#19 Winter's Tax

The party is split. Not of their own doing, but split none the less. Last session found the spellcasters Bloggah and Dremont in an undisclosed destination. Within the ancient cavern they fought an old-time roper. I haven't used one of those in decades. The roper used Bloggah as a rag doll for a bit. Dremont tried to cast a few spells, but finally used his hammer and smashed his was to victory. Just in time to save his limp, little buddy from the grave reapers. 

On the other intellectually challenged side of the party was Tarin and Columbo. These meatheads were bushwhacked by cultists of a rival demon. Yes, Columbo pledged an allegiance to a demon Ostun. Demons are not known for playing well with others. The cultists harassed with arrows and swords, but it was a well placed fireball that did them in. Columbo likes to carry flasks of oil on his person. Well those caught fire also. Tarin peed on him to reduce the damage. Yes, he peed on him. I think Columbo liked it. Then Tarin went down. Cultist whittled his snizzle. Columbo managed to endure all the damage and push back the remaining cultists. 

The spellcaster escaped with the help of 8' tall dwarf. One of those original dwarves. Jimmie, a name he took from a fallen adventurer who wasn't using it anymore. Jimmie showed them the way out, but asked they help him cross over into their world. They pink swore. Then found themselves in the Komor Forest in an area they knew.

The bloodied and burned meatheads tucked their tails and are returning to Scorn. Columbo has an idea for a torch condom he plans to sell to the world. 

If this amuses you please join us because we have a great time. While we may be old men we still laugh like a bunch of middle-school kids jacked up on too much sugar and caffeine. 

Join us on Mondays 7pm EST and have some fun. Extra XP to those who heckle Joe. 

Starting a Campaign: Crawlers of Scorn

 

It's been over a year since I concluded my last campaign. Time to get into the GM's chair and begin the next chapter in my world building. The focus moves south of Hounds Head and the Komor Forest to a town known as Scorn. The seat of power of Baron Maybray. 

Welcome to Crawlers of Scorn. 

This campaign starts as an urban setting and I'll see where the party takes it. Streets, alleys, shops, tenements, and more NPCs than I can name. Most shy away from urban crawls, but I love them. I spent years wandering the streets in the City-State of the Invincible Overlord and loved every second. I hope to capture some of that gritty magic and develop an interesting setting where opportunities are not just in a dark tavern.

The system I'm using is Old School Essentials with home rules, of course. The platform leveling is not something I enjoy so I plan to create a more step progression with added bonuses each player can chose from upon leveling. This will allow them some diversity of their abilities so not all 3rd level fighters or thieves look alike. 

This my map of Scorn. I need to find the original copy this one bears the mark of a previous game. Each of the dark shapes are a group of buildings. And if there is space between them there is an alley. And the open areas are the thoroughfares. While I Scorn is a gritty setting, I am not trying to emulate a realistic medieval town, but one that is influenced by history with a lot of dark fantasy spice through in.  

Example of the city blocks broken down into individual buildings. These blocks are what are circled on the larger map.

I'm keeping the party small. Probably four players at this time. I'm using Roll 20. More than four players and a GM it tends to get noisy and I think it's a great number to create diversity without overcrowding

I am using a blog to record sessions. Some entries have links so the players and myself remember and track what has gone on in past sessions.

Here's a couple of examples from a one-on-one campaign I've run with Joe the Lawyer. 

Guildmaster Gordon Quarterton visited the site. Commented on the shoddy work of Snickle's shovel, but liked the idea of it. If Snickle could improve on his design Gordon said he'd be interested in buying a bunch for the guild.

Later that evening Snickle went home to fiddle with a few devices he was working on. A few hours later there was a frantic knock at his door. Carl pleaded with Snickle to let him in. After Carl entered he said the Spears of Sarrath were chasing him. He drank a bit too much and threw up the boots of a Spear.

When the players or myself want to recall what happened with a particular person, place, thing, or event, we can click on the link and there should be a 'play date' for each time they interacted and the result. This helps me as a GM to keep track of events and interactions and I think the players will find the information very useful. 

