Five days up a river (5/25/2025)

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Ken Davidson, Shawna Cornell, Adam Fox, Nick Mulherin, John Lynch
System: Errant

I’ve heard good things about Errant from several folks so I wanted to give it a try. The text however was a challenge for me. Because it immediately jumps into specific topics (encounter rolls, equipment and encumbrance, lockpicking, travel rules, etc) it was hard for me to get a sense of what the core rules of the game are. So, in order for me to force myself to understand it, I signed up to run a session at KublaCon and got to work. Silly me…I missed the core rules because they were the first two pages of the book, and that’s it. Roll under your stat and over the Difficult Value (DV) to do a thing. That’s about it.

Prep

From my read Errant ties best with an established setting and optionally an adventure. Since the game is very procedural in nature, the adventure is actually secondary since you can just meander about exploring local events and bouncing off random encounters to make your own adventure, which was my plan for the game.

Setting. I googled a bunch of OSR entry level adventures and settings, but they were all way too dense (i.e. the players would barely dig into them in a single session), too dependent on violence, and too much to read. I remembered back to an amazing game Tomer Gurantz ran in the MR-KR-GR setting by Munkao and Zedeck Siew. Sadly the setting is no longer available, but thankfully I had PDF #1 (The Death-Rolled Kingdom) and #8 (Hundred Red Scales) and that was plenty to generate most of what I needed including:

• Locations and NPCs like Nahanat San Orm, Merchant Lord who could send them into the nostrils of the giant statue buried beneath Trader’s Island.
• Encounter tables, like a gold-panning operation. Miners with broad hats and broad bowls. A dowsing shaman, singing the river’s riches up.
• Local events, by mixing weather rolls and Demon Idols that have d8 faces, d10 mouths, and d12 limbs, eyes always shut, mouths always slavering and the remnants of powers from when they were gods.
• Names for characters in the Death-Rolled Kingdoms like Sixteen Loud Knee.
• Treasures: Textiles arts of the Hundred Red Scales.

But there were a few things missing, so I kept digging.

• More name generators, which I took for the Story Games Name Project for Downlander and Uplander names.
• People folk (Monkey folk, buffalo folk, bearcat folk, etc) and equipment that I got from Kala Mandala by Munkao.
• Covenants with the gods (there’s only one in Errant) that Chris Chinn created. Thank you Chris!

I still wanted something to center the game. Five days up a river on a boat is awesome, but I wanted that boat! Actually I wanted two boats. I’ve been reading Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and James by Percival Everett (Jim’s perspective of the story) and so I knew I wanted a canoe that could hold a few of them and dingy raft that could hold the rest, but barely. I needed props.

Props. Mostly gathered, a few ordered, and some built (ouch my fingers after the hot glue gun)

• A canoe that ordered from PNWMiniatures on Etsy and then painted at home.
• A raft that I built from sticks I collected while walking my my dog, twine, and hot glue.
• Premade characters (I rolled them all up randomly, including stats, class, and everything else)
• Character tents (printed on 4×6 index cards)
• A pile of coins, tokens for jettons, index cards for mapping

Roles

One thing I really like about Errant is the use of player roles. I’ve never played with a caller before and now I want to try doing it more. By allowing everyone to talk amongst themselves and then having a single player tell me what the Company does, it removed all confusion. By having a mapper create the river tiles, I never needed to. By having the note taker record the notes, we got details that I would have missed. By telling the quartermaster to roll to see what equipment was lost, they players took ownership if the company possessions. I fucking loved it!

Here’s the roles from Errant:

• Caller – the caller mediates within the company during decision making, and relays the final decision regarding company actions taken to the guide.
• Mapper – the mapper notes world details, making diagrams of locations as necessary.
• Note taker – the note taker records the events of a game session, noting what transpires, the names of important characters and locations, and so on.
• Quartermaster – the quartermaster is responsible for managing shared company equipment and consumables (light, rations, and so on), as well as ensuring that everyone’s item slots are in order and encumbrance is accurate.
• Timekeeper – the timekeeper keeps track of elapsed turns and rolls the event die.

I love these roles. Look at the comprehensive illustrated notes our note taker took

The Play is the Thing

I decided when I was prepping this game that I wasn’t prepping this game. I knew they were heading to the Death-Rolled Kingdom, but why they were going would be randomly rolled, what they found along the way would be randomly rolled, and any time they found something interesting, I’d pull from one of the many NPCs or locations I had in the setting to play off of. But I wasn’t going to write an adventure per se. I wanted to play in a sandbox (sandbar?) as much as possible. And it worked.

We found demon Idols of old gods that the players made offerings to (and gained boons from), we met an archeologist crocodile who traded the location of stored blasting powder for a book that he buried under the water. We had remarkable characters that made friends with a cod, had stories of dating gods. One of the characters was welcomed as a local after being death-rolled by a crocodile knight…and Sixteen Loud Knee performed a Tier 4 Doctrine and became the Guardian of the Gates!

Transcript from our note taker Puliaris

As transcribed by the humble acolyte Sean.

Journal of Puliaris, 4th child of the house of Gyx, born in the 49th winter since the dawn of time.

Why? We have all heard legend of a Teak Nymph. We need it because it is vital for an upcoming negotiation. If not our entire land will be poisoned. Some occult force has poisoned our land bringing back the Teak Nymph will both satisfy the occult force and the nymph can cleans the waters.

Sidebar: I failed as a guardian to the egg of Winter’s Wurm and had to flee suddenly to…

Our home: Darmouth, it is down river. It is hot, humid pit compared to my home on the Frost Sheet, but the Wyrm’s agents will not find me here.

I am on the raft where Alejandro can row for me. I cannot bear to work and sweat in this oppressive heat. The sky is clear and the cursed sun is shining brightly. Would that I could melt.

Turn 1. We charted our course from the poisoned Darmouth. The black bile leaks from the dying forest into the river. We sailed upstream helped by the clear sky and breeze and he Bearcat’s strong arms. Alejandro is trying to make a spear for fishing. I like fish. Now he is managing the the sail. No fish.

Turn 2. The sun grows stronger. I am trying to stay in Alejandro’s shade. Then we saw a mad demon idol made of teak slathering after us from the bank of the river. Three faces, 8 slavering mouths, 11 grasping arms, in the midst of dead herd of water pigs. It reminds me of an ex of mine. The memoires. It has skinned the water pigs. Ah, the memories [Sidebar: Zam-Og the Flenser with illustration]

Turn 3. I looked through my many colored veil and whispered to the first jackelope I saw. Then as it tame to me, I grabbed its antlers and handed it to Calliste. We approached to within standard jackalope throwing distance (4.4. meters) and she hurled the beast successfully. The idol told Sixteen Lound Knee that the nymph is upriver and that we must cut her free. This is suddenly more interesting of a question. Then it “unwrapped” the jackalope. Ah, memories.

Turn 4. We peregrinated further upstream. I am so exhausted from the heat and from watching Jeppe and Calliste work. It is time to rest, not roam, We go to the other side of the river from the idol and tether our rafts to rest. This bank has little wildlife. No chirping birds or singing monkeys. Blissfully quiet.

Turn 5. Alejandro wove us hammocks for the night then Sixteen Loud Knee had an omen and warned us of immediate danger. Probably from overwork. We ignored it and pushed through [Mechanically, used the blessing to change the event die roll from an encounter to no event]. Alejandro’s hammocks were surprisingly comfy. Jeppe and Alejandro took watch. Put their brawn to good use.

Turn 6. We ate a midnight snack. Num nums.

Turn 7. Alejandro, Jeppe, and Calliste wish to forage. Watching them hunt is exhausting. I’ll name some more. Alejandro couldn’t find any hard wood for a spear. Reminds me of an ex. There in the bog, he was folllowed by a scaly water-dwelling creature. A crocodile? He fled like a rank coward from Stumpy the Crocodile. Reminds me of an ex.

Wait! Alejandro stopped and spoke bravely to the crocodile. He made a deal to trade Jeppe’s book for a keg of blasting power. Jeppe frivolously agreed to the deal and shall gain great renown for his irresponsibility. AR-YM-SR said “Six days east, follow the Goldlfish canal, a fort with red walls, too smooth to climb.” There is where he stored the blasting powder. Then Alejandro stole AR-YM-SR’s fancy tapestry of “The mistress and her thousand lovers” a tale of an extremely virile crocodile and an extremely demanding mistress. Ah, reminds me of an ex. Memoires.

Turn 8. Jeppe led us confidently up river. Snacks were had. Then the river ahead branched. Which tributary should we take? Must we backtrack? Will we wasted time? Will we have to east Bearcat?

Turn 9. We peregrinated. we saw gold panners and their buffalo-person shaman singing. Sixteen Loud Knee says that the shaman is singing the river’s riches to the surface. Then we passed a crocodile knight with squires on her back, patrolling to obstruct thieves. One squire was Bearcat, and Calliste got a bit moon-eyed but we kept moving on. Poor Calliste. That girl gotta get some. Momma got needs. I think. I don’t really understand Bearcat mating practices. Sixteen and the buffalo shaman exchanged some rough signs, but nobody started nothing. For now.

