I have a limited experience when it comes to the mob genre. My main touchstone is about 2 Yakuza Games. Games I wanted to enjoy because of the wacky side quest that can be found the series. Though the slow serious pace of the main story always gave me a whiplash to between the two experiences. I did enjoy the slow build up with all these small moments that build up to the climax of the games, though sometimes it just felt it drag on for too long. I did not have that with Jade City.
The story was well pace with tense moments of the main family having to deal with the politics of their city and the clan warfare. They stood out in their own ways, and I came to care about them for when they get into dangerous situations. The action had me having clear pictures of martial arts enhance by the magical Jade they wore.
The book does end in a way that concludes this chapter of the family’s life, and in way to show that there more challenges they have to face. I am curious to see what happens next. Any issues I had was with me and how I find it political intrigue books a bit difficult.
‘”Off the Beaten Path: A Stone’s Throw Mystery” by Eloise Corvo is a mystery novel that I wish I liked more. It gives a simple mystery: who killed a tourist and dropped his body in the state park? Our hero is the local park ranger, Maudy Lorso, who’s asked to assist as a consultant with police to solve the case. She accepts as the sooner it’s solved the sooner the park can be open for their busy season or she might be out of a job. I liked Maudy and found her an interesting character who’s dealing with relationship trauma and workplace stress. The overall reading was okay, I found Eloise Corvo’s prose simple and easy, it just never fully hooked me. My biggest problem were some of the actions of the side character making them feel like they were in a cheesy Hallmark movie or just idiot. There was also a contrivance to why the main character confronted the killer alone that made me scratch my head at the incompetence and irresponsibility to a specific character. The epilogue felt, a bit excessive? it sets up for a larger narrative and a sequel in a way that didn’t feel satisfying. it was an fine bumpy journey that missed it’s landing.
I’ve not read a Japanese mystery before, let alone a translated book , so when I saw this book at my local book shop I was intrigue. My previous experience with Japanese stories in the mysteries genre were mainly through animes like Detective School Q and Cased Close. I picked it up and found two good mysteries with ok writing. My favorite thing, is that Seishi Yokomizo tells you what the story is going to be about yet the journey is told in a way that when it came to the solution of this intriguing mystery, it still caught me off guard. It’s a difficult trick to pull off. My only grip was that the writing feels a bit off. I’m not sure if it’s the translation, but there were time it didn’t quite flow. There are times lines are smartly told in a way to make you believe it’s a thrown away detail, only for it to come back at the conclusion. However there are few times the word choices feels as if they were unsure what word to use. When it comes to mysteries, I enjoyed them to the point that I have now another author to keep an eye out for, and even longer to be read list.
Below are a few quick thoughts on the books I’ve read throughout May
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
This was going to be my big book for the year after finishing The Power Broker by Robert Caro last year. It was significantly easier to read through The Bright Sword. However, it was still a slow burn of the book. It takes it’s time to setup the characters, the setting and the history of this Arthurian world it goes through. By the end, I came to love and care about the characters. Reading constantly to see all their stories to the end and to find out exactly what happen to Camelot after Arthur passed. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I sometimes found myself really fighting just to pick it up, but when I did pick it up, I was hooked.
The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
Oh god, I still do not know if I like this series or not. Like I enjoyed the idea of it, and there is something funny about this story being about Lovecraftian strangeness with just middle-management bureaucracy with writing which feels like one of the more enjoyable Standard of Operation Procedures workbook. I think I enjoy the main character. I look over my CAWPILE notes and everything is around the 4-6 range. I think I’ll pick up the next book. But it’s not going to the top of my To Be Read list.
An Informal Guide to Workwear: Form, Function, and Fashion by A.W. Sylvester
Getting into my 30’s, there was something in my head that clicked and wanted me to work on my appearance, how I wear clothes, and what do I want to say with my outfit. This book came up from Putthison.com’s gift guide. It is no way a guide to fashion but helped me understand some of the history of clothes and its view in the blue-collar industry. I very much enjoyed the art in the book and love the blue outer cover. This would be one of my coffee table books. It easy to pick up and just read a few sections while waiting.
Cold Clay by Juneau Black
Out of all the books in May, this was the one that caught my attention the most. Juneau Black’s writing works great for me, and I enjoy the pacing of this mystery story returning to the town of Shady Hollow. I felt like the character were a bit more alive in this book than the first in the series. The atmosphere was still very charming and quant with that murderous vibe that reminds me of Midsomer Murders or Father Ted. My main critic is the story. Juneau Black tells us not to worry too much about how the animals live together, but a major plot point in the story kind of deals with their animalistic nature. There is something disconnecting about “don’t worry they all live together” and “Yes, this thing happens to me because of that animal’s nature” The mystery was also weaker than the first. It felt obvious and was waiting for the twist that threw the story on its head that made me go “AH how did I miss that?”, thought it was still a fun journey. Finished it in a day as I was that invested
Game Books or misc.
