GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 4

Find Week 3 here.

WEEK 4: TOWN FEATURES

The Town of Mun

Mun is a fast growing logging town located west along the river Galmere, south of the dreaded Devilwoods. The town recently had an economic boom when the newly founded LICOT LOGGING COMPANY arrived to begin harvesting lumber from the nearby forest. The town’s  population is around 800 and growing. Odam Licot [1], the owner of the Logging Company, is hiring adventuring types to clear out any ruins or monsters they come across while logging.

TASKS:

FIND OR SKETCH OUT A CITY/TOWN MAP

Draft Map of Mun

NAME SEVERAL SHOPS (LOOK AT EQUIPMENT LISTS):

• JAMAS’ GENERAL STORE [GENERAL GOODS]
• GODO’S [2] FURNACE [BLACKSMITH]
• THE GROTTO OF ILLICIT DELIGHTS [BROTHEL]
  
  

LOCATE & DESCRIBE EACH OF THE FOLLOWING IN A SHORT SENTENCE:

A Political Faction and it’s Rival

The Earl of Mun; Rewis Tane [3] is unnerved by the Lumber Companies growing influence in Mun. Tane wants the town to return to the “old ways'' and not disturb the evil Devilwoods. 

A place the characters could lose all their money

A secret gambling den is housed in the Grotto of Illicit Delights, the town’s brothel. Only after building a good relationship with Madam Frytha [4] will the characters be introduced to the gambling contacts. Hosts traditional gambling games but it’s signature is illegal Snail Racing. 

A place people gather to hear news or speak their mind

The town square has a bulletin board where the local’s share news, rumors and minor job requests. 

A Secretive Guild Hall and it’s reputation

Mun is home of a renowned esoteric guild of stonemasons known as The Order of the Titan’s Fist. The order built and maintains the town’s walls.

Best place to get food and a bed

Edmund’s Repose & Respite [TAVERN], owned by the grizzled retired adventurer Edmund Fontour [5]. Famous in town for his Special “Immortal Stew” (that has been stewing for 13 years, or so he says) and will pay good coin for rare meats like dragon flesh to throw in the pot.

A religious center and the god(s) to which it is devoted

The residents of Mun worship a great water spirit named Undine who resides in the nearby river. Her temple lies in the middle of the river and requires a boat to reach. An elegant fountain shrine to Undine is found at the center of the Town Square for more convenient worship. 

A feature unique to this town

The Violet Tide is a blessing by Undine where the water around the town turns a pronounced shade of violet on the last day of the month from dawn to dusk. During this time rare black carp appear for the townsfolk to catch, the carp are said to bring good luck if eaten [True] and also act as an aphrodisiac [False]. 

CREATE 5 NPCs, each with a D.N.A (Distinguishing Trait/Need/Agenda)

1. ODAM LICOT -- The owner and founder of Licot’s Logging Company (D). Unearthed dungeons and rampaging monsters keep delaying work in the local forest. Licot is looking for adventuring types to take care of these delays (N). Licot is attempting to amass enough wealth to forcibly take Mun and begin to build a new empire (A).
   
   
2. GODO -- A dwarf exiled from his homeland for committing a terrible blasphemy. Godo is able to forge magic items but does not make this known to anyone, save those who may aid him in reconciling with his past (D). Wishes to atone for his past mistakes but does not know how (N). Will continue to do mundane forging work as a personal penance (A).
   
   
3. REWIS TANE -- The Earl of Mun (D). Tane takes his duties as Earl very seriously but lately a seed of greed has planted after seeing Licot’s excess wealth thrown around town. Tane will hold onto his position of power by any means necessary (N). Tane has reached out to an assassin’s guild in Dis and begun negotiations to take out Licot (A).
   
   
4. MADAM FRYTHA -- Cursed by an old witch to retain a youthful appearance but experiences excruciating pain when touched (D) Wants to be free of the curse (N) Has begun attempting to court Licot in order to get enough funds to find and hire a Curse healer. (A)
   
   
5. EDMUND FONTOUR -- A heavily scarred, snow haired adventurer with a prosthetic hand and eye. (D). Loves to hear stories from active adventures and will offer a free meal for particularly good ones (N). Secretly wishes to go on one last adventure and die at the end (A). 
   
   

Find the final Week here.

