Elthos RPG - The World's Ultimate Fantasy Heart-Breaker

Someone on G+ recently mentioned that they encountered Elthos a while back and thought it is "the world's ultimate Fantasy Heart-breaker".  While not entirely surprising, given the very long haul this project has taken, I nevertheless find it amusing.  I have to wonder if it's true.  After all... it could be.  Perhaps I can take pride in that somehow?  After all, being the "ultimate" anything is distinctive.  Hmmm...

As to whether or not it happens to be true... How would I know? I'm just the poor shlub who's been tinkering away this for the past 40 years.  And I'm pretty sure I will continue to tool away at it, quite happily, for the next 40 years.  More if I can manage it. Elthos is my art form, and as such, it's something I work on because I enjoy it.

As you may know, the Mythos Machine is a major piece of the Elthos Project.  Aside from the simple enjoyment I get from tinkering with the code, I tool away at it because I would like to fulfill my vision ... The main driver in this regard is my own sense of satisfaction in knowing I thought up something that seemed useful for the world of RPGs, and then went ahead and persevered with it until I achieved it. I'm a pretty stubborn person, and this kind of project seems suitable for my temperament. I started the project in 1978 with the creation of my homebrew Elthos RPG Rules, and in 1994 I conceived of a computer application to help me crunch the numbers for game prep and so taught myself databasing and programming.  Between then and now I've been chipping away at this concept in my off hours as my Once and Great Hobby Project.

By 2000 I had a Visual Basic 6 application that does a LOT of very cool stuff related to world building and character management.  I mean a LOT of wonderful features are packed into that program.  Even more than the Mythos Machine web application does, actually. For example, it has a map painter utility that integrates the combat rules so you can run the entire game pushing characters around on the map and combating them, taking into account weapons and armors, magic, movement, terrain, and every rule I use to run my games. It's pretty damn slick, if I do say so myself.  But as it was a Microsoft VB6 project, it has fundamental flaws and I was concerned about being able to support it if I sent it out into the wild.  So I decided to shelve it, and work on a web application instead, largely because it would have a much easier support model.  It also gave me a chance to start over from scratch with the code base.  That's the Mythos Machine.  I began that in 2006.  Now, 12 years later, I think it's ready for public consumption. It doesn't handle everything the VB application does, but handles most of it.  I will add the other pieces as time, resources and interest dictate.

I should admit that my expectation is not to sweep the RPG market and become rich on the back of Elthos RPG, though. To think that is even possible would be blatantly absurd, of course.  Even if it were hugely, enormously, outrageously successful, we're really talking about a tiny niche hobby, out of which I am trying to provide something of interest to an even tinier subset of GMs who happen to want to create their own Worlds (and would like comprehensive computer support with building and running their game Worlds, but that's a different kettle of fish, in relation to Elthos RPG, which I'm talking about in terms of it's success as a stand alone RPG).  Planning on becoming rich on that prospect would be akin to depending on winning lotto as a career plan. And if that were my goal, then yeah, I'd say I'd be likely to end up in Fantasy Heart-Breaker territory.  But that's not my expectation, so on that level I don't think this outcome is likely. Financial success would be nice, but is hardly necessary. That said, of course I would like people to take a look at what I've created because I honestly think it's worthwhile. But for my own sanity, I don't want to depend on that result, either.  I want to enjoy it for what it is, and leave the rest to fate, or destiny, or luck, or the Tao, or The Gods, or whatever.

“If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

But as far as money is concerned, I derived my entire programming career from this project, having taught myself programming so in order to work on it starting in 1994. I make a very decent living as a programmer/analyst, so I have to include that in my calculations as to how much money Elthos made for me.  Fact is, if it weren't for Elthos, I wouldn't ever have become a programmer ... this plus the fact that I've had a fabulous time Gamemastering Elthos and tinkering away at the Mythos Machine over the years... even without it being successful in the market, I think  I'm already way ahead. And I never borrowed money for the project so I don't owe anyone anything. It is very cheap to run, and I can keep it online at very little cost.  So, I'm not in a rush to make money on this thing.  I just want it to be done with as much excellence as I can put into it.

As I look at it, I've managed to successfully create something pretty awesome while avoiding all of the usual tricks, traps & "Imperial Entanglements" associated with Capitalist System.  Because of that I completely own Elthos. and so I am at perfect liberty to do with it whatever I want. And it does a great job for me. I use it to run my own games, and my friends have had a myriad hours of fun romping around Elthos killing monsters, taking their stuff, and saving (er, sometimes destroying) the world.  And that makes me happy, too.

