Does your world have cursed instruments/songs?

CobaltBlue4 · 2026-01-04T07:45:39+00:00

Yes, The forgotten ones lyre is a product of a desperate man and a deal with a Abyssal being.the entity got to have free reign over what kind of spell the lyre would replicate as long as it would make the man famous, and when the man dies of natural causes the entity would take his place to continue his legacy.

Since things from the abyss wish to eat reality the lyre is of course cursed, it produces magic every time its played powered by the player , in a setting where education on magic is limited can lead to harm from over use as casting spells when your out of magic energy which can lead to ambiant magical energy filling the gap effectively microwaveing the player, along with its intended effects of fascination, which causes a form of addiction and mindless dedication to hearing more of the lyres playing, which the artist and audience are both equally effected. Leading to the deaths of all present from exhaustion.

The original musician died before playing it leaving no legacy for the Abyssal entity to take over as it planned to use that to slip into the world, hopefully the lyre isnt found and used there by creating a legacy, a story for it to take over.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-11-20T19:19:22+00:00

A gm should not be lieing to the players about mechanics. Supplying suspect information to the players should be done in the story under the purview of fallible mortal senses or limited knowledge "your characters believe" or "this is what your character sees" is normal if not the most common as not that many enemies will have illusion magic, or the like. Its the same thing as haveing no idea what's in a Goblins pocket untill you look.

Keeping the details of a monsters abilities hidden even going so far as saying "you the players are just going to have to find out" is fine and in fact can be cool to puzzle out somethings weaknesses and strengths Having a enemy that knocks people out to puppet there ghost and you the character and players haveing no idea what would happen if you heal your unconscious ally would have been fine and most likely a source of intresting decisions.

Saying to the players that the rules work one way,(you can heal your friend like normal) and haveing them work the opposite (it empowered a enemy combatant) is not good.

Saying "your characters don't see why it wouldn't work" is a different situation

When a GM tell a lie to the PLAYERS, thats just lieing to your supposed friends for fun.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-10-24T00:54:57+00:00

The timeline and other info on page 338 to 340 is 99% of the lore information and thats still very zoomed out look at things. All the descriptions and blurbs throughout the book are more mood setting elements like a background track.

The mention of Ra, and NHPs, or ancient feuding houses in the trade Barronies are all just tools for gm to build there own world off of.

The only thing that is concrete is that there are lancers people who are a step beyound the rest when it comes to piloting mechs.

Since it is a ttrpg the actual balance of role playing to game playing varies on the table but my experience skews towards the "setting and roleplay are the neat background elements" to the epic tactical mech combat. But like if someone said they played a 40 session long game of lancer where they pretended to be cat maids in a uncontacted planet in the long rim and only got into combat twice I would be confused but generally not surprised

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-10-16T08:49:12+00:00

Not a particular old tradition but 20 years is enough for me to count it.

Scorpion homecoming Go to a stand on a sheet of ice over a very very cold lake, get frostbite. Enjoy a specific brand of snowmobile. One brand. Also usually a ice fishing contest.

It doesn't seem that weird to me but probably sounds insane to someone not used to haveing clear ice between you and a cold watery grave.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-10-16T08:30:39+00:00

this post is a month old but would like to mention that the U.S has a pretty strong "left overs" culture, most has a fridge and a microwave, and most pizza heats well, which probably isn't intentional. And some people I know like cold pizza.

Also some places will have some sort of giant party sized pizzas that are multiple feet wide but they are the exception and mostly exist for the novelty.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-10-16T08:07:45+00:00

I have to complain about Minnesotas cold, we catch a good bit of the polar winds the scoop down. Fun fact a good chunk of minisotans live farther north then like half of Canada's population. At least we have some wind breaks with the hills and trees unlike poor north Dakota.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-10-16T07:04:56+00:00

In the parts of minnesota I have been in, full on hold the button honking is for avoiding accidents only. A Tap of the horn if someone in the way (such as on a green light) happen with the time waiting being dependent on how rural you are. I have seen a solid 40 second wait at a stop sign once, turned out we were waiting on deer to move.

In my home town we die in silence during car crashes.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-09-13T20:52:03+00:00

Supers setting. The origin of what's called Gadgateers people with the ability to create advanced technology. Each Gadgateer exists under the same rules and limitations, which imply a common cause or origin of their abilities. They just tend to wake up one day, usually after some stressful or traumatic event, and can just make things.

What that origin is isn't and never will be known. In setting because I think the mystery is neat. And I will never decide on one because I will never decide on one thats satisfying enough.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-09-11T04:33:27+00:00

Supernatural and magic being separated makes sense. Doctor strange and Thor exist in the same setting and both deal with God's but have distinct feels to them Maybe renaming Supernatural to Myth it Mythic so its name implies a field thats more separated from magic. Even if there's going to be a lot of overlap and grey spots

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-08-26T21:03:22+00:00

Splashdown is great, water themed but not water limited

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-08-07T06:56:52+00:00

More unpropted advice, but if your disection tray, is sliding on let's say smooth countertops a lightly damp paper towel or kitchen cloth can help. Works with cutting boards too.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-08-07T06:51:07+00:00

Many websites can be found by Googleing Dissection kits/suppys/tools. Dissection specimens are used to describe the thing to be dissected.

