"Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Intermission #2 - Creating The "Soulburn" Art

Credits

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace and Hitomi have started gathering up gear and resources to make their way in The GLOW. While they have a short breather, they plan to pick up a job or two. But first, let's take a look at the art I am working on to show Eustace's "Soulburn" vision.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace Delmont is a psychic on the cusp of "graduating" into a full-blow Field Psychic. He requests his right to Walk, a brief period of freedom to encourage psychics to see the other side of The GLOW. He tries to finish his long-time partner Jani Blum's final unfinished mission: to find a mini-disc and crack open the Patel crime family. He meets Hitomi Meyer, a criminal hacker. The two are now on the run between a powerful crime family and an even more powerful adversary: The Order and its plans for Eustace.

Content Warning: Occasionally very foul language, lots of smoking, quite intense violence, drinking, gambling, non-graphic sex, drugs, criminal behavior, and black magic. The GLOW is a world of spiritual torture and weird horror.

This post is in the standard Doug Alone post style. See Anatomy of a Post for more details.

Attribution for the tools and materials used—including the splash art—can be found in the Credits below along with some details.

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Intermission #2 - Creating The "Soulburn" Art

Creating a New Art Style

I try and give many of my arcs their own vibe when it comes to visual elements. The Bleak + The Pearl gets the harsh two-tone graphics with high contrast. The Bloody Hands got 18th and 19th century oil paintings. Eustace & Hitomi got photos [sometimes actually of the 90s] rendered in such a way to look like bad print offs of news articles. To begin with, The GLOW had a fairly unique aspect for this blog: paid stock art. It was technically the second time I bought paid stock art for the blog. There was meant to be an Ick & Humb arc kicked off last in 2024 that had Dean Spencer's art to represent some of the characters. That got cut off, though, when I was a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out how to bring the 3.5 active campaigns on the blog to a close. It will show up, maybe in an arc or two, but this means The GLOW "1996 Agent Johnny Blue" got through the gate first.

As much as 100% love and recommend Dean Spencer's artwork, and will continue to use it every few posts, I did want to come up with a method for an extended The GLOW "1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont" arc that did not end up having to reuse much art or force the campaign to change gears too much.

Playing around last week, I came up with a method I liked. And, partially to encourage myself to do more experiments, I thought I would share it more generally. It is not an advanced technique. It is just a simple way to take photos that match roughly what I see when I imagine The GLOW.

This will also help me sort one of the missing New Year's Resolutions where I had plans to try and come up with some easy links to free art and such. A step one, if you will.

Step One: First, a Photo

The first step is to find a photo that I think would work. What am I looking for? That kind of changes but generally a city scene. One with few people or where the people will fade a bit in the background. I usually have a few "keywords" in mind like warehouse or dock or nightclub. The technique I am working with seems to go better when the picture is a bit dark, with distinct lines, and has some definite splashes of light or color. I would like it to be a human-generated photo rather than one touched up heavily by either Generative AI or by extensive photo manipulation.

Good sources of open-reuse art that I use include:

There are others. A lot of these are simply user-generated content and so quality is variable. Some allow Generative AI and so I try to filter around it. A few times it can be hard to tell. I check things like the re-use. The fact that these pictures will be used to tell some fairly violent and potentially disturbing stories means that I try and not step on too many toes. This makes it weird if I am using photos of people.

If I am not sure what photo I want to use, sometimes it helps to just browse those pages and see what leaps out to me. There are several scenes where finding the photo first helps me to frame some details.

For this particular case, I want a cafe. Juan's Cafe. Near Pensacola, FL. Something a bit quirky that could be used as kind of an info spot for Hitomi but which isn't the standard cyber-punk-club style set-up. A place where lower-level operatives her might gather that has a veneer of friendliness.

Since I tend to default to Pixabay, I'll grab this off of WordPress. It has a good light source. The red poster should pop out a bit. The lines might be a bit fuzzy but we'll play with it. The first step will be trim it down to 1:1 in aspect. I like things to be either landscape or square since it tends to work best with the blog format.

A Nepalese (?) cafe with a garden courtyard and seating.

A real world cafe with a nice courtyard garden.

Step Two: Second, Setting Up Layers

The hard part is picking a photo, really. GIMP (the free-open-source image processing program I like to use though there are others) will do a lot of the work. Once I figured out the technique I liked, it is pretty easy to work through the steps in just a few minutes for me.

At this point, I will name the file to whatever it is in my game — for now Juan's Cafe — and then I will name the default/base image as that + [BASE Version] and I will keep it in the background as a fail safe if I get to a point where I need to start over.

I need at least three more layers. I make two copies of the BASE layer: LINES and MODIFIED. LINES is on top. MODIFIED is below LINES. BASE is at the bottom.

I think make a blank/transparent layer in between LINES and MODIFIED and call it SOULBURN.

This would look something like this:

A screenshot of the GIMP screen showing 4 layers as described.

Step Three: Making the Outline

The next is to use the FILTERS → ARTISTIC → PHOTOCOPY on the LINES layer. I'm looking for a good number of outlines that roughly tell the same story as the original photo but also lose some of the finer details. If the outline doesn't quite look right, I can undo it and then go and tweak some of the contrasts/curves of the LINES version of the photo [under the COLOR menu].

There's no one good set of options to choose from. Sometimes I play with some settings to bring up some details or to some some. Just keep "Preview" on and move some sliders and values around until you get something you like. For this demo, I will leave it at GIMP's default settings.

Once I get a a good blend, I think go to COLORS → POSTERIZE → and reduce it to just two colors.

A black-and-white outline of the cafe which loses a lot of the more minor details.

At this point, I go to COLORS — COLOR TO ALPHA and I turn the white portions transparent which will make the lines largely disappear into the layers below but they are still there doing their job.

A screen showing the GIMP color-to-alpha option.

Step Four: Adding the "Soulburn"

The next step is to add the weird color splotches that represent the Soulburn. Click on the currently blank SOULBURN layer and look for FILTERS → RENDER → NOISE → PLASMA. The first seed option is fine but I usually click the "NEW SEED" button a few times to find a color that "speaks" to the mood I want the scene to have.

At this point all you will be able to see would be the PLASMA layer and the outlines we generated above.

Playing around with "plasma" which makes weird fogs of different colors.

Once you have a good color combination, we need to figure out how much Soulburn we want. The way this is achieved is basically by going back to the layer window and changing the opacity around.

For example, putting it around 2/3s (give or take a slight bit) makes it look something like this:

Dragging the opacity of the plasma layer around to allow more or fewer details to come through.

This is where the darker, more night-time photos can work better because the background tends to fade out a bit while the light in the foreground kicks off a bit harder. With a lot of these photos I go between 50% and 100% depending on how intense I want the Soulburn vibe to be. Around 50% it is very nearly a suggestion. At 100%, reality is just a few outlines. 2/3s to 3/4s is a good blend for a lot of photos.

Step Five: Manipulating the Image

One benefit of this technique is that I can blend and modify lines together as I need. I can cut out text, bring in outlines from other pictures for strange effects, etc.

In this case, I am just going to do two quick modifications using other GIMP filters. I pick the MODIFIED layer. First, FILTERS → ARTISTIC → CARTOON. Play with those settings a bit until I get something that feels a lot like the original picture, just a bit less real. For the demo, I'll keep it mostly the default.

Then, still on the modified layer, FILTERS → ARTISTIC → OILIFY. I often reduce the mask radius on this but for now I'll keep it default.

The overall impact of this step can be pretty minor — especially with an image as evenly lit as this one — but it helps to reinforce this vibe of the Soulburn being just a bit more real than the things it is surrounding. The overall effect is to be something a bit aesthetically pleasing at a glance but kind of off-putting if you try and bring details out of it. As the story goes on, and Eustace is more and more absorbed into the Soulburn, the manipulations will get more pronounced.

The same cafe as earlier but it looks a bit less real and is now saturated with strange colors.

Option: Using Masks to Create Focus Points

Another option I can use and will play at with some photos is using ADD A LAYER MASK to the Soulburn layer and the GRADIENT tool to create portions that pop. In this case, I can set the GRADIENT tool options to RADIAL and then either FG-to-TRANSPARENT and use Black (#000000) or have it go from FG-to-BG and set both to various grayscales. Then, use that gradient on the Soulburn's Mask to have portions that fade away to the background but with other places more consumed by the Soulburn.

The overall effect on Juan's Cafe might look like this:

I'm not sure if it works out for this photo in particular but I'll play with it some on others.

CREDITS

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont is played using Two Little Mouse's Outgunned and Outgunned: Action Flicks (especially, but not limited to "Neon Noir" and "Great Powers"). It uses Larcenous Designs' Gamemaster Apprentice Deck: Cyberpunk 2E as its main oracle.

Other sources used include:

Zach Best's Universal NPC Emulator.
Cesar Capacle's Random Realities
Kevin Crawford's Cities Without Number
Matt Davis' Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk 1, 2 and 3.
Geist Hack Games and Paul D. Gallagher's Augmented Realities.

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

CC0 licensed photo by Anis from the WordPress Photo Directory. Apologies to Anis to turning his lovely photo of a cafe to a hacker hangout.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 2 - Gathering Supplies

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-14

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Multi-Phase, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

← Previous Arc Session |[ ↑ Arc/Campaign Page ]| Next Arc Session →

Libby the Lab. Rebuilt experimental war tech. Faithful pooch.

Libby the Lab. Rebuilt war tech. Faithful pooch.
Image © Dean Spencer

"Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
Making a The GLOW Map Table
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 2 — Gathering Supplies

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Psychic Eustace Delmont has gone on a Walk. In a massive indoor mall, aka The Citadel, he meets a hacker criminal named Hitomi Meyer. After fighting, and obliterating, a group of Patel family goons, Eustace and Hitomi are now trying to get to safety. They are heading to Century, FL where one of Hitomi's old allies can help take care of Bee.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

This post is in the standard Doug Alone post style. See Anatomy of a Post for more details.

Attribution for the tools and materials used—including the splash art—can be found in the Credits below along with some details.

Making a The GLOW Map Table

A grid of real-world Alabama and Florida Panhandle divided into a 12x20 section

A map for me to generate some random events in a more consistent manner. Explanation below.

More so than the original arc where a lot of things were left up purely to the flow of the story, this time around I need a few new tools. The map above is one of those. Taking the 2023 Alabama state highway map from ALDOT, I have overlaid a 20x12 grid representing the local scope of The GLOW and the "near" GLOW. This gives me a way to roll for locations and to generally mentally map how locations are connected. There is no attempt, yet, to link this up to The GLOW's subway system or to map out changes in the roads. This is a bit higher concept than that.

Each grid is about 10 miles. It's not meant to be super precise but that's close enough. Take this with a grain of salt in that I might have really messed up my math. I don't need granular distance measurements, more of just a broad sense.

In the context of the GLOW, there would be anywhere from 1-5 additional grids worth of city off the coast representing the strange floating — as in on water — portions of the city. South of Mobile it would extended even further, nearly 70 miles off the old coast. This is where the more expensive houses and such are. Those are not indicated on the map because this is much more of a "Sprawl" type campaign.

This episode starts in Century, FL which is on the map in 18,1. The Citadel, which they just left, is 14,11. Just to establish such, the Blue Sky Grove is in 6,12 while The Rambler is in 9,9.

In this light, I can find out things like: Where is Hitomi's apartment? → 19,2. A place slightly south of the real world Jay, FL. In this world, it will be "Little Tokyo." A bit more built up than the anti-Order Century but also a bit out of the main stretch.

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 2 — Gathering Supplies

Setting the Scene. Setting Up a Wild Goose Chase.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 6:52pm.

Place: In the parking lot of the closed RINA Auto Repair Shop.

Expected Scene: Hitomi is working on removing the tracker from the Patel Car.

Scene Test: [c116] 7. 8 + 3. A Minor twist/complication. On that card it has a catalyst of "law enforcement comes for you." Not a major-enough twist for that level of complication, but makes sense that they are in the area. Reason? [c3] has a person stabbed in the back. Let's say there is a murder in the back of RINA's lot.

Actual Scene: They are having to do this while some MUNI cops are investigating a murder very nearby.

Does the Patel car even have a tracker? (Good) → [c114] Yes.

Another thing from the c116 card is "Rest Plus Motel". Let's make it Rest+ and save that for later since I was going to eventually need a hotel or motel at some point.

Setting Up a Wild Goose Chase

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 6:52pm.