What would be especially cool, though, is to find in the end that I added something to the world of RPGs that was not just some transient wisp of an idea, but something that really helps lift the hobby, overall, and in the long run. I think Mythos Machine as an innovative piece of RPG software has a shot at that. But that is not my goal for the projec,t either.  It would be a lovely if all goes well, but it's not the reason I work on it, either.  Again, I'd be crazy to assume that my work will be influential in the world of RPGs as there's waaaaaay too many brilliant people contributing far more popular ideas to the hobby than I am.  But still, I don't know too many who have stuck to creating RPG game prep software for their systems quite as doggedly as I have... so there's a chance that 'ere the end Elthos and the Mythos Machine will prove of some value to Gamemasters creating their own Worlds.  In this I do stand some chance of winding up in the Fantasy Heart-Breaker zone, but again, I'm not convinced of that either.  After all, even if no one uses it... I use it.  And to very good effect for my games.  So at the very least, I constructed a software system that helps me run my games.  I think that's pretty kickass, so I don't think I will wind up heartbroken if people don't wind up finding out about it.  Maybe that will turn out to be a cool thing in its own right... the only person in the world who uses a specific software application to run his world?  I don't know ... somehow I see kudos there.

But yeah, of course I hope Gamemasters will look into Elthos and find out how it and the Mythos Machine may be useful to them. And yes, I hope people support it so that I can keep improving it. Why not?

But, what I'm actually shooting for is something just as ridiculously improbable as financial success... probably more so...  I want to help encourage and foster human creativity.  I feel like we are living in a time where creativity and imagination are under direct assault by The Powers That Be.  Free thought is at a low ebb and there's way too many people who are all too willing to give up their own ideas and creative powers to those who claim to be the true arbiters of creative value.  I want to resist that because I think it's rubbish, and the Elthos Project is my way of doing that for myself, and a tool I want to offer others to help them do the same.  The Elthos Mission is all about exercising your own imagination. I know, I know ... you can stop laughing now.  I admit, it is an uphill battle.  But fortunately, the RPG community is bursting at the seams with people who already have the spark of creativity.  I just want to fan the flames and help inspire more of it.  Lots more.

Back when I started the project, I wanted to see if I could find a way to use computers to bring people together, rather than drive them apart and isolate them. I think I came up with this idea after seeing a film called Future Shock in the late 70's. I watched the movie and said to myself, "OMG, screw that. We can definitely do better".  In fact, the Elthos Project is kind of a big jab in the eye of the direction the Big Technologists have taken things over the past 50 years. Frankly, I want the world to go the other direction, and I want to try my best to inspire people to embrace their imaginations, and create fantastic, amazing, powerful, and wondrous Worlds of their own because I believe that it is the power of human creativity and imagination that will allow us to escape the Techno-Prison being rapidly constructed all around us. If I can help to inspire people to think for themselves and use their own minds and hearts and creativity then I will consider the Elthos Project a true success, even if it does nothing for my own personal fortunes. And we won't know if I managed to achieve that for a long time to come, actually. I do suspect I've had some modest success already with this, but I will have to leave that to future historians of RPGs to ultimately decide.  If' I'm lucky, my timing is good, and I can bring enough excellence to my work, then I hope to help people see the value of their own ideas... if I can do that I will have achieved my true objective.

Of course, in the end, since I owe no one anything, and have no need for Elthos to be successful, and have enjoyed the hell out of the thing for 40 years now, I'd have to say, it seems to me to be about as far away from a Fantasy Heart-Breaker as it could possibly be.  And even if I don't achieve my self appointed Prime Directive, at least I will have tried my absolute best.  And that's ok with me.  I feel proud of the fact that I worked towards a goal that I feel is worthy of my time and effort.  Whether or not people acknowledge that or find it useful... I can't control that.  So I leave it to destiny to work out.

So while some people may be thinking that Elthos is the ultimate Fantasy Heart-breaker, my opinion is that it is unlikely, and that the jury is still out on this anyway.  As far as I'm concerned it hasn't been anything other than a wonderful and wondrous hobby project for me all these years, and that I don't feel heart-broken about it. Nor do I think I am likely to, regardless of how things pan out in terms of its marketability the years to come.  It's been a great project, and I am having a tremendous amount of fun with it.  I expect to continue to do so ad infinitum.

