as well. All of them will relate to one another.

Mesopotamian Adventures powered by OpenQuest 2

I really like OQ2. It takes the strengths of the BRP/RQII systems and turns them in to a perfect package for gaming. I want to use this to continue the ancient Ubaid campaign I am running, set in Eridu around 3,100-2,900 BC which I feel has between 6-10 sessions of play left in it, and then expand from there if the group interest continues. If I find myself sufficiently enamored with OQ2 after that, then it may be the ideal solution to running my long-planned but often put off Pergerron campaign (a sort of high-fantasy ancient Mesopotamia), or maybe Sarvaelen (the dark fantasy setting).

Genesys Core 

I need to try this one out. It's a great system, very flexible, and it hits a lot of my requisite bells and whistles. Just not sure how, yet, to use it....but we will see!

More Traveller

Everyone in my group likes Traveller, and I have plenty of content ready. The only question is....where to fit it in?

Starfinder

Look, I am very confused about this game, but I admit I love it like I love fatty foods and sugary products that I am not allowed to eat. I don't think I'll get this monkey off my back until I actually run it with serious intent. If the group is willing, I will propose an actual Starfinder campaign, in some capacity, in 2018...probably doing a new location/universe, but one which still ties in to all the Pact World thematics to make compatibility with existing content easier.

Okay so the above all seem likely to happen right now, safe bets for sure. So how about the rest?

A New 13th Age Campaign

I'd really love to do another 10-15 session 13th Age story arc sometime this year. What world I'd set it in and other details remain up in the air, and it's sufficiently unplanned that it won't happen right away, but I think for what I need out of level/class style D&D systems right now 13th Age is it.

Less D&D

As much as I continue to love D&D, I've played it to death in it's many iterations for the last 36 years now and I think I need to give myself some sort of a break (barring 13th Age) in 2018. If I can actually stop running it entirely for a few months, it might help me to reinvigorate interest. I haven't really taken a break from running D&D weekly since like...um....1996 or so! Seriously. I think I went 3 months without a D&D game in 2005 as well. Dang, no wonder I feel burnt out.
(Three days in to the new year and it's already clear that this ain't gonna happen. D&D, I can't quit you! I just enjoy it too much.)

Cold & Dark Campaign

I am really eager to actually run this. Cold & Dark is exactly the sort of dark, horror-themed SF I love and the die-pool mechanic of the system sounds solid to me. I'll run this just as soon as I can convince my group to try it. Assuming I can find a spot to fit it in!

Wishlist: Symbaroum, Conan RPG, Adventures in Middle Earth

I'd love to play all three of the above, but finding the time to plot this out is the problem, never mind finding the time to actually play! For now I'll continue to collect and read each of these systems, but who knows, maybe inspiration will strike right when time is free in 2018. There are other games in this boat which I'd love to run, but it turns out I have a hard time "absorbing" 600-700 page rulebooks: Zweihander and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, I am looking at you! Both are "on the list" but damn, I actually think I'd have preferred if each of these tomes were broken up in to 2 or 3 volumes....the psychological impact of one massive book vs. three volumes is a terror to my brain.

That's it for now....everyone have a great New Year!

13th Age: Taltus, Lord of Kindess (The Holidays in Lingusia)

Taltus, Lord of Kindness (Cloud Giant Magician and Seraphim)

   Taltus is a kind of seraphim, a cloud giant magician who has a unique ability to shrink to human or even tiny size. He has been known along the coastlands of Octzel for generations now, as he seeks out the Celebration of the Winter Yule, in which men and women of the kingdom of Octzel celebrate a week of the arrival of winter with celebrations of gifts and merry-making. Grand figurines of of the goddess and god Enki and Amasyr are erected during this time, under which offerings are presented in honor of the chief god and goddess. On the seventh night of the celebration, a grand effigy of the goddess Mitra is raised and burned, while three men known as the Sons of Mitra dress as lumbering ogres and taunt the crowd, throwing coal out and chasing children with switches. That night, the celebration winds down, but not before the enigmatic Taltus arrives, leaving small bags of toys for children on the doorsteps of families' houses.

