Into the Hexes and Discoveries

When designing a campaign in which everything revolves around a single dominant theme, in this case the underworld of the Bleak Beyond, it is important to have motivations for the players and their characters to work outside of the central theme from time to time.

For a dungeon-centric campaign such as mine, this work outside of the theme would of course involve the wilderness around the Bleak Beyond. In OD&D the term “wilderness” refers to everything on the surface, so in this case it includes the starting town of Tenborough Hold as well as the whole of the Unbidden Lands in which the campaign is set.

While making notes for the Unbidden Lands, I wondered “Why would the players decide to explore the Wilderness?” Aside from being sent on a wild goose chase by an NPC, or to seek out a healing herb for their stricken party-mate or some other Ref-induced quest into the wilderness, was there a motivation for the party to set out, “into the hexes”, of their own accord?

For the Unbidden Lands, there is such motivation. The notion is that through exploration the characters have the opportunity to unlock game features by making Discoveries. Visiting the Town of Skinny Creek enables trade with the Hobbits there, and access to Hobbit Cuisine. Finding the Elves of the Worn-Wood enables trade and gives access to enchanted Elf Wine and other unique wares. Locating the Dwarven hold at Pinching Gorge likewise allows access to special works of craftsmanship.

Farther out in the Unbidden Lands, characters can discover more game material. Traveling to the Shrouded Mere will permit Aelfar as player characters. The same for unlocking playable character races with the Dvergar at Scrag Rock, the Doende at Lonely Crag, the Irklings at Itching Wood, and even the Troldekin, although the latter are only unlocked by entering the Supreme Citadel of the Morkevagten in the dungeon itself. Each area of discovery holds more game material, including access to such things as new spells and even more race specific resources for the adventurers.

In the end, the players have a chance to realize greater opportunities and resources by taking the initiative and going into the hexes. Ultimately such travels will pay-off for future plunges into the Bleak Beyond. Refs will likewise have the chance to flesh out the Unbidden Lands further, allowing groups who wish to feel the sun on their faces some time breathing fresh air for a change.

All of these Discoveries will be defined and described in greater detail as the whole project moves forward. For now I must continue to concentrate on the How to Play portion and finish up the various d00 tables which fuel the inner workings of the Bleak Beyond.

~Sham

Experience by Plundering

In my most recent post I touched on a number of unusual methods in which the dungeon itself figures into the rules of advancement for my latest project, the Bleak Beyond. I received plenty of thoughts and feedback on the Accomplishments portion of that post, but I am wondering how readers feel about the fact that I am considering expunging the tried and true notion of Experience Points in favor of the proposed Experience by Plundering approach:

Experience by Plundering

Characters gain one experience level whenever they are a member of an expedition which makes off with a Treasure Trove, by successfully returning with it to town, providing the loot was plundered from a dungeon level which is of equal or greater value than the character's own current level.

For more specifics you can read the previous post below this one. There are, as mentioned within that post, other criteria which must be met in order to advance to level 12.

Thanks to the feedback from last week's post I will be redesigning some of the Accomplishments in order to right the wrongs indicated by reader -C and taking a less heavy handed technique in order to allow more freedom of choice by the players. In other words, more interaction with the dungeon itself and a little less with the dwellers within.

Thoughts, Ideas and Suggestions on Experience by Plundering?

~Sham

Experience and Accomplishments

As the anchor of the campaign, around which everything revolves, the dungeons of the Bleak Beyond will factor into the very rules which govern game play. Along with the various tables and conventions specifically designed to power the game sessions, one will find a game unto itself in what I hope to be a rather brief How to Play section. Just the nuts and bolts of a game, one which can be adopted or ignored in favor of one's preferred edition.

The How to Play section of the Bleak Beyond is not intended to be a clone of D&D. It is more or less a generic system which will cover such things as Dice, Hits, Combat, Armor, Saves, Tasks and Character Advancement. The mechanics that run behind the scenes of the game. Tasks have been covered using the 5+ guide in the Art of Delving. The other terms are fairly self-explanatory. Combat is distilled to a table-less formula, which was covered here and here a few years back.

A bit of a departure from the old school? Not in my mind. I just find the method more logical and simpler to implement. The true major departure from the accepted rules is found in the guide for Character Advancement. Here's where we find the dungeon itself influencing the rules.

The Bleak Beyond does not use a hard and fast advancement via experience points system. Since nearly all of the players' efforts will involve dangerous plunges into the underworld, the only set-in-stone method for gaining levels is by successfully looting manually placed Treasure Troves. Not your run of the mill loot stashes but rather those specific riches which are mentioned in Vol. III with the suggestion to “thoughtfully place several of the most important treasures” before dicing for random distribution. Here's the core of the approach:

Experience by Plundering

Characters gain one experience level whenever they are a member of an expedition which makes off with a Treasure Trove, by successfully returning with it to town, providing the loot was plundered from a dungeon level which is of equal or greater value than the character's own current level.

Yep. No experience points whatsoever.

There are restrictions to the experience by plundering system, however. Normal advancement halts at the top level of each tier, levels 3, 6 and 9. In order to unlock the subsequent tiers which begin with levels 4, 7 and 10, the character will be required to meet certain criteria based on successful exploration of the Bleak Beyond.

The dungeon rewards characters who accomplish certain goals. For humankind there are currently 13 such accomplishments, along with one race accomplishment for each non-human class which lifts their standard maximum level and allows further progress. Players must track the number of each specific accomplishment, along with the reward gained, on the back of their character sheet for future reference and to prevent possible double-dipping.

Refs might of course allow alternate methods of advancement. It is certainly not a game world in which the only method of advancing as a character is by gaining Bleak Beyond experience. This is simply how one does so within this particular dungeon. Exploring the wilderness of the Unbidden Lands holds its own rewards, after all (which will be explained in an upcoming post).

I may or may not add to this list in the future, and since none of this is quite set in stone there is no accompanying PDF this time. Here's what I've got so far.

Accomplishments / Rewards

1.Etch name on the Big Block of So and So's Fate / Unlock 4th Character Level
2.Shake the hand of Skellington in the Writhing Sepulchre / Unlock 7th Character Level
3.Obtain a Morkevagten Writ of Passage from the Citadel / Unlock 10th Character Level
4.Bring a Fallen Knight to justice / +1 Primary or Random
5.Oust the Mayor of Awfulville / +1 Primary or Random
6.Earn a Key to the Swallowed City / +1 Primary or Random
7.Release a Trapped Soul from the Chapel of the Jilted Bride / +1d6 Hits
8.Smuggle an intact Ubernana to the surface / +1d6 Hits
9.Ring the Gilded Bell of the Excommunicated / +1 Primary or Random
10.Awaken the Sleeping She-Paladin / +1d6 Hits
11.Lay the Evil Dude to rest in his Domain / +1d6 Hits
12.Learn Sham's Secret from Sham himself / +1 Ability of Choice
13.Visit the Four Corners of Balmorphiact / +1 Ability of Choice

Non-human Accomplishments / Rewards

The following non-human accomplishments remove the standard class level maximum for each respective race. They do not however supersede the advancement accomplishments required as detailed in numbers 1-3 above.

Enter the Supreme Citadel of the Morkevagten through the front door / Unlock Dwarf 7th
Survive an arena match in the Swallowed City / Unlock Elf FM 5th
Learn a new spell in the Palace of Ceaseless Extravagance / Unlock Elf MU 9th
Taste Chuckhole Hooch straight from a still in Chuckhole Hollow / Unlock Hobbit 5th
Bring home the head of a Nisse / Unlock Aelfar FM 7th
Take a nap in the Dens of Undesired Dream / Unlock Aelfar MU 7th
Pull one of Vrimnas's levers and live to tell the tale / Unlock Doende 7th
Perform guard duty at the Shrine of the Sleeping She-Paladin / Unlock Dvergar 7th
Bring home a real live Crumblebumian / Unlock Irkling 7th
Tithe at the Church of the Excommunicated / Unlock Troldekin FM 7th
Become irradiated on the Level w/ No Name / Unlock Troldekin MU 7th

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

~Sham

The Art of Delving

Here's another bit of Bleak Beyond material that might be of interest to some of my readers. It's basically a Delver-as-Subclass system. In a megadungeon campaign such as this, with no Thief class, the responsibilities of safely and carefully navigating the underworld are shared by all capable adventurers. Why not allow these intrepid spelunkers the chance to hone their skills the more often they use them?

