This is information for a semi-successful, semi-abortive campaign I ran off and on for a handful of denizens of the double-concealed exclusive invite-only GLOG server between January and June of this year. I reproduce it here for your edification, that you may learn from my failures.
UNTO THE CRUEL
In early 2025⸻the official account at the time went⸻CIA occultists, working in concert with TSMC researchers, opened a portal to Hell(?) in Hsinchu, Taiwan province in a grossly irresponsible attempt to upset the strategic balance of the region. The government immediately acted in accordance with international law to contain this threat, but was regrettably foiled by the outbreak of unrestricted nuclear, magical, and conventional war. The People's Liberation Army and state-level armed police forces were quickly pushed back from the coasts, and eventually routed entirely.
It is presently early January, 2026. Communications infrastructure and state capacity have completely broken down. The status of the rest of the world is unknown. You have fled to, or lived all along in, a small village in Kashgar Prefecture, which was until very recently fortified by local authorities and relatively secure against demonic incursion.
I say "until very recently" because, last night, your player characters received a revelatory vision in which an indistinct-but-humanoid being formed of golden light spoke to you of a divine pattern, a circuitry which could, if brought into being at the hellmouth, bind all fiends and banish them from the earth forever. It bade you look upon its face, and there you saw a fragment of its glory! Then, it turned away and warned you of imminent attack. You awoke already springing from your bed, knowing the truth of its words and armored by them against panic⸻which was fortunate, as you had very little time to escape.
So, the objective then: A roadtrip across modern, but post-demon-apocalypse, China to reach the TSMC fabs in Taiwan and close the hellmouth. Fighting demons and the possessed all the way.
Rules
This campaign was run with the GROG rules, the modern fiddly firearms rules, and the following modifications. If you wish to pilfer or steal any part of it to run with your own system, you have (but don't need!) my blessing, but those are the assumptions the rest of the content was written with.
Expanded Cover Rules
- prone at a distance/leaning around a corner/mattress/car door/other 'soft cover': +2 AC
- chest-high wall/pallet of curiously oversized 55-gallon drums/car engine block/etc (default case): +4 AC
- purpose-built firing position/small window and elevation/prone at a distance plus cover/threading two corners: +6 AC
- gun port or firing slit sufficient to significantly restrict vision: +8 AC
Encounter Table
1. Corpses
2. Animals
3. Demons
4. Alive people
1. Regular folk
2. Banditos, or otherwise armed and organized non-governmental forces
3. Government remnants
4. Possessed :fearful:
5. Foreign invaders
6. Roll twice and combine
Demon/Possessed Reaction Table
2-7. Attack immediately
8-10. Horror movie bullshit, toying with prey
11-12. Non-immediately-violently hostile, lying, insulting
Demon Stats
As dog, as man, as bear, as ogre, et c. Every demon has a special ability or spell, related to their name. Some example demons (I wrote all of these myself. Especially the good ones. Friends-of-the-blog archon court, mi hau, and deus ex parabola didn't help at all):
- Hangnail
- Cigarette
- Cryptocurrency
- Domestic Violence
- Asbestos
- a little freak, rough ivory skin, buboes, long droopy nose, about 24" tall, arms bound to his sides with dental floss. He can create a choking cloud of dust (or be bullied into other simple tasks) with MD.
- Sodapop
- Stress Fracture
- Missing The Bus
- Choking
- Stonewool
- HD 1, three feet tall, three feet wide, very low density, lower body squozen into a fishbowl (2 slots). He can abrade objects in a fashion which is annoying but non-damaging to living creatures, and moderately destructive to the inanimate.
