I'm in the midst of playtesting Block, Dodge, Parry, and I'm doing so with a 1-on-1 campaign with a friend. The campaign centers around a dethroned noble trying to seize back control of the land he lost, and in the most recent arc, he has arrived in a border city in order to gain some … Continue reading Intrigue & Investigation: A System for Urban Suspense
I came across Cyber by Oskar Świda recently, a really neat cyberpunk version of Cairn. Since I've been playing a lot of Cyberpunk 2077 recently, and since I already made some firearms rules in the past and since I already made some new weapon tags for fantasy Into The Odd/Electric Bastionland/Cairn, I figured I'd combine … Continue reading Locked & Loaded: More Firearms for Modern Into The Odd & Similar games
I recently experimented with using pixel art to create a lo-fi (and pretty comfy) aesthetic in Foundry VTT. Let me lay it out for you! What I MadeWhy I Made ItHow I Made ItThe Pixel Art ItselfMaking The MapIntegrating it into your VTTResources Some more sample maps: And a dungeon example, based on a One … Continue reading Going Retro: Using Pixel Art on your Virtual Table Top
At the heart of Block, Dodge, Parry, the system that I'm writing, lays the Career & Skill system. The basic gist of this system is that it should be really easy to come up with a broad backstory or prompt ("A soldier who lost his favorite horse and is now a wandering minstrel, singing songs … Continue reading Block, Dodge, Parry: Careers & Skills
First off: I'm making a thing! I'm working hard on combining, tweaking, expanding, and upgrading my Cairn-related posts into a full publication. It aims to be both a toolbox you can pick-and-choose from, as well as a neat way to combine everything together to get a sort-of Advanced Cairn, if you will. I've dubbed this … Continue reading Modular Magic for Cairn
📖 This post is an expansion on my previous post.Read Mass Combat: Expanding the Army Rating system from Barbarians of Lemuria for the full context! Image credit: Casualty of War by Camille Sule I've added a casualty calculator to my original worksheet. This means you can work rising casualties into your calculation! In this case, … Continue reading Mass Combat Expansion: Casualties
Most of my systems and posts are about adding interesting, meaningful choices to TTRPG procedures that tickle the players' sense of risk and reward. This particular system was originally written for ships at sea, but can be repurposed just as well for on-foot encounters in the wilderness - or spaceships venturing into parts unknown. This … Continue reading Oh? You’re Approaching Me? Closing The Distance in Dungeons & Dragons Encounters
My drafts are filled with posts about mass combat systems. There are various ideas I really like (such as an infantry>cavalry>archery counter triangle, moving troops, Into the Odd warbands etc. etc.), but I can't really get them to stick together in a way that I liked. That's when I gave the Army Rating system from … Continue reading Mass Combat: Expanding the Army Rating system from Barbarians of Lemuria
Be it for a fantasy city, superhero game, or space station, these mechanics will help you flesh out 'walking the beat' for your party of law-keepers. Intersperse this with big, landmark cases - murder, heist, kidnappings etc.! Image: The Siege: Inside Town by Francis Goeltner The Stats Of A District First, determine the size of … Continue reading Nothing To See Here: City Guard Patrol Shifts for TTRPGs
I like the idea of faction play, but I find it often gets bogged down into a large number of variables and actions. I've tried to make a system that is trackable with simple tokens representing Assets, and allows for plenty of player intervention. Factions & RegionsRegionsAsset TypesThe Home RegionCreating A RealmAssets and their FunctionsIntelligenceInfluenceMightAsset … Continue reading Intelligence, Influence & Might: Simple Faction Conflict in TTRPGs
