QuasiWizard

Every dungeon should be weird. Living in confined, underground spaces attracts and magnifies weird characteristics. Only the most bizarre of beings and creatures would choose to do such a thing. If you woke up one day and thought, "That old castle outside of town? Oh yeah. We're moving in," then you must have a screw loose. It's absolutely deranged to do such a thing. So, make your dungeons weird. There are different types of weird. All of them could lead to dungeon dwelling. There is garden-variety Just Plain Weird, where you can function but have some unusual lifestyle preferences. You might find cultists, goblins, and generally pretty well-mannered humanoids in a dungeon for that reason. When intrepid adventurers encounter this type of weird, it should be noticeable and juxtaposed with some sorts of normality and acceptable behavior. For example, making your bed after rising in your dank cave, and going to brush your teeth. Then committing unspeakable acts to a for

This spring I ran a megadungeon. As far as campaign statistics are concerned, it was not so impressive. I think we played 7-8 sessions, had a stable of 8 players, some of whom would not show up every session. Still, it was a fun and educational experience. The genesis for this campaign was listening to the "Into the Megadungeon" podcast by Ben Laurence (available via internet search on a variety of platforms). I was particularly enamored by Luke Gearing's lunchtime megadungeon sessions. Sometime later on a flight, I had the idea for the premise of the megadungeon. The original campaign pitch was the following: There is an island at Urth's north pole. It is the last truly wet place. The future was once buried here, in the form of millions and millions of seeds for posterity. But now they have sprouted. They have grown together, genes splicing, mixing, and blending. They have grown, both up and down and into other beings as well, creating a bizarre ecosystem. The old va

If you see a connection between this and my last post, you are on the right track. 1. Guerilla Monkey: small and nimble, with excellent grip strength. Protect monkey society by surprise violence. The signature move is to drop out of trees with rope and garrote the intruders. 2. Gorilla Guard: Big and burly, protect the valuables of simian society. The monkey god is in this form, and thus the gorilla is the holiest of monkeys. Indeed, violence is the rule of the jungle. Who would challenge the mightiest of apes? 3. Tamarin Ascetics. Only those small, frail monkeys which have never touched a banana in their life may be inducted into this order. The virtues extolled by the ascetics include sagacity, cognitive flexibility, and playfulness. The order of Tamarin Ascetics is looked down upon by the majority of simian society, having rejected the stoic and unyielding way of violence. 4. Chimpanzee Inventor: Known for creating tools ranging in utility and efficiency from dead branch inspectors

I'm hosting a RuneScape-inspired game jam. Check it out: https://itch.io/jam/the-grand-exchange and contribute if you would like! It runs the month of August.

This post I feel is in the same vein as a post on the previous blog , the one about Waterfall Quest from Runescape. This one will also feature a Runescape mention.   The King Black Dragon was the first boss monster released Runescape, and it was released without mentioning its location . There's probably no good record of what happened after the release of the news, but I imagine a wild goose chase across every corner of the world map ensued, with the knowledge of such a powerful beast with valuable loot being spread by word of mouth if not kept secret. I think it probably was a fun time for everyone involved, with likely a lot of confusion, deaths, and a few scant victories. There's nothing like setting off into the unknown for a journey which might end in death. It's a tale as old as time, and still motivates people to this day (cf. modern space travel, and the many violence-prone people on Earth today). It seems a timeless thing, although it probably only applies to th

Prep. To some, this word inspires dread. Some while away the hours with it, for campaigns never to be. Some people that don't play games have no idea the division I'm talking about, and for that they are ignorant, and thus blessed. I'm growing tired of prep. Deciding on stats, generating an idea for what happens next, and doing this everyweek. Luckily, I am very happy to brainstorm a concept for an encounter and completely improvise the rest at the table.  I am currently running a science-fantasy biological megadungeon using Vaults of Vaarn. Surprisingly, the megadungeon has been great for improv. Most megadungeon prep I have heard about seems very tedious: roll over and over for stocking rooms. Many variations on this method speed it up... but I find it ultimately uninspiring. It is tried and true prep, but it seems the reverse direction for creative design. Instead, I have some backup rooms, but brainstorm cool ideas for the actual rooms and encounters. In the week before