Discussion: D&D Alignment and the Attachment Dimension

I'm working on a new "traditional" fantasy table, and I don't think it'll be ready for a while unless I find a vein of inspiration, but I wanted to share one of the ideas for that table now and also ask for peoples thoughts on it.

This specific idea is about the D&D alignment system. As a matter of principle, I hate the very concept of the alignment system, and more specifically how it is reductionist, leads to lazy worldbuilding and character-building, and how it devolves into things like "lawful stupid" (lawful good) or "backstabbing murder hobo" (chaotic evil). That being said, I love playing with and thinking about ethical and metaphysical concepts from Eastern religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, or games that utilize these philosophies in interesting ways such as Tenra Bansho Zero.

I should state that I am hardly an expert on Eastern philosophy or religion. I've taken some classes and read some books here and there but don't claim to be perfectly representing these belief systems. If people think I am so fundamentally misrepresenting these belief systems as to be offensive, I can change the language or in some other way dissociate this from them, but hopefully if nothing else it can be appreciated just as a reflection of some of my own thoughts.

With that disclaimer out of the way, here is my attempt at adding a "third dimension" to the D&D alignment system. 

Attachment: This dimension concerns the extent to which one engages with the material world and with ones own thoughts. The three categories along this dimension are upadana (passion), wu wei (non-action / neutral), and wu nian (non-thought). 

Upadana: Passionate, motivated by events from ones past or the current state of the world. Focused on unresolved personal conflicts. A desire to tangibly affect the world, or be remembered during ones life or after ones death. 

Wu Wei: The belief that there is a way of the world (tao), and whether evil or good, chaotic or lawful, that this way is as it should be. As such, one should refrain from acting upon ones personal motivations and desires. This is not to say that one cannot act at all, or have any personal beliefs, nor is it to say that one should champion the status quo. Change itself can be part of the way, and one may act in a manner consistent with the way of the world, as they understand it.

Wu Nian: Intrinsic to the nature of the material world is suffering, and therefore wu wei is to accept and tacitly engage with this broken system. However, upadana is also not the solution, as passion only fuels more passion, unwittingly entrenching oneself deeper in suffering. Instead, one must detach from the material world itself, and to do so, one must necessarily detach from ones own thoughts and desires.

Given that this is already in greater detail than what will go into the brief entry on the table I'm working on, I have not yet thought about all of the alignment permutations with the other two dimensions, and honestly I don't have much interest in doing so since as I've already said I don't like the alignment system in the first place. If people have ideas for these permutations though, I would certainly be interested in hearing them! However, I'm mainly interested in people's thoughts on this ethical dimension itself.

Vortekka One-Shot Play Report / Adventure Module Outline

While my home group has unfortunately not been able to meet in months, my roommate and I had some friends visiting from out of town and we got to run a one-shot with them! I GMed the game, set in my Vortekka micro-setting. We used Dungeon World, which I have never played before but have wanted to try for forever, so that was cool! I'm writing this as sort of a hybrid play report and Adventure Module Outline, since I think it's simple and straightforward, but also was a lot of fun and I could see myself running it again, and I hope other people can get some value out of it as well. While I think it worked as a one-shot, I also think it would be better spread out over a few sessions.

Premise / NPCs

Players are privateers aboard The Brown Bowser, with the mission of discovering new islands for colonization and for the acquisition of lost treasures, gold, and other resources. In addition to players, a few core crewmembers are:

Captain Noah “No Face” Fairman: His entire head and face is covered in bandages. He uses three parrot-shaped golems as his eyes; one blue, one red, one green. He is not especially large but is a ferocious hand-to-hand brawler and sharpshot. He wears an elaborate rainbow-colored frilly coat, a tall hat, and a curly gold wig. He appears friendlier and more relaxed than one might expect from a Captain, but has a low tolerance for insubordination and will turn ruthlessly cutthroat at a moment’s notice, if necessary. No Face is actually a Shark. He intends to take their treasure to an island dominated by sharks and kill the rest of the crew.

Cowan: A zapatotian mercenary hired as security officer and second-mate. He is disliked by much of the crew, in part due to racism, and in part due to him being a hard-ass. He is frequently seen swinging from the masts of the ship. Except for a clear disdain for Diego, he does not otherwise express his feelings towards others openly. In addition to his natural weapons, he is a master of phalanx tactics with a spear and shield.

Diego Jaramillo: First-mate. Casually dressed, bronze skin, short black hair, long hoop earrings, wears a lot of makeup. A drunken lay about, but brilliant ship and airplane pilot, decent fighter, and charismatic gentleman. He has a dark past; he was once a captain, but after a mission gone horribly wrong, he was demoted. He will avoid discussing this, but when drunk, or if he gets to know players better, he may reveal how his ship was somehow erroneously routed to a dangerous island, and most of his crew were killed and his precious cargo destroyed. Has an adversarial relationship both with Captain No Face and Cowan. Cowan may develop a begrudging respect for him if organized by the players against No Face. On the other hand, No Face was in fact the one who secretly organized the mishap on Diego’s ship, and sees Diego as a loose end. He insisted on Diego as his first-mate to kill him off once and for all. 

