Tag: fantasy

• BEYOND THE VASTLANDS: BONEYARD

  

  Three weeks journey north of the Emerald City, past the phylake guardians of the Garden and along the Upper Green River, you lucky traveler will find the quaint settlement of Boneyard tucked away in the colossal ribcage of a lost titan erupting from the base of the Moon Mountains.

  The town itself is a smattering of mismatched homes, hovels, and halls clinging to gargantuan bones that help shield the yardsfolk from wind and gamma-blizzards. Its populace is no more than a thousand souls in all, ranging from ossular garnet barons roaming their calcified villas, to plaque-punks that snap their fingers down the myriad alleyways looking for trouble or a good time. Notably, not a single marmotfolk can be found in town. Perhaps the locals don’t want competition?

  

  The Yard exports elderbone in tightly controlled quantities due to its heightened arcane properties, as well as lunar iron, a durable metal that glows in moonlight, which flows much more freely from near-limitless deposits at the far edge of town. The Yard also sports a bustling marketplace of adventurers and questrons that peddle a wide range of goods, sundries, and relics from ruins beyond the Mountains. Surely it’s all ethically sourced?

  Each morning at first light of dawn, a grand bronze bell rings down from the tallest spine-spire, both to bring good fortune to the yardsfolk as well as to renew the aural aegis that protects the town from cloud spirits that occasionally roll down from the Mountains after an especially turbulent oneirostorm. Hopefully there’s not a coven of 1d8 hedge-shamans (L3, chanting & preening) nearby plotting the bell’s destruction as an act of vengeance! Hopefully they’re not two days travel west along the mountain caves in a hidden grotto marked by an ancient cairn! Surely they don’t have 1d6 dream-feast hounds (L1, snarling & gliding) keeping a tight watch on the front entrance.

  Weather and Fortunes.

  Frigid winds blow down from the bluffs and mountain crags north of town, resulting in lavender snow-drifts during the rainy season, which can sometimes be more than half of any given year. Luckily you packed your best winter coat, right? If not, a local will gladly price-gouge you one.

  d20	Fortunes in the Yard
  1	Whoops! You’re mistakenly hexed with countless osteophytes in your legs by a hedge-shaman who was trying to curse a local baron. -1d4 to your choice of Agility or Endurance and walking about yields extreme pain until cured.
  2	You get caught in the middle of some minor gunfire between local teen gangs. Save or take 2d6 damage. They quickly scatter to the wind, but will surely return days later.
  3-6	A heavy gust of wind slaps some snow into your eyes. The next day, you awaken with a severe case of pink eye and suffer (—) on social situations for 1d6 weeks. Gross!
  7	Two heavily armed horse-fellas (L5, buff & gruff) approach the caravan loudly, convinced one among you is their bounty: an escaped ultra. They have no qualms about testing their theory out the hard way. You may be able to talk your way out, but it’ll be tough!
  8-11	The caravan marches through corrosive snow-banks, eating away at the soles of your shoes. Mark them with a usage box and if they are marked again, your poor shoes completely fall apart. Perhaps a peachy-cobbler could nurse them back to health?
  12-15	It’s extra chilly, but you stave off the cold and travel uneventfully about town.
  16-19	Much to your surprise, you’re one supply short as a spinal-tap-rat engorged itself upon your food stores. Continue to feed and care for it, and you’ll likely make a life-long friend.
  20+	The streets are jam-packed with yardsfolk zooming around town! You hesitate to step out into a busy crossing when something odd catches your eye. Perhaps peeking out from a beat-up trash bin, you spot the unmistakable visage of an oldtech gizmo. It’ll need some tender love and care to get working again. Perhaps a day of tinkering? Difficult test to master. On failure, you still determine how to use it, but it’s bit quirky. Work with the referee to sort out those pesky little details.

  Encounters amidst the Bones (d6).

  1. A troop of 1d6 cestus-sporting ivory monks (L1, wobbling greenhorns) stumble out from Caesar’s Saloon looking to scuffle, scoot, or boogie. Maybe all of the above, hm?

  2. Detective (L3, undying & scrappy) with a ghost-gun, currently tracking down a noöspheric hand-mirror that reveals the location of nearby fantascience once per month.

  3. Walton, an egg-cultist (L3, lucid & limber) is proselytizing and looking for new doves to join his flock. He cries out the divine truth of the World-Egg and the horrors beyond. Dare ye join him? (Don’t do it. Surely?)

  4. Smiley rat-queen in a shiny plastiweave coat. 2-in-6 chance that she can predict your future. If so, roll a d20 and replace any single roll with the result as you see fit, both friend or foe. Otherwise, the referee gets to roll the d20. Fancy your luck?

  5. A gaggle of 1d6 gunpunk-mages (L1, rebellious shit-shots) tagging the Bones with graffiti and obscenities, 1-in-6 chance that it is a truth pertaining to a local baron. Hell yeah brother!

  6. A rogue golem (L4, run-down & anxious) on the lam from the Emerald City. He’s on his way to Memory Lane, a strange time-lost town a four week journey north past the Moon Mountains and through the Tortoise Trench. Hunters are hot on his heels and time is quickly running out.

  Rogues around the Ribcage (d6).

