This skeleton has an arquebus.

How cool is that?

This version of that iconic staple of renaissance millenarianism is a fresco in The Oratorio dei Disciplini at Clusone ,executed in 1485 by Giacomo Borlone de Buschis.

On Languages and Herbalism

Extending Languages

As with the rules for Retainers, I feel that the rules for languages have an untapped potential and can be extended to make the game richer and more interesting as well as more specifically evocative of the intended atmosphere. I recall paying very little attention to languages when I played D&D, and as a result of that, completely discounting the Intelligence attribute as anything but a guideline for role-playing. I think languages can be a means of introducing a kind of skill system-lite without adding a whole other mechanic.

All characters speak the Low Tongue (i.e. Common) and their alignment tongue, additional languages are granted to characters with high intelligence. Knowing a particular language not only allows a PC to communicate with other speakers of that language and thus have the opportunity to hire them as retainers, it also allows them to access and use particular equipment not available to speakers of other languages. Use of magical or sacred items of equipment requires special cultural knowledge that is unavailable to those that do not speak the appropriate language.

In effect, this allows the imposition of a skill mechanic by welding it onto an already existing and underused mechanic. Languages can provide options beyond those of race and class. I am interested in using languages as a means of utilising resources – treasure – as well as adding an aesthetic component, allowing characters to engage with different aspects of the setting in different ways.

Assuming that languages are generally fairly much ignored except as a means of providing important information to specific players, Intelligence becomes a dump stat, in much the same way as Charisma is a dump stat if retainers and reaction rolls are underutilised.


The Low Tongue: A bastardised version of the imperial tongue mixed with the ancestral languages of the peoples of the northern parts of the Empire. It is the language spoken by the most of the people of the Northern Marches.

Retainers: Peasants, Pilgrims, Poachers etc.

Special Items: Legendary Weapons and Armour, Amulets, Magic rings, caps and cloaks, Potions

The Sacred Imperial Tongue: The language of the Empire of the South and the divine language of the Imperial Church.

Retainers: Imperial Guardsmen, Agents and Priests

Special Items: The Sacred Canon, Clerical scrolls, Ensorcelled weapons of the Empire, Holy Relics

The Old Tongue: The language of barbarian outlanders and of witches and wizards.

Retainers: Heathens, Hermits, Druids, Shamans

Special Items: Magical spellbooks, Talismans, Idols, Druidic Tools, Magical Scrolls

The Language of Wild Beasts:

Retainers: Birds and beasts, Spirits of the Wild

Special Items: Wild Talismans

The Language of Trees:

Retainers: Entities of the Wild Wood

Special Items: Staves, Wands, Herbs

The Language of the Dead:

Retainers: Grave Diggers, Body Snatchers, Death Cultists, The Unquiet Dead

Special Items: Cursed Weapons and Armour of the Dead, Unholy Relics


The Language of Faerie

Retainers: Elves, Dwarfs, Halflings, Faeries

Special Items: Faerie Weapons and Armour, Fey Talismans

Tinkers’ Cant

Retainers: Vagabonds, Troubadours, Bandits, Tinkers

Special Items: Poisons, Thieves’ tools, Charlatans’ Tricks


Other Languages Might Include: The Trade-Tongue, The Celestial Speech, The Infernal Speech, The Language of the Kingdom-Beyond-the-Sea, The Secret Language of Gnomes, Alchemists’ Cant etc.


Herbs

I’ve loved the idea of herbalism in rpgs since I played Maelstrom when I was young. It fits especially well with the psychedelic Dung Age vibe I’m trying to achieve and also allows for the introduction of minor magical effects to the toolkit of the Average Joe. The real Middle Ages was full of cultural practices that were attributed with miraculous power (little has changed, really). I want for there to be a spectrum between mundane items and magical items that encompasses herbs, idols, shrines, holy relics and scriptures, alchemical formulae and various other oddments. I do not want to overcomplicate things with extra mechanics for PCs but to open up options available under existing mechanics by introducing campaign-specific items that require knowledge of specific languages to utilise.

