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.

 

#DIY30 Day Nine

Neighbors

 

Woke Up At 2:30 To Drive Someone To The Airport, We're Too Far Out For Uber

Living out in the boonies has its pros and cons.  The airport situation is a definite con, lol.  Anyway I busted out this little family that cares for the Vortulak Estate in the Lord's absence.  I'll map the outbuildings tomorrow, then I can move on to the next project for #DIY30;)

House Staff of the Estate

A small family reside here year-round maintaining the house and garden.  The patriarch of this family hires the seasonal vineyard workers and oversees the wine production.  As zero level humans in LotFP.

     1.  Rocky Hsun- patriarch of the Hsun's and overseer of the Vortulak Estate Vineyard
     2.  Rance Hsun- Rocky's wife and head housekeeper of the manor house
     3.  Ricky Hsun- son of Rocky and Rance, helps with the vineyard and garden
     4.  Randi Hsun- wife of Ricky, helps with the house and garden
     5.  Reggie Hsun- young son of Ricky and Randi

#DIY30 Day Eight

Chipping Away

I played instead of DMing today!  So fun!  We're doing a quick foray into my boyfriend's D&D 5E campaign that he started last fall.  I'm not sure how many sessions we will play until we return to my LotFP YotG campaign, but the work I've gotten done in the last week has been long overdue;-)  It's been satisfying to chip away at my pile of undone campaign writing.  I finished up detailing the cellar and caverns below Lord Vortulak's Estate.  I put a Mimic (not the D&D kind as I've said before, but a Changeling) in a locked cell that had previously been the lead smuggler's room in "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh."  In the cavern closest to the river (in the original module this location was on the sea, my location is on a river cliff) I placed two Nephilidian Pawns (Rank 2.)  It's been awhile since the PCs have encountered either of those monsters!  Now I just need to get the outbuildings written and mapped and write up the house staff NPCs.

#DIY Day Seven

The Assistant DM Is Busy "Helping" Someone Play Far Cry

I worked on the re-write/adaptation of "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh" today.  I'm close to finished; just need to get the cellar and caverns re-written, the outbuildings written and mapped, and write up a few house staff NPCs.  I'm not going to re-produce my adaptation of the module here, but I will post the new wandering monster chart.  Here you go friends!

Wandering Monsters
An encounter takes place 1 in 12 chance in the garden, vineyard and outbuildings, if the season is late fall through early spring.  Otherwise seasonal workers (Zero Level Humanoids) will be found in the months of agricultural production.

1. 1d4 Shoum- (AC 15; HD 1; hp 4; #ATK 1 Spear; 1d6 DMG)
2. 1 Wolf- (AC 15; HD 2+2; hp 5; #ATK 1 Bite; 1d6 DMG)
3. 1d8 Wild Boar- (AC 15; HD 3+3; hp 18; #ATK 1 Tusk Gouge; 3d4 DMG)
4. 1d3 Violet Fungi- (AC 15; HD 3; hp 8; #ATK 1d4 Branch; Rots flesh in one round DMG) Save vs. Poison or Cure Disease

#DIY30 Day Six

  

My Assistant DM, Vega

A Day Late...

I wasn't feeling well enough to write yesterday.  My energy got sapped by a headache and nausea, but I'm feeling ok today.

"Oh, do you need this notebook?"

And A Dollar Short

Lord Vortulak's Estate

Lord Vidor Vortulak was once a skilled mage and alchemist living in his ancestral home, an elegant manor house surrounded by a productive vineyard.  Being quite the intelligent and charming fellow that he was, he caught the eye of the Nephilidian Queen.  She soon made him her lover and quite quickly after that she made him a vampire like herself.  Despising his condition and enslavement by such a monster, he escaped.  Knowing there would be no acceptance of him as a vampire, he masqueraded as his nephew for a time.  Once gossip began, regarding his ageless appearance, he left on an extended research mission.  His curiosity and diligent studies led him to find clues to the reversal of vampirism back to a mortal being.  After a suitably timed period, he has returned to Vortulak Estate as his grandnephew. 

Presently he prefers to visit the estate periodically, instead of residing there permanently.  This strategy is partly to allay suspicions about him and also to allow himself the ability to travel prolifically for reasearch.  He employs a very small house staff to maintain the house and garden.  The vineyard employs seasonal workers to produce the grapes for wine production.  Vortulak Vineyards is a well regarded name among the region's oenophiles.

I'm working on the room descriptions and wandering monster table, but I don't think I'll be finished with that today.  Since I've made his estate a vineyard, I'll probably need to draw a few maps of outbuildings for the agricultural and wine producing stuff.  Some of this should be done and ready to go tomorrow.

Printed out a PDF of The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh to highlight what I'll use from it

 

#DIY30 Day Five

Recycling and Reskinning A Classic AD&D Module

Today and tomorrow I'm working on Lord Vortulak's Estate.  Lord Vortulak is a former wizard turned vampire whose estate is several miles away from Halwic.  I've chosen to take the maps from "The Haunted House" section of U1 "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh" module and re-write/re-populate as needed.  I bought this PDF over a year ago for the purpose of re-skinning it for just this purpose, IIRC.

The Haunted House=Lord Vortlak's Estate

 Earlier in this campaign, I used another classic AD&D module N2 " The Forest Oracle."  In the case of that adventure, I only lightly modified/adapted it.  It ended up being quite deadly for the PCs and their NPC followers!  In reading the introduction to U1, I'm getting a feel for the changes I'll be making to this adventure location to tie into the NPC antagonist that I put in my campaign three and a half years ago.  More on that tomorrow!