The Stochastic Game
Ramblings of General Geekery

A couple times, lately, when walking the good fluffy boy (pictured) in the forest, I hear someone playing the flute, and the first thing that comes to mind is “No, I am NOT going to get dragged into some bullshit satyr-themed urban fantasy or folk horror story, not today!”

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Today is the anniversary of Greg Stafford’s passing so I think of him as I do some prep work for our Great Pendragon Campaign game! Probably one of the most difficult campaigns I’ve run, but also one of the most rewarding. Our knights are visiting Summerland in 482 to spy on the Magician King!

The pile of Pendragon books I'm using to prepare for my game: - Great Pendragon Campaign - Pendragon rulebook (5.2 edition) - Book of the Warlord - Book of Uther - Book of Sires - Pendragon Noble's Handbook (6h edition) - Pendragon Core Rulebook (6th edition) - Pendragon Gamemaster's Handbook (6th edition)
The cover of the Great Pendragon Campaign book.

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While thinking of a possible upcoming article about Broos, I looked up their first appearance in Nomad Gods, remembering how I got very lucky with not just an unpunched version of the game, but one that (unknown to its seller!) contained a second set of unpunched chits!

The page from the rulebook describing the Broos. As far as I know, this is the only illustration that features a *human-faced* Broos, i.e. a Broos that "hatched" from a human that was, ahem, "mated with". All other Broos are effectively beast-men that spawned from animals.
The Nomad Gods board map, rulebook, unpunched chits sheet, and a few extra bits.
The second unpunched chits sheet!
A bunch of extra sheets, many of them from the original owner of the game, such as photocopies of relevant pages from Chaosium's official magazine at the time, Wyrm's Footnotes.

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There’s a tree in the park nearby that is OBVIOUSLY some sort of ancient giant feathered serpent monster that was frozen and turned into a tree long ago. I mean, LOOK AT IT. It comes out slithering from deep inside the bushes, and goes up like a snake about to attack!

Can't even see where the tree trunk is coming from, but tree trunks don't slither on the ground like this! The only explanation is, yes, ANCIENT MYTHICAL GIANT SERPENT MONSTER!
The giant mythical serpent monster raising its head before an attack. Maybe it even had two heads or something.
The tree, with a good fluffy boy for scale.

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I started slowly skimming through my GURPS Traveller books, and it was only today that I realized Alien Races 3 has a page of “Droyne Coyns”, usable for the Droynes’ particular brand of mystic divination! Amazing.

The four "GURPS Traveller Alien Races" books.
The cover of the Alien Races 3 book, featuring a Droyne, along with other weird races.
The page of Droyne Coyns. Golden circular tokens with geometric symbols on them.

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The collector’s conundrum: I have a punched version of White Bear & Red Moon that I can play, but my copy of Dragon Pass is unpunched… should I punch it to play with the newer rules and colour board, or should I leave it and stick to its predecessor?

The White Bear & Red Moon board game from 1975, by Greg Stafford. The chits are organized in ziploc bags. The rulebook sits atop the original sepia map of Dragon Pass.
The Dragon Pass board game box, from 1980, by Robert Corbett & Greg Stafford.
The unpunched chits of the Dragon Pass board game.

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I’m coming back online after a weekend at KamCon in Kamloops, BC, where I GM’ed Delta Green and Call of Cthulhu for 12 hours straight 😅 I’m catching up with messages and sleep now but in the meantime, enjoy some pictures from the convention!

View from the Thomson River University campus where the convention is held
The main atrium at the centre of the convention
Some of the vendor booths
A vendor booth for the Society of Creative Anachronism

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The good fluffy boy says good morning! This is the time of year where every morning looks absolutely stunning, between the sunrise and the fog over the lake.

A good boy golden retriever in Deer Lake Park, BC He's sitting on a wooden path above the wetlands
A good boy golden retriever in Deer Lake Park, BC Close-up of the previous picture
A good boy golden retriever in Deer Lake Park, BC He's sitting, overlooking the lake, shrouded in fog, with mountains and a few buildings in the background
A good boy golden retriever in Deer Lake Park, BC He's lying down, chewing on a stick, while the sun rises in the background

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