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Tag Archives: creative writing

Doomvault – Random Draw Approach

I ran the Doomvault for the boys. It was a blast using ICRPG with the tweaks I discussed from Savage Worlds – Bennies and Action Deck Initiative. In the lower half of the picture above I have my notes ready for the Doomvault. We wound up using all of this space to build our story embellishments, as I’ll show in detail below.

Before we started, I went to my FNG store and purchased the giant d20 to indicate the current Target Number. I also decided to just replace the large, steampunk Hero Tokens with blue chips. So, for our game, we started with 3 Bennies (red chips used to either roll with Advantage or re-roll after rolling an Attempt) and 2 Hero Tokens (blue chips used to add Ultimate Effort to your Effort roll). I also found it easy to use 3 colors of those little counters that FFG makes (upper part of picture). Mainly used to count HP, Health, and Hearts. Blue = 1 HP, Green = 5 HP, Red = 10 HP or 1 Heart. I should also mention that the giant d6’s and d4’s (in the guise of a d12) in the picture are what we used to count Spell Burn and Battle Fury (page 80 of the Core 2e book).

Here’s the story board approach we used. The boys love this because I let them build it. First, 3 index cards are drawn from the pile (I’m using the 1st and 2nd releases because that’s plenty of Fantasy genre goodness). They can arrange them in any order they want to set up the Location, Goal, and Obstacle (see pg. 72 Core 2e). We had a door as our Goal, so we had to hide a card under which represented what was behind the door. Even though the Doomvault begins in Norburg, we inserted this into the adventure between Hag Roost and the end of The Long Pattern where the Invincibles are guarding the descent to Mirror Lake.

We found a secret passage (in the ceiling of The Pattern) that led us on a side quest. After laying out the 3 index cards and determining the LG&O, I let the boys roll the Story Cubes to help create links between the 3 cards. In the top one they decided that the first card was a map they found in the ceiling. The map contained a magic locket in the shape of a Hieroglyph. The boys don’t know about the next adventure called Eyes of Sett. I told them that we could create a cool magic property that will come in handy on their next adventure. This could be a fun way to start that adventure. The map showed a way to descend to a different cavern.

We battled some Cave Ropers to get to the door. This door could only be opened at a certain time of the day. I made them accomplish a 4 heart study of the door that needed to be finished before a 4-round counter went down. They managed to open the door at the right time and fought 2 Giant Tentacles to earn everyone a Loot Card! The group went back and we managed to sneak past the Invincibles using Kang’s magic and Moonglum’s sneakiness. To cross Mirror Lake, we did another card draw as above. I won’t recount everything, but at one point Bran was inside of a Cave Roper being eaten and managed to kill it from within with his sword Hot Knife. This method of creating the story on the fly is fun and effective at generating collaborative game play.

I also wanted to mention some good products that I picked up on DriveThruRPG. The Game Master Worksheets are nice sheets to use if you want to create a one-shot all the way up to world building and campaign design. The Moldy Codex has a great Fantasy adventure called The Lost Tomb of the Skeleton King which I’ll likely run after Eyes of Sett. I sure hope Daniel continues production of the Moldy Codex.

Finally, this Goose IPA is legit! Stay thirsty, my friend!

 

Index Card Role Playing Game (ICRPG) Session 1

My boys and I decided to try our first session of ICRPG using characters based on the archetypes in the core book and just making up the story as we go along. First, let’s check out all the characters we created!

Kaden opted for the Scout and made his character Link from Zelda. Kaden is also using my oldest set of dice there – circa 1980’s.

Silas chose to make Peter Pan, the Mage version. I acquired the fin boots, but we altered them to winged boots and I traded them to Pete so he could fly. I mean, he is Peter Pan, after all.

Ryland chose a Guardian – Kili from the Hobbit, but not the movie depiction. His Kili is red headed and wields a massive battle hammer! Yeah!

I made a Wildling named Pullo. He’s based on the character in the HBO Rome series, but is Celtic rather than Roman – just a big lug. The cool thing about this game is that the loot I acquired has turned him into a healer type. He’s like a huge barbarian with magic rune stones.

Other characters we made, but aren’t using for Session 1 are Rakhir the Red Archer, Bran MacMorn, Kang, Dirk Moonglum, and The Green Knight.

We decided to use Loot Cards and Rory’s Story Cubes along with the actual Index Cards from the ICRPG game.

When I say, we made up the adventure on the fly, I mean we went into the game with absolutely no starting point and just started taking turns going around the table drawing cards and rolling dice and together we created a plot line.

We just arranged things the way we felt the story needed to logically flow and then went back and began going through the sequence of events, but in more detail. My kids absolutely loved this “theater of the mind” approach and they actually contributed quite a bit of cool detail to the story as we played through two battles and several trapped rooms.

We began in the midst of a dungeon where Pullo had just pulled a lever releasing a cloud of poison. We grabbed some magic items from the room revealed and battled some skeletons as we escaped the poison room. having narrowly escaped the horde of skeletons and the poison gas, we were suddenly in a long corridor filling with water. To escape we had to climb a gore and nail-adorned tower out of the level that was flooding. Pullo fell and suffered falling damage but made it out. The crew emerged in the midst of a troll ritual and had to stop the ritual from culminating in the summoning of some foul beast. Fortunately, we didn’t get too beat up and took out the trolls before the timer ran out! We drew loot cards for our victory and stopped just shy of halfway through our story line. That was about a good hour of play that left the kids eager to see what happens next!