Place: In the parking lot of the closed RINA Auto Repair Shop.

Hitomi is bent under the car while Eustace makes it look like he is trying to repair something under the hood. They are in the parking lot of RINA Repair Shop. What RINA might mean is lost to time since the sign doesn't say and the shop has been closed for some time. The front glass is exploded out. A couple of cars left behind are burnt husks. Some kids have left a stack of beer cans in a pile in the parking lot. Strangely that has been left undisturbed.

MUNI is around back, adding to the stress of being here, but the cops are caught up with a vagrant that got stabbed this afternoon. At least the body was found this afternoon. Eustace could probably solve the case for them with just a few quick seconds but at this moment they are just a couple of people with a broke down car who found their old favorite mechanic surprisingly out of business. That's the story they are going to tell if any of the MUNI asks what is up.

Because a burnt out shop is a great place to leave a stolen car after you have murdered the owners. No cameras. No scanners. By the morning it will likely be another burnt out husk or stripped for parts.

Hitomi looks over at Bee who is having a hard time keeping their eye off the cops. Hitomi is not sure if Bee is worried or just curious. Or horny. What Hitomi is sure is that if Bee keeps snagging her cigarettes, she is going to start charging her roommate tax. Bee has walked off with Hitomi's smokes and makes no move to give them back.

"Did you get it?," Eustace asks, wiping his hands like he just did anything at all to the car under the hood.

Hitomi holds up a tracker device and scoffs. "Let me stick to the tech shenanigans, you stick to other murder-death-kill." [1]

"You know, that's the first time I have ever killed anyone. In person. I've seen a few deaths."

Hitomi looks at him and realizes he is serious. "Fuck, I'd hate to see you with training."

At this time an 80s model car shows up — American — and an old lady gets out. Yuuki Jones. In her 70s, looks to be a hard-50s. By the general average life span of The GLOW, she has won some lottery. MUNI cops look up at her but glance away. To folks around here, must look like an old granny bailing her unruly granddaughter out of a fix.

"I brought your JUMPER CABLES, Mochi." Hands Hitomi a paper bag that has zero jumper cables but does have a change of clothing, a couple of credit sticks, some hair-dye, and some ammo for Hitomi's gun. [2]

"Thanks, おばあちゃん," Hitomi says, taking the bag.

"You call her grandmother?," Eustace asks.

"This huge 外人 speaks 日本語?," Yuuki asks, giving Eustace a very long glance.

"Don't let him lie to you, Yuu. He's psychic, apparently. Also, stop calling people 外人, you have lived her longer than most of these people have been alive."

"Hey, big psychic, what am I thinking about, right now?," Yuuki asks.

Eustace, not even looking in her direction, responds, "I'm about average size."

Yuuki cackles a smoker's laugh at this. "Ah, too bad, Mochi. Too bad. They make pills for it, though." The old woman then walks over to Bee and snags the cigarette from the younger adopted-grandchild's mouth. "And no smoking for you. Save that for us grannies."

"You got Bee for the next couple of days?"

"How much trouble you in?" Yuuki notes the blood on Eustace's jacket that Bee is still wearing as an all-in-one outfit.

"Patel-sized."

"This boy's fault?"

Hitomi looks over at Eustace. "No, someone else. He was trying to help. Only it got worse. You'll catch it on the news, tonight."

As Bee leans up against Yuuki, Hitomi walks over to her young friend. "You help out at the store, ok? I'll be back in a few days. Hopefully. Also, kill the hair."

Bee sighs and touches a node on behind their ears. The sea-green hair settles down. With another tap it shifts to a bland bad beach-blonde look. The effect won't catch anyone off guard who knows Bee, but those who don't would have a hard time picking them out of any average plain teenager.

Hitomi looks around in the fading daylight and then finds a casual way to walk over to the MUNI car like she is being curious. Once she is sure that none of the MUNI are really paying attention, she quickly bends over and slips the tracker to the underside of their bumper. That should confuse the Patel gang. [3]

Rejoining Eustace, Hitomi says, "Ok, Nurse, we need to grab a bus and head to Little Tokyo. Grab my stuff if we can get to my apartment in time. Hopefully they haven't hurt Libby."

Setting the Scene. Getting Libby and Getting Betrayed.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 7:30pm.

Place: Outside Sasaki Ramen Bar in Little Tokyo.

First, has Patel's people found Hitomi yet? (Good) → [c1] Yes? They are close but won't show up until later in the scene.

Second, Hitomi did really well with getting the device and planting it on a cop car to lead some of Patel's heat on a wild goose chase. Will give her an adrenaline up to 4.

Expected Scene: Hitomi and Eustace try to get stuff from her apartment before Patel's people show up.

Scene Test: 5. 2d10 = 5 + 7. Another Minor Twist. "A secret is revealed or betrayed." The Sasakis turn in Hitomi for a reward.

Actual Scene: They get to the apartment before the goons, but the goons will lie in wait for an ambush.

Ah, The GLOW, where getting sold out by people you think are your friends is just a minor twist.

These two need to be tougher. We'll use Bad Guys Template 1 to show the increased intensity. Roger Patel can't imagine the slaughter was due to a kiosk owner so assumes it must be a rival gang. Still, he wants Hitomi to find out what happened to the mini-disc. 5 Grit with 1 Hot Box. They have Automatic Weapon and Martial Arts feats. Attack: Critical. Defense: Critical. Like before, their weakness will be Patel's people aren't good at working together. Names? [c48] Ecrin and [c45] Leonie.

The owner's name, Sasaki, by the way came from the Japanese Surname table in The Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk 3.

Outside Hitomi's apartment, as seen by Eustace.

Outside Hitomi's Apartment in the Little Tokyo portion of The GLOW. Above Sasaki Ramen.

Getting Libby and Getting Betrayed.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 7:30pm.

Place: Outside Sasaki Ramen Bar in Little Tokyo.

Eustace hears Hitomi ask him, "Anything?"

He turns and searches through the psychic threads. "Yes. Very close. Two of them. We don't have a lot of time." [4]

"Okey doke." She pulls out her gun and makes sure it is ready to go. Hands Eustace the three laptops she is carrying and hopes that if he has to go berserker again he will not completely smash them up. "The Sasaki brothers have been very nice to me and let Bee and me crash here. I'd rather them not get hurt in this. Even if they are ex-Yakuza hiding out here to avoid some heat from actual Tokyo.

She leads him down a alley far cleaner than any he has seen in The GLOW, up some stairs, and to a door she hastily unlocks. Counting down 3, 2, 1 on her fingers she shoves it open and then aims her gun inside, to nothing but a dark apartment smelling of stale smoke and old ramen. One benefit to living here is getting a lot of cheap food for small favors.

Red eyes light up across the room, followed by a small mechanical canine. Hitomi bends down and pets it like is a real dog. "LIBBY!"

"That's Libby?," Eustace asks.

"Yep. Libby the Lab. My own little walking, barking chemical and electronics analyzer. Get it? Lab? Bee came up with that one. Found her in a scrap yard and fixed her up. For a psychic, you sure seem surprised a lot."

"I am trying to respect your privacy. I trust you to tell me what is important."

She glances back at the big man and gives him a wink. "Stop, Nurse, you already getting laid tonight. First, though, let me get my gear and some smokes to replace those that Bee stole."

She spends only a couple of minutes snagging up a backpack, shoving the laptops in, several packs of cigarettes, a couple more cred sticks, and a couple sensors and detectors.

As they make their way back downstairs, Libby following, Eustace tenses. "I think they are here." [5]

Sure enough, coming around the alley from the direction of the street are two more Patel goons. These look a bit better put together than the last ones. The bit that upsets Hitomi is that Junya Sasaki is behind them. "Yep, that's her. No hard feelings, Hitomi." And with that he is gone. [6]

Dark woman who looks a lot like Quiet and Dark from earlier steps forward pulling a gun out and pointing right at Eustace. "Come with us. We have to talk to you about a certain mini-disc and what might have happened to my brother."

"Ah, shit," Hitomi says, because that has to be a real bad sign.

"Marius's men hit them after Hitomi gave them the disc," Eustace says, "We just got out there before this weird guy with katanas started to chop up everyone. Sorry we can't help."

Hitomi knows Eustace means Thom Marius. A rival industry-man-turned-gang-boss to Roman Patel. Interesting, Talkative and Dark seems to believe him. "Marius? The fucker is making a move?" She looks back at her red head extremely Irish looking companion and then shrugs. He takes out his gun and now aims at Hitomi, "Thanks for the heads up, but no disc makes this easier." [7]

Eustace is moving before Hitomi gets her pistol up. As he is closing the gap she has taken a bead on Very Irish and pulled off a shot. He grunts but stays up. By this time, Eustace is at the presumptive leader's side and bringing down his arm blades. She tries to throw a kick to block them but the blades catch her in the shoulder and keep going down the length of her body until she is split in two. [8]

Very Irish doesn't break stride at seeing his partner killed. He pulls the trigger and catches Hitomi in the shoulder. Then he runs up and kicks Eustace in the head. The big guy stumbles down but seems to roll pretty well with the fall. [9]

Hitomi moves forward to try and cover Eustace and despite being a bit shook-up after being shot, she manages to drop Very Irish with a headshot. She pulls Eustace to his feet. [10]

Eustace looks down her injured arm and bends forward to tear a strip off her shirt and starts wrapping her up. At the same time, she checks his head for injuries. He seems to have fared better than her.

"Will your landlords tell the cops it was us?"

"You know what, fucking probably. What the hell happened to honor?"

"We live in a city powered by tortured souls," he says, shrugging. Then picks up the two corpses and walks into the Ramen bar (the customers having already fled). A few second her and Libby follow inside. She is afraid of seeing blood dripping from everywhere but instead Junya is grabbing keys from the woman's pocket and rushing past her to hide the car while his younger brother — she has never caught his name — is helping to drag the bodies in the back while apologizing to Eustace. "I had a talk about turning armed thugs against someone who helping The Order and they saw common sense. They are going to help hide the evidence and say that a group of weirdos with rooster masks taunted the Patels here and they ran off after shooting a few shots and taking some hits. And that no, they don't know where you are. They heard you were heading down to Mexico. Or I would rat them out to the authorities. That's for betraying your trust. You need to get to their security system and hide this footage." [11]

Setting the Scene. Holy Revenge.

Before we figure out exactly what sort of scene this might be, a question: Does Hitomi know someone who might sell her a decent car | bike for $2? (Even) → [c94] No. This means they are going to have to steal one or keep taking public transportation. Let's generate some details about a place where she might steal one. [c16] has "FaithCorp Featuring Jesus 2.1" and a picture of a saw blade. [c67] has Akari as one of the names as a visual identifier of "pristine pressed clothes." [c113] has a video camera and an icon that is a virus but it also makes me think of little droids. Maybe little droids with cameras. The catalyst text is "A high-stakes wager is offered."

What was the nature of the wager? [c81] Unseal [c9] Profitable [c4] Research. A couple of image icons for this → [c13] I...don't actually know what that icon is meant to be. Ah, cannister. One more just for a bit more flavor: [c25] Dead Head.

I have some good backstory, now.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 8:37pm.

Place: Near FaithCorp's Holy Church of Illumination. Cottage Hill, FL.

Expected Scene: Hitomi and Eustace scope out the Holy Church of Illumination — in reality just a big garage with a bunch of people ensnared by Dave Akari — and make plans to snatch a particular bike.

Scene Test: [c94] 5. 2d10 = 2 + 6. Another minor complication. [c96] A chase or pursuit breaks out. An image on that same card is a note held in place with a dagger.

Actual Scene: As H & E watch, another gang shows up and starts wrecking the place and several of the workers take off after them.

Dave Akari, 32. Street prophet and con-man. Five years ago, ran jobs with Hitomi. Eventually they were made a wager by one of Dave's contacts. If they could steal data from an Order outpost, they would get the cash they needed to set up a real shop. Turns out the data was about The GLOW's usage of recently deceased individuals to feed more fuel into the Harrowing, something The Order denies. Hitomi succeeded but Dave betrayed her while she was still coming to terms with it. They money he made from that deal ended up funding FaithCorp, his "rehabilitation for sinners" for-profit church. It engages in a lot of shady dealings with unhoused folks, recovering addicts, prostitutes, and other people that The GLOW grinds under its massive feet. Only, he turns their guilt into his own wealth.

