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  • Omens

    I am inspired by this post. A 2d6 table, wordpress just won’t let me start at 2. Best used in a game with a world that acts independently of the players. Omens directly affect the world for 1d6 + 1 days. The omen applies whether or not you detect it. Any chance who is superstitious… Continue reading

  • House Rules for 5e from a House with No 5e

    There’s been a lot of talk about how 5e is bad lately (it isn’t) from public GMs and designers who want their players to switch to new or their games (they won’t), because GM and design centric perspectives misdiagnose that 5e is good, actually. This video’s first point illustrates the misdiagnosis well. Actually, players of… Continue reading

  • Auto-gathering: A Cosy Overland Travel Layer

    I was thinking about encumbrance in the context of this fantastic post and was thinking that, while I love this level of quantum inventory, because streamlining inventory helps most games a lot, it detracts from the fun of “Ooh! I have this cool thing!” which I want more of. I, like everyone else, am playing… Continue reading

  • The Bridewell Bestiary

    There are about 40 monsters in Bridewell. I’m going to playtest in Trophy Gold, maybe Into the Odd, two systems that are easy to stat for, so here is a dual bestiary. This is why I wrote the other week. I’ll write about ten at a time, I suppose. Content Warning: Horror, implied abuse, murder.… Continue reading

  • Monsters in Trophy Gold

    Trophy Gold monsters really have only one stat: Endurance. Endurance is between 2 and 12, and players pool their efforts and take the two best results to equal to or beat the endurance to defeat the monster. The problem is, I’m not really sure how to set Endurance. From my experience, it’s hard to get… Continue reading

  • Time bubbling

    Timekeeping is important when you’re running multiple groups simultaneously in the same world. Doing this means you get to do half the preparation, and might get to re-use preparation on a second group. It’s pretty good GMing practice for people like me, who want to play a lot, but can’t find easy ways to play… Continue reading

  • New Years Purge

    Dan inspired me to empty out the drafts folder of Playful Void so I can start fresh in the new year. Here goes: All the things I worked on this year and never finished! If you’re interested in my finishing any of these, or if you’re interested in any of these you can be inspired… Continue reading

  • The Curator, a God of the Crossing

    A testament for Errant. You have made a Covenant with the Curator, Magpie God, Memory-of-Things, Museum of Eternity and Edge; god eminent of the preservation of history, display of objects, recording of meaning, and reminiscence of creatures. The Curator is represented by an owl holding a pair of scales. Zealots in covenant with Curator are… Continue reading

  • Mister Nook, a God of the Crossing

    A testament for Errant. You have made a Covenant with Mister Nook the Bold, Tanooki King, Thief of the Stars, with a Tongue that Spoke Silver into Being. Mister Nook is represented by an inverted leaf; a silver leaf on a field of green is preferred. It is said that zealots in covenant with Mister… Continue reading

  • Dungeon23: Day 14 reflection and pivot

    Previous posts on Dungeon23 here and here. I’m two weeks in, and I don’t like my lovingly prepared dungeon. However, I’m really enjoying the day to day drawing and keying of the dungeon. I just got bored with this level after a week, so week two isn’t as much fun. I’m not surprised by this:… Continue reading

  • Preparing for a mega dungeon: Dungeon23 themes, characters and factions

    The first post was my prepping templates and principles to make the day-to-day participation in #dungeon23 easier. This one is about preparing the overarching yearly and monthly arcs of the dungeon, so I’ve got some more levers on days that are too much, and so it’s somewhat cohesive overall. This has the more challenging post,… Continue reading

  • An extra-dimensional dungeon

    I’ve been listening to the Wheel of Time audiobooks, and thinking of the extra-dimensional dungeon that Mat enters to face the Snakes and the Foxes, this worlds’ version of fae. This dungeon’s layout is asserted to follow rules alien to the human heroes that enter it. One example is following a hall that turns to… Continue reading

  • Preparing for a mega dungeon: Dungeon23 templates and principles

    As has been widely discussed, Sean had a good idea: For me, life is hard, but this seems an achievable task so long as I set the expectations: That last point is what this post is for. How do I make next year as easy as possible? What needs doing this year: That’s not too… Continue reading

  • Fantasy post-apocalypse western? Part 2

    I posted recently about spaghetti westerns, chanbara, and Red Dead Redemption 2, and I came up with a list of what I called themes, but could be considered aspects or something else I guess. In this post, I’m going to think about how to take those themes, and how I’d implement them into a Dungeons… Continue reading

  • Fantasy post-apocalypse western? Part 1

    I was thinking about the themes of traditional westerns, spaghetti westerns, chanbara, and Red Dead Redemption 2, which I’m playing again, largely because I love the wildlife. I’m not an expert in any of these by any stretch, but I’m interested in the assertion that Dungeons and Dragons is a western in the Manifest Destiny… Continue reading

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Jingling Mordo Circus Dungeon Regular

Dungeon Regular is a show about modules, adventures and dungeons. I’m Nova, also known as Idle Cartulary and I’m reading through Dungeon magazine, one module at a time, picking a few favourite things in that adventure module, and talking about them. On this episode I talk about Jingling Mordo Circus by Vic Broquard, in Issue #7, September 1987! You can find my famous Bathtub Reviews at my blog, https://playfulvoid.game.blog/, you can buy my supplements for elfgames and Mothership at https://idlecartulary.itch.io/, check out my game Advanced Fantasy Dungeons at https://idlecartulary.itch.io/advanced-fantasy-dungeons and you can support Dungeon Regular on Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/idlecartulary.
  1. Jingling Mordo Circus
  2. Samurai Steel
  3. The Matchmakers
  4. Nightshade
  5. Tortles of the Purple Sage

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