First, sorry if the last post was a bit scattered (I did spend several hours composing it). Second, a close read of Chris Kutalik's pointcrawling posts is in order because much of my thoughts on connections and such, he'd already covered 2 years ago. Third, check out these links Talysman shared in the comments of our discussion:
A method of terrain generation from Central Casting Dungeons product.
And his own Last Minute Hex Crawl Tables
Fourth, while this wouldn't be of help to the sightless, check out this post as a method of generating pointcrawls using routes.
Fifth, I think the biggest issue for a blind person with generating a pointcrawl is not going to be the generation but keeping track of what they generate, which is basically what a map is, an efficient way to store positional data in 2-d. The method that might work is to treat points like the locations in a choose-your-own-adventure book. Number all of them, and number the exits from each location with the number of the location that route is leading to. Then you could store these numbered points anyway that was convenient to you, text file list, database.
Sixth, some fresh thoughts:
All that jazz about biomes is probably not very important in randomly generating terrain for a pointcrawl. Minecraft is an infinite flat plain, so gradients of temperature and moisture matter more. In fantasy worlds even slightly like our own, terrain will be relatively similar unless the distance between the points is huge. What I mean is, temperature is mostly tied to latitude, so the farther north you go the colder it will be. But that takes miles and miles of travel to really manifest itself.
It seems like most terrain generated will be like that you just left, maybe the only variation is in the surface features. Is there a lake here? Is there a forest?
So, elevation might matter much more as the variation you would see in local features. Is there a hill here? A canyon, a pass through these mountains?
Another thought, the problem with randomly generated anything is that information about the generated place is very local, it's difficult to make more big picture patterns or connections until you've already finished generating a big area, look at it and then do so. What I mean is, if there's a pass through the mountains, is it the only pass? If it is it might be very important and have different encounters. Is this bit of forest a small grove or just a point hidden in a vast swath of forest? Most random generating systems are not going to help with that.
With that in mind, the best bet for blind players or DMs, would probably be to take something like Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms and convert it into a point crawl and record the points in the numbered location method I mentioned above. That way all the "big picture" knowledge could be captured for the points. Then point 54 can let you know that it is a small grove far from civilization but near trade route heavily used in summer.
Of course, that requires someone to make a whole world which is the creative work a random system is trying to replace. But maybe someone could use a random system as a work aid, generate a ton of points, look over them and apply logical, big-feature information to the points, and then share them with folks.
Showing posts with label Generating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Generating. Show all posts
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Thoughts on Hexless Random Wilderness Generation
The Hill Cantons blog has a very interesting question about how to randomly generate wilderness for a hexless pointcrawl. I think an unspoken requirement is that the terrain makes some kind of sense as well. Here are some thoughts on the problem.
Pseudo-Realistic Terrain
First, how do you randomly generate terrain and not have deserts next to swamps? If you think of terrain as fitting into hot-cold and wet-dry continuums, with a chart like this:
You can generate terrain that will always be one step away from the temperature and moisture of the terrain you were in. Imagine a position on the graph which represents the features of the area you are in. Like this:
If you roll a d10, 1-8 will show you what heat and moisture the new area will have. Rolling a 9 or 10 could mean you stay in the same box, or if you wanted to 10 could mean you hop two boxes to indicate a larger shift. But this might just be introducing a difficult visual record keeping in lieu of a hex map. Maybe we could just track it abstractly by using the letter/number code and this little chart:
So, for example, J1 (and clusters of letters/numbers near it) would correspond to tundra and whatever features you pre-define tundra to have.
The second possible way to handle this is to generate features on the fly with some component charts. For example:
Size
If we aren't keeping track of strict units like hexes, we could more loosely determine the size of the piece of land we are in, like this:
Keeping Track of Points
But, none of this gets at how you would keep track of points in a pointcrawl without using something like hexpaper. I think the answer is in the connections. This topic made me think of my long time project of trying to randomly generate catacombs with hexes. You can see some examples if you scroll through my hexes label. Doing generating based on connections is easy with hexes because you can roll 1 d6 to tell you how many exits a hex has and 1d6 for each to find the position of that exit. That still requires hex paper for easy record keeping, though.
Some of these combinations of exits have shapes like a "T" or a "K." And that might be a possible approach to keeping track of things. For example: You come to a large forest with several roadways, they take the shape of a "K" and you have entered at the bottom straight leg of the "K." So, just using the letters of the alphabet or the shapes of numbers to evoke connections to new areas might be a way to generate and record connections.
Another idea that comes to mind, is to record the connections in relation to a clock face. Kind of the way fighter pilots talk about incoming bogies. So, for example, You come to a grassy plain with roadways continuing into the distance in the direction of 2 and 10. A d12 would tell you a direction and maybe a d4 or d6 could tell you how many connections.
Distance between Points
Without a regular grid of some sort another issue will be determining which points are farther away than others. Are simple sizes above could help here. If the terrain you're in is huge it could add a certain amount of travel to get to any point. And if you determine the size of the terrain you're moving into it would tell you how much longer until you reached the point of interest.
Encounters and locations I leave for someone else, but hopefully the ideas here will be interesting to folks.
Pseudo-Realistic Terrain
First, how do you randomly generate terrain and not have deserts next to swamps? If you think of terrain as fitting into hot-cold and wet-dry continuums, with a chart like this:
You can generate terrain that will always be one step away from the temperature and moisture of the terrain you were in. Imagine a position on the graph which represents the features of the area you are in. Like this:
| The black square is pretty temperate, roll a 1 and things get colder and dryer |
Roll to check the
next chunk:
- colder / wetter
- colder / dryer
- hotter / wetter
- hotter / dryer
| This graph has the axes opposite of mine |
The second possible way to handle this is to generate features on the fly with some component charts. For example:
Natural Features
Roll for each:
- Elevation
- Vegetation
- Rocks
- Water
- Lack
- Great lack
- Abundance
- Great Abundance
Size
If we aren't keeping track of strict units like hexes, we could more loosely determine the size of the piece of land we are in, like this:
Size
of this chunk of terrain:
- tiny
- small
- big
- huge
Keeping Track of Points
But, none of this gets at how you would keep track of points in a pointcrawl without using something like hexpaper. I think the answer is in the connections. This topic made me think of my long time project of trying to randomly generate catacombs with hexes. You can see some examples if you scroll through my hexes label. Doing generating based on connections is easy with hexes because you can roll 1 d6 to tell you how many exits a hex has and 1d6 for each to find the position of that exit. That still requires hex paper for easy record keeping, though.
Some of these combinations of exits have shapes like a "T" or a "K." And that might be a possible approach to keeping track of things. For example: You come to a large forest with several roadways, they take the shape of a "K" and you have entered at the bottom straight leg of the "K." So, just using the letters of the alphabet or the shapes of numbers to evoke connections to new areas might be a way to generate and record connections.
Another idea that comes to mind, is to record the connections in relation to a clock face. Kind of the way fighter pilots talk about incoming bogies. So, for example, You come to a grassy plain with roadways continuing into the distance in the direction of 2 and 10. A d12 would tell you a direction and maybe a d4 or d6 could tell you how many connections.
Distance between Points
Without a regular grid of some sort another issue will be determining which points are farther away than others. Are simple sizes above could help here. If the terrain you're in is huge it could add a certain amount of travel to get to any point. And if you determine the size of the terrain you're moving into it would tell you how much longer until you reached the point of interest.
Encounters and locations I leave for someone else, but hopefully the ideas here will be interesting to folks.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Generating Ideas
Scott asked about how I generate my ideas in connection with my sandbox wonders series so I thought I might talk a bit about that and come up with some wonders with you. I'm not an expert but I have to do some of this at work and I've done my fair share of tables, so maybe it will be useful.
Constraints
It's counter-intuitive, but putting constraints or boundaries on a topic is helpful. If I were just generating interesting things to encounter in a sandbox I wouldn't know where to start. But the first couple posts of this series I actually laid out a bunch of boundaries for what I wanted: wonders that evoke awe, aren't deadly, have a system to them, grant souvenirs worth gathering, etc. Each can be a springboard for my mind. If I can't think of something that evokes awe I can try to think of locations that might offer interesting souvenirs.
How do you take advantage of this? Because really, most things you'll be trying to generate will come with their own constraints. Well, it could mean trying to narrow down the category of what you want to come up with, say interesting coin treasures instead of just treasures in general. But you could also impose artificial constraints, like only things starting with "G" to help you out.
So, how about now? What is a wonder that starts with "G." The first thing that comes to mind is "graves." But if we go back to the constraint of having souvenirs I think of leaves. Maybe each grave is under a tree and taking the leaves of a particular one will do something for you. What would the system be? Well, we could make the trees cycles through the seasons quickly so you would have to catch them at the right time, but with graves I like the idea that each buried person would offer different boons/banes and you would need to make a choice.
Patterns
Once you start producing ideas, you can look for patterns in them that you can then use to come up with even more ideas. For the wonders I quickly noticed some I'd come up with dealt with water or fire, the elements, and so tried to specifically come up with new wonders that were earth-based or air-based. I also noticed I had a bunch of forest-based wonders and tried to think of some that would work in other biomes or regions of the sandbox: desert, swamp, mountain-top, ocean. In a way recognizing a pattern is giving yourself a new constraint that comes from within the ideas you've already come up with.
I've found that opposites can be a kind of basic pattern to look for. All of your wonders consist of something natural? Maybe we can come up with something made by human hands. I've been trying to avoid the works of people because they bring with them a lot of assumptions about your gameworld's history. But maybe we could keep it simple. How about huge boulders carved into natural towers, dotted around the countryside? What system might they have if they are so scattered? Maybe something will appear in each of them in turn, like a flame or a light.
