Tag: #promptober

Promptober Day 20: Myths.

Sometimes parents actually believe their children.

Getting laid in a horror movie situation doesn’t always lead to death.

Remote viewing is not always 100% accurate, but many times it’s close.

The government is not interested in every paranormal event.

Investigator myths dispelled:
  • They’re not all crazy conspiracy theorists.
  • They’re not all professors wearing jackets with patches on the sleeves.
  • They’re not all wide-eyed college kids bound to get lost in the woods.
  • Just because one believes in ghosts, it doesn’t mean they believe in “aliens.”
  • They actually spend vast amount of time observing nothing until they find something. The “something” may just be a dot or blob, but still evidence.
  • Not all people are stupid enough to go down in the dark basement to check the electrical box.
  • No professional investigator likes a hoax. Hoaxing is not allowed!
  • Not every spiritually-oriented investigator collects crystals.
  • Sometimes freaky footage does end up on the nightly news, and still gets ignored by and large.
  • Priests are not immune to everything just by holding up a cross.
  • Other religions have people capable of performing an exorcism.
  • Not every professor can read Ancient Babylonian or Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
  • Not every spiritual person is educated in every religion.
  • Sometimes parents actually believe their children.
  • Getting laid in a horror movie situation doesn’t always lead to death.
  • Remote viewing is not always 100% accurate, but many times it’s close.
  • The government is not interested in every paranormal event.
  • There really are psychics. Some are quite powerful.
  • The Men in Black are real.
  • The Men in Black are not the kooky guys from the movies.
  • The Men in Black do not visit every experiencer or UFO witness.
  • There really is an Illuminati. They do not approach people on social media.
  • Astral travelers and remote viewers see a lot of things or beings not of this Earth.

Dispelling myths about modern paranormal investigations.

Phenomenon myths dispelled:
  • Not every properly conducted Ouija board session ends in tragedy.
  • Not every alleged haunted house is packed full of scary stuff.
  • Sometimes investigators have nights where nothing happens.
  • Not every EVP session ends in mysterious voices. Many don’t.
  • Not everything is a demon.
  • Not every ghost is evil.
  • Yes, there really are vampires, werewolves, and giant spiders.
  • Not everything is covered in an ancient tome or scroll.
  • If a book is bound in human flesh and inked in blood, leave it alone.
  • Not every cult follows an Elder god or wants human sacrifices.
  • Gunfire does not solve everything, or anything sometimes.
  • Not every artifact is cursed.
  • Sometimes are dolls are just toys.
  • Not all magic is evil.
  • Not all religion is good.
  • Not everything is evil or out to get you.
  • The ethereal plane (spirit world) is a wonderfully weird place.
  • Some beings are truly evil. We don’t know why.
  • There is always a way to banish or destroy a phenomenon.
  • Killing something is not always the answer.
  • Legitimate footage of phenomenon appearing on the internet will be taken down or debunked as a hoax almost immediately regardless of evidence.
  • The Dark Web is real. Most people would be advised to steer clear of it.
  • The aliens are not here to conquer the planet.
  • The term “alien” is no longer preferred. We use ET or being now.
  • ETs do not always abduct people. Sometimes it’s just a sighting.
  • Vampires and werewolves are nothing like the ones in the movies.
  • Stay away from the Reptilians. We don’t mention the Reptilians.
  • There are Reptilian Hybrids. We don’t talk about them, either.

These lists is (mostly) fictional (I guess.) Some of us are conspiracy theorists. More investigations to come with the Des Moines Remote Viewing Society for Monster of the Week RPG.

Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate you. Have fun. More to come.

Disclaimer: People and events depicted herein are fictitious and intended for entertainment use only. Any similarity to persons living or deceased is unintentional. There is no Des Moines Remote Viewing Society. This is a work of fiction. No one was harmed in the making of this blog.

Promptober Day 25: Deep Ocean.

In more modern settings, everything is usually cool unless the players find themselves running out of air, losing hull integrity of their vessel, or having to travel outside of a ship. On the other hand, really scary, huge things live underwater. Things such as kaiju.

When I think of the ocean, I think of Godzilla.

I think most DMs/GMs/et al tend to shy away from deep oceanic adventures. I know I do because in a fantasy campaign one must fiddle around with characters having to breathe, see, survive, fight, and sometimes cast spells underwater. It is difficult at best. Right up there with 1st Ed AD&D planar travel.

