From the Foot of the Mountain 17 December 2021

 

Hi there! Welcome to my first shot at creating a newsletter. Let's see if this is something I can do each week, and whether or not it's something y'all are interested in. I have some ideas about what I'll be writing but let me know what you'd like to see more or less of and I'll try to make it happen.

In my games this week

One of my two 1e AD&D groups is playing through Through Ultan's Door Issue 1 and is really enjoying it. I'm currently coordinating with one of the players in my other game to run a series of games as a guest DM. He's going to be running Gratkil - The Citadel That Crawls from Dissident Whispers which is a great-looking adventure as well.

Prep Ideas

The idea of patrons for PCs has popped up a few times recently, and I think this approach will fit well with my Friday group. I'm working on a trio of potential patrons along with hints that will point toward them., and maybe a direct invitation to "the Heroes of Saltmarsh". One idea I want to steal is to treat the patrons as semi-competitive (or fully competitive) factions with resources, goals, and a regular roll to see how they move forward. I want to make those rolls player-facing to help them see changes happening in the world. Next week, I'll share a write-up of one of these patron write-ups.

What I'm Working On

Magic Candles I'm going to be posting a series of twelve pairs of magic candles for my patrons. I'll collect these, along with a couple of other related bits, to create Four and Twenty Candles, a Zine I'll put on itch in January. Here's an example:

Cursed Candles

These candles are indistinguishable from other magical candles and might appear as a specific kind from the list above. When lit, they affect the individual lighting them as described below. Anytime the possessor of one or more cursed candle(s) takes out a candle to light, they will pull out a cursed candle that will take on the appearance of the one they mean to light.

Candle of Monster Summoning When lit, the candle will summon monsters as per the Monster Summoning IV spell. The monsters will be hostile to the summoner, and will remain for 1d3+1 turns unless placated, killed, or driven off.

Self-editing pass on zines

As I was using Vade Arcanum and A Woodland Path recently, I found some errors in the text. This pushed me to start proofreading pass on them. I've put both of them on itch in an attempt to fund hiring an editor, until then, you're stuck with me. I want to post a new release of each in January.

Podcasts

I've got a line-up of podcasts I listen to regularly. There are a couple of actual plays, some about gaming mechanics, and some reviews of books and adventures. Here are a couple that I'm focused on this week.

I'm listening to Fear of a Black Dragon - The Ghost of Mistmoor more or less on repeat right now as I work on a ghost story adventure for Kinopea (and maybe one for Høglund while I'm at it). Jason and Tom do a great job making me think about how I DM and how I create adventure settings.

Yum DM's first podcast, a fireside with Black Dragon Games and Manticore Tale. They do a great job talking about world-building and their approaches to gaming. I'd love to sit at a table with any or all of them to chat and play. You might also want to look at Yum's d12 zine - it's a great collection of tools, tips, and ideas for all editions of D&D.

Tweets & Blog Posts

Dungeons & Possums has been working on Dicevember prompts this month. One of his posts includes a full-on adventure with several fun little wrinkles - Forest. Check it out.

Black Dragon Games is super inspirational. I love it when he posts spells, monsters, and magic items. His play reports are good reads as well. I think his recent thread about the knock-on effect in world-building is a good example of the kind of thing that happens when you really dig in and start building your world. To my mind, it's the best kind of game prep.

Games & Stuff

There is a ton of stuff coming out for Mausritter right now. ManaRampMart has release a set of NPCs and an oracle for solo play. In fact, you should just go and check out his main itch page for all kinds of gaming goodness.

Cairn is also seeing a lot of love. with an oracle (again from ManaRampMatt) and an Adventurer's Guide. I'm looking forward to running more Cairn in 2022 and stuff like this and

I should also mention that I've got a sale running right now on my Vade Arcanum and A Woodland Path zines. You can get the pair of them for just a buck. If that sounds like too much, there are community copies available too.

 

Happy Gaming!

Pat Eyler Foot of the Mountain Adventures

2021 Gaming

 In 2021, I tried to be more mindful about playing new games and involved my lunchtime gaming group at work in this effort.  Here's an overview of how that went.

