odd Robots

For several decades I have been fascinated with games that directly reflect their constituent physical parts. How can mechanics and rules, systems, coexist cozily with how pieces and how can the pieces be part of the system? This started with a Lego based game and now I am noodling around with a Cairn/Mausritter variant: modular robots. This quixotic task, or at least the recent iteration, started a week or so ago.

I bought Micro Circuits, and it wasn't what I imagined it to be. Seems much more like human-in-robot-costume kind of game, which is not a bad thing, just not as deep a dive as I was looking for. What I think I was imagining was a system where the nature of being a robot allowed the characters to mechanically take on features and items from other robots or from the environment. In other words I was looking for a system where the nature of the subject matter reinforced or incorporated the mechanics, that there was synergy between the two. That was not the case, so I started working on...

C.A.I.R.N. is my operating name here... Cellular

Automatic

Independent

Regenerating

Nodes 

Still figuring out the acronym! But I think I have a nice core concept, where everything, even the individual core stats, are a modular part of the robot, and can be reconfigured.

Salt Palace Update

Season 4 just ended with a bit of a whimper, primarily due to illness on my part. However, that didn't mean sessions were any less exciting!

The parties solved the big mystery of the levitating beam of light, identifying it as a manifestation of an intelligent white gem, the soul of a dwarvish sorcerer. At war with the undead West of the great canyon , the sorcerer has promised assistance if adventurers clear out the skeletons and shadows. 

They also learned that the Salt Palace lies to the west, wyrms lurk in that path, and that spells can be sentient, mobile, and deadly. Then, the last session a determined party pushed South, unveiling a massive underground cliff face, surmounted by a crumbling stone wall. Is it the Palace itself? The other great tower? Something else altogether?

Tune in next season and let me know if you want to jump in!

My DM 'Kit' 2.0

Criteria

Visibility or At Hand

Will I notice or be able to find this tool, either in a rare moment of visual perception or by feel?

Containment

Does the tool move; if so, how is it corraled for #1 to happen?

Session Specifics

Does the tool inform or support what might happen in the session? Notes, continuity, secrets & story are woven together here.

Tools  

In front of me 

Dice tray (or Mat)

Mat (may be on its way out?)

Creature cards

Card stand

Record or note sheet

Journal with single spread of session prep 

Map (usually cards)

Pen

Wooden timers (trying these out)

Dice (20, 12, 2d10, 8, 4d6)

At hand

Rule book

'Maze Rats' (usually)

Campaign records

Special Dice (Emotion, Direction, Body part)

Blank note cards

Any system specific aids (eg  Mausritter item cards)