There are colonies of “sludge worms” living in the sewers beneath Raleigh, NC. Video of the pulsating masses has made its way across the internet and, while authorities are claiming they’re totally harmless, in an RPG, these things are never just natural phenomenon! No no!
They are obviously oozes placed in the sewer by a deranged, undead wizard. Once this wizard was good. He fought in some great war against an evil necromancer and her armies of zombies a billion years ago – long before our modern civilization.
But our bold wizard was defeated and turned into one of the necromancer’s thralls… yet, somehow, the wizard clung to some semblance of his humanity and he swore that – someday – he would find the means to overcome the curse of undeath and destroy the vile necromancer.
After escaping the clutches of his unliving mistress, the heroic wizard spent eons hiding in dark forests and deep caves… which – with the flow of time and development of technology – gave way to back alleys and sewers. All the while, his one-time captor shifted her shape to fit in with the ever-expanding and advancing society.
In present day Raleigh, NC, this once brave wizard has begun his revenge. Slowly, he is building an army of oozes so powerful that he will someday be able to lead his slick minions against the forces of his greatest enemy.
Why do you think there are oozes in the sewers beneath Raleigh?!
In recent months, a bunch of severed feet have turned up in various locations in Canada. So far as authorities can tell, these incidents are not related, but – man – what great game-material! You can read some more here.
Two possible causes of severed foot phenomenon:
(1) The feet are “casualties” of a government teleportation experiment gone horribly awry. The people that go in don’t come out. Instead, their body parts are found in locations around the globe. The government agency that is overseeing the project shuts it down for fear of losing more lives… but the scientist behind the experiments does not see this as a “failure.” Instead, she has weaponized the technology is plans to use it to capture the attention of the world’s super protection force.
(2) The feet are morsels left behind by some recently freed eldritch horror. The monster has been devouring hikers and relocating as to avoid being caught. But, now that the character’s have caught wind of this mystery, they’re off to try to find the beast before it can claim its next victim.
What plot hooks do YOU see inside this story?
Because I’ve only been gaming for 10 years or so, my experiences with D&D started with 3e. This weekend, when my good friend Scott and his family came to visit, he suggested we play a little basic D&D. So, after lunch on Saturday, we all rolled up characters (the collective HPs total for our group of 4 was less than 10).
Our party consisted of a Dwarf (the only person with more than 2 HPs), a Theif, a Magic User, and a Cleric (me!). We met in a tavern and were asked to retrive a wand from a dungeon. Of course we accepted this quest. We were bold adventurers!
I’m in the middle of finishing up another freelance project for Goodman Games, but – when I’m done – I’ll do a detailed write up of our time in the dungeon, but – for the time being, I’ll leave you with a few of thoughts:
(1) Here I was thinking that 4e was pretty lethal at lower levels… with it’s double-digit HPs.
(2) Mapping a dungeon is hard.
(3) Rolling to hit was initially super confusing for me. But, luckily, I had Samantha the 7 year old to help me understand it.
If you, like myself, are a fan of Twilight, you should really head over to Dice Monkey and check out Capunchincaptions’ “Savage Twilight” write up of some of the series’ most famous characters. LOVE it!
Swallowing the Camel is a great blog that focuses on pretty much every conspiracy theory in the history of conspiracy theories. This post, in particular, gives a brief description of some of the craziest of the crazy theories. Many provide a precious nugget that could be used to set up an entire campaign or a simple one shot.
One of my favorites:
“WWII was staged. It never really happened. The Illuminati employed elaborate special effects, stage magic, and phony journalism to scare the world into pacifism.”
My hubby’s fantastic HEX game is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks. I’m going to pick up the reigns and run some Mutants and Masterminds for a couple of weeks while the husband preps for our new Star Wars Saga Edition game.
It’ll be a bittersweet ending; the game was truly a masterpiece (and I plan to give you the full scoop on this gem of a game in the not-too-distant-future), but – for the moment – I’m wondering what you look for in a M&M game. Specifically, if you were involved in a short (3-4 session) M&M mini-campaign, what elements would you find most appealing? Would you want super-Supers? Like, powerful enough to fly so fast that you can cause the Earth to spin BACK IN TIME? Agents level action? Like, James Bond style action – shooting guns, punching bad guys, and racing in BMWs through Italian cities?
Your thoughts! I require them!
True story: Ted Allen, of Food Network fame, makes me want to GRIND MY EYES OUT WITH MY LEMON JUICER!!
I love the Twilight saga. Really. I do. Stop looking at me like that. Please?
Now, I like to think that it’s okay for me to read and watch this utter crap because I spend all day every day reading, editing, and preparing marketing copy for history/military history books. It’s hard work that requires a fare amount of brain-power. As such, when I get home at night, I need to engage in the greatest American non-activity: Vegging Out.
My favorite means of vegging are: trashy fiction, horrible movies, and American Idol… and you don’t get much trashier than Twilight.
Why do I bring this up? Because, I need to let Stephanie Meyer (and Google) know that – if she’s looking for a fabulous woman to write the Twilight RPG – I’m available. Call me. 
We play HEX – a game that relies heavily on the Style Point mechanic – on Wednesdays from 6-9pm and every week at about 8:45 someone’ll say, “Crap! It’s almost 9! SPEND THOSE STYLE POINTS WHILE YOU CAN!”
And those are always the best 15 minutes of the entire game.
I can shove them off of a floating island into a river of lava. And we all know what happens when you fall into lava: You die. No Save.