In more modern settings, everything is usually cool unless the players find themselves running out of air, losing hull integrity of their vessel, or having to travel outside of a ship. On the other hand, really scary, huge things live underwater. Things such as kaiju.

I’m worked with an adventure for Season 1 of my Power Rangers RPG campaign that covered the topic of kaiju. The presence of something similar to Godzilla wandered up on shore near Bennett’s Cove and and to be guided back out to sea.

Of course, the military, the Rangers, and even the bad guys were all super confused by the presence of such a monster that was seemingly under no one’s control. The creature rampaged because a nuclear plant was being built nearby and it felt the need to let the humans know that it was not okay to build one. The Rangers fought compassionately to get the creature back out to sea without wrecking the city. In true Mighty Morphin fashion, no one was seriously injured, but the nuclear plant’s construction site was smelted into glass by the kaiju’s breath weapon and stomped on by the Megazord. Needless to say construction has halted.

Who knows what other gigantic things could be lurking in the waters of a deep ocean. Real life humanity has barely explored most of the deep blue. Giant squid, sharks, and other sea life could be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There is always more lurking below.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you! Have a great rest of the week.

Promptober Day 31: Forbidden Books.

This seemingly innocuous cookbook contains a variety of strange recipes that range from bizarre, maybe disgusting, to poisonous and all the way up to powerfully cursed. It may save lives in a pinch or even provide PCs some magical benefits. On the other hand, these recipes could lead to lots of trouble.

Sure we’ve heard of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, but what other scary books are there?

A few ideas for fantasy TTRPG book generation:
The Book of Shadows. Every witch has one. Some more frightening than others. Some hags would certainly have these on hand. An adventurer brave (or foolish) enough to interpret such a book would be privy to new spells. But at what cost?

Manual of Golem Creation. This tome contains all of the information needed to build a golem of one specific type. The question becomes how far would someone to go build one of these monstrosities?

Toben’s Spirit Guide. (*Editor’s Note. This book was inspired by a reference in the original 1984 Ghostbusters and subsequent RPG franchise. It can be found here.) This book contains references to dozens of spirits, ghosts, wraiths and spectres. For the unaware, it may also contain ways to summon them.

Spellbook of the Crazed Apprentice. This book was written by the seemingly unremarkable apprentice of a certain famous wizard whose title ended in “the Mad.” (*Watching out for copyrights on this one.) The apprentice improved upon or even perfected some spells. A player character casting them might suffer ill side effects.

Diary of a Death Knight. This simple journal holds an insidious secret. It contains the tales of a renowned paladin, his fall from prominence, and his eventual embrace of evil. Reading this book has a chance to corrupt or even convert a knight or warrior into one of these foul beings.

The Dark Cookbook. This seemingly innocuous cookbook contains a variety of strange recipes that range from bizarre, maybe disgusting, to poisonous and all the way up to powerfully cursed. It may save lives in a pinch or even provide PCs some magical benefits. On the other hand, these recipes could lead to lots of trouble.

The Alchemist’s Almanac. This book contains a variety of potion formulae. It is invaluable to alchemists and witches alike. Some versions of this book may contain twisted recipes for foul mutations and poisons as well. Characters may wish to use new formulae at their own risk.

The Book of Extradimensional Portals. This book is extremely thick and exceedingly rare. It contains magic rituals and in some cases locations for opening portals to other planes of existence. There is also a convenient appendix in the back containing banishment and portal sealing spells. One would be well advised to read the entire entry on any given portal before undertaking opening one.

The Accursed Memoir. Similar to the Diary of a Death Knight, this tome details a wizard’s creation of a phylactery and transformation into a lich. Wizard characters reading this can follow its step by step instruction to become a lich at their own peril. The last entry in the memoir describes the rush of power and further desire to gain even more power by becoming a demilich.

The Duplicitous Tome of the Diabolical Illusionist. (*This would make a good dungeon reward.) This tome is written in ink that glows faintly of magic. Some of the spells are illusory script. Some are sigils and glyphs intended to harm the reader. There are also powerful spells for an illusionist wizard who doesn’t lose their very mind trapped within its pages.