A few disclaimers before I copy and paste: I still tend to not simply reduce these acts to straightforward dice rolls. The 5+ roll is a baseline suggestion, one which should be modified based upon how the characters are attempting them, the prevailing circumstances, and the difficulty of the particular endeavor. As a matter of fact, I am going to edit the new doc and add these notes! Be right back...

* * * * *

The Art of Delving

A general purpose d6 roll is used for determining success or failure when undertaking various mundane tasks in the game. Refs can adjust the target 5 as needed, increasing it to 6 or lowering it to 4 or less as the game demands.

Note: It is suggested that Refs avoid simply reducing these acts to straightforward dice rolls. Encourage player reasoning and input, and reward or penalize them accordingly. The 5+ roll is a baseline suggestion, one which should be modified depending upon how the characters are attempting them, the prevailing circumstances, and the difficulty of the particular endeavor.

The 5+ Rule:
Roll 1d6
1: Absolute Failure
2-4: Failure
5: Success
6: Success and roll again. With a result of 6 on the roll again, the character denotes one pip above the relevant task.

Improving with Experience: When six such pips are earned the character gains a permanent +1 on all 5+ checks with that particular task. No further bonuses may be gained in this manner for that particular task. See Master Delver, below.

Ability Score Adjustment: Characters with a 15 or higher in the relevant Ability Score add 1 on their 5+ roll. Those with a 6 or lower subtract 1.

Race Adjustment: Characters of varying race will either add 1 or subtract 1 on their 5+ roll.

Core Tasks: Tasks which any character may undertake during the game.
Disarm Trap: Apply STR or DEX, determined by type.
Eavesdrop: Humankind -1.
Find Secret Door: Elf and Aelfar +1.
Find Trap: Dwarf and Dvergar +1.
Open Door: Apply STR. Hobbit, Doende and Irkling -1.
Unlock: Apply DEX.
Sneak: Hobbit and Doende +1.

Bonus Tasks: Bonus Tasks can be raised as well with the accumulation of pips, but may not be selected as a Master Delver's specialty.
Sense Direction: Irkling only.
Sense Secret Door: Elf and Aelfar only.
Sense Trap: Dwarf and Dvergar only.

Master Delver: Once a character has gained a +1 bonus to the first six Core Tasks (all except Sneak) through the accumulation of pips, he or she can claim the title of Master Delver. At that time the player shall select one, and only one Core Task with which he or she shall receive a further bonus of 1 on all 5+ rolls in that endeavor. For example, it is possible for a Dwarf to become a Master Delver with a Find Trap specialty, gaining a bonus of +3 on all 5+ rolls for that task.

* * * * *

And there you have it. There's a PDF for dl in SHAM'S OD&D STUFF, or just copy, paste and edit for your own game. As with much of the Bleak Beyond material, some light editing will make it usable in any campaign.

~Sham

Lost Heroes

If we operate under the assumption that the underworld, or specifically your campaign's megadungeon, has been attracting adventurers for a lengthy period of time, it is not a stretch of the imagination to realize that there are more than likely going to be a number of delvers assumed dead that are in fact trapped in limbo in the dark confines below.

In your standard campaign such a form of stasis could occur through your run of the mill flesh to stone attack. Characters with a CON of 13 or more will automatically survive such an ordeal, and are quite literally waiting for the right Magic User to come along and rescue them. In the Bleak Beyond other such means of imprisonment include being turned to glass, turned to a scarecrow, time-locked, frozen solid and gem-prisoned.

Any unfortunate character missing his save against such a threat must make a survival roll based on his or her CON score. Those succeeding are still often “lost to the underworld” even though they are not quite dead yet. Thus the Bleak Beyond includes a category of magic items called Lost Heroes. Perhaps the most potent of all magic items in my dungeon as of this writing since I have yet to flesh out any relics or artifacts, these Lost Heroes will pledge loyalty and serve their rescuers for a time and could even become player characters as the campaign unfolds.

Although you might not handle flesh to stone in the same fashion, the concept of Lost Heroes as magic items can still be used in your games by adding a few new features to your dungeon.

This is an example of the many Bleak Beyond tidbits I plan to assemble and include in the final megadungeon project. Along with the PDF's I've shared this year; Monster Business, Random Monster Tables, d6 Dungeon Rooms, 100 NPC Types and Dungeon Treasure Maps (I have a BB-centric version), these supplemental pieces will eventually work together to form the framework upon which the megadungeon will operate.

The d00 Stairways table was one I planned to rework and include, BUT I've come to the design decision that I will henceforth be treating stairways as rooms unto themselves, in other words each will be numbered and keyed. Duh. That's something I should have been doing all along. Something so obvious!

So while this particular document is Bleak Beyond material and written as such, you still might get some use or inspiration out of it. You will find it in the expanding SHAM'S OD&D STUFF section to the right.

Here's a copy and paste of the 24 known Lost Heroes in case you don't wanna down load the PDF.

Lost Heroes of the Bleak Beyond
Roll d24 if you want a random Lost Hero (d12+d6, odd on d6 add 0 to the d12, even on d6 add 12). Lost Heroes are never found on a dungeon level with a value less than their experience level.

1. Wigwaite FM 4, Male, L, S: 15, C: 16, Spear +1. Turned to Stone.
2. Dianedrio Elf FM 4, Male, L, S: 15, C: 13, Displacer Cloak. Morphed to Scarecrow.
3. Big Sal Hobbit 4, Male, S: 14, C: 15, Plate +1. Gem-Prisoned.
4. Cheburov Dvergar 4, Male, N, S: 17, C: 14, Sword +1. Turned to Stone.
5. Tillanaith FM 5, Female, N, S: 14, C: 13, Magic Bow. Time-Locked.
6. Hibu Dae MU 5, Male, N, I: 15, C: 14, Wand of Cold. Morphed to Scarecrow.
7. Janolare C 5, Female, L, W: 17, C: 13, Staff of Healing. Turned to Stone.
8. Thump LeBump Dwarf 5, Male, L, S: 13, C: 17, Axe +1. Turned to Stone.
9. Fendryal Aelfar MU 5, Male, N, I: 14, C: 13, Wand of Paralization. Time-Locked.
10. Glipnart Doende 5, Female, N, S: 14, C: 15, Ring of Protection. Turned to Glass.
11. Kippy Bitz Irkling 5, Male, N, W: 16, C: 14, Snake Staff. Gem-Prisoned.
12. Kimbobol Dwarf 6, Female, L, S: 16, C: 14, War Hammer +1. Gem-Prisoned.
13. Oxblatt Dwarf 6, Male, L, S: 14, C: 15, Ring of Protection. Time-Locked.
14. Kucharel Aelfar FM 6, Female, N, S: 16, C: 13, Spear +2. Frozen Solid.
15. Haxlo Dvergar 6, Male, N, S: 16, C: 17, Mace +2. Morphed to Scarecrow.
16. Rugmeister Doende 6, Male, N, S: 13, C: 16, Elven Cloak and Boots. Frozen Solid.
17. Qonklakoo Irkling 6, Female, N, W: 15, C: 16, Staff of Withering. Turned to Stone.
18. Wheelhouse Witt FM 7, Male, L, S: 13, C: 15, Sword +2. Frozen Solid.
19. Timarina MU 7, Female, L, I: 16, C: 13, Ring of Invisibility. Turned to Glass.
20. Sticky Nobs C 8, Male, L, W: 16, C: 14, Mace +2. Morphed to Scarecrow.
21. Binblaith Elf MU 8, Female, L, I: 14, C: 13, Wand of Fear. Turned to Glass.
22. Zinzaa FM 9, Female, L, S: 16, C: 14, War Hammer +2. Gem-Prisoned.
23. Legendary Ralph MU 10, Male, L, I: 17, C: 15, Staff of Power. Time-Locked.
24. Sister Tilda C 10, Female, L, W: 16, C: 15, Staff of Striking. Frozen Solid.

And with this post I have officially surpassed my 2010 total number of posts! I can't believe I have any followers at all with just 29 posts in the past 16 months. I love you guys, man.

~Sham

Dungeon Design and the Bleak Beyond

Over the course of my three decades of dungeon design the only recurring theme has been one of change. From the crude earliest efforts to the modular string-of-adventures format to the so-called classic dungeon to that first megadungeon effort to the archival style to the one-page idea and on to the present day, my history of dungeon making is marked by sweeping changes based on a wide range of ideas, examples and inspirations. Each step along the way adds to the overall collected know-how. It has been an evolution of design and a labor of love.

