To February, Fare Thee Well January

January is winding to a close and now we move in February which gets its name from the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa performed at this time of year.  Note that the Romans considered February an ill-omened month which is why it is only twenty-eight days long or twenty-nine days for a Leap Year like this! 

Do not forget to celebrate Leap Day or Leap Day William might not bring you gifts!

We will dip back into the theme of curses and purification for February.

What was published in the journal in January 2024, was the following:

RPG Blog Carnival – Archaeology of the Sea of Stars

In support of this month’s RPG Blog Carnival “Archaeology and Anthropology” (hosted by the Beneath Foreign Planets) here is some discussion about what lies buried in the Sea of Stars.

Many of the lands of the Sea of Stars are built on, sometimes quite deep, archaeology, when the Sunderingtore the world apart, cities were buried, mountains grew when none had been before, oceans boiled away, the world changed and many cities and settlements were lost not only to the visible world but soon to memory too as the dragons exerted their control and moved displaced people to places where they could best serve, often leaving their homelands and the things that ties their stories and legends to actual places behind.

RPG Blog Carnival – Faction and Friction in the Sea of Stars

In support of this month’s RPG Blog Carnival “Cabals and Congregations” (hosted by the Codex Anathema) here is some discussion about the factions and friction between them in the Sea of Stars.

The primary factions on the highest level are the Draconic Houses, ruled by the various dragons and their descendants, the various powerful states which -while technically ruled by one or more dragons may or may not be acting in their interests- and the Imperium of the Empress, which usually stands aside and lets the others squabble among themselves as long as it does not threaten her interests of the stability of the system as a whole.

July ends, into August

August, which is named after the Roman Emperor (or First Citizen if you prefer) Augustus Caesar, the theme will be a month of personalities from the Sea of Stars (and possibly other places) if I can find some inspiration.  If there is someone -or something– in particular that you would like to see, write a comment or otherwise let me know.

Sadly, this year I will not be at GenCon which makes me a bit sad.  You who do go, feel free to share pictures and stories though!

#Petrichor365 keeps going on in July, 2023, but it is not the only content in the journal this month:

RPG Blog Carnival – Weather in the Sea of Stars

In support of this month’s RPG Blog Carnival “Terrain, Seasons, Weather (oh my)” (hosted by the Plastic Polyhedra) I thought that I should talk about the weather.

The weather in the Sea of Stars, like almost everything else, is odd but not entirely unpredictable.  The entirety of the Sea of Stars follows the same seasons, so it is spring everywhere and so on.  This is how the Empress wants it to be and so it is.

There are places that have oddly persistent or predictable weather patterns, there are places where it always rains at two in the afternoon for exactly an hour and then stops, others where it is always foggy in the morning, or that it always snows on certain days.

Sean’s GenCon Advice 2023

GenCon is coming up soon, unfortunately, I will not be attending this year.  But I certainly hope that everyone who goes has a great time and if you want to share some photos and stories with me, I will not mind at all.  However, even if I am not going, I thought I would (once again) share my hard-earned experience and try and help out people who are going as I do every year.

Preparation:

Concluding this month’s RPG Blog Carnival: Taverns, Bars and places to meet

Here we wrap up the RPG Blog Carnival for the Month of March, 2023, on the theme of Taverns, Bars and other places to meet.

Thank you everyone who participated!

We saw:

Of Dice and Dragons dig through the archives for Add a little flavor to your tavern, with ideas to do just that!

Clark Timmons looking at the trope of You Meet in a Tavern, where it comes from and it has become so deeply enmeshed with fantasy gaming.

At the Seed of Worlds, they look back over a long-running campaign and the role of the Bars and Taverns of Thenya.

Plastic Polyhedra provided us with a Seedy Sci Fi / Cyberpunk bar generator, which really is the random generator we all need.

While I did some fantasy places in Port Imperial: The Crossroad Coffeehouse,  Hope’s Hearth, The Quill and Sword,  The Saucy Seadragon tavern, and The Silver Horse.

I also looked at some of the Bars and Clubs in my Shadowrun campaign.

Hope that you enjoyed the contributions and found them useful!  (And later entries are welcome!)

Notes: The RPG Blog Carnival for April is Creating Elements for a Setting hosted by Codex Anathema.

And a late entry from Vile Envoy!, the Green Gland in 13 Stages, looking at a pleasure district.

Image found on the Mirriam-Webster page and its licensing status is unknown.

Beginning this month’s RPG Blog Carnival: Taverns, Bars and places to meet

Welcome to the RPG Blog Carnival for the Month of March, 2023, on the theme of Taverns, Bars and other places to meet.

Obviously, the important part of the theme is places to meet, this can be where the player characters hang out between adventures, where they meet up with prospective patrons, or perhaps it is where they get together for the first time (“you all meet in a tavern”).

So, let us talk about Taverns, Bars and places to meet.  Some ideas:

Welcome February

January is almost over and with it, the first thirty-one entries for Petrichor 365!  Now we move in February which gets its name from the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa performed at this time of year.  Note that the Romans considered February an ill-omened month which is why it is only twenty-eight days long (and also my birth month, take that as you will). 

Normally, I use the theme of curses for February but that may be subsumed into the whole Petrichor 365 thing, we will see.

What was published in the journal in January 2023, which due to Perrichor 365 has quite a lot, was the following:

End of July, towards August and GenCon

August, which is named after the Roman Emperor (or First Citizen if you prefer) Augustus Caesar, the theme will be a month of personalities from the Sea of Stars (and possibly other places) if I can find some inspiration.  If there is someone -or something– in particular that you would like to see, write a comment or otherwise let me know.

I will be at GenCon which follows closely after the start of August.  Who else is planning to attend this year?  Maybe we can meet up and chat.

A slowish month was July, 2022, but not entirely without content in this journal: