MORK BORG!

 So, I played in my second session of Mork Borg last night. What a blast!

For those of you out of the loop, Mork Borg is a Swedish OSR style rules lite art house RPG.

It is more art book and inspiration than rules compendium, but has  a flavour in both the art and random tables that is very Nordic death metal. Think Death Frost Doom but better illustrated and less slavish to OD&D.

My esoteric hermit, Jotna, and his small but vicious dog Tiddles (created from a random generator HERE) awoke to find themselves in some dark hell dimension, with they and their traveling companions under attack by bloody skeletons. Battles ensued, paths were walked, traps were sprung, and goblins and fishmen were slain. In addition, undying prisoners breathed cryptic clues before jumping into lava, and grotesque or cursed magic items both helped and hindered the party in their quest to recover the lost monarch, his crown, or the way to call the spring.

All in all, it had the most OSR feel of wonder and terror I have ever experienced. At the end of the session, when we determined only two of us could return to the land of the living, Jotna nonchalantly offered to stay and meditate, as it was no worse than his mountain cave.

Anyway, give it a gander if you haven't already.

Emergent Storytelling - Crayon Shinchan vs Alien

So, I just started watching this Crayon Shinchan vs Alien movie (short version available HERE) with my little boy on our Japanese satellite TV.

It is a masterclass in emergent storytelling, and has lots of implications for RPGs.

Basically, the Crayon Shinchan family wakes up in the cryosleep booths from Alien on an unknown spaceship

Their annoying cuddly couple neighbors are there, as well as three unknown characters - an old lady, a scarfaced tough guy, and a skinny hysteric fellow. They get dressed and are attacked by a strange alien-robot.

From then on the show spirals between comedy, tension and paranoia. Without giving too much away, there are encounters with other mysterious characters, hidden rooms, betrayals, weird alien technology, and hidden alien infections.

Basically, the amnesiac in cryosleep chambers plot device is perfect for emergent stories, and the tongue in cheek tone keeps the action fun while the reversals and dangers are genuinely exciting.

Definitely, give it a watch.

Making Good Enemies With The Nemesis System

This is a great video of how the Nemesis system in the Mordor games creates stories.

Basically, it does this in a few ways that a game master can steal:

1 Let the gameworld use the character's actions against them. If they run from an encounter with orcs, the next encounter may start with taunts of "Coward!" If they kill a 1 HD mook, their 2HD brother will come looking for blood.

2 Brings back enemies who are better or stronger. Wipe out a group of 1HD mooks? As noted, their brothers will be 2HD and geared for a revenge quest.

3 Give each major enemy a unique trait. They may have a mutant power or magic weapon, which they boast about and use in combat.

Side note, I remember one of the first D&D games I played, we pooled our money and gave the ranger a composite bow. It didn't help us, and we suffered a TPK. We rolled up new characters and went to their stronghold, but now had to face orcs with a composite bow, forcing us to be stealthier.

4 Let memorable enemies cheat death, then reappear at inopportune times. Maybe they feigned death and are now back immune to what supposedly killed them, or else they have a smoke bomb or knowledge of hidden doors needed to get away. This smacks of Quantum ogre a bit, but I think it is necessary in terms of engaging story.

Video is HERE. 

Why Mechs Indeed....

Funny.

The other day, I read the blogpost 'Why Mechas?' on Monsters and Manuals (available HERE). The blogger ascribes it to elite pride, like the retention of calvary for so long after they were made redundant.

Yesterday, a new anime series called Obsolete popped up in my YouTube feed HERE. Although the CG art makes for somewhat wooden performances, action scenes are stellar. There are jungle fights, underwater conflicts, and mech ski chases in the Himalayas, with a pounding soundtrack by Skillrex.

'OBSOLETE - We cannot resist'

All in all, it was an inspiring new setting for anyone interested in RPGs such as Mekton, Mechwarrior, or Heavy Gear.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

The premise is that mysterious aliens called 'Peddlars' have shown up and started selling mech exoskeletons to humans for rockbottom prices. Poor peoples buy them en masse to give their workforces much needed boosts in productivity.

It is this cheap alien sources (more machina ex deus than deus ex machina) that allows for the popularity of mechs, and their ultimate weaponization.

In the 2nd episode, we see a UN peacekeeping tank brigade driving around an African country, supposedly peacekeeping. Two crewmen are discussing geopolitics, one musing on whether the mechs (called 'exoframes') will be used in war, the other laughing it off because, unlike the gas guzzling, multimillion dollar kickback machine tank they are riding, there is no money in it. Within minutes, guerrillas riding agricultural mechs, using RPGs (the other kind) to take out the tank-riding NATO troops.

Over the series we see the escalation of mech warfare, from mercenary companies to Palestinian-inspired kid soldiers and suicide bombers. We also get hints of the nefarious plans behind this sweeping change, when a scientists remarks that the expos are pitted with damage from previous use, and muses how many other planets they have been used to destroy.

All in all, a great sci-fi with social commentary, kick ass action, and tons of sealable ideas for RPGS.

