Do you have children? Then you’ve probably already seen that sparkle, that glint in their eyes, seconds before they come up with a joke, a mischievous little girl, before they paint Princess Lilifee on the walls in the living room, practise tying knots with your shoelaces, clean the windows with Penaten cream or, in keeping with the season, throw a snowball at your neck (I was a naughty child). That glint in your eye… that’s him… the mischief in your neck!
Etymologically speaking, we are dealing here with a farmer or farm labourer. The word „Schalk“ probably comes from the Latin „scalcius“ (= barefoot) and „di scalceatus“ (= without shoes) and means something like farm labourer. Incidentally, the word „Schalk“ is related to „Seneschall“ (old servant, i.e. something like an old, deserving servant and supervisor of the servants = steward) and Marscharl l (originally the horse servant, later as field marshal leader of his employer’s army). The original idiom that someone had a mischievous look in their eyes probably only meant that the person’s status as a servant could be recognised.
However, people seem to have had problems with mischievous, rebellious servants with a tendency to make crude jokes since the 16th century at the latest, when the mischievous creature on the neck became a metaphor for this very behaviour. Sometimes the prankster became a demonic, mischievous creature that latches onto the necks of innocent victims and drives them to reprehensible deeds… and we are already at the Aufhockern , a group of goblins, ghosts and demons that make German legends and Thai horror films unsafe.
In short, stools are creatures of transition. They lurk at streams, bridges, lakes, forests, ditches, crossroads, hollow paths, cemeteries and murder or execution sites, i.e. all places of transition between one world (the world of order, the living, the cities) and another (chaos, the dead, the wilderness). They are waiting for the unwary traveller, jump invisibly into his neck or appear as old men who ask the traveller to carry them on his back for a while and cause him mental or physical harm. Sometimes even fatal damage. For me, the whole devil’s pact story (see the legend of Robert Johnson) resonates a little in such legends at , as well as the fear of revenants, of course, but above all an attempt to explain epidemics or assassinations (I suspect the plague, tuberculosis and typhus). There are dozens of such figures in German legends, from the Drud here in Bavaria to the Huckup in Hildesheim and the Bachkalb from Aachen. Even Sindbard has to deal with such a creature during his fifth journey.
According to the legends, prayers, a praise-to-Jesus-Christ, a silver cross on the forehead of the prostrate person or wine, with which one intoxicates the creature until it falls off, usually help against prostration.
And what does this digression do for the role-playing game? A new goblin for DSA, for example:
Spells: Visibili 12, Look into the mind 8, Own stupidity 7, Great greed 8, Imperavi 10
Quantity: 1
Size category: small
Type: supernatural being and culture creator, humanoid
Prey: none
Fighting behaviour: Schalk do not fight physically (at most they sometimes bite and kick). They have an astonishing number of spells with which they can circumvent any fight or turn it into a farce.
Escape: individual
Magic Lore (Magical Beings) or Sphere Lore (Sphere Beings):
#Q 1: Schalk are goblins and therefore fairy-like creatures who only have malicious nonsense on their minds.
#Q 2: They lie in wait for travellers at places of passage, then perch on their victim’s neck and seduce them into evil deeds.
#Q 3+: If you know the true name of a Schalk, you have power over it. A prayer to Praios, the stern gaze of a Firun or Boron devotee and holy garlic will banish him.
Special rules:
Instant magical regeneration: The Schalk can draw magic from the air and do so automatically when casting spells. They regenerate 1D6 AsP at the end of a KR.
This month is crying out for a new monster! And what better monster than a pilot’s nightmare come true (from the early days of aviation)? The Gremlin!
Unlike most of the monsters I have introduced in my monster handbook, the Gremlin is a recent invention, just 100 years old. The Gremlin was probably invented by the pilots of the Royal Air Force. There it served as a kind of accident devil. A creature that could be blamed for accidents, technical defects and material fatigue. In WWII in particular, there were plenty of accidents and technical problems that could be attributed to Gremlins, but which were actually caused by fatigue, stress, drugs and the like.
A Starfleet captain made the Gremlin known to the general public. In an episode of the Twilight Zone, W. Shatner played a passenger who was able to observe the goings-on of a Gremlin from his window and slowly but surely went crazy. The Simpsons parodied this. The Gremlins films then gave Gremlins their appearance: small, green-skinned, nasty goblins.
More great info on Gremlins can be found over at Hoaxilla, including the link to the Twilight Zone episode.
