Wilderness Exploration Rules

The following "wilderness exploration rules" are the house 'hex-crawling' mechanics I've been using in my latest AD&D game. These rules can be used interchangeably with 1e, 2e or any OSR variants. The design idea is to keep the procedure clear and simple enough to use with a group of teenagers who are learning to play (I'm also still learning to play). There are to be a few key strategic issues for the players consider in the scope of their daily exploration (encumbrance, the value of a guide, setting watches, etc.), as well as a chance for random encounters and conflicts. I'm trying to keep with the "feel" of old-school D&D: d6 rolls, limited hp recovery, chance of getting lost, wandering monsters, etc. Everything is heavily inspired by original Dolmenwood stuff and Hot Springs Island.

Segments

• 3 segments per day/ 8 hrs each [morning, afternoon, night].
• Roll weather for each segment (see below).
• Resting takes 1 segment (food, water/ 6 hrs sleep/ light activity).
• Resting for 1 segment restores 1 hp.
• Every 3rd segment, a character must rest for 1 segment (rest for 6 hours, consume 1 day of rations, and 1 waterskin). If not, they suffer -1 on all attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. This penalty increases by an additional -1 for every additional segment spent not resting.

Random Encounters

• At the beginning of a segment when you are not resting roll 1d6, and see below (if necessary, roll 1d8 to determine which hour the encounter occurs).
   
  1. Wandering monster (50% chance of "signs" of monster activity: sounds, smells, spoors, footprints, etc).
  2. Landmark or notable wilderness feature (reroll to check if wandering monster is present).
  3. Mishap or misfortune. Some minor resource is lost to a random party member (rations, water, torches, rope, etc.).
  4. Random weather change. Reroll weather.
  5.  Non-combat animal or environmental encounter.
  6. Fortune's favor. Something positive befalls the party (they discover a helpful asset, find a resource, come upon a marked trail, etc.)
     

Travel

• 1 segment- travel 1 hex if unencumbered.
• 2 segments- travel 1 hex if slowed or encumbered.
• 3 segments- travel 1 hex if very slow or heavily encumbered.
• At the beginning of a segment, make a 1d6 check to see if the characters “get lost” and lose a segment of travel time.
  
  
• Lost on 1 in 6: familiar, clear, open terrain.
• Lost on 2 in 6: unfamiliar, light forest, hills, scrubland, moderate terrain.
• Lost on 3 in 6: unfamiliar, forests, jungle, desert, mountains, swamps, difficult terrain.
• Lost on 4 in 6: unfamiliar, ancient magical forests, impossible mountainscapes, trackless .deserts and so on. Very difficult, alien or magical terrain.
  
  

• A knowledgeable guide can reduce the difficulty of the check by 1 or more points.
• No check necessary if traveling by road or marked trail. 
• Double hexes traveled if moving by road or marked trail.
  

 

Night watch

• 4 watches every night (1 segment), 2 hrs each.
• Roll 1d6 each watch: if roll is a 1, then an wandering monster presents (50 % chance of "signs" of monster activity: distant shapes and movement, sounds, smells, "feelings" etc).
• A character that rests for 1 segment gains the benefit of a “night’s rest” as it applies towards regaining spells, and class abilities.
• Day segments can be broken up into four 2 hour watches. Doing any one “thing” during a segment takes 1-2 watches (2hrs each), i.e. searching, tracking, hunting, foraging, eating.

Weather

1. Clear (no fog)
2. Cloudy (10% fog)
3. Light precipitation (15% fog)
4. Precipitation (10% fog)
5. Storm (5% fog)
6. Violent storm (no fog)

• Precipitation [recheck to see if characters get lost, 1:6]
• Storm [recheck to see if characters get lost, 2:6]
• Violent storm [recheck to see if characters get lost, 3:6]
• Fog [apply +1 difficulty to "getting lost" check]

OSR Hermeneutics: Random Encounters as Oracular Action

The "fortune teller" uses their preferred oracular system (such as the Tarot) to randomly reveal symbols whose surface meaning must be "pushed through" to arrive at a deeper, universal, "archetypal" meaning. Not only that, but the fortune teller must be skilled to contextualise these symbols into the circumstance, and living experiences of the person whose fortune is being "read". The universal must be drawn into the specific in an artful and logical way so that the symbols can be filled with useful psychic energy and living symbolic meaning.

The goal is for the subject of the reading to "take upon" these symbols, appropriate them into their consciousness, and fill them with a vitality so that unconscious things become conscious, and the hidden becomes revealed. Oracles are a lense to peer deeply into the present.

