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More Than a Bucket of Bolts

Next up on my journey through solo rpg space is a little zine called Bucket of Bolts ( buy it here ), where you take on the POV of medium sized spacecraft, and explore its journey through time and space, cataloging adventures, upgrades, and a timeline of several Captains that have the privilege of being at the helm. It's based on another rpg called Artefact (in which you write from the POV of a sentient magic item or weapon). I had enjoyed  Artefact before, so I was excited to try this one out.  Source:  abduzeedo The game starts with you describing your ship; writing about some basic details like the type of ship, the model and make, the crew who designed and built it, as well as some defining traits like if it's sleek , or powerful , or intimidating .  My particular ship for this game was nicknamed Ladybug, and was the mid-range value model of Hyperion Industries called the Prospect-QX . Sporting the same engine and basic design as their flagship luxury spaceship line, the Pr
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Lichdom - A Reflective Ascent to Power

 I recently sat down and resolved to start tackling the mountain of rulebooks and rpgs that seemed to be growing by the week before me. That, paired with a sort of terse relationship with video games at the moment, lead me to tackle some of the solo roleplaying games that I had begun to subconsciously collect. I had played one or two before, most notably the famous and award-winning Thousand Year Old Vampire , which was a surreal experience at the least (and a profoundly introspective jaunt at its best).  Source: Dungeon Crawl Classics (seriously great game, check it out too) This week I decided to try one of the newer ones I had picked up: Lichdom (buy it here) . Thanking the past version of me that had the foresight (or the money burning a hole in my digital wallet) for backing the Kickstarter that came with the hardcover and a custom deck of themed playing cards, I cracked open the cards, uncapped a new pen, and creased the spine of a brand new journal to start playing.  Lichdom is

GLoGtober Ketchup

 Slowly falling behind because of real-life Going to try this new method of batching some of these GLoGtober days together! This one is a little different, and is less tools for you to use and instead more stream of conscious and meandering thoughts I have floating around in my personal ether (that you can still totally use and expand on). If you do, please let me know how it goes! Day 7 - 1d8 Reasons to become an Adventurer The next town over is paying more for adventurers to defend against bandits than they are for weapons and tools from your family blacksmith.  Kobolds have stolen your baby for the 1d8th time.  Your betrothed is actually someone you really, really don't like.  A powerful immortal wizard abducted you from your mundane life and imbued you with nigh-infinite power that's only accessible if you do nice things.  You find a magic lamp. 50% chance of including a genie.  Goblins.  A travelling witch places a curse on you for stepping on her robe.  While frolicking i

Second Breakfast

 Our next GLoGtober post is Day 6 - Food . One of my favorite adventures of recent memory is Baktos Terrifying Cuisine . If you've never read it, you're doing yourself a disservice every minute you spend not reading it. Below is an alternate random encounter tables for either that adventure, or for you to drop into any dungeon with a kitchen. 1d6 Culinary Encounters Tenderizer Knight blocks your path. {HD 4, AC 18, Meat Tenderizer 1d12, crushes Armor} A pastamancer is feverishly trying to wrangle his Calzone Golem {HD 3, AC 16, Fists 1d8, immune to normal weapons, crust hardens if it takes fire damage increasing AC +3} You stumble upon 4 Biscuit Pirates loading a bound and gagged person onto their gravy boat {HD 2, AC 15, Cutlass 1d6, holds 2d6 gp} A Fruit Ninja mistakes you as a royal and his intended target for assassination. {HD 3, AC 16, Katana 1d8, acts twice in one round} You find a treasure chest seemingly filled with gold. 50% chance to be a Mimic , 50% chance to be

I'm the Map!

 Day 5 of GLoGtober brings us an interesting look at maps. In most D&D games I've been a part of, the map is usually something that gets handed out or shown off at the beginning of a campaign and is rarely used again (not unlike the ubiquitous map at the beginning pages of any handful of your favorite fantasy novels). Let's see if we can find a way to spice them up.  Coffee stains that kinda look like a map?  1d12 Map-Based Plot Hooks / Seeds The King hands you a map with living ink that dynamically tracks every Adult Dragon within 100 miles, but reveals several to be located within the Castle itself.  The cultists hand over the map....that's tattooed to the back of a frightened child that doesn't seem to share any languages with you.  A noble who got robbed by street urchins hires you to recover a map that is a bag of marbles that when dumped out forms the shape of the continents and reveals the location of an island previously thought to be a myth.  A githyanki r

Reading Into Rainbows

GLoGtober Day 4 is a day of Rainbow Swirling Vortices. I wasn't really sure what direction to go with this prompt, but it reminded me of one of my favorite classic low-level magic spells: Color Spray. In the newest edition of the world's okayest roleplaying game , it's a flavorful and fun spell that ultimately ends up blinding its targets. But surely we can get a little crazier than that. I present to you... 1d10 Alternate Effects for Color Spray A dazzling array of colors shoots forward in a cone.... Creature(s) must make a Constitution Saving Throw or suffer violent seizures for 1d3 rounds.  A Bridge of colors springs forth from your hand to another location that you can see within 30 feet.  Shoots a blindingly bright and colorful array of light into the sky that can be seen for miles. Unless someone can see the caster, then the light moves shifts in their perspective and can never be reached.   Everything caught in the area of the spell grows brightly like neon for 1 ho

Yo Gobbo Gobbo

  GLoGtober Day 3 is all about GOBLINS! Today I thought I'd throw together some gobbo themed tables. Enjoy! Art by Tony Sart 1d20 Goblin Job / Profession / Background (and bonus starting item) Nest Kicker (iron-toe boot) Snot-Shoveler (shovel) Ratkeep (bait) Gangboss (fancy hat)  Tinker (tweezers) Sad Sapper (wire cutters) Tripper (camo blanket) Surgeon (rusty handsaw) Soup Chef (iron skillet)  Latrine Attendant (towel)  Squig Herder (lasso)  Scout (horn)  Pirate (longcoat)  Assassin (pocket sand)  Filch (silk gloves)  Firestarter (flint and steel)  Miner (stick of dynamite)  Cannonball (iron-helmet)  Witch (cauldron)   Siege Trooper (ladder)  And here are two bonus tables made with the help of the lovely Patrons in the Bards And Nobles Patreon-exclusive Discord server:  1d10 things the goblin was using as a weapon The femur of a wolf Poop-stick A rat tied to a stick, swung like a morning star A sock full of coins Another, smaller goblin Strips of leather woven in with shards of st

There Will Be Blood

 Here's day two of GLoGtober (which can be found here:  https://sunderedshillings.blogspot.com/2020/09/glogtober.html )  1d16 Level-less Blood themed spells in the style of the platonic ideal of the world's okayest role-playing game.  Bloodbending - You control the target like a marionette for L rounds.  Blood Bond - You and a single target share a blood connection. Any damage or healing effects that affects one target, also affects the other.  Bucket of Blood - You shower a single target with massive bucket of blood that appears above them.  Read Blood - Tasting at least a droplet of blood grants you visions of the immediate area at the time that blood was spilt.    Hemo-Step - You can step into a puddle of blood large enough to accommodate you and emerge from another concentration of blood from the same creature. Bloodstained Tears - The target begins cry blood profusely.  Bloodwake - For a short time, wherever you walk a wave of blood follows.  Hemogoblin - You summon L coa