Soon. I plan on running on Mondays. It'll be good to get back behind the screen once again. 

Creating a Catacomb Hoard

In a recent session the party came upon an ancient burial. Each of the eighty bodies had a weapon, wore armor, shield and each one had a coffer under their head. For sadistic reasons I decided I'd roll each of the corpses separately to determine and exact loot. I should add I am using the B/X Essentials ruleset.

One of the things I needed to determine was the condition of each piece of equipment. I had recently bought Table Fables by Madeline Hale, she had a straight 1d6 table to determine condition. But since these items were hundreds of years old, I wanted the results to skew towards broken or damaged. Here's what I came up with.

2d6     Condition
  2       New
3-4     Used
5-6     Poor (-1)
7-8     Damaged (-2)
9-12   Broken

The condition changes the protection of the armor and damage of the weapons. In my game the poor quality items can be repaired for 10% of the original cost, and damaged items can be repaired for 20% of the original cost. Broken items could be sold for scrap. (i.e. A poor quality suit of chain mail protects at +3AC, not +4, but could be repaired for

Then I created tables for armor type and weapons. For the shield, I created a table to determine the material. 

2d6     Armor
  2       Padded Cloth (+1 AC)
3-6      Leather (+2 AC)
7-8      Studded Leather (+3 AC)
9-10    Chain Mail (+4 AC)
 11      Scale Male (+5 AC)
 12      Plate Mail (+6 AC)

2d6     Weapons
 2-3     Two-handed sword
 4-5     Battle Axe
 6-8     Long Sword
 9-10   Spear
11-12  Bow

2d6     Shield Material
 2-3     Bronze
 4-6     Iron
7-11    Wood
  12     Steel

This system worked well. I considered any 'new' condition result as that item was magical or made of hard silver, a material in my campaign. Hard silver takes on enchantments.

Then to decide what was in the coffers I used treasure type C from the 1st edition Monster Manual. I use a silver standard, if electrum was rolled I replaced it with hard silver pieces. The Northmen used this as a special currency. For game terms, 1hsp equals 5sp. If enough hard silver is collected they can be made into a weapon, armor, or whatever item the players want. I also changed the amounts of coins from the 1000s to 10s.

Copper: 20% chance to find, 1d12.
Silver: 30% chance to find, 1d6.
Electrum (turned into hard silver): 10% chance to find, 1d4.
Gems: 25% chance to find, 1d6.
Jewelry: 20% chance to find, 1d3.
Maps of Magic Items: 10% chance to find, any 2.

With the jewelry and gems, I used the condition table to determine the value. If broken, the metal was scrap or the broken gems could be used as a spell component. On a damaged result the value was in 10s, poor in the 100s, used in  the 1000s, and the result was new, I considered the gem or jewelry magical.

If corpse came up empty, I created mundane items. Some worth something, most were token items. A poor Northmen gets a pint of ale and drinking horn at the minimum. For the mundane items opened different books picked out an item here and there then added them to mix.

It took a lot of time to create this list, but it worked well. The players will need the resources for the next leg of the campaign. They are 2nd and 3rd level characters attempting to establish their  a temple, a mage tower, and a trading post in a very hostile region.

Disclosure 
The links are affiliate links. I like both products a lot. If you do go for B/X Essentials I suggest the print option, then you get the PDFs for free. Well worth it.

And if you like Table Fables, there is a second book, conveniently named Table Fables II, that focuses on World Building. Also worth grabbing.

Game Report: Cleansing of the Temple

This post has nothing to do with MeWe. You are welcome. 

Cast of Characters

Finikas Snotrags: The youngest son of a well-to-do merchant halfling family.

Brimstone: Street mage from Scorn. 

Johann Swartz: An honored hunter dedicated to the Theophant.

The Catch-Up

A few sessions back the group received a land grant. It was located at a Northman temple ruins. There the honored hunter could build a temple to the Theophant, which is normally forbidden. The halfling could establish a trade post and expand his family's influence father north. And the mage could construct a tower and start his own group of mages. But the Komor Forest will not give in easily. 

