Infernal Growth #2 Post-Session writeup

Second session follows immediately after the first. We were able to go a lot longer, this time, and really get to try out the combat system.against Deiter, who quite nearly killed a few of the Cutters.

As usual, spoilers ahead for the module Internal Growth. I'm running it in the system it was built for, Incunabuli.

 

***

The Cast:

 

- Olaf Olivier of Sorelle, body snatcher. Wants to Get in and Get Out.

 

- Finnegan Fisk of Fror, Firlish Ironmonger. Allegedly cursed by the Other (I keep forgetting to invoke said curse. Immediately lost interest in the assignment when he realized it wasn't the Other, specifically.

 

- Lee Linch of Long Eave, Disorderly, butterfingers. Surrendered her pistolette at Finnegan after he pointed out that she wasn't even qualified to use it.

 

- Aiden Cutler, New on the Scene, Was late enjoying a full Firlish Breakfast

- Padre Faustino Calderon Capard, Algoran Priest/Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film. (His player watched Wicked part 1 instead of joining us for this expedition.

***

When last we left off, the gang was licking their wounds in the dining room. the Padre went out for a laudanum break and Aiden Cutler sauntered in. Aiden voted to go downstairs, which broke the tie regarding the up or down question.

On the way down the staircase to the first level, Olaf spotted the trapped stair and Finnegan poked it with his horseshoe, but in the dim light failed to spy the tripwire. He proclaimed it safe to step on, which meant that Lee Linch was the unlucky customer who received the Kilkamessus vagus exposure. This was merely the start of a series of unfortunate events for our dear Cutters. 

 

 All but one of the doors on the first floor were locked tight. Lee Linch attempted to pick two of them, to no avail, but Aiden found the hoarhead candy in the rubber jacket and decided to try on the goggles, and finding he liked them, kept them. Olaf started down the stairs, but finding them too dark for comfort, sent Finnegan Fisk to fetch one of the lanterns from the second-floor kitchen.

 

I rolled poorly when it came to the random encounters, and so the cutters were completely unhindered.

 

Finnegan was able to grab one of the lanterns, while avoiding the pelican, and sprinted back as fast as he could, meaning that the cutters could make it down to the basement with at least a smidgen of light. Olaf, Finnegan and Aiden chose to check out the basement while Lee fiddled with the locks upstairs, because everyone loves splitting the party.

 

On the way down, Olaf paused to ogle the Pilomisis aerugo growing alongside where the banister might be, and once in the basement, she, Finnegan and Aiden wasted no time beelining for Dieter, and (perhaps correctly) judged him (and perhaps the good professor Manx) to be a compulsive onanist from his mutterings. Their attempts to bully the massive ragman into surrendering to the constabulary with racially charged epithets went about as well as could be expected, and Dieter, after missing with his first attacks, nearly killed Finnegan in the second round, fracturing his right arm and causing the ironmonger to fall unconscious with his cloud of poison spores. Olaf ran upstairs to grab Lee as Aiden stabbed Dieter repeatedly, and I rolled a flat d12 per turn that the heat lamp was tipped over to represent the risk of a sudden fire. 

 

The Cutler remained the main source of damage for the rest of the fight. Dieter was surrounded, and though the clouds of poison spores were a deterrent, these cutters are a fairly suicidal bunch. Dieter had barely made it to the stairs when he was on the brink of death, though as I'm writing this now, I realize that I was forgetting to roll for shock when he reached his maluses, but regardless (at 18 stress!), the big man began to beg for his life. The cutters were struck by a sort of pity, and let him go afterwards, and join the random encounter table.

 

The nest feels a little emptier, now

 

 

Afterwards, with everyone very banged up, and hoping for stitches, the gang retreated back up to the kitchen in search of food. Olaf Olivier, correctly assuming that the giant bird must also have giant eggs, chucked her bottle of chloroform at the pelican, hitting it straight in the chest, while dosing it with more than enough to render the bird unconscious. She stole an egg, and realizing that nobody had checked under the platter, decided to be the person who would. She opened it up, and was surprised by the cheese which then proceeded to knock her in the chest with enough force to get a knock out in one round, which is where we ended our session.

