Fresh shiny links from the internet! For more, see last week found here or the weekly r/OSR blogroll or check the RPG Blog Carnival. Bloggie-nominated. Originally inspired by weaver.skepti.ch, delinked by request.
Sundered Shields and Silver Shillings launches Trying to fire up a bandwagon: names
On Unnamed Horizons gives us On Named Horizons (a post for the naming bandwagon)
Spiceomancy shares No Stupid Names
Musings on Monstrousness posts Naming Bandwagon
Garamondia writes Naming!
Ladino's Rogue Thoughts gives us Adjudicating Social Requests: a tool, and how I use it
AMONG CATS AND BOOKS shares Death of a Hobby
Taskerland shares GAS-lit
Two Smoking Boots posts On to Better Gods
Widdershins Wanderings writes Rethinking Religion in RPG Settings
AMONG CATS AND BOOKS shares It ain't blorb
Press The Beast shares blorb sucks and Nathe Principles
Ward Against Evil gives us OSR, the OSR, The OSR, the OSR Community, FKR, NSR, BrOSR, and OSR-Style Play
31 August 2026
29 August 2026
Pilgrims of the Painted Idol (GLOG Class: Small God) (GLÅUGUST 2026 #6)
Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #6 is from a list by Locheil themselves - "A short class which is absolutely not a fighter, not a wizard, not a cleric and not a thief.".
This class is a swarm of miscellaneous pilgrims in the style of Many Goblins or The Extras or the treacherous wizards of The Plurality.
The Painted Idol follows the basic Many X rules. This is in fact a statue, icon or reliquary that is carried around by an ever-shifting group of pilgrims that changes periodically as some join, some leave, all of whom are devoted to this particularly obscure little god as it progresses about the place. Exactly what this is the god of is part of character creation.
Hit Dice: 1d10. The Pilgrims have the grit of downtrodden peasantry who have walked a long bloody way to be here.
To-hit, Weapons and Armour, Saves, experience: As per Cleric.
Safety In Numbers: The pilgrims always go around as a crowd bearing the Painted Idol shoulder high, moving as a single mass filling a 20' square and can attack or be attacked by anything within 5' of the crowd. If relevant there are 4d4+2 pilgrims present, with departures and new arrivals on a more or less continuous basis.
Righting the Idol: During any times of stress - combat, risky endeavours - most of the pilgrims are focussed on keeping the idol upright and safe - leaving few to deal with the rest of the world. Collectively they get one action a turn but if they can set the idol down securely and turn their efforts to some unskilled labor, they can spare enough folk from prayers and attending the idol to achieve the work of ten people in an hour of activity.
They have a single collective HP total - for every HP damage, a pilgrim dies dramatically protecting the idol. Area of effect damages them just once. They must obtain ten copies of any equipment to benefit from it.
You can wear light armor and shields, and can wield staves, slings, clubs and knives - as long as you have at least ten sets.
Starting Equipment: survival gear (battered), lots and lots of ropes, large pots with sufficient poor gruel for everyone.
Perk: Turn undead with advantage through being an actual minor divine.
Drawback: it cannot enter a temple dedicated to another god. It is a small god, it cannot trespass. Well, it can, but mayhem swiftly follows.
Advances:
A: A pilgrim here myself
B: Eternal Progress
C: Manifest Miracle
D: Behold this Small God
A pilgrim here myself - it turns out that some of the pilgrims are in fact local to here and therefore they know what knowledge common folk of the locality might have. This may include caches of like food and minor tools, knowledge of main safe routes to and from the region and expectation of hospitality wherever they turn up.
Eternal Progress - the painted idol itself is pretty robust which facilitates some stunts that are not doable for most of the pilgrims, such as traverse a deadly rapid or slide down a mountainside, effectively, making a journey that only a painted idol could make. There will be pilgrims on the other side to pick it up, within 2d12 hours, so it has a somewhat limited ability to make impossible journeys.
The continuous stream of arriving and departing pilgrims means that they are never out of touch or lost for long; for example some new pilgrim turns up at the top of the pit to throw down a rope before noon the next day or a departing pilgrim can carry a message away with them.
Similarly, if all the pilgrims are slain somehow, unless the idol is utterly destroyed beyond recognition, new pilgrims will arrive in 2d12 hours and either pick up the idol or make a reliquary to carry whatever significant shards remain and the Idol can continue.
