Classic Blue Map

Had a bit of fun with pyromancer this morning.  A bit of random.

Quest:  A bunch of halflings have gone missing from the local town!  They descended into an old dungeon beneath the river, in search of a lost recipe for mead! Their wives are worried sick!  100 GP's for the safe return of the halflings.  Get er done.

1  Empty 70' x 40'  the room is flooded

2  Wolf 2D6 30' x 30' AC7 HD2+2

3  Empty 20' x 20' A huge black spot on the floor and a smoking pair of boots
 4  Strange portal that transports the PC's to room 12.  40' x 20'

5  Orc 2D4 20' x 20' AC 6 HD 1

6  Giant Gecko 1D6 50' x 50' AC 5 HD 3+1

7  Empty 20' x 20' 4 Dead Orcs, all beheaded.  No armour or weapons

8  Empty Locked Chest with 300 SP's, 100 GP's 20' x 20'

9  Empty 20' x 30'

10  Dwarf  1D6 20' x 20' AC 4 HD 1.

11  Statue of Unicorn, horn is worth 30 GP's.  30' x 30'

12  Empty 40' x 40' Creaking from above, dust falls on PC’s heads.  1 -6 chance of cave in.  2D6 damage. 

13  Giant Killer Bee 1D6 20' x 20' AC 7 HP's 1D4

14  Trap bricks fall from ceiling 2D6 Damage 20' x 20'

15  Empty 30' x 30'

16  Halfling  3D6 30' x 30' This is where the lost halflings are, they are fairly drunk having found the recipe they were looking for and a bunch of leftover mead!

17  Giant Toad  1D4 20' x 20' AC 7 HD 2+2

18 Empty 30' x 20' Buried to the hilt in the ground is a silver sword +1.  Strength Check at -2 to remove. 

19  Empty 50' x 50'

20  Trap rigged arrow trap 1D6 damage 20' x 50'

21  Empty 600 SP's, 100 GP's, Cursed Scroll 30' x 30'

22  Zombie 2D4 40' x 40' AC 8 HD 2

23  Empty 50' x 50'

24  Kobolds 4D4 30' x 30' AC 7 HPs 1D4 each

25  Trap pit trap 20' 2D6 damage 20' x 20' 3 half empty potion bottles (2 of which have nothing useable, 1 is a portion of healing that will heal 1D4 HP’s)

26  Empty 50' x 40' Sprung trap, a dead goblin hanging upside down from ceiling.  1D6 X 10 SP’s

PDF DOWNLOAD

Throwback to Basic rules

I've been toying with the idea of leaving the enormity project for abit, but I came up with a good solution on how to finally finish the book.  Looking thru the basic rule set from Moldvay (and of course in Lab lord as well).  There is a section on creating your own dungeon with a nifty table on how to fill rooms.  Roll 1d6 I believe, and you get on of the following.

1 empty
2 monster
3 trap
4 gold no monster or trap
5 trap and gold
6 monster and gold

I think it goes like that.  A "special" area may also be included within that table.  I like the idea of writing out a bunch of stuff for the adventure but it is becoming slightly time consuming.  After checking out Dyson's drop tables (which is a source of inspiration) and a post from Playing D&D with pornstars on hacking Dwimmermount , I think I have a better idea on how to finish it up.

The story is in place currently, although there is going to be a few tweaks before its finished.

Another thing that I'd like to try for giggles is to create a mini dungeon adventure based on the creative commons maps found here - http://www.paratime.ca/cartography/index.html

using the exact same table from basic.   I may go and try this tonight for giggles and see what I come up with.

Re-post from Draconic Magazine

Re-posting an article I wrote for Draconic Magazine a few months ago.

A relatively renowned wizard once said, “Death is just another path that we all must take."

Your player’s beloved character dies, he scrunches up the sheet after desperately attempting to be resurrected. After the gaming session, go and grab that sheet, un-crinkle it and put it away for safe keeping.