In a similar way, interpreting the random table in old school games follows an oracular process. At the appropriate prompt, the "random encounter" gets rolled. This is usually based on the phase of the hex crawl, or how long you've been wandering in the dungeon. The result is by and large underwhelming and minimalist. "Bandits", "Ogre", "Wild Animal" are an example of typical results. In and of themselves, these results are insufficient. They lack any kind of context or connective tissue to the narrative fabric and internal logic of the fictional game environment.

What a GM does with these results is a hidden trick, never spelled out in any game manual. In order to make the results work, the GM performs an oracular "reading"--a creative, intuitive 'calculus of plausibility', with the subject being the game world. Out of narrative necessity, the basic, universal results are drawn into something dramatically specific. "Bandit" becomes a group of hungry criminals hiding out from the lords scouring knights. "Wild Animal" is the runaway horse of a dead lord whose leg is stuck in a brick wall. "Ogre" is a hungry and lost monster who has strayed far from his distant home.

Like a fortune teller, the GM interprets the random encounter results according to the internal logic and continuity of the fiction. If the encounter breaks the integrity of the game world it cannot stand--it becomes illogical, jumps shark, or betrays the expectations/ buy-in of the players. The lens of interpretation upon which a random encounter must be read, is always skewing toward the plausible, the contextual, and the fictionally grounded. 

A random encounter partners with chance and chaos, and is therefore of a different character than mere improvisation. In a way it is a conversation with the outside. The most agreeable narrative outcome will always bear some trace of inputs from "beyond imagining". The synthesis between the random inputs and the contextual reading creates a vital narrative energy. It as once of the game world, but bears traces of an agency outside of anyone's control. Unconscious things become conscious, the hidden becomes revealed, and the results of a simple table are brought to intelligent and surprising life.

Gothic Wilderness Sites

I've been wanting to expand the Curse of Strahd random encounter table since I first started reading the module. Rather than expanding the table of creatures, I've decided to create tables for sites and locations. The following are a small collection of  'gothic wilderness sites' that could be discovered off the beaten path. They can be rolled up alongside the standard tables to add context or as a separate location based encounter in and of themselves. They aren’t campaign specific and could be easily used in any sort of brooding wilderness campaign to add atmosphere and mystery. Lastly I've included two small tables for random weather events (inspired by the Dolmenwood tables), should they need to be randomly determined. Enjoy!

 

SITE TYPE

1. Monument
2. Tomb
3. Shrine
4. Ruins

MONUMENT

1. Obelisk
2. Needle
3. Standing stone/ menhir
4. Cairn
5. Statues
6. Carved totem
7. Crude marker
8. Image carved into tree

SHRINE

1. Wayward shrine
2. Small chapel
3. Sacred grotto
4. Crude altar
5. Stone circle
6. Hollowed out tree
7. Fetishes
8. Temple in treetop

TOMB

1. Small cemetery
2. Burial mound
3. Shallow grave
4. Mausoleum
5. Portal tomb
6. Bodies hanging from trees
7. Open burial pit
8. Sarcophagus
9. Ossuary
10. Solitary grave

RUINS

1. Small family home
2. Hermits hut
3. Crumbling tower
4. Small keep
5. Sunken foundation
6. Treehouse
7. Covered wagons (1d4)
8. Campsite, improvised shelters
9. Hunting cabins (1d4)
10. Monastery: shattered church, chapter house, cloisters

LOCATION

1. Atop a grassy hill
2. Within a grove of slender trees
3. Within a natural basin 
4. In a tangle of brush/ briars
5. Beside a stream
6. In a sudden meadow
7. Amidst a swamp or wetland
8. Amidst a rocky shield or scrabble
9. Zone of large stones/ boulders
10. Within a natural cleft of stone
11. Zone of blight
12. Stand of majestic old growth trees 

TEXTURES 

(roll 1d3)

1. Overgrown with ivy
2. Dried blood
3. Claw marks
4. Insects crawling/ buzzing
5. Thick fungus/ lichen
6. Unusually cold area/ objects cold to the touch
7. Wildflowers blooming rampantly
8. Smell of corruption
9. Scattered bone shards
10. Clumps of animal fur/ feathers
11. Dripped candle wax
12. Rime of ice
13. Dead birds
14. Occult symbols gouged into surface
15. Uncanny silence hangs upon site
16. Infested with beehives, buzzing bees
17. Animal den
18. Burned, blackened with scorch marks
19. Marked with warding symbols
20. Overgrown with foliage, tall grass, ferns, trees, etc

WEATHER, VALLEY

1. hazy, overcast
2. Frosty, chill
3. Rolling Fog
4. Scouring Wind
5. Thick Clouds, damp mist
6. Driving Rains
7. Brooding Clouds
8. Drizzle, damp