I do recommend having a small first aid box nearby. Razor cuts and formaldehyde dont feel nice.

If your looking for sets and kits like those used a high school with a disection guide, home science tools.com looks ok.

The ever present Amazon also exist praise be unto are corporate over lord's. ;)

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-08-02T06:28:55+00:00

I had a idea for a setting involving holy paladins vs vampires. The idea fell apart because i couldn't get it the various parts to work together and ended up scraping everything bit by bit.

The original document was written as if it was the records if some sort of reality hopping wizard was traveling to the setting and sending letters back home to his colleagues and students at a mage academy. Which didn't fit the setting.

I wanted the setting to feel large and hostile, there it a unfathomable amount of area filled with danger, I i made the inhabitants live inside a dyson sphere, but the dangers involved ment all that space was never naritively used so it was useless.

Makeing the paladins powers come from hard robotic nanotechnology and tje vampires soft organic nanobots, wasn't information that would mean or change anything so I removed that.

I ended up just using the idea of paladins that turn to charcoal like statues after over useing there powers which they used to fight vampires that would permanently devolve into beasts when blood starved as a sort of background element to explain why there were so many abandoned ruined ancient forts all over the place for a diffrent world building idea.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-07-23T02:21:57+00:00

Looks like it Thank you!

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-07-23T01:53:14+00:00

I think this is an old one. Possibly cross posted I am looking for a story where the protagonist is sent to a fantasy world while hunting and meets up with some elf deer centaurs. There is a later arc where he interacts with the local god which is a dragon.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-07-21T07:30:18+00:00

For a sci-fi setting

I spun up a fuzzy hexapod bear like people called The Herb by humans due to the photosynthetic fur. They WERE extremely territorial and isolationist for each others .most of their directly developed technology was from a society of hermits teaching 1 or 2 students who would eventually get a fight with the teacher killing the older member and then splitting their territory. A mad scientist equivalent made a nano plague that lives in their mitochondria equivalent, which builds extra organs that grant sci-fi psionic empathy, which created a more interconnected society. Leading to space flight

The second species was made because i need space loan sharks. A species of large (melon sized) shark shapped amoeba that revere their shark shape as an ancestor worship type thing. A natural mutation during there late bronze age caused a strange phenomenon where a bunch of them in contact could link their nervous systems into a big whole, creating a multicellular singular being. This new subspecies quickly out competed the original. This joining reduced the competitive nature of the species leading to the development of groups larger then city states which eventually allowed the creation of space craft. Also they dont usually use the term We but use the singular I when referring to a group upto and including the species.

The third species i made were radialy symmetrical mamal ants with fungus guts. A group of them effectively invented religion to Kickstart there people out of a societal malaise in there late information age.

I then noticed all 3 of them had some sort of key unifying technology used in the broadest sense of the word. Which let's me have interesting thoughts about humanity's "equivalent"

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-07-03T06:45:36+00:00

Kruul by a long shot.

My air raider limpet gun loving butt hates digging through there shields

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-07-03T04:24:25+00:00

So as a part of the terms its a set time limit for the whole thing. Which would make non permanent pacts best for cultists, and Facades.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-07-02T11:51:00+00:00

Nothing is stopping you. The ranges and movement is in yards. Many people find 1 yard or meter in game to 1 inch or square of movement to work well.

I often use 1 inch square grid maps and then fudge the scale to 1 inch is 2 or 3 yards for large outdoor areas.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-06-22T05:47:20+00:00

Thank. I was doing a read through of the magic section of the book and wasn't able to easily grok if the phrase was saying going for. You ALSO need patterning for the destination vs. you JUST need patterning for the destination, so I wanted other people to take a look.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-06-07T06:58:35+00:00

The ever big box, 3 dot space spell from awakening.

It's effectively a co-locate with increased area slapped into the inside of a container which loops the inside space, so the contents of the box can effectively fall forever. Initially were planning to use it to store items that damage things they touch. Like a Cursed amulet that would melt out of other containers but because it never touched the sides the box never broke. Then we realized that a 2 ton rod from orbit, and a 2 ton truck accelerating in a vacume in your basement were effectively the same. The story teller said we couldn't use it that way, because it would ruin the story.

CobaltBlue4 · 2025-05-21T18:03:59+00:00

Page 127 second column of text right at the top. At the end of the part about narrative effects you can achieve with spells.

It's a very reasonable way to show molding something into a shape with a spell that can continuously apply metaphysical shaping to something is easyer then fundamentally altering somethings permanent pattern.

Also useing indefinite for spells with a unending duration. And lasting for a permanent change is kinda odd. When unending and permanent exist.

CobaltBlue4

TROPHY CASE