Characters

Oskar: A swashbuckling rogue with a magnetic energy sword known as the omni-sword. He dresses elaborately and flamboyantly with the full accouterments of a 17th century-esque gentleman. We used the mutant playbook from adventures on dungeon planet, where we re-flavored the "mutations" as abilities from his omni-sword, and I just wrote some custom moves for it. Played by my roommate (referred to as R).

Wilhellem: A scientist and technologist with an all-terrain, amphibious and aerial mech suit. I used the mechanic playbook from Inverse World. Played by our male visiting friend (referred to as M)

Lana: A wizard who desires drink and adventure. Not content to read from arcane books, she wants to explore the islands of the vortex and discover new magics first-hand. This was the only core Dungeon World playbook of the party. Played by our female visiting friend (referred to as F).

Play Report

• I wrote a quick-and-dirty weird science fantasy island generator for this one-shot and pre-generated 4 islands. I knew that there was no way the players would hit all of them in a single one-shot, but I wanted there to be options. Of course I rolled for the largest one, so the bulk of the adventure was on the island or on the ship.
• Randomly roll islands (either in advance or as needed) using island generator. This can go indefinitely. As the session is wrapping up, Captain No Face will lead the ship to the drop-off colony, which has been overrun by sharks. If the players realize Captain No Face is a shark and mutiny, or manage to escape the shark colony alive, they “win”.
• Roll 1d12 for random encounter between islands. (NOTE that in this one-shot, the players only traveled to one island, but for a longer adventure this is what I would have done)
• 1-4: nothing happens. 
• 5-6: 1d6 small or 1d4 medium aquatic or aerial hostile creature.
• 7: 1 massive or 1 large and 1d4 medium/small aquatic or aerial hostile creatures.
• 8: Dangerous natural phenomenon (waves/storm/rocky/etc.).
• 9: Friendly ships, merchants, prey aquatic or aerial creatures.
• 10-11: 1d4 small hostile pirate ships.
• 12: Large hostile battleship and 1d4 small ships.
• For each island, there should be some conflict:
• The captain wants to take more resources than would be sustainable for the island’s ecosystem.
• The ancient relic / natural oddity is more powerful than the captain is letting on. He will feign ignorance, adamantly disagree, or authoritatively shut down any conversation on the matter.
• The live specimen is being kept under inhumane (but survivable) conditions.
• The Captain demands they avoid an encounter with a friendly human ship. He either provides no explanation and demands obedience, or makes a weak/speculative argument like it may be a trap or something seems “fishy”.
• The Captain forces the party/crew to do needlessly risky things and holds no regard for their lives. This should be towards the end of the session, when the Captain wants to thin out the crew to make the inevitable betrayal easier.
• Below is the one island that my players visited this game, but if you like this, in the island generator post that I linked above you'll find three others.

Island 4 (Large)
A partially submerged island covered in a vibrant, metallic-colored coral forest. The corals produce usually pleasant humming and singing noises.
Apex Predators: Starfish-shaped robots harvest the coral, without discernment for other present lifeforms within.
Threat 1: Large robots disguised as coral which trap threats to the apex robots.
Threat 2: An underwater hive of flying bee-like pistol shrimp which have evolved to ballistically propel themselves by producing sonic booms, as a means of rapidly targeting prey within the coral forest and avoiding the traps of disguised robots.
Threat 3: Packs of raptors with vibrant metallic colors and frills which disguise them within the coral.
Non-threat 1: Pteranodons with sharp beaks and claws capable of chewing through hard coral. They are only dangerous if threatened.
Non-threat 2: A photosynthetic, slime-like yeast which has developed a symbiotic relationship with the coral. Can provide sustenance, but also causes inebriation or intense hallucinations.
Non-threat 3: A metallic gold-colored tree which produces a multi-metallic-colored tropical fruit pollinated by the flying pistol shrimp. The fruit contains a chemical harmful to the slime yeast, and by extension the coral forest itself. Seemingly an invasive species outcompeting the coral for the same ecological niche.
Treasure: 1200 gold value in slime yeast, to be sold as a recreational drug or as medicine.
Conflict: While the metallic trees were eventually going to overtake the coral forest anyway, collecting so much yeast will give the trees an even larger advantage. The trees will overtake the island faster than the ecosystem can adapt, and the ecosystem will collapse. Additionally, the captain will be draconian in not allowing the crew to consume the slime, threatening death, while flagrantly abusing as much of the slime as he wants. Eventually a crew member will be caught stealing slime and the captain will force them to walk the plank. 

