Chimney Sweep World - Procedural Anti-Dungeon

Mary Poppins - my kid is obsessed with her.  A tedious early 60's movie with some weird message about family values that strikes us as tin-earred, now, since DUH - you shouldn't neglect your kids or make them miserable.  Which is why I see so much in the way of Poppins these days...  I said something very naughty about the state of her regenerative organs over on DSR a few nights ago.  With a pretty face, simple charm, a venomous tongue, and a vindictive sensibility full of snark and contempt for others, I imagine the reason why she's practically perfect in every way is that underneath the petticoats there's just like snakes and tentacles and eyes.  Snapping dentatas if you follow. At night I toss and turn and the sentiment of the movie invades everything and I find the most honey-dripping displays make me weepy and the spirit of Christmas returns and I have the urge to fly kites all the time...

These are scant notes that will never see the light but I offer them so that someone may redeem them from nihility

Bert the Chimney Sweep/Everyman (his occupation is literally whatever is needed at the time so he always gets a d20 plus 5 on skills rolls)

This suggests a late Victoriana/Edwardian/Georgian or whatever occupations list - I think there was one of these already floating around.  Screever, chimney sweep, horse racer, party band, french waiter, suffragette, kite salesman

Steppin time - a vicious dance-off/gang rumble between Mephits and redcaps in the rooftops of a soot-stained hell

D3x2 by d8, then a linear array/repetition of d8. These are all the same height in terms of stories, and the next set can go up (1-2) down (3-4) or stay the same height (5-8) on a d8. Buildings within a block will be relatively close together, but there may be alleys and parks and long perilous drops back to material reality. You can get sucked up to the Chimney sweep World anytime you investigate chimneys which are literal liminal zones between the prime and the smoke-lands

Related to: Margaret St. Clair's linear dungeon crawl which I never finished because in retrospect the hero of that Shadow People book had a tough slog of it and the principle was sound in terms of mechanics and simulation but maybe UN-fun overall

Smoke Form Spell - not for people but for using smoke to make semi-material objects. See the soot-city of Haon and Ylill in the Purple Planet boxed set. I still haven't played this chunk of the thing out despite my quantum-ogre-ing trying to kidnap, cajole, and seduce the PP party into it...

Smoke Mephits made from ashes and soot. Triple damage from wind and from brushes but nothing else affects them in the slightest. Unflappable and maliciously cheery.

Efreet Prince of Smoke like Yan C'Bin or that other one. A boss monster. Nattily dressed and imperious. Maybe a tophat

Mary has many wiles: charm, suggestion, levitation, animation of objects, extra-dimensional spaces, and planar step into pseudo-realities. She can speak to animals and see the future. BY GUM SHE IS A WITCH

HHSOLO2 in the works

Greetings, Programs!

In the works I have laid down the frameworks for a post-apocalyptic DCC oriented solo dungeon crawl game book.  It's not a sequel, but something new.  There was going to be an emphasis on thieves and Deep Ones in the next one but I lost momentum and it needs to wait... Meantime, I have stocked my future donjon with gross mutated monstrosities, robots, and cultists to chew through PCs.  It's going to have a real SPACE DUNGEON feel, and if you missed that campaign (still fetid with glimmers of unholy life), then you can take part of the universe around in your bookbag/satchel/mule-droid.  Also, just now, I developed a system for cajoling robots and computers and low-sentience machines into doing your will in the >>REDACTED<<

Here's the system, use it for what you like and keep me in mind on those lonely winter nights when you want to wander a haunted and irradiated giant >>REDACTED<< with the cultists of the >>REDACTED<< in hot pursuit.

R31) Hacking and Security Clearance – Your security clearance is a measure of your responsibility and trustworthiness in the >>REDACTED<<. Most plebes like you start with a range of zero to 3; entry level positions. It is possible to acquire passkeys (colored cards) and to be invested with higher Security Clearance levels but this was relatively rare: clever people were typically shipped away or otherwise disposed of before the Neuroleptic Plague. You may use your Security Clearance to get through some locked doors – just place your palm against the reader. If your SL is high enough, the door or gate will open, or the interface of the machine will activate.  Higher level passkeys will always open lower level doors.

If your clearance is not high enough, fear not! If you have an Interface for that machine (i.e. Robot/Vending Machine/Turret) and a Battery, then you can try to hack it. A hack attempt is usually an Intelligence or Personality test with a DC given for that particular machine or terminal. You cannot burn Luck for this test! However, you CAN add extra points up to your Security Level, BEFORE your roll. If you win the DC test, then the door opens, the machine capitulates, the robot submits itself to you. If you don’t win the test, you lose the total amount of the SL points you risked and must earn them back somehow… Sometimes a sentry will be alerted or the machine will do what it thinks best to take care of you, the intruder. This can include some very harsh punishments, so think about what you’re doing, Lawbreaker! Randomly encountered robots and machines will state in their stat blocks whether they can be hacked and what happens if you're successful.