Herbs may be found at random, or sought out at the cost of a number of Wandering Monster/Unpleasant Event checks. Uncommon herbs are found 10% of the time after two checks, Rare herbs are found 10% of the time after 4 checks. The DM may adjust frequency of discovery according to discretion.

Bladdervine: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity for 1d6 turns. Uncommon

Bog Moss: Heals 1d4 hp but stains mouth, teeth and hands, -2 Cha for 1 day. Uncommon

Lanthorn Poppy: Smoker falls into a deep slumber for 2 hours, after which one first-level spell may be recalled. Rare

Sweet Grimblewort: +1 Charisma due to delightful fragrance. Uncommon

Glimmerweed: Infravision to 60’ for 1d4 turn, Character is at -1 to hit in bright light. Rare

Salamander Rush: +1d4 temporary hit points for 1d6 turn, -3 to Wisdom. Uncommon

Fireflower: +2 to dmg for 1 turn but causes 1 dmg. Rare

Yeoman’s Blessing: +1 to missile attacks. Uncommon

Harrow Grass: Detect Invisible for 1d4 turns, PC goes blind for 1d6 turns, 10% chance of being permanent. Rare

Scathe Nettle: Grants a +2 to saving throw vs. poison for 6 turns but causes 1 turn of violent purging during which character is incapacitated. Uncommon

The Fells

Long time no post, here are a couple of things I've been working on in a reasonably presentable form. I'm not sure if this is the direstion I should be going in at the moment. I feel like taking things in a transhuman primordial biotech science fantasy direction but I'm sure the urge will pass.

THE FELLS

The Fells are the haunted uplands that lie beyond the border of the northern marches in the outlands, the Land-Beyond-The-Empire. The Fells embodied the Wildness of the Wilderness, fear, loneliness, strangeness and danger. The Horrors of the Middenmurk lie beyond.

Events that might befall travellers

1. Stinking Mires: 1d4 retainers start to sink, Successful Strength check by a PC within 3 rounds to rescue from drowning

2. Knuckerholes: Foul pit opens in ground, Random retainer falls in on 1-2 on 1d6 for 1d6 dmg

3. Dreary Fog: Saps meaning from the world, Save vs. Spells or -1 to Wisdom

4. Desolation: Great vistas of bleak emptiness. Morale check for Retainers

5. Darkling Woods: Forest of shadows, tangled roots and branches like scratching fingers in perpetual darkness, -1 to attack, missile fire impossible.

6. Creeping Chill: A bitter cold that seeps into the bones and saps the will. Con Check or -1 to Strength.

7. Witch-lights: Ghostly candles in the distance, Hirelings must make morale check or wander off into darkness.

8. Miasma

9. Cairn: Monument of piled stones, 10% chance of finding offering. Leave offering to receive bonus for 1 day. roll d3 1. +1 Strength, 2. +1 Constitution, 3. +1 Charisma.

10. Shrine: Pray for one turn and receive; 1d3 1. 2 hp 2. +1 Saving Throw for 1 day, 3. Pilgrim retainer that will accompany character for a week.



Creatures

The dreadful influence of the Middenmurk has made the Fells a place of nightmares. Creatures lurk there that are embodiments of the wild elements of the accursed landscape.


Things Rumoured to Exist in the Fells.

Dead Lord Crethering, Hrulf the Unbegotten, Aelfrick the Weirman, Netherus Cramp, Pentecost the Harbourmaster, The Stork-Woman, Old Braithie, Flendel and Briggs, Webba of Auld Skerrick, Trammel, Gristlebairns, The Alabaster Sow, The Ragged King, The Lang Man of Osterwick, The Hound of Kelmsley, Candlewrack, Uncle Nigh-to-Earth, Father Bracken, Broadbasket Shamwell, Minser Corbie, Eponymous Brock, Irongrin Skoathe, Flinties, The Feculent Dowager, Mill-wights, Privy-wights, The Lost Seneschal, The Seven Sisters of Fyldewocky, Murdoch Hillstrider, The Thicketty Man, The Maid in the Millpond, Mother Mansrot, Auld Rinkrank, Sir Umberton Nunsputter the Thrice-cursed, The Dawn Bear, Rufus Bombastus – Lord of the Eastern Wastes, The Miracle Swine, The Oracle Thrush, Knuckerbrides, Hoary Clooters, Bleakenswick Hares, Drusus the Vain, Asphodel the Blighted One, Maddock and Caddock, Anvilkine, Epiphany Fowl, Gossamer Cockerels, Avatars of Lassitude, Splinterfoxes, Whiskery Concubines, Nefarious Conflagrati, The Beast of Crippswich Hollow, Aunt Ailith, Eadgyth Coppertongue, Wickerboys, Treacle the Catamite, Tarn Shucks.

