As the world waits in anticipation for a winner to be declared in the US Presidential race and the ensuing chaos.

It’s once again time to marvel at my ramblings and that anyone could find them of interest.

Today’s better late than never #RPGaDAY2020 word of invocation is…

It was bound to happen at some point during this series of posts that one (if not more) of the days themes would stump me.

Today is one of those days.

It’s come earlier than I thought it would but now it’s happened.

I looked at the Monster Manual, Volo’s and Mordenkainen’s writings. Nada.

I tried cheating by seeing what others had written. Apparently the is a creature/monster called a shade. But it’s a homebrew.

I miss remembered the Styes in Ghosts of Saltmarsh as the Shades. My memory mixing it with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and a part of Ankh-Morpork known as the Shades.

Although the Shades would make a brilliant inspiration for a town or part of a city in any campaign independent of the setting.

The Shades is a poor part of Ankh-Morpork that if it was described as rough and dangerous would make it sound like a safe place to visit!

So populating these slums with “colourful” NPCs. People that are struggling to survive day to day, that would kill you for the shoes you are standing in, and the shirt on your back. A place where the police walk around in gangs for safety.

Having a party stumble into The Shades thinking they had reached safety after some sort of encounter such as being chased by a gang or horde of some sort. It’s almost like a horror movie. The ‘final girl’ runs screaming from the woods having survived the killer’s attempts to kill her, to the house with lights on. She bangs on the door. There is no answer. She bangs some more,louder more frantic. Expecting the killer to appear any moment. The door opens. Standing there is a friendly, safe face. But we the audience know that the girl has just gone from the frying pan into the fire. Somehow this person is related to the killer and will try their best to kill the girl.

That’s the best I could do. Add an ‘s’ and talk briefly about a fictional slums from an amazing series of books. Hopefully I can do better tomorrow.