"Giving up The Narrative" Collaboration and Ownership in RPG Play Spaces

One of the gentlemen who own and run the local gaming club I attend asked me last week to do a little presentation about my DM'ing style this weekend. At The Historic Haven here in Frederick, Maryland the club owners are really into using data-driven analysis of the discord forum and use of the physical space to drive good decisions for the members. So every so often they have a "DM Conclave" which I have been invited to in the past but avoided because when I'm not going out of my way to play games with pals there at the club, I jealously guard my free-time to spend with my family.

I had to do it a little extemporaneously because of personal circumstances, and I don't know if it was well-received or not. My take was essentially, share more than what you usually do in the crating of game narratives. Let the players have a good time with it. Rulings not rules. Reflective listening. "Yes, and..." the old chestnut from improv comedy. Don't inflict your tedious novel on players, and don't let them inflict their precious backstory on you and the others. What your character is is what comes in playtime. I tend to solicit meaning and world-building stuff from players in real time so that we can build our world together.

Of 10 or 15 participants (I guess I was doing the talking), only one or two people asked about the HOWs and WHYs of the thing. I heard a lady say "well neither of these talks are anything I'm interested in".

The question I can recall from the gentleman was "I guess I'm afraid of failing a little bit so I don't improv more and I have to take a lot of time to prep. How do you know if it's working properly?" Well, the answer in that case is to ask the players if their having fun, if it's not clear from the context. Laughing and enjoying each other's company is the reason I play. But it's clear everybody has their own game. System mastery, competition, adversarial approaches. I have not interest in dominating or subjecting anyone who would sit down at our table. And since it's "DCC" at the bottom, if you bring a 5th edition character, I can with some confidence convert your PC on the fly to fit into our open-table, rules-light, freewheeling adventures.

I'm trying to understand my reaction to their reaction, which was kind of dead-eyed and insolent. Seemed like a lot of the participants really like hours of dice-rolling combat, which ugh. Hey man, or ma'am, whatever you're into. Most mooks and grunts are one-hit wonders for us. Why would I want to go around a table rolling dice for an hour or more for one encounter?

Anyways, be well. In other hobby spaces I am playing a lot of skirmish/regiment games these days. Turnip 28. I'm learning "Muskets and Tomahawks 2.0" so that's fun. 3d printers are sort of on hold. Trying some new painting techniques - acrylic nail transfer gizmo and also slap-chop with a makeup sponge. Lots of Genshin Impact (not good for my brain, really, but still a gorgeous game). 

Digital Art Practice

 So every winter, my brain goes haywire trying to get relief from the awful cold.

I picked up a legit copy of Clip Studio Paint (I think it's like 55$) and it's been good for a couple of hours of experimentation, but I figure the way I'mma get better is with some practice and some idea theft.

I picked out a couple of my favorite B&W artists from my childhood and the comic/ttrpg field.

I got:

Russ Nicholson - probably the bloke responsible for my interest in this whole thing. His pictures in the Fiend Folio set my mind on craycray fire. My dad took me to the book store, and the hip dude recommended I get the PHB but I insisted after browsing through it that the Fiend Folio was my choice.

Jim Woodring

Arthur Gammell (from Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark)

Junji Ito

This guy whose identity I don't know, called Johnny Childish who did a bunch of strips in Thrasher comics in the late 80's

Obviously Crumb and the indie comics things. The Milk and Cheese guy. Concrete.

For color, and figures, Betty and Veronica. Barry Windsor Smith. Uhhhhhhh... so much art out there. I'm spitballing, here.

For watercolor stuff, probably Brian Froud and Arthur Rackham. Anyways I'll let you know how it goes. Right now I'm breaking from line work with the Wacom pen I have and then maybe some downstrokes and some stippling for tonight. The first project is going to be grotty brickwork surfaces WITHOUT the fancy tools that Clip Studio offers, and then a couple of dungeon pictures WITH the fancy tools it has.

We'll see. Wish me luck. My brain is awash in dungeons, tonight.

Here's the first night of practice: I only give it away as a measure of commitment to the project.

The original inspiration by Russ - just going for the bricks, tonight

Quick sketch plus a bunch of free gross brushes. The timelapse video is kinda fun

Dead Malls as Dungeons

I think it's important, in these trying times, to stay in touch with folks, and to be creative. Looks like Twitter is finally dead. FB is an existential nightmare, IG the same. I got rid of the TikToks, and now I can't get it back on the phone so I'm bummed about all the funny weejios but hey man, things are tough all over. SO: here I am back on the blog scene. Enjoy, I guess.