The Holy Church of Illumination is a chop-shop that claims to be overcoming the sins of earthly possessions. Stolen vehicles are brought and broken down as "penance." Dave sells off vital parts to a number of buyers. And, if one of his parishioners drop dead, his contact from five years ago has a particular use for them.

Hitomi has never quite gotten over the betrayal, both emotionally — it was a shock and Dave was like a big brother to her and taught her several of her skills — but also financially. She has curtailed doing any big jobs again and ends up spending a lot of her cash helping out others to make up for past actions.

Not only should there be a lot of vehicles here, but she wants Dave's own custom bike.

Is Dave in this time of night? (Even) → [c100] No.

What time will he back? → [c92] The arrow is pointing to the "2," essentially. {am | pm} → pm. This means he has night and morning managers.

And I finally get to use Augmented Reality. The rival gang that shows up for the Illumination group is the 50 Panzer 62 Killaz. They are 67 Rag-Enshrouded, 15 All-Female 31 Chromers who 50 Target Small-Fry fixers and gangers and steal their shit to sell. I think that explains it pretty well.

The Holy Church of Illumination. Chop Shop for the Burnt Out followers of JesusCorp.

Holy Revenge

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 8:37pm.

Place: Near FaithCorp's Holy Church of Illumination. Cottage Hill, FL.

"The Holy Church of Illumination," Hitomi explains while her and Eustace — and Libby — watch from the rooftop of an abandoned movie theater. The sign on the marquee reads BAT LE AN EL. "JesusCorp bought out the whole block and now his holy rollers drive out most everyone else."

"True believers?"

She takes a drag on her cigarette and points out the drifting Soulburn. "Pretty dumb to not believe."

Eustace keeps mum. He knows that she probably sees a gentle neon after-image. To him, the city is Soulburn. Reality is the fuzzy bit. The emerald lines of psychic threads keep showing up and each and everyone keeps pointing to her. This bothers him. For lots of reasons but mostly because more and more he feels like he is being watched. He glances back behind him and wonders how long before there are fox masks there.

"Why are we here, Hitomi?"

"Mochi. Call me Mochi. My friends do."

"Fine. Same question. Why? Here? Mochi?"

"Church is run by a scumbag named Dave Akari. We ran together back in the day until he betrayed me right as was dealing with existential shit and got a lot of money out of it."

"Ran together?"

"Not like that, you creep. He was like a big bother picking up another lost girl in Little Tokyo. Half-Nigerian, Half-Japanese. We made a pair. Talked about taking down the system. Then he became the system. Got some people killed. One person in particular. Rika. She and I did run together. Like that." Hitomi sniffs. Not exactly sadly, not any more, but definitely a step in that direction. "He got too well protected for me to do much. Took enough gear from our collective stash, I spent a lot of time trying to work my way back up. Then I met Bee and took them in. Realized I could do more with money than get rich." [12]

"This is revenge?"

"Got a problem with it?"

Eustace looks at the emerald line, well beyond Hitomi's ability to even sense, as it runs through her and around her. "No. I think you are stuck with me."

"Let's see how you are in bed first. And, to answer your question: No. I mean, yes, of course it fucking is. Only the good Church is a lie. The holy rollers are all refugees of The GLOW bent into religious disciples by Dave. This particular branch is all about taking material possessions — in this case various stolen vehicles — and breaking them down to purify them of the sin of expensiveness. Dave then takes the parts and sells them on. Tosses a few bones back though the holy rollers could be paid in dog feed and still worship the man. He's Jesus 2.1. But a bunch of stolen cars means we can snag a ride. With luck, Dave's there and I can take his fancy bike he likes to show off around town."

Eustace reaches out and pulls her back right as a few bikes and decked out cars tear through the night. A group of people, maybe a dozen, dressed in strange rags like leprous penitents, ride up and jump off. Flashes of chrome show through the outfits as gunfire erupts. A few seconds later they run out carrying a sack of something — probably aether-boards stripped from top models — and drive off. The holy rollers — heads shaved, drably dressed, and tatted all over with crosses and JesusCorp versions of Bible verses — run after them, a few cars joining the chase. There are a lot more of the rollers than this new gang.

"Holy shit!," Hitomi exclaims, "I think that's the Panzer Killahs. Lesbian chromers who play at wasteland garb. They like to hit smaller gangs and steal shit. Half the fun is stirring up trouble."

"They look clearly outnumbered by the rollers."

"Means it's likely a trap. Also means we have a great chance to get inside. Watch out for Dave's security bots."

Setting the Scene. Going to Bloody Church.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 8:46pm.

Place: First Floor of the Holy Church of Illumination. Cottage Hill, FL.

Expected Scene: E+H blast through the first floor and try to make their way upstairs.

Scene Test: [c41] 8. 2d10 = 9 + 10. A MAJOR twist. Fascinating. Let's draw three cards to work out what it might be. [c32] Reveal a tension or rivalry. "Mischa." [c1] Domestic Papers + image icon of a hand being cut off. [c29] Destroy Anachronistic Government.

Actual Scene: Expecting it to be mostly abandoned — except for the security bots — they find that a coup is underway as Mischa and her apostates are violently trying to reform the church.

This means the humans are mostly caught up in their own struggles and that there is a bit of a clock before all the stuff that Hitomi might want — a ride, information from Dave's computer — might be destroyed if they lose momentum. I won't formally "clock" it but once a couple-three failures pile up, they will essentially be out of time.

Security Bots will be confused by the action and looking for something to attack. Attack: Critical. Defense: Critical. 9 Grit Boxes. Hot Box at 3 and 7. They armored (-1 to hit) and a Walking Hazard (Gamble to attack them [in melee?]).

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: The album I will be playing while playing this scene is Perturbator's Lustful Sacraments. It seems appropriate.

The Holy Church of Illumination first and second floorplan. Also an image of what it looked like before extensive conversion into a car garage pretending to be a church.

Going to Bloody Church.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 8:46pm.

Place: First Floor of the Holy Church of Illumination. Cottage Hill, FL.

"FUCK!," Hitomi screams as she pulls back her head just in time to avoid being splattered with blood. She had hoped the Church would be mostly abandoned after a good contingent of rollers took off after the PK. Instead, she nearly ran into a slaughter as one group of rollers is currently slaughtering another group. "What is this shit?"

"Schism, I guess," says Eustace coolly. The only detail he notes is that side leading the slaughter all have fresh, bloody crosses carved into their foreheads. Upside down.

"I guess it really was a trap," Hitomi says, "Some sort of inside job." As if to underline the point, a large explosion and screams can be heard coming from the direction the PKs lead the other rollers away. "Don't really fancy trying to make our way through the blood bath."

A couple of un-marked rollers take off out the door, barely paying attention to Eustace or Hitomi.

"We can just snag the nearest vehicle and try to go."

"No, I want to see if I can get to Dave's office. Might have some vital intel."

"Climb?"

"Think we can?"

Eustace looks up and shrugs. He extends his blades and starts punching out handholds and going. He's not super quick with it, but he is making his way up. [13]

Hitomi watches him go at a snail's pace before going, "Fuck it!," and starts climbing after him. "Libby, go and hide yourself and only come out when I ask, got it?" Libby lets out a small mechanical bark. Within a couple of seconds she has climbed past Eustace and smashed open a window. She turns to help him up. [14]

As they are setting foot on the carpeted inside, they hear a high-pitched whine as one of the security drones' flechette launcher warms up and dive behind a table as sharp, thin projectiles embed into the old wood. The room they are in is a conference room and looks out of place in the overall decay of the region. Luckily, the table is thick enough to take a few hits. Unluckily, more of the bots are entering the room. They look something like crabs with a tall column for a head. At the top of the column is a camera. To either side is flechette launchers. Pincers can detain a trespasser if they can grab you.

Eustace leaps over the table to go after the first one and manages to slice through the metal but in the process takes a cut along his arm. Hitomi stands up and starts aiming for the cameras and takes out a couple of control units at the top of the bots closest to her but another hits her in the leg with a flechette. [15]

The four bots in the room now open fire with a stream of blades. Hitomi works to dive behind the table while Eustace snatches up a chair to block. Neither are completely successful as blood is dripping from Eustace's chest and Hitomi has been hit in the side. [16]

Eustace reaches out his hand and psychically shoves one bot into another with enough force to cause all three to explode. Hitomi tries to shoot down the last but mostly keeps it distracted. [17]

As the remaining bot swivels its busted out camera head, a red light starts flashing. A high pitched beeping speeds up as it nears a self-destruct sequence. Hitomi braces for the explosion but Eustace leaps forward and kicks the bot back out the door. An explosion shakes the building. [18]

"Are we having fun yet?," he asks as he helps her up.

"This might too much fun," she replies.

They make their way into the hall and see the explosion has damaged the floor. Shouts downstairs can be heard through cracks showing a bit of the workshop floor below. It can still hold, maybe, but it will be a bit of gamble. [19]

Eustace goes first, again. He makes it across but the boards make a cracking noise. Hitomi looks and takes a few light steps over and tumbles to the other side right as the floor gives way and falls down. Based on the shout, it took out one of the combatants. [20]

"Come on, Nurse. We have to find Dave's office before the crowd downstairs comes to investigate." Luckily it doesn't take her long to find Dave's office. "Block the door!" Eustace has enough to drag some heavy furniture across to seal the door. Voices are shouting outside as some people have found the wreckage in the floor and the smashed bots. [21]

Dave's office is a lot like most pastor's offices, only a bit more neon and garish. The nude photos of bald men and women take on a flavor in the strange lighting. Hitomi looks down at Dave's desktop computer. There might be a lot of good information on it but time is short. "We need to get out. Can you carry that?" Eustace nods. She aims her gun at the window and shoots out the glass. Then she runs up and leaps out. Eustace follows her.

Both hit the ground, Eustace takes a bit of the brunt of it while holding up the computer tower. Hitomi rolls with the fall and is up and running back around to the front of the building. Now that slaughter has finished and the strange apostates are upstairs trying to find what caused the explosion, she has a brief window to actually grab a vehicle. [22]

She leaps on a red motorbike. "GET ON!," she shouts at Eustace. He gets on behind her, still holding the computer. She pulls out into the alley and whistles for Libby. The mechanical dog runs up and attaches itself to the back of the bike. They ride off into the night.

They can hear other vehicles leaving the church but for a moment they have some freedom of movement. [23]

Setting the Scene. Resting Up.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 10:26pm.

Place: Room 1217 of Rest+ Motel. Outside Pensacola.

This is a Time Out so no scene test.

Factions are fun in cyberpunk. We have the JesusCorp Holy Rollers. The Apostates. The unknown Dave Akari associate. The Patels. The Mariuses. The Panzer Killahs. Some are working together. Some are against one another. Should give me plenty of meat to chew upon for the next shot or two.

Overall, though, it is time for a Time Out.

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: You can play whatever sexy synth music you want, but I will go for Veno's "Midnight Lu Rou Fan" for a nice sexy love song about dealing with late-night horniness with some nice spicy pork and bok choy. Wink.

Time Out #1

Hitomi and Eustace get both of their grit back.

Eustace uses one of his actions to Heal Hitomi. She loses the Nervous condition.

Hitomi's first action will be to try and get into Dave's computer. Crime + Fix +1 Help from Libby = Double Critical. Excellent roll. She will start off next session finding all the information she wants to find.

Eustace's second action will be to Fix the bike. He gets a Critical. Enough to have up to "Standard Bike Quality" but not enough to really improve upon it.

Hitomi will then spend her second action going investigating in the aethernet. She's going to try and find a job. Focus + Streetwise. Critical + Basic. Likewise, she will have a good lead for the next session/shot.

For the general handling of themselves and working together the last couple of scenes, two adrenaline for each.

Now for the scene itself.

Rest+ Motel. Near Pensacola.

Resting Up.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 11:26pm.

Place: Room 1217 of Rest+ Motel. Outside Pensacola.

After working on the bike — he's already calling it the Red Devil — he re-enters the motel room and sees Hitomi hunched over two laptops and Dave's stolen computer, furiously typing across all three. A half-dozen cigarettes tell the story of a battle she has been having while the smile on her face tell the story of her winning. A seventh cigarette is in her mouth and she seems oblivious to his presence. The air is thick with smoke and opens one of the windows just a crack to let a few atoms of oxygen in.

"Shower," he says and she gives a little wave.

Five minutes later, he is washing some of the blood off his chest when she steps into the shower with him. He has a moment where he feels his heart rate increase for an unexpected reason. She has a tattoo of a fox clearly visible on her thigh.

