Maps, Modules, and Musings

Winding down Sunday afternoon...baby's sleeping, beagles are sleeping, I already took my nap, so I'm good for a few hours...

Last night I was up till 2am drawing maps. "Maps?" Yeah, maps...adventure module maps. When I first started this B/X Companion project O So Many Moons Ago, my original plan was to publish it as a box set in the same style as Moldvay's Basic Rules and Cook/Marsh's Expert Rules...in other words, a little box, a 64 page booklet, and an adventure module to "get things rolling." After all, while the rules explain the rules, it was the first couple adventure modules (B2:The Keep on the Borderlands and X1:The Isle of Dread) that really put it all in perspective. At least they did for me. As a kid teaching myself how to play (I wasn't introduced to the game by older siblings/friends) these were the basis for understanding what an "adventure" should look like.

Not that I didn't evolve my DMing style over time...I think most people who have acted as "game master" for years do...but the idea of how to design a dungeon or a wilderness adventure definitely comes in part from these adventures. While I have adapted other ideas to my gaming the idea of a "map" with "numbered scenes" which PCs will visit (in whichever order they choose) is still my main fashion of playing...at least for B/X. This is the foundation upon which everything else is built.

Well, whatever...I'm probably being too simplistic (again). The point is, I wanted to include my own adventure module with the B/X Companion to not only showcase the rules but to present something of a model for "high level adventures." I just can't think of all that many published adventure modules designed for high level play.

I suppose it depends on what one considers "high level." When WotC issued a version of Tomb of Horrors for 4th edition, my immediate reaction (besides irritation) was the desire to do a B/X conversion of the game. At the time I figured it could wait till my Companion came out (since a high level module needs a high level rule set). But looking over the old S1 on Saturday and you know what? Ain't nothing in the adventure that needs "converting." Oh, sure, there's the old demi-lich Acerack, that needs a B/X conversion...but other than that, is there anything in the module that requires characters of higher than Expert level? No. Characters of levels 15 to 36 aren't any more suitable for this "dungeon crawl" than a party of levels 10th to 14th. S1:Tomb of Horrors really is just an "expert" level module.

Same with Q1:Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Last summer I was REALLY itching to revisit this module and work up a conversion for B/X and was anxiously looking forward to my book's publication...after all, it's tough to run G1-3:Against the Giants when you don't have a game that includes the mighty Hammer of Thunderbolts or D2:Shrine of the Kuo-Toa and D3:Vault of the Drow if you don't have my Ponaturi or Dokkalfar monsters from the B/X Companion. And I was soooo looking forward to statting up Lolth and her demon buddies as a B/X conversion.

But in reading Q1 this weekend I found that there's a lot about it I don't like. I know, I know...Q1 has long had a mixed reputation with old school fans of the GDQ series. There's still an awful lot to like about Q1 and I think Sutherland gets a lot of things absolutely right. I even like the Spider Ship/Palace that others revile (it's just "weird enough" to sound like my favorite kind of acid-trip-D&D).

But it's NOT "high level" play. To me, this is "God Confrontation Lite;" sure Lolth, as a goddess, is so far out of the class of your ordinary adventurer that there is no way she should ever be defeated. Well, so long as she's played with "Godlike" intelligence and not as a two-bit monster (i.e. so long as the DM isn't "fudging" the adventure to "save" the player characters). The other nice thing about Q1...this is just about the only scenario I can imagine where adventurers of ANY level would have the motivation and wherewithal to even consider confronting a demon goddess on her own plane (really...I tried for awhile the other day to come up with something suitable and ended up with nada...in many ways Bloodstone is just a rehashing of the Q1 plot crossed with a bad B-grade movie).

In all fairness, Q1 does come closest to what I consider "high level play:" the antagonists are definitely up there, the planar weirdness is as it should be, the extra-dimensions/worlds are right on. But then the treasures are pedestrian. Many of the monster encounters are fairly normal/pedestrian. Again, other than the fact that Lolth should KILL EVERYONE should they make it to her palace, the challenges are all geared right around that level 10-14 range...in fact they're a little nerfed (in my opinion) possibly to compensate for PCs having limited access to spells and whatnot (i.e. fighting bugbears and ogres instead of demons as a "game balance" to the planar restrictions on spells and magic items).

