GLOGtober '24

TitleKnown

    The gretchlings are coming! The gretchlings are coming! Hide your valuables and your ideas, for the gretchlings are coming! The rules for GLOGtober 2024:

• The prompt list (this post) will be released in September, giving time for people to write their content to post in October.
• There are seven d6 tables, each containing potential prompts. These d6 tables were created by some of the top contributors to GLOGtober ‘23. Each “challenge” you roll a d6; this is your prompt. If you don’t like it, I dunno, just pick something I guess.
• Even though the title references the GLOG, your contributions don’t necessarily have to be related to the GLOG. If you want to write a MÖRK BORG background or Troika! adventure based on one of the prompts, go for it. The point of GLOGtober is that you’re making RPG material.

Challenge 1 (Walfalcon)

1. A connection between disparate worlds.

2. A premise inspired by an album.

3. Anime-inspired content.

4. A city where you can dungeon crawl.

5. An explanation of where sentient robots fit into a setting that previously did not have sentient robots.

6. Some spooky Halloween monsters.

Challenge 2 (CommonUse)

1. 300 word hack.

2. Patrons: their source of power/wealth and their goals in using the party.

3. GLOG-class formatted as an acrostic using the English alphabet.

4. Proverbs or sayings for a non-human race and what they are trying to teach.

5. Collaborate on a post with another person who got this result.

6. The name of the guild which protects the farthest reaches of civilization, some rumors about them (some true, some legend), and one NPC from the guild the party might meet.

Challenge 3 (Vivanter)

1. A class written for a specific player in one of your games (past or present).

2. Feuding poets and their ruinous verses.

3. A monster described only through conflicting folklore and rumor.

4. Real world artwork that inspires your RPG practice.

5. An encounter table for domain-level play.

6. A downtime activity that you do in real life, but you've never seem rendered in a game.

Challenge 4 (Shadowfray)

1. Infrastructure & Logistics.

2. Esoteric Orders and Creeds.

3. Candles, Pottery, Bricks, etc.

4. Death & Divinity.

5. Origin Myth of a Monster.

6. Sacred Body Horror.

Challenge 5 (Phlox)

1. A procedure relating to a city.

2. Race-as-class.

3. A fate worse than death.

4. Two complimentary monsters.

5. Pirate ship.

6. Oracles and sages.

Challenge 6 (xaosseed)

1. Magical 'hotspot' patterns.

2. "I fell through the floor, and there I was..."

3. Dungeon Molluscs and other Gygaxian naturalist evolved adaptations.

4. Big picture background conflicts.

5. Secrets of the stones.

6. Fantastic transports.

Challenge 7 (TheFirstGokun)

1. Romance.

2. MMORPG.

3. Alien Invasion!!!

4. Physical Game Pieces.

5. Tapestry.

6. Color.

Rather the Exception (More Ogres)

    An ogre expansion pack for Spiceomancy’s excellent Ten Ogres post. Always remember, the world is too vast and too terrible for one law to rule over all.

Necromancer

An ogre who is not giant.

    It is said that Necromancer cheated his way into the underworld and stole the Necronomicon from Hades, and from its pages gleaned how to control the dead. Because of his size, he can blend in with the crowds of humans that now rule the earth and influence them. Going by names such as Vecna, Nyarlathotep, and Bony Bob, Necromancer spreads lesser, incomplete copies of the Necronomicon throughout the world so that his patented craft can be practiced by mortals.

    Only he among the ogres on this list actually wants to return to the age of the giants. Necromancer seeks the ruin of the human species so that the gigantocene era may once again grace Earth. He thinks he’s a lot smarter than he actually is, however, and every one of his dozens of intricate plots have been stopped so far by the Church’s super-secret arcane fire teams.

    A few of those fire teams have even managed to kill Necromancer, but he always returns a few years later sporting a new stitched-up scar. Necromancer can currently be found in Chicago, where he is attempting to start another necromancy pyramid scheme.

