Matt B Blogging

Introducing Clem and her adventures in Iskandar

I'm a keen follower of Australian game designer M.T. Black, and I own his Iskandar D&D5E setting, and have been wanting to play there for years, so I started a solo game!

This solo actual play started in Feb 2024 on a Discord server. That channel is gone, and I lost a bit of campaign intro, but I do most of my solo play in Obsidian, so all the sessions still exist.

I was and am a big fan of the Old-School Essentials system, and so I originally considered trying to convert Iskandar from 5E to OSE on the fly, but that was an extra layer of work, and I already have enough hurdles from keeping projects going! So,5E.

I'm using Mythic GM Emulator 2E for my solo oracle, but with a lot of Iskandar random tables, and my own creations here and there. This YouTube on how to get into Solo gaming by Solospelunking really inspired me and it's my best solo game to date. My takeaways were:

I fail in the 2nd point a lot, because I get carried away - having a nice time writing.

OK, but what is Iskandar?

Allow me to paste the following snippet from the Iskandar City Sourcebook's preamble:

Five Things to Know

Here are five quick things to know about Iskandar.

A Mighty Metropolis

With over sixty thousand people, Iskandar is indisputably the largest city in the known world, and arguably the oldest. It is a thriving metropolis at the center of world trade, and is especially famous for its marketplace, the Grand Bazaar.

Highly Cosmopolitan

People from all over of the world find their way to Iskandar, and the city is a real cultural melting pot. Humans, kith, goblins, vargr, bakrog—all these people and more have made a home here.

Throbbing with Sacred Energy

In the world of Iskandar, everything possesses a spirit, a mystical energy that contains its essence and animates its being. Objects, places, creatures—even emotions and ideas—all have their own spirit. The whole world throbs with sacred energy, and so the people of Iskandar recognize many gods.

In the Wake of an Empire

For much of its history, Iskandar was ruled by the powerful Vendian Empire, which collapsed in a violent civil war. However, the imperial customs, laws, and traditions of Vendia are still evident throughout the city.

Facing a Fiendish Threat

Just a few days march from Iskandar is a great, glowing Abyss that opens onto a fiery underworld, far beneath the surface. Fiends from this nightmare pit frequently ravage the surrounding countryside. Twenty years ago, they attacked the city in force, and there are fears they will do so again.

And who is Clem exactly?

Clem - Wizard, Orphan - drawn my me, in the style of sketchgoblin.co.nz

Clem is an orphan - parents died in the Fiend Wars, and she ended up in Old Town after being handed off from refugees to officials to an orphanage and then to the streets.

She was taken under the wing of an older street kid. They fell in with the Friendly Society's network of spies, and then jobs of petty theft.

At 12 she was beaten by her crew leader Rune for not spotting the Nightwatch in time. She was found and nursed back to health by Mahyara Laceweave, a battle-mage blinded in the Fiend Wars. Mahyara saw magical potential in Clem, and gave Clem a job as her gopher, taught her cantrips, and gave her a pallet to sleep on. Clem rarely did sleep there though - she didn't want Rune to know about Mayhara, and so always returned to her crew.

She is now 21, trying to get by with her magical talents, but there's no leaving the Friendly Society, and they're always pulling her back.

In D&D terms, she's a Wizard with the Orphan background - stealth, sleight of hand, and thieves' tool proficiency.

There will be swearing, and violence, but nothing of a sexual nature.