  1. Old Griff, a retired bounty hunter moonlighting as sheriff (L4, deeply tired), looking to deputize any gun-hand with gumption and grit. He keeps a stocked bounty board and a packed jail.

  2. Prosciutto, a golem butcher with a mullet & denim vest (L2, iron chef) slings a mean beef rice at his popular food stall in the marketplace and doesn’t take no shit from no one. Chowing down at the stall sets you back €20, but grants you +1d6 to Saves for 1d6 weeks and a quick trip to the loo.

  3. Gahn Zoh the bird-man lawyer is currently taking new clients! Sleazy, but dangerously effective at litigating in the ministerial circuit courts down south. He owns a fancy villa carved into the Bones that overlooks much of the town.

  4. Pontifaxis Equinoxis Mauricitanio is a learned gentleman dwarf recruiting for an expedition north into the Gelwain Mythmount, which requires at least ten weeks journey north past the Mountains through perilous woods, seas of red-mist, barren fields, and sneaking around the great Lunar Birch. He promises riches beyond comprehension at minimal risk. What could go wrong? Good luck!

  5. Mimi, a diluted calico lord (L5, unhinged & scrappy), is currently wrestling with a litter of dog-heads (L2, hangry & hellbent)! Should you befriend her, she can teach you feline magicks such as her signature Stormcat Pounce. Click me for more options!

  6. Silt, a lonely chamelon-lady, perpetually sat on the edge of a great clavicle stares off at different regions of the sky simultaneously. She seems to clutch at a peculiar leather-bound tome and sighs on schedule like clockwork. Perhaps it is a spell-album or a private diary hidden from prying eyes.

  Northward ho!

  ---

  If you made it this far, thanks for reading! About a year ago, I started drafting a zine for a micro-setting you could attach to Luka Rejec’s Vastlands setting as outlined in his works. Admittedly, I didn’t get very far and goofed about quite a bit in 2025 trying to craft my own fantasy heartbreaker without much success, fearing my work was too derivative. That said, every new year provides new opportunities and I hope to actualize some wisdom I gathered along the way and publish the zine.

  Huge shout out to my ride-or-die Cody for providing the art displayed above and being a kind friend. I’ve stolen his ear many a nights when I’ve been down or worse…excitable. He’s an absolute rogue, a quick 20 mins B&W sketch and he hit a home-run. You can find more of his work here.

  Special thanks again to Luka Rejec, as I reference concepts from Ultraviolet Grasslands 2e, Our Golden Age, and the Vastlands Guidebook. The town nameplate at the start of the article also utilizes the custom Our Golden Age font he created. Quite snazzy!

  I penned the working title of the project as Zur Wilds and the Ring-Realms and the scope is approximately 15 new sites to explore, much in the fashion of Luka’s UVG, as well as some optional rules and new traits, powers, and items. Maybe 50-60 pages max. Even though I haunt these familiar halls again a year later, it strangely feels as if it were days ago that I was here writing. Creatively, I think (hope?) that’s a good sign. Only time shall tell, my friends. My next blog post will be one of two locales beyond the Moon Mountains: Tortoise Trench or Ghostlark Woods.

  Now to find my notes…

  

  

• MEMORY UNLOCKED: CLERIC

  

  d6 Divine Character Traits

  Memory of the Cleric

  Stalwart in faith, skilled with hammers, staves, rods, rituals, and rites. As an action, you can roll and spend a hero die to Rebuke the Wicked. All foul and unnatural creatures nearby subtract the result from their Defense score for a minute. Tier 2: Expert with hammers, staves, rods, rituals, and rites. When you slay a Rebuked creature, gain a hero die. Tier 3: When an ally slays a Rebuked creature, they gain 1d6 Life. In addition, your divine incantations cost 1 less Life to cast.

  Devout Saint

  Your hero die is a d8 when used to Rebuke the Wicked. Tier 2: instead a d10. Tier 3: instead a d12.

  Hungry Scholar

  A decade spent in divinity academics prepared you for the grand journeys ahead. You are considered skilled in recalling information, applying advanced religious analysis, and appreciating the grand arts of those divinely inspired. Your faithful studies have also yielded an ancient, but significant culinary recipe related to your field of study. Tier 2: Expert in the ways of your field, and a second…more obscure recipe. It requires one exotic ingredient (worth at least €50), but grants you and your allies a temporary +3 bonus to your next roll. Tier 3: Master in your academic subject & hitting with hefty, holy tomes. Your divine meal now grants a +6 bonus.

  Channel Divinity

  You can spend a hero die to grant your allies a soothing ward, granting them [+] on their next Save.

  Divine Intervention

  You can only use this ability if you are currently holding the maximum number of hero dice possible. Spend all hero dice available to restore you or an ally back to full Life. Alternatively, you can instead remove a burden for each hero die spent.

  Spiritual Weapon

  As an action, you can spend any number of hero dice to imbue them into a Trait slot, summoning a radiant floating weapon of your choice within short range. While this weapon follows you, you are unable to gain more hero dice. It can fly a short distance each turn, and when you attack, you can use it to make a melee attack using either Strength or Charisma. If you hit, roll the imbued hero dice and deal damage equal to that amount.

  

  d6 Pseudohymns for the Faithful

  Horn of Plenty // Feast for Heroes!

