Sonder Guards

guard by Allon Kremer

1. Saveck One-Arm: keeps a shield strapped to his armless side and prefers a spear. His family lives in the city but he doesn't like them, he's very proud of his vivid red belt, and he likes to learn new songs but only if someone else mentions it first.
2. Marq Lucard de Swain: son of a local baron who has joined the guard because of some private dispute within the family. The youth's fellow guards show little love for him despite his best efforts, perhaps because of his naturally scowling countenance.
3. Xom Girmjow: veteran from the war, she uses a mace and sometimes limps while patrolling, but is disdainful of offers to help. Tattoos peek out from beneath her close-shorn silvery hair, as well as her eyepatch.
4. Uthgar Svenson: a huge man from colder seas, he carries a long axe and grins as he scans the crowds, eager for a fight more than anything. Wary of a rumor that he once killed someone in a tavern brawl, he will adamantly deny it.
5. Sandragora the Kid: newly recruited veshkin with sapphire eyes and a spear she clutches as if it were a totem of safety. She also keeps a bag of letters from her parents at all times, and loves the smell of a freshly cooked meal.
6. Rath Zakaj: foreigner from a strange land, he wields a curved sword and is always leaning on something. Watchful and careful, he mostly grew up locally and is very familiar with the streets culture, but still feels ostracized.
7. Golm Zuster: night guard with a great interest in astrology. Easily distracted by constellations between the clouds, but has a very poor understanding of the stars. Keeps a copper mirror and tries to keep his appearance decent when anyone approaches.
8. Zel Moru: a silent figure who wears a loose, form obscuring blue tunic. Wields a pentagonal shield and a polearm with a crescent shaped blade, and has a scar across their throat. Some say they practice sorcery, but wouldn't dare say such a thing to their face.
9. Ghunt Morrel: grumpy since he was charged with assaulting a citizen, he wears an odd pointed hat but doesn't like to talk about it. Wields a voulge and never sits still, often pacing near the grocery markets.
10. Silmarrot Fil: broad, friendly woman who always seems merry, and likes to offer drinks in conversation. Weapons are her hobby, and while she loves to examine exotic or unusual specimens, an impractical design will only irritate her.
11. Sangul the Blind: an aging man who follows his dog. The beast is clearly the one in charge, having long learned how to manipulate the man. He likes to hear myths, and the dog usually trusts anyone who feeds it before speaking.
12. Sevna Karsit: says she is the only one in her family to have survived a bandit attack while travelling. Horrific scars across her right arm bear testament to the story, and she now favors the left. She has snake fangs tattooed around her mouth, and is extremely vicious but controls her impulses.
13. Barrez the Mountain: a small man from a village high in the mountains, who never parts with his climbing pick or pitons. He is allergic to feathers and uses a pig's bladder filled with water as a pillow.
14. Shinish Vareen: nearly died from a drug overdose a little while back, and her eyes are always open uncomfortably wide. Since recovering, she seems to possess uncanny reflexes and says she can see a moment into the future. She carries three daggers in addition to her halberd, and wears a lot of simple jewelry.
15. Nelixus: only, always goes by Nelixus, denying any attempt at a nickname or title, and rebuking efforts to discover his surname. Known for his pretty face and slight frame, he dislikes masculine affections. Seems to have a different color of trousers for every day of the week, and keeps a spare shield stashed near his post.
16. Traev Summicks: always on their toes because they're nervous of being seen as a country bumpkin. Hard to confound because they'll simply ignore complications, but they get easily confused if the situation becomes hectic, and are likely to seek help from their sister who is also a guard.
17. Sprin Vallen: feeds the crows, but hasn't noticed that they always call out to alert him whenever he's about to be surprised, be it by an ambush or simply a townsperson with a soft step. He would do practically anything for a jar of honey, and wears a strange chainmail with links that look like gears.
18. Oasten the Broad: a wide-shouldered woman with somewhat thin looking arms for her frame. Carries an old bell at all times that one might think is sentimental, but she uses it often as a makeshift tool or cup. Licks her lips whenever she sees a rainbow, fantasizing about the piles of gold she truly believes lie at the end.
19. Dorels Larce: an extremely short woman who carries a white ceramic jar but never opens it, and protects it fiercely. Despite her size she can jump higher than anyone else in the guard, and she uses a crossbow but carries an axe in case an enemy gets too close. Diligently reads philosophy, but feels embarrassed about it, and carries a grudge with parents she hasn't spoken to in a while.
20. Lemmer Sepstav: a long-limbed guard who lives with their parents. Secretly makes a monthly pilgrimage to an abandoned temple out in the wilderness. They own an exotic blade that they take good care of, but only take a simple ranseur out on patrol. Tries to avoid looking at anything colored purple due to a superstition.

