Dungeons and D20s

Tyranny of Dragons: Hoard of the Dragon Queen Review

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 15:30:00 +0000

I'm late to the party on this one I know, as Tyranny of Dragons is sort of old news, but I've spent a lot of time DMing this campaign for my group over the past few months. It served essentially as a starter for learning 5e for us. After having some extensive time with the book, and having run my players through the first half, I'm going to share my thoughts on the campaign.

Let me preface this by saying I don't usually like to run pre-made adventures. I have spent many a game hopping around in Forgotten Realms playing in homebrew campaigns that weren't necessarily based on any module, and I haven't actually run a published adventure like Hoard of the Dragon Queen in probably two decades. That said, I appreciate published game material as I often use it for inspiration in my own games and campaign settings.

What is Hoard of the Dragon Queen all about? It is part one in a two part campaign centered around the Sword Coast region of Forgotten Realms and focusing on the Cult of the Dragon and their attempt to raise Tiamat from the hells into Faerun to basically ruin everyone's day. The heroes start out as lowly adventurers who, through the course of the campaign, become swept up into this huge epic plot and, by the end of the first book, become fairly well known adventurers. It's designed to take characters from 1st to 8th level.

Wait is that a dragon destroying a village? You do realize we are 1st level right?

The campaign kicks off with a bang as the party is basically wandering the open road seeking adventure when they stumble into a little village built around a small keep called Greenest. This village is being ravaged by a blue dragon and his little kobold cronies as well as some Cultists. Yes, that's right, a blue dragon right off the bat. Needless to say this made my players pucker a little bit, but fortunately, unless they just do something really foolish, the dragon is really a non-factor to the PCs. He just flies around destroying the town while the kobolds and cultists plunder and loot the village of whatever valuables it might have. From this point, the players are swept up into this epic campaign where they follow trail after trail and lead after lead trying to figure out exactly what the Cult is doing and why.

Probably my biggest overall complaint with this module is that it is essentially a giant railroad storyline that doesn't give the PCs much (if any) flexibility to go on and do their own thing. Having now run the campaign, in hindsight, I probably wouldn't have done this campaign, but hindsight is 20/20 of course. As I said earlier, when we sat down to play we were sort of learning the mechanics of 5e and I felt this module would serve as a good springboard for how to DM 5e mechanically speaking. It does an ok job of that, but not great. More on that later.

One thing I did like about this campaign was the way that XP is handled. Basically, as the heroes complete the chapters, they level. I know a lot of people will roll their eyes at this, but I really don't like keeping up with experience points and tracking it. So, a storyline goal system was perfect to me for this game. I knew based on what chapter the PCs were going into, what level they should be. It really didn't stay that way though. Mainly due to side quests.

Which leads to my next point. This campaign takes the characters from as far south as Eltural all along the Sword Coast, through Baldur's Gate, and up into Waterdeep. That's a lot of distance to cover. The book basically gives you two options: The whole "you travel for two weeks and arrive at city X" or it lets you handle travel the way any D&D game should, where the game is just as much about the journey as it is the destination, which opens up the game for a lot of side quests. Which is good, only they don't really give you much help in that department.

So, since I refuse to cop out to the whole "you travel along and you're there" approach, I was forced to come up with a lot of my own random encounters and side quests for the game. I find that a bit frustrating because at one point, we were spending multiple sessions off on this side quest I had created which wasn't really even relevant to the main plot. Don't get me wrong, side quests are awesome, and it gave me some opportunity to flex my creativity in dealing with it, but it's frustrating when you buy a published module and they cop out the travel to "ok you're there." Not to mention, it really messes up the whole "storyline goal" xp system if the characters spend 2 months traveling on the road with a merchant caravan dealing with random encounters, or in Baldur's Gate for 2 weeks waiting for the cultists to arrive so you can trail them to Waterdeep.

There was a point where I really couldn't ignore giving the players xp and letting them level up. When you spend 4 or 5 sessions on a side quest because you're waiting for cultists to arrive in the city, the players start getting a little edgy when they don't get to level up. And they shouldn't be "punished" for adventuring because they are waiting to complete a main quest goal that they really can't interact with. So, naturally I let them level up when appropriate which made a few of the encounters in the middle of the book's main quests a little too easy. To the designer's credit, there is a point when the party goes on a long caravan ride from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep and they do present an interesting assortment of NPCs along for the journey which I used.

That leads to my second complaint here; balance in the module. Ok, make no mistake, when I DM my own game worlds "balance" isn't a thing. You're probably just as likely to bump into a group of trolls as you are goblins or kobolds if you go wandering in the wilderness for too long at 1st level. I don't believe in scaling back because it makes the game more real and gives the players a sense that they're not just going to beat every encounter they are faced with. There are some encounters you just can't "win" per se. With a published adventure, however, you expect the encounters to be balanced to the party's level. That's why they have the whole "storyline goal" xp thing right? Well, it doesn't always work out that way. For example, when the party is low in level they are faced with a couple of berserkers whose profiles are laid out in the Monster Manual with a crap ton of hit points, advantage on attack rolls, and a pretty tough AC for low level PCs to try and hit. Yeah, if I throw my party against those guys at like 2nd level there will be a TPK. So, I scaled them down a bit to have less hit points and a lower AC so the party would survive. There are a few of these types of scenarios present throughout the book.

Which leads to the next point; nonsensical plots. The cult openly attacks a small village, yet their activity as a whole is supposed to be clandestine and secret. So, the cult leaders are dumbasses. Hey, let's raise Tiamat in secret by openly raiding villages all along the Sword Coast in full cult of the Dragon livery! The Harpers will never figure it out! We'll just dress as brigands when we're in our own camp. Also, the flying cloud giant castle? There's a cloud giant flying around a white dragon in his castle along with the cultists helping them move their stolen treasures from one point to another even though it specifically points out that cloud giants hate dragons and war with them. The reasoning behind the giant's aid to the cult is completely ridiculous. Also, there is a vampire there (why?) Not to mention the whole "Dragon masks" thing.

Even I don't know why the fuck I'm in this adventure

The PCs find out through the course of the adventure that the Cult has these high ranking members called Wyrmspeakers and each one of them has a mask corresponding to the chromatic dragon they can influence. The main villain of the first book is the Wyrmspeaker Rezmir who has a black dragon mask. And somewhere in all this, the cult's plans hinge on uniting all of the chromatic masks into one super powerful artifact which they require to raise Tiamat, however by the end of the first campaign the party should kill Rezmir and thus take her mask. Ok, the cult needs all the masks to raise Tiamat and they can't do it without the masks. We have one of them. Let's destroy it. Cult fails and campaign over and we all go back to the pub. I had to make a contingency for this which I felt was lame which was essentially, the mask vanishes from your possession teleported away. I hated to do that, as I felt it really robbed the players of a big accomplishment, but that was because I knew that somehow, in the second book Tiamat does get raised. If they need the masks to do that, which the first book leads you to believe with no option otherwise, then you're sort of stuck with having to do something cheesy like that to take it from the PCs.

Don't take my mask, bro!

Overall, I felt the story wasn't very compelling and in fact, when the players reflect back on the campaign, they always mention the stuff that they did in side quests or while traveling that I made up for them with fondness rather than anything related to the actual story of the campaign's main plot line.

As far as the layout of the book goes, it does a decent job going from chapter to chapter providing mostly interesting scenarios and encounters for the party, albeit some completely nonsensical. We particularly enjoyed the chapter with the ruined castle in the Mire of Dead Men. Dealing with the factions of the Bullywugs and the lizard men and getting them to work against each other was a nice twist. Although that in of itself was nonsensical too. Why would the Cult get two rival races to attempt to work together? Bullywugs hate Lizardfolk and vice versa. Wouldn't it have made more sense just to employ one over the other rather than have them working side by side?

The art and maps in the book are very well done for the most part, although I found the cloud giant castle map a bit cumbersome and difficult to read. But there are a ton of interesting maps within it's pages. It would have been nice to have had a bit more to go on for the cities in the adventure. There is not much given detailing Baldur's Gate in this time period which required me to go on my own to research online. No map of the city is included either which was frustrating. Yes, there are plenty of maps out there of Baldur's Gate, but the point is if I purchase a published module I shouldn't have to go scouring the internet for a map of a well known city the party is supposed to linger in for 2 weeks.

Overall, I'd give the book 3 out of 5 stars. Now that 5e has been around for a couple of years there are plenty of better jumping off points like Princes of the Apocalypse or Out of the Abyss, both of which are really well done from my understanding. Not to mention the 3rd party stuff that's beginning to sprout up with the release of the OGL for 5e. Honestly unless you just really have a thing for dragons, I would pass on Tyranny of Dragons as a whole. It's fairly mediocre and there are plenty of better campaigns out there to begin your leap into 5e.