Once you have a handful of dead player characters, wait for a quiet gaming session. Let’s say the current PCs are in the usual tavern drinking mead and regaling the local populace with tales of adventure. In a dream, a voice from the past enters the PC’s heads. Next thing they know, you unfurl their old character sheets, resurrecting previously dead PCs. Or have you?

The dead PCs might be stuck in purgatory or hell! Whatever comes to your devious GM mind. This could be a great one-shot evening; the PCs have to find a way to their specific version of the afterlife. Maybe a demon or evil god trapped their soul when they died. Maybe the dead PCs are on a different plane of existence and are desperately trying to get back to the prime material plane.

Another idea that crossed my mind is bringing back PCs that everyone detested or the guy that was always the comic relief but died horribly in a dragon-taming accident. You could even change your usual gaming system for this, take the old sheet and convert it. Whatever you come up with, this could be a fun way to breed new life into long dead player charcters.

Wish you had one or more of your old character sheets from 20 years ago? Me too. Now's your chance to put them into a collage, frame it, and hang it on the wall of your gaming area 20 years from now.

The original article was published here http://draconicmagazine.com/articles/save-those-character-sheets

Check out Draconic Magazine for all kinds of OSR/O5R Goodness

WHAT THE MONSTER’S ARE DOING?

WHAT THE MONSTER’S ARE DOING

Roll 1D20	Result
1	Sleeping
2	Eating
3	Gambling
4	Fighting another monster
5	Dead
6	Torturing a prisoner
7	With young monsters
8	Drunk & groggy
9	Cooking
10	Sharpening Weapons
11	Sparring with each other
12	Arguing with each other
13	Praying to a deity
14	Stricken with the plague, all monsters are dying.  Adjust HP’s
15	Monster treating their wounds
16	Disorientated/Lost
17	Trapped in a simple rope trap, if more than one monster the other ones are helping to release it.
18	Smithing new weapons
19	Mining
20	Building a new lair

Random Traps

Random Traps

Roll 1D20	Result
1	Covered pit trap, 10” hole 1D6 damage.
2	Noose trap rigged to a tripwire 1D4 damage.
3	Large wood log attached to ceiling, tripwire 1D6 Damage, Save VS Breath For Half Damage.
4	Poison Trap, spray from rigged canister in wall.  Step on concealed piece of flooring to trigger.  Save VS Poison or die.
5	Portcullis triggered by false floor.  1D6 Damage.
6	Illusion trap (looks like regular cavern).  Save Vs Spell or fall into 20” pit with spikes 3D6 damage.
7	Fake door in wall.  Save Vs Spell or suffer electrical damage 2D6.
8	Rigged Crossbow triggered by tripwire.  1D8 Damage.
9	Spikes embedded in cavern wall.  Tripwire triggers.  2D6 Damage.
10	False plate in floor triggers thick mist covers 40” section of cavern.  -4 attack penalty.  Roll for random monster.
11	False plate in floor triggers 30 skeleton heads in bucket that rain down on PC’s.  1D4 Damage.
12	Tripwire triggers large bell in ceiling.  Roll for random monster.
13	Tripwire dumps a bucket of Oil on player.  No damage unless carrying a torch.  2D6 in that case.
14	Beartrap on floor.  1D6 damage.
15	Magic Mouth spell triggers loud alarm.  “Asks for password”.  Roll for random monsters.
16	Cave in!  Save Vs Breath weapon for half damage 2D6 falling rocks.
17	Cavern fills up with water 15” by 10” deep.  False plate triggers trap.  Dexterity check at -2 to hold breath and swim out of cavern area.  If failed Save Vs Spell or die.
18	Dead magic area, any spells cast in the 30” section of cavern will fail.
19	Floor covered in super sticky substance.  -2 to attack rolls until cleaned/bathed off.
20	Cavern walls close in.  Save VS Spell or risk crushing damage 2D6.

