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P.S. 12/12, thread complete bonus inked art of the Lice Mother, one of the macabre villains from our tabletop campaign

Framed portrait of the Lice Mother, a woman wearing a hedgehog mask and wielding a bonesaw. The background of her portrait is a heretical green colour... suspicious.

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This has been our Ted Talk about the quest system in Lord Have Mercy Upon Us, a 350 page campaign for the Doomsong TTRPG. If it seems easy to use, that's because we love GMs and think their job is already big enough without having to memorise character motivations and questlines ❤️

Full page star chart for Doomsong. It shows a political map and pilgrim's journey on the left and a heretical zodiac on the right.

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Essentially, we put a ton of work into the Lord Have Mercy Upon Us quest system so that the GM never needs to memorise it. They don't even have to think about it or plan ahead. See a black box? Check the title and page numbers. If it doesn't seem relevant, ignore it. 10/?

Someone once remarked that we do a LOT of page referencing in our TTRPG books. This might seem weird if you're reading straight through, but when you're at the table, it means you're being told EXACTLY where to go for more info. This makes it easy for the GM. 9/?

The character info in Lord Have Mercy is very brief and gives clear information: Nachrony Malice has a FEUD with Dr. Jonas Hinde. The doctor NEEDS to find a cure before Nachrony Malice. If players encounter either before receiving Quest I.A, the GM has already seeded relevant background info 8/?

Two final pages from the LHMUU ttrpg campaign. These are character pages for both Dr. Jonas Hinde and Nachrony Malice. The GM doesn't need to memorise ANYTHING. If they flick to this page when the players encounter Dr Hinde or Nachrony Malice in-game, the book will feed them relevant info. 7/?

two compiled screenshots for characters in Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. Dr Jonas Hinde is described as despising Nachrony Malice, while his goal is to 'discover a cure to the plague before Nachrony Malice.' Meanwhile, the herbalist Nachrony Malice has a feud with Dr. Jonas Hinde. She thinks he's a charlatan and a fraud. Also, she needs bark from the Elder Malice to brew a cure-all for the players.

If the GM sees the box, thinks 'I don't remember ANYTHING about aiding the settlements...' they can safely ignore the box (because the players haven't met the Leech Market, or they have a different quest) OR turn to pages 20-21 to get a reminder. 6/?

Here's a location page from Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. It's LH:190, the Elder Malice. And there's another black box to notify the GM that there's a relevant quest. It gives the number and name of the quest (plus page numbers), the page where the quest comes from, and the rival herbalist again. 5/?

Screenshot of the Elder Malice location page, which stands in a blighted clearing.

See the first quest given by the Leech Market? Dr. Jonas Hinde wants bark from a particular kind of tree. The GM is given two more page numbers that they can look up OR ignore. LH:190 is the Elder Malice, while LH:237 is Hinde's rival, Nachrony Malice. 4/?

When the players encounter the Leech Market, the GM can read about them on p. 250. They'll see another black page, with JUST the Aid the Settlements questlines on it. The Leech Market are the questgivers for this chain. So the GM will see the quests again when they become relevant to the game 3/?

Compiled screenshots of two pages from the Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. The Leech Market (LH;250) and the Leech Market questline, Aid the Settlements (LH:251).

On pages 20-21 of the campaign book, you'll see a huge black page with tons of text on it. The GM can read this over to get a sense of the quests OR ignore it completely. We put it in just in case the GM gets tangled up and needs to orient themselves to the WHOLE of a quest chain. 2/?

Screenshot of a page from Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. The title reads 'The Quest'. The first quest line reads 'I. Aid the Settlements, LH:250' and 'The Leech Market eases hardship for those trapped in the plaguescape. They will request aid from the gravediggers on behalf of themselves and the settlements.'

A little about the quest system in Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. This campaign has dedicated quests. These are designed to help players defeat Father Plague (though the GM might not necessarily TELL them that...) However, the GM doesn't have to do a lot of reading or memorising to get it to work 1/?

Hand drawn illustration of 5 misenmeists. Each is a spectral figure with the head of an animal: goat, river fish, shark, hawk, beetle. Those who know their names may be interested to learn they were inspired by their Latin nomenclature!

In Lord Have Mercy Upon Us, the regions/chapters are listed alphabetically. If the river hadn't received its own chapter, a GM trying to guide players along the river might have had to jump all around the book! This wouldn't have reflected experience of travelling along a river 7/?

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Throughout history, rivers have been incredibly important for transportation (both people and goods). If players want to travel by boat, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for the GM to guide them up- or downriver. 6/?

Text: River Travel. Travelling up and down river requires a boat was is twice as fast as travelling by foot, covering two day's travel in a single day. Note that characters who do not have the Swimmer trait may be nervous about being surrounded by so much water.

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By giving the River Gredge its own table, it means that players can experience what it feels like to shift from one ecosystem to the next, reflected at the level of gameplay (and so subtly they may not even notice it). Scythounds or Sleeping Sisters one moment, ordwites and washerwomen the next 5/?

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Rivers also have their own ecologies, no matter what type of land they flow through. By giving the river its own chapter, we were able to convey this in a few ways. First, the vertical random encounter tables in Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. The picture below shows 4 different ones 4/?

Four vertical slices from various screenshots, each showing the far right-hand side of right-hand pages in a book. There are a pair of dice at the top (indicating it is a table to roll on, and how many dice to roll) and a skull at the bottom. The forehead of the skull shows the book's page number.

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We wanted to reflect this by giving the River Gredge a separate chapter. That meant we didn't have to declare "it's IN Adram's Wode but not No-Fly, and IN Collow's Gogge but not Wyrekin Wood or the Forest of Modren" 3/?

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The River Gredge has its own chapter in the book. We did this for a couple reasons. 2/? Rivers are natural barriers, which means they're often used to delineate borders between regions. The Mississippi is a good example: it forms a border /between/ more US states than it flows /through/

screenshot of a page from the TTRPG campaign, Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. It shows a region map. The region is called River Gredge.

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