•  The players investigated the island, encountering all the wildlife. After running some analyses (and consulting with Diego and Captain No-Face), they learned that the slime was extremely valuable, and made it their mission to extract as much slime as possible. They also learned first-hand about the intoxicating effects of the slime, which was quite fun ;). The captain gave them 24 hours to extract the slime.
• There were 4 major pockets of slime. They had to clear out each area of threats so that a safe and efficient pipeline could be established. Their actions, or spending time coming up with plans, would affect how long it took to clear out each pocket.
• They learned that by extracting the slime, they were creating an imbalance in the ecosystem. They decided that they did not want to destroy the ecosystem of the island, so they had to clear out a proportional number of trees to counterbalance the amount of slime they extracted, nearly doubling the time and creating additional complications.
• After encountering and defeating the apex predator, they were able to extract enough slime to satisfy the captain in just the nick of time.
• Upon returning to the ship, Captain No-Face throws a party in honor of a successful mission. While he consumes as much slime as he could want, he does not allow anyone else to sample the goods. 
• The players stumble upon Cowan and Captain No-Face getting into a heated argument. They hear shouting, followed by violent noises. They rush in too late, and find Cowan's body brutally torn apart, the office covered in blood.
• No-Face tells the party Cowan had gone crazy. Oskar follows No-Face to discuss the matter further, while Lana and Wilhellem investigate the office.
• In their investigations, they discover that the official documentation of the Brown Bowser's status as a privateer ship have been falsified. Additionally, they find a magical shark tooth.
• Simultaneously, Oskar, not convinced by No-Face, engages him in a duel of honor, where No-Face removes his bandages and reveals himself as a shark.
• The other players, hearing the conflict, rush to his aid, and they all face off against No-Face and his parrot golems. 
• Lana magically activates the shark tooth. It turns into a magical sword, but shark teeth in the pommel cut into her hand, embedding the sword into her.
• The party manages to kill No-Face and keep the ship and slime, Diego survives, but Lana's fate is left uncertain.

The Breakdown

Given that this was a setting I've never run before, and a system I've never run before, and M and F have little RPG experience, I was worried about how this was going to go, but actually everyone had a really good time! In retrospect I wish I had just developed one island and put more depth into it, since for a one-shot of course they weren't going to get far, but still they really liked the island. I also felt like I hadn't utilized the NPCs as well as I would have liked, but again I think for a one-shot that's to be expected. I will definitely say that R crushed it! He and I have been roleplaying together for nearly 2 years now and he's always been great, but he really nailed the character concept with Oskar right away, and that kept the game exciting and engaging.

In regards to Dungeon World itself, I thought it was a fun system and I want to play with it more, but also I struggled with the reactive nature of the player/GM relationship and I don't think I leveraged the system to full effect. I also ignored a lot of the GM moves and other mechanics that felt like obvious stuff I would have done anyway, but I wonder if that would have changed the experience if I had stayed closer to those rules. While we discussed the bonds during character creation, they also didn't really come into play during the one-shot. In a longer game where character progression is determined by fulfilling bonds maybe things would have been different, but in a one-shot with limited time, the idea of fulfilling bonds seems at odds with a D&D-style adventure. That being said, even with just this one one-shot, it was clear to me how this system applies a "storygame" approach to a D&D framework that I think is really cool. It feels like a similar thing to what I was trying to do with my WIP LotFP: Decyphered game, where I attempted to fit the design philosophy of the Cypher System to a D&D framework.

Vortekka

I will return to Antikythera Nova eventually, but I wrote this micro-setting for a one-shot I ran recently (play report soon), so I thought I'd share this first. Because this blends some of my older writing (my synopsis for Vortekka as a Place in Phantasmos, Zapatotians as an Intelligent Species in Phantasmos), I think it could use some touching up- the synopsis in particular could be "punchier". Maybe I'll eventually rewrite it, but for now I think it's good enough to post as-is.

Synopsis

Vortekka is a world surrounded by a vortex of multi-colored, shimmering, luminescent ocean dotted with islands. It has a land mass core of a series of disjointed plates floating in place. Life exists both on the plates, and on the inner-surface of the vortex. From the core, the sky appears like the inside of a massive surfing wave. The centripetal and centrifugal forces between the vortex and core allow for gravity on both planes. After reaching a critical distance away from their respective source of gravity, objects are pulled in the opposite direction. This has created a three-dimensional ecosystem blurring the lines between land, air, and sea. It’s a world of late-17th century-styled adventures of pirates and privateers, with a dash of high fantasy and steampunk. A world largely unexplored, where every island is a unique ecosystem challenging pre-conceived notions evolutionary adaptation.

Species

Humans: The dominant intelligent lifeform of the central landmass. Only recently have they developed the magi-technologies to reach the inner surface of the vortex, bringing about a new age of growth and exploration. Unlike the halflings, they are more concerned with the discovery of lands to settle and resources to exploit, rather than discovery and scientific inquiry. They are the most magi-technologically advanced species, but the least adapted to life on the vortex.

Zapatotians: Orangutan-sized land-dwelling octopi. Their eyes have adapted to above-water light and visual conditions. They breath air, but also have vestigial gills. They have long torsos, and hind tentacles differentiated such that their two lateral hind tentacles are longer, capable of snake-like locomotion, and of raising the body such that their beaks are raised above ground. Their front tentacles are utilized for carrying objects. They are fast on the ground and swinging in the trees, have powerful beaks, and are expert hunters in forests and jungles. Their society is simple, stone-age or barbarian-esque, but they are not necessarily unintelligent. Even in direct combat they are excellent warriors. In the modern era, they are often employed as mercenaries by other factions.

Indri (halflings): Halfling-sized lemur-like humanoids. They have large eyes, protruding snouts, strong, elongated limbs, and large rounded ears. They are more magi-technologically advanced than the zapatotians but less so than humans and are likewise more adapted to life on the vortex than humans, but less agile traversing the island jungles and forests than the zapatotians. They have a shamanistic and scientific culture and have taken it upon themselves to catalog life across all the islands on the vortex.