A halfling, porter, and a sleeping torchbearer wait in a bar

Brimstone decided to check the tavern and hire another fighter. When he went down the stairs there was only a well-equipped halfling, a large man sitting at the table with him, and a lanky man sleeping against the wall with a satchel of torches around his neck. 

The halfling, Bost Waddle, was one of those notorious halflings that liked to wander too much. A wandering waddle if you will. Between Brimstone and Finikas, they struck a deal with him. While not interested with adventure with them, he was interested in building a home on their land. And to help convince them, gave them a 100sp on the spot. 

Brimstone hired Quim (yes I know what the urban dictionary says it is, or anyone else who has watch Rob Roy, but damn it I rolled on a random table and that was the name I rolled. Plus, I thought it was funny). Quim convinced Brimstone he was good, a 3rd generation torchbearer. I'm using the torchbearer class from The Manor #8. He has a lot of specialty torches. 

Hamlet of Hounds Head

Wal-Mart has Move Into the Neighborhood

The players started in Hounds Head. They planned to head north to claim their territory and check out their land. Before leaving they decided to go to the general store and grab rations. There were none. In fact, most of the store had been bought out. The shop owner said the Adventures Guild came in and bought everything.

He could pre-order rations for them. He expected another bunch arriving next week. They bought a few weeks worth. And of course some oil flasks were on the order sheet. he shop owner discussed deal with the group. The Adventures Guild has on more than one occasion put smaller businesses out. The group agreed to work with the shop owner.

The Adventurer's Guild

To the south of Hounds Head is a massive construction site. The land was being stripped, leveled, and construction supplies everywhere. A man directed the workers. He used various slurs and created unflattering nicknames to everyone he spoke to. Then the party tried to speak with him. That did not go so. He offered to hire them, once it was known they were just 'lookie lous' he dismissed them and pushed Finikas away by his face.

The party also noticed all the gear that was in the store was now worn by the folk working here. Some of those they knew, before were dressed in make-shift armor and weapons, now wore more suitable attire for combat. The beast was growing.

Into the Forest
They set off to find their site deciding that the development of their own land would be the best defense. Along the way the passed a marsh that buzzed with stirges. They avoided it.

Then they came upon the temple ruins.

Elk Temple Map from Kingmaker Part 1

There the party discovered a gigantic bear guard what remained of the temple. During the battle the bear tore apart one of the henchmen before being downed by a rain of bolts and cuts. When the bear died it slowly transformed into a man. A northman. He wore a necklace known to be sacred. They buried him on site.

They noticed the pool cleared and after some experimentation, fed the fallen henchmen the water. He awoke with a start. His eyes wide, unsure what happened. He kept complaining of feeling different.

They continued to explore the ruins and to the west they found a series of catacombs. Half full. Estimate of 80 Northmen were laid out here. All with a weapon, armor, a shield with their name etched upon it, and a small box beneath their head.

Johann announced the area is ready to be sanctified, the creatures of evil would assault the temple to keep this from happening. This will take 24 hours and the ceremony must not be disrupted.

End of Session.

Things for Next Session

• The next session will be the ceremony and the defense of the temple and Johann. For this I will devise a random table of attacks, mixed with a few set encounters.
• Generate the weapons, armor, and what is within the boxes for 80 soldiers.

New Tricks for the Old Dog

I've been considering companions of the animal kind.  I'm not talking about familiars.  Never been a huge fan of those, but never disallowed it.  Although they tend to have a short life span in most of my campaigns.  I'm talking about significant animal companions that have followed an adventurer for a significant amount of time.  I'm plan on adding these companions to my ranger and druid classes. 

When someone gets a familiar it is very useful in the first few levels, but then after that (if it lives) it becomes less helpful and sort of an after thought.  I can't remember in my experience, when anyone used one past the first levels. 

