The quest survey please do it everyone, great questions on there.
Thanks for giving us the option to strongly disagree to the "chosen one" bs and the "gods visit runescape" plotlines.
The story is so much more compelling as an observer (A powerful one, but still just some guy who's done some neat stuff) and the gods not being directly involved. Killing off multiple gods literally just ripped off the "call in to kill robin" trope and left some major continuity errors in the world that are still lingering in rs3.
That said, I wish there was a comment space for some of the questions. I feel like the Troll questline is kindof in a good space and we really need some of these older quest lines wrapped up so we can explore some new things. we're sitting on like 6 cliffhangers and the potential for some new bosses or content from those is amazing. I also saw at one point I think (Mod Ash?) talking about bringing back Nomad and that's a HARD no for me. The two events I remember souring the game for me at least was EoC and the "Nomad wall." Some people got really good RNG or had amazing gear, but for the majority of my friends and I, bleeding millions of gold in potions and yak tabs was not fun content. It seemed almost designed just to be a brick wall for anyone with a quest cape and relied HEAVILY on RNG. Fuck Nomad. Let his bald ass sit in a dead minigame where he belongs.
I feel like the white knight's storyline could button up into some sort of repeatable content (A quest based slayer type activity from Sir Tiffy Cashien? Missions of some sort feels like a great conclusion.)
DS2 was actually pretty great and so was Secrets of the North. We're kindof in a Majharrat year but i'd love to see maybe Dwarf or Fairytale finish out in the next year.
Penguin questline seems almost too goofy for osrs. It's a good fit for RS3 because of how weird that game is now, but i'd love it if that's one of the questlines they take in a totally different direction. IDK I feel like OSRS has a more adult tone compared to RS3.
Rocking Out was a solid quest and it was one of the last quests I remember fondly before quitting RS2.
Quest I would love to see come to OSRS or ones that weren't mentioned: Buyers and Cellars, an expansion of the demon slayer questline, first resort (who else remembers bandos pool before gwd runs?!), love story, void knight.
I'd also love to fight Jormungand again for some cosmetics. Maybe some fresh new fremmenik armor looks? Small boost to those sets would be interesting!
I'm always excited about new quests it's my favorite part of the game.

I'm considering some optional rules for my own hack of osr stuff that handles stuff from getting cuts, breaking bones, and even dismemberment of limbs.
I've seen stuff about dealing with such things when characters are at 0 HP THEN roll on a table. But let's say I wanna run a boss fight, with a troll for example, where the players can deal with the fight by hacking at its limbs, breaking its arms and potentially "de-clawing" it. Such a rule seems a bit anti-climactic as the troll would likely be dead before any cool, claw-removing cuts are performed (before you say it, I am aware of the troll's regeneration feature, I wanted to have an example boss-type monster).
So I'm curious if there's already a clean hack that deals with this kind of thing for osr. If not, what are your own methods for dealing with spontaneous injuries and dismemberment?

Every now and then when I would get bored, I'd take my pker out to the wilderness runite rocks and troll the bots and make some quick cash. I just got back into OSRS after about a year break, and these rocks are a ghost town. Did the bot farms get banned, or move on?

