CalicoVisions tells us about his game system and setting Psychomortis. The game is constructed to challenge players and characters to look inside themselves to find what's really important to them. In the far future the Earth has suffered from the arrival of the Iris which caused vast changes across the world. PCs are trapped beneath the Earth in a vast maze known as Pandora's Labyrinth.

China: the RPG frontier. These are the voyages of the Isaac Shaker. His continuing mission: to explore strange new TTRPGs; to seek out new systems and new supplements; to boldly go where many have gone before! I read through Do: Fate of the Flying Temple while on vacation. It uses the Fate system to simulate a Chinese story and setting.

Location Lizardfolk live in and around the waterways of Cimmeria. The most popular locations are Danar's Swamp, Demeter’s Garden, and the Aractrashan Jungle due to the high number of crisscrossing tributaries in those regions. Lizardfolk live around all of the many rivers in Cimmeria, but there are higher concentrations around the Black River and the Long River. Troglodyte populations roughly mirror their aboveground cousins with tribal communities located below these same spots in the Underdark.

I talked with Aaron Ryan about two of his book series, Dissonance and The End. Dissonance is a near future world where aliens have attacked, killing most humans and animals on Earth and driving humans into hiding underground. Humans finally develop technology to fight back and the war enters a new stage while the characters also struggle to determine the motivation for the alien invasion and nefarious actions of the government.

History Lizardfolk existed in Cimmeria long before the Conclave races arrived. Goblin oral histories make no mention of when lizardfolk arrived, indicating they were always present. Lizardfolk have no extant written records of their own to indicate their history. It seems as if they were always in Cimmeria since the creation of the Earth. Lizardfolk rarely feature prominently in modern Cimmerian history.

Hey folks! Did a little more writing and finished Chapter 11. I'm still estimating 4 more chapters plus a short epilogue. Chapter 11 - Shrine of Artemis (Continued) Galandir held the strap of his pack and said, “Should we take anymore of those silver swords?” The group had hiked quickly back to the spindle structure. Whatever adlishars survived the initial attack must’ve perished at the sacred pool.

Physical Description Lizardfolk are anthropomorphic lizard people. While they have lizard features, their internal metabolism is warm-blooded. Their size and weight vary between different subraces, but all lizardfolk have impressive muscularture. Similarly, the scale colors of lizardfolk vary between subraces. All lizardfolk have head crests that move according to their emotions. At their bottoms, lizardfolk have tails ranging from three to five feet long.

The next Setting the Stage Patreon Drop has arrived! A nice T-Shirt for people ready to go on an adventure! You can get your T-Shirt by signing up for the Setting the Stage Patreon: If you want additional shirts or you want to buy them without joining the Patreon, you can also purchase them directly using this link: Thank you for supporting the podcast by listening or subscribing and Happy Holidays!

Sensei Suplex joins us to talk about his campaign, Project Aurora. Suplex started Project Aurora in college with some friends. They agreed to have a few different campaigns done by different DMs to all exist within the same shared world. Suplex transitioned to paid DMing and the world expanded beyond that into a huge RPG experience with dozens of DMs and thousands of people playing, all in a shared universe.

I read through Wushu in my continuing quest to read all Chinese wuxia inspired games. Wushu is an independently published game that you can get for free. Very simple rules and art, but sometimes that's all you need. The game is available directly on the author's website or as a downloadable PDF. The PDF is formatted for easy reading on a phone or tablet with giant text, silhouette images, and not much text per page.

I've completed National Novel Writing Month! (NaNoWriMo) 50,000 words in 1 month. Along with celebrating two family birthdays and Thanksgiving in the same month. November really isn't the best month for this tradition, is it? My typical yearly output* for writing on the blog is 30,000 words across 60ish posts. This challenge squeezed an extra 50,000+ into 29 posts. I'd finished my 50,000 words on the 29th and decided to take the 30th off.

Chapter 11 - Shrine of Artemis (Continued) Galandir turned and stumbled over a tree root. His pack threw him off balance. Tereman and Blendegad shrugged their packs off and drew their swords. The bear shoved the pile of bodies aside and stalked forward on two feet. It’s gigantic paws raised high to strike Galandir. It roared again. Galandir rolled out of his pack on the ground.