WEATHER, MOUNTAINS

1. Frosty Chill
2. Light snow
3. Blowing winds
4. Icy fog
5. Snow squall
6. Blizzard
7. Brooding clouds
8. Sleet/ hail
   

PANTHEONS OF ARCHENTERON

As a welcome distraction from the Chromatic Shadows salt mines, I've been revisiting the 'The Land of Calyx', my evolving OSR/ D&D acid-fantasy/ dying earth project. It's sandbox setting influenced by Vance, Wolfe, Numenera, ASE, Dark Sun & Carcosa. The following introduces the region's leadership, as well as a description of the religious pantheons therein. I've sketched out the primary gods worshiped, and outlined the signifiicant rites observed by the temple clergy.

The Archenteron Dominion

The twilight of a 1000 year empire. Archenteron spreads thin across the midlands of Solfria. In the capital city of Helios, Grand Emperor Gothaclyx has ruled for 100 years, but is becoming more insular, more occulted. His Seneschel, General Tybor has begun making public proclamations in his stead. Gothaclyx has been delving deeper into ancient history, obsessed with the power of the Old Ones. Makes only rare ceremonial public appearances. Surrounds self with a cabal of sorcerer advisors from the outer regions known as the Red Shroud. Rumored to partake in their black life expanding rituals. 

Calyx

The city of Calyx is perched upon a triple tiered hill and gazes out over the red river Dasute, toward the Prismatic Pits, and out to the trackless Cobalt Wastes beyond. Prince Mitra, youngest and weakest of Gothaclyx’s sons is granted praxis over Calyx, and rules with contempt. He is a dissolute hedon, lost in pursuit of pleasure and luxury. He throws constant opulent balls which occupy the social theatre and status of the elite, and is growing ever oblivious to the power of the Red Shroud gathering beneath his nose. Calyx and its environs constitute the region where the campaign setting will be focused.

 

THE PANTHEONS OF ARCHENTERON

• Primary Gods: Utu (The Sun), and his sister concumbines Pytheia & Seline (the Moons). Seline is the goddess of “good” feminine energy, of childbirth, fertility, and hearth. Pytheia is the smaller red moon, she symbolizes magic, chaos, blood, death.

• The many Children of Utu, with their munificent influences (also known as the Wanderers, or the Orbital Gods) move distantly through the night sky. 
  

• Ancestor cults, as well as animist religion are known and practiced less widely.

• Many cults devoted to the Old One practice in secret, but are condemned as demon worshipers by the civilized & pious. They are feared and shunned by normal society.

•  In Calyx, the Blue Ascetics venerate the 'Father of 1000' forms, an entity believed to be an emissary of eldritch wisdom from beyond the stars. He is said to appear to those lost in the wastes as a silent hermit with obsidian skin who leads his faithful to safe havens. His many other forms include that of a great desert king, a three lobed eye held alight by great black wings, and a column of flame that is never extinguished. His presence is heralded by the sound of discordant pipes upon the desert wind.
  

 

T

 

Cult of Utu

 

Appearannce- Utu appears as a great lion headed man, often with eagles wings. His face shines with the radiance of the sun. He is depicted driving a great golden chariot across the dome of the sky, until he takes his rest at the house of his sister-concubines Seline & Pythia. There he sleeps, until morning. In freizes depicting the primordial war against the avatars of chaos, Utu is seen carrying a flaming sword and sometimes a golden lance into combat.

 

Temple- In each of the great cities of Archenteron, the ziggurats of Utu rise high above the squalor. Their gilded peaks catch the first light of the sun, marking Utu's return from the house of the moon. Stepped building made from kiln fired bricks. Broad and steep staircase leads to a high platform and altar above where the priests perform their public rituals. Various chambers within, where the high priest and clergy live, study, and conduct private rituals to satisfy Utu.

Priests & Clergy: All male, shave their heads bald, golden piercings and jewelry. Wear golden robes and togas. During ceremony, they wear elaborate sunburst headdresses of gold and adorn their bodies with solar symbols drawn in ritual ash.

Daily Ritual: At high noon, a sacrifice of a goat by the chief priest upon the high altar. The diviner reads the internal organs. The meat is roasted upon the ritual pyre and given to the poor. The rest is burned in a pyre that lasts until the following morning.

Seasonal Ritual: Crowds gather for the sun sacrifice. A group of golden painted priests performing a public sun ceremony at the temple at high noon. A large male lion, washed and groomed, is led to the top of the temple by the twin Priestess of the Moon. After chanting the liturgy, the priests slashes its throat, and burns its body in a great pyre. Its roasted heart is consumed by the high priest. Great pyres are lit all through the bazaar district and it's a day of high festivity.