I was thinking about the general decline of Empires, as one does. And coincidentally, I've been reading 

 "Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet" by Will Hunt. It's quite a fun read: has bits of New York transit system, the Parisian Catacombs, cave systems in Europe, subterranean cities in the Middle East. Good imagination juice for D&D peeps. And it got me thinkin' about how the dead spaces of today and yesterday will be viewed. Real estate ain't cheap, these days. We have empty spaces in our downtown area of Frederick, Maryland where I work. There are tax incentives to letting properties go unused (which is a community disaster, but anyways) and rents are pretty high and so: empty buildings.

ABANDON MALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE

And what could be emptier, deader, less interesting than a former industrial/commercial/social space that Amazon has obliterated into obsolescence? Defunct shopping zones? Why Dead Malls, of course!

My own mythical underworld where our group often consensually hallucinates is a vast, sprawling, dimly lit nightmare of electrical conduits, leaky pipes, and obsolete technology. This is shoe-horned on top of mutants (a la Gamma World 1e) and space weirdos (from Star Frontiers and Star Wars). Technology exists from the ancients, but the fantasy-themed PCs don't often know how to use it unless they are familiar with it. Elfs, dwarfs, goblins coexist with robots and clones and laser rifles. I was looking at a map of the Parisian Catacombs - at least the ones that are readily accessible to tourists - and I grokked how regular they are in some places. Blocky, chunky, orderly. And sprawling and groping in other places. It reminded me of every Atari Adventure and C64 goldbox dungeon I played as a lad. Do you know Telengard? Of course, of course. But I digress.

And I was struck at how the Dead Malls of today can nicely accommodate dungeons! I think I saw this episode of The Last of Us the other night with my wife and the young protagonist and her friend are wandering around this dead mall that just so happens to have electricity and it's chock full of cool stuff to play with, and of course there's zombies.

So I'm going to put on the Great List of Unfinished Projects: squishing dungeons into the footprints of Dead Malls. We have the Francis Scott Key mall here in Frederick. But from my youth in Miami, Florida I can recall the Midway Mall, International Mall, Dade Mall. Probably all now gone. White Flint Mall was torn down a few years ago. A useful feature is that you can sort of stock some areas based on the store-key available in some maps? I guess?

Anyways, we'll see how it goes.

Here's a link to my dead malls Pinterest board that I've been nursing for like 15 years or so.  
 

Into the Surf Dungeon....?

 What is the Venn diagram between Surfing and Dungeons? and Surf Guitar and DungeonSynth?

Is there one?

I don't know, but I have a vast seaside cavern in my mind, and the intrepid adventurers on their elvish surfboards. Is it an cenote? They are lithe and salt-misted. Light on gear but tanned and trim. A Dragon Turtle is chasing them, leaving tumbling kelpies and merfolk in its wake. Below, wrecks of galleons, strewn with gold and corroded cannons. Undead pirates at the ropes, eyeless and obsessed with collecting the Dragon's rightful treasures into the barnacled sunken hulks.

I love Deep Ones, I love The Cramps, I love the underground. I love the Mythical Underworld. I cannot figure out mechanically how to do this, really, but it's there in my head. I don't think necessarily it would ever come up in a game, but that it is in my head is enough for me.

This is for you, Adventurer:

BREAK! and the OSR - Neckbeard Chocolate and Otaku Peanut Butter

Okay - Let me preface this by saying when I first met Reynaldo M., author of the BREAK! ttrpg, I had known him slightly parasocially from Google Plus (from which all good things spring). I played very briefly as a Murder Princess in a game he was testing at TridentCon 1, and I got in return a card of a bald-headed brawler. The scowling brute reminded me of my favorite character from Samurai Shodown 2, and so I was intrigued. I had never in my life considered that desktop publishing RPG creatives would have something as slick as a pack of cards. Maybe BREAK! was originally conceived as a card game? I don't know. But the card is cool and it has a place of honor in my collection. That was 10 or more years ago, so you should know that BREAK! has been a long time coming and my feeling is that Reynaldo and Gray Wizard have been very meticulous about crafting a thing to perfection. I pressed him probably too hard and too often to know WHEN WILL IT COME, REY? WHEN?

Well, it's here. And it delivers! It has been well worth the wait.