Manifest Miracle - a hit dice of healing can be bestowed on someone within sight of the idol, up to one for each advance the Idol has. Once a day the Idol can spend two dice to cast any first level clerical spell that becomes known as a marching chant or ritual by the pilgrims. Dice recharge after a nights rest or one per two hours of steady marching.
Behold this Small God The painted idol can use its "forbidden from holy ground" effect offensively. If you can bring it into the presence of an infernal or whatever is deemed inimical to its presence, it can turn or banish those hostiles - though those hostiles get to apply around of damage to the pilgrims before being driven off.
When facing foes who have hit dice equal to or less than the number of advances the idol has, the Idol may forgo all other actions and entice them to join the pilgrims - after the first round, anything that attempts to attack must make a will save or become a pilgrim, after two rounds, anything intent on the idol (such as gathering to attack) must save, after the third round, anything within sight. Once a number of beings equal to the Idols hit points have joined the pilgrims, no more will join while these remain. Each new joiner adds a hit point to the Idol that persists until the following dawn or next significant rest period where these new faithful depart to create their own painted idol.
The Idol also has the ability to slowly consecrate wherever it remains static. It can decide to stay in a fixed position from henceforth, to consecrate any given evil shrine by effectively taking it over and inhabiting it. The painted idol ceases to be an adventurer at that stage.
Design note - this may be insufficiently 'not a cleric' to strictly adhere to the prompt, but I was inspired by the continuously replenishing procession of pilgrims and can only beg forgiveness.
This class is a swarm of miscellaneous pilgrims in the style of Many Goblins or The Extras or the treacherous wizards of The Plurality.
The Painted Idol follows the basic Many X rules. This is in fact a statue, icon or reliquary that is carried around by an ever-shifting group of pilgrims that changes periodically as some join, some leave, all of whom are devoted to this particularly obscure little god as it progresses about the place. Exactly what this is the god of is part of character creation.
Hit Dice: 1d10. The Pilgrims have the grit of downtrodden peasantry who have walked a long bloody way to be here.
To-hit, Weapons and Armour, Saves, experience: As per Cleric.
Safety In Numbers: The pilgrims always go around as a crowd bearing the Painted Idol shoulder high, moving as a single mass filling a 20' square and can attack or be attacked by anything within 5' of the crowd. If relevant there are 4d4+2 pilgrims present, with departures and new arrivals on a more or less continuous basis.
Righting the Idol: During any times of stress - combat, risky endeavours - most of the pilgrims are focussed on keeping the idol upright and safe - leaving few to deal with the rest of the world. Collectively they get one action a turn but if they can set the idol down securely and turn their efforts to some unskilled labor, they can spare enough folk from prayers and attending the idol to achieve the work of ten people in an hour of activity.
They have a single collective HP total - for every HP damage, a pilgrim dies dramatically protecting the idol. Area of effect damages them just once. They must obtain ten copies of any equipment to benefit from it.
You can wear light armor and shields, and can wield staves, slings, clubs and knives - as long as you have at least ten sets.
Starting Equipment: survival gear (battered), lots and lots of ropes, large pots with sufficient poor gruel for everyone.
Perk: Turn undead with advantage through being an actual minor divine.
Drawback: it cannot enter a temple dedicated to another god. It is a small god, it cannot trespass. Well, it can, but mayhem swiftly follows.
Advances:
A: A pilgrim here myself
B: Eternal Progress
C: Manifest Miracle
D: Behold this Small God
A pilgrim here myself - it turns out that some of the pilgrims are in fact local to here and therefore they know what knowledge common folk of the locality might have. This may include caches of like food and minor tools, knowledge of main safe routes to and from the region and expectation of hospitality wherever they turn up.
Eternal Progress - the painted idol itself is pretty robust which facilitates some stunts that are not doable for most of the pilgrims, such as traverse a deadly rapid or slide down a mountainside, effectively, making a journey that only a painted idol could make. There will be pilgrims on the other side to pick it up, within 2d12 hours, so it has a somewhat limited ability to make impossible journeys.
The continuous stream of arriving and departing pilgrims means that they are never out of touch or lost for long; for example some new pilgrim turns up at the top of the pit to throw down a rope before noon the next day or a departing pilgrim can carry a message away with them.
Similarly, if all the pilgrims are slain somehow, unless the idol is utterly destroyed beyond recognition, new pilgrims will arrive in 2d12 hours and either pick up the idol or make a reliquary to carry whatever significant shards remain and the Idol can continue.