The Gang ends this session in the same room as last time, but much more poorly off.

 

***

Two sessions in a week is essentially unheard of, in my games. I assume the other shoe will drop soon and I'll find it impossible to get two people in a room together until after January, but we'll have to see.

 

Coming back in the morning to review this, I have a laundry list of mistakes I made while running the game. That's to be expected, I've never run this system before, and probably my biggest flaw as a GM is that my notes suck, so it's good to have writeups like this, done immediately after to give me a little boost to the memory-bits.

Kilkamessus

Kilkamess

Infernal Growth #1 Post-Session Writeup

Originally, I wrote this just for the Incunabuli subreddit, but giving half a thought, might as well put this on the blog, too. 

Incunabuli is a fantastic system. I love every bit of it, and Benton's writing is beautiful and haunting and atmospheric in a way that I wish I had the words to describe. 

Short review/play by play of my group's antics follows, spoilers for the Venture Infernal Growth ahead.

***

A few days ago I commented that I was about to run Internal Growth for my group, and I remember being asked for an update after we finished. So here goes:

We only finished one floor of the dungeon before we ran out of time (we're not fast gamers), but everyone pretty unanimously decided that we'd like to continue it later. I, for one, am really excited to see how the system handles longer-form games. The growth of characters is really baked in in an interesting way that I haven't really seen before. Well, it's kinda like Call of Cthulhu, but I like how it's applied to a more "dungeon-gamey" ruleset.

Anyways! Cast of the adventure included:

- Olaf Olivier of Sorelle, body snatcher. Perhaps the cutter most concerned with getting in and out alive. Chose to keep the extra 2P the adventure grants cutters instead of buying more gear.

- Finnegan Fisk of Fror, Firlish Ironmonger. Stands strong against Aveth and the Other, completely lacking in Taste, Exhaustion, and Faith alike. Really enjoyed being Cursed.

- Lee Linch of Long Eave, Human Disorderly. Good-looking, well kept, courageous to the point of foolhardiness and very quick on the draw.

- Padre Faustino Calderon Capard, Alagoran Priest. Only 20 years old and on his first venture, but already phthisic with consumption and overuse of laudanum. Also an alcoholic, but that doesn't stop him from trying to convert his fellows.

***

The gang chose to ignore the police and start with the front door, figuring that the class disparities between the two of them were too wide to bother with small talk beyond the traditional "Pig/Cutter" call and response. The Padre pushed it open, and the crew spread out into the Spore Parlor.  Finnegan grabbed one of the tanks of Kerosene and Lee the ceremonial helmet Professor Manx had earned in his studies while the Padre pondered the taxonomy tree of fungi.

The gang tossed around the idea of burning the house down and calling it a day, but decided to keep that plan on the backburner, just in case things got out of hand. Mint, whose first name I decided was Regenald, overheard the discussion from the next room and timidly asked who these strangers who they were and where was Manx. Olaf pressured him for a puff of the hookah and Lee informed the mouse that he was in grave danger and must leave immediately, leading to Mint's arrest.

The group moved into the dining room, examining the delicacies on display (only Olaf partook), but avoiding the Cheese in the platter. I guess they suspected that something horrible lay there and chose to not risk the trap. Padre Faustino examined the berries on the vine in the corner, splitting them between everyone before he and Finnegan searched the kitchen. The cutters took a brunch break, and the Padre gave himself communion, then drank a little of the wheat alcohol on the side.

Finnegan took the lead after lunch, walking up the back door and tearing off the note, revealing the giant pelican nesting outside. The cutters quibbled over the best course of action for two turns, and eventually, as the argument grew louder and louder, the mighty bird made their decision for them, breaking through the door and striking at the crew. 

Luckily for them, Finnegan and Lee (whose words had slipped from whisper to shout in the first place) were able to dodge the pelican's first strike. The rest of the group fled back, past the kitchen and into the dining room. Lee pulled out her pistolette and fired, but the gun jammed and misfired, so the crew fled, and barricaded themselves in the dining room, which is where we ended our session.