The dungeon trend, this path I have followed and at times forged, shows that changes will continue, of this there is no doubt. One of the stumbling blocks for crafting that true megadungeon is this very trend of change. Knowing that by the time level 12 is finished it won't look, feel or play like level 1 is bothersome. Something about my sensibilities finds fault with this fact. The preference being of course a continuity of the vibe established with the very first levels of such a place.

Much of it can also be attributed to gamer ADD, of course. By the time the heavy lifting begins a new approach, thought or philosophy gnaws away at the dungeon's foundations and sends the project into limbo.

Finally emerging from the planning stage after nearly two years of contemplation is the latest example of these megadungeon heart breakers, the Bleak Beyond. Before the first map was even drawn numerous theories and notions had been conceived and scrapped. Ideas such as “Lairs & Stairs”, the “Sub/Hub” style, “Room Clusters”, “Inside-Out” design and so forth; far too much thought was invested in these methods which may never see the light of day. Besides, excessive time was wasted on my part in trying to reinvent the wheel.

Now that a design approach has been settled on there is actual progress being made. Albeit at a snail's pace. The building blocks are still being placed and the project continues to garner all of my gamer interest. What design approach is that you might ask? The Bleak Beyond borrows heavily from my archival style and one-page philosophy. The archival style saw maps becoming more convoluted with less wasted space per page and it also embraced the notion of recycling. No longer was this a dungeon in the modular format of fire and forget. The one-page philosophy is embraced now as well, minus the sometimes cramping templates. “Without the template it's no longer one-page, though!” Yes, but the philosophy established with the one-page is the key for me. It's a heady mix of word economy, random tables and the Empty Room Principle.

So the Bleak Beyond is moving slowly forward with my latest design style, one driven by random tables, a unique bestiary and treasury, unusual conventions and an archival spirit. The plans for the cornerstones are drawn up, and right now it is potentially a signature worthy endeavor. I say potentially because I have already pegged this as my new megadungeon heart breaker. In the end at the very least I can share some of my efforts here as I have been doing lately. Readers can borrow, steal and alter as was done with the one-page design notes or some of my other meanderings. Nevertheless, wish me luck.

In parting I'll share a list of the planned levels for the Bleak Beyond.

Standard Levels (36):

Katskradle
Beneath the Fetid Fens
Down the Mol-Min Hole
Altar of the Gloom-Pit
The Tangled Tunnels
Hap's Woebegone
Pits of Unspecified Doom
Hornswoggle Hall
So and So's Fate
Awfulville
The Grand Brood Nidus
Webwarrens
A City Swallowed
Sewers of a City Swallowed
Chuckhole Hollow
The Writhing Sepulchre
Chapel of the Jilted Bride
Dens of Undesired Dream
Incomparable Brainy-Dome
Frankenlabs Cooperative
The Vexations of Vrimnas
Church of the Excommunicated
Crumblebums
Illojical Werks
Supreme Citadel of the Morkevagten
The Irradiated Level w/ No Name
Shrine of the Sleeping She-Paladin
Vadghiragh
Evil Dude's Domain
Palace of Ceaseless Extravagance
Temple of Glob, God of Green Slime
Feefestung
Sham's Furnace
Balmorphiact
Akt-Elemdor, the Vault of Night
Echoes of Darkness

Secret Bonus Levels (16):

The Abyss of Nada
Big Rock Candy Mountain
The Bloody Vintner
Central Teleport Terminal
Cubbyholes of Regret
The Donjon Illustrious
Ill Angels ONLY
Inn of the Bawdy Monkey
Ixmorin's Ill-fated (Mini-Levels 1-5)
Snow Globe
Super-Chute Control Chambers
Thimbledowns


So, yeah. This could take forever. Baby steps.

~Sham

Random Monster Determination

Yesterday's post elicited a comment which inspired me to finally comb through my custom bestiary and make a proper OD&D style random Monster level determination procedure. Such a dice rolling convention is used not only for Wandering Monsters, but more importantly for randomly determined initial fills and restocking steps. In case you aren't familiar with the guide in Vol. III of the LBB, here's a scan of pages 10 and 11:

And here is a scan of the two-page custom guide I have fashioned for my new megadungeon. I suppose I am letting the cat out of the bag a bit early, but yes The Bleak Beyond, my current project, is a new megadungeon. It is the bastard child of the Dismal Depths and Ulin-Uthor, the Dim Expanse. Here's the custom version scanned:


The above guide uses my custom bestiary, itself an updated version of the Dismal Depths Bestiary. For those keeping track, there are 11 new entries and some name changes; specifically Moorlocks = Phlemoks, Boglings = Bogloids, Mole Men = Mol-Min, Sleestaks = Saristaks, Blue Gunky = Bloo-Goo, Alfar = Aelfar. There were some other minor edits as well.

The new Bleak Beyond Bestiary is now available for download, along with a printable copy of the above scanned Random Monster Determination file, both situated atop the mediafire links section to the right under SHAM'S OD&D STUFF.

In the near future there will be more information concerning the Bleak Beyond.

~Sham

Otherworld Miniatures - Goblinoid Games Announcement

Otherworld Miniatures and Goblinoid Games have announced a forthcoming series of miniature figure sets packed with related adventures.

As you may have read, these appropriately named "mini-adventures" will be written by some familiar names in our little corner of the web log multiverse.

I have some history with Otherworld Miniatures, having won the excellently sculpted, high quality BS1 - Pig-faced Orc Tribe Boxed Set, found here, in a 2008 Fight On! dungeon-writing contest. I happily agreed to contribute one of the mini-adventures when approached by Richard Scott. As it stands now my mini-adventure will be the final installment of the series so I have some time to watch the sets take off.

I'm excited about the project and based on the collection of talent involved I have no doubt that it will be very well received.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

w/o WALLS

As 2009 begins to wind down I am easing back into the blogosphere and once again finding myself amazed at how our community continues to expand. When I cranked this thing up here at Ye Olde Grog n' Blog twas but a few of us, now we are many. So many in fact that I KNOW I've missed some good new authors rolling out their first posts and opinions on the olden ways. Somehow I missed Havard's Blackmoor Blog, but it is now dutifully linked in my list (which by the way is in need of some housekeeping).

So I ask: please drop me some links to gaming blogs I should be in tune with. It's been three months since I updated here, and nearly four since I posted anything game related. Fall is always an extremely busy time for yours truly, but enough with lame blog-excuses, it's best to just post and not offer reasons for one's back-sliding. I'll make up for my absence with an extremely long post now. The quick-hitters and casual fans can move along.

During my hiatus I played around with a few pet projects and began toying with decks of cards. You know, the old fashioned 52-card types. I devised a few D&D related uses for that venerable game tool, including dice-less play and chargen rules using cards sans dice. But you know I love dice so it was, for the most part, just a futile foray into numbers crunching and card-flipping. One item did spring forth from my musings, and I wish to share with you a little something I've been fine-tuning these past weeks called w/o Walls.

I'll link up a few PDFs later if you care to dl them (and I can remember my mediafire account info), but in the meantime here is a copy/paste of the basics along with my own example using the template.

w/o WALLS
A card based dungeon system for your favorite RPG. w/o WALLS was originally designed for fast-play dungeon adventures. The goal was to allow an individual Ref the opportunity to exercise his or her creative freedom and ad-lib skills to improvise while entertaining players during a session of role-playing. The system may also be used for Ref-less gaming in a solo or cooperative set-up. The end result is a flexible, unique style of dungeon exploration.

w/o WALLS demands that participants accept the illogical lay-out of the fantastic underworld into which their characters have departed; as you shall see there is no method to return the way one has traveled, and there is no actual map. Turns are taken by the players drawing and revealing a single card at a time. The card drawn will determine what the adventuring group has found in the dungeon.

If you are planning on a traditional approach to dungeon crawling with you as the Ref, then prior to play, in as basic or involved a fashion as you desire, you will need to design the following items for your w/o WALLS dungeon level (or just wing it and ad-lib with zero prep):

[Card]: Item (Qty)

[2]: Single-target Traps (4)

[3]: Area of Effect Traps (4)

[4]: Tricks (4)

[5,6 of S,C,H]: Wandering Monsters (7)

[6 of D]: Fellow Delver(s) (1)

[7]: Empty Room (4)

[8,9 of S,C]: Rooms w/ Monsters (6)

[9 of H,D,10]: Rooms w/ Monsters & Treasure (6)

[J]: Level Exits (4)

[Q]: Secret Chambers (4)

[K]: Hidden Stashes (4)


How to play:
1. Shuffle one 52-card deck and place it face down. Designate an area near the deck for a discard pile.

