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.

Crystals of Chaos [session report #11]

 

I'm going to make this short and sweet because time is running out.

3 players because of summer absences.  It happens.  Still a great game, and 3 players was enough to get by.  Crandol, Jackal, and Heighten Chancery Philthrop III.  Let's do this...

More than 2 weeks elapsed since our last session, so there was some recapping and deciding what happened to the PCs who weren't there.  Robard and Zagreus were back on the ship.  The camera crew, Vanessa, and Ka'arl were with the adventurers exploring the magenta saturated caves and tunnels of Cremza'amirikza'am.

They found the source of the magenta illumination, felt the good vibrations, and a whole bunch of hanky-panky happening in this cave.  I thought they already explored this area, so reminded them that this machine is why levels 1 and 2 look this way and why everyone's so horny all the time.  But I might have been thinking of another group.  At worst, I ruined the surprise.  But at least now it makes sense to them.  Well, more sense than it did prior to this point.

I believe a tentacled, three-breasted woman caressed the halfling's neck suggestively and they hooked up against a nearby cave wall.  The half-orc also took his pleasure where he could find it.  There are in-game bonuses, after all.  

Meanwhile, a dark elf filmed much of what was going on for an OnlyFans account, and then began filming the camera crew as they were filming him.  Inception!

I decided to roll on a few random tables available for Cremza'amirikza'am.  There was a Cha'altquake, some rocks fell, and a demon girl flirted with them in a tunnel... plus, the exotic fragrances of this megadungeon.

Wasn't long before the PCs finally ran into the fried chicken shack and whorehouse they'd been looking for.  The one Vanessa, their traveling companion, had the legal right to, bequeathed by her uncle.  The PCs found the current proprietor and made him an offer he couldn't refuse.  So, he left with this life and a bucket of greasy chicken.

With Vanessa newly installed as the boss of Breasts, Legs, and Thighs, the adventurers kept exploring (after having their fill of fried chicken and prostitutes, of course).

They rescued a young man who goes by the name Teddy Westside.  Several humanoids dressed in "skeleton spandex" outfits were throwing daggers against the wall, with him already shackled to it.  Once freed, he decided to join the party.  Especially, since he knew his way around.  Ted could act as a guide.  What could go wrong?

The party snuck up to a cave where Teddy Westside's former master, the warlord K'chava was having a celebration.  While hatching the perfect plan, Ted decides to implement what he's overheard so far straight away.  So, he runs in, says something insulting to K'chava, and runs out for the PCs to thwack him.

K'chava was a match for them, but his lieutenants were bush league. The PCs had them all down within 3 or 4 rounds.  The warlord has a massive amount of crystals, which the PCs took with them.  Crystals, along with finding Commander Andrak, was their prime reason for entering Cremza'amirikza'am.

Then, they found a zipper running along a tunnel wall and found an opening to hyperspace.  Weird!

Not long after, the halfling wanted to check out this dark cave with soft moaning issuing from it.  "There might be jewels in there," he said.  Just at that moment, a brilliant plan entered into my head.  As Heighten Chancery Philthrop III crept inside, I told him that he saw a good sized ruby glittering in the darkness.  "Oh yeah, that's more like it," he said, half-expecting to simply find more lovemaking.  "See, I told you there might be gems in here."

At that point, I described his realization that the ruby was the jeweled backside of a butt-plug already inside a woman's posterior as she had her front half busy with the humanoid in front of her.  Disappointed, the halfling left the cave, rejoining the rest of the party.

The PCs fought a half-dozen dark elf slavers who were being forced to mine crystals.  It was a touch battle and unfortunately Ka'arl got shot with a laser blast right through his eye.  His was the only party death this session.  They just barely conquered the slavers (the leader called a giant worm with a conch shell that helped the drow in battle), and were hatching a plan to keep the slaves for themselves.

Unfortunately, Teddy Westside, who was elsewhere when the PCs were scheming, started yelling out that the slaves were free and told them to enjoy their freedom as he high-fived them all on their way out of the crystal cave.  The adventurers were a little upset, but couldn't stay mad at Ted.

There was a secondary fried bat (chicken of the cave) and bordello at this end of level 2.  So, they told everyone there that they were now working for Vanessa, or they could die.  

Finally, the PCs came across a few scientists and technicians who were trying to impregnate some humanoids with a xenomorph in a nearby cave.  That ended terribly for them because if the Crimson Bastards like to do anything, it's to fuck shit up.  And fuck shit up they did!

After everyone was dead, we wrapped the session up there for next time.  I hope that in two weeks, we'll have a party of 5 again.  Until then, thanks for reading, hoss!  Our condolences go out to Ka'arl.  I'm sure there'll be a memorial back on Jefferson.  

VS

Game with us at VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo this July 21st - 23rd in Madison, WI.  Weekend badges still available!  And if you want to get your slimy tentacles on my signed and numbered, hardcover Cha'alt books, ordering details are right over here.

Cha'alt Session Report [roll20 interlude]

 

We made it to eleven... seems like every single session is a wonderful new milestone.  But wait!  I've got another session to report on first.

A couple days prior to session 11 of our Crystals of Chaos campaign, I ran a virtual one-shot on Roll20 for 4 players (one of whom had to leave early because of his work/sleep schedule).

The details of that 90-minute game aren't that consequential.  However, while I was running it, I took notes of moments that were worth remembering from a Game Mastering standpoint.  What to do, what not to do, gut insights from the mind of a vocational GM, called to do this sort of thing by a higher power!

