Kult of Kort'thalis

 

The time to evolve is now, brothers and sisters!

The Kult of Kort'thalis is not just a TTRPG community on X, it's also advice, training, and support group for gamers of all stripes to improve their roleplaying experience.

Here's a link to the Kult of Kort'thalis community on X.

Join the Kult of Kort'thalis and see what's going on.  Tell us what you'd like to get better at, what pisses you off, and what play-style soothes your savage beast.  The Kult listens to you, the Kult understands you, the Kult will grow in power and influence until the entire TTRPG hobby bends to our will.

But until that day inevitably comes, just kick back and check our shit out.  Whatever you're looking for can be found with switching systems, editions, altering aesthetics, metagame mindsets, or the addition of just the right game mechanic.  We have veteran game designers ready to help you help yourself.  

The unexamined life is not worth gaming!  Along with our Challenge of the Week, your fellow Kultists will challenge you to consider how you game and why you do the things you do - is it merely habit or some kind of subconscious block?  If you can change for the better, why not change?  Assuming, that is, you want to change.  Why wouldn't you want to change, hoss?  Huh, why?  Is there something deeply and abidingly wrong with you?  Why?  Why?  Why?

This is also where I'll be announcing weekly one-shots on Roll20 set in the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic world of Cha'alt.  Sign-up to play at my virtual table, one of the best Game Masters in existence (yeah, I think I've earned that title).  And who knows... maybe eventually cyber-scratch-n-sniff stickers or something?

The Kult of Kort'thalis is the future; your future... join us!

Enjoy,

Venger As'Nas Satanis
High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing 

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  

Venger Satanis Questions Jeff Rients

 

Jeff Rients (here's Jeff's blog) was kind enough to let me Q&A him last month...

Thanks for indulging me, hoss.

Thanks for the invitation to bloviate. Hopefully you will enjoy the results.

How much do you rely on players picking up what you're laying down, running with the vibe, and just engaging with the world or campaign setting in order for things to go well at the table? 

What I’m laying down is usually some smelly old dungeon from the early Judges Guild or something like that. I try to remain completely open to the possibility that the players will say “fuck it” and go off and do something else. That happened last time I tried to run Tegel Manor. The players decided that wasn’t enough treasure in the world to justify fighting a mansion full of undead. They left and sought adventure elsewhere. So I try to maintain just coherent enough of a campaign world to always provide the party with some actionable alternatives. Sometimes they’ll just point blank ask a question like “Who has a castle we can kill and take over?” and I just improvise.

Do you have a default campaign setting or fantasy would where you normally set adventures?

Not for many years. I used both Greyhawk and the Known World / Mystara in the 80s and 90s. In the 00s, I ran a 3e campaign in Greyhawk that ended with the equivalent of Ragnarok. My last three successful campaigns were set in fantasy England, circa 1,140 A.D., a cosmic crossroads pocket dimension, and the stupidest fucking campaign setting I could come up with.

What house-rule do you find yourself using more and more these days? 

I have several house rules that have been stable for many years now. Natural 1’s and 20’s on the to-hit roll send you to fumble and crit charts. Monsters are worth 100xp per hit die (the OD&D rule, I can’t be bothered to look at a chart). 1d6 group initiative, ties go to the PCs. You can level up in the middle of play. Carousing. But my newest funtime is the adoption of a varient of Raggi’s alternate MU rules. From Vaginas are Magic!:

• THERE ARE NO SPELL LEVELS
• All spells are considered equally difficult, and the level of the spell’s power is determined by the caster’s level. 
• BEGINNING SPELLS
• Magic-Users begin with three randomly determined spells from the entire spell list of the campaign.

When an elf or MU levels up in my campaign, they roll on my custom spell list. This list is an ongoing effort of mine to include every wizard spell from every fantasy RPG product I can lay my hands on. It currently has 6,187 spells listed. Some of these spells are absolute campaign wreckers and some of them are useless crap. Most are somewhere in between. Nobody has any idea what kind of weird power their arcane caster will get next, including me. I love it.

I’ve heard of a d1,000… but how do you randomly determine spells from a list of 6,187?  The only thing I can think of is asking someone to pick a number between 1 and 6,187.

There are several ways to do it. If you truncate the list to just 6,000 its a snap with three d10s for the last three digits and d8-1 for the thousands columns (reroll if 8 comes up on the die). Or roll d7-1 if you are the kind of maniac who keeps a d7 handy.

You can also get the whole range with a series of d10 and percentile rolls. There are 62 groups of 100 available (rounding the last 87 up). Roll d100 until you get any result below 63. Now roll d100 again. So if you 51 on the first roll and 06 on the second, you end up with 5,106. If you happen to roll 62 on the first roll, just reroll any result above 87 that comes up on the second roll.

The easiest way to do it is electronically. In a Google Spreadsheet you can roll nearly any size die with the RANDBETWEEN function. IIRC Excel has an equivalent. If you have a lot of weird nonstandard die throws in your game setting up a custom die thrower in a spreadsheet can be very helpful.

Finally, what I actually do is use rolladie.net. You can specify a arbitrary number of die sides there. Though one time I held down the 9 key for several seconds then hit ‘roll’ and ended up crashing the page.

Is the OSR still vibrant, does it continue to serve a purpose, does it even exist anymore, and has anything credibly replaced it? 

I’m not sure. I don’t follow the scene much anymore. But there’s always been two important components to the OSR. On one hand is the commercial aspect. As long as Chris Gonnerman is putting out Basic Fantasy and Goodman Games is supporting DCC rpg and James Edward Raggi IV is making Lamentations of the Flame Princess stuff, that end of the operation is secure. And I’ve seen some younger folks doing stuff on itch.io that seem in line with that sort of thing.

But the more important part of the OSR is a central ethos. And that ethos is simply this: we don’t have to follow where the publishers lead, whether that’s TSR or WotC or even folks like Raggi and Goodman and Gonnerman. We will explore options that are no longer supported. We will run games that don’t align with corporate interests. We will follow the roads not taken. As long as that is happening at game tables, the OSR will never be dead even if it no longer the flavor of the month.

 

What are you currently running and/or playing at the moment? And how's that going?

The name of my current campaign is Dillhonker City. It is on a short hiatus at the moment as my work schedule is temporarily disrupting things. The rules are nominally Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but with enough house rules and DM whimsy to make that designation almost a fib.  I have found the game to be immensely entertaining, thanks primarily to the wonderful players. But we’re reaching PC levels (7th level elves, ninth or tenth level humans) that are harder to maintain challenges in a gonzo-style game. I think we might be approaching the end of this thing, but I’ve been wondering that for several months now and the game goes on.

 

What's something cool one of your players has made for your game recently? 

“Making stuff for the game” is a level of commitment I never, ever expect from players. If they show up and play hard for a couple of hours, I’m a happy clam. They could have literally no thoughts about the game between sessions and still be welcome at the table. That being said, I did enjoy recently that Zak posted his character sheet for all the world to see. He also occasionally posts reports specifically on James Raggi’s misbehavior in the game. This is going back over a year now, but Becami posted on her blog an illo of her PC Boomba the Dwarf (RIP) and her collected notes for the campaign. I think she keeps better track of the campaign than I do. And then there’s the secret session report at the end of one of James’s videos…

 

What's something you've been meaning to make or add to the game, but you just haven't gotten around to it yet? 

New critical hit and fumble charts. I’ve used Dave Hargrave’s Arduin crit hit chart for years, but it has its flaws. And Hargrave’s fumble chart has always been a little weird to me. You can roll a fumble and then still hit the foe for partial damage. What kind of fumble is that? I’d really like something egregiously large and complicated like you get out of Rolemaster or HackMaster, but tuned particularly for my kind of game.

 

Between two choices, the first awesome / hilarious but could potentially "kill" the entire game, or the second, sensible and steadfast... which do you choose? 

Choosing the sensible option is for real life. Go stupid or go home. In my current campaign one PC has a crown that allows them to summon a giant worm/snake that burrows between realities and another has the Ultimate Nullifier straight out of Marvel comics. I’m genuinely surprised they have yet to try to pick a fight with God.

 

How obsessive have you ever gotten about GMing, campaign world creation, or lore authorship?

The thing I have gotten more obsessive about in recent years is leveraging the fact that I play via Zoom. I’ve got the internet right there in front of me, so I’ve tried to incorporate that into play. The players decide to go find the Lost Dwarven City? I google up a map of Moria. Players interrogate a monster as to the nearest big treasure, I search my file of the dungeon for “gems”. That sort of thing. I don’t go for commercial online aids like Roll20, but running an online game exactly the way you play face-to-face strikes me as a missed opportunity.

 

What's one GMing, campaign creation, or lore blind spot you suffer from, where the details may as well be either handwaved or copy/pasted from A.I. because it's just your Achilles' heel? 

The Gygax phrase that haunts me is “YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT.”  I have been very bad at tracking torches running out, the changes of seasons, the shifting phases of the moon, etc.

I take Gygax' strict time records as a call to set down campaign events somewhere before they vanish from one's mind.  I'm sure Gygax had fun monitoring game-time, day to day and week to week.  Sounds exhausting, though.

Exhausting, yes, but I quite like the range of situations that can only be produced by attending carefully to a timeline.

 

What's a piece of advice you wish you could give your teenage self about gaming? 

1.   Buy fewer game products. Write more stuff yourself, even though it is bad. In my youth I squandered a fair amount of money on games I never played or only played once.

2.   Skip Star Frontiers, go for Traveller.  I still like Star Frontiers, but there was no Star Frontiers scene where I grew up. Meanwhile, I lived about a 35 minute drive from GDW’s headquarters. A giant missed opportunity.

 

Are you writing anything now; any new product on the horizon?

I just finished my birth tables for the 2005 version of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. That was a bit of an undertaking. I ended up building a 1200 line spreadsheet with all the demographic data from the manuals in the boxed set. Since then, I’ve been working on a set of answers to my 20 Quick Questions for each of the 18 regions of the Wilderlands. The idea being that you could roll up a PC from anywhere in the Wilderlands and get a custom handout of what they know about the campaign world.

Also, I have been working on a stocked hexmap. Zak drew the map a while back and I have been slowly stocking all the hexes. I’d like to publish it in a future issue of Fight On! but it may be a tad too long for that venue when it is done. It’s basically an island designed for shipwreck-type situations; the PCs wash up on the shore and the adventure begins.

"It would be a terrible tragedy for the universe if it suddenly turned out that I was colorblind" - CHA'ALT Campaign 3.13

 

Coming off the heels of VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse (if you haven't seen the blog post), I was on the road to recovery... having gotten sick the last day of the convention and making steady progress every day since.

I found out the morning of our Cha'alt campaign that we'd be down another player (the one who played in that half-session with my son a couple weeks back) due to food poisoning.  With only 3 players showing up - none of whom had every played it - I decided to run Hunted In Tenzarith - modified here and there.  I felt like an isolated "bottle episode" of a session would be ideal, given the circumstances.

The biggest modification was the PCs being chosen for a mission by The Guardian.  An extra-dimensional being, he set the adventurers in a drow prison near the Caves of Carnage as they were to find a crystal that was part of a gleaming, transparent cube hidden somewhere in that cave-system.

Each player got to determine what color / dimension in the skinematic Vengerverse their character du jour originated from.  So, we had purple-Bandersnatch, purple-Tinker, and I suppose purple-Black Francis (since this was only his second session and his first appearance was in purple-Cha'alt).

Soon enough, the PCs broke out, released an infernal beholder (who kindly disintegrated their slave collars in exchange for his freedom), and found their stuff - plus, a bit more.  The Zeeku narrative game mechanics were in full effect as purple-Bandersnatch rolled a 1 on his d20 and a 1 on his accompanied d6.  The first thing he found was a black skull that radiated magic.  The skull, Wilzon, talked to him psychically, telling the blue-suede elf sorcerer that he didn't need any of that other junk (stuff like his blaster, magical weapons, etc.)  "Just take the origami unicorn... that's enough.  I'm all you'll ever need."

Following a failed saving throw, the black skull had successfully possessed Bandersnatch.  Luckily, the sorcerer summoned his faithful familiar, Tiny Danzig.  After talking with Wilzon, Tiny Danzig realized the black skull would be detrimental to his master, and threw the skull on the ground, smashing it into several pieces.  

The spell broken, the sorcerer gathered up all his belongings, and they hauled ass out of there - oh but not before searching the descending stone staircase to find a half-woman (with rockin' tits) and half-spider statue holding aloft a glowing purple orb.  There were a bunch of giant spiders down there, too, so once they got the orb, they finally left the dungeon.