Red Guard by Brian Matyas

These are for rolling when the players want to walk up to a guard. Most likely they won't really pay attention to the details, but sometimes they may take an interest and go off on a new adventure which I've tried to give at least a bit of a starting point for, or just make a friend. I'll be working on lists for other kinds of characters such as shopkeepers, smiths, and other merchants later.

Sketch by Anastasia Ovchinnikova

The beasts may challenge our gods

This is part of a GLOG community project to make rules for fighting and playing as kaiju (if you can believe it), proposed by Arkos over at Tome of Dreams. Some parts were quite a challenge, but it's the kind of challenge that you really want to rise up to, and I can only hope that I did a good job.

Skullcrawler by Dope Pope

Titans: gargantuan forms of incredible power. Easily as large as two houses, more powerful than any human but slow in their enormity. Titans have titanic vigor and deal 1d6 titanic damage with their attacks, each of which is six times normal vigor or damage. Normal damage is not counted against a titan unless a single attack deals more than six damage, but both the titan and their human-scale opponent hit automatically. Making equipment or items for titans is impossible outside of a large city or somewhere with similar manufacturing potential, and all items cost 100 times as much money. Titans move along titan tiles, each of which is 30 meters square, but can only act on every third round in combat.

Titan suits: what we might think of as 'mecha,' each needs a human crew piloting it in order to fight effectively. At minimum a pilot is required, but works best along with a gunner and engineer, often with room for secondary pilots, gunners, and engineers as needed. Each pilot can spend their turn either moving or turning, and gunners can only target enemies roughly in front of the suit. When titanic weapons are fired, the gunners must spend a turn reloading them, unless they have a secondary gunner to reload immediately as they fire, and each weapon requires gunners manning it. Engineers can field repair damaged systems, one per round. After the battle, vigor and system damage must be repaired properly for 25 gold each.

quasi medieval wooden mech by Lukasz Dudasz

Kaiju: independent titanic monsters. They must seek out huge quantities of food at a relatively slow rate thanks to their large, slow metabolism. They only need food once a week, but are sated by no less than 100 times what a human would eat in a day (generally 20 gold worth of food, or another giant monster). In melee combat against another kaiju they must use combat stances.

Kaiju

Each level requires 10 times the normal amount of exp
Stat bonus: +1 maximum Megaton

Starting skill: builder, climber, or survivalist

Level 1: a titanic monster!, only one thing can stop it!
Level 2: it's heading towards..., there on its back!
Level 3: its mouth is opening...
Level 4: strangest of all..., it's so... powerful!

A titanic monster!: your huge body has titanic vigor, and your claws, teeth, enormous fists, a casually lifted vehicle, or however else you choose to attack, deals 1d6 titanic damage.

Only one thing can stop it!: the sight of your weakness will halt you in your tracks, allowing only an attack or movement per turn while it is near. If it can damage you, take an extra die of damage.

1. Fire
2. Water
3. Beauty
4. Daylight
5. Blood
6. Wood

There on its back!: choose a set of limbs or protrusions, adding new mobility options. 

1. Expansive wings: they unfurl like the sails of a massive ship, blotting out the sun as they carry you beyond the earthly plane.
2. Myriad legs: pulling aside dirt or sand, allowing you to travel underground through any soft earth.
3. Translucent fins: along with gills, allowing you to travel freely underwater.
4. Loping arms: bending down around your body, able to propel you twice as fast as other titans.
5. Gelatinous bones: compress your body down to fit through any space two horses could fit in. While compressed you cannot fight properly.
6. Shimmering eggsac: consume one Megaton to place eggs where you are. They have 1 titanic vigor, but as long as they aren't destroyed and you don't place new eggs elsewhere, you can evaporate into dust, hatching fully formed from the eggs in an instant.