It's very cool, and deserving of praise and accolades. It's quite a love letter to anime, DnD, and 80's and 90's nostalgia. For example Sailor Moon, the Final Fantasy series, She-Ra (the netflix series), Chronotrigger, the DnD cartoon, Miyazaki stuff. It's rich, dense, and artfully and technically well done. The book is weighty, internally hyperlinked - most sections that refer to other material will actually include the page that the entry refers to. I don't know if Rey is a technical writer, but it shows in the ease-of-use of the book. Which is bewilderingly stocked with lore and overflowing and oozing with richly thought out and elaborated world building. In fact when the .PDF came a few months ago I was excited but overwhelmed with the information density of it. IMHO it's much easier to handle as a physical book, but your mileage may vary. An interesting thing is that by the end of the reading process, when you get to the world lore, you have already had quite a tantalizing taste of the feel of the game's setting and then you get the rest to fill in the blanks.

The system itself is pretty straightforward. Sort of DnD with similar attributes down the line. Roll under for skills. Opposed skill checks - you try to get under the target number but over the roll of your opponent for contests. Combat pretty simple. "Hearts" (like in Zelda! and NES games) regenerate after battles. If you run out of hearts then you take injuries. Pretty easey peasey. All kinds of skills and background options that can be rolled for randomly or chosen. Even a class - the Factotum - that is a non-combat option for those to whom violence does not appeal. The rules are relaxed and easy like Sunday morning but in some particulars are very gritty - like hunger, fatigue, and time/resource management. Not overly so, but if you are a fan of Old School play, then these subsystems will probably be intuitive and easy to use. The encounter and dungeoneering system is point-based and has skill checks in between nodes that give a party bonuses in the next encounter if they are successful and it seems to me that it's a better thing than constantly referring to maps. I guess, in short, that it nicely combines a lot of the ease-of-use and intuitive features of the past 15 years of thinking about tabletop games. I could go on and on, but time is fleeting and I have to get to work soon.

Such Well Considered Information Design!

My favorite thing about it is the fantasy/sci-fi vibe, which coincidentally is exactly the sort of thing my Dungeon Crawl Classics/Palladium/Star Frontiers/Star Wars soaked brain is into. My face to face game world is genre-bending. Like DCC, androids and mutants and dwarfs and orcs abound. Remnants of ancient technology (including the mechanoid/robot PCs!) are everywhere. Why would I want a Tolkien world without robots, laser pistols, and kaiju? Hacking computers and hacking reality with magic are mostly the same thing. Esoteric skills that specialists can use to delve deeper.

So, it's inspirational. I'm trying to get my kid to read it but she took one look and was like "too much! I can't keep it all in my head". She won't get the references because she was born in the 2010s instead of the 1970s and 1980s, but I imagine a great many old school DnD folks will grok them. I do not believe that you could be a nerd into DnD for the past 30 or 40 years and not be impressed by Rey and GW's beautiful, good hearted, expansive, well conceived, wonderfully laid out and masterfully illustrated thing. Why, my brain lights up with possibility when I thumb through it, its generosity and goodwill are on every page - kind of like Reynaldo himself. As far as I know, I've never met Grey Wizard directly but I fondly remember interacting with him (her?) on G+

Anyways, run out and pick up BREAK! if this sort of thing interests you. You'll be pleasantly rewarded. I suggest the hard-cover, because I was simply overwhelmed with the PDF but if you like that method and style of learning and information delivery, you probably won't go wrong with it. In fact it seems to me that the appendices of the book are explicitly meant to be printed for reference which is an amazing touch and really shows some forethought. Well done Rey and Grey Wizard. Your Ennie is well-deserved.

If you don't get this reference, or if you think it's corny, well - move along, I guess. 

I give it a 9.5/10 simply because I almost fell over backwards trying to gather all the rules to play, since the character making process takes up about a third of the book - the first part (as it should be, I suppose). The rules are laid out generally at the beginning but in my excitement to devour it I skimmed over them and was befuddled for a bit, but it made much more sense as I progressed through the thing. If you open up any particular page, you will find something delightful and most of it even has a sly wink. Yay for the love of the hobby in all its myriad forms!

