Epic Fail!

Well not so much an epic fail, as an saving throw that I lost! Had big plans as per previous post to play D&D all friggin day while smoking ribs.  Anyways, we had a few woobly pops, whilst burning meat, which I had to tend to for most of the afternoon, had I been smart I would have just grabbed the adventure module and dice and done it outside on the table, but I didn't.  Ah well.  I had a lot of fun anyways,

And so begins the Chaotic Caves!

I'm friggin stoked for my RPG session this weekend!  I decided to play some "basic fantasy" , I really liked the D20 mechanic and the total Old Schoolness to the rules.  After checking out a few of there adventure downloads I settled on the "Chaotic Caves" which to a degree is similar to keep on the borderlands, but there is a town, rather than a castle.  Its a very cool module, that leaves lots of room for adding your own things.  For instance tonight I have to name all the town NPCs, kinda cool cuz you can fit this one into anything your playing, with a bit of work.  In the module all the town NPC's are unamed "bartender", "Lord" etc.

Here's the link to download the Chaotic Caves - http://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html

Here are the little things I've added so far

1 - A couple of dungeons from "morgansfort" module that's available on  http://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html , I really liked the Abandoned fort, and the nameless dungeon.

2 - I redrew the hexcrawl map, and added a few things, just basically changed the scenery more to my liking.

3- I'm bringing back the nefarious hermit from keep on the borderlands :) So excited for the PC's to get a taste of him

4 - added a Elven village, that is similar to Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, they live in the tree's etc.

So saturday I'm smoking ribs all day, and then we are playing D&D after we are really stuffed! Should be lots of fun.  Now onto a bit of prep work.

Open invitation

So I've come to the realization that not only do I like creating maps and writing adventures, but I really enjoy formatting! its a awkward very weird thing that I enjoy it to tell you the truth.  A few weeks ago I needed a break from working on my own little adventure and took a look at a download that was sent to me by Venger Satanis (he's working on a bad assed module called Liberation of the Demonslayer) you can find the updates here - vengersatanis.blogspot.ca

Anyways, I decided to format his module just for giggles, and to tell you the truth I had a SUPER fun time doing it.  I sent it to him and he was like "woah! thank you very much".  Regardless of what he ends up doing with his module (format wise), it was a lot of fun practice for me, and reconfirmed how much I enjoy doing formatting.

So if anyone is looking for some formatting and spell check , etc please send me a message on Google+  and pass the file over.  (I would prefer just regular .doc rather than docx, for some reason docx does not play nice for me).  PS I'll do this for FREE! I just really enjoy it.

Megadungeon plans!

So after going back and forth a bit, I've started working on a major dungeon crawl.  I started my first map, and have since sorta sat down and planned out the whole thing, although I've added a few extra parts here and there.  The basic gist came from the first map, which was actually a test for crosshatching in gimp.  On paper I drew out where the maps all lead, so for example from the original caverns map, there are 3 exits, 1 of which winds it way to a dragon, one goes to a dwarfen settlement, and eventually some dark elves, and the last exist ends up at a old forgotten temple.

As i was drawing it out, lots of things came to me, little ideas and tibbits.  The premise of the whole dungeon crawl is a Wizard looking for ingredients for potions.

