My 2024 Bloggies Nominations

The 2024 Bloggie awards are here, and DIY & dragons is a finalist in two categories! 

 

official BLOGGIES 2024 art ‘Blugtarp Blogeye and Weyman the Well-Read’ by Hodag

 

Warren from Prismatic Wasteland created the Bloggies in 2022 to celebrate the year's best blog posts, as nominated and voted on by the public. There are awards in four categories - theory, gameable content, advice, and reviews; plus an overall best blog post winner. Zedeck Siew from Slow Loris won the grand prize that first year, and he started the tradition that the grand prize winner hosts the next year's award.

 

SachaGoat won last year, and is serving as this year's host. Each year there's an open nomination period, and then the host picks 16 finalists in each category, arranged into brackets for voting.

I was nominated, and selected as a finalist in two categories: gameable content, and reviews.

 

 

Gameable Content

Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam 

vs 

Dungeon Gods

 

Voting for the best Gameable Content post starts on Friday, January 10th. My post, Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam, is competing with Dungeon Gods, by Alice from Dungeon Doll.

 

The actual gameable content in mine isn't in the post itself, but in the comment section, where the Lego Jam participants linked their adventures and ideas. Alice gives us an idea for player characters to make offerings at shrines in the underworld, and a few examples of what that might look like.

Please vote for whichever one you think is best!

 

 

Review

Xandering is Slandering 

vs 

Deep Dive: Stonetop

Voting for best Review starts on Friday, January 24th. My post, Xandering is Slandering, is competing with Deep Dive: Stonetop, by Paul Beakly from The Indie Game Reading Club. 

 

I have really mixed feelings about my post, but I agree that it was an important post last year, and if anyone else had written it, I would have been one of the people who submitted it as a nominee. If you read it, you should probably also look at Justin Alexander's response. Paul's post is an extensive review of the available drafts of Stonetop, and he includes a thoughtful discussion of the genealogy of the PBTA games that have followed after Apocalypse World.

 

Again, I encourage you to vote for the review you think adds the most to the conversation.

 

 

Whatever happens with the awards, I want to congratulate the other finalists, thank whoever nominated my posts, and applaud SachaGoat for hosting this year's awards!

Santicorn 2024 - Effects of Primal Darkness

For Secret Santicorn 2024, Vile Cult of Shapes asked for "effects of prolonged exposure of Primal Darkness on various surface dwelling species."

 

I decided to write two sets of results. One for player characters, and one for NPC hirelings, henchmen, and so forth. I leave it to the referee and players to decide what counts as Primal Darkness in their game, and what sets it apart from normal darkness, although I think if you get trapped underground at the end of an adventure, that should certainly qualify.

 

 

Some characters gain power from the darkness...

  

When a PLAYER CHARACTER is exposed to Primal Darkness, ROLL on the table below. On the first exposure, roll d4; on the second, d6; and so on, up to a maximum of d20. If you roll a result you've received before, immediately roll again using the next highest dice, and add +1 to each future roll.

 

1 Your skin, hair, and eyes become unnaturally bleached and pale. You look haunted and unsettling.

 

2 You become cold-blooded. Your skin is cold to the touch, and you always look sallow and wet. You no longer suffer any ill effects from the weather or the temperature of your environment.

 

3 You now understand undercommon, the trade language used throughout the underworld. You speak with a native's fluency.

 

4 You now revere one of the gods of the underworld. Any previous faith has been replaced by this heretical new piety. You are eager to acquire scriptures, icons, and other tokens of your newfound religion.

 

5 You begin to "hear" the emotions of others as whispers in your mind. This provides insight during negotiations. And thinking beings can no longer hide from or surprise you.

 

6 You receive a vision from the underworld. With absolute certainty, you know the location of a valuable treasure room, and a path d6+6 rooms long that leads there, starting from a previously unsuspected secret door in a dungeon room your party has already explored and can access easily.

 

7 You can no longer perceive colors, only shades of grey. But you can also see a faint aura glowing from any cursed or poisoned objects, emanating from unnatural creatures in ways that suggest the nature of their powers.

 

8 You grow gills and can breathe underwater. You can dive and swim as easily as you can walk. You need twice as much water each day as before, and suffer from exhaustion if you don't get it.