Rumors that Taltus is actually an illusory construct created by three forest gnomes are entirely unfounded. Further rumors that Taltus is a fallen seraphim who is quite mad are also largely unsubstantiated.

Taltus
"I'm keeping my list and I'm checking it twice....if you be naughty or you be nice, I will show you Taltus's Hammer of Light!"

7th level giant triple-strength boss

Initiative +14

Vulnerability: necrotic

Melee: Giant Hammer +12 vs AC; 84 damage (miss half damage)

Natural even hit or miss: Taltus can invoke the gift bringer action if he likes you (you are nice) or the slay bells action if he doesn't (you are naughty), to one target in sight range.

Ranged: Thrown Lighting Bolt +13 vs. PD against any target in sight range; 75 lighting damage (miss half damage)

16+ Attack that Hits: Taltus may throw another lighting bolt.

Gift Bringer (trigger: Giant Hammer, above) Taltus grants one nice ally a bonus as follows (Roll D12):

1-3 Gain double damage on the next attack you make

4-6 Recover one expended spell slot immediately

7-9 All hit points are restored immediately

10-11 Ally will gain true sight for 24 hours

12 ally becomes immune to one damage type for 24 hours

Slay Bells  (trigger: Giant Hammer, above)  Taltus grants one naughty enemy a penalty as follows, with a difficult save to avoid the effect (Roll D12):

1-3 foe must roll twice on the next action and take the lower roll (save 16+)

4-6 foe loses one ability as if it were expended to no effect immediately (save 16+)

7-9 foe is immediately reduced to 1 hit point (save 16+)

10-11 foe is blinded for 24 hours (save 16+)

12 enemy gains vulnerability to lightning for 24 hours

Ogre Killer Taltus gains +5 to any attack roll to hit against ogres.

Storm Bringer As an action Taltus can summon a thick cloud which obscures all vision (-2 to attacks) to all adjacent and nearby opponents. Does not affect his allies.

Cloud Walker Taltus can walk on any clouds he summons (or is present), to any height. Functions like the storm giant "skystep" ability otherwise.

AC 23, PD 20, MD 18, HP 340

Cool new stuff: 13th Age Bestiary 2, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2E, Symbaroum: The Witch Hammer and Conan RPG

A number of new games have started filling my "to be read" shelf. If you didn't know about the following, here's a head's up:

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2nd Edition

My print copy arrived last week, and after unpacking the monster I have to say it's a really impressive package. The original boxed set was very nice and retro, but this beast will hold it's own at the table, clocking in at an impressive 608 pages with a full color map insert. Everything you liked about the 1st edition --plus a lot more-- can be found within, but this time in a weighty tome that almost dwarfs Zweihander in size. Almost. I'm keeping the two together on the shelf right now, they make Hero System 6th look like a slim economy system when placed next to each other.

Symbaroum-Karvosti: The Witch Hammer

Symbaroum is a fascinating Swedish fantasy RPG in the vein of "simple rules, dark classic fantasy" with some impressive art and design. The second major campaign book is now out, and honestly, this is one of the few "packaged world setting" books I will likely run exactly as presented....one day, when I get around to it. Like the other tomes, this one is a mix of campaign setting content and modules, written in a sort of open-world style that I really enjoy.

If you're on the fence about Symbaroum, I'd liken it to a cross between Zweihander, Beyond the Wall, and Grim Dawn, but with better art design and a slick, modern system.

13th Age Bestiary 2

13th Age remains my favorite D&D alternative. When I am not running a D&D 5E campaign it is probably because I am running a 13th Age campaign. The new Bestiary 2 only enourages such campaigning because it is chock full of amazing monster adaptations and evocative ideas for your own games. Like the first Bestiary, but even cooler.