Manifest Miracle - a hit dice of healing can be bestowed on someone within sight of the idol, up to one for each advance the Idol has. Once a day the Idol can spend two dice to cast any first level clerical spell that becomes known as a marching chant or ritual by the pilgrims. Dice recharge after a nights rest or one per two hours of steady marching.
Behold this Small God The painted idol can use its "forbidden from holy ground" effect offensively. If you can bring it into the presence of an infernal or whatever is deemed inimical to its presence, it can turn or banish those hostiles - though those hostiles get to apply around of damage to the pilgrims before being driven off.
When facing foes who have hit dice equal to or less than the number of advances the idol has, the Idol may forgo all other actions and entice them to join the pilgrims - after the first round, anything that attempts to attack must make a will save or become a pilgrim, after two rounds, anything intent on the idol (such as gathering to attack) must save, after the third round, anything within sight. Once a number of beings equal to the Idols hit points have joined the pilgrims, no more will join while these remain. Each new joiner adds a hit point to the Idol that persists until the following dawn or next significant rest period where these new faithful depart to create their own painted idol.
The Idol also has the ability to slowly consecrate wherever it remains static. It can decide to stay in a fixed position from henceforth, to consecrate any given evil shrine by effectively taking it over and inhabiting it. The painted idol ceases to be an adventurer at that stage.
Design note - this may be insufficiently 'not a cleric' to strictly adhere to the prompt, but I was inspired by the continuously replenishing procession of pilgrims and can only beg forgiveness.
27 August 2026
The joy of time-skips (RPG Blog Carnival )
Of Dice and Dragons themselves give us this months prompt Time, both in world and above the table, for the RPG Blog Carnival.
I have gotten a fair few strategies to make the real-world clock run - from 'run with 3' roster games, regular time slots, and a lot of practice with the same Friday-night open table time slot. That much I feel I have an approach, even if life still curb-stomps it from time to time.
In game time though. That still challenges me - specifically downtime and the prying loose players white-knuckled grip on the hour-glass.
I had one great experience recently where in the Hexcrawl 25 campaign the players wandered into a wizards tower held in temporal stasis and decided to thermite the widge that was making time pass very slowly inside. This effectively tossed them four and a bit years into the future which was just great as a DM.
One player of the roster was still out and active for that four years and they, coincidentally, moonlighted as the local postman so they have four whole years of beefing up their local reputation and putting about whatever legends they wanted. That very, very extended downtime activity for them basically set the backdrop for the rest of the campaign.
The rest of the players got to come out and find how things had changed, see the consequences of their actions on the map and have that sense of making a difference. Cannot recommend enough, wish I could pull such big time jumps off more.
I had a pretty coherent faction map when the time skip happened so it was relatively straight forward to run through how the dominos fell for all the various bits of the map, but should it happen to you unexpectedly then you can roll up some change to each place you come to below.
d20 Things changed after a significant time-skip
1. New realm splintered from old one, same archetype
2. Expansion of realms / shifting borders
3. Border reivers domains moved
4. Unsealed horrors
5. Splinter faction of invaders
6. Domino conflicts
7. Conflicts no longer restrained
8. Revolutionary realms
9. Reenergised rebellions
10. Replacement of activities (undead > laborers)
11. New gods shrines
12. Rejuvenation of conqueror realms
13. 'Golden road' of loot caravans
14. Populations altered in known locations
15. New settlements
16. Ruined / converted fortifications
17. New catspaws for old villains
18. Cultural mores changed in known places
19. Orphaned faction finding new motivations
20. Old foes made peace
I have gotten a fair few strategies to make the real-world clock run - from 'run with 3' roster games, regular time slots, and a lot of practice with the same Friday-night open table time slot. That much I feel I have an approach, even if life still curb-stomps it from time to time.
In game time though. That still challenges me - specifically downtime and the prying loose players white-knuckled grip on the hour-glass.
I had one great experience recently where in the Hexcrawl 25 campaign the players wandered into a wizards tower held in temporal stasis and decided to thermite the widge that was making time pass very slowly inside. This effectively tossed them four and a bit years into the future which was just great as a DM.
One player of the roster was still out and active for that four years and they, coincidentally, moonlighted as the local postman so they have four whole years of beefing up their local reputation and putting about whatever legends they wanted. That very, very extended downtime activity for them basically set the backdrop for the rest of the campaign.