- Seep
- Lesion
- Microplastics
- HD 5, 8' tall, hulking deep blue hairless ape, sheds microplastic shards like sweat, may spew the same as an action to form a concealing cloud or deal 2d4 sandblasting damage (dex half) in a 30' cone. wields the gunmace - a massive weapon, five or six type 95 assault rifles melted into a ball, barrels and sights and magazines poking out to concentrate force, attacks with disadvantage when wielded by a human because it's big and unwieldy
- Cholera
- Nepotism
- Invasive Species
- Speeding
- Simony
- Short-Form Video Content
- HD 1, 6" tall, sickly phlegm-yellow, funny cartoon demon face, wrapped securely from armpits to ankles in jute twine, hung from Professor Genius's neck like an amulet - mesmerizes single target (one at a time max.) for [sum] rounds, save for [dice]
- Misogyny
- HD 3, 4' 6" tall, lurid hot pink, four pendulous breasts (fourfoldedly radially symmetrical), done up in cheap rope shibari (professor genius is a pervert) with hands bound together - i don't know what he does as a spell, probably nothing useful
- Punctured Lung
- HD 4, 6' tall, dull bloody magenta, muscular with rib-points exposed through chest wounds, chained and padlocked - [sum] damage, save or lose your second action for the rest of the day (i.e. move or act on your turn)
- Malaria
- Smallpox
- Dysentery
- Aneurysm
- Indigence
- Dysphoria
- Alienation
- Indifference
- Car-Centric Urban Design
- Invasive Advertisement
- Regulatory Capture
- 4 HD. a business suit and mind-control-helmet combo walking as if occupied by an invisible person. talks in circles and circles and circles and circles. grapples you and then puts itself onto you and replaces your priorities with rampant greed, short-sighted self-interest, and restoring American glory.
- Concrete Lake
- 6 HD, 3 feet tall but ten feet wide, undersea bug made of rebar with a statue's face. a [dice]*100 foot area becomes uninhabitable for [sum] hours - dealing [dice] damage a round to those within via radiation poisoning, spontaneous generation of toxic compounds within the body, and omnipresent cutting dust
- Someone Waving At You So You Wave Back At Them But They Were Actually Waving At Someone Behind You
- Falling Down Stairs
- Dead Battery
- Misfiled Paperwork
- 6 HD, a vast ticking typewriter-spider, spinning a web of ink-ribbons out one end and carrying it across its many legs to be devoured into the other. Swap two randomly-determined numbers on your character sheet
- Dropping Your Keys Through A Grate Where You Can't Reach Them
- Spilled Beverage
- Tunelessness
- Blackout
- White Phosphorus
- Used Needle
- 1 HD, made entirely out of glass with graduated-cylinder lines. filled with greenish-reddish Ominous Liquid. Restores [best] HP but also make a save with a [best] penalty or get tetanus or something. If turned upside down or smashed near the bottom, all the Ominous Liquid falls out and runs away and they transform into... (see below)
- Medical Supply Shortage
- 3 HD, no one can regain HP as long as it is looking at them, stalks you for days to wear you down
- Torn Apart By Wild Dogs
- 4 HD but they're d4s and are damaged individually, four disembodied limbs and a hovering biting dogjaw, [dice] target animals are given a point of rage and driven to wrath.
- Internet Flamewar
- Unknown Reference
- Tardiness
- Flour Mill Explosion
- Degloving
- Tetanus
- Design By Committee
- Spontaneous Human Combustion
- Locusts
- Cavity
- Pica
- Predatory Loan
- Sinkhole
- Sex Tourism
- Halitosis
- Suicidal Ideation
- Organ Failure
- Tapeworm
- High Pressure Sales Tactics
- Hostile Work Environment
- Personnel Stack Ranking
- Looming Deadline
- Antivaccination Movement
- Claustrophobia
You see the theme, I'm sure. They're just, bad things. Pick a bad thing, pick some stats, write their spell.
Further Errata
Unarmed strikes deal 1+STR damage, unless you're a martial-arts-knower (a skill) or so on, then 1d4+STR.
Light armor is 2 slots carried, 0 slots worn
Medium armor is 4 slots carried, 2 worn, slows you by 5'/round, and requires you to make STR checks to climb, leap, or swim.
Heavy armor is 6 slots carried, 4 worn, slows you by 10'/round, requires the above, and causes sinking or falling on any failure.
Suffused by the power of your divine(?) patron, Serious Wounds heal or (for permanent ones) can be compensated for in 1d6 ingame days.