HD 5* (supernatural); armor as unarmored; 4 MD necromancer

Cityback

An ogre who is not human.

    There is a rumor that in the elder days, when the Kinslayer was hunting her brothers, one of the more cunning Giants ripped his soul out of his body and stuck it in the heart of a town. This town — the first town, really — later grew to become a city, and then a metropolis. In this way, Cityback was reborn as an ogre.

    Cityback invented all the bad things about cities: pollution, crime, getting stuck in traffic, etc. He gleefully inflicts these woes upon the cities he is a part of, which is to say, all of them. The body of Cityback is not an ogre’s body, but the totality of all urban settlements across time and space. It is Cityback’s metaphysical connection with cities that allows wizards and other nasty creatures to travel between metropolises across spacetime in just a few hours.

    Of course, passage through the Cityback requires tribute…

HD ??? (how the hell are you going to fight a city?); armor as fuck you

Erelim

An ogre who is not a monster.

    Erelim is an ogre who, after going through a midlife crisis for a couple centuries, decided to repent for his and his kin’s evil. After completing the seven trials given to him by the Superpope, Erelim was ceremonially locked into a suit of deformed golden armor and designated a high-ranking paladin.

    Now, he fights for the Good. He kills with a prayer for the victim’s soul on his lips. He fights demons, undead, and unspeakable horrors all in the name of protecting the weak. He is feared and respected by his fellows in equal measure, but never loved. He does not ask them for their love. He does not need it. He will continue his killing-work in the name of his brother-ogres, to redeem them all.

HD 5*; armor as warded plate; holy gigasword 1d12+1/1d12+1

Warforged

An ogre who is not a man.

    The first autonomous warforged, properly named Warforged Unit 0001, was a humanoid robotic killing machine animated by a trapped ogre soul. Released onto numerous radiation-stained battlefields in WWIII, Warforged proved to be equivalent to a whole contingent worth of soldiers. That was until the ogre soul took real control over the automaton and started murdering friendlies.

    It was with a heavy heart that 0001’s creators activated its failsafe protocol and teleported it to Mars. After a little bit (216 years) of service to the local Martians, they decided to grant its request and teleported Warforged back to Earth so that it could take its revenge.

    Now, Warforged wanders the planet, the last knight of a long-forgotten war.

HD 5*; armor as plate; chainsaw sword 2d6, fist 1d12/1d12

Sahuagin

An ogre who lives in the seawater.

    Not a true dragon, despite what he’ll try and tell you. Shark-like in body and temperament, Sahuagin can only infrequently go upon land to eat people. When he’s not Jaws-ing beachgoers, he’s vacationing in the arctic regions of the world, resting, and admiring the northern lights.

    The lights! Sahuagin has always been fascinated by those shimmering celestial ribbons and, when not hunting, has dedicated his life to finding out their secrets. So far he has discovered that they are a form of communication, although with what he does not yet know. Sometimes, he hires low-level mercenaries to acquire things for him in the human world. Then, of course, he eats them, but he likes to think of it as their final contribution to his science.

    All in all, he’s just your average obsessive ogre-shark scientist.

HD 5*; armor as chain; stats otherwise as giant shark

Grimoire of Fog

Thanks to PRIMEUMATON for a spell idea and the phrase "damsel of distress."

When you first study the Grimoire of Fog, learn the Fog spell below. Studying the Grimoire should take a certain unit of time, but that unit's length depends on your campaign's structure and scope.

Fog — summon a cloud of thick magical fog that lasts for [sum] rounds and obscures about a 30’ diameter. At 2 [dice], the fog lasts [sum] minutes, reduces enemy movement by 10’ while inside it, and covers about a 40’ diameter. At 3 [dice], the fog lasts [sum] hours, reduces enemy movement as above, and covers about a 80’ radius. At 4 [dice], the fog lasts for [sum] days, blinds enemies and reduces their movement by 20’, and covers about a 160’ radius.

For every subsequent time you study this Grimoire, roll 1d10 on the list below and learn that spell.