The streets of Tenzarith were filled with backstabbing and betrayal, as you'd imagine.  I used the priestess of Lolth massage parlor encounter which I've employed a half-dozen times, now.  Usually, with slight variations.  This time, no one was murdered, only a precious necklace was stolen as Black Francis was invisible and snuck in to steal it.

Meanwhile, the priestess used a form of sexual healing to bring the magic-spent sorcerer back up to full (or near enough) HP.  Once the thievery was over and Black Francis was paid with a storm opal, the dark elf female fled into the night.  There was an amusing discussion started by Black Francis, dismayed that a "7" was running away.  I assured everyone that this being my world, on Cha'alt, 7s, 8s, and 9s, were rather commonplace.  "You'd be hard-pressed to find a 4 in this campaign, hoss."

Continuing on, the PCs not wasting time assisting their fellow prisoners escape re-capture at the hands of drow guards, they passed the food truck "Chicken of the Poisoned Blade."  The in-joke started with another group last weekend continued - "Wait?  Is the chicken poisoned?  How many customers are fine with eating at a place with poison right there in the name?"  A lot, apparently, as there was a line 6 or 7 deep.

Tinker got a dish of mango-pineapple BBQ "chicken," and it was as sweet, spicy, and tasty as you could get.  Incidentally, I did a write-up of the games I'll be running at Gary Con next year (in March), and it includes a session where the food truck has expanded into a mid-tier, chain-style restaurant and the PCs work there.  Kind of Office Space meets Waiting... in Cha'alt.  

Ok, the PCs made it into the Caves of Carnage.  After sifting through trash and chatting with a vagrant searching the mounds of garbage, the adventurers were waylaid by bandits.  Black Francis' player was rolling poorly, which I attributed to the drow poison coursing through his veins.  To aid him, I reminded the table about the Cha'alt X-Cards.  Stimulate one of those and you get a point of Divine Favor.  

The Pop-Culture card was stimulated, and Hulk Hogan came out from the back of the cave to put one of the dark elf bandits in a choke-hold, giving the PCs the upper hand.

They tried to make a deal with some fellow prisoners in a cave attempting to loot a few crystals, asking them if they'd seen a cube-shaped crystal or something that would be part of that.  No luck, so they continued on.  

Although, now that I recall those events, the PCs threatened the escaped prisoners to walk ahead of them (like sheep through a minefield) or die.  So, I suppose they now have an entourage of three to take the front position. 

Sexy dark elf women tried to lure the PCs into their cave of slut cannibalism, but the PCs resisted.  Bandersnatch didn't have to roll since he'd received a BJ from the priestess of Lolth but an hour ago.

And that's where we ended things.  Since it had been so long since we'd gotten together (chatting at the beginning), and stopped a bit early, that's as far as we got.  

I've got more Guardian intrigue in store for everyone when we reconvene.  Not sure if we're playing next week or the week after.  The wife is away visiting her parents in Florida, so maybe it's best to game right away this Saturday?  Hmm...

Before I go, I painted something in the days between VENGER CON and running our Saturday Cha'alt campaign - it's the glyph of Kort'thalis, titled "Infernal Tentacles of Kort'thalis Drip Tribal Blood in many Hues... Orange in Particular."  

I was inspired by some nice comments (including Sandy Petersen and his wife) about the paintings I brought in for VENGER CON.  This painting now sits behind me in the computer room.  It turned out just as I had hoped.  

BTW, I do have something special coming Friday, August 1st...  (silly teaser video).  I don't know what kind of impact it'll have on the TTRPG world, but it's called Kult of Kort'thalis!

Thanks for reading.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Feel free to ask a question or post a comment below.

VS

p.s. p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  

Convention Report - VENGER CON IV

 

You know it's going to be a good time when God strikes your house's water well transducer with a lightning bolt, frying it two days before your convention. 

Call me a crazed cultist, but experience has taught me that when something awesomely momentous happens, it's usually preceded and / or followed by potential misfortune (in other words, you never roll all 20s).  As it happens, this fits with my latest DriveThruRPG release Zeeku.

Luckily, the day before the con, that got sorted out.  Had to spend a Divine Favor to take care of the issue, but that particular juice was well worth the squeeze.  A $700 bill is much preferable to $10k (if the entire system had been destroyed, requiring replacement).

Yes, VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse happened this past weekend.  So many, many things!  I felt like I was all places all at once, much like Yog-Sothoth.  I didn't take many photos, but the ones I did take were primo!  And I didn't even record any video.  Although, Lord Matteus recorded his podcast at the end of the first night, and I made a cameo.

Ultimately, it was successful.  Not perfect, but then what is?

Sandy Petersen was this year's Guest of Honor and he did not disappoint.  I started off (after the ceremonial gong, of course) by asking his origin story.  Between all three days, Sandy must have fielded hours of questions, but he was happy to chat with us about roleplaying games, ye olde times of publishing, the Cthulhu Mythos, and what he's been up to lately.  

All the Call of Cthulhu RPG books (with his name on it somewhere) acquired in the 1990s (and a few I lucked into acquiring through garage sales and such) were signed, along with my "demon skin" Cha'alt campaign bible notebook.

Attendance didn't hit above what we did last year, about 35.  I've got some new ideas for next year... yes, I'm already planning on VENGER CON V.  But an official announcement will have to wait a month or so.

I ran two sessions on both Friday and Saturday, but nothing on Sunday as I came down with some sort of cold and was barely hanging on by the convention's end.  So, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to run Alpha Blue for that final slot as I planned, but shit happens.  I'm still recovering, will probably be back to my old self by tomorrow.

Every session I ran was Cha'alt via the Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer ruleset.  Sometimes, the Cha'alt X-Cards played heavily (occasionally, a bit too heavily) in the proceedings.  Other times, they were barely touched.  

I got to debut my take on the complication / opportunity + enhancement game mechanic that I released on DriveThru over a week ago.  Zeeku is something that happened intentionally and by accident, consciously and via my subconscious.  While not every single instance was a knockout success, those little prompts proved to be, overall, fun and useful for my sessions.  

Get Zeeku, now!