Here's my plan.  Animal companions level up with their master.  Makes record keeping much simpler.  So when a ranger reaches a new level, here's what he can do with his animal buddy.  He can chose one of the following:
Roll for extra hit points

• Add 1d4 hit points
• Add +1 to hit 
• Add +1 to damage
• Add +1 to AC
• Add a new task it can perform

This way the companion can improve with the character without becoming overpowering.  The new task that the companion can perform can be different depending on the animal type.  If the companion has some magical ability maybe they acquire a new one, or improve an existing ability.

Say the ranger loses his companion in a fight.  It's going to happen, adventurers live dangerous lives.  What would happen then is the player could eventually get a new companion, maybe with a little RPing involved, and the new companion would start as a newb.  Base template stats, and then move up from there.  Or of the almighty GM has been plied enough with praise and pizza, a different, more powerful companion could be found.

Anyway, I like the idea of it. 

Three Levels of Campaign Description

One of the skills I'm trying to hone as I am developing my campaign world is editing it.  Leaving out details while they may be cool, not necessary at this time.  Keep it focused and develop the cool stuff in small quantities so the players are not overwhelmed with information. 

When I write up information for my world it tend to come in three different levels.

First, is the the overall definition. 

Gorsdale - A mining village in the heart of the Formas Hills.  It is run and protected by the merchant lord Tyberius. 

Formas Hills - These hills are rough and unforgiving.  The deadly, silver serpents make their home here, but because the ground is rich with ore people risk it all to find riches.

Tyberius - A merchant lord, friend of the king on sits on the council of the merchant guild.  He is responsible for most of the mines in the southeast region of the kingdom. 

Second, I get a little more specific with the information.  Someone who has had some dealings with the person place or thing would know.

Gorsdale - This mining village is populated with slaves.  Tyberius has the gold mine surrounded with his hired army, fortifications have been erected to protect from attack.  No one is permitted entry.

Formas Hills - Some of the smaller hills are hollow and that's where the silver serpents make their home.  Their skins are highly valued at the market and their poison is highly valued on the black market.

Tyberius - The merchant lord has no scruples about keeping and increasing his wealth.  He owns a small army that he uses to intimidate others to get what he wants.  Those who oppose him disappear or become very agreeable.

And the final stage I write something is more intimate details.  Only those who have been there or dealt with the person for an extended period of time.

Gorsdale - Just as many wagon loads of corpses come out of Gorsdale as gold.  The bodies are dumped in a pit a few miles away.  Some of the corpses are marked with red.  The pickers go through the corpses to find the marked bodies.  It's inside these bodies that Tyberius hides the gems.  The pickers gather the gems and bring them into town.

Formas Hills - There is a shrine in one of the hollowed hills.  Its an ancient shrine with cryptic writings, but should some take the time to study they will find they no longer need to fear the silver serpents. 

Tyberius - The gems he is smuggling out from his mines are what allows him to pay for his army.  He sells most of his gems to the sea kingdoms as to not bring any unwanted attention.  With his increase of power he's gotten a little sloppy and isn't focusing on his businesses and instead trying to become friends with nobility.

Not the best examples, but I think they demonstrate the different levels of information in a campaign.  Some people and locations may only have two levels.  A farmer in a village may only have one level, My name is Hank.  I'm a farmer.  I work the fields.  His next level may be he works the north fields on odd days and south fields on even days. 

Writing information like this helps me keep the places and people mysterious and have some depth.  Players can assume, but it won't be until they start investigating that they'll find the next level of knowledge.  And if your a good GM, they may regret knowing it.

Characters for the Campaign

A couple of days ago I wrote a post Beginning of a Character.  I plan on running my first session this Thursday.  I finished the template of how I'm presenting the characters.  I think it turned out pretty good.  Here's +Ken H character.  He's playing a battle mage.  I'm using a Frankenstein system where I'm just bolting on what I like.  Ken is going to be my tester for spell point system I put into place.  I think I've simplified it enough, but I won't know until we start rolling dice. 

Here's Ken's character, Hyroth.

Now I need to finish +Rob Conley and +Chris C. characters.