If you like books on GMing advice, my latest is called Advanced Game Mastering Like A Fucking Boss.  Let's go (in no particular order)!

The shorter your time-frame, the greater your coincidences can be...

The PCs were trying to find a strip club.  So, after hours of wandering the desert, they find someone who had actually been to one before!  He led them a few more hours over the S'kbah wasteland, and then the PCs happened to hear a man screaming as he was being sucked into a zarla'ac pit.  And that guy they saved (by killing the creature) had just stepped outside the Gamma Incel Cantina to take a piss.  

Coincidences, yes... many in a row, but, you see, we only had an hour and a half to play, so... it's fine.  Call it narrative logic or dramatic pacing or just laugh at how it all unfolds.  The alternative is actual fucking realism where you just keep trekking over sand dunes until Willy Wonka appears (as a mirage), saying "You get nothing.  You lose.  Good day, sir!"

Encouragement...

Some of these players were noobs.  I'm not sure why, maybe the friendly hand-wavy atmosphere I suggest in my synopsis of the sessions, but I almost always get one or more players who are either brand new to roleplaying or new to Roll20 in general.  

Anyway, I try to softly, imperceptibly educate players while we play.  I told the players that their characters were walking a great distance and for them to let me know what they were talking about on their journey.  

One PC chimed in, starting the conversation, and then another said something... there was a few seconds (this was text-only, BTW) of nothing, so I interjected some encouragement.  I said something like, "This is good stuff.  Yeah, keep it going.  I'll be back in a minute, just going to pee," or whatever.  And they did.  Having in-character conversations during the game is, in my opinion, something every GM should actively encourage.

Don't wait if you don't have to...

It might seem rude to describe stuff in a way that paints a picture and tells a story for everyone while one player is still figuring out how to tie his character's shoes, but the show must go on.  

By that I mean, let's say the adventuring party just entered a wild and perverted space tavern in the middle of the deep desert.  One player says he wants to get the bartender's attention so he can order a drink.  Another player wants to hang around the bar, trying to listen to people's conversations covertly.  Let's say a third PC bumps into a mysterious dark figure and a fight ensues.  

As a GM, you might say, "You all can hear fighting words being spoken, loud enough over the mellow tones of zita'ar music.  A scuffle is about to start between a black clad stranger and Korath.  What do you do?"  

If the PC trying to order a drink doesn't respond right away (which frequently happens in a text-only game) or isn't interested for whatever reason - "I'm still trying to get a frothy glass of Purple Prizm." -  don't hold up the game.  Something exciting is happening - follow through.  Don't wait for everyone to be on board!

Focus on primordial details...

Instead of getting real specific or using "accurate" details based on how something was described in a book or how it appeared in that one episode of a TV show, use words that paint a deeper, primordial picture in one's mind.  

Instead of trying to get the surface image just right, go for the essence that lays beneath that surface... imagery that pre-dates whatever you're attempting to reference.  For example, I described a patron of the Gamma Incel Cantina as "a cloaked figure with glowing red eyes and a scaly, scarred visage."  Did I give a super-accurate description, detailing his exact race or class or where he buys his clothes?  No, I simply gave a vague impression based on the mood I was trying to invoke.  

Remember, kids, the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear... and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown!  That's from H.P. Lovecraft, if you didn't know.  By employing primordial imagery, we're tapping into that ancient emotional template.

Go in the direction the PCs point you...

This one is so obvious, I almost didn't mention it.  There's a distinction between doing whatever your players or the PCs want you to do, and picking-up on their desires.  It's like buying whatever your kids ask for while you're shopping at the mall versus responding to a casual conversation your children are having in a separate room about what they really want for Christmas this year.

Earlier in the adventure, I had planned on the PCs stumbling onto a cave filled with cool weirdness, perils, and treasure.  However, multiple PCs had mentioned wanting to locate a "strip club" multiple times.  So, it seemed a shame not to change gears and go in that direction.  Remember, this doesn't mean you have to bend to whatever your players want.  Just be open to their influence.  Let them inspire you as EVERYBODY has a hand (or tentacle) in creating the story.

Narrate stuff that happened earlier...

I've got two examples of this.  First, a thief tried to do some thieving.  I even gave him Advantage due to favorable circumstances.  He failed miserably (this wasn't his first failed attempt at thieving, either), which led me to say, "Yeah, you suck as a thief. Maybe that's why your friends back home said you should have been a warrior."  

I was also playing on the fact that the player had chosen his thief's race as a half-orc.  Which led to the player replying with, "Mom wanted me to be a thief.  I wanted to be a dancer."  A quick-witted and funny response that actually adds a lot of character depth, which is just one form of immersion.  

Second example!  Along the way, the PCs picked-up a couple of NPCs.  The first was a fellow traveler who led them to Gamma Incel Cantina.  The second was the guy they rescued, Garsh. 

As things started heating up at the climax of the session, I neglected to mention what the NPCs were doing, which is pretty standard.  When the shit hits the fan, it's got to be up to the PCs first and foremost.  NPCs should always remain side-characters.  

The adventurers were making their getaway, and one player asked about the NPCs.  I told him the one (I'm not going to use his name, because I recycled it for something else I'm publishing very soon) stayed but that Garsh "decided to stay behind, but he high-fived everyone before you left."  