Things About Mordren: Basics About my Campaign Setting

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 07:53:00 +0000

Every Wednesday night at my local FLGS I run a D&D 5e game set in my homebrew setting. The world doesn't have a name it's just called The Realm. The campaign is set in the city of Mordren which you can find in the north area of the map below:

My campaign world map

What is Mordren?

It's a free-city far to the north of The Wilderlands. The largest free-city in all of The Realms, but rather than just your typical city, the place is more like a massive urban dungeon. The city itself spans across a river and rises high in the air, multiple towers rising into the sky stacked on top of one another. There are four distinct districts in Mordren: Downbottom (ground level), Midward (Middle level), and Skyhold (Upper level) as well as Undermord (sprawling crypts and tunnels below the city)

Mordren is (or was until recently) run by a council of 13 Nobles called the Mournvale. Most of them were corrupt and decadent with little care for the plebs below their station. The overall ruler was The Lady of Sorrow, a medusa who rarely made public appearances and left the day-to-day running of the city to the Mournvale.

The city's levels were distinct each with multiple districts. Downbottom is the poorest quarter of the city. The folks that dwell on the ground level live in tightly packed dense towers which rise up to a larger ceiling (the ground floor of Midward one level up). It is composed of shantytowns, red-light districts, a goblin district, and various other slums and hovels.

Midward is the merchant and trade quarter. Most of the city's goods and services can be found here including most of the city's decent inns and taverns, smiths, merchants, and markets.

Skyhold is the city's highest level, open to the sky above and interconnected by hundreds of bridges making up the streets it is home to all the noble and wealthy families, high-end restaurants and taverns, and exotic goods and services, as well as the Palace of Pain where the Mournvale and the Lady of Sorrow rule.

The city is ripe with adventure and danger around every corner. Explorers frequently visit Undermord seeking riches hidden in the winding crypts, or the buried forgotten ruined cities below Mordren.

Some Factions of Mordren:

Underfoot Crime Syndicate: The Underfoots are a ruthless halfling family who run most of the criminal and black market operations throughout the city. More than a thieve's guild, they have their hand in just about everything illegal from the drug trade, human trafikking, stolen goods, prostitution, and pretty much anything and everything nefarious in the city. The family patriarch sits on the Mournvale, regarded as one of it's most influential members.

Order of the Steel Song: This adventurer's guild and mercenary company has been operating in the city for hundreds of years. Most who seek fortune within the city's walls will join or seek membership.

Mordren University: Mordren boasts the greatest academic institution north of Astaria. The libraries are extensive and well protected and studies range from astronomy to the arcane sciences.

Archons of the Obsidian: This group is devoted to returning the lich king N'gash to his rightful state as ruler of Mordren.

And there are quite a few more.

My players have been campaigning in Mordren for months now. Thus far they have overcome a Hunger Games-esque gauntlet which kicked off the campaign, stopped a Yuan-ti cult in Undermord, and recently tracked down a stolen tome for Mordren University which was in the possession of a dark naga noblewoman.

The players have nearly all suffered multiple character deaths within the city's walls, and recently were too late in preventing the Archons from succeeding in their plan. Rather than raising N'gash from the dead, they shifted Mordren into a demiplane of shadow in the Shadowfell, and in the process killed all the members of the Mournvale as well as the Lady of Sorrow.

Review: John Carter

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:58:00 +0000

This weekend I undertook a trek to the cinema to catch John Carter. I understand there was a lot of derision aimed at this film when it was announced some months back. I kept an open mind going in, but being a movie buff, there were a couple of things that stuck out about it before its release. First of all, there's the fact that the movie came out in March as opposed to the summer blockbuster season. For a film that cost $250 million to make, this was not a good sign. Second, there's the fact that this film was a post-production 3D cut as opposed to being filmed in 3D. I can't attest to how the film might look in 3D, as I generally refuse to see post-production 3D edits (they're usually bad...Clash of the Titans, I'm looking at you!) So this review will only approach the film itself, rather than the 3D effects (but honestly I wouldn't expect too much from that.)

So, knowing these facts, and of course knowing how they changed a lot of things from the book after viewing the trailers, I didn't expect a lot going in. I'll go ahead and get it out there now before you read any further; if you are a purist of the book series, and won't accept anything less than a near word-for-word transition to the screen, you will be disappointed with this film. The crew was pretty liberal in how they handled the original source material. If you can get over that, then John Carter might be an enjoyable film for you.

Obviously for those familiar with the source material, you'll know that this story is more a science fantasy than science fiction. The basic scientific facts about Mars are ignored in this film, and rightly so. It's a fantasy for crying out loud. As to the story itself, while convoluted at times, it seems to work. I think that most who are not familiar with the original novel series might walk away from this movie not completely understanding the story. There's quite a bit of exposition involved, and much of it is presented poorly and in a confusing manner. The whole "show don't tell" is largely ignored in this movie. It's not as mind numbingly bad as The Last Airbender in that regard, but it's still pretty hollow.

Personally I think the time they invested in exploring the exposition of the world of Barsoom, and all its denizens, could have been better used to develop all the personal relationships between Dejah, Sola, the dog-thing, and John. The dog's unrelenting loyalty to John, while charming, is never fleshed out really. The scenes of dialogue between John and Dejah are wooden and hollow, for the most part. The introduction of the Therns in this film as a major plot element really didn't fit at all. When explaining (again through boring dialogue) why the Therns do what they do, it's basically a "for the hell of it" reason, which is pretty dumb. They do serve a role in getting John to and from Barsoom, which is different than the book, but in the film's climax, it is pretty satisfying.

The acting, for the most part, is pretty wooden. Taylor Kitsch does an alright job as Carter, but certainly nothing noteworthy. Lynn Collins as Dejah is only a step above. Honestly the most endearing character in the movie is Woola the dog-thing. Its unwavering loyalty to John is amusing, if not mysterious. Dominic West was probably the most disappointing in the film though. He played the conquering warlord Sab Than, and was about as out of place in this film as one can get. It's a real disappointment because anyone familiar with his work on The Wire will note that he truly is a fantastic actor, given the right role. Sab Than was certainly not the right role for him.

The effects in the film were very well done. Yes, the CGI representation of the Tharks was not even remotely convincingly realistic, but still were well done. At times the film seemed like a cartoon/live action hybrid film. The action sequences were by far the best parts of the movie. Watching John bounce around all over the place was pretty entertaining. I would have liked to have seen a lot more of the giant white apes than what we got (a rather hasty arena fight between John and two of the beasts.)

Overall I think the film hit really well in a lot of areas (action, decent effects, a quality representation of Barsoom on the screen) and missed in others (story, convoluted plots, villains who were neither noteworthy or intriguing.) It is what it is. A fun, family friendly science fantasy action adventure popcorn film. It's a good vs evil tale with good attention placed upon the pulpy nature of the source material, if not the underlying plot elements. Worth a trip to the movies, again, in 2D only.

Caves of Chaos Update: They Survived

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:56:00 +0000

If you've been reading the blog of late, you know that my wife and 10 year old daughter have been navigating the kobold lair in the Caves of Chaos, and as I pointed out in my previous entry, got themselves into a particularly bad spot losing 3 of the hirelings and forced to hole up in the food storage room. I posted an entry here on how some of you might handle the escape from the room (and the lair.) As it turned out, they managed to live and escape.

A few moments after they barricaded themselves in the room, they heard a knock. It was the cleric. Feeling around blindly in the dark, he managed to make his way to the food storage room. They moved the barrel they had propped against the door and let him in. Then they proceeded to devise a plan of escape. The elf, having infravision, was essentially the only one able to see down the long, dark cooridor, so they cracked the door open so she could get a peek. Sure enough, two of the kobolds were positioned behind some cover at the end of the hall, bows at the ready. They quickly closed the door, arranged some of the crates in the center of the room for their own cover, emptied one of the barrels of water, and proceeded with their plan. Much of it was flying by the seat of their pants.

After taking some time to prep some spells, the cleric opened the door. The thief, hiding in one of the barrels positioned behind the door, popped up and fired some arrows blindly down the hall. Some arrows were fired in response, striking the barrel, and nearly knocking her over in the process. They closed the door promptly realizing this was going to be more of a challenge than they might have forseen. After a few moments they heard a low gutteral voice speaking out in common echo down the hall, challenging them to open the door and reveal themselves.

They responded by bluffing. Attempting to convince the kobolds they had a few kobold children as prisoners in the room with them, the elf squealed out in her best kobold immitation, feigning death. At this point, I rolled an intelligence check for the chief (who was speaking to them, although they didn't know it at the time.) The chief failed his check, and falling for the bluff, he charged down the hallway. Once he came into view, the elf hit him with the sleep spell. The thief popped some arrows into him, while the cleric moved out into the hall (with a sanctuary spell castt), grabbed the chief to use as cover and dragged him into the room. They quickly tied him up, and when he awoke, essentially used him as a shield to ensure safe passage out of the caves.

Overall I was impressed with how they handled the situation being newbies to the game. While it may seem like old hat to most of the gamers who read this blog, watching new players figure out a clever means to escape a situation always impresses me as a DM. So, they have arrived back at the keep and live to fight another day.

How Might You Handle This Scenario?

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:02:00 +0000

Little red X's indicate the PCs in this room

Ok, since the recent discussion of "combat as sport vs combat as war" came up on Zak's blog and on Enworld, I was curious as to how some of you old school players might handle a particular situation my wife and kid have found themselves in our Caves of Chaos game here at home.

First some background. My wife is playing a thief, my daughter a magic-user. The above map is that of the kobold lair in B2, Keep on the Borderlands. The party originally consisted of the PCs, 2 fighters, and a cleric as well as a 0 level hunter who was their guide to the caves.

The PCs have been to every room except 5, where the kobold chieftain and his kobold bitches are. They've managed to wipe out all the kobolds in the caves except for 4 regular warriors, the women and children, and the chief and his harem. But basically most of the fighting kobolds are dead.

In our last session, things didn't go well for the party at all. They entered area 6, which is the common room with a shit ton of kobolds. The women and children were already huddled in the back of the room, while two kobolds stood at the entrance on either side, knowing the party was in the cave. They were set to pop some arrows at the party as they came down the hall.

The short of it is, the magic-user is out of spells. The cleric is out of spells. The two fighters and the guide died in this combat. The thief and magic-user fled and ran into room 3, the food storage room, which contains a couple of barrels of water, and some various food supplies, bones scattered on the ground, etc. 4 of the kobolds chased them, but they managed to get into the room and push the barrel up against the door. The kobolds tried, but couldn't get the door open. The party then heard the kobolds footsteps as they moved away from the door, and then...silence.

So, now the cleric is somewhere in the caves, but they don't know where...they don't know if he's alive or dead (he's still alive.) The rest of the NPCs are dead, and they are holed up in this room. They have no idea what awaits them on the other side.

My daughter's character has already determined to spend the 10 minutes required to memorize her sleep spell again. They both have standard adventuring gear: 50' rope, grappling hook, torches, rations, etc. At this point, they are ready to flee the caves fearing for their lives. But they don't know what awaits them when they open the door. They also have taken some wounds. They are both at 3 hit points. As a side note, they did not trigger the pit trap on the way into the cave, but they don't know it's there either.

So, I'm not sure I even have the readership to ask this question, but I'm throwing it out there anyway. If you were in their position, what would you do? Would you attempt to engage the kobolds in combat? Try to run out? What sort of plan might you come up with for escape?

Nice Hi-Res Caves of Chaos Maps

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:41:00 +0000

As some of you readers out there might know, I've been running my wife and 10 year old daughter through the original Keep on the Borderlands module to introduce them both to the game.  Zak linked me to his great one page dungeon map for Caves of Chaos whic has come in handy at the table for me.

Thanks to the wonders of Google+, I recently found a beautifully rendered high resolution map of the Caves of Chaos, perfect for printing or using on your laptop or tablet at the table. The map is available in various resolutions.

The maps can be found here.

The Blog Has a New Name

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:46:00 +0000

I decided to change the name of the blog in an effort to more accurately describe the blog to newcomers and visitors. I felt Black Hole Diaries in name alone did not really suggest to would be readers exactly what the blog is all about. The name Dungeons and D20s should more accurately reflect the nature of the blog here being that of D&D and other RPGs. So, if you're a regular reader and suddenly see this seemingly new blog pop up in your news readers or blogrolls, you'll know what's going on.

My Journey Into B2: Keep on the Borderlands

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:11:00 +0000

I'm almost ashamed to admit that up until recently I had never run or played in Gary's B2 module. I've never been a fan of modules in general other than for idea mining, and growing up, me and the guys never really played in any of them. We just created our own adventures for the most part unless we were crawling through Undermountain or Night Below.

I have read B2 over many times, particularly for Gary's advice on how to run an open-ended style game. To me B2 is perfect for that because it gives you an introductory method on how to run a mini-sandbox. After some years of playing, however, the generic ho-hum of the content never resulted in me actually playing or running the material within.

Now, with all that said, my daughter, who is now 10, sees me pouring over my D&D books, and reading things about the game. She's asked me several times if she could play, and I thought, what better way to introduce her to the game than B2? After all it has all the classic tropes (goblins, kobolds, ogres, orcs, etc.) and it's pretty much open-ended enough as a site that I could toy with it enough to make it my own. Plus, it would save me in having to prep for yet another game.

So, with that said, the wife decided she wanted to join in as a player too, and as she is fairly inexperienced with the game herself, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for us all to experience this module. I don't know, I kind of feel like just as inking your own dice, playing or running through B2 is sort of like a rite of passage into the game that we all should go through at least once, especially those of us with the mindset of an "old school" mentality.

So, the wife made a human thief named Lornella and the daughter made an elf mage named Aran. I threw in a NPC fighter (to give them a little muscle) named Crokus, and away we went. Eventually they met up with a cleric who is trying to retrieve an amulet from the kobold cave, a 0 level guide whom they paid to take them to the caves, and a hireling level 1 Fighter. We are now about 3 mini-sessions in, and they've been having a blast. Heading into the first delve into the cave was dangerous for them. As they went to enter into the kobold lair, they were ambushed. I decided that the kobolds would use a weighted net strung up in a tree to drop down on them then have a couple of archers in the trees to shoot any that might escape the net when it came down. Well, Lornella and Aran managed to dodge the net, but couldn't dodge those two arrows, and both got shot, and reduced to negative hit points in their first encounter.

Naturally I start to panic a little, as I really didn't want their very first taste of the game to be a TPK (although had it happened, oh well.) The cleric was stuck in the net and couldn't seem to get out round after round of trying. The kobolds jumped down from the trees and attacked Crokus and the other hireling, but eventually the cleric escaped and healed Lornella and Aran.

Now, they've managed to enter into the kobold lair, but haven't managed to get past the first entry area. A group of 6 kobolds, then the wandering kobold troops have kept them at bay and they've really had to focus on managing their resources. They've spent a lot of time in that one area provoking random encounters as they try to heal up and memorize spells.

I was a little concerned about my daughter playing a magic-user at 1st level. We all know that low level mages are often a liability in a game rather than an asset. She's gone down a couple of times, but she has never complained. She's even asked me a time or two "Did I die?" but not in a truly disappointed way, but more of a "I'll roll a new character up" kind of way.

All in all, it's been a great time. They've both been enjoying it, and it's a way for us all to experience B2 together. I'm not sure it will matter to my daughter in a few years, as she will likely grow up into her teens and forget D&D, but maybe one day she'll look back and be able to say, "oh yeah, I played in the original Keep on the Borderlands."

As a side note, I'd like to thank Zak. I asked if anyone had any legible maps of the caves of chaos on G+ the other night, and he responded linking me to his totally awesome one-page dungeon map he did of the caves. Really, really handy and has saved me tons of time at the table flipping through the module pages.

Anyway, as they continue to progress through the caves, I'll continue posting updates of their exploits.

What Motivates Your Players?

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:46:00 +0000

Sounds like a simple question really, and one that would seem easy to answer. What kind of rubbish is this? Players are motivated by killing things and taking their stuff. And yes ultimately no matter what kind of game you play in, that is at least one of the end goals, but it is often not enough to motivate your players, especially in a sandbox game.

I often hear the question raised, "how can I get new school players into older style or 'old school' gaming?" I think the key really boils down to one thing; how experience awards are handled. This one feature sets the tone for a particular style of play. You see, back in the day, when players sat down around the table, and began to seek adventure, they did so on their own, and the DM facilitated the world for them. This was because the players had a goal (kill things and take their shit and advance and become more powerful) and the goal was rooted in the process by which they attained it. Going up in level via experience points.

The older iterations of the game made it quite clear. You advanced in level and gained experience points primarily in two ways; killing monsters that were challenging to your level and by collecting treasure. Even up into the 1e DMG, Gygax held this to be true. In that guide he references the exchange of treasure, or gold pieces, into a converted ratio for experience and specifically pointed out that the treasure must be somehow carried out of the dungeon, not just found.

The change began in 2e, in which the game began to take a shift overall as a whole. It became less about gaining treasure and fighting monsters and more about that dreaded two-word-phrase "the story." In the 2e DMG the notion of awarding XP for treasure is resolved to a small blurb, highlighted in light blue, and annotated as an "optional rule for experience."