Light armor is 2 slots carried, 0 slots worn
Medium armor is 4 slots carried, 2 worn, slows you by 5'/round, and requires you to make STR checks to climb, leap, or swim.
Heavy armor is 6 slots carried, 4 worn, slows you by 10'/round, requires the above, and causes sinking or falling on any failure.
Suffused by the power of your divine(?) patron, Serious Wounds heal or (for permanent ones) can be compensated for in 1d6 ingame days.
XP Rules
Characters gain:
- 25 xp per session attended.
- 20 xp per friend made.
- 20 xp per HD of demons (or possessed) defeated, divided by present party members.
- xp equal to 450 minus one-tenth of the distance in kilometers between Hsinchu City, Taiwan and the nearest point the party has ever reached to it, regardless of whether or not the character was present at that point.
The last point was based on the idea that the campaign started in western Xinjiang, about 4,500 kilometers from Taiwan. We'll talk about that a little more later. You should scale the mileage xp accordingly by start location, if you attempt to imitate me.
The XP structure heavily incentivizes killing, binding, or exorcising demons and the possessed, but by design gives no xp for human opponents. This actually played out really well in at least one instance during the campaign, where the party got heavily invested in out-tactics-gaming a scared US Army soldier they had cornered in a dormitory only to be crestfallen upon their victory when they realized that they had killed but a man. :rleie:
Races
- Russian
- Han
- Han
- Han
- Han
- Han
- Hui
- Uyghur
- Mongolian
- Tibetan
- Kazakh
- Other
None... None of these have stat modifiers, in case you were wondering. Characters are assumed to speak Mandarin fluently, along with a local dialect or foreign language of their ancestry if applicable, and be literate.
Classes
As civilian gun ownership and training in China is basically nonexistent, non-Fighter characters begin malproficient with firearms and suffer disadvantage on attacks with them until they hit an intended target in real, scared-for-their-life combat with one (a firearm attack, not a firearm. they don't have to throw the gun). Once they have, they become proficient and no longer suffer disadvantage on attacks, but still don't get the rest of the Fighter's special tricks.
Class: Fighter
Starting equipment: Motorcycle jacket (light armor, 5 HP), sturdy cane (medium weapon), hunting knife (light weapon), good boots, fatigues, surplus backpack, surplus chest rig, 100' bundle of paracord, 3 preserved combat ration packs.
Fighters have received at least basic military training, begin proficient with firearms, may fire 2-round bursts with semi-automatic firearms, may fire single shots with fully automatic firearms, may reload firearms while moving, and may roll INT to see a videogame scope glint when someone is drawing a bead on them.
A: Parry, +1 to-hit
Each round, you can negate up to [fighter templates] points of damage in total that would be dealt to you or adjacent allies by melee attacks that you are aware of.
A: Versatility, +1 to-hit
Weapons you wield, even improvised ones, deal 1d8 base damage if they would normally deal less. Your stat penalties no longer apply to your attack, damage, or grappling rolls.
You have to take both A templates before you can take C, but you can take them in either order.
C: Steel Gaze, +1 to-hit
You can project an aura of intimidating calm at will. While active, dumb animals and anything with fewer HD than you will avoid fucking with you if at all possible, and anyone who cares to look will become instantly convinced of your ability as a warrior.
D: Dangerous To Know, +1 to-hit
Once per round, you can attack without spending an action, or while doing something else that would normally preclude attacking. Commonly you will use this to make two attacks instead of one.
Fighters have received at least basic military training, begin proficient with firearms, may fire 2-round bursts with semi-automatic firearms, may fire single shots with fully automatic firearms, may reload firearms while moving, and may roll INT to see a videogame scope glint when someone is drawing a bead on them.
A: Parry, +1 to-hit
Each round, you can negate up to [fighter templates] points of damage in total that would be dealt to you or adjacent allies by melee attacks that you are aware of.
A: Versatility, +1 to-hit
Weapons you wield, even improvised ones, deal 1d8 base damage if they would normally deal less. Your stat penalties no longer apply to your attack, damage, or grappling rolls.