2. Play begins on Dungeon Level One (or any level from which a returning character has taken a Magic Portal to Town in a previous expedition).

3. Take a Turn by drawing the top card and revealing it. Resolve that card before discarding it and drawing another.

4. Set drawn Aces aside. Aces may be used by players at a later time to escape/trump the last card drawn.

5. Once the drawn card has been resolved or trumped, discard it and any Ace used as a trump.

6. When and if the entire deck has been revealed, the characters must return to town and regroup while the dungeon replenishes itself.

7. If at any time the party ascends or descends to another dungeon level, or returns to town, shuffle all cards back into the deck.

Suggestions:
Tricks: One or more should lead to a lower level.

Empty Rooms: Or whatever you prefer. I allow limited hit point recuperation in these areas only.

Level Exits: Include Up, Down and Magic Portals to Town.

Secret Chambers: If the secret door is not found, treat as an Empty Room. Hide things like Fountains, Statues, Pools and Magic Portals to Town here.

Hidden Stashes: If the secreted treasure is not discovered treat as an Empty Room.

Suit Theme: In general, Spades are the worst and Diamonds the best for their respective categories.

Game Prep: Keep your notes simple, and create three or four levels at a time.

As a creative exercise, try to detail a full level of 48 cards in 30 minutes using the w/o WALLS Fill-in Template.

This latest version is simplified quite a bit, but fits onto one page. The previous version was two pages long and discussed the various play styles and possibilities. The original versions were just way too involved for something designed to be fueled by user input. I have play tested w/o Walls solo, with one player, and in a two player cooperative style. It works fairly well, and imho is more satisfactory that any of the random dice-driven auto dungeons I have seen in the past.

I would like some feedback and input from those who take the time to digest all of this.

The blank template is included as a PDF, as well as my initial example, which I'll copy/paste below:

w/o WALLS Fill-in Template

Dungeon: ECHO DARK
Level: ONE

Single target Traps
[2S]: Covered Pit. 10' deep. Slippery mud walls, bottom is quick-sand like mud.
[2C]: Trap-door Pit. 15' deep. Zombie waiting below.
[2H]: Transmogrification Beam. Turns target into a Giant Rabbit.
[2D]: Jabbing Spear Trap. Deals 1d6+1. A save of 1 equates to a lost eye.
Party Traps
[3S]: Deadly Fumes. Lose 1 CON each round over the next turn. Those under 1 CON perish.
[3C]: Spiked Gate Trap. Slams from wall for 2d6+2, save for 1d6.
[3H]: Volley of Mini-Darts. Struck by 1d6, save to 1. Each deals 1d2 damage.
[3D]: Evil-Eye Trap. Curses party members to fail their next three attacks or saves.
Tricks
[4S]: Utter-Dark Passage. Party lost. Reshuffle all cards back into deck and commence play.
[4C]: Swiveling Hallway. Deposits group one level down and resets. Deals 1d6 damage.
[4H]: Screw-Elevator. Forces group up one level and resets.
[4D]: Dimensional Hall. Returns group to Town. Does NOT count as a Magic Portal.
Wandering Monsters
[5S]: Anti-Cleric and Thugs (5). Here on business. Will pose as good guys.
[5C]: Evil Elf and Bandits (6). Here to recruit, extort or rob adventurers.
[5H]: Clean-up Crew. Grey Ooze (1) on the move quietly going about its duty.
[5D]: Zombies (5) rounding a corner, dragging a corpse back to their master.
[6S]: Skeletons (6) on patrol. Two w/ maces, two w/ spears, two w/ swords.
[6C]: Goblins (8) looking for a lost sack of door knockers. Armed with clubs and daggers.
[6H]: Giant Rats (7) searching for an easy meal. Will follow until forced away or they find food.
Wandering Monsters (Ally)
[6D]: Friendly Berserker (1). Leather armor, Sword and Spear. Looking to slay Goblins.
Empty Rooms
[7S]: Columned Empty Room. Graffiti scrawled in common: “Go seven, then four. Stop”.
[7C]: Cob-web choked Empty Room. A few old pieces of ruined and useless gear are in a corner.
[7H]: Ransacked Empty Room. Splintered bench conceals a sack filled with crude door knockers.
[7D]: A very Empty Room. Footprints of massive proportion seem to walk through the walls here.
Rooms w/ Monsters
[8S]: Granite Span. Manned by 12 Phalanx-Skeletons and a Wight Commander.
[8C]: Circular Catwalk. Skulking Man-eating Apes (3) attempt to attack with surprise.
[8H]: Shallow Pool. Grey Ooze (1) resting spot. Two empty chests rest in pool's center.
[8D]: Stepping Stones. Goblin Javelin-throwers (7) take pot shots at intruders and demand gold.
[9S]: Filthy Mess. Slime-covered Zombies (8) picking through the rubbish looking for brains.
[9C]: Collapsed Chamber. Giant Rat Nest (13). Each round 1d6-3 more arrive.
Rooms w/ Monsters & Treasure
[9H]: Black Shrine. The Zombie-Lord, his Acolytes (5) and Zombie slaves (9). 2,400 GP, 3 Magic.
[9D]: Smoke-filled Hall. Evil Elf Conspirators (4) plot the overthrow of Man. 1,800 GP, 2 Magic.
[10S]: Putrid Cave. Harpies (3) torturing caged captives on ledge above. 370 GP, 1 Magic.
[10C]: Smoldering Pit. Gargoyle (1) rises from mists. 220 Gold, 1 Magic.
[10H]: Flophouse. Drunken Zombie Pirates (12) guard casks of rum and a sea chest. 590 Gold.
[10D]: Stacked Barrels. Giant Cockroach (1) looking for a mate. 120 Gold.
Level Exits
[JS]: Steps Up and out of dungeon, or continue on this level.
[JC]: Steps Down to 2nd level, or continue on this level.
[JH]: Steps Down to 3rd level, or continue on this level.
[JD]: Shimmering Magic Portal to Town operated by Adventurers Guild, or continue on this level.
Secret Chambers
[QS]: The Fickle Fountain. Cures the sick, poisons the healthy.
[QC]: The Scholarly Statue. Asks questions, punishes those who do not answer.
[QH]: The Whispering Pool. Decipher to become fully healed.
[QD]: The Musty Tapestry. Unlock to form Magic Portal to Town.
Hidden Stashes
[KS]: Great heap of rubbish. Conceals sack: 190 GP.
[KC]: Fungus-filled dead end. Conceals panel: 320 GP.
[KH]: False Stairwell. Conceals cubbyhole: 380 GP, 1 Magic.
[KD]: Crumbling stucco. Loose floor stone hides sack: 490 GP, 2 Magic.

For example purposes I've added headers for the various card categories. These are not included in the template nor in the example PDF.

So there you have it. w/o Walls is, at the very least, fun to fill in using the template to see how quickly you can make a dungeon level. I went over my suggested 30 minutes because I was doing a lot of copy and paste while editing various items, but I think with a bit of practice and familiarity one could really crank out dungeon levels at blinding speed.

After I finished the example, I realized I'd truly enjoy making a map out of my ECHO DARK ONE example, but that is not the point of this project. Nevertheless I find that while I'm a huge fan of well-made, handcrafted maps, w/o Walls triggers something within me as a Referee that I find challenging and satisfying.

How's that for a return from absence update? Oh, by the way I am busy working on the updated Dismal Depths project from a new angle. Never fear it is one I am certain will cater to the expectations of those who have been asking for more updates and information on the Dismal Depths this past year. Here's to hoping I'll update again before the New Year.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

On Deck at THM

Amityville Mike has officially announced that his long awaited Stonehell megadungeon has reached draft status. Chgowiz and I have had the copy in hand for a couple of days now, and we've both been reading it over. I cannot provide any spoilers, but what I have had the pleasure to read thus far has certainly exceeded my expectations. Like many of the entries in the One Page Dungeon Contest, Mike's Stonehell pushes the boundaries set forth and becomes its own unique vision of the minimalistic approach adopted by the author.

Stonehell was perhaps the unifying force of Three-Headed Monster Games when the idea for a gaming coop was taking shape behind the scenes at the web logs maintained by the two Mikes and myself. It was clear very early on that Mr. Curtis is blessed with remarkable devotion and creativity, and that good things lay ahead for Stonehell.

