Nostalghia* Is A Foreign Country.

 

 

 

 Nostalghia* Is A Foreign Country.

     (Do you have your passport stamped?)

  

  

File this under projects that took longer than I ever anticipated.  What am I 

talking about?  When I started my blog a DECADE ago, one of the goals I had was 

posting my campaign notes from the Year of the Goat Campaign that I began running 

in early 2015.  What prevented me from getting these game notes typed up and 

posted at the time?  Inertia, and an insecurity regarding running a one on one game, 

which felt weird to write about at the time.

This was primarily a one on one campaign I ran for my fiance (Vlasic and 

Brother Barton’s player), but I picked up 2 other players (Flavius and Bloodfart’s 

players) for a couple of sessions later in the campaign.  The campaign went on 

hiatus in 2020 as we both had a busy year, work on top of loss really slowed me 

down creatively.  Luckily we started a new campaign with a good friend over 

Thanksgiving weekend of 2021 (Flavius’ player) and that is the Ox—>Tiger—>Etc 

Campaign that I’ve posted the notes of the last several years.  It’s in the same 

campaign world, so I could reuse locations, NPCs, and lore.  And this current 

campaign has spawned two separate one-on-one games with a few of the players’ 

hirelings (Danika in the Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles and Boy in Star Notch Stories).  It 

was satisfying to go back over the Year of the Goat Campaign notes to see how 

both my campaign world and my DM skills and style have evolved.  Starting the 

YotG Campaign in 2015, we were moving away from New World of Darkness 

(Chronicles of Darkness, after a rebrand) gameline Changeling: the Lost.  I was 

still adapting from our more story game style of gameplay, to Lamentations of the 

Flame Princess system.  This will be reflected in the more narrative presentation 

of YotG Campaign’s session notes.  I started worldbuilding quite slowly for sessions 

1-17, but after that I kicked into high gear for a few years.

The initial post is up and it is over on my Substack.  This series chronicling the 

original campaign will be exclusive to my Substack and free for everyone.  Look for 

an actual play session post of the Year of the Goat Campaign (original campaign) 

every Sunday morning (my time zone, USA Pacific).  For those of you who have 

been enjoying the Ox—>Tiger Campaign, Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles, and Star Notch 

Stories, those will be posted to both here and the Substack.  Thank you to all of my 

readers over here!  I would love to see you over on Substack where there is some 

enhanced functionality for me as the “creator”.  And maybe more interactivity for 

you as well;-)  Either site you read on, I appreciate your time and energy in reading 

my blog, whether you be bot or human!  Catch you on the flipside.

*Every Andrei Tarkovsky movie is an influence on me.  I’m due for a rewatch 

of Nostalghia.

 

"Strange Bedfellows" Conversion DONE!

Coming In Under The Gun With This Week's Second Blog

I'm happy to say I've completed my conversion and adaptation of the Swords & Wizardry adventure "Strange Bedfellows" for my Lamentations of the Flame Princess Year of the Goat Campaign.  I knew this was going to take me awhile, but I had no idea how long, lol.

Last Part of "Strange Bedfellows", The Silverblossom Tree Village

Chipping Away At My #DIY30 Overflow

Silverblossom Tree Village Ground Level

I wasn't nearly as productive with game stuff in October as I had hoped to be.  Probably a combo of being a little busy with other stuff and a little burned out from #DIY30 in September.  I'm nearly done with the conversion/adaptation of the Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  Yesterday I banged through the ground level of the Silverblossom Tree Village portion of it.  My intention is to get the upper part of that village converted this week.  Then I can move on to the other undone projects from my #DIY30 goals. 

#DIY30 Day Thirty

Three Rooms Left...

I worked on level three of the Broken Hammer dungeon and got so close to finishing today!  I'll wrap it up tomorrow, then it's on to the Treeblossom Village.  This wraps up my blogging of my #DIY30 challenge.  In a day or two, I'll do a post mortem on my efforts, but in short I'm happy I did it and happy it's ovah!  Thank you to anyone who has followed along.

#DIY30 Day Twenty Nine

Penultimate

I'm nearly finished with #DIY30 and there are six rooms left to adapt/convert in the Broken Hammer dungeon level three.  After I finish up the dungeon it's on to the last part of the "Strange Bedfellows" adventure, The Treeblossom Village.  I knew it was going to take a lot of work to convert and adapt this adventure to my campaign needs, but I didn't realize it was going to dominate the second half of my #DIY30 challenge and then some!  I'm happy to have gotten so much done with this, though.  I'm making it my goal for October to do a little RPG work everyday, but I'm going to reduce my blogging to once or twice a week.  Still quite a bit of stuff to finish on the #DIY30 goals list I made for myself and I want to keep rolling with this momentum I have.  If you've read this post and any others, I would welcome your comments or questions!  Did you participate in #DIY30?  What did you accomplish during those 30 days?  

#DIY30 Day Twenty Eight

Level Two In The Can

I finished up the Broken Hammer level two and have moved on to level three.  It has about a third of the rooms of level two, so I should finish it up more quickly.  

#DIY30 Day Twenty Seven

Operation Wood Pile Complete:)

I finished the last cords of firewood on Friday.  Then I was gloriously lazy Saturday.  Today I almost finished the conversion/adaptation of level two of the Broken Hammer dungeon.  Like I said earlier, I'll run my #DIY30 work into October as needed, so looks like I'll be finishing up on the 3rd.  The Broken Hammer dungeon has a third level, so I'll get started on that.  When I complete this challenge I took upon myself, I'll keep working on the projects I didn't get to, but at a somewhat reduced pace.  I'm thinking I'll work on stuff enough to write two blog posts a week.  We played D&D 5e this morning.  It was the second session of this arc of the campaign.  Early stages, but lots of fun!  The DM for that game is setting us up for some scary stuff, I think!

