The Mission

 

Holy crap-balls!  This is blog post one-thousand, hoss!!!  Thanks to everyone who's been reading, commenting, and supporting me over these last 13+ years.

I've got a lot of things going on right now... end of school for kids, my upcoming book is going through last minute revision, I'm running my face-to-face, 4-year long, every other week (with 6 weeks off around the holidays) Cha'alt campaign; a monthly Cha'alt PG-rated half-session that includes my one kid who still loves playing; and an even more truncated weekly Roll20 Cha'alt campaign that's only 90-minutes. Plus, you know, life.  

Oh yeah, and my TTRPG convention VENGER CON V: The Will To Power happening in Madison, WI this July.  Grab your weekend badge now, and JOIN US!!!!!

So yeah, lots of stuff.  However, I wanted to wrap-up the soul-searching and deep-dive social media discussions about what's become most important to me in the roleplaying game hobby.  That thing which I consider both foundational and transformative when it comes to my subjective understanding of what we do.  

What's my personal philosophy?  What is... the mission?

In a word: PSYCHOCOSM.

Without using fancy jargon and extensive argumentation, let me break it down.  We participate in RPGs because it allows us an immersive experience.  But now that you're immersed, what then?  

What comes next is PSYCHOCOSM.  You identify, you believe, you create, you search for meaning, self-actualization; you do things that make you happy, that make your character's life (played by you) worth living, memorable, larger than life, fascinating, epic, awesome, or special in some way.

As the players' experience heightens, the campaign deepens, widens... until the created world improves the Game Mastering, which then increases player satisfaction, leading to renewed immersion as the continuous improvement circle turns.

As a GM, one of the myriad ways I connect with the campaign setting is to not only pay attention to the Living World, but also the Living Story (if you're interested in reading more about this, I have an article about story emulation right over here).  It's not scripted, there's no predetermined ending, and the GM is not writing a novel.  

It is the decisions of the players' characters, living in that world, which allow narratives to unfold.  The story part of TTRPGs is not anathema to the game part.  Occasionally congruent, at other times opposed, these two concepts, story and game, are complimentary, and worth more together than separate.

One of the best things about TTRPGs is that they're both game and story, combined!  Story-creation is the game; the game is story-creation.  The point of playing is to create a story with moment-to-moment input from all participants, players and GM alike, and immerse ourselves in it.  Fiddling with numbers and rolling dice are merely procedures for adjudicating unknowns, managing risk vs reward, and testing the law of averages.  

So, the mission is PSYCHOCOSM.  And how we get there is by opening ourselves up to immersion and beyond... submerging ourselves in the characters, world and story; actively moving towards them, seizing opportunities, going after moments that transcend the make-believe, as we pretend to be wizards and fighters, clerics and rogues, skulking around in the darkness, slaying monsters and seeking treasure. 

My good friend and colleague, Roger, suggested that I include a link to my very first blog post.  He's right, of course.  That's where it all began, and while short, I think it points in the very direction I went.  Read with caution, hoss ... prophecies can be dangerous things. 

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment below with whatever you want to say!

VS

p.s.  Yes, weekend badges are now available for July 2026's VENGER CON V: The Will To Power.  Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  

PSYCHOCOSM, Visceral Non-Mechanics, & Running Non-D&D

 

It's been awhile since I blogged about something other than session reports or the announcement of a new PDF, book, convention, or whatever.

As the title of this post would suggest, I'll be diving deeply into advanced immersion, opting-out of standard RPG mechanics, and what you need to start GMing stuff that's not D&D (aka stuff I wish I knew back in the day).

There's gonna be some theory, but not a ton of jargon, and all my theorizing should have a practical application.  I don't just theorize to hear myself type. 

Faith Alone

First off, I want to talk about PSYCHOCOSM, recently mentioned here.  This is the blending of reality and fantasy in the minds of Game Master and players alike.  As I've been describing and discussing, PSYCHOCOSM is one step beyond immersion.  Immersion being the passive feeling like you're surrounded or ensconced in the world, your character, the genre, and current situation (this will come up later).

PSYCHOCOSM, on the other tentacle, is an active move towards blurring those fantasy and reality lines.  You're supposed to use your imagination to go further into the fantasy, making it seem real by taking the game seriously (though, you don't have to be serious), visualizing what's happening with focus and concentration, and believing that in the imagination (both individual and collective), what's happening is real, having its own reality.

What exactly do I mean by each of these?

   *  Taking it seriously: Attend sessions when possible, show up ready to play, leave outside BS outside, pay attention during the game, etc.

   *  Visualization: Don't just let the details fall from the sky onto your head and lay on the ground next to your feet like so many dead pigeons.  Catch them as they fall or at the very least pick them up when they land... examine them, interact with them, breathe life into them (just as the GM does for his campaign setting), fold them into an origami unicorn - use what's provided to create future details that enrich the ongoing narrative.  If you don't use 'em, you lose 'em.  "All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in the rain."

   *  Make-believe: Same thing as willful suspension of disbelief.  You must decide that it's true, in the context of our imagination, and act accordingly.  Only you can make that leap of faith.

When you intentionally do all 3 of these things, you enter what I call a magical state.  If that's too "out there," then let's just say it's an optimized flow-state where all things are possible.  

The only barrier?  You've got to realize the potential is there, you've got to want it, and you have to go after it.  If you can do that, your active immersion has been self-actualized to the level of PSYCHOCOSM, which is the true and final goal of roleplaying games.

Visceral Style of Play

This came from messaging back and forth from a friend and supporter of Kort'thalis Publishing, particularly The Outer Presence.  My stuff is minimalist, and my approach to game design is rules-light or don't even bother with a system at all, I'll just wing it (describing stuff, asking what the PCs are doing, and then describe what happens next).

He mentioned that approach or play-style favors a visceral experience rooted in immediate and cinematic results with zero book-keeping.  Don't look at your character sheet or consult the rulebook.  Describe the situation with "making a strong impression" on your mind.  If the success or failure of the attempted action is up in the air, roll a die, but then give a fast, decisive, and impactful resolution that has significant consequences.  You know, something visceral.  

If someone has a gun pointed at your head, I don't want the player, his character, or me (the GM) calculating the hit-point to damage ratio.  I want them worried they're going to have their head blown-off.  This situation doesn't call for mechanics, it calls for removing mechanics so you only have the situation.  

When discussing this on X, I said it reminded me of Obi-Wan telling Luke to turn off his targeting computer and just feel the force.  We don't want more automation, we want less.  Manually handle the situation as you might describe the sequence of events happening in a movie, taking the game aspects out of it.  That's right, no mechanics (or at least minimal mechanics).  Trust your instincts and just figure out what happens viscerally.

In fact, if you saved the energy by ignoring mechanics and instead spent that on coming up with something awesome, you'll almost always be farther ahead. 

Rather than "if this doesn't go your way, you die," what I'm looking for in my own gaming is "if you don't do something proactive right now, you will die."  That puts the ball in their court (the player) while giving you a clear conscience to put the dice and rules and system away.  The mechanics are there to help the GM adjudicate outcomes so adventurers aren't dying left and right simply because the monsters got lucky.  As long as the PCs aren't choosing to jump into a swarm of swirling blades, they aren't going to die when I go visceral (unless it's a fairly dark one-shot).  Jumping into swirling blades is example I've used so many times it should become a meme at this point.