  P: 3 R: close T: a table D: instant

  Chant loudly, o` sadakh! Smooth your palms across the beams of roughwood and turn nothing into abundance. Where once a table was empty, now a bountiful feast awaits! Enough to feed an entire caravan, lest ye be too unreasonable, o` faithful. They shall not go hungry for a week’s time, though long-term exposure may cause the flock to float away, thin and fraught.

  Leo’s Tiny Mutt // Waldo’s Whistletune

  P: 3 R: close T: special D: imbue

  Whistle a cheery tune so pleasant that an angelic pup (L2, cuddly sniffer) can’t help but materialize and follow you to the ends of the Vastlands. It has a penchant for finding valuables and even the occasional trap. At the first sign of danger, it vanishes in a puff of light, and returns when it’s safe.

  Angelcall // Servitor.exe

  P: 12 R: close T: special D: a few minutes

  Immense pain overcomes your body as you become a vessel for the divine. Your eyes glow hot, skin sweltering beyond compare, and nails become molten. Exorcise the holy within and from beyond the pale, the horrific angel visage becomes clear. Your crusade begins now, and your soldier (L8, almighty and unknowable) starts their terrifying march.

  Nullify Poisons // Experimental Antidote Dart

  P: 1 R: long T: a creature D: instant

  Invoke the higher truth of your deity and ring the sacred tone of your bell. One creature of your choice within range is purified of all physical disease and poisons, though burdens shall remain. Alternatively, you can force a serpentine creature to immediately make a Morale roll.

  Warding Censer // Huff the Good Stuff

  P: 2 R: short T: allies D: channel

  Swing your strange-smell chains and fumigate your surroundings with the ritual incense and salts of the Do Drugs, Never Die cult. All allies within your fog of peace gain +1 Defense and +2 Ward.
  
  Overcharge: +2 Defense, +4 Ward, regain d4 Life each round.

  Corona of Peace // Halo of Artifice

  P: 2 R/T: self D: imbue

  The heretics shall know your divine nature! A savior’s halo shines as a beacon behind your head, glowing brighter than a finely-made torch, lantern, or setting sun. Creatures find it difficult to lie to you, but also tend to avoid any dealings with you. Strikes against you suffer a d4 penalty.

  

  d6 Relics of the Saints

  Maidenguard

  Armor +4 / 2 stone / L3

  Flare 15: Ignore any damage above 15 from one attack.

  Heroic Vitality 2: Grants +20 temporary Life, replenished by hero dice 10:1.

  A legendary steppe-errant once roamed the Petal Archipelago on a strange iguana-camel. She carried on her back a gourd of honeywine; her hip, a ruby blade. She never married, never spoke, and supposedly never died. Many an old soot-beet farmer claim to have stolen the young champion’s heart over a cup of wine, but that makes many a liar. Eventually, she laid this ornate bone breastplate to rest and now it falls into your hands, still humming with holy power.

  Raiment of the Iron Brother

  Armor +3 / 1 stone / L3

  Conductive: When struck by energy, you gain 1 charge which you can assign to a Powered item.

  Fashionable: While wearing this tunic, gain +1 charisma.

  Metal Flesh: You are resistant to all physical blows.

  The Iron Brother was a beloved merchant in Port Deliverance in the days of yore, when you could buy your salvation from the local funny-hat man. He’d always be found in the taverns, half-spilled out upon the tables and buying out the entire stock for a week of revelry for the neighborhood. He insisted on having his brass locks of hair woven into fabric, one day becoming this very tunic. A peculiar set of garments, unusually strong. Perhaps it radiated with his charity and faith. Perhaps.

  Vambrace of Embrace

  Armor +1 (shield) / 1 stone / L3

  Crush Organs: While you have a hostage grappled, you can spend any number of hero dice to roll and deal damage equal to the total to the creature and they must then roll Morale if they survive.

  Leech: While you have a hostage grappled, gain d6 Life each round.

  Viced: You gain [+] on grappling checks. While you have a hostage, they have [-] on escaping.

  Despite what the Graph-Line Gospels preach, not all saints are virtuous. For years, the town of Fruiting cowered in terror under the iron fist rule of Bear-Hug-Harold, a local knight recognized by the Cogflowers and land barons for his efforts in removing certain obstacles to proposed tax legislation. One good elbow around your torso and you were squeezed dry like an orange.

  Challenger’s Gauntlet

  2d4 damage / 1 stone / L3

  Strength or Agility

  Clear Victor: If you score a critical hit against your Challenger, they surrender.

  Duelist’s Challenge: This gauntlet counts as an unarmed strike. When you strike a foe, they must Save or be compelled to answer your challenge and only strike you. To the death.

  Keen: Score a critical hit on a 19-20 (Critical Range +1).

  Chelius the Chaste was renowned for his utter contempt for the wandering knight errant despite being one himself. They say every knight he encountered on the road would receive the proverbial gauntlet tossed upon the ground. Chelius ensured the Farwood only had one defender filled with derring-do. His challenges drew in knights from all the Garden Realms, and soon his gauntlet sat upon the hand of another, more vicious knight. At least, that’s what the fat priests would tell you.

  Preacher-Gun

  1d12 damage / 1 stone / L3

  Agility or Charisma

  Reliable: Roll damage dice with advantage.

  Testify!: When you strike a creature, their Bonus is doubled.

