Primeval Wasteland Areas for OSR Games

 New weekend, new table from Lands of Legends!

Winter has become really cold here, and I hate the cold, so I chose to go with some frozen (or otherwise horrid) wastelands!

Here's a d10 table with ten primeval-themed wasteland areas for your OSR sandbox campaign with simple stat references for your classic game of choice, wether it is Old-School Essentials, Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry, or any other clone of OE, B/X, or BECMI Dungeons and Dragons.

Use them to spice up your sandbox!

These are straight from the Areas section of Lands of Legends Primeval. Check it out for hundreds more!

So here's the table:

Wastelands - Primeval Areas

1. Death by Water. Dragged by the currents underneath, huge icebergs move through this ice pack, cracking and splitting it. The cracks can suck explorers into the icy waters (Save vs Death or d6 cold damage per round).
2. Smoke on the Water. This desolate plain is crossed by slow streams and pools of lava that spring from underground. The snow that constantly falls instantly becomes puddles of snow and ash and a mist of hot, toxic vapors. Traveling here is extremely difficult, as new lava pools and springs often appear without notice, and the only creatures explorers may meet are wild elemental creatures of fire, earth, and ice. 
3. Razor Rocks. This barren land is made only of sharp black rocks of all sizes, from tiny to colossal: movement is very difficult and it is impossible to lie down or sit comfortably. Advancing is like climbing (STR check every day), even if explorers cannot fall but just slow down. Sleep is always uncomfortable and does not allow to rest fully unless specific equipment is employed. There are no animals, plants or water around.
4. Freeze Wood. The trees of this land magically absorb the power of the cold. There are enough trees and fallen branches to light a fire, but its bluish flame emits cold instead of heat, freezes food instead of cooking it and causes cold damage in case of contact.
5. Purple Blur. This region is barely illuminated by an eternal twilight: a purple aurora shines in the sky, the trees lean in all directions and all devices and magnetic compasses do not work. Because of the bizarre anomalies of this place, normal vision and darkvision are blurred and greatly reduced, and all spells of divination, enchantment and illusion, as well as those related to light or electricity, don’t work and the others have a 50% chance of failure.
6. The Wurm. Buried in the depths of the world, between the sea and the earth, the Great Wurm lies under this iced land. It is the worm of the world, a primordial creature of frost, destruction and power who once caused an ice age. Its magnitude is unimaginable and only the gods can confront it. Little of what mortals can do can awaken it, but if someone casts a spell of level 5 or higher or uses powerful artifacts in this region, it might writhe in its sleep (50% chance), causing sudden ice storms and earthquakes that can create crevices and avalanches.
7. Heart of Ice. This land hosts a primordial crystal whose roots sink into the center of the world: it is a fulcrum of the magnetic, telluric and magic energies. The frozen wind that blows through the land carries its influence: explorers must Save vs Paralysis or their muscles and tendons will stiffen and ache (-2 to most action, movement halved). Those under this effect must Save again every day vs Spell or fall prey to bleak despair (further -1 to most actions and rolls, cumulative for each failed roll). After failing this save for a number of times equal to the character’s level , each new day requires a new Save vs Paralysis to avoid becoming a block of ice from within (and die). The iced figures of other explorers are the only warning of this danger! The only way to get rid of the first two effects is to leave the region. 
8. Bocochos. Huge, flightless birds roam this tundra. They are also known as Brontorniteri, or Fastclaws. They love beef jerky and tubers and can be easily tamed and employed as fast mounts, but their health will suffer from leaving their cold home region, and they’ll require special care to keep them fit and lively.
9. Ifirnia, the One Year City. Every year, at the end of summer, the nomadic people of this ice-kingdom choose the new place for their city and build it with ice-blocks. In the time of a moon the new town is finished, with a frozen circular wall to protect it and an ice tower standing over the other buildings (stores, temples, theaters and arenas). The ice princess dwells in the tower and the city comes to life with courtiers, shamans, skalds and traders until the next summer.
10. Wendigo Wastes. This desolate region is haunted by the Spirit of Cold and Loneliness. Every time the sun is covered by the clouds, there is a 10% chance of hearing the fearsome cry of the Wendigo: those who hear it must Save vs Spell or run screaming in terror in a random direction, dropping every burden they might be carrying, and they must keep running until they pass the Save (check again after 10 minutes). The cry of the Wendigo is always heralded by a cold, violent gust of north wind. The nomadic tribes that inhabit this land are immune to the howl, and worship the Wendigo as their god.

If you enjoy this type of content, check my upcoming Kickstarter: Axian Library!

Want Cthulhu? Stay Away from Cthulhu

A couple days ago a friend of mine recalled a conversation we had in the '10s or something, about how, if you want to run a game of lovecraftian horror, you should stay away from Lovecraft.