The following books are RPG books; they do not get ratings and while I’ve read them. I would not consider them reviews of the games or their mechanics as I have yet to run them. I would say maybe my quick impressions of varying length
Call of Cthulhu: Campfire Tales
One of my best friends loves to play as teens and kids in TTRPGs with cool settings, and I do like Call of Cthulhu. So, when I saw the game was available on Studio 2 publishing, I bought it immediately. I found the adventures fun with some weak set-ups and the campaign framework to be okay. I’m excited to try to bring it to the table for a small campaign.
The Laundry Roleplaying Game: Introduction to Applied Occult Computing by David F. Chapman (Game designer), Calum Collins, Christopher Colston, Alister Davison, Michael Duxbury, Warren Frey, Gareth Hanrahan, Elaine Lithgow
Do you hear that dear reader? That was my sigh from far away. Like it’s book series, I’m not sure if I like this or not. This is the Laundry’s RPG introduction book that gives an adventure, a few pre-gen characters, and some lore about the area of London our beloved employees of the Laundry would be dealing with if you wanted to extend the scope of the campaign. The good, I liked the main adventure with some of the extended adventure ideas the book gives for continuing the campaign. The writing felt like the book and sometimes bore me. I think my main trepidation in running this one, is trying to sell it to my players and how much information they would need to know regarding the world of the Laundry. I haven’t done many campaigns that take place in establish license worlds and series, so I may just be overthinking with the idea “How much do they need to know?”. It’s on my to run list but somewhere in the middle.
Pathfinder Adventure Path #55: The Wormwood Mutiny by Daniel Rizea, Robert Lazzaretti, Mikaël Léger, Doug Stambaugh, Richard Pett, Jason Engle, Sean K. Reynolds, Craig J. Spearing, Jesse Benner, Steven D. Russell, Tyler Walpole, F. Wesley Schneider, Daryl Mandryk, Robin D. Laws, Mariusz Gandzel, Emiliano Pretrozzi
I have a buddy who wanted me to run a Pathfinder campaign. A game I do not run with a campaign with books I do not have. But he does and was more than willing to lend me the books to see if I was interested in running it. I took the first one, The Wormwood Mutiny to get an idea of the campaign. Pirate theme with the players trying to become pirate lords and dealing with rival captains. Okay, I typically don’t play the crunchy tactical tabletop RPGs but I’m willing to give it a shot. I came off a bit excited and a bit relieved I read through the whole book first. I loathe how sporadically throughout the book it would tell the GM which additional books would be needed to run the beasts and details on magic items. Another friend told me those details are all online for free by Paizo though I was still kind of annoyed with layout of the book. I have no problem with a book saying “you will need these books to run the game” but please just put it in one place. I’m not completely sold on the campaign, so going to read the next one when I got the time.
Index Card RPG Power Tools: Game Mastery Book by Brandish Gilhelm
There are plenty of advice books for Game Mastery, I’ve talked about one or two here before. This one comes from Runehammer’s Brandish Gilhelm filled with some actionable advice, tables, and a bit of marketing for his other products. There was a video he put out regarding this where he mentions he’s not a salesman, but the passion he has sold me on this book. I picked up and found some good advice along with some reminders I needed to hear. His method to create relationships, think about NPC arcs, and just a reminder to have fun. Since reading I’ve been drawing a scene from sessions I’ve ran or played in. Sure, my drawing might look like crap, but it’s a game we are playing pretend and having fun
Index Card RPG: Realms of the Graves by Brandish Gilhelm
A sandbox adventure/small campaign that could be played with Index Card RPG while giving examples of how the tips and trick in the Game Mastery book can be used. Enjoyed what I read, got a bit confused on few of the mechanics but still excited to try during a break between main campaigns.
Delta Green: Agent’s Handbook by Dennis Detwiller, Christopher Gunning, Greg Stolze, Shane Ivey’
I have heard Delta Green’s campaign Impossible Landscapes was one of the best campaigns in TTRPG landscape, but I never took a proper look at it. When the RPG channel, Quinn Quest’s reviewed Delta Green rules and Impossible Landscapes, that got me to pick up some of the smaller adventures like Owlshead Mountain and PX Poker Night. I enjoyed what I read that I then picked up the Delta Green handbook and Impossible Landscapes. I overall fine the rules fine. Once my current Dragonbane game is done, one of my players will run a Star Wars Campaign, and I’ll be reading Impossible Landscapes getting ready to prep that massive campaign
Black Powder and Brimstone Core book by Benjamin Tobitt
A small RPG that gives me big Dark souls grimdark vibe compatible with the Mork Borg system. I liked what I read, though I think the grim dark art is what sold me to pick up this game. I can see this being one of those OSR games I’ll pick up to run like a small one shot or short campaign especially since of the quick character creation and simple mechanics.
