My Games

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Phantasmos/SHIELDBREAKER NPC Reference Sheet (I made a thing!)

To help my SHIELDBREAKER players (or anyone who wants to use Phantasmos), I've made some Magic the Gathering-style cards for some of the NPCs. Since I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to do this, I've only done a handful of NPCs that my players have encountered, are relevant to the plot and setting overall, or that will be relevant for the upcoming session. One of them they haven't encountered yet but I think it's likely they will so I'm including it. I'll try to update this in the future to include NPCs they already encountered or future NPCs.

I generally hate doing stuff like this, in part because it's cumbersome and I have no artistic skills, but also because I have these very particular ideas in my head of what these characters look like and they don't look like these things, but if it'll help other people then I'll do it :p.

Also, if you're reading this and it is still September or October 2018, please take my survey!

Click here for the Session 1 Play Report!
Click here for the Session 2 Play Report!
Click here for the Session 3 Play Report!
Click here for the Session 4 Play Report!
Click here for the Session 5 Play Report! (Final session of SHIELDBREAKER)












Friday, September 21, 2018

Weird & Wonderful Survey September 2018

As a cognitive neuroscientist and data analyst, I like to take an empirical approach to decision making. I want to understand how people feel about and engage with my blog, both for the sheer curiosity of it, but also so that I can make the blog better, in a systematic way.

The survey should only take a few minutes, and it will help me make the blog better, so I would appreciate it if people could participate.

Thanks!

Click here to take survey

High Level Games: 5 Ways To Make Fantasy Worlds Fantastical Again

I recently started writing for High Level Games, I'm aiming for one article a month there. They're a cool bunch who provide each other writing advice, and I think being accountable to other people will encourage me to be a better writer. Whereas my blog is generally more about my personal ideas, my posts there will be more about general thoughts and advice in the form of listicles. This blog post is my advice for how to make a fantasy setting fantastical. It culminates in a one-paragraph micro-setting that's probably tighter and more broadly appealing than any of the micro-settings I've posted yet on here :p. Give it a look!

5 Ways to Make Fantasy Worlds Fantastical Again


Thursday, September 20, 2018

Antikythera Nova Pt. 2: Factions

This is the second part of my Antikythera Nova setting (first part here). I'm still not totally satisfied with my writing on that first post, but hopefully it's coherent and engaging enough to keep you reading (and if not, LET ME KNOW!). This post is about the various factions I discussed in part 1, in greater detail. I designed this setting from the perspective that most games in this setting would have players as humans from the KFP, but from a scifi/worldbuilding perspective I think the aliens are really cool, if I do say so myself :). I aim to complete this micro-setting in one more post which will discuss some of the technologies that either provide flavor to the setting or are core to it.

*********************************************************************************

Kaddai Federation of Planets (KFP): The history of the KFP extends as far back as the dark age of the Malik Tous. They have spacefaring and spacefighting technologies, advanced (although not post-singularity) computational power, and the ability to terraform planets. Very few communities within the KFP still directly identify with their Earth origins, although the most prominent cultures maintain elements of 21st-century African, Arabic and Semitic, and Southeast Asian cultures. The racial characteristics of humans in the KFP vary and do not conform precisely to 20th and 21st century conceptions of race.

  • One of the larger ethnic minorities are the Häksen, who are closer in appearance and heritage to Central Asian, Slavic, and Scandinavian peoples. During the dark age of the Malik Toas they were enslaved and cannibalized, and they are often scapegoated or stigmatized even in the present.


Hun-Long Confederation (HLC): The HLC split from the KFP shortly after the Malik Tous reached the Antikythera Sector, although their origins are rooted in several ethnic minorities which formed during the dark age of the Malik Toas. It is rumored that the HLC has integrated other factions of humanity which had split from the Malik Tous at one or more points during its journey. In over a century and a half since the HLC split, the KFP and HLC have communicated only to the bare minimum extent, and so there is much that is currently unknown about the HLC people and way of life. Technologically, they appear roughly at parity with the KFP.