The rest of the players got to come out and find how things had changed, see the consequences of their actions on the map and have that sense of making a difference. Cannot recommend enough, wish I could pull such big time jumps off more.
I had a pretty coherent faction map when the time skip happened so it was relatively straight forward to run through how the dominos fell for all the various bits of the map, but should it happen to you unexpectedly then you can roll up some change to each place you come to below.
d20 Things changed after a significant time-skip
1. New realm splintered from old one, same archetype
2. Expansion of realms / shifting borders
3. Border reivers domains moved
4. Unsealed horrors
5. Splinter faction of invaders
6. Domino conflicts
7. Conflicts no longer restrained
8. Revolutionary realms
9. Reenergised rebellions
10. Replacement of activities (undead > laborers)
11. New gods shrines
12. Rejuvenation of conqueror realms
13. 'Golden road' of loot caravans
14. Populations altered in known locations
15. New settlements
16. Ruined / converted fortifications
17. New catspaws for old villains
18. Cultural mores changed in known places
19. Orphaned faction finding new motivations
20. Old foes made peace
26 August 2026
YSYP Cottonmouth Ashcan (GLÅUGUST 2026 #5)
Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #5 is from a list by Doc - "Cottonmouth your pet system so it is synonymous with one of your settings. Here is what Cottonmouth is and here is one way you could do that"
For this I am attempting to crank over the entire system for Your Sector, Your Problem. It gnaws at me but I think the attempt to Cottonmouth it might force it to a useful place. You could probably retool the guts of this to be a minion-running mechanic for any domain level game. The 'cottonmouth' aspect of it is that the gears and gubbins are all just set up for the 'telling of the tale' debriefing which is happening in world (assuming you survive).
Four things happen during a cycle of play
1. You learn what problems you have in your sector, as per the name
2. You throw your assets at the threat, hopefully suitable ones against your various threats
3. Resolve the problems (or fail to)
4. Recover and maintain your assets - and then debrief on how the whole mission cycle played out.
Phase 1 - for this ashcan your problem is going to be selected with three rolls d12+8 off this d20 sector defense assets table to get three problems.
Phase 2 - you have your starter set of assets - three d20 rolls on the table and assign them against whichever problem you like. Each of your players draws two standard playing cards.
Ace, 2 = Exhaustion
3, 4 = Panic & miscommunication
5+ Hearts = Xeno-shock
5+ Diamonds = Inexplicable Physics
5+ Clubs = Bureaucracy & Bad Planning
5+ Spades = Gear Failure
Phase 3 - Decide whether or not to get involved, add a d6 if a player deploys with an asset and risks death. Roll off between problem and asset.
+4 success, no upkeep
+0 success, upkeep (draw 1)
-4 success, high upkeep (draw 2)
-5 or lower, failure, high upkeep (draw 2)
At this point draw cards from a standard deck for each asset as required by the rolls.
Phase 4 - upkeep - each character can get involved with an asset and play one of their cards. Multiple characters can go after one asset. If the total value of their cards (Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13) is greater than card on the asset, take that card of the asset. Then tell the story of how it all played out, framed as your debriefing to the rest of the characters after everything has been resolved. That debrief has to include
What the asset is
The problem (card on the asset being targetted)
What caused the problem (the threat that put the cards there)
The character(s) involved in fixing the problem.
Do this for all assets. With luck, you have cards in hand that total more than the cards on your assets - just tell the tale of how you fixed it.
If the total of the characters cards do not exceed the value of the problems, characters can roll a save for that category (e.g. Inexplicable Physics) modified by the gap between the cards you have and the problem. Fail and take d6 points distributed across your Grit, Guile and Charm stats.Make the save with disadvantage if you play a card of a different type as the problem.
However that plays out, you still must tell the tale as a debriefing as above with the added element of:
How the character got beaten up doing it
Any remaining problems on the asset
Any assets that go into the next round with cards on them, they lose a dice from what they roll per card remaining.
Characters in this conceptualisation have 3d6 stats (Grit, Guile, Charm) and saves that base of those stats, modified by their 'career' tied either to humans, aliens or terrain, affecting people or stuff. Players could eat a few 'I have no cards, I get stuck in' at d6 damage a pop but not over the long haul.
