Posts about The Broken Lands - Hooks vs Play Reports

Nothing creative or insightful, but I find it interesting that the posts with the hooks for The Broken Lands consistently get about twice as many views as the play reports.

City of Thieves

As I try to get Red Box Calgary up and going, I have been thinking about a campaign setting that I would like to run. I had a couple of simple criteria that I wanted to make sure the setting allowed for. I wanted to focus mainly on dungeons and I wanted to allow for the quick return of characters to a central location to allow for the changing roster of players inherent to an open game.

After some reading and some plagiarism, this is what I have come up with and posted on the Red Box Calgary wiki:

Jekarra…

Throughout the known world, no city is half so notorious. Blackened by fire, soiled by pestilence, and scarred by war, its sandy collection of spiderwebbed tenements and rat-ridden bazaars have birthed some of the worst rogues and villains to ever stalk the storied thrones of the north.

But Jekarra is also a city of chance and adventure, where fortunes are won in a night and lost before dawn. Where gems glint and flare in the lamplight, the might of magic knows no bounds, and a warrior's quick blade and shirt of mail are his best defense.

So loosen your sword, keep a hand on your coin pouch, and take these first steps into its shadowy, torch-lit streets. A black mist is rolling in off the salt marsh, and the ancient city beckons…

Welcome to Jekarra the Wicked, city of thieves, city of the long night, city of adventure. Rich, poor, religious, debased - all of these and more can be found here. It all depends on where you look.

The idea for Jekkara the Wicked came from Thieves World. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Thieves World was/is a setting developed by the author Robert Asprin for a series of fantasy anthologies. The idea was to create a common, consistent backdrop, then invite a wide variety of authors to write stories using that setting, but exploring their own characters and interests within it.

That is what I am trying to do with Jekkara. I want to develop a very high-level overview of a setting where various Red Box Calgary DM's can set their own adventures. An ancient, sprawling and decadent city with a maze of catacombs and vaults beneath it provides for numerous adventure opportunities.

The name "Jekkara" comes from my love of Leigh Brackett's stories.

9-Minute Campaign: The Northern Marches

I have had my old Northern Marches campaign on my mind recently. Earlier today I saw the 9-minute Campaign Design on the Mule Abides and I decided that for fun I would take a fresh look at the Northern Marches through this framework.

1. What is the Look & Feel of your campaign?
The idea of the Northern Marches was based on the similarly titled West Marches campaign. It would focus on exploring the unknown, ancient dangers, vast treasures, mythic underworld, forbidding wilderness, and harsh environments. It is an open campaign which features drawing from a loose group of players.

2. What’s the high concept of your campaign?
The elevator pitch. Exploring the dangerous frontier that was abandoned many generations ago - haunted ruins, valleys containing Lost Worlds, and mythic underworlds containing cosmic horrors and amphibious frog demons.

3. What’s the core story? (or: “Loveable misfits who…”)
The game is an exploration-focused sandbox game set in a dangerous frontier region away from civilization. There’s a convenient fortified town, New Hareth, that is an outpost of civilization and law, but beyond that is the haunted ruins of Old Hareth and dangerous wilderness. All the PCs are all loveable misfit adventurers based in this town seeking fame and fortune beyond the safety of the town's walls. Between sorties into the wilds PCs rest up, trade info and plan their next foray in the rowdy taproom of the Dancing Dragon Tavern.

4. What rules will you be using in your campaign?
B/X baby! As if there was any doubt. However, this is not just because I love B/X but also because I feel it is a great ruleset to give the appropriate feel for the campaign. The fragile nature of the characters, the roster of monsters, the clear rules regarding exploring the wilderness... it fits like a glove.

5. What are the big-scale social institutions or groups in the campaign?
New Hareth is a relatively self-sufficent centre of civilization. It would contain all of the major institutions required.
- Churches/Shrines for the Lawful and Neutral religions. In the Northern Marches these include the Church of the Great Dragon (Lawful, faux fantasy stand in for the catholic church) and the Dodekatheon or "The Twelve" (the old pantheon religion - mainly the 12 olympians).
- A small wizards guild.
- Town guard and courts that efficiently keep the law inside the town walls.
- Baron Hareth - authorized by the kingdom to award other baronies to those able to establish a stronghold in the wilderness.
- Blind seers, learned sages, mystic oracles, covens of witches, etc.
- Armourers, blacksmiths, merchants.
- The Dancing Dragon Tavern which serves as the meeting place for the informal group of adventurers.
- The Bounty Post for posting wanted posters.
- A small thieves guild.

6. Who are the major supporting cast?
Baron Hareth
The Striped Mage
The Lama of the Great Dragon
The Bishop of the Twelve
The Sage
Captain of the Guard
The Hood (head of the thieves guild)
A small number of NPC adventurers that have already established strongholds in the wilderness

7. What are the major threats in the campaign?
The Wilderness - getting lost, rugged snow covered mountains, hoarfrost crusted swamps, cold weather, hunger, monsters, rolling on the Triple Secret Random Horrific Fate Table of Very Probable Doom if you don't get back to civilization before the end of the session.
Castle Hareth - the ruined castle (megadungeon) of the abandoned settlement rumoured to be haunted and built on the ruins of a very ancient fortress.
Dungeons & Lairs - out in the wilderness
Barbarians, bandits, ancient ruins, cosmic horrors, huge dinosaurs, marauding orcs, blood-thirsty amazons, etc.

