A Dash of Flavour: Tavern Menus

Tired of the same old stale bread and cheese? For this week's tavern visit, why not try something new? Invent a new tavern menu - create a few colourful local dishes involving original animals or plants and see how they bring your world to life just a little more.


The Hallowed Horseman
Menu: Pumpkin soup, fresh gef cream, mill fish, spiced ale, kethaflower cordial.
Goods: Yellowsage pipe-weed from the Yellow Marsh.


Now figure out a few things about the plants and animals you just made up!


Gef 
Black furred, four legged beast with a silver breast and short tail. Two huge scythe-like antlers. Feeds on grass and ketha flowers which grow near the Devilswood. A source of food for Grimrose. Hunted by giant birds and wolves. Kept in herds by the barbarian clans. Stags sought after for the value of their horns. Very defensive of their territory. The females can be domesticated and are kept for milk, cream and butter by the people of Grimrose.


Mill fish 
Small speckled fish that gather at the turbulent waters near the water wheels of mills. They are easily caught by netting them from the wheel or just dropping a line in the water.

Improving Your Role-play: Character Beliefs and Instincts (From The Burning Wheel)

A few months ago I picked up a copy of a nifty little game called The Burning Wheel. While I haven't actually had a chance to play this game yet, I have spent a goodly amount of time flipping through the rule book (which is beautiful, I might add). The game is based on character life paths, and character creation leads you through a very detailed and winding maze of choices, resulting in pleasantly complex characters. One of the best parts of the game, though, is a set of two things your character needs to have in order to play: Beliefs, and Instincts.

Beliefs are like goals for your character, and give great insight into your character's personality. A Belief is usually an "I will" statement, like "I will gain the respect of the townsfolk," or "I will avenge my brother's death." The more specific the statement, the better, because then you can begin taking steps to fulfill your Belief.

Instincts are sort of like macros for how your character would react in specific situations, and are often if/then statements about an action. "If danger appears, draw my sword." They can also be always/never statements:
"Never leave town without a torch." These statements allow your to create a consistent set of actions that help spotlight your character's behaviour.

Beliefs and Instincts are easily portable into any RPG. Have your characters choose 1-3 Beliefs and 1-3 Instincts. Try them out and see how they can create motivations for characters and bring them to life in new, complex ways.

Here are two NPC's I created for my Yekkislovia campaign using (leaving out the crunchy bits) The Burning Wheel as a guideline:


Ewald 
Lifepaths: Villager, Village Guard, Alchemist, Witch’s Son
Traits: Skinny, Crotchety, Half Elf, Humility, Seasoned, Blind
Appearance: Long-white-haired man with a cloth over his eyes. Very skinny, pointed ears and an ethereal quality. Wears old leather armour and a sword on his back.
Beliefs: I must find my brother and prove his innocence. I will find a way into Janik’s inner circle. I must keep my magical abilities secret.
Instincts: Start giving orders in a dangerous situation. Always know where my exits are. Keep my ears open for trouble.
Voice: Quick, grating whisper.


Ravenna
Lifepaths: Barbarian, Warqueen's Daughter, Bird Tamer, Ambassador
Traits: Apprehensive, Honored, Gossip, Aloof, Bored
Appearance: Dark mane of hair, supple body, ice-blue eyes, strong hands. Looks bored. Silver headband, skimpy furs and leather, a broadsword on her back. A great bird of prey on her shoulder.
Beliefs: I will prove that the clans are not kidnapping people from the town. I will find a companion worthy of my blade. I will bring honor to my clan in battle.
Instincts: Never trust a man. Hit first, ask questions later. Stick near the biggest companion.
Voice: Slavic, questioning, bored.




With these Beliefs and Instincts, I have a very solid idea about what these NPC's want and how they intend to go about getting it. The same will be true of player character's with well written Beliefs and Instincts.   

Yekkislovia: Story vs Mythos

In preparation for my summer campaign (the ideas for which have begun budding nicely) I find myself thinking of ways to make this a unique gaming experience. I always try to make each campaign different in both flavour and meaning, and this will be no exception. But this time, I want to bring the world to life a bit more than usual, by using things like themes, ecology, stories and mythos. I have some world building to do, but a question strikes me as my mind begins to plot and scheme: should I create the world and then build stories within it, or should I create interesting stories and then build a world around them?

I think it is tradition in campaign planning that the map is filled first and then come the plot points and adventuring sites. I'd like to try it the other way around. Perhaps if I create a few interesting plot lines, and then build a mythos around them, my world will spring to life a bit more. It will leave more room for the evolution of ideas and hopefully allow for another memorable campaign. Creating a truly mythical experience for the players would be extremely gratifying.

My summer campaign is going to take place in Yekkislovia, a misty, wooded region beneath a silver moon shrouded by dark clouds. To the north, matriarchal barbarian hill clans; further north, an ancient forest inhabited by colossal god-beasts; to the south, a haunted wood full of lycanthropes and the enchanted ruins of ancient beast-men; in the centre of it all, on the banks of a wild river, Grimrose, a lonely bastion of civilization surrounded by darkness and devils; just beyond the river, a ruined castle, home to a pale man with a thirst for blood. Sentient, Scandinavian inspired trolls. Ghostly elves that dance and bewitch mortals for years in their woodland halls. An ancient book housing the secrets of Death in its pages. Seven holy relics scattered across the land.


Oh, yeah. This is going to be my gothic campaign. Witch hunters, witches, vampires, werewolves, alchemy, moon phases, Shostakovich. Get your silver sword.

Swords & Wizardry: A Swarm of Rats

For my latest Swords & Wizardry game, I used a series of randomized dice rolls to create a dungeon and I used Table 41: Generating Encounters from the Core Rules to populate it. Some of the encounters had me scratching my head. 15 giant rats, for instance (3d8 CL A creatures). But I thought, okay, I'm going to just try doing this dungeon straight from the book and see what happens.