I created a detail that they could visualize of something that happened earlier in the game that didn't get mentioned until now.  Who cares, someone might say, sounds like a throwaway line?  Well yeah, but they're almost all throwaway lines... add up enough throwaway lines and you've actually got something amazing that's more than the sum of its parts.

___________

Ok, so, this blog post got out of hand!  I didn't expect to write so much.  The actual session report for Crystals of Chaos will have to wait a day or two.

Hope some of this was entertaining and/or enlightening.  If you have any questions, let me know.  And if you want to "talk shop" in-person before a game, immediately after, while we're sitting across from each other eating a chicken sandwich, or drinking a beer at the hotel bar... come on down to VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo, my Madison, WI convention happening next month (July 21st - 23rd).  Weekend badges still available!

VS

p.s.  I have signed and numbered hardcover Cha'alt books available, as well.  And they're on sale, hoss!  Get 'em right over here!!!

Griffith Morgan, Guest of Honor at VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo

 

This year’s Special Guest at VENGER CON is none other than Griffith Morgan.

Griff is the co-director of, Secrets of Blackmoor the documentary on the origin of role playing games. He also has co-authored the RPG book, The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg. This book features Greg Svenson’s dungeon from 1973 that had been thought lost for 35 years.

Griff’s interests lie in preserving older games and game play. He is running  a variety of games that come from the time when RPGs were first being created.

Planned Events...

Fletcher Pratt’s, Naval Wargame (1937)

This is a rules-lite ship to ship combat game that simulates WWI and WWIi naval engagements. Each player will get a chance to captain a battle ship in this fast playing game. The miniatures used in this session come from the personal collection of Dan Nicholson who was one of the original players in Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor campaign. Fletcher Pratt is considered an influence on D&D because many claim this is the game where Hit Points were first used for tracking damage.

Dave Arneson’s, Battle in the Skies (1973)

This is an unpublished manuscript of rules that were redacted from original D&D because Gygax felt they were too long to be included in small format D&D booklets. Based on Mike Carr’s, Fight in the Skies, the game simulates fantasy combat between airborne creatures over the town of Blackmoor. As a war game style simulation it features all kinds of creatures from vampires and balrogs, to gargoyles and dragons.

The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg (1973)

This is a very old dungeon. In fact, it is so old that it predates the publication of Dungeons & Dragons. Join a party of adventurers and explore the depths of antiquity in an old School ‘Grip it and Rip it’ style dungeon dive. If you’ve never played original D&D, this is your chance to experience what it was like to play the game when it was first released, in a time when rulings mattered more than rules.

Secrets of Blackmoor (documentary)

Blackmoor is the name of a fictional world created by David Arneson in 1971. It is also the prototype for Dungeons & Dragons, the first published role playing game. Unlike other fantasy worlds, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, Blackmoor is a living world that is being explored to this day.

In 2012 a film crew set out on a 6 and a half year journey in order to discover who invented role playing games. They visited 12 cities, shot 200 hours of footage, and examined 20,000 documents and photos, the answer to their quest may surprise you.

Come watch the documentary film and discover The True History of Dungeons and Dragons.

There will be a Q&A session with the both movie makers following the screening.

__________

Share this where you can, so we can top last year's attendance numbers!  Again, here's the link for info and weekend badges... VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo.

Thanks,

VS

Game Hole Con Boycott

 

Ok, this is yet another blog post I didn't want to write.

To put it simply, the latest LGBTQIAP+ flag, that most recently pushes transgenderism, is a highly political and highly partisan symbol of the radical-left.  It doesn't mean inclusion, in the normal sense of the word.

To many of us who aren't deep-blue progressive Democrats, this flag/symbol is (forgive the redundancy) anti-conservative, anti-Republican, anti-centrist, anti-moderate, anti-Christian, anti-Catholic, anti-science, anti-woman, anti-American, and anti-reality.

It's the symbol that says straight, white men (and everyone who's ok with them) need not apply.  In fact, many who fly that flag hate us and want us to go away... or worse.

Well, I do not condone the indoctrination of weird sex fetishes and proclivities for children.  I do not condone child sex-change operations.  I do not condone the practice of grooming.  I do not condone the terrorism we've seen over the last few years... violent political activism forcing itself on the rest of us.

If Game Hole Con wants to fly their Pride Community flag, that's their right, but I'm not ok with it.  Until things change, I'm not going to attend that gaming convention, or any gaming convention that openly supports and endorses radical-leftism.

I'm out.  Oh yeah, I also made a video.

In the meantime, I do have a substitute.  The 2nd year of VENGER CON is happening next month (July 21st - 23rd) in Madison, WI.  It's much smaller, but we won't push wokeness on you.  The choice is yours!

Sincerely,

Venger As'Nas Satanis

High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing & Arch-Duke of the OSR

p.s. If you can't make it to VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo, then I recommend purchasing one or more luxury hardcover Cha'alt books right over here.

The Violet-Haunted Crypt

 

Well, I did it.  

You can't get this at DriveThruRPG, only the following independent webstores.  

It's a free Cha'alt adventure that I'm hoping will drive more traffic to the little PDF retailers who're trying to compete with the behemoth eating up 95% of the marketshare.

So, what is The Violet-Haunted Crypt?  It's 30 pages of full-color gonzo, eldritch, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse!  

You get some Cha'alt lore (including a cat girl race for PCs), start in the city, there's a dungeon, and I highlight this NPC that's a cross between Leisure Suit Larry, Kramer, and Pierce Hawthorne.  Perfect for the GM who wants to get a little wild and crazy with his game's social interaction (without taking anything away from the PCs themselves)!

