1. 2026 ENNIES Adds “Best Solo Games”

The ENNIE Awards (the “ENNIES”) are an annual people’s choice award centered on tabletop RPGs. They were created in 2001 with roots in the D&D community but have expanded to recognize the importance of indie games. In 2026, the ENNIES acknowledged the growing importance of solo RPGs by adding it as a category.

The 2026 ENNIE Award winners were announced on July 31 at Gen Con in Indianapolis. The winners and other nominees for Best Solo Game:

• 🥇SPINE: A Dark Solo TTRPG About Losing Yourself in a Book, Backwards Tabletop

• 🥈The Bonsai Diary, Sticky Doodler

• Odyssey of the Giant by Heltung Storytelling

• Pirouette by InnocentGoblin TTRPGs

• Song of the Scryptwyrm by Almost Bedtime Theater

Beyond games, the Solo RPG List database and search engine won the Silver for Best Online Content.

You can see a list of all of the ENNIE nominees and winners here.

2. Fallout: Wasteland Wanderer ☢️

Although I’ve played every Fallout videogame, Fallout: New Vegas is the only one I’ve completed. Finishing them has never really been the point. The worlds are huge. I mostly enjoy just wandering off in a random direction to see what I stumble across. Obviously, Thundarr the Barbarian will always be the best post-apocalyptic setting, but Fallout’s ruined retrofuture is a joy to explore.

I’ve never played Modiphius’s RPG based on the videogames, because I think of the franchise as being single-player, first-person. But this summer, they released a stand-alone solo RPG called Fallout: Wasteland Wanderer and it looks great.

The 256-page book adapts Modiphius’s original Fallout RPG rules for solo play. You create a Vault and the Vault Dweller emerging from it, then explore a procedurally generated version of post-bomb America. Each round follows a simple loop: travel, encounter, action, and journaling. Oracle tables generate quests, locations, opponents, obstacles, and other surprises. It includes loads of background on the setting and factions.

It feels like an attempt to recreate one of the best parts of the videogames: setting out alone across the wasteland with no idea what you’ll run into.

This is Modiphius’ second standalone solo adaptation of one of its 2d20 RPGs. The first, Star Trek Adventures: Captain’s Log, is a beautiful 300-page book with excellent art, writing, and layout. It just isn’t a very good solo game.

That’s partly because Star Trek is usually not about a lone hero, not even Captain Picard. It’s about a crew working together to solve a problem. Captain’s Log glosses over that, without strong rules for managing the crew or treating the ship itself as a character. Fallout, though, already revolves around a lone wanderer.

A print version of Wasteland Wanderer will be available soon. The digital version is currently on sale ($10.50 $28.00) on DriveThruRPG. I’m looking forward to exiting the vault this month.

3. New to the Tabletop

Tom Gibes, the owner and operator of Tabletop Bookshelf, writes this recurring section highlighting solo titles that have recently arrived at his shop.

• 👣 Odyssey of the Giant from Heltung Storytelling is a solo hex crawl about hope, silence, and the weight of companionship. You play as the Caretaker, chosen to walk one of the last living Giants across a broken kingdom. There are four types of giant, each with their own needs and moods, so the bond you build (or break) on the road is different every time.

• 🍄 We are Mushrooms from Exeunt Press is a solo journaling game about being a mushroom. You don’t move and you don’t speak, you just grow in a forest clearing and watch knights, wildlife, and other characters pass through, building shrines and burying treasure and occasionally eating you. That’s fine, you’ll grow back. It also includes rules for a Head Mushroom to run it for a whole table of quiet fungi.

• 🐴 Horse Girl from Leyline Press is a Wretched & Alone body horror game about documenting your surgical and mental transformation into a horse, at the request of the love of your life. He’s a handsome young doctor who saw the light in you when no one else did, and all He asks in exchange for a lifetime of bliss in His mansion is a new body and a new mind. You said yes...

Also, Tabletop Bookshelf will be opening sign-ups for their new solo games subscription service Solo Party, on Sept. 15. Check it out!

4. Games Category Added on Substack

After years of tabletop and videogame writers asking for a games category to be added to Substack, this week one appeared. The category should make it easier to find the platform’s gaming content. While it’s dominated by videogame business newsletters, it’s great to see several RPG writers highlighted.

You can check out the full Substack games category here. One caveat is that Categories only list newsletters that make subscriptions available. There are many great gaming Substacks that don’t and I’ll keep highlighting them in The Soloist. Share your favorites in the comments.

5. Solo Games Crowdfunding

• Crowdfunding site Gamefound announced they will hold their second RPG Party this fall. They selected 23 indie RPG projects that will get mentorship and marketing support from Free League, Modiphius, Darrington Press, and Magpie Games. Four selected solo projects are cross-promoting themselves as the Solo Society. You can follow their games here.

• Misbehave by Hexy Studio: In these 3 solo RPGs, you don’t play the hero — you’re fighting them! The first book is a hexcrawl where you play a goblin searching for fragments of the last goblin king’s crown so you can take the throne. In the second book, you are the leader of an expedition of kobolds exploring the underworld. You’re searching for treasures which you can use to upgrade your village. And in the third book, you join the city guard, solving mysteries, investigating rumors, and keeping a constant eye on those murder-hobos the tavern.
  Funding on Kickstarter through Sept. 30

• A Bowl of Temporal Soup by Cole Nowacki: You’ve passed through a time portal to save reality and entered Bigos, a land where the past, present, and future collide. It’s a twisted mashup of cowboys, knights, dinosaurs, and space elves. The 184-page solo RPG is designed to be an easy entry point into solo roleplaying and allow you to tell whatever kind of story you want to play. I love time travel games and games that don’t take themselves too seriously, and Temporal Soup is smack in the middle of that Venn diagram.
  Funding on Kickstarter through Sept. 30

6. DriveThruRPG’s Solo September Sale

The digital storefront, DriveThruRPG, has just launched a sale on solo RPGs and journaling games. Through Sept. 12 you can save up to 50% on games from indie and large publishers.