Audio Version: https://youtu.be/EXo8dAWpHZI
Text Version (5770 words, 2/3rds analysis and advice, 1/3rd context)
Jahn Gorfreyson is missing. He has been for some time. If he isn’t recovered, his partner and newborn daughter will be heartbroken. If the item he was delivering is lost, his guild could fall to ruin. And if the payment he was meant to collect isn’t returned, the kind man who hired him will never recover.
Hi everybody! This is the first episode of my new Campaign Diary, in which I will summarize and analyze a subset of the stories occurring in my Dungeons and Dragons Campaign. I have run the game for a little over 6 years and have been a player in maybe a dozen sessions. I have run 1 campaign that went from 1-20, and maybe we’ll talk about it someday. For now, we’re going to jump into my current campaign, a westmarches game following an adventuring guild on their many exploits.
SUMMARY
Our heroes, with an average of third level, are already somewhat dungeon-hardened when we begin our story. Four of them, Brixen the Ranger, Rotari the Wizard, Fennick the Barbarian, and Cinder the Druid, decide to lead the Armed Adventurer’s Guild on a quest to recover a missing member of the Messenger’s Guild.
Jahn Gorfreyson is missing. He has been for three months at this point. The party met with the Messenger’s Guild to form a profile of Gorfreyson. They discovered that Jahn is a son of Hermes, God of Messengers, and has incredible powers because of that. In addition to being able to cast Sending and an improved Phantom Steed once per day, he can also cast Speedy Courier once a week. He is one of the highest-ranking guild members, very useful for transporting valuable items and sensitive messages.
The party learns that the Messengers Guild was contracted by the Museum of Richol to transport a secret item; and paid handsomely for it. When Jahn began the delivery, every aspect of the job seemed standard a sensitive item. Two days after he left was the last time anyone heard from Jahn. He was about 400 miles north of the city, about 2/3rds of the way to his destination, making camp under the Giant’s Shotput. If the Messengers Guild is unable to recover either the artifact Jahn was moving, or the pay they were meant to collect, then the Guild will receive a Mark of Remittance, seriously endangering their exclusive rights to couriership within the city of Richol. They have already allowed a few freshly minted adventurers, from neighboring villages to go after him, but none have returned.
The party then investigates the Master of the Museum, Ivan Oharg, who hired Jahn. When they arrive, they find that the plaque reading “Master” above his office door has been scratched out. When they knock, they are met with a half-dressed scruffy dragonborn standing in front of a sleeping bag. Ivan has fallen on hard times since Jahn disappeared. After vetting the party with a Whip of Veracity, he trusts them enough to tell them What Jahn was delivering.
2023 years ago, Tiamat made her second attempt to dominate the material plane. After her first attempt, her spirit was torn asunder into 5 aspects, each encased in a crystal orb. When she reformed and emerged for her second attempt, she used the remnants of those now broken bindings to stabilize her physical form. After her destruction by the Obsidian Fisticators, a few of the pieces of those orbs were recovered. The Museum was selling one in a private, anonymous auction, as the mention of Tiamat is still likely to cause unrest among the populace. The auction was won with a bid of 14000 gold, guaranteed by the seal of a high-ranking noble in Bourntion. Jahn was hired to carry the fragment to the “Fiery Farms” 600 miles North of Richol.
After Jahn lost contact with Richol, Ivan was stripped of his title, had to refinance his home, and has been trying to cling to some connection to his former life. If either the payment or the item is returned, Ivan prays that he will be able to piece his life back together.
Lastly, before leaving the city, they met with Jahn’s girlfriend, his only known connection remaining in the city. Penelope was obviously struggling with the disappearance of her partner, but that pain was compounded by a baby born a month after Jahn vanished. Penelope is at her wit’s end. In desperation, she gives Fennick her boyfriend’s Scimitar of Speed in hopes that Jahn can help them in a fight should his return demand it.
After that, the party dealt with all the logistics of a possible 1200-mile journey. They knew roughly that their path would take them through a dense forest and that Brixen, with help, would be able to forage plenty of food for them to subsist off. Loading up their cart, and setting off on their newly purchased horses, the guild departed.
For the travel, we decided to have each week require a skill challenge. Because the forest was Brixen’s favored terrain, they started every week off with one automatic success. This was a grueling series of 4 skill challenges, one travelling over the plains, one through sparse forest, and two through a dense, primordial redwood forest. Through the fields they had no issues, collecting plenty of food along the way. In the forest, they began to dip into their emergency supply. As the traversed the first 150 miles of the Old Forest, they found themselves stalked by Owlbears, but when one attacked the caravan, it was barely scared off by Fennick’s Daunting Roar. Along the way they found a few interesting animals, like Eohippi, and a long-abandoned barrack built into a cave. When they arrive at Jahn’s last known whereabouts, a camp underneath the Giant’s Shotput, they found two clues to their search. The first was a blood-covered golden symbol of Sarenrae, surrounded by Owlbear tracks . The other was a set of tracks belonging to Jahn, running north before vanishing, as though he had mounted a phantom steed in a hurry.
Finishing their trek through the old forest, they noticed they were about halfway through their emergency supply, as the local owlbears had thoroughly eaten through everything in the path the party cut to get so far North. Climbing a tree, one of the heroes notices a wizard’s tower, shielded by illusions and emanating magical insects into the forest. They decide to ignore the tower, which was five or six miles East, and focus on the blackened, ashy expanse of farmland to the North. As they leave the guild on the outskirts of the forest as a form of backup, Brixen, Rotari, Fennick, and Cinder enter the Fiery Farms. Brixen and Cinder easily recognize several dozen varieties of drugs growing in meticulously manicured rows. Ephedrine, Poppy, Soma, Marijuana, and Tobacco grow exceptionally well, and plots are separated by paths of ash. Burn marks are still seen on the trees at the edges of this plantation.
As they travel the fields, Cinder casts Locate Object, focusing his will on the box Jahn was carrying, as he had a duplicate to amplify his senses. He determined that it was about a quarter mile underground, and as they approached a castle, he realized it was underneath the enormous keep.
They party was greeted by guards at the large portcullis, and only entrance, into the castle wall. They were interrogated, and explained they sought a messenger named Jahn who was travelling to this location. The guard, with glowing orange eyes, left to consult with the master. As the party stood quietly in front of the remaining guards, they saw how scrappy looking they were, not at all like normal guards. All their heads of hair had been singed close to the scalp and they each peered at the party with glowing orange eyes. Rotari noticed in the distance that there were several hundred field workers tending to the crops a mile or two North of the castle.
The party was escorted into the castle walls, where they relinquished their weapons before entering the great hall. Sitting on a throne, lazily stuffing his mouth with a handful of salad, and reading a book, the party saw a lithe elven figure. After kneeling and paying homage, he seemed to notice them, and invited them to dine with him. They party explained what they were after, and the Master, named Smolder, said he had been disappointed to never receive his item. A relic of anyone involved in the battle of Tiamat was quite rare, and he coveted it.
Smolder spoke with the party for some time, striking his servants on occasion for seemingly innocuous infractions, like not bringing his Abacus before he even asked for it. Throughout all this conversation, the party knew Smolder was lying through his teeth, but he was nonetheless magnanimous to them. He offered them housing for the night, in exchange for killing a Troll or two on their way out. He showed them around the castle and set off to bathe.
Now unsupervised, the party began pilfering Smolder’s library. They found several dozen books by a gnomish novelist named Steliad, each well-worn and published over the span of several centuries. Frustrated with the search, Rotari cast Detect Magic, which set off a fuse-like alarm. The party convinced a pair of guards they were permitted to use magic to help with their book search. Before the guards left, Cinder hugged one of them, and his eyes flickered from orange to blue for only a moment. Clutching at his coin purse, the guard ran off. Alone again, Rotari found a Manual of Bodily Health, a warded journal labelled My Grimoire in draconic, and an unmarked magical book. Additionally, he discovered two spell scrolls, one for Dragon’s Breath and one for Fire Shield. He pocketed all the magic.
Still perusing the library, the party heard hundreds of footsteps marching through the great hall. Peeking out of the library, they saw hundreds of servants, all with glowing eyes, singed hair, and identical uniforms. With his eagle eyes, Brixen spotted Jahn amongst the crowd, singed and thinner than in his family portrait, but definitely the same Jahn. Calling after him had no effect.
Tucking back into the library to discuss, they were soon joined by Majordomo Nacob, chief servant to Smolder. He informed them that their dinners were ready and could be delivered to their rooms if they wish. The party agreed, and went to Rotari’s room to relax in more privacy. Once inside, they saw a note and a coin purse on the pillow, which read “Thank you so much for the conversation and for dealing with those pesky trolls. I’m sorry I can’t join you for dinner, this bath is just too good to ever end.” As Rotari strung the purse through his belt, his eyes began to glow orange and his Warforged body began to smoke. Quickly, as Rotari lifted the coin purse and stared greedily at it’s contents, Cinder dispelled the effect with a well-cast Lesser Restoration. This set off a similar alarm to that which was in the library, and the party abandoned Rotari’s room, hiding in Cinder’s. A pair of guards arrived to investigate and Brixen lifted one of the magical books and said he couldn’t read draconic without the spell. This dissuaded the guards, who made it clear that this was the party’s last magical warning.
After the guards left, the party tried to carefully drop Cinder’s similar gift out the window, as it was tempting each of them in turn. Tragically, as Cinder was about to drop it outside, he wavered, and grasped the purse firmly. As he turned to the party, they could see his eyes had begun to glow...
Analysis
Whew, that’s enough of that. Now that we have that exhaustive, some would say exhausting, summary out of the way, let’s dig into some of the lessons this session has to offer. If you’re in my guild and joining this adventure there are spoilers ahead, this is where you stop. You can go no further.
This session was a bit of a last-minute scrap for me. I had been planning to run Against the Cult of the Reptile God really until the eleventh hour, when I realized I couldn’t wrap my head around the module. I find I have real problems reading modules and adventures. It may just be lack of practice, but I really get into my own head about the Text, and sticking to The Text, and making sure to not muddle The Text, so I guess the first lesson would be to not worry so much about that. But I can’t run modules, so I probably shouldn’t advise you on that point.
For the last year or so I’ve had a very specific image in my head, of a farm ruled over by a red dragon, and populated by dominated humans. Since I had been thinking of running a reptile god, I decided to change it to a draconic drug lord. I figured between the abduction, enchantment, and poppy-war-style drug sales, Smolder would be an epic bad guy.
I think Smolder is really what saved this session. I hadn’t been feeling it through the first three quarters of this adventure, and it didn’t seem like my players were either. This might be their inexperience with classic D&D concepts like foraging as you go and bringing porters, but we had a bit of a struggle for a while before they left. I don’t think there’s any problem with suggesting things like that to players, letting them know what other groups historically do for travel. An important part of that is your advice has to be sound. You can’t say “don’t worry about rations, you can forage,” then drop them into a desert, that’s not fair. Here, the party had good foraging odds the entire way, it just happened that the dice decided they were eating hardtack all through the forest.
Regardless, their logistics and ensuing economic issues, came at the tail end of 2 hours of roleplay and investigation where I was inventing almost everything off the bat. I’m pretty used to that, so I don’t think they were concerned about it, but I do feel that there are some logical breaks resulting from this approach. For instance: Why didn’t the museum vet the buyer? Why has nobody investigated the politician whose seal guaranteed the bid? How come nobody has started scrying on Jahn yet?
All of these have some answers, just of dubious nature. I noticed some during roleplay, so, for instance, I had both the guild and the Museum say, “If you guys fail, we’re scrying on the item”. I think it’s perfectly fine to have your Quest givers say stuff like that, especially if you come up with some reason, they haven’t done it yet. For me, in this world where magic has long since died and we’re just waiting for the blood to stop pumping, the reason was economic. 1000 gp for a group of adventurers to try to recover the item or the payment was a worthy gamble. Hiring someone to scry would reasonably cost 10 times as much, and they would Still need adventurers to retrieve it. That said, Jahn had been missing for 3 months, so I don’t think their reasoning is airtight.
So I think the session would have benefited from a lot more than the thirty minutes of prep time I gave it, but I was able to prep for the rest of the session during the party’s planning. I knew the rough outline going in. The party would investigate in the city to get an idea of what was going on, then travel several hundred miles, then explore the Fiery Farms, so let’s examine each of those sections individually.
In the City of Richol:
I start almost every session by having players narrate how what they have for breakfast. This get’s them back into their character after several days of not playing and provides the added benefit of giving the session leader a chance to outline their goals for the night. So we started with breakfast, they met with their boss, the Guildmaster, and explained that they planned to investigate that day. This is just a five-to-ten-minute check-in between the players and the GM to make sure we’re all on the same page. They explained their goals and introduced themselves to each other, as some hadn’t shared the table before. I find these chats super helpful in planning and pacing each session. In this case, I took note of their goals and was able to quickly jot down a few of the NPCs likely to come up. I also started constructing how much time we would spend on each part.
