The Black Blade
The Black Blade is a depraved weapon, a coward whose only strength is killing. Many warriors of both good and ill repute have wielded it and each of them with one fact in common: in the end, it was the Black Blade that killed them, too.

• Who does the Black Blade want to make pacts with? Cold-blooded killers.
• What terms might the Black Blade place on the pact? Wanton killing, ritualized murder or strict rules governing who may be slain by it.

The Black Blade is skilled in fear, murder, physiology and undeath. While satisfying the terms of the pact, it may be used as a weapon without increasing the bearer’s Burdens.

Tlasuth, Fae Courtier
The Faeborn are not fae, not fully. That has become terrifyingly clear to you, as has the reason for the masks that the fae wear. Tlasuth may show you, depending on promises given or flip compulsion. Sometimes, they just like to see you scared.

• Who does Tlasuth want to make pacts with? Alluring charlatans or hedonistic libertines.
• What terms might Tlasuth place on the pact? Regular baths of honey, substitute harmless details when recounting something or bind any promise or agreement (no matter how small) as a contract.

Tlasuth is skilled in birds, contracts, consorting and glamour. They know the Rituals desire (understand someone’s deepest desire as your own) and invert (lies sound like truth and truth sounds like lies).

Heron the Ageless
To escape the shackles of time...is that not true magic? Freedom from the inexorable, the mundane. Heron breathes in the beginning of time and exhales its end. Walk with him for a awhile and slough off the coil of mortality.

• Who does Heron want to make pacts with? Hedges, magicians and sorcerers.
• What terms might Heron place on the pact? Collect small, earthen jars, hoard books or obsessively research a single subject.

Heron is skilled in archeology, monsters, rituals and time. He knows the Rituals scry (gaze into a reflective surface to receive a memory of another time or place), materialize (conjure a simple, handheld object) and exuviate (molt your skin to heal 1 Condition).

The Wolf Gameta
Gameta has had many names, all chosen by itself and now forgotten by everyone else, but all know of Gameta whether through children’s stories, the drunken tales of hunters or from a terrifying night spent too close to the treeline of the forest.

• Who does Gameta want to make pacts with? A renowned ranger who first agrees to a duel.
• What terms might Gameta place on the pact? Protect animals at all costs, replant a forest or drive people away from nature.

Gameta is skilled in allegories, hunting, teamwork and winter. It knows the Ritual call (summon a wolf from a nearby shadow). While satisfying the terms of the pact, your sense of smell is sharpened.

One of the Small Gods
You can find one of them almost anywhere: the hinges of a traveler’s lantern, the seam of a runaway’s knapsack, the grease slapped onto a knight’s armor by their squire...some people say hello or thank them, but most don’t even think to look.

• Who does one of the small gods want to make pacts with? Faithless treasure-hunters or someone seeking answers. 
• What terms might one of the small gods place on the pact? Collect stories, follow will-o’-wisps or toss Coin into pools of water.

One of the small gods is skilled in folklore, memories, nature and survival. They know the Ritual bloom (accelerate the growth of plant life in a small area). While satisfying the terms of the pact, you have a seventh backpack slot.

Bimulla the Ferryman
“Where do we pay the toll? / How do we save the soul? / Over the eyes, put it right there, / so at the ferryman they cannot stare!”

• Who does Bimulla want to make pacts with? The newly dead or those who throw Coin into a river at dusk.
• What terms might Bimulla place on the pact? Perform funerary rites on every corpse, collect Coin as tax or destroy the undead.

Bimulla is skilled in currency, funerals, travel and waterways. They know the Rituals cross (walk across the surface of water) and peer (momentarily see any spirits in the area).

Hemmeh, a Fortune Teller
The diviners who wander from town to town have a bad reputation, though that is the fault of the customer craving convenience over truth. Those who have met one unknowingly, however, may have had their entire reality shifted without realizing it.

• Who does Hemmeh want to make pacts with? Dreamers and those who have seen the future.
• What terms might Hemmeh place on the pact? Misguide a patron, donate Coin to those in need or deliver news to the unjust at an inopportune time.

Hemmeh is skilled in astronomy, divination, double-talk and patronage. While satisfying the terms of the pact, you may roll a die before going on an incursion: you can replace any result with the result you rolled as long as you can relate the murky dream that gave you this foreknowledge to the situation at hand.

Taborath Imprisoned in Amber
Centuries ago, avarice was a flavor. It seeped out of bone white lilies, and pooled thickly on the soil. Something like locusts found it, ate it, grew and multiplied; the stillness of the air drowned in buzzing. Then the lilies died and so did the locusts.