"As an option, the DM can award XP for the cash value of non-magical treasures. One XP can be given per gold piece, or equivalent, found."

As an option?! Seriously? So, the new school player (or those whose roots lie in ONLY 2e or editions that followed) have a clear reference on how the game should be. This is why the new school player will sit around, waiting for the DM's guiding hand to lead him to "the story." And when the DM doesn't do this (i.e. the old school DM), the game becomes lost in translation and can become a bit awkward. An example of how a typical adventure may start with an old school DM with new school players:

DM: Okay, you're at the Blazing Drunk Tavern enjoying drinks with your mates. A minstrel plays a lively tune in the common room. Patrons move to and fro eating and enjoying the evening. What are you doing?
New school player: Uhh....I have an ale.
DM: Okay, 1 copper. The keep brings you the ale. What else are you doing?
New school player: Uhh....*waits for DM to spoon-feed him "the story."*

A very similar exchange with old school DM and players:

DM: Okay, you're at the Blazing Drunk Tavern enjoying drinks with your mates. A minstrel plays a lively tune in the common room. Patrons move to and fro eating and enjoying the evening. What are you doing?
Old school player: I order an ale, slap the serving wench on the arse, and ask the keep if there are any rumors of this place.
DM: Okay, 1 copper. The keep brings you the ale. The serving wench slaps you in the face. The keep then tells you of some ruins just outside of town which are said to hold a golden jeweled crown worth a fortune.
Old school player: We head out tonight.

You see, the old school player doesn't need any other motivation than the notion of the possibility of fighting some shit and getting a treasure, because the treasure paves the way for the advancement. It is THE motivation to play. There is no need for them to sit around and wait for the DM to serve up the one ring to take to Mount Doom.

The key, when starting a new campaign, is to find the players who fit the style of game you want to run. There is nothing wrong with storylines in games. I use them myself. But make it clear from the on-set on how experience is gained and how level progression works. So, if you're running an old school style game, make it clear to the players, "hey, you level up by killing shit and taking treasure because each gold piece worth of treasure taken also equals that much in xp." If they are new school players, they might not get it at first, because it might not come natural to them. If you have someone more familiar with this style of play at the table it helps because they can guide the new school player, and really, it's so bloody simple they'll feel foolish for not catching on in the beginning once they see how it's done. The difference is being able to recognize what motivates the new school player vs the old school player.

To put it in a simple analogy, the new school player is all about the destination (the story) while the old school player is all about the journey.

So You Need an Idea for an Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:22:00 +0000

Yesterday one of my friends suggested we play some D&D over skype later in the evening. So, naturally I agree before thinking and then the "oh shit I need an adventure" hits me. I created this table a while back, mostly for writing purposes, but thought, what the hell, I'll give it a go. After a few random rolls I was able to come up with a pretty good adventure for the group. Unfortunately, we didn't get to play after all, because one of my friends got ill later on that night.

Here is a link to the table (hosted on Google Docs). Now, the original chart only had the first two tables, which I used last night to make my adventure. I added a third table on the chart this evening. Basically all you do is pick up a d100 roll it and consult the first table. Roll it again, consult the middle, then roll it a 3rd time and consult the 3rd table. Keep doing this several times. Write down your results. If you get something that sounds cool, write it down. Then go through, pick out the best ones, and you should have some good starting inspiration for an adventure.

I'll give you an example off the first couple of tables, of what I got. I rolled several times, but eventually came up with these usable combinations:

Sad Prince
Whorehouse of Decadence
Cathedral of the Fatal
Mute Bride
Charming Demon
Verses of Failure
Servant of Fear

Now, the tables as they are leave out the "of"s and "the"s. Just mix and match the words and let the imagination take over. When I began I knew this adventure would be city based, so I took what I thought could be most useful of what I rolled for that. So, out of those useful combinations I came up with the following notes which I scribbled down in a notebook:

"Sad Prince in disguise approaches PCs about rescuing his bride who is mute (now.) Tracked her down to Whorehouse of Decadence which is being run by a succubus (charming demon) named Absuroma. But first the PCs must infiltrate the Cathedral of the Fatal and steal the Verses of Failure which contain banishment ritual to banish her back to her plane."

So, a few rolls on the chart, some inspiration, and I have a couple of adventures to last at least 2 sessions. I added some more stuff as well once the ball got rolling. Like the fact that the Cathedral of the Fatal is being overrun by ghouls. Why? Because their is a priestess in the halls below the cathedral being held in a sleep like stasis because some BBEG harnessed her soul into a garnet stone and put it in a circlet which the priestess is wearing. So the ghouls are entering the cathedral through her dreams. Of course, this leads to even more plot hooks. Who did this to her and why, etc.

Anyway, the chart and tables are useful for brainstorming when the old adventure writing block demon strikes.

Planescape: Looking Back

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:40:00 +0000

I remember when Planescape came out back in 1994, it kind of changed things in D&D. In some ways this was good, and in others bad. I recall being a very narrow-minded teen at the time, and my first introduction to anything "Planescape" came in the form of an acquaintance named Joe. Joe was a power gamer, in the truest sense of the word. He was min-maxing before there was such a thing. My group of friends never were really into that aspect of the game. We always preferred to play characters from the PHB with actual real stats we rolled, with flaws, and who weren't indestructible superheroes. We liked to focus more on the roleplaying aspect of the game. As such, we never were big on munchkins entering our sessions.

Enter Joe. You see, Joe was playing (what else?) a tiefling. He had been running this tiefling with a few of his friends in the Planescape setting and wanted to enter our campaign. I had no idea what a tiefling was, and when he told me it was half-demon from the Planescape setting, I immediately put up a mental block for all things involving the setting. It had, in my opinion at the time, spawned a layer of such cheese that I refused to take it seriously as a campaign world. Of course, over the years I think the tiefling has developed in the game into something that truly epitomizes what old schoolers hate about the current iterations of the game, going from optional player characters in later editions, to a core race in 4e.

Now, that is not to knock anyone who enjoys playing tieflings. Truth be told, Joe could have been playing anything and it would have been irritating (especially considering he was toting around a vorpal blade of all things). My point here being Joe turned me off of the setting years ago because he was a munchkin, and due to my naivety I presumed that if Joe=munchkin playing tiefling from Planescape then Planescape must=cheesy power gamer setting. Having the chance to look back at it now and review some of the material I've found for it, I hate that I never gave it a shot, because it rocks...a lot.

Sigil, the City of Doors

Sigil, the home base for the setting, is a perfect example of introducing "weird" into a game. Basically the place at the center of the multiverse, with doors to anywhere in the prime material and outer planes, the possibilities within it are potentially endless. What really strikes me as amazing is the city's layout. Shaped in the form of a torus like ring, one can literally look up and see the city wrap around with buildings above them. The city wards themselves change at randomly making it really impossible to fully ever map. And of course, there are the doors themselves which lead to pretty much any plane of existence one can think of. Some being hidden, open, locked, etc. The possibilities for adventure in Sigil alone seem endless.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get to run Carcosa or not, but if it ends up being a "player dump" into that world, I can definitely see them traveling through Sigil. So, are there any Planescape gamers out there? Anyone ever used Sigil or any of the other Planescape elements in their campaigns?

The Blighted World of Zaoth

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:07:00 +0000

One of the projects I'm working on presently is a weird science-fantasy homebrew setting I'm calling the Blighted World of Zaoth. As such, I've decided to create a separate blog to devote to the development of the world, and use my blog here to focus on my thoughts on DM theory, DnD in general, and what have you. If you're interested, feel free to hop on over and take a peek. It's a bit bare at the moment, but content will begin showing up quickly.

The Blighted World of Zaoth - Blog

The Ape-Men of Tharr

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:47:00 +0000

Deep within the Forest of Tharr dwell the race of ape-men known as the Kuthar. They make their abodes high among the tree tops in wooden dwellings linked together by rope bridges. The ape-men are intelligent, but tribal by nature with a distinct warrior caste system. Fearless and strong in battle, they fashion their own crude weapons of stone and rock, but have developed the keen ability to utilize firearms, laser rifles, and other weapons and armor they have scavenged over the years from civilizations long forgotten as well.

The ape-men are rarely seen outside the Forest of Tharr, and while their pursuits are not those of conquest and glory outside their realm, they are extremely territorial and approach uninvited trespassers with force.

Rare is it to find an ape-man outside of Tharr, but occasionally a select few will end up wandering amongst the realms of men, often met with a combination of fear and distrust. In most instances, these Kuthar have been exiled from Tharr and cast out of the tribe, cursed to walk among men. These displaced ape-men often seek out mercenary work as armed caravan guards or, in the rare instance, as adventurers.