And, yes...while I was at it, I also reviewed the 2003 Dragonfoot module Skein of the Death Mother (a re-imagining of the final encounters of Q1 designed and written by folks who didn't like the Spider Ship). And found it was pretty much the same encounters in a different setting...i.e. not much to cheer about there.

So, right...back to my own adventure module designed for "high level play." It's all well-and-good to bitch about everyone else, but what are YOU going to do about it JB? Well, maybe...just maybe...I'll finally get around to publishing my own adventure module.

The main thing that was holding me back was the main "site encounter" due to the necessity of drawing maps...something I have some kind of mental block about. Hell, this is one of the reasons I so enjoy playing (or re-tooling) standard old school adventure modules: my own pulling-teeth-frustration when it comes to drawing up a map. Sure, I can do a 5-6 room cave complex, but a mega-dungeon? A labyrinth with adherence to Gygaxian Ecology? No...those things just don't come very easy for me (unlike some folks).

But last night, I'd had enough...ENOUGH, I say, of sitting on my hands and whining that there ain't no high level adventure modules for using with the B/X Companion. There are quite a few folks that have purchased the game over the last seven-eight months and while I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, I get the impression that for most people it is sitting on their shelf as a mere curiosity. Ugh. I didn't write the damn thing to be a "curiosity."

So I sat down and just drew the maps. All of 'em. They're done.

Of course, they look shitty and unprofessional compared to most anything you'll find floating around the OSR, including One Page Dungeon Contest entries. But at least they're finished. I can now finish statting out the module's last few encounters (now that I have rooms to which I can assign monsters) and get this thing out-the-door.

I'm looking forward to play-testing.

D&D at the Baranof (Part 3)

[continued from here]

I'll spare you the suspense: my brother's character was killed.

By owl bears.

How awesome is that?

It went down like this:

Asked AB what marching order he wanted to assign to his party. He replied (after only slight deliberation): Halfling, then Dwarf, then Cleric, then Meaty (the fighter), then the Magic-User last.

Really? You're really going to let everyone march in front of you? When your character is a 7th level fighter with an AC of 1 and, like, 30+ hit points?

'Yeah. How do you think my character got to 7th level?'

I can see why the Dwarf with the 3 charisma is your best friend. C'mon...you're going to let your ex-fiancee walk point before you do?

'Ok, fine, Meaty will walk IN FRONT of the cleric...jeez!'

And so off they went.

There are quite a few doors in B1...stuck, wooden doors that need to be kicked open. AB liked to go through doors...they would break down most every door they encountered. Generally, he would have Grouch (the dwarf) do the honors. Unfortunately, I was rolling extremely poorly for door opening rolls and despite his 16 strength, ol' Grouch ended up bruising his shoulder more than half the time. After every failed roll, Meaty would shoulder his way to the front of the line and blast the door down with his 18 strength...grumbling the whole time.

The first inhabitants the party encountered was in the stronghold's kitchen: a trio of kobolds were busy cooking up something for the lords of the Fortress Q.

[yes, Rogahn and Zelligar were both healthy and present in the stronghold. Remember that all False rumors were True and vice versa. Rumor #18(F): Zelligar and Rogahn have actually returned to their stronghold and woe be to any unwelcome visitors!]

Do you want to attack the little dog men?

'Um, well, no...let's try diplomacy first. Does anyone speak kobold?'

[I have to say, I was shocked with this approach from my WoW-addled sibling...is it standard practice in 4th edition games to talk to the encounters rather than attack? I guess my brother is a throwback as well]

Hmm...it appears the only character that speaks kobold is your best friend, Grouch the dwarf.

'Grouch will talk to them!'