 

9 You now understand Aklo, the Deep Tongue, the language of underworld aberrations. You can eavesdrop on the servants of the deep, but are now vulnerable to their lords' commands, without the protection of your previous ignorance.

 

10 Hideous and grotesque sights no longer phase or disturb you. You can meet the gaze of creatures whose sight turns others to stone with equanimity, stare into the eyes of tyrants who suborn others as thralls without blinking. But the sight of your own reflection - in mirrors, glass, even water - turns you away in terror, as a walking corpse flees from a cross.

 

11 You have acquired a "pet" down below. It serves you as a familiar serves a spellcaster, but its true loyalty is one of the great powers of the deep, and it is always watching. The referee will decide your pet's form; its appearance is related to the entity it serves.

 

12 A physical third eye opens in your forehead. You communicate by broadcasting your thoughts, no longer deigning to speak aloud. You understand the hidden logic of underworld passageways. You can spot its secret doors and are no longer confused by its impossible architectural.

 

13 You have been crippled by the underworld. You are now an NPC under the referee's control, and you become an outcast in town, living in a hovel in the worst district. You survive by selling gossip and portents, rumors about what has happened recently in the underworld and eerily accurate predictions about what will happen next. Occasionally, you can do more, identifying or fixing or fabricating useful items - if you have the right material to work with.

 

14 You cannot bear to be outside in daytime sunlight, and you must stand apart and separate from any group carrying a torch or lantern. If you approach too close to fire, it burns you as though you were touching it.

 

15 Your hair and nails fall out. Your fingers and toes elongate; you grow webbing between them, and fins on your joints. Salt wounds you like acid, and any damage caused by heat is doubled for you.

 

16 You no longer understand common language of the overworld. Its words sound like discordant gibberish; the noise of it hurts your ears.

 

17 You can no longer be healed by the servants of the surface gods. You are an unclean thing in their eyes, and their faithful aspire to smite you. Holy things are deconsecrated by your presence. Animals shun you. 

 

18 A new eye appears in the palm of each hand and your normal eyes wither away. You can "see" the presence of other thinking minds, even in the dark and through weak barriers. You always know the way to the nearest exit to the surface. You cannot bear to hold things in your hands for long.

 

19 You are blessed by one of the great powers that dwell beneath. You gain one level. You know with certainty who your patron is, and what favor they want in return for the power they've bestowed. You know you will die if you don't complete the task they've given you.

20 You are lost to the underworld. You are now an NPC under the referee's control, and you become implacable enemy of your former friends, determined to trap them down with you in the dark, and to bring ruin to the dwellers above.

 

 

... and some are destroyed by it.

 

When an NPC COMPANION OR ASSISTANT is exposed to Primal Darkness, first ROLL MORALE. Being lost in dark is traumatizing, and even loyal friends may abandon the player characters after such an experience. 

 

Then, if the NPC is willing to continue adventuring, ROLL D10 on the table below. The referee should make this roll in secret. In all cases, the players will not know the effect of the darkness until it is revealed as a result of play during their next excursion. The NPC cannot explain their own condition to others.

1 They gain a level, making them stronger, and possibly unlocking new abilities and talents.

 

2 If they are exposed to darkness, even normal darkness, they need to check morale at the end of the session.

 

3 They are miraculously unaffected by their ordeal.

 

4 Whenever they're exposed to darkness, even normal darkness, they begin screaming in terror, inconsolable, until the light returns.

5 They have developed an all-consuming obsession. They spend all their downtime on it, and will interact with anything related to it while adventuring. If Lawful, they are obsessed with shrines and prayers to underworld deities. If Neutral, they self-medicate with any intoxicating substances they can find. If Chaotic, they're addicted to gambling, and spend all their money on games of chance.

 

6 The next time they're exposed to darkness, they vanish into the underworld, and are never seen again.

 

7 They are driven to protect others from danger. Whenever a player character would fail a saving throw, or receive a critical hit, or take lethal damage, they will interpose themselves and take the effects on themselves instead.

8 Whenever they're exposed to darkness, or all the player characters are asleep, they will steal a valuable item a player character they're closest to. The character won't discover the loss until the start of their next adventuring session, unless they reach for the item in a moment of need. 