Roll d8s for Passion, Element and Form

Passions:

1. Cursed: drains 1 level on successful hit
2. Raging: Causes double damage
3. Tricksy: Charm person 3/day
4. Ravenous: Swallows whole on a 20, d6 dmg per round until the monster dies
5. Idiotic: +1 HD -2AC (penalty)
6. Pestilent: Cause Disease on successful hit.
7. Insidious: Surprises on 1-4
8. Tyrannical: Cause Fear 3/day

Elements

1. Barrow: regenerates 1 hp per round while in its lair
2. Weed: entangles on a successful attack and hits automatically every round thereafter, Strength check to break free
3. Cave: +2 AC
4. Mist: Protection from normal missiles
5. Toad: Extra tongue attack, if successful the next attack automatically succeeds.
6. Horse: Double speed.
7. Dog: Savage Bite, +2 dmg, -1 Morale
8. Fen: Drags opponent into a bog on a successful attack if a Strength check is failed, victim must succeed in a Strength check within 3 rounds or drown

Forms

I. Ogre: A brutal giant, save vs. paralysation on successful hit or be knocked out for 1d4 turns (treat as hold person)
AC: 7 HD: 3 Dmg: d8 ML: 9


II. Hag: A sorcerous crone,

Special
1. Fly 150’ (50’) on a broom or pitchfork, or in a cauldron
2. Rides a giant angry billygoat familiar MV 150’ (50’) AC 7 HD 3 Dmg d8
3. Curse 3/day, save vs. spells or suffer effects; Weakling! – half strength, Idiot! – half intelligence, Fool! – half wisdom
4. Murder of Crows: 2d4 dmg to anyone in light armour or less, range 200’, 3/day
5. Iron claws: 1d8 dmg
6. Devoted Slaves: 1d6 Degenerate Heathens AC 7 HD 1-1 dmg d6 ML:7


AC: 8 MV: 60’(20’) HD: 2 Dmg: d6 ML: 8

III. Bogey: A terrifying hunter; Sleep (faint dead away) 1/day, Ventriloquism 1/day
AC: 7 MV: 120’(40’) HD: 1 Dmg: 1d4 ML: 6

IV. Grim: An ill-omened guardian of forbidden things, presence causes blight
AC: 4 MV: 120’(40’) HD: 1 Dmg: 1d6 ML: 4


V. Beastie: A terrible shaggy thing,
AC: 6 MV: 180’(60’) HD: 5 Dmg: 1d12 ML: 9


VI. Shade: A nightmare from beyond, drains 1 point from an ability score per successful attack; roll 1d6 to determine which ability score a shade will drain 1. Strength , 2. Intelligence , 3. Wisdom, 4 Dexterity , 5. Constitution, 5. Charisma
AC: 7 MV: 120’(40’) HD: 3 Dmg: 1d6 ML: 9


VII. Wose: A wild creature of the woods, Hide 33%, Sneak 25%, 10% chance of possessing a Talisman

Wose Talismans, roll d6
1. Toadstone – Invisibility 1/day
2. Shrunken Head – +2 to attack rolls
3. Mad-Cap Mushroom – +2 dmg for 6 rds
4. Ancient Torc – +1 HD
5. Ram’s Horn – Summons a beastie of the same element 1/day
6. Hideous Idol – seeing the idol requires a save vs. spells or blinded for 6 turns
AC: 7 MV: 120’(40’) HD: 1 Dmg: 1d4 (cudgel) ML: 8