• DriveThruRPG Solo Sale: Save on Ion Heart, Single Player Mode for Cyberpunk RED, The One Ring Strider Mode and more.

• Dungeon Masters Guild Solo Sale: Tools and adventures to play D&D solo, like The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox and To Hell and Back Again are on sale

7. Last Roll 🎲

I took much of the summer off from The Soloist to focus on SOLO BORG, the game that Chris Lowry and I are working on. Last month we hit a big milestone by completing a full written draft. We also received all of the commissioned art for the 20 creatures featured in the bestiary. There’s still a lot of editing, playtesting, and production work to go, but its coming together!

The rest of the summer was a good mix of family time, games and silliness. I saw some great concerts, including Devo and David Byrne, and cleaned out our storage room to make room for 3D printing and DIY repairs. I skipped the summer gaming conventions, but am planning on going to PAX Unplugged again in December. The gaming highlight of the summer was a weekend of in-person gaming with the group I regularly play with online.

Now it’s back to The Soloist! Happy Solo September!

South of town the only signs of the ancient wall that once stood here are a few blocks of stone and the foundations of the occasional tower that stood along the wall. One of these ruins is known as Halder’s Tower because it is at the very southern edge of the Halder family farms. The name is a bit of a joke, as the only remnant of the tower is a square hole cut into the ground here that has been partially filled in – but one face of the hole was cut into stone and still has a door in the stone face. The door is barred and locked by old man Halder, but someone has picked the lock and removed the braces that hold the bar in place… and appear to have perhaps moved in?

This is a classic dungeon – the upper areas are well-looted but have recently been re-inhabited by the local badguys. Beyond those areas though are a set of chambers behind secret doors that are still defended by the old defenders of the tower; and then below that there are caves which are of course home to some nasty wildlife.

The upper levels are the current home to a few bandits, the last remnants of the brigands who aroused the ire of the King’s guard and were hunted down. They’ve moved down to level 2, and are unaware of the secret door to the south side of level 2 (or the secret trapdoor on level 1 that also leads there). They are desperate and terrified and will fight back tooth-and-nail to keep from being reported back to the guard.

The southern side of level 2 is guarded by a number of walking dead that were once troops in the tower. They are unaware that the tower has fallen, and believe that the rest of the tower is still home to their fellow soldiers. A barred and locked door leads from level 2 to the caves on level 3.

Level 3 can also be reached from the side of a nearby hill where a stream winds its way underground. This eventually leads to the small winding caverns on the left side of the map which are also home to a giant lizard that comes up during the day to bask. The eastern side of the caves are home to a small cluster of giant cave locusts. The stairway up from here is concealed behind a lot of fallen stone.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 7,200 pixels (24 x 24 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 100 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 200 pixels (for the 10‘ foot squares that work with the furnishings as shown) – so resizing the image to 2,400 x 2,400 pixels or 4,800 x 4,800 pixels, respectively.

This map is made available to you under a free license for personal or commercial use thanks to the awesome supporters of my Patreon Campaign. Over 500 amazingly generous people have come together to fund the site and these maps, making them free for your use.

Because of the incredible generosity of my patrons, I’m able to make these maps free for commercial use also. Each month while funding is over the $300 mark, each map that achieves the $300+ funding level will be released under this free commercial license. You can use, reuse, remix and/or modify the maps that are being published under this commercial license on a royalty-free basis as long as they include attribution (“Cartography by Dyson Logos” or “Maps by Dyson Logos”).

Please note that the promotional version of this map (the one with the brown paper background) is not included in this commercial use license and the text & name are NOT released under this license, and cannot be used in conjunction with this map in a commercial project.

This is Osvaud. We once gave serious consideration to godhood. I think we were rare because we didn’t assume it was amazing. Unfortunately, most (un)holy books are propaganda puff pieces, so we went more direct to the sources. Basically, we murdered an awful lot of outsiders to learn a few vital secrets.

Oh, that reminds me of a fun fact: a bell doesn’t ring every time an angel loses their wings (that’s the saying, right?). It’s more of a crying/screaming sound.

Today’s topic: the gods, and why they suck.

Let’s say you recall a time before the universe existed, and you personally helped bring creation into being. You didn’t do it for any grand goal beyond alleviating eternity’s boredom (we can totally relate to that). You’ve then proceeded to spend a few brief eons screwing around with everything. You expect that eventually you’ll throw an apocalyptic temper tantrum, but nobody gets to make you feel guilty about it because you sometimes cryptically warn them about it if they take a bunch of drugs.

Different hypothetical scenario. You were born some epically awesome mortal superstar. Maybe you’ve got divine parentage or a mystical butterfly birthmark on your rear. The specifics aren’t important, but basically you get told a lot that you’re the greatest and bestest ever. Those preconceptions then get verified by you waltzing your way into godhood. You ascend to the Outer Planes, ready to accept your rightful place at the helm of creation.

Unfortunately, you run headlong into that first set of entrenched emotionally stunted fossils. The elder gods generally think you are an upstart idiot that needs to shut up while the adults are talking. Used to being at the top of every peer group, you react with understandable frustration. Since you’re a literal god though, this often means crusades, ill-conceived cosmic schemes, and overcompensatingly massive monuments.

Even if one of the newb gods ousts a bigwig, all they do is paint a giant target on their head. They’ve got the other ancients looking to make an example out of them, and their fellow amateur deities thinking they can slip into the vacated spot when the smoke clears. Worse, everybody fundamentally recognizes this, so the status quo almost never truly shifts. Gods seem like the players at the poker table of reality, but it is more like a bunch of doofuses cheating at solitaire.