The Sea Caves of Aubergiole

I found this file on my hard-drive a few days ago, and since I will never ever finish the project (and in fact I don't recall many of the ideas) I give it to the internet in goodwill. To each, as they say, according to their need. This was probably right after the publication of my solo gamebook. I think it's very clearly inspired by the D&D Expert module "Lathan's Gold" which was an epic "sailing around adventuring" solo module. Grand in scope and procedural possibility but sort of tangled up with weird mass combat mechanisms. Pretty sure it was conceived right around the heyday of the Google+ share-and-share alike era. I kinda dig the vibe, but the only thing that stands out to me particularly is the random starting entry mechanic, which is based in part on your Luck modifier (this is DCC obviously). I think I was also inspired by "Barbarian Prince" which is a long-time favorite of mine, and still available for free.

Also, I think I stole the Secrets idea from Kabuki Kaiser's "Mad Monks of Kwantoom" in which certain play experiences would prompt you to read appendices at the back of the gamebook and thus open up new ways to play, spells, PC races and options, and lore about the world of the game...

Way too ambitious in scope, in reflection. This was back when I thought fun ideas about tabletop RPGs, or at least read other peoples' fun ideas and synthesized things into something of my own. Now, I just play Skyrim with like 500 mods...

"Sea Caves initial entries the City".rtf

Oubliette of the Fishfolk

Cities:

1.       Aubergiole - Innsmouth Equivalent from French Inn (‘Auberge’) and Maw (‘Gueule’).  Market, Docks, Tavern, Supplies,

2.       Visulax – Specularum Equivalent: Docks, Market, Tavern

3.       Aredeth Bay – Pirate Port

4.       Helleborine – Coastal Megalopolis (off limits due to Zombie Plague)

5.       Marbourg – Seaside Town, nearby River (off limits due to Zombie Plague)

 

Islands:

1.       Three Harpies Key – Gate to Lightless Realms, Other Universes

2.       Meridot’s Cay- The Wizard Meridot’s Tower

3.       Hyomand Rock – The Oubliette of the Fishmen

4.       Forlorn Island – Giant Monsters, Occasional Big Treasures, Death for Big Parties

5.       Hammer Island (Home to Aredeth Bay) – Small Town, Pirate Wizard Patron

6.       Bloodrock Plinth – Empty, Granite and Basalt, Gribb Roosts

7.       The Island of the Amazonians (Mountain Range)

Locations:

1.       Sail upriver to near Halthrag Keep, attacked by Jackal Bandits

2.       The Howling Whirlpool of Awfulness, ship destroyed, flotsam!

3.       Jungle of Teth

4.       The Crystalline Spire of Meridot

Remember to give lots of opportunities for Luck Use, Saves, and Especially Thief Skill Checks

Random Non-Thief Character Starts

(for the start of the game, use 1d12 plus the Luck Modifier.  Pre-generated Characters Will Start at Specific Entries in the Book)

-3	GALLOWS!	SQUARE
-2	To the JAIL, BAD FINE, MAYBE DEATH	TRIAL
-1	INNSMOUTH TAINT: Thank the Gods it is morning, now.  You find yourself at the edge of a long and lonely dock in the city of Aubergiole, neck, hands and feet itching.  Your eyes are watering and your head hurts.  You have fought the overpowering urge to jump into the water and swim away since being awoken around 2 bells, after strange dreams of vast cities through which you floated.  As the sun rises, you feel somewhat better and resolve to take some aid to help you sleep, tonight.  A skilled thief like you can’t operate well when fighting urges like these! Looking down at the end of the barnacle-encrusted dock, you notice an Intricately Carved Tetrahedron, possibly a fishing weight or lure.  You may take it if you like.  Then, turn to DOCKS	DOCKS
0	SHANGHAI’ED AND CAST AWAY	ISLAND (Lonely)
1	SHIPWRECKED	ISLAND (Random)
2	KIDNAPPED AT SEA!	TEMPLE ISLAND
3	PLAGUE SHIP!	AT SEA(Random)/RANDOM DOCKS
4	In town, down on your Luck (-2 Luck), Gambling debt
5	On a Mission – Recover a Captive (Randomly Determined – Attached to Secrets!)
6	FIRST MATE, MUTINEERS – SHIP WITH POOR MORALE
7	On a Pilgrimage – See a Sight
8	Hunting Party – Fight a Monster
9	Cartographer for a Lord – Visit 4 different islands and map 3 locations of each (cities do not count!)	VOLCANO ISLAND
10	Free Agent – No particular Quest, 350 GP in Savings
11	SECRET AGENT! , Minor Sum of Gold for Expenses 1000XP, Kill the Bandit King	BANK
12	MAP TO TREASURE, TAVERN, No Money	TAVERN
13	MINOR TREASURE, MARKET, Skull Chime	MARKET
14	FIRST MATE, DEAD CAPTAIN – SHIP WITH GOOD MORALE	ISLAND (Random)
15	LAWYER’S OFFICE – ESTATE OF WEALTHY TRADING CAPTAIN UNCLE, FREE SHIP	DOCKS

