Pick #80: Old School Hack, or D&D Pretzel Style

Possibly this one needs no introduction to you, as this one won this year's ENnie award. I'll chance that.

Old School Hack is an easy going, beer and pretzel style take on what 1981 D&D might have been. What it might have been if the designers would have hated intricate dungeon mapping, three digit math, and rulebooks heavy enough to knock an Umber Hulk out. Instead they would have loved sweets, easy rules, fast paced combat, a cheery atmosphere, comic style play, and a cooperative group spirit.

One of the nicest touches of the system I think, is the awarding of awesome points. These are a sort of luck points, or fate points, as many systems know them. But in this case players may also award them to eachother, for cool play moments. Also, the game master can deal out more nastiness, while giving more awesome points to compensate. Awardable awesome points are kept in a bowl, possibly as sweets or other edibles. To me it's a refreshing system mechanic to find in a dungeon delving game.

Old School Hack beta 1.0 is available for free, and worth to give a spin in your group. Be sure not to eat your awesome points before you use them though. If you want, you can read some interviews with writer Kirin Robinson here and here - or have a look at the Red Box Hack inspiration for this game by Eric Provost. And despite his busy private life, Kirin intends to expand on the game soon. Which seems an excellent idea to me.

Role Playing 101 #13: Between Sandbox and Railroad, or Going Pick-Your-Path

Sometimes you may feel uncomfortable with true sandboxing. But you don't want to do a linear plot either. Perhaps you want to give some choice to the players, but you're not sure how to do so without losing control of the story. If so, you might experiment with semi-non-linear stories.

Many computer adventures, and pick-your-path-to-adventure books are built this way. They are actually connected scenes (or rooms), which branch out into other scenes, and sometimes branch back to a main story line. The diagram below should give an idea how that works.

       ------\   ---E--\

      /       \ /       \

     A--->B--->C--->D--->F

           \        /

            -------/

Scene A will either lead to scene B or C, scene B will lead to scene C or D, scene C will lead to scene D or E, and scene D and E will both lead to F. So depending on what the players do, their adventures will look different, but they'll start out at A, and end up at F. Scene A could be the escape of a criminal at the scaffold, scene B their chase after his rescuers, scene C the discovery that the criminal will try to kill the king, scene D the break in in the criminal's hideout, scene E the warning of the king and building his security, and scene F the confrontation with the criminal as he tries to take out the king.

What's Good about Pick your Path

The good thing about this way of story building is that you actually guarantee that there is a story, while you explore some possible choices the heroes should, or can make. You may actually get more grip on what you'll be doing at the game table. If you make a diagram before you start play, you'll actually be forced to think about what the players might want to do, and what that will lead to.

In addition, if they indeed take one of the paths you thought up beforehand, you'll be more prepared. And if your players are at a loss which way to go, it may be easier to present choices or leads to them, for the direct actions they can take. So, it can help you to be a more focused game master.

Still, Don't get Stuck in your own Diagram

Exactly where its strength lies, there also lies its weakness. You start out at A, and you end up at F no matter what you do. If the game master did not plan for X, Y or Z, that's a hard place to get to. Or at least you'll drop out of the prepared adventure if you force your way to X, Y or Z. A pick your path is still very limited in its choices, even if it's not entirely linear anymore. Sure, you could make an adventure that can end up either at F, G or H. But ending up in a place the GM didn't think of before is not a possibility you can build in.

The thing to watch for then, is that you don't get tempted to push players through your preordained diagram, when they don't want to be pushed. Be prepared to think on your toes, and ready to draw entirely new routes and scenes. Or be prepared to think of new hooks to draw them into the scenes you thought of. Either way, still beware of railroading, semi-linear or not.

A Special Case of Semi-Linear: The Dungeon

A very classic example of this way of making an adventure is the Dungeon. A group of interconnected rooms, branching different ways, and reconnecting elsewhere. Each room can be a scene, however short or simple. It can be a fight, a trap, a rest and recovery, or a role playing encounter. A dungeon with multiple paths to its core treasure room, or the room with the big boss is very much a pick your path to adventure. That's exactly what this is about.

And the Dungeon has the similar advantages and pitfalls. Mapping out a Dungeon will make sure there is some focus on where to go next. And a limitation on where to go next. You either go in deeper, whichever way is open, or perhaps you can pull out back to the surface, but that's it.

Adversely, the Dungeon may be to hard for the party to tackle. Perhaps you put in a trap that is too deadly, or a group of adversaries that is to hot to handle. Then what? You can get quite stuck. Here too, you may have to improvise, and open new avenues to make the adventure last. Maybe the heroes get unexpected help from another group of NPC delvers. Maybe a renegade monster opens new opportunity as it triggers a trap barring the way. Maybe you let the heroes discover a secret passage that wasn't there yet when you first drew the dungeon – or you let them dig one of their own.

With Dungeons too, you don't have to be stifled by your own pre-set semi-linearity. Either way, whether you use a story diagram or a have a straight dungeon, feel free to improvise when stuck, and you have a great tool to run adventures.