Conan: Adventures in an Age Undeamed Of RPG

I hardly feel like this one needs pimping, but now that I have a physical copy in hand and have had some time to explore it, I feel compelled to offer my support for a very well designed and researched RPG. Conan was my primary gateway in to fantasy fiction and gaming, right behind Tolkien, and evidence of Howard's (and Carter, de Camp, Nyberg, Wagner, etc.) influence in my own gaming and fiction preferences is obvious. I also (fair disclosure) wrote some books for the Mongoose edition....so seeing Modiphius make such a fine book is really fantastic, and I can't wait to give this iteration a spin.

I had a chance in 2005 to write for Mongoose. I did Tales of the Black Kingdoms, and the second and third books in the Messantia Adventures set. Some of my Black Kingdoms content somehow showed up in their Return to the Road of Kings release, too. Writing for Mongoose was an interesting experience.....but the  pay was not bad, honestly. Tales was commissioned based on a book idea I pitched (I was quite happy to dive in to it). Messantia Adventures was a request....the author dropped from the project (or moved to another) after writing book one, and so I was asked to write the system material (book 2) and adventure (book 3). It was....tough, I'll put it that way...as I hated what he had done in book 1 (it had little that I felt was distinctly genre-appropriate, and was not written to be engaging), and disliked what was required of book 2. Writing social combat rules that were instructed to be in volume 2 when I felt they were not appropriate for Conan as a genre was hard, but I had a lot of fun working up the adventure in book 3. The final boxed set had a great set of cards, some not bad art, but as I recall some map errors that only lamp-shaded the problems Mongoose had with product quality, errata and typos. Tales had issues too, albeit less so than Messantia....odd typos, some changes to the adventure I didn't really follow, but overall wasn't that bad. Plus it had one of the best covers in the line, I felt.

13th Age: The Death of Kalen Dan Hesperos (Lingusia in the Age of Strife)

Earlier this year I ran a reasonably long campaign that took a party of level 1 13th Age characters from 1st to 7th level. The initial story arc was as follows: escorting one of the PC's cousins, the knight Hesperos, to be buried after he was killed in a battle with trolls. Here's my very lightly cleaned-up main notes from that first story arc:

The Death of Kalen Dan Hesperos:

Opening Event: the group is part of a caravan that just arrived from the southern route to Dagger Falls in the city of Lancaster. The caravan has set up camp in the grounds outside the city when the Mihidir Trolls make a major strike! A Troll Warbrute is leading a charge to destroy the city gates….as the PCs seek to protect the caravan, the knight Kalen Dan Hesperos, who was negotiating a fair price for supplies with the Merchant Nesmith, asks them to aid him in fending off the attack. The city is more vulnerabile than usual as half the main garrison was sent east to investigate an attack on Baldric Castle. Most of the remaining garrison are fresh recruits from Octzel, assigned for a summer of drilling and general patrol duty. The trolls haven’t mounted any raids in nearly a year….

Encounter One: Lancaster, which is built defensively against a great wall along the mountain, is sieged by an army driven by the mihidir trolls, led by several massive trollish warbrutes…a 50 foot tall giant bred as a living siege engine. The trolls are led by the warmage Hanun-Daval, an ambitious mihidir warmage who seeks to destroy the human city and claim it for his people.

The PCs are pipsqueaks in this. They can run interference while Kalen Dan Hesperos tackles the warbrute. Hesperos will be picked up by his war griffon and start the attack, leaving the PCs to face a horde of mihidir shock troops:

Encounter #1:

1 Troll leader (troll, main book)

1 Mihidir Warmage

1^st level caster (humanoid, lesser giant)

Init +4

AC 17 PD 11 MD 15 HP 26

Black Bolt +6 ranged attack against up to 3 nearby targets, 2 necrotic damage per bolt

Claws +6 attack, 3 damage; on a 16+ target takes 6 damage from a rend

Dread Growth (5-6); pick one Mihidir grunt. The grunt grows to large size for the remainder of the combat, gaining 20 hit points and doubling its claw and rend damage, but discards its cleaver.