I didn’t list the Ogrenomicon, the Book of Ogres that I’m working on for Dungeon Crawl Classics. It will appear in the portfolio section of this site as soon as its ready. It’s my labor of love.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be catching up a lot of #Monstober and a few #Promptober entries in November. Lol! I appreciate your patience.

Promptober Day 30: Undead. (WOOT!)

Ghosts: What if every character had a ghost following them around. It never attacks, but it does whisper advice, stories, and so on all the time. What if characters constantly picked up the ghosts of fallen enemies?

The challenge of using Undead in a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game is coming up with something new.

We’ve seen vampires: Strahd Von Zarovich.
We’ve seen Liches: Azalin, Acererak, Szass Tam, Draegoth, Vecna.
There are Dracoliches.
Knight of the Black Rose (Death Knight.)
There’s also Orcus, who is the demon Lord of the Undead.
The list goes on a ways, depending on setting and even game system. We love undead as a #ttrpg culture. But it’s been done A LOT.

So, how do we spruce up Undead for a homebrew campaign?

  1. New flavors of old favorites. Sure, human vampires are cool. But what about a gnome? Pixie? Frost Giant? What about the infamous elven lich? What about a dwarven lich? We have dracoliches, sure. But what about a gold dracolich or a faerie dracolich?
  2. Another demon knocks Orcus off his throne and takes his scepter as a precursor to an attack on the material realms.
  3. Zombies: Maybe instead of just mindless flesh eating slow moving zombies, they’re working for/with a more intelligent zombie? Yes, I appropriated this idea from George Romero. It’s still good.
  4. Broken hierarchy: We’re all probably familiar with the pecking order amongst the undead masses. Skeletons at the bottom, then Wight, then Wraith, then higher intelligent undead. What if Skeletons were the top of the food chain. What if ghouls or wraiths were at the bottom?
  5. Ghosts: What if every character had a ghost following them around. It never attacks, but it does whisper advice, stories, and so on all the time. What if characters constantly picked up the ghosts of fallen enemies?

Much more to come. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you.

Promptober Day 29: Abandoned Locations.

In my game, Des Moines Remote Viewing society used Randonautica to find remote viewing targets for Brenda Hart, the group’s resident psychic and most gifted remote viewer. It was a good source of interesting new cases as well as leads on the ones the group was working on.

This is prime Monster of the Week fodder.

How to use an app like Randonautica without ever installing in real life: Create a series of tables describing how far one has to travel from current location, in which direction, and what they find when they get there.

In my game, Des Moines Remote Viewing society used Randonautica to find remote viewing targets for Brenda Hart, the group’s resident psychic and most gifted remote viewer. It was a good source of interesting new cases as well as leads on the ones the group was working on. The potential for spooky encounters in abandoned locations has always fascinated me.

DsMRVS also used Ouija boards a few times in an effort to locate specific spirits, but such attempts almost always inevitably backfired. Ouija boards are often employed in abandoned places to get a better sense of history of the sites. Of course, in MotW that usually involves a demon, angry witch, ghost, cryptid, or interdimensional being of some kind. Des Moines is legit chock full of abandoned locations in real life, so converting them to fiction for the setting is all kinds of fun.

For the record: I know of several abandoned locations in the real world. I do not go in them. I would also never throw down a Ouija board near them. You just never know what’s on the other side. That’s my opinion as a paranormal researcher and Extraterrestrial enthusiast. Do not F around and find out in some of these abandoned locations. You might get surprised.

Disclaimer: Please DO NOT ENTER an abandoned location in the real world unless you have the owner’s permission! No owner = No permission. Too many investigators get hurt, arrested, or go missing entirely while on abandoned properties. If you find an abandoned house, car, sewer entrance, or mine entrance in the real world- DO NOT GO IN THERE! The physical dangers alone should be discouragement.

This was one of the best prompts all month. I could go on for hours on this subject. Thank you for stopping by. As always I appreciate you being here with us. #ttrpgfamily Much love.

Promptober Day 28: Swamp.

D12 Giant nastiness found in a swamp

Horrible, giant, icky things of all sorts live in a swamp. Roll 1d12:

  1. Giant Dragonfly.
  2. Giant Frog.
  3. Giant Mosquitos.
  4. Giant Alligator.
  5. Giant Freshwater Shark
  6. Giant Catfish.
  7. Giant Skunk Ape *Sasquatch
  8. Giant Ghoul.
  9. Giant Hag.
  10. Giant Bats.
  11. Giant Snake.
  12. Swamp Giants.