8. Draw a map of the campaign setting.
Got one.

9. Draft up your first adventure.
While it is a sandbox and the players can do anything they want, if they are new players I usually say one of the party members inherited, stole or otherwise procured a treasure map leading the party to somewhere out in the wilderness.

My Newest Elevator Pitches

My current 2E AD&D - Rise of the Runelords campaign is going great and I am having a lot of fun. This is the first time I have run an adventure path. We are still in the first adventure module (which is quite good) so we are early enough in it that there have been no troubles with conversions or "railroady-ness" of running a 3.5 adventure path with 2nd edition.

However, as I think about RPGs nearly every day, I have some other campaign ideas rattling around in my head right now. The likelihood of any of these going anywhere may be small but hopefully not nil. I would also consider using skype + gametable for any of these.

In no particular order:

- A B/X game using one of Robert Conley's Points of Light settings. I would like to set it up like my old Northern Marches campaign and make it an open game.

- A game using my recent B/X S&S hacks set in the Evil DM's Erisia.

- A game using my recent B/X hacks set in a not strictly canon Hyborian Age.

- A game using my recent B/X S&S hacks plus the Mutants & Mazes section from Mutant Future with a setting using the Dark Sun map from the original DS box. And it would have Sorcerer Kings - I just love the name Sorcerer Kings.

- A Tunnels & Trolls game using Gamma Trollworld and a slightly modified Carcosa as the setting.

- A B/X game set in the Known World from the Cook Expert rulebook. Starting off with an expanded version of the Haunted Keep from the Moldvay Basic rulebook.

- A B/X - Al Qadim hack.

My Current RPG Landscape

My 2nd edition AD&D campaign has been a lot of fun so far. I have to say that the new group made up of a couple of players from my old group and a few new players appears to be lots of fun. But, of course, I can never seem to get enough RPGs. A few other things I am thinking about right now:

1. Getting the B/X Online game going again. There seems to be enough interest so it is just a matter of getting schedules lined up. Based on my previous experience I am putting bigger limitations on it this time. My plan is to stick closely to the B/X paradigm of dungeon exploration for levels 1-3, wilderness exploration for levels 4-8, and establishing strongholds after that. Also, not withstanding my recent post on magic items, I am planning on sticking to the rulebooks for treasure and magic items except for new magic items in any published adventures I use.

2. The previously mentioned 2nd edition game is set in Paizo's Golarion. It is a pretty standard D&D-esque setting with all of the usual fantasy tropes. While I really like Golarion, using a standard fantasy setting has made me ponder using other settings for other games. The B/X Online game is set in the Wilderlands. I have also been thinking about using either B/X, T&T, or OD&D for two very different campaign settings.

I have had a sweet spot for the weird fantasy of Scott Driver's old blogs about his World of Thool (which I have archived and his wiki is still available) and his OD&D WIlderlands blog (which I wish I had archived). I would love to play a campaign inspired by Thool, Athanor, Carcosa , Under the Dying Sun, and the writings of Brackett, Dunsany, Hodgson, Merritt, Shaver and Wells.

The second is Middle Earth. Not the Middle Earth of the Lord of the Rings but instead the Wilderlands of the Hobbit. Gandalf is actually Bladorthin and is just some magic-user not some godly-spirit. The Necromancer is just that - an evil wizard with a tower in the forest. Who knows - Blackmoor might be to the north of the Grey Mountains and the Great Kingdom to the south of Mirkwood or maybe to the west of the Edge of the Wild line.

3. I have also been toying with starting a play-by-post game. I have had limited exposure to this type of gaming and only as a player. We will see if I do anything about this one.

Desperate Nobles

The PCs are all connected in one way or another to a noble house - either family members, trusted advisors, generals, etc.

All of the noble families are in attendance at the King's Palace - Castle Wisteria - for summer court. There are six major noble families:
- House Kimbertos (the King's house)
- House Van de Kamp
- House Scavo
- House Mayer
- House Solis
- And the PC's house

The following events take place during the first 36 hours of summer court:
1. The Queen commits suicide
2. Rel Van de Kamp (the head of the house) is poisoned - he may or may not survive
3. The Scavo residence in the capital city burns down
4. Bishop Kaul, a son of the King, is seen late at night digging in the church's graveyard
5. Lady Solis is seen leaving the stables with straw in her hair followed shortly by a young stablehand.

Now turn the PCs loose!

Another Setting

Inspired by Snorri's post "Lost Land of Mêm" on OD&D Discussion, I pulled out my Expert rulebook and some dice. I quickly rolled up 4 encounters for each major terrain type as listed on page X75 and whipped up a new campaign setting...