Trollish Regeneration 5: when damaged the mihidir warmage heals 5 damage at the start of its next turn. It has 5 regeneration tokens. It does not regenerate and loses a token if dealt fire or acid damage.

The mihidir war mage is a clever troll of the mihidir kindred, born and bred in the depths of the Ancient City of their kind for war and magic. The warmages are indoctrinated at an early age in to the teachings of the god Thasrik, lord of slavery and domination. They learn to abuse and subjugate the grunts to tortures considered “humane” and “character building” in the eyes of the mihidir elite. Over time, the best are culled from the chattel and taught a mixture of necromancy and polymorphic magic, especially the ability to enhance the already volatile chemistry of trollish flesh.

20 Mihidir Grunts (mook)

1^st level troop (humanoid, lesser giant)

Init +3

AC 17 PD 15 MD 11 HP 7

Cleaver Strike +6 attack, 4 damage; on a 1 or 2 attack roll cleaver breaks!

Claws +6 attack, 3 damage; on a 16+ target takes 6 damage from a rend

Trollish Regeneration 5: when damaged the mihidir grunt heals 5 damage at the start of its next turn. It loses this ability if dealt fire or acid damage. The troll may make a save (11+) when dropping 0 HP, so long as it has not taken acid or fire damage it will restore 5 hit points.

The mihidir grunts are medium sized trolls by any other standard, but still stand at least 6-7 feet tall against men and elves. Bred in the breeding pits of Thasrik, the grunts know only slavery, subjugation and torture. They are raised and released as dogs of war, chattel to be thrown against the enemy. The average grunt is an adult by age 6 and dead by age 7.

If the PCs somehow get in to a major tussle with the warbrute:

Mihidir Warbrute

5^th level huge wrecker (greater giant)

Init +8

AC 22 PD 20 MD 13 HP 220

Claws +10 attack (two attacks), 30 damage per hit. If both attacks hit a living target it deals 20 extra rend damage and tosses the target 15 feet.

Siege Strike: If both claw attacks hit, and the target is an object (such as a porticullis or defensive castle wall), then double the damage and target collapses if both attack rolls were 16+.

Trollish Regeneration 5: when damaged the mihidir warbrute heals 20 damage at the start of its next turn. It has 5 regeneration tokens. It does not regenerate and loses a token if dealt fire or acid damage.

The worst spawn of the breeding pits, the warbrutes are shaped and morphed into monstrous savages by the mihidir elite to become living siege engines. The warbrutes are so large, some up to 50 feet tall, that they are often mistaken for giants. They can transport dozens of mihidir grunts and are usually “directed” by a mihidir troll.

Side Action: Kalen Dan Hesperos will slay a warbrute on his own, where the troll lord Hanun-Daval is mounted, and almost kill him as well, but not before Hanun-Daval rips his heart from his chest and then somehow manages to slink away, calling a retreat as he does. The green troops of Lancaster rally, when the High Priestess Elana Tovarei (of Mitra) appears and aids them with columns of fire. She seems to take a great toll in calling this magic forth, however.

 The PCs should, ideally, be regarded as exceptional for their efforts in the battle, and if possible their close proximity to where Hesperos fell.

Elana Tovarei will rush to the aid of Hesperos, but see that he has been mortally wounded (and his heart missing). She will grieve, but after a day’s ceremonies she will announce that he is to be canonized for his great deeds over many years as a defender of Lancaster, and so the duke Maldric Gonn Esantras will declare that a procession shall carry his remains to the Island of Mitra off the coast of the capitol for burial in its tombs as a saint in the goddess’s honor.

Either their presence on the battlefield or their relationship to the Dann will lead the PCs to be invited to escort the procession.