 

9 They are paralyzed by the sight of violence. They can no longer fight or even defend themselves. They are helpless in combat, and though they may hold a weapon, they cannot use it.

 

10 Whenever they're exposed to darkness, or all the player characters are asleep, or they're alone with only one character, they will attack with murderous intent. (If this betrayal seems unimaginable, they have instead been replaced by a Doppelganger, and this is the moment of revelation. The real NPC remains a captive somewhere in the underworld, waiting to be rescued...)

 

 

 

And please check out A Swamp in Space to see "Gifts for the Adventurer in Your Life" - which wr3cking8a11 wrote in response to my own Secret Santicorn request!

 

You can also take a look at "Surreal Science Fantasy Adventure Seeds & More" - which Vile Cult of Shapes wrote for Kirt Dankmeyer of Orange Subterfugacious Raccoon.

 

Thanks to Archon's Court for organizing this year's exchange!

Vestiges of the Past - Phantom Cogs and Forsaken Easter Eggs

Everything people make builds on what came before. The original edition of Dungeons & Dragons built on miniature wargaming rules as well as other recent attempts to repurpose wargames to explore imaginary fantasy worlds, attempts like Braunstein, Blackmoor, and the Dungeon! boardgame. Since then, there have been countless roleplaying games built off of D&D, both a few official new editions and iterations, and innumerable attempts by professional designers and interested amateurs alike to make their own bespoke version of the game they love, one that plays the way they want it to.

 

Our adventures too, build on what's come before. If you want to go explore a fantasy dungeon, well, you know what that's supposed to look like. You have examples in mind that show what a dungeon is supposed to be, along with maybe a few others that show you what not to do. The specifics may vary from person to person, but I bet each of us could make a list of the dungeons that inspired us, and I bet there'd be a fair bit of overlap, and also that your inspiration and my inspiration would both hearken back to some of the same, even earlier things. We know what dungeons are supposed to look like, and thus how to draw them correctly. We know what's supposed to go in them, and in what proportions. 

 

(This is true of any form of culture, really. If you're hoping to make a named kind of thing, then the idea of that thing already exists, and what you're making is a variation on that idea. This is fine. There are very few truly new things, and a lot of satisfaction to be found in making your own version of something, done the way you want it. Cultural change caused by iterations within genres isn't precisely the same as biological evolution, but it's not entirely dissimilar either.)

 

 

a "Nail House" in China - image source

  

So, when you're building off of something else, whether one game that you're updating, a pile of games that you're recombining and mashing up, whether it's something that someone else wrote, or just your own earlier versions and drafts, it's possible that things will get left behind. Things that made sense at one time, that maybe still seem to have a place, but that no longer serve their intended purpose, or don't serve any purpose at all.

 

Collectively, I think of these kinds of things as vestiges of the past. They're elements of a game that are vestigial, analogous to the human appendix or the goosebump response to cold or fear. Recently a couple of bloggers have started identifying and naming specific types of vestiges.

 

Clayton Notestine from Explorer's Design identifies phantom cogs - game rules that only serve to connect two other mechanics that could more easily be connected directly. Clayton defines phantom cogs as "any rule, mechanic, or procedure in roleplaying games that doesn't relate to the imagined world, its characters, or audience and instead obfuscates or manipulates other rules, mechanics, and procedures." They're "inelegant or 'extra' mechanics that only relate to other cogs."

 

Two of Clayton's examples are ability scores in D&D 5e and the difficulty scale in Numenera. Both are numbers that are theoretically supposed to be primary, that are supposed to be used to derive other, secondary numbers that will be used in play - the ability modifier and the Difficulty Class, respectively. But in practice, you'll often just know the secondary number you want to use in play and then have to work backwards to reverse engineer the supposedly-original primary number.

 

Nova from Playful Void identifies forsaken easter eggs - things hidden in a dungeon or other adventure that there's no way for the players to find, because they're not hidden in a way that anyone would guess, and there are no clues that would indicate that they're there. Nova explains that they "do not help the referee better run the module, but they are referee-facing rather than player-facing. They’re easter eggs, because they’re a secret message, and they’re forsaken, because they’re the one so well hidden that they’ll never be found by the kids on the hunt."