VIII. Gargoyle: A stony idol animated by foul magic, Invulnerable to normal weapons

General Appearance

1. Squamous
2. Serpentine
3. Simian
4. Bird-like


AC: 6 MV: 90’(30’) Fly 150’ (50’) HD: 2 Dmg: 1d8 ML: 12

Omentide part 1

1. A horde of spiders emerge from crevices in the ground, they seem to be making their way westward.
2. A small grey and angry rain cloud comes up from the south and rains heavily atop the party, continuing thus for the rest of the day.
3. A small grove of yew trees is seen to be full of hanged men, women and children. One man is in the process of hanging himself.
4. An unfriendly group of charcoal burners curse the PCs and spit upon the ground. For 1d3 days thereafter the party is followed by mocking jackdaws.
5. A human heart is found at the base of a tree. Affixed to the tree with a dagger is a parchment bearing these words “Unto such ends do traitors go”.
6. A donkey with a naked man tied facing backwards atop it gallops across the path. The man is laughing hysterically.
7. All the birds fall dead from the sky.
8. The constellations of the night sky seem to do battle for three nights running.
9. A great fish is found dying in a field far from any watercourse.
10. A mob of young men dressed as fishwives, with faces painted black and sprigs of nettle in their bonnets run by whooping and squealing, following a terrified cow upon which the word “Mirth” is daubed in drying blood.
11. A smoky darkness ascends from the ground and the sound of laughter and drums comes with it.
12. A dule tree stands at a crossroad; a gibbet-cage hangs from it, within which a starving man with his eyes torn out sings an old ballad about a lusty nun.
13. A pair of horses trots along drawing a blazing wagon.
14. A council of thirty burghers are seen meeting at a moot hill; they are discussing whether a gaggle of geese that were seen to go widdershins round a thorn tree are responsible for the ill-luck that has beset their village.
15. A scrawny old woman is gathering herbs with a sickle of bronze, murmuring a song in some queer tongue. She runs into the forest when she sees the party.
16. A Halfling wench is tied to a stake in the middle of a large clearing with a pile of faggots at her feet, she is cursing and swearing at the top of her voice, no one else is to be seen.
17. An ancient oak tree bursts into flames and appears to writhe in pain as it burns. A pair of storks alight nearby to watch it burn.
18. A distraught young woman stumbles along the path with a babe-in-arms. The newborn has a birthmark on her face. An angry mob follows.
19. The rhythmic sound of whipping precedes a procession of flagellants with rapturous expressions turned skyward. They demand recruits.
20. A broadsword-shaped star is seen in the sky for eight nights running. Panic ensues.
21. Ten grim monks are in the process of martyring a saint by sawing off the top of his head. The “saint” resists all attempts at rescue.
22. The countryside is desolate, half-eaten livestock are seen in trees, farmhouses burned, people thrown into wells and streams befouled.
23. A group of rough-looking bog-trotters are preparing to set their dogs onto an elf-boy, who is grinning idiotically. They ask the PCs if they want to join the betting on which dog rips the mooncalf’s throat out.
24. An elf-woman dressed in parti-coloured motley lies asleep in a muddy ditch.
25. A host of starving children singing an ancient hymn pass by on their way to a mythical holy city in the uttermost south. The stripling girl who leads them is blind.

The Lowly

If there is one part of the D&D ruleset I vastly underutilised back in the day it was the retainer/hireling/henchman rules. Using the retainers rules as written in BECMI or LL there is no reason why any dungeoneer would not hire as many retainers as they could to provide more firepower or cannon fodder. For some reason my friends and I always assumed this would be too complicated but, really, it is no more complicated and requires no more bookkeeping than all the monsters we rolled up and slaughtered time after time.

I think that retainers offer a number of opportunities to increase the grittiness of the Dung-Age milieux. Their lowliness appeals to me. I have little interest in having retainers that are the equal of the PCs in power so I’ve gone with the assumption that retainers are zero-level grunts whose survival is even more tenuous than that of the PCs. The death of retainers hammers home the Crapsack World atmosphere as well as heightening the chaos and tension of play. Additionally, reatainers are ready-made PCs-in-waiting. When one of the PCs dies a retainer can be automatically promoted to whatever class is appropriate to become one of the protagonists.