“QUICK THERES 2 COPIES LEFT” I got the message from my friend and immediately got my phone out to get Ruby Dixon’s sequel to Rising Bull on Libby. The first book knocked it out of the park; By The Horns is a solid follow up that has a few things from me putting as high as Rising Bull in my mind. It’s a story regarding Gwenna, the best friend from the first book’s protagonist and another minotaur who had a minor role. She has a secret about sensing the dead that she can’t tell anyone since it’s taboo, and He is a cop trying to find a group of thieves. The plot follows the two of them as he mistakes her for a thief since she just so secretive. It gives a little bit more of a comedic taste to the romance. There is a bit of a mystery that weaves through the story and I was so invested into it that when sex scenes did occur, it took me a moment to remember the smut is how I found this book series. There are returning lovable side characters from the first books along with a new cast take a while to warm up to. The overarching mystery was fine, though there few parts stood out where it became clear on who were the antagonists. It’s a solid follow up to a great book, and I am curious to see where Ruby will go from here with the series
November of 2025 accidentally became my mystery novel month and I found one my favorite new cozy mystery series.
175 words or less, thoughts and feelings that I had after reading the book
I heard about this book series from the Reading Glass podcast. Cozy town with anthromopic animals? Each book can be read as a standalone? Sign me up. I love when a mystery is tied up with a bow, and this was a great first book to the series. It follow the a dedicated reporter, Vera Vixen, trying to get all the facts for the story when a body turns up in the quiet town of Shady Hollow. It’s a charming town brought to life, with a few too many characters. I loved the mystery presented and was trying to solve it throughout the whole book. My guesses were incorrect, but it does feel like I could have solved it. My only qualm on the story, is the final confrontation, as it comes a little too exaggerated for a certain character. I still think it’s an excellent read that I do not want to spoil who-dun-it in anyway.
A look at Tales of the Valiant Adventure’s Introductionary adventure along with the start set. I’ll go over some of the Starter Set of Tales of the Valiant, but this does not cover all adventure in the box.
Recently a friend of mine asked me to introduce them to tabletop roleplaying games. I wanted to introduce them with Dungeons and Dragons, as it is arguably the most well-known in it’s popularity. Though I still had a large backlog of other games I wanted to explore. On October 12th 2025, I set up a game of Tales of the Valliant by Kobold Press with its accompanying Starter Set from Steamforged Games.
Tales of the Valiant came out as a response to the Open Game License (OGL) debacle that occurred years ago. Wizards of the Coast, owners of Dungeons and Dragons, had tried to take away a license that allowed creators to use some parts of their game to create their own products for the D&D community. In response, several gaming companies and community creators decided to step away from Dungeons and Dragons, instead creating their own game. Tales of the Valiant was one that came out that is their own take on the d20 system popularized by Dungeons and Dragons.
The Starter Set
The starter set, at time of writing, is priced at $44.99 on Steamforged Games Website. The set comes with a set of dice, pregenerated characters, 4 character miniatures, monster tokens, glossy battle maps to be used with the adventures, a small introduction booklet to roleplaying games, two stitch-bound adventure books one that is labeled “Introductory Adventures” and the other is “Advanced Adventures”, and a separate staple bound the Rules Reference book. For the cost, it comes off as a good deal.
The minis are okay. There’s enough detail to make them stand out at the table. The characters are smartly designed to be different heights with different poses that helps distinguish from each other when placed on the map. Especially when you haven’t painted them. I am not going to comment on how they are when it comes to painting. My experience was using them just in gray scale at the table which worked fine
The character sheets are my biggest issues with the set. The ones in the starter set are printed on glossy decent quality paper with everything printed on both sides. For a game that has numerous character talents and abilities, it is not ideal. One is a 10-99 tax sheet of information while the back is everything you would get during level up, along with explanations on most features, talents, and characters motivations. I notice players tend to focus on one side of a pre-gen and forget the second sheet especially if they are new players. Thankfully Steamforged Games does have the character sheets PDF for free at their website to print at home. However, you may still want to download all the characters from the site as the information feels scattered.
The player playing the wizard looked up from the table “Where’s burning hands spell?” she ask me. The wizard has it listed as something they can do, but it doesn’t say the spell description. I looked through my copy of the character PDF. It wasn’t their on the spell sheet. “Maybe it’s in the rules reference” I say. I took the booklet and quickly scanned the spell. It’s alphabetically organized so it should have been simple to find but it told me that all player spells were found on the character sheet. An old adage I’ve heard is that if it takes longer than 30 secs to find information during the game, trying to make a ruling then and there. Don’t let the game stall. Try to find it afterwards. I’ve played Tales of Valiant before with its quickstart for Free RPG Day. I know the spells are roughly similar to Dungeons and Dragons. We grabbed the Player Handbook for DND that was nearby and used that. After the session, I found the burning hands spell. It’s on Warlock’s spell sheet as a Pact Spell.