"Why the fuck is it so cold?," she asks.

He says nothing as he leans forward and turns the heat up, keeping an eye on the tattoo and wondering when paranoia is not paranoia. Hitomi groans contentedly as the now hotter water works the kinks in her sore muscles.

"Did you get into the computer?," he asks and she shushes him. Hands him the bottle of complimentary shampoo.

"Sponge bathe time, Nurse."

Working up a lather, he starts washing her hair as gently as he can. She leans back into his arms. He feels her hands come up and start stroking his aetherware. Without reading her mind, just going on vibes, he answers the question he assumes most would have. "I can feel stuff through them ok. It's different. A whole new set of nerves. But it's not exactly missing all feeling or constantly numb or anything like that."

She rinses her hair and then turns to face him. A whole lot of possible words pass by her mouth and she once again opts for the simplicity of a long kiss. Begins feeling along his body with her hands. "I see quite a few things are in their natural state."

"The attachments are on back order from Taiwan, sorry."

"Good, I want you to feel this." She slides her hands and mouth down his body, leaving a trail of kisses. Enjoying the hardness of his muscular body. The reaction to her touch. After a few moments of very much feeling it, he reaches down, picks her up, and carries her to bed.

Half an hour later, the two lie nude. Finally dry. She has lit another cigarette and he is holding the ash tray on his chest. She flicks ash and lets out a little sigh.

"Hitomi..."

"Mochi."

"Ok, Mochi, I..."

"New rule. We don't say the L-word. Ok?"

"Oh, I wasn't..."

"Another new rule. We don't say that we weren't going to say the L-word. We just take it as fun and we find more fun things to do this next couple of days."

His turn to sigh. There are so many things he feels he needs to explain to her. What 91% might mean. What could happen if he goes rogue. How he refuses to read the future because he doesn't want to know. How he just wants to stay in bed with her for a week and then maybe run as hard and as fast as he can. Instead, he opts for something a little different.

"Rub right there, the ticklish bit on my side." As she does, he reaches out and shares the feeling with her. She grabs her own side and he sees her work through what it means.

"You can do that?"

"Yep, the favorite flirting trick of psychics everywhere."

They eventually get some sleep.

DOUG'S COMMENTARY

February 4, 2025

This is scheduled to go out on Valentine's Day so happy sexy times — snuggle times, just friendly times, whatever you need — for the two biggest dorks in my arsenal of dorks.

I thought about swinging the sex scene even sexier but I think that's my limit without abruptly nose-diving into corny. Just more experimentation to get the more-ness of The GLOW down. More violent. More passionate. In its way, more loving. When your friends and loved ones might die or disappear due to street violence any moment, you both put up shields around your heart but also rapidly let people in from time to time.

The "Mochi" nickname is in full lock here. Much like the Weird version, a little nickname from her mom. One she shares with those people like Yuuki, Bee, and now Eustace she truly trusts. Though she has been burned a few times so she is going through some doubts.

Originally concieved as a kind of quick half-shot to round out the first post, this one grew to have a lot of fun elements. The betrayal by the Sasaki brothers. The Holy Church. The Apostates and the Psycho Killaz. The building up of factions. Holy Rollers is very nearly a Pensacola joke. If you have ever been lectured about the nature of sin at a P'cola beach, you know exactly what I mean.

The bike was an easy grab — well, after going through a couple of rough-ish battles — because the artwork I picked and will use a bit later shows Eustace on a red bike. I thought about just starting him out with one but this way was a lot more fun. Libby the Lab is also potentially fun. I think both will be the kind of gear that needs a lot of TLC. Less a full on cheat and more part of the young-couple-on-the-run aesthetic.

The Century use, and Foodland, was a shout out to the days when Doug was a young'un. Family would make weekly roadtrips down to Century, FL to get groceries. I don't think it was a Foodland. I don't remember what it was. Looks like it is a Food Giant now. I have no idea why we would drive half an hour to get food there. Presumably it was just cheaper. Maybe they had cheaper cigarettes or something. Family would also pick up lotto tickets. I should probably work that into the next session.

Before I play the next session, I want to re-read the Outgunned rules. I think I have them around 70% down. Still a few edge cases I am fine with just ruling on to make it fun for now, but would like to try and get it right before I purposefully screw it up.

Going to experiment a bit more with including more pictures, a few "actual play" sections, and the scene-soundtrack notation. Each arc is a way for me to experiment and the trying out soloing different systems is a good time to try out a few new techniques as well. I might make an intermission post just to so some of the process.

Next time will bring in either Augmented Reality or Cities Without Number to generate a job, or two. Then after they get some cash and can actually do more than hide out, we'll work back around to the first Turning Point: rescuing Amy Patel.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

Crime + Fix and Hitomi only needs a basic to disable it. She gets an Extreme so she not only takes it out but she keeps it working. Heck, she might improve its broadcast range.
In the terms of Outgunned, not enough money to count as a $1. More like spending cash to help with note keeping later.
Crime + Stealth. Gets a Critical success.
Focus + Detect with Super Senses. Gets a Critical.
Gave him +1 help this time since he knows they are coming. Only a Double Basic so he again senses them but not precise info about from where.
Like the surname, first name comes from Cyberpunk 3. Japanese Male name with a 79 on the roll.
Eustace only gets 4 dice from his Smooth + Speech but with his Silver Tongue is able to pull a Critical. Does Ecrin and Leonie just let Eustace and Hitomi go? (Bad) → [c66] NO! Ah, well, it was a nice attempt.
Hitomi, with her Gunslinger Feat, still only gets a Critical and does 1 Grit. Eustace burns another Adrenaline to get +2 along with his blades for +1. However, he loses one because of their Martial Art feat. He gets an Exceptional. This does 3 more and will finish off Ecrin. Leonie is going to get +1 Adrenaline for his turn.
Hitomi gets no successes and has two 1s. She takes two grit damage and gets the Nervous condition as per Leonie's feat. Eustace gets no successes and gets knocked down but has no 1s so doesn't seem to take Grit.
Hitomi is at -1 for her Nerves. She still gets the shot off by spending an Adrenaline.
Eustace doesn't play when it comes to taking lives casually. He burns a Spotlight to make it very clear that they will NOT remember Hitomi and instead will come up with a story about something. Anything else. A flip of the coin and he gets the spotlight back.
Rika is 23 on BORT: Cyberpunk 3.
Brawn + Stunt. Gets a Basic.
Crime + Stunt. Gets a Critical and a Basic. She's a lot better at this.
Brawn + Fight. Adrenaline to get another +2. -1 for the bots' feat. Gets a Critical but has a 1 left over. Hitomi gets an Extreme for 3 grit damage. She also has one 1 so takes one grit. Bots have 5 grit remaining and get 1 adrenaline for their move.
Both Eustace and Hitomi get Double Basic to reduce Grit loss to 1 each.
Eustace spends a spotlight and uses his psychic push to damage the bots, doing 3 grit (down to 2). The bots get another adrenaline. Hitomi only gets double basic so we'll give her and Eustace a bonus on the reaction roll. Coin flip gives back the spotlight.
Bot is going to self-destruct. We'll play it like Grenade but reduce damage to Critical to represent Hitomi's help. Brawn + Stunt for both. Eustace gets a Extreme and manages to kick the bot into the hall, where it explodes.
Did the explosion damage the floor? (Even) → [c88] Yes? We'll say it is holding up enough but it's a gamble. Literally. A failure will result in the floor giving out and the person falling below.
Eustace gets Double Basic but no snake-eyes. This worsens the condition so Hitomi needs a Critical. Spending adrenaline, she gets a Critical + Basic. She makes it just fine.
Crime + Awareness + 1 help for knowing how Dave works and also spending a lot of time around her dad's church. Critical + Basic success, again.
Eustace gets a Basic and takes 2 grit. Hitomi gets a Critical.
Are the apostates going to give chase? (Bad) → [c50] No? They are, kind of, but for now not the best.

CREDITS

Other sources used include:

Zach Best's Universal NPC Emulator.
Cesar Capacle's Random Realities
Kevin Crawford's Cities Without Number
Matt Davis' Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk 1, 2 and 3.
Geist Hack Games and Paul D. Gallagher's Augmented Realities.

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

I've been keeping the in-joke of a new Libby the Lab in the back of my head for a while. A War Tech dog made by Moment Labs. Now a different sort of lab capable of chemical and electronic analysis. Kind of a Doctor Who K-9 figure. But ragged and prone to breaking down. Which is possibly a very Doctor Who K-9.

The map (aka the real world map you can see in the grid) is provided by the Alabama Department of Transportation. I used to love getting the Alabama road map every year. Like, love it. I had stacks of them when I was younger. It made my heart a bit glad to get to bring that use one again.

The image of Hitomi's apartment in "Little Tokyo" is uncredited on Pixabay. I'm trying a slightly experimental way of showing a glimpse of how someone like Eustace who can see details and shapes in the Soulburn might see the world. That take is around...80% correct. The idea is that he can make out the general details just fine, and finer details as he focuses, but the edges get lost a bit as the Soulburn actively seems to be trying to communicate with him.

The image of The Holy Church is by digital designer from Pixabay. I played around with the technique more to try and find slightly different vibes in the same style.

The "good enough for a couple of scenes" floorplan of the church is actually the First Baptist Church in Madison, IN. I've warped it a good bit because, again, we are seeing a lot of this through Eustace's eyes. The main requirement was a church with a large ground-floor open area and I got it right in one.

The image of Rest+ Motel is by StockSnap from Pixabay.

Taxonomy and Technical Data

World: The GLOW

Campaign: The GLOW

Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Post: Episode 2 - Gathering Supplies

Dates Played: February 2-4, 2025. Though February 2nd was mostly about playing around with the art style.

Solo Advice: Countering Solo Burnout

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-13

In Solo Advice

Solo Advice: Countering Solo Burnout

All roleplaying games tend to have a degree of burnout involved. There are a lot of causes for both gamemasters and players (even if the gm/player-divide is less viable as a tool as many rpg-philosophers claim) but at the core the general issue remains the creating a story together and finding a balance between the real world, the self, and the collective fiction with the added stress of a regular (or semi-regular) meeting time. Some new tools - adventure crafters, virtual tabletops, and a wealth of pre-written adventures with plenty of systems for virtually every style of play - help but it can be hard to be on point week after week especially as things shift and change. We also have a historically high number of people with blogs like this one willing to offer their own advice.

But what about if you are the gamemaster and player at the same time? Where taking a rest, taking a backseat, or any of the usual advice means the game just ceases? It can be tricky in a way that a multiplayer game can involve communication and talking it out.

As a person who has now been doing solo play for a couple of years - and running/playing multiplayer stuff for around four decades - I have experienced various of burnout. Including in my solo stuff. There are ways I've come up to help myself. Some of it might help you.

This is with the caveat of it being a) stuff that can work for me and b) stuff that will be a bit contradictory in places because what works for one case might be the opposite of what works elsewhere.

1. Honestly, Embrace the Burnout

Just to start with the simplest and possibly core answer: if something about solo playing is burning you out to where you don't want to do it then take a step back for the moment. One of the glorious things about solo play is that it reduces a lot of the stresses of multiplayer games. You no longer have the social obligation to show up at regular times or to bend your narrative around a group effort (unless your solo play is shared via blog/video but even then its up to you). If you take a week or two off, it doesn't detract from your game.

You can use that space to be honest about what is and is not working for you. Is stuff too complicated? Too simple? Too easy? Too hard? Just not feeling it? Having a moment to reflect about what you want from your game might provide all the answers you need to the problem and make the rest of this post a bit redundant.

2. Try Changing Up Your Play on a Temporary Basis

Generally the best thing that works for me is to just try something new in the way I am playing for just a session or two and if it works then I embrace it for longer. The idea here, though, is to not worry about any long term changes but to give yourself the freedom to just try out something. New voices. New tools. New patterns. Don't have a scheduled time play? Make one. Do have a scheduled time to play? Move it to a different time.

If I am doing a story-heavy game and that's starting to drag down my ability to play because I have to juggle a lot of story then maybe I have a session or two where I just break out of the story and get into action-heavy stuff. Or vice versa. If I am not enjoying the POV I have picked I might introduce another POV character for a short burst. If I am getting tired building up missions, I might try something more pre-designed. Some times it is pretty theater of mind. Sometimes I like to build pretty definite maps. It keeps it fresh.