The cutters courageously cower in the dining room after fleeing certain death by Greater Holm Sea Pelican

***

I don't know if I'll write up another one of these for the next session. Looking back, we didn't do very much. We had several technical difficulties that really ate into our time and previously had to delay this session for several days, but there was a nearly universal agreement that we'd continue the dungeon in more spontaneous sessions later. I had an amazing time running this system, and my players enjoyed it, too. 

It hangs nicely in the balance of crunchy and open-ended, and the setting ties very nicely together with the ruleset, resulting in a rich, distinct flavor that's not too unlike a well-aged wine... Or cheese, in this case.

it's on the tip of my tongue

I've been in an AD&D play by post for a couple months now, and it's been a lot of fun.

But, personally, I'm a classless type of girl. I recently masticated WFR 4e, and I think it's really cool, close to the sort of game I like to play.

There was a cool character pack pdf that gave a lot of options to develop one's character. Age, children, zodiac sign, poor hygiene. Really fun stuff. I like that in games.

I tried adapting it to a glog/into the odd-styled game, but something wasn't clicking. Ruleslite games are really fun, but sometimes I don't want simplicity. I like systems to really tie together, and it feels weird to generate pages of family and character bits when the actual game is about 2 pages long.

So what's wrong? What am I missing?

I started running Call of Cthulhu. It's honestly way better than I remembered it. One thing, I think, could really stand to be improved: I like how it really forces you to build up your Investigator, but I think that it's missing that Character Pack that WFR provides. Idk. Maybe I can adapt it.

I was in a car wreck today and the facts of my life flashed before my eyes. I don't want my memes and ideas to die with me so they must be spread. Here's a new idea, a new setting inspired by conversation on Phlox's discord months and months ago. I don't know if anyone did anything else with the ideas, I'll figure it out after I publish this piece of shit.

LICHJAMMER LICHJAMMER LICHJAMMER LICHJAMMER LICHJAMMER

from Everythings

All mages are completely and totally madhouse crazy and are arguably not even human anymore. This is because magic mutates and irradiates the shit out of you. Wizard blood is called orchalicum. It's full of magical radiation and everyone wants it. You can bring shit to life by pumping orchalicum through it. This is how pretty much all Jammers are made. A -jammer suffix denotes some sort of vehicle that traverses through space. THAT'S RIGHT IT'S IN SPACE MOTHERFUCKERS SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE!!!!! Bloodjammers are vampiric, psi-jammers vampiric but for mental powers, spelljammers use spell slots and lichjammers use souls.

 

Wizard skin is contains less magical radiation than orchalicum but is really good at holding magic in. If you want to make spellbooks and scrolls, you'd best get used to flaying your enemies; it's a fact of life.

Wizard brains hold all of the spells and arcane knowledge and memories of the pathetic worm you just defeated, so you better go ahead gobble that shit up if you want to keep ahead of the curve.

Wizard bones are used to make everything else.

All the parts of the wizard stilll contain a bit of will, which makes them slightly immune to other magic. All of the best liches wear the skin of their enemies and have fortified their dungeon-fortresses with the rest of their bodies. Cursed items, however, are bits with a little bit more will than normal, who resent being made into tools to just be wielded. They're also slightly better at repelling other magic.

"But why's it called LICHJAMMER?" I can already hear your pathetic mewling through the screen. It's because all Magic-Users either die of magic cancer when they reach level 9 or they become LICHES!!!! IT'S A CHOICE!!! It's totally up to you!!! EVERYONE PICKS LICH, THOUGH, because OF COURSE THEY DO!!!!!! WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO DIE LIKE A BITCH WHEN YOU CAN RULE FOREVER IN THE HEAVENS!!!!!!!

LICHSPACE IS a crumbling hellsystem fought over by countless liches, worshipped as god-tyrants by however many human survivors they keep in whatever territory they control. MAGIC is more powerful in SPACE because there's no LIFE WASTING IT THERE!!!! Most terrestrial planets have been DESTROYED by EPIC LEVEL SPELLS SO THERE's really only ONE that can NOMINALLY SUPPORT LIFE without ARCANE INTERVENTION

However there's like, four-to-six GAS GIANTS ORBITING around THIS DIM, DUSTY WRECK OF A STAR SYSTEM AND BETWEEN THE LOT OF THEM? Like AT LEAST THREE DOZEN PARTIALLY HABITABLE MOONS WITH EASILY a dozen liches fighting over EACH OF THEM.