Moving Forward 2015

Well the writing for the enormity project is still coming along (and I know your getting bored of these posts already, give me the damn module already Shane!).  So there's that, but the other thing I've been thinking about is what's next after the enormity project.  Obviously once its written I am going to print the whole thing off and hand it to my wife to edit, and a friend of mine who's edited a few books as well.  From a lot of the reviews I've read of independent modules/adventures it appears that a good editor is something that is missing!  So that'll be the plan, and I won't try and get ahead of myself.   ie finish the module and upload it like a tool.  *smacks wrist bad shane don't do that.

Onto other things, I have 2 other ideas that will hopefully come to fruition by the end of the year.

Gloomwood - A high fantasy hex crawl, for low level PC's, specifically for Labyrinth Lord.   Some of the bad guys from the Enormity Project will make an appearance within this module.  I have already started writing this one.   Obviously we don't need another Keep On The Borderlands, or Secret Of Bone Hill in the OSR Community, but this is something that's been weighing on my mind.  The trick of course will be to make it different and weird enough that it will stand on its own.  I am taking a bit of inspiration from +Dyson Logos  Challenge Of The Frog God Idol & +Tim Shorts "Starter Adventurers" here.  As well, the 3 modules I've released already will easily fit into this hex crawl.  The module is based on a few adventures I wrote with +Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game for my home game.

Goblins Greed Isle - I've finally come up with a super awesome twist for this, that's going to make it a lot different than other awesome island hex crawls like "The Islands Of Purple Haunted Putrescence" & "Isle Of Dread".

Don't rush it man!

I've been trying desperately to keep writing, unfortunately work seems to be getting in the way among other things.  (you gotta pay the bills though!) Thankfully I am not at a loss for stuff to write, I'm slowly keeping all these ideas in my head.  So I am not suffering from writers block which is cool.  More so I'm suffering from: 6 more maps to fill up, try to make everything slightly different, interesting and a bit crazy weird.

The only thing that has been bugging me is that some of the maps may not be quite up to snuff, so I might go back and re-work a few as time goes on.

The only issue is the longer this takes, the more ideas I get, the more editing I start doing, so the entire dungeon has changed a bit here and there, although I think for the better at this point.  I guess the best thing is, is to not rush this process right? I mean the one saving grace so far for me, is that I'm the only one putting pressure on myself.  I didn't do a kickstarter or anything.  (which would increase my anxiety ten fold I think).

Speaking of Kickstarter though - check out this post 

Another thing I've incorporated into the mega dungeon is atleast one dice gambling game.  I found a great resource here http://www.purplepawn.com/2009/10/the-13-most-popular-dice-games/

Obviously I'll need to come up with a semi brilliant name for the dice game, within the game.  (your in the matrix get over it).  Also when playing dice games I'll suggest grabbing some Canadian pennies as we have officially ruled them out in the last year and they are no longer apart of our currency.  So 1 penny will equal 1 GP's.

To the people who read my blog everyday

I just wanted to say thank you, I wholeheartedly appreciate it!  And for all those people that comment and keep a dialog going, thank you!  

Fly by the seat of your pants RPG

Fly by the seat of your pants

RPG

Just a silly mashup idea that I had, wrote it down quickly. 

4 Main Attributes

Strength , Dexterity, Mind, Charm

Roll 4D6 drop the lowest score.

Follow the following table for +/-'s for attributes

Attribute Table

Modifier for attack rolls, damage and skill checks

Attribute Score	Modifier
17 To 18	Plus 2
10 To 16	Plus 1
9 To 12	0
5 To 8	Minus 1
3 To 4	Minus 2

3 Classes

Fighter, Magic User , Thief – All Classes must have atleast a 12 attribute score for there main attribute – Fighter (Strength) Dexterity (Thief) Wizard (Mind)

Fighters – Fighters can use any armour, and receive a D8 on all damage rolls

Wizards – Can wear no armour, the do a d4 on all damage rolls, they must roll 2D6+2 to determine starting magicka pool.

Thieves – Can wear only leather armour, they receive 35% for all thief skill checks, they receive plus two to initial luck score. D6 on damage rolls

Luck – essentially is a saving throw, however it diminishes every time it is used. Any time you need to test your luck to avoid something, or possibly do double damage, you must loose one point of luck. Starting luck is 2D6.