Promptober Day 27: Dark Castle.

Such a castle is likely the home to a dreadful Wizard, Knight Lord of Chaos, Greater Demon Lord, or Lich of immense power. The guards are likely to be heavily armored and heavily armed, possibly with magic. Within its corridors lurk all sorts of nasties- demons, undead, and humanoids warped by foul magicks. There could even be a dragon lurking within or nearby.

This is a BBEG dungeon waiting to happen.

I think this is probably one of the easiest prompts while at the same time one of the most challenging. This is the sort of thing I would expect to find either midway or toward the end of a campaign. The Dark Castle is normally home to monsters and villains of untold power.

“Dark Castle” conjures up a gigantic structure, a medieval castle of immense proportion. Its construction is probably mostly an obsidian block or possibly magically enchanted stone. It resembles a regular English, German, or Austrian castle from ages past in the real world, only surrounded by storms almost constantly. Its shiny black exterior is only illuminated by flashes of lightning, making the flags on the pinnacles almost unreadable.

Such a castle is likely the home to a dreadful Wizard, Knight Lord of Chaos, Greater Demon Lord, or Lich of immense power. The guards are likely to be heavily armored and heavily armed, possibly with magic. Within its corridors lurk all sorts of nasties- demons, undead, and humanoids warped by foul magicks. There could even be a dragon lurking within or nearby.

Mapping castles: the ultimate DM challenge.

Mapping out castles is more difficult than building any dungeon. Real life historical castles were enormous. Yes, floorplans of these huge stone structures are available online and in libraries. (Gasp! IKR? Like, big buildings that hold books in the real world.) But real world castles didn’t house wizards, demons, and dragons. And logistical matters? Pffft. Yay magic!

My advice to DMs is to either take advantages of RPG sourcebooks with castle maps and then kitbash in your own rooms as necessary, or draw some modular rooms for towers, quarters, chambers, etc and then design any special focus areas for specific encounters. Both options turn the castle into a sort of point crawl, but it will save the DM time instead of drawing out a massive nine level poster map-sized castle.

Don’t get me wrong, constructing and mapping castles can be a lot of fun. But, when you’re eyeballs-deep in prepping for your next game session, on top of work, school, kids, family, and social stuff, do you really have the time? Another option would be to delegate it to a player who does maybe have the time or even a friend who isn’t in the game who just loves doing detailed maps.

*Friends? Social life? Yeah, not me. Maybe you do. I dunno.

Thanks for stopping by today. This was fun. So much more to come yet this month and most of next catching up on this and #Monstober.

Promptober Day 26: Lost

Key members of the Des Moines Remote Viewing Society are lost as of 2022. The data gathered by the trio is also missing in places. Some may have been confiscated by the government or black budget interests. The group went their separate ways in 2020 under mysterious circumstances. (*Then again, it was 2020.)

This one is a subplot running through my Monster of the Week series, Des Moines After Dark.

Key members of the Des Moines Remote Viewing Society are lost as of 2022. The data gathered by the trio is also missing in places. Some may have been confiscated by the government or black budget interests. The group went their separate ways in 2020 under mysterious circumstances. (*Then again, it was 2020.)

  • Dan Miller is missing key chunks of his physical files and Internet archives.
  • Brenda Hart moved to Champaign, IL and effectively disappeared. Dan has not heard from her via text, email, or chat in over two years. The two were very close prior to December 2020.
  • Tom Miller is flat-out lost. His mysterious disappearance became apparent when copies of his journal were emailed to Dan and Brenda along with some copies of physical journals arriving at known and undisclosed street addresses.
  • Tom’s last case was his independent study of the (alleged) Reptilian tunnels under Des Moines. His last journal entry indicated he found a tunnel entrance near a bridge and was going to enter it.
  • Lewis (Big Lou) has been reassigned to a different section within the FBI, but his personnel file has gone missing. Dan has been unable to contact him through any of their various channels.

2020 is the year best forgotten. Unfortunately for our heroes, members of the DsMRVS were among those not heard-from again. Even some of their meticulously kept records and videos have gone missing. One of their most notorious case files, loosely dubbed the “Backyard UFO Incident” involved several hours of missing time and blank audio/video footage interspersed with cryptic and bizarre voice lines.

