Observations of the Fox

Revising Darkhive for the "SNAFU SRD and Cookbook" has been like putting on a comfortable old pair of sneakers, or a favourite old band t-shirt. I know how it works, it's familiar, and it's nice to see some progress on a project that was basically abandoned a decade ago.  It's interesting to see how some of my game design ideas have changed in that time, and how they've stayed fairly consistent. Now the thing is trying to fill in gaps, and convert a world into a game. That's where the art comes in. Anyone can make a world, then say "Compatible with 5e", or whatevere the current incarnation of D&D is... a plethora of mediocre gaming products do that. They might even throw in a bunch of new weapons and equipment, a couple of new monsters, a new race or a new character class so that they can use this as a selling point. It's a whole lot rarer to see a game adapted in such a way to tell different types of stories rather than dungeon bashes, q...

For the back of the SNAFU SRD and Cookbook, I'm remixing the ideas in Darkhive. I'm sure I mentioned this, but then again, I think that I've mentioned a lot of things overthe yerars and when I try to find them they just aren't there. I'm getting an old collaborator to throw together some images based on what I had written for Darkhive (or have a look at the second set of worldbuilding tutorials here ) all those years ago.  Lots of pictures of Giger-esque backgrounds and ladies straddling the line between dream and nightmare.   I'm trying to make sure there is at least one picture for each of the signature cultures and bloodlines of the setting. However, since most of our characters are hybrids, then these are generally idea prompts.    Then there's to bit where we make sure a few of the monsters and strange creatures of the setting are adequately depicted.   I was hoping for something a bit dreamy and ethereal, but verging of nightmarish and dark, and I thi...

I had three projects I wanted to complete during this month's NaGaDeMon. NOIR is done, but what were the other two...??? Option 1. Cleaning up the print versions of The Law (both Lulu and DrivethruRPG/RPGNow versions). That should really be my priority... Option 2. Revisiting Voidstone Chronicles . That one is far messier, but I've got an idea. A fragment of sheer awesomeness that could be plugged into the existing systems to produce something that's pretty close to one of my eternal white whales. Of course here's where a nagging thought wanders through the back of my mind... ...when you get really enthusiastic about a system design that you've come up with, it can be really tempting to put it everywhere. When I first developed the engine that runs FUBAR , I really wanted the to be the core system that all my games would run from. But before long I noticed the bits where it needs to stretch, and the areas where it started cracking because it re...

If you're connected to me on any form of social media, you'll know that I'm working on a series of fantasy landscape images. I'm up to about 25 or so at this stage, and they'll be made available soon. For the moment though, a break in the monotony with some other inspirations. Perhaps the kinds of characters who might be found in those landscapes, or maybe the denizens of the Darkhive setting that I described last year.

I think we've finished our Darkhive journey for the moment. It's a pretty rich world with complex dynamics between the different cultures that comprise it. There are an assortment of mysterious and dangerous villains to add a sense of menace. There are dozens of story hooks to lure players into possible adventures. It's got a few points of difference to everything else on the market at the moment. That's most of my checkboxes ticked. It hasn't been one of the more popular series of posts on the blog, but it's been something I've needed to get out. For those who've stuck around, thankyou. Now it's just a case of taking all of those assorted notes, and compiling them into a coherent book form. But for the moment, I'll take a break from the hive because I really need to get my System 4 game structure working, and I need to get stuck into a few other projects that have been lingering around.

In our world, Halloween or All Hallow's Eve, is the day before All Saint's Day. A time when the dead walk the earth for one last night before they are called for judgement before all the saints and the Almighty. (I'm sure there are other versions of this story,and that's not even counting the pagan rituals upon which the whole holiday was based). It only seems fair to end this series of #Drawlloween / #Inktober images in the same way. Not everything about the Darkhive is sinister or dangerous. Hidden in the shadows are fragments of hope, flickering in the tendrils of every flame are the energies to survive and the ability to dispel the darkness to allow another day of survival. It's hardly surprising that fire cults are common across the Darkhive, and eternal flames are common signs of civilisation at the centre of many settlements. Many settlements claim to have a patron saint residing in their eternal flames, such saints may actually be ghosts, mystics who ...

Legends of the Riven state that their people first came to the Darkhive following visions of a dangerous dragon at the end of the universe, a savage monster that would consume reality itself if it ever became unleashed. They came to vanquish the creature in a glorious battle that would be echoed throughout time and space in myth and legend. But when they arrived, the dragon was nowhere to be found. --- Archives of the Khar-Tui indicate that they arrived at the Darkive hoping to uncover the secrets of a mysterious serpentine entity that had laid waste to a dozen great civilisations across the planes. Their plans were to discover the true nature of the creature, and to find out if there were a specific reason why those civilisations had been utterly obliterated. Astral navigators of the Khar-Tui traced the serpent to a specific quiet sector on the edge of the known planes, a dozen ships were sent to investigate the creature, but when they arrived they found nothing but the hive. ...

