Current Solo Module Plot Paths

This will likely mean nothing to you, unless you're interested in the way the design process is turning out for my DCC solo module.

Art is chugging along - you've seen the cover illo and a couple of my own inside monster portraits.

You saw the nodes for the random encounters of a previous iteration of the monster set (updated, I think, a couple of times since then)

I could show you the map - loosely based on a somewhat famous castle from a pretty famous movie - but I won't.  That'd spoil some stuff.  I think I will make a regular low-level DCC module out of the materials I have and release the monsters for freebies to the community (after I finish THIS project).  Maybe some of the gods and patrons, also.  I have 3 0-level spells that are good intros into working magic for untrained schmucks, at least where the ley lines intersect and the barriers between dimensions are thinning.

However, I can show you the current-a-couple-of-hours-ago node-map of the entries in which the PC runs around the keep all desperate n' stuff.  It's about maybe half finished and written, and when the last entry is done I can practically plug the text into InDesign, plug the graphical elements to fill in the gaps, twerk the layout, and submit to the authorities in this matter.  I think it will come to about 180 entries in which the player is trusted to play by the rules as well as possible.  At times, it is cruel and unforgiving and seems impossibly hard.  I don't know if that is a plus or a minus.  It seems to fit with my memories of the CYOA books and especially the Fighting Fantasy series.  I think it will make, at two or three columns with facing pages, a pretty nice and hefty module when printed in the old TSR style.  I'm trying to figure out a way to export the whole thing to kindle format but that might need to wait a while.

Here, try this:

It's not evident, but the little watermark at the bottom is for the program's author and website.  I'm not afraid to say anymore, since I am within striking distance of submitting the thing within the next month, that I'm using The Gamebook Authoring Tool by Crumbly Head Games.  For what I set out to do, it's perfect and frankly indispensable.  I may have mentioned I tried to start this project off with Twine, but it proved unsuitable for what I wanted.  There was TXT2CYOA but that wasn't right, either.

This thing is exactly what I needed and wanted and perfect in every way.  I feel like I have jilted the author so far, since I wrote about 40 or 50 entries for the Wandering Monster section.  I tried to base it loosely on the flow of the basic and expert solo modules by Merle Rasmussen, you see.  Wander around, mark the entry on the character sheet, and resolve your combat, go back, wash - rinse - repeat until dead or victorious.  I don't know how he could have done something like this project without the aid of this software or something like it - but I imagine about a million million index cards and a giant corkboard.

I'm coming up pretty quickly on the 100 entry maximum for the main keep entries so a full sale is coming for Crumbly Head Games, soon.  And they deserve it!  As I said, it's right as rain and does what it advertises smoothly and elegantly.

I'm looking at about 6 weeks out and I am happy with the way it's going at the moment.  I'll lose about a week between now and then for vacation, but we'll see.

I think I might like to get in touch with Merle and nostalgia-fanboy vomit all over him and Ian Livingstone and rejoice in the memories of hours of my whiled-away youth

Hmm.

Assets and Learning and Sharing Make for More Funs

1.  I'm not an artist.  I was lucky and cool-headed enough to purchase a copy of the CS4 suite back when I was in college - I justified it by saying I might make some money with photos one day.  For that 300 or 400 hundred dollar purchase, I will likely pay many thousands of dollars in interest and penalties to the student loan people, since I am dim and place too much faith in the premise of education and I sunk myself into needless debt thinking my career path would pay off in BIG MONEY

2.  I'm working out the kinks, and the little squirt of dopamine in my brain that happens when I figure shit out is way more than enough to keep me entertained, at least since I quit smoking.

3.  I like you kids out there.

4.  I want you to be happy.

5.  I was trying to figure out how to make little encounter icons for my scanned-in maps, exactly what I'm about to give out here.

6.  I figured it out.  Praise THE DARK GOD THAT LIVES IN THE WOODS BEHIND MY TRAILER for the handy dandy "hold down alt and drag to copy" thing that illustrator has

7.  This thing is for you to use, or not, if you like.  It's a .PNG file so it ought to be transparent around the bubbles so you could just copy and paste from my thing into your thing, if that kind of stuff might help you

8.  Hey, if one has riches, then what good are they if not for bringing joy to friends and loved ones?

The (to my mind gorgeous and sexy) font is IM Fell, that this amazing fellow puts out for nothing and for which you are not fit to touch the hem of his garments.  The whole package will give even your weakest and poorliest-edited documents the sexy grace of type-set musty English volume by Bishop J. Fell.  I can only grovel and aspire before the model set by Mr. Fell in his efforts to PUBLISH interesting things

But I am working on it.