The player playing the warlock was one of the newer players and I could see why they may not have mentioned it. They might have thought it wasn’t the same one for the wizard or there was a difference between Pact Spells to Spellbook written spells. It’s on the spell sheet for their Warlock, and it’s under a section that reads Level III. If these spell sheets were supposed to be for around the table, why is only found in the PDF for the warlock? Why isn’t there a separate spell sheet handout, much less why isn’t it just put twice in the rules reference book? The only spells in the reference book are ones that can be found in the adventures via items or scrolls. I love that there is a rules reference book. It’s one of my favorite things to find in a starter set, as I can leave the rules reference on the table for any player to pick it up. I just wish that everything players might want to reference was in there.
There are five adventures that come in the adventure books. The first adventure is for whoever is running the game. You’ll take the pre-generated character named Cabbage and go through a small linear adventure to learn the game and its mechanics. With having years of game-mastering games similar to Tales of Valiant and the fact I read the rules references first before the adventure book, I did not play through this one. It looked fine. It reminded me of Choose Your Own Adventure books, just simpler.
The rest of the adventures are for the GMs to run at the table. It can be used as a loose narrative framework for a small campaign. They would start at level 1 and go up to level 4. With two players new to the hobby of Role-playing Games, I decided to start with the first adventure.
Thoughts and Advice
Adventure Title: Down the Rabbit Hole
Level: 01
Area: Underground Tunnels
System Created for: TALES OF THE VALIANT
Written by: I’m not entirely sure if the adventures in the books were by a single person or team. There are no credits regarding individual adventures. In the front credits, it states Adventure Design: Oliver Darkshire.
How Long it took to play: 1 4-hour session
Any other resources used to run: None
Battlemaps: Yes, They comes with the starter set
Pregens: Yes, come with the Starter Set.
Spoilers from here on out. You have been warned
Our heroes awaken in a pitch black room. Shaking their heads, they remember being in town before the world started shaking. A sink hole opening beneath the feet. Death all for certain as they fell into the chasm, until a wizard known as Rantipole jumped to use his magic. They crash landed in the tunnels beneath the town, yet safe thanks to the wizard’s protection. Our heroes now have to venture through this tunnel system and make it back into town.
Down the Rabbit Hole is a simple dungeon crawl adventure throughout tunnels beneath a city. It feels akin to a video game’s first tutorial area. It slightly touches upon all the core pillars of a D20 game: exploration, combat, and social interaction. The adventure is written with text boxes placed throughout the book to help new GM’s get used to the different mechanics of Tales of Valiant. It’s written in a way for new mechanics to slowly be introduced as our heroes venture through the dungeon.
The dungeon is a fairly linear 11 room dungeon; with encounters that felt balanced for a full 4-person party of adventurers. These encounters could be avoided with skill use or clever roleplay. For example, characters will have to face a room of busted open sarcophagi with skeletons lying inside them, all ready to rise to fight the intruders. Yet if they all are able to sneak out of the room, then the skeletons lay dominant. There is a sewer tunnel area where rust monsters appear once half of the characters pass through the midpoint. They are just little guys who want a meal of our hero’s metal weapons and armor. They aren’t attacking the heroes. An animal handling roll could give them the information that the characters could out maneuver them with tossing metal between the characters. I like that it is completely possible to get out of the dungeon without touching the combat mechanics. For any new Game-masters, if you have new players, pay attention to how the characters handle the skeletons first. If they seem gung-oh to attack everything at sight, tell them the behavior of the rust monsters. Telegraph their motives as they appear. Put in an old dagger or metal implement on the ground near the players where they first enter, then have that be the first thing the creatures eat. Drop subtle hints at other possibilities solutions. “These creature’s feelers touch the dagger and it starts to turn brown and brittle in front of your eyes. One of their antennae seems to sniff the air and continue to sniff towards you. Do you guys try to figure these things out, try to avoid them or What do you want to do?”
My new players had a lot of fun with this adventure. Me and one of the more experienced players found it fairly standard. For me, I felt there could’ve been more to help new GM’s. It would also help to clarify what’s going in the overall connecting plot.
Throughout the entire adventure, the players kept speculating what was the cause of the sinkhole. Was it the rust monsters and there was some hive that started to weaken the city? Was there something wrong with the city’s infrastructure? WAS IT RANTIPOLE?! While speculation is all good, the adventure itself doesn’t tell the GM why the sinkholes are occurring. That’s explained in the level-4 adventure in the starter set! Knowing why the sinkholes are happening, can let GM’s slowly drip feed the hints for players to change their theories throughout all of their adventures. The adventure doesn’t even tell if certain set pieces are for hints in the connecting story or if they are places where a GM can throw in their own lore.
