Tinkering and Tumult

 It has been a crazy week for me, readers! My youngest son started school, and I am suddenly back on the job market and trying to figure out where my skills can best serve the world after years of being focused on my children full-time. I'm pursuing a lot of different angles as I get back into figuring out what I want to do "when I grow up."

Honestly, getting back into life coaching with focusing on making lifestyle changes to help handle chronic pain might be the best way to put the last year of difficulties to good use... but I can hardly resist the lure of going back into tech.

To that end, I have been using my role-playing creations as a touchstone to working on reviving and updating old skills and developing new ones.

Machine Learning technology has been a big part of that focus. After all, engineering a good prompt and understanding how "AI" processes language is a new, and probably very useful skill. And I have learned a lot about both generating images and content that could be useful for TTRPGs.

I am going to share a bit of my AI experimentation here, and also talk about why I have decided to ditch some of it.

Live Adventure Design

 The Lair of the Echthroi

Lair of the Echthroi Map, made with Dungeon Alchemist and Adobe Photoshop ©2023 Brian Rideout

Today, I am going to prepare my Swords & Wizardry adventure notes for my game tonight here on the 'blog just for fun. I will update the blog with every substantive change in information. I will be commenting on my decision choices as I go, as well. I will be watching Twitter if you have comments as I go

The Golden Heresy Sword & Planet Campaign Document

Cover to Warlord of Mars #2
Art by Joe Jusko
2014 Dynamite Entertainment

Late in 2020 I started it a world-building project as part of this blog called The Golden Heresy. Inspired by a mix of Stargate SG-1, the music of Gloryhammer, the movie Wizards, and a cocktail of Jack Vance and Edgar Rice Burroughs, it was a campaign in which at least the starting party would begin as a set of interdimensional saboteurs in the service of a wizard who was trying to murder the gods.

I started out with the concept of a powerful Chaotic magician commanding a navy of interdimensional ships sending saboteurs to a post-apocalyptic world called Rustidium in order to infiltrate a world protected by angels and gods of Law, and then work undercover to sabotage a magical artifact keeping the forces of Chaos from descending upon the world and destroying its gods.

There was a pretty good chance that the characters might get lost or lose their method of inter-dimensional travel before they found the portal on Rustidium, at which point the campaign would have turned into a survival adventure across a radioactive wasteland to find a science outpost of their armada. If they found the portal, then it would become a traditional medieval fantasy with a twist has the player characters are out to destroy the world.

I figured that eventually, if the latter happened, the party would eventually have turnover enough that instead of being agents of Chaos trying to destroy the world, they would become natives to the world trying to repel the invasion they have learned about from the their dead allies.

Solo Play: What I have Learned

For the last few weeks, I have been playing a more in-depth solo game of BECMI Dungeons & Dragons using a DM simulation tool from Parts Per Milluon. To this point, I had used solo role playing entirely for play testing. For example, when I wanted to understand the mechanics ig Pacts & Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy, I ran a couple of dungeons out of Donjon in order to get a feel for it in play. I've done the same with Index Card RPG Core 2e, Overlight: A Roleplaying Game of Kaleidoscopic Journeys, and Tunnel Goons. 

Because it was so purpose driven, I missed a few things how about solo play that doing so for pleasure has taught me. Although, in retrospect, the way I reported my second and third play tests of Pacts & Blades should have told me how much I enjoy it and what I had to gain from it right away.

So here are a few observations for people who never tried it. Because it is very different from what you might expect.

I will start with the caveat that I went into play hoping to have something to share at the end of the day. I have been inspired by the Keep on the Borderlands comic, Roll to Save's Mörk Borg solo, and above all, the Tale of the Manticore podcast. All of which have created something truly enjoyable. Playing solely for yourself is a different experience as well.

Playing a Solo Game vs. Playing a Game Solo

First off, there's a big difference between playing a solo dungeon crawling game like One Shot in the Dark or Four Against Darkness, and playing a TTRPG made for a group of players using a solo dGMng tool.

Solo Dungeon crawlers are not built with a lot of depth in mind. They provide you with a challenge and a tactical puzzle or two, as you build up a map. You don't really get invested in the characters very much, and the experience is usually a simulation ofabout as vanilla a D&D game as you could ask for. That doesn't mean they're not satisfying: they are a great way to spend a quiet hour, and a great way to generate dungeon maps.

Other games designed for solo, Ike Alone Among the Stars, are purely journal exercises. Most of these provide no challenges and no puzzles, just a way to meditate while writing in a journal. Not my cup of tea, but I could see how some people would enjoy it. I'm not sure I would qualify it as a role-playing game by any stretch of the imagination.

Playing a traditional role-playing game, with all of its open systems and narrative requirements is a lot more challenging. And rewarding and very different ways.

I might put it as the difference between "Playing a Solo Game" and "Playing a Game, Solo." 