I'll withhold further praise for the megadungeon until the three heads have ushered the project along through the creative pipeline. Like many others who have followed the development of Stonehell, I have very high hopes for the finished product; which is to say that we'll be holding this publication to some lofty standards. I am convinced that the collaborative spirit of THM Games will see to it that no one is disappointed.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Out of the Frying Pan

Well, actually off of the Back Burner:

I'll be covering some of my future plans and projects over at Three-Headed Monster Games. Some of the tidbits discussed there will be linked here now that I have a new sharing account after the Orbitfiles debacle. Thanks for the various suggestions, but I've settled on MediaFire for the time being.

In the meantime I'll clutter my bandwith here at Ye Auld Grog & Blog with the scans I made. Apologies for the smudges in certain areas; my printer didn't want to cooperate with the way too think paper I was forced to use, but the images get the idea across effectively. There is one Open Office file and a pair of PDF's I've shared on MediaFire. The first of the files is Sham's OPD Template, seen below:


Using the "Check Method" will require the Open Office file entitled Treasure Tables. Once you grok the Check Method the small table on both the example and template will make sense. It's not nearly as complicated as it might at first seem; you'll grasp the idea quickly and find that it's simple as can be.

Finally I made a quick PDF of an Example OPD, borrowing old info from the Dismal Depths, level 1B; The Chambers of Zod. There's an error I just spotted on the map (forgot to change the 1A bit), but I'm sharing it just to give an example of the new template version, as seen below:


Feel free to dl the template, change the tables, add to it, whatever. More information can be found in my post over at the THM Lair (AKA the Head Shed).

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Summer Doldrums

It’s been a bit quiet ‘round these parts of late. Only four posts in the past 30 days time is a clear sign of summer. Nearly a month ago I announced I’d be absent for a dozen days so I could focus on judging the One Page Dungeon Contest, and devote spare time to wrapping up a rather large submission to Fight On!

Agreeing to get that adventure done in one month was me being over-confident in my writing capabilities. I didn’t meet the deadline, but was able to estimate the size so it could be planned around. I should’ve known I wasn’t giving myself enough time; I’ve had nothing but delays and, well, writer’s block with that adventure since day one back in August of last year.

It’s been submitted for a number of days now, but I figured I’d make a post in regard to the blasted project tonight. It’s something of a flight of fancy in many ways, and I’m hoping the editor is bold enough to cut out chunks of the text I wasn’t able to part with. It is truly the polar opposite of the One Page Dungeon, overflowing with information and threatening to collapse under its own weight.

I don’t even know if it’s coming back to me with a nasty letter and orders to revise the thing. It was submitted in font size 9, weighing in at 31 pages, 10 of which are devoted to the adventure’s appendix. It features in the neighborhood of 90 rooms, 70 NPC's, 20 new monsters, 24 new magic items, 20 rumors, 20 suggestions/events, and some tables. That room count includes guest rooms and sub-caves, and many of the NPC’s are just names. Don't let the high page count mislead you, although it is wordy where it needs to be, it is still crammed with substance.

Here's the altogether dense mess of a map that I'm hoping will be in FO! 6:


It was something of a challenge working a functional Adventurer’s Inn into the dungeon. My insistence on including a detailed background and loose plot further complicated matters. Wrapped around all of that I plugged in what I hope are realistic cave and spelunking features using speleological terms.

With an Inn so close to the action I had to take a few things into consideration. Resource management becomes easy mode if this is a normal dungeon level, having a safe house and resupply point around the corner. How can I ensure that players would want to continue to make use of the Inn, even after they are “done” on this level? What on earth, or beneath it, would make anyone want to run an Inn down here?

To combat the proximity of the Inn I undertook two goals. First I would make the caves difficult to negotiate, much like a real cavernous complex. They’re difficult to map, even harder to traverse, boast secret sub-caves and hidden tunnels. Jogging back to the Inn after each encounter is time consuming. Second I deliberately made many very challenging encounters. Most of which can be retreated from safely, but add even more in ensuring that although the Inn not too terribly far away, the level is downright nasty for 5th level characters unless they have large numbers and play wisely.

There’s another plot driven aspect to the Inn that actually might deter characters from spending the night within, but that’s GM adjudicated and shouldn’t be something that prevents them from using it altogether. The Inn is really the focal point of the level.

In an effort to make the Inn actually feel like an Inn and not just a collection of dungeon rooms, I wanted to add enough creative opportunity for GM’s to be able to craft endless possible adventures revolving around the establishment. How successful I was there remains to be seen.

Lastly, why would Jalen Longspear want to open and operate such a place? Reasons are given in the adventure and I think they hold up well enough that players won’t consider the whole affair ludicrous…that is as long as they don’t consider megadungeons in general ludicrous.

In the end I think that the Inn has some nice sand-box aspects to it, as there are plenty of areas to discover and explore. The NPC’s in the Inn offer a plethora of city-type adventures with a crafty GM at the helm. There’s some history and an involved story that can be uncovered but is not essential to the level. There’s some really weird eerie old magic infused throughout.

As I told Calithena, if nothing else the 10 page appendix might be worthwhile for the additional homebrew within. I’ll have more on this submission once I learn whether or not it is seeing print, and then I can give away more information as it is warranted.

*****

This long hiatus has also involved something which I’ll be announcing tomorrow. There’s a six eyed monstrosity stirring in its deep, dark lair, and I think it will awaken on the morrow.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

One Dozen Days

For the next twelve days or so I'll be fairly scarce here as I have two pressing tasks which I need to see through to completion before the 28th. First is my contribution as one of the judges for the One Page Dungeon Contest. I'm nearly done with that effort. The second is finishing up the long lingering, somewhat troublesome Lower Caves of the Darkness Beneath level for Fight On!, something I've been wrestling with for far too long.

Speaking of the One Page Dungeon Contest, little did I know when I signed on to help judge these entries that we'd end up with so many! The daunting task of reading through the sheer number of entries was compounded by the fact that there are numerous fantastic One Page Dungeons in the mix, making the rating process harder than I would've imagined. There's some real talent out there and I'm convinced that once you see the winning entries you'll agree.

After many hours gnashing teeth and wringing hands, I am moving forward with a revamped, plot-lite version of the Lower Caves. The involved backstory and entangled scenarios of the original notes were proving to be too much. The sheer weight of the project was causing me to continually set it aside for another date. After 10 months of stop and start I've reworked those notes and begun anew. The map and most of the encounters remain unchanged, but the bulk of the story, ramifications of player actions and adventure paths have been expunged.

Before I sign off to focus on the above items, I'll tip my hand just a bit. For your viewing pleasure, below the break you'll find a sneak peek into my adventure design methods.

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Welcome to the Lair of Sham! Here you will discover images detailing my three step dungeon writing process; Inspiration, Notes, and the magic of Technology!

INSPIRATION must not be rushed. The One Page Dungeon Concept came to me here after an unfortunate TP supply oversight.


Me and my Lower Caves NOTES. Definitely one of my better photos. I know, I know, Brad Pitt...I get it all the time. Thank you Nutri-System!


Where the MAGIC happens! Hard to call myself a Grognard with all these new fangled geegaws. Oops, forgot to empty the wastebasket before snapping that photo.

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I'll be lurking in the shadows until I've finished judging those entries and writing the Lower Caves. Once those two tasks are wrapped up it's back to semi-regular blogging and another long lingering project, this time thankfully one with no deadline.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

A Quiet Month

February has turned out to be a quiet blogging month here at Ye Auld Grog & Blog. Rather than pull up the old blogger excuse list, I simply mention that my recent scant free time staring at the dim glow of the monitor has been spent catching up on posts around the D&D blog circle.

While I haven't been posting articles, I have been working on a follow-up article to Delvers Delve for Fight On!. The first article was penned back in late November and submitted in early December. Delvers Delve is hopefully going to become a series of ongoing suggestions, observations and options focusing on dungeon crawling. It evolved from my Cover to Cover series, and it became of particular note to me as many of the my ideas within the article seem to be independently shared by others. In particular James at Grognardia reached many of the same conclusions in regard to revisiting the Thief based on actually reading what was written about the class in Greyhawk, and by that other James over at LotFP when he was reading the Holmes Basic volume. It suggests that many of us do in fact think in the same manner, albeit often in different styles.

The second article, which I am currently putting together, offers up a collection of options I have dubbed "Extended Crawling". Many I have been using for years, others I just started using, and some are simply clarifications of loose ideas that have been around in my games for decades.

I prefer to not spill the beans ahead of time with articles which may find their way into print in the future, so keep an eye out for that first Delvers Delve in the upcoming issue #4 of Fight On!. Everything indicates that it should be available from Lulu very soon.