Anyway, I just wanted to explain my viewpoint on that because someone recently mentioned that they had that idea that Elthos is "the world's ultimate Fantasy Heart-Breaker".  I found it amusing... but also I want to mention it was a bit confounding. Just the label itself seems intended to be discouraging.  I don't know who came up with that phrase or why, but what's wrong with people trying to put their projects out there in the public domain?  So what if they are not financially successful?  As long as they don't have freaky expectations of getting rich off of RPGs they should be safe from the dread doom of Fantasy Heart-Break.  I feel like I want to reject that label.  I don't like it.  I strikes me as a bit of a cruel thing to say about anyone's project, whether it is successful or not.

But who knows... it may turn out to be true in the end. Maybe I'm just fooling myself, and the work I'm putting into this project will be ignored by the community, it will have no success in the market, and I will eventually find myself heartbroken because of that.  Still though, I won't know that for a good long time, I suppose by then there's a good chance I'll be senile enough to really be enjoying myself in the World of Elthos!  Haha.  And in the meantime, I'm having fun and expect to continue doing so for a good long time.

I do hope you will take the time to look at Elthos RPG and the Mythos Machine. and decide for yourself if it is worthwhile, and potentially useful to you.  Enjoy.  :)

:)

Whitewode Township Tactical Map

Spoiler Alert! If you are one of my players you may want to avert your eyes from this post until the end of the Whitewode Campaign.

In addition to making Story / Plot Maps, I also, of course like to make Tactical Maps which in this case shows the layout of the North West corner of the town.  To the upper right is the infamous Black Raven Inn, and on the upper left is the Church of Whitewode, Library, and School House, as well as Reverend Russel's Pastoral Residence outside of which you can see the Player Character Group has assembled.

RPGs do happen to be the most creative and fun hobby in the World.  I think I could prove that in a court of law.

Here's an overhead view with the main locations investigated thus far labelled.

I would like to say that the RPG community has done a spectacular job creating gorgeous maps these past few years.  Absolutely gorgeous.  This is not one of those.  This is instead a purely functional Tactical Map intended for use as the primary focal point for combat and movement of groups during the final phase of the Whitewode Campaign.  It is even possible, frankly, that it may not be used very much at all, if it turns out the Party avoids the upcoming war with the Pechs and Gnolls, and slips away.  That said, I am considering how to embellish it with a bit more artistic flair.  I'm thinking of coloring in the rooves with tiles, and whatnot.  Any suggestions would be happily considered.  :)

Primer on Types of RPG Maps

As a follow up on my original post regarding the problem with beautiful maps, and as an addition to a thread I am participating in on google+ on Combat Map Scaling, I want to jot down an overview of the types of RPG maps that people generally deal with for those who may be new to the game. It seems to me that there's several uses for maps, and each type of use creates its own requirements for how the map should be created.

Please note: I am going to include a series of maps at the bottom of this post that may be spoilers for some of my players. If you are one of my players and do not want to be spoiled, and you shouldn't, then do not look past the spoiler alert. For everyone else, please enjoy the maps selection as they demonstrate the various kinds of maps I will be discussing.

Maps for the GM

World Maps can include entire worlds (or star systems), or parts of them, and show distances, avenues and barriers and key points of interest. Less commonly, maps can show story elements (I like this kind of map and call them Story Maps), main characters, symbols representing themes, and so on. There are also Cosmological Maps, which may show the metaphysical or cosmic scale aspects of a World, including Deities and their relationships to one another, planes of existence and dimensions among other things, of which there have been any number published over the years. And lastly I have Concept Maps that show aspects of the world that may represent inner symbolism or relationships between non-physical things, such as Alignment & Political Doctrines.

GameMaster maps contain GM secrets which are simply things that the Players and their Characters do not know. These are not maps that are used for combat, and players typically do not see these maps. Should these maps be beautified by the GM? That's a debatable question. Given we only have so much time in a week, and game prep takes a lot of time, beautifying maps that only the GM will see could be considered wasteful. On the other hand, a true craftsman will want to beautify anything that they work on and turn it into a work of art, regardless of whether or not they are the only person who sees it. On these maps things do not necessarily need to be to scale.