The idea is not original, and probably came from some blog that we read at the time. Let me expand on that.

Running a horror campaign (whatever ruleset you use) with Deep Ones, Mi-Go, Shoggoths, and the other canonical creatures and gods of the Cthulhu Mythos, is not going to make your players experience lovecraftian horror at all. All those entities have become pop culture icons, so widely known and, in the nerdsphere collective imagination, they are domesticated to the point of becoming the subjects for plushies, funkopops, cool t-shirts, mugs, political satire ("Vote Cthulhu"), board games and comical stories.

They are, quite literally, a comfort zone, which is quite literally the opposite of lovecraftian horror. 

If you achieve to have your players experience even just a bit of lovecraftian horror with such set pieces, you probably are a great GM running a great scenario.

The point is, the canonical pieces of the Cthulhu Mythos can't surprise. Cosmic dread, madness, and the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible is gone.

The only way to truly make an attempt is to create your own Mythos. Your unique creatures, entities, gods, and books. Or even better, no creatures, gods and books at all. Go for unprecedented, or at least less abused, categories. One of the points of lovecraftian horror should be: facing something that can't be fully understood, and being able to categorize it is a big step towards understanding... The other points should be: something that threatens you, and that the more you understand it, the more it questions your understanding of reality itself.

I know, it sounds daunting! Even if what you come up with is a half-botched attempt, it still has much better chances of disturbing your players' imagination a little bit.

And potentially, there's more. If you propose your group to play Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, Tiny Cthulhu, The Cthulhu Hack, Realms of Cthulhu, Cthulhu in Space, Cyber-Cthulhu (and the list could go on and on AND ON), well, you've already lost them. You are already telling them "We are going to play a game with the cliche of cosmic dread, madness, and the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible, so play along".

And they might. I mean it will be a game of lovecraftian horror, except the horror.

What to do in order to pull it? In theory, the best way would be to let that horror seep into something else, just like it crawled into the lives of Lovecraft's protagonists without a warning. Let those themes (and your own cosmic Mythos) creep into another game. In theory, the further away the starting setting is from lovecraftian horror, the more impactful it becomes.

That's what they did with True Detective season 1 or, to a lesser degree, with Archive 81,  or Annihilation.

But is that ok, ultimately, with RPGs? There is a final, and not trivial, conundrum.

In my opinion, players should not be sold an epic fantasy campaign, only to see it slowly become a horror campaign. Not fair at all. They signed in for A, not for B. They might hate it, and lose trust in you as a GM. The campaign might feature themes and topics some people don't want to see in a game: body horror, mental illness, religions, you name it. Not fair at all to have those things dropped on players who expected to play college drama, space opera, western action, or whatever.

So what? Probably, the best way is to inject lovecraftian horror into games that already are supposed to be horror, but belong into very different horror niches. Zombie apocalypse games. Vampires. Gothic horror. Heck, even most Sword & Sorcery rpgs might do. You'll avoid pulling a very bad trick to your players, but may still have a chance to go lovecraftian. An Apocalypse World game starting with zombies and slowly turning cosmic horror sounds like a great campaign to me.

So am I saying all those Cthulhu-branded games are worthless?

Naaa. They are fine, good games in their own way. Just know that horror, the way Lovecraft tried to convey it, will hardly be part of your campaign. You're still in for a lot of fun, with so many great adventures and campaigns available.

I'm absolutely in favor of playing within one's comfort zone. I even enjoy vanilla fantasy and will probably write a post about its merits soon!

I think most of the times gamers just want to have fun, not to experience negative emotions such as actual fear, inquietude, uneasiness, doubt. Let alone questioning their understanding of life! Sometimes it's fun to just blast your shotgun into a Deep One's face, and send the inhuman temple into orbit via dynamite... or end up squished to bits or locked at the asylum for trying.

d12 Nighttime City Encounters and Events for Old-School Essentials

New week, new random table!

This time, it's d10 nighttime city encounters and events for Old-School Essentials, and easily portable to similar rulesets such as Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry, or any other clone of OE, B/X, or BECMI Dungeons and Dragons.

Use them to spice up your campaign!

This table also is a preview of the extended version (with d20 results!) that will be featured in Candle, a special zine project I've gladly joined!








Writing these entries was a lot of fun. As usual with my other encounters/events tables, I've tried put enough meat to have a decently fleshed-out encounter, while keeping the text short enough to be read in a minute.

Some are fairly simple and may resolve in a few minutes, while others may spring a few hours of adventures, or even develop into a large plot. Just how I like it!




d10 Nighttime City Encounters and Events for Old-School Essentials

Roll 1d10 for an interesting night-time encounter for when the heroes stay up late in the streets of a large city.

