Unique Pet Companions for Your Adventurer's

I see lots of magical items, now for some low-magic tiny animals...

Metal worm – eats through small amounts of metal such as a within a keyhole or the clasp of a chain once per day before becoming full, prefers it rusty. Can be taught to eat through other substances as trained.

Honeyed bee – a bee both larger than normal and more intelligent than normal, when surrounded by wildflowers will return and make honey for the owner it is devoted to. Can be selectively trained to collect certain wildflowers each level, with the resultant honey beneficial for being a salve to wounds, detecting poisons, or flavouring drinks, etc.

Listening spider – spins a small amount of web once per day that transmits the smallest vibrations and allows you to determine basic speech or sounds detected at the other end of the web. Generates increasingly more complex structures with it’s web as it is trained.

Shifting newt – raised amongst Moon Ruins the newt momentarily disappears then reappears nearby when touched. Can be taught to disappear and reappear with increasingly complex instructions as trained.

Singing cricket – can be taught a single word or short tune it then repeatedly produces on command. Number of words and tunes increases with training.

Pinecone firefly – has a small spark capable of igniting flammable materials on contact. Needs to be kept in a jar without training, but training improves the command and range it can fly. 

Tolkein's Little People in TTRPGs

The Fellowship Leaving Rivendell - Ted Nadsmith (2002)

“You are a very fine person, Mr Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!” – Gandalf (towards the end of the Hobbit)

 

In an attempt to get off my Youtube addiction I have made a conscious effort to try and listen to more podcasts lately. In doing so, I have come across “Gone Medieval”, where two or more academic scholars talk about events or aspects of that most delicious thousand year period.

 

The most recent one focused on the medieval influences found in Tolkien’s writings, and provided much food for thought regarding how we approach TTRPGs. In particular was a part of the conversation on how Bilbo is chosen as the least likely to adventure, and even after he adventures is humbled by Gandalf to remind him he is still a little person in a big world despite his achievements.

 

Part of Tolkien’s appeal is that his works position the ‘Little People’ – those not of any great skill, might or valour – at the heart of the story. This is in stark contrast to other works such as the Arthurian legends, Nordic Sagas or Beowulf. This makes it more easy to associate with his characters. Reflecting on RPGs, it seems relevant to think where we are trying to position our characters in the world. 

 

These fantastical, larger than life heroes such as Conan shine in the Old School style of play, but Old School play also has the versatility to tell tales about the down and out, inconsequential knaves who disappear into dungeons to not be seen again. Modern playstyles purport to tell the tales of Little People (often quite literally), but through game design turn these little people into mighty plane-traversing heroes. For my own RPG, I would love to keep the Hobbits as Hobbits – to humble the heroes. This means telling tales of the small folk, but also guarding against power creep.

 

A Simple Party Name Generator

Always add garnish. It's free. Here is some garnish for your party below. Particularly useful if running solo campaigns with a party. Runs the risk of getting attached to the poor bastards. 

Combine ingredients below...

1d6 Colour (Black, Purple, Vermillion, Ashen, Puce, Crimson)

1d6 Arcane (Smoking, Demon, Ritual, Inked, Mystic, Tomb)

1d6 Descriptors (Unexpected, Unwelcome, Eager, Bumbling, Swift, Clever)

1d6 "Of" (Chosen of, Out of, Order of, Conclave of, Seekers of, Banished of)

1d6 Metals (Iron, Brass, Copper, Bronze, Gold, Silver)

1d6 Monsters (Banshee, Manticore, Dragon, Kobold, Goblin, Ooze)

1d6 Evocative  (Velvet, Ice, Flaming, Silken, Broken, Ancient)

AND

1d6 Fate (Request, Revenge, Gasp, Promise, Luck, Undertakers)

1d6 Jokers (Jokes, Liabilities, Blessing, Curses, Fools, Scoundrels)

1d6 Body (Teeth, Scars, Hearts, Eyes, Fists, Feet) 

1d6 Items (Hammers, Wineskins, Goblets, Nails, Sacks, Scrolls)  

1d6 Travel related (Wanderers, Vagabonds, Travellers, Companions, Riffraff, Drifters)  

1d6 Animal (Bears, Wolves, Ravens, Cats, Dogs, Badgers)  

1d6 Weapon (Axes, Blades, Knives, Arrows, Shields, Spears)

Examples...