 

Straight Thieves Begin in a Spot Determined by their Alignment, and Receive a Mission Based upon it, if they like.  Else, they can use the Random Chart and adjust the result depending upon

ALIGNMENT	START LOCATION	MISSION
Lawful	Hyomand Rock, Shoreline	Acquire The Prayers of Hydra Volume 4, Deliver to Boss in Aubergiole (or take the 4th Oath!)
Neutral	Aredeth Bay, Pirate Port	Ring the Storm Bell at the Top of Hyomand Rock, Watch What Happens (Or Destroy It, Better!)
Chaotic	Hyomand Rock, Acolyte’s Chamber	Assassinate the Priestess of Hydra, She Keeps the Undersea Peoples In Check (Or Assume the Priesthood Yourself, with 4th Oath and the Rod of Command)

 

SECRETS!!!

A.      Random Aubergiole House/Basements/Treasures/Monsters

B.      The Storm Bell – Rang It

C.      The Storm Bell – Cracked It

D.      Deep One Hybrid Class

E.       Eagle Eyrie on Meridot’s Cay

F.       The Dead Cyclops Underwater at Hyomand Rock

G.     The Dead Cyclops Chained to Forlorn Island

H.      Halthrag’s Circle On Hyomand Rock

I.        Ifrit’s Pizzle, Drink Recipe and Spell

J.        JaleBeard, the Pirate Wizard Patron

K.      On Kelpies

L.       On Lesthirash, the Wasp God

M.    On Merfolk

N.     On Nixies

O.     The Orpiment Skull Magic Item

P.      Pendlebrook – A Pleasant Spot

Q.     Queen Leonora of Hamathrace

R.      Raiders of Rayloon

S.       Summon Tentacular Horror

T.       Tcho Tcho PC Class

U.     Ulfire Mistress Patron

V.      Vecnull’s Revenge (A ship, The Cyberlich’s Flagship)

W.    Wizardarium Gate to Calabraxis

X.      X The Mysterious (A Sage)

Y.       Yeoman’s Bow Magic item

Z.       Zither of Antipathy Magic Item

 

NEW MONSTERS

Raylooni Raiders (Albinos, Tall, Thin, Debased) – Stout Ships, Low Damage

Cyborg Corsairs – Very Stout Ships, Somewhat Damaging

Deep One Hybrid Pirates – Weak Ships, Weak Damage

Tcho Tcho

Tentacular Horrors

Ocean Sprites, Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic

Kelpie/Seaweed Folk

Pirahna Birds

Amazonians

Island Sprites

 

 

PREGENERATED CHARACTERS/QUEST

Nithan Knifeknot – Thief, Lawful, Level  2 (Bring 10,000 in Gold to Bad Guy on the West Edge of Aredeth Bay by Day 30 to rescue your beloved Kelani). Swimming and Diving Skills

Murlo – Fighter, Lawful, Level 2 (Destroy a 5-Headed Hydra on Forlorn Island, Day 30). Commander Skills.

Diego Panselfaust – Male Halfling, Neutral, Level 2 (Take an Immortal Bride by Day 30).  Ladykiller Skills

Holga Vohrnknicht – Female Dwarf, Neutral, Level 2 (Find a place for the Clan to Live – there are 2 acceptable spots 1 on , Day 30).  Stoneworker Skills.

Brother Emmerit Lutz – Cleric, Chaotic, Level 2 – Find a New Home for Temple of Lesthirash the Wasp God.  Lore Skills.  Sacrifice a Ship to the Whirlpool and Find the Location of the Wasp Temple.  25 Days

Yesorian, Wizard, Chaotic, Level  2 – Acquire the Rod of Undeath, 50 Days, or Die!  (Very difficult for a Wizard but fairly simple for a Thief!)

