Anti Promo and other things

A few things on my mind today.  Whenever I release a new 3 toadstools thing, I am not going to do the typical social media promo.  (ie spam people all day).

What I am going to do is the following:
1.  Send out a few copies and let the word of mouth spread.
2.  Send out a few emails via OBS.
3.  Blog about it (but not repost, share the link).

The reasoning isn't much of anything other than I just don't want to be "that guy".  I'll let it take on a life of its own, if that happens great.  If not fine.

The other thing I was thinking about today, was from what I gather (reading some discussions online) that people on the outside of the OSR believe that is full of "toxic shit".  To put it lightly.

I think what I'm going to do, is write a post basically explaining the best parts of the OSR, as well a introduction and why it's cool.  Basically like "hey, so this osr thing, what is it about?".  Especially for someone whose only gaming experience might be fifth ed.

Update CC Map

These maps by Shane Ward (3 Toadstools Publishing) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. Inquiries about permissions beyond the scope of this license should be made by contacting Shane Ward

The License: You can have a non-exclusive, non-commercial license to use any of my maps.  Any 

maps can be used for home adventures, blog posts, online provided full credit is made to 3 Toadstools Publishing (Cartography by), and also include a link to this blog. You cannot use these maps and or license to publish in a commercial product including free products.  

Early free map friday.

Currently in the middle of a long winded recording session, with a few people who don't know the chords to the songs......

Which mean's basically they are practicing (They are paying so evs).


So I drew a map.

Licensed under creative commons yadda, commercial, home use etc.  (If you click on the map link page above the license is there, do what you like).

At this point I have had a chance to clean it up yet.  I tried something different, used a regular assed pen, and then a permanent marker to do the outline.

The reason its free map friday, is cuz today is my friday! I get tomorrow off. 

Happy Turkey Day everyone down south of me!

Update on Greyhawk campaign ideas.

I spent a bunch of time reviewing the pantheon for Greyhawk last night.  Comparing the Fifth edition PHB Gods to the original Greyhawk (well the reddish box), there are a few subtle differences.  A few of the quasigods, or demigods have been raised to greater god status in the phb.  My guess is that they were raised to god status somewhere around the whole 3rd edition? "living greyhawk" setting. 

Anyways, what I did was take the basic "greater gods" from the greyhawk setting and then copied all of the domains and stuff from 5e.  There were a few that were missing, however I managed to create appropriate domains for them. 

I intend to have some kind of a confrontation between St. Cuthbert and Iuz (who are both demigods in my version of the campaign).  As the greater gods, are just well that.  They don't have any real world implications other than the specific domain for clerics. 

Going thru the boxed set, I've made some notes on regions around the Grand Duchy Of Geoff for the players.  Things that they are aware of. 

I'm on the fence about the ruler of Geoff, Owen I.  Rather than him be a typical Good Ruler, Godly king dude, I'm considering making him somewhat of a tyrant, that wants to keep the people of Geoff were they are.  A Tyrant, who is scared of loosing power.  Possibly the uprising of followers of St. Cuthbert may in fact freak him out.  He may possibly make a deal with Iuz (not sure).  Another thing I'm thinking about is the idea that Keoland may considering invading Geoff at some point.  Of course the only way to get there is thru the marshes. 

I'm slowly working on the City of Gorna, using this map maker, and fleshing out a neighborhood for the players.   Which would be the typical things (Armourer, Trader, excellent tavern, etc).

For player backgrounds, I intend to create a random table for each race.  Example

Elf

1.  Hornwood
2.  Dim Forest
3.  Village in Geoff
4.  Gorna

etc.

Another thing I've been slowly thinking about is factions, and religious orders.  I think the factions in my game may not be the world wide ones (like the harpers in FR), but smaller on a scale of basically factions within the Duchy.  My intention is to basically stick to Geoff for the time being (or at least to a specific level).  Still working on this.