We ended up spending about an hour and 45 minutes total in Richol gathering information. This was a bit longer than would have been ideal. I think towards the 1-hour mark people were starting to get antsy, so let’s explore possible reasons for why this pacing went wrong.
The biggest thing that would have helped this section was preparation. I didn’t prepare what exact information each NPC would have and be willing to share. I had rough ideas, and came up with names during their initial meeting, but some of the rough ideas I had were completely contrary to how I ended up actually playing them.
For instance, I planned on Ivan Oharg being a wealthy, politically sleezy cultist of Tiamat. I thought setting him up as a future villain could be interesting, but when we were playing I just didn’t … want that. I wanted the players to feel like Jahn’s disappearance was a big problem. I wanted people to be eager to help the party, even if they’re still suspicious of the adventurers. So, I made him penniless. I decided the auction was to raise funds for the failing museum, not some elaborate smuggling plot. I feel like I am often too quick to pepper in extra conflict where none is needed. I think this change to Ivan’s character was a welcome introduction of a different kind of conflict. It raised the stakes for the mission; actually, let’s talk clearly about the stakes for a minute.
There are three parties that were hurt by Jahn’s domination. His guild is at risk of losing its status, Ivan is at risk of being unable to recover his career, and Penelope is at risk of being abandoned. Interestingly, these varied stakes mean each of the parties want different things.
The Messenger’s Guild wants the payment Jahn was sent to collect. It doesn’t matter so much who has the relic of Tiamat, and if Jahn dies, well that’s the risk of doing business. But if they get a Mark of Remittance, they will have to move into a defensive position as a guild, ensuring they only take absolutely safe missions until their Mark of Remittance expires after 7 years. This would be a long-standing inconvenience and would hurt their profits greatly, especially with lucrative War missions cropping up more and more often.
But anyway, the Museum would probably want the artifact back. They don’t care about Jahn at all, but if news of what he was delivering gets out, that would bring a lot of uncomfortable scrutiny to bear upon the Museum and its leadership. People would lose trust in the Museum as an educational institution if they were willing not only to sell, but to lose a potentially dangerous relic of the scaled tyrant.
Penelope on the other hand just want’s her partner back. She’s struggling to take care of her daughter. The money isn’t really an issue, at least not yet, but she’s had her boyfriend ripped form her because he wanted one last big payday to set up their, at the time incoming, baby. She’s had to endure childbirth and the first two months of motherhood essentially alone. She’s had help, of course, but she needs Jahn back, and doesn’t care about the package or the cash. I made sure to have her tell the party essentially this and drove it home by having her hand them a Very Rare magic item. So these varied stakes and parties means that they Guild has three different ways to “successfully” complete the mission, and even a Very Rare magic item to help them.
Let’s talk about that sword for a second, because this whole guild is made of characters from 2nd to 4th level. That’s usually considered way too soon to hand out an item like the Scimitar of Speed. I don’t really think it is. It’ll make combat a little bit easier, but not by a ton. I mean, if a rogue or a paladin got their hands on it, I might be worried, but this party had two casters, a ranger, and a barbarian. In either of the martials’ hands this weapon is going to increase their damage out a bit, but I can always add more goblins. Weapons like this, that just increase damage, never really strike me as immensely powerful. I’m far more careful with weapons that impose conditions, control the battlefield, and act as “I win” buttons to non-combat problems. Those are the items that really decide the fate of an adventure. A little extra damage here and there doesn’t do that, but what it does do is make the players feel awesome. Players get incredibly excited by doing massive amounts of damage, so I say: Let them. Adjust as you go. There’s no such thing as an OP PC, at least in relation to the world. Inter-party balance is definitely an important consideration, but running this game with gritty realism sort of works as a condenser. To a certain extent, everyone’s powers are dampened, so the infamous “Martial/Caster Divide” is even less of an issue than normal.
So, I gave them the Scimitar of Speed. I expect that they’re just going to hand it off to Jahn, and they even talked about that. Because they want him to be able to use it immediately, none of my players even attuned to it. I was really proud of them for that, but I digress. After dealing with all their investigations, we had to deal with everyone’s favorite, \fantasy accounting!!** That’s right, spreadsheets and rations baby! I’m kidding of course, nobody likes these logistics and that’s primarily because they’re not dramatic. They’re intense, and important, especially in an OSR-inspired game like mine, but they’re not fun. I’d really like to find some way to simplify this logistical nightmare.
I think part of my problem might be that I have lately ingrained into my approach to the game that Fifth Edition revolves around Resource Management. While this is true, and the allure of simplifying it down to just a Resource game has worked on me, I don’t think it’s very helpful. For beginner DMs, who go online and ask why their one encounter every long rest is so easy, it might be, but for me? Nah, not so much.
Anyway, when I run into unenjoyable aspects of the game, like logistics, I look to other systems to see how they what they’ve done to deal with it. For instance, I really like what Five Torches Deep does with resources. To protect your players from “analysis paralysis” and the bookkeeping of writing down specific amounts of stuff like rope, each player writes down a handful of things they’re carrying and how much of their carrying capacity they dedicate to their total stock of supplies. Then, every hour, or whenever they use a fair bit of resources to light a fire, for instance, they mark off a resource point. I think this might be the right amount of abstraction, but I’m worried of losing that magic moment I love so much as a player when the DM presents an obstacle and I have the exact tools for the job because I packed both silk rope AND caltrops. I know a few of my players like that a lot too, you can usually pick them out pretty early in a campaign when they’re asking what exactly is in their starting packs. So I’m not sure if the abstraction from FTD would be good to try, but I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Travel:
So, after they were packed, they set out on their trip. In many ways I think of this session primarily as travel. I want to be clear: I don’t think I would qualify this as Exploration. To me exploration is necessary very meandering. It helps in these cases to give your players a map, but I haven’t, as I wanted them to draw their own. In reality, this party marched in a straight line 600 miles, found 4 described locations, and got to their destination.
I’m worried the way I ran this travel may be what’s making me feel like this was a railroad of a session. I don’t feel like I gave them enough agency. I thought I did, when I was running it, but looking back- I’m not so sure.
Each week of travel had two phases. The first was a skill challenge. The party had to succeed a number of skill checks before they reached three failures, or else something bad would happen. I threw it wide open to the players and asked them to come up with any action that could plausibly help with the travel. The thing is, over the course of the travel, we probably had north of thirty rolls. That’s a lot of discreet ideas to ask for on the spot. I mean Sure, I could come up with thirty unique things from my couch over the course of a week, but in one session? That’s gonna be tough. Doubly tough if they’re doing what I was trying to encourage, to stay in character. Triply tough when they’re trying to pick actions their stats reflect them as being good at. I would be shocked if the players at the session even had thirty unique proficiencies between them. Now obviously you can use the same skill for different actions- tracking an owl bear and finding North would both use survival. But I think the incredible number of rolls made this hard for them. I think the drama of the session would have been much better served if I had one skill check and maybe one random encounter, just to move things along a bit. I think they would have felt more up to exploration when they arrived at the Fiery Farms if they had just made 7 or 8 checks than they were after they made 30 rolls.
One thing I think every DM should do, especially if you run for a lot of players like me, is make a feedback form available. I’ve had it up for a little while, and this session had the first response- it came from Rotari, the Wizard. He identified the same problem- that the skill challenges became a real grind—but he came to a different conclusion. Instead of truncating the challenges, he suggested, in the feedback form, to break the skill challenges up with either roleplay or combat scenes. I think this is a great idea, as it will make the pacing feel a lot faster even if we’re spending the same amount of time on the skill challenges as before. It'll also totally make the players feel like the did more along the way. They’re mostly not going to remember their skill checks, but if I had paused the challenges when Fennick decided to scare off the owlbear, we would have been able to linger on that dramatic moment a little bit longer. And who knows, maybe when something like that comes up mid-challenge, we just skip to the end of the challenge. They’ve finished it. They’ve had their drama.
Breaking up the journey would have also gone a long way towards making the party feel like they were exploring. It would have forced me to describe the forests in more interactive ways. In reality, I mostly strung together half a dozen cutscenes based off their described actions, but I think having more time for the players to actively explore would have been better. TLDR; I went too hard on skill challenges and will probably either truncate them or break up that mechanic with other activities for the journey back.
In the Fiery Farms:
At this point we’d been playing for close to three hours and I, at least, wasn’t feeling great about the session. We felt slumpish, and I think that contributed to the players being uninclined to investigate the estate or the workers. If they had, they probably would have found Jahn, in his enchanted state, and gotten at least one of their targets to safety. Instead, they cast Locate Object, and discovered the object was underneath the large castle in the center of the farms.
For their entire walk up to the farms, I was hinting that the lord of this land was an evil dragon. I made it clear that all the crops were drugs of varying danger, and that all the plots were broken up by ashy paths. I also described how the land was clearly deforested, with the edge of the remaining forest being full of charred trees. Throwing a CR 10 dragon at your 3rd level PCs is never fair unless they have a decent warning well in advance. This foreshadowing doesn’t have to be glaringly obvious but should be strong enough that the second your bad guy reveals their draconic nature, the players immediately connect the dots.
Anyway, they approached the castle and asked to speak with the owner. The dominated commoners guarding the gate consulted with their boss, demanded the heroes’ weapons, and led them inside. I’m not sure if taking their weapons was the best choice, but I think it was okay in this case because I knew that inside the castle there would be plenty of weapons in displays, in training areas, and on decorate suits of armor. The party wouldn’t be hopeless, without them, but they didn’t have any way to know that. So taking these items, and making sure that they saw plenty of weapons once they were on their tour, the players and I were able to build a little more trust.
Inside, they met Smolder, a self-appointed lord of the fiery farms. I made this guy as overtly evil as I could, hitting his minions, explaining how he’s smuggling dangerous drugs to destabilize a nearby fey kingdom, and generally sneering at anyone who he didn’t perceive as powerful. Until the Wizard Rotari showed his signet ring, Smolder hardly even noticed the party, beyond offering his own ring for them to kiss.
So the party knew this guy was bad news. They knew he was lying the entire time they shared a meal, but they decided it was best to feign belief and wait until nightfall to make their next plans. So Smolder gave them a brief tour. I like giving players tours of dungeons before they have to fight in them, it makes them more able to engage in future fights. It also lets them guess where the loot is.
They were even able to collect some of this loot well before any conflict, stealing spells from the library. After a good long while of them waiting in the library, I decided they needed some impetus, so I sped up time a little bit and jumped to when the field workers were coming in. I decided that Brixen could notice Jahn among the crowd to let them know that all three of their targets were here- the gold, the guy, and the gem.
I think I fumbled this next part a bit. I meant to introduce one of the Lieutenants, the Majordomo of the castle. I don’t think I adequately described how obviously unenchanted he is. I figure Smolder should have to high-powered underlings who are actively loyal to him, but I don’t think the players picked up on it. I’ll have to lean into that the next time they see him.
Anyway, they were led to their rooms and pointed to a letter and a pouch of cursed gold. As the majordomo left, they congregated in one of the rooms as Rotari picked up the gold. He failed his saving throw and was infected with Dragon’s Greed, that is to say, he was charmed by Smolder and wanted to get as much gold as possible by working for him. The party wanted some way to break it, and I hadn’t prepped anything specific. So when they tried Lesser Restoration, I decided that would probably by a little too weak, and made Cinder roll a spellcasting check for it, to try to stretch the magic. It worked, and the curse was broken.
This gold was pretty potent stuff, so when they tried to toss out the gold in Cinder’s room, I made them roll to try to not touch it. Only one of them failed, so I decided to end on a cliffhanger. I think that was the moment this session jumped in quality again, as the party was instantly and intensely invested in trying to solve this issue, spreading the word in the group chat to try to attract other party members to help save Cinder. I’m not sure how I’m going to introduce any new PCs, but I think that’ll give us plenty to talk about next time.
Conclusion:
For now, I guess I’ll leave you with this: Unfun parts of the game can be glossed over and truncated. Non-dramatic logistics and monotonous skill challenges are how you fall into a slogs. Changing up the pillar of play throughout the session is a vital part of pacing, which is the true magic great DM’s like Matt Mercer and Mathew Colville have learned.
I guess now is also where I should pay homage to Matt Colville. I’m sure if you’ve seen him, you’ve recognized where a lot of my inspiration and format has been drawn from. If you somehow have heard of me, but haven’t seen him, go ahead and follow the links in the notes. You won’t possibly regret it.
That’s all for me for this week folks. Look forward to a new hydrology videos on my channel, and hopefully another one of these Campaign Diaries in the next two or three weeks. Until then, Don’t Forget to be Awesome.