            Korora (penguins): Penguin-like amphibious creatures averaging over 7’ tall with short limbs and pear-shaped bodies. They have short but powerful beaks with rows of sharp teeth, blueish scales, and white bellies. They are the least maneuverable of the major intelligent species on land, but the most adept in water. Their scales also provide strong natural armour. They are generally simple people with simple wants and needs, but given their size, relative intelligence, and amphibious nature, they are perhaps the most thriving civilization on the vortex surface.

Sharks: A species of imperfect shapeshifters. They are always hairless, and no matter the form they take, they always have the gaping, toothy grin and cold, flat eyes of a shark. With the right costume and a bit of magic, some sharks can disguise their form enough to be passable as whatever species they are mimicking. Little is known of their civilization except that it exists somewhere deep within the vortex. They seem to be primarily interested in spying on and manipulating the island peoples on the surface of the vortex towards some malicious end. With the recent discovery of the humans, they may even have begun to explore the floating core.

Magi-technology and Ecology

            Between the competing centripetal and centrifugal forces and the air currents of the vortex, it is easier to take flight on Vortekka than on Earth but flying creatures must be heavier and stronger to control their flight. As a result, large, flying animals of all kinds are common, including those as adept in the sea as they are on land or in the air. Apart from these more ubiquitous creatures, life across the small and vastly distant islands has evolved each in relative isolation. Usually there is one large, dominant land-dwelling species or a social, intelligent species, and many smaller species, including flying or aquatic creatures too small or weak to be able to travel far, adapted hyper-specifically to the concerns of their island. Except for the larger aerial or aquatic beasts and their effects on the ecosystem, life on the floating core is more like life on the continents of Earth.

            While the air currents make it easier to take flight from the vortex than from on the core, the limited space and lack of natural resources across the islands has kept the intelligent species on the vortex islands from developing the necessary magi-technology to launch towards the core. Only in the last 50 years have humans developed the magi-technology to reach the vortex, and it is still an expensive and inefficient process. As a result, the human colonists, privateers, and explorers on the surface have limited communication with the core and cannot rely on assistance.

            To go from the core to the vortex, individuals in winged flightsuits must literally be rocketed into the air, and although the process has been refined, it is still not uncommon for the rockets to explode or fail to launch far enough to pull the rocketeer into the centrifugal force of the vortex.

            From the vortex, larger one or two-person aerial vehicles, like a cross between a canoe, sailboat, and biplane, can take flight without the need for a rocket. Likewise, individuals in flight suits can be launched from moving watercraft like paragliders. Some ingenious individuals have even developed transformable mechanical suits (mecha), smaller than airplanes but larger than a flight suit. Although often still somewhat bulky and impractical, the versatility of mecha in air, sea, and land have made them valuable assets on a ship. However, the technology is yet to be standardized and mass produced.

            Naval ships, airplanes, mecha, flightsuits, and these other technologies are often facilitated using magic and alchemy. Outside of fairytales and legends, most magic is relatively simple, practical, and mundane. Likewise, while humans on the core are starting to develop steam technology and have conceived of even greater technologies using resources like demon water and lightning, in the present these are little more than pipe-dreams.

Vampires

This is the third in my series of Weird & Wonderful tables of "traditional fantasy" elements, the first two being Elves and Goblins. As with my goblins table (and the latter elves), my intention for these vampires is that each one represents some sub-textual or thematically-relevant aspect of vampires. Additionally, as with the goblins, I'm going with a broad definition of vampire, including not just the European creature but also creatures such as the Hindu Vetala or Chinese Jiangshi, or any creatures which steal blood, energy, lifeforce, etc. It's interesting, looking at vampiric creatures across different cultures, that vampirism and deviant sexuality, specifically female-empowered sexuality (which would have been considered deviant in those cultures), as well as liminal consciousness, sleep paralysis, sleepwalking, and out of body experiences, are so co-morbid. I also took inspiration from animals known for being vampiric or carrion-feeding, other biological or chemical vectors for blood or energy transference, and more abstract forms of emotional vampirism. These entries definitely stray pretty far from the traditional Dracula-derived modern vampire, but I tried to relate each entry to these concepts.

