RPG Campaign Tour: Day 13 - "Where Can We Get a Drink and a Bite to Eat?"

Day 13 of the #RPGCampaignTour Challenge and need to rest and recuperate a bit: "Where can we get drink and a bite to eat."  So cover the few bars and inn of Riverbend.

1) The Slackwater (Inn)  - A bit further uphill from the business district and the other bars, The Slackwater is the only official inn in town.    The structure is stone on the lower floor, all timber above.  The guest ledgers go back decades.. even though there are noticeable gaps.  This isn't a place of heavy drinking or fighting, save the other establishments for all that.   Drinks are available to patron, as well as as a large cauldron for stew, which has been cooking non-stop for as long as anyone remembers.

The Interior of the Slackwater 

2) The Bent Oar - More casually called the "Bent Over," it's a low creaking building populated with the regulars in town: farmers, laborers, and most who don't want any questions, and can handle their own if there's any trouble.  Drinks are cheap, and the food if just different enough that the patrons don't want to go home to eat.   It is best known for their nuggies, typically crafted from mutated creatures like plump squiggles, oversized insect larvae, or rat-birds. These strange animals are raised or hunted for their edible flesh, and their taste varies from mildly sour to an oddly sweet and savory blend. The flesh is chopped or ground up to a paste that somewhat resembles old-world meat, then shaped into nugget-like forms.  If you order them, specifically ask for the mushroom paste AND glow sauce to go with them. 

The second most famous thing at the bar is Delaney, one of the servers.  

3)  The Leaping Drunken Keg is the newest tavern, and most popular with the travelers and outsiders.  It is run by Squiggles' daughter, Sophie the Keg.  The food is passable, and the selection of drinks quite impressive for a podunk dive bar. 

Next: #14 - 

(Painting) Dinks (Vellori Cult) from Battle Valor Games

I've previously painted up some the "Vellori Cult" Troopers from Battle Valor in the style of a somewhat popular movie franchise.  I realized during the process that the figures bear a closer resemblance to the Dinkfrom Spaceballs!

Queue some Deco Art Rich Espresso Metallic Paint, and I didn't have to break out glitter....

SCI-FI 36B Aliens "Vellori Cult" Troopers

Now, how they got from the moon of Vega to Death Planet Iota is anyone's guess....

In the Queue - Mummies, Teddy Bears, and a full cantina of characters I'll paint and present collectively.

Project: 350 - Post #CharacterCreationChallenge swelling, up to 451 (284/167)  from 439 (283/156).  I finally added some holiday filler, a few entries into next year's #CCC. 

RPG Campaign Tour: Day 12 - What Do People Do for Entertainment?

The quest for adventure in the #RPGCampaignTour was short lived, as our tour guide users are already asking, "What do people do for entertainment around here."  

There's only one major event that brings everyone from the four corners... and even beyond the Big River Valley:  The Fair-Town Queen's Joust

Every June, Fair-Town is completely true to form, with the Renaissance Fair influences in full effect.  Vendors crowding the streets, crafts and entertainers... People pour out of their little pocket communities safely hidden in the forests and hills and a grand time is had by all...

And that week ends in a two-day jousting tournament, for fame, for domars, and usually for a unique item of the Queen's choosing.

The Queen of the Joust.... definitely not of Fair-Town

In it's previous year, the pageantry of the joust remained, but the new gladiator combat arena drew a lot of the less civilized guests. 

Any lifeform is allowed.  Any mount is allowed, so long as it (a) does not fly (b) fits on their side of the jousting pitch (b) does not impede either participant using their standard issue lance.  

If you are looking for a time when all races, groups, and creeds get together, the Queen's Joust is the place to be.  

There is already talk, eight months out, if Lathar Bracken and his trusty Staggon mount No-Name can win a third joust in a row, after dealing with a murderer's row last time involving a stone golem, his ex-girlfriend, and his then-fiancée, currently his pregnant wife.  

There may be other criminal or immoral activities that occur under the banner of the Queen's Joust, but the reader is always advised to avoid traveling alone, and always keep that companion nearby.  

Next: #13 - Where Can We Get a Drink and Bite to Eat?

(Kickstarter) War Pigs: A GMless TTRPG of Chaos and Goblins by Caroline from Side Quest #ZineQuest

Over the last years, February has meant the glut of small and smaller press books on crowdfunding in celebration of #Zinquest.  I'll admit I've been distracted by the #RPGCampaignToolChallenge , but in my review of the first eleven days of the camapign, there's not much on Kickstarter that interests me, or even gets to motivated something cool.