Summary of ape-men abilities and restrictions:

Armor: Any
Weapons: Any
Starting age: 17+1d4
Starting gold: 3d4x10
Classes: Fighter, Cleric
Ability score requirements: 12 STR, 12 CON
Stat modifiers: +2 STR, -2 INT and CHR
Bonuses and abilities: Infravision 30', +1 to hit with spears and any firearms, +3 saving throws vs. poison

Hexcrawling and Its Fundamental Use in Old School DnD Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:33:00 +0000

Previous entries: Part 1, Part 2.

In the last entry, I discussed creating the first 7 hexes including the starting location (usually a village or city, but could be any civilized area/feature) which is in the center, and at least 3 interesting locations outside of the starting location to explore.

Our starting map with 3 locations to explore

So, this next step requires a little bit of prep time, but don't spend too much time on any of the 3 locations (unless you have the time to do so, that is). We know we have some sort of tower in hex 04.05, a ruin in 05.03, and a monster lair of some sort in 04.03. This is the time for some brainstorming. If you've already taken the time to think of some places/NPCs your PCs are likely to encounter in the starting village (inns, taverns, local lords, sages, etc.) now is the time to start tying them into the surrounding locations.

Why do the NPCs know about the monster lair? Perhaps it is the home of an ogre who has been pillaging the farms of Windholm at night? Maybe the spot of a local group of bandits who have been hijacking merchants passing through, effecting the commerce in the village. Obviously these are quick and simple ideas, but they are presented to give you an example. Find some way to tie these locations into your starting location.

Jot down some starting notes on each location based on their hex:

04.03 - Lair of Hedgemog the Ogre (stats here in parenthesis) Has a group of hobgoblins working for him (stats for hobgoblins in parenthesis). At night Hedgemog wanders countryside (50% chance the PCs might catch him in his lair at night). During the day he sleeps in his lair and the hobgoblins protect him.

Now, if you have the time, you might want to draw out a quick map of the lair, key it with monsters, traps, etc. And you'll need to do this for at least the first level of each of the 3 locations, but no more than the first level of each location (if it has multiple levels). If you're pressed for time, try any number of free dungeon generator tools out there to get a layout for each location quickly, then key it up yourself.

The idea in the sandbox and/or hexcrawl is that the players have freedom of choice to go where they want and basically do what they want (and suffer the consequences therein), so you're going to want to ensure there is incentive for your PCs to want to explore at least one of the areas you've prepared. There are any number of ways to get your PCs going. Often most campaigns kick off in the common room of a tavern. How will the PCs know of these locations or learn of them? Why should they want to go there? Perhaps they are approached by an NPC offering payment to retrieve a MacGuffin from one of these locations. Or perhaps they just hear about one or more of them as prime unexplored locations ripe for plundering via rumors in the town.

Rumors are a great way to get the ball rolling in a sandbox, and in my opinion, offers the PCs the most flexible freedom of choice in what they choose to do. I would start off with 10-12 rumors with half of them being either completely false or only half-true, while the other half are completely true. Place them on a chart, and roll for one while they are in the tavern in the first night. If they actively seek out rumors, roll a die (d4 or d6, subtract reaction adjustment but no less than 0) to determine how many rumors they hear from various occupants of the town. Roleplaying these out can be great fun as well, and really bring the world alive for the PCs.

The key here is making them WANT to explore places you've prepared. If you don't make them appealing, chances are your PCs can wander off into areas you haven't really prepped yet, and then you're completely flying by the seat of your pants. Sometimes this can prove to be just as fun, and to be sure, there will always be a certain level of improvisation that goes into a sandbox or hexcrawl game anyway.

In the next post, I'll discuss topics relating to getting the PCs there (i.e. the actual crawl) from constructing random encounter tables, determining movement, weather, etc.

It's a Game, Not a Novel Played Out With Dice

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:01:00 +0000

Alexis has a great post up today about player agency, using NPCs based on behavior and motivations, and how that can, and should, define the "narrative" within a DnD game. I'm not going to attempt to personally attack Alexis here, so I hope it's not perceived as such, but he is a rather controversial figure here in our little blogging world. Most of his posts, despite what can be looked at as written with a somewhat pretentious attitude, are interesting, informative and entertaining to read. Despite his somewhat contemptuous and misanthropic demeanor in our little corner of the world, he quite often has these moments of genius which make you look back and say "fuck yeah!" and this is one such moment.

There is often this perception that the "sandbox" cannot co-exist with the "story narrative" in DnD. I believe, however, that the two are so intertwined that neither element can be successful without the compliment of the other one. The modern day RPG focuses on "paths" and "storylines" in which there are defined encounters or events that are going to happen no matter what the PCs do. These narrative railroads essentially lead the PCs down a trail where the DM is the storyteller, and the players little more than kids sitting around the campfire, listening, and maybe rolling some dice here and there.

In the sandbox, however, there are an infinite amount of storylines happening all over the place. The ones the PCs choose to get involved with, should have meaningful consequence based on the choices they make as players. Otherwise, why bother with the game? The sandbox isn't about simply going from hex to hex, or dungeon to dungeon, fighting goblins and collecting treasure. Of course, they could be, and many are, but that doesn't make for any more of a meaningful experience for a player than a railroaded storyline. At least in the storyline, interesting things are happening.

Rather, the sandbox and the story should co-exist and feed off of one another. There are factions, and people, in the world that are trying to do different things. If the PCs suddenly become a part of that, then their choices should have some consequence, but ultimately they should have the choice. And those choices might not always lead to rousing success. In DnD, just as in life, sometimes you fail. There will be moments when your PCs will do something, or not do something, which might result in some pretty severe consequences, perhaps even death for the character(s). If you utilize NPCs, especially villain NPCs based on their behaviors (rather than as a means to satisfy a story you have concocted) then you are showing the PCs a living and breathing world, one in which their actions, or lack thereof at times, matter...at least in terms of whatever plot, or story, you might have them engaged with.

Could those actions have world changing consequences? Maybe. Could those world changing consequences have a significant impact on the game? I'd say definitely. Death Frost Doom is a great example of this. If the PCs follow a certain series of choices in that adventure, they will unleash a horde of undead onto the land. We've all seen play reports on this module in which that was the case. Would that be a world changing event? Damn right it would be, and if so, let it be.

To illustrate this, I'll use an example of how I am using NPC behavior and player choice/consequence in my current game, rather than just letting an event happen for the sake of the storyline. In our very first session of my current campaign, the PCs were tasked with retrieving a certain MaCguffin. They needed to raid a thieves guild warehouse to get it. They failed in this. So what happened? The villain NPC who was trying to get said MaCguffin was able to get it before the PCs. The result of the NPC having retrieved this MaCguffin had some pretty dire consequences. Within the sewers below the city, this villain was able to unleash a horde of undead which threatened the security of the city. When the PCs managed to return, they had to fight through a group of undead to eventually find the NPCs lair in the sewers. They were, unknown to them in our last session, one room away from tracking him down. So what did they decide to do? Well, being severely depleted of resources and hit points, they decided to rest, heal some wounds, and memorize some more spells. Now, I could have the NPC still waiting on them in the next room, ritual dagger in hand ready to sacrifice a victim just as the PCs enter (that would be the case in a story driven module where player agency matters little), but the PCs made the choice to rest. The NPC knows they are there. They have severely put a dent in what he was trying to do. But if he knows they are there, he isn't going to wait in his chambers for them to walk right in and defeat him. So, in the midst of their rest, he will make an escape, and be successful. Why? Because based on the circumstances and choices the players made, this is the behavior he would illicit in response. He is, by the way, leaving behind a summoned demon from the Abyss to slow them down.

As Alexis stated in his blog post, the narrative for DnD is, and never should be, a predefined set of events. If you know what will happen in the end, why bother playing? The fun in the game is NOT knowing what will happen, and giving the players the freedom to define for themselves, through play, what their destiny will be.

Goals for 2012 or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:48:00 +0000

2011 wasn't exactly a banner year for me personally, but in terms of gaming it turned out to be a fairly landmark one. For the first time in over a decade I started gaming again on a regular basis. I also discovered the OSR late in 2010 which really helped to spark and rekindle my passion for gaming in general. The fact that there's this entire group of like-minded gamers who love and appreciate classic gaming pushed me to get back to the dice. Oftentimes I wondered if this was some sort of early mid-life crisis, but I don't think so, and if it is, so what? I've been having a blast gaming again with my old crew, and that's all that matters. And as to this last year in the blogging world, I thank all of you in this whole OSR thing for providing me with inspiration and a greater understanding of the game we all know and love. I follow many of you in the scene, and stand amazed by the things I read daily, so thank you for that.

