#montecooke
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#horror#dnd#but not actually DnD#diceweave#queer#scifi#cypher system#neurodivergent#mystery#actual play#ttrpg
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Astara’s Tale Part One: The Iron Wind
“It looks like a dust storm might be coming”, Cara called up to Nex, who rode on top of the aneen ahead. The great beast swatted at the stinging flies around its face with its diminutive arms as it plodded onwards. Nex looked to the horizon, shielding the eye sockets of his mask from the midday glare.
He stared for a moment, the caravan lulling to a holt. He shot up suddenly, startling the aneen and the rest of the group following. “That's no Dust storm!”, he yelled jumping down from the creature. “That’s Iron wind!”
He pointed to a small cave opening a short distance away, his voice loud and authoritative. “Get to shelter! Move!”
Astara froze for only a second, her mind processing the danger that had sprung upon them. She turned and sprinted towards the hole in the rock face, her feet digging deep into the soft ground. The air around her became thick with drit and took on a coppery taste. The flavour in her mouth brought with it a memory from her past. A memory of burst lips and spitting blood. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to force the memory back when her foot hit a loose rock and her ankle gave way. She slammed into the ground with force, the air in her lungs knocked out of her violently.
She lay on the ground for a second, dazed, the pain in her ankle shooting up her leg. It took a few moments before her mind kicked back into gear.
I've got to move. Move or die. It's that simple.
She tried to scramble to her feet but the instant she put any weight on her ankle it gave way causing her to fall again and cry out in pain. She pulled herself across the ground, digging her nails into the earth and heaving herself towards shelter.
I'm not going to make it. The words screamed in her mind. I'm too slow. At this rate that storm is going to rip me to pieces.
She twisted around and stared in horror as the large dark cloud on the horizon drew rapidly closer.
Is this how I’m going to die? Here? Some dusty trail in the middle of nowhere? This wasn't how it was supposed to go. How could I die when I still had so much unfinished business? Maybe it was for the best. At least here I could see it coming, face it head on and be brave for once.
She closed her eyes and prayed to any god or power watching.
Please don't let this hurt. Please let me die quick
She drew her hand up, the blade she kept sheathed to her wrist flicked out. If I’m going to die then it would be by my own hand.
She closed her eyes and took in a breath. She placed the cool edge of the knife to her throat but just before she could rake it across her flesh, arms tucked under hers, wrapping around her and dragging her to her feet.
She let out a startled gasp, the sudden stay of execution stunning her enough to allow herself to be hauled backwards. Dumbfounded she looked up into the pale mask of Nex as he rushed her toward the shelter.
Once inside with the rest of the group, Nex let her drop against the cold stone walls. Spinning and reaching into his pocket, he threw out a small silver ball. It bounced across the ground before shimmering, a blue wall of light erupting from its center. It covered the entrance to the cave, sealing and protecting all those inside.
For a second they were still, quietly panting in the dim glow of the shield. The respite was short lived however, when a blood-curdling scream erupted from the other side of the blue light. All heads turned to see a silhouette still outside. Cara scrawled across the ground, desperately trying to crawl towards the cave fighting against the dark swarm that was slowly surrounding her. Her face was afire with pain and panic.
The youngest of the group, Anya sprinted forward, moving to scoop up the silver ball but Nex caught her sharply, pulling her to face him.
“We have to go save her!”, she screamed, trying desperately to pull her arm free from his gloved grip. “Nex please!”
“Anya”, he said softly, his voice low and gentle. “It's too late”.
“No it's not! How can you say that? You can see her! You can hear her, for Calaval’s sake!”
“Anya”.
“Nex, please! She my sister! She's all I have!”
Nex’s grip did not lessen.
Cara’s screams were becoming more guttural, the pained cries slowly giving way to loud gurgled howls.
Anya turned towards the barrier, her eyes wide and tormented. She pulled and clawed in vain against Nex who only pulled her closer, whispering soothing words as the young girl slowly crumpled to the ground.
Astara looked away, closing her eyes to hold back the tears she was fighting. Each pathetic wail from Anya tore right through her chest despite her efforts to keep her distance from the group. Quietly, she moved away, using the wall to help her limp over to a large bolder before sitting down. Once settled, she stared at her companions, each of which just sat quietly on the ground staring at the dirt with harrowed eyes.