In summary, the majority of gods are overentitled, unsatisfied, and worthless. Personally, I’d far rather be the bad guy than a plot device. However, that leaves us in an unfortunate position as significantly weaker than a whole bunch of frustrated, self-centered jerks. Luckily, we have a plan if a god ever really starts screwing with us.

You have an army of efreeti simulacrums stashed on a demiplane somewhere. They can simultaneously cast three wishes per day. That should be enough to level a few hundred temples, kill a few thousand clerics, and create the biggest permanent illusion of a skeletal middle finger the Outer Planes will ever see.

Huh. I guess if you ever accidentally ascend, you could totally make that your unholy symbol too.

The post Memoirs of a Lich: Gods – September 4, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

The post Play Cypher on Roll20! appeared first on Monte Cook Games.

Other Resource Collections

• Copper Compendium's So You Want To Make A TTRPG
• Thoughtpunk's Open Source TTRPG Resources
• Starshine Scribble's TTRPG Creator Resources Masterpost
• The Gift of Gabes TTRPG Creator Resource Database

General Advice, Talks and Panels

• Novecento's How To Start Creating Your Own RPG Stuff
• Purple Martin Games on their RPG Resource Stack for Creating RPGs
• Eldritch Lorecast on How to Publish a TTRPG - from Homebrew to Hardcover
• Rising Tide podcast for their talks
• RPG Design Panelcast podcast
• Sine Nomine's Guide to Small Publisher RPG Production

Adventure and Dungeon Writing

• Shawn Merwin's Let's Design an Adventure series
• Joseph R. Lewis' YouTube Playlist on Adventure Writing
• Skeleton Code Machine's Make Your Own Adventure guide
• Josh McCrowell and Warren D's Dungeon Design Course
• Delta Green Scenario Workbook
• Levi Kornelsen on Situations and Dungeons

Art Resources

• Explorer's Design Public Domain Art Resources
• New School Revolution Public Domain Art
• Skeleton Code Machine Public Domain Art Resources
• Nala J. Wu's Alternatives to Generative AI Art
• Hummus Mode's I am not paying Nohr for the cover art (2.0) Spreadsheet
• Smithsonian Open Access Public Domain Art
• Fine Art Free Searchable Database of Museum Public Domain Art
• Public Domain Review's Public Domain Image Archive
• Araukana's Comprehensive Guide to TTRPG Art Commissioning & Licensing
• Loot the Room's RPGs and the High Cost of Art and Zero Budget Book Covers
• Texturelabs Free Textures

Icons

• Game Icons
• The Noun Project
• Elderberry Inn

Layout Resources

• Exporer's Design Free InDesign and Affinity templates
• Free Rpg layout templates for Affinity and Canva
• InDesign templates that match the 5e 2024 style
• Laura Hirsbrunner's Simple 5e Microsoft Word Template & Beginner's Guide
• Ryan McCready's Best Free Fonts
• Fontesk's Free Commercial Fonts
• Plus One EXP and Mike Martens on RPG Layout for Horrified Beginners and The Layout Rogues' Guild
• Beer with Teeth Posts on Publishing and Layout
• UXPlanet on Grids in Graphic Design
• A Reddit Post on Preparing Files for Print
• A Graphic Design Stack Exchange Post on Useful Resources for Composition and Layout for Print

Editing

• TenPenJenn blog post on Editorial Types and When You Might Need Them
• X thread by Ray Winniger on Common Editing and Writing Mistakes for D&D Products
• X thread by Sadie Lowry on Information Design for RPGs, using cookbooks as a comparison
• Loot the Room on Form and Structure, showing how to rewrite the same encounter to fit different styles
• Levi Kornelsen on Instructional Design for RPGs and More Instructional Design

Playtesting

• Spencer Hibnick's Pesto's Guide to Playtesting
• Trekiros' Quest Check website to connect creators with playtesters

Marketing and Sales

• Levi Kornelsent's One-Page Sales Copy Guide and One-Page Marketing Plan
• Explorer's Guide on Packaging: An RPG's Guide to Surviving Shipping

In 2021, I wrote a post giving my thoughts "On Fantasy Naming."

In 2023, I made some "Observations on Science Fiction Names."

In 2025, I advocated following Tolkien's practice and engaging in strategic translation.

In 2018, I presented this potentially handy Sword & Planet Name Generator.

In 2015, I discussed cultural naming practices in the Strange Stars universe.

I think this is because Pokémon is structurally difficult for a cooperative game. Pokémon is generically speaking a classical JRPG: you as the player control a party of characters in various situations (especially turn-based combat). Where Pokémon differs from similar games in its genre is that the player themselves has a representative outside of the party of characters: the Pokémon trainer. Rather than playing as the party or a main character within the party, you play a character who controls the party while being excluded from it as an equal participant. It’s been done, but it’s hard to imagine (and even harder to play) a tabletop game where everyone is a trainer with their own handful of Pokémon, because that becomes a party of parties. If we retrace the lineage of the JRPG from more typical dungeon-crawly affairs, it makes more sense if the players’ characters are the Pokémon and the game master has a special character acting as the trainer—or, as per the spinoff Mystery Dungeon, just play the Pokémon and exclude the trainer altogether, which both Pokémon Dungeon Crawler and Into the Oddish emulate. But I’m gonna be so real with you, babies. I don’t want to play as the Pokémon. I want to play with the Pokémon. Both as a player and also from the perspective of the character.

But there’s another spinoff: Ranger. I never played it because it’s more of an actiony game geared towards those who think of Pokémon as being more cool than cute, so I guess you should take this all with a grain of salt since I’m reinterpreting it through my view of what makes Pokémon fun. In the main games, there are these NPCs who are sorta like national park rangers except they’re everywhere because the premise of Pokémon’s setting is that humans have attained perfect cohabitation with nature (I’m 90% sure that Cecilily posted a video where she refers to the society as eco-socialist, which is a fun thought). Instead of training and keeping Pokémon, the rangers just call upon Pokémon in the local ecosystem when they need help.

