Hot Springs Island

I ran a session and started with a shipwreck, as per the module's suggestion. We started with a Fiasco-like background starter that allowed me to tie their backgrounds together as well as connect them all to the Martel Trading Company. The players instantly started scavenging from their dead shipmates and the flotsam washing up on shore (hex 13). They found boar along the shoreline but didn't venture into the island interior. One of the players has a geology degree and she immediately pointed out that the black sandy beaches shouldn't be there with the volcanic activity.

They tried to build a shelter and were ambushed by two Goa sneaking around the ship wreckage, then found copperbacks and a magic hammer (Rockcracker) amidst the remains of a scorched battlefield (hex 18). I created a group of pirates who were also looting the wreckage, and the PCs followed them and learned that these pirates had brokered a peace with the Goa and were enemies of Martel. The PCs ambushed the pirates and killed all but one of them, the only survivor a mute and disfigured woman who always wears a mask depicting a white demon. They looted the pirate's cave (along the rocky shoreline of hex 22) and found a couple more magic items (a vest of jungle vitality, see below, and Lava Rug).

As the session progressed I introduced rules, rather than spelling them all out at the beginning or during character creation, such as time passing in-game and measuring the day/night cycle using colored poker chips. Overall, a productive session, and everyone wanted to keep playing! I'm getting pretty good at GMing.

Vest of Jungle Vitality
While the wearer is in a jungle environment they have no need to eat, drink, or sleep.

Expanded Tool Proficiency rules [5e]

TOOLS

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Alchemist's Supplies.
Anyone with proficiency can use Alchemist's Supplies to craft any of the following items: acid, alchemist's fire, antitoxin, candles, ink, oil, perfume, soap; any kind of process that might require distillation (liqour) or calcination (the creation of oxides) can also be performed with alchemist's supplies. Typical DC to successfully make any of the above is 15. Proficiency checks are made when the alchemist wishes to study a new substance or plant. Typical DCs are between 15 or 20, and it takes one hour. Magical substances that are studied would have a DC of 25 to correctly distill and analyze without spoiling the substance (or blowing up the alchemist).

Poisoner's Kit.
Anyone with proficiency in this tool can craft poison as per the crafting rules. Any poison listed in the DMG (page 257) can be crafted with a poisoner's kit and the gold piece investment required to craft a poison is half of the market value listed for the poison. Carrion Crawler Mucus, Purple Worm Poison, Serpent Venom, and Wyvern Poison are the only exceptions, these poisons require harvesting from a dead or incapacitated creature. The gold piece value of harvested organs from carrion crawlers, purple worms, poisonous snakes, or wyverns is left to the DM's discretion. When harvesting poison from a creature, a character uses their Proficiency bonus with a Poisoner's Kit but if they are proficient in the Nature skill then their Proficiency bonus is doubled.

CRAFTING

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Half of the market value must be invested in making an item, one hour per gold piece market value of the item must be spent to make the item, and a minimum of one gold piece must be spent.
Examples: Acid takes 25 hours and costs 12 gold and 5 silver to make, this includes the cost of a vial to put it in; candles take 2 hours to make and 200 of them can be made at a cost of 1 gold; a suit of plate armor takes 1500 hours (94 days minimum) and costs 750 gold.
Time is invested consecutively and the project is ruined if the character is taken away from the project for more than one day.

Quick and dirty potion requirement

So your uppity wizard wants to make a potion and you want the wizard to work a little bit without handwaving it away as a monetary cost but you don't know what to tell them for what they need. Simple. The spell level of the potion effect determines what ingredients are needed.
Level 1 = 2 common
Level 2 = 3 common
Level 3 = 4 common, 1 obscure
Level 4 = 5 common, 2 obscure
Level 5 = 5 common, 3 obscure, 1 rare
Level 6 = 5 common, 4 obscure, 2 rare
Level 7 = 5 common, 5 obscure, 3 rare
Level 8 = 5 common, 5 obscure, 4 rare
Level 9 = 5 common, 5 obscure, 5 rare

Common ingredients are easy to come buy, usually for a single silver or gold piece each - not even worth mentioning what it is - and these can be found in any market.

Obscure ingredients require a little bit of work, are not easily found, and may require a bit more money if they are available in a marketplace.

