Thursday, April 7, 2022

Cha'altification

 

I had an idea... demonstrate how to Cha'altify your basic D&D adventure premise.  

If you want to watch the video, there you go.

Here's what you do, take something simple like the PCs are hired to rescue a princess from the clutches of an evil sorcerer.

Then, you take aspects of that basic scenario and make it more eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, and post-apocalyptic [these are the macro elements of Cha'alt].  Boom, now it's Cha'altified!

  • Eldritch - the princess is cursed with second-sight because she was born when Alga'al, the "demon star" was in ascendance.  Since puberty (she's around 20 now), the princess has experienced visions of things she couldn't possibly know.
  • Gonzo - the sorcerer is half banana and the majority of his minions are banana-men.
  • Science-Fantasy - the sorcerer has made his lair in the remains of a recently crashed starship.
  • Post-Apocalypse - the sorcerer is using the captured princess to locate an A.I. bured somewhere in the desert wasteland of S'kbah.


If you want to go even further, totally optional, here are some more "tags" to further Cha'alt-up this adventure [micro elements]...

  • Comedic / Grim-Dark - the princess' father is dead.  It's actually her uncle who wants her "rescued".  He's hired the PCs to take the princess away from the sorcerer and leave her in the desert to be devoured by sandworms.
  • Pop-Culture - It is rumored that two droids survived the starship crash.  After the ship went down, these droids (Goldie and U2) walked to a nearby settlement in search of employment.
  • Sleazy - The princess only receives her visions during orgasm.

There you go.  Put whatever vanilla fantasy plot through the Cha'alt Filter, and you'll generate inspiration for terrific, out-of-the-box flourishes that take your pedestrian scenario to the next level and beyond!

VS

p.s. Do I still have gorgeous hardcovers (limited edition, signed and numbered) of both Cha'alt and Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise?  As of right now... yes.  Details here!


2 comments:

  1. This is pretty clear and concise. You could expand the article with a little table of buzzwords like your micro- and macro-elements. Maybe some trope/rules for the settling/scenario like "nobody can resist a sword fight challenge","mooks always attack singly","kung fu is better then guns", etc.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I like that! As you've just illustrated, this concept is easily customizable. Season to taste...

      "Nothing feels better than tentacles on trembling flesh."

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