I'm not going to continue railing on about the past year on my blog, and all about different posts I wrote, because, well...frankly, you probably don't care anyway, and who could blame you? I probably wouldn't carer either, were I in your position as the reader here. Rather I'm going to state out some goals I have for the upcoming year, both for myself and for the blog here.

Read at Least 3 Appendix N Works

Finding time to read anymore has become a tedious task it seems. I have read quite a bit from the Appendix N list over the years, but I'd like to read more. I am almost ashamed to admit I've never read Vance's Dying Earth series. I know, I know, this is borderline heresy, but I plan on correcting that this year. I'm also planning on reading more Moorcock, specifically his Hawkmoon books, and finishing up the Amber series. Some of these books I already have in print, and the others I'm hoping I can find e-book editions for so maybe I can get some use out of this Nook Color I bought a few months ago. And, of course, I will continue my reading of REH and Lovecraft, both of which have been large influences for me already.

Finish a Project and Make it Available

I've started a few projects here and there, but they eventually fell by the wayside as my interests began varying here and there. One example is the megadungeon project I was working on, Dreadrock. This fell on the backburner for several reasons, but primarily because much of the time I spend on developing gaming material is for my own campaign, and because Dreadrock wasn't a part of my current gaming campaign, it sort of dropped off the map for me. That and the fact that designing a megadungeon is a monstrous and laborous task, and one I probably didn't fully understand when I decided to begin the project. I can understand why there are so few published megadungeons available. I suppose the best way to develop one is through sessions of playing, and while I've played in my share of megadungeon crawls, it would be easier to develop the thing during play, or for an actual campaign I'm running. Perhaps one day I'll return to the task and complete it. Either way I would like to provide some form of completed work, be it a module, hexcrawl setting, or something else, and make available for others in the OSR. I think for me, just finishing something would be a start.

Blog More

As you have probably noticed by looking at my archive timeline on the right, there have been large gaps where I haven't really posted on the blog. There are various reasons for this, and while I have had prolonged periods of not writing, I have still been reading. So, one goal I have for the new year is to blog more often. At least 3 times per week. It's strange because I feel I have gotten to know so many people in the OSR simply by reading their blogs. In some sort of surreal fashion you begin to get an idea of these bloggers' personalities and tastes just from reading what they write daily. I find this connection even more satisfying than social network sites like Google+. Maybe I'm just old school that way, but at any rate, I intend to blog more, and comment more on the blog entries I read daily.

Try Something New

I really want to do this in 2012. I love DnD, don't get me wrong, but to get a chance to run or play in something like Carcosa. LotFP, Stars Without Number, or Mutant Future would be a much welcome change of pace for me. It's not that my current group isn't open to such a thing, but more due to the fact that the mundane intricacies of life have made it difficult to get together more than once or twice a month, and when we do, we almost feel obligated to play in our current campaign. I don't want gamer ADD to overtake me completely to the point where I'm not running my main DnD campaign, but I'd like to take a chance on something new at least once this year. Carcosa has intrigued me quite a bit, but then again, who hasn't been intrigued by Carcosa?

Play in a Google+ Game

For many, DnD is a social game. It provides many of us the opportunity to meet new people and socialize, but for me that is not really the case. While I have nothing against meeting new people and making friends, the idea of playing games randomly with people I've never actually met seems...strange to me. Perhaps it stems from playing with essentially the same group of friends for nearly two decades. I'm not sure, but I do know there are many of you out there who blog and whom I find interesting and often think, "man I'd love to play in a DnD game with that person," and now that chance is available with the Google+ thing, and Zak's whole Constantcon movement which he helped propel. I just need to take the leap, as I'm sure it would be something I'd really enjoy.

So, obviously I have a lot I'd like to accomplish over this next year. If I can somehow manage to do even half these things, I'd consider the year a success as far as my gaming/blogging life is concerned. I wish you all the best in the new year, and thanks for a great 2011.

Hexcrawling and its Fundamental Use in Old School DnD Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 04:46:00 +0000

Second in my series on the hexcrawl campaign in DnD. See the first post here.

So, most people know that the premise of the hexcrawl is pretty much a central and fundamental factor in a "sandbox" style campaign. The sandbox being, a world within which your PCs are free to explore, plunder, and do with as they wish at their own discretion. Now, I could go on in another entire direction here discussing the elements of the sandbox as a whole, but right now I'm just focusing on the fundamentals of a hexcrawl and the basic elements to start one.

There are hundreds of posts on forums and blogs that go into much greater detail into the fine art of designing a hexcrawl and world building than what I will offer up here. Rob Conley, for example, has a fantastic series of posts going in depth on world building and designing your hexcrawl campaign worlds. Even if you don't plan on using his method, I'd still highly recommend having a read through because there is a ton of valuable information in those posts. There are others as well to be sure, and chances are if you're reading this, you have your own ideas of the best ways to go about designing a hexcrawl. By no means is the method I am suggesting, or the advice I am offering the ONLY way to design such, it's just MY way of doing so. It works for me. Maybe it will work for you as well.

As I noted in my first entry, the first step is to draw a map. Sounds pretty simple. If you're like me, however, designing great maps can be frustrating. I've drawn hundreds over the years, and never seem satisfied with the results. There are all sorts of theories that go behind world building and terrain placement relative to regions, etc. I'm just going to keep things simple for this exercise. You might opt to sketch out a rough drawing of your map on a scrap piece of paper beforehand, or maybe you just want to wing it. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I'm going to focus on designing the hexcrawl using the least amount of effort initially. If you're like me, you already have a busy life, and while designing campaign worlds is a great way to spend your time as a hobby, you don't want to spend countless hours on world building and writing up histories and details about far away and distant lands your PCs might never encounter. One basic rule of campaign design for me: focus on the immediate areas/regions my PCs will be engaged in prior to each session.

So, let's get right down to business then. The first step is to get the initial hex map ready for where you're going to start the campaign. You can either print a blank one out and draw in the details yourself, or use a program like hexographer to do it on the computer. In this exercise I'm going to just use hexographer. Now, mind you, it will take some time playing around with this to get the full use of the program, but the free version is an excellent utility for mapmaking and comes highly recommended.

In the first step, we'll start out very basic here. Enough to get your wheels turning and start getting you ready for that first session. Whether you printed off a map, or are using hexographer, or any other utility, you always want to start your mapping for the campaign from the center most hex. This way, as your players explore in whatever directions they might choose, you have plenty of room to go in and add features to your already existing map.

To make things simple, let's simply start out with 7 hexes, with each hex equal to 6 miles. One center hex, and 6 surrounding hexes.

7 starting hexes

In the above picture we have the central hex with the 6 surrounding hexes with grassland hills, a light forest, and a forested hills, with a river, which forks, running down the center. Now, that we've placed our basic terrain features we need to determine what exactly are in these hexes that our adventurers are going to want to explore? So, let's start by adding 4 basic features to the map. A starting village (in the center hex), a ruin, a tower, and a monster lair. Fairly basic components just to give you the idea.

Our original hexes with some areas for the PCs to explore

In the center hex, we have the village of Windholm, which sits along the river, as well as a set of ruins not far away, a monster lair in the forested hills, and a tower of some sort in the grassy hills to the south. So already you have 4 areas for your PCs to explore, although they'll certainly focus on the 3 areas most ripe for adventure outside the starting village. Jot down the hex number on a piece of paper, or word document and write a brief description of that hex's details. For example:

04.04 Windholm - Small fishing village located along the Southling River. Population 80. Ruled by a town council of elders led by Sumerus Halfhand (LG hf9)

Of course, the above is simply an example. You want to write out as much detail as possible in your notes. You might want to consider drawing a map of the village, or just doing a short write-up of the major locations your PCs are likely to encounter (inns, taverns, etc.) and the NPCs they are likely to interact with. No need to get too crazy with the details though. It doesn't matter if Farmer Goldenwheat has a bag of 10 silver pieces hidden under a hay pile in the barn. These things are simply filler and can be made up in the game as you go. Focus on the important stuff, and go from there.

In the next post, I'll talk about fleshing out the areas for your party to explore, getting them to learn about the areas, and a bit about traveling to them.

Hexcrawling and its Fundamental Use in Old School D&D Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:47:00 +0000

The first in a series of posts whereby I discuss the merits of the old school hexcrawl.

In new school era games (3e, 3.5, 4e, etc.) when PCs are expected to travel long distances to get to their next destination, it might be typical for a DM to say "after a week long travel you all arrive at 'destination x,' subtract a week's rations," for the sake of "moving the story along." That's fine and dandy and all, and maybe the players want that at times, but let's face it, in a world of medieval/weird/apocalyptic fantasy, "getting there" is half the battle. That's the difference between the old school game and the new school era, video game centric scaled "encounters" in modern RPGs. In the old school, it's not always about the destination, but more about the journey. After all, in a fantastic setting peopled with monsters and magic, all kind of things can happen when the PCs are moving through the wilderness, even if they take a populated and well traveled road.