And the cartography is truly something special - simple, elegant, and covered in violet, radioactive jizz.  ;)

• The Red Room has it here.
• Big Geek Emporium over here.
• Giant Slayer Games (which may not be open yet) right here.

All the artwork (including the cover) was made using Midjourney A.I.  God damn, I love that shit!

Since it's not only free, but totally fucking awesome, I hope many of you run right out and download it.  Be sure to let everyone know what you think... reviews, blog comments, social media, the works!

VS

p.s.  Looking for more players (we honestly have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to GMs) at VENGER CON.  Grab your ticket while it's still available!  Also, don't forget about the Cha'alt webcomic Kickstarter.

Crystals of Chaos [session report #10]

 

We made it to X, hoss!  That's an exciting milestone for the 2023 Cha'alt campaign.

Still doing levels every other session.  I'm finally getting to see what 5th, 6th, and 7th level characters can do in Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 for the first fucking time!   I'm happy to say that they're hardier and stronger, but not so much that it breaks the game or makes it incredibly difficult for the GM.  So, mission accomplished, I guess.

I also came to a conclusion just before the session started.  Regarding personality and roleplaying, I want maximum flexibility and autonomy with a minimum of keeping track of shit.  I have enough to remember, juggling at least 16 balls in the air simultaneously, without all the stuff that the players themselves are supposed to be in charge of - roleplaying their character.

So, I'm still going to reward players throughout the session with Divine Favor (if an hour or two has gone by and I've forgotten about it, please remind me), but not going to implement any kind of personality alignment in the form of vices, virtues, obsessions, or character expectations.  That's entirely the player's purview.  I don't want to keep bogging the system down with extra rules or anything that gets in the way of "arcade-mode D&D."

Ok, we were down to 4 players because of vacation and family issues.

I really need to keep all my campaign notes in one spot.  I have about 3 places that I use, ensuring that I'll never have exactly what I need in front of me when it's needed.  For instance, there was a short message carved into the obelisk from last session that no one could remember... and, of course, the notes in front of me were not from that session.  It was irritating, but nothing too horrible.  The players sometimes take notes, too, but no one brought them to the game.  Yeah... 

Anyway, overall good session.  One additional detail before I forget, I got my Mom a big cathedral-style amethyst geode for Mother's Day the next day (Sunday).  Since I needed someplace to store the amethyst, I perched it atop one of my bookshelves in the game room.  That kept it away from the kids while also giving our play space some much needed crystalline awesome-juice.

Ok, let me recap what happened...

The PCs had slept back on their starship Jefferson and then teleported back to Cremza'amirikza'am once they had sufficiently rested.  As we were going through the logistics, I had an idea.  Sorcerers should be able to spend an extra point of vitality to preserve spells in a sort of "background readiness" until they're needed.  So, that's a rule now.  Robard did precisely that in order to keep his portal preserved for when they wanted to exit.  Hmm... maybe this is something that wizards of 5th level or higher can pull off?

So, they got back to the megadungeon saturated with magenta illumination.  They wandered around, finding a cave behind a purple energy barrier.  It was translucent, and could see a bunch of dudes sitting on beanbag chairs with high tech helmets over their head and face with a big sign that read "PornHub" in the background.  They chose to explore elsewhere.  FYI, this isn't in Cremza'amirikza'am as written, but something I pulled from my upcoming free adventure that will be released to several smaller PDF retailers tomorrow (5/15/23).  It's called The Violet-Haunted Crypt.

Speaking of magenta illumination, I used the special magenta lamp in the game room after dimming the lights.  And the lurid, sleazy effect it had on the session was palpable.  So, if you happen to run Cremza'amirikza'am at some point, I HIGHLY recommend including the appropriate ambiance for the first three levels.

The party found a bunch of wasp-men bodies, along with some leftover hexagonal honeycomb currency (that tasted like honey).  They stumbled upon turquoise cacti with orange spines and flowers (that tasted like orange chicken).  While the rest of the party experimented with the unusual flora, Zemit rubbed his detachable penis onto a large magenta crystal embedded in the rock wall.  Why?  Because he wanted to impress Vanessa.  Robard told him he didn't have to go to all that trouble, since the sorcerer could simply cast glamor on him and the magenta resonations would do the rest.

Sure enough, Zemit took a little walk with Vanessa and got the job done.

Then, they fought an adolescent clown-worm that kept nauseously bellowing about pina coladas and vaginas.  The party probably would have moved along if not for the stairs down to level 2 behind it.

The battle was significant because the PCs, being short-handed and all, were afraid they might not be able to best the clown-worm.  It managed to crit on one of the NPC banana-men servants of Vanessa (who inherited a fried chicken and brothel establishment on the 2nd level of the megadungeon), and the sight was glorious.  The clown-worm's tentacles squeezed the mush out of the banana-man, then messily scooped what had been squeezed out into its mouth, and finally proceeded to tongue-rape the empty peel with its infernal appendage.  Before that moment, I started counting how many times Robard's player said "gross."  By the session's end, I managed to rack up 8 times.  All of them well earned.  Yes, that's pride swelling in my pants... pure pride!  ;)

Without Robard's "natural 6" fireball, I'm not sure the PCs would have made it.  He did a whopping 60 points of damage right from the get-go.  Jackal stabbed and the thieves used their blasters to finish the job.