1. Sticks and Stones — requires a stick and a stone, which the spell transforms into a light, long dagger of sylvan gold that lasts [sum] minutes before shriveling up into rose-colored dust. At 2 [dice] or more, the dagger is instead a medium sylvan gold longsword. (Note: sylvan gold has +2 to-hit and damage against ugly things and uncharismatic people, but has -2 to-hit and damage against beautiful things and charismatic people. Any tool of sylvan gold always breaks on a natural 1 or 2.)

2. Glamor — requires a mask. Invest a specified amount of MD in the mask, which then gives you +[dice] Charisma when worn. The mask is invisible when worn but can be dislodged with a solid sucker punch. You detect as a fairy while wearing the mask.

3. Spook — anyone that can see you turns pale with nameless terror. Enemies who can see you immediately make a morale check with a -[dice] penalty. Named enemies must make a save with a -[dice] penalty. At 3 [dice] or higher, everything must make a morale check, including plants, buildings, objects, etc.

4. Liar, Liar — you can see lies as blue mist for [sum] minutes/hours/days/years. This includes not only spoken lies, but also false forms and invisibility.

5. A Gardener’s Dream — requires a few drops of gardener’s blood, a gold crown, and a tree sapling. The crown and blood are absorbed by the tree. After the spell is cast the tree grows to maturity in 2d6 - [dice] days. If the result of this roll is 0 or a negative number, the tree grows to maturity in a few seconds. When mature, the Gardener’s Dream provides access to some sort of other plane. I don’t know, ask your GM. Some suggestions are the Gardens of Ynn, the Feywild, and the realm of dreams. This spell only supports one Gardener’s Dream at a time.

6. Grudge Spear — summons an ancient spear with an iron spearhead that does +[dice] damage to one specific person. The grudge spear lasts [sum] minutes and cannot fumble.

7. Traveler in the Mists — calls the Jack of Roads, a 9 HD fairy who appears to be a short man in rags, with a floating clump of luminescent blue fog instead of a head. He is wheedling, cunning, and open to haggling. He may instantly teleport the caster and whoever they are touching to any place covered in fog within [sum] miles. He takes one of your MD when you summon him. You may get it back through a hefty bribe of good alcohol or food.

8. Hungry, Hungry Moths — magical moths appear on a target of your choice and eat through [sum] random inventory slots in a few moments, destroying nonmagical items, currency, armor, etc.

9. Damsel of Distress — summon a beautiful memory-stained Damsel of Distress, who has stats as a vampire who drinks your dreams and fears instead of your blood. This feeding is apparently a terrible sensation, deals [dice]d4 damage and there’s a [dice]-in-6 chance of madness being put in your head. Notably, this spell does not guarantee the Damsel’s allegiance at all.

10. Teeth and Nails — requires a loose door, two teeth, and a book. All of these are taken by the cruel Jack of Wolves, who sends you [sum] - [dice] fairywolves (stats as intelligent wolves with the ability to teleport to somewhere within sight once per day). Roll reaction with a +[dice] bonus. The lower the result, the more likely the fairywolves are to run free and cause chaos. The higher the result, the more likely the fairywolves are to do the summoner’s bidding. They dissolve into piles of old leaves in [dice] hours, or when killed. Getting 0 or a negative result when rolling for the number of fairywolves means you instead receive a hyperactive fairywolf cub.

D20x4 Odd Others

JMFenner91

    I am once again inspired by RowanAMon of The Bottomless Sarcophagus, in particular his ROGUE class. It's basically required reading for these tables, since he explains the concept of Others far more poetically than I can. My take is that they're creepy weirdo killers loosely aligned with cosmic death. Anyway, here are the tables:

This Other appears to be...

