Orks!

Rafael Chandler made a Random Orc Generator.
Quick test! d10!

1. # Enc. 1d8. Move 90′ (30′). AC 13. HD 1. Attacks: 1. Damage: 1d8. Morale: 11. Moss-covered Wood Orcs carry weapons of bone and shields of hardened bark. These orcs are known for their loyalty, as well as their tendency to hoard the bones of their enemies, which are arranged into letters that spell out prophecy. A tribe of these orcs will be led by a 3 HD chieftain who inflicts 1d10+1 damage. Treasure: d20 gp, 1d4 gems.
2. # Enc. 1d4. Move 90′ (30′). AC 13. HD 1+1. Attacks: 1. Damage: 1d6+1. Morale: 10. Thick-necked Stone Orcs usually have quarry dust upon their hands. They take half damage from edged weapons. These orcs are known for their loyalty, as well as their tendency to impale their captives on long wooden stakes. A tribe of these orcs will be led by a filthy gnoll who consumes an orc child each week. Treasure: d20 sp, d20 gp, 1 small gem.
3. # Enc. 1d6. Move 90′ (30′). AC 15. HD 1+1. Attacks: 1. Damage: 1d6. Morale: 10. Six-armed Spider Orcs clamber head-down as they attack. Each shield they carry gives them an AC bonus of 1. These orcs are despised for their sadism, as well as their tendency to fill dungeons with treasure chests containing nothing but spores. A tribe of these orcs will be led by an orc priestess with 3 HD; she can cast two first-level spells. Treasure: d20 gp, d10 pp, 1d6 gems.
4. # Enc. 1d8. Move 120′ (40′). AC 16. HD 2+1. Attacks: 2. Damage: 1d8+1. Morale: 10. Thick-necked Stone Orcs usually have quarry dust upon their hands. They take half damage from edged weapons. These orcs are reviled for their treachery,as well as their tendency to hoard the bones of their enemies, which are arranged into letters that spell out prophecy. A tribe of these orcs will be led by a captured adventurer whose torture only stops when he provides useful tactical advice. Treasure: d20 gp, 1d4 gems.
5. # Enc. 1d6. Move 150′ (50′). AC 16. HD 2. Attacks: 2. Damage: 1d8+1. Morale: 11. Swift and cannibalistic, Blood Orcs usually inhabit jungles. These orcs are known for their nobility, as well as their tendency to impale their captives on long wooden stakes. A tribe of these orcs will be led by a troll with low self-esteem. Treasure: d20 gp, d6 pp, 1 mysterious key.
6. # Enc. 1d8. Move 150′ (50′). AC 15. HD 1. Attacks: 2. Damage: 1d6. Morale: 10. Silent and unblinking, Aquatic Orcs emerge from the depths to eat the flesh of land-dwellers. These orcs are reviled for their treachery,as well as their tendency to feed captured religious leaders to starving swine. A tribe of these orcs will be led by a troll with low self-esteem. Treasure: d10 cp, d10 sp, d6 gp.
7. # Enc. 1d6. Move 120′ (40′). AC 15. HD 2. Attacks: 1. Damage: 1d4+1. Morale: 11. Scarred and pitiless, Desert Orcs hail from the shimmering sands. These orcs are known for their cowardice, as well as their tendency to sacrifice married couples to their dark gods. A tribe of these orcs will be led by a captured adventurer whose torture only stops when he provides useful tactical advice. Treasure: d20 cp, d12 sp, d8 gp.
8. # Enc. 1d8. Move 120′ (40′). AC 16. HD 1. Attacks: 1. Damage: 1d4+1. Morale: 10. Thick-necked Stone Orcs usually have quarry dust upon their hands. They take half damage from edged weapons. These orcs are known for their nobility, as well as their tendency to impale their captives on long wooden stakes. A tribe of these orcs will be led by a filthy gnoll who consumes an orc child each week. Treasure: d10 cp, d10 sp, d6 gp.
9. # Enc. 1d6. Move 150′ (50′). AC 15. HD 1+1. Attacks: 1. Damage: 1d8. Morale: 11. Calm and cautious, Mist Orcs are found near the shore. They can breathe water as well as air. These orcs are famous for their courtesy, as well as their tendency to impale their captives on long wooden stakes. A tribe of these orcs will be led by a 3 HD chieftain who inflicts 1d10+1 damage. Treasure: d20 cp, d12 sp, d8 gp.
10. # Enc. 1d4. Move 90′ (30′). AC 13. HD 2+1. Attacks: 1. Damage: 1d6. Morale: 10. Fur-clad Primordial Orcs from distant lands. They regenerate 1 hp per round until slain. These orcs are famous for their arrogance, as well as their tendency to hoard the bones of their enemies, which are arranged into letters that spell out prophecy. A tribe of these orcs will be led by an orc priestess with 3 HD; she can cast two first-level spells. Treasure: d10 gp, d8 pp, 1 parchment map.