Running Non-D&D

I was reading a post in the Dead Games group on FB, and someone was asking about the FASA Doctor Who RPG from the 80s with Tom Baker as The Doctor and Leela on the cover (one of my favorite pairings in the entire series).  

From the day I bought it, I loved that boxed-set.  I read through it constantly over the years, only managing to create a slew of weird alien species via all the random tables included.  Even with its introductory scenes (I won't call it an actual adventure), I never really understood how to use it.  And this was after I'd discovered D&D and learned to play.

How do you Game Master an idea, a genre, or bunch of tropes and aesthetics?  I ran into similar roadblocks with other RPGs during my formative years, like CYBERSPACE.  I loved cyberpunk and knew what it was about, same with Doctor Who (I can still remember our 5th grade teacher asking all of us individually, going around the room, what our favorite TV show was and I said Doctor Who, but she misheard me and incredulously asked if I really that into "Doctor Ruth" and everyone laughed). Yes, Doctor Who was, indeed, my favorite show.  

What introductory scenarios did was become a helpful crutch to start walking (or playing in this analogy), giving you an idea of what roleplaying this particular thing should be like.  What non-D&D roleplaying games needed to do was clue us in to what RPG sessions were really about - laying down the foundation for a story that involved aspects related to the type of RPG we were supposed to run.  

If I had known that I needed to craft the beginning of a narrative that started out with a location, characters, vibe, and situation that would soon become a full-blown scenario when the PCs intersected with it, I could have started coming up with my own adventures.  But since I didn't know about that stuff when I was young, my mind defaulted to the adventuring loop of D&D (have a reason to explore, go explore, encounter people and monsters, talk to the people, defeat the monsters, loot the treasure, and repeat) or it just went blank - leaving me with no idea how to start playing Doctor Who, CYBERSPACE, and all the many RPGs I bought over the years but never played.  

Dear Skyrealms of Jorune, "work at becoming a citizen" might be the initial reason for adventuring, but it is not, in fact, a viable scenario!!! 

Now that I know this stuff, it's still tricky to come up with an appropriate adventure for something like Rocky & Bullwinkle, but at least I have the framework - location, characters, vibe, and situation - the very same thing a Doctor Who story needs to engage viewers.  

Thanks for reading, comments encouraged!

VS

p.s.  Yes, weekend badges are now available for July 2026's VENGER CON V: The Will To Power.  Want a great new TTRPG community where you can hang out with other gamers, get ideas, advice, and training in order to improve?  Look no further than the fastest-growing group on X - it's the Kult of Kort'thalis.  Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  

"The Ruin of A'agrybah" - CHA'ALT Campaign 4.3

 

This is the session report for the third session in the fourth year of our Cha'alt campaign.  This entire year-long season is called "The Ruin of A'agrybah" for reasons that, I hope, will become increasingly obvious as the campaign continues.

We had the return of Ug, Tinker's player decided to switch things up and go back to his original character, Ta'al, that had taken a side-quest to Hell in order to pursue personal goals (and upon my suggestion is going to play a completely different character each session, at least that's the plan), and then we had a longstanding player return to the table as he's been unavailable for the first couple of sessions in 2026.

His character is Strum the Terrible, a human sorcerer who works his magic by playing the ukulele which he calls Princess Uka-Leia.  And he's from A'agrybah.  The rest shall be revealed throughout play, which is something I very much support... yet also requires a fair amount of prodding, as it's human to forget that unfinished works that work perfectly fine as they are must be maintained via continuing to build them up, incrementally.

Ug and Ta'al woke up when Strum stumbled into the cave they were sleeping in, realizing that their priest, sorcerer, and servant Flen were missing.  Knowing that it would be foolish to continue without any magic support, they decided to join forces and explore the rest of these caves and tunnels.

Ug's wrist communicator started beeping as he had the most bars, alerting him to the list of names for those nominated for ritual sacrifice on the saba'ath.  Everyone rolled and it was Deacon Elijah Crane whose name appeared.  I explained that if your name is called, you must appear before the priests of A'agrybah.  Once you show up on the saba'ath, it's a bit like jury duty.  Not everyone who is compelled to appear will be sacrificed, and there is a way to either talk and/or buy your way out of being sacrificed.  However, if you don't show up at all, the priests issue an arrest warrant and you will most definitely be on the chopping block the following saba'ath.

Heading out, they felt hungry and thirsty, all their water gone.  There was a root growing down from the ceiling of a tunnel.  It was dripping a milky substance which the adventurers drank and spent about a half-hour filling up their canteens.  Luckily, no wandering monsters appeared.

Continuing on, they noticed some chartreuse shadows dancing on the cave walls up ahead.  A humanoid, his hands coated with zoth, walked towards them, not paying attention as he was conducting magical energy back and forth from his palms. 

Ug stepped aside, Ta'al tackled him by jumping on his back, then missed with Advantage, and the zoth-handed dude attacked, but critically-failed and blew himself back into the cave wall, disoriented.  Meanwhile, Ta'al tumbled away pretending to be a completely different infernal-elf who helped him up and asked if he was ok.  

The PCs found out that someone had recently killed a lesser-spawn and there was zoth all over the place, which attracted a whole bunch of people.  This guy with zoth all over his hands was not a sorcerer, but there was a sorcerer grabbing zoth.  So, they investigated and found it to be true.  

They saw a guy submerging his daggers into zoth, another guy sitting in the zoth playing with it like he was in a kiddie pool, and a sorcerer standing by a hovering platform containing a half-dozen storage-cubes full of zoth.  As the PCs introduced themselves, he showed them his power by blasting a bullseye on the other side of this massive cavern with just his finger.  The sorcerer's name was Zarta'ak, and he was looking to build an army to take over these caves.  

Ta'al convinced him that they should team-up, return to the city, and rob the first national bank of A'agrybah.  Zarta'ak didn't hate the idea, and so the four of them continued exploring with Zarta'ak leading from the rear.  But not before taking advantage of the zoth, bathing their weapons in it, and taking some in a canteen to fuel spells or whatnot later.  

Up a little ways and to the left, they saw a long cave that, when they got just a little ways through, turned them around so they were immediately walking back out of the cave they were trying to enter, like a glitch in the matrix.  Magic was afoot.  They tried some stuff to no avail, then Zarta'ak suggested they searched around.  They found an infernal-glyph that read "spill the blood."  Ta'al pricked his finger and stuck it into the invisible cave barrier.  The blood was absorbed by the magic wall and created a small hole.

Moments later, the PCs grabbed the guy splashing zoth on himself and stabbed him repeatedly before throwing him into the barrier, which dissolved, killing the guy in the process.  Now able to fully explore the long cave, they went in and saw a race of tall, thin humanoids, gesturing in prayer or ritual, carved into the back wall in bas-relief.  It was undetermined if these were actually stone people, people turned to stone, or simply artistic representations of people chiseled into the wall.  But each one had an orange crystal giving off fuchsia and chartreuse energy in the middle of their forehead like a third eye.  There were 9 crystals total, and a bunch of ancient glyphs on nearby walls telling the tale of Sarna'ath...