#DIY30 Day Twenty Six

Progress Was Made....

But not as much as I predicted yesterday, lol.  I got more done with the wood pile, but I chipped away at level two of the Broken Hammer dungeon a little, too.  I might finish the wood stacking tomorrow, but no promises.

#DIY30 Day Twenty Five

It's My Birthday

I turned 40 today.  I took the day off from wood stacking as a present to myself, but I worked on the Broken Hammer dungeon level two.  Only nine rooms left to adapt, maybe I can crank through it and the wood pile tomorrow.  We'll see how it goes.  My birthday celebration turned out to be an awesome BBQ.  We're having a warm fall, so far, here in my corner of the NW.  Soon though, the short gray days will have their reign!

#DIY30 Day Twenty Four

Same Shit, Different Day

Stacked wood, worked on Broken Hammer dungeon level two, rinse and repeat.

#DIY30 Day Twenty Three

Another Day Another Wood Pile And Level Two Session

More wood in the shed, more conversion work done on level two of the Broken Hammer dungeon from "Strange Bedfellows."  Probably gonna be the same story from me over the next two days.

#DIY30 Day Twenty Two

The Woodpile And The Dungeon

I started to stack wood today.  It's going to take a few days to get it all in the wood shed.  Also managed to get a little work done on the Broken Hammer dungeon level two.

#DIY30 Day Twenty One

Little By Little

Another session slogging through adaptation and conversion of level two of the the Broken Hammer dungeon from the Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  Only eight more days left in the month... I'll let #DIY30 run into October for any days I miss in September.  Only missed one so far, but I have real world chores to do outside this week and I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit those and this project into each day.  I've been slacking on getting the wood pile out of the driveway and into the wood shed.  Gotta download some podcasts and just GITURDUN.

#DIY30 Day Twenty

Texts About the Upcoming 5e Game

Happy Mabon

Inching towards the equinox, almost there!  I started the adaptation work on level two of the Broken Hammer Dungeon this afternoon.  I might get to play D&D 5e this weekend! We'll see what my character Shaena the Halfling Rogue is going to do after meeting a midwife who's whole village was slain by EVIL FORCES.  The DM for our 5e campaign is new to DMing, but he's got a great imagination and I think it's gonna be a fun game.

#DIY30 Day Nineteen

Level One Done

I've converted/adapted what I've needed to for level one of the Broken Hammer Dungeon from the Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  Tomorrow I'll get started on the second level.  I hope I get done adapting this module before the end of the month because I want to get more original work done during #DIY30.

#DIY30 Day Eighteen

#DIY30's MVP: AC Conversion Chart from the LotFP Grindhouse Referee Book

There's A Crack In The Sky....

I'm nearly finished with the conversions/adaptations for level one of the Broken Hammer Dungeon from the Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  Just three more rooms and I can start on level two.  I've been leaning pretty hard on the handy-dandy AC Conversion Chart from LotFP's Grindhouse Referee book.  Tonight's #DIY30 soundtrack courtesy of The Klinik.

The Klinik, Fever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2vrJs2Nrms

#DIY30 Day Seventeen

Members of Goblin and Dario Argento

It Was A Nitzer Ebb And Goblin Kind of Night

Man, synthesizers and drum machines are really helping me ride out this #DIY30 thing, lol.  I started going through the dungeon of the module "Strange Bedfellows" changing all the goblinoids into Shoum, converting AC, and downgrading gold coins to silver pieces.  I'm still working on level 1 of a 3 level dungeon, so we'll see how long it takes to get this conversion business out of the way.  I forgot this module had one more part besides the dungeon; a druid tree-fort encampment is at the dungeon's other entrance, opposite from where the PCs enter.  Thankfully it's a short section!

#DIY30 Day Sixteen

"It's not safe to go out, it's not right to stay home"

More Cabaret Voltaire getting me through this "Strange Bedfellows" module.  The circus adaptation is done to my satisfaction.  Instead of traditional goblinoids, there will be Shoum; instead of Ogren, there will be Shoum Witches.  Tomorrow I tackle the dungeon section of this module.

 Cabaret Voltaire, Don't Argue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5-1HG2oU_M

#DIY30 Day Fifteen

Cab Voltaire, Just Fascination

Soundtrack Was Cabaret Voltaire, Christian Death, and early 90s Dance

I almost bailed on #DIY30 today, but I soaked in the tub, took a little nap, and fuckin' RALLIED, lol.  The soundtrack helped.  So what did I get done?  I worked on adapting the circus from Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  I am about a third or half way done.  I'll finish tomorrow.  It's mostly condensing descriptions, changing AC, and downgrading gold coins to silver pieces.

Cabaret Voltaire, Kino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4IAnSdtbNY

#DIY30 Day Eleven

Adapting the Swords & Wizardry Module "Strange Bedfellows"

I began my adaptations of this module over a year ago.  The work I had already done with it, that I consider first priority after reading a module through, is to make changes to the NPC demi-human/humanoid races.  For instance, I've mentioned in prior blog posts that the Shoum are my substitute for the Goblinoid races.  So all the orcs, half-orcs, goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblins are all transitioned to Shoum.

What I Worked On Today

Today's focus was to condense the Three Points villages' descriptions and put them in my "place template format."  The work left with adapting this module, that I'll move to tomorrow, is condensing the circus and dungeon chapters.