AUDIO VERSION AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/EXo8dAWpHZI
Text Version (with minor differences):
Jahn Gorfreyson is missing. He has been for some time. If he isn’t recovered, his partner and newborn daughter will be heartbroken. If the item he was delivering is lost, his guild could fall to ruin. And if the payment he was meant to collect isn’t returned, the kind man who hired him will never recover.
Hi everybody! This is the first episode of my new Campaign Diary, in which I will summarize and analyze a subset of the stories occurring in my Dungeons and Dragons Campaign. I have run the game for a little over 6 years and have been a player in maybe a dozen sessions. I have run 1 campaign that went from 1-20, and maybe we’ll talk about it someday. For now, we’re going to jump into my current campaign, a westmarches game following an adventuring guild on their many exploits.
SUMMARY
Our heroes, with an average of third level, are already somewhat dungeon-hardened when we begin our story. Four of them, Brixen the Ranger, Rotari the Wizard, Fennick the Barbarian, and Cinder the Druid, decide to lead the Armed Adventurer’s Guild on a quest to recover a missing member of the Messenger’s Guild.
Jahn Gorfreyson is missing. He has been for three months at this point. The party met with the Messenger’s Guild to form a profile of Gorfreyson. They discovered that Jahn is a son of Hermes, God of Messengers, and has incredible powers because of that. In addition to being able to cast Sending and an improved Phantom Steed once per day, he can also cast Speedy Courier once a week. He is one of the highest-ranking guild members, very useful for transporting valuable items and sensitive messages.
The party learns that the Messengers Guild was contracted by the Museum of Richol to transport a secret item; and paid handsomely for it. When Jahn began the delivery, every aspect of the job seemed standard a sensitive item. Two days after he left was the last time anyone heard from Jahn. He was about 400 miles north of the city, about 2/3rds of the way to his destination, making camp under the Giant’s Shotput. If the Messengers Guild is unable to recover either the artifact Jahn was moving, or the pay they were meant to collect, then the Guild will receive a Mark of Remittance, seriously endangering their exclusive rights to couriership within the city of Richol. They have already allowed a few freshly minted adventurers, from neighboring villages to go after him, but none have returned.
The party then investigates the Master of the Museum, Ivan Oharg, who hired Jahn. When they arrive, they find that the plaque reading “Master” above his office door has been scratched out. When they knock, they are met with a half-dressed scruffy dragonborn standing in front of a sleeping bag. Ivan has fallen on hard times since Jahn disappeared. After vetting the party with a Whip of Veracity, he trusts them enough to tell them What Jahn was delivering.
2023 years ago, Tiamat made her second attempt to dominate the material plane. After her first attempt, her spirit was torn asunder into 5 aspects, each encased in a crystal orb. When she reformed and emerged for her second attempt, she used the remnants of those now broken bindings to stabilize her physical form. After her destruction by the Obsidian Fisticators, a few of the pieces of those orbs were recovered. The Museum was selling one in a private, anonymous auction, as the mention of Tiamat is still likely to cause unrest among the populace. The auction was won with a bid of 14000 gold, guaranteed by the seal of a high-ranking noble in Bourntion. Jahn was hired to carry the fragment to the “Fiery Farms” 600 miles North of Richol.
After Jahn lost contact with Richol, Ivan was stripped of his title, had to refinance his home, and has been trying to cling to some connection to his former life. If either the payment or the item is returned, Ivan prays that he will be able to piece his life back together.
Lastly, before leaving the city, they met with Jahn’s girlfriend, his only known connection remaining in the city. Penelope was obviously struggling with the disappearance of her partner, but that pain was compounded by a baby born a month after Jahn vanished. Penelope is at her wit’s end. In desperation, she gives Fennick her boyfriend’s Scimitar of Speed in hopes that Jahn can help them in a fight should his return demand it.
After that, the party dealt with all the logistics of a possible 1200-mile journey. They knew roughly that their path would take them through a dense forest and that Brixen, with help, would be able to forage plenty of food for them to subsist off. Loading up their cart, and setting off on their newly purchased horses, the guild departed.
For the travel, we decided to have each week require a skill challenge. Because the forest was Brixen’s favored terrain, they started every week off with one automatic success. This was a grueling series of 4 skill challenges, one travelling over the plains, one through sparse forest, and two through a dense, primordial redwood forest. Through the fields they had no issues, collecting plenty of food along the way. In the forest, they began to dip into their emergency supply. As the traversed the first 150 miles of the Old Forest, they found themselves stalked by Owlbears, but when one attacked the caravan, it was barely scared off by Fennick’s Daunting Roar. Along the way they found a few interesting animals, like Eohippi, and a long-abandoned barrack built into a cave. When they arrive at Jahn’s last known whereabouts, a camp underneath the Giant’s Shotput, they found two clues to their search. The first was a blood-covered golden symbol of Sarenrae, surrounded by Owlbear tracks . The other was a set of tracks belonging to Jahn, running north before vanishing, as though he had mounted a phantom steed in a hurry.
Finishing their trek through the old forest, they noticed they were about halfway through their emergency supply, as the local owlbears had thoroughly eaten through everything in the path the party cut to get so far North. Climbing a tree, one of the heroes notices a wizard’s tower, shielded by illusions and emanating magical insects into the forest. They decide to ignore the tower, which was five or six miles East, and focus on the blackened, ashy expanse of farmland to the North. As they leave the guild on the outskirts of the forest as a form of backup, Brixen, Rotari, Fennick, and Cinder enter the Fiery Farms. Brixen and Cinder easily recognize several dozen varieties of drugs growing in meticulously manicured rows. Ephedrine, Poppy, Soma, Marijuana, and Tobacco grow exceptionally well, and plots are separated by paths of ash. Burn marks are still seen on the trees at the edges of this plantation.
As they travel the fields, Cinder casts Locate Object, focusing his will on the box Jahn was carrying, as he had a duplicate to amplify his senses. He determined that it was about a quarter mile underground, and as they approached a castle, he realized it was underneath the enormous keep.
They party was greeted by guards at the large portcullis, and only entrance, into the castle wall. They were interrogated, and explained they sought a messenger named Jahn who was travelling to this location. The guard, with glowing orange eyes, left to consult with the master. As the party stood quietly in front of the remaining guards, they saw how scrappy looking they were, not at all like normal guards. All their heads of hair had been singed close to the scalp and they each peered at the party with glowing orange eyes. Rotari noticed in the distance that there were several hundred field workers tending to the crops a mile or two North of the castle.
The party was escorted into the castle walls, where they relinquished their weapons before entering the great hall. Sitting on a throne, lazily stuffing his mouth with a handful of salad, and reading a book, the party saw a lithe elven figure. After kneeling and paying homage, he seemed to notice them, and invited them to dine with him. They party explained what they were after, and the Master, named Smolder, said he had been disappointed to never receive his item. A relic of anyone involved in the battle of Tiamat was quite rare, and he coveted it.
Smolder spoke with the party for some time, striking his servants on occasion for seemingly innocuous infractions, like not bringing his Abacus before he even asked for it. Throughout all this conversation, the party knew Smolder was lying through his teeth, but he was nonetheless magnanimous to them. He offered them housing for the night, in exchange for killing a Troll or two on their way out. He showed them around the castle and set off to bathe.
Now unsupervised, the party began pilfering Smolder’s library. They found several dozen books by a gnomish novelist named Steliad, each well-worn and published over the span of several centuries. Frustrated with the search, Rotari cast Detect Magic, which set off a fuse-like alarm. The party convinced a pair of guards they were permitted to use magic to help with their book search. Before the guards left, Cinder hugged one of them, and his eyes flickered from orange to blue for only a moment. Clutching at his coin purse, the guard ran off. Alone again, Rotari found a Manual of Bodily Health, a warded journal labelled My Grimoire in draconic, and an unmarked magical book. Additionally, he discovered two spell scrolls, one for Dragon’s Breath and one for Fire Shield. He pocketed all the magic.
Still perusing the library, the party heard hundreds of footsteps marching through the great hall. Peeking out of the library, they saw hundreds of servants, all with glowing eyes, singed hair, and identical uniforms. With his eagle eyes, Brixen spotted Jahn amongst the crowd, singed and thinner than in his family portrait, but definitely the same Jahn. Calling after him had no effect.
Tucking back into the library to discuss, they were soon joined by Majordomo Nacob, chief servant to Smolder. He informed them that their dinners were ready and could be delivered to their rooms if they wish. The party agreed, and went to Rotari’s room to relax in more privacy. Once inside, they saw a note and a coin purse on the pillow, which read “Thank you so much for the conversation and for dealing with those pesky trolls. I’m sorry I can’t join you for dinner, this bath is just too good to ever end.” As Rotari strung the purse through his belt, his eyes began to glow orange and his Warforged body began to smoke. Quickly, as Rotari lifted the coin purse and stared greedily at it’s contents, Cinder dispelled the effect with a well-cast Lesser Restoration. This set off a similar alarm to that which was in the library, and the party abandoned Rotari’s room, hiding in Cinder’s. A pair of guards arrived to investigate and Brixen lifted one of the magical books and said he couldn’t read draconic without the spell. This dissuaded the guards, who made it clear that this was the party’s last magical warning.
After the guards left, the party tried to carefully drop Cinder’s similar gift out the window, as it was tempting each of them in turn. Tragically, as Cinder was about to drop it outside, he wavered, and grasped the purse firmly. As he turned to the party, they could see his eyes had begun to glow...
Analysis
Whew, that’s enough of that. Now that we have that exhaustive, some would say exhausting, summary out of the way, let’s dig into some of the lessons this session has to offer. If you’re in my guild and joining this adventure there are spoilers ahead, this is where you stop. You can go no further.
This session was a bit of a last-minute scrap for me. I had been planning to run Against the Cult of the Reptile God really until the eleventh hour, when I realized I couldn’t wrap my head around the module. I find I have real problems reading modules and adventures. It may just be lack of practice, but I really get into my own head about the Text, and sticking to The Text, and making sure to not muddle The Text, so I guess the first lesson would be to not worry so much about that. But I can’t run modules, so I probably shouldn’t advise you on that point.
For the last year or so I’ve had a very specific image in my head, of a farm ruled over by a red dragon, and populated by dominated humans. Since I had been thinking of running a reptile god, I decided to change it to a draconic drug lord. I figured between the abduction, enchantment, and poppy-war-style drug sales, Smolder would be an epic bad guy.
I think Smolder is really what saved this session. I hadn’t been feeling it through the first three quarters of this adventure, and it didn’t seem like my players were either. This might be their inexperience with classic D&D concepts like foraging as you go and bringing porters, but we had a bit of a struggle for a while before they left. I don’t think there’s any problem with suggesting things like that to players, letting them know what other groups historically do for travel. An important part of that is your advice has to be sound. You can’t say “don’t worry about rations, you can forage,” then drop them into a desert, that’s not fair. Here, the party had good foraging odds the entire way, it just happened that the dice decided they were eating hardtack all through the forest.
Regardless, their logistics and ensuing economic issues, came at the tail end of 2 hours of roleplay and investigation where I was inventing almost everything off the bat. I’m pretty used to that, so I don’t think they were concerned about it, but I do feel that there are some logical breaks resulting from this approach. For instance: Why didn’t the museum vet the buyer? Why has nobody investigated the politician whose seal guaranteed the bid? How come nobody has started scrying on Jahn yet?
All of these have some answers, just of dubious nature. I noticed some during roleplay, so, for instance, I had both the guild and the Museum say, “If you guys fail, we’re scrying on the item”. I think it’s perfectly fine to have your Quest givers say stuff like that, especially if you come up with some reason, they haven’t done it yet. For me, in this world where magic has long since died and we’re just waiting for the blood to stop pumping, the reason was economic. 1000 gp for a group of adventurers to try to recover the item or the payment was a worthy gamble. Hiring someone to scry would reasonably cost 10 times as much, and they would Still need adventurers to retrieve it. That said, Jahn had been missing for 3 months, so I don’t think their reasoning is airtight.
So I think the session would have benefited from a lot more than the thirty minutes of prep time I gave it, but I was able to prep for the rest of the session during the party’s planning. I knew the rough outline going in. The party would investigate in the city to get an idea of what was going on, then travel several hundred miles, then explore the Fiery Farms, so let’s examine each of those sections individually.
In the City of Richol:
I start almost every session by having players narrate how what they have for breakfast. This get’s them back into their character after several days of not playing and provides the added benefit of giving the session leader a chance to outline their goals for the night. So we started with breakfast, they met with their boss, the Guildmaster, and explained that they planned to investigate that day. This is just a five-to-ten-minute check-in between the players and the GM to make sure we’re all on the same page. They explained their goals and introduced themselves to each other, as some hadn’t shared the table before. I find these chats super helpful in planning and pacing each session. In this case, I took note of their goals and was able to quickly jot down a few of the NPCs likely to come up. I also started constructing how much time we would spend on each part.
We ended up spending about an hour and 45 minutes total in Richol gathering information. This was a bit longer than would have been ideal. I think towards the 1-hour mark people were starting to get antsy, so let’s explore possible reasons for why this pacing went wrong.
The biggest thing that would have helped this section was preparation. I didn’t prepare what exact information each NPC would have and be willing to share. I had rough ideas, and came up with names during their initial meeting, but some of the rough ideas I had were completely contrary to how I ended up actually playing them.
For instance, I planned on Ivan Oharg being a wealthy, politically sleezy cultist of Tiamat. I thought setting him up as a future villain could be interesting, but when we were playing I just didn’t … want that. I wanted the players to feel like Jahn’s disappearance was a big problem. I wanted people to be eager to help the party, even if they’re still suspicious of the adventurers. So, I made him penniless. I decided the auction was to raise funds for the failing museum, not some elaborate smuggling plot. I feel like I am often too quick to pepper in extra conflict where none is needed. I think this change to Ivan’s character was a welcome introduction of a different kind of conflict. It raised the stakes for the mission; actually, let’s talk clearly about the stakes for a minute.
There are three parties that were hurt by Jahn’s domination. His guild is at risk of losing its status, Ivan is at risk of being unable to recover his career, and Penelope is at risk of being abandoned. Interestingly, these varied stakes mean each of the parties want different things.
The Messenger’s Guild wants the payment Jahn was sent to collect. It doesn’t matter so much who has the relic of Tiamat, and if Jahn dies, well that’s the risk of doing business. But if they get a Mark of Remittance, they will have to move into a defensive position as a guild, ensuring they only take absolutely safe missions until their Mark of Remittance expires after 7 years. This would be a long-standing inconvenience and would hurt their profits greatly, especially with lucrative War missions cropping up more and more often.
But anyway, the Museum would probably want the artifact back. They don’t care about Jahn at all, but if news of what he was delivering gets out, that would bring a lot of uncomfortable scrutiny to bear upon the Museum and its leadership. People would lose trust in the Museum as an educational institution if they were willing not only to sell, but to lose a potentially dangerous relic of the scaled tyrant.
Penelope on the other hand just want’s her partner back. She’s struggling to take care of her daughter. The money isn’t really an issue, at least not yet, but she’s had her boyfriend ripped form her because he wanted one last big payday to set up their, at the time incoming, baby. She’s had to endure childbirth and the first two months of motherhood essentially alone. She’s had help, of course, but she needs Jahn back, and doesn’t care about the package or the cash. I made sure to have her tell the party essentially this and drove it home by having her hand them a Very Rare magic item. So these varied stakes and parties means that they Guild has three different ways to “successfully” complete the mission, and even a Very Rare magic item to help them.
Let’s talk about that sword for a second, because this whole guild is made of characters from 2nd to 4th level. That’s usually considered way too soon to hand out an item like the Scimitar of Speed. I don’t really think it is. It’ll make combat a little bit easier, but not by a ton. I mean, if a rogue or a paladin got their hands on it, I might be worried, but this party had two casters, a ranger, and a barbarian. In either of the martials’ hands this weapon is going to increase their damage out a bit, but I can always add more goblins. Weapons like this, that just increase damage, never really strike me as immensely powerful. I’m far more careful with weapons that impose conditions, control the battlefield, and act as “I win” buttons to non-combat problems. Those are the items that really decide the fate of an adventure. A little extra damage here and there doesn’t do that, but what it does do is make the players feel awesome. Players get incredibly excited by doing massive amounts of damage, so I say: Let them. Adjust as you go. There’s no such thing as an OP PC, at least in relation to the world. Inter-party balance is definitely an important consideration, but running this game with gritty realism sort of works as a condenser. To a certain extent, everyone’s powers are dampened, so the infamous “Martial/Caster Divide” is even less of an issue than normal.
So, I gave them the Scimitar of Speed. I expect that they’re just going to hand it off to Jahn, and they even talked about that. Because they want him to be able to use it immediately, none of my players even attuned to it. I was really proud of them for that, but I digress. After dealing with all their investigations, we had to deal with everyone’s favorite, \fantasy accounting!!** That’s right, spreadsheets and rations baby! I’m kidding of course, nobody likes these logistics and that’s primarily because they’re not dramatic. They’re intense, and important, especially in an OSR-inspired game like mine, but they’re not fun. I’d really like to find some way to simplify this logistical nightmare.
I think part of my problem might be that I have lately ingrained into my approach to the game that Fifth Edition revolves around Resource Management. While this is true, and the allure of simplifying it down to just a Resource game has worked on me, I don’t think it’s very helpful. For beginner DMs, who go online and ask why their one encounter every long rest is so easy, it might be, but for me? Nah, not so much.
Anyway, when I run into unenjoyable aspects of the game, like logistics, I look to other systems to see how they what they’ve done to deal with it. For instance, I really like what Five Torches Deep does with resources. To protect your players from “analysis paralysis” and the bookkeeping of writing down specific amounts of stuff like rope, each player writes down a handful of things they’re carrying and how much of their carrying capacity they dedicate to their total stock of supplies. Then, every hour, or whenever they use a fair bit of resources to light a fire, for instance, they mark off a resource point. I think this might be the right amount of abstraction, but I’m worried of losing that magic moment I love so much as a player when the DM presents an obstacle and I have the exact tools for the job because I packed both silk rope AND caltrops. I know a few of my players like that a lot too, you can usually pick them out pretty early in a campaign when they’re asking what exactly is in their starting packs. So I’m not sure if the abstraction from FTD would be good to try, but I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Travel:
So, after they were packed, they set out on their trip. In many ways I think of this session primarily as travel. I want to be clear: I don’t think I would qualify this as Exploration. To me exploration is necessary very meandering. It helps in these cases to give your players a map, but I haven’t, as I wanted them to draw their own. In reality, this party marched in a straight line 600 miles, found 4 described locations, and got to their destination.
I’m worried the way I ran this travel may be what’s making me feel like this was a railroad of a session. I don’t feel like I gave them enough agency. I thought I did, when I was running it, but looking back- I’m not so sure.
Each week of travel had two phases. The first was a skill challenge. The party had to succeed a number of skill checks before they reached three failures, or else something bad would happen. I threw it wide open to the players and asked them to come up with any action that could plausibly help with the travel. The thing is, over the course of the travel, we probably had north of thirty rolls. That’s a lot of discreet ideas to ask for on the spot. I mean Sure, I could come up with thirty unique things from my couch over the course of a week, but in one session? That’s gonna be tough. Doubly tough if they’re doing what I was trying to encourage, to stay in character. Triply tough when they’re trying to pick actions their stats reflect them as being good at. I would be shocked if the players at the session even had thirty unique proficiencies between them. Now obviously you can use the same skill for different actions- tracking an owl bear and finding North would both use survival. But I think the incredible number of rolls made this hard for them. I think the drama of the session would have been much better served if I had one skill check and maybe one random encounter, just to move things along a bit. I think they would have felt more up to exploration when they arrived at the Fiery Farms if they had just made 7 or 8 checks than they were after they made 30 rolls.
One thing I think every DM should do, especially if you run for a lot of players like me, is make a feedback form available. I’ve had it up for a little while, and this session had the first response- it came from Rotari, the Wizard. He identified the same problem- that the skill challenges became a real grind—but he came to a different conclusion. Instead of truncating the challenges, he suggested, in the feedback form, to break the skill challenges up with either roleplay or combat scenes. I think this is a great idea, as it will make the pacing feel a lot faster even if we’re spending the same amount of time on the skill challenges as before. It'll also totally make the players feel like the did more along the way. They’re mostly not going to remember their skill checks, but if I had paused the challenges when Fennick decided to scare off the owlbear, we would have been able to linger on that dramatic moment a little bit longer. And who knows, maybe when something like that comes up mid-challenge, we just skip to the end of the challenge. They’ve finished it. They’ve had their drama.
Breaking up the journey would have also gone a long way towards making the party feel like they were exploring. It would have forced me to describe the forests in more interactive ways. In reality, I mostly strung together half a dozen cutscenes based off their described actions, but I think having more time for the players to actively explore would have been better. TLDR; I went too hard on skill challenges and will probably either truncate them or break up that mechanic with other activities for the journey back.
In the Fiery Farms:
At this point we’d been playing for close to three hours and I, at least, wasn’t feeling great about the session. We felt slumpish, and I think that contributed to the players being uninclined to investigate the estate or the workers. If they had, they probably would have found Jahn, in his enchanted state, and gotten at least one of their targets to safety. Instead, they cast Locate Object, and discovered the object was underneath the large castle in the center of the farms.
For their entire walk up to the farms, I was hinting that the lord of this land was an evil dragon. I made it clear that all the crops were drugs of varying danger, and that all the plots were broken up by ashy paths. I also described how the land was clearly deforested, with the edge of the remaining forest being full of charred trees. Throwing a CR 10 dragon at your 3rd level PCs is never fair unless they have a decent warning well in advance. This foreshadowing doesn’t have to be glaringly obvious but should be strong enough that the second your bad guy reveals their draconic nature, the players immediately connect the dots.
Anyway, they approached the castle and asked to speak with the owner. The dominated commoners guarding the gate consulted with their boss, demanded the heroes’ weapons, and led them inside. I’m not sure if taking their weapons was the best choice, but I think it was okay in this case because I knew that inside the castle there would be plenty of weapons in displays, in training areas, and on decorate suits of armor. The party wouldn’t be hopeless, without them, but they didn’t have any way to know that. So taking these items, and making sure that they saw plenty of weapons once they were on their tour, the players and I were able to build a little more trust.
Inside, they met Smolder, a self-appointed lord of the fiery farms. I made this guy as overtly evil as I could, hitting his minions, explaining how he’s smuggling dangerous drugs to destabilize a nearby fey kingdom, and generally sneering at anyone who he didn’t perceive as powerful. Until the Wizard Rotari showed his signet ring, Smolder hardly even noticed the party, beyond offering his own ring for them to kiss.
So the party knew this guy was bad news. They knew he was lying the entire time they shared a meal, but they decided it was best to feign belief and wait until nightfall to make their next plans. So Smolder gave them a brief tour. I like giving players tours of dungeons before they have to fight in them, it makes them more able to engage in future fights. It also lets them guess where the loot is.
They were even able to collect some of this loot well before any conflict, stealing spells from the library. After a good long while of them waiting in the library, I decided they needed some impetus, so I sped up time a little bit and jumped to when the field workers were coming in. I decided that Brixen could notice Jahn among the crowd to let them know that all three of their targets were here- the gold, the guy, and the gem.
I think I fumbled this next part a bit. I meant to introduce one of the Lieutenants, the Majordomo of the castle. I don’t think I adequately described how obviously unenchanted he is. I figure Smolder should have to high-powered underlings who are actively loyal to him, but I don’t think the players picked up on it. I’ll have to lean into that the next time they see him.
Anyway, they were led to their rooms and pointed to a letter and a pouch of cursed gold. As the majordomo left, they congregated in one of the rooms as Rotari picked up the gold. He failed his saving throw and was infected with Dragon’s Greed, that is to say, he was charmed by Smolder and wanted to get as much gold as possible by working for him. The party wanted some way to break it, and I hadn’t prepped anything specific. So when they tried Lesser Restoration, I decided that would probably by a little too weak, and made Cinder roll a spellcasting check for it, to try to stretch the magic. It worked, and the curse was broken.
This gold was pretty potent stuff, so when they tried to toss out the gold in Cinder’s room, I made them roll to try to not touch it. Only one of them failed, so I decided to end on a cliffhanger. I think that was the moment this session jumped in quality again, as the party was instantly and intensely invested in trying to solve this issue, spreading the word in the group chat to try to attract other party members to help save Cinder. I’m not sure how I’m going to introduce any new PCs, but I think that’ll give us plenty to talk about next time.
Conclusion:
For now, I guess I’ll leave you with this: Unfun parts of the game can be glossed over and truncated. Non-dramatic logistics and monotonous skill challenges are how you fall into a slogs. Changing up the pillar of play throughout the session is a vital part of pacing, which is the true magic great DM’s like Matt Mercer and Mathew Colville have learned.
I guess now is also where I should pay homage to Matt Colville. I’m sure if you’ve seen him, you’ve recognized where a lot of my inspiration and format has been drawn from. If you somehow have heard of me, but haven’t seen him, go ahead and follow the links in the notes. You won’t possibly regret it.
That’s all for me for this week folks. Look forward to a new hydrology videos on my channel, and hopefully another one of these Campaign Diaries in the next two or three weeks. Until then, Don’t Forget to be Awesome.