Chapter 11 - Shrine of Artemis (Continued) Galandir said, “I’ve already been making the offerings. It becomes second nature.” Blendegad said, “So that’s what you were doing? Every time you picked up an acorn and threw it you were giving an offering to Artemis?” Galandir enthusiastically nodded. “Exactly! You’ve got it.” Blendegad shrugged, picked up an acorn, and chucked it down the hillside they were walking on.

Chapter 10 - Phoenix (Continued) Tereman grunted in disagreement. “That’s not the same. A king or lord has the right to collect taxes to build and defend the city.” Blendegad said, “And what has the city ever done to defend the villages they tax? I was the one hunting down wolves and monsters.” “I told you before, your village could’ve asked Dalleer for help.

Chapter 9 - Hollow Rejoicing (Continued) Blendegad nodded. “Yes. I have that in Densmith. It is nice. To have… something.” Galandir said, “So the funeral in a few days. How are they going to do that without the bodies?” Tereman said, “It won’t be a real funeral. Grandma Blintz asked me to help as an acolyte of Zeus. We’ll be asking the gods to grant them an easy passage to the River Styx and a comfortable wait until they can be properly laid to rest.

Chapter 9 - Hollow Rejoicing (Continued) Stenvall pursed her lips and sat up straight. “Come!” said Tereman. “We’re all sharing.” “Fine.” Stenvall relaxed. “I grew up in the Orc Lands. My mother was an orc and my father was a human. The orcs have tribes, but we weren’t part of them. Life is hard without a tribe. No one cares if you live or die.

Chapter 9 - Hollow Rejoicing (Continued) Blendegad, Tereman, and Galandir kept looking back towards the northeast. The adlishars’ blue spindle structure was still out there. Still looking over the valley. Still threatening all of Cimmeria. They went into the monsters’ lair, but hadn’t really slain it. They were permitted to leave. Galandir remembered the stories of the Dragon War Heroes. He’d dreamed of being a hero that defeated evil and restored justice to a community.

Location Snakeshifters live in hiding across all of Cimmeria. Snakeshifter disguise magic is only a glamour and does not change their physical size. Thus, they live among races that are similar in shape such as humans, elves, orcs, and hobgoblins. Snakeshifters are found more frequently around and in Dalleer due to their past takeover of the city. The Aractrashan Jungle houses some snakeshifter led communities where they can live more openly.

Chapter 8 - Second Tries (Continued) Kardishan walked through the fire without burning or flinching. He came to the point of Galandir’s sword where the fire originated from. A thin barrier around Kardishan’ skin glowed. Protection magic, making Galandir’s own spell ineffective. Galandir released the spell. Exhausted, his arms dropped in front of him. The adlishar took a step back and struck a fencing pose.

Chapter 8 - Second Tries (Continued) The seven adlishars raised their hands to their foreheads. Tereman’s limbs couldn’t move. Fortunately he was used to this feeling and knew the solution. He’d said his prayer to Zeus before they began their trick. His hands were already free. Sweeping his hands across his body he escaped their magical bonds. Three adlishars advanced on Tereman.

Chapter 8 - Second Tries (Continued) “Is that… good for you?” Tereman worriedly asked. “Good for us right now.” Part of the wall to Tereman’s right disappeared. Behind was a hidden spiral staircase going up. A troupe of adlishars poured out of the opening armed with silver swords. Tereman and Blendegad raised their own swords in response. Tereman gripped his shield tightly in front of him.

Chapter 8 - Second Tries The quartet of adventurers looked down from the hillside at the shell structure once more. It remained as it had before, silent, imposing, and devoid of any external guards. The structure’s blue spindle loomed over the valley like an accusatory finger. Before the structure lay the battlefield. The bodies of the slain lingered where they had fallen.

There were some audio issues in this episode that we did our best to correct. Hopefully you can understand everything or close to everything! If you can't, you can always drop into the Discord to ask additional questions. The story of Godstorm starts 70 years ago when a fisher from the city of Gulia went deep into the ocean. He came back many days later covered in various marks.

Chapter 6 - Antidote to Adlishar (Continued) Galandir scratched his head. “Their magic armor…” “Yes?” “It wasn’t perfect. But I can’t figure it out. The first one I killed, I stabbed it through the chest. The duel with the leader… I did the same stab but his armor deflected it.” Tereman said, “Could his magic have been stronger?” Galandir said, “Maybe.