Vampires (1d20)	Description
1. Dilation Vampires	Psychic beings that make you think of a single, uncomfortable event. The event grows in your mind. It no longer reflects reality. It grows beyond what your brain can contain. The blood pressure builds, crushing your brain as every blood vessel bursts.
2. Blood Gnolls	Androgynous female hyena-like humanoids with blood-red fur and bright green eyes. Supernatural hunters and scavengers. Their teeth drip a crimson enzyme which can dissolve bone. They are often hired by desperate desert wanderers. As payment, they demand a sacrifice of a male virgin with a hyper-masculine personality.
3. Agnatha	A crimson-colored creature with a worm-like body and a large, round orifice for a face, layered with sharp teeth, and a large eye on its chest. Has eight appendages like a squid, with webbing between the appendages giving the appearance of a cape. The witch attracts those who are lost but have not lost hope, and offers them care and a place to rest. It nibbles at its guests each night, forming a small, infectious wound that burrows ever deeper towards the heart.
4. Floxforos	Cyan skin, blue or white hair, a burning aura. They consume heat produced by the metabolism of intelligent life, or artificially produced, life-sustaining sources of heat. They require a precise equilibrium; too little heat and they die, too much and they explode. They use fire and water magics to maintain this equilibrium.
5. Byakhee Lords	Neck and wings of a vulture, face like a cross between a reptile and raven. They enter your life after you've lost a loved one. They take the form of whatever you need most in that moment. They make you forget your loss. They replace your dreams with fantasy adventures of just you and them. They make you love them like you did your lost love. They make you give them everything. And then they leave you. They leave a void in your soul in place of your forgotten loved one. They feed on others until they have consumed every memory in the world of your loved one.
6. Playwright Vampires	A chameleon-like shapeshifter. It searches for talented but inexperienced actors. It offers them their dream role and everything they could ever want, and feeds on their sense of fulfillment. Everyone and everything in the production is an illusion except the actor and the playwright; even the audience is not real. It strings the production along for years. The actor never improves their craft because the audience loves them exactly as they are. When the actor is well past their prime, it reveals the ruse, leaving the actor with nothing to show for their life's work.
7. Plague Vampires	In their first stage of life, they are dog-sized insects which hop on powerful hind legs and stab their prey with their proboscis. Their torsos engorge with blood, and they form into a blood chrysalis. In their secondary stage they are humanoid insects with beautiful wings like a butterfly and toothy, beak-like mouths. They prefer to feed on the weak and sick, cultivating the bacteria and viruses into even more potent diseases. Once their new disease is ready, they infect the healthy.
8. Dracul Vampires	These vampire dragons gain power from accumulating zero-sum wealth. The less resourceful steal and hoard treasures, while others own property and profit from the fruits of their exploited workers' and slaves' labors. They fear economic and industrial disruption, and act as an inertial force on economies. Some are charming, and these are the most dangerous ones. They will convince you they have your best interest at heart even as they exploit you for everything you are worth.
9. Asphyxiation Vampires	A plant intelligence distributed across a field of poppies and thorny roses. They induce pleasure and psychedelia in those who pass through the fields, feeding on the blood dripping down the thorns and oxidizing their circulatory system, shutting down their muscles and trapping them. Unlike most plants they are oxygen breathers, and their trapped prey blissfully suffocate on the carbon dioxide exhausted in the field.
10. Manic Vampires	They supercharge hematopoiesis in the marrow. The lifeforce courses through their victims, stimulating every nerve ending and every neuron as if the body were alight with holy fire. Their victims live hard and fast until they (metaphorically) burst, and the vampire feasts on the ripe, juicy remains.
11. Holobiotic Vampires	A parasitic organism that lives in the gut like a fungal or bacterial infection. It hijacks white blood cell production, manipulating the immune system, both to make the gut microbiome more hospitable, and to manipulate the thoughts, emotions, and even physical form of the host. The identity of the host is usually so radically altered that the host's original identity effectively dies long before the body is fully consumed.
12. Lost Boys	Angels created by long-forgotten gods on a faraway world. They are alien and beautiful, child-like but world-weary. They inspire faith and good will in others but have none for themselves. Inevitably, the faith they garner is squandered or corrupted. They are not malicious, they are simply lost.
13. Memetic Vampires	They drink from the collective unconscious of a culture, acquiring its history, knowledge, and customs, but not its soul. They love the culture, in their own way, but don't really understand it. They trap it, exploit it, pervert it, and indoctrinate others into the corrupted culture. They lack restraint or consideration for their actions, and eventually they kill the culture that they grew to love.
14. Azure Vampires	Human-passing save for their bluish and coppery metallic skin. In post-industrial worlds they are lords, in pre-industrial worlds they bide their time. They are a dangerous people, in that they are savant-like in both their abilities as engineers and technologists, and also in business and finance. They are captains of industry, moving civilizations forward only to exploit them. They drink the blood of the poor and exploitable. They are the greatest argument against innovation and progress.
15. Liminal Vampires	They appear in hypnagogic visions, interacting with the physical world through the pineal gland and the electricity produced by myoclonic jerks. They oscillate in dissonance with your brain just before you fall asleep. They feed on your physical essence, degrading you each long and wakeful night.
16. Primordial Vampires	Deformed creatures with clubbed feet, shriveled lungs which wheeze and croak at each breath, and overly large or small or misshapen heads. They prey upon women with unwanted pregnancies, violently aborting the fetus and feeding on the amniotic fluids.
17. Vampire Blood Golems	Golems made from the blood of vampires. The circulatory system must be given life within the (un-)living vampire. When the vampire feeds, the circulatory system routes the blood only for itself, starving the vampire host from the inside. Eventually, the vampire starves, and the golem sheds its host. It is a powerful, magical being, and it hungers.
18. Black-blooded Vampires	Titan-like magical beings hiding within civilizations. They are far too powerful to find nourishment in blood. Instead, they must wait millions of years for heat and pressure to transform organic matter into fossil fuels, a far greater concentration of life than blood.
19. Ego Vampires	They are hopeless romantics, feeding on the vibrancy of passionate love and lusty sex. However, as soon as the passion burns out, so does any interest they had in their relationship. When they leave, their former lover must come to terms with the relationship, or transform into an ego vampire themselves.
20. Lymph Vampires	Obese, yellow and bluish degenerate creatures which feed on lymph, hemolymph, and hemocyanin. They take a blunt approach to solving problems, and lack a sense of nuance. They live in squalor and filth, taking as little responsibility for themselves as possible. They survive mainly on the cockroaches and other vermin attracted to their filth.