The Vermillion Blades

The Tomb Drifters

The Unexpected Liabilities

The Conclave of Badgers

The Copper Promise

The Velvet Fists

*Bonus Tavern Related: The Last Call, The Local Barflies, Dungeon Dreggs, The Cellar Rats, Empty Soldiers.

Thief Abilities

 Some humble suggestions for the ever useful thief....ahem, I mean rogue these days...

Tavern Brawler

You cannot be surprised in a tavern or bar fight, and always have first strike in these situations. Any improvised weapon is improved from 1d4 to 1d8 in your hands.

 

Fleet-Footed

Even for a thief, you are particularly agile. You may minus your Dexterity modifier (presuming it is positive) from any incoming attack. You cannot be wearing medium level armour if you are to maintain this.

 

Obtain knowledge

Allows you to gain secret information, if adequate investigations and enquiries are made, and if you are part of the local/dominant thieves guild. This may include floorplans to a residence, schedule of guard changes for the town, learn who is suspected of stealing a particular item, find a shady merchant, learn which guards may be bribed, learn where a noble stores a particular valuable item. The more secret the knowledge, the longer the amount of days it should take to obtain, e.g. Common knowledge 1 day, rare knowledge 1d6 days, secret knowledge 3d6 days. It should also cost money. It cannot be in relation to legendary or magical items that remain hidden due to magic. There is also a chance the information is incomplete or out of date.

 

Handy

You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature you are grappling, as well as against creatures that are grappling you.

 

Tavern Performer of Local Renown

Any roll related to use of your instrument or related to performance can be modified by your Charisma bonus. You can attempt to spread local rumours with a successful Charisma check through your songs, poems or performances. Every performance earns you gold from those gathered nearby (roll with advantage for gold gathered).

 

Observant

Once per day you can study an NPC or humanoid enemy for 10 minutes and may request from the Dungeon Master a single stat or weakness of your choice.

 

Mutual Understanding

You have either witnessed, lead, or been the target of interrogation before. You know just the right methods to extract information from a target. You may re-roll any failed ability roll being used during an interrogation or to forcibly extract information from a captive.

 

Spies (Follower Ability)

You can place a contact in a town or village. Once posted, the contact reports to you on anything you request that they can reasonably find out. The communication is via enchanted calligraphy scroll. You can request the agent monitor for specific occurrences, trail people, or otherwise uncover information. The dungeon master may request skill checks as appropriate.

 

Charlatan (Campfire Ability)

For any NPC interaction where you partake in a gambling or drinking game with them, you have advantage on subsequent rolls to either steal a single item, steal gold, poison them, or leave them bound and naked the next day.

 

Wizard Monikers

Wizard Monikers

 #OSR #DND 

I have always liked the idea that to know the name of someone is to have power over them. Demons can be bound by arcane knowledge of their true name, in the same way that the most powerful wizard can be rendered helpless by knowledge of their name. It also explains why wizards live in remote towers and dungeons - they have to travel far away enough from any who may know their real origin. For this reason, wizards in my games have monikers. I keep these monikers simple although you could easily begin to combine them for more gonzo or unique combinations. Each moniker helps imagine a certain image and manner to the wizard. Players are free to roll or to choose.

*My personal favourite is ' - the Hedge Mage' for conjuring up the image of a ramshackle, wandering arcane kook.