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 3

 

Find Week 2 here. 

WEEK 3: THE DUNGEON

The Tasks:

TEMPLE OF THE SWINE GOD

• ENTRANCE: A descending stone tunnel carved to resemble a yawning boar.
  
  
• ROOMS BY LEVEL (Exits/Entrances):  11 (4),  10 (2),  8 (2)
  
  
• DUNGEON THEMES: WORSHIP x3 (LVL 1), CONSUMPTION x4 (LVL 2), HALLOWED x4 (LVL 3). Words with a [TX] mark indicate a theme budget used, where X is the dungeon level.
  
  
• 11 MONSTERS: Cultists, Berserkers, Wereboars, Druid, Boars, Pig-Faced Orcs, Stone Boar Guardians, Boar Skeletons, Giant Flies, Primordial Water Elemental, The Swine God.
  
  
• 4 FEATURES: Sun & Moon room allows the resident boars to sunbathe and the wereboars to transform under moonlight. The Bronze Boar steam cooks prisoners alive. The Primordial Hot Spring houses an ancient water elemental that cleanses the Swine God [T3], the water also has healing properties. The arena is used for entertainment and punishment.
  
  
• 3 WONDEROUS ITEMS:  The Boar-Helm of Brokkr allows the wearer to gain the smelling capability of a boar, thus increasing foraging and tracking chances, the longer the helm is used the worse their eyesight gets until eventual blindness. The Loom on lvl.3 can weave together the Swine God's bristles to make holy garments, boar disguises or armor. The Orc-Vats [T2] allow one to create hideous Pig-faced Orcs once the recipe is learned.
  

THE DUNGEON MAP

Last time I tried this challenge I was too obsessed with trying to make an actual playable dungeon right out the gate. Since the challenge only really tasks you with making an outline I decided to just do that to avoid feeling overwhelmed. And it helped! I am going to come back and do the extra credit when I'm done with the challenge though, since I really like how the dungeon's outline turned out. The outline lists only the "main attractions" of the dungeon. When I eventually do map it out it's gonna have a lot of empty "flavor rooms", hallways, dead ends, and treasure.

LVL 1

LEVEL 1
The first level is mainly used by the Swine Cultists to tend to the boars needs using rooms like the mud bath room [T1] and the Sun & Moon room [T1]. It's also used to lure would be looters and capture them for the orc-vats on the 2nd level or as training for the Berserkers and Orcs in the arena. Enemy skulls are mounted in the Trophy room to glorify grand battles won in the past. The Boar's feasting hall is where enemies are fed to the boars [T1].

LVL 2

LEVEL 2
The 2nd level is the basically the cult's living quarters and the theme is consumption. A variety of strange mushrooms are grown in the compost room [T2]  to be consumed by the warrior caste (rage inducing mushrooms) and the boars (truffles). The dungeon cells [T2] hold captured looters and rival cultists to be used in sacrificial rituals or by the resident M-U's growing pig-orcs. The Bronze Boar [T2] is used to slow steam roast a captive to be served to the Swine God. 

LVL 3

LEVEL 3
The third level is abode of the Swine God is considered holy ground. The sacrificial altar is used to appease an angry swine god [T3]. The Sacred Boar Graveyard [T3] is used to house the remains of especially esteemed boars and their remains will animate to attack intruders. The Primordial Hot Spring [T3] is as old as the god itself is used as holy water after the Swine God bath's in it.

All in all pretty basic but I'm looking forward to mapping the outline after the challenge and using it to run a vanilla dungeon delve.

Thanks for reading!

Find Week 4 here

B/X Visual & Audio Media

Art by Erol Otus

Since I've been getting into b/x stuff lately I've been hunting for more media (besides blogs) about the system, which surprisingly there isn't a lot of. Most of the stuff out there is just old reviews of the modules. So here are a few of the podcasts and YouTube videos I found to be entertaining and/or helpful for b/x (OSE).