After defeating the clown-worm as it began to liquify, Robard (upon rolling a natural 20 on his "arcane senses" check - which I just made-up on the spot) detected a powerful magic item inside the corpse.  It was the god-slayer trident of legend.  They used it to create a chromatic zoth from the clown-worm's blood enchanted by the trident.

Robard drank the chromatic zoth, experienced visions, got an extra point of Divine Favor as the Old Ones said "What up?," and became extremely paranoid for some time afterwards... which Robard's player portrayed excellently (without needing any meta-game hoohaha).

The clown-worm had been guarding the stairs to level 2.  So, the PCs went down.  Zagreus was the only one who stepped on a landmine (but thankfully he was skilled enough to disengage it before the thing went off).  Then they disturbed a few giant vampire bats and slew them.  Oh yeah, they encountered a banana-man walking his banana-pet who was eating a naturally growing banana from the cave floor.  The banana-man also carried a sign that read "The unknowable banana-Gods are angry.  The end is nigh."  Not wanting to see a prophecy go unfulfilled, Jackal decided to try out his trident.  The banana-man was easily slain as his banana-pet ran off into the magenta darkness.  Will we see it again?

I like to include one or more humanoid tribes living "naturally" within my megadungeons, and Cremza'amirikza'am is no exception.  The PCs interacted with a nudist colony down there led by Ron Jeremy (circa 1983).  They got information about Commander Andrak who had crossed through their asking about a powerful artifact the day before.

They also went into the "smash cave," a name I borrowed from The Jersey Shore.  They had a "smash room" where members of the Jersey Shore house would hook-up, away from the other roommates.  This cave was also filled with crystals... cleansing crystals that gave off healing energy.  

Ron Jeremy (BTW, I had to prompt Midjourney with Rob Jeremy because of their stupid anti-porn restrictions) showed someone, can't remember who, a "dimensional peephole" that allowed remote viewing of the smash cave.  I was told that was actually scrying, but dimensional peephole sounded more appropriate.  Everyone at the table agreed.

Robard wanted to keep going, in part because of his cosmic paranoia.  But the rest of the party convinced him at knife-point to partake in the nudist colony's hospitality.  After an hour or so of fellatio, soothing chimes, and good vibrations, the adventurers felt entirely relaxed and cleansed. 

There was a cave painting there, too.  It depicted some really cool, potentially game-changing Cha'alt lore that I was excited to introduce into the campaign.

As zoth is the Great Old One ichor that spilled out of the dead gods, revitalizing the planet and making sorcery widespread as in Cha'alt's golden age, the essence or soul-energy escaping to another universe was filtered through the very rock, imbuing crystals with power.

The PCs made the connection between their purple labyrinth H.P. Lovecraft visitation and this new discovery - if the spiritual energy of the Old Ones is somehow locked inside Cha'alt's crystals, then maybe they shouldn't be using them to fuel their starship and other various technologies.  Heighten Chancery Philthrop III made the counter-argument that perhaps using the crystals released the rest of the Old Ones' essence into space.  I don't think anyone else in the party was wholly convinced of that.

Something for all of us to ponder in the coming days...

Before long, the PCs (still chilling in the smash cave) heard the distinctive sound of spurs clinking and clanking.  They walked to the cave entrance to see a bounty hunter wearing an even more distinctive deep v-neck poncho with tendril fringe in traditional southwestern hues.  

The bounty hunter was looking for a thief and former bartender named Zemitorius.  If the PCs handed him over, he'd give them 500 gold pieces (about half of what he was worth, but the bounty hunter didn't mention that part).  They asked what he did, and the bounty hunter told them a little story.  

Back when Zemit was a bartender, he fucked a watermelon and then used that watermelon to serve fancy drinks on Korgoth's sail-barge (Korgoth was a retired adventurer who is "better than you in every way" according to Colin who created him for that playtest in Cha'alt he ran last weekend).

For that much gold, the PCs gave him up (since he wasn't exactly a member of the party or that useful).  Robard put him back into the crystal orb where he belongs, but not before relieving Zemit of his detachable penis.

After Zemit was back in the crystal sphere and handed over to the bounty hunter, Zagreus noticed a little orange button on the side of the detachable penis.  He pushed it, emitting a holograph like Princess Leia, except that it was Zemit himself bequeathing his most prized possession to his good pals who must have survived him.  It was his crystal-rimmed jaccard hidden inside the detachable penis.

Everyone had a good laugh because of the call-back to my improvised creation of some fictional thieves' tool that nobody had ever heard of, except for my character Charkuteri in that aforementioned playtest.

The last bit of the session was spent fighting a gigantic mutant crab (technically godlike, so Jackal was able to use the trident's god-killing +5 bonus).  After a small fireball and taking a claw to the leg, Robard was weakened enough to get the fuck out of there, back to the smash cave.  The rest of the party remained to kick its ass.  Zagreus almost went down after the crab scored a critical hit, and then Jackal got one of his own, pulverizing the poor excuse for a crustacean god.

In its fishy lair, there was a magical shield of sandworms attacking starships in the sky.  When anointed with humanoid blood, opponents are at a Disadvantage when targeting the shield bearer (lasts for 20 minutes).

That's it.  Thanks for reading.  In two weeks, we shall continue with yet another session.

VS

p.s. We're running out of time for VENGER CON, so get your tickets while you can!  The Kickstarter is still going for the Cha'alt webcomic Under Fuchsia Ska'ai, with a top backer tier including the Cha'alt hardcover trilogy.

