peter ian power hour is a go

So Peter and I starting recording ourselves talking (incredibly poorly in my case) about some game stuff and put it online here.

Listen only if you have an affection for pretentious nerdism

pic unrelated

fauna palettes

From Yoon-Suin, pg 222: "The Amethyst Medusa. A woman with hair composed of living, moving centipedes, whose vision transforms her victims into pillars of pure amethyst. She lives on an island on a lake on an island on a lake. Her stats are as a standard medusa."

A trick for populating a foreign land in a hurry: swapping out the components of a familiar chimeric creature with their indigenous equivalents. This goes back almost as far as using Google Translate to come up with renames

This seems like an ideal mix of old and new - the familiar shape of a fantastic beast combined with local flavor in an easy to comprehend form.

An example: fantasy Yucatan

MtG Resplendent Griffin

Some local animals: Macaw, Mosquito, Jaguar, Bird of Paradise, Spider Monkey, Tree Frog, Python, Puma, Iguana, Quetzal, Hummingbird

Chimeric animals from the MM (some similar ones ignored): centaur, chimera, gnoll, griffon, harpy, hippocampus, hippogriff, jackalwere, leucrotta, lycanthrope, manticore, medusa, merman, mind flayer, naga, owlbear, pegasus, rakshasa, satyr, sphinx

Some are cuter than others too

With a minute's work we quickly have mosquito-headed mind flayers, were-iguanas, and a sphinx with features of a jaguar and quetzal bird - and none particularly need re-statted or -conceived.

encounters on the river of conic dogs

The river winds through Lamarakh and is named for the statues that dot its banks - they have stood facing the water for far longer than anyone remembers, and, although they do not appear to shed light, their bright colors are nevertheless visible even on moonless nights. Following these colors allows many an illicit traveller to navigate the river in complete darkness, and the use of a quiet pole-boat is often a warning that its pilot engages in such dark business...

Despite being so well-travelled, the banks and surrounding jungle of the river are dense and mostly untamed, and one must be wary of the creatures there.

ENCOUNTERS BY THE RIVER OF CONIC DOGS (1d6 & 1d4)

1 - 1d8 ALLERGIC BULLYWUGS. HD 1 AC 14 Atk 1d6. Any spells cast in vicinity trigger it to start gagging for one round before vomiting up a MUCUS DRAKE (HD 1 AC 12 Atk 1d3 Flies, recasts spell on death).

They are

1 staring intently through brush at the river

2 taking turns licking conic dog

3 crouching in circle and croaking loudly, surrounded by 2d10 drakes

4 fashioning new tridents and spears from rough red staves

2 - BELU. See Yoon Suin pg 38

It is

1 skinning a hapless traveler. 3 trade goods scattered around area

2 grooming self in reflection in a puddle and carefully arranging peacock feathers

3 (appears as random party member) accusing PC of being a shapechanger

4 (appears as unthreatening human) sharpening oversized knife with whetstone, clothes are bloodied

3 - GIANT VINEGARROON. See Yoon Suin pg 73

It is

1 motionless beneath fallen foliage

2 cornering small mammal in a tree

3 sipping at slimy trail of a mucus drake

4 advancing on two travellers it has already sprayed

4 - 1d20 RIVER PIRATES. 1HD, AC 12, Atk Damage 1d6

They are

1 arguing amongst themselves; several have come under the influence of a nearby Sone coven and keep trying to entice the rest to a life of sensual pleasure

2 heading back to their base in an abandoned tower with heavy packs - they have just robbed and sunk an opium smuggler vessel

3 travelling on pilgrimage to their holy island. Curse and threaten but are under oath to spill no blood until they arrive (will be cursed if driven to break oath)

4 moaning in pain and calling out for help. But it is a trap! See YELLOW MUSK CREEPER

5 - 1d3 ROTTING TREANTS. HD 7 AC 20 Atk Damage 2d8 Wrapped in rusty wire and dotted with sapphires (worth 1000gp), created by the Sone coven’s animate dead. Can be turned as a Mummy, do not have weakness to fire or other treant abilities

They are

1 wading through deep mud, dragging a fallen trunk

2 smashing a canoe, its owners fleeing into the jungle

3 exhuming worshipper bodies from the muck for their mistresses

4 jealously pawing at a cluster of durian fruit

6 - 1d6 CHU-SRIN WORSHIPPERS. HD 1d6 AC 12 Atk Damage 1d6 The leader casts as Holy Man of their HD and has TT E or F. They wear colorful but simple robes embroidered with a crocodile motif

They are

1 inflicting petty tortures on wildlife and collecting food for their master

2 tracking a wounded bullywug in order to heal it

3 searching for a nearby artefact (See pg 127) of otherworldly influence in order to dispose of it