  Weight of Your Sin: Deal additional damage to your target equal to their Bonus.

  Some preacher-men wore dusters and wandered the Grasslands in service of their long-lost god. One of em had a damn fine gun that bore a terrible curse. If you survived its bullet, it brought you both wonderous fortune and terrible tragedy, usually in rapid succession. Just what kind of game was that man of the cloth playin at? Dispensing deliverance and death in the same day? Ain’t right.

  Sword of the Saint

  2d10 damage / 2 stone / L5

  Accurate: Advantage on Attack rolls.

  Keen 2: Score a critical hit on a 18-20 (Critical Range +1).

  Immaculate: Immune to breaking, dust, debris, and vandalism. Genuine perfection.

  Soothing Light: When you roll max damage on a die, an ally within short range heals for the result.

  This legendary claymore was wielded by a benevolent paladin who shielded the weak and fed the hungry in the Long, Long Ago. Somehow, it survived the ravages of time stuck inside a stone until it was unearthed by a young nomad boy. He pulled it effortlessly from the stone and went on to lead a crusade against a neo-daemon deep terrorizing his valley. Finally slain, they saw the many suns for the first time in generations. To this day, no one knows where this valleys lies, or what happened to the boy, but every so often…the blade finds a new owner: a new champion.

  all art copyright Bethesda, Morrowind concept art

  ---

  It’s been quite a while since I’ve published a post. As you can tell, I’ve rebranded the site from Organic Memory Device to Cordy’s Corner. I felt it proper to switch it over from what was originally a bit, to be frank. I want to keep it clean and concise as ever and provide the best content I can! I’ve still got some work to do and need to figure out a couple CSS hiccups for list spacing, but things have come along. I have quite a bit in my drafts, collecting dust, that I could fashion into new workable stuff to add into SDM/UVG games. I would also like to expand into Mork Borg and other titles and start doing more design commentaries. Probably scrapping Dungeon Deck though…

  I’ll continue my Memory series of porting over the D&D 5e-inspired classes, but I think I’ll start making it a weirder twist to keep in line with the lovely gonzo aesthetic of Luka’s work. Working again on this post has me pondering my orb a whole lot and I’m gonna get my nose back into Affinity, so hopefully I’ll have something exciting on the horizon. I’d love to be the first community content for the system, so I guess the race is on. 😛

  Anywho, if you’ve read this far, I truly appreciate you. Thank you!

• MEMORY UNLOCKED: BARD

  A child’s rhyme
  stuck in my head…
  
  Life is but a dream.

  Third Eye, TOOL

  d6 Spoony Character Traits

  Memory of the Bard

  Music flows through you in mystical fashion. Skilled with singing, playing instruments, and drafting historical epics on the spot. As an action, you can give one of your Hero dice to a creature, increasing it one size. A creature can only have one Bardic die at a time. Tier 2: Recite your dramas with unerring consistency! When your muse rolls a 6 or higher on their Bardic die, you gain a hero die. Tier 3: You are utterly perfect, perhaps even divine. You gain +2 to Reaction rolls and your muse regains Life equal to the result of their Bardic die roll.

  Omnivoice

  While you have Hero dice, you can universally communicate with any creature, regardless of tongue or anatomy.

  Good Company

  You can spend a Hero die to confer your bonus to Reaction rolls to an ally. Eventually, you may share a sense of humor.

  Spellshare

  You can spend a Hero die to cast a power known by an ally in your vicinity, treating it as bardic magic.

  Reality Raconteur

  You speak and the universe listens. Spend all of your Hero dice to apply that many instances of advantage or disadvantage on a roll. For example, if you have five Hero Dice when you impose disadvantage on a target’s roll, they must roll five times and take the lowest result.

  Final Boss Music

  While facing a creature of a higher level, you and your allies add +2 to all rolls, treating them as natural rolls. For example, if an ally rolled an 18 on the die, it is considered a natural 20. Optionally, heavy metal or dramatic opera may ring out into the local realty field.

  Battle Theme 01

  You are skilled at using your instruments as weapons. On a hit, they deal 1d8 damage. THEME 02: Expert at battle instrumentation, your instruments deal 1d10 damage, and you can make them hallmark items with weapon traits. THEME 03: Master at the battle banjo, deals 2d6 damage, and you can spend a Hero die to make the damage dice explode.

  ---

  d6 Bardic Songs from the Other, Other Realms

  Victory Fanfare // Song of Rest

  P: 2 R: Short T: All allies D: Instant

  At the end of a conflict, you can cast this spell to grant an immediate 1d8 Life to all allies in range.
  
  Overcharge: instead restore one attribute.

  Temporal Motif // Song of Time

  P: 8 R: Close T: Special D: Instant

  Using your favorite potato flute, serenade your surroundings with this mystic tune. After a few moments of playing, you and creatures of your choice within range are tugged backwards through time, landing in the same space a few minutes ago. If a creature is unwilling, they Save. Typically, this snuffs out your past selves, but the simulation may sometimes glitch. Contact your administrator for help.

  Hurricane Half-Step // Song of Storms

  P: 3 R: Close T: Self D: Channel

  Through music or spectacular dance, you whip about a mighty gale in the vicinity. All other creatures within Save or are pushed back to Short range. Arrows, bullets, and prayer-bolts have difficult time (-) passing through this wondrous wind barrier. As part of your action to channel this power, you can launch back any projectiles within the typhoon.