My players, a party of 4 + 2 hirelings, made their way into the dungeon and began listening at doors and creeping down halls and such. At one such door, the thief, Schulla (who was played with a hilarious Russian accent), heard the sounds of scrabbling and squeaking beyond. The party opened the door to find a long chamber, in the centre of which was a dried up bathing pool with steps leading into it. One of the fighters (in a foolish moment of judgement) strode over to the pool and looked in. There seethed a swarm of 15 giant rats. Now, at this point, the players' fates were in their own hands, and had they been smarter, things might have gone differently. Alas, they (some of them having never played an old school game before) started attacking the swarm, assuming, "Eh, they're just rats." The man-at-arms went down first. The players kept attacking. Two of the party members were eaten alive. The survivors kept attacking. The thief finally got the idea to run, and slipped through a door before the rats got to him. Everyone else met a nasty end.


The players could have been more strategic, played more carefully, etc. Evidently, all they did was stand and attack, over and over. They managed to kill a little over half of the giant rats. They put up a decent fight, but 15 rats was just too many to handle. I wonder if Table 41 is a little ridiculous and I should have placed far fewer rats in this encounter, or if it was supposed to represent a moment in old school gaming that seems to be missing from modern gaming: Run!


Either way, the idea to run didn't even cross the collective mind of the party until characters were already dying. This was a beautiful moment to me, when they all realized "Oh, what? We can't defeat 15 rats without a scratch? We aren't nigh-godlike super-humans?" I'll leave you with a quote from that moment that really solidifies the mentality of modern role players versus old schoolers:


"Wait, you die when you reach 0 hp?" 

Interpreting Hit Points

Since finally picking up a physical copy of Swords & Wizardry and determining to read it cover to cover, I have been experiencing several "aha!" moments, otherwise known as, "Man, I'm stupid" moments. Maybe some of the things I've been realizing are obvious to others, but just in case they aren't, I'm going to post my discoveries/musings anyway.


I was reading through the monster list and came to Giant (or Sea) Crocodile. Here's the description: "The smallest of giant crocodiles are about 20ft long (normal
crocodiles can grow to be as long as 15ft)." I thought to myself, "Well, how do you know how big a giant crocodile should be, then?" "Why, it depends on how many hit points it has, of course." Thanks, brain. Sometimes you're not so bad.


A giant crocodile has 6HD. That means it can have a minimum of 8 hp and a maximum of 48 hp. That's a big range. If an 8 hp giant crocodile were swimming beside a 48 hp crocodile, it occurs to me that there should be a difference in their appearance and size. Perhaps the lesser one is even wounded, or weak from hunger. How many times have you said, "Okay, there are five goblins in front of you. Roll initiative," then just played out the combat as "the fighter slays one goblin, the magic-user blows apart another, the thief attacks a goblin but misses," treating the goblins all as identical, faceless numbers? Wouldn't it be more interesting to describe their appearance and status based on their max hp?


This would add a little more book keeping during play, but the payoff might be worth it. 


This method would depend on how you run things though. How do you handle HD: do you roll HD once for a group of monsters, or separately for each individual monster?  

The Dark Crystal: A Magical Ecology

Jen in the Swamp

I recently participated in a movie night with some friends and The Dark Crystal was the proposed film - I'd seen it, but I remembered liking it anyway, so I went with it. Wow. What a feature!


I don't think I had ever watched The Dark Crystal from start to finish before, only catching it halfway through on TV occasionally. I was blown away. By the puppets, yes, of course, but also by the world of the film itself, the creatures, geography and cosmos.

The planetary system in the Dark Crystal universe is crazy, as you can see above - dozens of planets, three suns or something...

In the swamp scene, which showcases countless genius puppets in the form of various bizarre and adorable creatures and plants, I was suddenly struck with a strange thought: in all of my world building and brainstorming, I had never given much consideration to ecology. The Dark Crystal has a unique and bubbling ecology that brings so much life and warmth to the film, and every single piece of flora and fauna is original and interesting. I think creating a strange and unique ecology could go a long way in bringing a campaign setting to life. I think I am going to attempt to create one from scratch with all original creatures and see how it enhances a world building project. Maybe I'll start small, with just one ecosystem. I'll have to do some research, but I have a good feeling about this. I think it's going to be fun designing all sorts of little critters, big critters and weird plants. I'll definitely post my ideas as they develop (if they develop).

Sources of Treasure

Why are dungeons filled with treasure? Aside from enticing brave (or foolish) adventurers to come visit them and serving as an important game-play element in our hobby, treasure can and should, in my opinion, be more.


In my dungeons, treasure is rarely just sitting in the corner of a room. I tend to avoid using treasure chests at all. I just don't think most monsters would be keeping treasure around like their finest set of china, waiting for important visitors to show it off to. Most of the treasure I dole out is found more naturally - on the bodies of fallen explorers.


Unless you are designing a tomb or crypt in which the occupant's wealth was buried with them, the majority of a dungeon's treasure would not be secreted away in sarcophagi and medieval bank vaults. Monsters kill people - that's what they do. Then they either take their treasure (if intelligent or greedy), or leave it where it is. Few monsters have the tendencies or intelligence to hoard treasure. It is more likely that some adventurer made his way into the place in search of rumored treasure and was killed by the local monsters. That adventurer's belongings become the treasure for the dungeon. 


In general, I include one or two main treasure hoards as set pieces and themes for my dungeon, and as a hook for the players. Otherwise, the rest of the treasure is found on skeletons and corpses in the form of old armour, jewelry, coins - and maybe even magic items the unlucky adventurer might have been carrying when he died.