As an aside I am going to be using a simplified version of the encumbrance rules wherein each character is able to carry up to their strength rating in items. Going over this means the character moves at half pace. Some items have a higher or lower rating (e.g. 100 coins = 1 item, a mail shirt = 3 items) but I will try to keep it abstract and simple. All retainers are assumed to have ability scores of 10 until such time as they become PCs so are able to carry 10 items. I will not include rations and clothes and suchlike stuff because I am not interested, I think I’ll use some other rule to determine when characters run out of stuff rather than make people keep track of how many rations each of their five retainers has.

I’m allowing most of the retainers to have some of the abilities of various classes as a means of augmenting the abilities of the PCs. If the party has no thief proper, an urchin, a poacher and a tinker will be able to perform many of the same tricks.

All retainers are going to be human. Demihumans are weird and exotic and I’d prefer to focus on the lowly, the grotty and the superstitious to maintain the atmosphere.

Morale is fun. People do run away from battle far more often than they fight to the death. Retainers allow this to occur without the players losing agency over their characters.


Retainer Characteristics (No mechanical effect, will just make the retainers annoying and/or memorable)

Roll d20

1. Surly
2. Filthy
3. Lecherous
4. Servile
5. Superstitious
6. Sardonic
7. Itchy
8. Fey
9. Addle-pated
10. Devout
11. Pock-marked
12. Gluttonous
13. Indolent
14. Sly
15. Sneering
16. Belligerent
17. Rash
18. Cock-eyed
19. Boastful
20. Snaggle-toothed

Types of retainer d100

01-02: Chirurgeon
03-15: Urchin
15-20: Pagan
21-30: Pilgrim
31-35: Poacher
36-37: Hermit
38-40: Tinker
41-43: Scholar
43-48: Fool
49-50: Apothecary
51-00: Peasant


Chirurgeons are field surgeons, barbers and leeches. They have the ability to treat wounds. If a chirurgeon attempts to treat a wounded character that character must succeed in a constitution check to receive 1 hit point’s worth of healing. Failure in the check means the character sustains one point of damage due to the brutal nature of the treatment.

Hit points: 1d4

Equipment: Field surgery kit (counts as 3 items), dagger

Cost: 5gp/day

Urchins are beggars and cutpurses. Urchins are able to pick pockets (23%) and Hide in Shadows (13%) as a first level thief. They also receive a -2 penalty to morale.

Hit points: d4

Equipment: Dagger

Cost: 5sp/day

Heathens are idolatrous savages from the outlands. Heathens gain a +1 to morale except when in the employ of a fanatic when they receive -1.

Hit Points: d6

Equipment: Spear, throwing axe, helmet, shield

Cost: 2gp/day

Pilgrims are pious folk in search of redemption or enlightenment. Pilgrims in the service of a fanatic gain a morale bonus equivalent to the fanatic’s level.

Hit points: d6

Equipment: staff, holy texts.

Cost: 1gp/day

Poachers are stealthy hunters and outdoorsmen. They can move silently as a 1st level thief (13%) and track enemies on a 1-2 on d6.

Hit Points: d6

Cost: 3gp/day

Equipment: Shortbow, quiver of arrows, hunting knife

Hermits are solitary outcasts with fey wisdom. Hermits are capable of performing hedge magick like cunning men. They receive a -1 on morale due to their generally uncooperative nature.

Hit points: d4

Equipment: Staff, pouch of magical ingredients.

Cost 3 gp/day

Tinkers are wandering pedlars, hawkers and tinsmiths. They are capable of picking locks (17%) and finding and removing traps (23%) as a first level thief.

Hit points: d4

Equipment: Tinker’s tool-kit, dagger, cudgel

Cost: 2gp/day


Scholars are learned individuals seeking knowledge. They are able to read and write three languages (usually the Low Speech, the Imperial Tongue and the Old Tongue).

Hit points: d4

Equipment: cut-and-thrust sword, books of arcane lore

Cost: 4gp/day

Fools are itinerant street performers, jugglers, tricksters and acrobats. Fools are able to climb walls (87%) and pick pockets (23%) as a first-level thief.