The most notable examples were someone's face hitting the floor of a worm-flesh cavity and being covered in pink goo - and then covered in demon flesh and bone when one exploded a round or two later.  A couple PCs avoiding that invisible sorcerer's fireball when they were in a different area of the temple dungeon beneath Kra'adumek.  And a squeamish rogue not having to murder a dark-elf woman getting a massage because, as luck would have it, the masseur planned to assassinate her himself and plunged a dagger in her heart before the PC could raise his dagger. 

I was able to playtest what became Zeeku in a couple game sessions prior to VENGER CON IV.  It held up then and it holds up now.  

While I had originally wanted to find a superior alternative to whatever DaggerHeart thought it was doing, the cherry on top (my own unique twist on something that's been done before) is the idea that the universe is curved or cyclical.  If something bad happens, something good can come out of it - especially if that suffered is consciously experienced.  

While not for the faint of heart, Zeeku will give Game Masters that sharpness which could mean the difference between a memorable game and sessions you never think about twice.

It's hard to write enough text to cover all these great pictures!  Oh yeah, I could talk a little about the central adventure I devised.  Instead of multiple adventures, I decided to write one big, multi-part scenario with the possibility of mixing in older stuff.  

So, Escape From Tenzarith was modified into Hunted In Tenzarith with a lot more encounters written down + micro-scenario side-trips to places like Qada'ath and Chud-Letha'az.  However, we never got around to exploring those areas.  Next time!

Going back to the narrative game mechanics, those Zeeku moments and many, many more would not have happened if not for the 1s and 6s on those narrative d6s.  So, that was an absolute win and something that I'll continue to use in my Cha'alt home game.  

Oh yeah, I decided to use pre-gens in my VENGER CON sessions.  In years past, I've saved pre-gens for other conventions where disruption (noise and other distractions) might have made character generation difficult.  But I've come to realize that that little bit of extra thought I put into pre-made characters elevates them to a higher level.  

Let's face it, you sit down to play an unfamiliar game (or maybe one that you've only played once or twice) with a GM and fellow players that you don't know too well.  Perhaps the rule-set is also strange.  You're probably not at your most agile and inspirational, creativity-wise.  Take my advice, GMs.  Come up with pre-gens for your con games!

The amount of players also varied from session to session.  One table had 8 (it's a good thing I came up with 8 pre-gens), another 3, and the other two were somewhere in the middle.  I had one player from my home game (another planned on coming but he couldn't make it, sadly), a couple from the previous Gary Con, a lovely couple who looked like they wandered into VENGER CON by mistake.  An OSR gamer who I've known for years who brought his two buddies, a bunch of awesome VENGER CON regulars (irregulars?), and a few folks who I'd never met but were willing to give the Cha'alt experience a try.

• There were weird connections between stuff I created just for this convention and stuff that transpired randomly in The Black Pyramid, like Milton's stapler from Office Space.  
• Combining locations in unusual ways - gargantuan worms below subterranean dungeons and holes in cave walls that led to different cave systems of adventure.  
• I spontaneously asked for a random d8 vibe-check.  
• One Dead Game Society player and VengerCon alum, who played the 40-year-old virgin PC, clung to those dirty panties like his life depended on it - hilarious and Cha'alt-appropriate (which basically translates into wildly inappropriate for every other sort of game, aside from those based upon lounge lizards).
• Great throw-away lines were said, such as "The map is not the worm's anus."  A riff on the adage "The map is not the territory."
• I read the room and subverted expectations (in an actual good way - take note Disney Star Wars) that led to a fish-folk massacre when the PCs learned that these were reformed cultists who didn't believe in ritual sacrifice.  
• I heard and/or read post-game commentary such as "That is the most crazy weird fucked-up adventure I've ever experienced." And... "Venger's DM style is outrageously fun."
• Described a new (to me) weapon type, the "2 finger" lady knife - inspired by Deadpool's blind roommate's pearl grip handgun.
• 
  
• 
  
  
• The players got a nice running gag going with a pre-gen PC's name.  "Don't queef this one up."
• The Cha'alt-X Cards brought forth both White Goodman's Globo-Gym and the Kool-Aid Man (thank the Dark Gods not in the same session - that would have been too much, even for me).
• A player came up with an amusing porn / Lovecraft title for a book, movie, or whatever - "The Jerker at the Threshold."
• Players made me realize that all rooms in The Black Pyramid either look like Arizona or New Hampshire.
• A player chose his character's animal companion to be a night-clown pygmy that I think was also described as a juggalo goblin. 
• And who could forget (well, I almost did) the adventurers finally encountering Spongeba'ab Trapezoidal Pants and his entourage under the sea?  They went to Hell where they belonged, after Vandrake, son of Uthrak the Unconquered bested the little yellow freak.
• "What happens when a frog and a bat have a baby?  Evil mogwai or the Great Old One T'sathagg-Kha?

A few months ago, I bought a soft plushy fish.  I didn't know why, exactly, except that I would at some point slap a player in the face... for reasons.  I let the unknown sit in my unconscious like a naughty idea on a time-out.  

But then, when a player rolled an 11 on his d20 and a 1 on his d6, I realized that "111" meant something important.  I remarked upon it at the time, but it wasn't until the next day when it hit me.  I excused myself from the game I was playing in and walked over to the room across the hall with my fish to slap the player from last night who was, as of now, DMing his own game.  I asked the table to pardon my intrusion for 5 seconds as I needed to slap their DM in the face with my soft fish.  Thankfully, he was all about it, and demanded pictures be taken to memorialize the occasion.  

Henceforth, when someone rolls an 11 on their d20 roll and a 1 on their d6, it shall be known as "one-eleven."  That player shall be slapped in the face with a fish because the fish-slapping is also happening in the game to that player's character.  A portal opens (or maybe there's an NPC nearby), the PC is slapped with the fish, and then it's over. 

Well, not completely over.  I'd feel bad if there was no compensation for such a gratuitous display, so that player gets a polished fuchsia stone - Divine Favor!

Random stuff... 