This to me is a way more appealing possible translation of Pokémon and its subgenre to a tabletop format. I’d be remiss to not mention Animon Story, in which you do play a human trainer of a cute Pokémon-esque creature, but it focuses on a singular special relationship (more like the Pokémon cartoon) rather than one’s relationship with many or all creatures, or to humanity’s relationship with nature in general. The Mystery Dungeon style ones may comment on that relationship thematically by taking place in a post-human world but that kinda kills the entire vibe. I don’t want the theme present only by its actual subject being conspicuously absent and, more importantly, I want to be in the shoes of a character who gets to appreciate and nurture these creatures. That’s my enjoyment of Pokémon. I don’t even need to collect them all. I don’t really want to do that, or even really do dog-fighting with them except that I accept it as part of the premise. I just want to play with them!!!

I kinda want to start a new campaign centered on the Mediterranean (if my friends will let me, because they have really been enjoying the Caribbean setting). If I do, I thought it'd be fun to treat tutelary deities like Pokémon. I guess nothing's stopping me from doing the same for orishas. Either way, this paradigm is how I'd like to frame any setting-stuff or rules around the spirits: you can't own them, and most people don't have a special relationship to one in particular (though individual characters might!), but you will encounter them and you can explore how humanity relates to them (as a proxy for nature). Something like Isaac's framework for Indonesian magic by way of spirit blessings would also be useful here! Just very excited to think more in these terms.

Historically, feudalism is a family of modes of production, cultural and religious practices, and legal and political systems. Specifically, the manor system in western Europe organized society into peasants farming land that was owned by the lord of the manor. Farmers were taxed on their agricultural output to generate wealth for the lord who then provided some form of military protection to the farmer populations. This schema for organizing society basically goes back to the Bronze Age as it's the clearest way to facilitate urbanization, and the manor system itself even dates back to the iron age in republican Rome.

Like all social configurations that take this form, this is a raw deal for working people (peasants and household staff) and a great deal for the head of the manor household. The value proposition for the working people is the system of social and moral obligations mediated by cult practice or a priest class. In medieval western Europe, this was fulfilled by the Catholic Church.

Lapvona is a meditation on the degradation and decay that takes root in a society when the forms of these social obligations and relationships outlast their substance. Every possible social relationship in the novel: familial, tenant, religious, and manorial, is inverted, perverted, and strictly enforced. The lord of the manor is a stupid, empty man who does not protect his tenants from bandits, he hires the bandits to punish his tenants for social unrest and production of surplus. The priest in the church is a failed seminarian who can't read the Latin in his Bible and just tells the community to fear the Devil. Every familial relationship is physically, emotionally, and sexually violent. Eventually, the Eden-like land (we are frequently reminded that Lapvona has good dirt) itself turns on the peasantry. The only connective tissue in the community is a blind witch on the outskirts of town.

If this sounds horrible and unpleasant, it is! The book is an exploration of an entire town experiencing what Walter Bruggemann describes from the book of Psalms as the experiences of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. Throughout the novel, the reader gets an uncomfortable look into the perspective of almost every named character, and each character presents their own relationship to God and their personal view on how their own behavior will bring them God's favor. This is a fascinating choice for a novel set in an unreformed Catholic community! One of the basic premises of Catholic salvation theology is that the Church as a whole is accountable for the salvation of everyone in it, and in a community within which every relationship has been inverted, of course that would leave individuals to desperately reach for their own self-justifying conclusions.

I would hope not to take almost anything from this novel for my own tabletop games, but it provides a model to the reader of how the inversion of load-bearing relationships drives an intense disorientation and quest for meaning. Would Lapvona be a better place if the lord of the manor weren't a stupid, venal man in a case of arrested development? Almost certainly, but that wouldn't change the base exploitative structure in which he thrived and was rewarded. Would Lapvona be a better place if the priest weren't using his congregants' confessions to punish them? Obviously!

I don't think it's a particularly interesting thought exercise to imagine Lapvona as, say, a location in an adventuring game because it presents such a rotten tumorous community. Players could either gawk at it as tourists or they could intervene and try to remediate one of the social ills affecting the town, but it would take such a fundamental reconstruction effort that it would become the rest of the game to heal the various moral injuries present.

I rate this book incredibly highly but I cannot imagine ever reading it again and I felt like I needed to run my brain under cool water afterward. Thankfully, I had Thomas Pynchon's collection of short stories, Slow Learner, on my bedside table.

What has been happening? Pretty much the usual: CHing about one in-person game and one game via the internet per month. Did get to play in at least one game, finally got to try out FAN, which was fun. Also CHed twenty-two hours of Shadowrun at GenCon over four days, much fun.

Later this week (on the fifth of September is our monthly learn-to-play game at Tyche’s Games!  We usually play every first Saturday and if you are in the area come and join in! New players are very welcome. If you come for a few games, you can join in on the campaign play too.

We have the September issue of the Seattle Scream (#118) with the latest news and events.

Also, a review of Running A La Carte

Image is a photo by Sarah Thacker, found on PublicDomainPictures.net and is in the Public Domain.

The post Cyphers Are Online with the Datasphere Deck Tool appeared first on Monte Cook Games.

Adventurers

Dewsnap 9th, Fireday

A hoard of chopped up giant centipedes laid strewn about Ignaeus and Balarus. Aurella, Kenso, and Jacob were unscathed.

“Oh, hey there!”

Remus the Thief, and Wilbalt the Burly stepped out of the darkness and joined the party.