 

Instead of being left behind and getting in the way like phantom cogs do, forsaken easter eggs are left behind without any way to interact with them, because the information that would let you find the hidden thing never made it out of the previous draft (and I think most likely, never made it outside the dungeon designer's head). If you've written and are running your own dungeon, you might remember to include clues in your descriptions that aren't written on the page, but in published adventures, where the person refereeing the dungeon isn't the person who wrote it, forsaken easter eggs are like buried treasure with no X and no map.

 

 

a "Nail House" in Shanghai - image source

 

Can we think of any other types of vestiges? In video games, it's fairly common for glitches, hacking, or player access to the source code to reveal hidden areas of the map that there's no way to reach through normal game play. There aren't many examples of abandoned levels in pencil and paper games though. There's one Choose Your Own Adventure book with an ending that can be found by paging through the book but can't be reached by following any of the narrative pathways, but only one. I suppose you could create an abandoned level within a larger dungeon, by accident, if you made a level or sublevel on your map and then forgot to include any doors, staircases, or other connectors that would let the players reach that area. I'm not aware of any published examples of that sort of thing though.

 

We can also imagine an opposite counterpart to vestiges, to describe things that used to be present in earlier games, that might still be useful, but are simply no longer present, although I'm not sure what to call them. All the biological equivalents I can find, like blind cave fish losing their eyesight, are called things like "devolution" and "degeneracy," and it kind of seems like eugenicists and other racists care way too much about them. I might use a term like "phantom rules" where the analogy is the phenomenon of a phantom limb, a thing that is no longer present but still felt and missed, but that would sound too much like Clayton's term, and create confusion.

My Barkeep Jam Entry - The Cockatrice Tail

This is my entry in the Barkeep Jam hosted by Prismatic Wasteland. I wanted to write something as different as possible from my previous pubcrawl location. Among other things, my other pub was kind of out of the way and disconnected from the rest of the Raves of Chaos, this one is right in the thick of things. And I took a bit of advantage of the unlimited space afforded to blog posts. Fitting a full pub on a two-page spread requires brevity, and really good editing. Here, I let myself sprawl a little.

 

 

 

The Cockatrice Tail

 

A former sculpture garden, enclosed and used as a warehouse, forgotten, lost in a bet, then converted into a pub by its new owner. Now it's an artists' hangout, popular for its pastoral interior and abundant inspiration. Grass floor, park bench seating, lampposts for light, and dozens of statues of all kinds supply an artificial crowd even when the place is empty. Rumor has it the Medusa barkeep has ties to the criminal underworld... Located halfway between Three's Company and The Birdcage.

 

 
 

 

When the jolly crew enters the pub, roll 1d6 on the table below. If a character's number is equal to or below the result, they are in the pub right now. 

1d6 - GARDEN PARTY-GOERS

1 - The Medusa works as a bartender for her aunt, the absentee owner. She knows she could run her own place better, if she could just get a chance!

 

2 - Down-on-their-luck Bard trying to write a comeback play about the Raves. Thirsty for gossip about events around town, and loves monologuing about what they already know.

 

3 - Chauntecleer and Pertelote, a canoodling pair of married chickens who love matchmaking other pub patrons, so everyone can be as happy as they are. Are any crewmates single?

 

4 - Delicious Dungeoneer only wants to talk about food the jolly crew has eaten at the Raves. Wants to know exactly how it tasted, will buy drinks for advice about where to get specific meals.

 

5 - Slow-moving Living Statue is maudlin and nostalgic for the good old days of the original Caves of Chaos. Unending list of complaints about kids today. Why do things have to change?

 

6 - The pub's owner, elderly Auntie Echnidna checking in on her investment. Everyone's doing everything wrong, and her whole body aches because she's pregnant again.

 

 

 

If the Risk Dice rolls a Setback while the jolly crew is approaching the pub, roll 2d6 on the table below.

2d6 - SIDETRACKS

 

2 - Hobgoblin baker supervises 1d6 chalk-white goblin lackeys as they crush white rocks and pour the dust into burlap flour sacks.