Gremlin in the role-playing game
As Gremlin is a goblin with an affinity for technology and mechanics, it’s not much use for classic fantasy settings. High fantasy… ok, just about, steampunk and dieselpunk… yes, hit. WW scenarios… home game. I once developed the Beutelschneider system here as a universal system for a Gremlin.
Gremlin 2 red marbles, 3 green marbles, 3 blue marbles, 1 white marble, 1 black marble
Invisibility: Draw three marbles. If all the marbles are blue, the Gremlin is complete and invisible to everyone else. If two marbles are blue, all of Gremlin’s opponents draw three marbles. If there is at least one blue marble, Gremlin remains visible to these opponents. If there is only one or no blue marble, the Gremlin remains visible.
Destroy technology: Draw three marbles. For each blue marble drawn, place a black marble in the bag of a technical construct. If there is a black marble among the marbles drawn, place a black marble in the Gremlin’s bag. If three black marbles have been drawn, put a black marble in the bag of the technical construct and destroy the Gremlin.
I’ve just watched Tucker and Dale vs Evil. It’s a great film and an ingenious, warm-hearted but also splatteringly bloody parody of teen horror films and the whole Backwood genre . Backwood is a type of horror film in which some guys from the city get stranded in the middle of nowhere and then have to defend themselves against incestuous, mutated, cannibalistic country bumpkins, hillbillies. Wikipedia lists a whole 40 films that belong to this genre. Frankenstein, no, better Frankenstein’s monster, after all a veteran of horror, only makes it to 33 films and the mummy is a distant second (15 films). Actually, when you get right down to it, Backwood is a sub-category of the slasher flicks (Wrong Turn at least appears in both lists).
Anyway, a few interesting questions now arise: Why are the city dwellers so scared of us country bumpkins (we just want to play )? Are hillbillies any good as opponents or heroine characters and what the hell are hillbillies anyway? And how can I interpret the whole thing in a new and exciting way?
Hillbilly, redneck and waidler – definition of the terms
Before we start defining the individual terms: These are all external ascriptions. Someone else has labelled a certain group as hillbillies, rednecks or whatever. The groups then adopted the external attribution and turned it into a group identity. The foreign attributions are also relatively recent, from around the end of the 19th century. Before that, this attribution did not exist because almost the entire population of the USA and, in the case of the Waidler, Bavaria lived similarly (poor). The attribution was also a characterisation that was based on city dwellers and described country dwellers.
Hillbilly: The word hillbilly first appeared in The Railroad Trainmen’s Journal (vol. IX, July 1892) and a few years later the term was used in the New York Journal as a
[…] a free and untrammeled white citizen of Tennessee, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him“ Source
defined. The word itself is probably a reference to the fact that they are the descendants of Scots who fled Highlandsto the in the 1660s and supported King Billy. Hillbillies are the inhabitants of the Appalachians and Ozarks, especially those from Tennessee and Alabama
Redneck: The word describes people whose necks have been burnt by the sun while working in the fields. Geographically, it refers to residents of the southern states of the USA, especially Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Kansas. Today, the term redneck is no longer necessarily associated with a poor, less educated lower class, but rather with a middle class that has developed its own sense of status.
Cracker: On the plantations in the south of the USA, there were white overseers who often liked to crack the whip. After the American Civil War, they were unemployed. They developed into crackers, named after the whip they wielded. The word cracker was not only used to describe former slave drivers, in Georgia and Florida the term was also used to show that one’s own family had lived here for generations.
Waidler: And here’s a Bavarian, rural personal attribution. I’m using it here because it has similarities to the hillbillies and is intended to demonstrate that the ideas behind the concepts can also be applied in Germany. Waidler are the inhabitants of the Bavarian Forest. For me as a Gaibonbiffe (disparaging term for all inhabitants of the Gäuboden), the Bavarian Forest begins beyond the Danube, the people of Parkstetten and Bogen have identified Viechtach as the border, Deggendorf calls itself the gateway to the Bavarian Forest and the people of Engelmar can no longer deny that they are Waidler. Waidler are rude, stubborn people who speak an incomprehensible language (for Bavarians, that is; Bavarian must sound incomprehensible to Fischköpf) and have wild customs. They also brew a terrible schnapps. They are not stupid, but in order not to be poor, they commute to Regensburg, Dingolfing and Munich on weekdays.