Actual Plays:

• Snow & Smoke -- by Red Dice Diaries 
  
  
• Winter's Daughter -- by Bandit's Keep
  
  
• Tale of the Manticore [Solo Play] -- by The Manticore
  
  
• Tales of Mystara [Solo Play] -- by Solo Dungeon Crawler

Helpful Youtube Vids:

• Why B/X D&D? -- by IvanMike1968
  
  
• Creating an adventure Old-School Style with b/x D&D -- by Bandit's Keep
  
  
• Building a Hex Crawl -- by Bandit's Keep
  
  

• How OSE Creates Emergent Gameplay // Black-box Review -- by Lucille Blumire
  
  
• Old-School Essentials Black-box Review -- by Questing Beast
  
  

Bonus Fun Reads:

• B/X Misadventures: Fellowship of the Bling Volume I -- by Mailer
  A hilariously written b/x campaign report where the author runs his players through randomly generated dungeons only.
  
  
• Swords Against Chaos 01 (B/X Mystara) -- Age of Dusk
  Another campaign report. This one is mostly RAW b/x and very gritty, and at times very funny. 

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 2

Find Week 1 here.

Week 2: Surrounding Area (Campaign Map)

The Campaign Map

The Tasks:

• Get a sheet of Hex paper: The above map took 2 hours to draw using a packet of hex paper I bought just for this challenge. When I was satisfied with the map I scanned it to my computer and spent an additional 2 hours fumbling around with GIMP for the first time to write the names.
  
  
• One Settlement of a significant size: In red is The Port City of Dis, a coastal city ruled by a once grand magic-user turned sea devil.
  
  
• Two other settlements: We have the Grand Empire of Birdosa (in red), home to the monstrous avian Praetorians (rip off of the Dark Crystal's Skeksis). And I have the starting town of Mun, a small logging town that forages into the perilous Devilwoods for lumber.
  
  
• One major feature: I made two large forests (Devilwoods & The Whalehead Forest), a small one (Whitewood Grove), the coast (The Sea of Haverna), some hills (Nilbog?!), and two main rivers (The Galmere and Savdosa). I think that's a good start.
  
  
• One mysterious site to explore: The Lumenloth Lake has strange happenings going on there.
  
  
• One main Dungeon entrance: Not listed since I want to hand the map to my future players for them to find. I have it located a few hexes into the Devilwoods above Mun. Found after some loggers cut too deep into the forest.
  
  

Map Notes:

The map isn't complete. You'll notice its missing the hex numbers and the direction marker (north, south, etc.).  The map just looks so damn good I didn't want to mess it up yet. I'll probably just print it out and draw the rest when I use it to run a game. Oh yeah and 1 hex = 6 miles.

Extra Credit: Create a Random Encounter Table [2d6]

I tried to show how the Devilwoods currently has a small skirmish between a Green Dragon and the Forest's Swine God. Of course the forest is huge so there's some other more vanilla d&d stuff I sprinkled in.

I included a dragon in the table after reading Papers and Pencil's Your Dragon's Suck blogpost. I shared a similar view that Dragons were supposed to be these godlike beings and thus unusable for most games but after reading that post I've come around on them. I think most of my wilderness encounters will include a dragon. 

Onward to Week 3!

Dungeons & Dragons T.V Show?

No, not again!

Today I read that Hasbro was giving D&D another shot at mainstream media with a t.v show. One written by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. With Kolstad I'm cautiously optimistic that it might not be a complete cringe-fest. I wanted to do a quick write-up on what I do and do not want to see from a official D&D movie. 

Do Want:

• Extremely violent; limbs getting hacked off, lots of blood, and sword clashes. Death. 
• A switch between the IRL players and their characters. The player's lives should affect the campaign in some way and vice versa. See The Gamers: Dorkness Rising for how this is done. 
• Lessons learned from the game should help the players in IRL, build confidence for example. Guess this is kinda the same as the above. Whatever. 
• The DM has a sweet homebrew world, or uses an old setting like Greyhawk or Mystara. 
• No miniatures please, theater of the mind only. Or miniatures used for combat only. 
• An actual Dungeon. And Dragon(s).
• Some darker horror tones every now and then.
• Some unique ideas.
  
  

Don't Want:

• Forgotten Realms or 5e. PLEASE. (I know this isn't gonna happen)
• No kids, teenagers would be fine I guess.
• An actual generic fantasy plot with no mention of players or the actual D&D game. Like the old 2000 movie. 
• PG Violence.
• Weird monster races as PCs or main characters. Like a lame Critical Role knock off.
• Mainstream actors. I'll allow a single cool cameo with Keanu Reeves, maybe. 
• Boring rehashed ideas. 
  