The sarna'athians were an almost forgotten race, the essence of their empire imprisoned within the stone wall bas-relief, specifically the crystals.  Their realm was conquered and the people of Sarna'ath slaughtered or enslaved... their god, Ba'al-Yigura'ath, a Great Old One that crawled upon the surface of Cha'alt thousands of years ago, denigrated by the conquerors.  A further message read that whoever would submerge their ultra-telluric crystals in zoth shall spread vengeance to the descendants of those who conquered their race.

Ta'al wanted no part of it, but Ug took 2 of the tangerine, fuchsia, and chartreuse third-eye crystals, Strum took 3, and Zarta'ak took the remaining 4.  They realized that any revenge taken by dipping these crystals in zoth might come back to bite them in the ass, as they might be descended from the people who conquered Sarna'ath.

Since there was a moment to take a breath, I thought why not take a suggestion from the black skull and see how that plays out.  It was something that either Elijah Crane or Lanar's player had come up with since none of the three seated claimed to have written it.  It was a swarm of undead pixie fairies coming at them.  So, that's what happened.  Zarta'ak cast a fireball which burned most of them up while the others attacked and took some damage.  Eventually, the undead pixie-fairies were defeated.

Oh, and Ug took the ashes from an undead pixie-fairy and sprinkled them over a zoth puddle, creating a zoth-fairy named Arizona (because he rose like a phoenix) who followed Ug as a father-figure.

Checking out the tunnel and cave to the right, they saw a Lovecraftian monstrosity known as a veil-shredder eating reality, a side-effect was that it created a portal.  On the other side of this dimensional gateway was purple sand, water as vast as the desert, and blue sky (although, now that I've had time to think about it, I think the sky over the purple islands should also be purple... it just makes sense).  Some other tentacled creature was on the other side, menacing a chain-gang of slaves, a couple droids taking the slaves somewhere, and a barbarian with a sword emanating cosmic fire.

The PCs jumped through to steal the slaves, but then got attacked by the creature.  A whole big melee ensued... Strum's player stimulated the GRINDHOUSE EXPLOITATION Cha'alt X-Card, and I determined that due to the circumstances, the droids changed their protocol to murder-bots.  Their arm transformed into chainsaws as they now attacked the slaves and PCs.  But that gave Strum a chance to reroll his fireball spell which turned out better than a critical-failure.

Eventually, the creature was killed, one droid destroyed, the barbarian killed, and the slaves were now with the PCs.  Ug's player then stimulated the HUMOR Cha'alt X-Card and Ta'al's player had a suggestion that the droid was like the Terminator - various lines from Arnold were said as its robot hand reached for them before it was destroyed.  Ta'al took the droid's hand in case he could cause some kind of A.I. revolution down the road.

After the battle, the dark-elf went back through the portal to retrieve the fallen barbarian's cosmic-fire bastard sword.  Before leaving the area, that, too, was submerged in a pool of zoth.  Also, I rolled on the personality table because magic sword from the purple islands are sentient.  Curiosity was the result, so I roleplayed the sword as one curious bastard, always asking questions.

Three of the slaves were female, Tasha (blonde), Lela (red-head), and Storm (brunette), and the fourth was a male dark-elf named Grenthal.  They were going to be sacrificed at a festival on one of the purple islands when the shadow-moon was at its zenith.  The PCs freed them from their chains, but not necessarily from their obligations to the adventurers.  After some celebratory fun time, they continued exploring the caves and tunnels.  I half-expected them to search more of the purple islands, but they were invested here.  Oh, and Zarta'ak stayed behind on the purple islands with his zoth to make a new life for himself.  We'll see if he returns in a later session.

A bit later, the PCs found a couple of genocidal gemstone warriors fighting to the death, a green sorceress and red warrior.  They watched the battle, routing for the green woman.  After a quick roll to determine victory, the red warrior bested her.  Her spirit returned to energy back inside the green gemstone.  The red guy let Ta'al keep the green gem as the red gem warrior walked with them in case that way led to more genocidal gemstone warriors, as there can be only one!

Pretty soon, they came to another massive cavern containing a gargantuan cave-crab.  They heard screams from afar, and watched close as the crab used its pinchers and mouth to kill several humanoids.  Realizing there wasn't another way out of there, Strum decided to use the rest of Ug's canteen and gourd of zoth to power a mass-invisibility spell.

As this was an expansive use of sorcery fueled by an alternative energy source, I had Strum's player roll on the Fuchsia Shadow spell side-effect table and he got a 74.  Reading it, magical swords nearby became possessed by the spirit of Venger Satanis, mixed with curiosity, I suppose.  Lol, so that happened.

As they moved through the cave to safety and a nearby tunnel in order to explore the rest of this area, the giant crab could smell them.  Out of their entire entourage, the person who rolled lowest was the blonde Tasha.  But I rolled a 2 on the crab's attack and she managed to jump out of the way of its death-claw.

At that point we only had 10-minutes or so before it was time to go, so we ended it there and went to the XP phase of the session.  The players recounted their exploits in terms of profession, loot, making an impression on the world, and personal goals.  

The benefit of this system over what I had been doing, simply leveling the PCs after 2 sessions, is the players discuss what was accomplished, what transpired, and gaps in their "adventuring lifestyle" are then revealed.  In our case, everyone needs to come up with additional personal goals - especially Ug, who again fell short in that area, but made up for it by being awarded the 5th quadrant for MVP of that session.

As the GM, I'm ok with requiring PC goals, and not just in terms of XP.  If I can tell players they have to choose a character class, I can also tell them they have to come up with an aim, something they want to achieve in life, because that's part of a player-character... but you get better cooperation with honey than vinegar, so I'll incentivize the addition of personal motivations.  Maybe something as simple as a point of Divine Favor for each goal chosen and pursued.  Of course, there's always the threat of a stick, rather than the carrot.  I could say that 3rd level "feats" won't be offered until goals are solidified.  I don't think that will be necessary, though.  

It's all a means to an end.  Having and trying to achieve personal goals adds to the roleplaying experience, which improves immersion, and that leads to a little something I've been talking about these last few years... PSYCHOCOSM.  

Immersion, I've come to understand, is a process.  It's value is not the raw act of being immersed itself, but what that state of being surrounded by and absorbed with confers.  Similar to the adventure, it's actually like dipping or submerging one's hand or weapon or what-have-you in zoth.  Immersing something in that glowing chartreuse awesomeness is not actually the end goal, there's another level, and that is the transformation of something base, ordinary, or mundane into something magical.

In the same way, feeling immersed in a roleplaying game is awesome, but the reason why it's awesome is because of the final result, our imagination believes, perhaps only for a few moments or an entire lifetime, that what is happening at the table is actually happening, albeit in a separate reality... (the "shared imaginary space," which is what defines roleplaying games) going from the subjective to objective, we treat it as though it were real.  Like when you watch a movie, you're transported to another world, for a time, where those characters in that location doing those things is taking place.