Another thing you can do is combine patterns, which is a way of turning them into a constraint. So, if we wanted an elemental earth type wonder that would appear in a swamp, what could that be? It isn't really earth, but the first thing that comes to mind is a huge tusk emerging from the muck. What systems could be involved with this? Perhaps the light shining on different parts of it at different parts of the day-- aha, its scrimshawed and if the when the light falls on a certain part of the story magical flowers blossom around the base.
Associative Leaps
This whole post is based on the idea of logically figuring out how we generate things and then using it. But our minds can be complex. If I say "Apple" you may think of the fruit or the company; we each have different associations with various words based on our experiences. But how do we tap into this if it isn't logical, just our mind leaping from one thing to another? Well, to allow for it. Write down lists of things and don't worry too much if they fit the constraints you set at first, just let stuff come. Sometimes a stupid, completely useless idea is one leap away from something great.
While I have moved the order of wonders about a bit, they are mostly in the order I thought of them, so if you look at the whole list (and my list of city wonders too) closely you can see how my mind leapt from one thing to the next.
So how about we try "Apple"? I think of the fruit and worms and seeds in it. Worms make me think of huge petrified things or the worm-like tunnels of volcanic activity now I'm thinking that a volcano is producing apples, except they are smooth obsidian orbs. Okay how about at a certain time of day a local volcano rains down perfectly smooth, spherical or tear-shaped bits of obsidian the size of a human head and these are highly sought as scrying devices, but deadly when raining down.
Inspiration
I hate the word inspiration. It's usually used in a magical or religious sense, like we just have to sit around and wait until a good idea hits us. Obviously I don't agree. But it is true that you need to see and experience things to come up with fresh ideas. My wonders are really limited by my own experiences in the Sierras (probably too many tree-based wonders). If I could visit somewhere else I guarantee I could come up with some fresh angles.
Another thing I would put under this category though is ideas coming from others. I was taught by my culture that ideas are a kind of property that are made by individuals and unique to them. Which if you look around a bit is hogwash. Similar contexts often lead to similar ideas and no idea comes from a vacuum-- your ideas are coming from the stew of stuff in your mind-- all you've read, heard, and seen. So basically, if I want ideas I'm not afraid to make it a social thing and ask others and bounce ideas off them. To that end, I've asked all my friends and most of my employees "You're walking through the woods and you see something that fills you with wonder. What is it?"
I'm still essential to the generating process, because they don't understand all my goals and constraints. If they give me something, invariably I have to shape it a bit. For example, my brother's answer was "a beaver." What!? I think he meant as a suburban human he'd never seen one in the flesh and as cut off from nature as we are it would be pretty wondrous to see one. Our characters in a fantasy world won't have that problem. So what do I do with it? What if it isn't a beaver, but their handiwork? How about a section of forest with the trees carved in the crude likenesses of people? What would the system be? Maybe you go there, then that night the beavers carve you into a new tree, then there is a boon/bane attached to you for a certain amount of time.
Incremental Improvement
You don't have to get the whole idea on the first go. In this post I've the kernels for 5 more wonders but I don't have all the details. I can let them sit for a few days and then look at them again, shifting details to fit my goals better, coming up with the benefits they give players (which is a separate act of generation in itself). But even after I post them, I can decide later that one isn't a good fit and cut it for a better, more newly generated wonder. Generating isn't a single-sitting performance, it is a goal you are working towards and any little step you make towards your goals are valuable revisions.
The Brain is a Muscle
The more we do this kind of generating, the easier it is to produce things in these ways. But there are limits. There are times when I don't have a single idea of a wonder left in my head and had to shift to doing other thing while that part of my brain recharged.
Constraints
It's counter-intuitive, but putting constraints or boundaries on a topic is helpful. If I were just generating interesting things to encounter in a sandbox I wouldn't know where to start. But the first couple posts of this series I actually laid out a bunch of boundaries for what I wanted: wonders that evoke awe, aren't deadly, have a system to them, grant souvenirs worth gathering, etc. Each can be a springboard for my mind. If I can't think of something that evokes awe I can try to think of locations that might offer interesting souvenirs.
How do you take advantage of this? Because really, most things you'll be trying to generate will come with their own constraints. Well, it could mean trying to narrow down the category of what you want to come up with, say interesting coin treasures instead of just treasures in general. But you could also impose artificial constraints, like only things starting with "G" to help you out.
So, how about now? What is a wonder that starts with "G." The first thing that comes to mind is "graves." But if we go back to the constraint of having souvenirs I think of leaves. Maybe each grave is under a tree and taking the leaves of a particular one will do something for you. What would the system be? Well, we could make the trees cycles through the seasons quickly so you would have to catch them at the right time, but with graves I like the idea that each buried person would offer different boons/banes and you would need to make a choice.
Patterns
Once you start producing ideas, you can look for patterns in them that you can then use to come up with even more ideas. For the wonders I quickly noticed some I'd come up with dealt with water or fire, the elements, and so tried to specifically come up with new wonders that were earth-based or air-based. I also noticed I had a bunch of forest-based wonders and tried to think of some that would work in other biomes or regions of the sandbox: desert, swamp, mountain-top, ocean. In a way recognizing a pattern is giving yourself a new constraint that comes from within the ideas you've already come up with.
I've found that opposites can be a kind of basic pattern to look for. All of your wonders consist of something natural? Maybe we can come up with something made by human hands. I've been trying to avoid the works of people because they bring with them a lot of assumptions about your gameworld's history. But maybe we could keep it simple. How about huge boulders carved into natural towers, dotted around the countryside? What system might they have if they are so scattered? Maybe something will appear in each of them in turn, like a flame or a light.
Another thing you can do is combine patterns, which is a way of turning them into a constraint. So, if we wanted an elemental earth type wonder that would appear in a swamp, what could that be? It isn't really earth, but the first thing that comes to mind is a huge tusk emerging from the muck. What systems could be involved with this? Perhaps the light shining on different parts of it at different parts of the day-- aha, its scrimshawed and if the when the light falls on a certain part of the story magical flowers blossom around the base.
Associative Leaps
This whole post is based on the idea of logically figuring out how we generate things and then using it. But our minds can be complex. If I say "Apple" you may think of the fruit or the company; we each have different associations with various words based on our experiences. But how do we tap into this if it isn't logical, just our mind leaping from one thing to another? Well, to allow for it. Write down lists of things and don't worry too much if they fit the constraints you set at first, just let stuff come. Sometimes a stupid, completely useless idea is one leap away from something great.
While I have moved the order of wonders about a bit, they are mostly in the order I thought of them, so if you look at the whole list (and my list of city wonders too) closely you can see how my mind leapt from one thing to the next.
So how about we try "Apple"? I think of the fruit and worms and seeds in it. Worms make me think of huge petrified things or the worm-like tunnels of volcanic activity now I'm thinking that a volcano is producing apples, except they are smooth obsidian orbs. Okay how about at a certain time of day a local volcano rains down perfectly smooth, spherical or tear-shaped bits of obsidian the size of a human head and these are highly sought as scrying devices, but deadly when raining down.
Inspiration
I hate the word inspiration. It's usually used in a magical or religious sense, like we just have to sit around and wait until a good idea hits us. Obviously I don't agree. But it is true that you need to see and experience things to come up with fresh ideas. My wonders are really limited by my own experiences in the Sierras (probably too many tree-based wonders). If I could visit somewhere else I guarantee I could come up with some fresh angles.
Another thing I would put under this category though is ideas coming from others. I was taught by my culture that ideas are a kind of property that are made by individuals and unique to them. Which if you look around a bit is hogwash. Similar contexts often lead to similar ideas and no idea comes from a vacuum-- your ideas are coming from the stew of stuff in your mind-- all you've read, heard, and seen. So basically, if I want ideas I'm not afraid to make it a social thing and ask others and bounce ideas off them. To that end, I've asked all my friends and most of my employees "You're walking through the woods and you see something that fills you with wonder. What is it?"
I'm still essential to the generating process, because they don't understand all my goals and constraints. If they give me something, invariably I have to shape it a bit. For example, my brother's answer was "a beaver." What!? I think he meant as a suburban human he'd never seen one in the flesh and as cut off from nature as we are it would be pretty wondrous to see one. Our characters in a fantasy world won't have that problem. So what do I do with it? What if it isn't a beaver, but their handiwork? How about a section of forest with the trees carved in the crude likenesses of people? What would the system be? Maybe you go there, then that night the beavers carve you into a new tree, then there is a boon/bane attached to you for a certain amount of time.
Incremental Improvement
You don't have to get the whole idea on the first go. In this post I've the kernels for 5 more wonders but I don't have all the details. I can let them sit for a few days and then look at them again, shifting details to fit my goals better, coming up with the benefits they give players (which is a separate act of generation in itself). But even after I post them, I can decide later that one isn't a good fit and cut it for a better, more newly generated wonder. Generating isn't a single-sitting performance, it is a goal you are working towards and any little step you make towards your goals are valuable revisions.
The Brain is a Muscle
The more we do this kind of generating, the easier it is to produce things in these ways. But there are limits. There are times when I don't have a single idea of a wonder left in my head and had to shift to doing other thing while that part of my brain recharged.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Monster Themes
In this recent post I tried to find a way to flesh out and differentiate monsters that have similar mechanical undercarriages. It didn't work that well. Now I'm thinking the simplest approach might be to just pick a theme and apply that to the different monster behaviors.
Here are some simple themes:
Monster Themes
Let's try a few.