Cult of Seline & Pythia

 

Seline's Appearance- Seline appears as a tall regal woman with, golden hair, and eyes like twin sapphines. She is robed in a white and blue mantle, and is often seens carrying sheaves of wheat, a candle, a cauldron of water, or a small pyramid within her hands. Sometimes she wears a tiara of stars, and is seated upon a slender throne. 

Pythia's Appearance- Pythia is smaller than her sister. She has long locks of raven hair, and her eyes shine like bright coals. She wears black hooded robes, often open, revealing her voluptuous nude body. She is seen carrying a lantern, an orb, a sickle, a skull, and sometimes a serpent. In her wrathful mode, Pythia is depicted with fangs, a long obscene tongue, and multiple arms with clawed hands.

 

Influence- Cults devoted to the sister moon goddesses can be found in every city of Archenteron. The blessings of Seline are sought for matters of marriage, hearth, & home, whereas the influence of Pythia resides over the occult, prophesy, sex, magic, and death.

 

Clergy- The Sisters of the Moon are exculsively female. The priestess caste are consecrated as vestal virgins as young girls. Wealthy families will often offer their youngest daughters to the cult, in exchange for status and temple access. The devoted of Seline wear white and blue flowing gowns with silver and pearl ornament, whereas the Priestesses of Pythia wear black and red gowns, with onyx, quartz and garnet ornament. 

 

Rituals- The Sisters of Seline are the more publicly facing of the two sects, performing common rituals such as the blessings of a home, a newborn child, or a marriage. The Sisters of Pythia, however, are cloistered and dwell in the inner sanctum. They spend their time in the observance of esoteric liturgies and contemplative prayer. All of the priestesses are constantly attended by an entourage of temple virgins. On full moons, a select few individuals prepared with fasting and alms are admitted to the ‘Sanctum of Pythia’. Those seeking audience are granted a question of the oracle-priestesses, who in turn answers (from the depths of an ecstatic trance) with the wisdom of goddess.

Temple- Circular temple girded with fluted columns, built in two concentric rings. Inner and outer chambers. Silver dome above, with twin oculi at center. The outside ring has sensuous marble statues and numerous altars dedicated to Seline, whereas the innermost ring is reserved for the Sisters of Pythia. Men are not permitted, except on the nights of prophesy. 

 

Simplified 5e XP System

 

After looking for a better way to award XP for my current 5e campaign, I find myself circling back to a little hack I wrote a few years ago. Presently, I've been using the milestone method, but the players seem hungry for a system with a little more substance. Likewise, I want the player's creativity and success to have an actual metric of value. I like the idea of awarding XP, but I find the system as written too granular, too many inflated numbers, and too fixated on monster death. This proposed new system allows for easy, intuitive XP calculation and accounts for actions like problem solving, roleplaying, as well as old fashioned goblin murder.

 

 

XP COSTS REQUIRED TO LEVEL

• To reach levels 2-5, spend 10 XP to level up.
• To reach levels 6-10, spend 20 XP to level up
  
• To reach levels 11-15, spend 25 XP to level up
• To reach levels 16-20, spend 30 XP to level up. 

A more familiar looking progression chart:

ACTIVITY NECESSARY FOR LEVELING

• A character may not always automatically gain a level when the requisite XP is earned.
•  At the GM's prerogative and according to the needs of the adventure, an appropriate quest, task, period of training, or downtime may be necessary.

  EARN XP FOR

• 1 XP- Overcoming an encounter that is designed to challenge the party (moderate threat).
• 2 XP- Overcoming an encounter that is particularly dangerous and life-threatening (deadly threat).
  
• 3 XP- Overcoming a climatic encounter designed to end a story arc.
• 1 XP- Exceptional problem solving, uncovering secrets, story progression, puzzles, circumventing encounters, etc.
  
• 1 XP (once per session)- Exceptional scene of creative, extraneous and out of the box awesome character action.
• 1 XP (once per session)- Exceptional scene of roleplaying a character's Alignment, Ideal, Bond, or Flaw. 

An observation--with this system an average player is likely to net 4-5 XP per session, and assumes a fairly brisk pace of advancement (through lower levels at least). A DM may want to dial this amount by a few points in either direction depending on how quickly they want their players to advance. As it stands with a net average of 5 xp per session, a player can expect to reach reach level 10 after 28 session and level 20 after 83 sessions. 

Crafting Items from Monster Parts

The following table is a list of 20 powerful items that can be crafted from monster body parts. It is written with my acid-fantasy 'City of Calyx' D&D setting in mind, but it's suitable for many other old school adventure game systems and settings.

