Worldbuilding with Magic the Gathering

    It has been a little while since I've posted life has been catching up to me in a rough way and I've really fallen off on keeping up with two posts a week. A few people have checked in with me and I really gotta say, I appreciate you guys, it means a lot that some people in the community reached out to check in. Today I'm making this post in part to let people know I'm still kicking around and also to just get something out onto a page. We probably aren't back to our regularly scheduled program just yet but we're working on it!

 

Sometimes when I am in a creative rut and cant come up with something to make a post about or find the energy to make something for the campaign I head on over to Scryfall and hit random card. The goal is to take the card I'm shown and make something to use in the games. This usually falls into the category of a monster, NPC, location, magic item, or magic power that an NPC or PC might gain. The last one is a little stolen from 5E's boons and banes section where they talk about alternative rewards to treasure (it's a very good book and we might talk about it and the tools it presents as its own post some day).

    I give myself 30 seconds with the card shown to me. I read the card over and take into account it's name, cost, flavor text, rules text, power, toughness, and card type. I want to take into account all these things when I use it as a reference.  If after 30 seconds with the card I really can't come up with the faintest idea then I hit random again. I'll keep at this until I have something on my personal document for my setting or something setting neutral that I can slip in to later games. 

     In truth I really don't use these in the games that much, I keep them in my back pocket when I have nothing else in the moment and have used them maybe a few times. If you give this a shot, remember that the goal isn't to recreate the card exactly in your setting or rule set, it's to make something inspired by that card. I'll sign off with a few examples of cards I've used and the resulting writing.

 

Mazus La Croix (Fleshgrafter)

Mazus was an artificer in the old empire of man, how he has lived long enough to see the sun rise on the new world is a mystery but the steel grafts in his body certainly give hints. In his time in the empire he was considered extreme, even by the empire’s standards. He would get his hands on magical trinkets and artifacts, and graft them into the flesh of others, tying the powers of the magical items to the recipient’s soul. This drove nearly all of his victims insane but those who survived were exceptionally dangerous. In the empire’s twilight, lacking fresh sources to experiment on, he began to graft magic and steel into himself. What lives in that cavern, the ancient workshop, is no longer recognizably human. Perhaps you may find power in becoming one of his test subjects… or perhaps you will lose yourself to madness and become a danger until some group of adventures comes along and puts you down. 

Statistics:

Init +0; Atk graft drills +6 melee (2d5+1d3 bleed), darklight lance +7 ranged (4d4+weakness); AC 16 (grafted steel plates); HD 8d10(40); MV 60’; Act 1d20+1d16; SV Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +4; AL C; SP: Graft drills cause bleed on the target if hit, stops if spending 1 round bandaging or healed. Weakness: the darklight lance mounted on Mazus’ shoulder swivels and targets freely in any direction. Anyone struck by it must make a DC 15 fortitude save or suffer 1d4 strength, agility, or stamina damage.

Grafter: Mazus is able to form a permanent connection between an individual and any of their magic items or mundane gear. The process of this is extremely painful, anyone undergoing it must make a DC 20 will save or suffer madness so deep that they are unable to function without attacking everyone and everything around them, other than Mazus of course. Failing this check should result in the loss of a character and should not be undertaken lightly as this obviously evil madman makes no promises of it working. Anyone who makes the save will find that they are bonded to the item, armor replaces much of their skin, weapons replace limbs, trinkets are attached in useful places. Removing these magic items will kill the character, they may only be brought back by divine intervention or a subject of a quest.

 

Chant of order (Orim’s Chant):

This is a power usually associated with angels and other beings of order. It is rarely taught to mortals and for good reason, the chant was never meant to be uttered by mortals and causes them great pain and harm. Should a mortal prove themselves to be worthy, through deed or act a being from a higher plane might teach a mortal this chant.

A character possessing this ability may spend their round of combat cantering in the tongue of higher beings of order, this act causes one point of damage to the user’s personality and stamina. However, any spellcaster who’s magic comes from chaos, such as wizards and chaotic clerics, will find that their magic is blocked for the entire round until the chanters next turn. Additionally the chanter may burn 1 point of a physical ability score, should they do this enemies must make a DC 15 will save in order to attack them. Failing this save means the attacker wastes their attack this round struggling against the chanter.