What about "Faerie"? What would vermin be in that context? How about little faeries themselves, flitting just out of reach until there is a large enough gathering of them that they are bold enough to attack. That's pretty predictable, how about little bluebirds that fly in and peck you, or butterflies that swarm you and start putting you to sleep with their touch.
What about "Magic"? Magic vermin might be blink rats that teleport to your shoulder and start chewing your ear off. Or maybe even more magic, little, floating orbs that sizzle with energy and sting when they touch. Or maybe a snake that cycles into a rat into spider and back again. Or maybe that would be more suited to Chaos.
In the end, this isn't giving us the specific monster-making help I would like, but it may be the best possible. Why am I posting this now? Because we'll need this table for the next step in making our dungeon together.
Here are some simple themes:
Monster Themes
- Ancient
- Cave
- Chaos
- Disease
- Faerie
- Insect
- Magic
- Prehistoric
- Reptile
- Evil of __________
Let's try a few.
What about "Faerie"? What would vermin be in that context? How about little faeries themselves, flitting just out of reach until there is a large enough gathering of them that they are bold enough to attack. That's pretty predictable, how about little bluebirds that fly in and peck you, or butterflies that swarm you and start putting you to sleep with their touch.
What about "Magic"? Magic vermin might be blink rats that teleport to your shoulder and start chewing your ear off. Or maybe even more magic, little, floating orbs that sizzle with energy and sting when they touch. Or maybe a snake that cycles into a rat into spider and back again. Or maybe that would be more suited to Chaos.
In the end, this isn't giving us the specific monster-making help I would like, but it may be the best possible. Why am I posting this now? Because we'll need this table for the next step in making our dungeon together.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Let's Make a Dungeon - Map
Want to make a dungeon with me? I'll show you a method that is quick and easy and yet still a good stand in for natural caverns. If you get tripped up on your own perfectionism or are just too tired from work to make a dungeon come game night, this is dedicated to you. I'll break this up into several posts because blogging about the process actually takes longer than using it. So, today we'll just do the map.
Get 12 dice of various shapes. Make about half of them visually distinguishable from the rest. I chose dark and light:
Toss the dice on the paper. If some roll off the paper just move them back to the closest edge:
I use blank paper but if you feel more comfortable using graph paper go right ahead.
Now trace the dice in pencil as you remove them and write down the number they rolled. Light, sloppy, and fast is good. If several dice clump together, trace around all of them like its one lumpy room. Also put a little dot for the dark dice:
Now, draw connections from odd numbers to odd and from even numbers to even. Not all of them have to connect but try to avoid a a simple circle. or completely linear arrangement:
If there is no connection between the even and odd caverns you'll need to arbitrarily make one. (luckily, our clumpy room connects the 3 even elevation rooms here.)
Now, clean up the connecting passages and draw little curved lines to indicate differences in elevation. I draw them like little steps leading from the lower areas to the higher, each indicating a rise of 10'. If a difference is too much, make it a sharp cliff:
Now, those dotted areas where the dark dice fell are "Fat Man's Misery" type passages, they're passable, but just barely. Characters will either have to crawl on their bellies, or sidle along sideways. The chambers can be very low-ceilinged or choked with stalagmites. (I decided to make the passage from the elevation 3 room to elevation 13 very narrow, and make the 1, 3, 10 elevation rooms with dots have low ceilings)
One last thing. If we roll a 12 sider and just count clockwise (roughly) to pick a room, we can place a water source and see what it does. If there are lower elevations nearby, let it flow along. If not, it can be a pool, or you can disregard- not every cave has to have water.
The largest numbers are the exits to the surface. So, here the 15 and 13 have entrances from surface caves or sinkholes.
Now we have some treacherous terrain to explore: narrow passages, long drops (one 60', one 100'), and even a dry cave hidden by a nearly impassable underwater one. Next we'll place some monsters.
Get 12 dice of various shapes. Make about half of them visually distinguishable from the rest. I chose dark and light:
| Whoops, my d10 with the dark 7 should be on the other side |
Toss the dice on the paper. If some roll off the paper just move them back to the closest edge:
Now trace the dice in pencil as you remove them and write down the number they rolled. Light, sloppy, and fast is good. If several dice clump together, trace around all of them like its one lumpy room. Also put a little dot for the dark dice:
Now, clean up the connecting passages and draw little curved lines to indicate differences in elevation. I draw them like little steps leading from the lower areas to the higher, each indicating a rise of 10'. If a difference is too much, make it a sharp cliff:
One last thing. If we roll a 12 sider and just count clockwise (roughly) to pick a room, we can place a water source and see what it does. If there are lower elevations nearby, let it flow along. If not, it can be a pool, or you can disregard- not every cave has to have water.
The largest numbers are the exits to the surface. So, here the 15 and 13 have entrances from surface caves or sinkholes.
Now we have some treacherous terrain to explore: narrow passages, long drops (one 60', one 100'), and even a dry cave hidden by a nearly impassable underwater one. Next we'll place some monsters.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Treasure Items - revised
This is a revision of this table. I added a column for traditional fantasy magic as suggested by a commenter. Some of these are quite potent, but you can skip the column altogether if you want.
I also added the bare bones of a value system. I was thinking of making the items worth a base value of 500 gp (or sp if on a silver economy) and each - or + is a d20 roll. The results of those rolls are multiplied by 100 to give you gp values to add or subtract. I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible. So, that should give a potential value of 8500 if you get lucky. I would probably put a lower limit of 10 or 20gp even if the item is crude and broken. They are supposed to be of some value after all.
What do you think? Are the values too low? Too swingy?
I wouldn't use this to handle all my magic item needs. I like making unique ones too much. But this could be a handy way to quickly get a central treasure to place in a small dungeon.
Update 2/28/14:
I went back and made some revisions, including replacing fur cloak with leather saddle. I was thinking spurs might be a good possibility as well, but went with saddle to use leather as a material. I think leather is stiff enough to function as symbolic swords and coffers and such. I also replaced hair with iron as a material.
I tried to make a couple more magical properties more abstract so as to work better with the other item possibilities. The coffer holding more than it should is still a little too specific, but I thought it could also be understood as "expands to necessary size" for some of the items like ring, sword, helm, etc.
I want to make a separate clothing item table now with cloaks and hats made of fur and feathers and such. I don't think I can stretch it to 20 entries maybe 6 would be enough.
I also added the bare bones of a value system. I was thinking of making the items worth a base value of 500 gp (or sp if on a silver economy) and each - or + is a d20 roll. The results of those rolls are multiplied by 100 to give you gp values to add or subtract. I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible. So, that should give a potential value of 8500 if you get lucky. I would probably put a lower limit of 10 or 20gp even if the item is crude and broken. They are supposed to be of some value after all.
What do you think? Are the values too low? Too swingy?
I wouldn't use this to handle all my magic item needs. I like making unique ones too much. But this could be a handy way to quickly get a central treasure to place in a small dungeon.
Update 2/28/14:
I went back and made some revisions, including replacing fur cloak with leather saddle. I was thinking spurs might be a good possibility as well, but went with saddle to use leather as a material. I think leather is stiff enough to function as symbolic swords and coffers and such. I also replaced hair with iron as a material.
I tried to make a couple more magical properties more abstract so as to work better with the other item possibilities. The coffer holding more than it should is still a little too specific, but I thought it could also be understood as "expands to necessary size" for some of the items like ring, sword, helm, etc.
I want to make a separate clothing item table now with cloaks and hats made of fur and feathers and such. I don't think I can stretch it to 20 entries maybe 6 would be enough.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Treasure Items
First a public service annoucement: I screwed up with my web host so all my sidebar links will be dead until I get it sorted. Sorry, I'm an idiot.
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Okay, after all that talk of tables here's one I've been working on for a while. A simple way to generate interesting treasure objects has been my white whale for a long time. I want to be able to generate many different things you might uncover when ransacking tombs or catacombs. You can see my attempt at coming up with some kind of item generator here, and a separate attempt at coming up with item qualities here. In this new table I've simplified and smashed the two together into a layered table.
The idea is that rolling a d20 will result in a treasure that is fitting for western myths and folklore. But by rolling more dice for the different columns you can get many variations.
A few notes. "Votive" is something made specifically to be left as an offering at a shrine or altar. "Funerary" is meant to be something made specifically to be buried with someone or consumed in their funeral somehow. I would assume all of them have value with someone, even the wooden or wicker, if brought to right person, if only because of their significance or rarity.
You can see one of the difficulties with this kind of table when you note that a common treasure of folklore is a cloak, but cloaks are made of different materials than crowns and chalices. Belts fall into a similar category. In my object qualities chart I made two seperate columns depending on whether something is clothing or not. But I want to simplify the tables I might need at the table. And besides cloaks and girdles, there isn't really any iconic treasure clothing items I can think of (wait . . . maybe caps, and boots, dang it!). So, if you tumble the sub-tables on this and end up with cloak, you might have to do some interpretive work. Maybe the cloak is made up of metal links, or maybe the "material" just indicates a color of the cloth.
You can run into the same problem going the other way. The cloak has a material "fur" which works for it, but what the heck is a fur mirror, or fur chariot? Again, you'll have to do some interpretation. Maybe the easiest would be to imagine fur-trimmed items etc.
Another problem this doesn't adress is how many gp is each item worth. I hesitate to be explicit about that because it depends on so many variables- your campaign's economy, the relationship the party has with the buyers, etc. But what I might do for myself is roll another d20 and multiply it by 100 to give a result in 100s of gp, from 100-2000. And then maybe bump it up or down a bit from there.
After those caveats, I think this might still be a pretty compact way to come up with some interesting treasure items such as:
16, 15, 5, 6
A worn wicker spear that belonged to your family (maybe it was your grandfather's toy?).