The GM's dungeon map (or wilderness) is a very detailed view of the tactical layout of a given area, revealing various secrets such as traps, secret doors, and where the various monsters and factions of the dungeon are located. The GM does not show these maps to the players (usually). They may or may not be beautified. They should be to scale. They can also take a number of forms but the most common is the top down viewpoint map, where you are looking at a blue print of each dungeon level. Another style is the oblique projection map which shows the dungeon from an angle so that you can see the three dimensional depth and get an understanding of the relationships between the various levels of the map. These maps are fun, but can not be used as combat maps easily (as miniatures would have a hard time fitting on such a map).

Maps for Players

These can also be maps of Worlds as well, but will not have GM secrets on them. These maps should be beautified by the GM (or whomever makes them). They are not combat maps. They are not necessarily to scale. They do not necessarily even show what is truly out there. These maps might come to the Player Characters via a merchant, an adventure guild library, or discovered during the course of an adventure.  Or they may not be maps that the Player Characters have, but simply ones that the GM shows to the Players themselves because their Characters happen to know the region well enough to see it on a map.  Often these maps are used to help players understand where places are in relation to each other so they can plan expeditions, or consider factors such as kingdom boundaries, trade routes, or where wilderness happens to be located.

Then there are Dungeon Maps (which should be distinguished from Combat Maps as they are not quite the same thing, and serve a different purpose). These usually are drawn on graph paper and show the layout of the levels of a dungeon. They can be paper maps that the players look at over the GM's shoulder. They can be maps that they themselves draw based on the GM's description (in the old days this was how everyone did it, and I'm not exactly sure when or why this changed). The GM may use this as the sole map for a dungeon, describing it verbally to the players during the game while their Characters explore the thing. As such the GM description might be something like "You're Characters are heading West down a ten foot wide corridor made of gray stone blocks. They can see by the torchlight into the darkness ahead about 40 feet and up ahead the leading thief spots a wooden door on the North wall of the corridor. What do you do?" Then the player who is designated as the mapper would be drawing what he hears on a piece of graph paper to keep track. Not all parties designated a mapper. Many of those parties got lost in the dungeon and never found their way out. After that most parties had a designated mapper. Player drawn dungeon maps, by the way, are often wrong. This is used to simulate the idea that when in a dungeon it's relatively easy to get lost in the maze. So the party usually relied on the mapper to get it right, and as often as not, they failed somewhere along the line. That said, it is not necessarily the case that the failure is noticed by the Players for quite some time, even in some cases taking years before the issue becomes apparent and the disaster of being lost down the wrong corridor becomes a serious problem. I've seen that happen. Also notable is that Player maps are rarely beautiful, and quite often rather ugly affairs, scrawled in the heat of play, and barely serviceable beyond the rudimentary function of showing the way back out.

Then there are Combat Maps which should definitely be to scale, often show only small section of an area and are specifically used with miniatures or tokens representing Characters and their foes. The combat map is used to keep track of exact distances so that movement and attack ranges can be properly and accurately determined. They may or may not be beautified, and can take any number of forms. There's the standard large grid map where the squares are one inch, and the GM draws the dungeon as lines on the map. I often use this style. Then there's the table top diorama map where the dungeon is build out of plastic pieces or some such, and shows the exact layout of the dungeon in 3D. These are often quite handsome. They also serve as battle maps, and are probably the oldest form of battle map in the hobby, as they come directly out of the game Chainmail which predates the original D&D. Lastly on my list are virtual combat maps, which are becoming more popular these days as you can share them over the web via interfaces such as Roll20. Again these maps can be beautiful or not depending on the GM's inclination, talent and time. These maps should always be to scale.

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*** PLAYERS SPOILERS ALERT ***

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Concept Map

Story Map

Virtual Tactical Combat Map (Elthos RPG System I)

Cosmological Map

Cosmological Map

Dungeon Map on Graph Paper - Top Down View (Aphid Tample)

Dungeon Map - Side View (Murder Hole)

Dungeon Map - Top Down View (MS Excel)

World Map - City View (Hobbington)

World Map - Simple (MS Paint)

Player Combat Map

Player Wilderness Map (Harrows Gate)
(note there are no names and parts are missing)

Player Combat Map - Wilderness

GM World Map - Side View (Mysterio Island)

GM Dungeon Map - Oblique Projection (Grimdel's Lair)

Story Map (Yellow Clay Campaign)

Story Map (Yellow Clay Campaign)

Elthos Yellow Clay Story Map

Instead of simple maps that show what is in a given area, I like to superimpose over that the actual story as it's being played, with past, present and (possible) futures also represented. These story maps act as a memory device for me as the GamesMaster, and also provide the Players with an interesting representation of the game, and helps to keep the story in their memories. Those things that appear to them to be ambiguous and mysterious are just as well. I don't explain them. I simply keep them in mind while we are playing. If one of the 'possible futures' does transpire they can see it afterwards on the Story Map as a form of foreshadowing. And that works great.