Role Playing 101 #12: Why it's Good if your Players are Smarter than You

Did you ever think of a problem for your players, and they came up with a solution you would never have thought of? One that blew away your well prepared evils in a whoosh, and struck you right off balance? How did that feel?

Sometimes your players are damn (excusez-le-mot) well smarter than you. And you have to face it. The worst thing you can do then is to say their plan won't work. It will stifle their creativity, their sense of accomplishment, and their motivation to play with you. You don't want to do that.

So what do you do?

You have a couple of choices when your players are smarter. The first is to just act as if your nose bleeds, and let their plan work. It's a smart plan, isn't it? So let it work. Then think on your toes what happens next. Don't be tempted to undo the players' moment of triumph straight away, but instead show how effective their plan was. Describe the effects of the success lavishly. The players will enjoy it, and it will give you time to think about the next challenge to throw at your players.

The second option is to also be honest about it. Just say “wow, you really caught me off guard there!”, and compliment them on their plan. Maybe give them five or ten minutes of a break. For them to grab some pretzels, and for you to get your notes and wits together and make a new plan.

The third is to actually rejoice. Your players are smarter! That doesn't mean they wrecked your careful plans and think your game is worthless. They wrecked your plans alright, but they are also so well into the game that they manage to cook up a terrific counter-plan of their own. You did well. You are no longer alone in shaping the story, your players are actively shaping it in ways you had not foreseen!

Of course, you can also do all three of the above. In any case – let the plan of the heroes work, and go with the flow!

OSR Experiments #30: It's a Product Release! Revel in the new Shadow of the Haunted Keep

Finally! After many hours of hard work here it is at RPGNow, the Shadow of the Haunted Keep is for sale at $1.99. Forty-eight pages of adventure for Dark Dungeon or OSR.

Have you ever wondered what a classic style adventure of 1981 would look like if it were written today? Written for a system that's a bit more story-oriented? That's what I tried to answer in this adventure kit.

An adventure kit I inadvertently started designing over half a year ago, when I tried to convert D&D system adventure into Dark Dungeon 2nd Ed, and vice versa.

Inside you'll find:

- a full fledged three-barreled adventure
- maps, encounter tables, scene tables, monster descriptions, NPCs, magick items
- seven ready to go heroes
- encounters and map for the town Holmeston

Enjoy!


And now to the illustrated starter set of Dark Dungeon 2nd Edition...

Role Playing 101 #11: How Embedding makes your Players better Role Players

Know this situation? Your heroes enter a new town you spent all week detailing. You thought about the innkeeper, the lord, the abbot and his secret wife, the beggars, the insane jealousy of the baker toward his daughters, and the murder mystery you want to involve your player heroes in. But you never get to sharing the details.

Because the first thing one of the heroes does is blow up the lord with a fireball.

Why did he do that? Out of sheer boredom perhaps. But even bored real people wouldn't just blow up random others. Only psychopaths might. And they wouldn't live long if they acted like that. So why do players do that? Usually just because they can.

It's not just that there is little consequence for doing these things. Sometimes there may be, but usually these consequences resemble the police helicopters in Grand Theft Auto. You'd wonder why the police goes after you and not after the enemy goblins. The point is that most heroes are hardly part of the game world. They are built as loners, often without living family, no social station (they're beginning heroes, aren't they?), nobody who knows them, and usually nothing to lose.

Embedding the Heroes makes them Count

I found that embedding the player characters in the game world is a very useful technique to counter this. It helps make characters more real, more easy to identify with, perhaps more careful, and certainly more interesting to play. Embedded characters are more part of the game world than makeshift ones.

To embed a character, the game master needs to sit down with the player, and together write a little player history. Where usually the player makes up a background on his or her own, if any, referee and player now cooperate. The hero needs parents, siblings, former jobs and positions within the game world, people he or she has befriended or have become enemies, and perhaps a traumatic experience or two. Important is that all these things have a real place in the game world.

Give the Player Heroes Responsibility

The second thing that's very important for embedding is to give the hero a social position. If you dare, give the hero a place in society that counts. Like being an advisor to the local lord, or perhaps the heir of that same lord, a secret agent of the papal inquisition, officer in the city guard, or first candidate to become abbess of a mighty cloister.

These positions give the player character assets. These could be income, a knowledge base, land, or people who work for them. Henchmen, bodyguards, servants, employees, militia, clerics, apprentices, spouses, children and so on. But apart from the assets, there are also responsibilities, both to their superiors and to the people they protect or employ. Suddenly as a player you don't just rescue a villager and bring him to safety, but you also provide a roof for the villager and organize a community. You might even have to command the army to protect the village. Or send out punishing expeditions to enemy brigands.

Embedding opens new Venues of Adventure

And then there are debts and costs. What if your father the Lord left the estate you inherited in disarray, and with large debts? How do you solve that? What if you find out your father was pressured into these debts by corrupt officials? What if the winter is so cold that your peoples supplies run out? What if you find someone is introducing false coin into your realm?

Villagers and fellows are worthwhile too. They might pay the ransom when you were captured and get you free. Or they might help you out of other tight spots. If you do well, your reputation may rise throughout the country and people may come from afar to live in your province.