 

Practiced Teamwork (coordinated assault):

This boon is often taught by seasoned militia captains, battle-hardened mercenaries, or warriors who understand the value of tight unit cohesion. Seeing the chaotic scrapping of most adventuring parties, they may offer this training to those they deem worthy, both as a reward and a correction.

Effect:

At the start of combat, the character may designate one ally as their fighting partner.

As long as the two fight adjacent to one another, each may use the higher of their two attack bonuses and initiative modifiers for the duration of the battle*.

*If separated, each reverts to their normal values until adjacency is regained.

 

Blackwater Anchorage (Restless Reef):

This cave was once a pirate hideout, the reef surrounding it made it impassable to the large warships of the empire but a safe place to hide for the lightweight pirate ships. Unfortunately this massive ocean cave eventually fell when the empire sent a necromancer named Vexilar Doomhand. He brought a single row boat and a re-animated prehistoric monster with him which he set to guard the sea cave and sink any ship that attempted to leave. The pirates in the cave lost their ships before they decided to hide out in the dwellings they had carved out and ramchackled together. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t wait out the undead. Eventually they starved or died as they attempted to flee, leaving behind much of their treasure.

Now, with Vexilar’s death, the undead monster in the waters is dormant but not gone. The massive prehistoric shark in the waters of the cave will animate again if it senses enough life in the cave or a strong enough source of magic, such as a high level magic user, enters the reef.

Prehistoric Undead Shark

The Guardian of Restless Reef

Init +4; Atk bite +12 melee (2d20 damage, see below), tail sweep +8 melee (1d14, knockback 20’);  AC 20 (bone plating & undead resilience); HD 18d12 (108 hp); MV swim 100’; Act 2d20; SV Fort +12, Ref +6, Will +10; AL Chaotic

• Massive Bite: On a successful bite attack, the shark automatically grapples its target in its jaws. Grappled creatures take 2d12 automatic damage each round until freed (DC 20 Strength or Agility check). If reduced to 0 hp, the victim is instantly swallowed whole (see below).

• Swallow Whole: The undead shark no longer digests food and anyone swallowed can be cut out and rolled over, if the shark can be defeated

• Shipbreaker: Against watercraft, the bite deals quadruple damage. A small boat is destroyed in 1-2 bites; a large vessel in 3-4 

• Breaching Charge: The shark may leap from the water up to 30’ horizontally to attack creatures on docks, ledges, or the cave mouth. Targets must succeed on a DC 18 Ref save or be knocked prone and dragged into the water.

• Undead Resilience: Immune to poison, charm, disease, paralysis, and sleep. Takes half damage from non-magical weapons unless silvered or mithril

• Blood Frenzy: If any creature within 60’ takes damage, the shark gains +2 to attack rolls until the end of its next turn

• Lair Sense: Can detect any creature entering the reef, even if invisible or magically concealed

 

 

 

 

 

 

Class: Martial Artist

     The martial arts superhero is a staple of the genre, it feels criminal that neither of the DCC superhero hacks had a good way to emulate characters like Iron Fist or Bronze Tiger, especially when there is so much good groundwork laid out by the 5+ different monk classes out there! I wanted this class to fit in alongside the other superhero classes for this project and feel mystical, getting abilities that no one else really has.

    I've really been enjoying working on this project. I'm hoping to have this completed some time next year to make a proper rule book for what I think superheroes should look like in a DCC hack. But enough about that, here is the class' first draft, for your enjoyment:

 

The Martial Artist 

Champions of Tibault: Vol 9

 Something I adore is when a PC makes a connection or helps someone and it has a chance to come back around. I think it's good storytelling. This time, the people of Sweet Water got to deliver on the aid they had been given. The party ended up with some not quite magical but still unusual variations of the standard equipment. Leather armor that granted a claw attack, rawhide shields that granted more AC than a standard shield, a staff made from one of the massive bones, and other treasures from Sweet Water.

    Additionally, I LOVE patron stuff. I love to see it come back around. I love to see a player remember they have a patron. I love to see a player remember that the relationship with patrons is transactional. Talshu was always pretty good about that stuff. The player continues to be good about that kind of thing as they continue to play in other campaigns. 

