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!

Imagining Content - Dungeon Bestiaries

Inventing monsters is always fun and it seems to be something that happens to me automatically as I try to invent and imagine dungeons, settings and so forth. Often I will scribble out a map and then write a paragraph or two of silly fluff about the map and from there will spring ... the background of the setting, the rationale for the monsters, decorations and so forth. I don't start working room-by-room but basically set down to write a description of the entire dungeon (or section of dungeon). For example, a while back I fiddled with a 3d labyrinth in illustrator and came up with the following (text added earlier today):

The Fourfold Catatomb

From the description I came up with a massive tomb built to commemorate a deified, vicious despot who ruled with an iron fist and a trumped up state religion. After his death the bureaucratic state he set up kept running things by reference to the aforementioned monarch - a bit like a feudal-fantastic police state. Eventually it might have collapsed, but that's neither here-nor-there. The dungeon/tomb is explained as a state effort to glorify a mighty monarch and keep him protected and pleasured through the ages ... or his spirit, in any case.

What does the dungeon look like? Geometric, symmetrical, finely made and richly carved. Obviously, no expense was spared to make it and slaves were worked to death to ready it. There might be hidden niches, scrawled graffiti where it couldn't be seen, places that were sabotaged by the workers themselves. However,  most of the dungeon is rich, carved and well made. Much of the treasure in such a dungeon would be in the form of carvings, friezes, wall-hangings and so forth. Places might have decayed over time, been flooded or otherwise, but the overall feeling should be rich, and possibly oppressive and over-awing, with large statues of the monarch.

What are the monsters? Well, this is where my imagination usually runs off with me. Basically, the dungeon was stocked with protectors for the monarch - undead made from enemies of the state. These would be the afore-mentioned bronze-corpses, wood-walkers, bone-banes and lilting-weirds. These are probably more-or-less mindless undead or combinations of automatons & undead, powered by the souls of the king's enemies. These would be a generic menace to adventurers entering the dungeon, but something that could also be turned or subverted to help - or at least ignore - the cunning adventurer. A simplistic approach would see looters trying to wade through ever larger hordes of them, possibly dying pointlessly. On the other hand, the crystal-and-blood creations are sworn protectors of the dead monarch, implacable foes of looters and a combat trial that has to be faced to win riches or avoided. The bone-and-wax creatures are there to provide pleasure for the monarch, these would be used more to give a sense of horror and the macabre to the dungeon than to truly be foes for the adventurers, though they might overcome weakened characters. Finally, should the characters come upon the resting place of the king himself, a fitting end would be to have them face the "four ancestors" - perhaps demons bound to the king's body, who had empowered him to raise the kingdom.

In a final twist, the demons might actually be waiting for somebody worthy of them and they might offer one of the adventurers the temptation of taking their gifts (lets say of a silver tongue, a mighty hand in war, eyes in the back of the head and a ward against physical attacks) and reclaiming the lands the king had ruled. Perhaps the king was an unwitting pawn, perhaps he had played the demons for fools, in any case, this gives an open ending - instead of just going for the treasure, the heroes might unleash further adventures.

And there it is ... a self-contained, wealthy, maze-like tomb, filled with macabre soul-powered automatons, dolls and corpses, centred around a quartet of powerful demons. Add a dash of jellies, oozes, gelatinous dodecahedra, perhaps some worms or rats, and voila. Serve properly dried and diced!

The Devil's Bible

This tome was written by Devil himself and brought doom to every owner so far.

wiki

The Book That Can't Be Read

This little booklet.

The world's most mysterious manuscript, work of Grand Alchemist.
This is how I imagine one book of magick.

wiki

Mazes and Labyrinths

Useful resource for all you Indiana Jones DMs. Enjoy!

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.

"Hello world," post.

After years and years of role-playing, several failed starts online, various other nonsense and seven squid sisters, Pjotrus and me (Lukc) have decided to share our little contribution to the messy world of role-playing games. We started with dungeons and dragons, 2nd edition, way back in 1996 or so and over time the games and the types of games we've played have changed. This blog is an attempt to archive where we've arrived, our journey hence and the things we'll discover later on. Suffice to say, our game has become pretty old-school, often quite silly and definitely a bit more bloody than the original version ... but hopefully, also a bit more funny.

Anyway, here are the approximate goals regarding the content of the blog: keeping up to date with the "BASS" house-rule set (this might even help players at times), maps (we make a few of those), monsters, items, silliness & finally general thoughts on role-playing.

Let's hope this li'l blog doesn't die too soon!

Rabbel Valley map

A quick and dirty map for one of the campaigns.

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.