Player characters work hard for fame and fortune. Players may do the same. So, why not give it to them, instead of postponing it until they reach umpteenth level? Fame and fortune surely have their own problems, and are fun too. Try it. I did, and found a much more interesting game.

Module Artwork...

Okay, so I redid the front piece for my upcoming module "Shadow of the Haunted Keep". Just figured I needed a full color cover, and that I had some practice to do with digital painting anyway.

So I worked on it a couple of hours while waiting for my vigilant and admirable proofreaders. Here's the temporary result. I'll have to do a bit more detail. But first I should sleep. It's past 0100 in my time zone. Hope you like it!

Role Playing 101 #10: How the Patron moves your Adventure

Last issue I touched upon story hooks – and player motivation. The simplest story hook you can think of is actually an employer, or as some call it – a patron. And if the patron is right, he or she can motivate all or most of your team.

If the heroes work for Star Fleet, then an officer higher in the chain of command may be all you need. If the heroes are constantly short of money because their Firefly is out of fuel, anyone with an attractive business deal can hire them and send them into adventure. Are the heroes the epitome of goodness, or they are like the A-team? Then any underdog in need or damsel in distress may call upon their aid.

More Than One Patron for The Same Party

But you may also have a more complex team. Maybe the warriors in the group are hired by the city council. But the priest is just there to keep an eye on things for the church, as a kind of Inquisitor. The mage in the group is there because she expects to recover a lost magick item the others have no knowledge of, and she just forces herself into the group as “an advisor”. A half-elven noble may be part of the team too, because he believes in the cause of the city council. And so on.

Patrons don't have to be regular employers or clients. They can also be the damsel in distress, a dead man with a will, or even in some cases the enemy. In a way, if an enemy kidnaps your friends, and you want them back – he's almost a patron. But if he kidnaps your friends and only wants to return them alive if you work for him, he is certainly a patron.

Or have a Player Character as Patron

Also, one or more of the player characters may be a patron for themselves. If the team leader is the Schutzfrau (Lady Protectress) of Soest, and Soest is to be defended, then the Schutzfrau is the patron. If one of the players wants to rob an interstellar bank, and builds his team, he's the patron. And when the heroes want to empty the Tomb of Horrors from it's treasures, they're almost their own patron. Together with the demilich sorceror waiting for them inside.

The nice thing about patrons as story hooks is, that they are generally thinking people. If one way to move the player characters forward does not work, they may try to think of another one. Some patrons may even join the party to make sure what they want happens. In a way they help steer the group the way you'd like them to go. They're a tool to make game mastering easier. And even if the group does not listen to a patron, you'll still have some interesting interaction!

A request... proofreader wanted

Dear fellow bloggers. I just finished a DD2 / OSR adventure kit for publication, and I'm looking for a native english speaking proofreader. And possibly playtester, if you like it. In exchange for your effort, you'll get my eternal gratitude, honorable mention and the module for free :-)

The module is a tribute to late Moldvay's classic adventure, but with all new artworks, background, storyline, and even some background and encounters for a local town.

Update: two people just offered their kind services! So the email address has been removed.

Role Playing 101 #4: Quick and Dirty Adventure Building, part I

Have you ever been stuck, minutes before starting a game session? No ideas where to start? No idea how to do it? Or have you ever wanted to master an adventure, but found yourself procrastinating endlessly? Here are some things I do to get myself into an adventure, sometimes even after play has started.

Making the Instant Adventure

To do an evening – or afternoon – of adventure, you need to have a few things. You need a beginning, a sense of what's at stake, an enemy, and an ending. At the very least you need these four. And if you wish to do a little better, you also need colour, an ally, and a twist. All you need is an idea of each of these things, and you can make up the rest on the spot. Just be consistent.

Beginning

For the beginning it is important that you get the player characters together. To work together, to basically like or at least tolerate each other, and if possible to stay physically in the same group – most of the time. One way to do this is to let them be invited by someone who asks their favour – a patron. He or she can explain what's at stake – or what the mission is, and propell the adventure forward. The patron may also be one of the player characters. In practice that can work quite well, because you have a player who will help you keep the group aligned.

Another good way to begin is to throw the characters into the action. They are in the mission already, or they are drawn in because the stakes unfold before their eyes. A princess may be kidnapped in front of them, or you may tell them that they are guarding a caravan, or on the way to convince an enemy Duke not to attack their home country – and now his troops try to capture them. Action has the advantage of drawing the attention of the players, and thus you gain momentum in your game.

What's at Stake

You must know what the adventure is about. Is it about honour of the clan, the lost treasure of an ancient king, saving the lives of friends or fellow citizens, or what? This is what the players have to fight for to “win” the adventure. Make it as concrete as possible. And if you can try to hook the stakes to the personal history of each of the player characters.

Enemy

The enemy is the person, entity, force of nature, army or monster – or any combination thereof – that tries to take that what's at stake away from the adventurers. These are the creatures and forces that will provide combat encounters, nasty face downs, dangerous situations, treacherous conversations and dazzling chases. The master enemy should have statistics and quirks like a player character. Make them up on the spot if you have no time. Or if you're lazy, pick an old enemy. These often even work better.