Random Wilderness Encounter Table

1      Deer Carcass

2      Unmarked grave

3      Slaughtered kobolds

4      Abandoned farm

5      Old shrine to a god covered in moss

6      Chicken Eggs

7      Cow

8      Old scabbard for dagger (no dagger)

9      Old wooden chest (a few sp’s)

10  A few arrows in a tree

11  Pool of fresh water

12  Dead hill giant

13  Letter from a lover

14  Broken lute

15  Broken wagon (nothing inside)

16  Iron ore

17  Treasure map (DM’s choice)

18  Wandering beggar

19  Merchant caravan

20  Priest

21  Adventuring party

22  Farmer

23  Fruit tree

24  Remains of a camp fire

25  Broken wand remnants

26  Alchemical ingredients in satchel

27  Rusted axe in stump

28  Farm equipment

29  Small sack

30  15 feet of rope

31  Page torn from a book

32  Empty waterskin

33  Vial of acid

34  Pouch of pipe weed

35  Ruined painting

36  D4 wooden stakes

37  Pair of boots

38  Fishing rod and line

39  Cask of brandy

40  Small drum

41  2 candles

42  Magic ring

43  Wild deer (alive)

44  Sword (good quality)

45  Straw broom

46  Small bear cave

47  Spell book with 2 first level spells

48  Dead adventurer (with chain mail) some coins

49  A small bag of uncut semi-precious stones

50  Scroll of sheet Music 

51  Dice

52  Bloody rags and blood trail

53  Wooden mallet

54  Wandering beggar

55  Merchant caravan

56  Priest

57  Adventuring party

58  Farmer

59  Old shrine to a god

60  Unmarked grave

61  Slaughtered kobolds

62  Abandoned farm

63  Remains of a camp fire

64  Backpack with nothing in it

65  Horse tied to tree

66  Pouch of pipe weed

67  Battle axe stuck in wood

68  Bones of animal

69  Cattle

70  Innkeepers daughter lost

71  Elf party

72  Carriage with slaughter humans

73  Mass grave

74  Haystack

75  Bear

76  Giant fly carcass

77  Old book

78  Stack of playing cards

79  Quiver with 1d6 arrows

80  1d4 torches

81  Orca raiding party in burning pile

82  Small Halfling village

83  Dwarf miners

84  Magical creature (leprechaun? fairy)

85  Broken spear

86  Large snake skin

87  Bag full of deer pelts

88  Band of NPCs (maybe join them?)

89  Bandits attacking a merchant caravan

90  Weather gets really bad!

91  Stray cat that follows group

92  Dead adventurer doppelganger wearing same clothes as PC no head

93  Pit trap

94  Wandering beggar

95  Merchant caravan

96  Priest

97  Adventuring party

98  Farmer

99  Treasure map (DM’s choice)

100        Bear

Adventure Seed

Introduction

Long ago lived a race of extremely intelligent dwarfs; they toiled in their mines, creating inventions never before seen on the face of the world.  Although Dwarfs still live among the races of man, they differ greatly from the Ancient Dwarfs “The Ackna-mar”.  The Ackna-mar were very rarely seen upon the surface of the world, as they were able to support themselves.  They had acquired special magic’s that allowed them to live longer than average dwarfs, they were not war monger’s, instead spent years in search of the knowledge of the unknown.  All this information was acquired from an old tome, written by a elder elven sage, who had meetings with the Ackna-mar. 

Adventure Seed

You have received a letter on your doorstep from a young wizard by the name of Eron Azizah, within the letter details a strange account that Eron had while searching for ingredients.  Along with the letter was a accompanying map.

“Dear Sirs,

I have heard of your adventuring exploits from afar, your renown as heroes has increased ten fold from when you first graced this land.  I ask you to hear my story, and I hope that it may intrigue you as much as it did me.  First I must preface this letter by giving you a bit of background that I have recently found out.  Along time ago a ancient race of Dwarf’s named the “Ackna-mar” lived within our borders.  More importantly they lived under our borders.  They were a highly intelligent race, and spent much of their time creating new wondrous inventions & tinkering with magic and steel alike.  They Ackna-mar were rarely seen upon the surface world, but they did happen stroll upon its great land when in need of supplies, trading with the Elves mostly.  It has been 1000 years since one of these dark dwarfs has strode upon the surface.  I acquired this knowledge from a old crusty tome I found in a ruin.  This mystery of course perplexed me, what happened to them?

Further, while out hunting for rare magical ingredients I stumbled upon a very interesting site.  An old ruined keep, set against the wall of the mountain.  Within the keep I quickly realized that this was a lost city of the Ackna-mar, I found writings and booklets detailing the history of the Ackna-mar.  The most interesting site that I found however was not a book or an old glyph, but a dwarf himself! Frozen in time.  I tried my best to wake him, but failed miserably.  The ruins have been overrun with monsters and creatures, it became extremely dangerous for me to stay and try to wake the Dwarf. 

I ask you, to travel to this ruin, to try and find out what happened to this ancient race.  Maybe you will have better luck than I did. I offer you no reward, but a chance to write history, and maybe find a few treasures along the way.

Sincerely

Eron Azizah

Mage

Couple Of Maps

I hand drew one map last night, which is a possible idea for a Dwarfen Mine Delve.  The second map is a GIMP map I tried to create using some tile downloads from dragonsfoot.org I attempted to make it very OSR, I think I succeeded.