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Showing posts from August, 2021

Fantastic Friday: The Aldrya Tradition (HQ2E)

I still intend to finish my D&D/OSE things, but I've got a lot of stuff saved up in the back of my mind. I need to make room! The Aldrya Tradition In the beginning was the One. Boundless and, yet, constrained, it contained the limitless All. All that was, and All that was Not. Being and non-being. This paradox, the Paradox of Self, fragmented the One, and it became Two: Grower and Taker.     The Grower contained within it all potential. This potential took the form of the Seed. This was the beginning of the First Plantings, the Age of the Grower.     From within the One, the fluid parts separated, and thus came the soothing waters, Eron. The waters were changing and fluid, containing within her nature almost all potential. Eron encircled the Seed of the Grower to provide nourishment.     Next, the heavy parts of the One accreted together, forming the solid earth, Gata. The earth was dependable and stolid, locking her potential within in security for the future. Gata supported t

Wondrous Wednesdays: Genius Loci and the Hexcrawl Encounter Roll

 I was reading the Alone in the Labyrinth blog post " Genius Loci — Linking Encounters, Hazards and Reaction Rolls " and it gave me a few ideas. The concept is that, during overland exploration, each "hex" (or a number of hexes defined by a geological feature) has a genius loci , an entity that is tied to it, that forms from the magical (or spiritual) energy of a place the same way that life forms from the matter. And that the actions of a party might cause such an entity to regard them favorably or disfavorably; the blog post suggests a reaction roll for the genius loci instead of an encounter roll. Now, this concept sees a lot of use in some settings. In Glorantha, every dang tree, stream, and maybe boulder has its own resident god, or spirit, or essence, depending on what kind of magic it's associated with. Larger genius loci associated with a valley or mountain might receive a lot of worship, and develop detailed personas that allow them to grant boons to