Session Reports


______________________________________________________________________________

Chronicles of a 2 year long Lamentations game of demonic lore, fae magic and gothic horror. Click the image to view the Halls of the Dead.

The campaign continued but work made me fall behind on session reports. Maybe someday I'll write a summary. It ended with Odin manifesting and tearing half of England out of the ground before flipping it over and smashing it into the earth. It was fun.
____________________________________
One-Shots & Other Stuff

Popular Posts

XENO Minimalist Sci-Fi Horror RPG Review (w/ bonus Xeno mission objectives!)

Image
XENO is a minimalist, pamphlet-sized RPG by Caligaes, where players are the alien threat, serving “MOTHER” and eviscerating the anthropomorphic humans and aliens most games would place you in the boots of. It’s inspired by sci-fi horror classics such as Alien, John Carpenter’s The Thing , Carrion and the X-COM video games. Its mechanics entirely use d4 die pools with few stats, quick resolution, and nearly no math. XENO currently consists of a core pamphlet, a “Victimary” add-on of Z-KOM soldier enemies, and the 36-page HENS & CHICKS module, written in zine format. I was kindly provided a review copy of these materials, and the game will have a BackerKit campaign soon with a physical release and more content. One side- full combat rules on the left. The core XENO pamphlet is a single tri-fold that looks great in black and white or color. It covers, in minimal but evocative text, concept, character class & stats, objectives, combat & defense, and nemeses, referred to as ...
Read more

Running Vermis; or "oracular meta-fiction as roleplaying setting"

Image
How's that for an enticing pretentious theory/tip post? Vermis & Vermis 2 are sensational, aesthetically rich and inspiring game books. They are, if you're unfamiliar, "game guides for games that don't exist"- written as picture and lore-heavy strategy guides for old pixelated dungeon-crawlers like Stonekeep and Eye of the Beholder. They take a lot of inspiration visually and tonally from Dark Souls and the bleak, gothic action rpg genre popular since the 2010s. If you're curious, I have reviews of both Vermis 1: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods and Vermis 2: Mist & Mirrors which should give a pretty clear picture. How, though, are you supposed to actually use these as gamebooks? There are a few challenges: They are systemless, using only vague stats with no explanation  They are vague, hinting at the world and its denizens rather than instructing you They are disorganized, functioning as a puzzle for the reader to piece together while flipping t...
Read more

3 Vermis Session Reports In Brief, with notes on running in different systems

Image
Finding the right system: Systemless adventures are nothing new, many statless bestiaries and one-page dungeons exist. They are generally assumed to use some dialect of the OSR Rosetta Stone or simple NuSR game. There are definitely things to take into account, however: you will want a low-powered or dangerous system, with a magic and skill system that is either generic or highly flavored toward Vermis's tone. Having run it several times, here are some suggestions: Session 1: Lamentations of the Flame Princess, heavily houseruled Location: Pauper's Catacombs                         Party: 4 level 6 characters I ran the Pauper's Catacombs as a "side-shot" in my campaign (when too many players are absent for a "real" session), using our regular characters with the rule that characters won't die, but suffer consequences as a result of these semi-canon adventures (i.e. missing limbs instead of death)....
Read more

Green Knight RPG Review

Image
The 2021 film The Green Knight is, in my opinion, OSR as hell. It’s a quest by an amoral/morally complex knave to confront a strange and unique foe. There is a lot of wilderness travel and encounters of all types, social, magical, and physical. It’s also not focused overly on a cohesive or “satisfying” narrative but rather the wonder and terror of the journey itself. This film has an RPG tie-in. It’s only available in physical form from the A24 studio itself as a box set styled after the famous Mentzer Red Box, and includes a single “Game Master’s Guide” booklet which houses both the rules and the adventure “Quest For Honor”, 5 character sheets for different roles, a single d20, and a color map of Britain with cryptic, post-Roman era cities, ruins and landmarks rather than more recognizable English locations. All the physical components are beautifully colored, printed on glossy paper of thick stock. There is no PDF version that I am aware of. Players beware, you should make ph...
Read more

Mork Borg RPG Review (w/ bonus Mangled Bodies table)

Image
A doom metal album of a game. A spiked flail to the face. Mork Borg is the new hotness, the winner of 4 Ennies, and the most visually striking RPG product in years. Rules-light and condensed, while also being completely, absurdly saturated with aesthetics. Every person I've shown it to, roleplayer or not, has told me they need to get one just to keep on their shelf. Mork Borg is art-zine RPG design epitomized. Physically, even holding the book is enjoyable. It has a soft texture and the art is embossed into the cover, giving it a great feel. Every page you flip in the book is a surprise. There is no predicting what comes next- oversized gothic script, silver foil, chiaroscuro, biblical verse and even subtle little easter eggs. It makes you want to play it.  There are 4 general sections: setting, rules, random tables and optional rules, and a starter adventure. The world lore is presented in short 1-2 paragraph chunks for each region and laid alongside evocative art. You...
Read more

Vermis 2: Mist & Mirrors Review (w/ bonus Scooby Doo Hallway portals!)