In the wilderness beyond Calyx, beasts both both alien and terrible stalk the crimson steppe.  Merchants and loose lipped adventurers speak of creatures warped by aeons of arcane fallout, and of the magical bounty to be carved from their dead flesh. Monster bones and organs are sought after, and command a high ransom of gold at the Calyx Bazaar. In the hands of a skilled craftman, these regents can be carefully formed into items capable of strange and powerful effects.

 

 

Roll on the following table to determine what monster part can be harvested from a magical beast and crafted into a usable item.

1. Bones, talons, teeth- crafted into arrow clubs, blades, arrow tips & spear heads. Grants additional to hit bonus, cause extra damage
2. Pheromone glands- grants a bonus to ability to intimidate or persuade
3. Strong hide- resistant certain types of damage (bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, etc)
4. Stomach acid- highly corrosive to a certain substance it touches (metal, flesh, stone, wood, glass, etc.)
5. Gut- craft into powerful bowstring for increased firing rate, stronger & more accurate shots.
6. Venom sac- poison causes deleterious effect when ingested or injected (paralytic, sleep, confusion, death)
7. Parasites- carnivorous worms burrow into any exposed flesh. Can be applied against a new target host, causing rapid injury and disease.
8. Organ sac- thin membrane can be stretched over body. Increases swim speed, resilience to the elements (fire, cold, electricity, acid, etc).
9. Sticky secretions- applied to hands and knees, adds a significant bonus to climbing tests. Use it as a glue to anchor something in place.
10. Pineal gland secretion- psychedelic compound causes dreamlike visions, transient psychic powers and auguries of the future.
11. Alarm pheromone- apply the hormone to one’s body to summon like creatures which will defend you against a threat.
12. Eggs- ravenously delicious--other creatures will drop everything to greedly consume them. If left to rot, they become stink bombs.
13. Fur/ feathers- incomparably comfortable. Can be turned into a blanket or stuffed into pillows/ bedrolls. Causes extra hp recovery when sleeping on them for a full night.
14. Musk gland- apply to self, creatures assume you are not humanoid and will ignore your presence.
15. Horn/ tusks/ ivory- ground into powder and added to spell components to enhance magical effects.
16. Heart- when consumed adds temporary hp (1d3 doses)
17. Bile- cures poison, disease & purifies water.
18. Tear glands- salt from tears wards away spirits, ghosts & demons
19. Oil/ fat/ blubber- burns twice as hot (x2 damage) and twice as bright (x2 light radius) as lamp fuel
20. Reproductive organs- cures exhaustion, fatigue, & generates a temporary strength increase.

SKETCHES OF CALYX

 Here are 3 city districts from my in-progress City of Calyx setting for old school D&D.

Insula District

Residential district of of Calyx’s middle class. Multi-storied (1d6 stories) brick and stone insulas with clay shingles built up against the cliff face. Narrow streets and alleys run between them.
 

Features (roll 1 or more)

1. 1d6 Extra stories, rickety ladders reach to small precarious apartments high above
2. Unstable, the whole insula is reinforced with timbers to keep it from falling over
3. Decorative- painted with brightly colored patterns and botanical motifs
4. Ornamental- bas relief carvings and gargoyles adorn the exterior
5. Exterior walls covered in thick vines of dark green ivy and small purple flowers. Bees and hummingbirds drawn to the sweet blossoms.
6. Abandoned, and ramshackle. Floors have collapsed in on themselves. Thistle and sweetbrush grow rampantly within. Great sagging wasp nests.
7. Hundreds of clay and twig nests built along the eaves. Countless chattering iridescent grackles congregate upon the roof.
8. Apartments carved out of an outcrop of stone cliffside.
9. Under construction- new building being built or old one being repaired. Crew of laborers with several carts of bricks, mortar and timber
10. Over crowded. Each apartment is bursting to capacity with tenents. Clothes lines heavy with  fabrics sag between close buildings. Colorful rugs are draped from every balcony.
    

People of the Insula District

1. Merchant families
   
2. Skilled laborers
3. Low ranking city bureaucrats
4. City officials
5. Guards/ soldiers
   
6. Guild artists/ artisans
7. Minor philosophers/ poets
8.  Scholars

Bazaar District

Overlapping patchwork of colorful tents and canopies cover four city blocks. A maze of bustling activity, commerce, shops, food stalls, music, revelry and criminal enterprise. Just about anything can be found here for the right price: rich food, exotic regents, rare animals, weapons and equipment, all manner of services for hire (legal and illegal).