The procession will start off well enough; the journey will be led by priestess Elana Tovarei, who PCs may deduce had some sort of relationship with Hesperos. Thirty pilgrims of the High Temple of Mitra and ten monks of the Order of Graethos will accompany the procession and carry the decorated coffin by hand. It makes for slow going, but seems to be the proper ritual. A dozen additional soldiers who all served under Hesperos also volunteer to accompany the procession as guards, along with the PCs.

Travel Encounters:

1.       A farmer with his family have a broken wheel on their melon cart. Their two horses are a bit sickly. It’s raining and they need assistance.

2.       An area has washed out and revealed a stream exposing bones and old armor. The armor has ancient marks on it; it looks like old Halic armor, from the barbarian peoples of old, predating Octzel’s founding. The stream cuts through an innocuous hill, but a partial dolmen has been exposed. 50% chance of a wight and skeletons inside….

3.       A caravan of musicians and murmers passes and tries to entertain, despite the dour nature of the funeral procession. Before being run off by the priests a woman dressed as death will proclaim that the funeral is a farce, and that she senses no soul to be buried….if pursued, the high priestess will contend she is a fraud, and expose her as such rather cruelly.

4.       One day a horse in the group collapses and dies. It seems to have some sickness that made it overly pale and weak.

5.       An orcish warband will be spotted in the distance and pace the group, waiting for an opening to strike, or maybe just to suss out vulnerabilities before deciding to look for easier prey elsewhere. The orcs are led by Huul Drag, a younger warrior looking to make a name for himself. They will follow for at least 3 days to assess weakness, and prospect of making a name for their band if an attack succeeds.

Days 1-3: uneventful, but slow due to rain and mud. Each PC makes a DC10 save vs, CON to avoid coming down with a cold or flu. Failure means they must roll again each day and take -2 penalties on all actions until better.

   Observant PCs will notice that Elana seems to be sick as well, and gets worse as the procession continues.

Day 4: The procession arrives at the mountain overpass, where a crossroads with a hangman’s tree is located, as well as the nearby Inn of the Croaking Raven. The skies remain dark and dour, the rain almost constant. Everyone is ill and there is a worry the pass will suffer from flooding and washouts. Elana calls to stay the night here, and wait out the rains.

The innkeeper, a stout fellow named Taunten, offers his cellar for the body, but several customers will quietly steal away. These four men will make their way to the bandit enclave where the brigand Artosios Valdurante operates….a former Hyrkanian soldier who went awol two years ago during the war and has set up his private army as a bandit prince. He is intrigued at the idea that the coffin may contain a saint’s body, and associated magical reliquaries. He decides to take it…

Day 5: the group finds the rains unabated, and three trappers arrive saying that they saw a storm giant in the pass. Elana grows sicker, and that afternoon the innkeep tells the PCs his daughter Masra has gone missing, and he is worried she may have been lured away by the local bandits (he’ll speak of the brigand Artosios). If they take his offer of 100 gold to look for her while the group is stuck here, he will do his best to describe where she might have gone. Tracking is impossible in the rain and mud, however.

If the group leaves for a day to look for the daughter then they will be absent when the group is attacked that night and the bandits haul the coffin off. If they do not go, then they will be there when approximately 40 bandits and the brigand prince Artosios attack.

(32 level 0 bandits L1)

(8 level 1 bandits L2)

(1 level 3 bandit prince L4)

They’ll try to abscond with the coffin in a bargain for the lives of the priests and monks. Failing that, they’ll try to torch the inn. If the PCs are absent, they will return to find that the bandits escaped with the coffin after taking the priestess Elana hostage, but three knights defending the coffin fell, though not before a dozen bandits were killed. The rest of the knights are out trying to find her in this event.

Day 6: The bandits are back with the coffin and possibly Elana by midnight, assuming they succeed. If they failed, then this event does not happen and there is one more day of dreary rain and flooding.