These are wonderful little devices if you happen to have the time, artistic bent, and creative imagination for it. I love them. And over the years I've accumulated a neat stack of Story Maps that never fail to entertain me again long after the campaign has completed.

Edit: Venger Satanis (google+) mentioned this post and Story Map on his blog here. Cool. :)

The Problem with Beautiful Maps

People are doing some spectacular RPG cartography lately. Best I've ever seen. I've experimented with some new styles and have come up with some interesting maps myself as well. The maps look beautiful.

That said, lets think about this. There's two kinds of maps in RPGs. There's battle maps, and then there's geographical maps. The Players may see the battle maps as that's the point of them (though just as often they do not as there may be things on the map they should not see, such as hidden doors). The geographic maps, on the other hand, ... the GM sees, and those the Players often don't get to see as they may wind up being spoilers for the World. After all, for a lot of Players half the fun of the game is exploring and discovering.

So here's the problem... The more beautiful the map the more inclination there is for the GM to show all that lovely beautifulness to the Players... especially if it is the GM's own map that they hand crafted themselves. Of course, we like to share our creative work. Especially when we bother to make it look as beautiful as we can. And the Players love to see that work because it lets them know that the GM has really put some time and thought and serious effort into their world. Which adds enormously to the Players sense that the World is a 'real' thing (in the GM's mind) and that they're actually exploring someplace, as this is what makes immersion possible. All good stuff. But that pesky problem ... we have to be careful not to make our geographic maps with things on it that the Players shouldn't see. But we do want to record those things because ... well, the map is supposed to record what's in our World... so we wind up with this weird situation. We can either make multiple maps that show two (or more) different views of our world (and that's really asking a LOT of anyone). Or we can make our Maps for Our-Eyes-Only. Or we can try revealing little bits of our maps as they become revealed to the Players. Each of these solutions is less than optimal. The least odious among them is to reveal little bits at a time, of course, as that requires the least amount of labor and still allows us to share our beautiousness with our Players. So that's the one I go with.

But there's a rub. Sometimes I make beautiful maps that are somewhere in between Geographic Maps and Battle maps. They're lovely to behold. But they contain all sorts of stuff the Players shouldn't see until they get to it. We can't quite use them as Battle Maps either as they're not quite entirely designed to be used for that purpose. I'm thinking in particular of some of the isometric projection maps I've done recently (similar in style to the one in the image at the top of my post, but you can also see it here). Their purpose is to show me, the GM, what's in the dungeon. Including where the Pit Traps, Magical Thingies, and other WhosieWhatsIts are located. In fact it's completely awful because I have this lovely looking map that I can't share with my Players. At least not before the end of the game. And when does an RPG game actually end? Oh that could be months. Or even years. And even then, sometimes you still don't want to share it because you think "They might someday show up here again, and they still haven't seen the whole thing... don't want to spoil it for em... I'll just hold on to it." And so, in this case you have this lovely map that no one ever gets to see except the GM.

Then we have another form problem as well. What happens when you like someone elses maps, and you want to use them for your game... but the Players may have already seen it because it's been posted online or in a module or something somewhere? My Players are the sort who would not go out of their way to find a map that I was using from another source (I don't do that anyway, but even if I did, they wouldn't) ... in fact I know them well enough to believe they'd specifically avoid it. But not every Player is like that. And sometimes having a map's secrets in hand (especially if the GM doesn't realize you already know the map) can make a big difference in the outcome of a campaign. "Should we turn left at the fork, or head head to the right?" ... "Oh, lets go to the right. Maybe there's treasure up that way or an old temple or something ..." And lo ... there is. Big difference (especially when the left path leads instead, for example, to a muddy cavern of giant Bobbit Worms, ya'know?). So this is a different variant on the same basic problem. Maps are designed generally to benefit the GM. Not the Players. Stuff on maps most often must be kept from the Players. And yet, ... when they're so gorgeous... how can you not share them? Wahhhh...