7, 11, 15, 16
A painted brass coffer used to bludgeon to death an heir to the throne.
20, 6, 12, 12
A beautiful, gem-cut piece of glass found on the beach after a tsunami destroyed a city.
Anyway, I'll be trying this for my own game and I hope you find it useful.
______________________________________________________________________
Okay, after all that talk of tables here's one I've been working on for a while. A simple way to generate interesting treasure objects has been my white whale for a long time. I want to be able to generate many different things you might uncover when ransacking tombs or catacombs. You can see my attempt at coming up with some kind of item generator here, and a separate attempt at coming up with item qualities here. In this new table I've simplified and smashed the two together into a layered table.
The idea is that rolling a d20 will result in a treasure that is fitting for western myths and folklore. But by rolling more dice for the different columns you can get many variations.
You can see one of the difficulties with this kind of table when you note that a common treasure of folklore is a cloak, but cloaks are made of different materials than crowns and chalices. Belts fall into a similar category. In my object qualities chart I made two seperate columns depending on whether something is clothing or not. But I want to simplify the tables I might need at the table. And besides cloaks and girdles, there isn't really any iconic treasure clothing items I can think of (wait . . . maybe caps, and boots, dang it!). So, if you tumble the sub-tables on this and end up with cloak, you might have to do some interpretive work. Maybe the cloak is made up of metal links, or maybe the "material" just indicates a color of the cloth.
You can run into the same problem going the other way. The cloak has a material "fur" which works for it, but what the heck is a fur mirror, or fur chariot? Again, you'll have to do some interpretation. Maybe the easiest would be to imagine fur-trimmed items etc.
Another problem this doesn't adress is how many gp is each item worth. I hesitate to be explicit about that because it depends on so many variables- your campaign's economy, the relationship the party has with the buyers, etc. But what I might do for myself is roll another d20 and multiply it by 100 to give a result in 100s of gp, from 100-2000. And then maybe bump it up or down a bit from there.
After those caveats, I think this might still be a pretty compact way to come up with some interesting treasure items such as:
16, 15, 5, 6
A worn wicker spear that belonged to your family (maybe it was your grandfather's toy?).
7, 11, 15, 16
A painted brass coffer used to bludgeon to death an heir to the throne.
20, 6, 12, 12
A beautiful, gem-cut piece of glass found on the beach after a tsunami destroyed a city.
Anyway, I'll be trying this for my own game and I hope you find it useful.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
5 OSR Table Types
Happy Birthday D&D! I remember the moment I first heard of the game. My friend was excitedly telling me about it on the playground of our elementary school. A game with knights and dragons and treasure. I remember the first thing I asked him was "Does it have witches?" So, from the very first, the gift D&D gave me was more the knowledge that you could play a game based in your imagination than a particular incarnation of rules. And I immediately wanted to make things myself to add and use in the game. In that spirit I'd like to celebrate 40 years of D&D by sharing with you cool stuff I learned in just the last 4 years of blogging hoping that you will find it useful in making your own stuff.
First, I'm working from an understanding of the game that considers randomness essential to play. The dice remove responsibility from the DM to know and plan everything and they give the game a sense life in the way their unexpected results surprise and must be dealt with. Those dice work most commonly by interacting with tables of possibilities. And the possibilities of what you can do with those tables are a lot more exciting than simple lists. I'll show 5 below.
Another assumption I'm making is that you are doing it yourself, and when you re making your own tables, the more possibilities you can get from them the better. So, many of these "Tables" actually involve multiple subtables greatly multiplying the possible outcomes. The problem with that is they become ungainly, hard to fit even on one page, hard to use quickly or during play. So, the tables below are mostly trying to resolve that problem: how do you pack in as many crazy possibilities as possible in a table while still keeping it useful as a tool?
I would be surprised if some of these kinds of tables hadn't shown up back in the heyday of D&D, but as a very enthusiastic hobbyist, I never saw them. Feel free to point out examples of these I might have missed in old products or even other table types you've seen in the community.
Roll All the Dice
Years ago now, James R. "Grim" Cone posted a random NPC generator online. You can still get it and two other tables of his here. The innovation was that the dice types would help you keep track of the subtables. But also it acknowledged that the amount of space you need for good results on a subtable varies.
It can also be fun to resolve at the table , by players. I praised it in a post way back here and have created several of them. The one I use most often is probably my Hireling Traits linked in my sidebar.
So if you find yourself making a table and you can't squeeze everything you want into a single list, try laying out 6 lists with 4 to 20 entries and see if that works better. Then pick a set of dice with a bright, easy-to-find color so you can grab them all when you need them. And let your players roll and read out the results.
Sentence Sub-Tables
Okay, this isn't really a different table type but this simple innovation really helped think about my own tables differently and makes them much easier to understand when explaining to players. Chris Hogan from Vaults of Nagoh posted a few roll all the dice tables that had a sentence up top with the subtables embedded as words in that sentence. This showed how the subtables worked together.
The sentence in the image at right is basically the dice in order of magnitude, but they don't have to be.
I see blogposts to this day that would benefit from this kind of simple overview of what subtables to expect. And, in looking, I realize I never added this to my older tables like hireling traits. I'll have to do that.
Dice Drop
I think I probably encountered these first from Talysman's The Nine & Thirty Kingdoms where he calls them dice maps, but you may be most familiar with those that show up on ZakS' Vornheim covers. He calls them die drop tables. Both of them have been sharing ideas with blog readers for years of how to use the positions dice fall on a paper as well as their numerical results to squeeze out more information with the same effort.
(The images here are just examples I picked from the many they've posted to their blogs.)
When you roll dice they are going to fall somewhere, so why not use that info as well as the numbers on their faces to tell you something?
This can be efficient in telling you a lot fast, it can also be a showy way to have players roll up things. One aspect I've also tried to explore is the "fuzziness" of the positions. In other words, trying to use where the dice fall in an evocative way to push my thinking. I tried that with my item generator here.
These tables probably aren't the most useful, the dice have a way of running off the table, for example, and putting these in a box to prevent that undermines the ability of players to see results, but they are fun and this kind of coming at D&D from a new angle is what keeps me excited and writing blog posts.
Graduated
I don't have an example of this type, which I just made up the name for. I also haven't made one of my own yet. But it's been banging around in my brain for a long time waiting for the right table. (It looks like I was thinking about it way back here and called the idea "stepped charts.") Link me some good examples in the comments.
Basically this is a single table designed to give graduated results depending what type of die you use to roll on it. So, for a critical hit results table the first four results on the table might be the mildest, and the 20th or 100th the very worst. And then built into your critical hit rules would be calls for rolling different dice on that single table. (Now I'm remembering one that gave results for random encounters during the day and night. But I don't remember where I saw it.)
This type of table is interesting because there will be some results that are impossible to get during certain contexts. They would probably be most useful for determining random things that often have different contexts, like monster encounter tables, without needing to make bunches of tables. Night time, bad weather, making lots of noise, being wounded, these all bump you up to worse results.
Update 1/28/14: Okay, some sweet examples from the comments: here James Young has being resurrected at higher levels doing different things. Here scrap princess has drugs doing graduated results based on exploding dice, which very cleverly means the more drugs you take the more likely you bump up the results. And here scrap princess has linear and bell distributions preferencing different parts of a table.
Layered
I don't know which of Roger the GS' posts first clued me in to this type of table, it might have been his genre tables. But the idea is, you have one table that can act as one table, but has multiple subtable parts that can each be rolled on independently as well. This blew my mind, because it solves the problem of trying to include the old standby genre-standard results you might want for any table, while allowing for mixing and matching those parts into something weirdly new.
In a way, this is like a graduated result controlled by the DM's understanding of the context. Playing with a group of newbies? Why not let them experience some things we might consider rpg cliches? Playing with a more experienced group or getting a result the newbies have experienced several times now, tumble those subtables.
I incorporated this idea in my own Traps table (notice I've incorporated Chris' sentence idea on that one) and have it foremost in my brain when making a new random table.
Bonus Ideas
Buffers - I never saw a published random table with more entries than could be indicated with a die or set of dice. But I've liked the idea that a) some entries you might not want to have come up more than that one time in your campaign, so you scratch it out and replace it with an entry from the overflow results and b) folks will have different tastes and it's hard to predict which results any one person will find cool. My 100 Rare Wonders actually has 110 entries. Since it's more work, this more about sharing and tables you make with other people in mind.
Mix-n-match - I've had an idea for a long time for a way to use sets of subtables to build different tables to roll on based on context. The idea in my head is magical effect that can be applied to a player. You have many subtables of types of effects and whenever you make new dungeon with a migic pool or statue or something, you can tailor the effects those cause by your choice of subtables that you assemble. I blogged about it here. The 1e system of artifact effects is kiiiind of like this, if they were more about determining random effects for for artifacts in-game and not just determining a single static effect that artifact has beforehand.
p.s. - Am I the only one that has always interchangeably called these random doohickeys tables and charts? I had to keep catching myself in this post to remain consistent.
Update 1/28/14
Toss & Trace
This isn't what I normally think of when I think "table" but Josh W is absolutely right, this is like the opposite side of the coin of the dice drop table. Here you drop the dice and then create something based on where it fell and its result. Josh mentions How to Host a Dungeon, which I don't own. But this technique is near and dear to my heart, it's how I make most of my cave dungeon maps. This technique really shines when you want to make something that is more organic in its placement like caves or cottages in a village.
Here is my pyramid campsite which uses four-siders to get a simple topographical map of where the party is camping. Here's my post about making caves. I learned later to use the dice results to indicate elevation and even/odd to help me determine which caves are connected to each other with tunnels.
