More Treasures of Galadria
I’ve just returned from an extended trip to London, which provided plenty of inspiration for posts. While I’m getting some of them in order, though, I figured I should post an update, since it’s been quite a while. Here, then, are some more magic items from my long-running Galadria campaigns. These span the various editions; I haven’t gone through the process of updating all of them to 4e, or even to 3e, so I’ve stripped things like cost/gold value.
These particular items originate from the Mythic Asia portion of my campaign world.
Categories: My Campaigns, Original Game Content | Comments (0)
Spectacles for Your Maps
In the spirit of this month’s blog carnival on maps, I thought I’d talk a little bit about map design. Not the act of creating the actual map, although there’s plenty to be said about that; rather, the art of populating it. Not with settlements, either. With spectacles.
Spectacles are an element overlooked by many gamemasters, even experienced ones. We’ll lay out mountain ranges and rivers, forests and plains, cities and villages, political boundaries and dungeon locations. But what we sometimes forget to include are those sites that take advantage of the fantasy nature of the setting. We might have something akin to Weathertop from The Lord of the Rings, but what about the fairy tales’ giant beanstalks rising to the clouds or mountains made of glass? The mysteries of the world that inspire local legends and bardic songs?
Categories: Blog Carnival, Original Game Content | Comments (1)
How a Sorceress Becomes a Planet
Today my first article for Nevermet Press went live: the planet Nyraeve. This is my science-fiction adaptation of Wyatt Salazar’s villain, Neirave, the Sleepless Drift, who is currently “starring” in Nevermet’s cycle. To encapsulate the concept, Neirave is a fantasy-genre sorceress with an affinity for cold who managed to live on after her physical body’s death, and who is now slowly bringing an eternal winter to her region — and eventually, if she’s not stopped, to the world. Many of the articles in Nevermet’s cycle develop the concept further, providing information about locations within Neirave’s forest, for instance, or encounters that can be adapted to any fantasy game. (Nevermet Press presents systemless content.)
I’m pretty pleased with how my article came out. Getting there was half the fun.
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Mythic Japan: the Tengu
A tengu and a Buddhist monk. Print by Kyosai.
The tengu of Japanese legend is an odd creature. It seems to have started out as a type of evil spirit, specifically one opposed to Buddhism. Over the years, the priest-abducting, temple-burning bird-monster became both more humanlike and more benevolent. Tengu became mischievous, powerful creatures not unlike kitsune fox-spirits, and eventually became protectors of Buddhism, seekers of wisdom, and master swordsmen — though they retained their weakness of pride. It became common to ascribe to great swordsmen, such as Minamoto no Yoshitsune, tengu training.
Obviously they make a great addition to a game that features mythic Japanese elements.
The Kenku of D&D, which was introduced to fourth edition in the Monster Manual 2, is clearly based on the tengu, but its attributes have changed to reflect its place in D&D lore. The kenku could be used to reflect the mischievous version of the tengu, but it’s a poor match for the demons, and even for the wise blademasters.
So I used stats of my own. In 4e, they look like this:
Categories: Mythic Japan, Original Game Content | Comments (0)
Ritual of Rejuvenation
This is mostly a plot-device ritual, but I wrote it up since it came to feature pretty prominently in my game. Its purpose is to extend the life of its caster… perhaps by sinister means. This is the ritual used by evil magicians to bargain with the Raven Queen, trading others’ lives for their own — but it can also be used by a good magician, albeit less effectively.
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