Because hills are not quite mountains, but also not flatland, they can bridge the two biomes in terms of what may be encountered there. Orcs, Wyverns, Manticores, or Ogres may all be found in hilly terrain. But what about other situations that the party may come across in a wide stretch of hilly country? The list below is part of a series I'm working on for random encounters that are more situational, and inspirational, than 3d8 Kobolds. Some of these are purely flavorful. Some are roleplay focused and could turn out to be combat. Others reward curiosity. To properly use the elements of this list, let yourself be inspired. Since no one knows your campaign setting like you do, so if you like entry 10, then it falls to your judgment just who the dog-face masked woman is, and why are people leaving offerings to her shrine. Add the entries to your sandbox hex map, or to your random encounter lists for overland travel. If you like this sort of content, please let me know! I hope to do...

           Happy Tuesday, everyone! We played Session 4 of Stonehell on Saturday, so its time to have a session report! You can start reading the series with Session 1 , then move on to session 2 , and session 3 . This session report is going to be pretty short, but I made a grave error in how I refereed the game. So I will spend a bit of text ruminating on that and how it was ultimately resolved. This game we had only 3 players present, so the Dramatis Personae for the session are Veigar , Solvan El'Spring and Fayanna . Additionally we had sort of a late start, as the player of Fayanna had an appointment that kept her from arriving at the normal start time. My general rule is 2 is company, but 3 or more is a party. So the players of Veigar and Solvan and I sort of hung out until Fayanna could join. Once we actually could begin, the party spent some time catching Solvan up on what happened while they were unhinged from the material plane (absent last ga...

 We love orcs. They're our lovely little fighting monster featured in - one way or another - so many narratives. They can wear many different hats! The created as slaves to a dark master's army variety from Lord of the Rings. The noble shamanistic species corrupted by dark magics that we see in the Warcraft series. The brutal, fungal monsters created to be an army of insane football hooligans that we see in the Warhammer 40k universe. WAAAAGH! etc. A Face only a Mother could love. -- Orc mask, Grim Zombie. CC-by-SA. In all of these, they act as a narrative device. They're an antagonistic force that is meant to be battered against and survived. Or not, as the case may be. In TTRPG fantasy, the orc exists in an ecosystem of such forces. Demi-human or humanoid monsters are there in the various monster manuals to be faced as antagonists. But each one fits a distinct niche. Goblins are craven, sneaking thieves and murderers who make due on the fringes of society. Bugbears ar...

We didn't play Stonehell this weekend, unfortunately. But, that doesn't mean I can't share a fresh article! The party is six days into a fourteen day journey across the Highwind Plains. They've been very meticulous in tracking their rations, spending time foraging and hunting, finding fresh water, and setting camp. The GM is rolling for random encounters one or two times per day, and an encounter has come up three times in a row. The GM braces themselves, lets out a low breath, and rolls the d6. 6. Again. The thought of running another combat against 2d6 wolves is galling. But a good GM can weave together a story - maybe the grassy plains are rife with wolves who've been pushed out of the nearby wood by hunger and now roam wide, seeking to fill their bellies with whatever they can catch be it rabbit or man. But what if you want to run something that has a bit more of a mystery to it? Something perhaps that rewards the players for exploration with either a curiosit...

 Today I want to just spend a short little time talking about houserules. You can check mine out  here  for the OSE Stonehell game that I'm currently running.  When you decide to run a game - any game - you, the gamemaster, have a very important series of choices to make. And it comes down to the kind of game that you want to run. The rules that are there in the book that you're using for the RPG you've decided to play are not computerized. They're not controlled by some third party arbiter. It's just you, the book, and the players.  You can simply choose to discard everything in there and sit around playing make believe if you want to. Your imagination can go completely wild and the players could add whatever elements suit their fancy in that moment. However, you're not going to have a very structured time. So we use rules to make the fiction fit into what the game is meant to be about and to do as a system.  Each RPG system has a theme and milieu that's b...

    If you'd like to read the whole campaign in order, look no farther than here: Stonehell Sessions   The party was awoken from their watch by Runum in the early hours of the morning by Kobolds come to get some work done on the gatehouse. After some debate, the group decided to take a more active approach to the situation. Instead of watching the kobolds work from above, they descended to the ground floor of the gatehouse and approached. Immediately, the workers retreated. With a bribe of some gold, they spoke with one of them about the Kobold situation in Stonehell. They shortly learned that Trustee Sniv runs Kobold Korners and that all are welcome there. With a bit more gold, the party asked their interlocutor to tell Sniv about them and broker an introduction when they arrived. The kobolds were suspicious, but ultimately agreed to mention the names of their group to Sniv.   In the morning, they set about exploring the canyon. On the southern wall, they found ...