Weird Science Fantasy Island Generator

I will be running a one shot in my Vortekka micro-setting using Dungeon World later this evening! I had included Vortekka in my list of Places in Nova Arkham, but this version is a setting unto itself. Play report, micro-setting post, and possibly some other related posts will come soon, but for now, here is the very simple generator I created, with four example islands I created using this generator. This generator is very bare-bones, but worked well enough for my purposes, I think.

First you decide the size for the island, which affects the amount of treasure available on the island, and can influence whether or not there is intelligent life, or how many unique kinds of lifeforms to produce for it or how many weird properties you want to give it.

The intelligent life is based on the species in Vortekka but could be replaced with other species easily enough.

Roll 1-2 times on the flora / island properties table and 1-3 times on the weird table to get a general framework for the island which can be used as a theme for the various species you populate in it.

Each island should have 1 apex predator species, ~1-3 other threatening species, and ~1-3 non-threatening species which exist mainly for flavor. Larger islands can have more species. While you should roll 1-2 times on the apex predator and threat properties, respectively, you can also think about properties which would make sense given the other island properties or other species you've already populated the island with.

Size (d4)		Flora / Island properties (d8)
Tiny		Tall, sparse trees
Small		Short grass or mossy
Medium		Flowery
Large		Fungal forest
		Coral forest
		Dense woody forest
		Volcanic
		Ancient advanced relics
Intelligent Life (d12) (size small+, or shipwrecked for tiny)		Weird (d10)
None (1-8)		Singing flowers
Human colony		Scattered ancient advanced relics
Halfling tribe		Bathed in celestial light
Zapatotian tribe		Perpetual, localized storm
Penguin tribe		All predators have humanoid heads
		Color palette (2d10: R O Y G B I V K W P)
		Metallic-colored
		Synthetic (plastic, metal, etc.)
		River of cold blue magma
		Floating building-sized plates
Animal Types (d8)		Apex Predator Properties (d8)
Mammal		Poisonous
Bird		Camoflauge
Reptile		Massive
Plant		Super fast
Fungus		Super durable / armoured
Fish		Super strong
Arthropod		Swallow whole
Other (robot/golem/etc.)		Breath / area attack
Treasure (1d4) (1d4 x size x 100 Gold value)		Threat Properties (d8)
Natural resources (wood, skins, metals or minerals, lost jewels and coins, etc.). Low maintenance but requires space.		Poisonous
Ancient relic or natural oddity (mundane). Low weight / space demand but easily lost, stolen, or broken.		Camoflauge
Ancient relic or natural oddity (special). As above, but may be dangerous (or useful).		Far range
Live specimen. Depending on specimen, may require space, high maintenance, dangerous, etc.		Large
		Fast
		Durable / armoured
		Strong Trap
From this table, I pre-generated the following 4 islands for the game tonight. The "conflict" sections are specific to the scenario, which I'll post in full in the near future: Island 1 (small) Covered in the relics of an ancient advanced civilization. Plates of land and bodies of water float over and around the island, slowly rising and falling Apex Predators: Amphibious, deceptively fast barracudas which jump and glide from the ocean to bodies of water on the floating plates Threat 1: Dog-sized hermit crabs which have made powerful shells out of the relics. Some of the shells may have special magical or technological abilities. Threat 2: Strong dive-bombing albatross-like birds Non-threat 1: Glowing pig-like bugs which eat photosynthetic algae which continue to produce sugars for some time in their gut before being digested. Non-threat 2: Hand-sized bipedal flowers, look like little people. Not intelligent. Treasure: 200 gold value of ancient treasure. Conflict: To get to the treasure, the vault must be blasted open by the ship, destroying many of the relics Island 2 (medium) Covered in a rainforest of tall, dense trees supported by a perpetual, localized thunderstorm. The island also contains a hesitantly friendly penguin tribe. Apex Predators: Bear-like mammals with a humanoid head. Their saliva contains a powerful neurotoxin. Threat 1: Tiny fish that jump between the transient pools formed by the constant thunderstorm. Upon close examination, their tiny humanoid heads can be seen. When threatened, they release superhot explosive gases, turning the pool into an area-of-effect torrent of blistering steam. Threat 2: Halfling-sized lizard people with humanoid heads and chameleon eyes and tongues. They launch compacted mineral pellet feces from their tongues high in the canopy, like snipers. Non-threat 1: Nocturnal tarsiers covered in spines. Not dangerous, unless provoked. Non-threat 2: Lemur-like reptiles, larger than the spiny tarsiers and more active in the daytime. Treasure: 1200 gold value for a spitting hominid-bear with a metallic orange coat. Conflict: The local penguin tribe hold this bear sacred and must either be circumvented or destroyed (the captain prefers the latter plan). Subsequently, the captain’s plan to take down the bear is to throw as many of the crew at it as possible with nothing but clubs and nets. Additionally, once captured, the captain keeps it muzzled and in a cruelly small cage. Liquid food is injected directly into its gut. Island 3 (medium) A volcanic island spewing cold, blue magma. It is bathed in a celestial blue light and covered in a layer of soft, minerally, blueish snow. Apex Predators: Yeti-like fungi with blue flesh covered in snow-like whitish-blue fur that provides them camouflage. Threat 1: Cold lava golems swim in disguise along the magma rivers, instinctively attacking non-native lifeforms. Threat 2: Whitish blue birds adapted to the cold environment. Their beaks are superhot, and their droppings supercold. Non-threat 1: Miniature, friendly, monkey-like versions of the fungus yetis. Non-threat 2: Crystalline-looking iguanas somehow adapted to derive energy from the cold light and blue magma. Treasure: 600 gold value to gather as many fungus monkeys as possible. Conflict: The fungus monkeys are not suited to the warm climate of most of the vortex. Most will die during the journey, and the rest will likely die not long after unless properly cared for. The plan is to sell as many of them as possible, as quickly as possible, as pets or curiosities to any buyers. Island 4 (Large) A partially submerged island covered in a vibrant, metallic-colored coral forest. The corals produce usually pleasant humming and singing noises. Apex Predators: Starfish-shaped robots harvest the coral, without discernment for other present lifeforms within. Threat 1: Large robots disguised as coral which trap threats to the apex robots. Threat 2: An underwater hive of flying bee-like pistol shrimp which have evolved to ballistically propel themselves by producing sonic booms, as a means of rapidly targeting prey within the coral forest and avoiding the traps of disguised robots. Threat 3: Packs of raptors with vibrant metallic colors and frills which disguise them within the coral. Non-threat 1: Pteranodons with sharp beaks and claws capable of chewing through hard coral. They are only dangerous if threatened. Non-threat 2: A photosynthetic, slime-like yeast which has developed a symbiotic relationship with the coral. Can provide sustenance, but also causes inebriation or intense hallucinations. Non-threat 3: A metallic gold-colored tree which produces a multi-metallic-colored tropical fruit pollinated by the flying pistol shrimp. The fruit contains a chemical harmful to the slime yeast, and by extension the coral forest itself. Seemingly an invasive species outcompeting the coral for the same ecological niche. Treasure: 1200 gold value in slime yeast, to be sold as a recreational drug or as medicine. Conflict: While the metallic trees were eventually going to overtake the coral forest anyway, collecting so much yeast will give the trees an even larger advantage. The trees will overtake the island faster than the ecosystem can adapt, and the ecosystem will collapse. Additionally, the captain will be draconian in not allowing the crew to consume the slime, threatening death, while flagrantly abusing as much of the slime as he wants. Eventually a crew member will be caught stealing slime and the captain will force them to walk the plank.