Hit points: d4

Equipment: motley garb, 3 daggers

Cost: 4gp/day

Apothecaries are pedlars of herbal potions, ointments and poultices. A herbalist is able to treat wounds, poisonings and illnesses through the application of their skills with herbs. The treated character must make a save vs. poison, success means the character regains one hit point, failure means the character loses one hit point.

Hit Points: d4

Equipment: Pouches of herbs, Book of Herbalism, Sickle

Cost: 5gp/day

Peasants are the most common type of retainer and represent a variety of different professions; ploughmen, woodsmen, charcoal burners, rat-catchers, dung-collectors, fishwives and swineherds.

Hit points: d6

Equipment: roll d8

1. Pitchfork
2. Maul
3. Hatchet
4. Threshing-Flail
5. Cudgel
6. Sickle
7. Billhook
8. Quarterstaff

Cost: 1gp/day

Hedge Magick

I seem to remember the idea of cantrips being tossed around on other blogs recently. I've been thinking along those lines myself lately. What I want to do is give low-level magic users (or Hermits or Cunning Men/Wise Women or whatever I am going to call them) something to do at those times when they've used their paltry quota of magic or are saving their detect magic spell for the crucial moment when it is really going to count. Also, and this is important to me, I'd like to introduce some way of emulating the grubby eccentrics that were the wizards and witches of the middle ages (or of the Dung Age conception thereof). These people performed, presided over, or guided various ritualistic actions that had ambiguous or negligible outcomes. In these situations the appearance of performing an action to achieve some degree of control over some aspect of a chaotic universe was important.

In a game situation I think this kind of minor magick could be reflected as allowing the magic-user character to influence the outcome of a roll, granting a +1 bonus. This is not a game-breaking power, but I think it needs to be balanced with some mechanism. The mechanisms that could be utilised to ballance this power are time and cost, each Hedge Magick cantrip takes 1 turn and costs 10gp (maybe 5) in magical ingredients. If the ritual granting Tostig the Ruffian a +1 to his strength check as he attempts to topple the idol takes one turn rather than one round, or if the necessary materials sacrificed to propitiate the spirits to grant a +1 bonus to a search for secret doors cost ten gold pieces then the players have incentives to not overuse these minor powers.

I am not yet sure how this would work out in play, the threat of poverty and extra wandering monster checks may not be suffieciently prohibitive to prevent the party's Hedge Wizard from consulting the bones, burning mystical incense, drawing magical designs etc. before each and every action that is attempted. The time constraint will have the effect of making it impossible to use hedge magick in battle, but potentially a charms could be worked beforehand to influence the outcome of a couple of rolls.

The cantrips are further restricted by only being active for one turn after completion of casting (or maybe 1 turn per level of caster).

Rolls that can be influenced include;

-A specific saving throw e.g. a charm against poison
-An specific ability check
-A reaction roll
-An initiative roll
-An attack or damage roll (a weapon could be enchanted)
-A search for secret doors roll
-An open doors roll
-Armour Class, a special case, equivalent to a -1 penalty to opponents attack roll.

The fluff component of this could take the form of;

-Incantation/mumbling/screeching of magical words
-Trance-like meditation/concentration (caster may be asleep)
-Burning of foul-smelling incense/candles/sacred herbs
-Imbibing of sacramental entheogens
-incising/drawing/painting strange magical designs/runes/glyphs on the subject
-Anointing of subject with unpleasant ointments/unguents
-Consumption of unappetising objects/substances
-Strange and unsettling dances with singing and/or the ringing of bells/chimes or the rattling of rattles.
-Consultation of the liver/spleen of an animal/person
-Repetitive and interminable casting of the bones/runestones

et cetera

Any combination of the above would be appropriate. I think a random table would be in order but it's too late here now and I have to get up early.

I think this has the potential of being flavoursome and frequently of little help which is very suitable. The greater magicks that constitute the wizard's spellbook should be rare and special - beyond the experience of the rude peasants who might occasionally call upon charms of dubious efficacy from the local madman.