They stripped the ancient skeletons of their chain shirts. Then they wrapped them up and left them in a corner of the cave for easier retrieval some time in the future.

Remus and Ignaeus had spent some time playing with the iron coffer held by one of the dead men. All that was for naught because, as it turned out, the coffer was empty! But Ignaeus had recovered a coin purse from the skeleton, and within it were two lapis lazuli gems, two obsidians, and three eye agates.

“Is this our guy? The one we are looking for?”

Fourth skeleton was noticeably different from the rest. For one, it still had hair. It was dressed in commoners' clothing, and it had no weapons nor armour.

“Might be!”

Adventurers took some of its hair. Then they proceeded to explore the west tunnel. After hundred feet or so it broke, perpendicularly, into another tunnel. A strong downdraught could be felt, as well as musty air. The elongated tunnel was quite low, some nine feet high. Numerous stalagmites poked out of the floor. Many of them were broken, being in essence, stumps.

Southwards were three shallow pits. Obviously man-made. They perplexed adventurers to no end. Eventually they gave up on figuring out them and moved further south.

On and on they went, following hundred yards or so of winding tunnels, until they reached a tight sink-hole. Down they went, one by one, following yet another long, long tunnel.

“Look...”

A round cave, with steps chiselled into the limestone, leading down a sharp drop into another cave. A carved boulder was visible. The party descended carefully.

Aurella's torch flickered.

She hesitated.

The torch extinguished.

The air exploded.

Remus and Aurella were no more.

Others were charred but alive.

“Grab the dead and let's get out!”

Exploding cave was right next to one of the caves by the entrance.

It was night outside. Adventurers set up a cold camp and went to sleep, dreaming of barbecue.

Dewsnap 10th, Spiritday

Thunderous roar of a black bear woke everyone up.

Wilbalt, whom had been on watch duty, braced for impact with glaive. He was firmly grounded, with the butt of his pole arm placed on the ground behind him.

Bear rammed him with all its might. Wilbalt held true and impaled the beast. It whimpered and clawed the burly man. He gave it no quarter; he yielded not. Kenso and Balarus hacked the wounded animal.

“Should we chop it up and take it to that insect swarm? Could serve as a bait?”

“Just leave it here. Let's take Aurella and Remus to Ambros so he can raise them...”

They arrived to Old Crus's tower, where Ambros was hiding, by noon.

“Sorry, hobbits cannot be raised.”

Aurella, though, was back and hurting. But she was back.

Adventurers then went to Ironburg to heal up and plan their next step.

Dewsnap 13th, Earthday

“Guys, I need that axe.”

Balarus, Wilbalt, Kenso, Ambros, Ainsley, and a new member Garrick, Gerda's brother, set out for the brigand's abandoned hideout.

“Guys, no really, I need that axe real bad.” Wilbalt kept repeating. At moments he was shaking as if suffering withdrawals.

“We'll get you your axe. Don't you worry.”

The axe in question was weapon sighted by the first party that went into this cave system. They had seen a pristine battle axe at the heart of insect swarm nest. Among thousands and thousands of centipedes, roaches, spiders, and other vermin. A place where Gerda had perished as others fled and left her behind.

“Where is the bear?”

“Its bones are there.”

This time the party did not take the long route via the northern tunnel, nor the route via the watery cave. No, they opted to backtrack through narrow tunnels some of them had discovered days prior.

Balarus shot few flaming arrows into the exploding cave.

Nothing exploded.

Feeling safe enough, they moved in, and through a series of narrow tunnels, until they reached the cave with skeletons. Then northwards into the insect cavern.

“Let me speak with them.”

Ambros announced.

He cast Speak with Animals.

His head nearly exploded as he heard an uproarious cacophony of voices yelling and screaming for food. Dazed and confused, it took him some time to compose himself.

As he spoke of food, the swarm grew quite and face him. Thousands tiny life forms listened attentively. They understood food was to be offered. They understood nothing else, especially all the elaborate instructions provided by Ambros.

Food was mentioned. Food was promised. Food was not delivered.

Wrong.

Food was right in front of them. Food was always right in front of them.

The swarm rushed forwards; towards the food that promised food.

Total bedlam ensued, with adventurers running in all directions.

Wilbalt and Gerrick went right and then south towards the watery tunnel. The rest fell back whence they cometh from.

“Follow two humans! Those two, yes!” Ambros yelled.

“What the fuck!!!” Wilbalt thought.

“Follow me!” Gerrick flashed his lantern at the swarm.

“Yes, follow them!”

The swarm moved slowly.

The plan was working, as the insect mass gradually moved from the cave into the tunnels.

“Quick, grab the axe while I cast Create Food!”

Ainsley sprinted for the skeletal remains. He grabbed the pristine looking battle axe.

“Let's get out!”

At the same time, Wilbalt and Garrick have been slowly retreating downwards. As the swarm advanced, they retreated. Step by step.

“Remember, there is something in the water!”

They hugged the cave wall and stepped into the shallow portion of rank, stagnant water.

And then it came; from the darkness.

A rotting carcass; jumping out, with gaping mouth and crooked fingers.

It was hacked from undeath to death, once and for all.

And then the duo fled too.

“So... about that axe...” Wilbalt panted.

“Yes, what about it?” Ainsley held it.

“I really need it. I seriously need it. I need it so bad.” Wilbalt spoke.

“Here, you can have it.”

Wilbalt smiled. Finally he got an axe too! Finally he can feel like a man, between Balarus and Thorinda each wielding a mighty axe of their own!

“Wait, one more thing!”

Party returned to the exploding cave to inspect the carved boulder. One of the adventurers remembered that boulder was jammed into some sort of crevice.

Four of them grabbed the boulder and rolled it backwards.

A hit!

Cave filled with twenty-two sacks holding over thirty thousands coins! Copper pieces galore!