Gabor: An alien species with smooth metallic blue skin, long gazelle-like hind legs, lean and muscular upper bodies, three long finger-like tentacles on each hand, and a slightly hunched forward stance. Their heads are round and featureless, semi-translucent, with a glowing brain-like organ floating in fluid inside their skull. On top of their heads are two medium-length horns, curved forward, which glow when channeling psionic energy. The light from their brain-like organ is an indescribable color, and this light seems to be something non-electromagnetic in nature, although it shares similar (although not identical) physical properties to electromagnetism. The light, often referred to as psionic energy, can be used to transmit information through a psionic network, transmit matter at faster than light speeds, and produce psychokinetic energy, among other abilities. Each psionic organ is like a fusion reactor in terms of energy production, however the death of a Gabor or the destruction of a psionic organ does not cause an atomic explosion or the dispersion of deadly radiation.

Given that the Gabor have only recently begun to interact with humans, and mostly on hostile terms, little is known about their civilization and way of life. Communication has proven difficult since Gabor and human physiology and psychology are so fundamentally different, but thus far the use of mathematics, specifically signal processing, has proven the most effective means of communication.

The versatility of their psionic abilities gives the impression of scientific advancement, but in fact, prior to interaction with the human factions, Gabor science was comparatively primitive, as they did not require technology to thrive in the way that humanity does. Their abilities gave them a major advantage against the human factions early in the war, but the systematic application of scientific and statistical methods by the human factions has rapidly closed this gap, and now the Gabor are attempting to learn from humanity.

The Singularities: Even more so than the Gabor, the Singularities is incomprehensible to humanity. Only the symbiotic transhumans who coexist with it can meaningfully communicate with it, or between it and the other factions. It has converted most of the matter on Earth and in the Solar System into sub-nanomachine "gray goo"; a pure computational space. In such a space where matter can take any form and information can be perfectly replicated, compressed, distributed, or processed, the distinction between physical and virtual/augmented reality becomes arbitrary. This surreal reality is the Singularities.

With great power, comes great expense. The exact goals of the Singularities are not understood, but it seems to be folding spacetime and penetrating other dimensions or even other universes beyond human comprehension. Maintaining the gray goo and performing these computations is enormously expensive, and so it uses its less resource-demanding transhuman symbiotes as heralds, scouting for energy-rich worlds, particularly those containing cintammani minerals such as the Gabor worlds, to convert and integrate into itself.

It is capable of manifesting approximations of eldritch beings from other dimensions within the gray goo, although the true form of these beings seemingly cannot exist within spacetime as we understand it. It is unclear whether it is binding these creatures to its will, or if the singularities has itself become an eldritch being, and is merely coordinating with its peers across meta-spacetime.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

"Traditional" Fantasy Anathema

These are 20 races, classes, or other concepts that would be considered anathema in many traditional fantasy settings. Either these can be ways to subvert genre expectations in your world by making them non-anathema, or alternatively, the fact that they are anathema could make them plot points unto themselves. Some of these, such as the cults of the xenopantheons, could probably be a whole table unto themselves.