First adventure, after the initial "You are here" session will be the following:

(I stole this from somewhere)

The basic gist is a local rich merchant is retiring and he has bought a old manor that need's to be fixed up.  The manor is located on the outskirts of the Dim forest, near the valley of the mage.  This will hopefully lead the players to the valley (as that's going to be the centre piece of the campaign).

The players will have to clear out the surrounding area of monsters and the like, make friends with some suspicious elves, and probably clear out the manor itself of some bandits that are holed up there.  A intend to drop a few clues about the valley. 

In the mean time I'm going to re-read the post I put up with links regarding point crawls, as that is my intention (and I've never really written one).

Ohkay that was a giant amount of typing diarrhea.

Adventure writing links

This post is sort of a place holder post for myself, ie I need to go and re-read these posts after a brief skim this morning.  They are a collection of 3 links, all of which are about writing adventures. 

However, You may have seen these before, you may not have.  They came up on a discord server chat.  They might be helpful to you.  Prosperity sake.

Hope your monday is going well!

http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/2017/01/how-i-write-adventure-part-2-longer.html

http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2017/01/how-i-make-adventure-part-1.html

http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2017/01/how-i-write-adventure.html

Finally a new anchor episode!

So last night, I did a great episode! I was super excited.  However bad mojo, nothing saved.

I have attempted to recreate that energy today.  Here it is:


Anchor link. 

Queen of spiders expensive ebay link! 

1st Ed character classes

And here is the start of the house rules document.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sg0r12HrzBKg8dNIn5Wz9HTIQ5c2qf8cRcR5ibegSqg/edit?usp=sharing

D12 forest quests

1.  A local ranger hasn't been seen in more than a month.  She/He will usually show up in town once a month.

2.  A group of halflings emerged from the forest missing limbs and bleeding. They are unable to speak.

3.  A shrine has been built on the outskirts of the forest. Every week a internal organ is left on an altar near the shrine.  No one has seen anyone near the shrine.

4.  A rolling fog/mist moved thru the forest border, paralyzing anyone in its path.

5.  A alchemist needs some specific plants that grow in the depths of the forest.

6.  A curious map has been created near the entrance to the forest, it details the route of a previous group of explorers.

7.  Giant spiders have fled the forest. What scared them?

8.  An elder tree has grown sickly and black, it's disease has spread to the surrounding forest floor.

9.  A local merchant has had his shipments go missing, sort of.  The carts magically return thru the forest, carrying no merchandise, save for promissory notes.

10.  A group of near human Neanderthal's have been pillaging the borders of the northern forest.

11.  A monster, that can only be described as a "pastiche of parts", has shown up on the outskirts of the village.  It is unable to speak, but signs towards the forest with fear in its eyes.

12.  A river runs thru the forest, the fish in it have doubled in size, so have their teeth.

Dancing over fireball - 5e toa session report

Had a wildly entertaining session last night. It had combat, a bit of roleplaying (thank the God's) and lots of exploration and puzzles.  I suppose this is why people like delving into dungeons right?

The previous session was all combat which I found quite boring.  Part of it is because of the heavy math in 5e.

Anyways , my thief got into a variety of old school trouble. (at one point it was mentioned that I was playing like it was first edition), considering everyone else is overly cautious about their characters.

I went into a room that was magnetized, realized that and left my bag of goodies in a hall. Went into the room and all the metal studs popped out of my armour. Whoops! Wearing clothes for the rest of the game. At least I have a stylish hood.

Went into a tunnel that was a mouth of a large skull. Found a coffin and some weird flaming skull  which claimed it was a little girl trapped.  Rped a bit, told it to calm its shit.

Got into a fight, found a weird staff. Oh I got possessed! Awesome. Honestly.. Awesome.

During the fight the blast lock (warlock, sorcerer, cleric) blasted a fireball into the room, while I was standing on the coffin. I saved, no problem.

The skull returned fire (fireball). I saved again! Lol

After the fight we did some more exploration, found a weird pool of water. (in search of the Unknown?). I think I drank from it.

Found three treasure chests. I got in them, turned the keys inside, lost all my weapons from magnetism (great success!)