The section of the sewer tunnel has a small waterfall opening that players can venture through. This is mentioned as beyond the the scope of the adventure and that GMs would have to put their own ideas. Earlier in the adventure, I wish there was a similar footnote about two setpieces. The characters run into a statue with a curse gem and evil writing around the room. While there were notes about who made these, I do not know if these were connected to the sinkholes. It would be nice for a small “feel free to make your own cult or go to this adventure to learn more” . Any GM’s planning to run Down the Rabbit Hole, I would recommend reading all four adventures before running the first. especially if wanting to connect them in a small campaign. As this was a one shot for new players, I did not mind having to create lore about an evil cult on the fly.
Another part that I wish the game had better advice on, was on using Rantipole as a friendly NPCS. Rantipole is with the party this whole adventure, and if not with the party, further behind keeping an eye on them. The way the adventure is written, Rantipole takes a backseat, to the point that he is kind of forgotten about. GM’s, do not be afraid to use Rantipole. I agree he should be in the backseat to avoid stealing the player spotlight, but that doesn’t mean he should be useless. While he has a ton of hit points, he should not be fighting with the party. If the heroes find themselves in danger of death and have used up their short rest, then he may have a potion or two that he can pull out to help them. He is also a great way to keep players on track. If characters are going to venture forward to the unprepared waterfall sections, he could either warn the heroes that he senses a great danger, or better yet, he could point the way out and tell them “Once we get out, restock supplies and Old Rover used to adventure with me back in the day. He knows these sewers like the back of his hand and could draw a sewer map. It’s best you know what you’re getting into” He’s a smart wizard that just has face blindness.
While Rantipole is a wizard, he can’t cast spells with a broken spell-casting focus. A broken wand stops him from getting the player out of the current bind. It felt like pretty weak reasoning to me, and felt like the players were going to have way more questions that I had time for. For my game, I still used Rantipole as the savior wizard, though as he meets the heroes he does have some amnesia. The heroes see him and then a large rock slides to hit him on the back of the head. As he is the main patron for the rest of the campaign adventure, he could just be pretending to forget as a test for the adventurers.
Overall I think Down the Rabbit Hole is an okay adventure. It’s simple enough for new Gamemasters to run, though could use some more advice. I’ve run other introductory adventures that have felt epic and grand. They showcase what type of adventures you can expect at the start. One of my favourite adventures is the Dungeon Crawl Classics. level-0 Sailors on the Starless Sea which had various dangerous and interesting setpieces to show what cool things the player may have to face even at low level. That was a full meal, Down the Rabbit Hole is just a small portion of what RPG adventures can be.
There is a hopefulness John tries to impart on the viewer along with a small call for us to be more aware.
I have not been this upset or angry while reading a book for a hot minute. Everything is Tuberculosis is a book that explains a bit about the history of the disease throughout time. The viewpoint the world has had on it throughout history, as medicine has changed. Yet somehow this deadly yet curable disease is still active and still killing people to this day. It’s a book that shows the culture, the medicine, the greed, and the social failures that got us to this point. Though it does still offer some hope. It showcases the people trying to help. The one’s who survived it continuing to be use their voice to help spread awareness about tuberculosis. The fears that can arise if we do not take this threat seriously. Maybe my anger stems how Tuberculosis reminds me of the failure we experience with COVID-19, a disease that we continue to deal with in our daily lives, one where we could have possible limited the threat if everyone took it seriously. In a day where we are almost instantly able to communicate with our fellow man, yet lack of care has us regulate COVID-19 to something we all have to just deal with as we carry-on with our daily lives.
Both diseases show the issue of ongoing maintenance that we fail to upkeep. Once a vaccine or a cure was found, we implemented them across as quick as we could. Though that we does not include all of humanity. Just the places that were lucky enough to have easy access to the vaccine, with insurance, nearby pharmacies that could administer the vaccine, with proper equipment to limit the spread. The same can’t be said with those with Tuberculosis.
God bless John trying to find hope here as he wrote the book. The hope isn’t on us as a collective, but it is about people. People that will try to fight for cheaper medication. For people that try to help find better cures and techniques for Tuberculosis. People that want to share their stories to plead and get others into helping. To be share his hope with those are trying their hardest to make a difference.
There is a certain tone to when I read John Green’s writing. A reminder of his podcast of The Anthropocene Reviewed. An informative educational tone that mixes his own voice that brings out the feeling in the book. The feelings he had when learning of Tuberculosis. I have no idea how he comes off as hopeful. When I read. I get a mix emotions or anger and pessimism. If a book can bring out those feelings in me immediately, I view as a great book.
Below is to the start of an Idea I had penned this in my notebook September 05th 2025. Here it is clean up for reading. Enjoy!