I Got To Play

 

Not only was I a player for the first time in forever (damn you for ruining that phrase, Frozen!), but the adventure was set in Cha'alt.  Hot damn, it's like Xma'as and my birthday all rolled into one.

FYI, my reason for virtually never playing is not because I can't find a game.  It's because I prefer being the Game Master.  But once in a blue moon is a real treat, so thanks to my Cha'alt bro (Yog-brother) Colin for GMing.  And he used some kind of Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 / Into The Odd (I think he said) hack he came up with himself.  Very cool.

The hack was interesting.  Legitimately interesting because that's a failing on my part as a game designer.  I use what I like, what comes naturally to me, or that I've gleaned from osmosis by happenstance.  I don't get to see "what's out there" as much as the average gamer.  You get too much yin, you start losing your yang.  Tradeoffs, hoss.  I'm talking about tradeoffs.  So it goes...

I can see why the resource die is popular.  And rolling automatically for damage is also neat.  I get why he ditched it.  On a miss, almost literally nothing happens.  That's usually boring (though advanced GMs find a way around that sort of thing).  But the extra book keeping and immersion breaking (at least as a novice to the system) was jarring.  And the "leveling up" after nearly every combat related encounter was weird.  For a one-shot where you're fast-tracking experience and character growth it could make sense, but I'd probably still stop at one PC "growth spurt" per session.

Oh well.  For those who like that type of thing, now there's a little more - and it's related Crimson Dragon Slayer and Cha'alt.  Cool.  Learn more about Colin's hack here!

I played a warrior demon with a big (but not ridiculously massive, I stipulated) two-handed obsidian sword named Vanessa that makes that Tie-Fighter scream when attacking my foes.  That reminds me, some great GMing advice I heard from Colin's mouth during the game was "Highlight what makes players cool."  Now, I've heard similar stuff spewed here and there on the internet, but it's not the type of thing that ever just pops-up in a game.  Mostly, that kind of stuff sticks to the ivory tower intellectual RPG forums and stays there.  In any case, it's a truism.  Always glad to have a reminder of the truth... in action, no less.

I won't give too much away, except to say that it felt like my Cha'alt mixed with Red Dead Redemption.  Crimson Gulch, Deadwood, weird looking tentacled cows?  Yes, I'm here for it!  So, maybe kind of like a Firefly Gamma World?  The beginning was awesome, the middle dragged simply due to the fact that it was clearly meant to join the first and last part together into a single scenario.  There wasn't much for us to do, except get settled and prepare for exploration of the ruins nearby.  And the end was awesome, but maybe a bit linear and rushed.  I'd simply love to see it expanded.

Basically, a first-class draft.  I don't think Colin will mind me saying these things since it was declared a playtest for some future convention game, and it was the first playtest of that adventure... and that specific rule-set.

Anyways, back to the adventure.  I was joined by a reptilian sorcerer named Izurass (badass name) and an orc thief named Winslow Fivepence (I need backstory on Steve's choice of names for Cha'alt characters).

We got to have some tavern time, wandering the bazar, ambushing some marauders chasing us, have sex with a busty dark-elf prostitute (thanks, hoss!), kill some undead centurions from a ruined civilization millennia ago, tangle with the Mandalorian, pass Gozer's test, drink from "mechanical elf" moon juice or maybe it was finely aged zoth, awaken the kaiju, and we didn't let the guy we were hired to keep alive die.

I especially liked the colorful NPCs (literally and figuratively) and the way Colin GMed them.  Well done, my good sir!

As for my character, Charkuteri (there's a Cha'altian umlaut, which makes a triad, above the "u") the demon warrior, I think I roleplayed him well.  I finally had the chance to take a page out of my book, Play Your Character Like A Fucking Boss.  For example, when this Arabic themed... hang on, let me interject something first. 

Oh yeah, Colin asked me what a fancy, learned historian of the court would wear since this is my world and all.  I thought for a moment and said "Golden embroidery on his robes"... then a few moments later added "and a ridiculously oversized 'flock of seagulls' type collar."  Which, admittedly, is not something GMs ask the typical player.

In the next scene there was a vaguely Arabic merchant of trinkets and baubles, his tent appeared in the bazar as if my magic.  Inside, he sat upon pillows, smoking a hookah, and making smoke images from his exhalations with the colored smoke.  In character, I asked him if he could make a smoke-monkey.  He did, which led the merchant to pass his hookah over to the reptilian sorcerer who inhaled and breathed out a sandworm.  Wild!

After that introduction to the magnificently turbaned merchant, our orc thief inquired about specialized thieves' tools.  In character, I told him that back in Kra'adumek, I knew a thief who's favorite instrument of trade was a crystal rimmed jaccard.  That was just something I made up in the moment, and it helped carry the social interaction forward.  Did it make or break the game?  Of course not, it was just a throw-away line because why not?  Like throwing pebbles into the lake, or in the case of Cha'alt, throwing sand into the wind, you do it just to see what happens.  If something blossoms from that moment, awesome!  And if it doesn't, that's cool.  All those moments, like tears in the rain, hoss!

And then later, we passed by a priest in the near distance performing some ritual, and he gave the "blessings of the great tentacle" hand gesture.  I did the same.  Not for any monetary reward or advantage in the game, it didn't benefit anyone or change anything, but I felt a deeper kinship with Cha'alt... and that's (partly) what it's all about.