SHIELDBREAKER: Play Report 2

This is the second session in what I'm calling the SHIELDBREAKER campaign. On the whole I think things went more smoothly this time, although I forgot to prep those NPC cards / setting cheat sheets which I will definitely do before next time. Still, I'm glad to see things are coming together! Also, I still cannot figure out formatting in blogger for some reason, so this post is a bit messier than I'd like :/.

Click here for the Session 1 Play Report!

Characters

·       Cynope: Quenduin Amazon. She works for the Pearl Panthers to afford care for her sick sister, but has grown fond of the thrill, bringing a professional wrestling persona to her work.

          -- Player: Dan D

·       Jim Casper: Tartarian-Mutant Specialist. Working in a storehouse in the tartarian kingdom, he learned about a mysterious martial cult, and has since been attempting to learn more about it. Has a mutation, a slit on his body which must be fed ancient artifacts.

          -- Player: z_bill

·       Razlow: Kobold Garlic Knight (Fighter). In the early stages of transforming into a Garlic Berserker. Was a soldier in the dogu kingdom but deserted when he discovered he was turning into a garlic berserker.

    -- Player: Murdoc

Play Report

• ·       Since unfortunately Michael Kennedy couldn't make it this session, I retconned it so that Slayer was incapacitated by the SWORD at the end of last session, explaining why she is not present this session and providing an excuse for Arnold Tanaka to send the new party members as backup. 
•       The party went to The Forum. Occulon was giving a talk, and in addition to his goons were a table of union representatives, dogu (who may or may not have been associated with the mafia), and a table with the Grim General's daughter Zeffre and Nova Arkham soldiers. 
•       Cynope wrestled with Zeffre WWE-style as a way of taking attention away from / annoying Occulon. Zeffre was into it, they had fun, she gave her a note with a set of coordinates.
•       They follow Occulon and some of his goons down an alley and hear them mention something about the dogu and the SHIELD, but are found snooping.
•       They head to the upper floor of the Forum to get a map or some other information. After bribing a bureaucrat, they get a map which adapts in real-time to the changes being made to the city, including those changes made by the SHIELD.
•       They head to Zeffre’s coordinates. On the way they fight a DNEa, a double-helix shaped snake-like creature. The DNEa dropped 30 gold worth of its weird blood, and a partially-digested frog-like creature that seemed like it could be valuable or have special properties, but could not be properly identified.
•       They talk with Zeffre and choose to ally with her, agreeing to work with her behind the Grim General’s back in exchange for assistance tracking down the SHIELD. She does not disapprove of her father per se, but wants some kind of independence from him and leverage against her brother and the savant Edward Nzimbe. Her mesmerist alters their mesmeric network to sync her into it. Arnold Tanaka, the party's handler, seems to have some kind of acquaintanceship with Zeffre. 
•       They head to Dengo Sensorium, as they know Asimov Dengo is the head of the dogu mafia, and the dogu mafia are somehow tied up in a gang war with Occulon, who seems to be involved with the SHIELD. They try to find Dengo but are routed to a manager, a handsome dogu male with blue hair who goes by Noma but is actually Tezura Niko working undercover, and his female blue-haired assistant (who is actually his golemite companion Aleph). He gives them Dengo’s passcode to the private bath on the top floor.
•       They begin a negotiation with Dengo, but he takes a hostile stance. After they convince him to give up some information (that Occulon is working with the SHIELD), Tezura and Aleph attack Dengo. The party chose to fight Dengo with them. They nearly kill him, and then get him to give his partial decryption of the SHIELD’s location, somewhere connected to either the Forum, Occulon’s factories, or the Grand Stable system. Tezura says Dengo will be taken to jail and possibly extradited. 