City dweller vs. country bumpkin – the horror of rural life
At the moment, it seems to be a kind of idealised dream among city dwellers to move to the country. As a country bumpkin, I can understand it, country life is really nice. Space, peace and quiet, community, tamed nature (at least in Germany)…
But I can also understand those who have fled to the city to escape life in the country. After all, country life has a few horrors in store, which are thematised in exaggerated form in the backwoods films.
When Billy and his cousin – incest and family ties
This clinching is true… in part. Not so much the incest thing, which may have existed in Hinterkaifeck in the past, but rather the family ties. In my home village, before the new settlement was built, there were three large family clans to which most people in the village were somehow related. My grandmother memorised family relationships down to the cousin of her aunt’s nephew’s brother-in-law. Her husband, my grandfather, was a Bukovina German who came to Bavaria as a refugee. He did genealogical research and would have traced the family tree back 200 years, including all the side branches.
Foreigners vs. long-established residents
Foreigners (be they city dwellers or refugees or even Prussians) find it difficult to integrate into a village. Everyone is somehow related to everyone else and has known each other since childhood. Strangers first have to show who they are and get to know the others. The biggest mistake the newcomers can make is to wait for the country bumpkins to approach them. Why should they? If necessary, you can manage without the strangers.
Tips from a landing egg for village immigrants
Go to the fire brigade. There is hardly such an integrating force as a bottle of beer after the exercise.
Get to know your neighbours and let your neighbours get to know you.
Take part in festivals, whether profane or religious.
Buy local, as far as possible.
Get to know the surroundings of the village.
Individual vs. collective
This is the conclusion from the first two points, so to speak, and probably also the reason why many of my homosexual and transsexual friends have fled from the villages to the cities. It’s possible to be an individual in a village, but you’re still a part of it because of family ties or simply because you grew up in the village and everyone knows who you are (in our village, the question is: „Yes, where do you belong?“). The older ones ask which family you belong to and who your parents are. Children learn to answer this question at an early age). The disadvantage, however, is that the whole village has probably seen you drunk or knows what a snot you used to be. This is certainly not easy for those who deviate from the norm (please don’t take this negatively). Such closeness can overwhelm you.
The gentle reader may object that I have described villages so far, but Letherface and co. live in lonely huts somewhere in the wilderness. Yes, that’s true. But even Letherface can’t produce everything he needs to live on his own and needs an infrastructure in the background. Clothes, canned beer, medicine… Letherface also has to communicate with the environment in order to survive. In some of the backwoods films, sheriffs or shopkeepers support the murderous hillbillies. Completely self-sufficient groups or families who have no connection at all to any kind of village life are likely to be crass outsiders, even among backwoodsmen.
Strange customs
The Waidler and the Bavarian Forest are a treasure trove of strange customs. In one place Rauhwuggerl are driven, in a neighbouring village wolves are hunted for, there a slain saint is sought, elsewhere people ride on horseback to pilgrimages either to Georgi or to Leonhard. Or a spruce wrapped in wax across Bavaria is carried and the last few metres up a hill. Not to mention the Corpus Christi procession, various parades and other (religious) customs. Many of these traditions are incomprehensible to foreigners. Foreign. Mysterious. Threatening. They primarily serve the cohesion of a village. Those who do not join in the celebrations are not part of the community.
Two more comments on this: Firstly, I am aware that there are also strange old customs in some cities. But by no means in every city, as these customs need a certain amount of time and a certain social cohesion in order to grow. They are a reflection of a past time and a past community. And yes, there are also customs that are more than 20 years old, but they too have grown and are a reflection of the society that created them. My main concern is that these customs are strange or even bizarre to outsiders.
Hillbillies and rednecks also have such customs. The annual chilli festival somewhere in Texas, Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney or a battle for some godforsaken hill during the Civil War, including getting drunk on Negro kiss schnapps … nothing is so crazy that it doesn’t exist on this planet.
Guns and beer – the weapons of a hillbilly
Hillbillies and rednecks without guns? Unimaginable. Of course, a real hillbilly needs an AR-15 and a Reminton 870 . And a good old double-barrelled shotgun. A triplet. And a revolver, from granddaddy Abraham.