Interacting with the details the GM creates is part of what makes a great player.  The world is there to engage with, not just remain a convenient backdrop for the scene's primary goal or reason for being.  The campaign setting lives and breathes independently of scenario concerns.

Anyway, I asked Colin about how it felt to run Cha'alt and this is what he said...

"Surreal experience being able to ask the guy who wrote the thing 'how this or that' might work in the setting.  Pop culture references are 'in genre' for Cha'alt, riffing off of familiar pop culture references made it fun to write content for and create in-the-moment decisions as a GM.  It's like a core tool or principle of the game, you're allowed to just drop in Gozer where appropriate, or add a 'totally not' Boba Fett character in that you didn't expect to need."

Ok, I'll leave you with some interesting thingamabobs and quotes...

• "All the best neon signs... fast drinks, loose times."
• The tavern was called The Sullied Unicorn, and the logo was a unicorn getting railed with cartoonishly swirly eyes.
• Psychedelic elves.
• "Tuskan orc raiders looking like Cha'altian steampunk."
• "I shall name this reptilian riding spider Bastian."

Thanks for reading, everyone!  Next session of the Crystals of Chaos campaign is happening next Saturday.

VS

p.s. I've got a new Kickstarter to help pay for this amazing Cha'alt webcomic I've been working on with Jae Tanaka.  July is approaching... will I see some of you in Madison, WI for VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo?  I hope so.  Attendance is limited so grab your ticket today!

Crystals of Chaos [session report #9]

 

So much going on right now... so much!

Not only did Neckbeardia do his video of Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise, but RPG Pundit finally got around to reviewing Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows here.  I've got a few interesting things to say about the latter (in my own YouTube video), but just super pleased and excited about both.

I just (literally a few minutes ago) launched my 25th Kickstarter to help fund one or more webcomics for Cha'alt, Alpha Blue, and the Purple Islands.  Check it out!!!  And to help boost things along and build an audience for my eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse world, I'm giving away the Cha'alt PDF for free as long as the KS is running.

Last week, I ran another Cha'alt one-shot on Roll20.  This one lasted a bit longer than my usual 90-minutes.  It went almost two hours.  I know that sounds like chump-change to many of you, but since my virtual Cha'alt sessions are 1) text only, 2) "D&D" in arcade-mode via Crimson Dragon Slayer D20, and 3) GMed by a fucking boss, we covered a lot of ground in that time.

I won't go into too many details since parts of this adventure will show up in a brand new scenario I'll be releasing in a couple weeks on smaller retailer platforms - more info on Project Badass here.

This one got into alternative timelines and dimensions in the Cha'alt multiverse - [say it in the voice of Brian Blessed as Vultan from Flash Gordon]  "Kra'adumek's alive?!?"  Yes, the purple or violet, depending on who you ask, alien demon-worm exists in a parallel universe.  The PCs got so drunk last night that they fell through a portal into this similar Cha'alt reality.  More civil unrest as the violet revolution has taken its toll on the purple priests and the city-state itself.  

Lots of fun was had; 4 players (a couple noobs and a couple guys familiar with my campaign setting).  

And of course, there was another session of the face-to-face Crystals of Chaos game that I run out of my house every other weekend.  That was also a great time, let me share it with you...

Two players had family commitments, so there was me and four players - Jackal, Ro-Robard the Red, Crandol, and Heighten Chancery Philthrop III.

Jefferson lost power for a few seconds and then its starship thrusters came back online.  The disruption surprised everyone.  Crandol took a rubix cube to the face, Heighten's extra-long purple glass bong shattered, etc.  Ka'arl came out eating a banana (raw), Sa'ab held Cha'alt: The Board Game under his arm, and Lady Ska'ai walked into the central hub naked (her fuchsia skin glistening with sweat) holding a double-headed zoth-colored dong.

Oh yeah, before the power loss, Ro-Robard was trying to get the thief out of that crystal sphere he picked up way back in either session one or two.  And he managed it - an elf thief who is also a communist conspiracy theorist and wearing a banana costume and fake moustache.  So, obviously he fit right in with the rest of the crew.

The upshot was that Jefferson needed crystals to refuel.  While not having enough energy to reach The Black Skull in his mother's basement, halfway around the planet, the PCs didn't have much choice but to land near where the ship detected lots of crystals.

This led them to the lost city - entrance of Cremza'amirikza'am.  A Federation ornothopter was being guarded by a red-shirt which Heighten interrogated with a knife to his throat then let him go off into the desert.  Apparently, Commander Andrak who got away at the end of last session was searching for an artifact or device that could destroy Cha'alt from the inside out.  He and his crack elite squad of Federation commandos had a 6-hour head-start. 

At the platform covering the 90-minute walk down a dark stone stairway was a three-man film crew including the director Francois, Smek the camera guy, and Shek who carried the boom-mic.  They were looking for a party of adventurers they could follow around and film, documentary style.  The PCs said sure, and away they went.  

Ok, I forgot something else.  Let's back up a bit.  I've been reading more about the Red Room's wretched alignment system, and wanted to give it a try for my Cha'alt game.  So, I asked each player to pick two from the fourteen possible virtues and vices.  When a character roleplayed that, he'd get a point of Divine Favor (for those curious, this is a different way of handling it than the Red Room).  Well, it worked about as well as inspiration in 5e.  Which is to say that it's a lot for the GM to remember during play and players are hesitant to ask for any kind of bonus.  Also, how do you weigh an off-hand comment of three or four words?  Is that enough to warrant Divine Favor?  Do you wait until more has been contributed in the next 30 minutes?  Do you ask the player to provide additional roleplaying?