Design notes
Key revelation, thanks to the in-house testing team, is not to frame this as 'grading roleplaying' but more as assembling the elements that have to be incorporated into an 'upkeep vignette' somewhat like a small round of 'Once Upon a Time'. I think it captures the fun of 'minion running' and the chaos involved in explaining why this xenoarchaeologist (holder of the right cards) was able to fix the BOGEYMAN cybertanks Gear Failure problem caused by their scrap with the Dubious Alien Mercenaries.
I like this better as a 'just tell the tale' rather than 'you must 'win' a roleplaying encounter'. Is this properly Cottonmouthed? Barely - I think in making it a 'talk through how you fixed it' it adheres to the in-world concept of your are troubleshooters dealing with wild things and debriefing your fellows at a particularly bizarre set of .
For this I am attempting to crank over the entire system for Your Sector, Your Problem. It gnaws at me but I think the attempt to Cottonmouth it might force it to a useful place. You could probably retool the guts of this to be a minion-running mechanic for any domain level game. The 'cottonmouth' aspect of it is that the gears and gubbins are all just set up for the 'telling of the tale' debriefing which is happening in world (assuming you survive).
Four things happen during a cycle of play
1. You learn what problems you have in your sector, as per the name
2. You throw your assets at the threat, hopefully suitable ones against your various threats
3. Resolve the problems (or fail to)
4. Recover and maintain your assets - and then debrief on how the whole mission cycle played out.
Phase 1 - for this ashcan your problem is going to be selected with three rolls d12+8 off this d20 sector defense assets table to get three problems.
Phase 2 - you have your starter set of assets - three d20 rolls on the table and assign them against whichever problem you like. Each of your players draws two standard playing cards.
Ace, 2 = Exhaustion
3, 4 = Panic & miscommunication
5+ Hearts = Xeno-shock
5+ Diamonds = Inexplicable Physics
5+ Clubs = Bureaucracy & Bad Planning
5+ Spades = Gear Failure
Phase 3 - Decide whether or not to get involved, add a d6 if a player deploys with an asset and risks death. Roll off between problem and asset.
+4 success, no upkeep
+0 success, upkeep (draw 1)
-4 success, high upkeep (draw 2)
-5 or lower, failure, high upkeep (draw 2)
At this point draw cards from a standard deck for each asset as required by the rolls.
Phase 4 - upkeep - each character can get involved with an asset and play one of their cards. Multiple characters can go after one asset. If the total value of their cards (Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13) is greater than card on the asset, take that card of the asset. Then tell the story of how it all played out, framed as your debriefing to the rest of the characters after everything has been resolved. That debrief has to include
What the asset is
The problem (card on the asset being targetted)
What caused the problem (the threat that put the cards there)
The character(s) involved in fixing the problem.
Do this for all assets. With luck, you have cards in hand that total more than the cards on your assets - just tell the tale of how you fixed it.
If the total of the characters cards do not exceed the value of the problems, characters can roll a save for that category (e.g. Inexplicable Physics) modified by the gap between the cards you have and the problem. Fail and take d6 points distributed across your Grit, Guile and Charm stats.Make the save with disadvantage if you play a card of a different type as the problem.
However that plays out, you still must tell the tale as a debriefing as above with the added element of:
How the character got beaten up doing it
Any remaining problems on the asset
Any assets that go into the next round with cards on them, they lose a dice from what they roll per card remaining.
Characters in this conceptualisation have 3d6 stats (Grit, Guile, Charm) and saves that base of those stats, modified by their 'career' tied either to humans, aliens or terrain, affecting people or stuff. Players could eat a few 'I have no cards, I get stuck in' at d6 damage a pop but not over the long haul.
Design notes
Key revelation, thanks to the in-house testing team, is not to frame this as 'grading roleplaying' but more as assembling the elements that have to be incorporated into an 'upkeep vignette' somewhat like a small round of 'Once Upon a Time'. I think it captures the fun of 'minion running' and the chaos involved in explaining why this xenoarchaeologist (holder of the right cards) was able to fix the BOGEYMAN cybertanks Gear Failure problem caused by their scrap with the Dubious Alien Mercenaries.
I like this better as a 'just tell the tale' rather than 'you must 'win' a roleplaying encounter'. Is this properly Cottonmouthed? Barely - I think in making it a 'talk through how you fixed it' it adheres to the in-world concept of your are troubleshooters dealing with wild things and debriefing your fellows at a particularly bizarre set of .