Even if some city dwellers may not believe it, hunting is part of rural life. Here in Bavaria it’s less to ensure food security and more to decimate pests, but in the USA things are a little different (hunting is cited there alongside the 2nd Amendment as a reason for the right to bear arms). If you are indifferent to hunting, I recommend that you visit a hunter, ask him for a wild boar salami or sausages and cevapcici made from deer or venison, prepare them and enjoy them. Dear Franconians, with your three in the Weckla you can pack your bags when a venison sausage is on the barbecue. By the way… good barbecue food doesn’t need sauces, the flavour of the meat alone is enough.
As for the accusation that we country bumpkins consume a lot of alcohol… Beer is a very ingenious, flavourful drink…
Welcome to the horror – hillbillies as monsters
Hillbillies as monsters / enemies are well established in the Backwoods films. There are cannibals, incestuous mutants, chainsaw-wielding psychopaths… all familiar. Hillbillies also lend themselves to cultists who worship Shub-Niggurath (or adhere to another cult) and do unspeakable things in the woods. A hillbilly mafia is also a way to present the country bumpkins as an enemy. Remote barns or self-dug bunkers in the woods are a good place to distil moonshine or cook meth.
It should not be forgotten that the enemies are rooted in the area and that the population of the rescuing village may be related to / friends with the hillbilly opponents. There’s nothing like the look on the players‘ faces when they realise that all the deputies are related to the cultists from the forest and that they’ve just checked the number plates of the heroine’s broken-down car…
„These are my cousins Jack, John-Boy and Jim… they’re going to help us!“ – A hillbilly as heroine
Hillbilly heroines should have huge advantages in their home region. Not only should they be very familiar with the area (after all, they grew up there), have certain natural skills (woodworking, hunting and fishing skills, basic botany), they should also be socially rooted there.
In terms of rules, this could translate into a kind of Minions. No matter what the heroine wants to do, she always knows 1W10 relatives, friends or former lovers who are immediately ready to get their shotgun out of the cupboard and stand by her side. All it takes is a phone call or a visit to Uncle Billy. Of course, the relatives also want to be paid… in beer, schnapps and BBQ or a favour that triggers a side quest. The latter means that you have to use the hillbilly connection wisely, otherwise you’ll suddenly have 10 side quests on your hands and lose the central theme of the game, which imho also exists in a sandbox.
The fascination of landing ice – a brief summary
What is the fascination of land ice cream? To be honest, as a country bumpkin, I don’t know. But I could imagine that you city dwellers out there are envious of us. Of our culture, of our family ties, of our healthy, savoury country air…
Your envy has led to hillbillies always being the bad guys in backwoods films. Fair enough. It’s also a cool idea to equip the enemies with social contacts to the „normal population“ (vulgo NPCs) and thus make every NPC a potential hillbilly opponent. The forest or wilderness as the setting is the canvas for the whole thing. The focus here is on remoteness and the lack of resources. The hillbillies know their way around the area, they know where to get medicine and food or ammunition.
Oh well… this post is of course another role-playing breakfast. In keeping with the theme:
Role-player breakfast: white sausages with sweet mustard, a pretzel and a nice wheat beer.
Soadla, I’ve finally done it. I’ve finished Rebuild the Dungeon. This is my version of the dungeon from Заклятье Черного Mага. The dungeon was written according to DSA1 rules, but it can easily be adapted for other OSR systems.
Soadla, jetzt ist es so weit. Ich bin mit dem Dungeon Rebuild fertig. Hier meine Version des Friedhofs aus Заклятье Черного Mага. Der Dungeon wurde nach DSA1 Regeln geschrieben, ist aber leicht für andere OSR-Systeme adaptierbar.
I just listened to the podwichtel post from Steamtinkerers Klönschnack. They were asked by the Gruftschrecken ‘What are your five music albums that can inspire roleplaying?’ and recorded a great, inspiring episode. Moritz from the Seifenkisten-Blog has now added his own mustard. In good old troll tradition, I now throw in my 5 albums that can inspire role-playing. For my non-German readers: during the Podwichtel, German role-playing podcasts ask other role-playing podcasts questions that they have to answer in an episode, preferably around Christmas time.
Demon The Unexpected Guest (1982)
My first album is really old school, good old metal from the early 80s. A kind of concept album that follows a story, the story of a demon summoning. Well, that’s not so surprising, since the band’s name is Dämon (demon). As an old metalhead, I love the driving guitar riffs, the fat sound, the melodies and the lyrics are ingenious, too. Each song on the album brings a different facet of an incantation into play. My favourite songs are Don’t break the Circle and Deliver Us From Evil.