It's interesting to see how articles submitted for print differ so much from blog posts. I get immediate responses and comments here, while things printed get virtually nothing. On the other hand, much of what I post online is forgotten very quickly, the exception being the Entourage Approach which was cobbled into a submission after being tossed about at the blog here. Articles which find print are something to be proud of in that they seem to have some measure of longevity.

As long time readers know, one of my high water marks since I started this crazed collection of random thoughts (aside from the Entourage Approach and the One-Page Dungeon) was the level I put together for the ongoing Fight On! project, The Darkness Beneath. Spawning Grounds of the Crab-Men created some buzz before it was printed, but not much since. In retrospect I feel I could have done a better job with that adventure. The level was written with a definite theme in mind, which I feel was conveyed nicely, but I still must put my work under the magnifying glass and offer up a few critiques of my own. Hindsight is always 20/20, as they say. Not enough empty space. Too few traps. Not nearly enough tricks. Virtually no misdirection. The dreaded Big Bad Evil Monster cliche. I'm afraid the whole thing might seem too restrictive and lacking that quality I personally enjoy so much in other adventures, creative elbow room. Let's just say I don't feel that I "let it all hang out" with the offering. I haven't heard any feedback on the adventure, so that alone speaks volumes.

I also submitted a small game option for the first issue of Knockspell way back in mid-November which found its way into print. The Thrall is a low level option for beginning characters. I like to think of it as an Anti-Entourage Approach. Rather than one character slowly gathering a following and amassing a stable of adventurers, the player begins with a few untrained delvers and ends up with a sole surviving character to call his own. I used something very similar in the past in a more wide open version which I stripped down to a rudimentary foundation in order to align itself with the original rules.

All of this leads me back to looking for input here on some of these non-blog offerings. For that reason I will be adding the original unedited submissions I made in PDF form over at my OD&D Orbitfiles page. None of these submissions will be added there until they see print, in all fairness to the editors. I'll wait for Fight On! #4 before I add these, so I can link to Spawning Grounds, The Thrall and Delvers Delve all at once. The Bogbears and The Entourage Approach which worked their way into Fight On! started here at the blog, so there's no need to add a PDF of those.

I'll be sure to remind readers to check out the Orbitfiles page once I've added to it. And yes, the promised new One-Pagers for The Dismal Depths are still in the works, as are my various other ongoing projects. Damn this is starting to feel like a job.

A dream job, nonetheless.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy New Year, one and all. Here's hoping that 2009 is the best yet for everyone. Inspired by Amityville Mike's list from last week, but with much less insight and forethought, here is my own list of gaming related resolutions for the upcoming year.

1. Complete The Upper Levels of The Dismal Depths: I feel that the heavy lifting is done here, now comes the actual map drawing and inking, then the compiling. I'll figure out how to merge all 12 maps, the Bestiary, and the one page Guide into a single file, create a PDF, and figure out what to do with it from there.

2. Consider revising and trimming down Ulin-Uthor, The Dim Expanse: While Ulin-Uthor will never be distilled down to the granularity of The Dismal Depths, I can certainly edit the existing work in order to dispense with much of the detail which has forced that project to the back burner. As my current gaming vehicle, The Dim Expanse might never reach a completed state, but hopefully in 2009 some section or the entire work will be finished and into PDF.

3. Finish Solstice as a Campaign Setting: Inspired by Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa, I hope to actually finally settle on some union of Solstice, No Future and Walpurgis that will yield a unique setting which encompasses The Dismal Depths, Ulin-Uthor, and many other homebrew projects I've been working on this past year.

4. Finish the D&D Cover to Cover series: And from those notes and comments write an OD&D Companion. I'm currently on Volume 2, p. 31 with my re-reading of OD&D, so there is light at the end of that tunnel now. I've received so many excellent observations and comments from my readers that have forced me to reconsider how I approach this hobby that I feel something needs to be done with these words of wisdom. I might call it The White Box Companion or something. Hell, I don't see why I couldn't call it The Dungeons & Dragons Companion. It's clearly a review of the books, so I doubt there should be any fear of copyright infringment.

5. Finish Lower Caves of The Darkness Beneath: I've made great strides with this future submission to Fight On! My problem now is which direction do I take? Do I continue with the wordy, detailed writing that I've used thus far (one room is a full page of text) or do I take the buther knife of word economy to the whole thing and attempt to let readers sort out the many indepth themes within?

6. Attend some Cons: This is a must for me. I'm so removed from the living, breathing face to face aspect of D&D that it sometimes makes me wonder if I'm fooling myself. Besides, I wouldn't mind actually meeting some of the other members of this online old school renaissance in person one of these days.

7. Expand my face to face gaming circle: This goes hand in hand with the above resolution. Playing is an extrememly important facet of the referee design process. Given the far flung proximities of my old gaming crew, expanding my circle of players will help engender more real face to face gaming and learning.

8. Encourage my 14 year old to finish his dungeon: And then plunder it with my own Entourage. For so many reasons, I truly hope that my 14 year old son catches the D&D bug. I cannot even begin to list the ways in which this hobby has expanded my mind.

So there you have it. I'm sure I've left a few gaming projects off of this list, but the above resolutions would certainly constitute a very good year of gaming in 2009.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

The Dismal Depths

If you're looking to enjoy a long read on dungeon design, sit back and take in the following.

My current project, which has detracted a bit from my blogging, is the culmination of many of the ideas I have been collecting and forming recently as Ulin-Uthor, The Dim Expanse has become somewhat bogged down by its layers of detail. These ideas and sentiments are due in no small part to my ongoing Cover to Cover reading of the original D&D, Volumes I-III.

The Dismal Depths was originally envisioned as an answer to my dissatisfaction with the involved design approach I had set forth for myself with The Dim Expanse. Fear not, The Dim Expanse is still going to be completed, but it has certainly given me an understanding of why there are so few actual honest-to-goodness megadungeons in print.

Perhaps the end result for The Dim Expanse will fall somewhere between its current state, and this new approach used for The Dismal Depths.

The notion of a no-frills megadungeon was the kindling for this project, but what truly pushed it over the edge into actual design process was a comment by one of my favorite odd74 posters, Dwayanu in this thread. For ease of clicking and scrolling, here's the blurb:

I'm trying out an approach of mapping by sectors of 30 x 30 squares. That leaves room on the same page for a succinct "key."

Now, in hindsight I don't think Dwayanu meant for his design process to result in anything more than a handy key on the map, but his words helped me form the approach for The Dismal Depths, a megadungeon with dungeon level maps, tables and room descriptions entirely on a single page.

It sounded like a brilliant idea. We've all seen plenty of similar maps online or in print, but I hope to offer a megadungeon that requires no more than a few handwritten notes on the part of the referee to dive in and enjoy a full-blown dungeon crawl campaign.

The Dismal Depths will hopefully embody the Empty Room Principle; giving referees more than ample creative opportunity, either beforehand, during a session, or afterwards when restocking or altering the dungeon.

My first steps were creating a list of unique, bare-bones monsters, thus I started everything off with The Dismal Depths Bestiary:

The Dismal Depths Beastiary

Amazons(C): AC 4 Move 9 HD 3+1 Women warriors from an all-female ruled nation. Wield silver headed spears and arrows. Amazons pay Dingo-Men for abducted male babies, all other men are slain or captured for ritual castration. Leader has 4+1 HD.

Boglings(C): AC 6 Move 6 HD 1-1 Small, randomly colored chaos-spawned humanoids. Flesh-eating, utterly evil (aside from the deviant Misfits). Wield crude weapons such as spears, clubs and tomahawks. Mortal enemies of the Wee Ones. Leaders have 3 HD.

Brainy Apes(N): AC 5 Move 9 HD 4+1 Smart, gigantic apes with rust orange fur. Prefer to attack with weapons, dealing +2 damage, but can never find armor that fits. Excellent negotiators but limited in languages. Gold is their greatest motivator.

Broodlings(N): AC 7 Move 6 HD ½ Misshapen, three-foot tall insect-men with ant-like strength. Low intellect, very acute senses. Travel in large packs hunting flesh for the nest. Never surprised, excellent ambushers. Scourge of the depths.

Cadavers(N): AC 8 Move 6 HD 1 Undead. Battle-axe wielding zombies immune to all magic.

Corrupted(C): AC 2 Move 15/30 HD 6 Undead. Vengeful spectres. Howl once per encounter, all in 30 feet save or flee in terror for 2d6 rounds. The character landing the killing blow must save or wither from unnatural aging.