A big example of this was getting burned out on juggling 3+ campaigns at the same time and switching it from "campaigns" to "arcs within a campaign" and then playing one arc at a time.

3. Try Trimming Your Table Tools

The next thing tends to work for me is if I find that solo play is starting to stress me out is I try to peel it back to as simple as I can and just focus primarily on (1) myself and (2) the game world as currently understood by me. At the most extreme I just ignore the rule book and just play the dice based on my current understanding of the game so I have virtually zero look-up to distract from the joy of play.

Pulling back a bit from journal creep can help. Shrinking the stack of oracles and tables to just a few. Removing accessories and extras that are not going to come up in a session. Just pick a few enemies per area for combat oriented games. Just pick a few NPCs per area for more social games.

With things like miniatures or maps, break them down to more generic versions. A point crawl maybe. Stuff you can put together more on the fly and change up endlessly.

Time is the most important tool in a solo payers toolkit besides themselves and some of the trimming is just that. Shorter sessions. Breaking sessions down into three or four bursts.

The idea is to get as much efficiency as you can. Remove the having to sort through files or tracking a dozen characters "off screen." You can always complicate it again later. Remember, the first step is to try out some temporary changes.

4. On the Other Hand: Sometimes More Is Better

Occasionally I hear people complain about the opposite problem. They are keeping a minimal amount of notes, keeping NPC interactions minor, and keeping things going fast. For some people, myself included, there is a point where things get a bit too minimal. In those moments, adding in a bit more can help me to actually feel like there is a point to my playing. Working out more character interactions. Adding in elements and background. Expanding out a bit of the world even if I am only focusing on a core bit.

This can also apply to table tools. If things start to feel a bit same-y it can be a sign that you should work in a new oracle or two, some more random tables, or other elements that bring in some stuff. Not necessarily for all of your games but having a weird mission can help make the normal missions feel a bit more brighter when there's a chance that the next one could be an odd duckling.

Likewise if you are getting to the point where you feel like you are just telling a story with a pretense at dice, try adding in some twists or a more robust gamemaster emulator like Mythic 2 or a more robust NPC emulator like Universal NPC Emulator to reduce a few elements of control while still playing a game that fits your expectations.

I would generally say start small. Don't add enough stuff that you immediately have to start ripping it back out.

5. Replenish Your Well of Inspiration

If you get to a point where your game seems to be stalling out and you are having a hard time trying to figure out some interesting hooks or interpreting some meaning, going back to the Well of Inspiration can help a lot. Try watching some other solo play Let's Plays. Reading some genre fiction. Look through some modules or accessories that might talk about optional rules or some pre-built adventures. Reconnect to the kind of stories that made you want to tell your solo play narrative to begin with.

Things I like to do in this category is look at stock art. Listen to music that has the right sort of vibe. Play a video game. Even just go on and look at some maps that folks have made. Think about things like, "How would I play out that scenario differently?" Then, when I play, I forget all about the scenario and do something else instead. It just helps to rebuild some joy.

In this category can be to try things like short one-shots (very short one-shots), gamebooks, or solo board-gaming just to give you space to play without the entanglements of a main campaign. It is super easy to get attached to a campaign that has been going on for a bit and become convinced you need to complete all three-hundred-and-twenty-seven sessions of it. Taking a step back from that and looking at other systems, settings, and scenarios can help to remind you what you like and don't like without the overhead.

Just be careful. You don't want to end up with two campaigns. Maybe make that one-shot very one-shot-ty. Alternately, set it in the same world with different characters where if you do end up getting inspired to explore more, you are just building up additional lore.

6. Prep as Play Can Cure Multiple Ills

It is possible to write advice and my experiences for far longer than anyone would want to read so I will leave it with something that I do all the time as just a way to launch myself into play. Which I have seen other solo payers recommend to avoid burn out. Namely, just prepare stuff for your game. Or for another game. Or for no real game in particular.

What does this look like? Make some characters. Make some scenes. Create some art. Prep a few tables worth of encounters. Sketch a map. Come up with a handout like you might make if you were running this for someone else. Pick a couple of worldbooks (etc) that could be useful and put them close to hand. Double check rules in your core book that are likely to come up. Get the gist?

Do pretty much everything you might do during solo play except the play. Or do the play, too, if you feel inspired. If not, you have some tools to speed up the process the next time you feel like it.

Like I said, I tend to do a version of this at the start of every "chapter" or so in my solo play arcs. Just sit down, come up with possible NPCs, come up with some possible locations, sketch out some layouts, work out some possible twists. Once I get there in play I might change anywhere from a little to a lot of it. That's not the point. The point is try and fish around in my brain until I find that idea that goes, "Yeah, yeah, pick me!"

And then I do. And if I don't find anything to pick, I take a rest instead. Rest is important, too.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont. Intermission #1 - Revisiting Starting Expectations

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-12

In Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Intermission, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

Now that I have some small experience playing Outgunned and have a few rounds to try out some characters, going to go over what I feel is working and not before I get deeper.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 1 - Psychic Boy Meets Hacker Girl

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-09

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Multi-Phase, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

Special Agent Jani Blum, aka "Johnny Blue," aka "Demontongue," has gone off the grid. His long-term psychic partner — Eustace "Nurse" Delmont — has therefore graduated from Psychic Agent Liaison to potential Field Psychic. He is taking his Walk: a brief respite from active duty, to try and figure things out for himself and to solve one last piece of unfinished business.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont - "Session 0," Arc Launch, Goals, Expectations, and Resources

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-07

In Campaign Design, Launch, Outgunned, The Glow

The GLOW returns for its second outing. We are meeting an alternate take on Eustace Delmont and Hitomi Meyer. Rather than a chronically do-gooder nerd and the love of his life, a person finding herself far from home, we meet the much more capable psychic and hacker duo. Still entwined by fate, but facing cyberpunk adventures instead of solving cozy mysteries.

Solo Advice: Avoiding Journal Creep

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-06

In Solo Advice

A photo of handwritten text with a focus on a few written words.

Solo Advice: Avoiding Journal Creep

A frequent bit of advice asked by people on forums like the r/Solo_Roleplaying subreddit is some variation of "How do you journal?" (in this case, asked by the perfectly human sounding name of u/Typical-Ad-3513 [heh]). The questions vary, but to quote part of Ad's post:

"I love journaling but over half of the time when I play is journaling which doesn't necessarily feel like playing. I've tried less details but I feel like it takes away half the imagination. Do you guys have any tips to make journalling [sic] more fun or less work?"

Of course, any time a post like this shows up, a lot of the responses take on a flavor of, "Just don't journal," or, "Make your journal into just bullet points." And I will say that these 100% are potentially valid pieces of advice. It's solo play. Absolutely the only person that you have to make happy is yourself.

It just simply does not work for people like me. I write long winded posts where I spend a lot of time working in character dialogue, scene setting, and trying to figure out logic behind my action sequences. Here is one example that has 25ish tests/checks and, when pasted into a document, is 30ish pages with formatting. That ends up being a dice roll (etc) per page [though several of the pages are just commentary, lore, white space, images, etc]. That's a lot. Maybe too much but at the time the Eustace & Hitomi series was in desperate need for fairly intense character moments to establish why and who and where and all that. Still, I probably wouldn't do that much again.

I've started to recognize there is a pretty big line between "just a few bullet points" and full on journal creep.

What Is Journal Creep?

I am considering journal creep to be the point where the act of journaling a solo play session starts to feel like work - or just a creative writing exercise - and it takes away from the actual play portions. There is nothing wrong with writing, essentially, a short story that only takes a few rolls or checks. Much like the bullet-points-are-valid argument above, it all comes down to you. You are playing a hobby that has, in theory, an audience of one.

Only there are moments with a lot of us where if we write too little we feel disconnected from our play. I suffer this pretty badly with pen-and-paper rogue-likes like D100 Dungeon where I can 100% speed up the play loop too much and just no longer care about anything happening. On the flip side, though, the opposite can be true. We can get so caught up into the act of journaling that we once again disconnect from our play.

In this way, journal creep is a problem only when you feel obligated to keep up a journal no matter what the rhythm and flow of play requires.

A non-solo-play variation might be if you are prepping an adventure for other players and you spend hours coming up with backstory that might not ever show up, paint miniatures that you do not know if you will use, or generate a bunch of handouts that players may or may not actually enjoy. Much like the solo-play journal, none of these are bad things, but they have a chance to creep into the enjoyment of the game at hand.

It can be a tricky balance.

Some Ways I Have Started to Avoid It

The Eustace & Hitomi arc helped me to realize that I was hitting that point pretty hard. I have tried things in the past while writing up more basic notes and then writing up a recap. I have tried things like having a more reactive journal that has a few basic scenes and then a few built up scenes. Both work. Both are valid. Neither quite hit my own needs at this time. Both I might end up using more in the future if my desires change.

In my response to that post, I laid out a few bullet points where the overall gist is to make your journal more about the scenes and moments that matter to you and to find ways to shortcut some of the ones that are draining your energy. These are things I have been using more and more, whether or not is obvious. I just wanted to share these here because I think they are pretty good for a person like me who wants some journal creep but also a few exit strategies.

Compress some scenes - especially repetitive ones or the ones that interest me less - into a few lines and descriptors and very simple dialogue.
Even more so, if I have several of the above scenes in a row, or just don't have time to play as much, maybe cut a few scene out and resolve them with a 1-2 tests each. Just pick up the next scene I feel is more pivotal to dive in deeper. The classic "A few hours later" type moment for a movie or book. "It's a good thing we managed to escape those goblins!"
Cut almost every scene "early" as soon as the focus goal/test is resolved. Presumably my characters have a lots of dialogue and actions "off camera" but I try to mostly look at the bits that really interest me.
Use this freed-up time to pick a few scenes here or there to really dig in and focus. Establish my world. Establish my characters. Let my imagination flow. Sometimes this hits with scenes/elements I thought I was going to compress because that third wandering goblin suddenly triggers some backstory I want to see.
In general just being ok that I might get the balance wrong as long as I am having fun.
Graphical elements sometimes help but these can actually take a lot of time depending on the flow. Things like a few screenshots to sum up combat placements, a couple of pieces of stock art to represent something that characters might be seeing, a quickly drawn map so I can avoid writing out much about the directions/shapes of a room/area.

I'm not the best at my own advice but I have been trying those sort of steps. Turning the journal and my play sessions to fewer scenes of higher impact and interest with other scenes more assumed or summed up. Allowing me to focus on 5-6 scenes per post/session with the idea that there are at least 3-4 more "off camera". A good example of my growth in this regard could be the Traversing Wyrmfathom session from The Bloody Hands. Each "scene" had 1-3 rooms. Each room had a central conflict or character moment. I worked it out, focused on things that moved the campaign forward, and then went through another door. Once they leave Wyrmfathom, they skip ahead a day or two and focus on the aftermath rather playing 3+ scenes talking about arranging a funeral and a marriage.

The Possible Downsides

Does this make it feel artificial? Not really. It certainly can. When you are a table with other players, there is a lot of downtime. You have roleplaying scenes and GM narration and moments where you fiddle with the map. Each player takes up a portion of the total time with a fairly heavy percentage being low- to no-impact on a particular player or their character.

When you play a solo-RPG you are suddenly "on" 100% of the time. You are the thief keeping watch in the tree (and the things the thief sees), the fighter looking over the map (and the person creating the map in real time), and the wizard cooking dinner (and possibly figuring out how to make it an interesting challenge). You are the goblins sneaking up in the bushes. You are the weather. The dirt. The RNG chance of the world and the upcoming enemy fort into which the characters are planning to infiltrate.

There is a reason why traditional RPGs can take up 4-6 hours per session - at least did much of my youth though lately the move is maybe towards 2-3 hour sessions - and it feels like a lot of solo games max out at around the two hour mark with not all the two hours being used to actually play. This is guesswork on my part, but let's assume I am roughly correct based on the people I've talked to, watched, and interacted with online.

So while using more variable compression of the scenes to make the journal a bit more impactful is artificial, it actually kind of emulates the way that you might be waiting 15+ minutes for your character to show back up at the table itself.

A Few Other Mentioned Alternatives That Might Work For You

Read the above linked thread for more advice but there were two things that I liked even if they would not really work for me:

Try better journaling software to take some of the mechanical aspects away, and
Try writing a journal in a different format - either as a script or as an old school journal.

For the former, this blog is pretty hand crafted to be the kind of journal I like - warts and all - and as for the latter my tests with other formats just don't quite work. Maybe in the future, though.