The Hedge Mage

The Ancient

The Quick

The Deceiver

The Crafty

The Wise

The Enchanting

The Duellist

The Illusionist

The Slippery

The Beautiful

The Wanted

The Learned

The Unnerving

The Ambitious

The Pyromancer

The Sharp

The Stormcloud

The Curious

The Precise

The Vagrant

The Diviner

The Philosophical

The Cloaked

The Stargazer

The Beguiling

The Conjurer

The Masterful

The Thaumaturge

The Alchemist

The Sullen

The Masterful

The Graceful

The Mystifying

The Odd

The Augur

The Veiled

The Necromancer

The Wonderous

The Oracle

A Decade's Endgame

A Decade’s Endgame

How some of the biggest movies of 2019 reflect the socio-polotical landscape of the West

I enjoy a good movie review. Often the more scathing the review, the more I enjoy reading it. Maybe it’s just because I (ashamedly) like a good bit of drama, or to feel measured because someone else feels unbalanced. Or perhaps it is because it at least means the reviewer was emotionally moved. The degree to which that movement is in line with the vision of the director is a good measure of the success of a movie, but sometimes any emotional stirring is good. However even from scathing movie reviews I often find something missing. In particular, rarely do reviewers situate a movie in it’s cultural or social framework, beyond some cursory statements. As I look back on some the movies I watched this year (Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, The Joker) I might try a feeble attempt at that.

(I will presume the reader has seen these movies and is broadly familiar with their characters and plot).

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel will be forgotten by history as just another cookie-cutter Marvel ‘superhero’ film. Its importance was overshadowed by being in the wake stream of Black Panther and swallowed up by the quick release of Avengers: Endgame after it. However, for all those who lived through its release we will be hard-pressed not to remember the social media and identity politics storm it created in it’s own short-lived wake. Much of this revolved around Brie Larson, who plays the titular character Captain Marvel as a superhero from outer space discovering her own sense of self over the course of the movie. The movie was attacked by many prominent males in social media for being too overtly ‘pro-girl’ and for promoting itself as a landmark feminist film. Critics of the film denounced it as being anything new, noting decades of strong female protagonists in film and TV (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tomb Raider, Sarah Connor in Terminator, Xena the TV series) as ‘progress’. Critics often went further however, to suggest that the advertising of this film on feminist values was somehow inherently anti-male. (You would think by 2019 opponents of feminism would have come up with a new argument, but then again change is not their strong point).

But I felt the movie did do something new – it refuted that there even was a competition between men and women, it refused to paint the feminist dialogue in terms dictated by gender. For this reason, when Jude Law in the climactic fight scene challenges a dominant Captain Marvel to fight him and she replies: “I have nothing to prove to you”, I felt she was talking more than just to Jude Law. Unlike the previous female protagonists listed above in the previous franchises, Captain Marvel is not out to compete with the men, she refutes that there is even a competition. Whilst it’s a commercialization of the feminist agenda (pro-girl movie both generates free advertising in social media and helps attract women to the superhero franchise), at least it’s an original one.   

Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame is a masterpiece of storytelling, weaving dozens of plots into a coherent and enjoyable film. Sure, it’s not a great work of ‘film’ but it certainly is a great movie once you stop asking it to be a ‘film’. If the Academy Awards were decided not by faceless elites but by how many people watched (and often re-watched) a film – then this would have swept the floor in all categories. The fil was significant not just for it’s ox office popularity, but by it’s acceptance of demographic trends and how America as a nation will see itself in coming decades. What struck me most however was that just as the movie signified an end to an decade of Marvel movies, it’s closing scenes also signified an end to ‘white’ America. Trump is in the White House, and the next US election for the first time will feature ‘white’ Americans as a minority of the population.

In the closing sequences of the movie, Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) uses a time-travel device to go back to the 1940s and re-live his life with his first love, Penny. He appears back in the present as an old man sitting on a bench. He passes his shield on to Tony Stark (aka Iron Man, and at this point  - spoiler warning) dies, with the mantle of Iron Man passing from the rich white male billionaire to those around him – notably the young Peter Parker (aka. Spiderman). Thor, the lovably destructive god of thunder, also appears to refuse the mantle of leadership of his surviving Asgardian community, deferring it to Valkyrie – a young lesbian woman of colour.

