ongoing chillventures

Sure! Here are some potential motivations for PCs that quests could be built around.

Recovering a Family Heirloom - Perhaps you seek out an ancestral sword or coat of arms, or some other significant item which has gone missing or been stolen.

Discovering ones own origin - For all those orphans out there! Maybe you have no idea who you are or where you come from other than a single tantalizing clue, and you’d really like to find out.

Paying off a debt - For whatever reason, you owe someone big, and you intend to pay.

Pursuing a romance - You’re in love, and you feel as though you must do something extravagant to prove it!

Founding an organization - Perhaps you intend to found your own paladin order or peacekeeping institution. Or maybe you’d like to start your own guild or school.

Honoring a loved one’s memory - Someone you care about has passed, and you feel as though you must carry out one of their wishes. Perhaps they wanted something specific done with their remains, or they were working on a bucket list and only you can complete it for them.

Traveling to a specific location - Maybe your character has always wanted to journey to a specific place. Perhaps they wish to undergo a religious pilgrimage. For whatever reason, it will be expensive or difficult to go where they want, but they are resolved to reach their goal eventually.

Seeking redemption - You have done grave wrong, and feel that you must make it right again. 

Looking for inspiration - You are an artist, and you seek inspiration or materials for your masterpiece.

Restoring a monument or institution - It could be a building or art piece of personal significance to you, such as a temple or family property or a monument. Or maybe it’s an organization that has fallen on hard times and needs help to recapture its glory days.

Ending an ongoing conflict or injustice - Perhaps your home is conflict torn, and you seek the resources or influence it would take to end the fighting or change the status quo.

Starting a business - Maybe you or someone you care about has always wanted to go into business and you seek the start up funds or resources necessary to make it happen.

✨New item!✨ Aegis of Dawn Armor (shield), uncommon

This shield has 3 charges, and it regains all expended charges daily at dawn. As a reaction when a Fiend or Undead creature hits you with an attack while you are holding this shield, you can expend 1 charge to cast the shield spell from it. When cast from the shield, the spell only protects against the attacks of Fiends and Undead creatures, and a barrier of radiance surrounds you, shedding bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet.

An inscription written in celestial on the inside of the shield reads: 

“With each dawn's rise, darkness shall wane, The Aegis of Dawn, protector ordained. Guarded against evil by celestial light, With shield raised high, fear not the night.” - 🖌🎨 Like our work? Consider supporting us on Patreon and gain access to the hi-resolution art for over 200 magic items, printable item cards and card packs, beautiful creature art and stat blocks, and setting pdfs with narrative hooks and unique lore!🧙‍♂️ Thank you so much for your support! 💖

✨New item!✨ Invoker’s Band Ring, uncommon (requires attunement)

The detailing on this ring slowly rearranges itself into myriad patterns.

While wearing this ring, you gain the benefit of one Eldritch Invocation from the warlock class. You can choose the invocation the first time you attune to the ring. Your spellcasting ability for the invocation is Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (choose when you attune). If the invocation has a prerequisite of any kind, you can choose that invocation only if you're a warlock who meets the prerequisite. If the invocation grants a spell that requires a warlock spell slot to use, you can cast it once per long rest without expending a spell slot instead. 

Curse. By attuning to this ring, you have agreed to a minor pact with an otherworldly being. You can only benefit from this ring if you satisfy the whims of your patron, in exchange for their gift. The patron linked to this ring is chosen by the GM or rolled randomly on the table below. You can end attunement to this ring with any spell that can remove curses, which also ends the pact. The gem on your ring reflects the mood of your patron, changing color in response to your actions. Occasionally, the patterning on the ring’s surface will arrange itself into writing that explicitly communicates your patron’s desires.  Otherworldly Patrons:

Demented Devil: Your devilish patron torments you. Once per day, you have disadvantage on a single ability check, attack, or saving throw (chosen by the GM).

Fickle Fey: Your fey patron delights in your fumbles. Whenever you roll a 1 on an attack or Dexterity saving throw, you fall prone. 

Charitable Celestial: Your celestial patron abhors wicked deeds. You have disadvantage on attacks against good-aligned creatures. 

Leaching Lich: Your undead patron is leaching your life essence. Whenever you regain hit points from a spell, the amount you regain is halved.

Greedy Genie: The genie you serve demands a golden tithe. Each time you finish a long rest, 10 gp from your personal wealth vanishes.

Ominous Old One: You are plagued with horrible nightmares. Each time you attempt to take a long rest, you must first succeed on a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw or gain no benefit from the rest.

Invoker’s Bands allow the wearer to draw power from an otherworldly being that either crafted the ring or was bound to it somehow. Be careful, this power often comes with a hidden cost. - 🖌🎨 Like our work? Consider supporting us on Patreon and gain access to the hi-resolution art for over 200 magic items, printable item cards and card packs, beautiful creature art and stat blocks, and setting pdfs with narrative hooks and unique lore!🧙‍♂️ Thank you so much for your support! 💖

Previews from Dreadnaut, my tactical survival horror TRPG where you play an Engineer stuck on a derelict starship haunted with mutant flesh. :) Inspired by Signalis and a lot of classics.

Dreadnaut is 50+ pages now. I'm very proud of the large spreads.