I roll reaction modifying for Grouch's Charisma of 3 and the kobolds attack, only to die quickly and messily. My brother and I laugh over our beers at Grouch's attempt at "tactful greeting."

A few long corridors, a couple storerooms, and a bit of being lost in the twisting turns of Castle Q and the party finds itself in Zelligar's indoor garden chamber. Unfortunately, I'm mean and there are several shriekers present who start to give off a keening wail as the party's harsh torchlight lights the darkened room.

Shriekers are 3HD apiece (!!) and it takes several rounds for the characters to kill them. Dicing for wandering monsters, I find a lumbering owl bear ambling down the corridor to investigate the noise. The characters nut up and gang bang the thing dropping it in a single round, though Meaty takes a blow from a forepaw (a taste of what was to come). As usual, I was rolling 6s for initiative, even though I couldn't open a door with the same six-sider.

The next encounter took place in the "visitor's lounge" where my notes read "evil centaur." The evil centaur was checking out the life-size marble statue of a beautiful nude woman. Deciding to try negotiating again, the party this time put forth "Lady Troy" (the cleric) to do their talking. At first, the horse-man was well-disposed to the pretty lady in the chain coif as they tried to bluff their way into some useful info. However, he was eventually tipped off by their drawn and bloodied weapons and when Meaty opened his mouth to lie his ass off, the Reaction dice came up snake-eyes and the centaur attacked.

And died. Quickly.

Per the module, the statue is "obviously of great value" but is nearly impossible to move due to its great weight. AB decided Meaty would throw his bag of holding over the thing and knock it over (possibly using the party's 10' pole as a suitable lever). I'd had a couple by this time and decided this was a fine plan, though the statue took up most of the room in his bag (which can hold half a ton!).

More wandering, including finding and perusing Zelligar's bedroom (Big Z wasn't there...I had him located in his workshop/lab) didn't net them any more treasure...I can't recall why they didn't loot the wizard's bedroom; I believe they even left the books that looked valuable if un-decipherable.

I should note that my Virgo brother was mapping the whole time...drawing on a spread-open napkin with a pencil. Despite a lack of graph paper and my conspicuously dubious measurements ("the corridor extends 50 or 80 feet and then turns left...") he actually did a pretty good job of mapping. Later he remarked:

"Keeping a good map...or even a half-assed map...is a real time-saver. That part in the southeast where we were lost was mainly due to beer, but otherwise I had a good idea where to go and how to get out with just a few scratch marks."

[I am paraphrasing]

Eventually their lack of a thief (or their general disregard for safety) got the better of them and they blundered into a false door/pit trap that dropped most of the party 40' into a deep pool of cold water. Faced with dis-encumbering themselves or risk drowning, AB decided that Meaty would dump the statue and Grouch would strip off his plate mail, while the Lady Troy would try to tread water in her armor. Fortunately, all of the party members were able to make their swimming checks and the magic-user (who had NOT fallen in the drink) was able to help them out with a length of rope. 'I'll come back for the statue,' vowed Meaty. Such was not to be.

Finding the stronghold's armory was not nearly as big a coup as they'd expected...most of the gear was broken, old, or otherwise useless. However, they could smell treasure nearby and they anxiously pressed on. Kicking in the door at the opposite end of the armory they found themselves in the stronghold barracks facing several "guards:" three owl bears!

While the magic-user's lightning bolt spell left one monster in smoking ruins, AB may have overestimated his chances against the remaining two beasts as Meaty and Crouch waded into melee, Lady Troy providing healing and Carey doing his usual 'floating.'

[by the way, a 6th level halfling with a 12 strength and a +3 dagger does just fine in combat when you're using the All-Weapons-Do-D6-Damage rule]

Grouch, no longer wearing plate mail, was quickly scooped up in a bear hug and took massive amounts of damage. Meaty, still wearing his +3 chain, was also hit with every single attack of the owl bear (including the automatic hug attack). Unlike the dwarf, Meaty did not have 42 hit points. Despite the cleric focusing all her healing power on the fighter, the second round saw him take enough damage from the beast's hug to bring him to -2 hit points.

