Hello, and welcome to this week’s issue of LoreMasters - Your regular source of inspirations, ideas, and homebrew for your TTRPG games. In each issue, I'm going to be bringing you a veritable Heroes Feast of items, spells, podcasts, streams, Kickstarters, and STUFF, so if you like this, please subscribe and pass it on to your close friends and distant relatives.
As always, the main chunk of this newsletter is a homebrew for your game and if you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, come find me on the Twitter.
Barrowbones
The quiet clink of metal on porcelain echoed about the small cafe. A pair of halfling ladies bustled about behind the counter, as the tall red Tiefling stared intently at Elmer, her long fingers gently tapping the spoon on her cup.
“And, let us say, I just happen to know where this man is, well what would that be worth to you?”
Elmer swallowed hard, “Ah, err, I have…I have gold? Would gold do?”
A thin smile crept over her face, although there was little happiness in it.
“Well, if we must, we must. But I must say, I’d be far more interested in an exchange. Rumour has it, your family has some sizeable holdings in Zenir, all under names of course. If you would be so good as to fashion me with the particulars of those holdings, I’m sure I can see my way to helping you out in return”
“But..how…how did you know about those?”
Barrowbones leant forward, her smiling, scarred face inches from Elmer, “My dear, knowing things is what I do”
Barrowbones
Barrowsbones is a Red Teifling who deals in information. She is tall and slender, dressed in simple but fashionable clothes, her demeanour is demure and always mildly amused. As a clash to this, her face is deeply scarred, long healed, and she will gentle but firmly refuse anyone who asks about them.
She holds court at The Misted Lane Cafe in Nook, always to be found enjoying a small cake and a fresh cup of sweet tea. She has connections in both the underground and the civilian, all the way up to the ruling classes. For the right price, she can furnish players with the information they need - and to her, the ‘right price’ is almost always some more information.
Barrowbones is one of my favourite NPCs of all time. She was initially created as a resource for my players, that with some gold, they had options to overcome failed investigation rolls, but she grew beyond that, to where she can serve a couple of different roles at your table.
Firstly, as said, her ability to know and provide information means she is a valuable ally to your players. If they hit a wall, she is there to offer a way around it.
On top of this, her preference for secrets as payment in return will force your players to have to evaluate their knowledge and backstory, what can they afford to share, what can they not afford to? They must know that Barrowbones is likely to sell that information to others, so consequences are likely. It elevates her from beyond being just another merchant for them to shop with.
Also, she can function as a quest giver for your players. She needs information and she’ll pay to get it. This can take the form of a long lost tome in a distant dungeon, or the private papers of the local king - depending on the alignment of your players.
As always, if you find a place for Barrowbones at your table, please let me know!
Things To Check Out
This is the part of the newsletter where I bring you a few things to check out that inspired me and might inspire you! And this week, we’re going all-in on Kickstarters:
Atlas
One of the biggest changes in my time playing ttrpg is the level of detail of battle maps used. I played for many years with just a whiteboard and dry-erase pens, but these days, with the rise of streaming and online play, far more immersion is available, something often hard to replicate at the home table.
And that’s why I love to see kickstarters like this, 100 maps for your table, of all stripes covering all sorts of locations - the Dungeon Prison looking like a wonderfully detailed map in particular.
But the thing I love the most, the cherry on top of the definitely-not-a-mimic cake is the stickers. These let you remix and change the maps each time, making them infinitely reusable.
Pledges for the maps start at £30 with a healthy stock of stretch goals available
Extraordinary Expeditions
You’ve got maps and stickers, but now you need something to run on them, in steps Extraordinary Expeditions. A collection of 10 adventures and hooks, complete with descriptions, monsters, and how-to guides. Personally, the once called Magmaforce Outpost appeals the most, and not just because of my Austin Powers addled brain.
The art looks gorgeous and it seems so well built to run the adventures, ideally with all the stat blocks right there in the descriptions. And they’re even giving away a free adventure to wet your whistle as it were!
Pledges start at $15 and as always, some good stretch goals.
Upriver, Downriver
If all this is a bit hack-and-slash for you, please take some time to look at the frankly sublime Upriver, Downriver. Pick a role, pick a ship and sail into the unknown.
The tarot system at the core of this game is a lovely break from the traditional dice rolling, and its focus on building relationships between the players is a definite lure away from the norm.
I also dig their focus on ending the game. Without getting on a soapbox too much, I think every RPG should have an end, the resolution is what makes the journey worth it, or at least memorable.
Pledges start at £12 for the pdf, all the way up to £150 for the whole kit-and-caboodle.