Bleak Generation

This was an in-person megasession spread over 2 days. A dream come true. Planar Rules, Zero Gravity Combat, and Other Basics Spells do maximum damage. Healing spells heal minimum HP. Air, Fire, and Wild Magic spells are diminished, dealing one fewer damage die. Maximum spell level or such spells is 4th. Spells that access the Astral and Outer Planes fail. Matter created here crumbles to nothingness in 1 round. This is basically a space station. Space horror ambient music worked well. Random encounter rules/table for the dungeon.   For zero-gravity combat in the guardrooms, I simplified a 30ft spherical room to 3 circles: lower and upper parts of the sphere, both 20ft in diameter; and a central area 30ft in diameter. 3 simple circular maps, with an X marking the centre line. Squares above/below each other are counted as 5ft apart. It worked well enough for the players. I also appropriated Newton’s Third Law, ruling that shoving things also moved the shover backwards. Could a cr...

The cold black metal of the sphere was the only thing standing between them and the Endless Void. And no known way back, until M’narr divined the portal key. The party passed through the unsettling vacuum of the building’s connecting tunnels, finding a room with huge windows that offered views of the nothingness outside, and some gravity to boot. Trying their best to ignore the scratching noises from the other side of the window, the party continued upwards, past a table covered in weird papers (yoink), arriving at the top floor where a small cloud of vivid blackness eyed them inscrutably. What did it want? What was it doing here? Even with magic, its motives were as alien as its form. M’narr spread some of his newly acquired papers on the ground to show it; the thing lashed a corrosive arm to indicate a particular piece, the paper turning to dust at its touch. Best leave it to an uneasy truce. Back to the lifeless spheres. Progress abruptly halted when a horde of ghouls, hungry for ...

(Note: this is a record of two sessions) Top tip for running the visage battle: plan in advance how you will keep track of the visages’ concentration, as well as their dominate person usage. I didn't do this, and combat slowed to a crawl at some points. You cannot run this encounter optimally for the monsters. The most tactically optimal first action for the visages would be to all cast dominate person on their first turn: statistically, the whole party will likely fail their saves, and the fight’s over. I decided that out of 8 visages, a maximum of 2 would cast dominate in a given round. I justified it on the basis that 1) the visages, being surprised, were unable to coordinate attacks efficiently, and 2) arrogant monsters like these bastards could save their most powerful abilities until they’re really in trouble. Split the visages into groups, with their own initiative counts. Instead of giant eagles saving endangered PCs, if your players successfully saved Glittereye ba...

The battle began in earnest. The visages were startled and confused, but very quickly managed to set illusions in the minds of their foes: the Salience’s eagle statues animated and attacked the planewalkers; illusory fire filled their throats and eyes; and armies of monsters assailed the heroes. Ragados fought to maintain his superhuman speed, while 12-Bar fought for his life. M’narr tried to draw away attackers, but ultimately was forced to battle his way back to his friends. After a lot of hacking and attempting to push the visages into the wall of fire, the tide turned when 12-Bar turned invisible and M’narr used steel wind strike to inflict heavy damage on the fiends. Chasing down the final visage, our heroes took time to rest and explore the area before returning to Crux. Conversations about the steam mephit filled the journey. Who in Thanatos was behind all this? How might the party get to the Negative Energy Plane, or the Bottom of the Multiverse? Back in Crux, the party arri...