 

3 - Hypnotized 'snake charmer' plays imaginary flute at slithering, hypnotized human 'snake', luring them back toward Somnambula's. Encourages bystanders to "come see my performance!"

 

4 - Blindfolded bachelorettes' party stumbling through the street playing Pin the Tail on the Platypus. The slowest crewmate makes a Dex check or gets nailed for 1 damage and a beaver tail they can't take off.

 

5 - Gambling impresario clearing a path and taking bets for an off-track cock race. Certain to run afoul of the Tuck Mob if they find out...

 

6 - Trio of living statues perform slow-motion reenactment of The Murder of Gonzago. Claudius poisons the King and marries Gertrude. Bystanders wonder, is this what happened to the Monarch?

 

7 - Haughty tailor judges a jolly crewmate's outfit as "hideous!" Starts taking measurements, cutting cloth, stripping off old clothes, and oh by the way, this will be 50 gold coins...

 

8 - Pair of living statues engaged in an exhibition wrestling match. Bystanders are eager to gamble, oblivious to risk of being crushed.

 

9 - Annoying rooster minstrel whistles, strums lute, and narrates the jolly crew's recent deeds in song, and will only go away if they can pawn him off on someone more interesting.

 

10 - Drunken fairy wizard flings curses around the crowd. The unluckiest crewmate makes a Wis check or gets the features of a donkey (roll 1d6): (1-3) tail, (4-5) head, (6) braying "heehaw" laugh.

 

11 - Desperate wizard fraternity pledge chases goat-chicken mascot, stolen from a rival frat, toward Ship of Thesis, offers free drinks to whoever can help catch the nimble beast.

 

12 - The Heir's royal baker describing cake decorations to hobgoblin chef, orders the jolly crew to assume various heroic poses for visual reference.

 

 

 

If the Risk Dice rolls a Setback while the jolly crew is inside the pub, roll 2d6 on the table below.

 

2d6 - SITUATIONS

 

2 - Chalk-white goblins who've been hiding motionless amongst the pub's statues scream and jump to life, startling everyone.

 

3 - Pair of off-duty gargoyles from the Royal Palace relaxing after work. They'll fly the jolly crew to any other pub in just 1 turn in exchange for a round of drinks at the next stop.

 

4 - Love sick, half starved art student, produces sketch after sketch of the statue they're obsessed with. Begs the jolly crew to buy a Corpse Reviver so they can finally be together (roll 1d4).

 

5 - Reform parliamentarian dressed as hedgehog and Royalist dressed as flamingo playing official croquet match to determine a crucial point of order, keep accusing each other of cheating. They demand the soberest crewmate act as an impartial referee.

 

6 - Catastrophic breakup between a disillusioned rave-goer and her paramour, a giant rooster wearing a disguise. She's just now, suddenly, spontaneously realized that he's not a human, he's her chicken beau.

 

7 - Someone (roll 1d6) urgently wants to hire the Medusa for her side-hustle turning people to stone! (1) dutiful child wants elderly parent to become their own grave marker, (2) pair of degenerate gamblers will petrify the loser of their high-stakes coin toss, (3) star-crossed young lovers vow to stay together forever, (4) Tuck Mob enforcer proffers a squirming body in a burlap sack, (5) doctor reassures dying patient they can be un-petrified once there's a cure for their disease, (6) narcissist wants to be immortalized on their most perfect hair day.

 

8 - Vain but self-hating snake woman throwing a screaming, glass smashing temper tantrum. She's hired yet another artist to draw a sketch or paint a portrait of her, and once again she's inconsolable and furious at the result.

 

9 - Boisterous bout of lawn darts in danger of flying out of control. These louts won't quit until they're beaten! Score hits on AC 10, 12, and 14 to win, the opposing team aims at the drunkest crewmate instead of their own target. Oops!

 

10 - Hyper intelligent white swine, the Pigmalion, an escapee from the Dreamlands, studies the statues and sculpts miniature likenesses of the patrons from living clay that mimic their models' behavior. One of the figures depicts an NPC important to the jolly crew.

 

11 - Obnoxious oread tourists from the Elemental Plane of Earth amuse themselves by talking to the statues and pretending they're old friends from back home.