In my present game, it won't be long before the party gets a clue to what will likely be their next destination, should they follow that path of course. They could certainly choose to ignore it, but most likely they won't. As such, the journey will take them almost a month, on horseback, even if they take the main road. In a world of fantasy, a lot can happen in a month's time. So, in essence, they'll be doing some hexcrawling for a while. Maybe even a few entire game sessions. A lot can happen on the way to town.

Hexcrawling has been covered in great detail all over the OSR blogging world. There is already a wealth of information on the subject. While some may argue semantics, at its heart hexcrawling is similar to dungeon crawling, except the "crawl" takes place above ground, often in wild, and relative uncivilized lands where lots of interesting things might happen. It becomes even more dangerous at times than the dungeon crawl, with the probability of getting lost, running out of food, or encountering creatures and people well above the level of the party.

If handled properly, a wilderness hexcrawl can be an exciting and engaging part of your campaign that will be just as enjoyable (maybe even moreso) than the "story" you have presented them with. So, here is my take on the hexcrawl, some pointers on how to make it engaging, and keep your players' interest in the game.

First, the basic elements of what you need for a hexcrawl are pretty much considered universal.

- A numbered hexmap of the area (preferably with hexes representing 5 or 6 miles...I like to use 6 miles) with various land and terrain features like hills, plains, scrublands, marshes, forests, mountains, radioactive volcanoes, or whatever suits your flavor.

- Populate the hexmap with some interesting locations/events the PCs will discover if they enter the hex. Basically you're creating a key corresponding to the number of the hex you want the feature to be located in. Obviously, at first you want to focus on the immediate areas around the hex your party will start from. There is no need to fully flesh out some ancient ruin 20 hexes away which your PCs might never encounter. Keep focused on what's immediately ahead of you for the time being, as it will save you hours of unnecessary prep time. When you're initially doing this, just make small notes about the features, and worry about fleshing out major details, drawing dungeon maps, etc. until later on. In some cases, you're just going to have to wing it.

- Create random encounter tables. Depending on the terrain or area, you might roll for an encounter 3 times a day or 6 times. This is usually up to the DM to determine, although there are guides for such. The 2e DMG has a table which gives the encounter chance, number of encounters to roll per day and what not based on the terrain type the PCs are passing through. Random encounter tables can be simple with say only 6 options if triggered, or as complex as 100. This is up to you. Obviously the less time you spend on the encounter tables, the less diverse the random encounters will be.

Traveling over long distances for PCs can be tedious. It's up to the DM to keep things entertaining and engaging for the players. Random encounters or hex features designed for your party to find should be engaging for some reason. Perhaps the PCs will discover a village in the next hex they travel to. But let's say that village is cursed, and its citizens can't leave the village. The PCs can investigate and maybe find the source of the curse lies in a barrow just outside of town. Perhaps they'll be led to free the village from the curse at the rumor of some hidden treasure in the barrow.

These types of encounters can lead to little mini-adventures on their own, and can make the hexcrawl something the players will remember and actually WANT to be engaged in. What you want to avoid is dragging out a pointless journey with uninteresting events i.e. "you travel for half a day, you're attacked by goblins (roll out stupid pointless combat), you take up watch for the night, you encounter some wolves (roll out stupid combat), you wake up and head out again," wash, rinse and repeat...boring. Make the journey count, and make it interesting.

It's Here and It's Awesome:THE HOBBIT Trailer HD

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:59:00 +0000

Tavern Game: Rot Grub Roulette

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:41:00 +0000

Within the lower quarters of Blackspire it is not uncommon to find patrons of the local taverns engaged in one of the more strange of games, and one of the most dangerous; rot grub roulette. Two players sit opposite one another, blindfolded, their left forearms exposed, with their right arm tied to the chair behind their backs. The mediator takes 6 small wooden cylindrical containers and shuffles them back and forth on the table. Within 5 of the small wooden containers are pairs of harmless maggots. One of them, however, contains a pair of burrowing rot grubs.

Each round the two men place bets and the mediator dumps the contents of one container onto one player's forearm. The player, not knowing if he has been exposed to the rot grub or not, must wait 5 full minutes with onlookers jeering and howling along. This process is repeated between the players with the stakes getting higher each round as one more wooden container with harmless maggots is taken away making the probability of being exposed to a grub even higher.

No onlooker may attempt to prevent a rot grub from burrowing if exposed, nor douse the player's arm with fire. If a player manages to free his right arm and do this himself, he is immediately taken outside, beaten and cast aside as a useless craven (if the beating he suffers does not kill him.) Indeed it is often said that it is better to die from the rot grub than to feel the merciless beating of an angry drunk Blackspire mob.

The game ends when one man decides to quit, losing all his earnings, or one man dies.

Cormyr Campaign Update or When Actions Have Consequences

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:05:00 +0000

So, when you're running a sandbox style game as opposed to a railroad adventure, one of the big things that sets it apart is the fact that your PC's actions will have consequences. This is all too often forgotten in the sandbox game. Because unlike a railroad adventure where the PCs will always pop into the room with the evil mage right smack in the middle of sacrificing the virgin, the sandbox is a different animal altogether. In the sandbox, you have a world, full of NPCs and villains and what all and they all have their own plots, schemes and motivations, and shit is happening in the background. Sometimes it's major world changing shit, and sometimes it's not so grand, but the point is, when your PCs act, or DON'T act, their should be consequences and those consequences should affect them.

If you have been following my Cormyr Campaign series of blog posts, you probably recall that in the first session, the party had an opportunity to find a pretty powerful artifact (although they didn't know it at the time, of course.) Unfortunately for them, they botched this effort and were sent on a wild goose chase through the Stonelands outside of Tilverton. In the time it took them to make their way back into the city (after discovering that their original retainer was basically a bad guy) a lot of shit went down.

So, in sum, they made their way through the goblin smuggling tunnels from the Stonelands back to the sewers of Tilverton. Cleverly disguised as bandits with a passphrase to get into the thieves guild controlled sewer system which they retained from a bandit encounter, they were ready to get back into the fray and find this thing before it fell into the wrong hands. They were too late. Instead of tracking down this thing (which they learned a little about while in the Stonelands), they were greeted by undead...who were multiplying rapidly.

After an encounter with a Purple Dragon patrol in the sewers, they discovered several things had happened in their absence. First, all of the priests from the friendly temples in Tilverton had been murdered almost simultaneously. The undead had begun ravaging the sewers and some were making their way to the city streets as well. The Purple Dragons had uncovered that the ancient crypts, sealed up long ago, had been breached from the inside. Something blew the seal open, and it was believed the source of this chaos, whatever it was, was stemming from somewhere within the crypt.

So, this now leaderless Purple Dragon patrol (their sergeant killed earlier by said undead) were commanded by one of the PC's (a hedge knight in Cormyr) to accompany the party into these crypts to investigate. Along the way, the party discovered a secret temple devoted to Myrkul within the crypts with lots of evil necromancer types, a few undead, and a group of stone guardian golems (which almost resulted in a TPK.) As the session ended, they were spending time resting and recouping in the crypts attempting to gain some strength (and lost hit points) before pressing forward. Their resources nearly depleted (most spells cast, hit points low, etc.), they now face the dilemma of spending valuable time restoring resources or pressing forward. They choose to restore their resources. Again, this action has consequences. One they'll discover in the next session in the form of a 7 hit dice abomination summoned from the Abyss.

Shit has hit the fan in Tilverton, and the more the PCs delay, the closer they come to losing the city. Because their actions have consequences.

Thoughts on the New Carcosa

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:18:00 +0000

But it's not really "new" you say. It's just repackaged and made more awesomer. Yeah, yeah...maybe. First let me say, it might not be fair to call this a review since I haven't bought the product, and probably won't. Not because I don't love the idea of Carcosa...believe me I do. It's just that the product is absolutely so niche, that I can't see myself investing the money to purchase the new totally awesomest version. Not now at least...maybe that will change.

As much as I love the idea of Carcosa, I am not sure I could run a long-standing sustainable campaign using the setting. Not because I'm not able to do so, but more so because my players would have a difficult time getting into such a weird setting/game. I have mentioned it to them a time or two. Some sounded enthused to try something new, but as one of my players put it best, "sounds like it would be something fun for a one-shot, but not really long-term." That pretty much sums it up. And while that one-shot would likely be fun as hell, I can't invest the money the new version of Carcosa demands just to let it sit and collect dust on my shelf after a one-nighter. See Carcosa, as glorious as it is, is quite different from my previous LotFP investment; Vornheim. Because I use Vornheim at pretty much every session. Because Vornheim has a generic appeal and use for any city-based gaming situation (even though the content about the oddities of Vornheim is amazing as well.) With Vornheim, Zak produced something that could essentially be used by anyone despite the type of campaign they were running. Obviously you could pick and choose what you want to use and integrate into your own campaign with Carcosa as well, but that's really not the best way to get the most use out of the material. And I only bring Vornheim into the discussion here because it is also a LotFP published product, and the only LotFP product I have bought.

Just from sampling the PDF preview I can surmise that James and Geoff put a lot of time and effort into the product. Much of it was easy because, well...the material was already written 3 years ago, but the repackaging and addition of the art really does a service in bringing Carcosa's dark and vivid imagery to life. Carcosa is, in my opinion, probably the epitome of what old-school gaming in D&D is really all about. It's basically a melting pot of EVERYTHING that inspired the game from Appendix N. It's as if Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Vance, and H.P. Lovecraft were all merged together into one Frankensteinian creation, threw up on some paper, and out came Carcosa (not meant in an insulting way at all, for what it's worth.)

At its heart, what really makes Carcosa intriguiging are the sorcerous rituals. I mean, the setting, and the rules are all interesting and strange enough on their own, but people know Carcosa because of the sorcery rituals describing child rape and virgin sacrifices. Again, this hearkens back to the old pulp days when sorcerers really were despicable villains. I'm not going to sit here and rail on about how awful the content is, or how this should not appeal to anyone with any sense of morals. I really don't think that's the case. After all, no one will hold a gun to your head if you change the content up and maybe don't use or change that ritual requiring the sacrifice of some kids. Carcosa could be enjoyed without using these details, to be certain. But at its heart, these controversial areas really define Carcosa, so to NOT include them, really does little to echo the dark and desperate nature of the world. In other words, if you're not going to use them, just run something of your own creation...or maybe Gamma World, or Mutant Future...or Greyhawk. In the same ways that the controversy of these elements brought attention upon the supplement, they are also integral in using it to its full effect. And to James' credit, he did include some of the excerpts about the rituals in the preview, so it's not as if anyone who purchases the product will be blindsided.

Reflections on 9/11

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 06:25:00 +0000

It's hard to believe it's been 10 years already. My how a decade can pass by. Everyone has a "where were they on 9/11" story. Many people were at work, or going about their daily lives, staring in horror as that second plane hit the second tower, knowing their world would be forever changed. And when the towers did collapse it sent a message to America. One that we hadn't really thought of in the comforts of our white picket fenced suburban homes; we are not invulnerable after all.

My morning began unlike most on that day. While it was morning in New York, it was evening where I was; just finishing up a 12 hour shift in Cairo West Air Base in Egypt. I was part of an Air Force Security Forces unit deployed to Egypt for the Bright Star exercise. Our mission was to provide real world security to the joint services involved in the exercise. We were sitting in our HMMWV waiting to be relieved after a long day patrolling the flight line when one of the troops came out of the BDOC to show us the article he'd printed out about the attacks that had just taken place. My partner and I stared in awe at the picture of the first smoking tower. It was almost unbelievable at first. We thought initially it was some part of the exercise. Then the second tower hit, and things went crazy all over. We were rushing all around the base trying to get everyone into what little hardened facilities we had. The next few days were the longest days of my life...well save for one other instance which I won't get into in this post.

In many ways though, I was really removed from what was going on. Communication into and out of our location was strict and it became even moreso after the attacks. While we were engaged in our mission in Egypt, our world was changing drastically back home. It wasn't until I returned in November of that year that it fully sank in. My wife telling me about all the media coverage. About all the people that died that day and their stories and how gut wrenching it all was.

I tend to keep my political beliefs out of the blog here, and I won't really delve into it. Debates have raged for years on the topic from a political standpoint. Did we deserve it? And even, were we really behind it? I'm not a conspiracy theorist myself. To me what is important to remember on this day is the fact that we lost so many. It is their lives that we should remember, not the causes or aftermath. I know I will never forget.

Thoughts on The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:58:00 +0000

There are many in the Lovecraft camp who cringe at the phrase "Cthulhu mythos." It is, after all, a phrase invented and perpetuated by August Derleth after the death of Lovecraft, and was never categorically used by Lovecraft himself to describe his works. While the phrase has become snared in controversy over the decades since its inception, it is still the most recognizable phrase to detail the works and legends surrounding much of Lovecraft's body of work.

Lovecraftian purists might only look at the works of the author as their sole point of canon for the mythos, and that is fine, but it should be noted that throughout his prose writing days, he shared many terms and ideas with other authors of the time. This group, who became known as the "Lovecraft circle" included August Derleth, as well as a few others, and Lovecraft did indeed encourage Derleth's writing.

While many scoff at how Derleth changed the mythology to suit a "good vs evil" take, as opposed to the mysterious and ambiguous motivations behind the creatures in Lovecraft's own writing, much of Derleth's ideas have become just as deeply incarnated in the mythology as Lovecraft's original works. It wasn't just Derleth who dabbled in the mythos, however. Literally hundreds of writers have had a turn in Lovecraft's world, and the results have been at times convoluted and contradictory.

I want to mention also that I don't find myself a fan overall of Derleth's works, or the works of other writers who have dabbled in Lovecraftian lore. When I read Lovecraft's works, I get a distinct vision in mind of how he wants the story to come across, and personally when I read anything from the mythology, I prefer to stick to pure Lovecraft.

A few months back, my wife bought me a copy of The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia by Daniel Harms. I was skeptical of the volume at first, although very appreciative of the thought to pick it up by my wife. She likes to indulge my eccentricities if, at times, she never fully understands them. Despite my initial skepticism, I must say, I've been rather impressed with it thus far. My hat goes off to Mr. Harms for taking the time to pour over thousands of pieces of fiction, essays, and correspondence between Lovecraft and his peers.

It would be difficult, and probably nigh on impossible, to compile a truly consistent "encyclopedia" of the mythos, and Harms essentially acknowledges as much in his foreward saying:

...it represents one person's perspectives on the present state of the phenomenon known as the "Cthulhu Mythos" - a collection of fictional monsters, books, places, people, and other elements which weave together the works of Howard Philips Lovecraft and other authors through a stream of common reference- in all of its glorious confusion.

The encyclopedia takes works of the mythos from a variety of sources, including the Call of Cthulhu RPG, as a frame of reference. It has various entries on the people and places which have shown up in Lovecraft's own stories, as well as those of his peers. Detailed descriptions of various monsters and entities throughout the mythology are present, as well as a list of all the people known to possess a copy of the Necronomicon in the fiction. I will say, that in no shape or form should this volume replace the original pieces of fiction which inspired it. Rather it serves as a good reference point for those interested in the mythos.

From a gaming perspective, this book is a gem. It is literally a treasure trove of ideas, plots, places, items, monsters, and people which could easily serve as inspiration for a great session of role playing, and not just in a Call of Cthulhu game either. I would say anyone interested in incorporating a little bit of Lovecraftian weird into their role playing, go out and pick up this book. It can be had on Amazon for around $15 for the softcover. And for those of you running actual Call of Cthulhu games, or games inspired directly from such (i.e. LotFP), the Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia is a must have.

Blackspire: The Sisters of Despair

noreply@blogger.com (RobChandler) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:39:00 +0000

More info on my little homebrew project I'm working up in the city of Blackspire, which I detailed in a previous entry.

The Sisters of Despair

These bitches will eat your heart out...literally

Deep within the vaulted crypts below the city, in a small hidden alcove, the Sisters of Despair work their heinous magics and sorceries seeking to cause turmoil and strife to the city and its citizens.

This covey of Annis hags, known as Helsha, Gryhmgas, and Myrva, have repeatedly been at the heart of several assassination plots of many of the members of the ruling Selectorate. Presently they have at least three dopplegangers in positions of power within the aristocracy, each equipped with a hag eye enabling the witches to keep an eye on their foes, and plot and scheme for their next victims.

Although their presence is known, few have dared to enter into the crypts to seek them out, and those who have, never returned. Within the confines of their lair, the witches have created a multitude of undead servants for protection including many ghouls, wraiths and spectres.

Occasionally the hags will sneak out of their lair, one posing as a beautiful prostitute to lure victims into shadowy alleys under the proposition of ecstasy. Once they have lured the unsuspecting victim, the other two will attack, dragging their prey into the sewers where he will be devoured and eaten, or worse, brought back to the lair for unspeakable and horrific experiments.

The hags have yet to break through the magical Obsidian Citadel to infiltrate the Black Cloaks, although they are constantly seeking to gain influence into the archwizard circle.