Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7
Eldritch Fields
2021. január 21., csütörtök
[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #8
2021. január 15., péntek
[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #7
The first Mazes & Minotaurs session of 2021 was a blast!
Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6
2021. január 6., szerda
[Dungeon] Maze of Amazement ( & Death ), one-page adventure for OD&D/Delving Deeper
So, if keying the entirety of The Maddening Corridors of Nuclear Chaos is not really a viable option, what can we do with it?
Well, we can cut it up and use a part of it as a complete dungeon!
I divided up The Maddening Corridors map into 36 quadrants, took a random one (by rolling two six-siders), cut it into half, edited out some errant corridors and superfluous exits; and ended up with a 60-ish room dungeon.
The next step of the exercise was to key it. I followed the basic procedure of my two previous OD&D efforts (Temple of the Berserkers and Outpost of Stone & Silver): stocked it quickly using Delving Deeper (made even quicker through Inspiration Pad Pro automation), then edited as needed...
You can fit 61 rooms on a single page... Of course, the key becomes very minimal, but still, I think this is playable. See for yourselves:
Download PDF with map & key!
Enjoy!
2021. január 3., vasárnap
[Map] THE MADDENING CORRIDORS OF NUCLEAR CHAOS are just too big
You can download the full map here...
(Click the link above to get the map in various resolutions, and I've also added a black & white version!)
2020. december 19., szombat
[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #6
2020. december 13., vasárnap
[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #5
2020. december 4., péntek
[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #4
This week we returned to ancient times for another session of our Mazes & Minotaurs campaign!
Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3
We picked up where we left off, in the mystic grove of the shapechanging stag, with two players present:
Meteora, the Amazon
Ellipsis, the Hunter
and two NPC warriors, Buff & Guff
Porphyra the Lyrist's player couldn't make it, so we rules that Porphyra stayed behind to entertain the stag this session.
We started off with some carousing and conversation. The magic stag was quite talkative, and shared a lot of information about the locale. It also shared some magic mushrooms with the humans, although it warned them about side effects... Meteora ate one, and gained the power of regeneration - although for each wound regenerated she would gain an animal feature or other cosmetic mutation, leading to her slow transition into an unrecognizable woman-beast! Ellipsis also partook in the mushroom party, and his shadow detached and became his henchman!
Through conversations, the players learned that the Stag and the Mother Superior (stern overseer of the lake nymphs) were actually siblings! They were both hatched from eggs of their mother, a magnificent bird, called the Feathered Queen. The Stag also disclosed that it wasn't on speaking terms with the Queen. However, it was worried that something had happened to the Feathered Queen, because she hasn't been seen flying around for some time.
The party also learned a lot about the history of the land: like the tribe of the Golden Warrior, the Warrior's conflict with the witch, Mother Superior, and other tidbits.
Leaving Porphyra behind, Meteora, Ellipsis, and the two warriors set out towards the mountain peak to the north, the abode of the Feathered Queen.
2020. november 28., szombat
Automatic stronghold generation! [OD&D / Delving Deeper]
Let's bring together all my favorite things: random tables, automated through Inspiration Pad Pro, OD&D-style strongholds, and ancient history turned fantasy!
I put together a generator file for Strongholds:
It's based upon:
- The wilderness and treasure sections of Delving Deeper form the foundation (DD is one of the best OD&D clones out there!).
- For the NPCs, I added the wonderful d4 Caltrops Vocations, Mannerisms & Pecularities!
- For names, I loaded thousands of ancient Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hittite names, sources from Kate Monk's Onomastikon.
- And fleshed it out with some of my own work.
- Also, for inspiration, read the collected "Implied OD&D setting" posts!
A couple of examples:
· Plains hex
· The Stronghold is a centuries old fastness at a bridge. It was won at a game of chance by the current resident. Its condition is weak.
· The resident is Eurykratides the Barbarian, a level 10 Chaotic Magic-User (signature spell: Phantasm), Judgmental and Paranoid; with an entourage of Gargoyles. Attended by 2 Apprentices (level 3-6 Magic-Users).
· The resident's coat of arms is a Purple Flower against Black field.
· A force of 130 Berserkers is garrisoned in the Stronghold.
· No Specialist hireling is in the resident's personal employ.
· Some NPCs: Pushu-ken (Fastidious Caulker), Satyros (Egotistical Shrine Attendant) and Luga the Gray (Honest Furniture Maker).
· An artifact is hidden in the zoo: a Map leading to a magic item: a magic sword:
Teeth of Leontiades the Mad
Lawful Sword +2, Ego: 5 (+1 for each language or power), Intelligence: 5
(Unintelligent)
If both Intelligence and Ego are equal to or over 9, the sword's Purpose is to
Slay fighters
· Mountains hex
· The Stronghold is a pre-human fort inside a volcano. It was created by the
current resident. Its condition is serviceable.
