Tag: OSR

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The Primal World of Thaia – 10 Characteristics of Thaia – Part I

Thaia is the name most of the free people of the world call their home world. The name’s origin is unknown, but some sages among the People of the Vale say it means our earth in the language of the Ancients.

This is a world of stone and sorcery weird adventures, inspired by pulp literature, mythic stone age stories depicted in pop culture, and the old-school spirit of adventure games. There are cavemen, dinosaurs, prehistoric animals, monsters, aliens, time travelers and much more! So, to convey a better idea of how The Primal World of Thaia really is, we created a list of 10 Traits of Thaia.

Art by Felipe Faria
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Iconic Encounters – The “Innocent”

We are back with another installment of Iconic Encounters! This series of posts look into some of the most characteristic encounters in old-school style RPG adventures, and dissect them to figure out how they work, and why they are so cool.

This time we are analyzing that encounter which puts the players in front of an apparent “innocent”, harmless and, sometimes, even apparently helpful creature, who is in reality working towards their demise or worse. Differently from other encounters, this one can be a recurring one, in which they discover the truth of what’s going on slowly over time. This type of encounter has some characteristics that I will list below and then explore in detail.

  • An NPC or creature that appears harmless and even helpful to the PCs.
  • The NPC directs them to accomplish tasks that are to their benefit but that have harmful hidden consequences.
  • They will slowly find out information that will reveal the true intentions of the NPC.
  • In their final confrontation, the NPC or creature is actually stronger thanks to the PCs.
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Primal Quest is Coming! + Playtest Report!

I don’t know if you know this, but I am designing a new game, and a new zine. Yeah, I know, I should focus on something, right? But listen to me, this is going to be a really good, and I will focus on this!

I am talking about my new project, Primal Quest + The Primal World of Thaia! A combo of a new streamlined rule set for Weird Stone & Sorcery adventure, that is an incredibly versatile and nuanced system that is perfect for adventure games, and a Zine for it, to develop the setting, provide adventures, optional rules and much more! The game’s influences count games such as FATE, Into the Odd, Classic OSR Systems, Modern OSR Systems, Genesys, my own stuff, and much more. Let me share with you a quick blurb about it.

a very rough draft of a logo for the game
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Iconic Encounters – The Moving Barrier

We are back with another post about my favorite Iconic Encounters of RPG adventures! Some of them are still a staple in most of them, others have become a rare occurrence that deserve a comeback with style, like the one we’re looking into today.

Public domain image found by Guilherme Gontijo

I like to call this one “The Moving Barrier” because it essentially makes a powerful and almost unbeatable creature a barrier the PCs can’t pass through, and it moves around the location, effectively changing how they explore the place every time they bump into the creature. As usual, the encounter has a few characteristics that I will list below and then explore in detail.

  • There’s a very powerful creature in the location PCs probably won’t be able to defeat.
  • The creature roams around the location seeking the PCs, but it’s slow.
  • The location has multiple possible paths to reach various places within it.
  • There’s something that keeps the creature at bay, which can be discovered in the location.
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