Adventurers spent some hours packing all the goods, and planning their weight distribution. They also discovered a wooden chest underneath all the sacks. They decided to take it whole, instead of opening it here.

Since the night fell, they camped again. No bear this time.

Adventurers and their hoard of thirty thousand, six hundred, and eight copper pieces, plus nine hundred and sixty-six silver pieces, arrived at Ironburg on noon of Dewsnap the 14th, Fireday.

“Told you we will be rich.” Aurella quipped painfully.

Days were becoming longer. Flowerbloom, and Spring, are merely a week away, and the nature was showing it.

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#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Zhukk, orc (NPC)
• Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party sent their zombie minions after Ghudgak's orcs, slaying two and capturing the last of them, Zhukk. They also rescued a gnome prisoner named Wilros Wackledeckle. The orcs' lair contained a stone which bestowed magical properties upon those who ate pieces of it. The party experimented with it, gaining some permanent ability score increases and a 500 g.p. gemstone, which they let Egbert keep. The stone also healed one of their zombies, turned another invisible, and caused a third's short sword to begin glowing - perhaps it had become magical?

From Zhukk, they learned of "Dead Eaters" lairing in a cave just off the orcs' lair. From Wilros, they learned of a hole in the ceiling of a nearby cavern which led to the upper level. Wilros showed them where the cave was. The party gathered itself together and decided to return to the secret entrance to regroup with their hirelings, then plan an attack against Mangug's orcs on the upper level.

As they returned to the secret entrance, they were confronted by a group of five barbarian warriors who accused the party of stealing their people's relics and demanded they surrender their stolen goods. The barbarians had already subdued the party's hirelings outside, who had apparently surrendered without a fight.

We picked up there. The players continued to talk through their options, but eventually resigned themselves to fighting. They told Egbert to read what he had written on his scroll. The barbarians drew their bows and pointed them as Egbert, threatening to fill him with arrows if he began reading. The player characters all stood in front of Egbert and told him to read.

Egbert read. Both sides prepared to loose missiles at one another, but Egbert's spell went off before anyone else could act. He cast sleep at the barbarians, but rolled low (just 2 on 2d4!), putting two of the barbarian warriors to sleep. The remaining barbarians sent their arrows flying, but all either missed or were deflected by armor. Llombaerth threw flaming oil at the enemies, scoring a critical hit on one of the warriors and splashing the remaining two. The warrior struck with the flaming oil was set alight and died screaming. Indur put an arrow through the other warrior's face for max damage, killing them instantly. 

At the top of the following round, the leader failed her morale check by 10, meaning she would surrender. She cried out towards her dead allies, threw down her weapons, and subjected herself to the party's mercy.

The party bound the leader and the two sleeping warriors. They made an offer to release the barbarians if they pledged to help the party slay Mangug's orcs and retrieve their treasure. The leader spit on the ground and said that her people would never be slaves to plundering adventurers who had killed her warriors.

The players discussed and decided to gift the leader with the barbarian chieftain's sword they had found in the museum. The leader was stunned - this was the sword of her people's greatest chieftain. Had the party possessed this all along? If they were willing to part with it now, why not earlier? She had only wanted the return of her people's relics. This bloodshed could have been avoided entirely. 

The party reminded her that the barbarians had taken their hirelings hostage, threatened them, and demanded they surrender their treasure. The party admitted that they had mistakenly assumed that the barbarians wanted all of their treasure. They mentioned that they had found the chieftain's bones, and were happy to return these.

The leader looked regretful. She glanced back towards the two dead barbarians and lamented that she had taken such an aggressive approach. She said that if the chieftain's bones were returned, her people would help the party. She introduced herself as Girthil. The party agreed to let the barbarians keep any of their relics that they found, as well as any loose coinage on the orcs, once they were defeated.

The party freed Girthil and her warriors. Girthil went out onto the ledge outside the secret entrance and called to her warriors down below, telling them to free the captives. The party's mercenaries were irate at having been captured, and expected the party to slay the enemies. There was considerable tension between the barbarians and the party's hirelings. 

The party decided to leave their hirelings and four of the remaining eight regular barbarians to guard the camp. They also left Zhukk in camp, as he did not want to fight other orcs. Wilros Wackledeckle also elected to remain in camp. The party escorted Girthil to retrieve her chieftain's bones and secured those in camp as well.

The rest of the company (Llombaerth, Mirkle, Zommernar, Egbert, Indur, the four zombies, Girthil, and her four remaining warriors) headed upstairs to ambush Mangug's orcs. 

Planning the attack took a while. The players had to get on the same page about their mental map of the dungeon. The whole party would emerge from the throne room area (previously used by Drak's orcs) and turn left. Llombaerth, Indur, and two barbarians would take the first passage on the right, which they knew looped around and entered Mangug's/the goblins' territory from the rear. The rest of the party would head straight towards the intersection with the one way secret door. Zommernar and Egbert would take the zombies right to rush the orcs, while Mirkle, Girthil, and the two remaining barbarians went through the secret door to join the fray by way of the main entrance corridor.

Here's the map the players came up with:

They put their plain into action, emerging from the throne room into the hallway. Immediately, they heard orcish voices calling to them from the end of the hall, near the intersection with the secret door. The party couldn't see them yet, but the orcs could see their light source. 

The party moved closer and found two orcs guarding the intersection. The orcs were surprised to see that the party had found another way in, but assumed that they had come to treat with Mangug, as discussed earlier. The party sent their zombies forward in a charge and followed close behind them. Llombaerth, Indur, and two barbarians took the first right as planned and rushed to flank.

The orcs cried out in alarm when they saw the zombies. The zombies and orcs engaged in melee as Mirkle, Girthil, and another barbarian brought up the rear, firing projectiles and stabbing through the first rank with their spears. The party failed to score any hits in the first round, while one of the orcs stabbed the thief zombie with a spear. A third orc joined the melee, crashing into the thief zombie with its flail, which "killed" the zombie.