Fourth Wall Break #7. 2025 Solo Play Resolutions and Blog Changes

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-01-05

In Campaign Design, Design Philosophy, Fourth Wall Break

No The Bleak + The Pearl For a Bit

There will be no The Bleak + The Pearl this week because I spent a lot of my gaming time going through and fixing up months' worth of glitches that were holding the Eustace & Hitomi series back. Right after I finished that (within literal minutes), I { wrote | played } what I think is the longest ever session-post on the old blog: around 11k words. It took up all of my free time on Friday (Jan 3).

The week prior to that was mostly spent sorting through and updating a lot of "offline" and backend parts to my solo play kit: digital files, scripts, cloud storage folders, and other tools.

I have actually played a little of the second session for "In Search for the Harcuram Mantle", but a lot of that "play" was going back and rewriting some of my on-virtual-table notes to be more character-viewpoint focused and running through a slightly complex encounter and realizing I was rushing it. I have discussed before how rushing solo play greatly dampens my fun so it was best to take a step back, breathe a moment, and just enjoy spending an hour fiddling with a virtual map and thinking about the characters.

This trio of things — (1) fixing up and restarting a series that had stalled out, (2) reorganizing the blog and the stuff behind the blog, and (3) feeling rushed to meet a "Sunday Deadline" — helped me to realize that it was a great time instead to take a step back and think up my plans for the new year.

This means, as you read on the next couple sections of resolutions, there actually won't be any The Bleak + The Pearl for maybe a week or two. I'll explain. Give me time.

2025 { Resolutions | Changes }

Let's start with the bigger changes and then maybe move down.

Formal Move Towards { Worlds → Campaigns → Arcs } Format

I'm not 100% what you would call this but the first word that comes to my mind is a "mini-arc" format. Where mini-arcs (some not so mini) are played within a larger frame with a direction towards a few days or weeks or months instead of an indefinite time frame.

Start with a broad The World. Have one or more Campaigns set within it (each is a set of characters at a certain time), and then each of those Campaigns gets one or more Arcs (where the characters try to accomplish a goal within that Campaign, eventually leading up to finishing the Campaign as a whole). Each Arc is one or more Posts (representing a sort of traditional "session"). Where each Post is one more Sessions of actual playing | writing.

Fascinating insight into my brain that probably exposes me a librarian if you didn't know already, I know. But, my intended format for my play in 2025 might look something like this:

The World
[Alabama Weird, The GLOW, Khel]
- The Campaign
  [Eustace & Hitomi, 1996, The Bloody Hands: REBIRTH]
  - The Arc ← *Focus on this as the Unit*
    ["and the Case of the Rambler's Inn", "Agent Johnny Blue", "The Stone Crack'd"]
    - The Post
      ["Chapter 3. Arrests and Friends, in That Order", "Chapters Two & Three", "05 - The Triptych Healed"]
      - The Session
        [each time I sit down and accomplish something in game: art, playing, writing, designing, etc]

For some campaigns, like the offline campaigns, it might be less "arcs" and more "one to two pre-written adventures with some padding" but the principle is still the same.

Again, it's more a formalization than an abrupt change. It does slightly free me up mentally — which I surprisingly need — to do things like build in the kind of time jumps, thematic clusters, and conceptual shifts that I love. Even allows for things like shifts in play-style or systems.

Focusing on One Arc at a Time

This is a bigger change than above but it kind of requires the other change to make sense. I want to spend a couple of months playing differently. Rather than juggling multiple campaigns, with multiple arcs, where I have to shift into and out of various worlds and modes, I want to focus on one arc at a time.

The broad structure would be to figure what arc I want to play next — based on interest, fun ideas I have, some spark of inspiration, some challenge, or just a broad sense that it is time to revisit some old friends — and spend one "time slot" thinking up concepts, keyed scenes, lore, art motif, and goals at the arc level. Play the whole story arc through to completion, divided up into sessions (posts | sessions | etc) with potential extra content.

Keep the three-times-a-week schedule.

When I get done with arc, take a bonus "time slot" to do one of my absolute favorite activities with solo play: the self debrief and edit process. That last step wraps up the arc with some thoughts, re-packaging, final sorting. Potentially, but not necessarily, sets out some seeds for future arcs.

Then, figure out the next arc and do it again.

Right now, my plan is to finish out "Eustace & Hitomi and the Case of the Rambler's Inn" [+ bonus dog-catcher story which is somehow related], then finish up "The Bloody Hands: REBIRTH, The Stone Crack'd" after that, and then do The Bleak + The Pearl's current dungeon [the dungeon delving stuff will likely be shorter bursts in between the longer story modes] with each session being a bit shorter than current (a couple of hours at a time instead of trying for four to six hours at a time).

Around March, I will evaluate if this has improved, worsened, or not really impacted by game play and update accordingly.

Post Once (and Early), Edit at Least Twice

I need to get into a habit of playing and writing the session at least 24 hours before it is published. Edit it once immediately just to fix the no doubt several misspellings, broken sentences, and other glitches that show up from writing stuff down as I play. Schedule the post anywhere from one day to a couple of weeks later depending on the buffer. And, before it actually goes live, spend more time going back over and make sure it all makes sense with a harsher comb than that first edit. Once it is published and around the time I hit the "debrief" stage for the arc, maybe go back over it and smooth out the harsh edges but not in a way that is unfair to past-Doug.

A long variation of this discussion and my preferred method was included in the aftermath of realizing I had violated one of my own rules during playing The GLOW and I wrote a long commentary talking about how I like to do things and why it went wrong.

Trying Out "New" Game Systems

This blog basically grew up around two systems — Tricube Tales and Shadowdark — and frankly I could play those systems, backed with Mythic and Solodark, for quite some time, still. So much so that there has been a slight inertia towards bringing in something new. I could use a shake up, though, so a few systems I want to bring in (maybe two or three this year as a goal to start) include:

Cypher
Outgunned
GURPS Lite+: meaning start with GURPS Lite 4th edition and add in just enough content to play whatever game I want to play.
Ironsworn, Starforged, and/or Sundered Isles.
At least one Call of Cthuhlu game.
Maybe actually play one of Sine Nomine's awesome ...Without Number games instead of just using them for parts.
Troika and Advanced Fighting Fantasy.
Of course, a whole stack of other possibilities.

Besides these, try a few things like Thousand Year Old Vampire and other more solo-first systems (maybe as one-shots). The whole point of this is just to get me to think about other game systems and modes.

Trying Out "New" Game Worlds

I currently have a few game worlds into which the various campaigns fit: Alabama Weird (a "mostly" normal take on Alabama but one where cosmic horror and folklore are real and have influenced things), The GLOW (an even weirder version of the Alabama Weird), Barthus & Silt (the setting of The Bleak + The Pearl), Phillia (the island upon which Ick & Humb and related are played), and Khel (the continent from The Bloody Hands). What I would like to do is to add in at least one post-apocalyptic world and at least one science-fiction | space-opera world. Possibly also a kind of dreamscape type world but that one might just be technically an off-shoot of the Alabama Weird.

I figure as long as I can add one new world I should be happy.

That being said, I would rather develop new content for existing worlds rather than have a bunch of vague, unfinished places that never get revisited. I really love lore and I really love generational shifts and wide geographically-separated play.

(Re)Trying Out "New" Oracles

By "oracle" in this case I mean both the yes|no + and|but + twist generator — think Mythic — but also stacks of random tables, cards, and other tools. I am mostly good with the largish set of random generators I already use but it might be nice to bring up a few things — like Rory's Storycubes — that I have gotten out of the habit of using. I also have a whole "Like the I Ching but with dice" system I created but then left behind.

One thing I am very excited about adding is something like Dixit as well as more real world divination methods.

Also, I have enjoyed using some diegetic oracles where music and images that might be part of the game world (or represent things in a similar way as the characters would experience them) can be used as oracles in themselves. Either by using the stock art to influence elements, music to shift the mood, or materials that otherwise could, in theory, be experienced by the characters that I play to determine outcomes. I want to find more ways to use this.

Things to Not Sweat...

Most of all, Don't sweat the Dougness.
Don't sweat the long commentaries that only I read.
Don't sweat the long session building.
Don't sweat the corny jokes that only I will like.
Don't sweat the romances or friendships or moments that only I will like.
Don't sweat the cosmic horror, folklore, body horror that I like.
Don't sweat the literary references or in-jokes even if no one else catches them.
Don't sweat the stories where some young upcoming hero saves the realm a few weeks later. It's nice.
Don't sweat the overlong explanations.
Don't sweat the deadlines.
Don't sweat the struggles to make sure it is fair. Make it make sense later or don't.
Don't sweat the formatting (so much). Things can look different later on.
Don't sweat the way I play (sort of like the first one, but this is important). I like to pre-gen ideas and stew upon some concepts (the prep is play portion) and that is fine. Do it. Then break it down (the play is prep portion). Who cares if no one else does it exactly the same way? Besides, I'm sure some do... It's ok if I figure out who the killer is early so I can work towards it. It is also ok if I change my mind and turn that all into a plot twist.
Finally, Don't sweat the apologizing. I'm sometimes worry that I self-apologize too much on this blog. I do, but who cares. That is part of me finding out who I am and how I play.

Make More Art, Design More Stuff, Focus on Game Motifs, Etc

I like making (bad) art for my games. Bad maps. Bad character sheets. I like my campaigns (and arcs) to have their own style. I want to spend more time working on those little bits. I often avoid making my own art and own visual tools because I worry of it is good enough. It is good enough. I am the only person that has to be my own fan.

Just make sure I give lots and lots of credit as I go. A lot of people make things that help me tell the stories I like.

Build Up a List of Graphical Resources

I use a lot of stock art (most free, some paid) and a lot of illustrations and stuff to visually build up my blog. I think it might be nice to sit down and list some of those tools out in a way (probably a new page for the sidebar) so that others can find them.

It will also save me some headaches.

CREDITS

The art used to head the resolutions section is a CC0 licensed photo by Jeffrey Paul from the WordPress Photo Directory. According to the alt-text, it depicts the mysterious “O” rest stop (aka “Cerchio dello Staccioli”) outside Volterra, Italy. It summed up my feelings of looking forward fairly nicely. I have edited, as usual, using GIMP and several filters to give it a kind of video-game like feel. A motif I am thinking about adopting for an upcoming series about many tiers of reality.

The Bleak + The Pearl Part 23: In Search of the Harcuram Mantle, Session 1 [Shadowdark + SoloDark] [Offline Recap]

By Doug Bolden

On 2024-12-29

In Actual Play, Recap, ShadowDark, Solo Campaigns, SoloDark, The Bleak and the Pearl

A light blue and black artistic rendering of a photograph taken at a cold Norwegian beach.

Original image by IdaT (Pixabay). Alterations by Doug Bolden.

Previously, on The Bleak + The Pearl...

The Blue Delve Boys have returned from the Everburning Forest, exhausted and recovering from injuries. Meanwhile, Gryffin Grunkheart has decided to throw his lot in fully behind Cal and has gathered up a group of unlikely heroes (well, hero-ish). One each from the other four families who, centuries ago, worked with the Grunkhearts to build the original Lighthouse. A strange "ninja turtle" named Boris who consideres Gryffin to be an old-brother-by-way-of-soul has also joined. This group, the "Lighthouse 6" are traveling to the northern most islands of the Gray Channel: Isles of Andrek. One of the fuel stone relics was taken there over 250-years-ago, though the person who took it never returned.

About The Bleak + The Pearl

The Bleak (Barthus) and The Pearl (Silt) are large twin islands. Once home of an Ancient Empire that fueled its machines and miracles by tapping into the primal forces found upon each (Becoming and Being, respectively). Two thousand years after the fall of the Ancients, the Barthic Empire that grew up in its place (one of many over the years) faced its own cataclysm as The Bleak (the corrupted version of Becoming) spread like a disease. Those who stayed were subjected to rapid mutations and strange changes: their own bodies warped into monstrous forms as even the land lost its sanity. The last great project of the Barthic Empire—The Lighthouse—stopped the Bleak from overrunning the city of Grunce. Then its creator, Jonias Grunkheart, disappeared.

Three hundreds later, a decendent of Jonias Grunkheart has gathered a band of unlikely heroes and seeks to train and hone them to protect the future.

Content Warning: Fantasy Violence, Occasional Body Horror.