Creepy-Crawlies(N): AC 8 Move 6 HD 2 Clean-up crew. Blanket of massed flesh-eating insects. Targets are treated as AC 9, deals 1 die of damage (1 in 6 chance to be poisonous) to all targets in 20’x20’. Attacks deal but 1 damage to it, but fire deals maximum damage and may deter it.

Desiccated(N): AC 7 Move 6 HD ½ Undead. Sword and shield wielding skeletons which take but 1 damage from most physical blows, blunt weapons deal full damage, and missiles do no damage.

Dingo-Men(C): AC 6 Move 12 HD 3 Cunning lycanthropes given to greed and deception. They are the only males able to interact with Amazons, and often lead unsuspecting men into ambushes. Only struck by silver weapons (not even magic ones, unless silver, effect them).

Fallen(C): AC 2 Move 6 HD 3 Outcast and dishonored, heavily armed and armored former Knights of the Order living in recluse in the Dismal Depths. Plotting to overthrow the Order and take control. Leader has 5+1 HD, his Guards have 4 HD.

Lab Rats(N): AC 7 Move 9 HD 1-1 Giant rabid albino rats with pink eyes, escaped from nefarious laboratories, now breeding throughout the depths. Bites accumulate and cause increasing itching unless save is made. One dozen together form a rudimentary hive mind capable of primitive speech.

Mantis-Men(N): AC 5 Move 9 HD 2+1 Giant, intelligent bipedal Mantises. Mortal enemy of the Spider-Folk. Excellent vision and senses, never surprised. Able to make a lightning-quick long-range lunge for surprise attack with their massive barbed forearms.

Mastiffs(N): AC 5 Move 9 HD 3 Enormous, armored trained war dogs employed as ferocious guards by many inhabitants of the Dismal Depths, often found prowling the halls looking for intruders. Cannot be surprised, able to track and find hidden foes.

Misfits(L): AC 4 Move 6 HD 1+1 Lawful Bogling Knights who protect the sacred Tomb of the Truth. Their kind often roams the depths, seeking to induct other possibly like-minded Boglings into their Misfit Order. Leader has 3 HD, Guards have 2 HD, Trainees are equal to Boglings.

Mole-Men(N-C): AC 6 Move 9 HD 1 Small, darkly furry, bald-headed humanoids. Those hit by Mole-Men glow with a pale phosphorescence for 1 hour, add 1 to hit for attacks upon the glowing character. Wield pick-axes and javelins. Mortal enemies of the Morlocks.

Morlocks(N-C): AC 5 Move 9 HD 1+1 Once tech-advanced time-travelers, now lost devolved species of cannibalistic subterranean men. Covered with pale fur, they are extremely sensitive to bright light. Able to slink silently and track foes. Wield clubs and spears. Favorite dish is pickled Mole-Man.

Pirates(C): AC 5 Move 9 HD 2 Really bad guys; buccaneers, corsairs, cut-throats, salty dogs. Leader has 3 HD.

Rotted(C): AC 6 Move 9 HD 2 Undead. Crazed, drooling man-hunting ghouls which, instead of paralyzing, cause targets to save or become wracked with pain, losing all actions for the rest of that round.

Seeping Ooze(N): AC 8 Move 6 HD 3 Clean-up crew. Mass of oozing purplish gunk which leaves a disgusting trail of goop and is notable for its fetid reek. It erodes metal in one round, and devours flesh thereafter at a rate of 1 die per round. Physical attacks and fire deal but 1 damage.

Skellington(C): AC 3 Move 9 HD 7 Tall, gaunt, brooding King of the Undead in the Dismal Depths. Skellington can never be truly slain by normal means, reforming in 2d6 days once defeated. Skellington’s hits cause soul wrack, save vs. death ray or die.

Sleestaks(C): AC 5 Move 9 HD 2 Tall, green reptilian aliens with bulbous unblinking eyes, pincer hands, and a blunt horn atop head. Wield crossbows, nets and ropes. Fearful of fire. Seek to capture men for alien rituals.

Spider-Folk(C): AC 6 Move 9 HD 2 Highly-intelligent, tall but stooped, long-limbed, gaunt race of arachnid men. Create flame-retardant web-homes, eat nothing but blood and body-fluids, have huge, poisoned fang-filled maws. Sworn enemies of the Mantis-Men.

Tainted(C): AC 3 Move 12/24 HD 4 Undead. Silvery-black wraiths with a chilling attack which treats all targets as AC 9, and causes 2 dice of damage.

Thugs(C): AC 7 Move 12 HD 1 Bad guys; bandits, brigands, rogues, robbers. Leader has 2 HD.

Twisted(C): AC 5 Move 9 HD 3 Undead. Withered wights with a berserk inducing touch. Save or attack random targets for 1d3 rounds.

Warped(C): AC 5 Move 12 HD 3+1 Strange, destructive mutated elf-like fey-kind. Random mutation: super-fast, super-strong, super-tough, super-smart, super-pretty, super-accurate, etc. Seek to collect brains for devious plots to overthrow mankind.

Wee Warriors(N): AC 5 Move 9 HD 2 The fighting Wee One. Diminutive winged fey-kind, greedy, devious, uncaring and opportunistic toward mortals. Heavily armed and armored to the point of non-flight. They wield daggers like swords. Despise Boglings above all others.

Wee Warlord(N): AC 4 Move 9 HD 3 The Wee One Leader. As above. All Warlords wield a Wee Sword (treat as a Dagger, +1 vs. Men, +2 vs. Boglings and Broodlings) which is enchanted with a duration of 1 game session.

Wee Wizards(N): AC 7 Move 12/24 HD 2 The spell-casting Wee One. As above. Typical spells include Sleep, Charm, Invisibility, ESP and Knock. Wee Wizards will have 1d4-1 spells at their disposal when encountered. Will use flight to avoid melee if possible.

Whisper-Wind(N): AC - Move -/6 HD 2 Clean-up crew. Large misty, damp mass of shimmering mystical air, up to 30’x10’ in size. It dissolves all flesh, bone and metal which it envelops at a rate of 1 die per round. Immune to physical attacks, spells or flaming oil will damage it.

You will notice that many of the new monsters simply replicate the statistics of standard D&D fare. For example, Broodlings = Kobolds, Boglings = Goblins, Mole-Men = Orcs, Morlocks = Hobgoblins, Sleestaks = Gnolls, Brainy Apes = Ogres, etc. The undead, which orignally had names such as Twisdead and Taindead, are simple homebrew alterations of the standard D&D undead. Toss in a few completely new creations, such as the Warped, Wee Ones and Spider-Folk, and a solid collection of new monsters is detailed in but two pages.

Next, I designed Level 1A, The Tunnels of the Mole-Men. A 30 square x 30 square map which encompasses the north-west corner of Level 1:


This was then scanned and cropped after filling the map in greater detail:


The rest of my time has been spent working with scanning, Photo-shop, and Word. I cropped, pasted, and played with all the various Word settings to produce this first draft version of Level 1A:


While I haven't typed in the Room Key just yet, the end result will be something limited to what I can type on a single line, maybe like so:

3-The Laughing Idol. Four shafts with ladders leading down. Mole-Men (7), Silver (300), Gold (50).

With just simple text, a referee could invent details on the fly, and still have the basic text for future use in order to jog his memory on how he handled the room in the past.

My immediate plan is to complete four maps for Levels 1-3, resulting in a dozen such maps. If I am happy with the finished product, I will expand the Bestiary, and continue with Levels 4-6, 6-9 and 10.

So, in case you're wondering, posting continues at a slow pace as I learn the ins and outs of making a dungeon in this manner. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the scan results, perhaps I need a better scanner, but considering the draft version is a scan of a scan that was emailed (the scanner is on my Wife's computer), it's not half bad.

I'll come up for air after I finish Level 1. The really cool thing about this type of dungeon is how I can share it here in its entirety. Hopefully The Dismal Depths will provide some entertainment for my readers who are willing to take on a referee style which begs for on the spot creativity.

Lastly, I want to add "Zulgyan's Hit Point Method", found here, somewhere in the Bestiary. If you're not familiar with it, go read that tidbit of genius.

Oh, and Happy Holidays! I Wish everyone a safe and entertaining New Year's Eve.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Fight On! Issue 3

A little slow on the draw today, so this may not come as actual 'news' to many of you, but...Issue #3 of Fight On! is officially out and available for order from Lulu's print on demand service. At 148 pages, it's a steal for ten and a half clams.