1d30 used this technique to make the scattered buildings of a village. Check out the Babbling Bane's use of pocket change to make a village here.
Bonus 2
JD has kind of flipped the idea of the graduated table, rather than multiple ways to read a single table, multiple ways to read a single toss of the dice, here.
I love all the examples from the comments, thank you so much. There are probably tons of cool tables I've seen but now forgotten, if so I apologize for not mentioning them here.
Wouldn't it be cool if D&D Next used some of these kinds of tables? They are simple to use and I think even simple conceptually. So I don't see it hard for players to use. They do take more work to make though. The layered tables, for example, require a good sense of the core aspects of what you are making a table for (like classic treasure items, or classic trap types) and ways to divide them up into columns that will lead to fruitful results when rolled separately.
Update 1/30/14
Split Column
This is similar to the Layered table, but I think different enough in intent to be considered a different type. It is essentially reducing the clutter and confusion of multiple little tables by associating them together. Zak shows how to consolidate small tables here. So, each of Jeremy's sub-tables can be incorporated into a single table that is easy to read across. For a simple, fast result you roll 1d6, or to mix up things you can roll all 5d6 and read the tables individually. Zak's Vornheim uses this several times and makes for efficient generation in limited space. Why have 50 aristocrat names, when you can split first and last into two columns and double multiply the possibilities. Why have a big list of npc details when you know you will want several details for each npc encountered in-game. Instead have a split column chart with three details per npc entry and you can always roll them separately if you need to.
How is this different than what I called layered? Well, it would be layered if the fast, simple result was a core trope, or genre expectation you wanted to make sure was possible to generate, and the rest were weird and unexpected. I makes more sense for some topics than others. Treasure items, traps, quests, might all have some results you might like to have possible with weirdoid results possible too.
Ah, it might be splitting hairs. If it helps you make more useful tables in the end I'll be happy.
First, I'm working from an understanding of the game that considers randomness essential to play. The dice remove responsibility from the DM to know and plan everything and they give the game a sense life in the way their unexpected results surprise and must be dealt with. Those dice work most commonly by interacting with tables of possibilities. And the possibilities of what you can do with those tables are a lot more exciting than simple lists. I'll show 5 below.
Another assumption I'm making is that you are doing it yourself, and when you re making your own tables, the more possibilities you can get from them the better. So, many of these "Tables" actually involve multiple subtables greatly multiplying the possible outcomes. The problem with that is they become ungainly, hard to fit even on one page, hard to use quickly or during play. So, the tables below are mostly trying to resolve that problem: how do you pack in as many crazy possibilities as possible in a table while still keeping it useful as a tool?
I would be surprised if some of these kinds of tables hadn't shown up back in the heyday of D&D, but as a very enthusiastic hobbyist, I never saw them. Feel free to point out examples of these I might have missed in old products or even other table types you've seen in the community.
Roll All the Dice
It can also be fun to resolve at the table , by players. I praised it in a post way back here and have created several of them. The one I use most often is probably my Hireling Traits linked in my sidebar.
So if you find yourself making a table and you can't squeeze everything you want into a single list, try laying out 6 lists with 4 to 20 entries and see if that works better. Then pick a set of dice with a bright, easy-to-find color so you can grab them all when you need them. And let your players roll and read out the results.
Sentence Sub-Tables
The sentence in the image at right is basically the dice in order of magnitude, but they don't have to be.
I see blogposts to this day that would benefit from this kind of simple overview of what subtables to expect. And, in looking, I realize I never added this to my older tables like hireling traits. I'll have to do that.
Dice Drop
(The images here are just examples I picked from the many they've posted to their blogs.)
When you roll dice they are going to fall somewhere, so why not use that info as well as the numbers on their faces to tell you something?
This can be efficient in telling you a lot fast, it can also be a showy way to have players roll up things. One aspect I've also tried to explore is the "fuzziness" of the positions. In other words, trying to use where the dice fall in an evocative way to push my thinking. I tried that with my item generator here.
These tables probably aren't the most useful, the dice have a way of running off the table, for example, and putting these in a box to prevent that undermines the ability of players to see results, but they are fun and this kind of coming at D&D from a new angle is what keeps me excited and writing blog posts.
Graduated
I don't have an example of this type, which I just made up the name for. I also haven't made one of my own yet. But it's been banging around in my brain for a long time waiting for the right table. (It looks like I was thinking about it way back here and called the idea "stepped charts.") Link me some good examples in the comments.
Basically this is a single table designed to give graduated results depending what type of die you use to roll on it. So, for a critical hit results table the first four results on the table might be the mildest, and the 20th or 100th the very worst. And then built into your critical hit rules would be calls for rolling different dice on that single table. (Now I'm remembering one that gave results for random encounters during the day and night. But I don't remember where I saw it.)
This type of table is interesting because there will be some results that are impossible to get during certain contexts. They would probably be most useful for determining random things that often have different contexts, like monster encounter tables, without needing to make bunches of tables. Night time, bad weather, making lots of noise, being wounded, these all bump you up to worse results.
Update 1/28/14: Okay, some sweet examples from the comments: here James Young has being resurrected at higher levels doing different things. Here scrap princess has drugs doing graduated results based on exploding dice, which very cleverly means the more drugs you take the more likely you bump up the results. And here scrap princess has linear and bell distributions preferencing different parts of a table.
Layered
In a way, this is like a graduated result controlled by the DM's understanding of the context. Playing with a group of newbies? Why not let them experience some things we might consider rpg cliches? Playing with a more experienced group or getting a result the newbies have experienced several times now, tumble those subtables.
I incorporated this idea in my own Traps table (notice I've incorporated Chris' sentence idea on that one) and have it foremost in my brain when making a new random table.
Bonus Ideas
Buffers - I never saw a published random table with more entries than could be indicated with a die or set of dice. But I've liked the idea that a) some entries you might not want to have come up more than that one time in your campaign, so you scratch it out and replace it with an entry from the overflow results and b) folks will have different tastes and it's hard to predict which results any one person will find cool. My 100 Rare Wonders actually has 110 entries. Since it's more work, this more about sharing and tables you make with other people in mind.
Mix-n-match - I've had an idea for a long time for a way to use sets of subtables to build different tables to roll on based on context. The idea in my head is magical effect that can be applied to a player. You have many subtables of types of effects and whenever you make new dungeon with a migic pool or statue or something, you can tailor the effects those cause by your choice of subtables that you assemble. I blogged about it here. The 1e system of artifact effects is kiiiind of like this, if they were more about determining random effects for for artifacts in-game and not just determining a single static effect that artifact has beforehand.
p.s. - Am I the only one that has always interchangeably called these random doohickeys tables and charts? I had to keep catching myself in this post to remain consistent.
Update 1/28/14
Toss & Trace
Here is my pyramid campsite which uses four-siders to get a simple topographical map of where the party is camping. Here's my post about making caves. I learned later to use the dice results to indicate elevation and even/odd to help me determine which caves are connected to each other with tunnels.
1d30 used this technique to make the scattered buildings of a village. Check out the Babbling Bane's use of pocket change to make a village here.
Bonus 2
JD has kind of flipped the idea of the graduated table, rather than multiple ways to read a single table, multiple ways to read a single toss of the dice, here.
I love all the examples from the comments, thank you so much. There are probably tons of cool tables I've seen but now forgotten, if so I apologize for not mentioning them here.
Wouldn't it be cool if D&D Next used some of these kinds of tables? They are simple to use and I think even simple conceptually. So I don't see it hard for players to use. They do take more work to make though. The layered tables, for example, require a good sense of the core aspects of what you are making a table for (like classic treasure items, or classic trap types) and ways to divide them up into columns that will lead to fruitful results when rolled separately.
Update 1/30/14
Split Column
How is this different than what I called layered? Well, it would be layered if the fast, simple result was a core trope, or genre expectation you wanted to make sure was possible to generate, and the rest were weird and unexpected. I makes more sense for some topics than others. Treasure items, traps, quests, might all have some results you might like to have possible with weirdoid results possible too.
Ah, it might be splitting hairs. If it helps you make more useful tables in the end I'll be happy.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Item Generator
Here is my take on a tool to help DMs come up with items. I'm assuming that qualities of the items would be handled by a separate chart. And if the items are magical that would be a separate chart as well. This is just meant to help you come up with a random thing.
Drop two different colored d4 on it. Choose one color to correspond to the figures and one to the triangle shaped categories. Where the figure die lands on the silhouette indicates what it is related to. So, a die on the hand has something to do with hands or fingers. The other die will tell you what type of item it is. If it is aesthetic, the item might be a ring. If it is warfare, it might be a gauntlet.A die that doesn't land on either figure can be read as items that aren't directly related to the bodies: furnishings, wall-coverings, urns, coffers, statues, etc. A category die that falls off the page will still be in one of the category triangles, which stretch to the horizon.
Most of the categories are pretty self-explanatory. I see "Learning" as information storage and retrieval: calendars, zodiac charts, royal successions that are incorporated into an item (like this), or scientific tools-- astrolabes, magnifying glasses. It could also be a book about what the other die is pointing to. "Daily Life" is meant to be tools, toys, musical instruments, etc.
You can read the number on the figure d4 if you want to. So, a Daily Life item for a child on the hand might be a top, or a small spoon, or doll, for example. An aesthetic result on the horse head could be a fancy falcon hood, a dog collar, a wreath for sacrificial oxen, or a bridle of some sort.
You don't have to use d4. They are pointy and flat, though, which makes for a good choice here. And the small number of results should be memorizable with use. But you could potentially drop d10s or d12s or something and have whole subcharts of specifiers.
I playtested this a bit with my buddy and using it in conjunction with the object qualities chart really helped. Mostly knowing what it was made of helped you figure out what kind of thing it might be too. (I plan to revise the object quality chart soon).
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Milestones
Last Saturday was four years of blogging for me. I just posted my 50th silhouette post. I even managed to reach Pundit level. But there is another milestone coming up. This post is my 973rd. That means, at a rate of a post about every other day, I'll be at 1000 in 2 months.
I know there are folks that have more posts than that or have been around for longer, but for me and my personality it feels like a big achievement.
I've had an idea for a while now that I would make some sort of publication on my 1000th post. I figured I would let you know rather than just spring it out of nowhere (though I hate even announcing it because I can feel the fear welling up inside and the desire to procrastinate this off to some other unspecified time).
I love the blogs as an ongoing conversation and don't like the idea that to be a part of our hobby seriously you have to publish something. That being said, there is a time for looking over all the conversations you've had and trying to build something from the whole. A second level of making. And with 1000 posts I think there should be plenty of meat here to make something larger than a sum of the separate posts that make it up. So, that's what I'm aiming for.
The idea is a book to help DMs get a game going on a Friday night. Tools basically. And probably aimed more at the newer DM (experienced folks have probably already crafted similar tools out of necessity). My current plan is to put it up on Lulu as a free download and a hardcover at cost. Maybe someday I can revise this and get some awesome art and charge for it, but for now I just want to get a solid draft out the door.
There are still a few tools I don't have worked out yet. I hope to address them in the coming months. But whatever the results, I'm putting a book out on the 1000th post. No excuses. I suppose I might start trying to dodge the bullet by delaying posting, but I have to get this done by mid August because that is when my work ramps up again and I'll be out of time.
I feel odd to announce this when everyone is talking about Jack Vance's passing, but what better way to commemorate him, and Harryhausen, by making something fantastic?
Okay, wish me luck.
I know there are folks that have more posts than that or have been around for longer, but for me and my personality it feels like a big achievement.
I've had an idea for a while now that I would make some sort of publication on my 1000th post. I figured I would let you know rather than just spring it out of nowhere (though I hate even announcing it because I can feel the fear welling up inside and the desire to procrastinate this off to some other unspecified time).
I love the blogs as an ongoing conversation and don't like the idea that to be a part of our hobby seriously you have to publish something. That being said, there is a time for looking over all the conversations you've had and trying to build something from the whole. A second level of making. And with 1000 posts I think there should be plenty of meat here to make something larger than a sum of the separate posts that make it up. So, that's what I'm aiming for.
The idea is a book to help DMs get a game going on a Friday night. Tools basically. And probably aimed more at the newer DM (experienced folks have probably already crafted similar tools out of necessity). My current plan is to put it up on Lulu as a free download and a hardcover at cost. Maybe someday I can revise this and get some awesome art and charge for it, but for now I just want to get a solid draft out the door.
There are still a few tools I don't have worked out yet. I hope to address them in the coming months. But whatever the results, I'm putting a book out on the 1000th post. No excuses. I suppose I might start trying to dodge the bullet by delaying posting, but I have to get this done by mid August because that is when my work ramps up again and I'll be out of time.
I feel odd to announce this when everyone is talking about Jack Vance's passing, but what better way to commemorate him, and Harryhausen, by making something fantastic?
Okay, wish me luck.
Friday, May 24, 2013
More Monster Making
I was hoping to do the room stuffing thing with my friends tonight, but I don't think I'm really prepared for it yet. I did sit down and make this monster chart:
It's a roll-all-the-dice giving you the basic nuts and bolts of a monster. I haven't even rolled on it yet, it might be entirely unusable. But it was one of those things where I needed to make what I saw in my head so I could try it out.
I have used my dice drop chart a few times and haven't been that happy with the results. I might try printing a bunch of the possibilities on business card-sized slip and draw from them like a deck.
Another idea is to prompt players with categories like "body horror" or "fairy tale." Or maybe just with tones like "goofy" or "creepy." I suppose those could be another roll, another draw, or, if you're being game-like anyway, rotate through them. In other words, the first player has to come up with an explanation of their roll as something body horror related, the next fairy tale-esque, etc. I suppose that's all assuming the stats and special abilities don't give an idea of what the monster is all about anyway. Okay, I'm off to see about making the cards. Have a great Friday night.
Update: 6:28: Acch, just realized the AC doesn't really make sense. I think I was mushing ascending and descending together in my head. I think it can be an easy fix though, by switching the Size and AC columns. That would give more size points also.
I have used my dice drop chart a few times and haven't been that happy with the results. I might try printing a bunch of the possibilities on business card-sized slip and draw from them like a deck.
Another idea is to prompt players with categories like "body horror" or "fairy tale." Or maybe just with tones like "goofy" or "creepy." I suppose those could be another roll, another draw, or, if you're being game-like anyway, rotate through them. In other words, the first player has to come up with an explanation of their roll as something body horror related, the next fairy tale-esque, etc. I suppose that's all assuming the stats and special abilities don't give an idea of what the monster is all about anyway. Okay, I'm off to see about making the cards. Have a great Friday night.
Update: 6:28: Acch, just realized the AC doesn't really make sense. I think I was mushing ascending and descending together in my head. I think it can be an easy fix though, by switching the Size and AC columns. That would give more size points also.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Room Stuffing
An idea: have your players help you prep. You probably use charts to help you determine treasures, monsters, and traps that will be in different dungeon locales-- and finding out what the charts say is fun. Also, if you use more abstract charts to offer more possibilities, charts that require a little interpretation (like this one) it's fun to do that interpretation. So why not let your players have some of that fun?
So, when you use the rooms, you just need a map and then draw envelopes randomly. I think what I'd need to do is open the envelopes then and look at what monsters, traps and details there were. So when I dm I can use those details when players come close (maybe the monster is sentient and will come toward noise, maybe the trap is on the door. I might number the envelopes to the room the represent and leave any treasures unlooked at, so they'd be a surprise to me too.
How much detail you need to write on the slips depends on when you have the most juice as a creator. If you're stuffing rooms with players because you're too tired from work to DM, you might just do the minimal you need to have fun with everyone that night. If, however, you are doing the room stuffing as a fun and different event to have rooms on hand for a future night that you are too tired to prep for, you'll want to do as much work as you can on room stuffing night and have everything you'll need on the slips when you seal them in. So, if you are making up new monsters, for example, you'll want to write down AC, HD and determine hit points and # appearing that night, not just special powers and descriptions.
Anyway, I think i'll try this out this Friday. It's also given me ideas for a better random monster table and a detail table. I you try it out, let us know how it works.
- OK, get a hold of a bunch of cheap envelopes and some colored paper.
- Determine a color for trap, treasure, monster. Leave white for details and descriptions. Cut the paper into slips still big enough to write on.
- Now, start with one category (would a particular order be more fun?), let's say traps. Have a person roll and share those results with the group. the group can bounce ideas off each other about what a cool or horrible interpretation of that trap might be.
- The person who rolled get's to ultimately choose though, and doesn't have to say what they chose. They write, legibly, that interpretation on the properly colored slip and place it face down on a pile of finished traps.
- Everybody gets to do a trap the same way. Including you.
- Switch to monsters and do the same thing. then treasure etc. For details, if you don't have a chart, it might be good to offer a theme or flavor-- something it would be weird to find, or funny, remnants of some former adventurer, etc.
- After going through all the color types, use whatever method you like to randomly determine what a dungeon room has and then draw secretly from each pile (they've been shuffled) to place in an envelope.
- I think the DM should get a final trump. So, as each item is handed to the DM they need to read them and scribble amendments or revisions. Then place that rooms contents into an envelope and seal it.
So, when you use the rooms, you just need a map and then draw envelopes randomly. I think what I'd need to do is open the envelopes then and look at what monsters, traps and details there were. So when I dm I can use those details when players come close (maybe the monster is sentient and will come toward noise, maybe the trap is on the door. I might number the envelopes to the room the represent and leave any treasures unlooked at, so they'd be a surprise to me too.
How much detail you need to write on the slips depends on when you have the most juice as a creator. If you're stuffing rooms with players because you're too tired from work to DM, you might just do the minimal you need to have fun with everyone that night. If, however, you are doing the room stuffing as a fun and different event to have rooms on hand for a future night that you are too tired to prep for, you'll want to do as much work as you can on room stuffing night and have everything you'll need on the slips when you seal them in. So, if you are making up new monsters, for example, you'll want to write down AC, HD and determine hit points and # appearing that night, not just special powers and descriptions.
Anyway, I think i'll try this out this Friday. It's also given me ideas for a better random monster table and a detail table. I you try it out, let us know how it works.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Palimpsest Plains
Here's an idea for a campaign setting. Thousands of years ago everything was green and shire-like. People were happy as hobbits. Then a wizard discovered a way to teleport from one place to another by switching the land you are standing on with that of your destination.
It was soon discovered that this was very useful for transporting troops. The chunks or land that were cored and swapped became larger and were swapped from farther away. Soon these wars spread to other planes and the cores of landscape that overlayed one another became more and more foreign.
Traveling across the plains you might encounter a circle of sand dunes, a perfectly circular salt lake, or geysers of molten steel. These might be spread about like pock marks or each, nestled within another like rings on a target, or just overlapping like a surreal Venn diagram.
Centuries pass. Humans have grown accustomed to living in this patchwork world-- fishing the circle lakes, casting the molten steel. Others have become Restorationists, they long for the great olden days of green beauty (that they never personally saw) and have begun the means to magically return the land to the way it was. But the people living in these pockets of strange land call them home now and will fight to the death to keep their land from being destroyed or moved.