This post is in RECAP style. See the about page for this blog for more details. The system used to play this is ShadowDark by Kelsey Dionne and the Arcane Library with SoloDark (same) acting as the oracle.

Part 23: In Search of the Harcuram Mantle, Part 1

A Few Quick Notes

Reminder, see Intermission #5 (A { Short | Mid | Longish | Un- } Hiatus from the Mainline Plot) and Intermission #6 (New Icons, Learning Rolls, and Meet the Lighthouse 6) for the speediest catch-up to why this so different from the previous session.

Basically, the four main characters—aka the "Blue Delve Boys"—have a need for a month or two of rest and relaxation and learning/honing some skills. Meanwhile, Cal and Gryffin Grunkheart have formed a kind of Suicide Squad-esque band of misfits from the original five families (plus a fairly literal Ninja Turtle) to try and finish up some quests and to find new allies (and new treasures) to support the cause.

That's the in-universe story. The in-real-life story is I have usually between three and four campaigns going at all times and as much as I love them all, and especially love The Bleak + The Pearl, I need a campaign that allows me to focus on less creative writing, roleplay, complex plots, and complex mechanics. I need a campaign that uses different parts of my brain while giving me the freedom to zone out a tad more. This was the original intended purpose of The Bleak + The Pearl but over time it drifted and crossed over with other campaigns and was losing its distinction pretty hard (while also being a great test bed for a lot of style and element changes). For now, though, I am hard resetting back to its origins. At this point, I am unsure if the series will transition to the old format or not.

The way I am playing this version has five parts:

(usually) A pre-built dungeon/module [a few fun exceptions will crop up]. Thanks to the way that the majority of Shadowdark dungeons are written, it is kind of easy to play them room by room without much in the way of spoilers. I will make some changes—from fairly slight to fairly large—to the content as written to add in history and elements of the campaign.
A Google Document where I write a fairly rapid version of my gaming journal. Like all my journals, it will vary from time to time in how much focus is spent but the overall idea is for very few elements to take up more than a paragraph or two (as opposed to others where encounters can take pages of dialogue, tables, and oracles).
A GIMP file (see the downloads is you want to get an idea how it might work) that has maps locked into place (maps from the pre-generated dungeons in the module), a "fog" layer, a metric ton of labels and tokens (tokens taken from Games-Icon.net from various creators), a torch item to help figure out where to disperse the fog, and then a layer's tab with many notes.
A Google Slideshow that allows me to keep up with the character sheets in a fairly compact way.
A copy of Shadowdark with SoloDark.

These recap sessions for The Bleak + The Pearl "Season 2" adventures will make the actual-play-journal a download but they are not exactly complete. Some dice rolls are just summed up instead of written down in detail. Some stuff is actually coded on the GIMP file. Some stuff will change previous sections so the final version reflects the status at the end of a session, not a live look at everything. Especially with the map where doors or tunnels or characters that played a big part might not there in the shared variation because of things that happened.

I am going to call this style "Offline Recap" since the idea is that I am sharing my session's final state but unlike something like The Bloody Hands where you get a pretty flow-readable set of actual play notes that show changes and updates while retaining the original, these are much more Doug's constant working document rather than Doug's pretty showing document.

The Mantle Is Lost

Elude Harcuram spent many years working with Jonias Grunkheart by providing the paperwork and legal services that arose during the construction of the Lighthouse. For this service, Jonias granted Elude one of the fuelstone relics used to start and manage the Lighthouse initially. This was the Elude mantle.

As the years passed, and it became clear there was a flaw in the Lighthouse that would require a miracle to fix, Elude passed on and the new House leader was his son Adren. Adren upheld the legacy of Elude at a fairly steep personal and family cost. Finally, after Jonias disappeared, each of the four families agreed to take the relics and spread them far from Grunce in case someone else was able to finish the Lighthouse. Adren took his father’s mantle north to Isles of Andrek, where the Harcuram House began centuries before moving south.

Adren was searching for the legendary King Skorgald Harcuram’s tomb. He did not return.

The Isles of Andrek and the Town of Valthis

Gryffin Grunkheart (Human Ranger) has gathered five others into the boat The Marius Crossbow. The ship, a galleon-class, belongs to House Marius but has been bequeathed for the personal use of Dhelia "Del" Marius (Human Swashbuckler). Besides Gryff and Del: there is Boris Loo (a Bleak-Touched Chelonian who fancies himself a Ninja), Louis Harcuram (Human Bard), Ronick Mistamere (Dragonborn Pit Fighter), and Ada Bittermold (a Witch of unknown genetic ancestry). Whether demon-kin or Bleak-touched, Ada has deer antlers and deer legs and the ability to talk to plants and mushrooms.

Cal Grunkheart had located a very old map of the Isles of Andrek in the Lighthouse library. This marks the destination Adren Harcuram had in mind but it is essentially 250-years out of date and would not be anything like acurate for the more socio-political aspects. Still, this enables Gryffin and Del to plot a course to be near the sea caves where Skorgald should be buried.

The Crossbow sails within a few miles of the farming hold of Valthis. In the spring (which it currently is) and summer, the village dedicates itself to sheep and vegetable growing. In the fall and winter, though, the fighting men and women are sent south on raids to plunder and claim. It is led by Signe. She has been troubled by a would-be Jarl Karsgald from a nearby island who—besides once betraying Signe during a raid—is slowly moving towards declaring himself Jarl over all of Andrek. Egrid, Signe's Seer, has had visions that unless he is stopped, Karsgald will bring ruin to the whole area.

Hearing reports of possible warriors from the south, Signe is intrigued. Here could be allies to join her cause or, if enemies, someone worth stopping before they aid Karsgald. She has a longboat sent out to hail the newcomers and invte them to Valthis. Gryffin accepts this offer and heads towards Valthis bringing only Ada along. Ada's appearance as a friendly young woman with deer-antlers fits his stereotype of what he hopes their stereotype might be of some sort of truthbringer. The fact that she can be a bit weird should only add to the intrigue. The plan works and both Signe and Egrid take to Ada and Gryffin.

Hearing Signe's plea, Gryffin gets swept up in the story—very swept up—and agrees to take Egrid's oath to Odin that he will defeat Karsgald. Just, first he needs to see to the mantle. Signe laughs at this. Surely having her on his side with her 200 warriors would be better than any piece of cloth. (Gryffin does not explain that this is not a piece of cloth but more like a fuelstone carving of a mantle meant to fit upon the statue of Elude Harcarum.)

He explains that his people are new to the fight but capable of great deeds. He just needs to spend some time letting them work together and finding their new potential. Signe actually appreciate this: a leader guiding his men on a quest. She accepts that it will likely be some time before they are ready to face Karsgald but she holds him to the oath. The others are brought in off the Crossbow. They have a feast that night and gather some information before heading out the next day.

DOUG's NOTE: The Marius Crossbow definitely has some crew on-board. However, rather than dealing with any kind of system where I roll encounters and such while the crew is left behind, I basically only roll encounter checks and the like if one of the main characters is on it. The rest of the time it is considered something like auto-pilot. Over time, this might change to where the crew has their own character sheets and show up on some expeditions. I just wanted to get the Lighthouse 6 established, first.

Entering the Sea Caves and the Hall of Murals

The Crossbow continues along the coast going towards where the map says the sea caves should be found. Del locate them after a few hours of sailing through driving winds. They spend a couple of hours exploring the exterior and realize that there are several entrances to the caves where water flows through (in and out, depending on the tides). After some consideration, Gryffin opts for the northern side which allows them to slightly hide the Marius Crossbrow and gives them some cover for their launch craft.

They follow the narrow tidal channel deeper into the caves until they come out into a dverg-made structure. At one time in the past, these gnome-kin craftsfolk built a suitable tomb for Skorlgald and his fellow Sea Wolves.

The tidal channel splits this initial large chamber into two and Gryffin always heads to the right-hand side first so they head over to the west.

The first site of interest they find is a place of sacrifice and a hall of murals. In the former, a bowl meant to collect blood is in a large altar. In the latter, three murals of the Nordic gods are in each their own alcove. Ada recognizes the dried blood is some humanoid—in Barthic Tongue, "human" includes humans, dwarves, elves, and goblins at least so can be confusing without context—so Gryffin has the team enter into battle readiness as they head up into the hall.

It is Ronick who realizes the relationship between the altar and the murals. His family has embodied the concept of sacrificing their body to pledge allegiance to strength. He pours his dragonborn blood into the altar bowl and then approaches Odin—they only have a vague idea of what these figures represent—so they choose a mural more or less at random. Three others join in. Gryffin chooses Loki. Del also chooses Loki. Boris chooses Odin. Louis prefers to not damage himself and so refrains. Ada is dedicated to the Willowman and will not pledge herself to another god. All those who completed the sacrifice feel just a bit stronger in various ways.

On the way back out of the hall, Gryffin spots a zombie who has shown up, attracted to the blood. Gryffin pulls forth his longbow and scores a precise shot, dropping the zombie in a single hit.

Proud of themselves, they head back into the main branch and next head to the Hall of Pillars.

The Hall of Pillars, the Sons' Tomb, Spiders, and Stingbats

Entering into a hall of four large pillars, they carvings of short, beared men hammering stone. The group does not much about the dverg history though they heard the name mentioned back in Valthis. To the north of the room is a door with carved runes in the Nord-style. Unfortunately, no one is able to read them. Not even Louis, who knows dwarvish runes. Gryffin pushes the door open, anyhow.

They find a series of alcoves with five Nords in stone coffins. Each coffin is left uncovered and the bodies inside have been decapitated and turned upside down. The group does not fully appreciate the symbolism of this act. What Gryffin does appreciate is the fact that these coffins are covered in large spider webs. He calls for the others to retreat but as he does a giant spider falls down upon him. He gets his shield up to block the hit. Four of the others back out of the narrow tomb but Ronick runs in and brings his greatsword down to finish off the spider.

The threat out of the way, they each take one of the five tombs and search to see if they see any sign of the mantle. They do not. They do, however, find a signet ring with the crest of the Skorgald can. Louis recognizes it as an old symbol for the Harcuram's before they settled down in Grunce. He pockets the signet ring.

Moving south, the party is pushing through a door on the other side of the pillared hall when a pair of stingbats attacks Ada and Boris in the back row. Even as Boris manages to fend off the attack, Ada is struck and knocked unconscious as the stingbat starts to feed off of her. Del leaps onto Ada and cuts the stingbat down but the deer-antlered witch is unconscious and fading fast. Gryffin struggles but manages to make a healing concoction and pour it into Ada's mouth which revives her enough that they get her stabilized.

A bit shaken, Louis stops and sings a song to raise everyone's spirit.

Holy Water, the Sea Wolf Skeleton, and the Tomb of the Seer

The next room they enter is a large chamber with the western walls taken up by an elaborate series of high-relief carvings. Six warriors raise their swords towards a holy woman. The holy woman has her hands cupped and full of water. Ada sniffs it and realizes it has some holy blessing upon it—something of which is not the biggest fan—but she still takes the bottle that Gryffin had used earlier to save her life and fills it with water from the cupped hands. She pockets it and figures she will use it at some later time.

To the south, the dverg-carved tomb gives way to a natural cave. To the east, someone has piled rubble and trash to block a door. Gryffin decides to clear that while he sends Boris and Del to give watch on the cave. After the stingbat attack, the group is more aware of the potential for surprise attacks.

Finally getting through the rubble, Gryffin takes Ronick, Ada, and Louis with him into the next area. This is another tomb but these corpses are shown much more honor. The skeletal remains of six warriors hold great axes while their eyes are adorned with gold coins. Three of the group refrain from disturbing the corpses just yet but Ronick is not afraid of a potential haunting. He reaches over and grabs the coins from the nearest skeleton, which rises up and starts slashing at Ronick with an axe. Gryffin screams to put the coin back but Ronick laughs off the threat and manages to smash the skeleton to bits. The dragonborn pockets the coins and says he might take more.

Gryffin squares off and the first true test of his leadership takes place. After a few minutes, Ronick concedes to follow Gryffin's orders and leaves the other tombs alone.

While this is going on, Ada has been poking the walls around the tombs and is surprised to find a secret door. It opens and the four go further north into it.

The find a monument to a seer of old. Louis actually sort of recognizes her from the family history he found, but cannot place a name. A statue of her holds a golden wand with dwarven runes reading "Welcome" upon it. Ada, after looking at the others, takes the wand. She can sense it has some magic but not exactly what. The statue luckily does not come to life. Gryffin tells them to not bother the tomb any further—especially because of the warning to not mess with a woman's corpse in these caves. This time, the unruly bunch listen and follow him out.