Quickly I rolled on my 50 Ways to Die table: "a massive blow crushes your spine killing you instantly." The owl bear had broken Meaty's meaty back!

As we had finished our pitcher at this point and it was 10pm (we' been playing close to two hours), I decided to call the session rather than finish out the fight with the NPCs. As it was, the fight was shaping up to be at least a half-TPK (Grouch was well on his way to joining his best buddy in the Happy Hunting Grounds)...and since Lady Troy was NOT carrying a raise dead spell (I guess she was level 6 after all), I figured it was time to head home to wife and beagles.

"It was the damn claw-claw-bite that did me in," analyzed my brother, something I've discussed on this blog before myself. Beware the big creature with the multiple attacks, for they are truly the most dangerous game!

I have to say that I really had fun gaming with my brother, and just being able to walk into Gary's the next day and tell Tim, "yeah, my brother got taken apart by owl bears"...man, is that just a fun phrase to say! Makes me smile just thinking about it (owl bears are definitely on my Top Ten List of favorite D&D monsters).

Anyhoo, AB is thinking of playing again, and perhaps I'll skip the Thursday ECGF game in favor of beers and B/X at Baranof's from now on...Lord knows, it was one of the best times gaming I've had in awhile (face-to-face play, adult company, booze...what more could you want?). If we do, we might pick up where we left off and we might not...ABles has been saying he's interested in play-testing the B/X Companion, so perhaps we'll take my half-finished adventure module for a spin. It might be just the push I need to get the damn thing ready for publishing!

; )

Happy Anniversary to Me!

It's been nine years since my marriage in Mexico. What a sweet wife I have...

: )

Progress Report:

Added 7-8 pages to the module today (this is un-formatted text...it will condense smaller with the proper fonts and such). Also appears I've got the wilderness map worked out (at least, I got plotted where everything is going to go).

More on this later. Need nap. zzzzzzz....

Art Beggary - What I Need

I know I said I'd get this list out last night...sorry for the delay. Here's the space I'm still looking to fill in my B/X Companion:

Chapter 0: Need a cover leaf for the first page. Ideally this would be a large, landscape layout illustration showing a group of high level adventurers either kicking ass or getting ready to kick some ass (think of the Willingham art in the Basic and Expert sets). As for, "what do high level adventurers look like?" ...use your imagination! Outrageous-ness is fine, but it should still be a serious composition, not humorous. Because of the importance of this piece, the illustrator will receive a free copy of the B/X Companion when finished.

Chapter 2: Characters. Need one illustration of any single or pair of characters (though it should be one of the human classes). "Decorative pieces" for illuminating the tables in this section would also be cool.

Chapter 3: Spells. Need some "wizard in action" shots. Room for three pieces OR one plus one half-page (landscape layout) piece. See below for some possibilities.

Chapter 5: Encounters. Just need one piece, ideally of a piece of siege equipment (a catapult or trebuchet for example).

Chapter 6: Monsters. Room for three or four pieces. Two can be combined into one half-page, landscape monstrosity but it better be a good one (perhaps incorporating multiple monsters, fighting each other or player characters). See below for example critters.

Chapter 7: Treasure. Room for two pieces or one large piece (but it would have to be a high level treasure trove, not just a few scraps being argued around a table!). Could also use a couple decorative "border pieces" to fill out the tables...a sword or two, a bag pouring a stream of coins and/or gemstones, etc.

Chapter 8: DM Section: Space for three pieces OR one plus one large. Ideas for possible composition provided below.

Chapter 9: Special Adventures. Only room for one small piece. Could be a weird, alien landscape (the moon's surface with binary suns) or a picture of a mage sitting lotus and projecting his astral form or something similar.

ANYONE THAT PROVIDES ME WITH AT LEAST FOUR USEABLE ILLUSTRATIONS WILL RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY COPY OF THE GAME WHEN PUBLISHED. This also applies to those artists that have already provided at least four illustrations...you guys know who you are (and thank you so much for your hard work!). All images need to be original artwork, need to be black & white and need to be scanned into the computer. You can email me at my contact address.