Complicate this with the fact that there are Purists within patches that want their swath of land rid of unsightly pockets of other geography. So, the people of the circular sands would love to be rid of the patch of coral-like pink rock that juts from their sandy land to the edge of space. But the humans that live there will fight to the death to protect their Reefhome. But the Reefhomers might ally with the Sand dwellers against the Restorationists.
_____________________
Of course the shapes don't have to be perfect circles they could be weird jagged shapes or even geometric shapes tied to particular mages. So the triangular patches were all teleports by the dreaded Angus the ugly.
This would do away with any need to make geography on the hexmap make natural sense. It would give you a good reason to come up with the weirdest other-planar landscapes you could and it would have built in reasons for wars all over the map.
Thanks to Mr. Richard for the idea spur.
It was soon discovered that this was very useful for transporting troops. The chunks or land that were cored and swapped became larger and were swapped from farther away. Soon these wars spread to other planes and the cores of landscape that overlayed one another became more and more foreign.
Traveling across the plains you might encounter a circle of sand dunes, a perfectly circular salt lake, or geysers of molten steel. These might be spread about like pock marks or each, nestled within another like rings on a target, or just overlapping like a surreal Venn diagram.
Centuries pass. Humans have grown accustomed to living in this patchwork world-- fishing the circle lakes, casting the molten steel. Others have become Restorationists, they long for the great olden days of green beauty (that they never personally saw) and have begun the means to magically return the land to the way it was. But the people living in these pockets of strange land call them home now and will fight to the death to keep their land from being destroyed or moved.
Complicate this with the fact that there are Purists within patches that want their swath of land rid of unsightly pockets of other geography. So, the people of the circular sands would love to be rid of the patch of coral-like pink rock that juts from their sandy land to the edge of space. But the humans that live there will fight to the death to protect their Reefhome. But the Reefhomers might ally with the Sand dwellers against the Restorationists.
_____________________
Of course the shapes don't have to be perfect circles they could be weird jagged shapes or even geometric shapes tied to particular mages. So the triangular patches were all teleports by the dreaded Angus the ugly.
This would do away with any need to make geography on the hexmap make natural sense. It would give you a good reason to come up with the weirdest other-planar landscapes you could and it would have built in reasons for wars all over the map.
Thanks to Mr. Richard for the idea spur.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
The Golden Cultist
No go on that last one? How about this one:
Name: Anexemander, The Golden Cultist, god of lost causes
Symbol: sword broken off at the hilt
Alignment: Lawful (Evil)
Movement: 90' (30')
AC: 4
HP (HD): 50 (10 HD)
Attacks: 1
Damage: Save versus death on hit
Save: MU15
Morale: 2
Hoard Class: IX
XP: 5,000
Anexemander if seen in his true form is an aged man with a blindfold that has slipped from across his eyes to cover his mouth. He was was blind to the truth of the futility of things but can now see. In seeing he is mute to warn others. He normally appears in different human forms, male and female. He works his way into small cults and secret societies. He is the perfect, the Golden Cultist, faithful, unquestioning, generous and trustworthy-- to a point. Cults he has secreted himself in will gain a ten-fold increase in followers in a matter of weeks. After a month Anexemander will publicly assassinate the head of the cult, whether mortal or god. His sword is nothing but the jagged remnants of a blade jutting from a hilt but will cause death in one week to any it hits.
Any in a particularly hopeless situation that call on him may gain aid in the form of a bonus to save or no opportunities. But his favorite aid is to send tens of followers streaming to the lost cause of those calling for aid.
_________________________
Why do these gods all have hoard classes? Some could have lairs, but for those moving around, do they have a bunch of golden swag around their necks? Are they magic items they should be using when in battle? I don't know, but all the petty gods have them so I gave this guy one. His treasure might be more fitting if it was in the form of some kind of 99%-chance-of-being-worthless promisary notes or IOUs.
Again why the Lawful (Evil) alignment, what the heck Telecanter don't you understand the whole war against chaos trope? I know, I know, see what it means here is that this god is very predictable, he will do the same things like clockwork but those things involve abusing trust and destruction. He is the worst kind of evil- that which unknowingly works against his own ends. I don't have alignment in my own game because it is such a simplification that doesn't really add any value to the game for me. But if it's a problem just consider this dude (and the last) on the side of CHAOS.
Name: Anexemander, The Golden Cultist, god of lost causes
Symbol: sword broken off at the hilt
Alignment: Lawful (Evil)
Movement: 90' (30')
AC: 4
HP (HD): 50 (10 HD)
Attacks: 1
Damage: Save versus death on hit
Save: MU15
Morale: 2
Hoard Class: IX
XP: 5,000
Anexemander if seen in his true form is an aged man with a blindfold that has slipped from across his eyes to cover his mouth. He was was blind to the truth of the futility of things but can now see. In seeing he is mute to warn others. He normally appears in different human forms, male and female. He works his way into small cults and secret societies. He is the perfect, the Golden Cultist, faithful, unquestioning, generous and trustworthy-- to a point. Cults he has secreted himself in will gain a ten-fold increase in followers in a matter of weeks. After a month Anexemander will publicly assassinate the head of the cult, whether mortal or god. His sword is nothing but the jagged remnants of a blade jutting from a hilt but will cause death in one week to any it hits.
Any in a particularly hopeless situation that call on him may gain aid in the form of a bonus to save or no opportunities. But his favorite aid is to send tens of followers streaming to the lost cause of those calling for aid.
_________________________
Why do these gods all have hoard classes? Some could have lairs, but for those moving around, do they have a bunch of golden swag around their necks? Are they magic items they should be using when in battle? I don't know, but all the petty gods have them so I gave this guy one. His treasure might be more fitting if it was in the form of some kind of 99%-chance-of-being-worthless promisary notes or IOUs.
Again why the Lawful (Evil) alignment, what the heck Telecanter don't you understand the whole war against chaos trope? I know, I know, see what it means here is that this god is very predictable, he will do the same things like clockwork but those things involve abusing trust and destruction. He is the worst kind of evil- that which unknowingly works against his own ends. I don't have alignment in my own game because it is such a simplification that doesn't really add any value to the game for me. But if it's a problem just consider this dude (and the last) on the side of CHAOS.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Her Name Forgotten
Name: Her Name Forgotten / His Name Forgotten
Symbol: Smoke of Gold
Alignment: Lawful (Evil)
Movement: ~
AC: ~
HP (HD): ~
Attacks: ~
Damage: ~
Save: MU17
Morale: ~
Hoard Class: -
XP: ~
This may be a Hoax. A god of forgotten gods. They say if you kill a god and place its remnants in the perfect spot, golden smoke will consume them and bestow a wish as a reward. They say each godling slain grants another wish. They say that a voice, first just a whisper, will drift from the smoke and grow louder with each sacrifice, until it begins making it's will known.
What might happen is that this entity, so weak it has almost become only memory, will take on the best stats of each godlet fed to it. What might happen is that the god of forgotten gods has golden cultists embedded in many other cults ready to observe the actions of the pcs. What might happen is that this turns out to really be a manifestation of some other petty god such as: Machuk the Smith, Rosartia, Undek, or Vydia.
___________________________________
How's that for a cop-out petty god? I don't know, there's something in me that hates nailing something down to specifics. I want some uncertainty. Some room for each DM to make it their own. So, you could make it a real thing that becomes more and more powerful the more the pcs feed it or something else; a rumor meant to hide something, a test by a different petty god, a feud between two of them.
Symbol: Smoke of Gold
Alignment: Lawful (Evil)
Movement: ~
AC: ~
HP (HD): ~
Attacks: ~
Damage: ~
Save: MU17
Morale: ~
Hoard Class: -
XP: ~
This may be a Hoax. A god of forgotten gods. They say if you kill a god and place its remnants in the perfect spot, golden smoke will consume them and bestow a wish as a reward. They say each godling slain grants another wish. They say that a voice, first just a whisper, will drift from the smoke and grow louder with each sacrifice, until it begins making it's will known.
What might happen is that this entity, so weak it has almost become only memory, will take on the best stats of each godlet fed to it. What might happen is that the god of forgotten gods has golden cultists embedded in many other cults ready to observe the actions of the pcs. What might happen is that this turns out to really be a manifestation of some other petty god such as: Machuk the Smith, Rosartia, Undek, or Vydia.
___________________________________
How's that for a cop-out petty god? I don't know, there's something in me that hates nailing something down to specifics. I want some uncertainty. Some room for each DM to make it their own. So, you could make it a real thing that becomes more and more powerful the more the pcs feed it or something else; a rumor meant to hide something, a test by a different petty god, a feud between two of them.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Petty Gods
But the swords and sorcery type game I want to run these days really works better peppered with this idea of small and forgotten gods, like those of the perpetually realigning gods in Lankhmar, which I encountered later on and love.
While some of the gods included are pretty much just jokes and would probably not be of use in the tone of campaign I run, there are still tons of possibilities in Petty Gods even for folks like me.
Aside from adventure hooks that utilize individual godlets, two campaign backgrounds immediately spring to mind:
Street of Forgotten Gods
Set up a central city with a god of forgotten gods, or a god of collecting what's lost. Then have their priests (or hell, their speaking two-headed goat avatar) offer players opportunities to travel all over a sand box to investigate leads and rumors of things being worshiped by isolated minorities. The goal could be to discover the nature and proper methods of worship or to even bring back artifacts. It would function like a Library of del la Torre.
Hit List for the Golden Cult
Because many of these are set up as entities that can be encountered physically, fought, and killed, I suppose, conversely, you might have a central religion interested in completely obliterating all remnants of such gods.