Beginnings of a Character

One of the things I like to do when I start a game/campaign is to provide the players pre-gens.  Pre-gens tailor made for each person.  I ask a few questions ahead of time like what class they would like to play and personality.  Then I create the characters around what they want to play then, I take the time to construct a loose background, give them information about the world they are about to explore so they are not going in cold.  I provide them with allies, family and enemies. 

I've done this in the past and it has worked very well and the players seem to like it.  It provides a character backstory before they get started, helps them get an idea of the world, provides knowledge footholds of villages, people and businesses.  I send them their characters a few days ahead of time so they can read through and they can ask any questions.  If time allows I have in the past run them through solo sessions.

During the first night the players all should have had their characters and read through them enough to know the backstory.  I always have connections or hints at things during the session that refer to their backstory. 

Next Thursday night I'll be running a session with three, possible four players and tonight I'll be working on creating them.  I'm looking forward to actually playing it instead of writing about it. 

Using My Tavern Cards

Yesterday I wrote about my Tavern Cards from the same named Kickstarter.  I thought I'd use them to create a tavern on the spot.  Somewhere I thought I saw someone using a Tavern Card Spread, but can't find it or I may just have made it up in mind.  So I'm creating my own Official Gothridge Manor Tavern Card Spread (OGMTCS).  I have no idea what that means.  I'm off sick from work today so I may be a little delusional.

Here's how the OGMTCS works.  You shuffle the cards and then lay out four of the cards in a square...  What?  Did you expect some Tarot Card fancy smancy spread.  Not here.  Not now.  So make a square with the four cards.  The top two will be the name.  The bottom two are features you will find in the tavern.  Now I need to find the camera because this is going to need visual aids. 

This is what a shuffled deck of Tavern Cards should look like.  While they may look exactly like an unshuffled deck I assure you they are shuffled.  I'm a trained professional.

This is what an Official Gothridge Manor Tavern Card Spread (OGMTCS) looks like.  Please don't let this intimidate you.  And please don't get frustrated if you can't do it correctly the first time.  it takes practice and patience.  If you need assistance you can email me for instructions.

So the we take the top two cards for the name.  The one on the left has a verb/adjective on the left side of the card and the top right card has the noun on the right side of the card.  For beginners left is this way < and right is this way >, unless you are standing on your head, then reverse.  The name of our tavern is The Thirsty Mare.

At the bottom part of the OGMTCS are a couple of features of The Thirsty Mare.  It's got cheap rooms and burly bouncers.  It's like magic.  I now have a tavern that the players can enter and burn down later in the session.

The Thirsty Mare
The Thirsty Mare was once a high end tavern where rich merchants mingled with young nobles.  Their libertine activities were accompanied by an influx of the criminal element.  When the novelty of the Drinking Mare wore off, the merchants and nobles left, but the criminal element remained.  It is now a place known to be run by the Shadow Merchants, a guild of thieves and thugs.  While they run the tavern as a regular business there is a lot of side tranactions going on.  Fights rarely happen at The Thirsty Mare because the bouncers use poisons and toxic powders to quell conflicts.  Any damage done to the tavern has a street price set, it averages to be 10x the amount of the actually cost of the damage.  If you destroy a chair that costs 3sp, you'd better deliver 30sp in a timely manner or you may find yourself mugged, home looted or your favorite pet nailed to your door.  The place is run by a man called, Grist.  He bears the ritual scarring practiced by the mad shamans that live on the Porvose Reef.  He is a large man with unusual powers.  Many come to him for counsel.

I think its not a half bad tavern.  Definitely something I can use.  All inspired by Tavern Cards and the use of the OGMTCS. 

Gods and Classes

I was going to write a post about gaming complexity balance.  I should say, I did write it, but deleted it cause it sucked and a little too pedantic.  So I wrote this instead.  It's your fault for reading.

This campaign I'm opening a couple things up, classes and gods.  I'm opening up the classes because they're are so many available and the variety is a lot of fun.  While there will be a lot of choices the classes a fairly straight forward.  I've added a few culture based classes to reflect the region and what they hold valuable.  You won't find any race class stuff.  I've never been a fan of elf or dwarf being a class.  I'm beg, borrowing and stealing ideas out of my gaming books and all your blogs out there.  Once I have a collection of them I'll edit them for the region, but I won't put limitations on the PCs.  They like to feel special.