 

THIEVES FOR HIRE (Special Thiefly Rules; You may hire a thief on the crew of your boat, but each skill roll calls for d6xrate fees, and each thief can be killed by monsters in landing parties.  Some locks cannot be picked by NPC thieves )

Aram, Barjum, Blastin, Corexin, Duglash, Efrim, Odess, Pyotr, Alenk, Gyurtom, Hirelm, Inigo, Jakes, Melporine, Nidora, Olegh, Trendio

SPECIAL HIRELINGS (For example, as in Barbarian Prince)

Wives/Husbands

Sages

Monsters

A Robot

Familiars/Demons/Imps/Quasits (for example, Spellvexit)

Sailing/Supplies/Ship’s Crews/Landing Parties/Morale (based on Personality)

 

Random Treasure Entries are given with the expected roll of dice, 1d3-1d100 (with 0 as a possible result); some areas will increase the given +d for monsters and some will decrease 

The Entrance to the Omega Bunker

The little town of Rad, and The Entrance to The Omega Bunker

 Rad is a village of 100-200 people, mostly nuclear families. It earned its name after many generations of farming the local radish-like root crop that was originally bred to remove radiation from contaminated soil. The root also happens to concentrate and store chaotic magic in its cellular structure, although the unimaginative farmers of Rad don’t know it. Some of the other more enterprising and weird inhabitants do, though. Born “Radishers” (for thus they call themselves) often have low-level mental mutations and magic-using abilities. A few are detailed below.  (ed's note: Sorry - lost track of this part but maybe later)

 Rad is situated on the rim of a vast hole in the ground, some 50 meters wide and many hundreds of meters deep. The soil and earthy crust of the area covers the edges of the hole, upon which all manner of strange flora and fauna teem and reproduce. Five meters below the rim, the earthen crust gives way to solid hyper-iridium walls covered with greebles and conduits and wires and sensors. Below that, a grated, meter-wide gantry clings to the circumference of the pit and spirals down at a steep angle. About halfway down the length of the pit, the gantry stops at a very solid-looking access hatch, complete with a formidable hatch-operating wheel. It is rusted, but with some lubricant, it will give way and provide access to the dungeon level within, but not before the party is accosted by 1d12 Stirges. All of the walls within are 8’ high, and except where noted, are made of slick molded aluminum. Imagine a dreary windowless office building, but more durable. If needed, bathrooms exist and might be a secure site for a long or short rest. Amazingly, electricity is available as is running water. Damage to the facility and infrastructure may negatively impact this.

 No one in Rad knows much about the facility below. Every so often a visitor to the town will take an interest and disappear within it but the villagers have developed a distinct lack of interest in the hole and its contents. They might be hired as guides and hirelings, but residents would probably not represent capable fighters – limited to torchbearers and porters. Capable men-at-arms would come from outside the immediate area

Please note, I have not provided a map for this area, only dungeon entries, which were mostly generated randomly and then I brushed them up with my brain and tried to tie them together semi-coherently