Anyway, thanks to all involved I've already gotten a lot of ideas just skimming through it this morning. Also, keep an eye on Gorgonmilk's blog because a new and expanded edition is in the works.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Quests!
I abstracted some of the verbs a bit so they might work better with multiple nouns. So, "clear out monsters" became "secure a location." I had to change "Explore" to "Investigate" for the same reason and left out the old "Escort" standby altogether.
Some of the actions are pretty similar, like "Spy on," "Reconnoiter," "Investigate," and "Research." They have subtle differences that could still work. I think of research as requiring books and resources, not necessarily the object of study itself while spying requires not just direct but surreptitious, observation, for example. But if you can think of some alternative actions that might be a bit more distinct, please share.
There are some odd possible results. What does it mean to deliver a location? Maybe acquire ownership and then hand it over to someone? Maybe provide a way for someone to reach the location easily like magical travel? What does get a relationship mean? Maybe you have to get married or acquire a sponsor of some sort? Ah well, this kind of chart will always require a little interpretation.
Friday, March 8, 2013
The Player-Built Dungeon
This is related to the Pre-Mapped Dungeon, so if you want you can read my thoughts on that first.
A few weeks ago I gave my good buddy a bunch of tools I made to help in DMing and asked him to use them to run me as a player. I wanted to see how they might work for someone else. Another big reason I wanted to do it was to see what it would be like to experience a Dwarven Outpost. Would it feel different to run through a dungeon that I had made myself?
It was. It was cool. My hireling died in the first room to a panda-headed crab-thing and I desperately searched the place for what I knew I would recognize as the treasure corridor. Once I found it, I was very cautious about the traps I knew to be there. And once I'd found the weird treasure he'd put in there, I beat a hasty retreat knowing I had most likely found the best the place had to offer.
Because of the last few posts I got to thinking what if players could have that same experience-- not just of a type of dungeon they can become familiar with by encountering them several times, which the outpost kit was meant to facilitate-- but of a dungeon they knew well because they made it themselves?
Now, I don't think it would work to say "design a dungeon and we'll run through it" or even to take the more modern, indie route of "let's design a dungeon together that will be fun to run through." I think the DM has this role because the fun of exploration requires not knowing what is behind the next door (and also having a single creator probably gives a place a more consistent tone and logic).
But maybe what we could say is "draw up the manor house of your ancestors" or "make a map of the urban sewers you grew up in." Then the DM can take that map and apply decay, add monsters, and traps left by the waves of inhabitants that have been there since the character left. And if the party visits that location the player who drew the map would get a little extra spotlight that session: "The secret entrance should be just past the stables, but the stables appear to be gone . . ."
Now, my experience of uncertain familiarity with the dungeon worked in part for me because 1) it had been months since I made the outpost kit and it wasn't fresh in my mind and 2) the tetramorph aspect of it let it be shuffled around a bit.
So what might work here is to have players make something well in advance of them experiencing it. I'm not sure about the tetramorphs bit. It would make "familiar with, but not sure about" work better but it feels like a lot to pawn off on a player. I suppose if you had enough players with magic-user characters you could ask each of them to decide on a room a typical Mages Guild would have.
Hmm, or maybe I could just design a set of tetramorphs stencils for each class, say typical sewers for thieves, typical church catacombs for clerics, and then give each out to players who choose those classes. They could even have them in hand as they explore "By the shape of this room I think were are in the central junction."
You would think that high mortality games could cause a problem. That having a player draw a map of a guild hall and then having that player's character die immediately would make the map a waste of effort. But the goal here is familiarity for the player, not necessarily rigid narrative logic for the characters. Heck, you could just say that player's new character had heard tales of such a place.
So, maybe I should have really titled this post The Familiar-to-the-Player Dungeon.
A few weeks ago I gave my good buddy a bunch of tools I made to help in DMing and asked him to use them to run me as a player. I wanted to see how they might work for someone else. Another big reason I wanted to do it was to see what it would be like to experience a Dwarven Outpost. Would it feel different to run through a dungeon that I had made myself?
It was. It was cool. My hireling died in the first room to a panda-headed crab-thing and I desperately searched the place for what I knew I would recognize as the treasure corridor. Once I found it, I was very cautious about the traps I knew to be there. And once I'd found the weird treasure he'd put in there, I beat a hasty retreat knowing I had most likely found the best the place had to offer.
Because of the last few posts I got to thinking what if players could have that same experience-- not just of a type of dungeon they can become familiar with by encountering them several times, which the outpost kit was meant to facilitate-- but of a dungeon they knew well because they made it themselves?
Now, I don't think it would work to say "design a dungeon and we'll run through it" or even to take the more modern, indie route of "let's design a dungeon together that will be fun to run through." I think the DM has this role because the fun of exploration requires not knowing what is behind the next door (and also having a single creator probably gives a place a more consistent tone and logic).
But maybe what we could say is "draw up the manor house of your ancestors" or "make a map of the urban sewers you grew up in." Then the DM can take that map and apply decay, add monsters, and traps left by the waves of inhabitants that have been there since the character left. And if the party visits that location the player who drew the map would get a little extra spotlight that session: "The secret entrance should be just past the stables, but the stables appear to be gone . . ."
Now, my experience of uncertain familiarity with the dungeon worked in part for me because 1) it had been months since I made the outpost kit and it wasn't fresh in my mind and 2) the tetramorph aspect of it let it be shuffled around a bit.
So what might work here is to have players make something well in advance of them experiencing it. I'm not sure about the tetramorphs bit. It would make "familiar with, but not sure about" work better but it feels like a lot to pawn off on a player. I suppose if you had enough players with magic-user characters you could ask each of them to decide on a room a typical Mages Guild would have.
Hmm, or maybe I could just design a set of tetramorphs stencils for each class, say typical sewers for thieves, typical church catacombs for clerics, and then give each out to players who choose those classes. They could even have them in hand as they explore "By the shape of this room I think were are in the central junction."
You would think that high mortality games could cause a problem. That having a player draw a map of a guild hall and then having that player's character die immediately would make the map a waste of effort. But the goal here is familiarity for the player, not necessarily rigid narrative logic for the characters. Heck, you could just say that player's new character had heard tales of such a place.
So, maybe I should have really titled this post The Familiar-to-the-Player Dungeon.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Why is the Secret Door Secret?
Individuals hiding something from society
Probably more crudely built in easy-to-work materials since one person was doing it. These might be more covered holes or dirt tunnels than true secret corridors. Or they could be one of the other types of passages that have been forgotten by everyone, now found by this individual and re-purposed.
The peeper will have holes into the most private areas of the community and maybe a network of these. The hoarder has a pantry hidden away with alcohol, preserved foods, anything the community is only allowed certain amounts of. That and the Shirker's quiet hideaway could be nice finds for visiting adventurers. Mania is where your celebrity stalker pastes up their pictures or the miniatures collector stores their armies. Blasphemy is where dark idols are kept. But, really, depending on the community anything considered forbidden could be reason to hide here.
Small groups hiding from society
Trysts allow for forbidden love and will usually span long distances, literally or culturally. So the Montagues live far from the Capulets, or the king sneaks right next door into the maid's quarters. These lover's passages should probably have secret doors on each end. The rest in this category are the cults and secret societies. These will be better built with warning bells and even traps. They should lead to, not just more windy little passages, but hidden rooms, big enough for people to meet and scheme. Could include small barracks, warehouses, or libraries. Forbidden lore could include magics or heretical religious teachings.
Rulers hiding from society
These are the best quality, built with money, planning, and plenty of labor. Probably have locks. The peepholes will be not just into bedrooms, but places people might meet and talk. Some passages could open into travel routes for easy disappearing of troublesome folks. Fraud includes the hidden panels that allow priests to make an idol "eat" its offerings.
Society hiding from invaders
These are of similar quality to those built by the rulers, unless they are built after occupation and then they'll be more like the individual's crude attempts but full of traps. Peepholes may function as murder holes. The escape route may be one-way and much larger than the ruler's bolthole. The flanking and guerrilla type should be located in tactically advantageous positions. Most people in the community should know about these.
__________________________________________
I have been messing about with this for several days trying to figure out the best way to present it. I had an idea that you might use little icons in the table-- eyes, bells, and such-- to represent the features each category has.. But I figure I'll just post it now to share the ideas and revise it later.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Traps!
A few notes. If you are rolling to get something weird you can still get the straight-across result. Rather than re-roll I put in to add insects or animals to get some Indiana Jones style snake pits or bug filled rooms. The trigger column was the last thing I added and the fact that some are nouns and some verbs bugs me, but it should work. For the chute being "revealed" I was thinking of staircases that flatten out, the chute was always there built into the feature itself.
Let's roll some and see how we might interpret them:
4, 3, 5, 4
shim, gas, swings, block
Whew, that's a tough one on the first go. Okay, let's say a section of a hallway is a big pendulum. Knocking out a wooden shim will cause it to swing, replacing the current section of hall. It contains a gas that is heavier than air and makes anything in it float to the ceiling and get stuck.
2, 7, 10, 9
latch, noose, (shoot out, open), channel
Hmm, okay, a chamber with four doors. Opening the "wrong" door causes a noose to shoot out and land around the opener's neck and start, slowly, constricting. Opening the door the designer wants you to go through causes the noose to go slack.
7, 1, 6, 1
touch, darts, jut out, wound
This one seems pretty straight forward. The walls of an area are lined with tiny, sharp points. Brushing up against them causes them to jut out and inflict damage. I would say battles in the area would be at a negative because the battlers are being careful not to touch the walls. Or maybe roll a save every time you miss to see if you've bumped into a wall.
Well, you get the picture. Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions. Hope this helps in designing your dungeons.
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