In all cases, established white men are deferring their ailing power and passing the baton onto a younger, more female, more ethnically diverse generation of heroes and heroines with smaller goals and aims. The smaller goals of it’s protagonists and their reluctance to band together and protect the world in the movie are further expressions of a smaller and more reactionary U.S. foreign policy around the world. The film signifies the passing of a generation of superheroes just as the passing of America’s view of itself as a global, white, heterosexual, male Uncle Sam is occurring in the real world.

The Joker

The Joker plays on a sense of being an ‘outsider’ in one’s own society, going some way to empathise with society’s perceived outcasts and downcast alike. The film itself inhabits a divided and at times destructive society. It frames power as being with white, educated and rich men, with society’s failings viewed through this contrast with disadvantaged, poor, uneducated, ethnically diverse characters. Apart from the other two films I have mentioned, this film is different in that it embraces an already divided society, without offering solutions for it’s cohesion or solving it’s problems apart from social unrest.

Conclusion

In 2019 all these movies demonstrate the cultural and commercial growth of identity politics in a fracturing Western world (note that I do not believe in all the doom and gloom as a ‘fracturing’ of The West, but that there is certainly a sense of this decline in the stories society is telling itself currently). They represent how increasingly this generation self-identifies with markers of ethnicity, gender, religion and sexuality.

Personally, I think identity politics is another way of dividing society. It segregates and rationalizes each of us into defined categories of ethnicity, gender, sexuality. In weakening the bonds that bind us as a society and as Western culture, it makes it easier for more powerful factions to play the society off against each other and distract from the real narrative of widening gaps between rich and poor, the retreat of empathy within our community, the control of values by mainstream media, and the resurgence of challenges abroad to a free-thinking West. All in all, we should always be wary of forces that seek to divide a community and ask ‘who benefits from our division?’. The films of 2019 have profited from selling themselves on these divisions, lamentably without raising this question.

Warhammer Returns from the Wilderness

It’s official. Henry Cavill himself is a Warhammer 40K fan, and so am I. The Witcher himself, when directly asked in an interview “Star Wars or Star Trek”, looked back at the interviewer with reprehension and incredulity, replying “Come on – Warhammer 40K”.

It coincides with my own return to the hobby after several years. I played as a kid – mostly with the Lord of the Rings miniatures at the time, and can remember running games where I played both myself and my own opponent, throwing down a green towel on the good dining room table to act as ‘grass’ and placing some books under it for artificial hills. Never have the plains of Rohan looked so stunning, and the paint jobs on the miniatures so awful.

I attempted to return to the hobby in my early twenties, seeking to assemble a glittering High Elf warhost for Warhammer Fantasy. The paint jobs were much improved, but several other things were lacking. Games Workshop was in the midst of it’s Dark Age (read: merchantilism) phase and charging an arm and a leg with no community support. Second, their lack of support was matched by the lack of enthusiasm of my girlfriend at the time. Thirdly, both those things were matched by my lack of time and money.

Flash forward to 2019 and Games Workshop had instigated their own coup and kicked out the CEO, before expanding it’s community support massively with Youtube channels, podcasts, and all round re-engagement with it’s fans. My girlfriend had become my ex-girlfriend and my new fiancé was cool enough to appreciate the painting aspect of the hobby, and my bank account had increased to that of a young professional with a massive HECS debt but no kids.

Currently I have a mildly impressive Ork warband – tough on the outside, just big “luv’able” gitz who like TA SMASH TINGS. I’ve squeezed in a few ‘Killteam’, games at my local games store and they remain undefeated. I have an aspirational squad of Eldar Rangers who I plan to turn into a Craftworld based on botany and gardens. And recently for Christmas, this particular grown young man got more plastic toy soldiers from Santa (thanks Mum and Dad), which is either incredibly uncool if I was ft and unemployed, or incredibly cool if I was not fat and had a good job and actually starting to develop some skills at painting. They are the core of a new Space Marines chapter roughly based on the Salamanders to be known as the ‘Imperial Hands” (alright, still brainstorming names) who specialize in heavy combat, and improving my painting and basing skills.

As is the varied life of a Witcher, such is mine.

Romance and Love in The Witcher

The Witcher is a game released by CD Projekt Red to popular and critical acclaim. It is a gritty, single-player fantasy where players take-on the role of Geralt, a professional monster slayer. They are based on a series of books written by the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The following thoughts concern the romantic options presented to the player in the series finale, The Witcher: The Wild Hunt (2015).

From a romantic perspective, the key decision for Geralt is between Yennefer, his long-time ‘on again, off again’ lover, and Triss, his friend who becomes his lover after he suffers from amnesia. The game allows players to make this choice for themselves. We only know of how Yennefer and Triss interact with Geralt, and the game’s perspective of them is almost entirely through the eyes of Geralt and his friends.

The stern, witty, and fierce Yennefer is the most obvious choice for the player. She has a key role in the books (that in the world’s timeline precede the games), with her introduction to the game franchise not until the third and final instalment. Despite this being the case, I was always quite certain the best choice for Geralt was the passionate, romantic, ever playful Triss.

First, the argument against Yennefer. Geralt’s relationship with Yennefer is long, but clearly strained. They go back over decades, but have had frequent periods of separation and breaks. Their relationship, despite how many times it may fall apart, manages to always fall back together. The player at the start of the game is not certain whether this may be due to a wish Yennefer made to a Djinn when they first met that they would be together, but given the history the simple comfort of familiarity could be as good an explanation.

I know in my own life, the familiarity of a relationship and a person has often seemed enough to justify the prolonging of a damaging relationship, and venture to say that others may have had the same. Something about their voice, the way your future is already planned out, the way you have shared rituals together over the laundry or the washing-up, make the thought of an alternative strange, foreign, and especially unattractive for the risk averse. When faced with the loss of all you know, you choose to return to the familiar rather than take the leap.  You choose this time and time again, always convincing yourself it is the sensible route, forgetting that your own judgment is impaired by the comfort of familiarity and the fear of the foreign. Safety, even in a relationship in which you may not be happy or are getting hurt, becomes more valuable than the relationship itself.

Geralt’s friends point this out the tumoultous nature of Geralt’s relationship with the dark-haired sorceress, to the point where critique passes into humour. Even his friends have become amusingly familiar with the tumult of the relationship. Geralt for all this time, refuses to look inward. He was a man capable of overcoming many trials and tribulations in the course of his life and his professional work (to make a living monster slaying would require nothing less), and so felt the need to rise to the challenge of making the relationship work everytime. For the ideal witcher and monster-slayer Geralt, no contract to kill any monster is too challenging. When this philosophy is applied to love however, it falters when your lover may be the monster and your words turn out to be no substitute for swords. His relationship with her was a contract he continually sought to fulfil despite, and perhaps in spite of, the incompatibility of it. To the achiever begets the challenge of the next achievement.  

When the game starts and we are introduced to Yennefer this is clear. Since returning from the Wild Hunt she has accrued power through positioning herself close to the Emperor of Nilfgard, trusting that Geralt too would turn-up eventually. Contrast this with the fact that Geralt’s sole aim initially was to find Yennefer. Yennefer’s priorities remain towards the pursuit of power, even if power may be useful in finding Ciri. She is a professional and ambitious woman. No doubt Geralt admires her drive and focus, and is perhaps partly envious of her decisiveness. But these come at the cost of her priorities. Her love for Geralt is conditional on when it is convenient. On his return from the Wild Hunt, Yennefer expects history to repeat itself, and Geralt to simply follow in his love of her.

