Making Star Maps via Esoteric Enterprises

Space Engine

Take as many dice as you want and toss them on your map paper. Write down each die type and its number. Draw lines between dice and their neighbors, denoting viable hyperspace lanes.

Add an extra junction - this is Sol (or whatever the central world of your main polity is. You can then spread human influence outwards along those systems that have settlements (and do the same for any spacefaring alien civilizations you rolled). Consider how the hyperspace routes work - civilizations are limited by the time it takes to communicate with its fringes, so systems isolated by dangerous or slow routes are likely to form independent polities, cut off from their parents.

A good guideline is that a civilization's maximum stable spread caps at a year of transit between the primary world and its furthest colony (this is equivalent to two standard routes). A tenuous hold can be kept on those multiple years away, but odds are good that those worlds will find themselves either independent or allied with closer polities soon enough.

What Lies Beyond the Gate?

1. Unclaimed Filler System - One of the many billions of systems containing very little. A dim and nameless star, some ice, some rock, some gas.
2. Claimed But Not Yet Colonized - An outside group has claimed the system as their own, but has not begun the process of settling it.
3. Lonely Refueling Outpost - The system is a minor stopover, settled mostly to provide a way to stock up on volatiles before moving on
4. Marginal World - A planet here is just barely habitable. It is home to either the unwanted or the desperate. Extremely low population density.
5. Minor Colony - A low-population system, either from cosmographic remoteness, difficulty of access, newness, or economic factors.
6. Major Colony - By position, age, luck, or favor, this system's worlds are well-established, populous, and generally stable
7. Independent Colony - The settlement here is not connected to any existing polity.
8. Travel Hub - This system lies at a convenient junction of routes
9. Disputed Territory - Two or more factions are in open conflict over the
10. Economic Boom - A good or service provided by this system is in high demand.
11. Economic Downturn - A good or service once provided by this system is now available far cheaper elsewhere.
12. Anomalous Star - There's something unusual here - a black hole, a Wolf-Rayet star, a neutron star, a pulsar, so on. Not really fit for normal habitation, but certainly worth scientific investigation.
13. Rogue Planet - There's no sun here - the route opens up near a frozen world in interstellar space.
14. Terraforming Candidate - Specifically it is a candidate for terraforming that is both cheap and fast. Immensely valuable to outside parties and sure to kick up some conflicts.
15. Life-Bearing World (Minor) - Probably prokaryotic bacteria, maybe some eukaryotes or algae. Very rarely some multicellular organisms.
16. Life-Bearing World (Garden) - Close-enough to Earthlike that the comparison isn't completely wrong.
17. Life-Bearing World (Exotic) - The biosphere here is well outside the terragenic spectrum, but life is here all the same.
18. Alien Homeworld (Extinct) - There were people here, once. They didn't make it.
19. Alien Homeworld (Non-spacefaring) - There are sapient aliens here, but for any of a multitude of reasons, they remain sequestered on a single planet.
20. Alien Homeworld (Spacefaring) - Sapient aliens have their own spacefaring civilization here. Give them colonies according to the aforementioned guidelines.