• Who does Taborath want to make pacts with? The greedy, consumed by a buzzing only they can hear.
• What terms might Taborath place on the pact? Hoard Coin to the detriment of anything else, steal or always bargain for a higher price.

Taborath is skilled in insects, perseverance, rumors and treasure. While satisfying the terms of the pact, you may treat Taborath as any amount of Coin for anything but your Hoard.

The Spirit Who Refuses to Pass
“It is well known that a powerful emotion felt at the exact moment of death will block a person’s spirit from ascending. The most common feelings, naturally, are betrayal, despair and love…” Professor Eduto, presenting at the University of the Crown.

• Who does the spirit who refuses to pass want to make pacts with? Those with a strong sense of justice or who view the world in black and white.
• What terms might the spirit who refuses to pass place on the pact? Enact vengeance whenever possible, assassinate someone who wronged the spirit or perform dogmatic rites.

The spirit who refuses to pass is skilled in duty, languages, revenge and vigilance. They know the Ritual speak (you may converse with the undead). While satisfying the terms of the pact, you may assign a Condition you receive to the spirit. (The spirit can hold three Conditions and, to clear them, you must do something for the spirit.)

The Merchant Prince
The gods aren’t dead; they’re right here in this pile of coins and this ledger of transactions. In fact, people fear a tax collector or debtor’s prison far more than any angel and hell! But who controls the coin?

• Who does the merchant prince want to make pacts with? Those foolish enough to sign their name on a contract.
• What terms might the merchant prince place on the pact? Pay double your Burdens, invest in risky startups instead of your Hoard or always bargain for a lower price.

The merchant prince is skilled in burdens, coin, debt and trade. While satisfying the terms of the pact, you do not need to pay for quotidian services (transportation, room and board, etc.)

The Eldest Tree
In a copse past a clearcut patch of the forest—warded in an old, old way by those unspoken of—stands a tree that has witnessed countless migration of animals and countless nobles come to rule the ungovernable.

• Who does the eldest tree want to make pacts with? You. It has been waiting so, so long.
• What terms might the eldest tree place on the pact? Carry its seeds, dedicate time to a community garden or regulate wildfires to rejuvenate vegetation.

The eldest tree is skilled in ecology, endurance, seasons and time. It knows the Rituals forecast (learn what the weather will be until the next day) and feign (appear dead for a brief time). While satisfying the terms of the pact, when your Ruin reaches 6, you can return to life by increasing your starting Ruin by 1. If your starting Ruin would be 6, you cannot return to life.

Snake-Tongued Meliira
Some say they are all named “Meliira” and that that is more of a job title than a name. Others claim they are, in fact, all the same woman. Others still claim that she is a fantasy who keeps the wicked cold at night and the just warm.

• Who does Meliira want to make pacts with? Discerning lovers.
• What terms might Meliira place on the pact? Foment rebellion, undercut patriarchal systems or shelter minorities at risk of abuse or exploitation.

Meliira is skilled in culture, hierarchy, secrets and seduction. She knows the Rituals glare (paralyze someone as long as you hold their gaze) and surmise (learn a named monster’s Weakness).

Iosis, the Transmutated Soul
From a charred, unnamed book rescued from a burning building: “—d then pour a pint of quicksilver into a bone-fashioned bowl suspended in an ice-cold bath filled with a liter of blood (note: yours is fine, but a young subject is prefer—”

• Who does Iosis want to make pacts with? The singularly obsessed and those who know the value of relentless pursuit.
• What terms might Iosis place on the pact? Circular argumentation, cataloguing of the base components of the world or ascetic minimalism.

Iosis is skilled in alchemy, elements, philosophy and rituals. They know the Rituals migrate (briefly travel outside of your body to visit another place) and purify (strip apart alloys or other mixed materials into their base components).

In the spirit of Trophy, this text is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, which means you are free to copy, adapt, remix or whatever else you’d like to do with it as long as you credit Darren Brockes.

Very Much Doomed to Repeat
I am not a historian, as will have been evident from these lists previously. I am perhaps more a half-assed encyclopedist, a commentator, a wannabe librarian, or a pseudo reviewer. But I like history and I have some sense of historical transformations and time.

So sometimes when I’m reading setting backstories, I do a double take. Because they’ll describe a country or nation and then jump forward a thousand years and it’s relatively the same. Like maybe they’ve fallen under the sway of evil or expanded their borders, but generally their lifeways, tech, and civilization have remained the same.