This is what PSYCHOCOSM is all about, the blending or blurring of lines between the real world and the imagined world.  That magical transformation is the final achievement of roleplaying games which most people aren't even consciously aware of, yet many recognize that feeling when they're experiencing it.  

If I may extend the analogy, immersion is like the physical act of having sex.  As the GM, RPG ruleset, campaign setting and adventure designer, players, tools like house-rules, dice, etc. those are all the things that lead to sex.  

Playing at the table, actual roleplaying, and the goal of being immersed are the sexual positions, logistics, sucking, fucking, thrusting, and all that.  But the orgasm itself is the ultimate purpose.  Don't get me wrong, all the rest of the stuff is awesome, too, but there's a reason why it's called the climax... sex without orgasm, like immersion without PSYCHOCOSM, just isn't the same.

Going a bit further, sex done "right," or perhaps I should say "in a certain way," can produce a child.  For some, that is the end-end-goal... for others that's a (happy) accident or byproduct.  It's a reminder that artistic creation and participation in that process can have lasting... reverberations. 

Of course, we can't just point at one thing, such as personal goals, and say that's the road leading us to immersion and eventually, God willing, PSYCHOCOSM.  It also has to do with priorities, play-style, table-culture, meaningful choices, description and narration, player engagement, vibes, etc... which is why I try to run Cha'alt as an open-world, fiction-first, storygame-adjacent, rules-light, theater of the mind, improvisational kind of campaign setting.

Ok, that was a Hell of a tangent.  Hey, that's why I have a blog, right?  

All in all, a very productive and enjoyable session.  Next game should be Saturday, March 7th and then two weeks from then is GaryCon and I don't yet know how that scheduling is going to shake out.  Speaking of GaryCon, I hope to see some of you guys there next month.  If you see me, feel free to say hi.  Let's get a picture together!  And, yes, I'll autograph whatever... even your girlfriend's rockin' tits.  ;)

Thanks for reading,

VS

p.s.  Yes, weekend badges are now available for July 2026's VENGER CON V: The Will To Power.  Want a great new TTRPG community where you can hang out with other gamers, get ideas, advice, and training in order to improve?  Look no further than the fastest-growing group on X - it's the Kult of Kort'thalis.  Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  

Mysterious Qada'ath [Second Cha'alt Campaign]: The Pilot

 

We're finally back in campaign mode.  It's weird, I thought that after the first Cha'alt campaign ended that I'd be relieved to go back to one-shots and mini-campaigns involving other RPGs... but nope.  Turns out I really missed both Cha'alt and the joys of campaign-style play.

So, back we are.  I really want to invest in this new campaign and use the material gathered during Mysterious Qada'ath in book 4 of the Cha'alt trilogy (which is why I've postponed kickstarting the 4th book until December of NEXT year).  

I spent the last 3 weeks compiling my thoughts, notes, random tables, lists, sub-systems, crude drawings, and mechanics into a fancy spiral-bound sketchbook that I got cheap at either Michael's or Hobby Lobby.  I'll be honest, I felt a little bit silly at the start, when I only had 3 pages of this giant blank book completed.  Like, why on earth would I need 160 pages?  That's so overkill.

But now, I've got about 20 - 25 pages filled and one session in, it makes sense.  If this sketchbook is going to be my campaign bible, I'm probably going to need at least 100 pages of it so I have everything all in one place.  The disparate in-game notes, adventure summaries, random tables, explanatory lore, and just all of it spread out over several notebooks, loose pieces of paper, and written on the back of envelopes was insane.  Everything pertaining to the Mysterious Qada'ath campaign is going in this sketchbook.

Anyway, where were we?  Oh yeah, session one, which Colin and I almost immediately started referring to as "the pilot."  

Even though I invited all 6 players, two last-minute cancelations got us down to 4... which I feel a little bad about only because another guy from my gaming past (and he played in exactly 2 of the previous campaign's 17 sessions) asked if he could join us for yesterday's game (with the caveat that he probably couldn't make it most Saturdays - I think because he has his kid(s) on the weekend) but I told him the table was full.  Which it was, until... yeah.  

Call it self-indulgence of the Game Mastering variety, but for whatever reason I wanted to tie the previous investigative horror two-shot into this new Cha'alt campaign.  So, there was a strange and possibly awkward segue from 1929 Chicago detectives to Cha'alt natives.  I'm actually going to incorporate that into the campaign later, so there's a method to the madness.  But from the players' perspective, it probably just seemed like a long way to go for the veneer of showy transitional competence.  

While the Two Jacks Detective Agency employees were enjoying a nice dinner at their favorite Chinese restaurant, the Golden Palace or something like that, they got a phone call telling them they'd been accepted into a coveted spot of this enigmatic game.  Meet at Swan Point Cemetery that very night.

The PC investigators went and saw a chartreuse effulgence [Venger reluctantly puts the thesaurus down] in a crumbling mausoleum.  They go in and see masked diggers breaking through the floor into a subterranean tunnel.  A masked overseer urges them down through the tunnel to an attendant maintaining some giant machine with built-in chairs in the middle of this cave.  The attendant serves them each a vial of glowing chartreuse liquid.  He hooks them up to the machine and then weird lights and sounds go off until everything went black and the PCs wake up in the desert under a fuchsia sky with twin suns.  Not as themselves, but other people... individuals who the players generated before we actually started playing.

So, 4 players and the 4 basic classes in Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer.  Groups don't always take one of each when faced with such a choice, but they usually do.  And this case was no exception...

• Drogan - half-orc priest
• Nix - demon thief
• Talis - droid warrior
• Ha'agly Morningwood - pixie-fairy sorcerer

This session report is already running long, so I'm going to get right to it.

The new PCs are wandering the desert and soon come to a barrier, something like the Great Wall of China, except more high-tech.  I didn't actually plan for that, that just sort of came to me during play.  But I like it.  I mean, how else would the Federation get to have checkpoints where they could ask for your papers, frisk you, question, hassle, and insult you, and probably solicit a bribe?

I needed a pejorative slang word or phrase that the Federation would have for Cha'alt natives and didn't have anything at the tip of my mind, so I asked around the table.  Drogan's player came up with "sandies" which I really liked, so we went with it.  I'll need more before too long and was considering possibilities earlier today while shoveling snow off our driveway.  I was thinking about Police Academy and Mahoney being called "dirt-bag" by one or more assholes.  Then I came up with "silt-bag."  Sand-bag didn't seem to work, plus I'm already using sand for sandies.  So, now I've got two good ones for when Federation soldiers want to be offensive.

I assume woke SJW GMs and players don't spend time coming up with in-game offensive terms, but they should.  They really, really should.  Being purposefully offensive is part of the human experience.

Anyway, the Federation checkpoint was nearby.  The party's pixie sorcerer flew over the wall to survey the area.  Just a couple of workers on a lunchbreak, two Federation guards and a third in a sand-speeder about 100' away.

Two other NPCs were in front of the party, being subjected to Federation scrutiny.  Eventually, they went through, after one of the soldiers took the NPC's crystal-rimmed jaccard (everyone laughed at the in-joke because such a weird device surfaced multiple times in the previous Cha'alt campaign).