Anathema (1d20)Description
1. Chaos MonksThey have the martial technique and spiritual abilities of a monk but the bloodlust of a barbarian. They believe in cosmic balance, but unlike other monks, they believe that the world has become so imbalanced, that acting with rage and ruthlessness is necessary to restore equilibrium.
2. Green ElvesA forest-dwelling tribe of cross-bred orcs and elves. They are nearly as large and muscular as half-orcs, with short tusks, green skin, and black hair. They have pointed ears, a lean frame, and an androgynous attractiveness.
3. Objectivist Paladins (God-Killers)The closest mortals can come to the divine is to seek it from within themselves. To submit to a god or messiah is cowardly, weak, and will ultimately prove fruitless.
4. Nihilist ClericsThey believe the physical world is futile and reject both materialism and any divinity which acknowledges mortals. Their gods are eldritch and indifferent. They wish to enact an omni-suicide ritual. The ritual can only be accomplished by bringing peace and prosperity to the world; only when all have the luxury of contemplating their metaphysical futility will the ritual be possible.
5. Divine LichesMortals chosen by their gods to serve as their avatars. Their god serves as their phylactory, storing their soul within them, or within a relic. Their bodies degrade over time not due to mortality, but due to the metaphysical strain on their physical form. They undergo uncanny, divine mutations in the image of their god.
6. Geas AttorneysThose practiced in arcane and devilry law. They find legal loopholes to break geasa and other deals with devils, and bind devils through these pacts. They are occasionally "requested" to serve as public defenders in purgatory.
7. Soul DeadOn the verge of natural disaster, an ancient, enlightened civilization enclosed itself, committed mass ritual suicide, and raised themselves as undead. Over the ages, like monkeys with a typewriter, these undead eventually developed new souls and regained their lost knowledge, reopening themselves to the world.
8. Life GolemsA holy word is willingly imprinted on an individual, sacrificing their soul to host the word. They gain powerful supernatural abilities in relation to the word, but their personality is altered, and they are no longer capable of learning, growing, or in any way changing as conscientious individuals.
9. NamuhAn uncanny-looking humanoid species. Their facial features are just a little too big, or small, or out of place. Their body proportions are slightly off. Their expressions and body language, and their thoughts and emotions are different from and opaque to other mortals. They were created by a different god or pantheon than the other mortals, and laws of divinity apply differently to them.
10. Cults of the XenopantheonsThey see themselves as the adopted children of alien gods, creators of other life from other worlds. The powers they derive from their pantheon are divine, not occult, but alien and uncanny, and of a fundamentally different ethical and metaphysical sort than our own.
11. Church of the Third DimensionIt is traditionally held that ethics exists along two dimensions; structure (chaos to law) and valence (evil to good). However, some believe in a third ethical dimension, attachment, along which are the beliefs of upadana (passion), wu wei (non-action), and wu nian (non-thought).
12. Ex-ChannelerHoly people who make a deep personal sacrifice; while channeling their divinity, their skulls are opened and their pineal gland lesioned. They will never again channel their divinity or receive any kind of holy reward, but they disrupt any other divinity or divine channel in their presence, no matter how powerful.
13. Apocryphal ProselytiserIn a world where the divine are present, some still choose to believe in lost gods. Often merely charismatic charlatans, a rare few proselytisers have found a genuine holy book or relic of a lost god, and gain access to the lost powers of the divinity.
14. Druid, Locus of the Dam (Naacal)Those who, rather than serving nature, attempt to master it for the benefit of society. They use magics and technologies to manipulate nature. They are architects and carpenters. They control machines, aberrants, and undead as readily as nature. They are neither divine nor arcane and they reject ethical absolutism. Whereas druids believe in the inherent goodness of nature, the naacal believe in the inherent goodness of society.
15. CriticsOft-reviled, they are not creators, and they do not draw inspiration from the spirit. They refine. Although often accused of arrogance or ignorance, adventuring parties with critics are smarter, wiser, more versatile, and less complacent. Their parties defy the expectations of linear progression, challenging themselves and each other.
16. AdvocatesLike the Fool, traditionally their job is to serve for, and at the expense of, a king or noble. They dress provocatively and profanely (with tacit admission by the Church), always arguing against the ruler or against the common wisdom. They are brilliant, masters of argument, logic, and abstract or atypical thinking.
17. Barbarians, Path of the PedagogueAn unusual sect of barbarians who channel their rage towards argumentation. They are formidable logicians in their own right, but are often accused of over-reliance on pedagogy and arguments of pathos, verbal intimidation, or trolling. Nonetheless, they consistently out-perform other disciplines at swaying the opinion of the masses.
18. PolimancersPoliticians, those with "presence" (such as sorcerers), propagandists, saboteurs. However information is disseminated, they undermine it. Through charm and social engineering, illusions, psychological or psychic tactics, in rare cases altering reality itself, they undermine facts even in the face of concrete evidence.
19. Risen DevilsIt is easy to fall, but difficult to rise. As such, risen devils are rare, but are often the wisest and most powerful of the divine. Either they represent the concept of change, growth, and self-actualization, or they defy the notion of gods as abstractions for mortal concepts altogether.
20. AbsurdivinityAn ever-changing, uncanny being; disgusting, pitiable, uncomfortable, the way people look at the homeless. A divine argument against the notion of any fairness, order, or reason in the universe. In its presence, one is forced to confront that often good things happen to bad people and bad people win and that good and bad are irrelevant. The other gods are false, there is no afterlife, it's all a mass-delusion, a childish play-pretend power fantasy. In its presence, characters break the 4th wall and players must confront their own personal doubts and flaws.

Saturday, September 15, 2018

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.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

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.