20 Quick Questions

...Edited for new helmet pic, as I discovered another 20 responder with the exact same Otus image--how gauche of me!


(Haven't posted in a while...must use crutch to get back into the game...)


I've been very interested to read the responses to Brendan's 20 quick questions, as houserules and rulings are always cool to hear about.  So, here are my replies:


1. Ability scores generation method?
             3d6, distribute as you will.  However, it should be noted that I don't use negative modifiers from ability scores, only positives.

2. How are death and dying handled?

            PCs die when they reach below their level in negative HP (e.g. a 4th level fighter dies when he gets to -5 HP).  Wounds can be bound after a battle (+d3 HP).

3. What about raising the dead?

            Getting someone resurrected is such a monumental pain in the butt that it either becomes a great story in and of itself, or the player decides to just roll up a new character and save himself the trouble.

4. How are replacement PCs handled?

            I let them play one of the NPCs or roll up a character 1-2 levels lower than the lowest PC.

5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?

            Group initiative with d6.  We have two huge rubber foam d6's, one neon orange, the other neon pink.  I love doing the roll off to see who goes first!

6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?

            Natty 20 gets double damage rolled or full damage, choose before you roll.  Nat 1 means you lost your weapon and need to spend a round retrieving it.  I should really make up a table of worse things for the critical fumble (stab friend in butt, anger the god of war with your incompetence, etc.).

7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?

           You probably look cooler, especially if it's some sweet Otus helmet.

8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?

            Hells yes!  Though I will usually warn the shooter ahead of time that the shot looks like it might be dangerous.

9. Will we need to run from some encounters?

            Only if you want to live...

10.          Level-draining monsters: yes or no?

          Yes, but only occasionally.

11.           Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?

            Yes, but again, only occasionally.  Most often death occurs due to failing to run, not checking for traps, deciding that this NPC is too big for his britches, etc.

12.          How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?

          Not strictly at all.  I find it tedious, so I just cut them off at a certain point.

13.          What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?

           You must wait for down time, but don't need to do any training.  Spells don't come naturally and are not usually shared.  They are one of the main forms of treasure, actually.

14.          What do I get experience for? 

            Killing, looting, playing your character even if it might get him killed, accomplishing something difficult that didn't involve getting loot or killing, whatever else I feel like giving xp for.

15.          How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?

            Combo!  You have to describe what you're doing and then I roll, with bonuses or negatives depending on how plausible your description sounds.

16.          Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?

            Not encouraged, necessarily, but my players know their way around a meatshield.  Morale is only used in battle, but is highly dependent on treatment.  Meatshields and retainers will often negotiate on the spot for more cash or rewards when they're asked to do something very dangerous.

17.          How do I identify magic items?

           Use it or take it to a shaman, cleric, witch doctor, elder, et al.

18.          Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?

            Maybe a potion, but it won't be a regular healing potion, it'll have side effects like making your hair fall out or bony protrusions grow out of your back.

19.          Can I create magic items? When and how?

            No one's ever tried to create a magic item, so I don't know.  I use Holmes' rule for Magic-Users making scrolls.

20.    What about splitting the party?

         My players never split up, but they could if they wanted.  Go ahead.  Try it.  :)

Black Pharaoh Foiled! Our First Labyrinth Lord Campaign Concluded

Wow! Tonight my small group completed a campaign that stretched 1.5 years. For many, I'm sure that isn't a very long time, but it was the first campaign for two of my players and my first in about 20 years. We used modified BX throughout and their characters reached 7th/8th levels after defeating tons of cultists, drug brewing mutants, giant phosphorescent ants, schizophrenic blobs, etc. They explored the Magus Xoth Ragar's mysterious laboratory, engaged in espionage against the notorious Black Hand in Pentastadion, and ultimately tracked the Black Pharaoh to his abominable pyramid in the desert. Great fun and lots of great ideas by these unpredictable players. Even though three of the main characters died, they were integral parts of the story that was made, so it proved once again the strange alchemy that makes a D&D campaign so satisfying. For now, I think I've earned my reward and will take a month or so off to recharge, read, and get the next campaign ready. One of the players has graciously agreed to DM for a bit. Woo hoo!

Den of the Thief Kings: Prop Room

Last night we concluded an adventure where the party was tasked with mapping out a newly discovered complex below the city of Pentastadion.  The entryway was through an iron door hidden in the cellar of an abandoned brewery.  After descending a winding stairway, the party found itself exploring the Den of the Thief Kings.

Though not unusually creative in its design, one simple room turned out to be lots of fun (for both Labyrinth Lord and players, I think!):


Prop Room.   A thick burgundy curtain covers the walls of this room, but more importantly it is filled with a multitude of wardrobes and chests.  Each wardrobe and chest contains various costumes and clothing, jewelry and accessories, mostly of low quality but accurate appearance.  They are ratty and moth-eaten, for the most part, and have no value.  At the far end of the room is a large polished metal mirror in triptych, with a platform to stand on and a series of handles hanging by chains from above.  If the handles are pulled while a character is standing on the platform, a random effect is generated:

Roll d6	Effect
1	Skin changes color.
2	Hair style changed.
3	Random facial hair.
4	Gains/loses d4 x 10 pounds.
5	Grows/Shrinks d6 inches.
6	Eyes change color.