  

That's all for now. What would you want to see (or not) in a D&D show? Let me know in the comments. 

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 1

Alright, lets try this again. 2021 Edition.

Mid-last year I tried (and failed) to do the Gygax 75 Challenge found here. I got to Week 3 (The Dungeon), fell behind and gave up. In short the challenge asks you to make a small campaign setting and everything you would need to get a campaign going in 5 weeks. Including a stocked 3-level dungeon, which to me screams classic od&d--b/x. Rebooting this should be the perfect opportunity to do some creative writing for an OSE campaign I've been wanting to run. I'll be stealing some stuff from my first attempt since a lot of what I wanted to do back then I still want to try out.

[Note: I assume you've downloaded and read the challenge going forward.]

THE CONCEPT

Tasks:

1. Get a Notebook:
   Done. I'll be using Google docs. It's quick and easy and I can jot some notes down while I'm at work if I get particularly inspired.
   
   
2. Develop Your Pitch:
   Write 3-7 well developed bullet points that will sell the campaign to your players. See below [2].
   
   
3. List Inspirations
   Gather your sources of inspirations and what they bring to the campaign setting. Annotate them See below [3].

Pitch Development [2]:

• POINTS OF LIGHT -- A grand span of time has passed since a forgotten cataclysm smote the civilized world. Now, only a howling emptiness remains. A few walled settlements have risen from the dirt and stand as a monument to the stubbornness and tenacity of sapient life. I want the few pockets of civilization to feel far from another, it should take a day or more to move between the larger settlements. Extremely small hamlets should be a bit more common, just a bit. 
  
  
• DUNGEON x DEVILS -- Beyond the walls of man lie sanctuaries of chaos people call Dungeons. The dungeons are inhabited by monsters, cultists and sometimes devils themselves, beings of pure chaos. Adventurers delving into these dungeons hope to surface richer, stronger and intact.
  
  
• FEAR INCARNATE -- Humans used to claim the title of apex predator but now a new threat has emerged, the Dragon. Dragons stalk the land hunting and proliferating fear wherever they go.
  
  
• THE OTHER'S RETURN -- Ancient tales tell of fairies and other folk who once lived alongside humanity. They disappeared during the zenith of man's age but returned when they fell. The Ancient Dwarven furnaces are lit and the primordial world tree of the Elves cast it's shadow once more.
  
  

Mostly going for a "vanilla" d&d campaign. Well, vanilla with a bit of weird chocolate swirls.

Campaign Inspiration [3]:

• The Original D&D Setting written by Semper Initiativus Unum 
  My main inspiration for wanting to run a "vanilla" fantasy campaign. Talks about the assumed setting for Od&d. Free to download, give it a peek. 
  
  
• Princess Mononoke written by Hayao Miyazaki
  A classic tale of Man vs Nature. Tribes of different beast species worship a forest god that the humans are hunting for, reasons. No spoilers! Go watch this if you haven't!
  
  
• Berserk written by Kentaro Miura
  One of my favorite examples of weird od&d strongholds in non-gaming media is the Tower of Conviction. The tower is a religious stronghold whose occupants believe pain and torture can cleanse one of their sins. Berserk in general is a great example of pockets of "light" fighting against the approaching darkness.
  
  
• Dorohedoro written by Q Hayashida
  My current favorite manga. I love the way Dorohedoro depicts Magic-Users and Devils and want to sprinkle some of that weirdness into this campaign. EVERYTHING in this manga is insane, check it out if you haven't. 
  
  
• Swords Against Chaos [Actual Play] written by Age of Dusk
  A black comedy campaign report written for the author's mostly RAW b/x campaign. I believe most of the players in the campaign were new to rpgs so it's very interesting (hilarious) to see their metamorphosis into murderhobos. Also the later siege on a fort is so deliciously grim and grimy.
  
  

Extra Credit: Make a mood board

This is the mood I'm going for.

"Hmm, that's weird."

I'll be posting these every Sunday afternoon until complete. If you don't see it by Monday it means I have failed again lol.

Read Week 2 here.

The Tall Pale Ones -- B/X Elf Class Reskin

...

