I’m very busy with about a half dozen different projects right now, so for the next few days I’m going to be shamelessly showcasing some video trailers I’ve produced over the past few months. Hopefully you’ll find them interesting and/or entertaining. If not, I’m planning to be back sooner rather than later.
Up first: A trailer for the Oh! Gnomes! video game. Awhile back I mentioned the game, which is produced for Groundling Games (a small indie game studio for which I have done some minor scripting in the past). It is available for both Android and the iPhone. I had nothing to do with the development of Oh! Gnomes! then and that remains true now, but I did put together this trailer for them.
It’s interesting watching PCs (and their players) slip through a varying appreciation of cash. The same folks who will cheer at a 100 gp payout at 1st level will gradually become far more jaded towards their bank accounts as the levels tick past.
“I’ve only got 2,000 gp!”
Ah, yes. You poor dear. You’ve only got as much money as the average person makes in two lifetimes.
Of course, this might all be funnier if it didn’t happen in real life and with real money all the time.
This is the awesome trailer for a bizarre, time-bending video game that’s currently seeking sponsors on Kickstarter. It’s got less than a day to go, but I recommend checking it out.
I am you from the future. There is No Time To Explain. Follow m– AAAUAUUGHHH!!!! Be part of an indie game with a sense of humor.
In the Middle Ages, the wealthy were known to sponsor holy pilgrims. Like modern millionaires funding a NASCAR team, the sponsors would share in the reflected glory of the pilgrimage. Of course, as in all matters of salvation and piety, there were also deeper spiritual entanglements to consider in such things: Acting in their name and as their agents, the pilgrims would receive blessing not only for themselves but for the lords and ladies in whose name they journeyed.
Historically speaking, the sponsoring of pilgrimages were partly a matter of holy duty (like any other form of tithing) and partly a matter of expediency (for those too busy to make the journey for themselves). In a fantasy setting, however, it would be fairly easy to imagine a third parameter: Danger.
Enter the adventurers.
Imagine, for example, an ancient holy site which is now located in the upper lairs of the Bloodreaver Dragons. Or in the Lava Caverns of the Myrmarch. Or lost in the eddies of the Astral Sea.
And in a world where the gods are active (and perhaps even malevolent) forces, the stakes for successfully performing such pilgrimages might be incredibly high. Thus those who have proven that they can make the greatest dangers into their play-things could easily find great profit in performing such journeys.
A sponsored pilgrimage could be a fun, exploratory travelogue (an appropriate sub-structure for any hexcrawl); it could be tied into a larger scenario (“we need guidance from the Forgotten God of the Purple Seas, and you must journey to his Broken Temple lost among the Steppes of the Black Wight”); or it could be the seed for even larger adventures (“we went to Thor’s shrine for you, but now we all seem to be having visions of Ragnarok”).
It’s an old term referring to “one sent out to reconnoiter or scout”. It originally seems to have applied specifically to military scouts (who would be sent out to “scour” the countryside), but in the 16th century it seems to have migrated into more domestic concerns as a sort of “special agent” before abruptly disappearing from the language.
I just love the archaic tang of it. It makes it sound like the perfect job for a group of PCs: Whether exploring a vast wilderness; investigating extraordinary crimes; acting as agents in a foreign land; or any number of other activities.
It could also be readily applied to any number of modern milieus as well: Scurriers of the Knight Templars emerging from the hidden sanctuaries to pursue the Order’s agendas in the 21st century. Or perhaps agents of an ancient order which has charged itself with scourging the planet of the vampiric plague.
What about applying it as a bit of cyberpunk slang referring to the ‘runners who scout out the digital frontiers?
Once you start looking, it seems like there’s no place you won’t find scurriers scurrying.