Squid Kaiju Baby by Roger Gerzner

It's heading towards...: determine what source will power your preternatural might. Each time you find a great enough source, gain one Megaton. You can spend your turn to consume one Megaton and heal 1d6 of your titanic vigor.

1. Magical energy: a legendary artifact or order of lesser mages.
2. Lightning: a lightning bolt, or an alchemical engine like unto a modern power plant.
3. Heat: a few blacksmith forges or a flow of lava.
4. The adoration of children: spend a day catering to a group of children.
5. Blood: a village worth of people, or a herd of large animals.
6. Gold: 60 gold coins, or two kilograms of gold.

Its mouth is opening...: consume one Megaton to use a breath attack on your turn.

1. Incendiary tongue: heat like the fires of hell blast from your maw, spilling out into a cone up to 90 meters away, dealing 2d6 titanic damage.
2. Hyperborean breath: your exhalations frost over all before you, up to 60 meters away, dealing 1d6 titanic damage. Anything that would be killed by this damage is instead magically frozen, protected by ice unless shattered or thawed. 
3. Voice of the storm: a bolt of lightning cracks forth from your throat, darting into one target of any size up to 120 meters away for 2d6 titanic damage.
4. Venomous belch: cough noxious clouds over the puny creatures below, filling a 90 meter square area centered around you with poisonous gas for 1d6 rounds, dealing 1 titanic damage to anything in it each round except yourself.
5. Crystal seed teeth: gnash and spit teeth about, sprouting great crystal trees that impede and fill up to three tiles adjacent to you.
6. Frenzy brood: spit out tiny young, 1d6 monsters with 1 titanic vigor each, which deal 1 titanic damage with their attacks. They are as small as horses, and will die after 6 times 1d6 rounds.

Godzilla vs Kong fan art - Nuclear Breath by Jonathan Opgenhaffen

Strangest of all...: select one final mutation, either from the list below or from either previous list.

1. Immortal conception: a week after being killed, consume all Megatons to give birth to an infant kaiju who is helpless for a month. It can move and eat if food is provided for it, and after the month it will grow back to its previous size, one level lower. Each Megaton absorbed in this state hastens maturation by a week.
2. Axe scales: anything touching your skin takes 1 titanic damage.
3. Living mountain: consume one Megaton to wreathe your body in impenetrable stone, gaining +3 titanic defense for ten rounds. Normal sized attacks will be unable to damage you at all during this time.
4. Lifebringer: consume one Megaton to send out a cloud of healing spores, healing every living thing within 100 meters for 1 titanic vigor.
5. Neural link: take a weapon or limb from a defeated titan and attach it to your body. It will last for 1d6 days or unless destroyed in some other way, and you can use it as freely as the original host could.
6. Explosive growth: consume one Megaton to double in size for 1d6 rounds. While in this state, you occupy an extra tile and deal +2 titanic damage with normal attacks.

It's so... powerful!: consume one Megaton before picking a combat stance. If this attack hits, it will deal 3d6 titanic damage.

Enemy Kaiju

Night of Silk
A circus once used tents inhabited by spirits to make their travel easier. They brought on more of these spirits, easing their way and filling the nights with whimsical shows of floating lanterns, dancing dresses, and nervous but exotic beasts. The spirits started to collect more spirits, more tents and decorations that could dance with them, until they had swallowed up their mortal stewards and drifted into the sky, captivating one audience after another.

Shirintu the Blight
A dragon captured by a wartorn kingdom. She was cursed, mutated, and enchanted to create the ultimate war beast, but inevitably shattered her bonds and destroyed her longtime tormentors. Her breath is cursed green flame flecked with shards of red glass, and her body is speckled with venomous pustules and red needles.

Grulputh
A god of goblins, or godlin. It is a gibbering, spaztic, conniving coward, and it is taller than a windmill. Somehow this sickly green menace always manages to hide its huge body, and sees fit to rob peasants and leave huge traps hidden in the woods.