Gods.  I normally run a 10 god pantheon with a long back history, tales and lore that go along with it, but being inspired by the Petty Gods project I've been creating a lot of nook and cranky gods.  It's been a blast creating them.  I like the weirdness that infuses into a world.  The clerics will reflect their god instead of being cookie cutter clerics.  I'm going to leave the interpretation up to the player to figure out and then we'll role-play it out.  Example, if a cleric of Lavinia, a goddess of Mercy and Healing tried to cause light wounds its not going to work and the cleric will lose his spell for that day.  But if they are healing someone they'll get a bonus to their roll.  And the gods are fickle, I'll roll reaction rolls each month to determine the god's mood.

What do you do to differentiate your religions and/or clerical abilities from one another?

Filling In My Campaign One Pebble at a Time

For the past few days I've been developing small sites the players can find in my campaign.  I like to do this because the work up front isn't all that much, they are little surprises if the players find them and it helps me flavor the immediate area.  It doesn't take a lot to get the player's interest.  While I'm stopping short of "Squirrel!". it's pretty close.  I say this with confidence since I am mainly a player.

A couple of examples:
As the party hacks away as the undergrowth this section of the forest gets darker.  The canopy of leaves blocks out most of the sunlight.  One of you notice the slightest of trails.  It winds towards a thicket of trees.  Within the trees you spot a battered shack with a severed arm at the peek pointing toward the sky.

The road looks to have been cared for at one time.  Even in rough shape it is better than most of the main kingdom roads.  Along the eastern edge of the road is a shallow swamp.  Several dozen blacken stumps jut out of the dark water.  As you continue the swamp gets larger and the swamp noises increase.  It reaches a point where you have to shout to speak to the person beside you.  Its then you notice, a half buried obelisk stands tilted about fifty yards in. 

As a player, I'm checking both these places out.  Might be nothing.  Might be just a old thing along the way.  Might be the start of an adventure.  You don't know until you investigate.

Say I decide to make the shack the home of a witch.  All of sudden the nearby villages might have animals come up missing.  A child that wandered off into the woods has not returned.  I'm about to say something corny, forgive me, but its like throwing a pebble into the pond and watch it effect the surrounding area.  Then again, it may be nothing.  And having sites like this that are mundane are very important.  Not every cabin in the woods should be an event.  Same with the obelisk, maybe its just an old decoration left over from a sunken building and that building is all but gone. 

Anyway, that's what I've been working on.  To help ease the work load I've been using maps that I've drawn, +matt jackson, +Dyson Logos, +Simon Forster, and +Rob Conley.  I've been using various gaming products too numerous to name here, but I will in a later post.  Give some shout outs to those who made my campaign better.  And I'm also plugging in a few pre-made adventures by others because I liked them a lot.

Okay, time to go throw another pebble.

A Pre-Adventure, Adventure

Picture by LuigiL

I continue to shape the campaign world I'm working on.  I plan on running my first adventure in January sometime.  A playtest of sorts.  I'll have the guys start with 0-level guys, kinda of like DCC style, they will have items that reflect their background and of course be incredibly susceptible to the world around them.  Creating a couple of characters would be a good idea.

I "plan" on running a coming of age adventure.  The theme will focus on these very young adventurers coming together as they go through a rite to adulthood by completing the Trutoro Pilgrimage.  So it will be a pre-adventure, adventure.  It will give the players a little background, an introduction of the people they will be dealing with and the world in general.  I guess you could compare it to Harry Potter going off to Hogwarts, except I don't get a billion dollars.

I've got ideas for the pilgrimage.  Some I've gotten from historical references, culture rites of passage and a good portion is my own made up stuff.  I like the idea of having adventures before the players become adventurers.  In the past I ran a session or two with each player individually to give their character a sense of history, an identity beyond the group.  It also helped to establish contacts, friends and develop enemies or at least competitors. 