Next, it was the PCs, minus the pixie-fairy who was still flying out of sight.  The Federation were about to confiscate the assassin-droid's retractable vibro-blade when the droid instinctively decided to blast the shit out of him, instead.  After seeing that violence was the way to go, Nix took his twin-daggers and stabbed the other Federation soldier in the back, killing him.  

The third was in their sand-speeder, but the droid aimed and took his shot at Disadvantage because of distance.  He managed to hit and did quite a bit of damage, so all three were dead before the second round.  They gathered up blasters and valuables, got in the sand-speeder, asked the two NPCs if they wanted to come along for the ride (they did), and started heading south to the mysterious city of Qada'ath.

Before reaching Qada'ath, they arrived at a settlement filled with tents and adobe-like structures.  They parked and searched around for answers, local intel, and a cool drink.  I believe one of the NPCs mentioned that getting inside the city would be tricky since it was surrounded by something called the orange labyrinth.

The PCs found a cantina and put the word out that they were looking for work.  The bartender put them in touch with someone at the outer settlement's Quick Stop convenience store who had a job for the adventurers.  Assassinate a politico from Qada'ath who was making life hard for the outer settlements and who was only going to be here for a limited time.

While Talis did the lion's share of finding gainful employment, Nix eavesdropped on cantina patrons to see what was happening.  Turns out that a swanky caravan had just slithered into town in order to pick up some purple.  "Purple... what's that?" Nix inquired.  He found out that the outer settlements was famous for it's manufacture of something called Tyrian purple - a unique shade of purple fiercely desired by lords, ladies, aristocrats, nobles, sorcerers, royalty, and priests.  For many, Tyrian purple was worth more than gold!

Meanwhile, more Federation troops moved into the outer settlements area where the PCs parked their sand-speeder.  Some thief had taken the communicator belonging to one of the dead Federation soldiers.  So, Feds were questioning people, getting leads, rounding up the usual suspects, putting up wanted posters, etc.

At the Quick Stop, the two NPCs thanked the adventurers for their help and hoped they'd all eventually meet up again in Qada'ath but decided they couldn't follow them down this path of assassination-for-hire.  They were going to find their own way into the city.

Nix already used his natural demon ability of persuading people to do things in his best interest for the day, but I ruled (and this is going to carry forward henceforth in the campaign... and beyond) that a point of Divine Favor can also be spent to (re)use a limited special ability that had already been expended.

So, the PCs are between going in and blasting this little pink squidgy guy named Kra'ang or convince him to hire the PCs to be his new bodyguard / entourage, thus getting them into the city and living on easy street.  

Nix uses his persuasion to get past the guard and into the administrative building, which they do.  They barge in and start talking to Kra'ang who rides around in a "convertible dalek" surrounded by bodyguards.  Talis does his best to convince Kra'ang that he's the best assassin droid this side of the galaxy.  And Kra'ang says, "Prove it."  So, Talis shoots Kra'ang in the face, nearly killing him.

It was such a perfect set-up that no one, even Kra'ang looking back on the situation, could hate on the assassin droid for taking the shot.

As the PCs dealt with the bodyguards, they heard a flushing sound (wondering aloud if someone had been in the restroom the entire time).  Talis distracted one of Kra'ang's goons to get a free shot, but missed.  All three other PCs killed a bodyguard, and the last one left was on Drogan, but he missed, and had already used his Divine Favor.  So, he had a choice (assuming he didn't want to just wait another round)... he could Fuchsia Burn or stimulate a Cha'alt X-Card.

He chose the "HUMOR" Cha'alt X-Card and stimulated it, suggesting something with the toilet flushing since that had already been established and would be ripe for additional humor.

I could have said, "Ok, let's put that on the back burner while I deal with the combat at hand."  As you can see, the GM isn't forced to create something in that specific moment when a Cha'alt X-Card is stimulated... he's well within his rights to take his bloody time and let the Cha'altian trope inspire him on his own terms - something which many critics don't take into consideration.

However, whenever possible, I like to combine the various story strings together, tying them into a narrative knot of interconnection.

So, Drogan uppercuts the last bodyguard who slipped on the neon-pink toilet water where Kra'ang was sitting in his convertible dalek.  Boom, cracked skull!  But that flushing sound had been Kra'ang escaping somewhere.  Only one person in the party was small enough to fit down there - Morningwood the pixie-fairy.  So, he went down on the urging of the PCs.  I had him roll to not drown in the neon-pink toilet water, but the rolls were not kind.  After exhausting the last Divine Favor, the other players convinced Morningwood's player to roll a die corresponding to the lavender moons of destiny.  

"This is exactly why the infernal destiny dice were invented," Colin stated.  And I could not disagree.  So he rolled with one of my specialty custom-painted dice that I had on hand for such occasions, and rolled a motherfucking SIX!  He made it through, landing inside a low-ceilinged smooth black pod; Kra'ang at the miniature controls.  Being a pixie-fairy sorcerer, his bow and arrow only did one point of damage, so I had him roll a d4 to determine how many times he shot him before Kra'ang managed to press the eject button and send Morningwood flying out of the ship.  FOUR!

After being ejected, Kra'ang's black ship went over the orange labyrinth and into the city, just below the hovering Great Old One that covered Qada'ath.  Now, because those moments in a character's life are meant to reverberate (creating outward ripples that keep going), I have something special planned between Kra'ang and Morningwood, based on that critical-success of the destiny die.  But that won't be revealed until next session.

Before the end, the other PCs ransacked the administrative building and then went into hiding among the outer settlements.

Now, there was one last thing to do.  I came up with something for downtime between sessions over here, and wanted to give it a go.  Below is what each PC chose...

• Nix wanted to find a secret way into the city, which he had overheard was a possibility.
• Drogan sought understanding of high-tech medicine used my the Federation [after the last fight and Talis was wounded, we learned/decided that priests using their supernatural gifts can't heal droids].
• Talis wants to hunt the hunters, taking the seek-and-destroy to the Federation, instead of waiting for the Federation to get the PCs.
• Ha'agly Morningwood also wanted to keep an eye on the Federation and find an alternative into the city... so, basically assisting Nix.

At the beginning of next session in 2 weeks, I'll roll to see how well everyone did, which will push the story forward.  As Roger suggested in a comment on that blog post, it's a way of making narrative sense why a certain PC isn't around if that player can't show up for whatever reason.  Let's say that Nix's player can't make it.  Well, his search for that hidden way into Qada'ath is a perfect reason why he's not with the rest of the group for the subsequent adventure.

At the end of the day, we should ask ourselves... was PSYCHOCOSM achieved?  And if the answer is yes, the game was demonstrably successful because immersion is key to roleplaying games and PSYCHOCOSM, the willed blurring of lines between fantasy and reality, is key to immersion.  It's a process you can plan for, hope for, set yourself up for success, but first and foremost, it's about you.  PSYCHOCOSM is in your tender hands... or tentacles; manifested by your willpower.

That's all, folks!  It did feel like the pilot episode for a new TV show - airing now on skin-a-maxxx!  So, I'm looking forward to seeing how everything develops.  So far, all the groundwork put into the ruleset (Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer) and world (all 3 Cha'alt books + the previous campaign) and new stuff (all my sketchbook stuff, downtime thing, etc.).