• I'm so glad that Sandy brought his Hyperspace boardgame to the con.  He got a chance to demo that with an assortment of folks several times.  And since a handful of GMs scheduled to run games had to back out or left the con early due to unforeseen events, it was a nice activity to make up for the shortfall. 
• I never showed-off my tattoo!  One of the reasons I got it when I did was to have the thing for VENGER CON.  Well, I did have it, since it was tattooed to my forearm.  And it did come in handy, in a metaphysical way, being the Kort'thalis meta-sigil that leads to Cha'alt and has come to symbolize the skinematic Vengerverse.  But I never called it out or drew attention to it.  It just was.  That's fine, I suppose.
• I played in three sessions this convention.  Two were under GM Judd as he ran the Red Room's Wretched New Flesh and an indie RPG called Tripod, d6 dice pool where insects have colonized humanity in the far future.  The other session where I played was under GM Bill Allan.  He ran a tactical paramilitary RPG using d4 dice pools called Ruins and Remnants in the world of Cha'alt.  This is the promo video he made.  Fun games!
• Sandy Petersen's seminars on creating a horror scenario and campaign were great.  Just hearing the information from another perspective gives it that little bit of extra life. 
• I had purchased a bunch of unusual but cool looking dice from an online retailer prior to the convention.  Since I already have a million of them, I decided to sell each new dice set for $10 a pop.  There's no way I didn't lose money on that deal, but I always think it's fun to get new dice at conventions.  There was nearly a dozen, I think.  And only a couple sets remaining by the convention's end.
• I sold a bunch of softcovers and gave away lots of Cha'alt hardcovers.  Next year, I'll have a bit more stuff to offer attendees, in terms of homemade Cha'alt X-Cards and those dice display stands like the one I use for my set-of-seven. 

Several people at the con and afterwards told me they had an awesome time.  That's the main reason I do it.  

Next VENGER CON will be marketed in a completely different way, so expect to see some wild stuff in the months to come.

If you have any questions, please ask!  I'd be more than happy to provide whatever insight I can...

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  Want to join the Kort'thalis mailing list to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the skinematic Vengerverse?  This is it!! 

p.p.s.  RIP, Ozzy!  You were the Prince of Fucking Darkness!!! 

"Escape From Tenzarith" - CHA'ALT One-Shot

 

'Tis that time of year, hoss...

All of my players had to cancel before yesterday's game, except for one.  I asked that remaining player if he'd mind gaming alongside one of the twins who keeps asking when we can play Dungeons & Dragons again.

The plan was a 90-minute one-shot and then watch a movie, which we did.  My boy had fun, the two of us from our home group got to roleplay a little, and I was able to test the new Zeeku game mechanic in full (there's a whole second layer which I got to try for the first time yesterday).

Explaining that this adventure would take place in the puchsia (combination of puce and fuchsia) dimension or parallel universe, it could feature familiar characters who were also distinct from themselves due to existing elsewhere in the multiverse, metaverse, or skinematic Vengerverse (though, the adventure itself was PG-13).  

My son continued with his original character (by now, 3rd level) named Chicken Wizard or Chicken-Wing for short, a quick-silver elf and thief.  The player from our home-game I gave the choice of playing his usual character in the current Cha'alt campaign, a puchsia-hued Thurberus or completely new character (he opted for a demon sorcerer named Hasslebub), and I, as GM, roleplayed a dark-elf warrior named Zax.  Hasslebub and Zax were also 3rd level.

The scenario itself felt familiar yet fresh simultaneously.  In the underdark, the drow city of Tenzarith released their prisoners once a year to be hunted by the dark-elf elite into the Caves of Carnage.  The PCs were prisoners only a day away from The Hunt.  

The players got into it and adventure was had, even if only an hour and a half worth.  In the end, the party found its way to freedom, reaching the desert surface and fuchsia skies... or would those be puchsia skies, above?

The original part of Zeeku went swimmingly.  1s and 6s were flying every which way and I interpreted them to the best of my ability - the players threw-out a few helpful suggestions, as well.  

During our playtest, it became obvious that the secondary layer of game mechanic needed an overhaul.  So, that's what I intend to do over the next couple of days, tweak it here and there until it's in better shape for VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse.  That's when the real playtesting takes place.  After an entire weekend of running Cha'alt and Cha'alt-based sessions, I'll know if Zeeku is ready for prime-time.

There's a good chance it'll continue to evolve as it gets used and abused.  By the end of the convention, I expect to self-publish a little PDF booklet of Zeeku for gamers looking for alternate ways to improve their gaming experiences, potentially.  ;)

UPDATE: I thought I'd include a link to my latest vlog with tips on designing game mechanics here.

And since yesterday's truncated one-shot was my last GMing responsibility until the convention, I have the next two weeks to forge scenarios, random tables, and crazy encounters of weird-shit tinged with hitherto unimagined colorations.  Can't wait to get started!

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  Want to join the Kort'thalis mailing list to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the skinematic Vengerverse?  This is it!!  Last but not least, I'm organizing a based-as-fuck RPG convention in Madison, WI this July (Sandy Petersen will be joining us as VENGER CON's Guest of Honor).  Grab your weekend badge for VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse!!!

"From Bastards to A-Team" - CHA'ALT 3.12

 

Another exciting session - this time we tried out that narrative d6 mechanic, which I initially believed was an original concept, but soon realized it's been done many times before.  

But that's no reason not to use it.  After all, I didn't create the wheel, either.

We had a full-house today, and I almost had to break out the extra chair.  Unfortunately, the new player whose character is Black Francis the dark-elf thief had a prior obligation.  However, he plans to return in future adventures.  

So, it was H'ork, Bandersnatch, Thurberus, Tinker, and Botsterdomus.  I wouldn't know until after the session was over that this would be the Bots' last session.  His player has a job opportunity in Florida and he's moving away.

Even though I planned for a half and half session where the players spend a portion of the adventure in purple-Cha'alt and the rest on Cha'alt-prime, it seemed more satisfactory to continue the purple thread until certain deeds were done.  Let's see what those were...

The PCs dreamed before being woken up by Isithar just in time to be escorted to the Feast Hall where a banquet was being held in their honor...

You open a black door and enter what seems to be a temple made of solid gold - various statues decorate both sides of the processional access - these statues have been chiseled out of purple-jade.  Their likeness is monstrous and malevolent - Great Old Ones you've never seen nor heard of.  

As you walk through the temple towards a conflagration of golden flame, you notice mirrors just beyond the eldritch statues.  You see yourselves, but the reflected images do not correspond to your own movements, and the familiar but subtle purple hue is absent.