Some ideas/examples for chapters 3, 6, and 8:

Chapter 3 (Spells)

- a wizard summoning an efreet from a cloud of smoke (lots of tusk)

- a cleric speaking a holy word, blasting opponents to powder

- a mage commanding a dancing sword

- two wizards dueling (with one obviously getting the better of the other)

Chapter 6 (Monsters)

- a two-headed troll

- a tribe of lurking yeti

- a quizzical sphinx

- a dark and bundled black night atop a fiery steed

- an incubus

- a shedu (partial or full image)

- a fierce nightmare (the equine variety)...partial profile or on-rushing shot

Chapter 8 (DM Section)

- an angry mob of outraged peasants

- a master thief revealing himself from behind his disguise

- wizard at the bow of a flying ship

- a swashbuckling warrior wielding two weapons

- an open chest, glittering with treasure

- a dwarf fingering a pretty axe

All right, that's enough ideas for now, though I'm happy to provide more to interested parties. Just contact me at my email address if you have any questions:

bxblackrazor AT gmail DOT com

If anyone is interested in taking a shot at the cover please contact me...for a color cover I'm willing to talk actual money changing hands, but my resources are extremely limited (hence the March begging).

OH, and one last item. If ANYONE is interested in doing artwork for the adventure module, I could sure use some for that as well. I have half-a-dozen new monsters that wouldn't mind being illustrated and then GOBLINS GOBLINS GOBLINS. What a goblin actually looks like, I leave to individual interpretation (hobgoblins = militant goblins; bugbears = large goblins; etc.). Anyone with a penchant for goblins or a goblin doodling fetish is encouraged to submit stuff...including goblins dressed for arctic conditions. If you're interested in illustrating the new monsters, email me.

Thanks in advance, folks.

Good Stuff

10 pages written (unformatted)...now that's a productive day.

'Course, I'm down to 11% power in Ye Olde Laptop. Time to hit the shower.

; )

Stuffing JPEGs

Threw the first few jpegs into the B/X Companion last night and man, it was easier than getting the headers right. The latest version of Word ensures these things fit like a glove (or are easily adjusted size-wise), and O Boy they look great!

Those folks who have artwork to contribute, please keep 'em coming! A few of you asked for specific ideas/compositions and if you do NOT think you're going to be able to get to 'em, please let me know so I can pass them on to others! That being said, you've still got plenty of time to submit art, though I'd like everything no later than the end of February. HOWEVER, as you finish stuff, please get pieces emailed to me so I can work on the lay-out/contents/index! Remember, these don't have to be gargantuan masterpieces, they are "illumination" for the text.

And they sure do illuminate!

I tossed and turned all night and finally woke up at 3am this morning, lying awake in bed till the alarm went off. I don't know what the hell was going on (unless the Advil I took last night had caffeine in it or something), but all I could think about were ideas for the module. I got two of the four-five maps drawn for it and the lay-out/design for the biggie site last night so there's definite progress being made on that account (the good Doctor wants me to get my sketches mailed to him this week, too...he's as anxious to start as me!), and hopefully I'll be able to get everything laid down now that I've got the dimensions.

I should probably note here and now that GQ1 is NOT intended to be a high-level "dungeon crawl." While the maps are somewhat important (and I'd say "expected"), the adventure is designed to show off the Companion and a bit of what "Companion Level play" is all about. At least, that's MY objective...we'll see if I can deliver the goods! All my recent posts on modules and module design/expectations are being taken into account, by the way.

; )

OH...last note (gotta' head off to work!): went out to brunch with my wife and non-gamer friends yesterday (happy MLK Jr. day, folks!) and THEY (our friends) wanted to know all about the Companion's progress, how's it going, the latest updates, etc. Their excitement was hugely encouraging, in fact Katie has been inspired by MY efforts to write a book herself (though not an RPG). Which is very cool.

See? Spreading the joy all around! Have a great day/week, people!

: )