The following round, a barbarian stabbed one of the orcs, but managed only a minor wound. Mangug himself came to join the melee, and four orcs attacked with their flails. Two managed to hit the wizard zombie, which brought that zombie down as well. With a few zombies eliminated, Zommernar could wade into melee with his long sword.

Meanwhile, the second group had circled around into the heart of orc territory, and found two more orcs moving perpendicular to them to reinforce the ongoing melee. They had caught the orcs on their flank, and had just enough movement left to charge in, so they did. The orcs were unprepared, and could not set to receive a charge with their spears or counterattack in any way. Indur managed to kill an orc in the charge.

The following round, Zommernar tried to get the zombies to push the orcs back up the corridor to clear the way to the secret door, but the orcs held their ground. Zommernar struck and killed the wounded orc with his sword. Mirkle scored a hit with her spear, but didn't kill any orcs. 

In the other melee, Llombaerth circled around the remaining orc and struck it with his glowing short sword, killing it. The blade was light and sharp, cutting quickly and true. As the orc fell, it landed a retaliatory blow against Llombaerth with its flail, dealing 5 damage. With the last of the two orcs dead, the party continued down the hall to join the other melee, emerging at the orcs' rear.

The remaining four orcs finally saw the writing on the wall, and their morale broke. They failed the check by 3, so they made a fighting retreat. They backed towards the secret door, making attacks as they went. Llombaerth attempted to hit the whole group with flaming oil, but rolled a critical failure. The oil flew over the orcs' heads and shattered just beyond them, hitting the whole group for splash damage.

The orcs managed to land a blow on the party's burly fighter zombie for 5 damage, and another hit Zommernar for 7 damage, but then the party laid into them. Zommernar slew Mangug, and Mirkle, Indur, and four of the five barbarians landed hits on the remaining orcs. The combined damage was enough to thoroughly slay the orcs, and combat was over.

We wrapped the session there. The highlight of this session was definitely the planning phase, where the players had to use their accumulated knowledge of Quasqueton's halls to coordinate their battle strategy. It took a long time for them to get on the same page about the dungeon's layout, but it really clicked when they decided to collaborate on a map and label their hallways. It struck me as very different than the last time the party had fought orcs here, where they had been the defenders and the orcs had craftily counter flanked and ambushed their flanking party and generally foiled their carefully laid plans. It feels more and more like the players have mastered this space.

The combat definitely became unwieldy with so many moving pieces, and I struggled to reconstruct it after the fact for this report, but I think I did a reasonably fine job. At a certain point I just said to hell with initiative and declared that everyone was attacking everyone else at the same time, which was not a bad solution, but definitely eliminated some element of tactical nuance. 

I'm tempted to go through the PHB and sort the different weapons into an ordered list based on Speed Factor so that I have a sort of phased initiative to fall back on in big skirmishes like this. For example, if I went by the weapon types used in this combat, the order would be: flaming oil (Llombaerth) > short swords (Llombaerth) > long swords (Zommernar) > spears (Mirkle, barbarians, and orcs) > short bows (Mirkle and barbarians), flails (orcs), and morning stars (Indur) > long bows (Indur and orcs). That seems like it would simplify big skirmishes while still allowing for some element of strategy. Something worth testing out in the future!

But what of True Names? Almost every culture has some variation of this concept somewhere in their folklore and if you are familiar with fantasy literature (and if you aren’t: who are you and how did you find this post?), you are already acquainted with the concept. If you aren’t or if you’d just want a refresher with an emphasis on how it’s appeared in D&D and the fiction that inspired it, I recommend this post (including the comment section) from Dreams in the Lich House. While you’re already doing background reading, this post from Roll to Doubt is also worth checking out in emphasizing the power of True Names. 

Some tropes from fiction do not translate easily to the TTRPG medium. Fantasy fiction is, for instance, replete with chosen ones, but it takes a little more doing to capture that trope in a way that is satisfying for a typical group of player characters (whereas, you’re all a bunch of Conan-types looking for gold and danger translates with little effort). 

True Names are difficult to translate (without baking it into the system itself) for two main reasons: (1) learning a True Name is a bit of a “guess what’s in the GM’s pocket” game, and (2) once you have the True Name, it is very powerful for an ongoing campaign. I say it’s a Guess What’s In My Pocket problem because how else do you learn the True Name? Sure, you may have to go on an epic quest through hell to find the talisman it is inscribed upon, which is better than some research montage at the local library during downtime, but that still feels very linear and referee-directed to me in practice. Once you find whatever you’re looking for, presto, you have the True Name. Or even worse, the GM may just give it to you outright by having you overhear the imp stupidly singing a song about how their True Name is Rumpelstiltskin (which, by the way, translates roughly to “wrinkled foreskin”). And once you have the True Name, you basically can control or destroy that entity. There is a reason in most of the fairy tales about True Names, the protagonist learning the True Name sets up the climax of the story. Roleplaying games aren’t actually stories (they may produce stories) so what works in a story may not work in an ongoing campaign. 

To solve these issues, I have decided that a True Name is better in TTRPGs when it isn’t some made up fantasy words but is instead a short sentence. Maybe, in the fiction, it is a single word in the ancient language of magic that even wizards do not fully comprehend but when spoken aloud is understood by all no matter their language as a sentence in their native tongue. Why a sentence? Because I am about to steal some of the better ideas from a forthcoming game called Realis which, if you aren’t familiar, some of the juicier bits are described (in the context of The Green Knight) over at the Sporadic Distillations blog. And the sentence also constrains how you can use the True Name and how powerful the magic can be.