This game is the best! I love ICRPG and can’t wait to play again with the boys. The thing I loved the best was the feel of the game. It felt like old-school D&D, but much simpler and streamlined. It’s also similar enough to 5e to feel familiar. I seriously could randomly choose almost any module or adventure and just run through it using the ICRPG with almost no work at all. Definitely my new fave for a universal RPG!

Random Transmissions

I am super excited about one of my stories from The Other Side of Despair being featured on the latest podcast episode of Random Transmissions. This podcast is super cool and you should go and check out all the episodes!

Random Transmissions

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The Yellow Booke Vol. 2

My story “Shockley House” was published in this year’s Halloween anthology The Yellow Booke.

My Author Interview

Hi! If you’ve read any of my blog and my weird writings, please take the time to post a comment about your thoughts and impressions. I’d love to hear what you think!

Also, here is an interview that I just did that delves a little deeper into my artistic vision.

Interview with David Garrett

Impressionism and Symbolism in Weird Fiction

For those writers and bloggers who have steadfastly followed the last two stories I’ve posted, I would like to say thank you for reading them. After I published my collection of short stories in 2010 I decided to take some time away from writing and figure out a new direction. Finally, I decided to write a novella that was a Lovecraftian, Cthulhu Mythos story – The Scourge of Wetumpka. That took some time to write but turned out quite well. Coming off of that I began writing Psychological Horror short stories. When I use the term Psychological, I am using it in the true sense of the term as having to do with Psychology. I have a Master’s in Psychology and I really enjoy Psychological thrillers with horror or dark fantasy overtones. The first couple of stories were “Alone” and “Shockley House”. I was very pleased with “Shockley House” but wound up re-writing “Alone” in order to make it deliver the right effect. After those two stories, I began to get interested in the use of Symbolism and the techniques used in Impressionism. The last two stories, “The Land of Nod” and “The Murklor”, explore using those techniques in writing weird tales. What makes them really work on a blog is that each day (or every couple of days) a new glimpse or vignette is added to the overall impression of the piece. In “The Land of Nod” I tried to do that by adding more bits of symbolism to the canvass of the story. In “The Murklor”, I tried to do that by adding new vantage points – usually in the form of different writing techniques. Overall, I’m really liking this new direction of Impressionistic Weird Fiction. It’s fun and offers so much freedom.

BTW, I can’t take credit for inventing it. Here’s a really good interview about what I’m trying to achieve in my writing:

The Insomniac Propagandist

One final note – the ciphers in the story “The Murklor” are very much real. They aren’t just thrown together to make the story weirder than it already is. Each one was methodically designed and does have a real solution.

Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling

Here is a good article about what this blog is all about!

Storytelling

 

The White Lady – a poem

The cover of the first book I wrote (Intertwined in Limbo) had absolutely nothing to do with any story in the book. The firm that created the cover just used a picture that was “ghostly”. So I decided to write a poem that told her story.

Limbo

 

The White Lady

 

Little Mason Morbid was a melancholy lad

While the other kids were playing, he sat brooding, looking sad

His cloths were black and gray and his heart was a hole

And the only thing ‘twas darker than his mind was his soul

 

On the thirteenth of the month he would adjourn unto a tomb

In an old forgotten graveyard under darkness of the gloom

He’d commence to crank the handle of a tiny music player

And then the strains of Moonlight Sonata would drift upon the air

 

Somewhere from the blackness an apparition would appear

A radiant diaphanous figure who was draped in gossamer

She would float about the graves as little Mason Morbid crooned

“White Lady, white lady, tell me of your doom.”

 

“It was in the dead of winter and the snow was falling down

Like little drops of clouds to form a blanket on the ground.

The people of the village were all huddled with each other

And the young Reverend Smithe had stopped by to pray for Mother.”

 

“He sat and read his Bible and then he joined us in our meal

Then he told my worried Father how his faith would help her heal.

He was smitten by my beauty and I was taken by his charm

Before I knew what happened, he had lured me to the barn.”

 

“The passions of the flesh overcame the strictures of the mind

The reverend’s Puritan values gave way to pleasures for a time.

I was left defiled and the guilt would take its toll

Darkness and depression were like weights upon my soul.”

 

“Consumed by misery and ashamed for being so beguiled

But the real scandal was when I found that I was with child.

And all about the gossip started that descended upon me

The Reverend Smithe could not be charged, it must be sorcery.”

 

“They drug me through the village with curses that were vile,

Accused me of witchcraft and held a mockery of a trial.

And so it was, betrayed, abused and blighted in the soul,

I was made to pay the reverend’s sin on the rope of the gallows’ pole.”

 

Little Mason Morbid heaved a heavy sigh of grief

The White Lady’s tragedy was sad beyond belief

He watched her go back to her grave then he mused aloud,

“Life is futile and so unfair, and we are wrapped within her shroud.”

 

The Anatomy of Story by John Truby

Here is a great book on story writing that I’m currently reading.

The Anatomy of Story by John Truby

Popinjay

This is a story I wrote and did illustrations for about the adventures of a Voodoo doll.

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Popinjay