Image
The dim light of a single bulb illuminates the messy stacks of dusty boxes in your attic. Treasures await. You hone in on what you seek. The lid of the foot locker creaks open on its damaged hinges. A rag of stray webbing clings to the interior, and the spider lays dead atop the messy stack of comics and roleplaying modules. Peeking out is the video game guide you seek, Vermis II: Mist & Mirrors . The rediscovery of Vermis ignited your curiosity, and you thought of the sequel you bought but never remember playing. You can't find the game disc in the foot locker. Good enough for now, you think, I can dig through the guide and pick up a copy later. You sit down on a cardboard box, flipping the cover open.   The knells of the bell echo along the endless corridors. The mist engulfs everything. Those glassy eyes that chase you wherever you go are none but your own. You eagerly devour the age-faded pages, losing track of time in the quiet attic, finding yourself in the world of th...
Read more

Mork Borg Session: Rotblack Sludge

Image
The Accursed Den (but upside down) Rotblack Sludge is the introductory adventure included in the Mork Borg core book. It's well-suited to a one-shot, as are the ones created by Mork Borg's DNGNGN . I ran it for 3 players, using 2 characters each in case of a high body count. This report will include spoilers, obviously.  The players: Kelly Quinn Dylan Our heroes:   Quaker Mary the Dark Traveler. Occult Herbmaster, cowardly and prone to substance abuse. (Kelly) Doctor Dizzy the escaped cultist. Esoteric Hermit, alcoholic and extremely loud with a phlegm problem. (Kelly) Dun Kirk the Zweihander-wielding Gutterborn Scum. Wasteful, ruthless, and stutters when he lies (constantly). (Quinn) Roman the repugnant. Esoteric Hermit, vindictive and lazy. (Quinn) Chastity Goodfellow the Rotten Nihilist. Occult Herbmaster, former slave of a witch, shrewd and giggly. Has 4 monkey companions named Caligula, Nero, Ivan, and Mary, Queen of Scots. (Dylan) *Scream of a dying man* (the actual soun...
Read more

Ref Tips for Running Tower of the Stargazer

Image
I'm a big fan of Tower of the Stargazer (you can read my review here ). I think it's an excellent introductory adventure, and it gives a lot of good tips to help a Ref run it. I used some of the suggestions in the commentary and added a few things of my own. Each challenge was tense, and the way my players went about exploring the tower ended up finishing the adventure with a big bang . Since there's so much to do in the tower, I'd highly recommend prepping beforehand, so here are the things I did that came in handy. Here are the steps I recommend taking based on my experience with the adventure: Pre-read the adventure Print a copy of maps to reference without flipping through the adventure constantly Highlight things such as interactive items within rooms, treasure values, traps, etc. to find quickly among larger blocks of text Use my Treasure Checklist while running the adventure You'll also need to make several decisions: Make an interesting advent...
Read more

The LotFP d6 Skill System

Image
My chief design philosophy, and the way I play at the table can be summed up as "Memorable, Minimal, Metal." I don't like to juggle a lot of rules. The main elements of OSR games are combat and skill rolls. Combat rolls are pretty straightforward, so we're going to take a look the d6 skill system works, problems that may arise from it and how to solve those problems. As someone who grew up with 2nd edition AD&D I was used to skills being incredibly granular and using a lot of different methods of resolution. It seemed natural to me, having first encountered that approach, that complexity and verisimilitude were the best rules philosophy. Moving on to 3e, it was better (blasphemy!), but there was still a skill for everything and they tended to discourage creativity through their strict codification of what was possible with or without a given skill. By comparison, the d6 skill system is much more general, open-ended and quick at the table. Description and gam...
Read more

Dark Lord Blood, Servant of Satan

Image
Inspired by this compilation of old Satanic Panic videos from the Found Footage Festival, featuring a fly brother by the name of Dark Lord Blood.   Once upon a time, there was a kind, sensitive child named Christian. He came from a poor family who worked a farm that never seemed to be able to produce more than just enough to survive another winter. Knowing that there was no future they could give their son, his parents found a sympathetic butcher with no children of his own who agreed to take Christian as an apprentice alongside his other young ward, Blake.   Alas, his master favored Blake, following tradition and respecting his longer term of service. Christian was heartbroken and could take no more. He fled from his village, desperate for a way to prove himself, or perhaps to plot revenge on Blake, who had bullied him in secret and taken the only chance Christian had to raise his station in life and provide for his parents. It was not long before the young ...
Read more