 

12 - Sentimental Heir commissions 1d6 living statue thespians to reenact their sibling's final battle. The jolly crew are invited to help block out the heroic yet tragic scene.

 

 

 

PRICE - SIGNATURE DRINKS

 

1 silver coin - Fountain Drink - Day-old sparkling wine pours from the mouths of swans, giant fish, and cherubs into a central basin. Grab a glass! Free refills if the Medusa is distracted.

 

2 silver coins - Tail of the Cock that Bit You - Whiskey, coffee, lots of hot sauce, and a raw egg. Might wake you up, will definitely clear your sinuses.

 

4 silver coins - Yes I Amphora Good Time - Red wine with a hint of pine tar, served in a Grecian vase.

 

5 silver coins - The Green Ferryman - Hallucinogenic liquor, known to knock your head off and send you across the river to wake up dead.

 

1 gold coin - Everybody Must Get Stoned - A granite punch bowl big enough for the whole crew. Served so cold it makes its own fog, with straws for everyone.

 

10 gold coins - Corpse Reviver - A hangover cure strong enough to bring statues to life! If you roll 4-6 on your Sobriety Dice, it upgrades by one step.

 

 

 

 

This work is compatible with Barkeep on the Borderlands (found at prismaticwasteland.com), written by W.F. Smith and published by Prismatic Wasteland, LLC, pursuant to the Barkeep on the Borderlands Third Party License.

Congratulations to All the Summer Lego RPG Setting Jam Participants!

The Summer Lego RPG Setting Jam has officially ended. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated! Nineteen people submitted entries between May 8th and July 8th, including my own entry makes an even 20! I'm so pleased and happy to see them all. Let's take a look at what everyone turned in!

Unofficially, if you still want to make an RPG setting based on Lego, there's no reason not to go ahead and do it. I received so many messages from people about how much fun they had writing theirs - you might enjoy writing one, too! And I hope, in the fall, we'll see a few play reports from people who manage to put one of these settings to use at the table.

 

 

 

Legojam Castle Hexcrawl map by Rise Up Comus

 

The first entry came from Rise Up Comus, who helped get the whole project off to an exciting start! He wrote the Legojam Castle Hexcrawl, a regional sandbox based on Lego's original line of Castle sets. Playing with the idea that Legos are toys, this is a setting where all the NPCs are dressed up in costumes and forced to reenact a child's idea of a rollicking medieval adventure, complete with knights, bandits, and a dragon.

 

 

 

Azure Archipelago map by Tales of Escia

Tales of Escia wrote the Azure Archipelago, a wavecrawl full of early modern pirates and an imperial navy ... and advanced magitech Atlanteans. The three factions are competing for control of the region and access to arcane crystals, and their conflict has the potential to determine the fate of an active volcano on the brink of eruption!

 

 

 

Lego Adventurers Dino Island map by Farmer Gadda

 

Farmer Gadda gives us their take on more recent theme with Lego Adventurers Dino Island, a pointcrawl setting where freelance archaeologists compete against mustache-twirling aristocratic villains to find treasure on an island full of dinosaurs, and another active volcano.

 

 

  

Canton of Ochesbad by Tales of the Lunar Lands

 

Tales of the Lunar Lands wrote Cedric the Bull and the Canton of Ochesbad. The canton is a region at war, full of siege engines and war machines. It's medieval, but a very different feel from the Castle Hexcrawl. At the heart of the chaos is Cedric the Bull, a bloody-handed warlord who wants to be an honorable nobleman, which is a nice sort of internal conflict for a villain to have with himself.
 

 

 

6411 Sand Dollar Cafe via Brickset

 
Switching genres in a couple ways, Prismatic Wasteland wrote a modern-day murder mystery at the beach in Trouble in Paradisa. He treats us to nostalgia for the Lisa Frank neons of the early 90s, and the plethora of vacation-themed prime time soap operas of the 1980s. As a bonus, the whole thing is formatted as a trifold zine! He also wrote a nice retrospective about his design process.

 

 

 

Creatown map by The Lonely Firbolg

 

The Lonely Firbolg gives us another modern entry, Creatown, a neighborhood designed following the principles in Electric Bastionland, and using a dozen of Lego's multipurpose Creator sets to produce some truly quirky and memorable city encounters.
 