  Noospheric Psychelance // Cutting Words

  P: 3 R: Short T: A creature D: Instant

  Invade the mind of your prey, feast upon their emotions and memories. When you’ve had your fill, yank the noospheric tether and invite pain into their brain. They must Save, suffering 3d6 damage on a failure while losing their will to strike you, or 1d6 damage on a success.

  Wanderer’s Steed // Horse-call.exe

  P: 2 R: Close T: Special D: A week

  A majestic L3 splice-horse appears! Perhaps by druidic call, or a quick hack into the source code. It carries four sacks, and never tires. It can communicate perfectly with you, and if you summon it by your side religiously over time, you may find yourself a lifelong companion. It is adverse to battle, though it may heed the call after a year’s worth of summoning.
  
  Overcharge: instead L5, or it can carry eight sacks.

  Courage Thick as Steel // Partita of Protection

  P: 3 R: Short T: All allies D: A few minutes, channeled.

  While Channeling this multi-layered song, you and your allies gain damage reduction 3.

  ---

  Ultraviolet Inspiration: d6 Plot Hooks

  1. A long lost historical tome is rumored to have resurfaced in the scholastic orders at large. Detailing the fall of the Viles, it can be found deep within the Forest of Meat, nestled in an overgrown ruin watched over by a L13 Godroot Feaster (writhing, colossal-fanged).
     
  2. The neoskalds of the southern valleys have called for a moot. The clans have long been at war ever since the High Elder was robbed of his Blod-Crown. Each of the thirteen clans claim another stole away the artefact. You’ve been granted a vision of this artefact, and its hidden away within the Ribs of the Father. Can you procure the crown before the moot? Or is all lost?
     
  3. A local cat lord recently purchased a rare songblade. Lightweight, smooth, and sings with every strike. You’ve been tasked with picking up the shipment, and delivering it back to the spoiled merchant. It’d be a shame if it were to be lost to the ravages of legend.
     
  4. An expedition has recently set out from the Porcelain Citadel, searching for ancient sites to the north. Sgt. Pontifax Equinox Mauricitano, a peculiar dwarf of unknown origins, leads the expedition. You’ve been given a missive from a close relative of his, worried about the sergeant’s well-being. Can you find the dwarf before its too late?
     
  5. Dante, your fondest childhood friend, has studied the spoken word and lyre for most of his life. Attending the Smithson Bardic University in the Emerald City, he graduated with highest honors. Lately, he’s been in a bit of a depressive lull, and indicates in an off-hand comment that he deeply wishes he could see the ancient halls of Vardenull to help spark his creative energies once more. You’ve heard that it’s to the south of the Near Moon.
     
  6. You’ve sought out the great Poet’s Quill for most of your life. Legends speak of its grand restorative properties, as well as its propensity to raw creation of the material. With a single stroke of the pen, you would be granted the raw creative furnace of a thousand men and women. Can you bear to take up that challenge? What ancient monastery grants safe harbor to this relic? The Black City holds the answers.

• BORN IN DISSONANCE

  The ancient masters from the Long, Long Ago once wielded pillars of steel that could split mountains and spark a city-eater inferno. While the age of myth feels an eon ago, there are those spread across the Grassland that still manifest a whispering of this once-terrible power: Blades Esoterica. Some say they’re an order of magical swordsmen, others say they’re no more than dangerous mad-men with sharp knives. The truth, in fact, lies somewhere in the middle. So it goes.

  NEW TRAITS FOR THE MYSTIC WARRIOR

  Character Trait: PRAXIS ESOTERICA

  You hold that sliver of terrible power within your practiced hands. Skilled with all blades and blade magicks, calligraphy, strange numerology lore, and the flowing form such as dancing. Subtract 1 from the cost of blade magicks (minimum 1), and you can add your aura score to damage with blades.
  

  Tier 2: Master Esoteric

  Subtract 2 from the cost of blade magicks (minimum 1), and your unleash range is increased by 1.
  

  Tier 3: Sword Saint

  Subtract 3 from the cost of blade magicks (minimum 1), increase your unleash range by 2, and learn a new dance.

  ---

  Character Trait: UNLOCKED POTENTIAL

  You are more capable at summoning out the inner spirit of your weapons. Increase your Unleash and Critical Range by +1.

  TIER 2: OVERCLOCKED WEAPON

  Your Unleash and Critical Range is instead increased by +2.

  TIER 3: TRUE EVOLUTION

  Your Unleash and Critical Range is instead increased by +3.

  ---

  Character Trait: SOULBOUND ARMIGER

  Your Hallmark items become invulnerable to nearly all damage, never rust, and gain +1 to attack rolls or defense.

  ---

  Weapon Trait: Unleash

  When you roll the Unleash value or higher on your die to hit with an Attack roll, you unleash an additional empowered effect. If you have a feature that increases the Unleash Range, it subtracts that value from the roll needed, similar to increased Critical Range.

  Example: Unleash Ghostfire [15]

  When you roll a 15 or higher on the die to Attack, you would add +1d6 to your damage and the foe is engulfed in hexed flames, imposing -1d6 to their rolls until your next turn. If you had the character trait Unlocked Potential from above, you’d instead Unleash on a 14 or higher.
  