Ending

Every session needs an ending. Not just every adventure, but every session – a good ending is often a reason to come back the next time. A typical ending involves a showdown with the enemy. Or a chase after the enemy. Or a running away from the enemy, or the forces of nature, while trying to save what's at stake. An ending is a climax in a way. And if you can, stage it in a special location, such as on a cliff, in a throne room, or a dragons lair. Make sure you start the ending scene (or scenes) about an hour before you have to wrap up the session. And if your heroes aren't even close to ending the adventure by then, make an intermediate ending, with a cliffhanger. One where an enemy escapes, for example.

So, now you have the main four ingredients, give it a try. Wing it! Next time I'll deal with the other three: colour, ally and twist.

Movies for Gamers #13: Tales from Earthsea

This is part of a series of reviews of movies particularly interesting or inspiring for role playing. Because of their setting, style, characters, editing or story. Read the introduction here or here if you are new to this series.

Earthsea, written by Ursula Le Guin is one of my longtime favorite book series. They are so rich in atmosphere, dreamy depth and an own sense of reality that I can still almost reach out and touch that world. I figure that more people have that feeling.

And try to put it into film. Tales from Earthsea is a Manga-like animated feature, almost two hours long, by Goro Miyazaki. And it does feature hero Ged from the books. And it does feature the Dragons. It features Arren. And it loosely follows the third book – The Farthest Shore. Very loosely.

To me it's not the same feel. It's not even really close. But you know what? It's okay. Because Tales from Earthsea works well enough on its own. It captures some of the elements of the books, and blends them into something new. Something that also sometimes feels chillingly real. To me, anyhow.

“Once Man and Dragon were one. Man chose Land and Sea. Dragon chose Wind and Fire.”

See it as the Manga version. Not Le Guin's version. Then figure that you can probably do a better version of Earthsea yourself. Better than Miyazaki. Or at least one that's also good.

Alright, with that out of the way, can we use the movie in our games? Yes, I think so. One of the nice touches is heroes who are not what they seem. A young woman is in fact a dragon, an old man is the strongest wizard around - and he can change into a bird, their main antagonist is also a dragon - an almost undead one. But at the beginning they look like normal people.

Imagine giving each of your players a character like that, without telling the others. And you also give them a reason not to reveal their true nature straight away. They're supposed to be dangerous, dark secrets. I've seen this kind of secrets work beautifully in practice, giving a new feel to the game. Giving all players something to chew on while it's not their turn. Plan their next actions while not telling their secrets. Use your dragon powers to save your friends, or use them only in a hidden way, to avoid being spotted by your arch-enemy? Tell your party members that you have just been stalked by your dark shadow self, or wait until you can solve your problem - to avoid being cast out?

Have a look at Tales from Earthsea, and see what I mean.

Pick #35: Geomorphs

Now I haven't used miniatures for gaming since 1990 or so - at least not on a regular basis. My combats are far too chaotic for that, and I find (although some players may not agree with me) that the chaos of real combat is conveyed much better by just visualizing it in your head. While resorting to a drawing or some improvised miniature setup with cups and dice only once in a while.

Nonetheless, I still love watching maps and... geomorphs. Geomorphs are tiles you can interlock into a bigger map, just as you see fit. A puzzle that always works but looks different every time. Dungeon geomorphs also can be a great way to whip up an underground tunnel system in seconds.

So, where do you find them without shelling dollars? By drawing them yourself! Or...

Have a look at the Geomorph mapping project by Dyson Logos... the centennial efforts of Risus Monkey, or at doodling enthousiast Stonewerks. They're all very good. And they seem to love using their pencils. Dyson also loves making characters. And Dizzy dragon used his geomorphs in an online adventure generator seen in an earlier pick. Doodle on guys!

Free Adventures: Ammersfurt #3

The Secret of Ammersfurt is a free role playing supplement for the Dark Dungeon 2nd Ed game. Every week for thirty-five weeks, you'll get new bits for the Ammersfurt adventure setting, like monsters, NPC's, locations, skills, character templates, role play tips, and so on. And also every week, you'll get an adventure seed, which you can turn into a weekly adventure.

Adventure Seed 3: The New Sister

As an exception, a few men are invited to the convent of St. Ursula, to see for themselves how the sisters live from day to day. One or more of the visitors are the heroes. And maybe another of the heroes is a high placed sister of St. Ursula. While they are doing their rounds, a rainstorm breaks loose, and there is heavy knocking at the doors. A young woman demands to be let in. She wants to become a sister of St. Ursula as soon as possible. Now.

Download the third part of The Secret of Ammersfurt here!

Classic RPG Review #15: Stormbringer

4^th edition softcover

by Ken St. Andre, Steve Perrin, John B. Monroe

1990 Chaosium Inc, Oakland CAL USA

One of the oldest fantasy heroes, and possibly one of the most famous and dramatic, is Michael Moorcock's creation Elric of Melnibone. Together with is not so trusty, soul slurping sword Stormbringer, prince Elric lives through many an adventure. He slays his most beloved, he fights his kin, he sees far shores, he fights the forces of Chaos with a capital C and... he's an albino.