  

 

Challenger Crater by Xandeross

 

Taking us into the future, Xandeross wrote Moon War 2199, a small setting of warring cities and factions surrounding a large crater on the moon. Xandeross used some of the same Lego Space sets I grew up with, and provides us with a couple tables of random events to help feed the escalating tensions as the situation worsens.
 
 

 

Slizer / Throwbot Planet map by Faber Files

 

Arch Brick draws on a theme from Lego's Technic sets to bring us the World of Seven Slizers. This is a world divided into seven elemental realms - where two of the elements are energy and city!

 

 

 

Darth Skull, Foreman Mike, Astronaut, and two Ninjas by Benign Brown Beast

  

Instead of a setting, Benign Brown Beast takes us on a nostalgic tour through The Bootleg Lego Star Wars of My Youth. It's fun getting to see the idiosyncratic way he interpreted Star Wars as a kid, misremembering and reimagining key characters and scenes, incorporating elements from other Lego sets, blending it all with kid logic. Although my own childhood fantasy world looked totally different from this, it was assembled from mismatched parts in exactly the same way; reading this really took me back!

 

 

 

Big Mouth by Save vs Worm

  

Half Again as Much gives us a deep cut, with The Monster (Pod) Manual, featuring 20 different monsters, all built from one of Lego's short-lived X-Pod sets. Save vs Worm provides some nice illustrations of each of the monsters.

 

 

 

Dragons High map by Seed of Worlds

 

Seeds of Worlds gives us a delightfully thematic conflict in Dragons High. We get a world that's home to nature loving, dragon riding elves, being invaded via interdimensional portals by an unstoppable army of mechanical sea monsters!
 
 
 

Towers of Trumbagar zine by Leviathan Crossing

 

Leviathan Crossing wrote a very old-school little zine with Towers of Trumbagar, which includes lists of towers, simplified vertical maps of three, as a few encounter tables to liven them up.

 

 

 

Aquanautica map by Old Grog

 

Old Grog made a zine as well, and it's amazingly professional looking for a first effort! This might be someone to watch. Aquanautica is another wavecrawl, this one based on Lego's undersea Aquazone sets, which look a lot like underwater spaceships, which is to say, they look really cool.
 

 

 

Something Bricked This Way Comes by Rogue Wave Arcade

 

Rogue Wave Arcade also brought the professionalism when making Something Bricked This Way Comes, a pamphlet adventure that collects some classic monsters for spooky monster-hunting action!

 

 

 

6160 Sea Scorpion from Brickset

 

VDonnut Valley actually wrote three posts to describe an underwater setting. The first post describes the general setting, Sea Scorpion. In the second post about Sea Scorpion Locations, we see a half-dozen locations, their resources, and how events unfold in each one over time. The third post, Sea Scorpion Crews, introduces us to several different undersea adventuring groups, who again change over time. The temporal component here seems interesting; I'd like to know how it works in action at the table.

 

 

 

A Legend Returns map by Noriksigma

 
Noriksigma wrote an impressively detailed setting, A Legend Returns, based on the Matorans from Lego's Bionicle line. I think he wanted to write something longer, including barrens outside the city, but there is plenty to see and do here already.

 

 

 

Island of Tyn Mava map by Noise Sans Signal

 

Noise sans Signal also hoped to write something longer, but still produced the Island of Tyn Mava, City of Weather Vanes, a pointcrawl with a dozen locations. A fuller setting may appear someday! One thing I find really interesting here is that this isn't based on childhood memories of playing with Legos, but rather viewing random Lego sets and using them as sparks for creativity.

 

 

 

Knights on the Borderlands map by Scriptorium Ludi

 

Scriptorium Ludi put together a zine, Knights on the Borderlands, that pays tribute to Lego's Knights Kingdom series and the classic D&D adventure Keep on the Borderlands. This is the second entry that comes with a helpful companion post describing the design process!

 

 

 

Scary Monster Madness map by Knight at the Opera

 

Knight at the Opera uses, I think, the same classic monsters as Rogue Wave Arcade, for the pointcrawl adventure Scary Monster Madness. Here the players take on the roles of documentarians, reporting on the way a major movie studio is exploiting a rural, monster-filled European backwater to make horror movies with no special effects. Like Rise Up Comus's hexcrawl, I think this one is playing with the toy-ness of Lego, depicting an environment where many of the NPCs are themselves acting an playing roles.