  The table below gives some examples and inspiration as a jumping off point.

  ---

  Unleash [X]	Effect
  Ghostfire [15]	Add +1d6 damage and the foe is engulfed in hexed flames. -1d6 to their rolls until your next turn.
  Blood Rain [17]	Add +2d4* damage and if the dice explode, increase them by one die step for the exploding roll.
  Rend Flesh [17]	Add +1d8 damage and the foe screeches in pain as its defense is reduced by the same.
  Crush Soul [18]	Add +1d10 damage and force a Morale test on foes in short range.
  Fractalize Psyche [19]	Add +2d6* damage and the foe Saves with a -1d6 penalty. Fail: Lose their next turn.

  ---

  New Powers for the Mystic Warrior

  Sunder Ideology // Thief of Golden Fate

  P: 2, R: Close, T: A creature, D: A few minutes

  Four steps to the left with a single foot, and the other drives a partition forward across the sand. In that moment, you unsheathe your blade and trace the electro-sigils of the Bearded One in your shadow. Your soul merges with steel as you disembowel the beast before you. Attack and subtract 1d6 from your target’s rolls until you strike again.
  
  Overcharge: instead steal 1d8 from their rolls and add to yours, weaving their golden threads of fate into your meta-cuirass.

  ---

  Deny the Manifold // Shatter the Five-Fold Reality Layer

  P: 3 R/T: Self, D: Instant

  Undo the making of the five-fold reality. Rebuke causality and leap into the kaleidoscope feet first. You appear somewhere else within sight wearing the cloak of the infinite maze, granting you resistance to all damage until your next turn. This uses your movement in lieu of your action, and you cannot cast any other spells this turn.
  
  Overcharge: in addition, you can can choose to appear some when-else in time. If you leap into the future, re-appear within 1d4 rounds at a place of your choosing. If you fall back into the past, undo your most recent harm and zig-zag back into a space-time you inhabited recently.

  ---

  Arterial Liberation // Open the Crimson Gate

  P: 3, R: Close, T: A creature, D: Instant

  Smirk and draw your stance narrow. Silence, breath, then flash of steel. Attack and open their paper shell, crimson gates flowing. On a strike, they bleed. Place 1d8 on the table. At the start of their next turn, roll and inflict it. Then replace it with 1d6. Repeat the following turn and replace it with 1d4. 1d4 dissipates to red mist.
  
  Overcharge: the bleed die explodes. When it does, increase the die size instead of decreasing.

  ---

  Precognitive Retaliation // Blade Before Blade

  P: 2, R: Close, T: An attacking creature, D: Instant

  Your mind dances in the sideways-realm, seeing a multitude of strikes before they happen. Twisting your mystic pommel upward to the heavens, skip through the else-time like a dolphin breaching rainbow waters, driving your sword into the fool who dares to strike at you. Immediately before they strike, make an Attack roll with a grasped blade. If you hit, deal damage as normal and gain resistance to the oncoming damage, should your foe still stand.

  ---

  Eightfold Meditation // Transcend the Reality-Rings

  P: 1, R/T: Self, D: Varies

  You, a saint in all your radiant glory, know the very foundation of your meta-narrative begins in breathing. Through an increasingly complex series of mantras, breath techniques, and mudras, your mind begins to unravel and expand to fill the void inherent in all things. As you come to understand the nature of no-self, your mind is cleared of any mental effects that would frighten you or cloud your judgment and virtues. Anxiety subsides and you can breathe easy. This can be done within mere moments as you have long practiced the doctrine. The cost of this power and it’s Overcharges cannot be reduced.
  
  Overcharge: continue on from the mere moments of self-subsiding, and begin to extend the mind outward into the greater field of energy that the daemons dance in. Realize the no-self of all things, form given and not. Sense living things beyond small walls and barriers, seeing their ego-flow thrashing. This lasts for a few minutes with Focus.
  
  Overcharge Again: smiling, awareness continues to radiate. Witnessing the beautiful kaleidoscope of flowing energy, you surmise that even causality has within itself an emptiness. In that moment, you see it with your higher-eye. You move about slowly, but all harmful effects against you are made with [-][-] and you have resistance to any harm while you Focus for up to a few hours. To others, you seem full of bliss but move at the pace of a sloth.
  
  Eightfold Cost: let the final barrier separating you from the grander cosmos fall away: consciousness. Letting go of that tether, your energy merges with all-totality. Others witness a blinding radiance and then the once-you is gone. Your daemon can then choose to bring changed-you back into the realm of forms and volitions at any point in the session. When that happens, remove a burden and roll a d100. On a roll of 100, permanently increase one of the stats of new-you. Fickle daemon.

• DUNGEON DECK

  A New Year’s Resolution Mechanic

  PrismaticWasteland has thrust his challenge upon the writers’ hall: design a new core resolution mechanic and torment your players with the horror of learning! Jokes on you, bud. This torture is reserved for the Referee.

  I was chatting about aboard the Stratometaship when Luka mentioned he was drawing a card-based dungeon system. Cards depicting beautiful drawings and evocative names, all laid out neatly amongst each other. That got me a’thinkin.