Encounter Table Results:
Grassland - Antelope, Lions, Hill Giants, Stirges
Woods - Black Widow Spiders, Tiger Beetles, Driver Ants, Brigands
Swamp - Adventurers, Wraiths, Ogres, Trader
Mountains - White Dragon, Troglodytes, Merchants, Trolls
Desert - Fire Giant, Giant Hawk, Small Rocs, Ghouls
City 1 - Orcs, Fighters, Traders x 2
City 2 - Acolytes, Wights, Fighters, Nobles
Ocean - Sea Dragon, Hippogriffs, Giant Hawks, Sea Hydras
Jungle - Giant Gekkos, Hippogriffs, Wyverns, Tarantella Spiders
Hills - Hydras, Wyverns, Red Dragons, Hippogriffs

The merchant city of Xulthon sits perched on the Urbe Steppes overlooking the Silver Sea to the north of the city. It is a bustling city, full of traders, merchants, mercenary companies (including some barely accepted orc mercenaries). When looking south from the city walls, the steppes fade away into the distance, the Caravan Road splitting the plain. From time to time you can see the dark shape of the antelope herds crossing the grassland. Lions also make the steppe their home prowling after the herds. As one heads farther south small stands of trees intermittently dot the vast swath of grass but beware as these are often the nesting grounds of stirges.

Passage across the Silver Sea is also dangerous as a large Sea Dragon has its lair in the murky depths. Hippogriffs and Giant Hawks hunt for tuna and small whales but they stay away from the Sea Hydras which also roam the sea.

To the east the steppes eventually begin to rise up to rugged hills. This area is home to Hill Giants who wear ratty, dirty lion pelts and hunt whoever is brave or foolhardy enough to enter their domain. But they also have to have care as the Bonehills are the home to many fearsome beasts - Hydras, Wyverns and Hippogriffs all fiercely protect their hunting grounds and often can be seen riding thermals above the plains. It is rumoured that a mated pair of Red Dragons also lair in the chalky hills but they have not been seen in many a year.

The Bonehills continue to rise up into the Guardian Peaks. Few passes split this rugged fence. The pass where the Caravan Road crosses to the allow merchants to travel to Melaphon, The Haunted City is a dangerous route. A White Dragon makes its home on a high peak above the valley and it often stops caravans seeking tribute for these merchants to cross its domain. There are also rumours of a vicious tribe of troglodytes that follow a family of trolls.

On the other end of the pass the Haunted City of Melaphon squats on the last of the rugged highlands. The area around the city quickly falls away to a dry and dusty plain called the Desert of Alf. Melaphon is a decadent city - nobles and acolytes both too busy with their depraved pursuits to worry about the plight of the slaves which they keep under their thumb with a vast number of temple guards. But don't be caught on the streets at night as the debauched forefathers still prowl the streets as wights.

The Desert of Alf is hot and dusty. The few oases that break up the barren landscape are surrounded by strange ruins through which Ghouls lurk. Careful watch must be kept along the edge of the desert where it butts against the Guardian Range as many Fire Giants reside there. Small Rocs hunt Giant Hawks through hot, wavering air.

To the west of the Urbe Steppes, the dark Creeping Wood is home to the many things from which it gets its name. The dark wood is home to Tiger Beetles, Driver Ants and Giant Black Widow Spiders. Due to its reputation, a band of brigands also make the dark forest its home from which they raid the steppes.

To the south of the forest is the fetid Blackmire. This foul marsh is home to a band of ogres. It is likely that this marsh was not always here as there are a number of sunken ruins which are rumoured to be haunted by Wraiths but to also contain vast treasures. As such there are a number of Adventurers trekking through the swamp and an enterprising Trader has set up a walled roadhouse not far from the marshes edge.

Across the Blackmire is the Emerald Jungle. Under the vast canopy lurk Giant Gekkos and Giant Tarantella Spiders and above the green roof Wyverns hunt.

Setting Riffs

Idea one is taken straight from Dwarfstar Games' Demonlord,

On Narth, once called the “continent of man”, the origins of the Demons are obscure. Some say a wizard’s summoning went out of control. Others suggest that the Demons themselves opened a magical gateway, still extent at the gate of Tor’zem, the Demonlord Capital. A few philosophers even believe that the Demons are a natural race, like humans or dwarves, except the Demons became stronger than others.

In any event, the Demons are now the power on Narth, and each Demonlord rules his own province under the Emperor. Although Demons are a tiny minority, through their great power, magic, and capacity for evil they act as captains, administrators, and governors of many lesser races such as half-men, demi-men, goblins, orcs, and other manish races of darkness.

Nisshar is a typical province in the west of the Demon domains, ruled from a capital city of the same name. But here, humans and semi-human allies resist them, banding together under the influence of Hosar, a sun-god cult. At times, they were so successful that even Nisshar came under siege. Now, the armies of the Demonlord and the Alliance of Hosar are mustering once more, for another bloody campaign.

After centuries of sleep, the Demon Empire once more sends forth its hideous armies to conquer the lands of men. Desperate fighters stand with bow and shield against the goblin hordes which blacken the fertile valleys. The wizards and priests are called together in a desperate attempt to counter the Demonlord's dark magicks. But the balance of power lies with the neutral kingdoms. Will the Dwarven King, the Cloud Prince of Lyung, and the mysterious Ancients join with the forces of light, or will they cast their lots with the dark host commanded by the shadowy presence of the DEMONLORD...

The second idea is a riff off the first, a post by Philotomy on Original D&D Discussion and the really neat idea for Project Long Stair from RPGnet. It would be set after the first idea,

Many of the Mages of Hosar retreated to their tower in the great city of Timur. It is now said that they went knowing full well their upcoming fate. These great mages wielded arcane power beyond any seen in any age since and with this vast power they were able to hurl the Demons back into the primordial chaos from which they came.