Experience

level exp + to attack and + magika pool + to thief skills (percentage) + hps

Experience is gained by killing monsters, overcoming situations and gold value collected.

Level	Experience	+ To Attack	+ Magicka	+ Thief Skill	Hit Points	Luck
1	0	0	0	0	2D8	0
2	2500	Plus 1	Plus 1	+ 5 Percent	3D8	Plus 1
3	5000	Plus 2	Plus 2	+ 10 Percent	4D8	Plus 2
4	10000	Plus 3	Plus 3	+ 20 Percent	5D8	Plus 3
5	20000	Plus 4	Plus 4	+ 30 Percent	6D8	Plus 4

Races

There are no racial benefits, be whatever type of character you would like, Elf, Dwarf, Halfing, Half Elf, Human

Spells

Each spell costs 2 magicka to use.

Fireball – Does 1D8 damage

Charm – Charms creatures for 1 turn.

Heal – Can heal other characters 1D4 of damage.

Detect Magic

Read Magic

Mage Armor – Changes mages armour class to 15 for one turn.

Summon Monster – Summons a 1HD monster of casters choosing.

Equipment

Each PC starts off with 3D6 x 10 gold pieces. 100 Silver pieces equals 1 gold piece.

Weapons

All weapons wielded by fighters do 1d8 damage, Wizards 1D4 and Thief's 1D6 (plus any modifiers)

Ability Checks/Difficult Table

Any game action is based on the following difficulty table, roll 1D20 and add the appropriate ability modifier.  

Easy!  10

Medium  13

Hard  15

Harder  17

Epic 20

Godlike 23

Random table 2

RANDOM TABLE #2

Roll 1D20	Result
1	An escaped prisoner stumbles on the party
2	Recent digging operation, left over pickaxes and a wheelbarrow
3	4 Dead Orcs, all beheaded.  No armour or weapons
4	A huge black spot on the floor and a smoking pair of boots
5	Trans dimensional door that ports the PC’s to the beginning of the caverns
6	A purple mist covers the section of cavern making it difficult to see.  -2 attack penalty
7	A pit trap with spikes.  A dead adventurer lies at the bottom impaled.  10 feet down.  Has armour/weapons.
8	Creaking from above, dust falls on PC’s heads.  1 -6 chance of cave in.  2D6 damage.
9	6 feet of mud, -2 attack penalty.
10	Suit of rusted plate mail with a skeleton leaning against a wall
11	Scrawled on the wall is a warning of monsters ahead (GM give a hint)
12	Broken lockpicks
13	Mudslide! Slide 15 feet down cavern.  Save VS Spell for half damage.  2D6 Damage.
14	Dark shadows start to follow the PC’s
15	Screaming alarm! Roll for random monster.
16	A empty broken treasure chest
17	Carcass of dead worm, chunks have been taken away.
18	Insect hive.  (Insect swarm)
19	Strange large eggs, greenish in color.  Possibly worth gold.
20	Ghost that flies thru the PC’s and disappears into a wall behind them.

Random Table #1

In order to add some extra flavor to Enormity, I've started working on some random tables, here is one of them.  This one is fairly basic, I'll be writing a few more gonzo esq ones as well.

Roll 1D20	Result
1	Drip of water from ceiling puts out Torch light
2	Stumble into 3 feet of slime
3	Wounded NPC/Monster leaning against a cavern wall
4	Screams off in the distance
5	Flooded section 8 feet deep, 15 foot section of tunnel
6	Magical lights dance in area illuminating the cavern
7	Rubble from fallen stalactite’s
8	Pouch of coins (20 CP’s, 2 GP’s, 10 SP’s)
9	Burned clothing
10	Rusted dagger
11	A pile of old skulls
12	Snakeskin
13	Useable torch on ground
14	Old broken key
15	Burned book
16	Map to old underground city
17	Sprung Beartrap with a leg still attached
18	Sack of moldy provisions
19	A large bang off in the distant, as if something really heavy was dropped
20	Religious symbol