It occurred to me that in order to help my notes and sessions. I might want to put session recaps, journaling the TTRPG campaigns I run and my journey through a system.
I usually recap my session in my own notes, with quick sentences in a dedicated page. I’m also relizing at this moment as I reference it, I have not upkept it well. It was usually a quick note to remind me; “Session 05: Heroes escape prison and sneaked onto a pirate ship”.
Instead of one sentence, I’ll be writting out more flesh out notes along with any GM notes or moments that stood out. Probably a paragraph that I could read at the next session to recap the players. I’ll also place things like system troubles, flubs, or anything like the sort in thoughts at the bottom. Hopefully this will involve over time.
Now as I came late to this idea, I will have to give a recap of the over all campaign up to this point.
– Felicia, the reckless treasure hunter trying to find a better world
– Arthur, the rival of the chosen one destined to protect me
Campaign Recap
Arc 1 – Home
The first arc dealt with the heroes’ hometown of Rimea on the night of festivities. Suddenly An evil goblin known as Knick-knack attacks their village. Facing overwhelming forces, our heroes were saved by an old mystical man with a long beard, yellow village clothing that called himself The King of the Stars. He bestows upon them the Stone of the Star which would light up when allies to be trusted were near. Though these allies may not stay for long.. They may be there for a few days, and sometimes it will feel they were there for about four hours. Maybe three. ((If we had anybody that wanted to jump in to try the game, this is the in universe reason for our characters to trust the new one)
Our heroes then fled to the capital of Rimea, Queensberg. A large city with waterfalls built over the old kingdom of Kingsberg. At the time, Games were being held to find new warriors to join the prince of Rimea, Maximillian, on a quest to face Knick-Knack. While they failed the contests, they did impress someone enough to received a quest to venture into the caves under the city. To find an artifact, known as the Iris Cube.
They entered the Kingsberg Grotto where they fought the bandits housing in the ruins of the city. They met the queen who was secretly spelunking, and fought agaisnt a giant shrimp boss known as Prawn Caw’neri. They also dealt with pirate entering the grotto also searching for the Iris Cube for their own motives. Afterwards they were able to get the Iris Cube which showed a map of the world. Only ships equipped with the royal navy and others in shipping that were able to fund mercenaries and weaponry, could venture through the seas due to the rough waves and dense ocean fog. When the Iris Cube was discovered, the fog lifted and the waves lessen.
They headed back home to Innsville to slowly start restoring the town and after to the Blackwoods on advice from Prawn. Here they defeated evil bug bandits and more of Knick Knack’s villainous henchmen, the Paddy-whacks. More importantly, they found a wolf that they made their new friend who promptly got named “Good Boy”.The chaotic nature of the Blackwoods had caused our heroes to be separated the evil of Knick Knacks transform “Good Boy” into a new monster, the Dog-a-bone. Arthur was separated for a time to face the shadow of his past mentor. Successfully defeating the shadow, but arriving to late assist in fighting Dog-a-bone. Failing to hold their ground. All our heroes were knocked into a nearby river where they were capture by the Rose Skull Pirates and their captain, The Pirate Queen Eileen. Taken to the pirates secret hideout, taking the Iris Cube from our heroes.
Using magic, wits, and weapons, our heroes snuck out of the prison.Then sneaking onto the Rose Skull before it headed out into the world in order to steal back the Cube. After a few hi-jinks, they eventually reach the Captain Quarters. After a tense battle, our heroes defeated the Pirate Queen Eileen who agreed to ally with the heroes if they helped her brother with a curse that keeps him alive albeit in a horrible state. With new allies in tow, the Rose Skull sails forth to Knick Knack’s evil dark tower that is slowly building power.
Climbing the tower, they found a way to quickly save their town then face Knick-Knack themselves. The final battle is intense as Knick-Knack uses all his magic and power taken from people in Innsville. Yelling that he will not stop from saving the world from the chosen one. Defeating Knick Knack the heroes clarifying they have no intention to destroy the world. Then across the horizon, Maximillian’s ship comes into view then fires on the tower as the battle finishes. The heroes grab Knick-knack and flee.
Arc 2 – Mirage
Making a new friend in Knick-knack to try to figure out what may destroy the world, our heroes are trying to decipher rune across the Iris Cube. Knick-knack mentions an old sage known as Sarcothsis who might know how to read them. The Rose Skull ventures north to the Narra Steppes.
Entering the small deserted port town of Nigh’leon, the heroes found Sarcothis house ransacked. However they found clues to point them to the city of Mirage in the desert. A city that can not be found by those searching for it, and is only found by those that are lost.
Eventually they arrived, where the Stone of the Star lit up as they say a new face. A lizard folk who was called SharkClaw, a templar from an organization dedicated to helping the chosen one accomplishing his faith.