I'm ordering my copy as soon as I add this post. My modest contributions include Bogbears!, Spawning Grounds of the Crab-Men, and the hand drawn map for that adventure. Thanks to Calithena for encouraging me to get involved, and a big thanks to all of the authors and artists who are helping Fight On! fill a much needed hole in the gaming community. It's growing, and everyone reading this should support the 'zine by ordering a copy, spreading the word, and hopefully contributing for future issues.

Here are the release notes:

The premier fanzine for the old-school renaissance comes out swinging with a +5 vorpal claymore of disintegration! All 148 pages of issue #3 are released in honor of the late Bob Bledsaw and in cooperation with the Judges Guild, and feature the following legacy articles:

Wilderlands Map 19: The Wild North by Robert S. Conley, detailing the lands north of Valon and west, by many folks' reckoning anyway, of much-fabled Blackmoor!

Haghill by James Mishler of Adventure Games Publications, detailing the legendary village near the City-State of the Invincible Overlord and the communities monstrous and mundane that surround it!

Inferno: The Fifth Circle by Geoffrey O. Dale, author of the original Inferno, taking you farther and deeper into Hell than gamers have ever trod before!

You can also learn intriguing tidbits about the history of Judges Guild from Bob Bledsaw II and Bill Owen, the Guild's co-founder, and read a stirring tribute to Bledsaw and the early days of gaming from Bill Webb, co-founder of Necromancer Games! But it's not just the glorious of yesteryear to be found in our pages. David Bowman's contest-winning Spawning Grounds of the Crab-Men and Diana Jones/Indie RPG Award double winner Jason Morningstar's first honorable mention Khas Fara give you two tough new adventures to tackle, the latter of which can be played with traditional fantasy games or with The Shadow of Yesterday. Gabor Lux, the Hungarian Prince of Swords & Sorcery, takes you inside his Fomalhaut Campaign. Our front cover was penned by Len Cain of Berkeley gaming legend. Baz Blatt brings you new demons for Empire of the Petal Throne, while Max Davenport gives us some terrible and zany monsters for Mutant Future! And Fight On! stalwarts and newcomers Jeff Rients, Steve Zieser, Kevin Mayle, Lee Barber, Patrick Farley, Del Beaudry, Vincent Baker, Kesher, John Miskimen, Age of Fable, Calithena, and many more are back and ready to rock your game with the newest tables, tricks, sorcery, monsters, and mayhem their deviant minds can devise!

Whether you started in 1974 or 2008, you won't want to miss this fall's issue! Buy it now from lulu at

http://www.lulu.com/content/4886315

and be sure to pick up the first two issues as well if you haven't already. Happy gaming, and Fight On!

Got and get some!

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Another Teaser for Lower Caves

I started working on Lower Caves of The Darkness Beneath months ago. It has been a work in progress for quite some time, now. For those not in the know, it is my next planned adventure submission for Fight On!, level 5 of Calithena's group project megadungeon, The Darkness Beneath. I shared some of the very early ideas I had for this adventure here and here, but the project has changed quite a bit since those early ruminations. It is going to serve as the 'origin' of my home brewed Bugbears, the Bogbears (included in Issue 3 of Fight On!). Anyhow, I keep picking it up, then setting it down, as it is a non-conventional lay-out the likes of nothing I have done in the past.

The central theme is that Calithena's NPC Jalen Longspear runs an Inn for adventurers on this level, in the middle of the megadungeon, called the Halfway Inn. The challenge of making the Inn, Jalen and his guests interesting, and detailing why they are hanging out half-way down in this massive underworld death-trap has kept me from hammering this out in a few nights. The magnitude of the Inn, as I imagined it, forced a re-do of my first map; there simply wasn't enough space for actual adventuring, and I wanted to incorporate those Fae aspects I alluded to in those other Lower Caves posts.

I finally sat down and drew a map which I know will work well now. I have everything planned out, and about 30% of the text is done. All that is left to do is number the map as I place each idea, put my thoughts for each room into text, dress up the map, title it, and send it off to Calithena for a look-see. Hopefully this will see print in the Spring (provided it finds it's way into Fight On!). More on this as I continue the project.

Anyhow, I promised to share this back in August, so here's the initial map draw:



I claimed before that work would speed up on The Lower Caves, so I'll be careful to make that assertion again, but it is definitely moving along in a promising fashion.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Solstice: Through The Ages

Excerpts from my tiddly site's Solstice Introduction:

This is not a world of damsels in distress and princes galloping to their rescue, this is a world where the cold harsh reality of evil and darkness pervade everyday life. Mankind is pitted against threats from within and without while the uncaring Fae look on, unconcerned with the meaningless, pitiful lives of mortals. Solstice is a world of ruthless dictators, murderous bandits, greedy merchants, power-hungry generals, corrupt clergymen, brutish lawmen and torch-bearing mobs. It’s a testament to mankind that it has not collapsed in upon itself. Were it not for the constant dangers presented by the monstrous beings of this world, perhaps mankind would have exterminated itself by now.


Solstice is a land overrun by monstrous civilizations; mad wizards in lost towers; labyrinthine, inexplicable underworld dungeons; forgotten ziggurats of demon-worship; secret temples of forbidden rites; cities ruled by unprincipled despots; lost societies of Neolithic savages; vast unexplored wastelands; enigmatic ruins beneath the seas; frozen citadels atop colossal mountains; in short, a bleak, harrowing world of unreason, disorder and chaos.It is within this world of Solstice that your tales of fortunes and fools shall be written. May your tales be remembered and retold.

Solstice is a loose collection of various ideas and notes from my own Game Mastering history, stretching back to the late 70’s. Very little if anything remains from those earliest creative efforts, when world building consisted of a dungeon, inn and village. Solstice does represent nearly thirty years of working toward actually constructing a viable, fleshed out campaign setting. Through the years the campaigns were set in various locales, including Greyhawk, Arduin, and even Waterdeep. The worlds were actually of my own making, but I used the maps, history and trappings of those settings in some form or another. I added regions, fleshed out scant descriptions, and generally turned them all upside down; shaking out the good stuff and ignoring that which didn’t interest me.

In between these published settings, Blackthorn began to grow and take shape. The end result was a system of heavily homebrewed rules highlighted by very specific character Races and Classes. Blackthorn was a dead end of sorts, though. It’s technically an AD&D supplement, wrapped around a world map and some very basic history. Although I typed up and printed off Blackthorn, and distributed copies to my players at the time, we never actually played a game using it.

What remains of Blackthorn is the world map and historical entries. From this brief stab at an actual homebrewed setting grew the roots of Solstice. In creating Blackthorn, the first thing I had to do was expunge all those elements of the aforementioned Greyhawk, Arduin and Waterdeep. Arduin was the last to go, as it was a central nation on the small continent which had hosted two different long running campaigns. The idea at the time was to simply replace Arduin with a new central nation, that being Blackthorn, hence the name of the supplement. I later realized that the title Blackthorn was not the best choice for a D&D supplement, and now here I sit years later using the same theory, instead with Solstice supplanting the original name.

What I wish to do with Solstice is present a modular sand-box setting featuring maps, history, hex details, adventure locales, races, monsters, treasure, and perhaps some optional house rules. This is not a new desire or goal, but I have been encouraged by old school efforts of late, including Fight On! and Swords & Wizardry.

One aspect of Solstice that I have been attempting to fine tune is the various eras and ages of the land. Here are the primary epochs as I have imagined them:

I: The Dawn of Man
II: The Age of Man
III: The Twilight of Man

The Dawn of Man encompasses the age when the Fae slowly lost dominion over Solstice to Mankind. The Age of Man is the time in which Solstice, as currently written, takes place, when Mankind rules the land. The Twilight of Man is the era described in No Future, when Mankind is fading after the cataclysmic events that ended the previous age.

I think The Twilight of Man might now be viewed as a poor copy of Carcosa, even though the concept was formed long before I knew that Geoffrey McKinney was preparing to publish his homebrewed setting. The Age of Man might be too generic, and the Dawn of Man is a recent view of Solstice I’ve formed through some of my creative projects.

So, I don’t know exactly how to proceed. Perhaps move forward and fully flesh Solstice out in the Age of Man, as originally intended, with sections covering those epochs before and after. In the end, the ‘generic’ approach can be eclipsed by good old fashioned creativity.

My current plan is to create a setting using Swords & Wizardry as a rules reference, and get the whole thing polished and presentable. Lastly I’d make it available as a template for inserting adventures and hosting a campaign. I’m hoping I can follow through and get this particular project completed and available to interested parties in the near future.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee