I have once again sat myself down to worldbuild for my Legends of Akeroth game instead of the setting I mentioned way back in Week 1's post. Oh well. Today, I was tired after unexpectedly expending a lot of physical energy and after a great LoA session. To make things easier on myself, I decided to create an enemy. Because I was tired, I didn't make any images or graphics for this, sorry.

The Plot Connection

I wasn't making a random enemy tonight. In a recent session, my character Kadlen came upon the den of a predator. Whatever it was had moved on, leaving behind signs that it was a messy eater, with half-eaten and unidentifiable corpses. Kadlen didn't go near enough to determine if the bodies were animals of the forest or something else; he was just glad whatever it was, it wasn't nearby.

Additionally, in my first session, Kadlen had met an innkeeper named Lira. While I was rolling for some details about her, I determined that she was abrupt and a little rude to Kadlen because she was worried about someone close to her. This person was going to commune with a monster. While Kadlen didn't learn this detail, I filed it away in the NPC's file as a possible future quest.

When I started rolling details about this creature I was making, the first detail was that it was a "magical" entity. In Akeroth, Voidcraft magic is essentially "the bad magic", the dark stuff that no one likes. In a mental blink of the eye, I recalled Lira's plight and decided that this creature happens to be the monster that is being communed with.

Creating the Hollow Eater

To make this creature, I utilized two sets of generators: the monster oracle from the Legends of Akeroth playtest copy, and The Elegant Fantasy Creature Generator. I used the LoA oracle for its mechanics, though I mostly used it as guidelines and didn't roll for much. I used the EFCG for some visual details and flavor.

The result is the Hollow Eater.

In LoA mechanics, this is a Threat Level 2 enemy, which means that a party with the average level of 2 should be able to manage it. In theory, at least. It's a huge size, taking up a 3x3 space on a grid, and it's immune to shadow and fire damage. Its action table consists of an arcane attack, a physical swipe attack, and two debuff moves. It's topped off with a potential killer special move that combines a bite attack with +1 HP regen and a check to see if the target becomes Weakened.

For visual flavor, dice helped me determine that this is a humanoid creature, albeit a large one. Born of twisted Voidcraft magic, its body is mostly featureless, without defined musculature or skeleton, except for a single horn atop its head and a large, gaping maw with lots of teeth. It's covered in gray skin that's translucent in areas, revealing a network of dark veins. It also has a halo of pure magic energy. I am considering the halo as being a potential weakness.

Besides its loot table, which has a potential drop of either coins, a potion, or a resistance tonic, I decided that it will drop the horn as a monster part. I'm not sure what kind of properties the horn will have. I can decide that later.

Tying It Together

The Hollow Eater was named such because Voidcraft magic is described in the Drakonym rulebook—which shares the Akeroth setting—as having relation to the Hollow King. This is a Big Bad Evil Guy that was mentioned elsewhere in the Drakonym book. Since this creature was operating on instinct, but is a magical entity, I decided that it eats but doesn't need to. And that's why it leaves its meals unfinished, because it isn't actually hungry, but feels a hollow emptiness inside. "Hollow Eater" felt like a good nod to both the Hollow King and its eternal greed.

After Kadlen found its den, he and his companion also heard rhythmic thumps deeper in the forest. I've decided that there is a cult that either helped create the Hollow Eater on purpose or by accident; perhaps it was originally one or more members, warped into this evil, mindless entity. Either way, this cult now serves it in some fashion. The person Lira is worried about has potentially fallen in with this cult, or may be at risk of joining them.

I won't bring the Hollow Eater into play just yet. Kadlen is level 1; though he's about to level up, I think I want some more experience with combat before I tackle this thing. I will at least bring along two Waymates as party members. It could also become a dungeon if I decide to tackle both the Hollow Eater and the cult; the Hollow Eater could be a final boss of the dungeon.

We'll see where the dice take me as I continue to play!

I was originally going to work on that setting I mentioned in Week 1 today. Then today's Legends of Akeroth stream was cut short due to technical issues, preventing me from playing as long as I had intended. I had planned on creating an arcane item for a quest my character was taking, and I wanted to use the Story Engine lore deck to make it. Worried that my next stream was going to experience similar risk of difficulty, I decided to spend today's challenge entry on crafting this item. Legends of Akeroth, at time of writing, in my playtest copy, features Relics, which are items of narrative weight with special effects. My character Kadlen will be going on a relatively short journey to pick up an arcane tome for the quest giver. I decided that I wanted this tome to be interesting, because if it was just a simple package delivery, surely a courier service would've been cheaper and more reasonable instead of hiring an adventurer's guild. So, now the arcane tome is a Relic.

Here are the cards I drew.

And now, here is how I interpreted my results:

Faction: A siblinghood prone to extremism desires the tome.
Location: (Pre-determined to be located at Tower Yarrin)
Event: A new genre of music would be formed.
Figure: Empathic Composer created the tome full of magical song compositions.
Object: (Pre-determined to be an arcane tome weapon)
Material: Silver, perception-enhancing or altering properties, Boon for Soul checks.
Creature: Tree, Heimstre is the design on the cover.
Modifiers: Ardent, "Songs of Ardent Joy" is its name.

Getting "tree" for creature was amusing. I'm thinking it could have been used for something like a treant. But in the setting of Akeroth, there is coincidentally a world tree, so I thought it was very fitting to have an illustration of it on this book's cover. As for the mechanics of it, up to 5 listeners of a song, including the singer, will get +1 Boon to a Soul related check. A song from the book can be sung once per long rest.

I also now have a few faction, a siblinghood that's after the book. This will take some more thinking, card draws, and dice rolls, which I'll do another day. Meanwhile, I feel that the composer is likely the client of this quest. They commissioned the arcane enchanters at Tower Yarrin to infuse their compositions with magic. I think the "empathic" was likely meant in the literal kind of way, like being able to literally feel emotions of people or spirits, since it was paired with "telepathic". But I'm taking it in the less powerful way and more in the sense that this composer feels great empathy with those who have experienced sorrow and misfortune.

As I play my solo campaign, I'm getting signs that perhaps the "historical disaster" didn't happen an extremely long time ago. "Historical", which was a descriptor I had obtained from another Story Engine card session, doesn't necessarily mean that the disaster happened way back in history. It could mean that the disaster was of historic proportions, an event large enough to impact an entire region and take decades to recover from. And, there are several kin in Akeroth that can live to two centuries, so even a few decades is still something fresh in some folks' memories.

This composer, who will likely become a new NPC to also craft later, feels the aftermath of that event keenly, and wants to alleviate the woes of those who suffered from it. They want to provide hope, to remind them of joy, and so they wrote a book of songs before commissioning arcanists to enchant them with power. Doing so would allow this composer to help listeners with more than pretty words, but to help bolster their spirits against hardships. And in doing this, they will create a new genre of music, as these compositions were written in ways not seen yet.

Maybe the siblinghood faction aligns itself with chaos and revels in destruction, despair, and antipathy. Maybe they are affiliated with—or are—the main villain of this campaign. More importantly, I now have a faction that is most likely going to get in my character's way when he attempts to retrieve and deliver this tome.

He better succeed, because I've also determined the value of this tome is 1,750 Draviks! My character only has 10 in his pocket, if something goes wrong, there's no way he can pay for it!

This kicks off entry #2 in my challenge, how exciting! In my last post, I talked about a setting that I had begun building last year. I was originally going to spend today's session working on it, but I decided to change my plan and work on a detail for my Legends of Akeroth game instead. This is a solo campaign that I'm streaming on Twitch; you can catch the VODs on my Youtube channel. It's taking place in the Erwick region of Akeroth, which is the canon setting for the game. However, I am homebrewing some elements, such as the city that my character will establish a "home base" in, so to speak.

Windford is a small city on a river that is full of artisans, has Venetian-inspired architecture, and a fledgling adventurer guild. I used the Story Engine decks to help produce a few of these broad details and in session two, I determined that the city also has a few waterways throughout it. So it is definitely inspired by Venice, and I want to lean into that a little. While I'm not going to work on a city layout yet, I want to create a few more key points about the city today.

Also, the mask my LoA session pngtuber wears is also Venetian-inspired! Many thanks to Cheeki for suggesting it; at the time, she didn't even know that Windford had Venetian inspirations. Truly a funny coincidence!

