GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 5

Find Week 4 here

WEEK 5: THE LARGER WORLD

Week 5 is all about filling out the campaign world by listing mysterious locales, deities, mythical treasures and more. Most of the tasks are dedicated to this but only require you to do three. I'll instead pick out the most interesting tasks to me and then that'll be pretty much it for my run of the Gygax 75 Challenge. It was really fun and got my mind off shitty pandemic life and Trumps shit attempt at a insurrection. I'm gonna keep working on this world and I'm probably gonna test run with my SO and child and hopefully with the old gaming group after the pandemic. I'll write up some session reports if/when I do. Anyways on to the tasks!

TASKS:

Develop a Pantheon and Powers
I want this campaign world to have numerous strange gods with each settlement having their own deities and religious practices. I have this vague idea of a Sun Worshiping Cult* in the beginning stages of becoming a global religion, maybe, if they can put down all the other rival cults. Then this Sun Cult is going around proselytizing and perhaps slaying (burning?) heretics and rival cults.

In my Week 4 I already started this practice by showing the great river spirit Undine and one of the blessings she bestows upon the town. Also want to throw in some Saints of various aspects, like a Saint for Murderers, Assassins and Eccentric Musicians called St. Emil. 

*Yawn, I know done to death BUT it's something that I want to try out.

Develop a Rival Adventuring Party or Mercenary Band
St. Emil's Regulars are a band of music hunters seeking out rare sheets for their god, The Red Musician. Their leader Ri-Kas is the 41st apostle of St. Emil and 5th level Cleric.

Create Events and Rumors from other lands the characters might hear. 

• The Praetorians have been seen in the mainland's coast ransacking villages and taking slaves.
• A red dragon has been rampaging and causing mayhem down south. 
• A red star fell from the sky and landed somewhere west near the village of  Piurn. Bad luck for them.
• The White Sun's Zenith approaches and the City State of Dis prepares it's grand festivals.

Create more major magical relics of the world and short history, including where they were last seen and who/what owned them.

• The Sinister Hymn of Fiends is a piece of sheet music written by a forgotten devil. Those who listen to it to completion and survive gain a fiend's strength. Last seen at the Monastery where St. Emil ascended to godhood. Some say Emil himself heard the Hymn and ascended but for other's this is blasphemy. 
• CHIME [As seen here] is a dwarven forged bident tuning fork used to slay Dragons. It's current rumored location is in the Tower of Ivory Stoops in the Praetorian Empire of Birdosa.
• The Seven Orbs of Zulan, basically a Dragon ball rip off. Have to find all seven orbs that are scattered all over the world to get a wish. 
  
  

And that's it! I'm super proud of myself for finishing this challenge and I hope any readers out there were as entertained as I was. Stick around as I go back and finish some of the extra credits and flesh out the campaign world even further.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

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

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!

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.