 

Session 9:

The village of sweetwater delivered! They brought leather armors and a rawhide shield made of this “primal” leather, granting additional benefit. With their reward in hand the party decided to mess with wounded animal further, hoping to find something condemning on the featherfolk slaver and arena master. While Talshu broke into his home she released a demon from an iron cage who offered her a wish. She suspected that he would twist the wish and the demon shrugged and more or less confirmed that he was a bastard. She wished for a book detailing all the accounts and information of the old empire, everything possible, no matter how frivolous. The demon gave her a book which she quickly got out from under before it smashed through the floor of the wagon that wounded animal called home. Unable to move the book Talshu called out to her patron, the architect, offering him the book as part of her continued service and possible future reward. He immediately rewarded her with a patron spell, dimensional sundering while he took her to his pocket dimension, The House of Legacy, where she met a strange group of adventurers, Spingsinger, Brother Gavin, Saldru, and Squire, all of them seeming like larger than life heroic figures, he said they were visitors to the house of legacy from “another system” some distant place he called “five-e”. He briefly explains something called an Eternal Champion and says that sometimes he’s not addressing her but the eternal champion before returning Talshu home to scramble away from the wreckage of wounded animal’s wagon.

Talshu unfortunately didn’t get away with no witnesses and as a result Wounded animal demanded justice, Talshu had been summoned to the Arena to fight and prove her innocence. Witherbone and Egrat battle in her stead, against a 4 armed gorilla monster who almost kills Egrat. Fortunately Witherbone is able to put the beast down and a Mountainborn in the crowd with a talent for healing is able to bring Egrat back from the brink.

 

Magic Items: 5 potions

     You know what I love about DCC? Magic items. The rules give scarcely little information about them in the games. They encourage you to give them a story, to make each one unique in it's own way. No sword is "a +1 sword". You know the rest. I talked a little bit about Scrolls not too long ago and how those should also be unique, which the book gives us a great start for. The other "common" disposable magic item is a potion. I think those should be just as unique and storied! Maybe not as much as say, a sword or a wizard's staff, but certainly some kind of history. So in the spirit of that, I've been playing with potion tables and rolled up 5 potions with little stories, descriptions, and in some cases, side effects, to make them feel a little more special when someone finds them.

 

5 Potions 

Blog d100: Player Suprise

 Continuing the Blog d100 series using the d4 Caltrops table! The gauntlet was laid down by Buster over on 19 Sided Die and I will continue to go through it when I need a filler post!

Rolled 60: A time the players surprised you or ruined your plans.

 

This is a fun one for me, it means another story time post!

 

I played for years with a dude who was constantly throwing me off or catching me off guard. He did this thing where he could almost see the connection to the most distant pieces of the puzzle in his plans. The catch was that he could only do this with his own plans. He couldn't see through the plot or plans of the foes. 

 

Guy was usually playing an evil character but was somehow lovable about it. He would tell everyone long before the first session, "I'm going to betray all of you at some point". Then when it happened everyone always just kinda shrugged and laughed like "oh man, you really got us! we even knew it was coming! haha!". It was interesting, he had a unique ability to turn on the whole party and not even a single person would flinch when it happened. He telegraphed it, telling people not to trust his character and doing shady things in the open where other characters could see him and catch wind of his inevitable betrayal.

 

I ran a game using a combination of Heroes Unlimited and Ninjas and Super Spies. The goal of this game was to break into this facility extract important information for a group of people who hired them. The party was playing a group of basically bottom of the barrel contractors for this kind of job. Two people played something called "dedicated martial artists" These are characters who are extremely skilled fighters with borderline mystic martial arts abilities but fresh off the boat and no ideas of the modern world. One person played a Hardware character who was both a weapons expert and an electrical genius. This guy... He played something called a worldly martial artist.  He was meant to be the guide to the dedicated martial artists in the world... he roped them into this contract and was paying them pennies on the dollar for the job. It was discussed and everyone found it to be funny and fine. 

 

During their raid of this building they fought against some cyborgs and some strangely skilled martial artists for being on corporate payroll. Along the way they defeated a man with a sword that contained a demon. This guy took the sword and made minor deals along the way to the goal in order to gain some power. 

