modernenaree

The brigands here are a band of Nehushtanites; Chaotic worshippers of the Brazen Serpent. 160 of them lair here. 64 light foot, 40 short bows, 40 light cavalry, 36 medium cavalry. Their people lived here before the Churonians came, descended from ancient explorers from shattered lands. They are led by Avd-Ophiziar, 9th level Fighting-man. He wields a *warhammer +2* , and wears *heavy armour +1* , both made of enchanted bronze. His weapon is a sign of his duty as leader of his people. Three 5th-level Fighting-men act as Avd-Ophiziar's lieutenants. One has a *shield +1* , covered in her dead gods. Another has a wave-bladed *sword +1* . All three wear chain under surcoats depicting the Serpent. The "lair" is comprised of various shacks, houses, a hall. A simple town.

Lord Howerdon, an elderly knight (8th level Fighting-man) dwells here. His family are traditional guardians of the Lawful blade ☼Trollsbane☼ ( ☼greatsword +1, Flaming, +2 vs. Trolls, +3 vs. Undead☼ ). It was made by a dwarven blacksmith long ago and carries in it the fire of a dragon.  The castle, named for the Lord's family, is of a simple design made from rough grey stone, and manned by warriors just as grim as the weather on the promontory. 7 champions, 61 crossbowmen, 61 heavy footsoldiers. Of the champions, 2 are Howerdon's sons,  Dæglaf the Bastard and Leodmar. Leodmar, the older of the two, carries a *shield +1* bearing the family crest; a Churonian galley upon stormy seas. A priest of the Church of G-d, Marion, 5th level Cleric, also resides in the castle as a chaplain. She was sent all the way from the Godsblood Kingdom, and doesn't much want to be out here. Below Caer Howerdon lie 2 levels of cliffside caves, accessible either by abseiling down the cliffs or f...

Art is The Hospital, from Miseries and Misfortunes of War, Jacques Callot, 1633. Expect to see this whenever I get round to publishing my damn disease rules... might keep them for the sandbox portion of Simplicius.

  Art is Scene from the Thirty Years' War, Pieter Meulener. Between 1567 and 1633, the Spanish Road saw more than 100,000 soldiers march along her 620 mile length. Sending troops to the Spanish Netherlands proved a logistical challenge for her overlords, who were eager to put down the long and bloody revolt against their rule. While the most obvious route would be through the English Channel, Spain was hostile to France, England, and of course the Netherlands, three strong naval powers in the region. Instead, the Habsburgs opted for a land-based route. They would ship soldiers from Barcelona to Genoa, up through Milan where they could meet with soldiers from Spain's Italian holdings. They would then head north to their Burgundian lands, via Savoy or the Valtelline, and finally onto the Spanish Netherlands. The average journey along this route took 48 days, marching around 13 miles a day; a far cry from a contemporary sailing ship's average of 120 miles per day. The fastest...

Art is The Siege (Defence of a Church Courtyard during the Thirty Years War), Karl Friedrich Lessing, 1848. Simplicius is my current project of focus, a Cairn hack designed to run games narrowly in the Thirty Years War, and more broadly elsewhere in the turmoil that overtook Europe in the 17th century. The end goal of the project is a detailed exploration game set across a hexmap of the Holy Roman Empire sometime between 1618-1648, focused on overland travel and the horrors of the conflict that consumed Europe. The current conceptualisation of the system is as follows; 4 stats (STR, DEX, WIL, INT), determined with 3d6 down-the-line. Two may be swapped. Starting equipment packages determined as Into the Odd (although obviously tailored to the historic setting). d6 Hit Protection as Cairn . Slot based encumbrance as Cairn (but without slot typing). Every 5 slots filled reduces your speed by 10 feet. Combat as Cairn . Armour as Cairn . Following types; Buff coat/padded doublet (+1) Cui...

Hi! The past 6 months have been very messy ones (HRT + mental illness will do that), but I figured I should probably use this place as a nice repository for my OSR projects! Currently I'm working on 3 RPG things at random depending on how my brain feels; Simplicius, a Cairn hack designed to run games narrowly in the Thirty Years War and more broadly in the 17th century turmoil that overtook Europe. Adventures in Mediæval Europe Equivalents, an OD&D clone/hack designed to run my preferred milieu of "Early Middle Ages Arthurian Dark Fantasy". New Jerusalem, a sci-fi setting I've worked on for a while that I currently am running using Stars Without Number , but which I may in future use Traveller to play. This blog will have posts about all three, (and more!) depending on what I'm working on at the time I decide to update it. Currently that's Simplicius, so I'll make a post about it later.