Prior to that I opened a unopenable chest.  In the end I believe we rolled for init, verge of a fight. Then called it.

Here's the DMs report. 
Before our heroes are able to complete their long rest, the secret door that Nic had found sides open, and two lumbering hulks clad in plate armour burst into the room, waking everybody except Ranion and Ebon up. The party quickly discovers that nonmagical weaponry has no effect on it. Shaun and Maim take point, with Shaun only able to dodge attacks, as his aren't effective. Maim has Ranion's magic mace, and is able to do some good damage against the enemy. The rest of the party peppers them with spells, and they are able to take them down rather expeditiously.

The party finishes their long rest, and explores the room to the north. In the room along the western wall is a statue of a knight with a shield. Maim and Nic feel pulled towards the statue; all metal objects seem to get attracted towards the shield. Maim tries to hit the statue with her sword, only to have her sword crumble to a pile of rust. Nic flies through the air towards the shield, whereupon his studded leather armour disintegrates as soon as it touches it. Ebon is able to dispel the magic of the shield, seemingly turning it off.

They keep exploring to the north, to find a fountain. Ebon fills a jug with water from the fountain.

They also explore the river south of where they rested, and find a treasure chest filled with gold,a jug, and a scroll.

As they continue to explore the first level, they find a grand staircase leading down, and a pale dwarf wearing a mask resembling the head from the tomb entrance looks back up to them. As they argue what to do, the dwarf makes his escape to another area of the tomb.

Also in the grand staircase, they find a pile of bones, which animates and tries to run away when Ebon starts jostling it about using mage hand. Ebon lands a critical hit on an Eldritch Blast, blowing the skeleton completely apart.

Continuing to the east, the party finds a giant skull carving, with a room with a sarcophagus on the other side.

Nic and Ranion decide to go through its mouth. And Nic hears a panicked child's voice in his head, asking why it can't see and how it got there.

As Nic tries to brush off the voice, it seems to take offense, and attacks.

Ranion is able to turn it, however as Maim tries to rush in and join the fray, the jaws of the skull outside clamp down on her and she finds herself stuck.

Swarms of spiders flood into the room, and attack Nic and Ranion.

Ebon sees the spiders, and decides to throw a fireball into the centre of the room, killing off most of the swarms, and roasting most of his friends. Nic dances around the flames and avoids taking any damage.

The flying skull decides to throw a fireball of her own, and most of the party decides to get out of Dodge, leaving Nic hidden in the middle of the room.

After a few more brief rounds of fighting, the skull finally succumbs to overwhelming damage from Ranion's mace.

The party searches the room, and Nic finds a wooden staff with a serpent carved on it. He looks shocked for a moment when he picks it up, before handing it to Ebon.

The party continues North from the hallway that brought them to this room, where they are encountered with a long hallway - where Nic observes that the entire floor is a big pressure plate. Down the hallway from where they are is a large propeller made of adamantite.

Ebon walks across the walls, and sticks his immovable rod in between the blades of the propellor and activates the trap, but the blades of the propellor cannot move the rod, making it so that everybody is able to pass safely through the hallway.

At the end of the hallway they find a pit, a sarcophagus and three chests. One made of black onyx, one of rusty metal, and a third made of silver with a sheen of frost on it.

The chests all have keys in the kids, however the keys are unable to be turned while the chests are opened.

Nic goes into the rusty metal chest and turns the key. A button appears on top of the sarcophagus, and Ranion pushes it. Everything metal Nic has on him that isn't magical crumbles to rust, leaving him without any weapons, and most of his gear.

Nic decides to try the silver chest next. Once Ranion pushes the button Nic takes a blast of cold air, and suffers a lot of cold damage.

Maim decides to get in the third chest, however Ranion refuses to push the button. Ebon steps up the the plate and pushes the button. Maim has a sense of impending doom, however she suffers no physical effects.

As soon as the third button is pushed the sarcophagus turns to clear crystal, revealing a mummified su-monster clutching a frightful mace.

