Prey Species

bonus stinky evil cat I’ve been thinking a bit about why I have enjoyed running Cairn and why I haven’t been enjoying D&D 5e or Lancer recently, and I think I have stumbled upon an answer: Emergent vs Progressive gameplay. There’s lots of writing about this, mostly around videogames, so I’m going to talk about these terms as I understand them, but I’ll also try to include some other writings that I’ve looked at. Emergence is when simple rules interact with complex systems. Think Chess or The Sims. Simple rules, like, “a pawn can move one space forward” or “Sims need to eat” come into contact with a complex system, like a human brain crafting a grand strategy, or a simulation of an entire world.  Progression in games is a newer phenomenon (according to Juul) where there is a series of challenges, and there are strict rules which the player must follow in order to solve them and eventually reach the end. For the most Progressive game, think Mario. Run right, jump, maybe throw a f...

  ~ Rat Factions ~ ~ Crypt lootin'~ ~ Undead parade ~ Comic about were-beasts by Ryoko Kui

~ Oops a quick death ~ ~ A new friend ~ ~ Wizardly secrets ~ Crystal Greatsword from Dark Souls

  ~ Getting back into it~ ~ A change of plans ~ ~ Hammer Wan ambush ~ Dungeon Tavern from Dungeon Meshi anime

~ Quiet Travels ~ ~ The Witch's Temple~ ~ Necromantic Delights ~

~ Skeletal Woe ~ ~ Loot and Run ~ ~ Fog of Death ~

    ~ New Recruits~ ~ Berserker Strikes ~ ~ New Rivals ~ Excavator's Alliance, Tower Dungeon, Chapter 4

 ~ Season Finale ~ ~ Militia's March ~ ~ Goblin Assault ~ ~ Death and the Dragon ~ Record of Lodoss War Winds of Fantasia cover

~  Lizard exchange ~ ~ Easy dungeon traversal ~ ~ Bone things and banshees ~ Writhing Rotten Flesh from Dark Souls III

  ~prep for undeath~ ~funeral barge spookies~ ~acolyte destruction~ Tibia Mariner from Elden Ring

~ swamp stompin~ ~orc parley~ ~crypt clearing~ a pair of lizardfolk from Heterogenia Linguistico

~ good old fashioned dungeon crawling ~ ~ danse macabre ~ ~ bandit juice ~ Danse Macabre, The Chambermaid and the Housekeeper, After the Danse Macabre of the Holy Innocents’ Cemetery in Paris,  Guyot Marchant, 1485 previous play reports here

~Investment~ ~Bandit Hunting~ ~Petrification~ Cockatrice from Delicious in Dungeon

One of the factions in Stonehome consists of a bounty hunter from the capitol named Sagging Jonas. He was contracted to come and take care of some bandits that sprung up by one of the Generals of the Imperial Army. Since the army is deployed elsewhere currently, and there is a bit of a stigma for deploying a standing military on Imperial soil, the Imps tend to solve things via contracted bounty hunters/militias/mercenaries.  Given an Imperial Writ and a chest of gold, Jonas decided to build a militia to take on the bandits, as well as calling in a favor from an Imperial Frontier Warden to get some assistance for his new recruits. This was going to be a full session, but we had to cancel. I had to keep my promise, however, so the militia still confronted the bandits that day. This is how I notified my players of the results. Sam Elliott

money money MONEY stock photo of someone holding a dagger, with a shadow behind it of the hand and dagger Emrys the mage Gringle the farmboy Henar the imperial scholar 16th of Sprout Cloudy Started out hiring some laborers to install a locked door in the newly cleared out racoon chambers, and moving all the equipment from the tool library to their new forward operating base. They left the laborers behind to delve into the dungeon. The Seekers returned to the tombs they avoided looting last time to follow up on the detect metal wand readings without dealing with orcs breathing over their shoulders. After barbequing some undead and hiding from "Da Dragon", they gathered upwards of 9000 gold pieces (note: i made a rule that the wand detects only 1000 coins or more, and mistakenly had it point to piles of less than 1000 coins. I just decided to give the party the gold. oops. its ok, if it were something with gold for xp that might mess the game up a little, but because we're ...

Raccoon annihilation (for the good of all raccoons) A botched brigand attack Orc friends and more mining Evon, new plaguebearer Gringle, Farmboy Ethex, rogue Henar, imperial scholar Emrys, mage 1st of Sprout Cloudy Got some downtime sorted. Emrys learned a new spell. Next week the militia is raiding the brigands. The party paid their rent to Skinny Dick and set off for Stonehell. The valley was quiet. The group decided it was finally time to deal with those unholy raccoons squatting in the halls to the north. They cleared out a few rabid raccoons, managing to get the drop on them and avoid any bites. Dragging them outside to be burned, Ethex spotted some movement in the woods. 5 brigands, arranging themselves for an ambush. They retreated inside informed the party, and discussion ensued. There was a lot of talk here about what to do with the ambush. Most of the session actually. Sometimes I worry about giving away too much information, since there's no "perception" skill ...

Physics Skirting Da Dragon Chemistry 24th of Melt Beautiful spring weather Gringle Farmboy Ethex the Rogue Emrys the Mage The Hellseekers bought a lot of rope, and left for Stonehell. They wanted to check out the glass orb at the bottom of the waterfall in the valley. Ethex borrowed some waterbreathing herbs from Soot and gave them to Gringle. He ate them, tied the ropes to his waist, and dove into the clear pool. Sinking down, he felt the current pulling him towards the glass orb embedded in stone, but when touching it nothing happened. He used a the Feather Wand from Emrys to make the orb as light as a feather, and with a successful strength save levered it out of the stone with his newly purchased sword. It began floating to the top of the pool, creating a small whirlpool. The party did some tests, and removed it from the water. They successfully guessed that it was creating an "infinite flow" situation, just as the waterfall started to dwindle. Deciding that it was a litt...