Brain Dump: Ideas for Games and Thoughts on Ongoing Projects
Ideas for Games:
Bad Road
An Americana themed Bloodbourne inspired game where players play Hobos instead of Hunters where Hobos are all secretly apart of an organization of people dedicated to facing the evils that hide on the margins of society. The Hobos would brave a dark and treacherous post-civil war Louisiana swamp full of alligator men, Cthulhu worshipping rednecks, and the vampires that escaped Abraham Lincoln's ax during the war.
Beans = Bloodvials
Hobo Trick Weapons:
Spiked Bindle Stick: From the Scorched Workshop of Cantankerous Willy, these bindle sticks hold a lot more than clothes and tobacco. With a flick of the wrist, the sack enlarged and spikes emerge, turning the stick into a formidable weapon. Through the strange nonlogic of the workshop, all the contents of the bindle remain unharmed and the spikes utterly nonexistent until needed.
The Beast Fishing Rod: "Come with me and I will make you fishers of men," the good Lord said. To each hobo, it is said "Go from here and be fishers of beasts." This barbed hook is perfect for stabbing into and wrapping around the necks of the foul things of the night. By the blessed cord of mother's hair, not even the strongest beast can snap this line.
Hobo Stove Thrower: The hobo stove is an easily improvised tool good for boiling water or beans. A little work from the Bad Road Boys turned it into a perfect weapon for spraying boiling holy water at bone orchard bulls (undead).
Dual Frying Pans: Looks like one, turns out to be two. 'Nuff said.
Cool note that I found while researching your hobo name is typically where you are from plus a defining characteristic about you like Pomona Slim or Hoosier Beard.
A Church in the Witchwood
A wilderness megadungeon campaign inspired by Over the Garden Wall and fairytales. Kind of like a pointcrawl but I like the idea of treating like a highly dangerous area where there are towns and whatnot but very few people travel because of the danger of the roads. Thus, the wilderness remains mostly unexplored and unmapped with only old signposts and vague directions to guide your way. The players would be looking for the titular church where it is said that a good lady lives that can show you the way out but beware the witch and her minions for they are crafty, wicked, and lead the slothful and prideful to an early grave. Stay the righteous path, pilgrim, and you shall escape this wood.
The Narcosan Archipelago
One of my first setting books was Narcosa that I got as a pdf. I don't think I would actually use much from there but I did make up pretty much my own complete Narcosa: an archipelago where all the drugs in the fantasy world come from. Ideas from this setting have made it into a ton of my other games. Like it is a pretty much constant thing in my games that hallucinogenic drugs aid spell casting. The adventurers would go out on jobs to harvest dangerous drugs in a world of halflings being fattened up to be fed to a hungry giant, enslaved mushroom men, cities like from the cartoon Chowder.
An idea that would probably go into this that I have had in my head for a long time is an adventure based around collecting the perfect ingredients to feed to the ever hungry demon sultan, worshipped by a city of chefs, perpetually working to satisfy his constantly refining tastes. It would be like: steal one of the sacred cows of the Walking Sun God's herd, bring back the egg of a Roc, kidnap the Mushroom Princess, procure a flank of Unicorn. We don't talk about where the Unicorn Meat comes from.
Thoughts on Into the Weird Blue Yonder and other stuff:
This is the project I think I am most invested in and I really don't know what to do with it. I recently skimmed Yoon Suin which I thought would give me a better idea abpout how I ought to make this book. The thing about Yoon Suin that I don't have is specificity. Yoon Suin is a basically complete setting that you are encouraged to make your own. Right now Into the Wierd Blue Yonder is a bunch of tools that could be used for a lot of things, not really a setting of its own. Is that still something worth publishing? Would it be better as a zine? Ought I move towards making it more specific and really start to flesh out a setting with my tools that people could then make their own? Let me know what you think.
As for my other ongoing projects, I really don't have a lot of passion for them at the moment. My creative energy as a whole has been really dragging lately and I just don't feel like spending time making much of anything. I have been having a hard enough time just preparing stuff for my actual games. I have like two different big dungeons that need completing and I have been kind of struggling through them.
So here are some posts that I plan for the future:
A write up of some recent events in my Weird Marches game. (PS: players if you see this and would like to send me your version of events or blog about it yourselves, that would be awesome and definitely get you xp.)
A post about the emergent setting compiled from my posts where I didn't set out to make a setting.
Probably Whos Who in Zuldroom but don't get your hopes up.