However, a devastating backlash of arcane power and the forces of chaos destroyed Timur and everything for leagues around. The Mages of Hosar were devastated. All of those that participated in the Great Sealing were lost. Only the few that were purposely kept away from the ritual survived. While the price was high, the Great Sealing forced the Demons back into the chaos and sealed the gateway to Narth. That was centuries ago. Now the seal is failing...

The idea is that the seal and gateway are part of a megadungeon that is a mythic underworld. This mythic underworld is spreading tendrils, magical portals, into other places of darkness and chaos (smaller dungeons and lairs).

A Future Sandbox?

The other day I was thinking about a sandbox campaign starting with the venerable Keep on the Borderlands and then surrounding it with Judges Guild adventures. Here is what I came up with...
Of course, some adjustments would have to be made to maps, including orientation and scale.

In the beginning hex is the Keep, the Caves of Chaos and I would use Prey of Darkness for the Cave of the Unknown.

"Prey of Darkness is a Universal Playing aid which details a force of brigands and their advisors, followers, and slaves. Each of the brigands has a price on his or her head. You have been charged with their capture! Can you bring them back to face trial alive, or must you kill them in order to collect the reward? Can you even survive the attempt? Send your heroes and heroines in search of Red Honohon and Black M'Dabb. This scenario can also be used for evil characters that need manpower to accomplish their goals. Join Red and Black in their endeavors to become rich and powerful. Become a brigand and terrorize the countryside! Challenge Red and Black for the leadership of the brigand force! All this and more await you!"
- Acaeum.com

The river that flows out of the SE corner of the B2 Wilderness Map would turn south and be the river that goes north to south on the Wilderness Map from the Illhiedrin Book.

"A search by a beautiful Wizardress involves the recovery of the fabulous Illhiedrin Book, lost during a raging storm amid bolts of lightning in a titanic battle between an inhuman creature and a now-dead Wizard who was the former possessor of the Book. They party must recover the Book, defeat the Creature, and stay alive in the process. This Scenario is designed for use with low-level characters and includes wilderness maps, dungeon maps and inhabitants, plus the dangers of a lost city."
- Acaeum.com

The road that exits at the NE corner of the B2 Wilderness Map would lead to Fortress Badabaskor.

"An adventure in the wilderness stronghold of a band of brigands that includes the background and statistics of an evil local deity, plus history, maps, and keyed room descriptions of a five-level dungeon carved out of the side of a mountain. The first three levels are fairly easy and suitable for breaking in new and inexperienced players; but the lower two are far tougher, and include a cavern that has a series of four dragon dens, indicative of the difficulty of the lower levels."
- Acaeum.com

Beyond the Valley of Fixation would be the Citadel of Fire.

"This is the ancient stronghold of Yrammag with six tower levels and five dungeon levels. It is designed for very advanced characters, and includes encounters with everything from giant rats to a minotaur and a demon. Tables have been provided for the random location and activity of the great Trammag, so that it will be a surprise each time the dungeon is entered by the adventurers. The surrounding wilderness is mapped out according to our Campaign Hexagon System, and Yrammag's spells are listed to provide a complete and detailed dungeon adventure, created and officially approved for use with D&D."
- Acaeum.com

I could then round it out using the Book of Treasure Maps.

The next question would be, "What ruleset?"
B/X?
OD&D (or S&W)?
Maybe Holmes? I kinda like this idea...

Basic/Expert Dark Sun

So now that I am over the flu, I now have bronchitis. Which means I will have a few more days with my thoughts. I have been thinking about a Dark Sun one-shot or micro-campaign using Savage Worlds over the last few days. But, this this morning I asked myself if Dark Sun could be done with B/X? Sure, why not.

Changes would be intended to reflect the "feel" of Dark Sun but focusing on keeping things at the power level of B/X, focusing on archetypes as with B/X (even though these may be Dark Sun archetypes), and keeping the simplicity of B/X.

A few things I would do if I were to run Dark Sun with B/X:
1. Ignore the "its a brutal world so start at 3rd level" thing - and use 3d6 in order
2. Adapt the HP cost for casting spells from Microlite20 for magic-users and give them the option to instead of taking the HP cost themselves they can defile - each HP instead defiles X-feet of vegetation.
3. Psionics - dump them. Psionics actually weaken the themes and tension of Dark Sun, as they provide a safe alternative to magic-users, and they lack the whole "devotion to nature" aspect of the elemental clerics and the druids.
4. Remove elemental references from magic-user spells leaving fire, etc to the clerics - thus fireball would be removed but instead replaced with something like Eldritch Burst. It would have the same mechanics just different flavour.
5. Would have to redo the cleric spells into the 4 elements and would likely have to grab some from OD&D to build up the lists for each element (was there a Gaz or something that covered elemental magic?).
6. Grab the druid and ranger from OD&D - I wouldn't use a Gladiator - not different enough from a fighter
7. Come up with a Templar - what I would likely do is use the B/X cleric and spell list but give them a spell at 1st level and a cap of 3rd level spells
8. Redo the elf and dwarf. Maybe use the elf race as class as the ranger. Dwarf would be pretty easy - just remove the stonework stuff and find a mechanic for their focus. I would keep the halfling mechanically unchanged but add in the cannibal stuff.
9. Come up with the Mul, half-elf and thri-kreen - I would dump the half-giant. It infringes on the Mul's niche too much. These would also be race = class. Actually, the thri-kreen race as class should likely be the ranger.
10. Get rid of most of the exotic weapons but keep the idea that most weapons are not made of metal. Non-metal weapons become the benchmark (have the designated damage ranges) but break on a natural "1". Use "magic" to describe metal weapons - a sword +1 becomes a metal sword. Afterall, metalwork would seem like alchemy in a world like Dark Sun.
11. Monsters - get rid of most of the humanoid monsters but I think that the other monsters in B/X - especially the focus on "Lost World" type monsters - could give an interesting, if somewhat different feel.
12. Focus solely on the original Dark Sun box set for the setting.