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No this is not a troll. I’m a returning player (played in 2010-2014) as a kid and now felt the nostalgia pull to come back. When I created my new account I saw an offer for FSW and thought well why the hell not. And let me tell you it has been a blast! I love how its kind of a mix between regular osrs and ironman in the way that many useful items are extremely expensive and also items need for quests can be priced at ridicilous amounts of gp. So that kind of forced me to figure out how to get the items myself. Also I couldnt just buy the BiS gear instanly I reached the level since usually the items were like 2-3x more expensive than on the main servers. So more grinding and in the end it felt more deserved when you finally could afford the items (also I never got a whip before so getting it now felt amazing)
Also few to almost no bots. Rarely had any problems with overcrounding in popular spots to skill/make money. Thanks for the past few months FSW. I’ll miss you

I was reflecting on the adventures I'm using in my current sandbox and wrote the post below. I don't think I am still able to nail down the exact categories - and its hard to generalize - but this could be a start. Contains affiliate links and I mention my own module by the end.
https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/04/comfort-color-contrast-three-types-of.html
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I've been running an old-school sandbox and using modules from multiple games, including DCC, LotFP, BFRPG, and others. I realized the modules I've been reading illustrate three different approaches to fantasy adventures that I think are worth discussing.
But notice these are generalizations: there are no "perfectly vanilla" adventures, etc. Almost every adventure will contain something familiar AND something new AND something sensible AND something weird.
​
Vanilla adventures
These are the most common. Here are some characteristics:
- They are predictable in terms of monsters, traps and treasure. You'll face skeletons and goblins (or worse, orcs), find a few swords +1 and a reasonable amount of gold and gems. Maybe there are elves and dwarves to help you. Hopefully, the challenges are also balanced to your current level. You'll know most of your enemies upon seeing them, etc.
- Because of that, they are familiar: if you have been playing D&D for a long time, you'll feel right at home. They contain the usual tropes.
- They are often convenient: you'll find a cleric and a mage in every city, shopkeepers have enough gold to buy the stuff you've found, etc.
- They are often, but not always, disjointed - the skeletons and goblins are standing in adjacent rooms with no clear explanation. Maybe there is a tribe of kobolds nearby, some giant bats, and a trap that was set by someone time forgot. There might be no clear reason why the dungeons were built or why they are full of corridors and doors with no rhyme or reason.
The key word here is comfort. You're used to this stuff and you can play with little effort. BFRPG adventures like Morganstfort and Chaotic Caves are good examples, but so are many classic D&D adventures (including the ones that inspired these BFRPG modules, such as Keep on the Borderlands and Caves of Chaos). These are also common D&D 5e (e.g. Lost Mines...; also, here is one example of a 3pp) and every other edition of D&D.
The danger here is boredom. If there is nothing new except successive rooms of goblins, skeletons and giant animals, every adventure starts looking the same.
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Weird adventures
Weird adventures are related to weird fantasy. They are:
- Unpredictable in terms of monsters, traps and treasure. You might find creatures you had never seen elsewhere, even if they fit some previous frame (e.g., the Law versus Chaos dichotomy). Even the environments may be entirely new. There might be technology, aliens and time travel involved. Mutations are common. You don't necessarily know what to do when you face a given creature or challenge, and running might be the best option.
- In this sense, the things you'll encounter will also be unfamiliar.
- They might be as disjointed and as convenient as vanilla fantasy. However, weirdness can become very inconvenient for the GM, if running a long campaign. Introducing time-travel and alien weaponry will have bigger effects on your setting than your "sword +1" from vanilla modules.
The key word here is color. There is shiny new stuff in every corner. Most DCC modules I've run are like that (here is one example). Some LotFP modules are all-out weird (think Carcosa - even the characters have unusual colors!). A classic example from D&D might be Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
The danger here is randomness. Things stop making sense, knowledge becomes obsolete (why learn about trolls if every monster is different), etc. If everything is fantastical, then nothing surprises you anymore.
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Grounded adventures
For the lack of a better name, I call them grounded as they are "grounded in reality". These adventures are:
- Extremely familiar (at the start) as they are not based in fantasy (not even popular fantasy), but historical (or pseudo-historical) reality. Instead of dwarves and elves, you have knights, lords and peasants - mostly peasants.
- Unpredictable in terms of monsters, traps and treasure - not only because these can be different, but also because they might be absent. Maybe some of the monsters are just humans in disguise, or there is a single monster in the whole adventure. The treasure may be ordinary (painting, books, etc.) instead of magical.
- They are coherent: there is usually an explanation for the monsters, traps and treasure you'll find.
- They create more inconveniences for PCs as clerics and mages might be harder to find, adventurers are not necessarily well-respected, and the authorities exist and might react to law-breakers accordingly.
Now, you could describe your GURPS, Hârn or maybe even Game of Thrones campaign as "realistic", "historical", "sensible", etc. And, even in vanilla modules, you will have ordinary keeps, castles, soldiers, etc.
But I'm also using LotFP modules, which start on an ordinary setting and then throw the PCs into a well of weirdness. The key word here is contrast: in the middle of an ordinary village, there is a giant blob monster (example). Or: the Swedish army is coming to Karlstadt... and the city has been already been invaded by strange creatures you've never seen anywhere (Better Than Any Man).
This way, you make the fantastic more special by internal contrast. Conversely, in "weird" adventures, everything is fantastical, and the fun comes from contrasting it with more familiar modules.
A strange example from 5e might be Curse of Strahd. The scarceness of fantastic creatures (goblins, dragons, aberrations, etc.) and the repetitive nature of the foes (mostly undead, witches and werewolves) enhance the weirdness of Strahd and the castle, making it more than a mere vampire in a random dungeon room - which, BTW, is why the whole thing was created in the first place.
The danger here is monotony. Are we even playing fantasy games if there is nothing fantastical about it? Do we play these games to fight monsters or to battle starving peasants?
I've run games of "cops and robbers" before, but I find games with fantastical features much more fun (which might be one of the reasons so many people play D&D and even most GURPS books involve large amounts of fantasy). These features are not necessarily dragons and spells: you could have weird technology, time travel, zombies, deities, super-powers, etc.
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Which one is better?
I realize that by merely reading this post you might think I prefer weird/grounded adventures to the more "vanilla" stuff. I do think vanilla, by itself, becomes a bit boring for me as a GM after a while - although I've seen PCs have fun with it, as it is comfortable. So yes, I'm a bit tired of the same old clichés - but I do not think vanilla is bad "per se" (and I still use vanilla adventures).
I think it is one flavor that you can mix with others for great results. Maybe you give it a coherent take (see GURPS Banestorm) or use the vanilla as a basis to throw an unexpected contrast at your players (e.g., inserting a spaceship in the middle of an otherwise vanilla campaign). Or vary a little so things do not get stale. As noticed above, I'm using many different kinds of adventures in my sandbox, and I think this keeps things fresh. I already used more vanilla BFRPG stuff, but also LotFP and DCC, and they interact in interesting ways.
Familiarity, coherence, novelty, sensibility, etc., are qualities that can be inserted into any adventure.
My own adventure tries to use a bit of each ingredient: you have the (more or less) familiar demons and imps, but no goblins, orcs or skeletons. The hive-inspired shape of the dungeon has a reason, but it probably looks different than most dungeons. There are peasants and clerics, but also mutants and insect-people - and they all have a reason, or at least a justification, to be where they are.
But mixing it all is only one possible solution. Many of the adventures mentioned above lean heavily on one of these aspects, and do great things with it. And these are not, of course, measures of quality. There are many things I look in a module: organization, novelty, usefulness, coherence, etc.
"Weird", "vanilla" and "realistic" are just flavors - everyone has their tastes, but you can have superb ice cream with all kinds of ingredients.

Before you banish me to the shadow realm, please give the post a read. This is not a troll, and I know that this is not a new or well-liked idea and has potential to cause many problems for the game. I have spent some time thinking about this and believe I have addressed many of the problems that would arise from this proposal. I have broken it up into three main categories as well as subcategories. The main categories are, pking, raiding, and alts. I am going to start with the biggest and most oblivious issue for this proposal, pking.
PKING (PLAYER VS PLAYER)
I don’t believe that there needs to be any changes to pking. No loot potential BS, no deleting items instead of dropping. I know it sounds crazy because if wealth transfer from the wild is unchecked then that would become the new way to trade. I believe that if the only way to transfer large amounts of wealth is limited to pvp, both wilderness and pvp worlds, it will make combating mules, bots, and gold sellers much easier and here is why.
The current anti-botting team and AI/tools have a lot on their plate. They must monitor millions of trades, they must find random locations all around RS that mules/gold buyers/sellers are offloaded to, and they must do this for every world. If all large wealth transfer is done only in pvp locations, then it will drastically narrow down the search parameters for finding gold sellers, and the team could better focus their effort and technology to stopping it. They would not need to monitor trades as much. They would only need to track pvp activity.
If multiple accounts are being killed by a single account, then they can investigate it. If a single account is constantly killing accounts and logging out, it can be investigated. If an account that never pks starts to pk, then it can be investigated. Bots would now need to be closer to the combat level of the mule for the mule to kill it in wilderness. The gold sellers will also need to be within the combat range of the gold buyers, so selling will be more difficult. Since the mules will have to have higher levels when the mule is banned, it will have more impact on the owner than losing a level 3. It will drastically decrease the locations that mules can mule and gold sellers/buyers can exchange. Lastly, it will also give pkers an opportunity to catch and kill the bots, mules, and gold sellers/buyers.
The one thing that will need to change is to remove the ability to drop valuable items or gold in the wilderness. The reason is that it would make dropping a viable method for bots to deposit to mules and gold sellers to gold buyers. I believe this is the best fix because we can’t make it so the items just disappear when dropped, because then people would just drop their stuff before they die. I am not a pker, so I am not sure how this would affect things, I would love some more knowledgeable pkers feedback on this.
RAIDING
In this category, there are two important issues: item lending and loot splitting.
Starting with loot splitting, I believe there is an easy conceptual fix, but I'm not sure if it's feasible from an engine standpoint. Once a rare or expensive item is dropped, everyone in the party, clan chat, or team will have their trade limit unlocked or raised to the dropped item value for a set amount of time. This time frame would be sufficient for the item to be sold and each player to be traded their share. The two major downsides I see are that the item would need to be dumped into the Grand Exchange right away and split, you won’t be able to wait for it to sell at a higher price. It may also cut some boss runs short if you get a drop right away, like at a GWD boss. One solution I could see for this is to unlock the trade limit once the item is sold. However, if the trade limit will be unlocked at a known time, then gold sellers might find a way to exploit it. I'm not sure how practical it would be to unlock just the split value for trade from an engine/coding perspective.
The next big issue is item lending. Gearing up your team is crucial for raids, and like many other raiders, I lend out tons of GP in gear to clan members and friends to raid with. The solution to this would be to bring back the ability to lend items, but not just a single item option like in RS3. Lending out a single item won't really do anyone any good. Jagex would need a system to lend out 10, 15, or more pieces of gear from a single or multiple players. I believe this would have a very positive effect on the community. It would remove the possibility for people to steal lent items and allow players to lend items to players they don’t know so that player can do content they don't have the gear to do normally. There could be different lengths of time that people can borrow an item for, both a minimum and maximum amount of time, so that people can't just recall an item while the one being lent to is mid-raid. The big issue with this is degrading/charged items, most notably the Scythe. You can just make it so that it will be uncharged when it's returned, and any item that degrades will not be lendable. The lent items will also not be usable on PvP worlds or in the wilderness.
Alternate accounts and the Weird People who Buy Burnt Food
For the "weird o's" who buy non-GE tradable items, Jagex could allow some wealth transfer through trades. The amount could be tied to the age of the account or the total level, or both. There could also be an official price added to the items, but that would be hard to regulate and track without making them buyable on the GE. No matter the solution, it will still be a hindrance to these players and will slow down their operation, but I believe a middle ground can be discovered that leaves everyone happy.
As for alternate accounts and dupes on iron accounts, I am not sure how to fix them in a practical sense without opening doors for gold sellers to exploit. Gearing alts could possibly be fixed via the item lending system, but getting the wealth generated on the alt or extra iron drops will still be a problem. Jagex could make a system to link accounts to each other. If one account has a ton of accounts linked to it, then it will be investigated by a staff member to see if it's a gold seller. Alternatively, players could go into the wilderness and die with the item, and Jagex would see that it's just a legitimate transfer, but there would be issues with that too. I am not sure how to fix this issue without causing any problems for players.
This is my proposal to fix the botting issue in OSRS. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I would love any feedback, suggestions, or comments about my proposal. I know it's far from perfect and there are probably many things I am leaving out or have not thought of.