Back to the presses I go

Ichorteat Grottoe - Community Map

A simple map - I was at a staff meeting last week and bristling against paperwork and little blue squares and such.  I went out of my way to make sure the angles mostly aren't square and rectilinear.    What an ugly word.  Parallel. That's a lot of L's

I envision some Runequest-style demonologists and a cult or three for the big hopping toad idol at the top. Came back to the whole thing and inked the first layer of walls after reading some of the stuff in the unofficial Fiend Folio II that +Greg Gorgonmilk posted onto the G+ thread

Lots of traps and maybe a few secret passages.  Gateway drugs into demon-toad worship and the bodies of a few dozen innocents.  Mugwumps, doelms, and bullywugs. Flooded passages (haven't decided which they ought to be, yet)

This is the basic version but maybe I'll do up a thing like Dyson does with all the hatching.  It's soothing and a stress thing  and good for goldbricking at meetings.  Or while waiting for clients to arrive or fill out paperwork. Writing the odd dissonant hymn or dirge to a toad demon while waiting for the coffee to brew

Update:

If I had used the scanner I could have cleaned up some of the pencil lines but then I'd have had to clean the back desk off and... Well, I will work it out later.

solo-ing BSOLO1 The Ghost of Lion Castle

I think I mentioned some months ago that I was playing through this again after many, many years.

I have not been able to win and get back to Sarsdell with a magic-user (Eztar a pregen 3rd level) or elf (Kayen Telva - yeah, him!).  I did make it through recently with Hewer, my 3rd level Fighter. It was a close shave and my aura is not clear about it, if you get my meaning.  For one thing, it's against cannon as a Fighter could never be Sargon's heir.  I just wanted to see if it could be done.  I tried a couple of different elf and M/U roll-ups, but no go.  I don't know why they included level 1 magic-user pregens; it seems to me they'd be toast practically immediately.

"An iron ration?  Are you kidding me?  You won my Castle with an Iron Ration?"

This time, I encountered a high number of ferrets, and notably routed a Giant Black Widow Spider without being bitten.  I only survived as I took liberal advantage of the bed for exploring and went through on a treasure run the last go-through.  I thought by picking Orcish language I could avoid some fights but it didn't happen at all.  I didn't see nor smell an orc.

The first monster I encountered was a Giant Ferret, in the field just outside the postern gatehouse in which Eztar was killed (a couple of iterations before) by a Giant Ferret. Hewer kept his spell book and his +1 dagger.  I'm not sure if I re-vengeanced Eztar, and I'm not sure if his gear counts as treasure - but I like to think yes to the former and no to the latter.  It would give me a +1 dagger in the long run.

I think I will shift Hewer over to a 2nd level bald (from the barber room) Wizard in Dungeon Crawl Classics and have him be some kind of cat-conjurer with Sargon as a patron.  I gain a level by completing the adventure auto-magically, but I feel bad about the whole "I'm a fighter" thing.  I could just forswear the sword and devote myself to the study of the hunting cats and their magics.  Sargon as Patron.  Hmm.

Hmm. That's worth a thing, there.

On the random encounter chart, the lower your roll the more dangerous the encounter is.  The lion in Sargon's study almost took me to pieces in a couple of rounds.  Claw/claw/bite 2-5/2-5/1-10! with an 8 needed to hit my chain mail!.  Thank some god below for my last iron ration to distract it - cowardly, yes, but I think it's okay RAW.  I have rarely been so worried about the outcome of a battle - you can't drink healing potions in combat in these rules!  My heart rate was a little up for a couple of minutes!

Lesson:  Be wary of the beasts that skulk Sargon the Cat Sorcerer's keep!

( Following up with this thread in which a Nithian Automaton is discussed.  I don't know what that is, yet.)

Proposal for Tweaked Spell Duel for DCC (WIP)

It should be apparent by now that I love the DCC.

Of all the great things I love about it, simple mechanics, clarity of PHUN, wildly pseudo-randomized tables, hearkening back to the old school days that a lobe of my brain says MUST BE RIGHT GODDAMIT...

Nostalgia is a liar, but the go-motion Vermithrax is the best dragon of all dragons.  The Rankin and Bass Smaug rocks, also.

The spell duel is none of that stuff.  It's clunky.  It's awkward. It's a great idea on paper but even playthroughs I've heard on e.g. the Spellburn podcast fizzle out within a few mere rounds or so.  I've done 2 or 3 in play sessions and it wasn't great.  It seemss like it should be AWESOME and RAWKING but it doesn't feel that way.  I feel dirty and confused.  Why?  It feels like a lot of chart referencing and dice rolling and it literally pauses the action of everything else.

Because I saw some Harry Potter, and some Dragonslayer, and The Sword in the Stone, and Big Trouble in Little China.  A couple of wizards or ENTITIES e.g. a big-ass Dragon (it doesn't matter their relative powers, for drama's sake) go at it for a couple of rounds - a wand explodes, the protagonist maybe takes a wound or is routed, if he (always a he!) is Lucky he gets away with a singed forehead or something.

Accio Better Endings!