Luckily War Pig: A GM-less TTRPG of Chaos and Goblins has stopped that pattern.  

WAR PIGS is a chaotic, two-stat GMless TTRPG about goblins navigating through elvish enemy lines to get back to their own army base. It's based on Honey Heist, Nine Goblins, and a whole lot of goblin jokes.
U are goblins in an army of goblins. U ride into battle on your greatest weapon... WAR PIGS.

RPG Campaign Tour: Day 11 - Where Would We Go to Find "Adventure"?

We're already at Day 11 of the #RPGCampaignTour Challenge  for my Gamma World campaign "This Is Not a Test" and the questions start gearing towards true heroism... or full-fledged murder hoboism

Riverbend, Ascension Hall, home of the Restorationists.  Ask for Justinian. 

For a secret society bent on bringing back the old ways via its technology, the Restorationists are almost transparent to the citizens of Riverbend.  Their current focus has been hiring groups for discovery and research within the lands across the Big River.  

Justinian

Dr Sonny Helianthus has developed a healthy and respectful relationship with the leader of the Restorationists, and has been offered better perks than his human counterparts, so the society is not biased towards plants or animals.   Of course, they don't know just how many mini-tactical nukes were detonated under Sonny's watch.

Day #12 - What do people do for entertainment around here?

The Cold Wars 2026 Review Collection

Another Cold Wars, another goose egg for the Stout Gnomes.   We all had different reasons, but none of us ventured down to Lancaster for Cold Wars 2026.   Actual reports are as sparse as the attendance.  Let's be honest, it wasn't promising when you take the tournaments out of the Lampeter room, and you swap them with the bloody dealer's hall.  

But I'm always one to review reports, and here's the ones I've found thus far.  It's a work in progress, so I'll add the other ones as they appear. 

 
Bill's Wargame World - Thursday

Bill's Wargame World - Friday
Bill's Wargame World - Saturday

Le Coq Fou

One of My Men Became Restless - Saturday

The Wachtmeister's Patrol - Friday

The Wachtmeister's Patrol - Saturday

Still prepping for a big weekend at Historicon in July, events should be posted shortly.  

RPG Campaign Tour: Day 10 - What's the First Thing We Should Do?

 Day 10 of the #RPGCampaignTour Challenge finally kicks off utilizing the tour guide format in my Gamma World campaign "This Is Not a Test" with "What's the first thing we should do?"

Except I didn't dive down into places to eat, or sights to see....

I relegated this question, and others, to the players in the Gamma World campaign in the last half of our session, and got some replies that were way too practical.

"Figure out your place in the world."

"Invest in a sword... or running shoes."

"Find Friends for Cannon Fodder."

Which brings up Slitheran Wurmtail, aka "Squiggles,"  the only character in any of my campaigns who jokingly created his own entourage.

My friend Steve is notorious for unique characters who push, but never break boundaries in game.  I should not have shown any surprise when he announced he wanted to play a mutant earthworm, for displaying any such reaction is a sign of weakness he gleefully feeds off of. 

Squiggles is a five year old earthworm, middle aged, we figured out.   Born and raised by himself in Riverbend, he's been a permanent fixture at Farmer Yulius' farm outside of town.  He befriended Sonny Helianthus, a mutant sunflower living at the farm, and they quickly became part of the De Facto Explorers.  

Squiggles has been true and steadfast member of the Explorers, although he does have one particular fault.  When the group is at the Fair-Town Queen's Joust, Squiggles is hiding in the shadows and burrows with other mutant worms, "getting their freak on).  

After two wild, multi-day soirees with his wormkind, Squiggles has twice found himself... pregnant.  

Research was done on many things about earthworm reproduction, and since it was Gamma World, we turned much of it on its ear.   Squiggles has became a "Manchi" to over 100 baby worms these past two seasons.  Many did not survive the first month, being eaten by animals, birds, livestock, or simply perishing in the chaos of early life.    There are but a handful of the first litter of worms, ranging from bar managers to mobsters, to the militia members, Speedy and Poppy, who are currently travelling with the De Facto Explorers, into the desolate lands beyond KIA Academy.  

The second wave of offspring were much larger, but they sense to be a little more resilient.... Squiggles has also introduced many of that generation the mystical sounds and sensation of something he picked up in his travels.  Something called... bongos. 

So if you do wander through Riverbend, head upriver, past Aspiration Hall, and soon you can here the drumming of tiny worms, staving off the predators that have killed so many of their kin.

.... and have we mentioned that Squiggles is pregnant once again?

Next: Day 11 - Where Would We Go to Find Adventure?