Separate Solo Game Blog

I have created a separate blog for chronicling my solo Dungeons & Dragons campaign set on The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence. That way, those of my readers who are uninterested can opt out.

Given the themes of the campaign setting, and that I like my content a little racy and a little dark, I'm putting a Content Warning on it. Unless there becomes a sudden, overwhelming demand for written erotica by Yours Truly, - - which I doubt - - it will remain Rated R.

I'm way behind on my play reports, and still figuring out format, but my report for session two up. It is entitled Swordplay, Singularities, and Seduction. 

My Podcast Pitch

Here goes me, suppressing my inner introvert...

I want to run two podcasts for the short term starting sometime in the middle of Summer. Totally for laughs and good, grungy OSR fun. And I am looking for volunteers and feedback to help me with my project.

I'll start with big concepts, then go into specifics.

Chaos Crawls Over Candlekeep

Look, Candlekeep Mysteries, to my eyes, is a hot mess of touchy-feely goo. But it is goo that, if you don't play it too seriously, can probably deliver some great laughs and good fun. So I want to convert about half of the adventures in there to play in Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Then I want to get a crew of jaded, smoky grognards who have had enough of where D&D is going under the WotC banner to play it.

Here's my rationale:

• It'll be funny to listen to Grumpy grognards verbally roll their eyes.
• It'd be fun to watch them murderhobo their way across the setting with extreme prejudice. 
• If we aren't total dicks, we can also show 5e players a familiar scenario played fast and loose using an OSR rule-set so that we can showcase the beauty of the Old-School systems and playstyle.

Die, Outworlder! Die! 

Venger Satanis' Cha'alt is a Fast-paced, over-the-top Gonzo Science Fantasy game that is loosely derived from Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, but is stripped down and accelerated to its absolute fastest and lightest. The modules written for it are weird and chaotic in a style that is very much a part of OSR culture. I intend to mix adventures up from Cha'alt, Cha'alt Fuscia Malaise, Saving Cha'alt and my home-brew material to create something fast and fun. 

Here's my Rationale:

• The fast, lethal playstyle of Cha'alt, with its meat-grinder combat is a great way to show off the most 'Metal aesthetic of OSR games. 
• The intensely random and weird "Gonzo" style is not something much seen in Mainstream podcasts of this nature. I think it could be inspiring. 
• Cha'alt's engine is close enough to 5e to be familiar to players of new Editions. 

If you want to know more, read on...

Adventure: Harkin's Slave Pit

Cover Art by Brian C Rideout

That's right! Two adventures out in less than a week! Harkin's Slave Pit is a labor of love. It's a dungeon that I created to teach players Index Card RPG Core 2e, and guide them on playing RPGs Old-School.

If you want to try ICRPG, by the way, you can now grab a quick-start manual here!

Several strangers wake up prisoners in a dungeon, with nothing but breechclothes and a couple of tiny pieces of gear hidden on them, and must fight for suvival in a dungeon full of brutal mercenaries, goblins, madmen, and deadly traps, ruled over by a cruel witch. Can they find an exit before their luck runs out?

Harkin's Slave Pit is a mid-length adventure for Index Card RPG Core 2e. It is designed to serve as an introduction to new players for both ICRPG and Old-School Renaissance style play.

• While built as a one-shot, it is easily tuned to be the first adventure of a larger campaign, and provides the GM with multiple hooks for future adventures.
• Gradually increasing difficulty as players become used to the game engine.
• Non-linear dungeon with numerous possible routes to explore.
• All encounters built using the Three Ts system to ensure fast-paced, timed encounters that reward Player-Characters with opportunities to get the upper hand on the enemy and look good doing it!
• Designed for ease-of use at the table.

Buy it on DrivethruRPG!

Resource Spotlight: Free Music Archive

Time to boost the signal! This September I am planning on doing a roundup of some favourite resources for Table Top Role Playing Games. Most of which are free and online.

Resource Spotlight: Free Music Archive

"Piper" by OpenClipart-vectors
From Pixabay 

I like to have music on in the background while I play TTRPGs. For the most part, my tool of choice for that is Spotify. I keep Spotify playlists for each campaign to catch its mood (here's my current one). If I want to share music, however, for example, If I were streaming my game, Spotify puts you at Risk of stepping on copyright.

The Free Music Archive is a collection of free and royalty free music you can download and use in your creations: some with and some without music. Most of it is under Creative Commons, and it is advisable to check whether a piece requires attribution.

Note: I personally have run afoul of a predatory company that has persuaded several of the contributors to monetize their work. These companies will put false strikes on content uploaded to platforms like YouTube in hopes of intimidating you into paying a fee. This is a small percentage of the content, and should be reported.

If you are looking for sound effects, Orange Free Sounds is a similar service for sound effects.