By the time you reach the golden flame, tentacles slowly wrap themselves around you like a boa-constrictor, casually hugging your body as the tentacles squeeze, getting tighter and tighter.  Just when you think the tentacles are about to squish you into oblivion, you hear a crack and then your bodies break apart like glass - shards of broken glass go everywhere.

On his way out, Isithar tossed Bandersnatch a dried bat scrotum as a good luck charm.

Bandersnatch, being an elf of the world, warned the rest of the party of drow treachery; they are a cunning and cruel race that will backstab you without a second thought.  With that wisdom imparted (and talk of just getting the fuck out of there or initiating wholesale slaughter), they exited their bungalow and greeted priestess Theeysa, an attractive dark-elf wearing magenta panther spandex and sporting an aqua-hued mohawk.  

Theeysa, accompanied by 5 clerics, gifted the adventurers with a gilded mauve banana symbolizing virility.  Onward they went into House Purpurea territory.  On the way, they saw a dark-elf attempting to cleanse himself of masculine toxicity and giving religious praise to literal pussies atop pedestals, and were told that this was a matriarchal society of female supremacy.  And the city of Chud-Letha'az, as a whole, worshiped Igna'aktolath, the demon god of Quorta'ath.  

About halfway to the Feast Hall, a horn sounded.  It was another female drow up on a ridge, blowing into a conch shell.  "Someone is trying to summon the mauve worms to destroy us.  Quickly, we must leave."  Botserdomus shot the shell-blower right between the eyes as the golden conch rolled down the ridge right between his legs.  He picked it up for later.

As a distraction, Tinker turned himself into a worm and entered negotiations with all 5 of them.  Eventually, he talked a few of the worms, who were both hungry and horny, into exploring better prey in the caverns above.  The last male and female mauve worms were charmed by Tinker's worm-seduction and the less said about that, the better.  

Just outside the Feast Hall, there was a stone marker with glyphs and a flaming eye within a triangle at the head.  Bandersnatch read it, but didn't translate for anyone.  It gave directions (a thousand feet to the north-east) to an access point that leads "somewhere else."

The PCs entered the Feast Hall and shortly after the entire city-cavern shook like a cha'altquake.  Apparently, the Kha'alestinians above believe Chud-Letha'az is their holy land, and bombard the surface, hoping to one day blast a hole into it and pour their invading forces in with the intent of usurping the city.

To build an appetite, Queen Laurakah offered the PCs a bevy of female prostitutes to satisfy their urges before dinner, either in a private antechamber or in full view of the 25 - 30 drow of House Purpurea.  All but Tinker partook of the dark-elf girls, as he'd just had his fun minutes before.

The meal consisted of spider-milk cheese, BBQ spider legs, worm wine +, and purple scorpion meat.  Most of the party tried everything.  Although, H'ork in particular stayed away from the enhanced worm wine.  For some reason, drinking the sweet nectar from a sandworm's neck penis is preferable to it being filtrated through the bladder of a beautiful woman - go figure!

The Feast Hall included a massive statue of their Quorta'athian demon god, Igna'aktolath with two large pinkish-purple gemstone eyes.  Thurberus overheard a dark-elf say they were lavender garnets.  At one point, Tinker excused himself and was able to wedge a window slightly ajar so he could come back for the eye gems later.

Just as the banquet was coming to a close, Queen Laurakah told the adventurers what she wanted.  House Drentreatise were "warmongers" in her words.  They had ambitions of conquering neighboring lands, expanding their power and influence.  The geek squad and that ancient technology (the teleporter) was their ticket to glory.

The Queen wanted them to assassinate Isithar, and as they were being extracted from the commotion, the mauve worms would be called and House Purpurea would take control of the entire city.  Queen Laurakah infected the prostitutes the PCs had just lain with with a magical sexually transmitted disease.  the party would not survive (except for Tinker who didn't have sex with them) unless they got the antidote, which the Queen would give them once they killed Isithar with a ja'anus thorn.

Not liking the idea of being coerced, even after being offered lots and lots of gold for completion of their mission, the PCs soon departed with retribution on their mind.  Who's to say the Queen wouldn't simply have them murdered after doing the job?  Thurberus negotiated a couple of the once-infected prostitutes (they were given the antidote) to keep for their trouble, the PCs left and told Isithar everything.

Isithar advised they could get the antidote themselves - there was a gargantuan demon-spider who nested in a cave far to the south.  Milking that spider would heal them, and if enough milk could be acquired, it would certainly diminish the dominance of House Purpurea.

They went to the cave, Isithar went with them and gave them aid.  After Tinker was nearly burned to death from the demon-spider's fiery breathweapon, they hacked it enough where the thing couldn't fight back any longer.  They kept it alive and in House Drentreatise's care so the city could benefit from its curative spider-milk.

Now, ready to rock, the PCs attempted to search for that hidden access that might lead them out of Chud-Letha'az.  Meanwhile, Tinker flew up through that cracked window and tried to pry out those lavender garnet eyes.  The first popped out with ease.  The second was really wedged in there.  Being huge compared to the pixie-fairy's size, he was happy to escape with just the one eye (which they later placed in a safety deposit box in the purple labyrinth for safe keeping - etched by Bandersnatch with the glyph of the Crimson Bastards).

Returning to the others, the secret door was found.  It lead to a cave where one set of stone steps led up and the other down.  Going up, they walked for about 45 minutes until reaching the surface.  A half-mile away was their RV.  They grabbed a couple photon torpedos and went back down, setting the charge for the ancient technology, convincing the geek squad that they needed to get the Hell out of there and come with them to safety.  The PCs asked the Federation technicians if there was a way to remove the teleporter and take it with them.  Yes, the main console could be extracted.  However, there wouldn't be a power source.  That was fine, the PCs told them.  And so the geek squad started cutting wires.

Bandersnatch summoned a demon to carry the teleporter (which the PCs believed would be House Drentreatise's key to conquest) and escort the geek squad and prostitutes up to their RV.  Botsterdomus blew the golden conch shell, summoning the mauve worms [I rolled a 12 on the d12 - that's a lot of mauve worms].  As they made their way out of Chud-Letha'az, they sent the ancient technology that was left over straight to Hell.

Meanwhile, the PCs took that secondary path down to find another system of caves about 30 minutes further below Chud-Letha'az.  They encountered an isolated tribe ruled by the cult leader Zeeku.  Zeeku hated fun and enjoyment, believing it led to wickedness.  He enforced his laws with his codpiece of wonder.  The PCs warned these natives that having a good time wasn't immoral and Thurberus offered them a complimentary shake-weight.  