This entire issue is about Fog of War in relation to Maps. And the problem I have with loving to create beautiful maps, but hating to share them before the Players have completely finished with the scenario. I want to make them useful for myself as GM, so they include all the little details the Players mustn't see. And yet... it's beautiful and I'd love to share it.

Case in point. The other day I was having a computer problem. My players came into my little side room to help me troubleshoot it, and on my desk was one of my nicer-than-usual maps in a new style my players haven't seen yet.

"WOW!" they exclaimed. I had to quickly grab the map before they could take a real look at it. Now they really would love to see it. That's good and bad. I can't reveal it to them without giving important information away. So I hide it. Oh duh. Why is this such a problem?

Because that's just how it is. It's a weird and convoluted thing, frankly. And I'm not sure what the elegant solution to it all may be. For now I will just hide the maps and reveal them little bits at a time by covering over what they haven't seen yet with black construction paper. And believe me... that's not really all so ideal... though it does have it's benefits. The maps are intriguing them sufficiently to make them want to press forward to look around at everything they can get their eyes on. Which is kind of cool... but may well turn out to be misleading and dangerous for them. After all ... somewhere in that maze of gorgeous looking chambers and caverns is the Serious Bad Guy. They might just not be up to it... but their desire to see then next thing on the map could compel them forward. It's like a bit of meta-gaming in reverse and at a diagonal. And I'm not at all sure how that aspect might play out. We'll see. Hopefully, I'll come up with a good way to handle the whole kit and caboodle of this issue before that happens. And in the meantime I will refrain from publishing my map for you on my blog ... where they might see it. Waaaahhhh.... :p

Ok. Nuff said for today on this. If you have thoughts, suggestions, insights or epiphanies... please let me know. Darnit, I'd love to hear em.

Hobbington Campaign Plot Map (2012)

This is the plot map that I created towards the end of the 2012 Hobbington Campaign.  It shows all the main Characters and Adventure / Villain Groups, and the primary locations in the Campaign.  The arrows show the movement of the Groups, and colored boxes show the related groups.  As you can see, towards the end of the Campaign, after about 24 games or so, things had gotten a bit complex.  This map helped me a great deal to keep track of the story in terms of plot lines and tidy up the loose threads by the end of the 38th game session, which concluded the campaign with our heroes victorious.  It was  a great campaign, and this map helped a lot to make it turn out that way.

Slorg-Vrol Island

*** SPOILER ALERT ***
If you happen to be a Player in the Elthos World, you probably want to avert your eyes quickly from this post, least you ruin the awesome experience of playing this scenario for yourself.  It will be fun.  Avert your eyes. 

After being thoroughly inspired by the amazing map work of Dyson Logos, I thought I would try my hand at a map which I named Slorg-Vrol Island. I tried to keep the map itself somewhat generic to the fantasy genre in filling in some of the details so that other GMs could potentially plug this into their own Campaigns and fill in the details as they see fit. I have written up my own Campaign based on this map, and it's fun and exciting enough that I intend to play it sometime. Mainly though, this was an exercise in map making.

As for the map, I did the rough outline in Microsoft Paint (latest version) using the Calligraphy Pen Brush, and added shading and the text by bringing it into Picasa and using the tools for that there.

Harrowsgate Village Map

The village of Harrowsgate is located between Lilac Village and The Ravines. A road south from Harrowsgate leads to Grizzly Falls Hamlet. Heading West leads to the Ravines.  This map shows the Southern half of Harrowsgate Village, where the Battle of Black Dragon Inn is currently taking place in the Elthos RPG Game-Test Story The Mysteries Unfolding at Harrowsgate.

Harrowsgate - South Village Map

Harrowsgate Village South

Tactical Close-Up Map of Mule Barn

Tactical Close-Up Map of Mule Barn - 2nd Story Loft

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Notes to the players:

The loft has several large piles of hay, about 20 tied bales, and a few rakes that are used to move it. It also has some old crates you can see from below.

The upper left hand corner of the 1st story shows a room with a doorway. The doorway is open and has no door. There are tools in there, such as crow bars, shovels, and the like, but no one has gone in there yet except Chickenhiemer and Turkenator who seem to have inspected every corner of the barn at one point or another if you think about it.