  

  Resolving a Dungeon

  Eschew your heist-ready dungeon blueprints, toss your rulers and protractors, burn your lair floor-plans to be shown to new tenants. Enter: the Dungeon Deck.

  • Environs
  • Treasure
  • Factions
  • Bosses
  • Chaos!

  With these elements, stack them in a Deck and give a good shuffle, like you’re trying to win at a magical Gathering. When first entering the dungeon, draw and lay down three cards. There’s your start. Each time the players explore beyond a known delve, have them draw and lay the card down orthogonally to another card, thus building their own pointcrawl. This puts your party into the driver’s seat and gives them the power to help define the fiction further, taking that strain off you as the Referee. I go into more detail on each card type below.

  Environs.

  You know what these are: exotic locales or dank crypts to be plundered. Jot down one or three (but not two!) details for each, such as inhabitants, prominent sensory details, and foreshadowing. Bonus XP: ask the players to provide a sensory detail or small event that takes place while they explore.

  If you want to take it further, place conditional events in your Environs. If the Crystal Skulls faction card is already in play, then the Crystal Cave stalactites have impaled several poor souls on the ground below. Alternatively, you should consider placing a good Trap within to change the pace of play. The cavern begins to collapse and your heroes need to think quick!

  Perhaps these are even your classic empty rooms that serve to advance the Dungeon Clock while providing theme and tactile sensations for the characters. Sloshing about in a muddied chamber, swimming through a pungent sewer, or crunching through hills of bone.

  Treasure.

  Every adventurer perks up when a bit of gold is thrown at their feet. A swordsman burns for the opportunity to add another blade to his scabbard. An inquisitive techno-wizard sighs relief when she spies an arcano-matrix amplifier…what the hell is that? Anyway! Stack your deck with a few treasure rooms to be found, providing an incentive for staying in the dungeon longer. Be up front with your players. Tell them how many you threw in. The meta-knowledge becomes an additional gameplay lever to pull, affording them the chance to shape further the fiction. Bonus XP for making them conditional. Add a puzzle or riddle to gain entry or place a key in another room in the Deck.

  Factions.

  If you opt for a more living-dungeon experience, create some Faction cards! Name, leader, and some very brief qualities about them should suffice. If you run a lore-deep campaign or include a larger organization, feel free to sub-divide and create smaller units within that grander hierarchy. Give them a special Trait or quality that sets them apart from their other comrades. Alternatively, grant them some lore to dispense to help tie together the world in an immersive way.

  Bosses.

  Everyone loves a good boss fight. Building tension and terror amplifies excitement at the table. Jot down one to three Bosses to be encountered and toss them into the deck. Oftentimes, the objective of the Dungeon will be to conquer a specific Boss. If that’s the case, this provides a pseudo-clock for your players. Eventually, they will come to grips with the foe. It is inevitable if they wish to continue delving. For me, the fascinating part is this: Bosses can ambush the party. It turns the dynamic around! It plays the Alien, and you Ripley.

  If you pull a Boss early, the players have the opportunity to use their table meta-currency (hero dice, inspiration, etc) to cast it back into the Deck and gain knowledge on it to better prepare themselves for the impending clash. This represents them interacting with the creature’s environment to discover more about them, or perhaps stalking the mighty foe to study their behaviors or biomagical traits. Ahh, the dragon breathes ice!

  Bosses can also be innately tied to the Factions in the Deck too! Perhaps once conquered, one of the other factions struggling for control seize the power vacuum. It provides your heroes a visible representation of their effect on the game world as well as a moral conundrum if you play into the dynamics of the roleplay.

  Give your other Rooms hints or tools to use in the fight to come against your Boss! Optionally, you can tie the reveal of Treasure rooms not yet discovered to the resolution of Boss cards.

  Chaos!

  Create connections between two different nodes, discover new entries and exits, have an event completely alter the state of the Dungeon, or have it swap Factions in or out. This is the wildcard!

  If you end up not using some cards, worry not! Roll them into the next dungeoncrawl and save yourself some time later.

  After all is said and done, I hope someone out there gives it a try and finds success with it. My gut tells me it’s great for learning improvisational play, which is the heart and soul of the OSR. I also reckon it will be a neat way to prep for a session and run procedural dungeons without needing to roll dice and consult tables. Can you think of any Card types I missed? Share with me in the comments below!

• DOG DAYS ARE OVER

  Feline Funk is on its ninth life, even in the Violet City. Is it vanity? Gluttony? Either way, few Cat Lords harness their ancestral magicks. While they enthralled the humanoids over generations, their claws grew dull from disuse. Still however, there are still some night clubs that play the classic hits. Here’s a few! 

  Special thanks to LR_Demiurge_WTF & the Stratometaship.

  ---

  Cat Scratch Fever // Infected Laceration

  P: 2, R: Close T: A creature D: a few minutes

  Channel vitriol and hate into your hand-turned-paw, lashing out at your transgressor. Their flesh is mere paper to your venomous talon. Attack & inflict 1d6 damage. Your foe swells and reels in pain, suffering 1d6* damage when they act.

  ---

  Caesar’s Ear-Bleed // Grievous Speaker Feedback

  P: 2, R: Near T: All who hear D: Instant

  Losing an argument? Look no further! Loosen your jaw and produce a sound so jarring, painful, and maddening that anyone who hears has to run away, ears cupped, on their next turn if they wish to hold their sanity.