Bad Road
An Americana themed Bloodbourne inspired game where players play Hobos instead of Hunters where Hobos are all secretly apart of an organization of people dedicated to facing the evils that hide on the margins of society. The Hobos would brave a dark and treacherous post-civil war Louisiana swamp full of alligator men, Cthulhu worshipping rednecks, and the vampires that escaped Abraham Lincoln's ax during the war.
Beans = Bloodvials
Hobo Trick Weapons:
Spiked Bindle Stick: From the Scorched Workshop of Cantankerous Willy, these bindle sticks hold a lot more than clothes and tobacco. With a flick of the wrist, the sack enlarged and spikes emerge, turning the stick into a formidable weapon. Through the strange nonlogic of the workshop, all the contents of the bindle remain unharmed and the spikes utterly nonexistent until needed.
From "Rock Candy Mountain" by Kyle Starks and Chris Schweitzer
The Beast Fishing Rod: "Come with me and I will make you fishers of men," the good Lord said. To each hobo, it is said "Go from here and be fishers of beasts." This barbed hook is perfect for stabbing into and wrapping around the necks of the foul things of the night. By the blessed cord of mother's hair, not even the strongest beast can snap this line.
Hobo Stove Thrower: The hobo stove is an easily improvised tool good for boiling water or beans. A little work from the Bad Road Boys turned it into a perfect weapon for spraying boiling holy water at bone orchard bulls (undead).
Dual Frying Pans: Looks like one, turns out to be two. 'Nuff said.
Cool note that I found while researching your hobo name is typically where you are from plus a defining characteristic about you like Pomona Slim or Hoosier Beard.
A Church in the Witchwood
A wilderness megadungeon campaign inspired by Over the Garden Wall and fairytales. Kind of like a pointcrawl but I like the idea of treating like a highly dangerous area where there are towns and whatnot but very few people travel because of the danger of the roads. Thus, the wilderness remains mostly unexplored and unmapped with only old signposts and vague directions to guide your way. The players would be looking for the titular church where it is said that a good lady lives that can show you the way out but beware the witch and her minions for they are crafty, wicked, and lead the slothful and prideful to an early grave. Stay the righteous path, pilgrim, and you shall escape this wood.
The Narcosan Archipelago
One of my first setting books was Narcosa that I got as a pdf. I don't think I would actually use much from there but I did make up pretty much my own complete Narcosa: an archipelago where all the drugs in the fantasy world come from. Ideas from this setting have made it into a ton of my other games. Like it is a pretty much constant thing in my games that hallucinogenic drugs aid spell casting. The adventurers would go out on jobs to harvest dangerous drugs in a world of halflings being fattened up to be fed to a hungry giant, enslaved mushroom men, cities like from the cartoon Chowder.
An idea that would probably go into this that I have had in my head for a long time is an adventure based around collecting the perfect ingredients to feed to the ever hungry demon sultan, worshipped by a city of chefs, perpetually working to satisfy his constantly refining tastes. It would be like: steal one of the sacred cows of the Walking Sun God's herd, bring back the egg of a Roc, kidnap the Mushroom Princess, procure a flank of Unicorn. We don't talk about where the Unicorn Meat comes from.
Thoughts on Into the Weird Blue Yonder and other stuff:
This is the project I think I am most invested in and I really don't know what to do with it. I recently skimmed Yoon Suin which I thought would give me a better idea abpout how I ought to make this book. The thing about Yoon Suin that I don't have is specificity. Yoon Suin is a basically complete setting that you are encouraged to make your own. Right now Into the Wierd Blue Yonder is a bunch of tools that could be used for a lot of things, not really a setting of its own. Is that still something worth publishing? Would it be better as a zine? Ought I move towards making it more specific and really start to flesh out a setting with my tools that people could then make their own? Let me know what you think.
As for my other ongoing projects, I really don't have a lot of passion for them at the moment. My creative energy as a whole has been really dragging lately and I just don't feel like spending time making much of anything. I have been having a hard enough time just preparing stuff for my actual games. I have like two different big dungeons that need completing and I have been kind of struggling through them.
So here are some posts that I plan for the future:
A write up of some recent events in my Weird Marches game. (PS: players if you see this and would like to send me your version of events or blog about it yourselves, that would be awesome and definitely get you xp.)
A post about the emergent setting compiled from my posts where I didn't set out to make a setting.
Probably Whos Who in Zuldroom but don't get your hopes up.
Church in the Witchwood sounds very interesting!
ReplyDeleteRegarding "Bad Road," you might want to check out Hobomancer for inspiration.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/102624/Hobomancer
Hobomancer does sound pretty much exactly what I was thinking about for Bad Road. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! If I ever end up actually running the game, i will probably have to pick that up.
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