Things I kept playing:

• AD&D - 
• My regular game split into two games. This was mostly a response to the two different play styles at the table. 
  One group is still playing in the old setting. They're more engaged in factional play and digging into clues and rumors. It's a sandbox and is more experimental - we've taken on a bunch of rules from @BlackDragonCan's posts on Bhakashal. We play (nearly) every Thursday.
  The other group plays in a new setting, which relies a lot more heavily on published. adventures. It's more of a straight-up, deal with what's in front of us style of play. We play on Fridays.
• I also ran a game in what might turn into a "learn to play" campaign, though one of the players had a new baby last week, so we're on hold for a bit.
• In addition to my own adventures, we've played in U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, U2 Danger at Dunwater,  Through Ultan's Door vol I, and Tomb of the Serpent Kings.
• Mausritter - One game from the end of 2020 carried over into 2021, and I ended up running a second game for the DM of the Stack o' Dice podcast (I based this one on his setting as kind of an easter egg) and some friends. I really enjoy this game and I'm sure I'll be playing more of it.
• Crash Pandas - Three raccoons had to scavenge parts to get their car up and running then race across Phoenix. Dice were thrown, mayhem ensued,
• [Edit - I managed to forget a game I played in] OpenQuest - One of my players ran the Quickstart Adventure for OpenQuest for several of us. I'm really glad I bought into the Kickstarter on this one.

Things I started playing

• Space 1899 - We played the quickstart adventure - the Monastery of Tasharvan. The rules played smoothly and I love the setting.  I grabbed a bunch of sourcebooks and adventures when they were on sale and I can see myself running this again, and stealing some monsters for other games.
• Beneath Under The Floorboards - We played an expedition to the cellar to collect some wax candles. We had a great time with the system. I still want to run this for a bunch of Jermlaine protecting their lair.
• Mothership - We played The Haunting of Ypsilon 14. I liked it so much I bought into the Kickstarter for the boxed set.
• Cairn - we ran a group of Frogfolk, Lizardfolk, and Turtlefolk on a quest to save their swamp from an emergant chaos.  Very similar to Mausritter, another one that I'm looking for reasons to run.
• Night of the Hogmen - a Forged In The Dark starter for the upcoming game Teeth.  It was really evocative and played well.  I could see replaying this as a Halloween one-shot at some point.
• FATE of Cthuhu (FATE Accelerated) - speaking of Halloween games. We played this over the week leading up to Halloween. We're planning on more FATE in the near future.

Things I'm playtesting

• Kinopea - A lightweight, class-free system that relies on traits to define characters. It's set in a magic-soaked analog of Rome, where the Tyrant has made a deal with the devil (in the form of an AEther-node at the heart of the city. Gameplay focuses on class struggle, political factions, and the need to maintain your AEther. This is coming out soon.
• Høglund - from the publisher of Kinopea, this is a heavier version of the system. It uses both classes and traits. It is set in a Norse-inspired Fey culture with an emphasis on role-playing, for example, you must successfully boast about your actions in a mead hall to gain levels.
• Seven Sons of Aerulon - One of the players in my lunchtime group is creating a new game based on his D&D(ish) setting from his teens.  We've got a pair of ongoing games in this setting/system.  This game is also class-free and trait-based.  One of the coolest things is the modular magic system. Free-from spells are cast by combining runes and spending Lidigea. 

Monstrous Cities

 

The other day, I was listening to James Holloway's Monstrous Cities episode of Monster Man. It was an inspiring dive into how a city of monsters could be run in a game world, and I'm going to lean on it for an upcoming short-arc game of Cairn where the PCs will play bullywugs and lizardmen making common cause against an external threat.

Earlier that day, I was attending a virtual conference and one of the speakers shared the slide above - and I think this is a great idea for a monstrous city. Perhaps the inhabitants (human or otherwise) have come under the power of an ancient intelligence that has molded their culture to serve itself.  The roads, canals, and sewers form the alimentary and circulatory systems, "temples" could be the communications systems, perhaps there are a series of watchtowers that serve as the auditory and visual systems.  All of these would also be points of interface for the micro-fauna/population.

The populace might trade for "nutrients" or other essentials for the city's health and development, some of which might seem bizarre to neighboring communities.

I think there are a lot of ways you could go with this - and it would work so many different settings as well (sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, fantasy, horror, etc.)

What do you think?  Is this something you'd like to build on, or that you're already using?  Let me know in the comments, or on my twitter.