Atlas of Worlds #2

Name: Hast Lugur, Land of Shattered Stars

Climate: Temperate

Magic: Medium-high; standard D&D/Pathfinder level

Wrong Bad Fun

So that personal bloglet about how D&D (and Pathfinder, it turns out) is Objectively Bad and the Worst and Here Are Thirty Systems You Should Play Instead is apparently doing the rounds again. In it, the author preaches the gospel of how there is a Wrong and Bad way to have Fun. It’s insulting, condescending, and dismissive, turning a single person’s opinion into an objective truth. So let’s talk about the idea of WrongBadFun today, yeah?

Atlas of Worlds #1

First off, a reminder: I have a Patreon; even a buck a month really helps encourage me to keep this blog going. Much appreciation for my patrons!

Second, much thanks to Robert Brookes, the man behind Aethera; thanks to him I should be getting my hands on a hardcopy of the Starfinder Free RPG Day supplement. I am more than a little interested, given the presence of queer iconics and a playable race that has trinary sexes rather than binary.

And now for today’s primary segment: welcome to the Atlas of Worlds, a more fantastic counterpart to the Gatecrasher’s Almanac series that I have running here. The form the Atlas takes depends on you; it might just be a GM resource, a starting point to build a homebrew world on. It might be a planewalking wizard’s personal book of lore, which the players stumble upon. It might even be a divine tome, whose pages literally contain the worlds they describe. Regardless, the Atlas of Worlds will be a game resource that I’ll build up over time.

I hope it’s of use for you!

Cosmological Thoughts: Diablo

So today I’ll talk a bit about some of the lore I’ve recently learned from Blizzard’s Diablo video game series, and how it has an interesting twist compared to most fantasy cosmologies. We’ll allow that it’s a video game series without a steady set of developers, and that both the specific cosmology and details change a bit from game to game; these aren’t the points that are particularly interesting.

Token of Solace

Today, I have for y’all a relatively minor magic item that really should turn up a lot more often in games where “natural” forms of undeath – things like ghoul fever and the like – can occur. The token of solace is typically produced in large numbers by the priesthoods of deities associated who are either associated with death or who fight the undead as a part of their primary purpose.

Aethera Campaign Setting: Amrita Locations

Reminder: if y’all like what I do here, please consider tossing a buck or two to my Patreon! Every little bit helps me keep going forward and produce these blog posts!

Also, if anyone happens to be going to Free RPG Day on Saturday, I’d appreciate it if a hardcopy of Paizo’s offering about Starfinder could be picked up. I am… Curious.

Today, we’ll be exploring the locations of the Amrita Asteroid Belt from the Aethera Campaign Setting; while this is a more limited space than usual, due to the need of aetherships to remain within reach of the Seratos Gate Hub, there’s still plenty to explore. So strap into an environmental suit and let’s go take a look at what the dark holds, shall we?

Aethera Campaign Setting: Amrita Asteroid Belt

Today I’ll be heading out into the void, to visit the asteroid belt that once comprised the core world of the pre-Collapse empire. While much of the planet fell into what became Seraos or spread out into the Amrita belt, some rubble no doubt dispersed into space and perhaps collided with the other planets or ended on long-period orbits that may eventually bring some of it back as deadly orbit-crossing projectiles. What’s left is well worth exploring, however.

Aethera Campaign Setting: The Darkwild

Today, after a week off from pretty much everything, I’ll be heading into the dark side of Kir-Sharaat, home to the zahajin and some of the deeper mysteries of the world of Wood.