Don’t break the circle
Don’t break the circle
Don’t break the circle
Don’t break the circle
Concentrate
I’m your contact link across the great divide
Many voices in my ear, hold on
I think there’s something coming through from the other side
It’s for all those who believe
The chain is stronger if the lifeline is unbroken
So beware the presence of the Unexpected Guest
Demon: Don’t break the Circle
Ayreon Into the Electic Casle (1998)
I bought the second album I want to present based on a recommendation in Rock Hard magazine. It got 10 out of 10 points, so it could only be good. Yes, it is. And it’s a concept album again. Arjen Lucassen brought everyone who was anyone in the scene into his studio for his third album (Sharon den Adel, Fish, Robert Westerholt…). A mysterious being (whose story is told in the following double album) kidnaps eight people from different places and times. To be released, they have to reach the electric castle. Unfortunately, one character after another crosses over on the way there. Basically, a DDC adventure almost writes itself.
My favourite songs are Amazing Flight, Across the Rainbow Bridge, Valley of the Queens and, of course, The Castle Hall. Man, did I shake my imaginary mat on that last one!
[Forever of the Stars (Peter Daltrey)]
At last! You enter the Electric Castle! Here, in this vast hall, where
Even shadows fear the light. Here, you must confront your past
If you have killed, beware the Gathering of Spirits
For they do fish for men. Here, the disembodied Astral World
Becomes flesh once more. I pity the men of swords
For here, blood runs cold…
[Barbarian (Jay van Feggelen)]
Cries from the grave resound in my ears…
They hail from beyond my darkest fears…
Faces of the past are etched in my brain…
The women I raped, the men I’ve slain!
Shades of the dead are sliding on the wall!
Demons dance in the castle hall…
Ayreaon: Castle Hall
HIM Razorblade Romance (2000)
Now it’s getting gothic. Or at least goth-pop. The album has a very special place in my heart. That’s when I fell in love with my wife and the album was often playing in my room in the evenings when we snuggled up together. For vampires or other urban-gothic-fantasy role-playing games with vampires, this is the right soundtrack.
Steppenwolf The Second (1968)
Back to the past, from the late 90s and the year of the big toilet into the 60s. In 1969, Easy Rider came out, a film that is rightly considered a cult and is the distillate of the hippie era. The film’s soundtrack included Magic Carpet Ride, which was on the B-side of the Steppenwolf album released the previous year. If you don’t know the 4 ½ minute song: that wouldn’t be a gap in your education, that’s an educational Grand Canyon. The album is something for headphones, time and a glass or two. Then the ideas for a travel adventure will come almost by themselves.
Gnome Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome (2024)
While we’re being old school, here’s a record that’s brand new but comes across as very old school. Stoner Rock, Krautrock. Raw, unfiltered, BASS! I have two videos for you here. The first is, of course, the link to the album
and here is the official music video for the first song, Old Soul
Watch the video. Don’t you want to roll some gnomes and throw them into a funnel or directly onto a campaign? Don’t you want to rewrite the video directly as an adventure and then play it? Doesn’t it scream ALRIK or some other OSR system (I urgently need to roll my dice again)?
Ich hab gerade den Podwichtel-Beitrag von Steamtinkerers Klönschnack angehört. Von den Gruftschrecken haben die die Frage „Was sind eure fünf Musikalben, die Rollenspiel inspirieren können?“ bekommen und eine tolle, inspirierende Folge aufgenommen. Moritz vom Seifenkisten-Blog hat mittlerweile seinen eigenen Senft dazugegeben. In guter, alter Troll-Tradition schmeiß ich nun meine 5 Alben ein, die Rollenspiel inspirieren können.
Demon The Unexpected Guest (1982)
Mein erstes Album ist wirklich Old School, guter alter Metal von Anfang der 80ger. Eine Art Konzeptalbum, das einer Geschichte folgt, der Geschichte einer Dämonenbeschwörung. Gut, ist jetzt nicht so überraschend, nennt sich doch die Band Dämon. Ich als alter Metalhead liebe die treibenden Gitarrenriffs, den fetten Sound, die Melodien auch die Texte sind genial, jeder Song auf dem Album bring eine andere Fassette einer Beschwörung ins Spiel. Meine Lieblingssongs sind Don’t break the Circle und Deliver Us From Evil.