1. An abandoned storage area, containing shelves of various unusable junk – printer parts, obsolete tablet computers with cracked screens, empty ball point pens, coffee-stained neckties etc. There is also an Insane Cyberbrain that exists on minimal power tucked behind the other gizmos. It needs a Vocoder unit to speak and some sensors to receive input in order for it to be interacted with. These may be scavenged from other robots, or the whole thing might be installed in a robot chassis provided one is available. Determine its personality at random, but it’s been left to itself for a long time. It won’t remember its name or anything about the dungeon but it will provide moral support and encouragement and may make a fun PC or NPC if supplied with a body.
2. The party will encounter a Ghoul named Larry – the local janitor - here. He is practically immortal and hungry for flesh, but will respond well to rations or slightly less enthusiastically if offered other foods. He will try to make friends and lure the party to nearby traps. He is at odds with the Wererats in room 12.
3. This room is devoid of interesting features.
4. This average-sized room includes a steamy Rejuventation Pool - drinking or bathing in it will Increase Gravity in the room, causing all occupants' physical saves, skill checks, and initiative to be at disadvantage since everyone counts as encumbered. Entering the pool will remove one level of Exhaustion.
5. The room has a laser tripwire-activated shocking effect on the steel grate flooring, forcing a DC 15 Dexterity save or 1d6 electrical damage to the whole party. It may be avoided by stepping over the lasers which are at human knee-height. They are not readily detectible unless the lights are out in the room.
6. There is a Giant Shocker Lizard and a switch relay in this room. The panel of switches controls the security door in the north wall. The switches must be activated by switching them all in the up position, which will signal a bell, and then switching them all to the down position which will open the door. Any other combination will activate the shocking floor mechanism which damages all occupants (not the lizard!) for 1d6 electrical.
7. This room is devoid of interesting features.
8. Graffiti here says Remember: 3 Up Then 3 Down in fluorescent green spray paint. (see room 6 above).
9. There is a maggot-ridden body of a Cleric, holding a small bunch of wolfsbane. Its studded leather armor is intact. It has been gnawed on by Larry the Ghoul in room 2, but he didn’t finish because the body is slowly becoming green slime.
10. The room has 6 patches of green slime. One patch will hold a functional laser pistol that can be salvaged and cleaned.
11. This room is devoid of interesting features.
12. There is a group of 3 Wererats, engaged in a complex religious ritual. They serve Orcus and are praying to him for guidance. They will feign friendship and turn on the party when the party has taken significant damage or losses.
13. This room is devoid of interesting features.
14. The room has clumps of edible purple mold.
15. There are two “thrones” (fancy executive chairs) here - disturbing them in any way activates a Clay Golem. It is actually composed of plasticine modeling clay.
16. The party can encounter a sentient Worg, here.
17. There is a Infectious Constrictor Snake draped sleeping around a stylized iron maiden. Inside, clutched by a dusty skeleton , there is a Scroll of Ward against Lycanthropes.
18. This room is devoid of interesting features.
19. Mostly empty and clean, this room smells of rotten flesh.
20. This is a food-supply store room, with d6 edible rations and d10 aluminum cans of potable water. There are also some glossy magazines of various topics (e.g. “Skimmers Today” and “Protein Enthusiasts’ Digest”)
21. The room is coated with thick spider webs on all surfaces. Small spiders within may vocally object to the destruction of the webs, but they are only creepy nuisances. It will take 1d6 turns to remove the webs physically, or they may be lit on fire. When the webs are cleared away the skeletal body of a robed magic-user clutching a book will be discovered. The book contains 1d3 1^st level and 1 2^nd level Wizard spells. If the book has sustained fire damage, it will only hold “Nystul’s Magic Aura”.
22. This room has a Bottled City on a pedestal. The bottle is guarded by 2 Vampire Spawns. Touching or gazing into the bottle necessitates a DC 15 Wisdom save, or the entire party will be transported to a small, gloomy, vampire-plagued village for what seems like a day, but will only be 2 turns in reality.
23. A Thoqqua here wears a heat-proof iridium pendant, worth 700 gold coins. The creature’s melted slag burrow will lead down to a random room on the next dungeon level.
24. This large gallery is actually a Hallway of Gates – there are 1d10 active portals to other adventures or dungeon levels intermixed with the 20 doors. Non-active gate-doors open into very brightly lit closets.
25. This room is bare.
26. There are 25 hyper-iridium ingots here, stored in 5 military-style aluminum gear crates. They are all trapped with poisoned needles in the handles – if they are examined first, then the needle mechanism will be evident, and they can be disarmed easily by removing the needles. Not checking first will cause the first person (and any other careless handlers) to be pricked and take the Poisoned condition.
27. The fluorescent tube lights in this warehouse-sized room flicker on and off above a long stretch of office cubicles, complete with desks, paperclips, office supplies, and condescending motivational posters. There is also a mostly-empty Candwich vending machine. It contains 3 common Candwiches (PBJ/BBQ Pulled Pork equal chance) and 1 expired rare Candwich (make something cool up). Smashing the machine open will provide 1d6 gold coins. Each Candwich costs 2 gold pieces if bought the usual way.
28. This average-sized manager’s office includes a stately and obscenely carved wooden “desk” which is really an Altar To Orcus. Donating money to the donation plate on top causes the dot-matrix printer in the altar’s base to print out a detailed paper map of this dungeon level.
29. This room has a Matter Transmittal Pad that moves a user to the last place they long-rested that wasn’t in the dungeon. It’s a one-way trip.
30. There are 950 GP here, stored in a sealed aluminum sarcophagus. The treasure is trapped with contact poison on the coins. The lid of the sarcophagus is off, and skeletal bodies of adventurers are littered around it, holding handfuls of coins. Wine, floor polish, detergent, or some other weak solvent will remove the contact poison, but water won’t.

 

Random Encounters:

1. Mi-Go Assistant Manager Squad (1d4+2) These will harangue PCs about timeliness, efficiency, billable hours, etc. If the PCs do not wear ties or show other signs of employment, the Mi-Go will shoot them with an HR-Indoctrination Ray. Make a Wisdom Save DC 15 - failure indicates that the PC adds "Office Worker" (1-3 on a d6) or "Facilities Maintenance" (4-6 on the d6) to their background, and also adds a Temporary Insanity Condition to follow facility rules and procedures and request time off in the appropriate manner, etc. etc.