I mention Forbidden Lands below—where a miasma cuts off cities from one another for hundreds of years and when it lifts, these settlements and institutions are pretty much the same I blame all of this on Tolkien. He’s the one who really set it up that the fantasy history gold standard required centuries and millennia. But even then his civilizations have a continuity. Empires fall—but it’s only a change of politics, leadership, and migration. Everything else remains in it’s weird Low/High Medieval state.

Here’s what I’m saying: read some big history, especially of non-Western civilizations—those that we often have a static, monolithic view of. See what we know about the cultural shifts there and how long those took. Consider going for smaller spans: trade in millennia for centuries and centuries for decades. Consider things in terms of generations. It feels less weird and it offers the opportunity for there to be folks who have living memory of the Old World

Post-Apocalyptic Media from 2018
TV Shows: Origin, Rain
Films: Battle Angel Alita, Fahrenheit 451, How It Ends, Mortal Engines, Ready Player One, Wastelander
Video Games: Darksiders III, Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers, Fallout 76, FAR: Lone Sails, Fist of the North Star, Frostpunk, Mutant: Year Zero, State of Decay, The Walking Dead, Will to Live
Board Games: AuZtralia, The City of Kings, The Edge: Downfall, Fallout: Wasteland Wars, Gen7, Human Punishment, Kero, Maximum Apocalypse, The Reckoners, Terminator Genesys: Rise of the Resistance, The Walking Dead: No Sanctuary, Wildlands, Zombiecide: Green Horde, Zombie Kidz Evolution
​

12. Numenera
In 2018 Monte Cook Games went back to do a new “version” of Numenera, the game which had kicked off their Cypher System. Numenera Discovery would replace the original core book, but “…this isn’t a new edition. There have been no substantive changes to the setting, the way the game plays mechanically, or the way NPCs, creatures, cyphers, artifacts, and other items work. All existing Numenera supplements (and even the original Numenera corebook) are compatible with Numenera Discovery—as are your existing characters and campaigns.”

On the other hand, Numenera Destiny seems to integrate some previous material with a lot of new ideas how to explore and interact with the setting. There’s a focus on building—objects, weapons, settlements. It adds new character options to fit with those kinds of approaches to the setting.

It’s a little odd—a little bit of clean up and redressing of the core, sold in a Kickstarter with this new sourcebook. There’s some mention that while character options remain the same, some will be less important or effective in light of the new options. As a result in addition to letting the original core book go out of print, they retired Numenera Character Options and Numenera Character Options 2 books.

MGC also supported the line with several other large releases. Building Tomorrow expands on Destiny’s focus on creation and development. It’s filled with items, community ideas, new challenges for these kinds of campaigns. They also revised the Numenera Player’s Guide, giving just the most important player-facing elements. Finally Ashes of the Sea was the lines new quickstart and release for Free RPG Day.

It’s also worth noting the growth of third party supplements for Numenera. For example, The Gardener’s Apprentice is a huge campaign arc developed by Metal Weave Games. I’ve skipped over these a little in previous lists but there’s definitely a robust library of community created content out there.

13. Shattered: A Grimdark RPG
I had a weird journey when I first looked at this game. The first thing you notice is the cover—like Final Fantasy meets Troika meets WH40K meets “Is that lady wearing a shirt or not?” meets a bunch of other stuff. It’s a grabber illustration—done with great use of white space. That slickness is contrasted with the title logo which looks sketchy on a couple of levels. But OK—it aims for a particular feel. But then the title page identifies the creators as INDE. Which stands for “Its Never Dark Enough.”

Please don’t let this be an edgelord bullshit game.

It isn’t that. Instead it’s a kitchen-sink fantasy setting + new complete rules system with a large and detailed setting, tons of talents & magic, crafting rules, airships, and lots of wild fantasy races. (fyi: while I appreciate having both male and female illustrations for each race in games, it does demonstrate how men get to look hulking & dangerous and women get to have boobs. And when you put boobs on the lizard and undead folk, I begin to shake my head).

I always know I’m in for a wild ride when the history starts 3000 years back, though the apocalypse happened only 2400 years ago. This is a big ritual that messes up magic, brings down the cool ancient civilizations, and unleashes horrors across the world. Five hundred years after that there’s a rebirth of humanity. Then 1900 years or so passes with some rebuilding, tech advancement, and reorganizing of political units. It’s a lot, filled with references to many different places and tons of arcane (or Arkäna as the book puts it) terms.

