Traverse Fantasy

Had such a fun session of my home campaign! Got to use my new travel rules and (due to the all-you-can-roll nature of them) honestly I had to convince my friends to end each leg of the trip to actually play where they were wanting to go... But we love it when journeys aren't about the destination, right? The rulebook for  Cinco!  now has all the latest updates I've been using to play if you're curious :) I'm tired and a little buzzed so I'm gonna summarize this session with bullet points. Roster These were the characters in play: Enkidu: Amnesiac dwarf following strange dreams to the land of Flo’Rida; 9 (+3) experience. Makandal: Orc maroon and voudonist ratted out while carrying out a raid; 9 (+3) experience. Nolan: Orc stand-user raised by elves, arrested on accusations of spying; 7 (+3) experience. Queen-sama: Elf prostitute, arrested after being caught by a client’s wife; 11 (+3) experience. Queen-sama leveled up! I need to remind her player. Summary Pr...

From my personal play packet! Possibly the laziest setting ever, but it’s honest. All the gorgeous art shown here is by the delightful Norn Noszka ! World of Faia Faia is the setting of my home campaign, a sort of cosmic crossroads between worlds. Portal-hopping dwarves meet star-sailing terrans on a planet otherwise populated by a species known as faians—some elves, others orcs. Though Faia is a usual fantasy world, it is written to explore realist themes about society and history. Cathedral of Light Elves are faians who were baptized under the Cathedral of Light, a religious institution established by the Snow-White Queen. The elves were initially unified by this swordseer to defend their continent against the dwarves of the Midgard Company. However, they eventually opted to split the Dark Lands of Faia between themselves and the Company. This coincided with the Crusade Against Darkness, a declaration of all uncivilized faians as demons (orcs) from myth-times. They worship Qesem,...

Free adventure or whatever? This is my prep for the first two proper sessions of Turtle Island ( S1 , S2 ). There's only one statistic of note: that Bokor is a "champion". In my house rules, this means he is a figure who by himself is of medium difficulty in combat (a mini-boss, so to speak). That might make him equivalent to an ogre or troll? Idk. Locations These are the bare bones of the adventure site; it wasn’t until after the first session that I expanded upon the site’s story based on what seemed interesting. Entrance → Crop Fields, Big House Crop Fields → Entrance, Slave Quarters, Driver’s Home, Engines 3 farms: sugar, cotton, cacao. Actively being worked by 150 enslaved zombies, who go to “sleep” at night. No overseer to be found. Slave Quarters → Crop Fields, Provisions Gardens, Big House Not been lived in for quite some time. Some mementos of the once-living: Amulet of birth control (treasure). Bible overwritten with cultic depictions. ...

Zombies and vodou and marital drama oh my! Crew Roster Participants this session are in bold! Nicole: Elf arrested for bodysnatching, now a knife-hoarding edgelord; 4 experience. Nolan: Orc stand-user raised by elves, arrested on accusations of spying; 4 experience. Makandal: Orc maroon and voudonist ratted out while carrying out a raid; 6 (+4) experience. Queen-sama: Elf prostitute, arrested after being caught by a client’s wife; 8 (+4) experience. Xen: Amnesiac dwarf magician following strange dreams to the land of Flo’Rida; 6 (+4) experience. Downtime I let Xen spend 1 treasure so everyone present could do the research action (add 1 rumor to the map, or ask the game mother to ‘clarify’ 1 rumor already on the map). In the future, I think I’ll have individuals spend their own treasure; I just wanted everyone to participate this time. Queen-sama asked for clarification on the sea serpents rumor. I said that there have been multiple sightings of the sort of flying sea cre...

The official “first”, i.e. non-introductory, session of Turtle Island! Unfortunately, Makandal (played by Ènziramire ) couldn’t make it this time, but Xen joined us for the first time! Our roster, with participants this session in bold : Nicole: Elf arrested for bodysnatching, now a knife-hoarding edgelord; 4 (+2) experience. Nolan: Orc stand-user raised by elves, arrested on accusations of spying; 4 (+2) experience. Makandal: Orc maroon and voudonist ratted out while carrying out a raid; 2 experience. Queen-sama: Elf prostitute, arrested after being caught by a client’s wife; 4 (+2) experience. Xen: Amnesiac dwarf magician following strange dreams to the land of Flo’Rida; 2 (+2) experience. This is going to be a quick and dirty session summary, more for our use. Blog's just convenient! The crew was contracted by Captain Polly, an orc pirate and revolutionary, to raid a plantation on the island of Xamaka to connect the eastern maroon territory with the sea. They encount...

Started my long-awaited pirate campaign! I don't know if I've mentioned it here, although I've definitely talked about it in conversations with some of y'all. The basic premise is that elves and dwarves employ extraterrestrial humans as privateers to settle land disputes over a fantasy pseudo-Caribbean; meanwhile, and more centrally to the campaign, orc slaves revolt to liberate themselves and establish a free republic. It's a pretty lazy setup—but it's both distinct from typical Euro-fantasy and more relatable to our various experiences. I can't say that being away from my family wasn't a factor! We left off our first session by the crew taking an offer to raid a plantation in exchange for a ship and whatever loot they find there (specifically, barrels of rum for the Ugly Coyote Inn, which offered one of the pirate characters a rehearsal on the condition that she delivers rum to them—the others asked if they could just get paid instead, to which the own...