There is also the room at the bottom of the Barn map with two sets of double doors. That's the carriage room where the mules are hitched to wagons. No one has gone in there yet, and at the moment the double doors are closed, but the layout of a mule barn is well understood by Hermel, and he can intuit what is in there. A carriage if any are there, and tools to fix wagons, maybe some equipment along those lines. Probably.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Also, you may want to get together between now and next time yourselves and discuss. The situation, as far as you can tell, is definitely the most dangerous you've encountered so far. The barn is on fire, smoke is filling the place rapidly making it hard to see (visibility will go to 1 foot in 3 or 4 more melees, and cause eye problems (-2 AL) and choking (-1 LP / Melee). In the street you know a number of figures were moving, and if they are at all organized then they have at least 1 dectalion of men. Golden Sparrow, if you choose to believe her, said there were more men at the Inn that remained unseen. She also mentioned that the town guard were defeated by the Brigands a week prior, so calling for help may not produce satisfactory results.

Your GM recommends highly that you get together and plan out your strategy. Remember also, you do not know what their capabilities are in terms of Mystic Powers, but it would be unsafe, and unwise to conclude that they have none.

Views of Dunn's Bridge

For a lark, to teach myself how to use Sketchup mostly, I decided to create what the players know of Dunn's Bridge in 3D. These are the results thus far:

Overview of Underground

A view from across the bridge facing Five Crows Tavern.  The fully viewable tower is Tower 1, where the party entered.

A view of Dunn's Bridge from the manhole cover that leads into the sewers, through which the players entered the secret Study of Doctor Lobe, and the Laboratory.

Dunn's Bridge at dusk from beyond the manhole cover facing the direction of Five Crows Tavern (the small building on the right side of the street across from Tower 1).

On Creating A Campaign Setting

I generally take a top down approach to designing my world, meaning that I start at the higher level and drill down where I want or expect play to actually happen.   So I will start with an area of the continent, and create the geographical environment.  I will consider terrain from the point of view of the races that will inhabit it.  What are the strategic points?   Often strategic points are located at passageways into a region, such as a mountain pass, a harbor, or on a high point overlooking a fruitful plain.   I will select several of these, in the mode of pre-history, before any races populated the region.  Wild beasts roaming there will not usually pay much attention, but later intelligent races will.   But in the meantime, there are, for the sake of this example, three locations of strategic import:  ‘The Head of the Pass’, ‘The Harbor’, and ‘The Tall Hill’.

I will then consider the avenues and barriers between them.   In this case, for my example, I think I will create a triangle of pathways since there are three strategic locations.   Between the ‘The Head of the Pass’ and ‘The Harbor’ I will have an avenue that one day will become a road but in the beginning starts out as an animal trail.  I will also add a barrier, which is a forest that may be populated later with any number of beasts, or villains.   The avenue therefore passes through the forest which sets up that pathway as having an avenue and a barrier.  I like to combine them.

Between ‘The Harbor’ and ‘The Tall Hill’ I will put another avenue.  This time I will have a river as a barrier, which at first cannot be crossed except by fording, or swimming, but later I imagine there will be a bridge built at the ford.   This avenue will be little traveled for a long time, until there is a town placed on the hill and the harbor discovered.   That may take many centuries.   So that pathway also has one avenue and one barrier.  So far so good.

Between ‘The Tall Hill’ and ‘The Head of the Pass’ I may put only a barrier to create a challenge for later and keep things interesting.  Let’s say a peat bog.   And how about a nice big mountain lake, in which dwells a monster, or perhaps a band of Nixies?  That will make for some fun adventures later.  I might even put a treasure at the bottom of the lake.  How about a rare magical gem that happens to have fallen from the mountains there?  If one day a hero should slay the lake monster, or defeat the Nixies (I have not decided which yet, and maybe I'll have both), then the gem might be found, and a new magic item for the World crafted from it.  Could happen!

So to get to ‘The Tall Hill’ from 'The Head of the Pass' one must go to ‘The Harbor’ and then cross the river, or one can dare to attempt crossing the peat bog (a bad idea, probably, unless you happen to be an an especially hearty adventurous sort).

So at this point I have this:

I am now able to begin developing a history of this region.  I can begin it quite arbitrarily, actually, by posing that there are three primary races that occupy the region.   The first comes from the West, and occupies ‘The Tall Hill’, and I’m going to say this is a hearty band of farmers who decide to start planting along the lower rim of the hill at the base of the fruited plain, wisely led by some priest of the Elkron of the Earth to do so, no doubt.   Eventually that Hill may become a Fortified City, but at first it is just a poor little hill town trying to eek out a living along the edge of the plain.

