A drawing of a crown and some historic weapons, with a floral regal background

AAR: Mo' Zen, mo' money, mo' problems

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are exploring a brand new mystery island in the Cirle Sea. They’ve landed with Spiral and his servant, and are in an abandoned village. Strange and wondrous things exist here, but the only person is Tim, who thinks they’re the other side of the Circle Sea. He’s also reporting being chased by mysterious creatures. ...

A line drawing of a man and young girl in a small boat without oars, hailing a larger boat

AAR: Zen on the Island

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are exploring a brand new mystery island in the Cirle Sea. They’ve landed with Spiral and his servant, and are in an abandoned village. ...

Map of a small island, with a town marked at the top, mountains in the middle, and a forest to the bottom

AAR: Anchors Aweigh in the Circle Sea

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua want to sail away to a mystery new island in the Circle Sea. They’re going to see if a friend will take them. ...

A fairy lies in a floating clam which is inscribed ACT I

AAR: Nautical hankerings in Violet City

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are back in Violet City and looking for excitement. Or a boat, at least. ...

Two shifty men, one in a crown look like they're plotting murder on someone looking sad the other way

AAR: Ultraviolent Grasslands

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are seeking ancient truth in the scrolls of the Lime Nomads, in a pink Routemaster autogolem. Joshua wants to cross the Final Barrier and be able to raise the dead. ...

A man with a donkey's head, with faeries around him.

AAR: Armadilloid Attack

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are seeking ancient truth in the scrolls of the Lime Nomads, in a pink Routemaster autogolem. Joshua wants to cross the Final Barrier and be able to raise the dead. Currently they’re transporting a sacred relic to the holy Village of the Lavender Cliffs in the Nomad Steppes. ...

Line drawing of thre men drunkenly toasting their cups.  They are fancily dressed.

AAR: Shooting the breeze with the Pine Clan

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are seeking ancient truth in the scrolls of the Lime Nomads, in a pink Routemaster autogolem. Joshua wants to cross the Final Barrier and be able to raise the dead. And they’ve found the Pine Clan and saved it from a megavome. ...

AAR: The Vome-mother

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are seeking ancient truth in the scrolls of the Lime Nomads, in a pink Routemaster autogolem. Joshua wants to cross the Final Barrier and be able to raise the dead. If only they could find the Pine Clan? ...

A man sits on a throne, looking suspicious at two people who approach, one with a knife behind his back

Trust, But Verify: FoundryVTT

Do I like Foundry as a Virtual Table Top? Yes, love it. Do I recommend it to others? Uh, well, it depends on your definition of “recommend” 😬 Some idle screaming-into-the-void on Mastodon prompted a conversation with the Old Scouser Roleplayer about my Foundry setup, and I realised I end up typically saying the same thing a lot about Foundry: It is a beautiful product, especically for crunchier games You will absolutely get distracted with doors, and sight lines and music, and audio effects, and away from the actual game It is an utter pain to use securely. The word “securely” here is key. There have been some cracking vulnerabilities in the software already (fixed already!). The developers are moving fast and breaking things, and that’s great for making a beautiful VTT with some really novel features, but less good for boring, stuffy, security. So I love Foundry, but I don’t trust it. Let me explain. ...

An engraving of an angsty person while a snake menaces a hairy biped in the grass

AAR: Zoa of the Vastlands

This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are seeking ancient truth in the scrolls of the Lime Nomads, in a pink Routemaster autogolem. Joshua wants to cross the Final Barrier and be able to raise the dead. While they’re doing that, they’re also making some money being a tour-guide for Spiral 8-body. We left the party around a campfire, having tried to defuse an encounter with some pointy horses. But now it’s time for something Completely Different1… The UVG game we’re playing is written by Luka Rejec, and another of his projects is called Zoa of the Vastlands2. It is a zine for expeditions, safaris, and research trips looking at the flora and fauna of the UVG world. This emphasises one of Luka’s ideas in UVG, which is that the party can gain XP from seeing new animals and new places, as well as the traditional options. One of its ideas is to have the party sit around a campfire, discussing what they saw that day. So, that’s what happened. We spent some time first going through in more detail the setting up of the camp and the view of the sunset and the night sky over the steppes. Then described some things the party had seen. This doesn’t require a GM, it’s pure co-operative story-telling, so I took the role of Spiral, the NPC. ...