THE TALL PALE ONES

Requirements: Minimum Charisma 9
Prime Requisite: CHA & STR
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum level: 10
Armor: Any, including shields.
Weapons: Any.
Languages: Common, Elvish, +1 of your choice.
XP & SAVING THROWS as THE ELF CLASS (b/x -- OSE)

INNATE ARCANE MAGIC
Tall Pale Ones do not require a spellbook to prepare and learn spells. Memorized/Learned spells are stored in an arcane script inscribed along the spine. Pale Ones must spend 1 hour meditating in seclusion to prepare spells. New spells are learned at the same rate as the base Elves Class from the Magic-User spell list.

OR

Psionic Powers [Optional Spellcasting Replacement]
Blog post coming soon...

Abilities
Same as Base Elves

Player Facing Description:

Otherworldly beings from the aether who chose to live in the natural realm to experience mortality and further expand their collective knowledge. Named The Tall Pale Ones or sometimes Pale Elves by the natives of [insert your campaign world here]. The Pale Ones worship the great spirit of the forest, the World Tree, where the species resides and return to when their pilgrimage is complete. All Pale Ones are almost identical except for some slight variances in hair tones (mostly blues and golds) and some physical differences between genders. The feminine members stand at exactly 6 feet with slightly softer features while the masculine stand at 5’10 with barely noticeable sharper facial features, there are no height variations. All Pale One have a deep set of piercing blue irises. Pale Ones covet knowledge above all else and must complete the pilgrimage before they are allowed to return home.

Referee Facing Description:

Extraterrestrials from the open star cluster Pleiades who only after learning the truth* do they adopt their original planetary name. The Pleiadians traveled to [insert your campaign world here] via interstellar seed from their home world’s Ancestral (World) Tree. The Pleiadians goal is to plant a world tree** on each habitable planet in the universe and achieve bio-immortality***. Each Pleiadeian is essentially a clone of a pinnacle member of their species from their home world, with some advantageous traits taken from the new host world to acclimate. Pleiadians are conceived from embryonic sap sacs that slowly travel down the trunk of the world tree over the course of a month. Once on the ground Pleiadians emerge from these amniotic sacs fully formed but only with basic survival instincts. These saplings are then taken by the elders and taught how to survive on [insert your campaign world here] before being set loose to explore and gather knowledge for the collective species, what they call The Pilgrimage.

*The Truth -- Once level 9 is reached, the Pale Ones receive an intense desire to return to the world tree. It’s there that they reconnect and learn the truth of the species; they are foreign invaders whose only goal is the universal propagation of the species. Most Pleiadians take on a zealous fervor and loyalty when learning the truth, in part due to the World Tree’s secret pheromone influence.

**World Tree -- A means of interstellar travel created by the Pleiadians to achieve Bio-immortality. The world tree is a parasite that uses its host planet's resources to fully mature and bear sap sacs which produce Pleideians, then more world tree seeds.

***Bio-immortality -- A species achieves practical immortality from the universe by hosting multiple planets. Doing so ensures that should even one planet’s Pleiadeians die the species as a whole would not become extinct.

Reasoning
Just a quick class I wanted to post to replace the traditional Elf class for b/x. I was heavily inspired by an episode of Last Podcast On The Left about "Tall Whites" and the Korok from Wind Waker. I think traditional Elves are kinda lame and wanted a more interesting reskin. Galactic parasites seems fun.

I'll update the class when I finish my simplified Psionic rules. The innate spellcasting is kinda just a place holder. Let me know what you think!

Happy New Year! // 2021 Goals

Shadow Of Time

Happy New Year! and goodbye 2020.

I'm very thankful to have survived 2020 and hope the vaccine stamps out COVID once and for all. I want to take some words to send my regards to all who lost someone, or themselves during 2020. My deepest sympathies and I hope you can start the healing process this year. And to those who are no longer with us, may you rest in peace.

[One last song to send off 2020. ]

Source

Here are my personal, gaming, and blog goals for 2021:

• Start losing weight-again. 
  
  
• Run a "vanilla" fantasy campaign using b/x as the base system.
  
  
• Write 1x blog post per month, preferably 1x per week.
  
  
• Publish a zine or something "professional".
  
  
• Make a bit any $ writing. Not living wage money but enough to fuel my coffee addiction and buy more ttrpg stuff. buy a single iced coffee from Starbucks. 
  
  

Good luck to everyone and have an amazing 2021!

[Any art will be taken down if requested.]