It felt like a lifetime until Cara’s cries died away. the only sound left the rhythmic clicks of Vox’s mechanics and the muffled sobs that erupted from Anya every few minutes or so.
Deciding it was best to give her some space, Nex moved back, wrapping her in his long outer robe. Without speaking, he stood up and seemed to collect himself, running a hand over the dark blue fabric that wrapped around his head. After a second or two he straightened up and made his way over to where Astara sat.
“Can you stand?”
Astara looked up at him. “Sorry?”
“Your ankle. Can you stand on it?” There was something to his voice now, a soft strain. It was hard to tell but he seemed tired. Though after what they all had just gone through Astara guessed that was to be expected.
Astara bit her lip and tested her ankle out. Placing her foot on the floor, she tried to bare weight with it but sharp pain shot up the leg, causing her to wince.
“I'm going to take that as a no”. Nex signed, kneeling down in front of her. He reached out slowly, taking her ankle into his gloved hand. “Can you move it?”
She stretched out her foot and nodded.
He slowly pressed the muscles around her joint, stopping occasionally when she hissed in pain.
“Hmmm. Well it's not broken”. He reached into a small satchel on his belt and pulled out a wad of bandages. “Probably just a nasty sprain. Try to rest it if you can and if any of my belongings survived this storm, I’ll see if I can put something on it later that might help relieve any pain”.
He began to methodically bandage up her ankle and Astara couldn't help but notice how soft and gentle his touch was. She shook herself and took stock of what happened.
He had saved her life. Her. a complete stranger to him yet he had saved her life, risking his own life in the process. How was she supposed to handle that? No one had ever done something so selfless for her before. Growing up it was very much a battle to even survive. If you wanted to see tomorrow then you looked out for yourself and no one else.
Blushing, she turned away from Nex. Maybe he had an ulterior motive, keeping her in his debt until he can trade it in for his own gain. That was the style she was more accustomed to. “No one does anything out of the goodness of their hearts” her father would say. “Everyone wants something at the end of the day”
Did Nex have other intentions? If so she had no shins to give nor anything else of value. She had her body but she wasn't about to sell that again without good cause. Besides, he didn't seem the type so far to seek female company - or any company for that matter. She was already obligated to work for him so that couldn't be the reason.
She chewed on her lip as she thought.
She wanted to say something to him, to thank him for risking his life. She wanted to tell him how much she appreciated it and how grateful she was to him, how much she would be in his debt. She wanted to say so many things but the words stuck to her teeth, refusing to budge off her tongue. Instead she looked away, a crimson glow working its way across her cheeks
“There”, Nex said, pulling the bandaging tightly. “That should at least get you back on your feet”.
He got up in one fluid motion and Astara could feel the words ‘thank you’ form on her lips but by the time she was ready to push them out he was striding away, off to check up on the rest of them.
Well done, Astara. First kind act someone has shown you in years and you can't even manage to say thank you. Aren't you just going to be little miss popular.
She dug her nails into her palm and cursed her own cowardice.
She didn't need friends. Not with the path that lay in front of her. They would only get in the way or get hurt.
She looked back over at Nex who was trying to inspect Taran for wounds.
These people had been hurt enough.
Hi!, Thank You for joining me on my first part in what i hope will be an on going story. please feel free to message me with any feedback or tip!
Glossary
Drit - Sand, ground up synth, metals etc. that make up the majority of the ground
The Ninth World - The world. As it after after eight other incredibly advanced civilisations have risen and moved away, abandoned the planet or died out.
Synth - Synthetic materials, primarily plastics. Not created by ninth-worlders.
The Iron Wind - A cloud of nanites which randomly change or destroy anything that comes in contact with it
Navarene - The country you are in, the Northern-most kingdom of the Steadfast
The Steadfast - The ‘enlightened lands’. Nine kingdoms in a fragile alliance who mostly pay fealty to the Order of Truth. Think of it as a subcontinent.
The Order of Truth - A quasi-religious organisation obsessed with the Numenera, maintaining order and control
Numenera - Artifacts left behind or forgotten from previous civilisations
Aeon Priest - Members of The Order of Truth, who oversee things in many smaller communities.
Abhuman - Mutants and sub-races. They are all bad-natured, the distinguishing characteristic from ‘normal’ mutants.