No offense to Mr. Goodman and Company.  I love the whole of DCC.  All of it.  This one part never gets used much, although it has a great deal of potential.  How would I fix it, then?  Well?  That's why you came, right?

It seems that one problem is that with the Rules As Written, a high level Wizard is going to smash right through a low-level one.  No question.  Also, the spells that cancel each other out are sort of baroque and way too precise for games.  The rules say that Clerics can counterspell Wizards, but there's no spells on the counterspelling list for Clerics, and even Patron Bond/Invoke Patron - it isn't on the Cleric spell list.  I mean, not everybody's going to have the right one, and that puts paid to a unprepared Wizard.  Wouldn't it be better if, instead of specific spells countering each other, ALL offensive spells countered each other?  The common sense rule on page 99 of my PDF says that it ought to be clear, but (hold on, here)...  this is MAGIC STUFF.  There's logic but it's not the logic of the waking world adult.  It's magic stuff!

On three.

So, I propose that all offensive spells and magic effects (e.g. Dragon Breath/Undead Effects/Spell attacks/Whatever) can be used to counter each other, without exception.  In fact, it seems to me that you'll get far more interesting weirdness this way than if specific level 1 through level 3 Wizard spells are able to counter each other and no others.  Obviously, one party will be the attacker and one the defender in each round... so if two parties are engaged in magical combat, then whomever has the initiative that round will be considered the attacker.  Nobody adds any spellburn the first round, since we need to build up steam.  Once the thing is decided, each party makes the action die roll but they're locked in combat for the round - sparks flying/dynamos humming/thunder 'n' lightning.  Nothing happens until the end of the round.  If you really wanted it to be AWESOME, the die rolls can be hid and revealed when the round is up.

The Gorgon's Head Casts Flesh to Stone as a 20th level Wizard

If the rolls are within the higher level caster's level of each other (in the case of the monster instance, the Hit Dice), then sparks fly, smoke drifts, all kinds of neat visual stuff.  Real magickal contests of wills type stuff.  Else, the difference is caused in Hit Point damage to the loser.  When the loser is reduced to zero Hit Points, then the attacker's spell manifests.  Until then, the warring magic powers fight each other for manifestations in the real world.  Next round, each caster rolls a 1d6 and adds their Intelligence modifier, and they may spellburn up to that much that round.  They don't have to, but the aether quivers with readiness.

Nobody loses a spell during a spell duel - this is an exception to the general flow of things.  However, a caster (or both) can incur corruptions.  In fact, the forces that drive magic love these kinds of things since it allows Kaos to leak into the Prime Material plane.  Two bad rolls for both can mean a lot of weird things happening but the duel continues.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I like the "same rolls cause Phlogiston Disturbance" rule.  That's cool.  If either caster spellburns, they can adjust the result up or down to make a Phlogiston Disturbance or to beat the other caster or to beat the level difference to cause damage.

If one caster succesfully casts Dispel Magic, or Holy Sanctuary, or Protection from Evil (or whatever) then the round is a tie.  Go to the next round.  The effects don't occur as usual, they just make all the magic things not happen this round.

For Magic Shield, you get to cancel the Hit Point damage caused by the difference.

For Patron Bond, if one or both parties opt to use it, it's like the nuclear option.  It can only be cast when a party is down to below 2 of their Hit Die in Hit Points.  It's unlikely a Patron will come to the aid of a winning Wizard, in this case.  The thing is effectively over.  The Patron steps in and causes the duel to be over, in addition to whatever effects happen to occur because of the invocation.  The Invocation result is the difference between the rolls.  This could happen in addition to Phlogiston Disturbances, and if both parties opt to Invoke Patrons, a Phlogiston Disturbance is automatic.  The sheer might of two otherworldly entities struggling will bend reality in all kinds of bad ways.

This just gets plopped down on top of regular combat.  For the purposes of the narrative, all kinds of shit related to the spells' castings are happening - fire, lightning, frogs, holy auras, unholy wailing.  All that stuff.  But during the magical combat while the casters are focused on each other, the spells don't cast as usual.  This way, you can't get summarily destroyed by a failed casting on the first round, if you got an 8 and the other guy spellburned for 33 points or something.  You won't lose the spell for after the fight, if you survive.  You may be drained and weak but you can still do the things the party needs.  You vanquished that sumbitch (and maybe could vanquish another if it came to it) but you're not a dagger with legs, now.

This doesn't fix the Cleric side of things - they're included in my version of the rules (not sure if it's the most recent) but it feels like an after-thought.  I think they ought to be able to KABOOM with some divine intervention, too.  Maybe they can request Divine Assistance in the same manner as Invoke Patron, and go for the roll - I'm sure Justicia or Cthulhu would whoop Sezrekan's ass tidily if it came to it, or maybe not.  Maybe that't the point.

The failure of diplomacy is a tragedy.