Stormbringer is the first commercial role playing game that tries to bring his adventures to life – for role players. And it's written by Tunnels & Trolls inventor Ken St. Andre, with the help of RuneQuest writer Steve Perrin, and Cthulhu buff John B. Monroe. That's quite a team. So you might expect straightforward adventuring, and no beating around the bush like in T&T. You might expect streamlined and logical, realistic rules like in RuneQuest. You might expect a touch of evil - like in CoC, not Orson Welles. And in all these expectations you are right.

Stormbringer is well written, easy to read, and full of background information and detail. It has some nice artwork, beautiful colour plates – even if they may no longer be up to todays standards, they're very evocative. And if you don't know the Elric stories, the book will help you get a long way, with character descriptions and a summary of the novels. So you shouldn't have too many problems if your fellow players did read the books and you did not.

A special part of the game is the summoning and binding of demons, chaos creatures, and controlling them. This goes so far, that a large part of the rules is spent on how many demons you can bind, what the features of the demon are – like how many legs - and how many points that would cost. And as if that's not evil enough, you can also play a follower of one of the elemental forces. Then you can collect Elan points by... converting or killing followers of other cults. Stormbringer is a game about the battle against Chaos. Evil against Chaos if need be. Stormbringer RPG is as bloodthirsty as the sword Stormbringer itself. Not too scary for the average roleplayer, but you have to like the gore.

I wanted the Stormbringer game for a long time before I bought it. And I guess I waited such a long time because I had doubts. Doubts whether you could play such dramatic, tragic heroes like Elric. And do it in Michael Moorcock's world.To me that sounds like being an elephant handling porcelain. Because... well, what if I screw up? Will Michael Moorcock come and get angry at me?

Silly of course. But Ken St. Andre might to have had the same considerations. Before providing five complete adventures (over 50 pages), he has a very short section on how you could play the game. Originally he says, Stormbringer was to be played in the Young Kingdoms, but preferably as far away from Elric as possible. Ken does not give many handles on role playing Elric or his friends and enemies – not beyond giving a fairly good resource book. Seems like I'll have to face the challenge of being Michael Moorcock on my own.

The writers do provide some nice examples of what you could do for an adventure. But if you expect real stories, you may be disappointed. They're really nicely made dungeon bashes, with a little twist, a rival party, some deadly traps and tricks and some bizarre creatures. But, they're dungeon romps, not dramatic storylines.

And that while Elric off Melnibone is dramatic in the extreme. He mistakenly kills his own wife Cymoril in one of the books, so how much more over the top can you get? Just suppose an example adventure assumed one of the player characters was Elric, and his wife was kidnapped by his evil brother. That already would have been a different sort of game.

Maybe the above is the reason I always postponed playing Stormbringer. The game looks well made. It's well written. With a great setting. But now it's too close to straight D&D for me. Then again, if you're an old style D&D fan this might exactly be the reason for you to love it.

RULES 4/5
(rules are elegant, mostly simple, easy to learn, fairly realistic and fairly balanced, based on the RuneQuest set of rules, with a good deal of attention to demons and poisons)
INSPIRATION 3/5
(the game uses the strong backdrop of Elric's world, with a lot of background information, but even though example adventures are provided, the real dread and tragedy of the novels is lacking )
PLAYABILITY 2/5
(the game as such is probably easy to play as a variant of D&D using RuneQuest-esque rules, doing hard core search, destroy and get the loot missions, but there is virtually no advice on storytelling, recreating the feel of the novels, or even an introduction to role playing – as such the game master needs to do much to propel the game forward for a longer period)
GAME FEATURES
(dungeon romping in the fantasy world of Elric as created by Michael Moorcock, extensive rules on making demons, lists of creatures and main characters from the novels, maps of the Young Kingdoms, and five sample adventures)
OVERALL 6/10

Pick #34: Land of NOD

No, I don't mean the biblical Land of Nod where Cain fled after he clobbered his brother Abel. I mean the role playing blog with the same name.

Although I suspect that Las Vegas based author John "Matt" Stater does allude to this biblical land. Nod means "the place where you keep wandering", and that's what you might do on this blog. There is lots of artwork - both bootlegged and attributed, and sometimes even commisioned - and an ever growing pile of ideas, classes, myths, locations, monsters and general stuff. The Land of Nod is huge. Try this:

"1817. A tall hill of gray stone dominates the landscape. It is topped with several menhirs that jut out at odd angles. An ancient vampiric chief of the Magog is interred within this hill along with a bodyguard of wights. The tomb is accessible from the top of the hill via a small opening near the base of a menhir. One must wriggle through the opening to reach an ante-chamber ringed with menhirs carved with undulating, swirling patterns that cause nausea when stared at for too long. Secret doors from this chamber give access to the deeper recesses of the tomb. Wandering monsters in the barrow include mites, molds, wights and zombies. At the heart of the complex is the tomb of the vampiric chief, kept in a deep slumber in a coffin of silver in the middle of a pool of holy water."

And that's just an entry in the Venatia area - featured in the free pdf issue #6 last december. See the number 1817? You can get LOST for ages in Matt's imagination!

Not that I want to. But there is a certain charm to the site that keeps me returning. Even if Matt's free Pars Fortuna game is a bit too zany for me, with orange furred humans and humanoid pangolins for player characters...