Tents of the Bazaar

1. Patchwork of faded fabric, sagging, propped up by spindly wooden sticks
2. Sturdy & large white and red striped rotunda, doors and windows
3. Animal skins, with bits of fur and flesh still attached. Smells of tannins and rot
4. Billowing red fabric. Multiple rooms separated by veils and beaded curtains
5. Vibrant blue, orange and yellow. Pit dug below, with a ladder leading to a stall. Workers dig even deeper as the vendor conducts business below.
6. Wooden platform 15 feet above accessible by ladder. A sign reads: “remove clothes before ascending”. Above, a tent of white and golden fabrics swish in the sun. Mirrors and dangling glass catch the sunlight.
7. Black tarps piled on top of each other, creating a cave like tunnel. Small corridors lead to various openings and stalls of ill repute.
8. Geometric patterned tapestries, opens into chamber thick with incense. Piles of thick rugs heaped on the ground. Sound is muffled.

Food of the Bazaar

1. Roasted white grubs on a skewer
2. Giant frogs smoked on a line over a fire pit
3. Bag o’ spicy locusts
4. Sorghum brick with solar escagraph
5. Honey millet stick with crunchy ants
6. Lizard jerky
7. Monkey meat pita with llama yogurt
8. Honey glazed dog leg
9. Pepper snake on a stick
10. Fried whole sparrow with sage
11. Boiled white tubers
12. Produce: figs, pomegranates, olives, dates, almonds, muskmelon, grapes
13. Sorghum beer: cloudy brown, earthy and sweet, highly alcoholic
14. Sorghum desserts and fried pastries
15. Jellied frog eggs on sorghum chips
    
16.  Honeycomb with live bees
17. Goat sausage boiled in blood
18. Almond paste biscuits (various erotic shapes)
    
19. Pomegranate liquor
20.  Pickled peacock eggs
    

Merchant stalls

1. Food stall merchant (roll on food table to determine which)
2. Animal handler drawing cages of exotic beasts to a menagerie tent,
3. Psychedelic dealer. Various substances in pots and jars within a locked box: diviners sage, scorpion venom, black tar incense, live blue centipedes, dream grass, worm powder, witch cactus,
4. Alchemical regents and magic items
5. Clay pots and vessels sold by women from the mud district
6. Ponchos & grass sombreros
7. Multicolored gems, geodes and stones
8. Haircuts, weaves and beard styling
9. Incense & exotic desert spices
10. Reader of palms & fortunes
    
11. Brass solar medallions, good luck charms, protective talismans
12. Massage/ Acupuncture therapy
13. Brothel. Lovely ladies and lads available for comfort and companionship.
14. Apiary. Bees cover the tent walls & fly out of an open roof flap. Wooden hives contain copious fresh honey.
15. Tea tent. A small iron stove with copper kettles filling the tent with billowing steam.
16. Greenhouse, woven white mesh. Humid. Tables of plants and blooming flowers. Bees
17. Art gallery. Paintings hung in carved frames.
18. Goldsmith and purveyor of fine jewels
19. Map merchant and scribe
    
20. Tattoo & piercing parlor

People of the Bazaar

1. Twin women in peacock feather dresses stand on stilts, juggling knives and flaming torches. Trained monkeys pick pockets during their performance.
2. Grass elves (black sombreros, multicolored ponchos) transporting giant insect nymphs tied down to a wagon. Insects are docile and drugged with Diviner’s Sage.
3. Red wizards haggling and threatening a vendor for regents
4. Drunk youth brawling and expelling vomiting in the street
5. Ascetic street preachers in loincloths painted bodies with arcane symbols ranting about “the Singing Presence” and “the Father of a Thousand Forms”.
6. Wide eyed, naive and inhumanly beautiful humanoids with exotic skin colors (blue, red, purple, green) follow in the company of a Red Wizard (beings grown from the vivimancer's vats in the Arcane College).
7. Vestal virgins from the Shrine of the Moons wearing silvery togas,veils and long braided hair. Processing silently to the temple of Utu for daily homage and back. Carrying silver sickles.
8. 1d4 adventurers fresh from the Rift. (1. Carrying a dead companion 2. Raving psychotically about the Elder Gods or the Great Old Ones 3. Partying ferociously in the back of a wagon 4. Selling a cache of rift artifacts/ Monster parts/ Foraged psychedelics/ Geodes)
9. Street artists involved in a performance
10. Teenagers hallucinating wildly. Pockets are full of various psychedelic herbs.
    
11. Philosophers arguing over esoteric metaphysics.
    
12. Gladiators covered in scars, followed by throngs of adoring fans.
    

Domus District

Gated wealthy neighborhood of beautiful villas behind a high stone wall. Troops of chattering monkeys roost in the olive and almond trees that grow here. They are notorious for stealing baubles and coins and hide them among the branches. Children will often sneak into the district just to steal anything of value from the treetop roosts.