Other participants

Arkos at Tome of Dreams: https://tomeofdreams.blogspot.com/2020/03/kaiju-challenge-gigantes.html?m=1
The Byzantine at Espharel: https://espharel.blogspot.com/2020/02/osr-kaiju-rules-and-class-kaijui-barely.html
deus ex parabola at Numbers Aren't Real: https://as-they-must.blogspot.com/2020/02/giant-monster-i-hardly-know-ster-glog.html
Lexi at A Blasted, Cratered Land: https://crateredland.blogspot.com/2020/03/giant-robots-deserve-giant-monsters.html

Blank space and mechanical fluff

Perhaps my favorite part of any character sheet is the 'appearance' section, especially if it has an area for drawing a character portrait.

People should be allowed and encouraged to engage in creative pursuits, irrespective of technical skill, and it helps them to explore the character. Likewise, when I'm having trouble fleshing out a character, it can really help to have some guidance or framework to start with. To this end, part of the character creation process in my game generates connections to the larger setting, along with open-ended questions inviting further worldbuilding on the player's end.

one million by Lois van Baarle

It's important to have this kind of blank space, and sometimes it's necessary to point players toward it. Some games try to make every part of character development mechanical, and I generally find that to be a very clumsy, unhelpful approach (generally mind you, there are exceptions) much like trying to mechanically simulate every physical element of a fight or adventure. Oftentimes it's best to just leave the relatively unimportant details up to the players, they can reason a situation intuitively or come up with interesting details for themselves.

Part of this is how magic users in Skies Below must keep an arcane focus to use their magic in combat. This can be any item they possess, such as a wand, tome, or lute, or even such items as a hat, flaming sword, or key. The arcane focus doesn't do much mechanically, besides adding some tension if it gets lost or stolen, its main purpose is to make the player think about their magic, what it looks like and what it says about their character. A character who casts magic through a musical instrument might think of their character as sort of a bard, or one with a blanket may think of that as a shelter the character has held onto their whole life.

Tavern Hijinks by Lap Pun Cheung

Now I'm extending this philosophy to some of the martial classes. In order to enter rage, a berserker must perform a brief, ritualistic action such as eating a certain food or calling out a warcry. Similarly, to use their cooperative abilities, the infantry must use a team name that the party has agreed on. These mostly won't impact actual gameplay, but will push players to add a bit of character building to their PCs, and the infantry's team name encourages them to talk to the other characters and really work together creatively.

Berserker rage ritual

1. Shout out "For mount and stone!"
2. Call out "Blood of the bloodmaker!"
3. Declare "By the skulls power!"
4. A quick, violent dance.
5. Don a fierce mask.
6. Remove a placid mask.
7. Swallow a flame.
8. Bite into shield.
9. Devour raw meat.
10. Drink personalized draught.
11. Anoint in sacred perfume.
12. Anoint in ash.
13. Anoint in honey.
14. Cut a rune into chest.
15. Shatter a clay disc.
16. Rip a sacred cloth.
17. Crush a soul cricket.
18. Crack knuckles.
19. Tear off shirt.
20. Clasp hands in a moment of meditation.

Holographic battle by Diana Tsareva

Killers, competitors, and pursuers

Hunters of Blades

The greatest of warriors can only live in a river of blood. They must cut their way through any who would stand in their path, and must cut away all who approach in challenge. So it is for they who hold the Final Knife, a powerful dagger which can pierce any target, feed on blood, and sustain its bearer. To a Hunter of Blades, this bearer is known as the Quarry, the mightiest among them and also the target of their order. They seek to slay the Quarry and take their weapon, by any means possible. There are many hunters, and only one Final Knife, though within the order are a number of artifacts in their own right, each possessing that same preternatural ability to sever. Any who pursue Shekull, the current Quarry, may call themselves a Hunter of Blades, but only those who have killed and claimed one of these artifacts is a true contender.