24 August 2026
Shiny TTRPG links #291
We return to standard posting - bundles of shiny links, fresh from the internet! For more, check out the chonky set from last week found here or the weekly r/OSR blogroll or check the RPG Blog Carnival. Bloggie-nominated. Originally inspired by weaver.skepti.ch, delinked by request.
I Cast Light! shares THE OSR IS DEADLY: But Not Deadly Enough To Kill Long-term Play
Spiceomancy shares The JAR
Typebar Magazine posts Revisiting the Past: Can Pulp Save Science Fiction?
RedMageGM hosts writes A Mystic Wood OSR Adventure Jam
Backwards Tabletop gives us To Play Is To Explode
Trick's Tales gives us Jay Dragon (Steve Jackson Games/Possum Creek Games) Interview - Seven Part Pact
Bare Nuckelavee gives us NO ONE CAN TAKE YOUR GAME FROM YOU
Cannibal Halfling Gaming posts The Data on Million-Plus RPG Crowdfunding Campaigns
Roseline posts Why Who You Play With Matters and on building the muscle of Hope
I Cast Light! shares THE OSR IS DEADLY: But Not Deadly Enough To Kill Long-term Play
Spiceomancy shares The JAR
Typebar Magazine posts Revisiting the Past: Can Pulp Save Science Fiction?
RedMageGM hosts writes A Mystic Wood OSR Adventure Jam
Backwards Tabletop gives us To Play Is To Explode
Trick's Tales gives us Jay Dragon (Steve Jackson Games/Possum Creek Games) Interview - Seven Part Pact
Bare Nuckelavee gives us NO ONE CAN TAKE YOUR GAME FROM YOU
Cannibal Halfling Gaming posts The Data on Million-Plus RPG Crowdfunding Campaigns
Roseline posts Why Who You Play With Matters and on building the muscle of Hope
22 August 2026
Portalfreaks (GLÅUGUST 2026 #4)
Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #4 is from a list by Semiurge - "Some roadfreaks for a passage that isn't a road - canalfreaks, hyperlanefreaks, portalfreaks, etc."
I have a deep and abiding love of 'sliders' type portal-of-the-week campaigns - my two best Planescape campaigns were of this type - so the archetype of weird sods bampfing into a place through some random mystic doorway and then thundering around like bulls in china-shops is one I think can bring joy and novelty to any campaign.
These are the folk that know about and live at the interstices of all the portal networks. They hang around bars and bazaars in Sigil, the City of Glass, Waterdeep, crossroads like that. You get a different bunches working different angles - one around shipping, some around the magical component trade - but the one that most folk think about when someone spits "portalfreaks" are the scouts - the fast riders, the smash-and-grab folk.
The best of them are the absolutely fundamental base layer of the information-broking shadow war, the whole information-is-power part of the economy of Sigil and the outer planes. They are the source of first-hand information, free-lance long-range military scouts. They go and look at stuff, count noses and blades and they come back, nice-and-easy, in and out. In contrast with the spies and all the people who try to shake stuff out of people, they go and eyeball the things you just cannot hide like a giant floating ship or a mustering devil legion.
The nature of engaging these portalfreaks is someone asks a question and then first there is work to get a sense of where might those answers be? Once you know where to look then you want to figure out what kind of portalfreak you want - who matches to the task? They should be one who can get the portal keys, who can get to the locations, knows the routes to do the runs, maybe stealth experts, or maybe something fundamental to their nature like celestials who aren't going to die on contact with the heavens, or tieflings that aren't going to perish in the hells. Everything can be overcome with sufficiently powerful magic of course, but magic costs and why pay for that guys shiny bangle when that guy over there just won't burst into flames on arrival in the first place?
The portalfreaks tend to come in two flavours - the break-and-entry folk who get in anywhere, and eyeball things that are hidden then run off with your secrets - and the all-terrain, survive anywhere scouts that just out-endure whatever conditions they face to witness things that are out in the inhospitable open. Those tend to be experts and surveying ground and counting noses. Some of them run a circuit, selling what they see, others keep their ear to the ground and follow trouble.
The culture of these portalfreaks is very much hung up on having all of the gear. Everything is on you because you're gonna go to a place where there is nothing. Belts and buckles and pouches and bandoliers of absolutely everything strung around them together with a big backpack or mount and pack-mount pairs. One of the big aesthetic choices across most portalfreaks is riding howlers. All of them absolutely swear is the optimal choice but lack any sort of means to support this and say why beyond that a howler is such an ornery mean beast that things just can't really get much worse so you've got that a known quantity.