The room was used several centuries ago by thieves on the lam.  One quick stop in prop room gave them a disguise with an added twist: a permanent change of appearance.

One of the players tested it out and immediately gained 30 pounds.  He then laughingly tried again--Fu Manchu facial hair! We determined also that one of the NPCs would be goading into trying it also.  An already large warrior, Bellor Ruthenia instantly grew another 4 inches taller.  Russian accented complaints about trying to [Yakov Smirnoff's voice]"fit into peasant bed already big hassle!" ensued.

Good times.

(By the way, there is a hilarious table of Random Facial Hair in one of the issues of Fight On!, written by Jeff Rients, I believe.  I can't remember which, though.  Anyway, this room would put it to excellent use.)

Under Pentastadion

To Itchy and Tune,

Here's a little map I put together from what I knows and what my buddy Treddo's herd.  I thot you guys could use the help and you've always been big tippers.  Let me know if you guys ever wanna hear some more stories about all those twisty places under Pentastadion.

Thog

 

(Thanks to Dyson for the map making lessons he's posted!)

Megadungeon Design: Honeycomb Hideouts

I've been fascinated with Megadungeons for a long time, reading all the great blog posts and forum threads on this adventure-site/play-style/philosophy and mulling over all the possibilities.  I have a megadungeon placed on the Lost Continent, in fact.  The party adventured there quite a bit and it was pretty rad, even.  But we've also encountered a sticky issue.

My players are not that excited about exploring just for the sake of exploring.

They like to have particular reasons for going into some deathtrap, for one thing.  They take their roleplaying pretty seriously--not in terms of making weird voices or wearing costumes, but in regards to making decisions in-character rather than as a player.  By that I mean, Brian wants to be able to come up with some reason why Shaan (a deadly, but soft-hearted, bounty hunter) would want to wander down into a dark place where demons eat kittens and wait for larger meals.  He doesn't need much reason, mind you, but something either he creates or I create.

One easy fix for this is the utilitastic Megadungeon Missions Table by Al over on Beyond the Black Gate.  I've used this several times to generate a seed for an adventure.  I'm lucky that my players follow hooks like a googler follows hot elven chicks.

So, partly in response to the style of adventuring we do, and partly because of how I like to draw maps, I'm experimenting with a new type of megadungeon: the honeycomb hideout.  This might not be new to others, but it's different than what I've done before.  Basically, it's a megadungeon made of numerous interconnected mini-dungeons.

Lo, verily I say unto thee...scanned, badly drawn dungeon maps will follow.

Random Creativity?

I've been trying to harness some awesome inspiration I recently acquired and have come to an interesting observation (at least to me).

Normally, I enjoy rolling on random tables and rolling up stats randomly.  I like this as a first step, because it often fires up my imagination once I start seeing the stats or looking at the raw data.  An excellent example of this is James Raggi's Random Esoteric Creature Generator.  A few rolls on these tables and an awesomely grotesque--and completely unique--creature is staring back at me from inside my mind.  Character creation is much the same way.  Perhaps my only real reason for liking "3d6 in order" is that it instantly throws into my mind at least one image of a character.  It feels like that character already exists, in fact, that the numbers already existed and were somehow channeled onto the character sheet from some PC-Limbo where my new dungeon delver was waiting.

What I find funny, however, is that I'm much less competent at looking at the raw and finding the story in it when it comes to dungeon maps.  Other maps?  No problem.  But for some reason, I've found that drawing the dungeon first doesn't really fire my imagination.  I end up with lame maps full of squares.  On the other hand, coming up with a story, or even just a cool title, almost always helps me make a much cooler dungeon, full of secret passageways, magical portals, pits of ooze, etc.

So how do other people handle this? Which comes first for you, when creating a dungeon or other adventure.

Maps, Overland Travel and Finding the Cool Stuff

I've been fooling around with different ideas on how to run the wilderness parts of my campaign.  I have a pretty big sandbox map (23x28 3-mile hexes) and wanted to add interesting things into each of them, as a 3x3 mile hex is approximately the size of my hometown!  I don’t think I was really wrapping my head around the size of my map until I google mapped an area that is commensurate in size.  Instead of being the size of North Orange County, for instance, one side of the map to the other is the same distance as my workplace to San Diego!  That’s two hours hauling ass in the car!  Then I realized that one hex is approximately the size of my hometown and, as there are at least a couple interesting things in that place, each of my hexes should have at least one cool thing in it. 

So, characteristically, I dove right into filling my hexes with rad things, without taking into account that there are…

…644 hexes on that da** map.

So I pondered this in my tiny brain for a moment, and came up with a plan.  I decided to create a whole bunch of cool things like tribes of intelligent, vampiric rabbits and triceratops birthing grounds and keep them on a list until the PCs find ‘em.  In theory, there’s still 644 awesome things spread out on the map, but I don’t have to come up with them now, nor do I need to write them out.  The characters, after all, are usually burning horseshoes around the map, trying to get to some location ASAP.  So they’re not likely to run straight into the cool thing on a 3-mile hex.  On the other hand, if they want to slow down, they’ll be more likely to find the interesting caves or ancient alien hot-air balloons.