1. A plain-looking accountant. He has an air of stuffy mediocrity around him.
2. A moderately famous poetess known for her vivid descriptions of strange colors.
3. A thin librarian. They are very chatty and a master in the subtle art of small talk.
4. A human-sized doll carved from whorling dark wood. It doesn’t make any noise.
5. An alcoholic who can always seem to find more drinks.
6. A fluffy black cat with rose-colored eyes.
7. An obscure President of the United States. He smells of dust and old age.
8. A portly man in a filthy fast food restaurant uniform.
9. A brilliant neurosurgeon. Performs more eccentric operations for a high price.
10. A nineteenth-century sailor with a tangled gray beard.
11. A White Elf dressed in fashionable pale clothing.
12. An elderly barber. She has a jagged scar across her face in a disturbing pattern.
13. A stunningly beautiful androgynous figure dressed in dirty rags.
14. A skeleton wearing a fancy hat. It is fluent in many sign languages.
15. A cosmonaut that reeks of decay. It speaks only in whispers.
16. An unkindness of ravens. They seem to share one will.
17. A polite and aristocratic vampire that bleeds poison.
18. A mummy, wrapped in rotting linen. She misses her home.
19. A giant serpent the color of oily darkness. It has no eyes.
20. A nice old lady that exudes innocence. She just gives kind grandma vibes.

This Other is known for...

1. Nothing. Maybe they’re new. Maybe they just like the mystique.
2. The elaborate schemes and traps they lay for their victims.
3. The ludicrous amount of people they’ve murdered.
4. Their obsession with paintings.
5. Their efficiency.
6. Throwing ostentatious parties where only Others are allowed.
7. Their patriotism, which borders on xenophobia.
8. The kindness and compassion they show their victims.
9. Their literal silver tongue.
10. The vicious companion they call a “dog.”
11. Having died multiple times.
12. Their zealous belief in a deity.
13. Being connected to organized crime.
14. A famous botched job that haunts them to this day.
15. Their magic sword, SET AGAINST SEA.
16. Their horribly ugly personality.
17. Their fascination with snakes.
18. Their knowledge of the occult and the hidden.
19. Having four eyes.
20. Stealing from their victims.

This Other can...

1. Speak to and understand the silence in an absolutely quiet room.
2. Shed their flesh to become a cloud of freezing mist.
3. Turn invisible when in light.
4. Stab you really well with their collection of ornate collectible knives.
5. Fly on wings the color of the night sky.
6. Shift their form into that of a moth.
7. Use wozerdry.
8. Shoot beams of supernatural cold from their eyes.
9. Divine the past through tarot readings.
10. Summon demons.
11. Temporarily blind people by stabbing them with a magic pair of scissors.
12. Move almost imperceptibly fast.
13. Turn loose teeth into swords.
14. Talk to their shadow, which whispers secrets from their subconscious.
15. Easily access a massive amount of funds.
16. Use the ancient martial art of Durability.
17. Project an aura of stifling silence around themselves.
18. Command bugs and vermin to do their bidding.
19. See magic and the truth behind a lie.
20. Breathe poisonous gas.

This Other desires...

1. To kill as many people as they can in their lifetime.
2. Wealth. More, more, more!
3. The death of a rival who, knowingly or not, humiliated them long ago.
4. Books on an incredibly niche topic.
5. To wander this earth free from consequence.
6. Drugs. The more exotic and powerful, the better.
7. To travel to the underworld.
8. To find true love.
9. The truth behind the moon.
10. The financial ruin of a prosperous business.
11. The completion of an ancient arcane ritual.
12. To end the anthropocene era.
13. To please their fairy patron.
14. To fight someone of their own skill.
15. To not be an Other anymore.
16. To kill a family member or close friend.
17. To indulge in every pleasure, every food, every feeling.
18. A very powerful enchanted diamond.
19. To go to space.
20. To kill a BARD, their hated foe.

Best GLOG Posts of 2023

     What the hell, another year has passed? I guess it's time to do another roundup of the best GLOG posts of the last year. All images are from their respective blogposts, and all opinions are objective.