  ---

  Oliver’s Forced Hairball // Spontaneous Nausea Ray

  P: 2, R: Long, T: A creature, D: Instant

  Heave and arch your back in a rapid pattern before shooting a deathly glare upward at your mark. Clap your paws together and the creature must Save. Should they fail, they vomit a mass of hair and bile and retch in distress during their next turn.

  ---

  Rito’s Danger Sniff // Vigil of the Foxdogcat

  P: 1, R: Touch, T: Self, D: Imbue

  What was that!? Peering out from thy windows of the soul, you expand your awareness to better guard your desmense. You cannot be surprised and during times of ambush, you act alongside your assailant.

  Overcharge: additionally you gain [+] to any tests to sniff out details others would miss.

  Overcharge Twofold: with precognitive grace, your prowess of the senses extends to nearby allies.

  ---

  Stormcat’s Pounce // Rapid Forward Accelerator

  P: 1, R: Touch, T: Self, D: Imbue

  Feed the primal spirit within and leap for the heavens! You safely jump ten times as far. In times of battle, you can move a Short distance and unleash a melee attack, even after already striding through the chaos.

• FIVE URANIUM CLASSICS

  An organic tribute album to the greatest uranium hits. Five classic tracks originally found on Vinyl Press Run-208 of Uranium Butterflies 0.9b (2022), produced by LR_Demiurge_WTF. Emerald City hipsters argue the mythic DJ existed before the Long, Long Ago and with a single bass-drop, collapsed the prior time-cycle on itself and created the Given World anew. But those are hipsters, so take it with a grain of salt. I sure do.

  Please note: Cordy, lead singer for Organic Memory Device, wants to emphasize that this is a cover album played on a dream machine-synth. Special thanks to LR_Demiurge_WTF & the Stratometaship.

  ---

  Repair Loop

  // AGAIN BUT BETTER

  P: 2, R: Touch T: A creature D: Instant

  A friend in need is a friend indeed! Extend your hand through the infinite fractal and pull back threads from a different now-space continuum where a creature avoids suffering, overwriting the local reality. Undo an injury suffered this round, at the expense of the patient’s memory.

  Overcharge: undo damage suffered in the last hour.

  Overcharge Again: in the last week.

  Again?: in the last month.

  Somehow, Again: in the last year.

  ---

  Rot’s Aurora // Bad Time’s Memory

  P: 2, R: Self T: Your hand D: Focus

  Dangerous, always. Daemons from beyond the putrid veil cackle as you foolishly summon their energies to your hand. Enveloped in oil and hatred, your next touch is that of the rotting god, dealing damage equal to 1d8* + your level. Your very presence corrupts.

  Overcharge: from your dark hand, chaos spews forth with sick-fire, affecting all nearby creatures and objects, dealing 1d8 × level damage and corrupting their being.

  Overcharge Again: instead a foul tall-pillar of nihilism manifests a short distance from you, corrupting all nearby and dealing damage equal to 1d8* × level per round while you focus.

  Foolishly Again: the tall-pillar becomes a long-wall of decay stretching from here to over there. Dark unbeings swirl and shriek within, corrupting the nearby damned, dealing 2d8* × level damage per round and driving them mad while you focus & pay 1 life each round. The cursed creatures within your wall suffer twice as much.

  ---

  Wizardstrike // Reality Dart

  P: 1, R: Short T: A creature or object D: Instant

  Channel the negative space of the negative space, buried deep within the hollows of all-reality-truth. Crystallize and launch a lance of creation toward your mark. If you dare, split the lance and divide damage dealt among a number of projectiles equal to your level. The lance deals damage equal to 1d10 + your level.

  Overcharge: Your lance reaches a foe at long range and ignores their armour, piercing their ka-ba dyad.

  Overcharge Again: 2d10 + twice your level.

  Yet Again: 3d10 + thrice your level.

  ---

  Wizardwalk // Between One Step and the Next

  P: 1, R: Touch T: A door D: Imbue

  Others see an obstacle in their way. You see a golden opportunity to expose the grand illusion of the Given World for what it is. Place your hand upon a mundane door, locked or not, and imagine it open. It is so.

  Overcharge: instead a magical obstacle, such as a force field or electrogate.

  Overcharge Again: instead a portal opens through a barrier such as stone, metal, stuckforce, or crystal. Alternatively, link two reflections so that one can step through.

  Overcharge Yet Again: Awaken a dormant gate, learn its destination, and bravely step through.

  ---

  Wizardward // Cloth of Angel’s Guard

  P: 2, R/T: Self D: Item

  Weave the errors in the null-set to make real an arcane buckler. Wielded in one hand, this lesser aegis provides you +3 defense until you decide it is fictional once again.

  Overcharge: lesser aegis to greater, a buckler becomes a two-hand tower. Provides +6 defense & imposes [—] on ranged attacks from a single direction.

  Overcharge Again: greater aegis to grand, a tower becomes an arcane chrome-disc, taking two humans to move and shielding three from raining projectiles. Used as an arena, attacks from beyond suffer [—] to those within.

  Yet Again: grand aegis to supreme, a chrome-disc becomes an unmoving sphere. Grants immunity to mundane damage, attacks from beyond suffer [—][—] to the lucky six.