With no clear way to open the sarcophagus, Maim smashes it with her mace.

As soon as the crystal is shattered, the mummified su-monster rises up and attacks...

Skyrim puzzles part 1 - Skyrim Arkngthamz Puzzle Solution

As I stated previously I started replaying skyrim.  In hopes it will be the last time.  I'm guessing probably not.  I just finished up a delve into a dwemer ruin, and was struck by the fact that the puzzle within could also be a equally cool D&D puzzle.

Here is some information on the tonal resonator puzzle in the game. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Tonal_Resonator

Below is a spoiler alert video on how to do it in game.



And here are my thoughts on a D&D puzzle.   Rather than use 5 different tonal resonators (which might become difficult for players) I would suggest using three.  A clue, like in the game could be left by a dead npc to the correct first position.

CLUE

Correct Sequence:  The resonators need to be pushed in the following order.
2, 3, 1

The resonators can be labelled the following: 
1.  Left 
2.  Middle 
3.  Right 

In the case of 3 being pushed first, geysers of flames will blast the players 2d6 damage. 

In the case of 1 being pushed first, a pit trap will open dropping the players down 10 feet (1d6 damage) 

In the case of the second number being incorrect, a group of 1d4 automatons will burst out of the walls and attack:  AC 9 (10) HD 2 ATT 1d6+2  

As an alternative, you could use face cards from a card deck and have the players attempt to put them in the correct order. 

The Peninsula - World Building.

And so it begins, the first real snowfall, the one that will probably last.  It's a weird time of year, when the inevitable starts to creep into your soul.  It's a good time of year to reflect, to think about things that you want to accomplish while being stuck inside for a good few months (like 8 or so).  Sure there are crazy Canadians who enjoy this weather, and spend time outside.  Those people are nuts.  All kidding aside, I do have a few things that are on my mind today.

I'd like to start world building more on this blog.  So the following are ideas for a plane of existence I've been working on.  The theme is Greek Mythology.  The plane is into between life and death, a place where restless souls go.  There is however life within the plane.  When the dead cross over, they are sometimes left in purgatory, wandering the wastes of this little section of Hade's realm.  Eventually they may make their way to a small city.  Within that city, are jobs in the afterlife.  A whole community of people who are not completely aware that they are dead.  Eventually they may end up in the fields of punishment, or Elysium.  Until then, they work.  The city is guarded by the evil Dracaenae. 

You might ask, how this plane came into existence? Here is the story so far.

Long ago the telchines were scholars, seeking to learn about the ways of nature.  As their power grew so did their knowledge.

As time passed they yearned for more, and struck a deal with the god of knowledge, increasing their power ten fold.  The telchines were deceived by a god of trickery, believing that they were in communication with a god of knowledge. They were already masters of the elements and now had the ability to warp living things. The forests and plains in which the Telchines inhabited slowly became warped from their power. Living things rotted, animals died, strange abominations grew.

A group of satrys swore to put a stop to the evil of the telchines, the resulting war was one for the ages.  Many died.

During the battle some of the telchines were into a void. Hades saw the land for what it was, a place to keep the souls of the dead.  

Not much is left of the original lands, a few miles perhaps in each direction. The peninsula has become the domain of Hades, a purgatory between life and death.  The people who lived will find their way out of the peninsula to Elsyuium, the ones who did not move on to the underworld. Across the dreaded plains the near dead make their way towards the city and death.

Most mortals believe that the world ends at the Northern coast, it does not. The cliff of the coast is many miles down, below the ocean waves smack against the rocks. All one needs to do is take a leap of faith, one step off. They will find themselves in the land of the dead (one of many).

Once you are in, there a only a few ways to get in and out of purgatory.  All the monsters the reside within the peninsula carry small trinkets that can be combined together into a rod that will open a portal.  Finding a lost telchine you may be able to get you out.

PLEASE NOTE: As the idea is slowly forming in my head, and has been for quite some time things will slowly change. I have about 11 pages of notes at this point.