The Breakdown

      I'm happy to say I think I'm starting to get a better feel for OSR, and I think this session went really well! I regret forgetting to put together the NPC cards and cheat sheets that I had intended to, but will definitely do so before next time! In retrospect, having the first arc be such an elaborate intrigue in a setting the players are not familiar with may not have been the best plan 0.o; I'm used to my home group who have been playing in this setting long enough to be more comfortable with that sort of thing. That being said, the feedback I'm getting is that the group had fun and are ok with being a little overwhelmed with all the moving parts.

Antikythera Nova Pt. 1: Premise and History (REDUX)

This is the first of what will likely be three posts for my science fiction space setting Antikythera Nova, as part of my attempt to post easily digestible "micro-settings".

You'll notice that this is a REDUX- I decided I wasn't happy with the first post, and I don't want to move forward with the other posts until I think I've got this very basic first step to an acceptable point. I got some good advice about how to make this better, so hopefully this version succeeds where the first failed. I'm going to leave the original post as well for posterity, but unless you're really demanding to know more about this setting RIGHT NOW, stick to this ;). Hopefully this is an improvement, but if not, then expect a REDUX 2 in the near future...

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In a galaxy consumed by war and chaos, human and alien alike squabble in the shadows of familiar-looking computational eldritch beings. Nobody understands who they fight or what for, as centuries of misunderstood tensions based on accidents and lies come to a head. For all of their technological achievements and special abilities, mortals and gods alike fight for the high-energy cintammani crystals and for a sense of purpose in a cold and uncaring universe.

Over the course of 500 years, much has changed for humanity. The world powers of the 20th century mostly receded or collapsed; their greed, bloat, and outdated infrastructure were their undoing. In their wake, new powers rose in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, benefiting from infrastructure built from the ground-up with 21st century technology and sensibilities in mind.

After a tumultuous early 21st century, these new nations advanced and thrived, not just technologically and economically, but psychologically and socially as well. It was just a matter of time before humanity took its "second small step". The generation ship, Malik Tous, departed on its 300 year journey to colonize the Antikythera Sector of the Pickman Galaxy, from which it would not return.

It was a difficult journey, to say the least. Over the course of 300 years, the peoples of the ship nationalized, warred, committed genocide, and in some cases even splintered throughout the universe. 200 years and one dark age later, the human peoples of the Antikythera Sector achieved a relative state of peace and stability within the Kaddai Federation of Planets (KFP), and the Hun-Long Confederation (HLC).

These two factions have been separated for so long that they are only capable of communicating in mathematical code and broken dialects of ancient languages. They know little of each others ways of life, nor do they remember why they separated in the first place. Except for the occasional skirmish over a newly discovered, cintammani-rich planet, the sector is blanketed in a perpetual, cold curtain of fear and misunderstanding.

Meanwhile, on Earth, humanity went on to explore another new frontier. Without the trials, tribulations, and limitations of the generation ship, humanity progressed exponentially, evolving into the post techological-singularity being(s) known as the Singularities. They converted Earth, and much of the matter in the solar system, into "gray goo", pure computational (sub-)nano machines. Some of the transhumans, who chose not to merge with the Singularities and who more closely resemble their ancestors, work in symbiosis with the Singularities, acting as harbingers, travelling the universe to find suitable sources of cintammani for the Singularities to convert into or power the computational matrix of gray goo.

The intelligent alien species known as the gabor, after an aggressive encounter with these transhuman harbingers on their cintammani-rich worlds, aggressively retaliated against both the KFP and HLC, confusing them for the transhuman harbingers, although neither human faction were even aware of the existence of the Singularities or any of the events on Earth since the departure of the Malik Tous half a millennium prior.

By the time all parties realized the misunderstanding, there was too much bad blood for the war to stop. The KFP and gabor fight a hot war that nobody wants but nobody wants to stop, even as each decides how to respond to the (ominously silent) Singularities. As best as the KFP can tell, the HLC have factionalized- some embracing the Singularities, others allying with the gabor against the KFP. The gabor themselves seem to have factionalized, or maybe it was never so simple as a single gabor nation and the KFP are only just realizing this now. Nobody really knows what's going on- it's a galaxy in chaos where human and gabor alike squabble in the shadows of eldritch computational gods. Each faction must decide whether they want war or peace; and whether they want individuality or singularit(ies).