After the session, I came up with a revised plan for the vice/virtue stuff.  You can read about that at the end of this blog post.  Oh yeah, the PCs also decided to call themselves The Crimson Bastards!

When the vibe is there and I'm on a roll, I have a lot of fun roleplaying NPCs, and I had no shortage of people to impersonate this session... from Zemit the elf thief (who stayed on board Jefferson and got his rocks off with Lady Ska'ai since she was obviously horny and he hadn't seen a woman since being imprisoned in that crystal sphere.  There was a lock-pick hanging from the bedroom doorknob - will they have a pink baby?) to this priest of Kort'thalis who wanted to be mentored by the halfling thief until they finally killed the bastard (it took like 3 attempts).

The biggest and most dramatic scene was a return to the purple labyrinth (this will be featured in a new Cha'alt zine coming out in June).  They met a representative of Yog-Soggoth; this lime-green skinned humanoid looked suspiciously like H.P. Lovecraft.  He reminded the adventurers of the first commandment tentacled down to them aeons ago - Keep to the old ways!  In the ancient tongue, it's Ium koola'ad venriz, which means "reject modernity, embrace tradition."  

Furthermore, he told them to not turn their back on destiny while also easing-up on the technology, spacefaring, and contamination of alien cultures.  To make it even more dramatic, Robard returned as his former self - all flesh, no part of him was cyborg or crystalline (though he might still retain a fetish or two).  For the rest of the session, the PCs went back and forth on just how much they might have strayed from the eye of the needle and justified the occasional use of Jefferson, Alpha Blue, etc.  So, it had a lot of impact.

The rest of this adventure was exploring the Cremza'amirikza'am megadungeon.  I did my best to make it new with a fresh coat of reimagined paint, since at least one player had already explored the first level in a prior adventure. 

The party met a redhead with three banana-men servants looking for a chicken shack and brothel on level two.  "Free sex and a bucket of fried chicken - the sweet life!"

They almost got blown-up by a cultist's thermal detonator (merely sustaining heavy damage and had to make do without their priest).  They looted a cool new magic item in the shape of a chartreuse crystal sphere with fuchsia veins called Occam's anti-razor.  "Nothing like a veiny orb."

And then they encountered a demon who was parading around with a giant slab of pineapple that had little slices of pizza on it.  "Where's your God now?"  They killed the demon, took his talisman, and decided to rest back at their ship as Robard teleported them.

That's pretty much it.  I did technically include a Floridian belt buckle somewhere in that session, but the players didn't find it.  And I'll do my best to keep including the Floridian belt buckle trope into EVERY DAMN CHA'ALT SESSION EVER as long as I remember to, of course.

Funny and/or awesome lines...

• Once Robard became fully human again, he remembered that he'd need to change his business cards - "Hello, Vistaprint?" oh, and cancel that crystalline lube he ordered, "Hello, Amazon Prime?"
• "If I know anything about the Gods of Cha'alt, they love whorehouses, fried chicken, and tentacles!"
• "That commie Zemit is going to try and unionize the ship's workforce."
• "Refined, fuel-grade crystals."
• Let's keep Cha'alt for Cha'altians - aliens, get off our world!  #Cha'altFirst
• "A piece of cosmic coral from the spice reefs." 
• You'd be amazed what fits on the underside of a sna'aple cap.
• "I want a chicken wing named after me, and it should be hot and spicy as fuck!"
• "Unknowable banana Gods."
• "The tentacle abides, hoss."

Ok, let's get back to vices & virtues.  Here's what I'm going to do next time... 

PCs choose their vices and/or virtues.  If you only pick one, it's a d12 (reroll 1s).  If you pick two, they're at a d6.  Pick three, they're d4s.  You get to add a bonus die to any roll, once per encounter, scene, or combat, once the vice or virtue character trait has been roleplayed.  

So, let's say a PC wants wrath, lust, and diligence.  Obviously, if I gave everyone the same bonus no matter how many vices or virtues they chose, it benefits the person who took more.  However, the more you choose, the less of a bonus you receive.  Taking three means that if the PC roleplays being a hard worker in a scene, then he gets a d4 he can add to any one roll by the end of that scene (maybe it'll carry over if it makes sense).  

Now, if that PC had only taken wrath, then when he goes off on some NPC, stabbing him for spilling soup or whatever, that PC will get a d12 when he wants to use it.  Again, it should be utilized soon after it's been acquired; they don't accumulate - only one bonus die per player per trait.  That means the same PC can have an extra d6 if he roleplayed both chastity and pride in a particular scene, but can't get any more until he's spent what he's got.  Any unused bonus is definitely lost after the session is over.

Ok, let me know what you think.  Does this work better?  Would you use this?  Is there possibly a third set of 7 traits that could supplement the vices and virtues (because that would be interesting)?

Thanks, for reading!  One last thing, it looks like I'll finally get to play in a Cha'alt session this weekend as my buddy Colin gets to playtest his CDS D20 / Into the Odd hack.  

VS

p.s. It's May, so we're fast creeping up on VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo.  Grab your ticket here.  And if you want your hardcover Cha'alt trilogy, you can either purchase them here or through the new Cha'alt webcomic Kickstarter.