The trick for me will be probability tables used to determine what the characters find as they travel.  I determined three “layers” of discovery: general terrain, special features of the land, and landmarks.  Passing through a 3-mile wide area, you’re bound to get an idea of the general terrain—whether its forest, desert, swamp, or other.  You may also notice some special features—an oddly shaped hill or deep crevasse.  Finally, if you’re lucky (or unlucky), you’ll discover the special feature of the area—the aforementioned bunny encampment, for instance.  Note that this is supposing the hex is not obviously filled with a massive castle or some other easily apparent monstrosity that blind people could see on a foggy night.

I’ve yet to playtest this, but I think it’s going to do the trick for me.  Am I reinventing the wheel, though?  I know I’m not that well read in newer rule books and honestly don’t remember even being in the wilderness much as a player in my youth.  Perhaps tables like this exist already.  I’d like to see how others do it, too.  How do you handle it?

Standard Weapon Damage in Labyrinth Lord

As our Labyrinth Lord campaign evolves, I realize that we are really using the "Core" or B/X ruleset much more than the Advanced.  By that, I mean that originally we were going to be playing Advanced with some throwbacks to B/X: Advanced HD for characters, Advanced spell lists, etc.  From the B/X all we were using was race as class, basically.  Now that I look at it, though, we are really playing B/X-Core LL and making up our own additions to it.  The only thing we use from the Advanced companion is the higher HD.

More and more I see myself adding or modifying rules to be closer to OD&D, actually.  Much more is being decided by d6, for example.  Something I've been toying with for a while is switching to Standard Weapon Damage.  Mainly, I must admit, it's because I want some people to use daggers.  Haha.  That sounds stupid when I write it, but it's true.  I think they're cool and I want some dagger-love in my campaign.

Does anyone have experience with Standard Weapon Damage a la OD&D?  Positive experiences?  Negative experiences?

Dungeon to Wilderness, and Dungeon Variety

Returning to the RPGs of my youth has been interesting in a lot of ways.  I've already mentioned how creative collaboration is much better with my 30-something players than we ever had it when I was a kid.  Players create interesting  backstories for their characters that help the campaign, rather than trying to squeeze more power into their characters.  Also, the extra 20+ years of poring over graphic novels, watching movies, reading literature, etc. has meant even more cool ideas bouncing around than we had at age 12.  Some aspects, therefore, are changes for the better.  The only change for the worse, at least that I can see, is the fact that we can only pull off about 1 session a week, max.  Jobs and wives are much more time-consuming than water-polo practice and pre-algebra.

After all these years, however, some things seem to stay just the same.  When we first starting playing back in May, I made a small dungeon: two levels, about twelve rooms total.  There was a bare-bones town that served only to equip the characters, and we paid little attention to the wilderness trip to the dungeon.  Over time, however, and without consciously changing focus, we've naturally progressed through what I think might be the standard stages of fantasy role-playing.

Megadungeons: After the first few adventures, the characters discovered the location of a much larger dungeon, and many subsequent adventures have taken place within it.  These adventures never focus on "clearing" the dungeon, but rather involve exploring parts of it, finding an item, rescuing an old friend imprisoned there, etc.  There's an unspoken understanding that this dungeon has no "bottom floor" really, and there are all manner of monstrous entities and secrets hidden "down deep".

Town/City: After enjoying the megadungeon for awhile (and without discarding it), the players started to feel a little claustraphobic.  They sought out adventure in the towns and cities, and I had to flesh those places out to provide for the greater interest in them.  Much more interaction with NPCs began to occur.

Wilderness: The stage we find ourselves in now is one of wilderness exploration.  As the Labyrinth Lord, I find myself enjoying the creation of wilderness locales and small "mini-dungeons" (great inspirations here) for the characters to find as they wander the forests and jungles.

Now, I'll throw out some disclaimers out right away.  This progression has nothing to do with depth of play or "sophistication".  True, our initial adventures were more shallow, but that had nothing to do with the setting.  It had everything to do with me being, essentially, a brand new DM again.  I was learning how to dungeon master again after a 20-year hiatus.  These settings are phases only insofar as they appear to be the natural progression of discovery.  After bumping around in dungeons for a long time you want to start exploring the wilderness, or a town.  They are not phases in respect to growing out of one and into another.  Each new setting adds richness to the play experience, as far as I can tell.  I can see our campaign encompassing all these elements now, and allowing me flexibility to offer wilderness, dungeon, and city/town adventures to my players, and they have the flexibility to choose whatever they feel like at the time.  Additionally, I'd be willing to bet there are several other settings and styles of adventures that I haven't discovered yet.  I'm still quite green, no doubt.

It's interesting to see that this progression, with the same order, seems to be the norm.  At least, if you look at B/X or read about the styles of play in the original Greyhawk or Blackmoor campaigns.  Is this a common experience, I wonder, or do some groups pass through wildly different phases during the RPG learning process?