The Truth - The primary language of The Steadfast. Taught by aeon priests.
Cypher - One-use pieces of the Numenera, ranging from pills to grenades, ray-emitters to teleporters.
Shins - coins, shiny baubles, dials, buttons etc. that are used as currency. Minted coins are less common, but some places use them exclusively.
#numenera#roleplay#creative#writing#own work#original story#just for fun#montecooke#montecookgames#story time
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Quer jogar RPG? >> Acesse meu Stories . Todos os dias uma cena de RPG que você poderá participar. Leia e escolha sua opção. . Gosta de RPG e games? youtube.com/sirlockee . #numenera #montecook #montecookgames #scifi #nerd #nerds #opcbr #rpg #rpgbrasil #rpgsolo #cyphersystem https://www.instagram.com/p/B8Ii758hwix/?igshid=1to78i2z4okbd
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Here is the first of a few creatures I had the pleasure of illustrating for the new #Numenera Discovery and Destiny core books published by @montecookgames . Numenera is a scifi/fanyasy role playing game set on earth one billion years in the future. This particular creature is a 'snow loper'; a fearsome polar predator originally genetically engineered to serve as a mount and pack animal in harsh snowy and rocky terrain. I imagined their genetic blueprints might have come from walrus, polar bears, and mountain goats with a bit of primate and arachnid thrown in for fun. Wild populations now roam free, and it is rare to see domesticated individuals. The books have been prereleased to kickstarter backers, and will be in stores within the next couple of months. #illustration #creature #painting #game #montecook #cyphersystem #ninthworld #numenera #fantasy #scifi
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Haven’t been drawing as much due starting a more physical job recently. Getting back into it starting with an NPC from a recent game I am running. Keegon Quietwater is a de facto bandit leader who was transformed into a Verrik (from #montecook #arcanaunearthed ) also looks like a #starwars #zeltron which is fitting for the character, since he leads by being charismatic. #dndcharacter #dndart #arcanaevolved https://www.instagram.com/p/CDZoqRoHQO4/?igshid=1opyqlknht69a
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Customizable RPG Consent Checklist
Not the type of thing I normally post, but I like the idea of MonteCooke’s “Consent in gaming” checklist and decided to make a Doc version that you can easily edit yourself.
(Jan 2021 EDIT: I’ve gotten a couple emails requesting permission to edit the “master copy” of this doc, so I’ve updated the link below so that you should be able to immediately save your own copy with no direct permission required and without messing with the master copy. Please let me know if it works.)
Save a copy to your drive
PDF Download
Google Forms version
...I also added a few things I thought were missing, and reorganized ones I thought were misplaced. It’s not as pretty as the original, but its the function that matters.
#seriously though if you can make this look nice and still be editable hmu#rpg consent#rpg consent checklist#dnd#d&d#d&d consent checklist#dm tips#gm tips#dm advice#gm advice#Dungeons and Dragons
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A while ago I was thinking about montecooke games The Strange, that game where fiction has its place in a limited pocket parallel dimension... sorta like a multiverse type set up? But.... less grand in scale I guess? The Strange is like... the stuff/void that holds it all together? I guess? The concept feels very kingdom hearts but less convoluted.
The built in premise is like, the characters who may or may not be from regular earth are agents of an organization charged with protecting earth and its.... reality-suburbs/fiction pocket worlds from danger... like... the eldritch horrors that exist in The Strange and maybe stop dangerous artifacts from getting abused or whatever else.
I thought, if I were to run this kinda game setting for my friends... that’s not a premise I think would really catch their interest.
But the fictional worlds and how they connect to the real world, the way you can travel to and from these places, the concepts of how these worlds are created, these are very fun sounding and like a think they might wanna play with.
I had the idea that maybe their characters would be like fanfic authors/artists and the end goal of the game would be like, to stop some Strange catastrophe/SinisterPlot from happening at a convention.
The antagonists might be, like:
- a hero character from some fandom that like the fandom itself is super popular but nobody actually likes the designated protagonist? Everyone love the side characters or villains?
- an author that has been trying to steal the player characters stories and changing names to pass off as original content they do this by also being able to connect to The Strange like the PCs can but ALSO by digging in their trash. Maybe this one pretends to be an ally at first
- an author that has a HUGE problem with fandom.