Disclaimer: People and events depicted herein are fictitious and intended for entertainment use only. Any similarity to persons living or deceased is unintentional. There is no Des Moines Remote Viewing Society. This is a work of fiction. No one was harmed in the making of this blog.

Promptober Day 24: Moon.

Closer inspection of the fourth planet in the system does not reveal any significant threat. However, careful examination of the third planet’s geosynchronous moon reveals cloaked bases, monitoring equipment, docking bays and the fact the the entire moon is a hollow sphere designed to watch over the Earth-like planet’s development.

“On the outside, it looked like an ordinary moon, but then we became suspicious.” Capt. Molly Daniels. USS Peregrine.

Today’s prompt is actually inspired by some real life theories about Earth’s moon. However, kindly bear in mind there is little more than a modicum of scientific backing for any of it. Our real moon “rang like a bell for over an hour” on seismic sensors when struck with a lander. To be clear- This IS a work of FICTION.

(Systemless) space game plot idea: The group comes upon a moon in geosynchronous orbit around an Earth-like planet. Sensor data indicates the moon is a normal, lifeless, meteorite-blasted rock. However, the moon is emitting electromagnetic signals coming from somewhere nearby. There are also ships coming and going from the system that seem to just disappear.

The planet’s government(s) are concerned about a potential invasion that they originally believed might be staged from the fourth planet in the system. They are a relatively new space-faring society and would be ill-equipped to fend off any kind of serious threat from outside of their own star system without help from the Federation (Or whatever larger organization the group represents.)

Closer inspection of the fourth planet in the system does not reveal any significant threat. However, careful examination of the third planet’s geosynchronous moon reveals cloaked bases, monitoring equipment, docking bays and the fact the the entire moon is a hollow sphere designed to watch over the Earth-like planet’s development.

Where things go from there is ultimately up to the GM. Is the civilization inside the moon benevolent? Perhaps sent to watch over the fledgling planet’s growth? Or is it a monitoring station to assist in a full scale invasion? Could it be a waypoint for refueling ships for a larger space navy elsewhere? Maybe it’s a galactic meeting place for races in all of the neighboring systems. The possibilities are immense.

Happy gaming! Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate you.

Promptober Day 19: Monsters.

There could potentially be kaiju in Dungeons & Dragons or other fantasy TTRPGs that make the Tarrasque look like a litter-trained Dachshund. Pretty sure Godzilla could stomp a Tarrasque into the dirt. (*Just my opinion.) Given the size of a medieval city, I’m pretty sure one kaiju making landfall is going to flatten whatever coastal city it decides to ROFLstomp.

Kaiju. The monsters that other monsters run from.

Godzilla (King of the Monsters,) King Ghidorah, Destroyah, Mothra, Rhodan, and King Kong- the names alone conjure images of buildings being toppled, entire tank battalions being crushed, an a roar that makes everyone shudder. In movie lore, there are entire islands dedicated to these massive creatures. (No, not just Japan.) There are entire dimensions dedicated to these things. (Pacific Rim.)

They’re a common foe in some tabletop roleplaying games. Power Rangers, for example, has one show up in most episodes (*game sessions.) In superhero games such as ICONS, they are an all-hands-on-deck event just as they are in the comics. But in a fantasy ttrpg? They’re downright terrifying.

There could potentially be kaiju in Dungeons & Dragons or other fantasy TTRPGs that make the Tarrasque look like a litter-trained Dachshund. Pretty sure Godzilla could stomp a Tarrasque into the dirt. (*Just my opinion.) Given the size of a medieval city, I’m pretty sure one kaiju making landfall is going to flatten whatever coastal city it decides to ROFLstomp.

Cripes, even most younger dragons would probably steer clear of Kaiju. Some of the bigger ones might go head-to-head, but the odds are stacked in the Kaiju’s favor. Imagine what a mess a Kaiju sized dragon would make. Entire legions of adventurers would have to be called up just to slow one down.

One final thought when it comes to fantasy Kaiju: if magic is the fantasy equivalent of nuclear energy, why aren’t there more fantasy Kaiju? Supposedly Godzilla came about due to humankind’s experiments with the atom, right? Gojira was nature’s reaction to atomic testing. Why wouldn’t the same apply in high fantasy games?

Cookiezilla. (Email me for credit.)

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you. Still getting caught up.

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