While the game in places suggests you’ll be going out into a shattered world following the fall of civilization, it actually feels more like a conventional fantasy setting with lots of intact nation states.

Shattered uses its own, detailed mechanics. Dice have stepped ranks, but these are listed from Rank 1 (1d4) to 20 (5d10) so it blows the cap off of DCC or Savage Worlds’ dice chains. It’s a lot—it you’re an old school fan of D&D at its crunchiest, Rolemaster, or Chivalry & Sorcery, you may dig it. It does have a substantial set of rules for airships which some may find worth it.
​

19. Z-LAND
A Zombie apocalypse rpg which “(takes) the survival aspect of survival-horror very seriously. You will see your character weaken as sleep deprivation, hunger & thirst slowly whittle them down. “There’s a parallel here to the rise in survival/crafting video games in the last decade. There’s even one named The Z-Land (no relation) which follows this template.

The Sigil System which powers Z-Land is a skill-based d100 roll under system. It has a lot of the kinds of systems you associate with traditional, detail-oriented survival horror: hit locations, hunger and food spoilage, skill specialization, and so on. If you like more meat on the bones of your rpg, this may appeal to you.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Z-Land is that it offers three robust campaign settings, each with history, rules for character creation, pre-gen characters, and starting scenarios. The first is set just as the collapse is happening. The second fifteen years after the fall. The third 175 years. It’s a cool idea—and nice that the game offers a range of options. Running a Legacy-style game across those eras could be cool.
 
20. Miscellaneous: Zombie
Era: Survival - Definitive Edition Rulebook: revised edition of this zombie PA rpg. It bundles the core rules with two key supplements.
Le Corbusier: An enclave sourcebook for Red Markets with an academic bent.
Leaving Solace: Taking Down the Crowleys and The Long March: two linked modules for After Zombies.
Outbreak: Undead (2nd Edition) Survivor's Guide: Player’s guide for the latest edition of this ZRPG.
Parsely: The Z-Ward setting, a zombie game set in a mental hospital, appears both on its own and in the Parsely compendium.
Scavenger Run: A generic location-based module which can be used with any zombie ttrpg (or adapted for other post-apocalyptic games).
Sine Requie Anno XIII: Regno delle Ombre: a sourcebook for this weird WW2 game, but it’s unclear exactly what it covers.
Survive This!! Zombies! 2nd Edition and Source Book 1: Among the Living: A revised version of this OSR zombie rpg and a sourcebook offer more player character options.
Tempus Mortis: a third-party module for Dread set in a town which is being overrun by zombies.
​

Since I've been playing Godbound, I thought I'd revisit a post I wrote about another Kevin Crawford game I dig: Silent Legions. I ran two sessions of it at the end of 2016. While this is a repost, I think it's interesting as an example of leaning into the toolboxes Crawford offers.

Silent Legions is an OSR Loftcraftian toolbox game. It has a simple system, mostly the same one powering many of his other releases (like the amazing Godbound). But Silent Legions isn’t just a CoC-style investigation game. Instead it’s a toolbox for creating your own Mythos -- elder gods, aliens, cults, relics, tomes-- and using them in a sandbox horror game. It also isn’t a Cthulhu game, instead it provides amazing random generators to build an experience that feels like one. That means even CoC vets remain uncertain about what they’re facing. Crawford's smart use of walk-throughs for many the many tables keeps the book together.
  
And at the back of Silent Legions there’s a one-page set of Luchadore variant rules. They’re one of several bonus pieces that came from Kickstarter backer requests. These rules make the characters closer to Godbound’s heroes. Heroes can dish out and take serious punishment in combat. They’re still limited on skills, saves, and sanity but they can go toe-to-toe with the baddies.

To run my two sessions I worked through all of the book's tools. That splits into two parts. First, generating the Mythos itself. That includes the pantheon, an alien race, an otherworldly place (called Kelipots), a cult, and an alien artifact. The second part, adventure creation, builds on that. Silent Legions is intended to be a sandbox game. You generate a region, a set of locations, and then troubles in those places. Then you can drill down to generate ideas for a specific scenario for the evening.