Have a look, and see if there's something there you want. You might even meet the lost tribes of Cain somewhere along.

Pick #33: Random Dungeon Mappers

Not long ago I found an old copy of Campaign Cartographer on my brother's desk. "Yeah, that's very old, another friend also had nostalgia looking at it" he said. It reminded me of long evenings and college sessions drawing all sorts of maps. To use in my games, someday.

Nowadays I don't have the time to draw them. Or don't take the time. Or I grab a historical map.

But, if you want you can also use a random dungeon generator, or a random city mapper. Try the Adventure Generator at Dizzy Dragon for example. It even fills your rooms with encounters according to the game system you choose. Not for Dark Dungeon - but hey, that's not for hack 'n slash anyways.

Or you could go for the map creators at Inkwell. You'll have to fill up their dungeons yourself, but there is also a city map generator, and a mapper for inns. Always good if you want to have a good old saloon fight - and your players insist on having a map.

Or you can just click and click to see what happens next. Click.

RPG Blog Carnival: The Secret of Reincarnation

Last two issues for the RPG Blog Carnival I wrote on how to reincarnate player characters in your campaign. Or at least how you could go about it. This time I'll touch upon what happens to you society, if people would start to remember that they were here before. And what you could do with that in your campaign setting.

What happens all depends on three things. One is whether people reincarnate, and how commonplace it is. The second is how many people believe or rather know that reincarnation takes place. And the third is in how far you can influence where and how you reincarnate. Think these over before you decide how you incorporate past lives into your fantasy society.

Just Freak Memories

You could decide that being born into a new body happens only in very special cases. That's it's a freak accident. Or just for certain souls who are bound to this world. That only the son or daughter of a god can be born again. Or one touched by the spell of a powerful wizard. In that case, it's little more than a gimmick for your campaign. Maybe people have an opinion, maybe the church calls it witchcraft, but that's basically it.

We all are One

Or you could decide that we all reincarnate, all the time. That we travel from body to body, life to life, and experience to experience. If the people realize that this is so, they might also want to take better care of their world. And better care of their fellow man. Because you personally might be born anywhere, and you are stuck in this world, so you'd better make sure it's as close to heaven as you can make it. And as ecologically sound as you can make it. Because if you blow up your world or poison it, you'll be back to reap the bitter fruits too. Actually, most Christian values (or other religious or humanist ones) would come rather naturally. They wouldn't just be moral, but actually practical necessity! Because then we all are one.

But All was Forgotten...

Yet if we all reincarnate, then we don't have to remember. Or at least not directly. And then remembering may become dependent on whether we take fleeting recognitions and vague memories of past lives for truth. Suppose the religious dogma does not recognize reincarnation. The church might state that we cannot be reincarnated while in actuality we are. Or the dogma might state that most of us are not supposed to remember, because we were sinful in our past lives, and now we have started with a clean slate. So we could remember but it were wrong to do so. Heroes and others who would have memories would have to be careful with what they told others about it. It would be a secret. Like it would be in our own society, even if the religion in our case would be exchanged for a scientific dogma. But if the heroes could share their memories, with fellow heroes, or with secret organisations of people who know... then there would be many alleys for adventure.

The Secret Order of the Continuous Resurrection

Because if you would not only be able to remember your past lives, but also make sure where you would be borne next, this would give virtual immortal powers. Suppose such a group exists in your fantasy world. A group of wizards, akin to such secretive organisations as the Freemasons. Or a group of mother priestesses, like the Artemisian cults, or even an order of the Mother, the holy Soul and the Borne Childe. Suppose such a group would bring back heroes, powerful people, either for good or bad, back in to this world – but remembering their past powers, knowledge and lives. Or maybe there are various of such temples of reincarnation, fighting one another in a secret (or open) feud. Such a feud would continue over ages and might spark whole wars. Wars only those who remembered would understand. Or think to understand.

Enough possibilities. Dream on them. And use what you will in your coming games.

Free Adventures: Ammersfurt #2

The Secret of Ammersfurt is a free role playing supplement for the Dark Dungeon 2nd Ed game. Every week for thirty-five weeks, you'll get new bits for the Ammersfurt adventure setting, like monsters, NPC's, locations, skills, character templates, role play tips, and so on. And also every week, you'll get an adventure seed, which you can turn into a weekly adventure.

Adventure Seed 2: The Unlucky Thief

On a busy market day, while the streets are full, the roads are clogged, and the weather is too hot, our heroes meet for a social call. When one of them wants to pay for the beer they drunk, he finds that his money pouch is gone. Did he leave it at home? No, the chord is cut. Then they hear a man shout “Thief! Catch the damn thief! He stole my purse!”. It is the Burghermaster of the city who is calling out. And there runs the young man who robbed him.

Download the second part of The Secret of Ammersfurt here!

RPG Blog Carnival: The Shock of Reincarnation

Last week writing for the RPG Blog Carnival I touched upon ways to use reincarnated characters in your campaign. One of the subjects I didn't handle was what happens to your character when you change bodies. What skills do you remember? And into what kind of body can you come back?