Hyperspace Lanes

• d4-d4 - Newly Made - A fresh standard route, still hasn't had all the rough spots smoothed out yet. Travel rate is months per LY
• d4-d6 - Standard - A standard, stabilized hyperspace route. Travel rate is months per LY.
• d4-d8 - Sporadic Connection - Sometimes it just doesn't work. There are unpredictable delays in transit availability. Travel rate is months per LY, when it does work.
• d4-d10 - Lightspeed Highway - This route moves ships at exactly lightspeed.
• d4-d12 - Variable Speed - Travel time varies between decades and days per LY. There's no way to predict how long it will take. Not often used.
• d4-d20 - Inaccurate - There is a 30% chance that this route might spit a ship out in a system linked to the target destination. Travel rate is months per LY
• d6-d6 - Decaying Route - This standard route is in the process of collapse. it still works, but there's no telling for how long nor what might happen to those caught inside when it collapses.
• d6-d8 - Swift Current - This route is significantly faster than normal. Travel rate is weeks per LY.
• d6-d10 - Standard - A standard, stabilized hyperspace route. Travel rate is months per LY.
• d6-d12 - Corrosive - This route, while fast, eats away at matter that passes through it. Only specialized ships can pass through it. Travel rate is weeks per LY.
• d6-d20 - Collapsed - A previously-functioning route has collapsed upon itself. There's no FTL traversal between those two systems any more.
• d8-d8  - Newly Made - A fresh standard route, still hasn't had all the rough spots smoothed out yet. Travel rate is months per LY
• d8-d10 - Swift & Inaccurate - There is a 30% chance that this route might spit a ship out in a system linked to the target destination. Travel rate is weeks per LY.
• d8-d12 The Slow Road - This route is slow-than-light, but still faster, safer, and easier than conventional travel. Travel rate is years per LY.
• d8-d20 - Lightspeed Highway - This route moves ships at exactly lightspeed.
• d10-d10 - Swift Current - This route is significantly faster than normal. Travel rate is weeks per LY.
• d10-d12 - Lightspeed Highway - This route moves ships at exactly lightspeed.
• d10-d20 - Instant Transmission - No travel time passes at all. Vessels go through one end and immediately emerge on the other side.
• d12-d12 - The Slow Road - This route is slow-than-light, but still faster, safer, and easier than conventional travel. Travel rate is years per LY.
• d12-d20 - Variable Speed - Travel time varies between decades and days per LY. There's no way to predict how long it will take. Not often used.
• d20-d20 - Standard - A standard, stabilized hyperspace route. Travel rate is months per LY.

And there you have it. I'll try making something with it soon.

THE INAUGURAL SALTY AWARDS

They're arbitrary!

They're weird!

They reject continuity of time!

They reject meaningful distinctions of category!

They're an off-brand bootleg of the Ramanan Sivaranjan Awards for Excellence!

It's time for...

THE SALTIES

The selection process is simple. I choose things and then my choices are correct.

BESTEST OF THE BEST 

The Itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, also Dissident Whispers is there.

Thousands of voices singing "fuck the police" in beautiful harmony, to the tune of over 8 million dollars raised. Every game featured within gets this award regardless of my opinions, lack of opinions, or any other qualities it may or may not possess. Because fuck the police.

TRIFECTA GRANDE 

Ultraviolet Grasslands (Luca Rejec), TROIKA! (Daniel Sell), Trilemma Adventures (Michael Prescott)

Also known as "the three books I would save from a fire." Each is magnificent in its own way, and a combination of the three would render one set for life in terms of RPGs. One is the ideal setting book, one is the ideal system book, one is the ideal book of adventures. Together they are unstoppable.

THE VOICE CRYING OUT IN THE WILDERNESS

@pandatheist

Proving that even RPG twitter is capable of sustaining coherent thought, @pandatheist is an island of good critique and spotlight threads in the midst of tepid seas of nonsense. And it's interdisciplinary, too, covering material from the 5e, indie, and OSR spheres.

PRODUCTIVITY POWERHOUSE

Emmy Allen (@dyingstylishly, cavegirlgames.blogspot.com)

How this woman manages to consistently put out so much material is beyond me. Holy shit. Wolfpacks, Enterprises, Ynn, Stygian, that one psy-ops game I never looked into, pretty sure there's an Arthurian miniatures ruleset, and now Dungeon Bitches. Holy shit. How.

ACTUAL GOD DAMN HEROES

Jarrett Crader & Fiona Giest

Go look at some of your favorite books, the real good ones. Odds are good you are going to find these two in the credits for editing or proofreading. This is because they're real fucking good at it, and I speak from personal experience. They gave Unicorn Meat a brilliant polish and turned clunky words into unclunky ones and chef's kiss.

BEST BOOK THAT IS NOT YET IN BOOK FORM

The Monster Overhaul (Skerples)

From art to organization, this is shaping up to be to monster manuals as Tomb of the Serpent Kings is to dungeon adventures - the sort of thing that takes the fundamentals and applies long-needed functionality updates.