Blood Armor by Alexander J

Honor Bearers

The stronger a foe you face, and the greater of their strengths you strike against, the more honorable your contest. Long ago, the Mail of Honor was rent, each ring of the invincible chainmail separated and scattered far across the realm by means unknown and unimaginable. Each of those rings holds a tiny fraction of the mail's incredible power, but those who have gathered them cannot wear it until the day they unite them all. There is only one way to do this, they have found; through fair duels. The Honor Bearers have long known not to kill their fellows, as the links they hold will only flee and become lost once more. When two knights challenge each other however, they find themselves encircled in golden flames, and wielding similar weapons. The flames serve to bar escape or interlopers into the fight, and the weapons do no harm save for taking a link from whoever's flesh they first strike, and granting it to the victor. One can enter into this order by either finding a Link of Honor in the wilderness, or by convincing a knight to duel them despite yet bearing no links. It is said that whoever finally wears the Mail of Honor will become truly invincible and unstoppable, but they have contested for decades and none are closer to success than years more of victory.

Duel of the Fates by Zezhou Chen

Pursuants

Speak no oath unless it may be the last thing you say. There is power to be had if one seeks an old Appellant and slays them, power to be drunk from their clay skulls and eventually bled back into the Hungering Well when the slayer becomes and Appellant themselves. The well's Pursuants each have taken up a cause, and proven themselves worthy of its gift by defeating one of those half-living hosts, the remains of another who has fulfilled their own final duty to themselves, in doing so giving up that self to the means of another. The worth of those who aspire to quest must be challenged, for the failures leave the well's power to trickle out unattended, into the world beyond it. Perhaps once the well itself was some god, spirit, or knight, driven by its own willful purpose, driven eventually to seek power and become an eternal cycle of purpose, power, and exploitation. Now there is no means by which it can be gleaned whether this was ever true, or even if it still is seeking out some hidden goal.

Noble Lord by Dominik Mayer

The Trees Are Dreaming

In the realm of sleep, all things are as they dream. Even the smallest stone has dreamt eons into an immense and incomprehensible palace, while the fish have only half slept, leaving faint trails of malformed light. The trees have spent their years between slumber and half awake, and the eldest have formed great realms.

Fairy tree by Lisa Parfenova

1. Sea of dirt, so full and rich that a human could live on it, so long as they can stomach the taste.
2. Roots shoot across the ground, spearing through the dream's trespassers as easily as soil.
3. Malformed lumberjack with axes for fingers and saw blades for teeth, mindlessly hacking at the trunk and biting off branches.
4. The tree is immeasurably tall, reaching branches and leaves up to grasp around the sun. The light is dim and green.
5. It is gently raining without end.
6. Razor winds tear at leaves and branches, not a leaf can sprout without being ripped away.
7. Dusty, choking sand spreads as far as the eye can see, the tree is withered and struggling.
8. The air is choked with flying termites and aphids, swirling around the bitten, scarred trunk.
9. Lightning stings and rips away at the tree frantically, storming relentlessly.
10. Little misshapen dream-people rip off chunks of wood, crafting them into strange geometries which then begin to grow, setting roots and sprouting leaves, consuming the thieves that built them.
11. Branches reach out as far from the trunk as possible, but instead of leaves they sprout only flame.
12. The sun slides across the sky in unnatural directions, the tree twisting and warping itself as it tries to catch the light.
13. The ground is bark, sprouting branches and leaves indiscriminately.
14. An earthen tunnel, moist and warm, with roots above forming protective hands.
15. A seed tumbles down an endless hill, over sharp and rough stones.
16. An immense tree travels the dreamland, roots dragging the trunk swiftly along.
17. Snow is piled up on each leaf, burying the roots as ice coats the trunk and branches.
18. Fruit swell and fall from the branches, to be carried off by small half-recognizable rodents that gently plant them far away.
19. Many fruit drift above only empty air, many of them large enough to stand on.
20. A grove of ancient trees hum a low, haunting song that echoes across fields of swaying grass.

Worm Tree by Jason Borne

On the nature of things: what they are and why

Stone is the basic form of existence. It is hardy, colorless, and heavy, generally unmoving when left to its own devices. Color is what turns stone into other things, granting it growth, motion, reaction and other things, often at the cost of its immutability. The four colors infused purely into stone cause it to become either natural fire (orange), ice which melts into water (green), lightning (indigo), or oil (yellow). The art of sorcery is generally the manipulation of these colors, not necessarily the elements themselves, and often the more purely distilled the color is the harder it becomes to truly control. Lightning is an exception here, as its indigo power is rarely ever diluted and so there is much knowledge on manipulating it in that purest form.