It's not ALL totally completely HORRIBLE, though... THERE's gotta be HUNDREDS of HEROIC PLayer-CHARACTER-types flying around the place, ready to turn into GOOD, BENEVOLENT LICHES AS SOON AS THEY HIT THAT MAGICAL LEVEL. I'm sure NOBODY has THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE!!!!

The Schoule Master, a GLOG class

Schoule is a bit like a combination of every sport or field game you can think of. Most versions include a point-scoring basket or post of some sort in a central part of each town, and one or more inflated pig’s bladders as balls. It is often played on  east days or if the weather is fair during the fallow season.


The Schoule Master takes it way too seriously.

You train all year for the chance to show the surrounding villages the true meaning of pain.



Backgrounds: Bully, Blacksmith, Distracted Scholar

Starting Equipment: Schouleball, custom shoulder pads and helmet (as leather), a long pole, staff, bat, racquet or glove.

A: Like A Greased Pig, Rally

B: Catfall

C: An Unstoppable Object

D: Tactics, Encourage

+1 to Movement and +1 to hit with Ranged attacks every template


A: Like a Greased Pig

You have Advantage to escape grapples from opponents.

A: Rally

Add +[level] to Hireling and Follower Morale Saves.


B: Catfall

You treat falls as if they were 20’ shorter. If you are knocked prone, you can Save to immediately spring to your feet.


C: An Unstoppable Object

If you spend an entire turn moving, you can push through an enemy's space without triggering an attack of opportunity


D: Tactics:

Yell some advice at an ally, who may make an additional attack. This uses your action.

If your party is made up of multiple Schoule Players, you may use this feature to make your attacks at the same time, choosing who uses which roll.

D: Encourage

Once per day, yell especially effective encouragement, healing your allies for 1d4 HP.

                                            from wikipedia
 

 One of my players wanted to play a character "like Jordan Love." So here's a class to play the dungeon-crawling quarterback of your fancy. Heavily inspired by the Tactician from Goblin Guts.

magic the fool

Wizards are deluded -- this has been done before.

Wizards are master convincers.

Thousands of years of groundwork lain to allow spells to be cast easily enough with "magic words" and compenents.

Spells and schools as Points, centers of the universe.

A wizard convinces the entirety of everything that something impossible is actually the center of everything, and logic.

They give their case, showcasing sometimes an object, oftentimes gesture, almost always speak out a summary of their argument.

And everything believes them.

So it happens. A fireball explodes into existence, a girl's skin turns blue, someone disappears.

Magic

Once you Name something, it changes, and you have power over it. It becomes easier to understand in its whole. Simplified. Easy. Spells hate languages and contemplating minds on a visceral level. Those bastards would pull them through their aperture-senses, into their inland empires, mindscapes. Spells are cast as an escape, but a pale copy always remains; the mind is haunted by what was forgotten.

It is said by some, that the universe is folded in on itself, and we are merely its tiny sensory protrusions.

If that is so, then the spells are always free, and our delusions have spread to them. Do they return, or did they never leave?

GLOG Class: The Obsessive Mutantist

I'm currently running a megadungeon game, and I love mutations. They're just fun. So, after I built up a series of ruins filled with trolls and flail snails with a big, mutatory pond at the center, I decided to have an additional non-diagetic reward for the party that uses said pond.

Introducing the Mutantist, which is basically Skerples' biomancer with the wizard filed off. I don't like wizards. I mean, I love them. But they bug me.

I like to use the Metamorphica for mutations, it's just already got so many, why fix what isn't broke?

Obsessive Mutantist

Starting Gear: 2 black thumb rings, a spotty past, 3 benign tumors, 3 random potions of the same type, a dark cloak, a sharp knife and a book on biology
Starting Skills: Alchemy, Eid* Lore, Poetry

A: A New Taste, +1 Mutation Dice

B: Waste Not Want Not, +1 MD

C: Defense Mechanism, +1 MD

D: Panaceatic Flesh, +1 MD

Every time you take another template of Mutantist, gain 1d4 mutations.