That looks like a lot of work...
Honestly, I would probably be easier to do this with Swords & Wizardry or just use one of the Savage Worlds hacks on the net.

You got your Kingmaker in my Greyhawk

I have mentioned a number of times about using Barbarian Prince for a roleplaying setting or how I am adapting some of the mechanics from the game for my B/X campaign. This got me thinking about other wargames or boardgames that could be used to supplement a D&D campaign. We all know that Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival was and continues to be used for a map for wilderness exploration. In fact part of it has been adapted into the Northern Marches.

One thought that came to mind was taking the mechanics and cards from Kingmaker and adapting it for a Greyhawk campaign. The game could be set in Furyondy or Keoland and it could focus on political intrigue.












Another thought could be to use Citadel of Blood to develop a wizard's citadel. Or the related Swords & Sorcery game's wilderness map could be used in a similar fashion as Outdoor Survival.












Awhile ago, Jeff Rients mentioned using Divine Right as a campaign setting.
Has anyone else used a boardgame's or wargame's mechanics or map for an unrelated RPG?

The Physics of that World

The other day I was thinking about different campaign ideas and my thoughts evolved to a short list of different campaign worlds (either published, literary, from movies, etc) for each old school game system I am familiar with. The trick is that I wanted to come up with some different ones - games and campaign worlds that normally people would not put together. Here is what I came up with:

- OD&D or S&W: Whitebox in Leigh Brackett's solar system. Not really a world but worlds. The ferocious heat and savagery of Mercury, the mystery of the dark jungles and fetid swamps of Venus, the corrupt hive of Earth and the dusty dying world of Mars.
- Holmes in Dark Sun. Get rid of all of the crappy metaplot and you would be left with low power rule set to reflect the danger of a dying world ruled by Sorcerer Kings.
- B/X in the world of the Sinbad movies. Fast and furious action in a setting from movies watched on weekend mornings - goes together like peanut butter and jam.
- Tunnels & Trolls in Talislanta. Just coming up with all of the kindreds would be great fun.
- Castles & Crusades in Greyhawk. Okay, this one isn't different. To me, C&C and greyhawk work great together.
- S&W: Core in the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy.It might be too depressing to actually play.

Are there any game systems and campaign settings that you would try to mix together?

Rumours in the Northern Marches

The players in my Northern Marches game are very exploration focused which makes things easy for me since the it is an exploration based sandbox game. A key thing that is making the players get out there and explore are the rumours that they hear. I am using two types of rumours - the General Rumours one picks up in taverns, markets, etc. and what I am calling the Key Rumours for the Northern Marches. I am working with a very basic structure for the General Rumours:

Goals + Location + Obstacles = Adventure

To begin with the Goals have been very simple - the hint of the unknown and/or treasure!
The locations and obstacles to date have been my megadungeon (which has taken much of my time away from the Pit of Tortured Souls, sorry) and four pre-placed, published adventures.

As the campaign continues, I will begin to use the players to generate the Goals portion of the rumours equation. For example, the magic-user reaches 2nd level and is looking for someone to teach him Read Magic. He approaches the Striped Mage of Hareth but learns that for the Mage to teach it to him, the magic-user must bring back the feet of a Bugbear. The goal then becomes Find Bugbears.

The Location portion of the rumour equation will be handled in one of three likely ways: 1) I will have already placed some Bugbears somewhere in the Northern Marches, 2) I will randomly generate the location for some Bugbears, or 3) I will just pick some place cool to stick some Bugbears.

The Obstacles will also be handled with a similar method. For this example, the obvious one is the Bugbears themselves. But what if they are looking for a Potion of Fire Resistance? I can use the Wandering Monster tables or just pick something I want to use - maybe a Cave Bear.

Things won't be so random for the General Rumours about the megadungeon. As it is the so-called "tent pole" of my campaign it will be much more structured and thought out. And since I want to stress not only the megadungeon but also the exploration of the wilderness of the Northern Marches most of the locations of these General Rumours will be rather small - for example, a 20 room dungeon, a small shrine or a beast's lair.