Upon Zeeku's entrance, where he summarily threw the PCs out of his domain, Thurberus challenged him and was blasted by the properly jeweled codpiece of wonder.  Now, Thurberus' player rolled a 1 on his saving throw, but his "opportunity / complication" d6 came up a 6.  So, I ruled it was a lethal blast that should have been a direct hit at point-blank range.  However, the native who Thurberus was nice to, jumped in the way, heroically sacrificing himself to save the v'smm priest of the benevolent shake-weight.

The native was disintegrated by the codpiece's blast, and the PCs left before Zeeku could get another shot off.  Before departing, they gifted the cult leader with a photon torpedo of his own.  

In determining the threat level of this "gift" from Zeeku's perspective, I rolled a d20 and d6 for the cult leader.  The d20 succeeded, but the d6 was a 1.  Zeeku was wary of the photon torpedo the PCs left behind, and so placed it in the center of his meditation chamber in order to reduce the object's psychic resonance - Zeeku believing it some kind of mind control device.

The PCs had set the detonation for about a half-hour, giving them plenty of time to reach Letha'az before it exploded.  They did hear a sound and felt a slight tremor like rocks falling and compacting far away.  Climbing up to the surface, they got in the RV and followed the trail of that Great Old One they released days ago.  

It eventually led them to a Kha'alestinian desert crawler vehicle outfitted with missile launchers (gear the Federation had abandoned years ago, during their first attempt at colonizing Cha'alt).  

Gary from the geek squad teleported the Purple Bastards right behind the pilot, killed him, and took command of the crawler, raising a purple flag to show it was theirs.  On their way out, they ran over a few of the spear-toting Kha'alestinians.  Taking the crawler and the RV up to the smashed city cates of Kha'alestine, they were greeted with more jiha'adist warriors who attacked the crawler.  

Tinker threw a scorpion on the face of a guy who clung to the side of their vehicle.  Botsterdomus threw back a thermal detonator that had been thrown through an open window into their cockpit, and many others were laser blasted by H'ork as the PCs rolled through the rubble and into the city to loot the place and eventually catch-up with Igg-Yig-Yatha'ak.

Just before the camera faded to black, the PCs got an anonymous call on their communicator.  It was the voice of Isithar, the sound of flames engulfing Chud-Letha'az in the background.  "I will have my revenge upon you, Purple Bastards!"

That's where we ended it.  Every player gets 3 points of Divine Favor as a reward for good roleplaying and destroying multiple civilizations in a single session.

All in all, I think there were a dozen or so instances where the narrative d6 came up either a 1 or 6.  From those events, that included Zeeku, Botsterdomus ending up with the golden conch shell - oh, and one of the rooftop crossbow shooters trying to stop the PCs from escaping Chud-Letha'az dropped when Bandersnatch shot him and a spider-scrotum coin purse fell out of his pocket after landing with a thud.

Would any of that have happened if we hadn't been rolling that extra d6, prompting moments of opportunity and complication?  Possibly, but most likely not.  In honor of the most significant uses of that little narrative beauty, I'm going to, from now on, officially call it the Zeeku die.

The only downside?  My taking the time to jot down notes based on the results, which, now that I know this game mechanic is a success for us (not every optional rule is right for every table, RPG, or campaign), I won't have to waste time with notations.

Feel free to comment your thoughts, hoss!  I welcome the feedback.

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  Want to join the Kort'thalis mailing list to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the skinematic Vengerverse?  This is it!!  Last but not least, I'm organizing a based-as-fuck RPG convention in Madison, WI this July (Sandy Petersen will be joining us as VENGER CON's Guest of Honor).  Grab your weekend badge for VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse!!!

Opportunities & Complications

 

As mentioned in my latest video, I'm trying out this new "narrative die" game mechanic in our upcoming session (Cha'alt 3.12).  

Well, it's new to me.  Apparently, this has been around for a long time and is used by several RPGs already.

Basically, you roll a d6 along with your d20.  If the d6 results in a 1, there's a complication.  If it's a 6, there's an opportunity.  And the d20 decides if you (crit) succeed or (crit) fail, as usual.

As the GM, I'll be rolling this narrative die, as well, for monsters, NPCs, and whatever else.

After this trial session, the opportunity / complication d6 - I need to come up with a catchy name for it; ironically, "narrative die" doesn't really tell any kind of a story - will become optional for whoever wants to continue the practice.  I'll probably award a bonus Divine Favor for those who keep up with it each session, to mitigate the potential downside the game mechanic yields.

In preparation, I thought it would be handy to come up with a few default suggestions for both opportunities and complications.  Obviously, these things are situational and depend on the condition, context, and present circumstances.  But in the moment, it's also nice to have a go-to narrative detail.

Opportunity

• Some sort of feat, mighty deed, or stunt is possible.
• An additional 6 points of damage during an attack.
• If the attack was unsuccessful, a mere 6 points of damage is done via glancing blow or skin-deep cut.
• You have a moment of clarity, and are able to see things for what they really are.
• You notice your opponent is standing under a precarious stalactite. 
• If already successful, the attack becomes a crit.
• You get an attack of opportunity.
• If a saving throw is required, it's rolled with Advantage for you or Disadvantage for your opponent.
• Advantage on your next action.
• A PC or NPC is able to provide support, help, or aid.
• A weakness, flaw, tell, or new understanding appears.
• "A plan comes together" - if the PCs have a plan in place, the necessary missing piece of the puzzle suddenly falls into place.
• A resource renews or becomes available for the first time.
• Massive hit knocks opponent unconscious.
• If it's a weaker opponent, the attack outright kills them.
• PC's ferocity makes one or more opponents run away.
• You make it look easy.
• Someone watching becomes enamored of you.
• Your grace, skill, or ridicule unsteadies an opponent, giving them Disadvantage.
• You happen to be at a ley-line crossroads that rejuvenate, heal, or strengthen magic.
• Opponent's weapon, device, instrument, or whatever breaks, runs out of ammo, juice, charges, etc.
• There's a substantial crystal within view.
• They planned to spring a trap, but you either saw right through it or it failed.
• The Gods smile on you once again... that Orion whore you laid with did not have space herpes.
• Your belt is slashed and your pants fall down - red heart underwear activated!