2. Morlock Office Workers (1d4) These are standing around gossiping at the nearest source of drinkable water (healthy or otherwise). If the PCs show signs of employment, they will welcome 'new hires' and commit acts of hazing on them "Deliver this McGuffin to Sector 4, new guy!"

3. Facilities Maintenance Skeletons (1d3) Obviously engaged in simple repairs and upkeep, these mindlessly attack with oversized wrenches, mops, plungers if they are prevented from accomplishing their current task. Often use chunky floor buffers, leaky pressure washers, and low-intensity flame throwers as appropriate.  

4. Section Manager Zombies (1d3) Clipboards in hand, they toddle mindlessly through hallways and seem enraged that no-one is where they ought to be. Only the taste of fresh brains will ease their emotional pains

5. Paperwork Dragon (1 only, reroll if defeated) This beast wanders the halls of the complex, accumulating forms, documents, records, and the occasional spell scroll to add to its mass. Counts as a Young Black Dragon - the breath weapon is a high-velocity gout of stinging ink and shredded paper that is both caustic and sticky. Particularly vulnerable to fire, it will flee from open flames and fire-like spell effects, but will stalk the party at a distance hoping to outlast their fiery resources. If the party flees, the next random encounter will also be this monster and it will automatically have surprise.

6. A lone Mongrelman Office Clerk and their cart of documents - clearly in a hurry and also evidently as mystified by the layout of the dungeon as the party is, this Mongrelperson is a temp and thus not protected by company policies from harassment by its tenured coworkers. It will give up documents (possibly a spell scroll, Ancient Stone Tablet, or low-level spellbook) if the PC identifies itself as the rightful recipient. The Mongrelperson has no inclination to check PC identities in this matter, and indeed corporate policy does not require it to do so. Will hilariously agree to be taken on as a henchman/hireling but aside from its innate ability to mimic voices this NPC is fairly useless. He/she/it can be encountered more than once 

 

 

Happy Farming Upgrade Dungeon

I've been playing Stardew Valley on my kid's Switch for the past few weeks. Let's be clear: I'm not new to SV - in fact I think I got into it when it was pretty new, but I gave it up after I put Stardew Extended on my computer and modded it up so my kid could play with anime portraits. I had beat it once before straight (i.e. no mods) and then after that I modded it up in order to see all the interesting cut scenes and secrets and such.

On the Switch, you can't mod so everything's got to be on the up-and-up. Every larger inventory bag, every house upgrade, every skill increase and heart event has to be earned. I'm used to playing this way from the C64 and many DOS games from back in the day, but earning my way through all the possible upgrades in Stardew Valley - even many of the 'late game" features made me do a lot of thinking and planning and strategizing and in some cases referring to the wikis out there!

I dreamt up an upgrade-path campaign! Start with the DnD5e Basic rules - the freebie document one. Everybody can choose to be a human or a halfling or maybe an animal person or a clockwork person/robot to start with. Go on an adventure in the dungeon and bring back some loot. THEN you can apply the GP to the village/setting, and for that you get bountiful XPs! If you're more into trad stuff (LAME!) then you can also get XP for dealing death to monsters etc. but you get a multiplier for XP spent on the village and villagers.

Want to play a druid? Upgrade the Old Witch's Hut - 200 GP (for which you receive 300 XP)

Want to play a cleric of some other domain besides Life/Healing? Pay for a little shrine, which can be upgraded to a chapel, to a temple, to a cathedral, etc...

Seems to me that it ought to have caps on level so as to encourage the development of variety and investments/purchases for the village/town/etc.. Maybe cap it at level 5 to start with, and those PCs go on to be managed and not necessarily USED at game time to explore dungeons. This'd give folks stuff to do with their PCs during downtime. This kinda meshes well with my old (unused) idea of a stable of tradeable characters usable by the whole group of players.

So your cute little piggy people are totally motivated to get into the dungeon and bring back gold coins, so that they can buy the parts to repair the water pump and improve the wells of the town, but also now they got elected pro-tempore mayor! OH NO!

Anyways, more later. I just found the games "Iron Valley" and "Cozy Village" on itch

People tell me that "The Nightmares Beneath" and "Errant" have good systems for managing this sort of thing but I havent followed up yet

Peace be upon you!