Of course it all depends on your school of thought. And what you can use in your game. Figuring Gygax might have written something about it, I decided to look up the Reincarnation spell in the old Players Handbook. But it doesn't tell much. It's just a random table for the race the new body might be, and a note that the new body appears in 10-60 minutes. It doesn't tell about skills left, power level, memories, age, or even hit points. Seems the spell was meant more as a gimmick than it was to be used. Few ideas there. Have to do this on my own.

Whenever a hero reincarnates, I think there's a few questions to answer. Gender and race (if at all human), skills remembered or not, and memories retained or not. And for all how fast they return, if at all.

The Buddhist Monk and the Ant

Some monks, it is said, refuse to kill even the slightest insect, because the insect might be a reincarnation of a human being, or become one later. Maybe that's true. But except for half a session of gimmick, it's probably not interesting to play an ant. For game sake it's best to assume all reincarnations of humanoids are into humanoids. So elves might become humans, and humans might become orcs, orcs might reincarnate as half-elves. Whatever you prefer for story and effect. Maybe full elven bodies are less available, but heroes are heroes, and heroes are special over many incarnations.

Past life I was a Woman

Or a man. And now vice versa. Or past life I was a bigoted master, and now I'm a colored slave. Or the other way around. The idea of karma says that you try to learn from past experience, and past lives. Perhaps as a cosmic or self-punishment, probably just as a cosmic or personal lesson and learning experience. Whatever your philosophies on this, stories become more interesting if the new character somehow contrasts with the old one. Both as player and as GM you can help decide what happens here. Don't be scared to experiment!

I don't know where I learned this, It's like I always knew

If all characters remembered every skill they learned in every past life, they would be like gods. And maybe they are. But if you go this way, no holds barred, your campaign will soon be either heavily unbalanced, or skill level will mean little because everyone is level infinite anyway. So for game purposes alone, reincarnated souls should forget. From a Karma point of view, if you wouldn't forget, you wouldn't be able to learn something new. So, it's probably best to drop all former skills, and build an entirely new personage with new skills and experience.

But on the other hand, remembering some of the skills or specials may give an immense kick. It gives a character more sense of continuity, and a mystic quality. Especially if remembering parts of your past lives is not common.

In game terms, you could accomplish this by giving a few “talent” skills to the new character. And if the old skills were those of a magic user, but the new persona is a warrior? You could give the warrior a few innate magick talents, or cantrip-like powers that have to do with what the mage once did very well.

The Virtual Immortals

But reincarnation itself, or remembering your past life, could also be prerogative of an elite cult. Maybe they could arrange that you would not only be reborn in a new powerful body, or powerful family, but also that you would really remember your skills. Or eventually remember most of them, in effect losing only a few levels of what you could do before. Or temporarily lose all of them, but rebuild them much faster (perhaps a level a week). This would make for a scary, godlike elite that might work for both the good and bad of mankind. Or elfkind. Or orcs. And so on. But making this a common effect for your heroes would leave a strong mark on the whole campaign and the world. Maybe it's preferable to leave such an old cult as a legend, and a great treasure to attain. Something to work for.

Yes, I remember, I was a half-elf courtesan then

Those memories that are not skills, but just knowledge and... memories are another matter. It's certainly too much work to work out all past incarnations and add them to your character description. But it can be a very cool story device if you can use memories of past lives. Especially once the players know their character is a reincarnated version of a former character, you might allow them to use their past life knowledge to pursue their former goals. This might be complete knowledge, or it might be somewhat fuzzy. Because there's a difference in knowing there is a trap somewhere, or that someone killed you last life, or feeling it is dangerous – or that you intensely dislike someone for no obvious reason. Whatever you decide, be specific about it escpecially as a game master, and don't be afraid to change your stance if you find it would help your game. Memories tend to fade and pop up anyway.

Have fun with your reincarnated heroes, and see you next issue in what it might mean for your (fantasy) society if people remember.

Movies for Gamers #12: Floris van Rosemondt

This is part of a series of reviews of movies particularly interesting or inspiring for role playing. Because of their setting, style, characters, editing or story. Read the introduction here or here if you are new to this series.

Another series only available in Dutch. I'm talking about the late 1960s black and white series done by Paul Verhoeven – who you may know from Basic Instinct or Zwartboek (Black Book). Verhoeven won international fame with many films, but this was his first real thing after doing promotional films for the army.

The series was conceived as the Dutch version of shows like the English Ivanhoe – the one with Roger Moore – or the French Thierry la Fronde. And even if it looks a bit slow, stilted and black and white nowadays, the basic ideas, combats and stunts are still good. The episodes just need a little upgrade. Or the loving eye of someone who saw the shows as a kid. Like me.

Knight Floris van Rosemondt is played by Rutger Hauer – who you may know from Ladyhawke or The Hitcher. He returns from crusade to find that his family castle has been stolen by the Duke of Gelre and his henchman Maarten van Rossum – the knight, not the historian. The first thing Maarten does is put Floris in prison. But fortunately his East Indian fellow traveller and mystic Sindala, and a magician help him escape. And there the series takes off. Floris fights to get his family home back for the next twelve shows.