The bandit caves are north of the crossroads, not far from an abandoned lumber mill (about 7 miles). Locals, such as the trappers, will mention that they have seen the bandits going in to and out of a valley beyond the old Harrid Mill. They also warn that the mill is haunted. Leaving in the morning will mean most of the day is spent travelling due to the horrible weather conditions.

The Harrid Mill: Vance Fatterad ran this mill long ago and stripped the region of trees. He and his boys were rough woodsmen, but they were all curious looking souls, overly large and ungainly. No one ever spoke of their mother…..because as it turns out she was a gruesome ogre woman named Abara, kept deep in a basement below the mill!

After a major fire the mill was abandoned, Fatterad and his boys were run out when accusations of their impure blood were leveled. They left Abara behind, though….stories are the place is haunted by Fatterad’s wife, but they are only half true. She’s still alive, and lives in a carefully dug out complex beneath the mill where she and a new pack of ogre children now reside.

Anyone poking around the mill will risk getting caught in a spike or pit trap, or spotted by ogres. A careful search can reveal the secret trap door that opens up to the compound below. Abara has grown to immense size, unable to move from her bed chamber, but her boyz are busy expanding the complex and providing for her.

Regardless….anyone searching for Masra will find her blue scarf in the ruins. Turns out she may have been taken by the ogres below…in fact, interrogating an ogre will reveal they captured her, but then their brother “Ghasambad” stole her away!

The Valley:  The valley has several denizens of note, including…

1.       Ghasambad, son of Abara – an ogre penitent who regrets the family he grew up in, but remains close to his mother to try and mitigate the evil his siblings may commit to. He just rescued Masra and is keeping her at her camp to heal her wounds. She has taken a liking to him.

2.       Near the entrance to the cave is a scout lookout point where usually four bandits are assigned to guard at any given time.

3.       A wild bullette roams this area, and likes to stomp and churn and prance and threaten any who approach its territory at the base of the valley. Astute trackers will notice the embedded trails go well around the valley floor.

The Bandit Cave: The cave entrance is shadowed and hard to spot along the cliff walls toward the valley’s end. The entrance contains tall pillars of stone carved into crude images of ancient solders and monsters, and the walls are covered in the main entry with ancient petroglyphs of Halic design. Inside the main entrance is a passage opening into a huge amphitheater-like cave where an immense stalagmite has been carved in the crude image of a giant, ancient mother goddess figure which resembles an ancient rendition of the goddess Hellias, or possibly Karsyllym.

The bandits have turned this chamber into a large encampment, and a hole in the ceiling with ladders leads to a smaller upper chamber where Artosios dwells with two women, Kala (human) and Etana (tiefling) serve as his consorts. He also keeps a small horde here of some 3,200 GP, 3 potions of healing, a potion of strength (+4 STR 1 hour), a quiver of ten twin strike arrows and a longsword +1. Lots of trade goods are here as well, and a crude rope pulley system for lifting and lowering goods. He’ll have the coffin in the lower area, having not yet raised it.

Below in the encampment are his fifty-odd followers, less any lost in prior excursions.

Conditions:

If the adventurers arrive here within hours of the coffin’s capture, they will find the entire camp abuzz with activity. Assuming they are looking for the girl and not the coffin, they will find the same. 

If the coffin has been here a day or more, they’ve opened it and discovered the secret within: Hesperos has become a vampire with his heart captured by the troll warlord! He has slain the bandits and they have been raised as an army of undead…..but Hesperos will lie dormant in the coffin. If Elana was captured, she will be silent and terrified in the upper chamber, protecting the two women and possibly the bandit prince. If forced to confront what happened, she will reveal that she needs to get Hesperos to the temple to purify him and save his soul from the troll warlord….nothing else will work. But so long as the coffin is not opened, he will remain at rest!

Part II: this could go a few ways, but in the campaign as run the adventurers made it to a port where they took Hesperos, contained once more, by sea to the Isle of Enki where he was properly put to rest by the priests. Perhaps more on that soon!