Below you’ll see what I generated. Most of it’s the raw material I created.  Crawford’s book covers fleshing those details out. But since I’d only be doing two sessions, I just generated the basics for outline and inspiration. At the end I sketch out the my scenario built on this. There’s a ton of unused material. I really only worked with two the nine locations generated. I could easily run a longer weird investigation game from this. You can check all that out below. If you want to see the Actual Play videos, I’ve posted them (Session One, Session Two). If you just want to hear the group’s thoughts about play, we take couple of minutes on that at the end of S2 (2:11:30 time-mark).

MYTHOS CREATION
PANTHEON
Theme: Malevolence and Violence
Five Deities, all connected to the same pantheon. Aspected: The gods each have multiple aspects with different apparent personalities.

• Ungycrig Kegil: Empty Sky Diviner
• Sharp-sided W’thoth: Sultan of the Greys
• Cxidaoath: Bloody Thirsting Serpent
• Burning Rnyc’mu: Smoking Disease Seer
• Yaim-Zu: Ravening Feaster of the Wastelands

ALIEN RACE: GLAC’TELEKE

• Arrived within the past thousand years or so.
• Not known because some humans work to assiduously clean up evidence.
• A selection of alien technology kept by human heirs remains.
• They were colonists seeking to expand their species’ influence.
• Humans are wondrous and utterly fascinating to them.
• Some animals are secretly under their control.
• Their human minions ran wild and slipped their control.
• They lost influence when those human minions ran wild and slipped their control.

Dark Ways of this Race

• They prefer to work through human agents and catspaws.
• They have an advantage through knowledge. They know what others have forgotten.
• They’re in this region because this location provides ideal spawning material for them.
• They fear rivals. Some other aliens threaten their destruction
• They control minions through bribery. The pay is far more than minions can earn.
• They admire devotion and blind worship by those beneath them.
• They hate faith and piety, hating human religions and having none themselves.

Physical Form

• Congery of geometric shapes: roiling mass of infinite tubes. Parasitic eggs, poison, viciousness, slenderness. Weeping sores.
• Digitigrade arms. Small mouths on hands. Mantis-like head. Flayed skin. Obese torso. Fanged Jaws. Metallic Tentacles.
• Liquefies its food. Shrill and piping voice. Moves as if to strange dance. Feeds on the Sick and Weak.
• They inject an enslaving ichor in prey, forcing a Mental Effect save or the victim becomes their helpless thrall.

ALIEN PLACE
Thuagn, The Monstrous Underhaunts

• An Earthen Swamp which is a Home for Dark Things. What flora there is resembles animals. What fauna there remains is insectile.
• There is a population here inspired by a twisted version of Pre-Columbian New World (Aztecs, Incas, Mayans). They’re frozen at this technological and cultural level, the very nature of the Kelipah keeping them locked in place.
• The people only exist in settlements scattered around the region.
• Despite that rigidity and dwindling populace, they possess a striking technology, indistinguishable from magic. They hide any real magic they possess from strangers.
• Thuagn is ruled over by an autarch. His reputation keeps any and all in line.
• As a culture they possess hatred for any who show weakness. The rulers desire more strength and throw themselves into strange rituals and sacrifices to gain the attention of their dark gods. Outsiders bring a panic to the people- they fear their presence may disturb prayers and supplications or even bring the wrath of their gods upon them.
• Ritual Tribute to the leaders dominates their production.

CULT
Pact of the Illuminated Messenger

• This cult was founded within the past few decades, being a recent formation. An artist driven by visions of something vast created it. It met resistance from the common folk and rural peoples who dreaded their exactions and sacrifices.
• The earliest recruits numbered the desperate, wretched, and outcast of the society. They had violated the laws and customs of their communities and families and had been cast out as a result.
• The original artist who founded the cult was a washed up hotel landscape painter. He wanted to be the next Thomas Kinkaide. Instead he found mystic truths he used to blast the reason of cultists. So far they’ve managed to hide in plain sight as a seemingly harmless group of artists and craftpersons.
• The cult itself is coldly rational, using the cult’s powers as a mundane tool. They meet in a repurposed school used as an arts center for the region. While the founder once held control, it has become an acephelous group, acting according to alien compulsions. They have cells which share agendas and purposes.
• The cult wants to create an enormous atrocity or disaster. They have vast amounts of mundane wealth. That’s come from a relentless network of market manipulations for their eerie paintings and crafts. Ebay provides their backbone.
• The most knowledgeable cultists serve an avatar of their patron, almost uncontrollable in its terrible power and summoned only in dire need. It is summoned through paintings. They have at their disposal a reporter who pretends they’re really just investigating.

