d100 - Anywhere But The Tavern: Session Starters

Here’s a d100 Table that features some additional ideas for starting a Session, Campaign, or Adventure outside of the rather timeworn “Tavern Meeting” set up. Many of these might make for a more in medias res approach, but I sometimes find that placing the Players directly in the Action can be an exciting way to start things off.

Dolmenwood Dozen

Recently I embarked on a little self-imposed Challenge. With some of the previews of the Dolmenwood Materials available to Backers, I noticed that the Monster descriptions had a Lair Chance. I always loved this but figured it might be a bit tricky for some Referees to come up with some of these “on the fly” as it were, should it be the result of a Random Encounter or such. So, over the last several days, I resolved to put together a quick Lair/Dungeon/Adventure Location for some of these Monsters on a Daily Basis.

I often find myself slapping together a quick Dungeon or Site-Based Adventure at the last minute (usually when I’ve been procrastinating on Prep and have a Game coming up in a few hours!) and sometimes a time constraint actually helps get the ideas flowing. It can be a little stressful (in a good way!), but I find that the process of “Discovering” a place through creating it helps me focus a little more on the lens I need for conveying this to Players. By leaving the stocking largely up to Random Rolls, I’m also letting myself “Experience Surprise” and forcing myself to brush away some of those accumulated cobwebs that might be clogging up the parts of my brain I use for Improvisation and Providing Descriptions. Sometimes it helps put me in a frame of mind that ends up being very similar to the act of Play itself, or I stumble across interesting and inspiring ideas I never would have considered or would have cast aside with a more leisurely approach.

So here are the fruits of this little experiment: A Dozen One Page Dungeons, Lairs, Points of Interest, or other Adventure Sites for Dolmenwood, all compiled together in a convenient document. If you’re a Player in a Dolmenwood game, you might want to avert your eyes in case your Referee decides to use one of these! For each, I tried to limit myself to around twenty minutes or so for each to replicate that “left it to the last minute” experience. Of course, there are some that necessitated breaks or other interruptions during their creation (I didn’t exactly click a stopwatch on each!), and as I was compiling them together I couldn’t help doing a little bit more editing or expanding once I found some free real-estate by consolidating the formatting. I’ve also included a bonus: A Peek into the Production Process for these that might help other Referees who want to give this a try. The end result of this little Project is available below: