More Vornheim Npc's

Still working on the hex map.
In the meantime here are some more wacky Npc's!

Giselle of Storn

 

Known as the rabbit princess among detractors,

Giselle is the sole owner of the Shrieking Orb, a tavern frequented by poets, scholarly snake readers and dabblers in the arcane. 

She is an enthusiastic collector of slow pets and rabid political activist, seeking greater rights for the women of Vornheim. Women of means and status of course.

"Women are the future of Vornheim. Men are the future of nothing."

The Monkey Man

Once a famous street performer. Now too old for juggling and acrobatics, he tells stories to children. To adults too, if they can pay his price.

Nobody knows were the Monkey gets his news. Some speculate he has deals with the high class courtesans on the flower boats. Others believe he is the fabled beggar king, with a network of street urchins and deformed beggars raking in gossip and secrets. Maybe he works for the Wyvern himself.

He usually walks the streets unmolested, from dawn till dusk, bringing joy to kids everywhere and troubled sleep to men and women with secrets worth hiding.

"Mmm... let me think, how did that story go again..."

My Vornheim

Weird, my last contact with old school D&D dungeon crawling or even wilderness hexcrawling was in the glorious 2nd edition days of beloved T$R.

And yet, I've been following with great interest the whole OSR movement. Of course, me being a pagan and shameless heretic, and never really getting into D&D in the first place, I decided to ignore most of the stuff they put out and use the awesome Legends of Anglerre tome and a few great, idea-sparking OSR products, to plot a traditional hexcrawling, sandbox campaign.

One such brilliant product is Vornheim the complete city kit. You will find a ton of blogs reviewing it all over the net, so i won't go into it here.

The idea is to use this blog to sporadically post stuff about the campaign, hopefully helping me to visualize and keep my notes and musings in an easy to reference place.

Enough blather, here is a location of interest and my first NPC. A cool hexmap to follow!

The Maw

A chasm of howling winds stretches wide in the southeastern quarter of Vornheim,
blocking the travellers way.

Many Bridges, built by tyrants past are now skeletal ruins swaying gently in the icy breeze. Black chains cris-cross the gap over the bottomless darkness below.

Madmen called chaingliders will ferry you across on contraptions not unlike gondolas mated to bird shaped gliders. Ingenious wheeled hooks latch on to the chains, employed to keep the gliders aloft when the winds fail. Just where the winds come from and why many a chainglider carries flaming spears is a mystery best left undiscovered.

Robur the Torturer

 

A nice guy really. Unfortunate profession, but his lack of social graces, not to mention how weird he looks, really restricted his career choices.

Currently employed in Lord Thrain's "guest tower"

      

My mama told me that sticks and stones can harm ya, but words never will. 
She was kinda right. Mostly use hot pokers meself.

Random Gonzo setting Extravaganza

Not dead yet!

The following tables feature traits suitable to most anime or "kitchen sink" campaigns in the same vein of Waste World or Rifts.

Roll some bones, and behold the seeds of your very own bizzarro campaign world!


SETTING GENRES (Roll 1d12 once, reroll duplicates)

1) Arabian Nights
2) Cyber/Bio/Steam-punk
3) Planetary Romance
4) Wuxia!
5) Sword & Sorcery
6) Samurai japan
7) Heroic Fantasy
8) Space Opera
9) Post-Apocalypse
10) Modern Urban Fantasy
11) Arthurian Knights
12) Roll twice!


SETTING ELEMENTS (roll 1d12 twice, reroll duplicates)

1) Psionics
2) Dinosaurs
3) Mecha
4) Flying Island's
5) Lovecraft Monsters
6) Odd people in Charge (Cat-girls, Lizard-men, Demons etc.)
7) Aliens
8) Magitech
9) Undead
10) Interdimensional Rifts
11) Forgotten Empires of the golden age
12) Roll twice!


SETTING THEMES (Roll 1d12 once, reroll duplicates)

1) With great power comes great trouble
2) History is a process of decline and rebirth
3) The lot of the common folk is misery and death
4) The "divine right" of the powerful is a lie
5) Our admirable qualities inevitably grow monstrous and destroy us
6) Nothing is impossible for the truly audacious
7) Nothing lasts forever
8) Cultures are quite innovative in responding to their circumstances
9) Beliefs and reality seldom match
10) Growth and compassion blossom in fields of sorrow
11) Love conquers all
12) Roll twice!

FU Sword & Sorcery Hack

Stealing liberally from Barbarians of Lemuria i came up with the following descriptors:

• Race/Culture
• First Career
• Past Career
• Current Career
• Edge
• Flaw

 Conditions: Drunk, Drugged, Hungry, Thirsty, Stunned, Bleeding, Exhausted, Unconscious, Poisoned, Freezing, Heat stroke.

Careers of course stand for the multiple, typical S&S professions that pulpy heroes engage in their eventful lives.

Here is a sample character. Samriel of the Red Hills, a scribe before the recent fall of his country, he was sold as a skilled slave by foreign conquerors and learned to rely on his wits. Making "nothing comes to he who does not take what he wants" his personal motto. Escaped from his masters thanks to series of fortuitous circumstances, he is now ready to face the world on his own terms.

• Race/Culture: Namoran
• First Career: Scribe
• Past Career: Slave
  
• Current Career: Thief
  
• Edge: Honest face
  
• Flaw: Spendthrift
  

Drives: Samriel was from a wealthy family back home, he will not be satisfied by mere baubles like his colleagues. He is waiting for the big score, meanwhile spending all his hard earned cash to live among the luxuries of the nobles. If only for a night.

FU Rpg

I was trying yet again to wrap my head around Heroquest 2 just last week. Love the concepts, reaally want to grok it, but then i look at PDQ and Risus, and ask myself: why bother? Heroquest 2 is definetly not K.I.S.S. friendly.

On the other hand, while i did not grasp the whole of Heroquest, it really helped me in understanding conflict resolution as opposed to task resolution. I want to try the former in my games but the aforementioned PDQ & Risus seem more slanted towards the latter.

Hmm.. should i mod them to try conflict res? Risus can do it anyway, with a little work.

Enter FU, a narrative gem by Nathan Russel, i discovered but recently while browsing RPGnet.

Learn more about, and download a free! pdf of the game at PerilPlanet.

In my next post i will write out a Fu Hack and post a completed character.

D100 Wuxia Keywords

A list of 100 concepts, adjectives, characters and objects that feature prominently in the Wuxia genre.

Hope it proves useful in sparking ideas for overworked GM's!

1. Moxibustion/Acupunture
2. Green/Jasmine tea
3. Shaolin monk
4. Buddishm
5. Legalism
6. Tao
7. Feng-shui
8. Geomancer
9. Yin/Yang
10. Magistrate
11. Celestial Emperor
12. Prefecture
13. District
14. Imperial Bureaucracy
15. Imperial edict
16. Elixir/Peaches of Immortality
17. Calligraphy
18. Enunch
19. Jade
20. Chi
21. Pearl
22. Dragon
23. Silk
24. Wisteria
25. Tax collector
26. Clerk/accountant
27. Gong
28. Seal
29. Literary examinations
30. Brush
31. Inkstone
32. Filial Piety
33. Chi Imbalance
34. Alchemy
35. Pressure points
36. Brothel
37. Gambling Hall
38. Courtesan/Prostitute
39. Wulin
40. Brothers of the Green Wood (Highwayman)   
41. Calabash
42. Confucius
43. Buddhist rosary
44. Hungry Ghost
45. Butterfly sword
46. Cloud Leaping
47. Peerless martial artist
48. Old Master
49. Rice & pork
50. Noodles
51. Animal Martial styles
52. Poisoned Needles
53. Oiled Paper screen (window)
54. Laquer screen
55. War Horse
56. Border and customs Checkpoint
57. Fan
58. Robe
59. Criminal underworld
60. String of coppers
61. Great Poet
62. Gifted Painter
63. Wise Scholar
64. Exorcist monk
65. Ringed staff
66. Concubine
67. First wife
68. Imperial army
69. Retired general
70. Troubled Princess
71. Old family retainer
72. Incense
73. Temple
74. Gold bar
75. Jewels
76. Four seasons clothes chests                                    
77. Gu zheng (long zither)
78. Warring States/kingdoms
79. Adultery
80. Opium/Wine
81. Imperial treasure
82. River barge
83. Junk ship
84. Duenna
85. Incense Clock
86. Dinasty
87. Murderous revenge
88. Lotus
89. Bamboo
90. Chopsticks
91. Forbidden Love
92. Sedan Porters
93. Ancient records
94. Tattoos
95. Uncouth barbarians
96. Pharmacist
97. Go
98. Festivals
99. Lunar calendar
100. Hostels & inns