4 dragging a skiff bearing a huge velvet worm egg back to their lair as an offering. 10% chance each watch that it hatches

i encounter the changeling couturier

I APPLAUD THE FACADE OF THE CHANGELING COUTURIER

1 A confusion of crows flurry about

2 A constellation of mouths on their silvery skin

3 A static landscape always behind their steady gaze

4 Always steps out from behind scenery

5 Like a living marble statue, no arms or head

6 A veil of mist the color of heartache

7 Always seen as exquisitely lit

8 A dragon and a lion race around their feet

9 Three reflections surround them, like trifold mirror

10 A gaggle of goblins with needle and thread

I ADMIRE THE ATTIRE OF THE CHANGELING COUTURIER

1 Buttonlike spiders, a lattice of web

2 Flowing like water a garment of glass

3 Tumbling leaves from the middle of fall

4 Cockle-shells, layered and dangling low

5 Hundreds of bells ringing tiny and shrill

6 Pumpkin-flesh skin between trembling vines

7 A single, thin snake wound around into shape

8 Needleworked nickel and leatherworked lead

9 Fine-as-thread wicker and miniature leaves

10 Butterfly wings bound together with gold

I MONITOR THE MONIKER OF THE CHANGELING COUTURIER

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Fallow Cloudy Cold Small Whistling Auld Summer Holly Starry Smoky

Alvin Buckler Burt Harry Jem Merl Orin Robin Runkin Tom

Ashling Belle Bess Cosmia Deen Jone Mab Oona Stella Ysolde

I FORGET THE EPITHET OF THE CHANGELING COUTURIER

		to the	of
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	Tailor Hatter Dressmaker Glover Embroiderer Milliner Corsetier Seamstress Shoemaker Haberdasher	Master Princess Lady Duke Queen Margrave Countess Viscount Baroness Laird	Pity Lost Near Lesser Harvest Saint’s Snow’s Broken Moss Drowned	Dark Hope Hand Mark Moon Dusk Heart Birch Oak Court

(i.e. Whistling Jem, Glover to the Margrave of Broken Hand)

I ACQUIRE THE DESIRE OF THE CHANGELING COUTURIER

1 A maiden’s firstborn

2 A night with the ruler’s spouse

3 Half of your remaining life

4 The sanity of a noble

5 Light spun into thread

6 A year and a day

7 The dress of a certain fashionwitch

8 Feather-down of a pegasus/firebird/owlbear/peacock

9 An accomplished tailor to take their place

10 Fashion plans of an aspiring rival

I HOARD THE REWARD OF THE CHANGELING COUTURIER

1 Audience with their patron fashionwitch
2 Oversized needle - as an unbreakable two handed rapier
3 Sash of Fearful Symmetry - break to conjure a burning tyger twin of yourself
4 A thread through shadow to the place you wish to be, taking a shortcut through the Gardens of Midnight
5 Moon Woman’s lace - bonus to all nighttime reaction rolls, introduction to Her6 Tabard of Indulgence - you hunger, and hungry things greet you as a friend. Resistance to fire, acid, carnivores, etc. but, save or stuff your face in the presence of food
7 Seam Ripper - use once the unstitch something from this world. It drifts off, elsewhere (as banish I guess?)
8 Perfect Disguise - your clothing changes to fit in wherever you are and strangers will always treat you as a native. You can also use your head like a pistol to shoot someone once but then the glamer disappears
9 Mundane Egg. Will hatch a world if used by an immortal. They will trade favors etc for it; I don’t know how the hell this poor soul got their hands on it.
10 Cruel Motley - jester’s clothes that make anyone laugh to distraction at any jokes you tell, but otherwise regard you with suspicion and fear.

quick journey encounter table

crones +  wraeca king

I have a strange and rarely-useful fascination with procedural generation at the table, so here's a quick GM-facing idea for a shifting encounter table made from one list. I think this could be used along a route transitioning from one area to another - a road, pass or river. Because I am a creeper we will use Patrick's Perse River as an example.

The main idea is the have a list that one could roll particular dice combinations on for particular areas, with some overlap. A d100 list would obviously work just fine for this (roll a d10, then a d20, then d10+10 etc) but I find doing the math for <100 entries tedious and if I'm prepping a game I don't want to write 100 entries. For this we'll use 13 entries:
First third of the journey: roll 1d6
Middle portion: 2d6
Final third: 1d6+7

Number things based on their normal proximity to the start, so 1 might be a homeboy from the starting town, 13 would be someone native to the destination, 7 is something that lives in the middle.

From the post:

1 jukai trader
2 township mercenary
3 orcas
4 freshwater penguins
5 crone
6 stone men
7 castoroides
8 eoten
9 fell metal men
10 wraeca
11 amazons
12 yakmen
13 orcneas

So the Jukai trader will only show up near the city, the castoroides will only appear once you are a fair ways along (and indeed are technically most likely) and an orcneas might be encountered at the tail end.

This schema can be tweaked for larger die sizes or for more stages - 5 stages would be d6, 2d6, 1d6+7, 2d6+7, 1d6+13.