Past Years:

(2021) (2022)

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BEST ADVENTURE: Ghosts So Quiet by Phlox

    I've always appreciated what Phlox calls a "Gygaxian version" of history, so it's natural Ghosts So Quiet makes it on my list. This hexcrawl of the British Isles is tightly-packed with enough materials for a campaign or two, full of Victoriana, vampires, and the English. I ran a fun oneshot in Ghosts So Quiet, where the disposable characters ran around London and assassinated the rival to an English vampire.

    I highly recommend you check this hexcrawl out for its wealth of material and well-executed concept.

BEST DELTA: Inadvisable Decisions by Locheil

    All is not right with the night sky. The darkness between the stars, it crawls and shifts. Inadvisable Decisions is a collection of related delta templates themed around corruptive alienism. Form a theory on the nature of grues. Summon the Headless Oracle. Get lost in the hidden corners of reality forever. Find oblivion.

    Although technically for Aclas, Loch's industrial fantasy setting, it is adaptable for any setting and a source of creepy inspiration.

BEST SYSTEM: Copper GLOG by Arnold K

   Ever wanted to play a simple game of GLOG in a short amount of time? Arnold K (hi goblinpope) has you covered. Created in one day, Copper GLOG requires only a single coin. I actually played several "sessions" of Copper GLOG and found it satisfactory. It's easily hackable and good at passing time while you're traveling between realities.

BEST MODULAR PIECE OF LORE: VVIZARDRY by PRIMEUMATON

    Arum, the primordial caveman wizard, bringer of fire, is a great idea by PRIMEUMATON. Helped along by the author's wit and willingness to go along with this absurd concept, Arum barely managed to beat these other GLOG wizard-kings (who are also cool). You can easily insert Arum and his Stone Blade Men into your campaign setting or a random dungeon to add flavor.

    I think this post is good because of its unique concept.

BEST NON-CASTER CLASS: Armature by deus ex parabola

    Have you ever felt the urge to play a walking tank with a chainsaw sword and 24 strength? Well, now you can! The Armature is an Unfinished World class but is... well, not "easily adaptable"... if your GM is cool they'll let you play it.

    I think this post is good because of... y'know what, I don't need to justify myself to you of all people. Go read it.

BEST CASTER CLASS: Ring-Bearer by Kachow

    I like stealing ideas from fiction to put into my RPGs, and Kachow is apparently of the same mind. His Ring-Bearer class maintains the balance between being easily customizable (why not necklaces or swords instead of rings?) and staying true to the archetypal character. His slight tweaking of Magic Dice to Corruption Dice has a small but notably positive effect on the class's succinct characterization.

BEST CLASS WITH UNIQUE MECHANICS: Counselor by Vivanter

    I find this concept really interesting. You are rewarded for not killing people (something Locheil's Angelologist class also rewards) and your main ability is not related to combat or magic. At template B, you gain "Discerning Eye", which further adds to your repertoire of atypical abilities. The Counselor represents a unique fantasy combined with differing abilities.

BEST CLASS WITH UNIQUE FLAVOR: Braid by TheFirstGokun

    TheFirstGokun was hard at work in 2023 creating the setting of Cath Celdaenn, a massive weird fantasy city ruled by a divine tree. He released a series of classes (including the Urbanist) and while they were all great, the best is the Braid, the Captiol Tree's chosen agent. He manages to weave together a coherent and beautiful class from several different aesthetic and design choices.

    In other words, I want to play a magic tree mathematician princess.

Secret Santicorn 2023

     A totally not late Secret Santicorn for Henry George. His prompt was "1d20+ worldbuilding questions for romance and courtship. Bonus points for generating non-cringe mechanics/procedures for pursuing romance based on these questions."

    I only came up with eight questions, but I figured something is better than nothing.

1d8 Worldbuilding Questions about Romance

1. What are the “love languages” like in your world? How does magic and local culture affect them?
2. What are some common courting rituals in your world? When is the common time to start courting?
3. How are dating, marriage, and divorce treated?
4. How are romantic relationships between different species perceived?
5. Why is romance important to [insert culture] and not important to [insert culture]?
6. How is romance affected when some species are immortal/live for centuries?
7. How is the adventuring profession perceived when it comes to romance?
8. What are some romantic taboos in [insert culture]?