I started by looking at artwork created by Venetian artists. Here are a couple of pieces I found that I liked and gave me a good aesthetic vibe.

I grabbed the art by Francesco Larrazo Guardi because they were paintings of Venice by someone who had been there in person. The Giambattista Tiepolo piece I chose because I really liked the lighting and composition of it, but this image also included the decorative frame around it. Tiepolo is also listed as having been an artist of the Rococo style, which was born out of a resistance to classicist art. When I was skimming the Wikipedia article on the movement and saw that, I had an idea.

When I first created Windford, I jotted down that it was full of artists and artisans because many fled there during a historical disaster. I also drew a couple of cards that resulted in the point of interest of "a street where a famous artist's studio was once located, that birthed a famous art style". Now I have a link to two different concepts: a disaster and the birth of an art movement, because one of the things about Rococo is that it has origins or themes about the common man, a rebellion against the elite society.

What if that disaster was caused by a group of elites or nobility? Soon after an exodus to Windford, a small group of artists who were part of the refugees get back to creating art. Influenced by their experiences and the consequences of the disaster that was surely felt by the region as a whole, a new art movement was born.

This doesn't mean that the art movement is specifically Rococo, but it does give me a stronger idea of what the disaster could have been. Before, I just had "historical disaster", something that happened a few decades ago at the least, well before my character's birth. Now I have "a historical disaster that was caused by elites/nobility, and a famous art movement took place because of it".

This may not seem like I got very far on the idea, but as of this post, my campaign does not have a villain. What if the villain is related in some way to that disaster? It happened some time ago, so if he* was alive at that time, then he is either undead or still alive by some other means, likely magical. OR he's a kin that is longer lived, as there are some kin in Akeroth that can live for two centuries.

* I say he, because the only detail I do know about this guy is that he's male, as pre-determined by my personal agenda.

While the history of this city is still fairly vague, today I linked two previously disconnected ideas and created a new way of how my villain could potentially be linked to an event. It's still up in the air if he is or isn't, but that's something I can mull on in my head at work.

I think next week, I'll get back to the setting from my first post...unless the LoA brainrot continues. And if you haven't already, check it out on BackerKit, where you can get a free playable demo for solo and group play if you follow!

First, an introduction to my challenge. In 2025, I started creating a setting to play games in with my bestie, Cheeki. The main system was originally going to be the Basic Roleplaying system, but I would use other smaller games, such as Prequel, for oneshots or mini sessions. This world would also allow some creative freedom to let us write stories in fiction format if we wanted. I wanted it to be large enough to support a wide range of adventures in different points of its history. Like with most of my projects, I had to put it down before I got very far on it.

Secondly, I have a lot of worldbuilding aids, such as the Story Engine decks and tables galore. These haven't been getting a lot of use lately, for many of the same reasons that kept me from worldbuilding. Now that I have time and energy to worldbuild, I wanted to spend dedicated time to fleshing out this setting while using things I've spent money on.

Originally I had intended on making a video for these weekly sessions, but I'd like to actually complete the challenge, ya know? Having to edit a video would create a roadblock that would make it too easy for me to skip. So after hastily building a new website and blog, here we go.

One Setting, Two Planets

I don't have a set structure for this challenge yet; I did obtain this list of 400 Worldbuilding Prompts to assist me, but I won't use it every week. So, the format of these posts may change.

Today, I'll review what I've already created, which is not one planet, but two. I used the Story Engine's worldbuilding journal to kick off some planet details, and after doing some dice rolls and some card draws, decided that I would have a pair of sister planets that had similar make-up, but progressed much differently.

Additionally, humans did not originate on either planet. They arrived as settlers, part of a social experiment performed by an extremely large corporation. This experiment would place two groups of human volunteers with wiped memories on both planets, and then be checked on from time to time for their progress. The humans would not know of their origins and there would be no interference from the corporation...for now.

The twist to this would be that the experiment was a front for the corporation's bid on two planets that contained an extremely valuable resource. However, this is not something that would come into play for a very, very long time, because science fiction isn't my preferred genre setting to work in. Fantasy is. And any science fiction work I do create will likely be soft sci-fi or space opera, or even just space fantasy. I just don't have the chops for science stuff, though I do plan on trying to learn more about various scientific topics in order to better inform fantasy creations.