I currently own hard copies of OSE Advanced, Basic Fantasy RPG, DCC, and the o.g. Moldvay B/X D&D.
I also possess .PDFs of basically every edition of D&D (OD&D - 5e), Iron Falcon, Searchers of the Unknown, Seven Voyages of Zylarthen, OSRIC, The Heroes Journey, Champions of ZED, Blueholme, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Tunnels & Trolls, Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, For Gold & Glory, Knave, Cairn, Black Hack, Black Sword Hack, Lavender Hack, Black Pudding: Heavy Helping, White Hack, Into the Odd, Forbidden Lands, Hyperboria, and Worlds without Number, and many more. For the record, I have not read every single core rulebook of these systems all they way through, but I do know their basics and the systems they attempt to retro-clone.
I'm not part of a gaming group at this time, so I wanted to solo some adventure modules, dungeon/hexcrawls, and maybe even the occasional gladiatorial style skirmish.
I was wondering what you all consider to be your favorite OSR system and why? Also, if you have any experience running that system solo, how did it turn out?
I'd really like to play OD&D or at least a retro clone, but I'm not sure how it would go for solo play. I was about to purchase a hard copy of either White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game or Delving Deeper, but thought I'd stop by here to ask for some opinions first. Also, I'm hearing some stirring about another system called Fantastic Medieval Campaigns? Should I wait for that?
And lastly, if you had to choose between OSE Advanced or, say, White Box FMAG, for a group or solo game, which would you choose and why? Are they that different? Just trying to decide if I should buy an OD&D clone or just stick with OSE since I own it already haha.
Thank you all in advance!!!

A happy combination of new-school inventiveness and old-school fundamentals. I often hear modern OSR products being lambasted as, essentially, little pockets of ideas with no real structure to link them together, while more old-fashioned products are said to have a great structure, but no longer evoke a sense of wonder. In Wolves Upon the Coast, Luke Gearing has created a space packed with wonderful things, where your campaign will see and do wonderful things. But more than that, he has created a solid, usable, honest-to-Gygax hexcrawl. You could buy this, read it once or twice to mine it for ideas, and then drop it, but you shouldn't. You should run it.
Wolves works because behind the wonderful things are rock-solid mechanics. You're got truly great random encounter tables. You've got a variety of ships with different speeds and mobility. Perhaps most important, you've got a wind and weather system that really matters. And all these systems work together harmoniously to bring true depth. Everything rides on the clockwork cohesion of random encounters, random distance, random reaction, clean hexcrawling rules, and a great map.
Let's talk more about the wind, because it's both unexpected and wonderful. It might be the most important mechanic. You roll a 2d6 to learn the strength of the wind, 1d6 for its duration, and 1d6 or 1d8 for its direction. If the wind is favorable, you'll sail faster, maybe a lot faster. If the wind is too high, however, you'll risk of getting lost and/or capsizing. Expeditions have to be delayed, to avoid squalls. And what's worse, characters can be stranded if a squall comes in.
This happened in my last session. The players spent two hours of the session sailing about and gathering mercenaries, then one hour in a brief assault on an enemy fort. Then, when they were preparing to sail home, the wind picked up. And stayed up. The players, and their mercenary army, were stranded for over a week, unwilling to leave port. In that time, because of the enemies they had been fighting, most of their gear was destroyed. Luckily, they found a good amount of provisions; if they hadn't, they would have had a mutiny on their hands. As it stood, though, they had to pay extra to keep the mercenaries happy, on top of the extra days they had to contract for. By the end of the session, victory had soured significantly. The expedition had cost the players far more than it had gained them. And the tensest part of the whole thing was, not the pitched battle between equally-matched armies, but the desperate tedium of the players as they sat on the shore, waiting for the winds to change, while I made morale checks for their mercenaries.
So much for the structure; let's talk about the zaniness. XP is gone; characters level up by making boasts. (Picture Beowulf's entrance to Heorot and you'll get the idea.) Spells are significantly pruned back in availability. Now players have to find someone to teach them the ritual for a spell, and then acquire the rare components to cast it. (Both components and teachers are spread nicely throughout the map.) These are sometimes flavorful but simple, as in, "Gather the skulls of 9 species of rodents and the head of a bloodhound. Shake the skulls in the dog's head and they will point you where to go" for Locate Object, or difficult enough to be the subject of a full quest, as in, "Find and befriend a Subtle Spirit" for Cure Light Wounds Daily. (This spirit, once found, needs to see a work of fine art every week or it perishes, further spurring adventure.) The magic system was what first drew me to Wolves. It's free on the author's website, you should check it out. Magic really feels magical.
(I said that was zaniness, not structure, which was a lie. These are baked into the hexcrawl at a deep level. Everywhere you go are opportunities for boasting and power-gain. You'll spend weeks of downtime and full sessions questing for spells. And you'll still need, and want, treasure: not only are the hordes often glorious, they attract retainers to your cause. In fact that's the only way to get retainers. Everybody else is a mercenary.)
More zaniness. Orcs are once again strange and threatening. (Actually most enemies are once again strange. Luke has written a monster manual, which is hit and miss, but when it hits it hits hard. Orcs, for instance, are men who have suffered grievous wounds and had chunks of iron implanted in these wounds. Now their blood corrodes iron. They constantly seek new weapons and armor, and will cause your players to do the same.) There are titanic moving statues, a (hidden) questline about finding Lemuria, multiple entries on the encounter table that tell you "A hexcrawl appears" (and the hexcrawl is already written for you! It's in the book!), murdered godlings, and dragons dreaming golden dreams on vast hordes. You can become an ogre, a troll, or a harpy. (It keeps its cards close to its chest, though. It isn't worried that the players will probably never figure out how to become a harpy. Kuntzian depth.) You can go to the moon. You can lead armies and die of starvation on an uncharted island after a storm. This game has everything.
It's got the wonder of OD&D and the campaign-level ambition of AD&D. It pulls it off with aplomb. My players have visited (not explored, mind you, just visited) less than 10% of the map. We've been playing weekly for 8 months. We might play for many years more. I have 20 players, of mixed availability. I would take 20 more. (Actually you can join here if you like.)
Wolves Upon the Coast is a masterpiece. It is one of the best things to come from the OSR. I prefer it to Wilderlands. Highly recommended. 5/5.

Ive been fascinated by restricted IM accounts like chunk locks or region locked accounts. I was wondering if an underground/dungeon IM could be a possible/viable play style.
The largest continuous underground area in Osrs is Keldagrim and Lumbride caves if and only if death to the dorgeshuun is done to connect them with the train.(quest exceptions??)
Think about it, Lumbride caves have access to kalphite queen so you could go all the way from the desert to the north where Keldagrim has access to the troll region.
This is just an idea lmk if there could be any improvements.

I have been imagining what the shamanism skill might look like in OSRS. In particular I have been addressing the core gameplay loop for the skill, and I have also produced some preliminary quest concepts and recipes. I would like to present them to the community to receive feedback and to introduce these ideas to the discussion.
Most, if not all of this is derived from a variety of sources including other comments and discussions on this subreddit -- in particular, Spirit Nieve was a suggestion I saw on another post and loved! It gave me inspiration to generate some ideas about the spirit world, how shamanism might connect with the current and future game, etc. that I'd like to now share below!
EDIT: Apologies ahead of time for the formatting. I need this converted from text to infographic
Introduction:
What is shamanism?
Shamanism is a new skill in OSRS which draws on naturalism and ritualistic magics to interact with supernatural forces, coax and manipulate spiritual energies in this plane, and potentially even traveling to other worlds!
What does shamanism do?
Shamans commune with the spirit world through rituals, crafts, and activities
How is the Spirit World different from what we already have? How is it connected or similar?
The Spirit World (SW) is a separate plane where there are different magics and different "gods". The traditional Gods of Gielinor only have partial dominion over sections of the SW, not full control. They are strongly connected to "our" plane, whereas their piece of the SW is only a small part of a broader world.
The Shamanism Skill:
The shamanism skill has two main parts in the primary loop:

1. carving raw materials and crafting them into items
2. charging these items with spiritual energies in rituals

It also has a secondary two-part loop encompassing this crafting:

1. Get spiritual essence through gameplay
2. Infuse items with the essence in rituals

The raw materials used in shamanic crafting include items such as bones, skins, fur, leather, teeth, tails, wood, feathers, berries, stones, and seashells. Also, specialty ingredients specific to certain monsters, such as hellhound blood, bottled dragonfire, troll toes, etc. can be used for more advanced ritual magics.
These ingredients are modified from their raw form by the shaman into shamanic materials, i.e. carved bones, inscribed leathers, etc. and then infused with the spirit essence gathered by the shaman to imbue the crafted items with spirit magic (garnering benefits).
Crafting:
The primary craftables of the skill are Totems and Talismans.
Totems are larger wooden crafts that can incorporate many other other items and a large amount of spirit essence. Totems are placed at special sites to augment certain areas or activities.
Talismans, on the other hand, are smaller handheld/carried items that provide smaller bonuses to the player on the go and modify actions the players take throughout the world.
In addition to Totems and Talismans, players can also craft other items. Item themes currently explored are:

• Spirit Drums and Dreamcatchers (these offer means of entering the SW)
  
• Staves, robes and ancestral masks (these are Shamanism gear and offer a variety of bonuse and are made with the skill, received as drops/rewards, etc.)
  