A Small Simplistic System for Romance

    Over the course of one date, you have a natural CHA-in-20 chance of moving to the next romantic stage in your relationship. +1 for every 100 gp you spend on the date and for every personal trait that your potential partner finds attractive. -1 for every personal trait your potential partner finds unattractive, and -2 for every major cultural taboo you break.

2023 Retrospective

    I thought it would be neat if I recapped my year on my blog. I know people probably won’t read it, but I endeavor to do it nonetheless. This list isn’t in any particular chronological order.

This year I...

Watched A D&D Movie

    And it was pretty good! I thought it had some good “player characters” that retained the quirkiness usually found through play and although the plot wasn’t necessarily unique, I thought it was archetypal in a good way.

Discovered A Wicked City

Joel Heard

    I took this page and read every single link on it, revealing to me a foreign land of taigas and vast deserts, clockwork machines and cloud spirits, deep-seated corruption and hope. I really appreciated a setting that drew upon a different mythology! If I had to select my favorite non-basic articles of Against the Wicked City, I’d pick the Unkindness class, the Crimson Lake, the Children of the Pines, the wrestling rules, and the Dahākans. Of course I think you should read all of it, but those are my personal favorites.

Tried Being A Cultist

Weather Factory

    Don’t worry, I failed miserably. I am not one to usually play video games but I managed to push through my normal languor and really tried my hand at Cultist Simulator. It was a pleasant surprise not due to the mechanics (which are not really my style) but the lore. By the g_ds, the lore. I have spent a dozen hours on Cultist Simulator, and probably a fourth of that on the Secret Histories wiki researching the game’s esoterica and symbolisms. That’s not cheating, you’re cheating.

Read A D&D Comic

Stephanie Hans

    DIE is an amazing comic. It blends traditional fantasy, D&D meta humor, emotional horror, and some breathtaking art all in one amazing package. If asked to describe it in one sentence, I’d say “traumatic D&D Jumanji”. I also recently received a physical copy of the DIE RPG and am very excited to look through its pages. Shall I run a game? Perhaps, perhaps not…

Started Jujutsu Kaisen

Kariyen

    It’s good! Not Chainsaw Man good, but I’ve only gotten through volumes 1 through 7 so far, so I’ve got a long way to go. Akutami is very good at succinct, flavorful characterization and has developed an engrossing power system.

Learned About Radical Catgirl Anarchists

avvart

    No, this isn’t particularly relevant or important, but I thought it’d be funny to include anyway. In mid-November I clicked on CHASE THE BLACK RABBIT by Throne of Salt. I was then swiftly whisked away to an oneiric realm of internet links and hyper-focus. An eternity later I emerged a (not so) changed man, but it was still an entertaining ride. I read this and this an this, and one of my goals for 2024 is to read through the Stealing Solidarity series.

Played In An Open Table

sackcloth and ashes

    I both played and ran games in the Shattered Coast GLOG server, as referenced here and here. It was quite a fun time with lots of chaos, adventure, and growing pains. Most of the time I played Alexander, Warmind B, but near the end of my stint there I played Alice Gardener (whose picture you can see above), a PALADIN. She was present for one adventure which was never really completed, and ended her career with a sum total of 0 XP, but she was a blast to play and has officially taken up residence in my brainspace.

    I also met a lot of new people through Shattered Coast who I now talk to semi-frequently! Shoutout to the esteemed personages Gorinich, Vivanter, and the ever-elusive Abyssin.

Got A New Best Friend

    By which I mean dog. Readers of my blog, meet Copper, a very good boy. He loves to go on walks but the rest of the time is a very dedicated couch potato.

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    There you have it, the highlights of my year. I wish the readers of this blog a peaceful and successful 2024.