I AM A PATIENT MAN

BREAK! (Naldo Drinian and Grey Wizard)

It will be here eventually. I am a patient man. I will wait. I am a patient man. It will be here eventually.  I AM A PATIENT MAN.

QUARANTINE FUN

Solo Games! (Various)

There were a good number of solo games in the Justice Bundle, and I hope that their spread leads to the creation of more. There's an entire field of design here that is just beginning to be explored. Special shout outs go to Ex Novo and the Wretched & Alone games, which are breaking out into more structured solo games than I typically see (and in the latter's case, immensely successful proliferation of hacks)

AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE

Shattered: A Grimdark RPG (It's Never Dark Enough)

There are glimpses of a gonzogrot diamond in the rough buried in this game, but unfortunately Shattered clutches all the sins of mid-aughts design close to its heart. The dread combination of tiny font, minuscule margins, double column text blocks, and uneven topic headers render the book almost unreadable, and this is accompanied by burdensome backstory and worldbuilding, clunkycrunch mechanics, and an insistence that all women have precisely the same body type even when they are of a species where having breasts makes no sense at all.

All this being said, the game's art is striking enough for me to remember it, and it does a decent enough job of establishing its own identity, two steps that man games do not accomplish.

AN ATTEMPT WAS NOT MADE

Wizards of the Coast

From the hypocritical and draconian policies of DMs Guild to their limp-wristed response to criticism of their perpetuation of race essentialism in the ttrpg sphere, WotC has proven to all that there is no bottom to the barrel of their milquetoast corporate cowardice - there is only another barrel. It is an infinite recursive column of barrels, matched only in its terrible depth by my confusion that people are still expecting a different outcome from this company.

SELF-INFLICTED PETARD HOIST ULTRA COMBO

James Edward Raggi IV

It's not even schadenfreude at this point. Just a vague sadness, though any sympathy that might come of it is obliterated by the fact that he released a book painting the very credible accusations of abuse against known malignant narcissist and abuser as mob hysteria, is an open supporter of a man who made his fortune slandering trans people, still refuses to cut ties with aforementioned malignant narcissist and abuser, and practices that most insipid form of cowardice - believing that freedom of speech means freedom from responsibility.

BEST PODCAST

Apocrypals (Chris Sims & Benito Cereno)

Not an RPG podcast, which makes it the best RPG podcast, because it'll actually learn you some stuff. Like biblical apocrypha and how absolutely wild it gets. More gnostic tomfoolery than you can shake a stick at. Dunking on Paul. Interpretive Torah funtimes. All the best Bible fanfiction, all in good humor. Go learn yourself a thing.

JUDGE'S CHOICE

Yokai Hunters Society (Chema Gonzalez)

I have spoken at length my thoughts and praise for YHS - for it's system, for its themes, for its economy of writing, for its flavor, and for how it addresses monster hunting within a different (and often less violent) cultural framework. It's good stuff.

 ***

This has been the inaugural Salty Awards. You may now return to your homes, untroubled.

Spook Templates for Esoteric Enterprises

Armadoodle

After playing Esoteric Enterprises for several months, I found I'm less than thrilled with the Spook as-written than I was at the start.

1. I am not a fan of "and now you have spontaneously developed a radical new skill", especially when it's something you should already have had. 
2. The pacing of powers at 1 per level means that you'll be missing ones you should have at the start, and spontaneously gaining more than you need at the end.
3. Both characters I played in this particular campaign died before reaching level 2.

So here's some changes that I'm going to be instituting in the future.

Change 1: A Spook starts with up to four powers at level 1. They can start with fewer, but the sweet spot is 4. (The Lithic Court gets an exception here, just because of how alien they are.)

Change 2: At all levels after 1, a Spook may take the level up bonus from any other class. (Ex: a spook can gain the skill points of a criminal, but not any of the other features.) These bonuses start at the equivalent of level 1 (Ex: Spook 3 is really Spook 1, Criminal 1, Mystic 1). Alternatively, they may forgo this benefit in exchange for 1 point of Resources.