A little more about the items above:
Totems and Talismans will be explored in more depth in a follow-up post. I have an architecture in mind that will serve both combat and non-combat playstyles in a way that I believe addresses concerns about powercreep (i.e. little to no power creep while still being useful and interesting)
Spirit Drums:
Made of wood and stretched animal skins, and infused. Rhythmic beating of the spirit drums induces a trancelike meditative state, which allows for crossing over into the SW.
Dreamcatchers:
Dreamcatchers are decorative items that can be crafted and hung in a players house. After attuned following in-game progression (quests, shamanism levels, in-world unlocks, etc.) the Dreamcatchers hung over a player's bed (POH Bedroom crafting nodes) can serve as a Spirit World portal nexus.
*Staves: * Tall wooden staves and shorter ritualistic scepters can be crafted by the shaman, found in the world, received from accomplishments, etc. These objects augment the shaman's ritualism and allow for a variety of effects.
For example, imagine the differences in energies from a Blisterwood ritual staff and a Dramen ritual staff. One could be used to create cursed items, manipulate trapped souls, etc. while the other could be used to create floral blessings, enchant farming tools, invoke helpful spirits, etc.
Robes:
Shamans performing rituals will need staves, but when not chanting loudly in front of the tribe, the shamans are often tasked with gathering specialty ingredients from nature. They source a large amount of materials from Hunting, or what the hunters bring back to camp. They collect spiritual energies from their dealings with the spirits.
But sometimes, this isn't everything and they must go out to gather certain ingredients, like berries, leaves and mushrooms. What better tools to use for this gathering than nature's own, your hands! Shamanism gathering uses bare hands and a set of shamanic robes replete with pockets, pouches, satchels, nooks and crannies. The robes also serve as a canvas to add charms and wards which protect the shaman from various hazards encountered while gathering. Modify your robes to best prepare for success and go out and gather!
The Spirit World
In my mind, the lore of the Spirit World and Shamanism would be closely tied with the intertwined duality of Life and Death. I imagine the SW as having intimate connections with places like Morytania Swamp, the Wilderness, the elven lands, gnomish lands, the Lunar Isles, and Zanaris. I see easy associations with the elves, gnomes, fairies and oneiromancers, as well as nightmares, supernatural beings, spirits, and natural forces and the elements.
Quests:
The skill is introduced to players by a beginner-level quest akin to Druidic Ritual, which I am calling Spirits of the Forest.
The skill will also come with a high-level quest series called Dreams of the Underworld, which will follow the events of MM2 and introduce new content and story following Nieve, gnomes, oneiromancers, and eventually, a Nightmarish supernatural evil.
Skill Introduction Quest
Title: Spirits of the Forest
Overview:
The player is tasked with helping the local druid order to reconnect with the spirits of the forest, which have been disrupted by an unknown force. The player must use their shamanism skills to create Totems and Talismans, perform rituals, and explore the forest to find the source of the disturbance.
Quest Start:
The player receives a message from the druid order, requesting their assistance in a matter of great importance. The druids explain that the spirits of the forest have become disturbed and are no longer communicating with them. They need the player's help to craft items and perform rituals to connect with the spirits and find out what is causing the disturbance.
Objective 1: Gather raw materials
The player must gather various raw materials from the forest such as wood, feathers, bones, and berries. They must also hunt for animals to obtain fur, hides, and teeth. These raw materials can then be carved into shamanic materials to be used in crafting Totems and Talismans.
Objective 2: Create Totems and Talismans
The player must use their shamanism skills to craft Totems and Talismans from the shamanic materials they have created. These items will be needed to perform rituals and connect with the spirits.
Objective 3: Perform rituals
The player must use their crafted Totems and Talismans to perform various rituals to connect with the spirits of the forest. These rituals will require a certain level of shamanism skill and specific items to be performed. Through these rituals, the player will learn more about the disturbance in the forest.
Objective 4: Explore the forest
The player must explore the forest to find the source of the disturbance. Along the way, they will encounter various creatures that have been affected by the disturbance and must defeat them in combat.
Objective 5: Confront the source of the disturbance
The player must confront the source of the disturbance, which turns out to be a group of loggers who have been cutting down trees in the forest without permission. The player must defeat the loggers and convince them to stop cutting down trees in the forest.
Quest Completion:
The player is rewarded with experience in the shamanism skill and other valuable items. The druid order thanks the player for their assistance and vows to protect the forest from future disturbances.
Quest Chain - Dreams of the Underworld
Quest 1
Title: Dreams of the Underworld
Overview: Nieve, the famous Slayer Master, has died, and her spirit has been trapped in the Underworld. The player must travel to the Underworld and find a way to release her spirit. Along the way, they will encounter the gnomes and oneiromancers of Runescape, and must delve into the Dream World to uncover the secrets of the Underworld.
Quest Start: The player receives a message from the oneiromancers in the Dream World, requesting their assistance in a matter of great importance. The oneiromancers explain that Nieve's spirit has been trapped in the Underworld, and they need the player's help to rescue her.
Objective 1: Enter the Dream World
The player must enter the Dream World by using a special item provided by the oneiromancers. Once inside, they must speak to the gnome who oversees the Dream World and obtain information about the Underworld.
Objective 2: Find a way into the Underworld
The gnome tells the player that the only way to reach the Underworld is through a secret portal in the gnome city of Arposandra. The player must travel to Arposandra and find the portal.
Objective 3: Navigate the Underworld
Once in the Underworld, the player must navigate through dark and dangerous caves filled with spirits and other supernatural creatures. They must also solve puzzles and defeat powerful enemies to reach Nieve's spirit.
Objective 4: Release Nieve's Spirit
Once the player reaches Nieve's spirit, they must find a way to release her from the Underworld. The oneiromancers suggest that they use a powerful Shamanic ritual to communicate with the spirits of the Underworld and convince them to release Nieve.
Objective 5: Perform the Shamanic Ritual
The player must gather resources from the natural world and use them to create talismans and other items needed for the Shamanic ritual. They must then perform the ritual, which involves meditation, chanting, and other practices that help the player connect with the spirit world.
Objective 6: Return Nieve's Spirit to the Living World
After successfully performing the ritual, Nieve's spirit is released from the Underworld. The player must then escort her spirit back to the living world, where the oneiromancers and other characters are waiting to greet her.
Quest Completion:
Nieve is grateful to the player for rescuing her spirit and asks them to spread the word about the importance of Shamanism and its connection to the spirit world. The player is rewarded with experience in the Shamanism skill, as well as other valuable items.
Quest Chain - Dreams of the Underworld
Quest 2
Title: Nightmares of the Underworld
Overview:
After the successful rescue of Nieve's spirit, the player is approached by the oneiromancers once again. This time, they explain that a group of powerful spirits known as the Nightmares have taken over a section of the Underworld, causing chaos and destruction. The player is tasked with defeating the Nightmares and restoring balance to the spirit world.
Quest Start:
The oneiromancers contact the player through a dream, urgently requesting their assistance in dealing with the Nightmares. They explain that the Nightmares have been causing chaos and destruction in the Underworld and must be stopped before they can do any more damage.
Objective 1: Enter the Underworld
The player must travel back to the Underworld using the same method as before. Once there, they must navigate their way to the area where the Nightmares are causing trouble.
Objective 2: Discover the Cause of the Nightmares' Power
The player must explore the Underworld and speak to various spirits to uncover the source of the Nightmares' power. They eventually learn that the Nightmares are being empowered by the dark energy of an ancient artifact hidden in a nearby temple.
Objective 3: Retrieve the Artifact
The player must infiltrate the temple, defeat its guardians, and retrieve the artifact. However, the artifact is heavily guarded, and the player must solve a series of puzzles to gain access to it.
Objective 4: Defeat the Nightmares
With the artifact in hand, the player must confront the Nightmares and defeat them in battle. The Nightmares are powerful, and the player must use all their skills to emerge victorious.
Objective 5: Return the Artifact to its Rightful Place
After defeating the Nightmares, the player must return the artifact to its rightful place in the temple. Doing so will restore balance to the Underworld and prevent the Nightmares from ever gaining power again.
Objective 6: Return to the Living World
Once the artifact has been returned to its rightful place, the player must make their way back to the living world. Along the way, they are confronted by one final challenge, a powerful spirit that has been awoken by the chaos caused by the Nightmares.
Objective 7: Defeat the Spirit
The player must defeat the spirit, which is more powerful than anything they have faced before. Doing so will bring peace to the Underworld and ensure that it remains in balance.
Quest Completion:
With the Nightmares defeated and balance restored to the Underworld, the player is hailed as a hero. They are rewarded with experience in various skills and valuable items that will aid them on their future adventures. The oneiromancers thank the player for their help and warn them of the dangers that lurk in the spirit world.
Quest chain commentary: The over-arching theme of the quest chain is the antagonist, an eldritch bear god of death, has set its sights on Gielinor and wants to corrupt our world into a plane of death. He has a Cult of Death Druids that do his bidding in order to destabilize the Veil between our worlds, and open the way for a full-scale invasion by hostile spirits.
There are whispers in lore about something like this having happened in the past - a large scale war between gods of this world and of another - and there is something much larger scale than the player afoot. However, the player, in typical scape-humour fashion, is casually roped into this conflict they are wildly unqualified for and miraculously bumble gracefully dance their way through the challenges.
That's what I have so far!
What next?
From here, I will be presenting ideas for what the totems and talismans may actually do in-game, additional gameplay for the core loop, and attempting to preemptively address design concerns and issues such as item sinking, costs, skill buyability, repetitiveness, redundancy/irrelevance vs power creep, etc.
Totems and Talismans
Totems and talismans will be the primary deliverable of Shamanism to the player, and will be usable in a variety of combat and non-combat content to gain additional effects and to interact with the shamanism gameplay loop in an integrated fashion.
The goal is to provide a spectrum of activities that offer multiple different ways to engage with shamanism both directly, and indirectly through other methods. The overall goal is to provide suggestions for content updates that integrate seamlessly into the existing game.
Totems
Totems are large wooden crafts infused with large amounts of spiritual energy. These are meant to be semi-permanent objects placed in the overworld on certain nodes and they provide area-of-effect modifications (NOT BUFFS or NERFS). What do I mean by "modifications" if I don't mean buffs or nerfs? A primary example I hold in my mind is the idea of "Bossing Totems".
Combat Totems
First, let me say that totems will come in two types - combat and non-combat. Combat totems will come in two types, initially, internally named: "bossing" and "grinding" totems
Bossing Totems
Bossing totems would be crafted by the player and placed at a special site near a boss that can be modified. The modifications would be completely up to future designs, but they would follow the general theme of: "While the totem is active, boss is changed from Mode A to Mode B". Modes would differ by changing attack styles, changing defenses/weaknesses, modifying mechanics (instead of 1 large mob, you get 4 small mobs), changing damage types, phasing, etc.
The purpose of a bossing totem would NOT be to make the content easier, it would be to introduce variety. This is not power creep (vertical), this is variety (lateral)
Totems of various types would exist, not just 1 specific type, but from here I will pass the baton of detail to more knowledgable PvM designers. In gist, imagine going to the Crazy Archaeologist and dropping a totem that changes his thrown explosives attack to a powerful melee attack, and changes his defenses from weak to melee, strong against mage/range, to strong against melee and mage, weak to range?
Pros: Integer multiplies the amount of PvM content in the game as every affected boss can get 1, 2, 3, etc. additional modes. Players could be fighting and learning and farming these bosses and their varietal modes for years off of this one update.
Cons: I don't have fleshed out details to provide you, and this might be a large amount of development work. Don't want to disproportionately burden the dev team or the playerbase with design overload.
Grinding Totems
This model of combat modification totems could also be applied to what I call "grinding combat" which would chiefly include Slayer monsters and similar monsters with mechanics that could be modified. For example, dropping a totem near a slayer monster than removes the need for the slayer equipment protecting against them, or which changes their attack/defense stats, or which converts part of their drop table to spiritual essence (which feeds back into the shamanism gameplay loop).
Non-combat Totems
Totems aren't just for combative adventurers, though! Totems are, generally speaking, for area-of-effect modification. They can also address utility concerns within skilling, crafting, etc. and non-skill based actions in the world like shortcuts, teleports, etc.
Utility Totems
Utility totem examples:

• Gathering nearby nodes generates spirit essence alongside resources (or in place of resources)
• More resource nodes in an area / faster respawn times / lowered depletion chances
• Shortcuts, teleport beacons, run restoration, temporary respawn points
• Herbalism totems that decrease rates of disease, consuming spiritual essence to supplement crops

Talismans
Talismans are akin to totems in the sense that they modify actions in the physical plane through spiritual interactions. but talismans are much smaller and more mobile, and as such can hold less spiritual energy and do smaller scale, localized effects.
Examples of talismans:
Combat-adjacent Talismans - Jujus
Soulcatcher Jujus - Items attuned to specific monsters that, while held, increase the likelihood of the monster's soul being unable to cross over. Increases the drop rate of ensouled heads from the attuned monsters. Only one juju can be held at a time.
Soulrending Jujus - While held, modifies the spiritual connection from burying bones. Reduces prayer experience gained in return for producing shamanic spirit essence.
Non-combat Talismans
Failure talismans - Stop a failure of a given action while skilling; consumed after X uses (X could = 1, might be variable).
Examples:

• Agility talismans prevent failing an obstacle through spiritual nudges
• Cooking talismans prevent burning food cooked at special fires
• Thieving talismans prevent stuns, maybe reduce damage
• Fishing/mining/woodcutting/herbalism talismans prevent node depletion

These serve as a means of converting shamanism engagement back into other resources, xp, etc. in an integrated fashion. Similar to how magic offers additional methods such as superheat, plank make, humidify, etc. as well as bonuses such as shadow veil for thieving, shamanism will also offer additional methods and utilities for other skills and activities.
Additional gameplay loops
Spiritual Gathering
In the above totems discussion I mentioned placing a totem near a resource node area which converts some of the resource you receive into spirit essence, or causes you to generate the essence in addition to the resources.
I would like to expand on that idea here, with a simple example.
Imagine you have a gathering totem that is aligned with a fire spirit. You take it to a cluster of Maple trees that is, by necessity, further from Seers' bank than the trees that are chopped for normal logs. (This can be flavorful and functional - flavor = spirits don't like human settlements, function = increases bank time & apm)
You place this fire totem near the maple grove, and you begin cutting logs. As you chop your first log, you notice that the eyes on the totem glow brightly and the log you just received is consumed by the flame spirit. You are left with only a spiritual ash residue for your work; mystifying!
Now, given that you are now more attuned with your own spiritualism after recently helping some druids, you know that this type of material is valuable in the Spirit World, so you accumulate a bunch of it from cutting many logs (which each get consumed by the flame spirit) and receiving a stockpile of spiritual ashes.
You take this accumulated pile of spiritual ashes to the Spirit World, and find a place where you can "burn" them. As you might expect, things work differently in the Spirit World than the Physical! These ashes are "burned", which returns to you an infused maple log, and you can take that to the bank (literally).
Physical Gathering
Shamans also gather materials in the physical world, through collecting items from Hunting, manual gathering with their own hands and robes, sourcing from natural and "natural" sources, like woodcutting or slayer, and more.
The robe gameplay mentioned earlier could be expanded upon and resemble hunter in the sense of Hunter-Gatherer dualism, and in the actual manifestation of mechanics in the game as the player clicks progressing boxes akin to tracking, uses animal companions to forage akin to falconry/hawking, etc.
Shrunken Heads
Remember the Soulcatcher Jujus from earlier? Well, what is any self-respecting shaman going to do with a surplus of normal-sized heads with the souls still in them?? Why, they're going to shrink them, of course!
Shrunken heads are a new method for utilizing ensouled heads and offer the shaman a way to generate prayer and shamanism experience.
What do shrunken heads do? Still working on that one, but some initial ideas are:

• use them as a consumable weapon by throwing them. A shrunken dragon head could be a dragonfire explosive, for example. A shrunken goblin head could spew insults and serve as a distraction (briefly tanks mobs). A shrunken unicorn head may release a flash of light.
  
• use them as a melee weapon infused with spiritual essence charges. Shrunken Dragon Head as a 2h melee weapon that occassionally spews dragonfire. Shrunked Tzhaar head? Causes fire and physical damage. Shrunken kalphite head? Chance to bite for extra damage and poison, etc. etc.
  
• enhanced prayer method - shrunken ensouled heads could offer even more prayer experience and create specialty/modal encounters with the monsters ensouled within. For example, shrinking a dragons head and then dunking it in spirit lava in the SW could make an item that could spawn a spiritual lava dragon akin to current ensouled head gameplay. This spiritual lava dragon would provide additional prayer experience and shamanism experience would be gained in producing the item.
  
• crafting and construction - shrunken heads could be used in crafting shamanic staves and robes, as well as totems, dreamcatchers, house decorations or house utilities, etc.
  
• shrunken heads could be used with shamanic cooking to create new dishes and foods that can have a variety of effects. Move over, spicy stews, time for shrunken soup!
  

If you made it this far I, and your ancestors' spirits, commend you.
I'm going to stop now because xp waste; let me (and the devs) know what you think!