· The resident is Duchess Oarizus, a level 11 Anti-Cleric
(signature spell: Insect Plague), Impolite and Giggling; with an entourage of Vampires.
· The resident's coat of arms is a Black Gorgon against Silver field.
· A force of 100 Orcs is garrisoned in the Stronghold.
· No Specialist hireling is in the resident's personal employ.
· Some NPCs: Ahu-shina (Earnest Hawker), Maiandrios (Irrational Guardsman) and
Pinotmou the Equine (Observant Jailor).
· An artifact is hidden in the bedchamber: Plate armor & shield +2.
2020. november 22., vasárnap
How much D&D can one find in Appendix N?
Obviously, there are a lot of motifs from Appendix N literature in D&D. But how much D&D is there in Appendix N literature? Myriad traces of myriad pulp fantasy/horror/sci-fi works have made their way into the DNA of D&D; but at the same time not many texts feel completely like a D&D session. Which is logical, of course: what works as a game session is not necessarily enjoyable literature. But as an exercise, I thought it would be fun to set up a scale of just how “D&D-like” is a particular text. This is not a score about the literary merits or whatever of the works. It is correspondence to the specific and somewhat arbitrary idea of a D&D session, formulated as:
“A group of adventurers tracks through a wilderness,
descends into a dungeon, explores a place of weirdness and wonder, tries to
overcome obstacles and monstrous enemies through cunning, martial prowess and
magic, retrieves treasure.”
I broke down this description into 10 categories, took three
short stories I like, and scored them:
|
“The Weaver
in the Vault” by Clark Ashton Smith (1934) |
“The Jewels
of Bas” by Leigh Brackett (1944) |
“Straggler
from Atlantis” by Manly Wade Wellman (1977) |
Group of
adventurers |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Wilderness |
1 |
0.5 |
0 |
Dungeon |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Weirdness
& Wonder |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Obstacles |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Monsters |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Cunning |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Martial
prowess |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Magic |
0 |
0.5 |
0 |
Treasure |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Final score |
7/10 |
8/10 |
6/10 |
“The Weaver in the Vault” by Clark Ashton Smith stars “three
of the king’s hardiest henchmen” on a quest to retrieve a mummy from the ruins
of a royal tomb. If this isn’t a D&D setup, then what is? The wilderness
track is cool, my favorite part is when they rest at the “wayside shrine of
Yucla, the small and grotesque god of laughter”. Also, spoiler: it ends in a
TPK (they should have thought about party balance! Three fighting-men…). [read it online!]
“The Jewel of Bas” by Leigh Brackett starts out with just
two “adventurers” (a bard and a thief!), but along the way they pick up a
rag-tag team of outcasts (like an insane hermit and a hunter). The monster
section is great: there are low-level mooks (the Kalds), Big Bads (the
androids), and even a high-powered NPC. The wilderness is mostly a scenery, not
really interacted with. The dungeon is very cool, and there’s lots of
weirdness, much of it rather dangerous. [read it online!]
“Straggler from Atlantis” by Manly Wade Wellman has a single
main protagonist, which is, of course, not very D&D-like. And he faces the
monster without bringing henchmen or torchbearers, the fool! Still, the story
(which has a great Odyssey feel) has a small cave dungeon, an interesting
monster (alien ooze!), nice NPCs, and a capable cunning warrior. [buy digital/print]
2020. november 20., péntek
[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonies & Chimeras! Session #3
This week's session took the party deep into the mythical forests of the unknown land!
Previous recaps: Session #1, Session #2
The party showed up in full force:
Meteora, the Amazon
Porphyra, the Lyrist
Ellipsis, the Hunter
and the NPC warriors, who even got names: Guff and Buff
As Meteora missed last session, I had her roll on the chart and weaved the result into the game. Turns out, last day Meteora got lost in the enchanted forest, and found a lake. She met a beautiful blue-skinned lady, and they bathed together in the lake's fresh water.
After establishing this, as all players showed up on time, they rolled on the chart of bonuses for reliable players (yes, I'm okay with rewarding meta things...). Ellipsis got darkvision for this session, while Porphyra received an omen. Meteora had her tribe's ancestral weapon (a sword of meteoric iron!) appear in her hand. This magnetic sword whispered to her (after the refreshing bath), that her friends are trapped in the enchanted forest, and led her as a compass to the mound where the other camped for the night.
The party was thus reunited in the tunnels of the mound.
They rested for a night (except Porphyra, who sang quiet lullabies to regain her magical powers).
During Meteora's watch, she heard a scraping sound coming from one of the blocked off side passages. She cautiously approached and asked who was there. A strange voice, or rather - two voices in near-perfect unison answered: "it is me, the Unnamed Child!". Meteora was freaked out and went back to the main chamber... Otherwise, the night passed without trouble.
In the morning, the adventurers decided to properly explore the whole mound.