Change 3: Having starting resources as a human spook now costs two power slots, instead of a decrease in HD size.

Flesh / Grit, saves, and being off the books by default all remain intact.

For those making their own who would like powers or aesthetics beyond those in the Esoteric Enterprises book, I recommend Skerples' list of 1000 mutations

Core Book Templates

Dero
Blue-tinged morlock subspecies. Minds work perpendicular to reality.

• Mad Insight - Forensics +2, Translation +2, can make Forensics check to ask DM a question.
• Slippery Mind - Automatically shrug off supernatural mental influence. Causes 1 round of extreme disorientation as brain reboots.
• Dream Manipulation - Can manipulate and direct the dreams of a sleeping target. If they are made terrifying, target gains no benefit from resting.
• Darkvision - Can see in the dark as if it were in light.

Djinn
A spirit of smokeless fire

• Invisible Hand - Magically manipulate objects within 5' as if by ordinary hand.
• Flame - Unarmed attack for d6, or +1 damage if their unarmed attack is already higher.
• Lie Detector - Automatically detect lies. Bias, misleading but technically truthful information, and fast talk still slips through.
• Spirit Form - Intangible. Cannot interact with or be touched by material objects (cannot carry equipment, be injured by mundane weapons). Interact with magical items as normal. Sudden dissipation and reformation deals 1 damage.

Eloi
Frail enlightened necromancers. Leadership caste of the morlocks.

• Magical Prodigy - Charm +1 for blessing rolls, Translate +1 for reading scrolls, can copy spell scrolls like an occultist.
• Spell Warper - Charm +1 for blessing rolls, Translate +1 for reading scrolls, can cast spells experimentally like an occultist.
• Darkvision - Can see in the dark as if it were in light.
• Undead Nature - Immune to poison, disease, hunger, thirst, suffocation, cold. Double damage from holy weapons. Regains only 1 point of Flesh at a time, cannot receive Medicine checks.

Fair Folk
Spirits from the dreams and fears of men.

• Fairy Form - Immune to hunger, thirst, poison, disease. Take double damage from cold iron, cannot carry cold iron items.
• Inhuman Beauty -Reaction rolls +1, Charm +1
• Mesmerizing Gaze - Target makes save vs magic; failure grants user Charm +2 against victim.
• Mental Communication - Can communicate with others it can sense through mind alone.

Lithic Courtier
A representative of the geologic governments in the deep crust and upper mantle.

• Mineral Form - Immune to poison, sickness, suffocation, cold, bleeding. Unique mineral diet. Double damage from electricity, automatically fail saves to resist. Move as if one step up encumbered.Cannot regain Flesh from Medicine checks.
• Immune to Fire - No damage from nonmagical fire or heat. Magical fire damage reduced by number of HD.
• Painless - Cannot feel pain. One die of Grit is now a die of Flesh.
• Resilience - AC +2
• Huge Size - +1 HP per HD
• Tremor Sense - Can detect minute vibrations through solid objects.

Morlock
Subterranean australopithecines, long abused by the serpent folk.

• Darkvision - Can see in the dark as if it were in light.
• Smell Magic - Can detect if supernatural powers are nearby or active, Perception roll for pinpoint detection.
• Wall Crawling - Traverse walls and ceilings as easy as floors.
• Magical Prodigy - Charm +1 for blessing rolls, Translate +1 for reading scrolls, can copy spell scrolls like an occultist.

Swarm in a Skin Suit
HELLO YES I AM HUMAN I AM MOST ASSUREDLY HUMAN

• Detach Body Parts - Any part might separate from the whole, taking with it 1/2/3 Flesh points and keeping all skills, saves, and abilities.
• Venom - Target makes a savE vs poison against an unarmed attack. d12 damage on failure.
• Putrify - Touch causes flesh to rot away. Grappled enemies take 1 Flesh damage / turn.
• Fluid Form - Pass through any gap coin-size or larger, escape any bindings, +1 to grapple.

Troll / Ogre
The two most corruptive elements to the soul are gold and human flesh. They partake in both.