Spiders are everywhere in the Darkhive, and they come in hundreds of varieties. Many spiders are venomous (they're dangerous when they bite you), the vast majority are toxic (they're dangerous if you bite them), but in many cases the inhabitants of the hive have learnt to use the various breeds of spider for various purposes. Non-toxic spiders are often used as a protein supplement in meals, some varieties of spiders are used to manufacture silk, others are milked of their venom for application on weapons, some of the larger spiders are even trained as hunting beasts.       

There may not be crows in the Darkhive, but new arrivals will recognise the presence of stuffed fabric humanoids around the outskirts of many settlements. Though the name means nothing here, the term "scarecrow" is still used to describe these figures. Scarecrows are sometimes mounted in the fungal farmlands surrounding smaller settlements to artificially inflate the numbers of people that might be perceived by mutants, shellbrood or other predators. But in many cases, stationary scarecrows aren't enough. Some innovative and mechanically inclined farmers connect the scarecrows to systems of ropes and pulleys to make the scarecrows move and seem more lifelike. Other scarecrows are somewhat more sinister, they are not stuffed with ferns and fungus, but are actually filled with a living being in a semi-stasis. These scarecrows are criminals, mutants and heretics, sentenced to years or even decades tied to metal frames on the outskirts of military compounds and strategi...

There weren't always cats in the Darkhive, but in the past two centuries of their recorded existence they seem to have become a natural fit to the realm. Unlike many things in the Darkhive, the origin of the cats can be easily pinpointed. An obscure feline race crashed into the outer shell of the hive with their damaged generational ship. Vast numbers of the ship's inhabitants died in the crash, with perhaps a few hundred managing to get into the relative security of the hive. These survivors brought with them an assortment of plants and animals native to their world, hoping to establish a colony or survivors. The colony survived the first few years in general isolation, and even started to make a few trade contacts with some neighbouring settlements. But the survivors didn't understand that the Hiveguard were simply advancing on their territory to clean up the devastation caused by their damaged ship crashing into the hive. They fought off advancing waves of Hiveguard,...

If the term "witch" is defined in the faerie tale sense as a woman with supernatural powers, then pretty much every woman in the Darkhive fits this description... they are all capable of healing woulds at an exponentially greater rate than people elsewhere, they all have to potential to tap into deeper powers if they choose to open themselves to the unknown. If the term "witch" is more narrowly defined as a person who deliberately studies the loopholes in reality to invoke effects that would not normally be under the control of mere mortals, then there would be far less individuals fitting that description, but still a sizable percentage (maybe 30% of the population, male and female, actively study ways to gain the power necessary to survive and possibly gain an edge over the people around them). If the term "witch" is defined in the Catholic Inqusition sense as an individual (typically female) who makes some kind of pact with the infernal to gain po...

Rats, rodents and other small scavengers from a dozen different worlds are common throughout the Darkhive. Such creatures were recorded aboard the first Riven and Khar-Tui ships to collide with the huge structure, and similar creatures found they way onto the hive through the dimensional portals that sporadically open to the hidden parts of lost planetary empires, and via numerous crashed ships that lie in waste across the hive's outer surface. Unlike apex predators, scavenging rats and rodents find plenty to eat among the insects, the waste of various settlements and the carrion of battle. Such creatures are treated here with much the same disgust and disdain that most civilised cultures treat them, as eaters of carrion they spread disease from one part of the hive to another, but they also serve the vital purpose of breaking down rotting meat into more easily accessibly nutrients for the plant life and fungal growths throughout the hive. They are a valuable part of the ecosy...

Mummies exist in the Darkhive as a peculiar side effect of certain regal Panaho funeral rites. Occasionally when one of the leaders of the Panaho becomes too intrinsically connected to the fungal symbioties in their systems, their whole body starts to slow down. They become one with the fungus and literally seize up as the fungal life threads its way through their veins and muscle tissue. Such regal elders either go insane as they find it harder to remain mobile, or they spend longer periods in meditation to develop otherwise unknown heights of psychic awareness. Those who go insane are often set slowly wandering the depths of the hive where they might confront mutants and monstrous creatures in one last civic duty for their people. Those who develop psychic powers are carefully bandaged to avoid injury as their mind wander the astral realm. Ghosts have often claimed to encounter the astral forms of these mummies, but they fear these powerful beings. The little news about the ...

Levi Kornelsen   originally shared : Light and Witchy Ars Magica 3 So, having looked at a lot of bits, I think I have the shape of the magic I want, now.  it goes like this. 1. You decide on what you want to do!   You'll describe it, and get a combination of a verb, a noun, and a form.  You'll have a rating from 1-4 in each (dots, probably). The Verbs Are:  Banishing, Conjuring, Divining, Dominating, Invoking, Warding. The Nouns Are:  Beast, Blood, Dream, Earth, Fire, Hex, Name, Plant, Shade, Water, Wind. The Forms Are:  Poppet, Brew, Rite, Taglock, Circle, Tool. 2. The Guide tells you about materials:  Poppets need to be sewn or sculpted, Brews need to be brewed, Rites need participants and a formula, Taglocks need a sample of the noun or target, Circles need a circle of a material that suits, Tools need a tool custom-made for the job.  You put that stuff together. 3. The Guide presents some dangers:  Dange...