You have to take both A templates before you can take C, but you can take them in either order.
C: Steel Gaze, +1 to-hit
You can project an aura of intimidating calm at will. While active, dumb animals and anything with fewer HD than you will avoid fucking with you if at all possible, and anyone who cares to look will become instantly convinced of your ability as a warrior.
D: Dangerous To Know, +1 to-hit
Once per round, you can attack without spending an action, or while doing something else that would normally preclude attacking. Commonly you will use this to make two attacks instead of one.
Class: Wretch
Starting equipment: Whatever you can put in a cart for $132.60 USD or less, excluding shipping, on AliExpress. I'd say 1000 RMB on Taobao instead, but that website is impossible to navigate.
There are few mechanical benefits to playing a wretch, but much bragging rights. They exist in case you don't want to be some kind of soldier or mystic weirdo, or as a challenge run.
A: Lucky
Once per game session, you may cause the DM to reroll a die roll, after seeing the result.
B: +1 to-hit
C: Unlucky
Should you perish, your next funny little guy begins with an additional 200 xp.
D: +1 to-hit
There are few mechanical benefits to playing a wretch, but much bragging rights. They exist in case you don't want to be some kind of soldier or mystic weirdo, or as a challenge run.
A: Lucky
Once per game session, you may cause the DM to reroll a die roll, after seeing the result.
B: +1 to-hit
C: Unlucky
Should you perish, your next funny little guy begins with an additional 200 xp.
D: +1 to-hit
Class: Cleric
Starting equipment: Appropriate vestments, appropriate holy tool, appropriate holy text, smart shoes, sensible messenger bag, large cured sausage or cheese round, LED pocket flashlight.
Clerics have accomplished some level of spiritual research, and recognize possessed individuals by eye contact and cursed objects or locations on sight. Buddhists, Muslims, a variety of Christians, and local pagan sages would be assumed to be most common, but Daoist sorcerers and chaos magicians are possible clerics as well.
A: Abjure
As an action, you may abjure demons from within 30' of your person by holding a sacred implement high and speaking clearly⸻those within the range flee, screaming, and those without may not enter while you continue to recite. Alternately, with 1 hour of ceremony you may protect an immobile area with four corners in the same manner until the next dawn, or hallow a previously defiled area or cursed object. Demons with [cleric templates] HD or more may check morale to ignore these effects from you until the next dusk, but take 1 damage per round while doing so.
B: Incandescence, +1 to-hit
As an action, you may expend any number of your own HP to heal a touched non-Incandescent being for twice that much, or grant them a new save with a bonus of that much against an ongoing effect. In addition, your purpose shines through your eyes⸻it is impossible to lie directly to you, and each minute of pointed conversation with you applies a stacking -1 penalty to morale checks and saves, should you wish it.
C: Smite
You may add [cleric templates] to your melee attack and damage rolls made against demons. When you score a critical on such an attack, it is accompanied by a flash of light and any present demons check morale.
Clerics have accomplished some level of spiritual research, and recognize possessed individuals by eye contact and cursed objects or locations on sight. Buddhists, Muslims, a variety of Christians, and local pagan sages would be assumed to be most common, but Daoist sorcerers and chaos magicians are possible clerics as well.
A: Abjure
As an action, you may abjure demons from within 30' of your person by holding a sacred implement high and speaking clearly⸻those within the range flee, screaming, and those without may not enter while you continue to recite. Alternately, with 1 hour of ceremony you may protect an immobile area with four corners in the same manner until the next dawn, or hallow a previously defiled area or cursed object. Demons with [cleric templates] HD or more may check morale to ignore these effects from you until the next dusk, but take 1 damage per round while doing so.
B: Incandescence, +1 to-hit
As an action, you may expend any number of your own HP to heal a touched non-Incandescent being for twice that much, or grant them a new save with a bonus of that much against an ongoing effect. In addition, your purpose shines through your eyes⸻it is impossible to lie directly to you, and each minute of pointed conversation with you applies a stacking -1 penalty to morale checks and saves, should you wish it.