The final component of these General Rumours will be whether they are true or not. I will use a dice roll to determine if the Goal, Location and/or Obstacles are true or false. So if the party was looking for the legendary sword of Cirso and they heard that it might be found in the Forest of Terror and it is rumoured to be guarded by the Fire-Breathing Giant of Belal, some or all of that may be true. Maybe the sword is in the forest but it is guarded by a normal Fire Giant, maybe the Fire-Breathing Giant of Belal makes his lair in the Forest of Terror but the sword is not there or maybe the Fire-Breathing Giant does guard the sword but his lair is actually in the Mountains of Nyght.

The second type of rumour, the Key Rumours, are specific rumours I have developed about the key figures in the Northern Marches. These rumours can only be obtained from other key figures such as the Lords, Mayors, High Priests, etc. Each key figure has been given two things; a Key Rumour about another key figure and a desire/quest (think video games). By gaining an audience with these key figures and rolling a very positive Reaction Roll, the party can learn either one of these. These Key Rumours are always true and they are designed to tell the story of the Northern Marches. The desires/quests are designed for more significant adventures and may give the party other benefits, for example Duke Belamor desires a famed diamond called the Heart of Zeus. If the party brings it to him he will reward them by making the Fighter with the highest charisma a General of his army. I am also toying with the idea that to learn a Key Rumour from a figure the party must first fulfill the figure's desire (once again think video games).

The Key Rumours may be such things as "the Lady Estir is actually a succubus and is harvesting souls to activate the Gate of Xull and allow her master to enter the world." If you string a bunch of these Key Rumours together you get a picture of the history and goings on in the Northern Marches.

In the last session of the campaign, some of the adventurers travelled to Silverton and heard the rumour that there was an abandoned mine near by that might be the hideout for some bandits (a General Rumour) and had an audience with the Mayor and rolled a very good reaction roll to hear his desire - to find the bandits that have been raiding near by silver mines. If they had rolled a bit better or maybe if they succeed in ridding the area of the bandits, the Mayor may tell them a Key Rumour.

Northern Marches in 25 words or less

Max over at Malevolent & Benign has asked for descriptions of campaign worlds in 25 words or less. I am always jealous of the creativity some people have and there is a bunch of creative stuff that people have posted there.

But here is the current Northern Marches in 25 words.
22 actually:

Meat and potatoes but with the rich, thick gravy that is the players running all over it. Oh yeah and a megadungeon.

The Northern Marches: Creating New Hareth

One of the things I am working on for my Northern Marches campaign is the small town of New Hareth that will act as the "homebase" for the characters. I have mentioned in a previous post my self-perception of not being able to functionally referee a city-based adventure and it is my intent for Northern Marches to keep New Hareth as a safe place for the characters to do other things. So what purpose will New Hareth serve?

1. Rumours
2. Provisions
3. Temples
4. Wizards
5. Hirelings
6. Lords (Barons, High Priests, etc.)
7. Lodging
8. Civilization

Many of these already have rules in B/X, and in serving my love of random stuff and gameism, I can make up some tables for the rest of it.

1. Rumours
Rumours lead to adventures. Sources of rumours are typically inns, taverns, Lords, priests, etc. New Hareth will also have a Bounty Post in the town square.
To begin with rumours will be about a couple of introductory adventures I have placed in the Northern Marches, mostly involving the recovery of treasure from somewhere.
Later I will use some random tables ala Barbarian Prince to generate some more rumours. These rumours will be about the basic ingredients that go into an adventure:
Goals + Location + Obstacles = Adventure.
Goals are easy. To begin with focus on the recovery of treasure and after a bit you can follow the players' lead. In a sandbox game the characters goals are determined by the players so developing rumours about their goals becomes a bit easier.
Locations are either specific based on what I as the Dm want - for example if I have placed a mysterious wizard I know the location. Or locations can be determined randomly - roll a d6 for direction and a dice for distance in number of hexes.
Obstacles can be determined with either a little imagination or by using encounter tables or the dungeon stocking tables.
The final question about rumours is if they are true. I will typically roll a d6: 1-3 rumour is true, 4 some of the elements of the rumour are true, 5 one of the elements of the rumour is true, 6 the rumour is completely false.

2. Provisions
I am going to handwave a bunch of this but a few tables will give a sense of a dynamic environment.
Is the item available? Assign a percentage chance based on the size of the town and what resources are like. For New Hareth, there is a base 65% chance that the item is available immediately; 66% to 80% that it will be available in 2d6 days; and 81% or greater that the item is unavailable (roll d6; 1-3 the materials are unavailable, 4-6 the craftsmen in unavailable).
The other question is what does it cost?
Roll d6: 1=80% of base cost, 2= 90% of base cost, 3-4=at base cost, 5=110% of base cost, 6= 120% of base cost
Of course, if the players want to haggle then we can RP it and make a reaction roll.

3. Temples
This will get into a whole other post I plan on making about the deities for the Northern Marches campaign. For now suffice it to say that the main religions of the Great Kingdom and the Barony of Hareth are the Holy Church of the Dragon (stolen from jrients) which is replacing the Old Faith of the Dodekatheon. I am pretty open to anything though based on how a player views his character - if he wants his fighter to be a viking I have no problem with him using Norse gods or anything else they may dream up.
For the most part Temples are used for such things as healing, removing curses and raising the dead. So we need to know the level of the clerics at the temples, their access to magic items and what they may want in return - tithes, favours, etc.