1. A naked young halfling (level 3) climbs down a rope from a window on the second floor of a rich building. He’s fleeing from the bed of an important local NPC’s wife, but will say he was the victim of a miscast teleportation scroll, or something... and he would gladly use a cloak. He is the son of the leader of the nearby halfling enclave, and their ambassador in the city.
2. The group hears a 6 years old boy sobbing in a back alley. He got lost chasing his cat Smirk after sundown. He lives “near the temple” (can’t specify which). His father, a well-to-do tailor, is looking for him and might not like the looks of the group with his son (Reaction roll) and might call out for the guards. And the boy hasn’t found the cat yet! The father might as well offer to pay the group 50 gp to find the cat so as to convince his child to come back home.
3. A group of 1d6+2 wererats have just pilfered from a weaponsmith’s shop a sword and shield for each of them, plus all the silver daggers available (12, now inside their bags). They are running in humanoid rat form to get back to their lair in the sewers, where another 1d6+2 wererats await. If they hear unusual noise, they set up an ambush (surprise on 1-4). In their lair, a large chest holds 9,000cp, 2,000sp a gem (500gp) and a piece of jewellery (1,200gp), but is trapped: six metal pipes can be seen at the bottom. Unless disarmed, opening the chest shoots d6 darts (1d4 damage) in front of it.
4. A group of 1d6+6 cheerful, drunken young nobles (treat as normal humans, each with a jewel worth 900gp and 1d100gp in a pouch) are having a tavern crawl, accompanied by 4 sober bodyguards (level 3 fighters with chainmail and swords). Roll for Reaction, as they might invite the group to join the party, or find their mere presence and looks “offensive”.
5. The nearest manhole begins to tremble as a pack of rats crawls out and bolts away in all directions, terrified. Seconds later, a carcass crawler emerges from the manhole! Down in the sewers is its lair, with the skeletal remains of a few humanoid victims and, under the dirt and goo, a necklace worth 700gp and a battleaxe +1.
6. The group sees a large bat entering an open window. It’s a vampire looking for a midnight snack! If disturbed, it flies away and out of the city to leave the interlopers behind. If undisturbed, he returns to his hideout: a crypt hidden behind a secret passage inside a mausoleum in the city cemetery. The secret passage is protected by 4 gargoyles, and his coffin is guarded by 2 wolf-shaped iron living statues. A secret compartment inside the coffin holds 3,000ep, 2,000pp, 8 gems (200gp each), Potion of Giant Strength, Wand of Illusion.
7. Two beggars are chatting and drinking wine near a fountain. If befriended, they may reveal interesting rumors about the local criminal underworld, or the not too distant dungeons.
8. Four groups of 1d6 acolytes of a chaotic cult are sneaking to the hidden entrance of their secret underground temple, where a level 5 cleric is holding a midnight ritual. The temple includes a golden idol worth 10,000gp.
9. A girl cries “Stay away! help, HELP!” in a back alley. She’s baiting the group to an ambush, as 2d4 bandits (leather, clubs) are waiting to surprise the group (1-4 on d6). They request the group to leave their gold so that no one gets hurt. If they don’t obey, the girl (and bandit leader, a level 3 magic-user) can use her spells: sleep (to knock out uncooperative victims), detect magic (to take any magic items from the victims), and invisibility (in case she needs a quick escape).
10. A tiger prowls the streets! It has a jewelled collar worth 5,000gp, with the seal of an important local family. It is semi domesticated, so its Reaction roll is at +2. If captured and brought back unharmed to the rich owners, the group might receive a 500gp reward or some other benefit.
11. The PCs are mistaken for someone else, as a robed man greets them and takes them to a secret meeting in a basement where 2d6 conspirators (treat as nobles) plot to overthrow the local ruler(s).
12. A level 5 cleric warns the group to stay away from the area, as accounts of a ghost appearing at night around those streets have circulated for three days. What’s going on: the ghost is a wraith, the spirit of a librarian haunting his house and shop and wandering around it at night. He died five days ago after finding and accidentally reading a cursed scroll inside a book, which is still open on his desk, in front of his corpse (but its power is depleted). Inside his shop a chest holds 5,000gp and seven scrolls: spell scroll (knock, hold portal, wizard lock), spell scroll (dispel magic) spell scroll (haste, wizard eye, ventriloquism), spell scroll (ice wall), protection scroll (protection from lycanthropes), treasure map (the chest with “the treasure of the black bandit is buried under the oldest oak” of a not too distant forest, contains dozens of gems and jewels for 20,000gp, but is guarded by a spectre!), treasure map (“an iron coffer with the Djinni’s gold is inside the at the Azure Oasis”, and contains 37,000gp).

If you enjoy this type of content, check out my upcoming kickstarter!