This whole concept relies, to a certain extent, upon the low-level nature of the campaign. I am capping human characters at level 7 and Demihumans at about level 4 or 5. Magic-users do not have the heights of awe-inspiring power to look forward to so they need to be compensated with some extra options at low level.

On Ogres

As I’ve stated before, I do not want to use a standardised monster list for the Middenmurk campaign - predictability is the enemy of monsters. Instead I want to develop tools for the construction of interesting and evocative antagonists. I will however draw inspiration from ideas about various mythic archetypes as a means of establishing parameters or a field of possibilities within which a monster can be defined, rather than nailing it down. I really want to avoid over-determining that which should be made of the stuff of legend.

To my mind, the quintessential monster is the ogre. I was inspired to write about the ogre in part because of comments made in Zak Smith’s excellent blog, see this post. Zak characterises ogres as a primitive and brutal and unsettling reflection of humanity, “ like a brother with some tragic, moany, drooly and brutal mental problem.”

I like this. It captures some of the disturbing nature of the monstrous. There is an extent to which humanoid monsters draw from our familiarity with ourselves and subvert it. The thing is scary because it is a reflection of the monstrous within us or it is scary because it is a hideous parody of us, too close for comfort.

There are a variety of different ways I can see to approach the ogre. My conception would probably be the synthesis of a variety of different approaches to produce something satisfying rich and complex

-As a mythic personification of cannibalistic bandits in the vein of Sawney Bean and Christie-Cleek. or generic horrible inbred hillbilly cannibals. Essentially, ogres are cannibalism with brute force rather than cannibalism with subterfuge like ghouls. Ogres are the essence of ravenous predation, big hungry bellies on legs who smell the blood of an Englishman.

-As a personification of desolate wild hill-country. Wildernesses with rugged rocks seem to me to suggest, through the process of paraeidolia, big and powerful figures. These ogres are why people disappear in lonely places.

-The cruelty of boys who torture animals given form. Merciless sadism, the petty tyranny of the insignificant wielded against the powerless, made manifest. In this sense I see violence in company as being characteristically ogrish, (Zak subscribes to solitary ogres) hooting and laughing and trying to outdo one-another in the extent of their cruelty. Gang-rapists too, with their competitive atrocities and the acquiescence of the weaker individuals evoke this idea of collaborative evil.

-In a similar sense, cruelty on a different scale informs my conception. The acts of Gilles de Rais and Vlad the Impaler and of modern serial killers sexually addicted to the rush of violent acts are at the outer limits of what is horrible about humanity. In my experience ogres are not generally attributed with such capacities. I think it is only fitting that such atrocities are common among ogres. They are elemental cruelty, it is what they do.

-The tyranny of the powerful is ogrish. Ogres are bullies who are empowered by their own native strength to impose their will on others. An ogre is like a pack of jackbooted fascists knocking down your door and ruining your life.

-There is evidence for the Palaeolithic past of humanity being an exceptionally violent milieux. Observations of hunter-gatherer cultures in modern-times have recorded an exceptionally high death-rate from constant small-scale warfare, far-outstripping that of notorious warlike modern cultures. Evidence suggests that the further back one goes into human pre-history the worse things get.
Modern humans have many paedomorphic or neotenous characteristics. As the late evolutionary biologist Steven J. Gould wrote "Man, in his bodily development, is a primate foetus that has become sexually mature". Compared to other animals we are playful and sociable even in adulthood. Contrast chimps, who make companionable pets when young but become extremely dangerous and immensely strong in adulthood. Ogres can be seen as like humans who have made an extreme transition into bestial adulthood, or as representatives of an archaic lineage like Homo heidelbergensis, hyper-robust and savagely violent, or as demonised fictions about dawn-raiders from an alien tribe, or as products of a hideous culture manifesting the "abuse begets abusers" cycle, or as Anti-Rousseau-ian ignoble savages.

I think you get the idea. Ogres are horrible. They are precisely as horrible as we have the propensity to be but without all the redeeming features I’m told some humans have. If PCs are going to kill stuff without remorse I feel it is necessary to make it fairly unpleasant.