Don’t break the circle Don’t break the circle Don’t break the circle Don’t break the circle
Concentrate I’m your contact link across the great divide Many voices in my ear, hold on I think there’s something coming through from the other side It’s for all those who believe
The chain is stronger if the lifeline is unbroken So beware the presence of the Unexpected Guest
Demon: Don’t break the Circle
Ayreon Into the Electic Casle (1998)
Das zweite Album, das ich vorstellen möchte, hab ich damals aufgrund einer Empfehlung im Rock Hard gekauft. Da hat es 10 von 10 Punkten bekommen, das konnte also nur gut sein. Ja, ist es. Und es ist wieder ein Konzeptalbum. Arjen Lucassen holte in seinem 3 Album damals alles ins Studio, was Rang und Namen in der Szene hatte (Sharon den Adel, Fish, Robert Westerholt…). Ein geheimnisvolles Wesen (dessen Geschichte im darauffolgendem Doppelalbum erzählt wurde) entführt 8 Personen aus unterschiedlichen Epochen und Orten der Erde. Um freizukommen müssen die das Elektrische Schloss erreichen. Leider gehen auf dem Weg dorthin ein Charakter nach dem anderen über den Jordan. Im Grunde schreibt sich da ein DDC-Abenteuer fast von selbst.
Meine Lieblingssongs sind Amazing Flight , Across the Rainbow Bridge , Valley of the Queens und natürlich The Castle Hall. Man, hab ich zu letzterem meine nichtvorhandene Matte geschüttelt!
[Forever of the Stars (Peter Daltrey)] At last! You enter the Electric Castle! Here, in this vast hall, where Even shadows fear the light. Here, you must confront your past If you have killed, beware the Gathering of Spirits For they do fish for men. Here, the disembodied Astral World Becomes flesh once more. I pity the men of swords For here, blood runs cold…
[Barbarian (Jay van Feggelen)] Cries from the grave resound in my ears… They hail from beyond my darkest fears… Faces of the past are etched in my brain… The women I raped, the men I’ve slain!
Shades of the dead are sliding on the wall! Demons dance in the castle hall…
Ayreaon: Castle Hall
HIM Razorblade Romance (2000)
Jetzt wird Gothik. Oder zumindest goth-popig. Das Album hat bei mir einen ganz besonderen Platz im Herzen, damals habe ich meine Frau lieben gelernt und die Scheibe lief oft abends auf meinem Zimmer, wenn wir zusammen kuschelten. Für Vampire oder andere Urban-Gothik-Fantasy-Rollenspiele mit Vampiren ist das der richtige Soundtrack.
Steppenwolf The Second (1968)
Zurück in die Vergangenheit, aus den späten 90gern und dem Jahr der großen Toilette in die 60ger. 1969 kam Easy Rider raus, ein Film, der zurecht als Kult gilt und das Destillat der Hippie-Zeit ist. Zum Soundtrack des Filmes gehörte Magic Carpet Ride, der auf der B-Seite des im Vorjahr erschinenen Steppenwolf-Albums war. Wer den 4 ½ Minuten Song nicht kennt: Das wäre keine Bildungslücke, das ist ein Bildungs-Grand-Canyon. Das Album ist was für Kopfhörer, Zeit und ein Gläschen oder Gräschen. Dann kommen die Ideen für ein Reiseabenteuer fast von selbst.
Gnome Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome (2024)
Wo wir grade Old School sind, hier mal eine Platte, die zwar brandneu ist, aber sehr Old School rüberkommt. Stoner Rock, Krautrock. Roh, ungefiltert, BASS! Hier hab ich zwei Videos für euch. Das erste ist natürlich der Link zum Album
und hier zum offiziellen Musikvideos des ersten Songs, Old Soul
Schaut euch das Video an. Will man da nicht sofort ein paar Gnome auswürfeln und die in einen Trichter oder direkt auf eine Kampagne schmeißen? Will man das Video nicht direkt zum Abenteuer umschreiben und dann spielen? Schreit das nicht nach ALRIK oder irgendeinem anderen OSR-System (ich muss dringend wieder meine Würfel rollen lassen)?
Time for a little summary: I found it surprisingly easy to turn an idea that had already ended up in someone else’s wastebasket into a dungeon. This fits in well with the meme theory, which states that ideas, like genes, can be passed on and mutate and that new ideas, images, texts and even new cultural elements can emerge from them.
I also noticed that I work according to the function-follows-form. I first had the idea behind the dungeon, then I drew the map of the dungeon and only then did I differentiate the individual rooms.