As a starting point for a campaign, the Floris setting is intriguing. Because if you let the players be Floris and his friends, that means they are fighting for their own small country. Floris is heir to not only a castle, but an entire fief. Automatically, the heroes have something at stake - and that's something to play the game for. It is what I call embedding the characters. They are no longer loose cannons, but essential part of the story and the land.

As a straight fantasy setting, Floris will not be enough. Magic does not exist, and if the characters seem to think it does, it will always be a straight magicians trick or a guy hidden under a sheet. But there are some nice semi-historical types, like Lange Pier the tall Pirate, painter Hieronimus Bosch, and Floris himself. And you might get a few nice low-key plot ideas from watching the series. Or reading the comic strips of same.

Did I say the series was only available in Dutch? I lied. Paul and Rutger did a remake of the series in German, five years later. Floris von Rosemunde. In full color. You didn't know that, did you? Neither did I.

Then Floris was shelved for thirty years. Only recently the story was remade as a movie, with fresh Dutch actors, but that's for another time. As a basis for a campaign, Floris needs a bit more flesh. But as I said it's a nice start. And if you're Dutch, you might consider reading up on your history if you can do better than scriptwriter Gerard Soeteman. Hey, maybe you can! Also have a look at the Ammersfurt series of adventures on this site.

Nostalgic? Curious? If you speak Dutch, you can even have a look at the old shows on web video. Here.

RPG Blog Carnival: The Joys of Reincarnation

The RPG Blog Carnival just kicked off is about Life and Death this time. So I could write about how I ran a fantasy campaign for several years in which the dead wanted to invade the world of the living. Dead from a place like the Beyond, in the novels of the Reality Dysfunction. Horrible dead. Angry dead. Jealous dead. Possessive dead. But I won't. Not now.

Instead I'd like to touch upon what happens after death – if reincarnation exists. And what that means for your campaign world, if there are folks who remember. Remember who they were. And perhaps even remember what they were planning to do this life.

You might think reincarnation is not interesting enough for player characters. Because a character that reincarnates comes back as a baby. And a baby does not makes much sense in most dungeoneering parties. It doesn't even make much sense in most other types of story either. Because most babies don't talk much. Even if they do remember what they did last time. Or who killed them then. Or whether they're out for revenge, or redemption for what happened in their past life. And waiting until the character has grown up? In most adventure campaigns that just takes too long for the other player characters.

But, there are at least four ways around this – to make Reincarnation work in your campaign.

Reincarnation Baths

You can make the newborn grow up faster, by magic. This can be done before the “birth”, in a kind of Tleilaxu Tank or Reincarnation Bathtub, with a full grown soulless body. A body which is to be entered by the soul that transfers from the dying old body. Most often this body will be a clone. This is a costly process, which will usually be only for the rich and powerful. Or Paranoia PCs. Or Cylons. But it could be used for some player characters in a regular campaign too. Figure how such reincarnation tanks would be sought after. And how they would be targets of destruction, if they belong to enemies. Especially if “regular” resurrection was virtually unattainable, a secret hiding place with growing tanks could become the focus of an entire campaign.

Rapid Growing Pains

You can make the newborn grow up faster by magic after birth. In a process of agonising days or weeks, with intense growing pains, the hero reincarnated can get used to his or her new body. Meanwhile the rest of the party will have to protect our hero. Perhaps this is one of the most suitable ways for a “normal” dungeon romp style of play. The young hero can then join the party as a halfling style thieving child for a while, then as big as a young elf throwing stuff, and finally a young adult able to actually fight – and have some hit points. Naturally you would need a powerful spell or relic, or perhaps a very particular race, to attain such fast growth.

A Generation Later

You could kill off the entire party – though I'd not recommend doing that on purpose. And then you have them reincarnated together. You just pick up play with new young adults, and gradually have them remember parts of their past lives. You don't even have to tell the players that they are playing reincarnated versions of their old character. They can slowly figure that out for themselves from the hints you give them. Memories that crop up in their dreams, strange feelings of recognition. Sudden urges, like that of a magic user wanting to throw himself into a rage and a fistfight. Something you only start to understand once you know he was the berserker barbarian last time.

Memories from Another You

You can use parallel style reincarnation – or memory transfer, where already existing adult characters suddenly start to have memories of someone who just died. Whether this involves possession, transfer of the soul, mere transfer of memories, or companionship of the ghost of the deceased character – that's up to you. The important thing is, that it would allow a player to play with the memories, and perhaps some of the personality of his or her old character. And at the same time the old character does not have to be resurrected or raised from the dead. Whether you make this a gimmick for just once, or something that's very normal in your campaign is also up to you.

Naturally, if you use one of the above ways to reincarnate one or more player characters into new bodies, you must decide how much of their knowledge and skills are retained. I'd suggest that at least some of the skills are lost, if not all. But maybe it's easier to re-learn them. More about that in a next post. In a later post I'll also explore what remembering might mean for long term goals, and (fantasy) society as a whole.

I hope that gives you some nifty ideas for your coming adventures. I used most of the above myself. With varying degrees of success. But virtually always the players seemed to be happy to play some form of their old game self again – in a very different way.