 

After a battle with an honest to god supervillain who was way above the pay grade of the party, and somehow coming up with a way to defeat him but not put him down, This guy has his character die. The sword offered him a second chance, a new life, at a cost. Dude didn't even hear it's deal and said, "nah, death is fine" before throwing the sword away and letting go of life. It really shocked me, I thought for sure he would take the deal and become a new villain in the setting. He was always playing such evil characters who were so quick to turn against the party.

 

Goes to show, you can play with someone for decades and they will still surprise you on occasion. 

 

 

As always with the blog d100 series, if you follow along and make your own entries please comment below and I'll link you at the end of the article. It seems this time there are no new places to send you but I'll keep an eye out! 

Super Vehicle Rules

 Mentioned briefly in the Vigilante Class for Comic Crawl Classics or Evolved I now present the super vehicle rules. I didn't really care for the rules presented in Evolved and wanted them to be a little more granular and potentially tied to progression and player choices. I wanted something that felt a little bit like it could allow choices for unique vehicles as players built them differently. I also wanted to tie it to the prosperity die, which this project will be using, when getting points for upgrading because we always see the most wealthy of heroes with these insane vehicles and super suits. I wanted something that gave players options and wasn't just loaded with bonuses to X or Y all over the place. I wanted it to feel like comic book craziness where a vehicle could be built quickly and we could lean into the "rulings not rules" style that DCC lives and breathes.

    The rules I present below assume using the same vehicle rules as Evolved which originally got them from The Umerican Survival Guide. 

     As with the other posts in this series, this is just the draft of these and a fully corrected, edited, formatted, and fleshed out set of rules will be presented when the book comes out.

 

Super Vehicles

Blog Graveyard Vol 3: Balthazar's Bloviations

     Balthazar's Bloviations, last seen February of 2020, was a more general RPG blog that covered content across multiple games, 5E, DCC, FASERIP, and a few others. He covered something near and dear to my heart, Superhero RPGs. Recent posts should tell you that I love superhero games. You don't see a lot of overlap in this sphere with superhero games. He also talks a bit about "cloud campaigns" which I'll share below and might be good for you. Overall I have gone back to this blog many times over the years for inspiration and just fun things to read. He loved tinkering with tables and many other things that feel near and dear to my heart. So here are some treasures from Balthazar's Bloviations to get you started!

 

Alignment Based Disapproval Tables: I really love these. Prior to stumbling on his post for this, I found myself thinking that this would be a good thing to have, splitting out disapproval based on alignment, if not the gods. If you don't want to write out a custom disapproval table but want it to feel more tailored to alignment, Balthazar has what you need.

Cloud Games: I think this is such a good take on the west marches style of game which I'm sure more than a few of you are familiar with. At its heart it is just a west marches style but it's meant to be episodic and have an indeterminate group of players. He has 4 posts about this and I suggest reading them. It feels a little like how I've treated every campaign as the same setting for years and years. I think I'm going to make the superhero game I end up running soon with each session being episodic.

Carousing Tables: I try to collect these left and right. I love a good carousing table. It is such a good little generator for interesting little moments, developments, and sinking money. There are quite a few over on Balthazar's Bloviations, including one if you are boring and want to lay low. Take a look, filter for carousing tables and have a good time looking at tables for the core classes. Keep in mind these are made for Skull Mountain but there is no reason you cant change things just a little and use these tables anyways. I know I have.

Shrunken PCs: This entry includes a table, a scenario, and tips for running that scenario. It is part of his "Steal This" series and honestly every entry in this series has something interesting to inspire or one to one rip and run at your own table. Give this series a look. Personally, I fantasize about running a game about a group of Tiny PCs once a month. Fighting insects, navigating the forest of someone's front garden, scaling massive structures of furniture, going on dungeon crawls in the walls of a house. 

 

    This one was fun to run back through. Balthazar's Bloviations ran for about 5ish years, give or take. I'll consider myself lucky if i can run that long. He hosts a second blog for a game called "The Dragonreach Campaign" which is mostly a chronicle of the game. By my best estimates it seems like it went on as recently as 2023, the only evidence I have for that is the house rule packet being updated in 2023. This isn't strictly a DCC blog but you can feel the years of experience coming through the posts with this one. I encourage you to go check him out, there is always something to take away from any source.