4. Wizards
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I LOVE the Moldvay-specific rules for magic-user spellbooks. This makes access to higher level magic-users very important. Access to NPC wizards is important to learn new spells, to pay to have spells cast by them, to identify magic items found and to possibly sell some of the magic items you find. You can try to buy a magic-item from him if you want but beware any wizard you may want to buy a magic item from is likely to want something other than gold in return.
So for New Hareth, I need to know who the NPC magic-users are? What is their level, alignment, motivations? What spells do they have in their spellbooks?

5. Hirelings
All of the usual places to find hirelings will be in New Hareth and postings can be put on the Bounty Post. All of the normal B/X rules apply.

6. Lords
Lords in new Hareth include the Baron, the High Priests and the mayors of the various villages. Gaining an audience will be difficult at low levels but not impossible. To make things interesting I always try to give each lord something they want that they can eventually get the PCs to aid them with and a secret that they do not want discovered.

7. Lodgings
Lodgings serves a few functions - a place to rest and heal, a place to find rumours and a place to find and put up hirelings (to keep their morale up).

When I know those seven things, I can draw a map for New Hareth and then it will be ready for players.

The eighth, is that I don't award XP until the party gets back to civilization.

Building a Wilderness for the Northern Marches

I have been working on the Northern Marches campaign I am hoping to start. I have worked through Wilderness Architect articles from Fight On! written by Victor Raymond. The maps have worked out wonderfully! I have placed a handful of low level and a few high level modules I want to use. I have begun establishing some details about the small town that will be the "homebase" for the characters. And I have pretty much done some random encounter/event tables for some of the nearby regions.

I have settled on a homebrew setting. As I mentioned, the homebase is a small coastal town with a very close-by ruined castle (think early-Blackmoor) and an untamed wilderness.

Now I just need players.

Verbosh

After I put my kids to bed lastnight, I pulled out my copy of Verbosh and read it through. It reminded me what a great accessory it is. Next to the Keep on the Borderlands, Verbosh is one of my favorite D&D items. I think Verbosh is one of the great examples for new DMs of how to develop an open-ended sandbox setting of limited scope for OD&D, B/X and/or AD&D.

The book cover states, "Approved for use with Dungeons & Dragons" and it makes use of all of the supplements.

The first section of the book has information on the "homebase" town of Verbosh giving on average about 6 lines of detail for about 55 locations for the walled city and adjacent village. Some of the details are a bit goofy or humourous which some DMs may not take to but many of the details, especially the rumours, are great for developing adventure ideas. It also includes brief encounter tables and information on the garrison.

A typical entry is:

Flying Falcon Inn - Marish the Mangy, AL LE, Fighter, Level 4; Marish has the ability to communicate with birds. A very nice place actually, prices are reasonable. One of the present visisotrs in this inn is Broar the Bear, friend, AL CG, Berzerker, Level 10; Broar is a were-bear. Rumors: 1) Fisherman claim to have seen a sunken ship off the point just down river; 2) A wererat was seen crawling out of the well. (I omitted stats because I didn't feel like typing them).

The next section is about the sewers and crypts below the city. It uses the now-common trope of were-rats under the city. It is an old-school dungeon but I think that it is lacking a bit in terms of the "Empty-Room Principal" as nearly every room has an encounter of some kind and most of them are likely to develop into combats.

The third section is a great underwater location, "The Wreck of the Iron Griffon".

The next section is the beginning of the wilderness descriptions. This has brief descriptions of a number of encounters, lairs, strongholds and settlements. A DM can look at these and pull out numerous adventure ideas but many of them will require some work on maps and numbered keys to flesh them out.

The remainder of the book covers the fortress of Warrenberg, the Tower of Balthon the Phantasamist, the Dead City of Haygaras, and the deadly Schuwang-Nau Tower. My only real complaint is the same as I made for the sewers below Verbosh in that there is a likely combat encounter in nearly every room.

I think that for what Verbosh does, it does very well. I can see in a alternate universe a scenario where an OD&D boxed set was published with Verbosh as the B/X box set was done with the Keep on the Borderlands. I am going to use Verbosh as a template for my development of my Northern Marches if I can ever get it going. I can picture a DM sitting over his copies of Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures and using the tables therein to develop the wilderness descriptions. It makes me want to play OD&D/Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox.

What Type of Sand for My Sandbox?

If I were to get a chance to run a B/X sandbox game which setting would I use for a base? Understanding that I would change a bunch of stuff no matter what the source.

The first three that came to mind are:

1. Blackmoor - as a standalone - no Mystara or or Greyhawk or anything. I would go back to the beginning where Blackmoor is a village, the Castle is unexplored as is the surrounding wilderness also no Svenny, Blue Rider, etc. I like the fact that adventurers have the option of exploring the Castle/Dungeons or the wilderness.

2. The Elphand Lands from the Wilderlands. I would likely treat it as an 'explore the wilderness' campaign where civilization is the City-State of the World Emperor and the wilderness is everything north of the Sharryn River. Where could the adventurers' homebase be? Along the river or on the coast of Uther Pentwegern Sea?

3. Thunder Rift. I would change the scale of the map to make the rift larger. It would give me a place to put the Pit of Tortured Souls - the Dark Pit. I would also rewrite the history.

What do you think? Any other suggestions?