The trailer for Part II is HERE.

Enjoy!

Spicing Up Dark Sun

DARK SUN & I

Back in the day, I ran a few games of Dark Sun using D&D 2E. The books were mind-bending to read way back in 1991, both for the hard turn away from Tolkien tropes, as well as the escalation of attribute levels and abilities that, in hindsight, seemed to foretell a lot of the slap happy kewl powers of 4e.

I've heard that Dark Sun is being rereleased for 5e, and I see only one problem with that.

It is a boring setting, for me. Yes, there are lots of interesting ideas and bibs and bobs, but there is something lacking in the over-arching narrative.

Now, I'm not going to do an exhaustive rereading of all Dark Sun (TM) materials. I am just going to float an idea that should kick your Dark Sun game into overdrive. Use or ignore as you will, but if I ever run DS again, this is how it is going down.

(Note: Yes, I have only read the original boxed set and missed all the novels because I was done with it by then. If you like canon, knock yourself out, but keep reading for stealable inspiration)

PART ONE: DARK SUN = MAD MAX

You heard me, Dark Sun is the Mad Max of D&D worlds. Post apocalypse? Check. Marauding leather-clad freaks? Check. The only thing that is missing is high speed vehicle chases.

Or are they already there? I dimly recall a brief mention of large wheeled vehicles dwarves on Athas use to cross quicksand seas. What if these are not slow-moving barges like the Jawa sand crawler from Star Wars, but instead high octane, high speed trucks and cars? The only way not to sink into the sands is to go fast enough to escape their grip.

What if the magical apocalypse that killed off nature and magic in Athas instead created a reserve of oil used by dwarves to power their machines? Now things get interesting! The magical apocalypse has drained the world of mystical energy, and created the fuel that is unknowingly exacerbating the environmental collapse.

And it all starts with the dwarves:

DWARVES

Dwarves are the ones who keep the machines running. They have innate knowledge of mechanics, and can build or repair anything from a cistern well to a V8 engine, so they are valued and always captured in combat, never killed. They aren't hairy, because who needs that in a desert?

ELVES

I always thought the running elves in sweatbands image was possibly the lamest part of Dark Sun, and possibly just a holdover from 80s health conscious culture. Instead, Athasian elves look like this:

Also this:

Whereas dwarves fix technology, elves fly it. They prefer to live on top of mesas or in eyries away from the desert riffraff, wearing archaic clothes, indulging in long forgotten vices, watching from afar through binoculars.

BARD

If I recall, there were no bards on Athas, as life had gotten too short and brutish.

See this guy?

THAT is your Athas bard.

HALFLINGS

See this kid? That's actually a halfling.

Halflings in Dark Sun use weapons they make out of desert glass. They act as vorpal swords, but can be easily shattered. Glass boomerang that cuts off your fingers? That is a staple Athas halfling weapon.

HALF GIANTS

Half giants weren't created in magical experiments. Instead, the Defiler magic that sucked the juice out of the world also siphoned power away from magical creatures. Big and stupid, these guys are excellent bodyguards for dwarven mechanics, like this guy:

This means there will also be other misshapen, twisted versions of old Tolkien or fairytale animals out there. A unicorn that is more elasmotherium than the Last Unicorn, harpies that are more the sex witch from Conan than the flying busts of Harryhausen, all are par for the course on Athas.

MULS

Tough but impotent, these guys and girls are the elite troops of armies, as well as avowed hedonists. They'll cut off heads all morning then go to an Eyes Wide Shut party at night. Get along surprisingly well with elves.

DEFILERS & PRESERVERS

These people hide their mystical abilities and instead accrue power through political means, aided with a judicious charm spell or saxophone solo.

PART TWO: WEIRD ATHAS = MOEBIUS

But there are weird corners of Athas that do not map onto Mad Max so well, you might say. In that case, other inspirations can be drawn upon.

THRI-KREEN

Giant insect warriors do not fit so neatly with Mad Max, on the surface. But Athas is a desert setting, and thus can easily incorporate other desert-set fantasy worlds. French manga legend Moebius created a setting called The Airtight Garage, a huge desert world filled with all kinds of weirdness that could easily spill out into Athas.

A Mul giving a Thrill-Kreen (jouk) larva attached to a person the old ultra violence.

In Moebius' world, the Jouk is a humanoid insect race of fierce warriors who impregnate people with their larva, take over their minds, and use these pawns to enslave or destroy whole communities. PC Thri-Kreen could be eunuchs, or in a dormant state, waiting for the time or a whiff of pheromone to turn against the party and impregnate them all.

In fact, there is tons of desert weirdness that could easily be ported over from Moebius. The warrior Arzach on his giant pigeon steed. Major Gruber roaming the desert in search of adventure. You can ever go down the rabbithole of Jordorowsky's Dune.

PTERRANS

With all the cool shit I just gave you, you want to play a weak-ass kite dude? Seriously?

Sigh. OK.

Pterrans are these guys:

Brownie points if you know what film these flying terrors are from.