Riverboat Gambler: Encounters in Hogman's Plain

Tap the arquebus on the soft sand with enough force that the ball falls down the barrel. After a couple shots the bore will be fouled enough to require the ram, but if the next volley doesn't break the charging Mantids there won't be need for another.

  

Strike the earth 

Shovel the soft mud aside. By nightfall the sand will crawl and the camp must be completely encircled by the little canal to protect you. Damp earth is a portent of danger where you're from. An incipient flood, already too late to stop. On the plain it's a luxury. Perhaps you could rest a moment until it closes over your head. The water is dark. The water is black. 

 

Strike the earth

 

Your payday is cornered in its burrow. A fortified tunnel system with a trapped entrance, suicide to take by frontal assault. You stand on the outcrop over the grave and press your ear to the stone. Pound once, twice with a clenched fist. Brush aside the sand. Draw an X with your charcoal stick. Work fast with the pick, leave time for killing before the sun comes up. Brush the grit from your beard.

 

Strike the earth

 

These ones have ears. You don't have to stretch them out and work two at a time to take the heads.

 

Strike the earth 

 

You wanted to be a cheesemaker.

 

Strike the earth

 

Aim low to skip the ball off the ground. In the dunes the sand swallows the shot but on rock the bullets track flat surfaces. Into the ankles of the laughing men, beneath their manskin shields with metal plates sewn into the fabric.

 

Strike the earth 

Can the Hammerer punish a man if that man is an inert lump of clay? How many blows will it take?

Strike the earth 

The hyena shovels the scrimshaw bone into its mouth. The Caster sees this and lifts a finger to stop it but all the creature has to do is bite down. The cracking sound comes from somewhere inside your body. Inside your head.

 

If it's your leg they won't take you with them.

Strike the earth.

Unknown Armies NPC: Bartholomew Gates

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The Great Glass Mountain - Session Three

Valenta the Chain Knight, Tiber the Salt Knight and his squire Reme arrived at the Seat of Power on Sceptremas, the high holiday where the vassals of the realm renewed their loyalty oaths to the ruler. The Glass Mountain was a series of triangular spires, clad in white limestone so they shined in the summer sun. The jagged range of wavering peaks swept down to a white walled bailey overlooking a harbor at the end of a vast inlet, stretching south for leagues and widening until it was too far to see across from east to west. 

The Knights watched as ships from the Pearl Knight's domed cove tied up at the docks. The largest vessel beached itself on the pebbly beach, where teamsters waited with wooden rollers to haul it out of the water.

 

The Great Glass Mountain - Session Two

Valenta the Lost Knight and Tiber the Salt Knight tumbled down the hill, away from the shadows and away from Reme and the horses. Tiber bashed his head on a rock, leaving him addled and vulnerable. He asked Valenta if the Knight he rescued had escaped the shadows. She told him that it was so. He got up and looked around. The Squire would either double back and try to find them after losing any pursuers, or would climb to a high place to get a better view of the area. The Knights decided to do the same. Tiber was headed into the mountains anyway to find the shining thing atop the spire that he saw from the deck of the wrecked ship. The one the Pearl Knight denied was there.

The Lost Knight opened the locket she carried down the mountain with her, alongside her armor and longsword. Inside was a man she didn't recognize. Or couldn't name. The face was familiar. The white and gold clothing.

mellonbread reviews Starwater Strains

I wrapped the Starwater Strains collection a month or two back. I didn't believe the cover art was real until I actually had the book in my hands. I love Endangered Species but the best stories are squirreled away at the end and there are a lot of duds to wade through. Wolfe At The Door has some bangers, but also several stories I only enjoyed reading in conversation with his other work (and some juvenalia that's only worth reading out of historical interest). I think Strains strikes the right balance of rich-but-approachable. Like in At The Door the stronger entries are strategically placed to prop up the weaker ones so there's never a losing streak, and the longer entries are bookended by shorter ones so the reader never leaves exhausted.

As usual, I'll skip the summaries and go straight to my thoughts.

Mythic Bastionland Myth: The Flying Swords

 

The faithful five

The flying swords

High-hearted, fierce-fighting wind-warriors

The closer they get to the sun

The further they have to fall

Against Surprise?

I've been thinking about surprise attacks in RPGs. Rather than making up caricatures and laundering my opinions through imaginary critics, I'll go straight to listing some games and how they handle the subject.

Gencon 2025 Recap: Pickup Games

I ran two pickup games at Gencon 2025 for some friends. One was a familiar game and scenario, one I had never run before.

Gencon 2025 Recap: Scheduled Games

My Disco Elysium outfit. I promised #monumenthobbies I'd post this to my socials in exchange for a bottle of their Gencon jungle juice paint
 

Rapid fire play reports from my Gencon 2025 games. The scheduled games were reruns of old mellonbread adventures, so I'll just post what happened without digging deep into the context. Click through the links to get the full story about the scenarios.

(I'll do a little editorializing after each one).