Awesome!

About an invasion that never happened

So, a while back ago, when Monte Cook's Numenera sprung out to existence, our group wanted to test it. Given the premise of being sci-fi-ish RPG rather than trad fantasy, I wrote an intro, which would start very much like DCC RPG's funnel, but every player would create one 0th level character. Foci, descriptors etc. would be added on the fly, on appropriate moment, good role-playing etc. Everyone would start out with abilities of 10 and effort 1.

So, minimal background, first:
I live in a certain town in a certain alpine valley, which is somewhat famous for what happened here during the WW1. Because of the front, landscape is drilled with tunnels, trenches, nearby mountains and remote ravines still hide rusted scraps of weapons, bomb shrapnel and skeletal remains of the fallen. Such is the case of Castle, a hill that rises two hundred meters above the basin, on top of which ruins of thousand year old bastion still stand. The hill is drilled with caverns and there is a legend that a secret tunnel leads from the castle to town below. The cavern system is vast and not completely explored because of many cave-ins and seismic activity in the area.

Valley of Emerald River

This document is not polished, nor finished, as we never really had a chance and will to play it, so feel free to use it if you like it. I found out that cypher system was not my cup of tea, anyways.

You can grab The Egg Of Smohl here.

What happens in Murakash, stays in Murakash

They say it's the stones that breathe evil. Those ancient halls hold dark secret so old that even the Grumpy Farango doesn't want to talk about what happened in that old tunnels, but he knows that nobody returned. He heard screams and then he ran. Whatever crawled  into Murakash, stayed in Murakash and still lurks in the darkness.

Hireling generator online

I found this hireling generator for all those "slaves" you might need to support your heroes on their journey.

The Good Barony of Sant Nomme

A map of the Good Barony where the Longwinter campaign is ongoing.

Sandbox Thinking 1

As I work on preparing my sandbox I find that the tools I use impose their own logic and workflow. If I just jot notes in a notebook, I end up with a lot of ideas, but basically just a brainstorm. If I try to work in a text editor, I keep trying to write whole stories, but end up writing a lot of text that is (at least to my style of role-play Refereeing) quite useless.

An interesting tool I've found while working on a "codification" (if you could call it that) of the character generation process in our D&D game is the humble spreadsheet. With a spreadsheet you're automatically in the world of semi-random generated tables and ideas that can be slotted together modularly. However, the spreadsheet still imposes the need to be brief with your descriptions since there's just no room for whole stories. Also, the spreadsheet naturally gives itself over to a focus on the key elements say of an encounter, a monster, a piece of treasure or whatever it is you are using in your adventure. Finally, it imposes non-linearity, since each piece of a spreadsheet is interchangeable and available as an independent data point, while text is linear and imposes an authorial logic.

Anyway, after wasting two evenings writing text, I've decided to just stick to a spread sheet for now - not least because my laptop has recently started to become more and more important as a refereeing (DM) aid in my games over the last year.

Longwinter Introduction

I am preparing a sandbox adventure cycle, which I will possibly eventually package into a module. I will post much of the background to it here (possibly omitting those details that would not be player knowledge).

Without further ado:

Background

The fall of the Empire drove smallfolk around the northern fringes of the settled lands deeper into the hills and mountains of the Worldspine to avoid the centaur khans and the humanoid bandits that prowled the wastelands. Beyond the Hungry Ghosts the settlements were especially exposed and the southern fringes of the Great Steppe were almost completely depopulated. Further east the survivors pushed, some prospered, most perished.

One group under Goodlord Verdek settled a high, wide valley that nestled among the peaks of the Tibur, with narrow defensible approaches to the northeast and steap pass leading west. There they fought off the centaurs of Khan Enkurtz and eventually established a little barony in the valley and called it Sant Nomme. Iron and mercury ores were found, farming communities were established, trade began to come to the barony and things seemed to be settling down, despite the fall of the old order.

Then the long winter came.