Another story that struck me: I’ve grown to love writing adventures for DSA1. I’ve also switched to describing a few samples directly. So no more “To open the door, take a lock-picking test with a penalty of 2 points”. I now write more openly, such as “make a corresponding test more difficult by 2 points”. This gives players many more options for using their character. A crook? Then pick locks. A Brokthar barbarian? A physical strength test. A path mage? Then a corresponding spell, of course.
I also try to incorporate a special feature into my dungeons: in the dungeon inside the statue, the personages had to be shrunk in order to enter the dungeon; in the palace in the clutches of the demon, the personages had to be shrunk in order to enter the dungeon.
I also try to include a special feature in my dungeons: in the dungeon inside a statue it was that the personages had to be shrunk in order to enter the dungeon, in the palace in the claws of the demon it was the mutation table and the plant monsters, in the Torn Grave it was the changing dungeon rooms, in the Changing Crypt it was the radioactivity and that the dungeon moves slowly. In the Hole in the Ground, the entrance area was special because there was the possibility of being struck by lightning. The special thing about the Escape into the depths was that I took the dungeon from Keep on the Borderlands and rewired it.
I now really enjoy creating dungeons. And since 2024 is almost over, I would like to post my adventure-to-do list for 2025 here:
I want to finish writing the race adventure and add a sandbox to it.
I plan to take a dungeon from the old Russian roleplaying game Заклятье Черного Mагаand convert it for my Rakshazar.
I want to create the House of the Trap Warden Xologrima. I already have some concrete ideas.
Another big item on my agenda is revising the DSA1 rules for Rakshazar.
Zeit für ein kleines Resümee: Ich fand es überraschend einfach, aus einer Idee, die eigentlich schon im Papierkorb eines anderen gelandet ist, einen Dungeon zu machen. Das passt gute zur Mem-Theorie, die ja besagt, dass Ideen, ähnlich wie Gene, weitergegeben werden und mutieren können und das daraus neue Ideen, Bilder Texte, ja neue Kulturelle Elemente werden.
Mir ist zudem aufgefallen, dass ich nach Funktion-follows-Form arbeite. Bei mir stand erst die Idee hinter dem Dungeon, dann habe ich die Karte des Dungeons gezeichnet und erst dann die einzelnen Räume ausdifferenziert.
Eine weitere Geschichte, die mir aufgefallen ist: Ich liebe es mittlerweile, Abenteuer für DSA1 zu schreiben. Zudem bin ich dazu übergegangen, wenige Proben direkt zu beschreiben. Also kein “Zum öffnen der Tür lege eine Schlösserknacken-Probe erschwert um 2 Punkte ab”. Ich schreibe mittlerweile offener, etwa “lege eine entsprechende Probe erschwert um 2 Punkte ab”. Das gibt den Spielenden viel mehr Möglichkeiten, ihren Char einzusetzen. Ein Gauner? Dann Schlösser knacken. Ein Brokthar-Barbar? Eine Körperkraft-Probe. Ein Pfadmagier? Dann natürlich ein entsprechender Zauber.
Ich versuche auch, in meine Dungeons eine Besonderheit einzubauen: beim Dungeon im Inneren einer Statue war es, dass die Personagen geschrumpft werden müssen, um in den Dungeon einzudringen, beim Palast im In den Klauen des Dämons waren es die Mutationstabelle und die Pflanzenmonster, beim Zerrissenen Grab die sich verändernden Dungeonräume, bei der Wandelnden Krypta war es die Radioaktivität und dass sich der Dungeon langsam bewegt. Beim Loch in der Erde war der eingangsbereich besonders, weil es hier die Möglichkeit gab, vom Blitz getroffen zu werden. Bei der Flucht in die Tiefe war das besondere, dass ich den Dungeon von Keep on the Borderlands genommen und neu verwurstelt habe.
Mir macht es mittlerweile sehr viel Spaß, Dungeons zu erstellen. Und da ja 2024 fast zu Ende ist, möchte ich hier meine Abenteuer-to-do Liste für 2025 posten:
Ich möchte das Rennabenteuer fertig schreiben und um eine Sandbox ergänzen.
Ich plane, einen Dungeon aus dem alten russischen Rollenspiel Заклятье Черного Mага zu nehmen und für mein Rakshazar umzuwandeln.
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)? Are hillbillies any good as opponents or heroine characters and what the hell are hillbillies anyway? And how can I interpret the whole thing in a new and exciting way?