Another thing that about portalfreaks is the trail of tchotchkes they leave behind. Ranging from that kind of trade a shiny rock for a pair of buttons, weird swap-meet stuff, up to waves of minor kleptomania, they are known for their trail of minor bits and pieces. This has grown out of original practices for disguising what the key to the local portal is. If roses off a nearby bush kept going missing, for instance, people could figure out that roses were probably the key to the portal. If, however, there is a complete mess it is very difficult for anyone to peg any one thing as the portal key, and so it became basic operational security for early common portal scout, before the freaky fully evolved.
d6 Portalfreaks
1. A muscle-sorcerer disguising themselves as a standard fighter; leans hard into 'desert nomad' archetypal appearance.
2. A paladin of a god of knowledge, grizzled and battered with a giant goat mount, viewing it as their divine duty to pry secrets from the hands of evil-doers.
3. A ex-celestial legionairre, never adapted to settled life, continues to tramp about the plains observing things, prides themselves on being able to out-tough anything.
4. Howler-mounted, swivel-eyed wizard, in ragged cloak and battered hat. Jittery when not on the move, impatient to get your question, get their payment and get back on the Great Wheel.
5. Goblin duo, battered old shaman, bundled up in a beastfur, escorted by a weathered warrior only slightly younger, mounted on worgs. Sneaky, subtle and happy to take any gig.
6. Tiefling with a spray of horns, mounted on a howler, both cloaked in reptile skin. Very still and watchful, charming in conversation, prone to slipping away when not directly observed.
I have a deep and abiding love of 'sliders' type portal-of-the-week campaigns - my two best Planescape campaigns were of this type - so the archetype of weird sods bampfing into a place through some random mystic doorway and then thundering around like bulls in china-shops is one I think can bring joy and novelty to any campaign.
These are the folk that know about and live at the interstices of all the portal networks. They hang around bars and bazaars in Sigil, the City of Glass, Waterdeep, crossroads like that. You get a different bunches working different angles - one around shipping, some around the magical component trade - but the one that most folk think about when someone spits "portalfreaks" are the scouts - the fast riders, the smash-and-grab folk.
The best of them are the absolutely fundamental base layer of the information-broking shadow war, the whole information-is-power part of the economy of Sigil and the outer planes. They are the source of first-hand information, free-lance long-range military scouts. They go and look at stuff, count noses and blades and they come back, nice-and-easy, in and out. In contrast with the spies and all the people who try to shake stuff out of people, they go and eyeball the things you just cannot hide like a giant floating ship or a mustering devil legion.
The nature of engaging these portalfreaks is someone asks a question and then first there is work to get a sense of where might those answers be? Once you know where to look then you want to figure out what kind of portalfreak you want - who matches to the task? They should be one who can get the portal keys, who can get to the locations, knows the routes to do the runs, maybe stealth experts, or maybe something fundamental to their nature like celestials who aren't going to die on contact with the heavens, or tieflings that aren't going to perish in the hells. Everything can be overcome with sufficiently powerful magic of course, but magic costs and why pay for that guys shiny bangle when that guy over there just won't burst into flames on arrival in the first place?
The portalfreaks tend to come in two flavours - the break-and-entry folk who get in anywhere, and eyeball things that are hidden then run off with your secrets - and the all-terrain, survive anywhere scouts that just out-endure whatever conditions they face to witness things that are out in the inhospitable open. Those tend to be experts and surveying ground and counting noses. Some of them run a circuit, selling what they see, others keep their ear to the ground and follow trouble.
The culture of these portalfreaks is very much hung up on having all of the gear. Everything is on you because you're gonna go to a place where there is nothing. Belts and buckles and pouches and bandoliers of absolutely everything strung around them together with a big backpack or mount and pack-mount pairs. One of the big aesthetic choices across most portalfreaks is riding howlers. All of them absolutely swear is the optimal choice but lack any sort of means to support this and say why beyond that a howler is such an ornery mean beast that things just can't really get much worse so you've got that a known quantity.