A creature (typically a fairy or a demon) has a True Name that describes the central truth about that particular creature. No two creatures have the same True Name. Each True Name is phrased as a declarative sentence, typically beginning with “I always” and be 1d6+2 words in length. So the imp we know as Rumpelstiltskin may have a True Name that translates to “I Always Drive A Hard Bargain.” 

To learn a True Name typically requires some research where you may learn a word or two at a time. If anyone learns all the words to a True Name, they can use its power against its owner, but if only part of a name is known, only a spellcaster can try to “guess” and supply possible missing words but only after succeeding on a Save Versus Wands or an Intelligence Check or whatever your equivalent is. A failed “guess” of a True Name, however, causes the target to learn one word of the guesser’s True Name. For example, the party investigating the town’s imp problem has learned that the true name includes the words “drive” (the local sage knew this) and “bargain” (so it was inscribed in a dusty tome at the bottom of a dungeon). The metagaming players have guessed, based on their knowledge of English idioms, that the missing part of the name is “a hard”. However, the fighter can’t simply go to Rumpelstiltskin and say “I Always Drive A Hard Bargain, I command thee!” The player may know the name, but the character doesn’t. But the wizard, after making their save, can guess it and if they guess correctly, they can now use the True Name. If they fail, the player needs to come up with their own True Name (same process as making the fairy/demon’s true name) and then reveal one word of it to the imp.

True Names are not absolute power. Instead, once you know it and choose to wield it against its owner, you can either summon or command them. Summoning them causes the target to teleport to you instantly, but only after succeeding on a Save Versus Wands/Intelligence Check/equivalent, with failure meaning the target learns one word of the guesser’s True Name, so it is not without risk. Unlike guessing, non-magic users can also use True Names in this manner. Commanding the target is easier if it is related to their True Name. If the command is related to the target’s True Name, then it just requires another Save with a word of the user’s True Name on the line. If the command is not related to the target’s True Name, the target must still do it, but it will change their True Name permanently. When this happens, the target “sharpens” the sentence of their True Name by adding a limitation, qualification, or restriction to the sentence (an additional 1d6 words). So after the player characters force Rumpelstiltskin to unlock a door in hell (which isn’t related to his True Name), Rumpelstiltskin may sharpen their True Name to “I Always Drive A Hard Bargain For A Damsel In Distress” or “I Always Drive An Increasingly Hard Bargain”. 

The sharpened sentence means the user no longer knows the target’s True Name. They know part of it, but not all of it, so the target is now free from being compelled and summoned all the goddamn time. It also means that, if they are to learn the target’s new True Name (easier because they still know most of it), the types of commands they can issue without causing the True Name to mutate again must abide by the new limitation, qualification or restriction. I would also let this change impact how I roleplay the NPC. For instance if Rumpelstiltskin previously was just always trying to make unfair deals in general, after their sentence is sharpened to “I Always Drive A Hard Bargain For A Damsel In Distress” they may only offer those bargains to certain characters or if it were “I Always Drive An Increasingly Hard Bargain” they may start offering less onerous deals at first before they start demanding first born children. This allows the players to at least have some framework from which to guess at what the new True Name may be (and tempt them to officially Guess and risk their own True Name being discovered) beyond simply following a quest or doing a research montage to guess what is in my pocket.

And Now For Something Completely Different: Indonesian TTRPG Blogwagon!

The Name Blogwagon isn’t the only bandwagon that has been issued lately. There is also the Indonesian TTRPG Blogwagon, as started by the Afraid of Encounters blog. I will not pretend to be well-versed in Indonesian fairy tales, but I do have my trusty internet to at least achieve a modicum of familiarity. In these efforts, I learned of a story called Ringkitan and the Cuscus. This fits under the “Animal as Bridegroom” grouping (for my fellow westerners, think Beauty and the Beast or the Princess and the Frog). Basically, a woman with jealous sisters marries a cuscus (a sort of bug-eyed looking possum) who turns out to be a handsome man. What struck me (specifically, it struck me as a means for shoehorning two blogwagon topics into one post) in reading this story was the following passage:

To spew forth something gameable from this rabbithole (cuscushole?) of research, it is well known that of every animal has a 1-in-6 chance of being sapient and capable of speech. Of these, a further 2-in-6 (very nearly 1-in-20) are not truly animals at all but humans who are transformed, sometimes willingly and sometimes not, as the animal. For these special animal-humans, if you learn their True Name, you may choose, at no cost, to cause them to remain in either human or animal form permanently. These animal-humans are particularly starved for love, since they do not fully belong in either human or animal societies. As such, they are typically willing to impart their True Name to anyone with whom they share mutual True Love. True Love is a force as powerful as, if not more so, True Names.

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The main compass rose of the Cantino planisphere, 1502.

I made this little zine for personal reasons, but I hope you’ll find some use or interest in it.

• Boxing the Compass (Pages)
• Boxing the Compass (US PocketMod)
• Boxing the Compass (ODT Source)

Notes

• The zine is a pocketmod, to be printed on a single sheet of paper.
• Since the compass is a circle, no one page is the cover. Fold it however you want.
• Cardinal directions are associated with classical elements.
• Aristotelian winds are listed under their nearest compass point.
• I got really into the polar math needed to find the directions where various stars rise and set. (Possibly more than I needed to.) I think it’s more correct if you’re nearer the equator.
• Constellation symbol font is by Yoshio Kobayashi.

The bash one-liner I previously used to assemble pocketmods is currently broken under mysterious circumstances (likely multiple issues, but the primary one relating to the pipe). This is my current workaround:

$ pdfjam --angle 180 --papersize '2.75in,4.25in' -o compass_temp.pdf compass.pdf '1,8,7,6'
$ pdfjam compass_temp.pdf compass.pdf '2-5' --nup 4x2 --landscape --paper letter -o compass_US.pdf

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