Structures

1. Stone manor faced with high fluted columns & ornate pediment.
2. Two story villa. Stucco & red clay shingles. Inner courtyard with flowering redbud and yellow ginkgo trees..
3. Shrine to a minor god of fertility or love. Lovers cavorting in the bushes.
4. Private well, solar motifs. Servants drawing buckets for their lords & ladies.
5. Herb garden, overgrown with flowering sage, rhubarb, rhododendron and sweet brush. Birds, rabbits, and red fox nest here.
6. Large pavilion with a stage and long stone bleachers.
7. Glass enclosed greenhouse filled with blooming flowers. Buzzing with bees.
   
8. A walled park of fig, olive & pomegranate trees. Gazebo, benches & statuary
9. Bath House with veined columns and voluptuous nude statuary.
10. Menagerie filled with exotic birds, monkeys, reptiles & occasional monster
    

People of Domus District

1. Wealthy merchants in opulent robes and jewelry
2. Sorghum field owners
3. High ranking officers
4. Noble families
5. Slave dealers
6. Bankers/ financiers
7. Chief architects & engineers
8. City politicians & council members
9. Lawyers & judges
10. Celebrated philosophers/ artists/ poets

Spire District

Upon the crown of Calyx rests the opulent Spire District, the seat of Calyx government, wealth and temporal power. The complex is composed of great palaces, towers, and barracks built out of cut stone.

Structures

1. Folly of delicate arches and tracing above hidden gardens and grottoes
2. Ring of fluted columns enclose a (1d6) tiered fountains. Statues of nudes women and children frolicking in the water.
3. A mahogany door opens out of an ivy covered wall into a long banquet hall. 2 in 6 chance of a great feast taking place.
4. Double white doors with ornate tracery open to a grand ballroom. Balconies above the open floor are festooned with bouquets and imperial banners. Prince Mitra throws a ball almost every evening, and the royal servants scramble with the preparations during the day. Sometimes the Calyx Quartet can be heard practicing their waltzes during the day.
5. Shrines to a goddess of beauty/ wealth/ pleasure
6. Bathouses carved into the ground. Natural hot springs feed luxurious tiled basins. Nude nobility cavorting.
   
7. Gallery of plundered artifacts, and relics from a previous age.
8. Menagerie. Exotic animals and monsters in golden cages. Many are intelligent and will bargain for release.
   
9. Hedge maze, filled with marble statues. The nobilty often escape here to conduct private business both carnal and criminal. 
10. Vast ornamental garden. Manicured walkways, grottoes, and carp pools. Exotic plants, flowers, and fruit laden trees. Peacock roosts.
    

SKETCHES OF AN ACID FANTASY

 A few elements from my "City of Calyx" fantasy campaign I've been working on. It's in the acid-fantasy/ dying earth genre, inspired by projects like Planet Algol, Carcosa, and Lizard Man Diary's "Iron Rib Peninsula". Hoping to drop more content as it comes.

 

Art by Roger Dean

The Grass Elves of Callio 

Every seventeen years, clutches of grass elf hunters from the village of Callio, venture out onto Alizarin Steppe in search of giant cicada nymphs. On clear nights, under the canopy of stars and the light of the recurring comet Aolothuwee, the clutch matriarch trained in the ways of soil tasting, samples her way across the dusty shelf. She stops at the tell tale sign: a salty acid brine mixed with the taste of honey and ammonia on the tongue. The team is signaled and begin to dig. Just below the surface is a deposit of golden jelly- an excretion produced from the nymph's neck glands prior to the act of molting. The elves take care to scoop every drop of this rare medicinal delicacy into clay vessels.  The clutch then begins loosening soil, digging out in a ten food ring from the deposit. Not far below, the great nymph lies burrowed and sleeping. It’s golden head a yard across with black saucer eyes the size of mans head. Its monstrous ribbed body lies buried below. If aroused, it could awaken in a fury.  An elf poisoner is lowered down to the nymph. She draws a long hollow reed loaded with a dose of paralytic moon lotus water, slips it into the exposed crease beneath the gland, and blows. Once sedated, the nymph is then drawn out with ropes, tied down upon a sturdy pallet, and born away by the troupe toward its final destination: The Grand Ampulla of Calyx.

The Painted Ascetics of Calyx

In the tent village at the base of Calyx, the Painted Ascetics worship the “the Father of Ten Thousand Forms”. They draw spirals and eyes upon their naked bodies with an intoxicating paste in order to commune with his "singing presence". Tattered fabric tents and prayer flags emblazoned with elder signs flutter in the desert wind. Day and night, thick clouds of incense & burning sage rise and commingle with the sound of sonorous chanting.