• Unnatural Strength - Strength bonus +2
• Hoard - Resources increase with level
• Huge Size - +1 HP per HD
• Resistance - AC +2

Vampire
The pale, slinking things with the vague shape of a human and the soul of a tick.

• Blood Drinking - Can drain 1 Flesh point from target / turn, healing 1 Flesh if damaged. Target begins bleeding out after feeding ends.
• Intoxicating Blood - Gain +2 charm against any who have tasted their blood, target vulnerable to suggestions outside normal behavior.
• Creature of the Night - +1 to all skills, damage, and +2 on d20 rolls in darkness. +2/+2/+4 in total darkness. -1/-1/-2 in sunlight or bright artificial light.
  
• Bite Attack - d4 damage, can be made alongside a primary melee attack.

Werewolf
A wolf that has eaten the flesh of a human that has practiced magic.

• Bite Attack - d4 damage, can be made alongside a primary melee attack.
• War Form - Damage +2, to-hit +2 while in form. Lose manual dexterity and speech.
• Claws - Can make two d4 unarmed attacks
• Animal Speech - Can talk to animals. +2 Charm when doing so.

New Templates

Vessel Knight
An empty shell that has been filled.

• Armored Exoskeleton - You cannot wear armor, but your body counts as non-encumbering riot armor (AC 16). You cannot regain Flesh except through repair. You can go into negative health, but will not take grievous wounds.
• Inner Essence - If you hit 0 Flesh, your shell breaks and your shade emerges. This form has all typical properties of a ghost, and cannot re-enter its shell until it has at least 1 Flesh.
• Mothwing Cloak - You may close a 10' gap, in any direction, instantaneously.
• Bound Nail -You are sworn to a single weapon (as sword, d10 damage), but it does not encumber and it will never leave your side.

Combat Cyborg
The cruelty is the point.

• Darkvision (Augmented Eyes) - Can see in the dark as if it were in light.
• Mental Communication (Tacnet Module) - Can communicate with others on the tacnet through mind alone.
• Lightning Speed - Double movement speed, always rolls 6 for initiative.
• Unnatural Strength - Strength bonus +2

Grey
The abductors.

• Mental Communication - Can communicate with others it can sense through mind alone.
• Mesmerizing Gaze - Target makes save vs magic; failure grants user Charm +2 against victim.
• Paralyzing Touch - Target makes save vs stun, else stunned for 1 turn.
• Memory Worm - Observers must make save vs magic to recall specific details.

Mothman
Eyes like rubies. Followers of the sun they cannot bear.

• Darkvision - Can see in the dark as if it were in light.
• Silent Flight - Can fly silently, but slowly.
• Insect Speech - Can speak with insects, +2 Charm when doing so.
• One Single Boon - You can ask one thing, any thing, of Indrid Cold. Only once.

Azure Benthonaut
Someone who was pulled out of the echoing depths before they were consumed completely.

• Azure Regeneration - Heals 1 point of damage / turn, so long as the suit is intact.
• Containment Suit - Cannot be removed or replaced. AC 14. Will crack and lose healing waters if reduced to 0 Flesh

Sphinx
A great cat with a woman's face. An inhabitant of the Stygian Library.

• Magical Prodigy - Charm +1 for blessing rolls, Translate +1 for reading scrolls, can copy spell scrolls like an occultist.
• Bookspeak - Can cast at will.
• Claws - Can make two d4 unarmed attacks
• Library Card - Can exchange an owned grimoire for a random replacement.

Penitent
The crime is forgiven, but the reformation is arduous. 

• Healing Stigmata - Can heal d6 Flesh damage, taking the same amount themselves.
• Thief's Brand - A mark declaring their crime.

Charnel-Pit Ghoul
Born of corpses in battlefield mud, and the catacombs below the revolution's abattoirs.