Sharkclaw joins the party! A templar of the old faith duty bound to the chosen one (from about Arc 2 onward!)
They find Sarcothes hiding from mercenaries. All led by Commander Maul, a Kreigshold commander who is trying to take over the Narra Steppes for his country, seeing potential in the beasts and magic that lies in the land. Sarcothes Informs them of an ancient tome called Egdoh-rillian. In it, contains several stories of the world, dense and dry written. It had been destroyed during the last time the world ended as its powers were used to turn it into a tome of chaos. In order to grab it, our heros would have to complete a powerful ritual that would send them temporarily to another time. They would need to gather the ingredients; the Staff of Rising Earth, and an object that somehow survive the worlds destruction, then perform the ritual at the site of a destroyed city; E’lu’zhan
The Staff was currently held by the Mayor of Mirage as a prized for their beast catching competition. Ceremonies are held at the Moonlight Spring, however dark energies were clouding the spring making hostile to the town. Investigating this strange phenomenon, our heroes find a strong a plant beast place by Kreigshold to steal the life force from the lake and increase the water trade with Kreigshold. They defeated the plant which spewed out some sort of small baby of a plant creature which Arthur called Cabbage.
While the Mayor and his staff readied for the competition, our heroes visit the kitsch tourist trap, the Tower of 100 Mirrors. A mirror of what had existed in E’lu’zhan. The tower was haunted by the dragon of Wind, Gus, cursed to be a spirit stuck inside in a shard at the top of the tower and terribly annoyed with the tourists. They gather the shard with Gus and took part of the beast gathering contest. With Sharkclaw’s ability to talk to beast, they were easily able to find a beast, and the Mayor, Imma En’charj, was grateful enough about clearing the moonlight springs, almost anything would work as a for the Staff.
With the two parts in hand, they raced to the site of E’lu’zhan, dealing with a tribe that worked with Kreigshold to ruin the steppes and killed Maul’s lieutenant, who was also his fiancee. Sarcotheses sent to our heroes to the past just before the world was destroyed. Racing through the original Tower of 100 Mirrors to stop the chosen one of this cycle, D’Num Ga’eb. Beating him, they grabbed the Egdohrillian however the fight was not over. Maul entered through the portal with a sort of mech, mixing the dinosaurs of Narra Steppes and the magitech of Kriegshold. Maul eventually stood to face our heroes himself. Once killed time froze. A giant dark purple rune hand reached out. It cried “You do not belong here”. It defeated all the heroes single handily. It reach to crush them when Sarcothes was able to spend his life force to fling them back to the present time at the cost of his life. The problem was they weren’t in the same space, our group of heroes was thrown to different areas of the world.
Two Months Past
Now we have reached where we currently are.
Arc 3 – Death, Session 1
Characters in session: Arthur and Felicia.
On an island, there lies a small village. A village aware of the troubles that come with the sea and the rough waves. A village that for months, have not need to worry about the waves since they suddenly stopped. A village where the sun shines, and the kids play. Then it comes, at first a small black ooze. More get placed by the seas waves, leaving them on the bank of the beach. The wind stops and the waves quiet as the evening sun set. A guardsman pokes the ooze with a staff. It coils around the point, moving up to the staff slowly burning his skin, consuming him. Cries barely escape as it enters all the holes available. His remaining mouth gurgles, dissolving until the ooze solidifies to a tar. Rising from the puddle, it forms a woman in knight armor with evil eyes. She unsheates her sword and points forward to the village. The ooze lurches.
We start with revisiting our heroes. First, we visit Arthur who is now sporting a proper cape with all black outfit (Reminisce to Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, player’s words). Hair now slick back. We find him among the streets of Teskun City. A city made of several different nationalities that search for freedom from their original homes, mainly Kreigshold. He’s spent the last two months journey and trying to find his child, Cabbage. The one thing that fell off his back on his landing. He kicks in a door.
“Where is my child” he asks. The shopkeeper has a tale, one from a recent shipment. His merchants were attacked by a pirate ship on the seas, however the strange thing that stuck in their mind was a small plant like child on board that helped rob them. Arthur tosses the shopkeeper down and heads out. He reaches out to a few smuggler friends to help him acquired a small boat and take the seas.
The Rose Skull glides across the sea. Felicia looks at her cabin, filled with string stretches from runes to papers to sketches. Knick-knack places another box on string on the ground. Tireless working, they have manage to decipher two pages of the Egdoh-rellian. The tales of a being known as Tragedia, a cosmic being whose goal is to have world meet it’s end whatever means necessary..
While trying to set up another stringboard, they see the smoke from the kitchen below. Running down, they found Cabbage sword fighting the chef. As usual, they have to take Cabbage away and keep an eye on them. To add to Felicia troubles, is the strained relationship with the Pirate Queen Eileen. Someone she’s fancied over the time they spent on the sea,
As the two heroes get closer, their have tattoos matching the Stone of the Star which start to glow. Pointing to each other. Soon they find each other.