Turn 10. We found a 7 faced, 7 mouthed, 7 armed demon idol surrounded by dust. Chanting, slathering, warbling. Vegas, here I come! Wait, I know that idol. It’s Zam-nom (the insatiable)! He ages everything near him. The rest of the company suddenly ages two weeks. That’s why I broke up with him. Too much fire consuming/wasting too much time.

Turn 11. I decided to rekindle my romance with Zam-Nom while Calliste made camp, I canoed over to the it and used my ice magic to calm his burning. The canoe aged a bit. Zam-Nom burned me a bit (it was consensual!) and transported us five travel turns into the future. Don’t call me Za, I’ll call you. I’m radioactive and sitting back. Sixteen saw a new demon, that he remembered was once a god of wisdom.. The worth will be blinded (temporarily, sadly) but will gain wisdom (also temporarily sadly)

Turn 12. Sixteen is now blind and wise. I took watch. Boring.

Turn 13. I told the kids the good news. Time travel! They owe me. Alejandro lost a torch to the crocodile he robbed. That’s fair. Time vortices are exhausting, but between Jeppe’s skill and Sixteen’s foresight we made it safely.

Turn 14. Giant crocodile gates! One black basalt, one white marble, held up by sorcery! So garish I like it. I see many alternative lives where I traveled through these gates. I feel trusted and welcome here. Maybe there is AC in these cursed ruins?

Alas, the time vortex also brought the crocodile knight, squires, and gold miners here. A race to the gates! Everyone else rowed. I prepared my Curse of Consumption. The crocodile knight has telepathy, jerk. She challenges me as a muscular mind warrior! With one arm. My spell worked! The knight left my mind and ate her bearcat rider. I got hit with a spear but it was okay, it was consensual. I gave it to Alejandro.

Sixteen called upon his covenant to close and open the gates! That way he could chomp ever enemies! His god demanded that he become the eternal guardian of the gates and he agreed! The gates are alive! Then I sued my ice power to freeze our crumbling raft and turn it into a boat and used Maleficence! I exhausted my spells and blasted the croc with wild ice. It was wounded! To avenge itself it attached Alejandro who had dived into the water to save my bag and grimoires. It dragged him under the water!

I did not know this but Alejandro was getting the Death-Roll. If he survives he becomes a local! His grit carries him through. Sixteen dove into heal him magically and in the process showed him his many sad futures. Calliste swam after him too.

Jeppe said good by to Joseph (the cod) and tried to turn him alchemist style into a crocodile but in the end he chickened out. Joseph looked too sweet.

Desperate I shoved the anvil overboard. It hit the croc’s tail but Alejandro could not escape. As the new Guardian of the Gates, Sixteen commanded the croc MR-SM-YR to set him free. She listed and Calliste saved my bag! Well, most of it. I don’t know that she left behind my magic windchimes.

We reached the port of MR-KR Singa Port. Now we seek the Wood Nymph!

Thank you to our notetaker John, and to our cartographer Adam who drew these amazing map tiles:

Thoughts on the game

There were some things about Errant that I really liked

• Failed professions
• Creating spells (thought it take a lot of time to do it)
• Automatic damage (no attack roll)
• Fortune and miracles
• Ancestry abilities
• Player roles (caller, notetaker,etc)
• The way armor blocks degrade attacks
• Initiative roll and actions
• Damage by class
• Unstable spells
• Deviant proficiencies and jettons

The only parts that chafed for me were

• Encumbrance. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but the shifting math is very tough. Load leads to encumbrance which affects movement dice. It’s a lot of derivative effects. I loved that exhaustion took a gear slot (brilliant) but doing the math on it was tough. I think I’d go for a much simpler system like Shadowdark (10 items or Strength, whichever is higher) or Torchbearer (specific slots). So I want encumbrance rules (else Puliaris would have never lost her pack) but I need simpler ones to make sure we’re actually following them.
• The work needed to create covenants (thankfully I got mine from Chris) and tables of Woe. I’d never have someone roll up a Zealot at the table unless we used and existing covenant.
• The work needed to create grimoires. It was really fun, but I’d never have someone roll up an Occultist at the table.

I’m going to keep playing OSR games and see if I find one that is just right for me…or if I need to make my OWN system by cobbling others together!