• Undead Nature - Immune to poison, disease, hunger, thirst, suffocation, cold. Double damage from holy weapons. Regains only 1 point of Flesh at a time, cannot receive Medicine checks.
• Claws - Can make two d4 unarmed attacks
• Putrifying Bite - d4 bite attack, can be made alongside a primary melee attack. Causes flesh to rot away at 1 Flesh damage / turn.
• The Chained Coffin - An impervious iron sarcophagus. Any being placed inside cannot be harmed by any force, even time, but cannot get out on their own. Can be used as a d6+6 damage weapon, attacks at -4

Cambion
Misfortunate offspring of a cubus and two humans. Often targets of undeserved hate.

• Heritage Infernale - No damage from nonmagical fire, half damage from embodied demons, immune to possession and seduction.
• The Gitchy Feeling - Sensitivity to nearby spiritual beings. Can determine number and strength, but needs a Perception roll for specific location.
• Lead Foot - Incredibly heavy, as if made of stone. Sinks in water, cannot be knocked over unless enemy HD > 1/2 CON.
• Ember Eyes - Greyscale darkvision. Eyes glow like burning coals.

Collected Material Evidence

"The Dream (The Bed)", Frida Kahlo

Faded color photograph: A decrepit, single-story wooden shack. Sagging roof. Surrounding foliage is overgrown. Trees in background are partially consumed by kudzu. The river is black with silt. Strong wind bends visible branches. Sky is dark grey with clouds yet to rupture. Door is hanging open: interior cannot be seen.

**

Faded color photograph: Interior. A splintery wooden crib, filled with stained rags. Peeling yellow wallpaper. Pattern indistinct. Mildewed stuffed toy with limp neck.

**

Unreleased podcast excerpt: "It's like...say you have a giant tub filled with LEGO, and all the pieces are moving around and bumping into each other. Then two pieces from one particular set click into place, just like in the directions. And enough time goes by and the circumstances are just right and those two pieces fit together with a few more of the correct pieces and now you have a little cluster that's been built just according to the pattern.

Then you start getting another cluster forming, and all the pieces are different and they fit together in different ways, but it's still part of the same set as the first one, right? Different page of the directions, different pattern, same set.

Eventually, enough of those separate parts will come together, and the set's complete."

**

News site printout: Dated 02/05/2022. Headline: ANCIENT HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN LAKE VOSTOK

**

Scrap of paper: "...the quince is the sole member of the genus Cydonia..."

**

Unpublished manuscript excerpt: "It was only ever an optical illusion. A plateau shaped just so, that a grainy black-and-white camera high above would send back images of a pallid, masklike face.

**

14th century woodcut, German: A skeletal woman weilding a hand sickle cuts off the arm of a recoiling peasant. She is exhaling a cloud of smoke and flies, and looks to have emerged from the ground.

**

Portrait: ("Old King Jeremiah", Anonymous, c.1830) Elderly man in yellow turban slouching in his chair, holding his face in despair. Table set with ornate, but tarnished, place settings and rotting fruit. In the background is a large portrait of a distant, snowy city has been set afire. A woman's form can dimly be made out in the shadows behind him: she is laying a hand upon his shoulder.

**

Damaged hardcover book: No title, author, or publishing information provided. 151 pages. French. Knife scars on black leather cover with few remaining traces of original embossed icon. Text has been heavily redacted by an unsteady hand.

**

Digital photograph: Graffiti on highway underpass. Location unknown. HER MOTHER WAS HER SISTER

**

Porcelain mask: Slim, androgynous appearance. White glaze shifts to pale gold at the edges.

**

Recollections of a dream: an open expanse of sere grass and stunted, dead trees, enveloped in a thick, grey fog. Still muddy water stretches out like a glistening mirror to the horizon, where stands the barely-visible towers of a distant city.

**

Suspicious mondegreen: "hidden in the branches of the poisoned creole soil..."

**

Viral computer application: カル コ サ.exe

**

Color photograph: Blurry image of a woman in a yellow dress, back turned to the photographer, surrounded by dark overgrowth. On the back, in faded ink: "Melinoë, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth..."

**

Digital photograph: Graffiti on brick wall. Location unknown. Unidentified symbol in yellow paint (covered by other tags) accompanied by partial text. LE ROI N'A JAMAIS VECU LA REINE RESTE SANS FIN