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Showing posts from August, 2021

50 Sights to Stumble Upon in the Bolewood

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I've been going feral waiting for my copy of Into the Wyrd and Wild . Anything woodsy is of instant interest to me. The woods have always been a special place in my life, a place that feels safe and welcoming and somehow like home. Weird horror is also very much my jam, though, and it's fun to tweak what feels like a comfortable and pleasant setting into something that's occasionally more sinister. I've also been on an anti-pdf kick lately. It's so much more engaging and feels more special to read things in print than on a screen. So I've been holding off on actually reading Wyrd and Wild until I get the thing in my hands. To help stave off the hunger, I've been developing a setting in my new game inspired by some of my fever dreams about what might actually be in the book. I think it's a lot more fairytale and less spooky than what I know of the book, since I'm also hoping to fold in  inspiration from  Dolmenwood   content. Still mostly pleasant and

10 (More) Relics for Cairn

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  Yes, more of them . They're too fun to write, and it just so happens that the campaign I'm working on now has some haunted forest vibes, so I figure these will be useful to me in the near future anyway. Hope you can use these to break your woodsy game (in a good way)! Mug of Good Health , 3 charges - An oversized mug of cracked earthenware. When filled and raised with a hearty toast, everything in earshot capable of hearing must pause what they're doing for a moment and return the toast, raising whatever item they hold in their hand. Recharge - Offer to share a drink with a hostile creature, then convince them to agree of their own free will. Wrenpenny Bit  - A small copper piece in the local style, save the chubby little wren printed on its transverse. Its most recent previous owner always has an instinctive idea of the direction the coin lies in, and in their presence it will let out a chittering birdsong. Sanguine Lantern  - A rectangular lantern with frosted, brown-st

10 Magical Relics for Cairn

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Part Two Here! I've been getting restless as I wait for a chance to playtest the Cyclopean Organ - I'm kind of in a weird spot game-wise right now, a long-running campaign being revived, a couple of other campaigns starting up and all the impatient anticipation that goes along with that. So I've been wanting to work on something  in the meantime, even though my time is limited. It just so happens I had a blast working with Cairn on the Organ, especially the template for Relics. Giving most items limited charges and a specific criteria to recharge them gives you so many cool levers for balance and extra opportunity for flavor. Ever since I first read them I've been fixated on the potential for little recharge mini-quests in my games that can serve as instigators for exciting, dangerous, and silly tangents. Yochai Gal , Cairn's designer, mentioned that he was planning on throwing together a larger list of Relics, and I got excited by the prospect, so here we are. Po