I do want to take the time right now to WARN MYSELF OF POTENTIAL IMPENDING DOOM if I have too many wild threads loose and going all over the place.  I have a tendency to do that, I've noticed, so want to consciously reduce the amount of threads and tie up some loose ends (at least to the point where I know where they are, where they're going, and closure is within reach) before introducing a whole new bundle of open-ended, anything goes story threads.  It's fun to pile on more (like buying new miniatures before you've painted the ones you already own), but I won't allow myself to be reckless about it.

Now, we put it all together and see what works.  We're running this campaign on a session by session basis, but also per campaign-length stride.  It's not about anything as abstract and unattainable as "perfection" but what kind of remarkable juice we can get out of each momentary squeeze. 

Thanks for reading,

VS

p.s. Still a few more days to take advantage of our BLACK FRIDAY SALE - details here.  Don't have your weekend badge for VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR yet?  What are you waiting for, hoss?  Game with the best!  info and badge acquisition here.

Crystals of Chaos [session report #13]

 

Ok, it's Sunday, the day after our game, and really the only time I'll have to write up this session report, as I'm going on a family vacation starting tomorrow.

Again, the "3-player summer syndrome" strikes again... although, it's not really a bad thing.  In fact, it's kind of nice to focus on a smaller adventuring party... every once in awhile.  My only real concern is that 3 players is very nearly 2 players, and I won't run a face-to-face game with only 2 players when the full party is 5 or more.

Anyway, we have Robard the dwarven sorcerer (back from his spell research sabbatical), Kra'andol the half-orc warrior, and Heighten Chancery Philthrop III the halfling thief.

I had planned on the PCs waiting out in their starship Jefferson for the 2 weeks between sessions because of Zagreus' injuries.  However, since he wasn't among the illustrious 3, the adventurers could continue right away, after a good night's sleep.

There were only a handful of locations left unexplored on the 3rd level of Cremza'amirikza'am, along with the cave belonging to The Mutilator that wiped his ass with the PCs last time, so the PCs went at it.

First, they encountered an opium den, humanoids in a haze, lounging on pillows, golden fabric covering the rock walls.  The proprietor bade them smoke his opium for a nominal fee, chase the dragon, and have the visions.  Weirdly, the halfling did not partake.  But Kra'andol and Robard did.

Specifically, the sorcerer was looking for insight on how to defeat The Mutilator.  Kra'andol was just looking for a good time - and he was still pregnant, according to the medical-droid who scanned him at the end of last session.

Now, I can't remember ever doing this, but I'm going to set down something here on the blog that happened which I didn't mention during the game.  Maybe Kra'andol forgot his dream upon awakening... or perhaps something was blocking his memory until now.

During his sojourn through the purple labyrinth, Kra'andol felt something on the left side of his abdomen, looked down, and saw a little creature - Kua'ato - poking out, a sort of conjoined twin fused with the half-orc's belly.  The two of them began having a conversation about the nature of life, death, mercy, bloodthirst, slavery, and freedom.  This "Kua'ato" told the half-orc that he was the manifestation of Kra'andol's pregnancy, and not to worry... things would work out, eventually.

Meanwhile, Robard found a 6" hole in the purple maze after an hour of walking around.  He stuck his arm through, briefly touching a slimy, organic, fleshy thing and decided to pull it through.  Out came a tentacle that terminated in a tentacle on the other side, about 5-feet long.  Robard decided to wear it as a scarf.

Upon waking from their opium dream, with the tentacle (and hidden Kua'ato), they went to the next cave containing a Quick Stop convenience store.  Outside was a sheet with "I ASSURE YOU, WE'RE ZOTH-PILLED!" scrawled on it, covering up the metal curtain that couldn't be raised, due to a bunch of savages in the demon-haunted tunnels and caverns of Cremza'amirikza'am.

Going inside, they found Cha'altian drinks and snacks.  The clerks Dante and Hicks (Imagine the 2nd guy as not Michael Biehn, but Bill Paxton who got confused as Hicks in Aliens) were trading banter between themselves ("I'm not even supposed to be here today, and my girlfriend sucked 37 dicks," the PCs ("That's a fabulous tentacle-scarf, hoss!," and a 3rd party customer who came in looking for scarlet demon jizz and happened to mention that someone brought forth Goza'ar the Goza'arian from her slumber outside this universe and gave her form.

This knowledge freaked out Dante who was a worshiper of both Goza'ar and Kort'thalis (the two of them prophesied to be flesh-bonded groin buddies, and possibly instrumental in destroying or merely enslaving every humanoid on Cha'alt).  Dante leaped over the counter and stabbed the customer in the throat before he could say more, such as give away Goza'ar's current location.

Dante was beheaded by Kra'andol and Hicks mentioned an opaque box made of shadow-glass with a sign above it that read, "Break glass in case of a Goza'ar related emergency!"  I didn't mention it during the game, but Hicks was quietly rocking back and forth on the floor behind the counter whispering to himself, "Game over, man.  Game over..."

Inside the shadow-glass was a scroll that could summon an elder god named Quiza'ak-Nyath (prophesied to bring down the Goza'arian).  All the PCs would have to do is find Goza'ar, speak the Cha'altian Latin in the form of ancient eldritch-infernal glyphs, choose its final form, and watch them duke it out.

Walking to the other side of this level, the PCs explored another group of caves.  They snuck past a bunch of demons running train on some woman to find a demon exiting a cave that contained a freshly murdered leprechaun.  Apparently, being anointed with the green blood of a leprechaun will prevent you from dying for one hour - but the blood must be warm or else no dice!

Quickly bathing in the green blood, the PCs went down to The Mutilator's cave.  The halfling thief took such a massive blow that he would have died if not for the leprechaun's blood.  Kra'andol went from about 50 HP to 3 as the bodybuilder demon critted on him.  But eventually, they took him down thanks, in part, to Robard's 60-point fireball.  

The demon champion wasn't dead but just KO'd, so they gazed upon all of his unpainted miniatures, looted his stuff (including the massive double-handed purple plasma sword and a valuable looking time-crystal), admired the crystalline back wall of this cave, and went down the stairs to level 4. 

Upon reaching the next level down, they got past the magenta illumination, but still ran into a woman who worked at a demon's massage parlor down here in Cremza'amirikza'am.  They told her to ask for Vanessa at the fried chicken and whorehouse on level 2.

Then, the PCs found a cave containing a courtroom populated by kangarooids who wanted to try the PCs for murder-hoboism.  After being questioned, a couple of kangaroo-humanoids tried to clap slave collars on them.  That didn't work for the Crimson Bastards, so Kra'andol decided to just lop-off one dude's hands and the other's entire body into pieces.  The courtroom went into a panic as the adventurers wandered off to explore another cave containing memory-crystals guarded by 3 demons playing a game of chance that involved dice and cards... old-school... 3d6 in order!

After a bit of conversation, the PCs walked away - only for Heighten Chancery Philthrop III to toss a thermal detonator behind him, towards the memory-crystals.  It blew-up the entire area, but they weren't interested in investigating the debris.  However, one of the demon guards wandered out of the smoke-filled cave.  Also, a neon-pink juice began spurting out of a few different holes in the cavern, eventually creating several puddles.