ARTIFACT
Mask of the Unchanging Shadow

• What do the legends say? Nothing. It is completely absent from occult literature. Despite that, it was was part of the defeat of a great eldritch abomination.
• It was created roughly a thousand years ago by an outer deity for nameless ends. It is said even its creator has no idea why they made it. But it was hurled from its maker in a magical accident.
• Like all such objects it bears a curse. But this one is more minor and annoying than destructive. It causes users to be especially weak against the undead. But that triggers seemingly at random. It is said that magical spells of dispelling will end the curse’s effects.
• The item itself is a mask. It is said to be able to soak up a massive amount of harm. But that protection is limited, being only effective against blunt weapons and fists. Still it projects all of the wearer’s body from such harm. The potent magics can only be used once a day, for about an hour. When struck, the body lands with no visible effect. In order to use recharge the item after a use, the bearer must spend their own HP.

SCENARIO CREATION
Region: South New Mexico
THREE URBAN LOCATIONS
Alamagordo
Senseless Violence
The locals can’t seem to get enough of killing each other. The homicide rate is enormous for a site of its size, and the local police seem largely incapable or uninterested in checking the violence. The bloodshed might be largely restricted to a certain class of people or certain criminal groups, with the local cops indifferent to who kills who among them. At other sites, it might be endemic through the population, or even the product of a corrupt police department.

• Enemies: Police chief-slash-gang boss, Illicit arms supplier, Homicidal criminal warlord, indiscriminate vigilante
• Friends: Police internal review investigator, Outside government inspector, Local peace campaigner, Local being hunted by killers
• Schemes: Seize a cache of military weaponry, Get their enemies disarmed by the law, Kill a troublesome politician or cop, Make a near-military assault on an enemy-held neighborhood
• Secrets: Firearms are stringently regulated for the law-abiding, The gangs are proxy armies for feuding politicians, The cops are just one more gang with restricted turf, The gangs are seeking to seize full control of local government
• Places: Heavily-trafficked gun shop, Emergency room full of bodies, Constantly-active funeral parlor, Scene of a random drive-by shooting

Carrizozo
Buried Power
A blind and terrible power is buried or otherwise sealed away at the site, and a cult desires to remedy this confinement. The power may be an unnatural wound in the fabric of the world, a gate to a strange Kelipah, or an alien intellect that chafes at its imprisonment. The power has drawn a group determined to liberate it, even if they don’t fully understand their own strange urges, and their efforts may range from physical digging to the enactment of rituals.

• Enemies: Obsessed archaeologist, Cultist construction company owner, Maddened local occultist, Alien minion of the trapped power
• Friends: Owner of the land over the power, Rare book collector, Curious geologist, Heir to the family keeping the power sealed
• Schemes: Physically excavate the entity’s prison, Perform the rite that will break the ancient seals, Arrange the bloody deaths that will awaken the power, Foolishly seek to bind the power to their own purposes
• Secrets: The power creates a subtle but unnatural effect on the surroundings, The power is sealed by several important objects, The power grants gifts to those who seek to free it, The locals retain legend of the last time the power was free
• Places: Ancient buried chamber, Park with strangely charged atmosphere, Hidden ritual room, Tightly-secured digging site

Artesia
Crushing Despair
The locals have given up. Whatever the cause, they no longer have any hope for the future, and seek to numb themselves with transient pleasures and destructive distractions. Corruption, crime, loss, and oppression are seen as inevitable facts of life, and they will resist any attempt to persuade them otherwise as merely a cruel attempt at deception.

• Enemies: Purveyor of chemical distractions, Predatory loan shark, Political machine boss, Heartless industrialist employer
• Friends: Crusading preacher, Embattled community leader, Successful expatriate returned home, Local determined to break free
• Schemes: Quash a troublemaking local leader, Spread a profitable addiction among the locals, Shut down a project that risks empowering locals, Discredit a source of hope as a mere trick
• Secrets: The local elites rely on a crushed populace, The locals were once rich and important but lost it all, Faith and community were ruined by a sequence of betrayals, Constant plans for renewal always disappoint
• Places: Abandoned church, Decaying crack house, Riotous illegal drinking hole, Street with half the houses empty

THREE RURAL LOCATIONS
Cloudcroft
High End, Gated Community. This is what I focused on.
Massive Ritual
The site is being primed as the location of a truly enormous ritual. Building geometry, street layouts, concentrations of people and industry, and other features of the location are being brought into harmony as part of a tremendous work of occult power. Some rituals may require the entire physical geography be molded, while others might only need the right masses of people enlisted. The resulting effect may be subtle, but its successful execution is bound to result in some sort of terrible summoning, lasting curse on the land, or warped apotheosis for the high priest who enacts the rite.

• Enemies: Crazed Masonic architect, Occult-wise tycoon, Mayor-cum-high priest, Diabolical performer
• Friends: Resident displaced for rite, Relative of new cult enthusiast, Engineer concerned over senseless digging, Conspiracy theorist who's right
• Schemes: Arrange carefully-coordinated local disasters, Seize a local building that's a linchpin of the rite, Destroy a local structure that interferes with the spell, Create a large-scale "celebration" that triggers the magic
• Secrets: The ritual has already failed with impending dire consequences, The ritual’s preparations cause echoes of eldritch anomalies, The ritual is embedded in part of a public celebration. The ritual masquerades as a performance or public art piece
• Places: Baffling tangle of streets, Strangely-gutted building, Defiled church, Huge concealed ritual chamber

​Weed
Has a Dollar General
Migrant Tensions
The site has recently received an influx of migrants. Some might be looking for better jobs, while others might favor the local climate, low taxes, cheap land, or some other point of allure. For small communities this influx can change the character and culture of the town overnight, provoking fear and anger from locals who see themselves suddenly becoming political, cultural, or racial minorities in their own homes. These tensions can easily provoke antipathy or outright violence.

• Enemies: Bigoted local reactionary, Colonization-minded migrant leader, Ruthless native social elite, Migrant political machine boss
• Friends: Resident with ties to both groups, Cooperative group leader, Peacekeeping police chief, Local religious leader
• Schemes: Migrants seek to take over local government, Natives try to effectively outlaw the migrants' culture, Migrants try to drive out natives from "their" neighborhoods, Natives seek to terrorize the newcomers
• Secrets: One group considers itself plainly superior to the hick / infidel / one-percenter / atheist / prole others, The migrants have no other real choice of places to go, The natives are being swamped by newcomers, The migrants want to make the place the same as the one they left
• Places: Newly-built migrant social club, Native-only bar, Old house full of new people, Shop catering to a different language or culture

​Orogrande (SR 54)
Kratos Defense & Security, Middle of Nowhere RV Park, Trader Jerrys
Vast Graft
Theft and corruption are a way of life among the site’s leadership. Every ambitious local knows that the fast track to wealth and power is to get a position with the local authorities. These men and women methodically plunder the taxes and government grants they receive, keeping the lion’s share for themselves and passing out smaller tastes to those businesses and people who cooperate with their wishes. Even heinous crimes can be hushed up for a bribe.

• Enemies: Glitteringly corrupt mayor, Cynical neighborhood alderman, Political machine bagman, Graft-enriched construction company owner
• Friends: Distressed government accountant, Frustrated tax collector, Suspicious outside investigator, Cheated local business owner
• Schemes: Loot a charity for personal profit, Cover up the dangerous corners cut in an important local infrastructure building, Buy off or kill a persistent troublemaker, Protect a murderous lackey who makes them money
• Secrets: The locals feel no outrage over the graft and consider it only normal, The machine steals from one disfavored group in order to finance amenities for another, Local criminals are untouchable as long as they pay "taxes", Most civic construction is somehow dangerous due to malfeasance in building it
• Places: Crumbling stadium, Impure water purification plant, Building stripped of its interior fittings, Luxuriant government building

The recently I’ve run two different Masks: A New Generation campaigns on The Gauntlet. They have two different frames and two distinct feels for me. The first put the team in the shadow of a world-shaking disaster. The second has everyone playing heroes from existing media properties. I talk about both below. I also offer up some new tricks for Masks: more location moves (inspired by Halcyon City Herald and Cartel).

Days of Shadows Past
The first campaign had a fairly simple twist: something had occurred which had made superheroic life extremely difficult. During our session 0, we took some time between safety and character creation to collaboratively decide what that would be. I offered several options which we could flesh out:

• Government crack-down and control over superhero activities
• Mass public damage due to a superheroic event
• Group of respected heroes went bad in some mass, public way
• Barely stopped invasion or outbreak which has been connected with supers
• Deaths or vanishings of large portion of the superhero community
• "The Thanos snap"
• Something else

The basic idea was to create something looming consistently in the background. I made some tweaks to the available playbooks to reflect this as well (and to fit with how I like to run).