Meeting some Sad Bandits, More Stingbats, and Death

Going south into the cave, they run into a group of six sad bandits. The chamber the bandits are camping in is another large room once again split in half by one of the tidal channels. The bandits are on the south shore. The heroes are on the north.

Once again, Gryffin immediately greets the strangers, this time with Louis joining in. The bandits are more curious than hostile. Both groups share first names and Gryffin asks about the mantle in a fairly roundabout way, trying to hide its real value. The bandits know not a whole lot about it. Their leader saw it in the cave and went to look for it and other treasures, taking their boat, but has never returned. This has effectively stranded them inside.

While the conversation is taking place, a larger group of stingbats flies into the south side of the room and starts attacking the bandits. The heroes shoot arrows—and Boris uses his long razor chain—to give support. Before the stingbats can be killed, the currently acting leader of the Bandits, Thurgston, is struck and killed. The rest of the stingbats are beaten but this breaks the spirits fully of the sad bandits. Trapped in a cave killing them off one by one, there only hope would be to risk swimming out through the tidal channel.

Gryffin offers to come back in some hours and get them out but he needs to keep looking for the mantle. He tells them to stay alert and stay calm.

The Makeshift Ferry, The Haunting, the Longboat, and the Undead Sea Nymph

Heading north, two things occur. First: the group realizes that they are being followed by a green glowing ghost. Second: they find another tidal channel blocking their path and a makeshift raft—possibly the bandits'—caught up against some rocks and partially submerged by the water flow.

The ghost does not attack, just floats nearby, and seems as though it is more curious than hostile. Gryffin wonders if their attempt to save the bandits called up this Nord spirit who sees them as fellow heroes. He asks the others to leave it alone.

Boris pulls the raft free but it would be hard to get it out of the water and back down the cave to the bandits. Besides, they have a need for it. Using Ronick's rope and grappling hook, they set up a makeshift ferry. This way they can cross back and forth over the channel. They do this and continue north. The ghost follows them.

The next room they find is another large dverg-made tomb. In fact, it is the eastern half of the very first chamber they entered through. Unlike the previous one, which was mostly a hall, this one houses Skorgald's longboat. The massive ship was truly the vesself of a king and sits upon stands with the Skorgald/Harucam drake symbol in carved into its side and masthead. Jonias brings Louis and enters the vessel while the others wait outside and keep guard.

Inside, he finds the body of an old woman and once again does not interfere despite her having several valuable jewels and pieces on her mummified (not skeletal) body. As he leaves, the ghost that has been following hovers nearby and seems pleased they left this particular tomb alone.

Passing along the side of the longboat, they see the caves go south next to a large indoor lake. Taking this path, they come near the slain body of a sea nymph. Trying to stay some distance from her (Gryffin is very punctual about listening to that particular rumor), they still get too close. She rises as an undead nymph and attacks Gryffin. In the process of defending themselves, they have to cut her down (hiding the fact of what caused her death, a group of nords also in the caves at the same time).

South of there they find a dead end but can just make out an old door with more dverg-runes: "Wisdom is the key that will open the way." Louis brings up the wand that Ada took and she takes it out and waves it at the door. Then looks for a place to put it into the door itself. Finally, she taps it against the door and it opens up. She wanders inside and the group finds a massive trove of treasure. Massive by their standards.

Gathering the Treasure, Returning to the Crossbow, Tidal Surges, and Saving Bandits

Since part of his mission is to acquire funds for the rebuilding of the Lighthouse, Gryffin is only momentarily disappointed that this trove does not have the mantel. He goes into practical mode. They can take this and make their way back to the longboat room. Their boat is there—Borish had previously used his own grappling hook to pull it over to the easter bank where they can access it without having to backtrack—and Del can take the boat by herself back to the crossbow. Then come back and get them and they will head out for the night, find a way to save the bandits, and rest before returning the next day.

On the way back, they only run into a single stingbat—Gryffin shoots it—near the body of the sea nymph. They load up the boat and send Del off. Unfortunately, near disaster strikes shortly after.

A tidal surge causes the channel to overflow and wash everyone back before the water then sucks back into the channel. Del was too seasoned to be caught off guard but had to spend a bit mooring to the walls. The others mostly resist but Boris is swept into the channel. Luckily, the chelonian is naturally ok with water and a trained ninja. He smokesteps back onto the shore while others are calling out his name (the damage he took from being knocked over and pulled into the water took a lot out of him, though).

Del returns an hour or so later and the group heads back to the Crossbow. Gryffin works out a path to get to the bandits and picks the remaining five up. He can tell that though they are grateful, they have a certain glint in their eye and so does not trust them staying too long upon the Crossbow. Del pilots the ship a few miles east of the sea caves, opposite of where Valthis is, and they drop them off with some food and supplies.

The Crossbow crew rests for the night and gets ready to return to the caves in the morning. Over night, the strong winds die down finally.

Maps at the End of Part 23

Snippet of a fantasy style hex map showing sea caves and a town called Valthis.

Hex Map originally by Kelsey Dionne and Cameron Maas. Tokens by Delapouite of game-icons.net. Colors and labels by Doug Bolden.

Click to enlarge (etc) to see better the details recorded for this session.
Map by Kelsey Dionne. Tokens by various contributors from game-icons.net. Colors and labels by Doug Bolden. See credits for more information.

DOUG'S COMMENTS AND NOTES

This represents roughly four to five hours of playtime with the caveat that some of that time (surprisingly little, but definitely an amount) was spent making some tokens, figuring out some graphic techniques, and just generally enjoying the aesthetic aspects of my creation.

I wonder how many blog posts this would be if I kept it in the previous method. I would guess at least three, pushing four. Of course, this means scenes like the one with Signe (and possibly the one with the bandits) would have a lot more dialogue and character building. I think it is an ok trade. Some of my other series will have an entire chapter of dialogue. It gives me some different vibes and mindspaces.

Here are some some various things I noted during and after the session.

SYSTEM OF DAYS | MONTHS IS NEEDED. I have been highly inconsistent with time keeping on a longer scale throughout this campaign. I think it has gone back and forth between spring-ish, summer-ish, and autumn-ish a few times in the past couple of IRL months. For now, just to set a time and start keeping track of it, Barthus is currently in LATE ~~SUMMER~~ SPRING MONTH (FECK, I got this wrong...Winter would start with Longnight, not end. Whoops, I'll correct it next session, but this session being days 21 through 23 of Late Spring Month). I haven't a good name for the year but let's call it Crossing 301 being the 301st year since the Barthic Empire officially moved across the channel (and collapsed on the other side). The idea I am thinking is you have Spring starting [not ending which is the mistake I made during the session] on Vernal Equinox. Summer starting on Longday (Summer Solstice). Autumn starting on Autumnal Equinox. and Winter starting on Longnight (Winter Solstice). My current idea is to name the months after trees (probably using some naming generator but essentially being the equivalent of real world trees). Spring would be flowering trees. Summer will be fruit trees. Autumn will be trees with bright autumn foliage. Winter will be evergreens. After winter will be Thorn which will be a 5 day period of celebration and ghost stories leading back into Spring.

RUNES CONFUSION. When we got to the "Hall of Pillars," I took "runes" to be Nordic runes [which is correct, probably]. I rolled to see if this had been studied and got no so the characters had no idea what the runs meant on the door or on the Wand of Wisdom. When I got to the door which uses the Wand of Wisdom to open, the game text says "Dwarven Runes" (presumably Dvergen Runes). Because of this, I swapped and thought that all the runes were by the dverg builders. However, that is inconsistent with other world building in Cursed Scrolls #3. That led me to making it a bit easier than it should be to figure out that door. It was a lot of treasure, relatively speaking, but I won't sweat it too much. Had I been running this for players besides myself I would have made the same mistake and deep down having a few hundred gold pieces to blow on carousing won't run much immersion for me. The gentlest retcon is the wand and door are both dwarven but any others are Nord.

COMBAT and TORCH TIMING. I realized in the middle of this session that I had screwed up combat timing for a minute (no pun intended). Since the shift to theater-of-mind occurred, I have been very loose on timings. I slipped back to the old Dungeons & Dragons habit of treating combat as shorter round inside of the longer timing of the non-combat game. Shadowdark is "real time"—which gets trickier in solo play—but really I should have been keeping that consistent this whole time. I had to make a mental correction now that I am back to the old school style of dungeon crawling. ON THE OTHER HAND, I have been using the SoloDark recommended 10-rounds=1-Torch metric. I think I might up that to 12-rounds. Maybe. That would better match roughly an hour's-worth of gameplay to a single torch.

Going Back to Downloads for This Series

This campaign is not only going back to its original style of solo play but so are the blog entries for it. As I said above, my notes for this style of playthrough are much more a working document meets technical log than the kind of frilly back and forth style of my usual write-ups (which are like a slightly rougher blog post with a lot of asides).

In other words, I will once again share some of the maps and text notes as downloads instead of trying to format them into a blog-first-like presentation. This way people get to see a fuller take on my various play methods.

Actual Play Downloads

NOTE: the actual play document contains material that is not mine with a lot of material that is. Direct passages from Cursed Scroll #3 has been copy and pasted [usually in a player-facing way]. The maps come from that document with colors and labels added. The tokens used for characters, mobs, and features are taken from games-icon.net and various contributors. See Credits for more details. Just note that downloading these files does not grant any additional permissions to use the parts not original to myself.

I plan to fix this better in the future with credits baked right into the documents but these files were made without it and it would take a lot of time to start editing it in now. I apologize in advance. I try to be big on giving credit, here.

PDF version of "2.1 Searching for the Mantle, SESSION 1"
Notes pretty much as I wrote them while playing representing the "final state" of the session (some things might have changed and updated, but those details are lost to time like a WordPerfect file on a 3.5" floppy).
XCF (GIMP): "Isles of Andrik Hex Map SESSION 1"
Not a lot happened on the hex map but just in case you want to see the very basic set-up.
XCF (GIMP): "Sea Caves and Tombs with Colors SESSION 1."
If ever wanted to see the kind of steps you might take to turn the GIMP interface into a personal VTT, this is probably the file.

I should probably do a fuller write up of that last one.

CREDITS

This campaign is played using Shadowdark and the solo rules from SoloDark. Both are by Kelsey Dionne with various others contributing art, etc.

This session is played using materials from Cursed Scroll #3: Midnight Sun including the Sea Caves map used for the main adventure, the text from the "Hoard of the Sea Wolf King" adventure, and the Isles of Andrek used for the hex crawl. "The Hoard of the Sea Wolf King" and all maps used in it are by Kelsey Dionne. Used here for personal use. The hex crawl, including Valthis (etc), are also creations of Kelsey. The hex map cartography is by Cameron Maas.

All references to The Bleak, The Lightouse, Grunkheart, Grunce, Harcuram, and other stuff more directly related to the campaign are by me, Doug Bolden, and are a byproduct of months of playing. Those elements are free-to-use if you want. I honestly do not mind.

I have used GIMP to add colors and notes to the player-facing maps. I still do not own the maps. Be good, please. Better yet, get your own copies from the Arcane Library. They are a good company and this is a great game.

The tokens used in the map are from game-icons.net and were provided by that website for use under Creative Commons CC-BY License 3.0. Contributors used include Carl Olsen, Cathelineau, DarkZaitzev, Delapouite, GamerAce135, Lorc.

The image used to make the splash art is "Waves, Beach, Norway" by IdaT provided under the Pixabay License. As usual for Shadowdark themed posts, I use GIMP to reduce the image down into two-colors and then pick some pleasing-to-me combination. Intended as flavor rather than a precise representation.

The images of the maps from this session were created by myself using GIMP and a mixture of the above resources. Shared here only as demonstration.

A lantern with arcane images glows brightly, casting those images on a brick wall.

The GLOW 1996: Agent Johnny Blue - Chapter Six and Finale [Tricube Tales Solo] [Multi-Phase]

By Doug Bolden

On 2024-12-24

In Actual Play, Multi-Phase, Solo Campaigns, The Glow, Tricube Tales

The original arc finale. Johnny Blue and the werewolves enter into the other-space at the core of the Grove and confront a descent into the abyss. Even with enhanced physical powers and regeneration, will they be able to survive the final trial? Agent Johnny Blue also faces the fact that he might just very well have to tell the truth for once.