I almost forgot, I actually remembered to let the players know that if their character took the time to do a reality show "confessional" spot, that I'd award them an extra point of Divine Favor.  All three made use of the opportunity, which opened up new dimensions of characterization and PSYCHOCOSM character-player-setting bonding exercise.

Moving on, the PCs came to a huge cave containing 3 different demon factions that revolved around a sleeping Old One who might, if woken-up, make reality disappear - everything in the universe merely being a dream the Old One was having.

The PCs worked out a deal to murder one of the demon factions in exchange for a centaur-hottie slave.  Creeping up on the wasp-demons while invisible allowed the halfling to explore the mirror-like vein of crystals in the outer cave wall.  Being invisible, he could see right through it for a time - showing a thousand of machine-pods containing humanoids surrounded in pink goo.  Did this have anything to do with the luminous pink juice that spurted from the cave cracks and crevices after the massive explosion?

They killed all but one of the demons in the faction that wanted to wake the Old One and possibly initiate an apocalypse.

And that's where we had to end it as time was running out.  How many sessions remain of the Crystals of Chaos campaign?  I don't know.  At least 1 more... possibly 3 or 4.  I'm looking to close it out this fall, but anything can happen.

Ok, amusing or poignant words and phrases from the session...

• "Rest your weary trouser-worm in this centaur-hottie."
• "Poor bastard, he wasn't even supposed to be here today."
• "I want more sexual encounters of the 3rd kind."
• "Hello, violet, my old friend."
• "It's tentacle casual."
• "The finest in cloth armor."
• "Cremza'amirikza'am seems to be salted with whores, cam-girls, and THOTs... does every woman down here have an OnlyFans?"

On the way to get subs after the game, Robard's player asked me what I would do differently now that I have a full Cha'alt campaign under my belt (as you'll remember, for the last few years, I was pretty much only running one-shots)?  There's so many different options available, I told him, that my mind was swimming, like looking too long into the abyss, I didn't have a definitive answer for him, except to say that I would start PCs off at 1st level, not worrying too much about how squishy they seemed during the first couple of sessions.

Incidentally, the guy on the intercom was doing a heavy Irish accent, and when I got up to the window, I asked where the leprechaun was, and the dude said his little fingers were in the back wrapping sandwiches.  Only proving that, yes, we are living in a matrix-type simulation.

Then later that night we watched the 1981 Excalibur, which I hadn't seen in maybe 8 or 9 years and the 3 other guys I watched it with had never seen.  It was amazing seeing it again on blu-ray... so much based wisdom and spectacle and creativity and talent.  Sometime soon, we'll have to watch Zardoz, as well... a Cha'alt movie if there ever was one!

In two weeks, of course, is VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo!  So, super excited for that.  Weekend badges still available.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on the other side!

VS

The Cult of Cthulhu

 

A lot has happened since I founded the Cult of Cthulhu nearly two decades ago.  

Over the summer of 2004, I ritually conceived the Cthulhu Cult, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.  Then, in the Spring of 2005, the organization was fully realized or birthed in the form of a May Eve weekend convention in Madison, WI known as Cthulhu One.

Since then, the Cult of Cthulhu has grown, expanded, receded, and was temporarily put aside to make way for new endeavors.  Now, it has come out of hibernation with not one but two different groups that spawned from the original.

The first is the Satanic Thulian Society's Cult of Cthulhu run by High Priest Lucifer LeGivorden who is taking the Cthulhu Cult back to my own LaVeyan roots.  Their website can be found here.

The second Cult of Cthulhu is being reopened by my old right-hand-man High Priest Beast Xeno.  He's still working on reorganizing and developing a clear focus of where his Cult of Cthulhu shall go in the years to come.  In the meantime, he's running the old Order of the Nine Angles website here.

Both groups are clearly anti-woke and Left Hand Path.  They believe in a higher power that is bigger than ourselves, and that we are called to more than mindless servitude or pleasure-chasing.  They each have my support and are officially recognized as Cthulhu Cults with my full blessing.

While I, myself, am not going back to actively running the Cthulhu Cult day-to-day, but instead will remain the Ipsissimus (the eye in the pyramid), watching, waiting, and preparing for future struggles.

Nevertheless, I shall be advocating for three things, three new initiatives... three long-term goals to keep the spirit of the Cthulhu Cult alive and focused on real-world action, here and now...

• Forging an openness, understanding, and compatibility with our shared religious and philosophical brothers and sisters.  Any individual or organization who values family, faith, and freedom are our allies - especially in these dark times of wokeness, Communism, and radical-leftism run amok.  Those are the forces wishing destruction on our civilization, that would deny objective reality, in hopes of rebuilding their Utopia upon the millions who fundamentally disagree and must be purged, instead of simply accepting human nature for what it is.
• The creative, spiritual, and existential fulfillment I've received from engaging in fantasy roleplaying games (yes, like Dungeons & Dragons... but don't buy from Wizards of the Coast, they're woke) has opened my eyes to new possibilities, and continues to be at the forefront of my magical work.  While it is certainly escapist entertainment, it's so much more than that.  We are manifesting worlds, realities, and visions undreamt that can be accessed by the initiated and shared with anyone willing to participate... merging objective and subjective universes into a sorcerous, hyper-conscious state of being known as  PSYCHOCOSM !!! 
• The full legalization of cannabis, as in marijuana.  Great strides on decriminalization have already been made, but there are still a variety of obstacles before the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana is accepted.  In order to speed the process along, I'm officially declaring marijuana use a holy sacrament of the Cthulhu Cult.  Let this God given right be recognized by every governing body across the land!

On a monthly basis, I'll be posting matters of religious, magical, and philosophical persuasion for those interested in such things.

Until then, have a great week, hoss!  It's almost exactly one month before VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo, my Madison, WI roleplaying convention in July.  Weekend badges still available.  ;)

VS

p.s. One of the upcoming Cha'alt zines is being crowdfunded right now over at Kickstarter.  Check it out!  If you don't yet have the luxury, hardcover Cha'alt trilogy, they're still on sale right over here.

Cha'alt Session Reports

 

So much news in this blog post - it's insane!

First, let's talk about The Good Syma'arian anti-abortion Cha'alt scenario that I just uploaded onto Big Geek Emporium for FREE.  Here it is!  

Next, we should get into my appearance on Legon of Myth.  I was asked to attend Max's Friday night chill stream to talk about the new release of Encounter Critical III, PDF available here.  But I thought it would be more instructive and fun to actually game... because why talk about roleplaying when you can just roleplay? 

This is the video, after 5 or so minutes of starting the stream and announcements, I come on.  Then, we proceed to chat about Encounter Critical III before Max and Victor choose characters, and I start running the game.

Hopefully, this gives aspiring gamers and old hands a helpful window into my GMing style.  It's not for everybody, but what I like - and most players I've encountered over the decades have enjoyed it, too.

And the day after that stream, I fulfilled the first tiny step of my 2023 resolution - to run more local face-to-face sessions that eventually become a Cha'alt campaign.  Still thinking of a name for the campaign, but I'm planning on GMing every other week for the rest of this year.