Another thing that about portalfreaks is the trail of tchotchkes they leave behind. Ranging from that kind of trade a shiny rock for a pair of buttons, weird swap-meet stuff, up to waves of minor kleptomania, they are known for their trail of minor bits and pieces. This has grown out of original practices for disguising what the key to the local portal is. If roses off a nearby bush kept going missing, for instance, people could figure out that roses were probably the key to the portal. If, however, there is a complete mess it is very difficult for anyone to peg any one thing as the portal key, and so it became basic operational security for early common portal scout, before the freaky fully evolved.
d6 Portalfreaks
1. A muscle-sorcerer disguising themselves as a standard fighter; leans hard into 'desert nomad' archetypal appearance.
2. A paladin of a god of knowledge, grizzled and battered with a giant goat mount, viewing it as their divine duty to pry secrets from the hands of evil-doers.
3. A ex-celestial legionairre, never adapted to settled life, continues to tramp about the plains observing things, prides themselves on being able to out-tough anything.
4. Howler-mounted, swivel-eyed wizard, in ragged cloak and battered hat. Jittery when not on the move, impatient to get your question, get their payment and get back on the Great Wheel.
5. Goblin duo, battered old shaman, bundled up in a beastfur, escorted by a weathered warrior only slightly younger, mounted on worgs. Sneaky, subtle and happy to take any gig.
6. Tiefling with a spray of horns, mounted on a howler, both cloaked in reptile skin. Very still and watchful, charming in conversation, prone to slipping away when not directly observed.
19 August 2026
The (at least) nine cultures of play (GLÅUGUST 2026 #3)
Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #3 is from a list by Purple - "Futility of categorization."
I have been gathering the various '... but also!' cultures of play people have articulated since Retired Adventurer wrote their touchstone post. In addition to those original six, we can add 'Optimizer' culture from Flourite Guillotine, Jeu d'Atmosphere from Taskerland and 'Common Sense Culture' from Elmcat.
My personal framing for this - as in why are some of these not the same thing - is that the culture expresses itself as why do folk sit to table. Trying to be very succinct about this we get:
Classic - play to get deeper into the dungeon / take on greater challenges
Trad (short for "traditional") - play to hear the DMs grand story
Nordic Larp - play to live the character
Story Games - play to collectively tell the story
The OSR ("Old School Renaissance / Revival") - play for the interesting decisions
OC / Neo-trad - play to actualise your characters story
Optimizer - play to "work the rules hard"
Games of Atmosphere - play to immerse in the world
Common Sense Culture - play to get the adventure done
And here is where we return to our topic of "Futility of categorization" in that there is almost certainly finer grades of distinction within Nordic LARP and Storygames - I am sure if I played more of either of those I would be able to offer thoughts on how they should be broken down.
This culture of play intersects with the preferences of the players at your table - take Matt Colvilles 9 Types of Players for just one example. Thow in the GNS model or whatever you like to try and articulate the type of fun your are having and things start to get really complicated.
Much like the exercise of trying to say how many communities are within the OSR is near-futile but expressing that there *are* multiple communities within it is useful; trying to nail down a definitive all encompassing categorisation is going to be very hard and of dubious use, but it is still useful to recognise that different groups sit to table with very different objectives in mind.
I have been gathering the various '... but also!' cultures of play people have articulated since Retired Adventurer wrote their touchstone post. In addition to those original six, we can add 'Optimizer' culture from Flourite Guillotine, Jeu d'Atmosphere from Taskerland and 'Common Sense Culture' from Elmcat.
My personal framing for this - as in why are some of these not the same thing - is that the culture expresses itself as why do folk sit to table. Trying to be very succinct about this we get:
Classic - play to get deeper into the dungeon / take on greater challenges
Trad (short for "traditional") - play to hear the DMs grand story
Nordic Larp - play to live the character
Story Games - play to collectively tell the story
The OSR ("Old School Renaissance / Revival") - play for the interesting decisions
OC / Neo-trad - play to actualise your characters story
Optimizer - play to "work the rules hard"
Games of Atmosphere - play to immerse in the world
Common Sense Culture - play to get the adventure done
And here is where we return to our topic of "Futility of categorization" in that there is almost certainly finer grades of distinction within Nordic LARP and Storygames - I am sure if I played more of either of those I would be able to offer thoughts on how they should be broken down.
This culture of play intersects with the preferences of the players at your table - take Matt Colvilles 9 Types of Players for just one example. Thow in the GNS model or whatever you like to try and articulate the type of fun your are having and things start to get really complicated.
Much like the exercise of trying to say how many communities are within the OSR is near-futile but expressing that there *are* multiple communities within it is useful; trying to nail down a definitive all encompassing categorisation is going to be very hard and of dubious use, but it is still useful to recognise that different groups sit to table with very different objectives in mind.
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