All nits and complaints aside I honestly think we're currently in the golden age of OSRS. I know that version control exists and is being used but please JMods, take an offline backup of the codebase as of today ( or maybe before the venom problems ) and store it somewhere safe for new oldschool in 10 years or so, just in case the floodgates open
Meant with all love and respect, this is not a shitpost or a prophecy of doom just a desire to preserve how great old school is at the current time
Edit. Wow this blew up! Thanks so much for the awards (and the reddit cares call-out, always nice to see trolls living their best life 🙂)

Constructions been around for nearly 17 years on RuneScape, and 10 on OSRS.
RuneScape Portal Chamber options:

1. Varrock
2. Falador
3. Camelot
4. Ardougne
5. Lumbridge
6. Yanille
7. Canifas.

​
Old Schools Portal Chamber options:
Arceuus Library, Draynor Manor, Battlefront, Varrock Teleport/GE, Mind Altar, Lumbridge, Falador, Salve Graveyard, Camelot/Seers, Fenkenstrain's Castle, East Ardougne, Watchtower Teleport/Yanille, Senntisten(Digsite), West Ardougne, Ape Atoll, Harmony Island, Canifas, Lunar Island, Kourend Castle, The Forgotten Cemetary, Waterbirth Island, Barrows, Graveyard of Shadows, Fishing Guild, Catherby, Demonic Ruins, Ape Atoll Dungeon, Frozen Waste Plateau, Troll Stronghold, Weiss.
^30 options. wow.
​
​
I get it they don't have the option of using Home Teleport to most areas of the game but even if you take away the 7 area's we have we still fall short 3 teleports (with 27 total Home Teleport options - 7 being the listed above).
Pros: PoH portal chamber teleports become useful again
Cons: Big Vis and Dark Facet of Passage get slightly devalued

I already wrote some posts about Sawitar and his blatant/cheater behavior in osu! community, and now I will show you my best evidences in his play style and replays.
I hope, this will be my last bump on this thread. Also I will be very happy if he gives answers to all this evidences, that people found in 3.5 years.
DISCLAIMER - THIS POST IS NOT FOR BULLYING. WE WANT TO KNOW ALL ANSWERS FOR QUESTIONS BELOW. IF HE HAS NOTHING TO HIDE, HE WILL ANSWER. OTHERWISE - HE IS NOT SO LEGIT AS WE THINK ABOUT HIM.
Lets get started.

1. Account on AQN.
2. Permanent pixel hits/snaps.
3. Strange cursor movements, that are not possible on his devices.
4. Strange behavior with his play style.
5. Bad conduct in web and dox someone.

1. Account on AQN.

Story starts with the fact that first time when we started to suspect no-name player Nesstro1337 (Sawitar) when he was 5 digits and in just a month grinded up to 4 digits (At that time, 4 years ago, this is not such a weak improve, and you can deal with the fact of it).

UPD by Impressive
23th of March 2023 when re-viewing all the proofs (which, by the way, will be below), we noticed that on August 1, 2019, at 12:30 24-hour format, an account with his name was registered on the AQN website, after 5 hours he uploads this video with unrealistic for 7000pp player play and after that moment already Vudek starts to suspect him in cheats, and the whole further story begins that you watched, quite suspicious, right? AQN profile (just check his registration time) was found (link to original post) by the same cheater as Sawitar. And now there is a huge question for Sawitar. WHY did he register on the AQN site, WHY did all the time periods match up so perfectly with all the suspicions and the quick improve that he showed that he had before?

2. Permanent pixel hits/snaps.

So as we described before in this thread:

Some suspicious cursor movements and hit edges found on this map. He has corner aim on patterns even in ideal conditions, the bloody v8 sensor will not allow you to do this. Examples of such aim - 1 2 3

All his pixel hits are not 100% proof, they happen even to professional players. But don't you think he does it TOO often, especially given the shitty nature of his devices? All those sharp straight lines that appear due to some kind of not "real" movements that only occur in such cases of cheating.

3. Strange cursor movements/movements that are not possible on his devices.

So as we described before in this thread:

This moment where we found strange thing is his play on EVERYBODY DO THE FLOP (Cut Ver.) with HDNC mods on it. If you open visualize of this replay (reupload if score will be out op top 1000), you can see that his cursor went to the borders of the circle, moved by pixels around the stop point there until the approaching circle is 50% closer to the note and started moving it again. Also blatant hits on mouse with relax (also meme, people on his 1kpp score see that he aims like Tuna with relax, but without relax) - 1 2 3 4 5

4. Strange behavior with his play style.

Replay visualizer via osu!Danser - Full alternate with mouse (Mostly looks like Replay Bot with wrong configuration to mouse buttons). And his twitch clip with this keybinds, which looks like Relax Cheat (mirror if he will delete it).
Sawitar is really shady in our opinion. Though we don't think playstyle changes is 100% evidence to conclude soft or anything, but this is another example of strange behaviour from him. Didn't it? Why did he do that anyway? This reminds of Fia's situation. There is no reason to change your key binds trough some 3rd party software. There is no benefits to this, and in the worst case it can introduce additional latency. We don't think changing the play style to inferior one is reasonable. Changing keybinds to mimic mouse-only is also really shady. All of these thoughts get 2x stranger just because of his bad devices which don't have any opportunity to do these straight lines .
(Anyway he didn't write anything about this situation with simpad software or smth else, all this thoughts was wrote by someone in comments, so please, don't repeat their mistakes)

5. Bad conduct in web and dox someone.

Link to screenshot with Sawitar threats to player Impressive. He asked to attach his words to this post separately:

Hello everyone, my nickname in the game is Impressive. Sawitar and I met in the same conversation on the VKontakte social network. At that time, Sawitar was not particularly famous, and he didn’t have any cool records (+- 10 months ago it all happened). Like any Internet troll, I started trolling a weak-minded schoolboy who was playing a game and thought his scores were very cool, although they were ordinary shit in terrible accuracy. At the moment, his ass burned to the maximum, from which I lost notably, and he began to threaten me with dox. I did not attach much importance to this until he began to look for my personal information, my personal photo (which he eventually did and could not), where I live and so on. All threats are provided in screenshots, so I urge you to read them to understand what character we are dealing with. This is not proof that he cheated, but if he behaves in such a way, what else can he be capable of? And how low can he fall?

____________________________________________________________________________ Appeal to Sawitar. If you still want the whole witch hunt in your direction to be stopped, be kind, try to answer all the arguments and evidence given. I think if you are clean, you will have nothing to hide, and life in general will become easier for everyone.
Regards, your's sincerely Vudek, Impressive.

Bard (Bardism) - Bard concept
Enlightenment - Sounds cool. Maybe like Prayer? Get closer to a God of your choice; gain attributes.
Sporting (athletics) - Jousting, Barbarian bowling, chance to rework some minigames into “sports”, allows and unlocks new activities, new gear, etc
Architecture - Construction = only for houses, architecture is everything else. In architecture, you’re the architect while the citizens build your requests. Requires high resources (resource sink) & time-to-build like Farming. Different areas/kingdoms have “development areas”. 90+ provides ability to build new BIS bank to anvil, customize which thieving stalls, custom agility course, etc. Some areas aren’t like a kingdom to build but might be like a random anvil or furnace in an area. Larger areas more customizable.
Sailing clones:
Sailing
Piracy - Sailing with a Piracy filter to allow more gameplay variety focused around Pirate activities
Barbarian (barbarism) - Expansion on Barbarian training. Not a combat skill but its implications can affect combat and most other skills.
Luck - Incorporates clue scrolls, RNG mechanics, etc. Has a wide variety of ways to be trained and is a “passive skill” like Prayer and Slayer
Druidism - Like Barbarism, but focused on the attributes of Druids
Communing - In a similar vein as communing , but not this suggestion
Adventuring - Like Slayer mixed with Artisan (but better) but not only combat-related. You are sent on various “mini-quests” throughout Runescape. (Seek out [NPC], get task, finish task 1, return to NPC, sends you to a new person. Finish all the quests/tasks, then final large EXP gain.)
Sleuthing (investigation) - Imagine thieving mixed with Herbiboar hunter and clue scrolls
Summoning clones:
Domestication (non-combat) - Livestock for resources generation and various utility; Farming/construction hybrid
Hybridization (most likely non-combat) - Similar in a way to domestication but with more slayer implications, but in a more lab-based Frankenstein manner to bring to life weak, monstrous hybrids of creatures across Gielinor to aid you
Animation (non-combat) - Summoning but more artistic; animatronics
Powepersuasion concepts:
Democracy (politics) - Similar to Favor but allows more influence and new options, activities, etc unlocked as one masters
Charisma - Similar to Speech in Skyrim
Influence - A mix of Democracy and Charisma
Bartering - Charisma simplified to trading
Transmutation (“transforming”) - Ability to switch your race and take advantage of all the perks associated (e.g. vampyre for Morytania boosts, elf for agility/stamina, etc). For non-humanoids, gains skin colors and head changes to look like a mask (like for Trolls). Can’t rapidly change race. Takes decent time/effort so people don’t spam change race for perks. It’s meant to be a strategic long-term (like daily) perk bonus for your day.
Espionage - Like Sleuthing + Slayer + Politics
Willpower - ??? Sounded cool
Research/Intelligence - Probably similar, yet unique to RS3?
Genetics - Summoning mixed with Herblore and Prayer Skill tree? Mastery of genetics allows creating new helpful creatures (summoning) along with honing and altering the player’s DNA to alter base stats without gear. Works well with the “Account Builds” updates as Genetics can further the attributes of account builds: pures, skillers, tanks, DPS, hybrids, etc. Endurance genetics = run energy (combos with Agility). Iron skin = extra defense (and like +3 max HP). Dexterity = faster gathering, potential 1-tick skip for creation (stacks with and operates like Smithing outfit). Like Transmutation, it is difficult to change so it isn’t like (as easy as) swapping gear or spellbooks. It is something you work at.
Dungeoneering clones:
Dungeoneering
Mountaineering
Assassin (assassination) - Introduces assassinations and stuff
Escort/Guarding - Like Hunter + Defense + Slayer; like Temple Trekking; get hired on various activities (like end of Song of the Elves, waves of enemies, must protect the VIP with the other guards); escort missions around osrs, etc
Immunology (microbiology) - Biowarfare and resistance
Metabolism - Agility + passive player stats (adds new unique effects to types of food based on metabolism level; food expansion)
Exorcism - Like Slayer, but more minigame-like using ghost hunting tools to exorcize demons/spirits/ghosts/etc
Gambling - Say YAY to gambling!
Chemistry - Expansion hybrid of research + herblore + crafting + mining (new stuff to mine); upgrades gears and such
Investing - stonks
Medicine (medic) - Healer skill?
Taxation - Tax NPCs. Opposite of most skill designs. Brings money in for no reason.
Merchant - Own shops and stuff
Wheelmaking - Reinvent the wheel. Making “vehicles” and gear. Can be useful for like “trade routes” and “storage” like summoning but without combat implications. Similar to Invention
Jesting - Be silly and get passive exp
Acting - Do acting minigames and such, allows characters to get into disguise and pretend to be someone else for passives and such
Dimensional skill (Shrinking/time travel/etc) - Unlocks new areas of the map + area-specific activities. Weird new dimensions to the game. Bad idea because even quest-locked regions are controversial (Song of the Elves).
Intoxication (drugs/drug-doing) - Make drugs and expand brewing. Herblore but crazy
What do you think the new skills might be? Crazy and stupid ideas welcome.

I have played D&D since the 1970's. For four decades, I wouldn't even consider playing anything else. I stopped playing D&D the moment plans surrounding OGL 1.1 were leaked. Since then, I've picked up systems by by both major and minor competitors. My favorites have been OSR systems reminiscent of the game I enjoyed as a youngster.
Hasbro's aggressive damage control makes use of streamers willing to provide an easily manipulated audience. Before The Apology Tour began, however, there were streamers dependent upon WotC for their incomes, who were quick to defend the hand that feeds. The first streamer I blocked started a video by mocking anyone upset with OGL 1.1 and other proposed changes. At one point, he laughed that they had been afflicted by a Feeblemind spell. I don't watch his videos any more. A lot of people stopped watching his videos.
The narrative shifted from insults to tugging on heart strings: "D&D exists apart from Hasbo, and if you love D&D, by golly you will keep subscribing, buying those books, and watch that film!" That line of bull saw other channels blocked.
The other day, I saw grown men debasing themselves in public without ever once challenging the company line. Such is the power of a pretty face. I thought I was done, myself, but now I am livid. I have seen a lot of people badly manipulated and turned against their neighbors, against their own self-interest of late. Predatory manipulation is a diabolical evil, and never gets easier to stomach.
As The Apology Tour rolled on, it became increasingly well-scripted and manipulative. Streamers got together to discuss how they would best serve Hasbro. To varying degrees, an illusion of independence was maintained, but as a successful PR campaign seemed well in hand, the tour became blatantly manipulative and predatory, ultimately relying on good old sex appeal to dull the senses and get back to the task of pulling money from wallets. I blocked the channels of Neck Beard, Nerd Dream, and Friendly Guy.
I understand that most decent people are conflict adverse, thankfully. I managed to adopt a wait-and-see perspective: I would occupy myself with better things until after the film and after Gen Con 2023 to see if change was part of the plan, or if we were just being waited out before the next shoe dropped. Most people aren't waiting. They are back to promoting the company that just tried to destroy the entire TTRPG industry, all to settle some sort of personal vendetta against a few competitors.
The smartest ones are divorcing their products of Hasbro IP, because absolutely nothing has happened that guarantees we won't be put through this again in a few months.
That's all I have to say on it. I've got some amazing new systems, and I'm learning so much about the OSR ecosystem every day. I appreciate Chris Gonnerman, Matt Finch, Robert Schwalb, Daniel Proctor, Charlie Mason, Michael Thomas, Gavin Norman, Joseph Goodman, Keith Ammann, Troll Lord Games, Paizo, Goodman Games, and Kobold Press. These are names worth knowing.
I am grateful for smart people who keep it real.