Inspired by Jordan Peterson's admission that he goes into interviews and various discussions with notes but not anything pre-planned, I decided to create mostly original content based on various notes and ideas jotted down (also borrowing bits and pieces from previous sessions these particular players weren't involved in).  Some of this stuff might make it into Book 4 of the Cha'alt trilogy down the road.

Because of scheduling conflicts and a last-minute cancellation, I only had 3 players (one of which was brand-new to Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 and Cha'alt).  It was a social interaction and exploration heavy game, as per usual.

All three played dwarves, and I allowed them to start at 3rd level for survivability during the 4-hour game.  Although, it was really 3 hours when you account for the chatting and eating (the game took place inside a pizza place).

• Colin's dwarf sorcerer was named Robard the red.  He was a "show mage" specializing in close-up magic, like flaming card tricks.
• Pat's dwarf warrior was named Jack-Hole or Jackle.  One leg was a little shorter than the other, making him slightly off-balance.  When fighting, his "disability" gave him +1 to damage.
• Chad's dwarf thief was named Zagreus.  No beard, but he did have a black curly handlebar moustache (and might have looked suspiciously like Mario).

The trio of dwarven adventurers started out in the city of A'agrybah.  A procession wound its way through the streets, a golden platformed, upon which laid a beautiful woman, every inch covered in a tactile magenta glitter, almost like a sensual, skin-tight tree bark.  

Not knowing what the Hell was going on with this woman on parade, they asked various bystanders.  They discovered her name was Varantha, a small cult worships her as the avatar of a God, and that her condition was due to her being cursed by another divine being... although, perhaps it was the King who was actually targeted with that curse because Varantha was a consort of the King before stricken by the toxic magenta film.

Zagreus successfully pick-pocketed someone in the crowd, yielding a pair of lacy red panties.  Score!

Instead of rewarding players with Divine Favor at the end of scenes that had plenty of roleplaying, I ended up handing out 2 points (physical fuchsia stones I got from a gift shop to represent the Divine Favor) each during the 3-hour session.  

If your table is ready to roleplay, you won't have to dangle the carrot of social interaction in front of them.  But if they're new to the concept or shy or whatever, let players know that using something in their background to strike up conversation gets them a possible get-out-of-jail-free point.

Meanwhile, the dwarves ran into a human sorcerer from Earth named Vaughn who racked up considerable gambling debts betting on gladiators.  He knew of a nearby mine containing a type of crystal lost to collective memory.  Before the apocalypse, in ancient times, ka'alaxian crystals (thanks to Pat for the name, and thanks to Rick and Morty for inspiration) were prized by the natives of Cha'alt, especially priests and servants of the Old Ones.  Somehow, Vaughn knew that Ka'alaxian crystals allowed sorcerers to alter reality.

If the dwarves liberated the reality-warping crystals for Vaughn, they'd split them.  Plus, the Earth-born sorcerer would make Varantha's coating less toxic.  I believe the idea was either to kidnap her or give her to the King of A'agrybah as a tribute, allowing them to collect a reward.

They'd meet to finalize the acquisition of the ka'alaxian crystals at the Chartreuse Dragon Cantina in an hour.  That left the trio with enough time to schmooze with Dookal a merchant that gestured for them to enter his tent and see his expensive wares.  The dwarves ended up buying a decorative dwarf helmet and a clear crystal sphere containing a thief who was somehow trapped inside.

The dwarven helm had runes carved into it that read "Don't worry, be happy" when translated.

Eventually, Vaughn got the PCs to the mine with the help of Sa'ab who drove a beaten-up and broken-down sand-speeder.  Wanting to tie the back-to-back scenarios together, the transport slowed down for a hitchhiker waiting next to a black van.  This was wonky-eyed Karl.

Once inside the network of tunnels and caves, the dwarves fought off some tentacled insectoid creatures until they skittered away.  The thief was made invisible by the sorcerer and collected the glowing greenish-yellow crystals (Dune internal monologue: What is the connection between ka'alaxian crystals and zoth?), narrowly avoiding a demon munching on human remains.  

I don't recall if they fought the demon (will have to ask the players - they avoided the demon), but I know Karl did some off-the-cuff healing.  I didn't expect him to have the power of prayer... so, I gave it a couple rolls.  The first was good, something like a 14.  The second, a natural 20.  Thus, the party was healed.

More crystals led the thief to a circus of clowns (is that was a group of them are called?) trading stories around a camp fire.  One of the night clowns had an indigo-glowing magical sword in his lap.

Not wanting to be hasty, the dwarves explored the last remaining area of the mine.  It contained humans, elves, and half-demons performing some kind of ceremony.  There was head shaving and dipping melee weapons in a pool of zoth, perhaps preparing for battle.

Egged on by the sorcerer and warrior, the party's thief was instructed to steal the magic sword, cutting off the night clown's head before running away, as the thief still had a few minutes of invisibility remaining.  And that he did with Advantage and sneak-attack.  The clown was decapitated, his head rolled through the campfire, startling the dead clown's companions like a flaming skull.

As the other clowns exited their cave, they ran into the shaved head humanoids wielding glowing chartreuse weapons.  A battle between the two factions fortuitously occurred as the PCs ran towards the waiting sand-speeder.

The indigo glowing two-handed sword was, indeed, magical.  A +1 weapon with glyphs carved into both sides of its blade.  When translated, they read the following... "Sucks to be you."  

Upon return, they met at the Chartreuse Dragon Cantina and divvied up the ka'alaxian crystals, but not before Vaughn used his sorcery to alter reality... the ka'alaxian crystal vanished in his hand as he concentrated all his mental energy on reprogramming the universal code.

The dwarves went to Varantha's temple within the city, and not far from the palace.  There, they found her merely stained magenta, rather than covered with toxic magenta glitter.  Finding her stunningly gorgeous, they immediately accepted her offer to stay in nearby temple quarters and she became their patron.

Just before bed, a gnome wearing a silly gnome hat came into their quarters to tuck them in.  Jack-Hole wanted some company before sleep, so the gnome brought a few girls around to pleasure whoever was interested.  Jack-Hole and Karl availed themselves of the opportunity, as the rest found other things to do.

And that's where we ended the session.  Next game is scheduled for Sunday, January 22nd.  Now that I'm running a legit campaign, and in-person no less, finally after so many years, so many opportunities will open-up with threads and stories and ideas (recurring characters!) that don't have to be abandoned when I walk away from the table or log-off from Roll20.  One-shots are a ton of fun, but pretty much everyone in the OSR agrees that long-term campaigns (when feasible) are better.

If RPGs are about immersion and the joint creation of pulp sword & sorcery stories, reinforcement of the veiled reality, this other world, via episodic sessions of a long-term campaign, can only strengthen that immersion.  By the end of 2023, I believe we'll achieve PSYCHOCOSM the likes of which even God has never seen!

Thanks for reading,

VS

p.s. Don't forget about the Cha'alt Game Jam (allowing you to create your own content), Cha'alt for the holidays hardcover book sale (only 2 days left), and VENGER CON II (this July in Madison, WI).