This is an alphabetical list of writing on tabletop games, video games, games broadly, and a few adjacent topics. It is required reading. I am not agreeing with anything by having it on this list. Some of the works feature bibliographies and links to other works which they are referencing or in conversation with. Read those if you can. There are works I wanted to include on here but have been taken off of the internet, and I was unable to find them elsewhere beyond my hard drive.

You should read the following (just one a day or one per week, and maybe write a little personal response to it):

About Games and Beings Serious & Why Do Things Have Outlines, Bateson - https://garadinervi-repertori.blog/post/639473512034222080/gregory-bateson-1972-metalogue-about-games, https://garadinervi-repertori.blog/post/166320033101/gregory-bateson-why-do-things-have-outline

Against Procedurality, Sicart - https://gamestudies.org/1103/articles/sicart_ap

Anti-Canon Worlds and the UVG, Rejec - https://www.wizardthieffighter.com/2019/anti-canon-worlds-and-the-uvg/

Avoiding Inapt Discussions in RPGS, Prescott - https://blog.trilemma.com/2023/07/avoiding-inapt-discussion-in-rpgs.html

Bleed: The Spillover Between Player and Character, Bowman - https://www.nordiclarp.org/2015/03/02/bleed-the-spillover-between-player-and-character/

Blorb Principles, snan - https://idiomdrottning.org/blorb-principles

Boot Hill and the Fear of Dice, Rutskarn- https://www.chocolatehammer.org/?p=5773

Don’t Incentivize Ethical Behavior, Siew - https://slowlorispress.com/post/742713305722961920/dont-incentivise-ethical-behaviour

Game Design is Mind Control, Crane & Sorenson - https://genesisoflegend.podbean.com/e/episode-21-%e2%80%93-game-design-is-mind-control/

Homo Ludens, Huzinga - https://merton.bellarmine.edu/files/original/b0899cfad820ab8ad7033952b7a022ba1d7cab9d.pdf

Inevitable Architecture, Woods - https://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/inevitable-architecture/

Libre Baskerville Jam - https://itch.io/jam/libre-baskerville-jam

Morality Play, Pokey - https://myfriendpokey.tumblr.com/post/183941596800/morality-play

Moralizing and Manipulating in TTRPGs, IdleCartulary - https://idlecartulary.com/2023/09/02/moralising-and-manipulation-in-tabletop-roleplaying-games/

New Simulationism, Sorenson - https://samsorensen.blot.im/new-simulationism

On Romantic Fantasy and the OSR, Manola - https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2015/07/on-romantic-fantasy-and-osr-d.html

Playing to Win, Maz - https://www.alicemaz.com/writing/minecraft.html

Revisiting GNS, Baker - https://lumpley.games/2025/04/07/revisiting-gns/

Rules Elide and its Consequences, Sinclair - https://web.archive.org/web/20230401204032/https://cohost.org/jared-sinclair/post/1211889-rules-elide-and-it

Sinistar or: How to Play Games Wrong, Joel - https://youtu.be/OFbhDs_8k1A?si=DGo4y1U3xr_8Qq0z

System Does Matter, Edwards - http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/system_does_matter.html

Systems of Relation, Dragon - https://possumcreek.medium.com/systems-of-relation-c3b27fc4cc99

Ten Manifestos, Harmony Zone - http://harmonyzone.org/ManifestoJam/TenManifestosForGroupsOfNoPeople.html

The Artist is Absent: Davey Wreden and the Beginner’s Guide, Danskin - https://youtu.be/4N6y6LEwsKc?si=DMFViwSTOOa4W6PY

The Big Three, Sorenson - https://memento-mori.livejournal.com/175828.html

The Forms and Fluidity of Game Play, Nguyen - https://gamephilosophy.org/pcg2014/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/C.-Thi-Nguyen-2014.-The-Forms-and-Fluidity-of-Game-Play-PCG2014.pdf

The Hidden Art: Slouching Towards A Critical Framework for RPGs, Laws - https://web.archive.org/web/20080625014524/https://www.rpg.net/oracle/essays/hiddenart.html

The Impermanence of Art, Bissette - https://web.archive.org/web/20241114224733/https://cohost.org/chrisb/post/2011604-the-impermanence-of

The Monomyth Thread, Libre, Kazumi & Udernation - https://bigstuffedcat.itch.io/the-monomyth-thread

Thinking About Formal Incentive, Marcia B - https://traversefantasy.blogspot.com/2023/09/thinking-about-formal-incentive.html?m=1

What are assumptions about how to play an OSR adventure that you think might not be commonly held as desired?, Scrap Princess - https://campaignwiki.org/wiki/LinksToWisdom/What_are_assumptions_about_how_to_play_an_OSR_adventure_that_you_think_might_not_be_commonly_held_as_desired%3f

What is a Game?, Suits - https://web.archive.org/web/20061010064123/http://www.stsintl.com/articles/whatisagame.html

What Should We Do With Our Games?, LeMieux & Boluk - https://alt254.itch.io/what-should-we-do-with-our-games

I put this list together in response to seeing a lot of the same arguments and discussions happening in regard to system-matters discourse, and it’s thinly veiled offshoots. The original goal was to ask people to understand both sides of the discussion and the reasons for pushback against both sides. After compiling, it now comprises more than just history and the goal is simply education and the sharing of ideas.

Hope you get something from it,

Take Your Dragon to Work Day (Thomas O Miller box art for Ral Partha Shadowrun miniature set 10-860 Corporate Dragon, 1992)