At the same time, a hero of a band of Elves living in the forest for ages is taught fishing by the Elkron of the Sea, and so decides to occupy the rocky land on the north shore of the harbor.  He and his ilk eventually create rafts to help them fish and ferry, and go on to become boat builders, and are destined to rule the seas thereabouts (unless something goes horribly wrong for them - don't laugh, it could happen). And so the Elves split into two tribes, one of the forest, and one of the sea.

On the pass, I will put two small warring tribes, say of Ogres and Trolls.   These folk are only semi-intelligent, but use a rude form of earth magic, and can hide in the ground, mostly occupying caves and waterfalls.   They're cruel and hunt anything that moves.  Fortunately for the region neither tribe is very large, and they mostly feud with one another, and leave everyone else alone.  Unless they get too darn hungry, in which case some one or a few might venture down the slopes.

On the other side of the pass is another rich land with many wonders to be discovered one day… but not for a long time, no doubt.

And so it came to pass that the Elves of the Sea met the Farmers of the Plain, and began a mutually beneficial trade of fish, and produce.   Things progressed and eventually two towns were built up nicely, Hill Town and Harbor Town.   At some point they collaborate on building a nice stone bridge over the river.  All is well.

This mutually beneficial relationship worked very nicely for a long time, until one day an ogre of ill repute, and worse manners, wandered hungry from the mountain.   First trying the peat bog, he lived a rough existence for some time, until he’d hunted all the game there.  He moved on, wretched creature, until he came to the forest, in which he dwelled for some time with his equally loathsome wife.    This began to impact the Elves as they recognized a change in the forest, and were loath to go there, since the Ogre was very cruel, and powerful, and his wife was even more so, and a mystic of evil intentions.   The northern forest began to be populated by wolves, and bats, and stinging insects, and storms gathered over it, and it became brackish and unwholesome.   It was then, finally that the Forest Elves decided it was high time to send some hero or other to rid the wood of the Ogre.  But who would dare to face such a grizzly couple as the Ogre and his wife?

And so, we have a basic setup for a Campaign.  It was not very difficult, once the groundwork had been laid, and things followed along rather easily after that.   And so, for those who wish to create their own Campaigns it is not so difficult really.  It just requires considering a few aspects of the geography, the history, what races, and adding some history.   Of course, this is a very simple and basic example, from which a lot more history and whatnot could be derived, and you can consider that the Campaign action could take place anywhere along the timeline.  Note that if you do chose to pick a middle spot in your timeline then that would give you the ability to provide foreshadowing or perhaps "prophetic" insights to the Player Characters along the way, as well.  Not a bad option, if you do so with discretion and care.

The next thing I would do to fill things out further is create the Primary Non-Player Characters of the Region.  I would consider the King of the Ogres, the King of the Trolls, the Lord of Hill Town, and the Lord of Harbor Town.   I would create Non-Player Characters for each, and their immediate families, whomever is important and plays a role in the setting, such as the Hill Town Lord’s selfish wife, or his heroic eldest son perhaps.   I would create a few colorful NPCs to fill in the towns a bit.  Some of them would be famous for something, while others would be ordinary folk, such as the corner baker, his daughter, and the local snake oil peddler, and his ilk.   And so on.

Over time once I've filled in the towns with various NPCs, and given them little histories, and some aspirations, perhaps, I would then add villains, a few monsters or really rotten people to spice things up, and then finally add the essential important artifacts over which the people squabble.   Is there hidden gold in that there Hill?  Is there a magic sword that the Elkron placed anywhere as a Seed of Destiny?   Is there a wizard who has created magical artifacts that have created troubles here and there?   Or a famous sword smith who happens to be very talented at his craft but whose dark sense of humor has infected his swords with a curse of some kind?  All of these things will get added to the setting over time.

And voila, the Campaign setting is ready, and even has something of a life of its own.   Now when the Player Characters go adventuring in the region there is an underlying layer of coherence to things, a story that is already going on beneath the immediate concerns of the Player Characters, and so the world has a much better chance of feeling ‘real’ for them than otherwise.  This is what I have found works for me.

And that’s generally how to go about creating Campaign settings, more or less.  When you want to go whole hog, you can also add mythic dimensions to your Campaign (I often try to do this) by reading classical literature, mythology, old folktales and fairytales for inspiration.  Works like a charm!  :)

Best wishes on your Campaigns!