I started working on one planet first. I decided that when it comes to technology, it'll be behind its sister, somewhere close to an industrial era, perhaps. Mining will be a big deal on this planet because of a reveal of magic-granting ore after a major earthquake split a large area. I haven't yet worked out the details of how the ore grants magic yet, and yes, it happens to be the resource the jumbo corp wants to get a hold of.

Planet Land Masses

This planet is about 50% water. Most of the land is concentrated on a single continent that stretches between its poles. There's a two smaller continents that are fairly isolated; trade probably happens with them, but I haven't yet focused on them yet. So far, the bulk of my work will take place on the main continent, which is split into 5 zones.

Zone 1 - Mega-City: Located in the center, its two major landmarks are the mega-mines located in the massive ravine left by the earthquake and a temple set upon a hilltop. The temple is the headquarters for the religious order that holds majority of faith. The mega-mines are, coincidentally, owned by a corporation—I mean, a consortium. This "consortium" is not related to the one out in distant space in any way, but does create a bit of subtle irony. The city doesn't have a name yet, but is often referred to as "the Golden City".

Zone 2 - The High Plains: Located to the north of the mega-city and named such after the earthquake shifted most of its elevation upward. It used to be a desert before the shift, so cacti are still a common sight. Its major landmark is a lake that also formed after the earthquake; named "The Lake of Last Chances", it is protected and owned by no one. However, I've written down as a plot hook that this protective status is being contested after a valuable material was found inside it.

Zone 3 - Valley with Port: This area used to be a grassland before the earthquake, and then became a valley. It's located to the east of the mega-city and is the smallest zone. This port is likely who would be trading with the second largest continent across the eastern ocean.

Zone 4 - Briars: Located to the south of the mega-city, this is a large area that is still mostly untamed. My biggest point of interest here is a village that hosts the resting place of a legendary monster slayer. Near the village is a gorge shaped by an earth-eating monster, that became its deathbed after being slain by the hero. This story is one I'd like to play out using the game Prequel, which focuses on a group of heroes that fight evil...and lose. My favorite part of this idea is that my player, Cheeki, would play the Prequel game as the hero laid to rest in the village, and then later come back to this vilage as a different character in a different game, and recognize who it is.

Zone 5 - Fen/Marshland: The largest zone on the continent. There are three major landmarks here. The first is a large city and the second is a magnificent dome structure that's a wellspring of nature magic and a school. Since I haven't worked out my magic system, this part is still in the works. The third landmark is a bridge over a large gravelands, crafted by mages to solve transportation problems over the marshlands while respecting the dead. It is hauntingly beautiful.

Peoples of the Planet

There are 4 sentient groups on this particular planet. Or at least, on the main continent, that I currently know of. It's possible there may be more from the two smaller continents, but I haven't decided yet. As for the groups I do know, I haven't yet worked out their details other than what I rolled on a table from the workbook journal.

Humans: Pretty much what you would expect. They haven't mutated or evolved in any form since landing on the planet with no memories, and have acted like humans typically do. Thanks to the giant earthquake, they didn't really get a chance to do too much in the way of warring and conquering, but there was some tension in those first few decades since they were mysteriously dropped off with no explanation other than by deities.

Bear-like People: They have specialized eyes. Primarily originated from the fen/marshland zone.

Bird-like People: While they have wings of some kind(?), they also have protective shells or carapace. They still mostly reside in the briar zone and their shells are probably what protects them from thorns.

Deer-like People: Often small and petite. I can't find my note on it, maybe I never wrote one, but I am thinking that I could make them interesting by having them be aquatic in some way. They could be seafarers and river folk, and maybe inspired by kelpies.

Next Week...

I have more notes than this. For example, I had already started jotting down some details about who first found the ore, who owns the consortium, and a little of what it does. I have a handful of various plot hooks that could also set me off in developing some locations and lore. I'll need to decide before next Sunday what to do next. The ore is pretty important, so I may work on that and determine what it does, how it does what it does, and why it does it.

Until next week!