Together at last they swap adventure tales and dealings. Arthur finds that Cabbage also shares some entropy magic that he also dabbles with.
With two party member still missing, they venture to try to find Beagmund. As they travel, they come across a manta ray with a house on its back. Standing outside were three knights of Teskun city that venture out to fight evil in the world. This knight is an older man in is 70’s, on a quest to deal with the obsidian tower in the area of Rimea. Though he finds himself bored, and sees a chance to share stories with the ship.
This is when Arthur, remembering his friends telling him not to mess with the knights, decides to immediately ask for a warrant. The knight raises an eyebrow. His order were not to deal with a pirate ship. Though it is up to his discretion to disregard them if he senses a bit of evil, and Arthur has his senses. Arthur threatens him, and the knight transforms into his Mech-knight form. He had not had a fight for a good while. He toys with Arthur, keeping him at bay as his squires search the ship.
The squires calls for him as Arthur tires out. The knight finds Cabbage holding a deadly darkness sword over the Iris Cube and a bucket over the Egdoh-rillian. He goes “interesting” before quickly drawing his pistol and firing a shot.
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Alright Thank you for reading. That’s the main story and session recap. Below are my GM Notes, and some thoughts I scribbled as I was prepping the session and a bit after the session. Hence they may be a bit scatterbrained. I cleaned them up as much as I could:
GM Notes:
Originally this session was going to have 3 players. As we got online to play, Beagmund’s player had internet troubles and was unable to join. I was a tad worried as my prepped was spread between the 3 players of Felicia, Arthur, and Beagmund. Though decided to press on. I find that when I run 2 player session, the scenes get more played out and more personal. We find we have time to let scenes breathe as I don’t have to jump between a bunch of players to keep there attention and move the plot foward. Plus everyone was fine to play on with just the two players, including the absentee players.
I find myself having trouble with Fabula Ultima enemy creation system. There are two ways to create an enemy. The first to take an enemy in the bestiary and reflavor it to fit the scenario. The other is a multi-step process to create an original enemy which I find myself doing more and more as we reach higher levels. Before the game, it’s easy and I love steps. Though when it’s at the table, that’s when I get caught off guard. Both methods are a bit time-consuming for higher levels that I have to ask for a quick break in order to stat the characters out.
One planned for scene was when the players rolled an unexpected discovery on a travel roll. I took a second before I took inspiration Dragonball and a Mario Sunshine boss. Instead of a giant turtle, Manta Ray. Originally the knight was to talk and be an exposition NPC. I could drop a few bits of lore here and there. Then Arthur’s player immediately was on the offensive. I had NPC say “Don’t mess with them,” which was taken as “Don’t trust them”. I think I should’ve been more clear the idea “Don’t get on their bad side”. I was totally fine with cause half way into the session I was sitting at the table thinking, “What can I do for the last hour or 2”. then when I saw the fight coming, “Well never mind then”
In my playthrough, I found Fabula Ultima similar to Dungeons and Dragons, where the higher level you get, the longer your turns can take. Especially the martial classes, where character are trying to figure out which moves bounce off each other in order to find out the damage an enemy can take. In game, it was probably about 3 to 5 turns between just Arthur and the NPC. It still took the rest of the session. I still jumped between the turns to Felicia’s character to make sure they were still engaged to the story.
I had the idea of “Knights that mix Western Sheriff with power ranger transformation” I have to think how would these Knights from this country would deal with powerful objects. The Knights of Teskun are broken into 3 different department. Peace Keepers the ones that venture out to the world. Justice Keepers, the ones that monitor the city. Then there’s the truth keepers, the ones that run the council that also patrols the dome in Teskun city.
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Well those are all my notes, and the session recap. As I mention, this project was more to help me archive, place notes, and remind myself of what happen during sessions. If there are any questions regarding Fabula Ultima, let me know. Until next time!
I think i found a new favorite Fantasy? Sci-fi? LiRPG book series. It’s a big recommendation for anyone that is a fan of dungeon and dragons or video games. At least for the first book. I have been told the others books in the series do some interesting changes to the format. Though yeah it it is a book I enjoyed both the concepts explored, the alibeit heavy handed themes about reality show. And the awfulness of a game show trying to have people battle royale through a giant megadungeon. I enjoyed the writing though I could also see that it may not for everyone. There is a certain humor the book has that is my jam and for friends. The book has a guy with no pants constantly arguing with his ex’s magical talking cat while also dealing with the kind of awfulness of being in an audience’s eyesight that could effect your life ala streaming and squid games. Still, i’m picking up the second book in the series to continue Carl and Princess Donut’s adventure in this weird world.