Material studies by Torsten Gunst

Dread illusionists, the arcane deceivers, manipulate the image without touching the material at its core, controlling the color without the 'stone' as it were. This power is profane and can only lead to ruin.

Where color determines the properties of a substance, spirit is the form of it. Most materials have no spirit, and can thus be reshaped freely without losing their properties (it has been discovered that almost everything does in fact have a spirit, though it is usually quite rudimentary. The spirit of crystal, for instance, may be that it persists only in hexagonal patterns, an extremely simple spiritual form). Plants have slightly more defined spirits, and animals even moreso. Most animal species share a spirit with their kin, including humans, though the soul has a strong tendency to impact the spiritual form.

A soul is simply a more advanced, particular extension of the spirit, which is so developed only in humans and other thinking beings. Because of the unique and advanced ways it can develope, generally no two souls are alike, and this can have an impact upon the prospective spirits, often turning a human spirit into that person's spirit, a subtle but important distinction for those who practice shifting arts. It may be noted that animals cannot be cursed, and this is a simple product of their having no soul; a curse is a wound upon the soul, as much as any cut or bruise upon the flesh. Minor curses can be healed with mild bed rest, as they are shallow cuts and scrapes on the soul. Deeper, more powerful curses require careful, lengthy processes of healing. The holy powers of saints utilize this process, pulling spiritual energy into their soul and tearing away bits of it in order to grant that energy to their allies, and more experienced saints can even learn to utilize these rends in their soul offensively, attacking the souls or even the flesh of enemies.

The summoning sisters by Antoine Collignon

Much study has been done with regards to silver and the functions of undeath. It is clear that the undead are similar to the living afflicted with a curse, as can be seen with vampires, who were long considered undead despite often suffering no death between humanity and monstrousness. It is now consensus that undead are given malformed souls that eat away their spirit, granting something that is almost life but often far more finite. On the other hand, many cases of immortality are reached through undeath, perhaps with souls that are reinforced using parts of the spirit, malforming the body but keeping the mind alive indefinitely? Regardless this is perverse and unnatural, and no further writing should be done upon the subject.

Similar to undead, artificial souls are created when a golem is animated. Imprinting the holy word upon a tool forms a unique embossing of the creator's soul upon the spirit of the tool, which must have originally been crafted with intent. Naturally occurring objects can be used as tools physically, but they have no spirit for it and reject the artificial soul. Because of this, some claim that golemology is a darker, more unnatural art than necromancy, and will one day destroy us all! This is preposterous, golems are quite useful and docile, and have never destroyed anyone when used properly. It is possible that a fusion of necromantic and golemary arts could yield a living golem, capable of creating more of its kind... but this strays too far from the known and established.

Household Golems by Ben Wanat

Of course these findings are irrefutably true and thoroughly proven through rigorous testing. Any wishing to dispute or disprove this work may find their way best to a tavern, where they shall engage in discourse with any drink of their choosing.

Blood spilled

1. Hardens into the beginnings of a cathedral or bridge.
2. Sprouts into brightly colored flowers with black stems.
3. Shows an uncannily perfect reflection along its surface.
4. Hangs in the air, jagged and motionless as it sprayed.
5. Drifts in the air, gently bubbling and floating upward.
6. Squirms and crawls away in every direction like worms.
7. Draws together and swells upward into orbs.
8. Sways along with your own motions.
9. Ripples unnaturally, with strange spikes and patterns.
10. Shimmers with milky rainbows like oil.
11. Dries quickly into crimson ash, clumping into itself.
12. Reaches out with numerous tiny hands.
13. Opens eyes that watch the fight proceed.
14. Swirls around as though building toward a whirlpool.
15. Sinks into the ground, absorbed unnaturally fast.
16. Falls into a pattern like letters, completely unintelligible.
17. Shimmers with subtle internal light.
18. Casts a long shadow as if it were much taller.
19. Lands in a grid pattern of perfect squares.
20. Whispers loudly, but cannot be understood.

Creeptober Day 29 : Blood - The Bake-Kujira's Curse by James Gowing

Working on a much larger post, probably going to try and write larger, more elaborate posts that will take longer.