The blue ghost centipede is at the center of the cult of the Ascetics. When ground into a paste, eaten, snorted or ingested through the skin it provides an addictive euphoria & manifests unpredictable psychic phenomena. Prolonged eating stains the teeth, tongue, gums, and face a shade of deep indigo. Eventually the ascetic's vocal cords become paralyzed and they lose the faculty of speech. Some speculate, however, that cultists who reach this advanced level have no need for speech, having mastered the gift of telepathy.

 The Arcanum of Calyx

No merchant of Calyx dares park his stall in the shadow of the Arcanum, for fear of the demon-sworn magi that dwell within. The Arcanum appears as a matte black hexagonal tower rising 60 feet above the busy market district--each of its sides emblazoned with great silver sigils that slowly change over the course of the day. The Arcanum is doorless and windowless, with no apparent way in or out. Calyx's magi dwell here, and study their occult formulae in sworn secrecy. The wizards are given a wide birth at the market. They can be seen in their black silk robes wordlessly collecting exotic regents from terrified vendors, only to vanish suddenly from sight. Accessing the college is a feat only the mad would dare. It is said that at on certain nights at sunset, on the western wall, a riddle written in silver script can be seen, catching the last light of the setting sun. If the correct answer is written in chalk upon the wall, before the sun sets, a magical door is said to appear granting access. When the sun slips below the horizon, the riddle and the door are lost.

100 Knacks for B/X D&D

I cooked up this Knack system some time ago, and have been using it to good effect in my ongoing OSE campaign. It provides a simple approach to skills while adding flavor and customization to character backgrounds and level progression.

Art by Larry Elmore

Character Knacks are a modular sub-system for B/X D&D (and various retroclones), and fills the niche that skills might take in other games (also compatible with my Character Boons subsystem). The purpose of Knacks is to provide more varied options when leveling up, to give the character a small numerical bump with related tasks, and to speak a little to the character's personality, background and interests. Although the utility and power of a Knack are somewhat limited and specific, I tend to give my players broad ground to argue for their application.

KNACK SYSTEM

A Knack is a minor skill, hobby, or area of knowledge. They are always narrow in scope, non-combat oriented, and can’t take the place, or reproduce another class ability. If your Knack can be plausibly applied to a (non-combat) related ability check (or x in 6 test), the GM may award a small bonus to the dice roll (typically +1, +2, or advantage). 

Knacks can be created by the player, selected from the big list below, or rolled randomly on a d100. If the GM agrees, a Knack may be taken twice, granting superior expertise in the field. Each character starts with 1 Knack, and gains another every two levels (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, etc). 

100 KNACKS

1. Fire Building	21. Herbalism	41. Scribe	61. Grave Digging	81. Geography
2. Rope Tricks	22. Leathercraft	42. Gardening	62. Archivist	82. Predict Weather
3. Direction Sense	23. Barber	43. Investigation	63. Taxidermy	83. Wayfinder
4. Cooking	24. Brewer	44. Appraisal	64. Torturer	84. Occult Lore
5. Carpentry	25. Seduction	45. Gem Cutting	65. Makeup Artist	85. Architecture
6. Painting & Drawing	26. Intimidation	46. Stone Mason	66. Apothecary	86. Engineering
7. Musical Talent	27. Disguise	47. Fortune Telling	67. Folklore	87. Drinking
8. Hunting	28. Legerdemain	48. Dancing	68. Philosophy	88. Holding Breath
9. Plant Lore	29. Card Games	49. Perfumer	69. Theology	89. Inspiring Oratory
10. Animal Lore	30. Etiquette	50. Horse Riding	70. Natural Science	90. Rhetoric
11. Animal   Handling	31. Fashion	51. Chess	71. Midwifery	91. Lip Reading
12. Tailor	32. Ventriloquism	52. Pottery	72. Mimicry	92. Acting
13. Haggling	33. Juggling	53. Metallurgy	73. Comedy	93. Subterfuge
14. Blacksmith	34. Bureaucracy	54. Improvised Devices	74. Animal Traps	94. Foraging
15. Boatcraft	35. Medicine	55. Forging Documents	75. Escape Artist	95. Swimming
16. Fishing	36. Boyer/ Fletcher	56. Poet	76. Iron Stomach	96. Empathy
17. Basket   Weaving	37. Beekeeping	57. Astronomy	77. Dowsing	97. Light Sleeper
18. Cobbler	39. Whittling	58. Competitive Sports	78. Throwing Objects	98. Politics
19. Detecting Lies	40.Tattoo Artist	59. Jeweler	79. Court Decorum	99. Double Jointed
20. Cartography	41. Puppeteer	60. Mathematics	80. Monster Lore	100. Ambidextrous