Strang Beorn Dev Log 01

Where it began

The idea for this campaign book (Woad) has existed in my head, in some way or another, for so many years. I’ve been researching and developing ideas, monsters, people and places quietly this whole time. It’s been a very slow build, but it’s been building all the same, deep in the back somewhere with all the cobwebs and scary stuff.

After the release of Saint Magnus, we wanted to jump straight into a new project. Something that was bigger and bolder than Magnus and something that would allow us to really play around creatively, push the writing and the art, make some thing weird and hopefully a bit different.

I remembered reading about ancient Celtic blood feuds; how a grudge could be held across generations and still demand revenge. Then I thought it would be fun if you didn’t even know why you held that grudge anymore. We used that as a jumping off point.

After assembling all of our ideas and chaptering out what we wanted to include in the book we realised that it was massive. So, this is an elephant we decided to eat one bite at a time. Hence Strang Beorn, the first adventure in the (much) larger campaign.

Intro done, begin writing devlog.

I am a big fan of an unreliable narrator, I like when an omnipotent voice can express opinion to the reader. I think that’s fun. I also really like the bastard Gods of mythology, specifically how they are represented in Jason and the Argonauts (1963), or at least my interpretation of how they are represented in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Bastards. Bastards that claim to care about their subjects, but really just like pushing their little war dollies around like the rest of us.

And so, The God of Legends was born, as was his Magnum Opus: the Bardsong. Writing Strang Beorn as the God of Legends has been a blast and I can’t wait to get stuck into to Woad proper. However, it isn’t without its hurdles. The main body of Strang Beorn is very narrative heavy; The God of Legends is walking you through the fort, he’s describing the aftermath to you, he’s recounting the horrible events of the massacre, and it’s very important to me that this writing isn’t interrupted by TTRPG rules. I think a big (Roll toughness DR14) note really pulls you out of the prose. It has meant we’ve had to get creative with marginalia. We are still messing around with how this will look in the final product but at the moment, these GM notes are represented as the graffiti of a petty thief.

Next the tables. How I love tables.

Strang Beorn isn’t about smashing D6 skeletons; we wanted it to be a slow, scary, vibe-heavy romp. So instead of the GM having to worry about where this door leads, and what’s down that corridor, they can let the players wander freely and warp Strang Beorn to fit their needs. Maybe there’s servants quarters here, or through that door is the armoury. Every now and then subject them to the harrowing screams of the berserker, or a confused blood ghost trying to rescue her trapped Son, or a popet playing out a servants last moments. The hope is that the adventure is fluid and surprising and also a bit like a jump scare. But a good one, not like the one with the bathroom mirror that you always know is coming.

As a final note, I’ll mention one of the books I’ve used for research and inspiration. There are many and I’ll write about more of them in further updates.

Bibliography

The Deorhord by Hana Videen is an Old English bestiary and its fantastic. Its full of really weird monsters, taken from excerpts of the travel diaries of Alexander the Great, marginalia sketches made by transcribing priests, and many other varied sources. It goes into detail about the etymology of Old English words and even has a glossary at the end of every chapter. A lot of the lore about the Blood Bird was inspired by what I read in this book about eagles and phoenixes. I can’t recommend it enough.