EDIT: As I went back through some previous posts to put tags on them, I saw my post about Barbarian Prince. I am going to take another look at that and see if that might work for a setting.

Does anyone have a mop?

This post might be a bit rambling because I have had a couple of thoughts rattling around after re-reading a few different threads on OD&D Discussion and Dragonsfoot. These thoughts have sort of gelled into a messy gooey blob.

Source #1, a thread on Dragonsfoot that I have already mentioned regarding the use of Dwarfstar’s Barbarian Prince with Moldvay.

Source #2, a thread on OD&D Discussion regarding DMing with no maps and that touches briefly on gameism in D&D.

Source #3, the wilderness exploration rules of the Cook/Marsh Expert rulebook.

Source #4, looking at a bunch of the card-based fantasy games from Warp Spawn Games and Atlas Games’ Dungeoneer card games.

These have made me realize that I like gameism in my D&D. What exactly do I mean by gameism? My D&D is one step removed from a board game. It is not a White Wolf LARP. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t lay out the map so that the players can move a token around the Isle of Dread. However, the fact that we are playing a game about dungeons and dragons (you know – fantasy stuff) colours the feel of the game. I do not go for, nor do I want a bunch of immersive roleplaying. Anyone talking in a funny voice risks being ridiculed by the DM (usually me). Now for people that do play these types of games – more power to you. I really believe there is no wrong way to have fun with roleplaying games. But there is wrong way at my table.

Taking this realization one step further, I love the gameism and abstraction of wilderness exploration as given in Cook/Marsh. In fact, my preference is to take the abstraction one step further. I would like to adopt some of the simplified wilderness exploration mechanics from Barbarian Prince such as movement (1 hex on foot, 2 hexes if mounted and 3 hexes if on a flying mount per day).

My love of abstraction makes the reason I like Tunnels and Trolls pretty obvious. I am not a huge fan of the magic system in T&T and not just because of the names of spells (I much prefer by-the-book Moldvay but that is a future post). But the combat mechanic is a thing of beauty to me. Now for the funny circular thing about immersion… the high level of abstraction in T&T combat – and D&D combat so long as everyone realizes how abstract it is SUPPOSE TO BE (cough, cough, 3.5E and 4E I am looking at the two of you) – lends itself to a very narrative game. A few quick dice rolls and you have the results of 10 seconds (D&D), 1 minute (AD&D) or 2 minutes (T&T) of combat and now you can narrate the action until your heart’s content.

My preference for a high level of abstraction goes hand-in-hand with how much I like randomness in my games. As a DM, I would rather to go into a game with a half-dozen of tables (terrain, wandering monsters, etc) than a 20 page written adventure with boxed text. I mentioned when I began the Pit of Tortured Souls that I am not creative but I am imaginative. I struggle if I have to sit down with a blank piece of paper and have to write an adventure. But give me some random tables that give me a Hill Giant, a waterfall and a brass horn and I can get somewhere. One of the thrills that I enjoy when DMing is thinking on my feet. Random tables can give me the ingredients, the beginning spark. How I combine these random elements into an adventure, to me, is the fun part. And one thing I learned is that players don’t see random. Give a group of players three random encounters and they begin to ruminate about how they are connected. Heck, sometimes the players can develop an entire arc for me if I just sit back and listen to them talk to each other about their hypotheses about how the random stuff is connected.

Another thing about my preferred level of abstraction, it makes me struggle with cities and city-based adventures. To me a city has a handful of purposes:
- to collect rumours;
- to buy provisions;
- to find retainers and hirelings;
- to get the services of a temple (healing, remove curse, raise dead, etc);
- to find wizards (very important if using by-the-book Moldvay spellbooks);
- to utilize Jeff Rient’s Ale & Wenches house rule and use the wonderful Carousing Mishaps table;
- and finally adventures.

There are mechanics for each of these except the last one. There is no “How to build a city adventure” in B/X the same way as there is for dungeons and wilderness adventures. And since B/X has coloured the way I have looked at D&D since the beginning, I have felt like I am woefully incapable of developing a good city adventure. As a result, I have typically skipped that purpose of a city and focused on the other uses. Asking the players what is the purpose of their visit to the city, a few dice rolls, subtract some gold and we are back to the wilderness/dungeon.

One thing I have done (and have likely internalized from Barbarian Prince somewhere in the past), is use the mayor or lord as an adventure. Each mayor, lord, high priest, etc has something they want and/or a secret that they don’t want revealed. If the party is successful getting an audience with the lord and gain a favourable reaction, they may be asked to help the lord gain what it is that they want. Or through gathering clues they may learn of the lord’s secret. However, most of these adventures take part outside of the city or are at a specific site within the city. For example, Count Drokant wants to gain a Green Dragon egg and his secret is that he is actually a vampire. This gives me at least 2 easy adventure hooks: get the egg or kill the Count. The location of the egg adventure can be randomly determined on the wilderness map. The kill the Count adventure would be in his palace (a dungeon adventure in all but name).

Whew… sorry for the mess.

Troll Barbarian Prince

An old post at dragonsfoot (here) talks about using the old Dwarfstar game Barbarian Prince along with Classic D&D. I found it interesting. But my thought is that it would work even better with Tunnels & Trolls. I may have to try that. Heck, it is even made for solo play - very T&T-esque.