- someone’s shitty edgy oc from their early deviant art days that turns out actually exists in one of the fiction worlds- maybe this one can be redeemed.
- A Toxic Fan who thinks they own the fandom/content just because they’ve like it a lot for a long time.
- author that’s been killing the fiction world they created by not letting go adding too much after thought content and upsetting fans who are losing faith/interest.
A literal actual “comic book villain” with no motivation beyond being evil.
It would have the same kinda function as the built in premise but scaled down and relevanct to their interests. Idk I think it might be an interesting time.
But
I dunno if: they’d like the system, if they’d be interested enough to warrant me buying another rule book, if this would be as fun as I think it would be
I mentioned it once but I didn’t get any feedback to give me any direction
And I already have a lot of books I’ll probably never use so... I dunno. Maybe I’ll get s pdf copy and find a.... group online and do a voice only test run?
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#diceweave#actual play#cypher system#dnd#but not actually dnd#queer#scifi#podcast#mystery#neurodivergent#season 2
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Quer jogar RPG? >> Acesse meu Stories . Todos os dias uma cena de RPG que você poderá participar. Leia e escolha sua opção. . Gosta de RPG e games? youtube.com/sirlockee . Fonte imagem: Fantasy Mage, Warlocks and Wizards. . #numenera #montecook #montecookgames #scifi #nerd #nerds #opcbr #rpg #rpgbrasil #rpgsolo #cyphersystem https://www.instagram.com/p/B6-3zRBBo84/?igshid=1ag34f1wc8t8j
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This is the third creature I illustrated for #Numenera Discovery and Destiny. Lattimors were orriginally from a distant star system, and they settled on the Ninth World for unknown reasons. They are symbiotic entities, and each individual is composed of two seperate organisms; the emotional and violent ape-like 'brusk', and the peaceful and intelligent 'neem' fungus that forms a dark patch on the brusk's back. These two organisms usually exist in a state of mental fusion, but sometimes the traits of one overpower the other, and lattimors are subject to extreme mood swings. #illustration #numenera #montecook #art #scifi #fantasy #game #oil #painting #creature
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Non gioco di ruolo da 10 anni o più, e pure prima non è che fossi sto gran giocatore. @norillo mi ha regalato questo, che si chiama Vislae Kit e contiene tutto quello che serve a un giocatore per giocare a Invisibile Sun. La scatola che vedete a sinistra nella foto non solo è figa grazie al logo ma pure bella solida. Dentro ci trovate le schede per creare il vostro giocatore, i mazzi di carte per creare i vostri incantesimi, i dadi dedicati, i vari token da utilizzare, un riassunto delle regole e un grimorio molto fico. Tutto molto curato e tutto con grafica e illustrazioni molto belle. Da quel che leggo Invisible Sun ha un'ambientazione surreale in cui la realtà si piega alla fantasia, desideri e sogni dei giocatori, che interpretano membri di svariati ordini di maghi. Inoltre pare che buona parte del gioco sia nelle mani dell'improvvisazione e reazione tra quanto si inventano i giocatori e il master, e meno legata a una vera e propria trama avventurosa. Tutte cose che fino a ieri ignoravo perché, appunto, non seguo i gdr. Ma è da ieri che leggo roba su Invisible Sun e all'improvviso mi è venuta voglia di giocare di ruolo. Come si suol dire, well played, @norillo, well played... #rpg #gdr #invisiblesun #roleplay #montecook #montecookgames #games https://www.instagram.com/p/Boy1luICWLE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=usrx4655t2u9
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A blog should have content right? We’ll just “pin” this somewhere on here. Have a dig through the tags and you get a trailer!
#diceweave#actual play#trailer#season 2#the strange#queer#neurdivergent#this is the first time I've understood tags#cypher system#dnd#but not actually dnd
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Episode 20 is live! After interrogating Rattigan and his cohorts, the agents try to follow up on one last lead before officially closing the case. Then they get to relax! Its the end of this Arc!
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I missed posting this episode here last time.
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Diceweave, episode 18 is live! In which the agents awaken from their drunken bonding to finish the mission and catch the Pied Piper.
#queer#neurodivergent#dnd#but not actually DnD#podcast#ttrpg#actual play#diceweave#horror#comedy#the strange#cypher system
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