The players took the ideas and ran with them—combining several into a sequence. Essentially a large number of established heroes had suddenly turned evil, they’d gone on a rampage, including smashing sections of the moon and sending them hurtling towards Earth. While that disaster had been averted, many of these former heroes remained at large—with a broken moon as a reminder in the sky. AEGIS had stepped up activities, limiting what supers could do, and deploying anti-meta units.

Then during character creation, some of the players tied their stories to this. One decided that their Lex Luthor-analogue father was behind the mind-control of the heroes. He’d followed that up by supplying AEGIS with specialized weaponry. Another PC was the son of a great superhero who’d now become Aftermath, leader of these super-villains. Aftermath had even drawn his son into villainy for a short time. Another PC’s tech had been stolen and was the basis for the mind-altering device. Our Harbinger had, come from the future to stop all of this. And our non-powered Beacon, the team leader, had a tangential connection to this, having become famous for fighting against these villains.
It worked really well—the players integrated themselves into the story of the world more tightly than I’d imagined. It created a little darkness they were fighting against right from the start. It was a small change, but tweaked the vanilla Masks set up.

St. Killians School for Gifted Teens
When your team infiltrates the school for supervillains, the team leader rolls +Superior or +Freak. If the latter, your team is coming in as weird outsiders. If the former, you’re coming in as elites. On a 12+ you get in with no problems and your cover stands up to scrutiny. Someone makes friends with the leaders of one of the school’s cliques. On a 10+ you get in with no problems and your cover’s intact.

On a 7-9, you get in, but there’s a complication: one team member’s cover cracks (MC choice), you make enemies with the head of one of the cliques right away, you spot someone who could blow the whole thing open, (other options negotiated by the table). On a miss, you’ve stepped into it. You’ve raised suspicions and are put into a challenge right away to show just how villainous you really are.

Stellar Labs
When you break into Stellar Lab’s high-tech facility to research something, roll +Superior or +Savior. On a 10+ you get the answers you need. You may ask one question from either Analyze the Situation or Pierce the Mask and you make declare one fact about the situation. This declaration shouldn’t counter the existing fiction without a reason why and can’t be about a fellow PC. The MC may veto or negotiate declarations.

On a 7-9, you can either ask the question or declare a fact. Alternately you can do both, but Stellar Labs discovers your entry and has hard evidence about your break-in. On a miss, you stumble into something. You’re caught by the person you least want to get caught by; the MC chooses.

Superhero Museum
When you go to the superhero museum to seek inspiration and solace, roll +Mundane. On a hit you may clear a condition or shift labels. Say what hero’s action or sacrifice has spoken to you. On a 10+ something about that hero’s actions ties into or reveals something about your current challenges. Collaborate with the GM to say what that is.
On a miss, you learn something unpleasant about one of your heroes. This could be from a back-corner display, hidden records, or a talkative guide. Say who the hero is and what they did. Then mark a condition.

Convention
When you go to the ACF Convention Center to indulge your geek-hobby roll +Freak. On a 10+ you find a rare item or meet a beloved creator. Clear a condition. You also discover someone in your circles (schoolmate, villain, etc.) shares your interest. Say who. Take influence over them. On a 7-9 you have a good time—choose one of the 10+ options (clear a condition or gain a fellow enthusiast). On a miss, it doesn’t go well. Choose one: someone’s mockery of your geekdom or cred checking gets to you, you end up with fake or broken merch, or a personal hero betrays your vision of them. Roll Take a Powerful Blow.

Bring It On
When you go to the entertainment center to compete as a team against rivals say what you’re competing in (karaoke, cosplay competition, skating, dancing, etc.). Choose which Label will govern decide the competition and then find the weakest link in your team (i.e. the lowest value for that label). They roll +(chosen label).

On a 10+ you blow the doors off the place and leave your rivals in the dust. Everyone can choose to add a team to the team pool or clear a condition. Additionally choose one group or important person who has their attitude towards you shift positively. On a 7-9 as above but you also gain a hated rival who is now determined to embarrass all of you.

On a miss you overstep and your rivals crush you humiliatingly. Say what opportunity or connection you lose as a result. Name one NPC who used to dig the team, but now thinks you’re weak sauce. ​

This is the second half of my list of obstacles for sci-fi bounties and jobs. You can find the first part here. As someone pointed out regarding the first part, many of these could be adapted for fantasy settings as well. Mechanically for Blades in the Dark style games, you can either roll some of these ahead of time or as you go along. Especially if the players are going in a little blind, they're great to throw out as the result of an engagement roll just to see how creative they can be will flashbacks.