 

 

 

I will share my own Lego-inspired setting soon, but I wanted to share the list of other entries as soon as possible. I'm so glad that so many people participated, and felt inspired to make something of their own. I also received a lot of messages from folks asking questions, sharing their favorite Lego tips and resources, and reminiscing about their childhood favorite Lego sets. This was no Dungeon 23 or Gygax 75, but it was small, and it was fun, and I'm very happy with the outcome. 

 

If you have the time and energy and to try want another summer project, why not join Prismatic Wasteland's Barkeep Jam, which is open until August 14th?

Helpful Links for the LEGO RPG Jam

Hi everyone! I have two announcements about the ongoing Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam, still open until July 8th. First, several people have reached out to me with links that might be helpful for anyone working on their own entry. And second, the first few entries have been submitted!

 

 

71469 Nightmare Shark Ship image source

 

I'll talk about those in just a moment. But first, my friend and colleague Prismatic Wasteland is also hosting an game jam this summer - the Barkeep Jam, which will be open from June 14th to August 14th, inviting you to add your own location (or other contributions) to the already-overflowing Barkeep on the Borderlands.

 

I wrote one of the original bars, but I'm going to try to come up with another to enter in the jam. I'm thinking of playing with the similar sounds in cocktail and cockatrice, although I'm not sure exactly where that will lead yet...

 

In the mean time, let's talk about Lego!

 

  

6494 Magic Mountain Time Lab image source

 

I have been using Brickset as my primary interface for locating and looking at older Lego sets. It's not the only way to search them, but I've found it very helpful.

Certified Lego fan Farmer Gadda has a few recommendations! First, Rebrickable is a site where people can post instructions for their own fan designs, reusing old pieces in new ways.

Next, Brick Owl is an online marketplace for buying and selling Lego pieces and minifigures.

 

BrikWars hosts a community of people who use Lego to play wargames. There's a complete ruleset, a wiki for lore, and forums where people talk about and post pictures of their games.

And the BrickLink Studio is a downloadable program from the official Lego website that allows 3D modeling of Lego pieces and sets, and can output .png files.

Knight at the Opera discovered that the official Lego website also has some great history articles, including accounts of the original Castle, Pirates, and Space lines, along with plenty of other topics.

I also got a great link from Mindstorm -  a really detailed overview of the Lego space factions from the 1990s and 2000s from the almost overwhelming Rambling Brick blog. This covers the period when I was most into Lego as a kid, as well as the time right afterward.

And finally, Prismatic Wasteland found a link to a review of the inspiring 1992 Lego catalog, and discovered that Brickset also has a way to browse old Lego catalogs, from 1966 to 2011.
 

4970 The Chrome Crusher image source

So far, there have been four contest entries (that I know of! if you've seen others, please share them in the comments!) 

The first past the finish line is Rise Up Comus, who wrote the Legojam Castle Hexcrawl. This is 27 hexes of medieval adventure, populated by people forced to reenact and relive the same heroic drama year after year, with only the player characters able to break free from the eternal recurrence of the same.

The aforementioned Farmer Gadda wrote Lego Adventurers Dino Island, which pits pulp-style explorers and criminals in a race against one another to capture a dinosaur before the volcano explodes...

Dr Curious VII went a different route and found monster designs from a Lego boardgame. In The Monster (Pod) Manual, DC7 offers ideas on how to describe and use 20 of these little beasties as roleplaying adversaries. I'd really like to encourage this kind of creativity! If you don't want to write a setting, but have another idea for adapting Lego to use with D&D, please know that you're welcome.

 

And in the most recent entry, for now, Tales of Escia gives us The Azure Archipelago, a 36 hex ocean setting where pirates, ghosts, and a royal navy all compete with ancient high-tech Atlanteans to find arcane crystals that will fuel their various factional goals.

There's still plenty of time to join the jam, and plenty of room for more ideas. Don't feel discouraged if you want to write something smaller, or if you too want to write about pirates or knights! I'd love to see what you can make!