A: A New Taste

Taste Blood to tell what sort of creature it came from. [Template]-in-6 to know additional details about the creature, such as its current health/disposition, what diseases it is currently carrying, or its rough current position, relative to you.

A: Mutation Dice

Mutation dice are d4s, and allow you to do any of 4 effects when spent:

• Infantilize
• Affects a creature of [dice] x 4 HD or less, for [sum] minutes.
• Target Saves or becomes an adorable, if slightly eerie, child version of itself. Creatures lose 1 HD (-6 max HP, -1 to hit, -1 to Save). The target's Strength is halved. The target is now so adorable that all who see it must Save the first time they try to harm it or hesitate. If they fail this Save, they can act normally the next round.
• Monsterize
• Affects any 0 HD creature, for [sum] minutes. Target vermin (rat, scorpion, termite, etc) becomes huge and aggressive.
• HD: [dice]x2
• Attack: [dice]+d10
• Defense: 12 (as leather)
  
• Monstrified vermin attack the nearest foe, and casters usually throw the vermin as they cast this spell. Works on goblins and other low HD monsters. If you invest 4 [dice], the creature also mutates.
• Make Delicious
• Affects a creature of [dice] x 4 HD, for [sum] amount of time (varies depending on the amount of MD spent on effect:. 1 [dice]: minutes, 2 [dice]: hours, 3 [dice]: days, 4 [dice] weeks).
• Target creature smells and tastes delicious for the spell's duration. The smell radiates 20' in calm air, but can spread via wind or leave a trail. Sentient creatures can usually resist the urge to eat the target without a Save, but animals and other ravenous creatures must Save or select the effect’s target as their primary attack target. Insects will be attracted to the target for the effect's duration. The target may Save at the end of each duration interval to negate the effects This effect can also affect dead creatures
• Mutate
• Affects a single target for [sum] amount of time (varies depending on the amount of MD spent on effect:. 1 [dice]: minutes, 2 [dice]: hours, 3 [dice]: days, 4 [dice] weeks).
• Target gains [dice] random mutations. Save negates, Save once per mutation. If the creature chooses to fail its Save, roll double the number of mutations, and the caster chooses which half are gained. At the end of the duration, the target must Save for every mutation they have. If they fail, the Mutation continues past the usual duration, and may be permanent.

There is a 1-in-10 chance that any of these effects will be permanent

Mutation Dice are “spent” on a roll of 3-4, and return to your dice pool on a roll of 1 or 2. If two dice show the same result, you gain a Mishap as shown by the following table:

Mishaps (Doubles):

1. Lose 1d4 hp as a series of ticks, flinches and twitches are set off.
2. Random Mutation for 1d4 rounds. Save or it becomes permanent.
3. Agony for 1d4 minutes as your organs churn and twist.
4. Ravenous Hunger. You cannot act normally until you consume ¼ your body weight in edible material.

If you roll 3 or more MD with the same number, your “Doom” track advances, according to this order.

Dooms (Triples or quadruples):

1. Your Appearance and Mutations painfully randomize over the course of 24 hours.
2. Each Day, as you awake, Save or gain a new Mutation. As you lay down to rest, Save again or the Mutation becomes permanent.
3. Over the course of a week (5 days), you develop into a ravenous protoplasmic blob known as an eidling drake.

B: Waste Not Want Not

Whenever you drink a potion (or any other substance not consumed for homeostasis, really), you have a 50% chance to recycle the substance. It must be disgorged from the orifice of your choice within 10 minutes.

C: Defense Mechanism

When an attack hits, you can choose to make it miss by sloughing off your skin, which regrows over the course of a Cirnight*.

D: Panaceatic Flesh

Your Hit Points return at a rate of 1 per 10 minutes. As long as you consume double rations, your lingering injuries heal at double the usual rate, and your limbs can be regrown at the rate of one per Season.

(from Everythings)

A lot of this references setting stuff. I might make a post on that later. Anyways, I think this class is a sort of glass cannon, like, using your mutation dice is almost guaranteed to render you into hungry mulch.