Complication

• Reinforcements enter the fray.
• An ally runs away.
• If a saving throw is required, it's rolled at a Disadvantage to you or Advantage to your opponent.
• Your fazed by the sheer strength of their attack and get Disadvantage on your next action.
• You drop something.
• You have an allergic reaction to something nearby.
• You suddenly realize this isn't your enemy's final form.
• The enemy gets an attack of opportunity on you.
• One of your companions pulls a "wild card" on your group.
• Ammo, energy, fuel, juice, magic, or mojo runs out.
• Your war-scream has lured a wandering monster into environment.
• Just before dealing the killing-blow, your opponent uses his "one time," get out of jail free card, ring of teleportation, cloak of invisibility, or Predator camouflage armor to slip away and fight another day.
• Your opponent is immune to that form of attack, or has learned how to counter it, or adapted in order to make such attacks ineffective.
• Your mind plays tricks, you have a moment of confusion, or you're just getting old.
• An environmental hazard like a Cha'alt-quake, volcanic eruption, cave-in, or poisonous gas happens.
• Your opponent somehow knows something about you, an important detail that could lead to your undoing.
• Your bad back, knee, hip, elbow, or fractured tibula is flaring up again.  You're gonna need to sit out for a few minutes.
• You happen to be your opponent's favored enemy - they get Advantage when attacking you.
• The thing you need to protect is (almost) destroyed.
• A random NPC appears through a portal and smacks you across the face with a fish.  You're dazed for one round.
• Your weapon, device, or whatever you're carrying vibrates, ricochets, recoils, spits, chirps, reverbs, glistens, pulses, explodes, echoes, thrums, or belches fire and it somehow negatively impacts you.
• Whoops, that blade is poisoned... make your save or nighty-night.
• A trap was laid for you, and now it has sprung. 
• That three-breasted hooker has a dead-eye pimp who walks around with a thermal detonator.

____________

So, yeah... those are just some things that occurred to me as I sat down to type this blog post out.  I tried to come up with both in-combat and out-of-combat ideas.

You can use Divine Favor or say the phrase "By His loathsome tentacles" once per session to reroll or bump your d6 narrative die, respectively.  Speaking of "By His loathsome tentacle," I'll allow players to shout "Cha'alt!" instead, if they'd rather say that in order to get a +1 on a die result.

If your a Daggerheart or Genesys RPG player and get some use out of this, remember to support small-time, independent content creators.

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  Want to join the Kort'thalis mailing list to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the skinematic Vengerverse?  This is it!!  Last but not least, I'm organizing a based-as-fuck RPG convention in Madison, WI this July (Sandy Petersen will be joining us as VENGER CON's Guest of Honor).  Grab your weekend badge for VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse!!!

Cult Classic Influence: Heathers

 

For a long while, I've been using this blog for either session reports or announcements... product releases, crowdfunding, conventions, culture war politics, etc.  Which means I've been slacking on the gaming content front.  

Well, I came up with something to boost my blogging output and heighten its appeal - while also giving me yet another reason (aside from introducing vintage media to my kids) to revisit such cult classics as Blade Runner, Zardoz, Flash Gordon, Revenge of the Nerds, and Highlander, to name but a few.  

As long as I'm enjoying all the foundational cult classics that have inspired me over the years (including Cha'alt and other products), why not dig deep, deriving (even more, in some cases) campaign setting bits and pieces to make the world come alive?  Not just lore that adds a hint of color, but something tangible, mechanical, or substantive that is directly inspired by what I just watched... something that makes a difference to the players, that the GM can use, not just describe.

My goal is to put out one of these each week (and some weeks I might blog a TV show write-up).  While that might not be realistic, I'm going to try and keep to that schedule.  I'll be on a family vacation next week, so that's already shot, but don't worry, I won't give up!  

Want to motivate me?  I love feedback - especially when folks tell me how they used it in-game.  Last night, I watched Heathers (again) with my oldest, and so without further ado...

Cult Classic Influence #1: Heathers

"The extreme always seems to make an impression."

Anytime the PCs come into contact with (hearing about, setting foot inside, staying there for a little while, and perhaps exiting) a matriarchal society - like the city-state of Ja'alette or Chud-Letha'az, the gilded mauve dark-elf city - or any culture where women are at least equal to or above men, the GM is obliged to come up with a feminine scheme.

Generally speaking, this feminine scheme comes directly from the "Queen Bee" herself, but possibly her subordinates... and on the rarest of occasions, the female drones rebel against her royal highness, either toppling her jeweled crown or their failed attempt merely incites deadly retaliation - "Off with their heads!"

Most importantly, the feminine scheme must show strength, be cruel in nature, and include an aspect of humiliation and/or degradation.  

For example, the Golden Goddess forces her least productive handmaids to fully inhale the magenta lotus which temporarily turns them into "free-use" sluts who will do anything with anyone, anywhere.  As the masculine slaves ravage them, the Golden Goddess and her Priestesses watch from their ivory balconies.  

Now that we have the what, how could this be incorporated into one's game?  I have some ideas...

Maybe the PCs hear a rumor of what will eventually go down, what's already taken place, or happening right now... are the PCs participating?  Perhaps they see the results for themselves or a feminine scheme fugitive runs away, falling into the arms of the reluctant adventurers?  What if the PCs get swept up in the scheme, or one of their friends?  What if it doesn't directly affect the PCs at all, but it goes to show (rather than tell) how messed up their society really is?  How does this alter their relationship with their neighboring city, settlement, or realm?  If everyone's distracted, will they take the opportunity to attack?  Steal that coveted artifact?  Will this stunning and brave display of feminized degeneracy make them less likely to interfere in female-dominated politics?  Going an alternative route, is it possible that bend-over-backwards kindness results in suicidal empathy, leading to the downfall of their civilization?

__________

Ok, if you enjoyed that, let me know.  I probably won't blog again until after I get back from vacation, so comment down below if you want to make a suggestion.  And thanks for tuning-in, hoss!

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  Want to join the Kort'thalis mailing list to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the skinematic Vengerverse?  This is it!!  Last but not least, I'm organizing a based-as-fuck RPG convention in Madison, WI this July (Sandy Petersen will be joining us as VENGER CON's Guest of Honor).  Grab your weekend badge for VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse!!!