When we consider Triss there is the misplaced temptation to suggest she is a complete foil to Yennefer. It is true Triss and Yennefer in fact share many traits. This includes a natural curiousity (especially for magic), a wit to match Geralt’s, and a sense of determination and focus. However in contrast to Yennefer, Triss’ focus is on helping others rather than accruing power. In a similar way that Geralt cannot stand by and allow an innocent to be murdered when it is within his power to act, Triss risks her own life by arranging and coordinating the dangerous clandestine evacuation of mages out of the city of Novigrad. Her drive is not towards power, but towards achieving a benefit for the greater community. Her values in this way align with Geralt.

In similar contrast to Yennefer, her love of Geralt is uncompromising and unconditional. She loves him regardless of whether she herself is loved (in fact having loved him for many years despite Geralt’s own love for Yennefer). She loves him regardless of what she gains or what may be convenient. She is counted among his best friends, and for this reason even when they are not romantically involved, they have a firm basis for a relationship still. She brings a gentleness to Geralt and tempers his drive, rather than seeking to exceed it. She is the lover Geralt needs, even if he might not realise it at first. Yennefer is the perfect match for who Geralt is. Triss is the perfect match for who Geralt is seeking to become. Choosing Triss remains one of the most character defining experiences I have had in a game, because it reflects genuine self-growth of both Geralt, and of me.

Applied to our own lives, the romantic dilemma presented to Geralt at the start of the Witcher game suggests that our relationships need to reflect our own personal aspirations. That we must answer who we seek to become before answering who we need to be with. Like in my own life, it suggests a relationship saved solely by familiarity might not be worth saving at all. It suggests we ought heed the advice of our friends, that being with someone does not guarantee they have your best interests at heart. It reminds us that friendship remains a fertile garden for love, and even the best of monster slayers may need help to slay their own. It affirms love requires maturity and self-compassion. All this in a game.

                         

It's Own Little Treasure

Captain Toad’s - Treasure Tracker Adventures is one of the most genuinely delightful games I have played. The game revolves around solving complex puzzles over a series of levels, each level with its own unique environment and challenges. It simplicity of character design allows the puzzle environment to fulfill it’s traditional and creative goals with delightful purpose.

One of the most endearing aspects of the game is that Toad & Toadette lack any real special skills. They do not have the ability to jump like Mario, or throw objects like Donkey Kong, or absorb abilities like Kirby. Quite literally all you can really do with them is move them forward, back and side to side. Their real strength is there unassuming optimism, which whilst admirable is impractical when faced with fire-breathing dragons. This forces the player to engage in the raw mechanics of the puzzle relying on timing, anticipation and a different way of seeing the word, from the perspective of the little powerless toad (or toadette).

The game quite consciously draws inspiration from the Japanese tradition of creating and managing miniature gardens, known as Hakoniwa (hako ‘box’, niwa ‘garden’). Traditionally any entrance into a traditional house in Japan would require walking through a small garden. As Japan slowly became more urbanized, newly arrived city-dwellers sought ways to both incorporate nature into their house and provide some form of union between nature and house. In an effort to provide this, small gardens in boxes became a tradition in the Japanese genkan (entrance room) where space was limited. The game draws upon this tradition beautifully, each level being a three-dimensional complex puzzle that is both aesthetically pleasing and brimming with contemplative potential.

The powerlessness of Captain Toad combined with the complexity of the world creates an aesthetically pleasing journey that meanders through puzzles where surprises and details abound. It was a game I hope one day my children might find enjoyable, but that tested my own neuronal reflexes and connections. With my girlfriend by my side suggesting solutions or sitting on the floor below me as I did the same to her, it the game managed to be both completely wholesome and completely engrossing.

Given its commercial success I look forward to future entries in the series, and given its delightful experience I might even look forward to my own hakoniwa one day.