Chronicles of the Consortium

 The alleged "Old School Revival" is something I missed; it happened while I was out of RPG for a while. However, I have started piecing together a collection of what I have seen more happily called DIY D&D - seemingly offbeat campaign and scenario items that have more imagination packed into them than hundreds of official or semi-official role playing products. Often the result of a labour of love, some of these contain fabulous ideas that can be incorporated into a setting that is flexible enough to take them, and Moorcock's multiverse is an obvious place. They don't have to be D&D of course - just something that oozes the need to be played. I used the original version Deep Carbon Observatory is one I have been itching to try for a while because it fits my expectations. I'm actually not all that bothered about how deadly something is, so much as how interesting it will be, and the ideas here are great. I changed the premise around a little bit and then l...

Sir Blanque   - swordsman and handsome, dashing noble half mer-person Marion  - stabby stabby dagger specialist; Nihrain who currently carries the Runestaff Destiny  - Menastrai sorceress covertly raised on Melnibone Bomilcar  - Weeping Waste nomad from a chieftain's family Menerain is the name of the ancient Menastrai capital, located in a region that is covered by great lakes in the time of the characters, 1,000 years in the future.  Destiny knows the history of this era as well as anybody, so is well aware that Menastree is destined to be conquered. And then the Dharzi will arrive. However, none of the historians seems to know the ultimate fate of Menerain. The characters make use of the river system leading towards the lake region, which is smaller than they remember from the future. It does look as though the waters are rising, though - perhaps their new canal through the mountains is beginning to feed water into this area.  There are a few hairy momen...

Sir Blanque   - swordsman and handsome, dashing noble half mer-person Marion  - stabby stabby dagger specialist; Nihrain who currently carries the Runestaff Destiny  - Menastrai sorceress covertly raised on Melnibone Bomilcar  - Weeping Waste nomad from a chieftain's family I've shamelessly stolen the title for this blog post from Iain at Caveadsum , because it's cool. The characters have been asked to help in the defence of a small Menastrai/human town from marauding Melnibonean forces, and each of them has been given command of a small group of local warriors, a mixture of humans and Menastrai: I put together a combination of my Cry Havoc battle mats to set this up over several small tables. The mats are 2D, and some of the details are obscured by the unit cards I employed to make running a larger combat more manageable, but I hope you can make out most of what is going on here. We are looking northwards in the first photo. The river comes from its source in the m...