C: Smite
You may add [cleric templates] to your melee attack and damage rolls made against demons. When you score a critical on such an attack, it is accompanied by a flash of light and any present demons check morale.
D: Anathema, +1 to-hit
At any instant, you may spend any number of your own HP in order to deal that much damage to all demons you are currently touching.
At any instant, you may spend any number of your own HP in order to deal that much damage to all demons you are currently touching.
There were some complaints about the power level of Anathema. I promised that if it ever came up and felt disappointing, I might consider doubling the damage. We didn't get that far.
Class: Wizard
Starting equipment: Hooded raincoat, ugly sneakers, stained sweatsuit, goetic chapbook, cheaply constructed but overelaborate switchblade (light weapon), candle, lighter.
Wizards begin with one nearly useless but easily bullied bound demon. The DM will tell you its name.
A: Goet, +1 MD
You may enlist the service of demons by physically binding them with materials that can withstand their strength, sacrificing living animals with equal HD to the demon, and reciting foul lore for 1 hour per HD. Once thus bound, they are required to follow you and prevented from acting against you and your companions. You may keep up to [wizard templates] demons bound at one time. Bound demons may be bribed with MD to perform services.
Wizards begin with one nearly useless but easily bullied bound demon. The DM will tell you its name.
A: Goet, +1 MD
You may enlist the service of demons by physically binding them with materials that can withstand their strength, sacrificing living animals with equal HD to the demon, and reciting foul lore for 1 hour per HD. Once thus bound, they are required to follow you and prevented from acting against you and your companions. You may keep up to [wizard templates] demons bound at one time. Bound demons may be bribed with MD to perform services.
I didn't write this down anywhere "officially", but I think a Wizard can sense the HD of a demon once it's been tied up and prepared for ritual binding, so they know how much blood they need.
A chicken has a quarter of an HD and a dog has a whole one, since I know that you're wondering.
B: Ritual, +1 MD
You may command a bound demon with an additional MD by spending 1 hour conducting a ritual and sacrificing 1 HD worth of living animals
C: Adversary, +1 MD
Select one of your bound demons. You reach an agreement with it⸻it no longer counts against your limit, becomes willing to attempt services outside of its job description, and MD used to bribe it exhaust only on a 5 or a 6.
D: Damned, +1 MD
You may conduct a ritual of up to [wizard templates] HD, taking the same number of hours.
Postmortem
Well, we didn't even make it out of Xinjiang. There were some successes... I consider the setting fun, my rules pleasingly idiosyncratic, and the first few sessions especially an excellent recommendation for the "book the first session a week out and see what happens" method proposed by friend-of-the-blog Bamzolino. My thanks, and especially apologies, to all the players. You know who you are.
Running a game set in a real place was interesting. There were benefits and anguishes.
- Benefit: Able to track the party's exact progress on Google Maps. Always knowing how far away anything was from anything else. Didn't have to draw any maps except for building interiors.
- Anguish: How deep is this irrigation canal I'm looking at? I could make something up, but it's a real place. I would be wrong. And what's in this (positively cyclopean) warehouse? It's not tagged on Google Maps, because they don't really use that in China, and I can't go on Baidu Maps or whatever and look it up because I don't fucking read Mandarin.
You could get over these, but I didn't.
In retrospect, I ought to have been more realistic about my skills as a GM and done a shorter, more focused campaign. Started the group in Guangzhou and given them automatic weapons pretty fast, you know. Gotten to the meat of the thing. Bamzo said it better, really:
Ah well. I'm still glad to have run it. Someone I consider very wise once said, to someone else, and I overheard:
DMing is a muscle. If you've got an ache in your muscles, curling up into a fetal position doesn't make it go away. You've got to work it out, got to stretch, get the blood flowing.
Also I went through a life-altering breakup about a month after kicking off, and a successful campaign⸻I think, at least for me⸻requires routine, so berhaps it was doomed from then. Sest luh vye.
