What's happening in the Holy Village

The Holy Village is a small fief lorded over by a Temple of Law.

Cliques
The cliques get along reasonably well but in case of friction they break down as follows:

• The Sisters of the Temple that try to motivate their peasants with kindness and who supplement the tax money with donations from folks passing through
• Villagers, many of whom are lazy but super loyal to the Sisters of the Temple
• The Nyne Sisters (Jane, Elyn, and CeCe) who constantly annoy the Sisters of the Temple with their antics
• Merchants and Teamsters, work the trade route that occasionally passes through the village

What is Up?
To determine what is happening the GM should should roll 1d6 & 1d10.

Table determination table

1d6	Table
01-02	The Temple Table
02-03	Peasants & Merchants Table
04-06	Nothing Happening

The Temple

1. The struggling Temple is jeopardized when it looks as if trade routes might be shifting to a neighboring village that has a natural hot springs and now the sisters are trying to fix up the village and make it more presentable.
2. Sister Suse uses a combination of charm, subterfuge, and wiles to convince visiting muleskinners of the value of stopping at Temple despite the lack of hot springs (and other sinful things).
3. A veteran man-at-arms returns to the village as a hero but the sisters remember how terrible a person the man was before he left and he isn't much better now.
4. Two bandits stay at the Temple with the intention of robbing the place the next time a caravan is in, but since the expected caravan is late they've extended their stay and drawn everyones attention.
5. A crazed minstrel is at the temple mooching off of anyone and everybody and improvising sarcastic songs. The ladies in town are fawning over him and the men are jealous and the sisters can't really figure out how to kick him out.
6. The Archsister visits the settlement to determine if is a good place for the summer regional festival. Everyone is walking on eggshells knowing that the festival could bring a lot of money.
7. Is there a ghost haunting the Temple? The Sisters are starting to think so.
8. Some Templars are staying in the village and Sister Suse tries to convince them to destroy the sinful hot springs in the neighboring village.
9. The Sisters attempts to clean and repair the temple prior to the summer Fair
10. Sister Frarder is depressed when she gets drafted to be an archer because of her size and skill with a bow. The sisters tries to cheer her up but the temple could really use the money and force her to take the rare opportunity.

Peasants & Merchants

1. Tomboy Jane Nyne falls in love with Tiny Wyare, who only has eyes for horses and the entire fief is having a laugh over it.
2. Tomboy Jane Nyne becomes the first-ever female entrant in the Summer Fair Quarterstaff fights, but finds her success causes most of the local boys to stay away.
3. Tomboy Jane Nyne is given the task of digging a drainage ditch she tries to flirt and get some boys to do it but none are biting, until she spreads the word that she found silver and suddenly the boys are knocking her over in order to dig the trench.
4. A bounty hunter appears in town looking for a wanted criminal. The Nyne Sisters get word and go after the criminal themselves.
5. Jane Nyne defends her dog when the Temple claims the dog has been killing their chickens.
6. Jane Nyne has a new love interest a teamster on a caravan, but he only has eyes for her sister Cece.
7. Merchant Guildmaster Gery Narder arrives in the village to finally decide if he'll send his caravans through village or not and ends up buying an interest in The Princess Inn, a small inn in town.
8. Merchant Guildmaster Gery Narder is staying at the Inn and the staff is forced to cater to every need including finding boyfriends for him.
9. Merchant Guildmaster Gery Narder buys the hovel next to The Princess Inn and turns it a General Store and staffs with his own people which means that none of the profits make it back into the village.
10. The Priestesses buy out Merchant Guildmaster Gery Narder's shares in The Princess Inn only to find trade to the village dwindling as the caravan routes shift.

What's Happening in the Rebellious Village

The Rebellious Village is a small fief near the Royal Forest.

Cliques
The cliques get along reasonably well but in case of friction they break down as follows:

• Sir Michael and Lord's staff who dislike their own peasants
• Villagers, many of whom have family among the bandits in the nearby forest
• Priestess and her acolytes who side against Sir Michael at every opportunity
• Bandits, many of whom have family among the peasants

What is Up?
To determine what is happening the GM should should roll 1d6 & 1d10.

Table determination table

1d6	Table
01	Bandits Table
02-03	Peasants & the Priestess Table
04-06	Nothing Happening

Bandits

1. Helry's efforts to help Lexor, a wanted bandit escape to the forest not to distant are thwarted by Sir Michael who is spending nights riding around the village practicing with the lance.
2. When Lexor is captured before he can rob some nobles in the forest, Helry and the peasants attempt to finish the job dressed as Lexor and his men (thus proving Lexor's innocense).
3. Sir Michael nabs a bandit, so Helry takes the focus off his catch by making Sir Michael think the bandits fellows are trying to kill him.
4. The sheriff's men have recovered stolen taxes and are storing it in Sir Michaels manorhouse until reinforcements arrive to guard it on the road. Brigads and a few mecenaries get word of the treasure and the village looks to become a battleground.
5. Bandits have moved into town secretly to wait out the worst of a winter storm. The peasants don't want them but don't really have a choice.
6. Bandits raid the stables and steal three mounts which causes Sir Michael to being a massive hunt into the forest.
7. The peasants are chasing a dog around after it buries a map they believe leads to where the local bandits have buried their loot.
8. The peasants believe the bandit treasure is in an old dry well and try to figure a way to get to it without alerting Sir Michael.
9. Helry finds an old shield in the fields sending Sir Michael and his guards on a wild goose chase looking for the bandits that left it behind.
10. A captive bandit helps Sir Michael set up a coin shaving operation and Helry is planning on destroying it out of spite.

Peasants & the Priestess

1. Because of false-rumors that the King has announced jus primae noctis half the couples in the fief get married when Sir Michael heads off to court.
2. Helry concocts a rumor that Sir Michael will be awarded extra title to distract the Lord until the end of the Summer faire.
3. The peasants provide labor to build extension to the manor and give credit to the Priestess. The hope is to butter up Sir Michael into allowing the Summer Faire which he's sworn will not be allowed.
4. Three Priestesses show up at the village temple and everyone wants to know why. 
5. When Sir Michael comes across ale brewed secretly by the peasants to avoid taxes, Helry convinces the Lord that it has been brewed special for the faire as a surprise for him from the Priestess.
6. After Sir Michael finds Sir Mathias drunk he puts super-serious Sir Allan in charge of the guards just in time for him to ruin the faire for everyone.
7. The guards arrange for peasant quarterstaff fights and most of peasants aren't happy about the abuse as a large and dumb peasant has been enjoying the bouts too much and has seriously hurt a number of his fellows.
8. The Priestess purchase expensive Holy Spices and hosts a massive meal that everyone inedible.
9. One of the Serfs makes a bid for sanctuary in the temple and Sir Michael is ready to invade the church to drag the man out.
10. A traveling mercantyer arrives in the village but Sir Michael doesn't trust him and hss his men keep a super-close eye on him.

What's Happening in the Quaint Village

The Quaint Village is a very small fief far from anything interesting. It can be used as a stand-in for any small village the characters spend a good deal of time in.

Cliques
The cliques get along reasonably well but in case of friction they break down as follows:

• Lord Oliver, Lady Katherine, and Breward the Steward. Also roughly 50% of the servants and any guard employed by Lord Oliver
• The peasant population will almost always support each other, the various guilds will also side with the peasant population if Lord Oliver moves against the mill
• Kate the old Priestess of the village will always try to be a peacemaker in case of trouble
• Crazy old Shama won't take any side and if brought into a quibble will actively make things worse

What is Up?
To determine what is happening the GM should should roll 1d6 & 1d10.

Table determination table

1d6	Table
01	Lords & Ladies Table
02	Peasants & Freemen Table
03	Religion & Magic Table
04-06	Nothing Happening

Lords & Ladies Table

1. Sir Oliver and his wife Lady Katherine arrive at his new feif. He needs to earn money to afford his beautiful wife's expensive tastes. She wants to return to the court and makes no bones about it. Their first day is a disaster as the manor was looted of furniture while the Steward was out.
2. Lady Katherine uses the furniture as an excuse to return to Court, the rumormongers think she has left for good.
3. Kate the old Priestess of the village tries to tutor Lady Katherine in the kitchen. The village is filled with inedible pies. 
4. Lady Katherine's mother Idel arrives to rescue Lady Katherine from this nightmarish, rustic life only to find Lady Katherine has not returned from court. The entire village walks on eggshells for a week before Idel gives up and leaves.
5. Lady Katherine's furniture finally arrives (without Lady Katherine) but it's sent to the temple by mistake, causing a rift with Kate the old Priestess of the village who had considered the delivery a donation to the small temple.
6. Lady Katherine returns and starts doing make-overs on the local peasant girls but the men are none too pleased as nobody can actually afford the makeup or perfumes let alone the clothes.
7. Sir Oliver is fed up with the lousy service at the Mill. He throws out the miller and runs the place himself only to find the mill gears jam and the peasants furious because grain won't sell for the same price as flour.
8. Sir Oliver's nephew arrives in the village and fixes the  mill, just as the local guilds stop purchasing anything from the village until the Miller is reinstated, which Sir Oliver is happy to do.
9. Sir Oliver is allowed to lead the militia if he'll play a drum in their marching band. They have more parades than bandits here-abouts. Sir Oliver yells and screams that its his fief and he will lead the militia even if he can't play! Eventually he's heard practicing.
10. Sir Oliver is going on a two-week trip to town and leaves Breward the Steward to take over his duties leading the militia and Breward is something of a military prodigy and leads the militia to drive out some local bandits that have stolen a sheep or two lately.

Peasants & Freemen Table

1. The Lord's mule gets injured and now the peasants are forced to take turns pulling the plow.
2. Bernard the Steward insists they plant black lotus in one of the field strips because it will be twice as profitable as any food crops but insists the peasants don't tell Sir Oliver or Kate the old Priestess of the village.
3. Sir Oliver wants to plant all wheat in the rest of his strip but the local peasants tells him no. He insists only to find nearly all the neighboring villages have planted wheat as well, depressing the prices.
4. Eleanor the cow is pregnant and Sir Oliver posts a guard on the beast to protect it from the crazy Shaman who is believed to desire it for a sacrifice.
5. The peasants hire a witch to ripen their apples quicker, and locals from another village to help pick the fruit and use Sir Oliver's mule to haul the wagon full of them to market only to find nobody is interested in apples this early in the season.
6. Breward the Steward fears that he'll lose Sir Oliver's mule to Kate the old Priestess of the village, who's trying to take the mule in lieu of a debt that she claims Sir Oliver owes.
7. The peasants are embarrassed that Sir Oliver personally leads the farming on his lands which is beneath him. They have sick-outs every time he shows up (finishing work at night).
8. The peasants are flocking to town for jobs at the textile mill. To keep someone working the land, Sir Oliver is forced to cut milling costs which will make it difficult for him to pay the taxes.
9. Breward the Steward calls the Sheriff when he finds 300sp is missing from Sir Oliver's safe. With the investigation pointing only to Eb who has a new horse but can't remember where he got it.
10. The peasants go overboard with plans for a parade and band to welcome Countess Idel (Lady Katherine's mother) despite Sir Oliver's protests that she's not royalty.

Religion & Magic Table

1. A drought is wilting the crops. Sir Oliver is so desperate, he agrees to pay Breward the Steward an extra 350sp if he can bring some relief. That's when Breward introduces the Crazy old Shaman that claims he can make it rain. When the rains eventually arrive, Sir Oliver refuses to pay saying the Shaman had nothing to do with it.
2. When the dreaded bing bug threatens the crops, Sir Oliver tries to rally the people to rid the town of the menace while Breward the Steward pays the Shaman to chase off the bugs. Eventually folks begin to wonder if the bing bug is real, or something created by Breward to mess with Sir Oliver.
3. Short on water, Breward the Steward contracts his Shaman friend to find a new spot to dig a well. But once Breward gets water the old temple well goes dry.
4. The crazy old Shaman comes into town and announces that all animals must be freed and harasses anyone that does not. Soon, the manor house and old temple are zoos as peasants attempt to hide their animals in the two place the Shaman dare not go. 
5. It's planting season and Sir Oliver needs useful weather information. The village normally relies on the Crazy old Shaman but Sir Oliver won't let the Shaman near town so a group of peasants are out in the country hoping to find the Shaman and get the info on the down-low.
6. The Crazy old Shaman saves Lady Katherine's uncle's life so she invites him to move into the manor. When Sir Oliver tries to evict him he threatens to cast a curse on him.
7. Once Slow Ed's wild story about meeting Elves in the woods makes the rounds, tourists from other villages descend on the village to hear the tale and see what they can see and trampling the crops in the process despite the best efforts of Sir Oliver's guards.
8. Kate the old Priestess of the village decides to revive the spring festival and is working her way around the village to drum up support. Meanwhile, Sir Oliver tries to plant the fields with Eb who can't control the mule or plow a straight line.
9. Two witchsmellers arrive looking for a witch that looks identical to the Priestess old horse.
10. Kate the old Priestess of the village demands some serious improvements to the village and puts together a workgang and oversees the work, in many cases making things worse.

Reskinning II

As far as urban areas are concerned I've have never found simple encounters tables to be satisfying so as part of this reskinning column I figured I'd create "What's happening?" tables. These tables are what folks are talking about, or what is actually happening at the moment, or possibly even story hooks. The idea is they provide a bit of the 'vibe' of the  moment.

Also I came across a box of digital Marvel No-prizes and I'll award one to the first comment that figures out the source that I reskinned the entries from.

Basic Reskinning

A GM's life is tough. Coming up with new, interesting, content on a consistent basis can tax even the most creative person. Most GMs eventually turn to borrowing bits and pieces from books and movies and comics and whatever and adding them to their campaign. I'm not certain what folks actually call this but I call it re-skinning.

I'm convinced that nearly everyone eventually reskin content it but most don't really talk about it either for fear of giving up the game to players or for some mistaken thoughts of plagiarism.  I'll start with the second issue first. If you don't publish the reskinned content then you don't have to worry about plagiarism. As for giving up the game for players, that is what this column is about: how to create reskinned content that is mostly unrecognizable.

The elements of nearly everything worth reskinning boil down to: plots, characters, & scenes. There is also theme but we're not sure that can really be reskinned. Some thoughts on effective reskinning:

• Jump genres. Reskinning the Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones will be obvious. Reskin Star Wars into a medieval setting less so.
• Change character names. Conan can be just as big a bad-arse if his name is Tyrion.
• Blend characters from different sources. Its the interplay between groups of characters that make them so memorable, split up the group and the source of the parts are less obvious.
• Television and series books make better sources than movies. There is more to work with and the list of plots among a series are far less memorable than from a handful of movies.
• Even mediocre sources occasionally have amazing scenes that can be used.
• Some elements for a series aren't enough for a plot. Sometimes you just have to admit some things don't work and let it go.

An example of a reskinned scene
The movie Phantom Menace was not our favorite but the pod race scene was a lot of fun. It appears to be a reskinned sci-fi version of the chariot race from Ben Hur. So how can we re-use it.

First why the chase?

1. Race for a cash prize (Phantom Menace)
2. Race because one is forced to on pain of death (Death Race, Ben Hur)
3. Race to get through enemy territory or escape (Road Warrior, Thunderdome, Fury Road)

What is our vehicle since cars and pod racers just won't do?

1. Horses with horse archery, lances, and hacking melee weapons (straight medieval)
2. Chariots or wagons (protect the wheels, protect the wheels). Similar to  horses except the terrain needs to be smoother lest the wheels get shattered.
3. Magical flying ships (like in the world of Slain) or flying mounts (I guess, not our style)  Terrain would mostly be about the wind, possibly rivers of wind cutting through mountain passes.
4. Racing on dinosaurs or such (heroes could be on a sauropod while the villains could be on sauropods or smaller two legged fast beasts (making this a truly wild Sword & Sorcery deal). Imagine villains dropping down onto the heroes sauropod on those long arm-like levers from Mad Max Fury Road.
5. Race using Carvels or other ships. The race could go through narrow spots between rock, over shallow shoals, or even into floating seaweed that slows and clogs up the oars.

By the time you've changed things, even a little bit, you'll have amped up the excitement and hidden where the original skin came from.

Blog Policies: A Word From Stan Lee

Haters. The words racism/sexism/homophobic/transphobic come up a lot lately. I have no tolerance for haters.

Politics. Pretty much nobody has changed their politics because of an argument online and I have the right to maintain civil discourse on my blog. So leave politics at the door. There are many places on the internet to go if you want to debate politics, this isn't one of them.

Spam. Spam will be deleted.

Trolls. I've never understood trolls. If you come here to be nasty you'll be warned. If you continue you'll probably be banned. I don't feel people should be telling others what is good fun and what is bad fun and I don't think anyone should have to tolerate outright attacks. It is my blog so I'll judge what is offensive and what is not and I'll delete anything I feel crosses the line (or create a hall of shame or something for these toxic sort of things).

Its about games. Even if you really, really love a game and dedicate your life to that game it is still a game and games are meant to be fun.

Best of the Web

Some time ago the Wall Street Journal Online came up with a daily post called Best of the Web. They culled interesting stories from everywhere and posted with snarky comments. It grew stale after awhile but I always liked the idea. The concept is similar to blog aggregators but guided in a more useful way. So that's is what this Label will try to be, except weekly or monthly. We'll see.

Some folks are so creative they make you try even harder as not to look like a hack by comparison.

• Doomslakers! - The Blog of James V West. Art, Adventure, Games, Whimsies Galore. Somewhere along the line I ran across Black Pudding Magazine by James V West and loved it. The magazine was dedicated to D&D but was easily adaptable. The thing was packed with bits & pieces that lit up my creativity. I ended up buying every issue and tracked down his website. 
• Dungeon Dozen - The Blog of Jason Sholtis. The author packs more creativity into a 12 item table than most blogs in their entirety. When I first found the blog I spent hours going through the various sections. When I found out the author created an underground environment called Operation Unfathomable I bought a copy and loved every word of it. Sad he hasn't posted since September, hopefully that means another product is in the works.
• Tony Dowler - He's mostly on Google Plus (which is dying) and Pintrest (which I have no Interest). I absolutely love the way he draws his microdungeons (but the normal link is 404). Still his Salamander Mines and his How to Host a Dungeon are both brilliant.

Initial Post

I'm calling the site Grindstonë because I intend to dig up a lot of public domain stuff (mostly maps) that are buried out there on the web and clean them up and make them useful for GMs that never have time or enough maps. I think of this is sharpening the GMs tools for them, much as using a grindstone to sharpen a sword or hoe.

I'm a one person operation based out of the West Coast of North America. San Diego to be exact. I expect eventually to bundle different bits and sell them. Hopefully publishing them online first won't cut into the sales too badly, that doesn't seem to be the case with other blogs so I'm willing to take the risk to build name recognition.

Long ago Colombia games stated that it as easier to add fantastic elements to a rather non-fantastic world than the reverse (or something similar, I'm paraphrasing). I think that's basically true since my own version of Harn replaced the Gargun (Harn Orcs) with the Greenskins from Warhammer among other things. To that end most of the stuff on this blog will probably be less than fantastic. I sharpen the blade, the GM will have to actually wield it in battle (simulated of course).

Having said that the word Grindstonë in the title contains an umlaut over the 'e'. This umlaut is silent, it is the Heavy Metal umlaut, a stylistic reminder to keep things fun, loud, and a bit over the top.

The little image comes from the utrecht-psalter, a Carolingian book of psalms from the 9th century, back when they were hopping with excitement to sharpen their swords.