Rare ingredients require a great expenditure of effort and attention to acquire, and can almost never be found in a marketplace.

First roll on COMPONENT Table, then add result from either OBSCURE or RARE Tables

COMPONENT 2d20
02 genitals
03 hip
04 heel
05 ankle
06 knee
07 tail/rump
08 vertebrae
09 nails/claws
10 hands/paws
11 elbow
12 jawbone
13 skull
14 larynx
15 kidney
16 saliva
17 lungs
18 stomach
19 liver
20 ears
21 eyes
22 knuckle
23 tongue
24 heart
25 blood
26 lymph node
27 brain
28 intestine
29 anus
30 pancreas
31 spleen
32 gallbladder
33 muscle tissue
34 mouth /lips
35 bladder
36 esophagus
37 fur/hair
38 nose
39 skin
40 veins

OBSCURE 1d100
01 aardvark
02 albatross
03 alligator
04 anteater
05 antelope
06 ape
07 armadillo
08 baboon
09 badger
10 bat
11 bear
12 beaver
13 bison
14 boar
15 camel
16 caribou
17 chameleon
18 cheetah
19 coyote
20 crab
21 crane
22 crow
23 deer
24 dolphin
25 dove
26 duck
27 eagle
28 elephant
29 emu
30 falcon
31 ferret
32 flamingo
33 fox
34 frog
35 gazelle
36 giraffe
37 goat
38 goose
39 gorilla
40 hawk
41 heron
42 hippo
43 horse
44 hyena
45 ibex
46 ibis
47 jackal
48 jaguar
49 kangaroo
50 koala
51 komodo dragon
52 lemur
53 leopard
54 lion
55 llama
56 lobster
57 magpie
58 manatee
59 mole
60 mongoose
61 monkey
62 moose
63 narwhal
64 nightingale
65 opossum
66 ostrich
67 otter
68 owl
69 panther
70 parrot
71 panda
72 partridge
73 pelican
74 penguin
75 pigeon
76 porcupine
77 puppy
78 quail
79 rabbit
80 raccoon
81 ram
82 rat
83 raven
84 rhino
85 salamander
86 sea lion
87 seal
88 sheep
89 skunk
90 sloth
91 squirrel
92 swan
93 tapir
94 tiger
95 turkey
96 turtle
97 walrus
98 weasel
99 wolf
00 zebra

RARE 1d20
01 ankheg
02 basilisk
03 centaur
04 cockatrice
05 dryad
06 ettin
07 harpy
08 hippogriff
09 hydra
10 lich
11 lycanthrope
12 minotaur
13 owlbear
14 remorhaz
15 roc
16 sphinx
17 troll
18 unicorn
19 vampire
20 wyvern

May 2019

I got a job! With money coming in I can finally stop being anxious about paying bills, but now I get to be anxious about not having enough time to play games and write. Writing has continued, but sporadically. Between my new job and the social freedom supplied by the changing seasons I haven't spent much time sitting down and typing. (also, I started playing Dark Souls 3 and that is a HUGE distraction!) I finished everything I planned to write for last month and I suppose I should keep making a checklist for myself. The things I want to accomplish over the next month:

Re: Kosranon
I drew up a crude map of my campaign world, and I want to make a hex map version. I've written a few scenarios for different areas and I want to re-write those to fit with how the setting has changed.

make a hex map

write encounter tables

build factions for both city and countryside

Re: OSRenstein
The playtests have been very helpful, and what I was hoping would be a good balancing factor for skill tests has turned out to be a near-impossible penalty. Mathematically, the PCs would only end up succeeding on skill tests against NPCs 15% of the time, and this isn't an outcome I wanted. As for magic, we have one wizard and I'm thinking of changing wizards dramatically, again. The point system works well enough, but after reading about GLOG wizards last month I can't stop thinking about the dice roll mechanic and I want to implement something similar. Definitely something I want to experiment with!

write up monsters

write a GLOG class

Re: Dark Souls
I cannot describe to you how terrifying and exhilarating it is to explore new areas of Dark Souls 3. Every time I turn a corner I think I'm going to be ambushed or worse. If you want the OSR experience in a video game, this is the series that has it!