Off to work.  It's a weird Friday since very few will be there.  I've loaded up my iPod and plan to zone out to some tunes and catch up on paperwork.  That's the plan.  But like most plans, I imagine it will be blown to shit within 15 minutes.

Campaign Development Progression

I've been working on a campaign for a while now.  What I thought would be a simple...well, not simple, but a little more simple, I would draw a map of the immediate region.  Hex crawl style.  A handful of villages, maybe a town, ruins (gotta have ruins), a few lairs and places of interest.  Write them up.  Go.

Something happened along the way.  I decided to do an extensive house rule game.  My foundation of the game is Swords & Wizardry Complete and Blood & Treasure.  I've included a small skill system because the GURPs side of me always likes to see how much you succeeded and failed by.  Probably the biggest challenge has been the spell system.  I'll be using a point system with for spell casters.  And with that I've created different types (classes) of spell caster.

Clerics are a little more easy.  But I've been creating a vast amount of deities to meddle with them stink'n lesser races.  That inspiration came from Petty Gods project and showed me I could have a lot of fun with them and I have.

I created a handful of adventures that were made specifically for the campaign area.  Easy to write, adds to the color of the local lore.

The other part of the campaign that has been taking up time is the back story, the history.  I've always done a generalization, but not this time.  While it won't matter to the player at first (or maybe at all) they will find things that hold significance to another time and place.  And with that knowledge they will understand what is valuable.  Or where to find things that are.

I'll share more down the line.  Not too much.  I have players who will peek.  I plan on running games after the New Year on Google+.  I'll run games for my home group, but would like to explore it with others.  When it gets closer to me running a game I throw out a ad and see who is interested.  I'm fine with playing with just two people and I think i would cap it at four.  Seem anything over four players and a GM the noise factor starts to increase drastically.  If you think you might be interest email or IM onGoogle+ so I can send out a specific invite and see if you are able to make the time, 6:30pm to 9:30pm EST, is game time.  I usually get on a half hour early to answer question or BS for a bit.

A Magic Item You Might Find in My Campaign

Lately I've been working on my campaign in between times and spaces.  The pace is slow, but I'm enjoying the process.  Those of you who have read a few of my things know I try to make my magic items unique.  I don't like using canned magic items unless I can mess with them.  Since tonight I was working on the campaign again I thought I would create a magic item.

Hag's Eye

History: Merrick was a seasoned alchemist whose fascination with the dead caused him legal problems in the form of grave robbing, assault and his final act of murder saw him hung from a ironwood tree at the crossroads.  Before the authorities could raid his home, his assistants managed to escape with his formulas.  Many of the potions were failures that did very little other than make the imbiber sick...except for one. 

Ingredients: The base of the potion calls for the liquefaction of a corpse's brain no more than a day old.  Quoted directly from Merrick's notes "The man must not have been an idiot in life.  The brain must be intact and not scarred."  The recently deceased must have had a Wisdom of 13+.  A mixture of grave dust, a night hag eye and ten viz* harvested from undead creatures.

Imbuing: The mixture should be left over a high flame.  The brew takes very little time to become effective.  The hag's eye will absorb the liquid and viz, but remains the same size.  If it breaks during the process, it is ruined.

Using: The person wanting to use the Hag's Eye must consume it whole.

Powers: The person under the effect of the Hag's Eye can see into the world of the dead.  Can see and speak to spirits (like the spell).  It allows the imbiber to strike undead creatures with any weapon, even those requiring magic weapons.  It also allows the imbiber to interact with incorporeal undead as if they were a corporal form.  These powers last 1d4 hours.

Side Effects: The user takes double damage from silver or iron weapons during the duration.  After the duration ends, the imbiber will be blind for 2d6 hours (save will halve the duration).

Campaign Map Funneling

Here's my, I guess I would call it a regional map.  It's not a world map, but its a chunk of it.  I don't think I've ever drawn a world map.  Never had a campaign where that was required and to tell the truth, I'm not all that interested drawing one at this time.  This is my largest scale map.  Hexes are 12 miles or 124 square miles. 

This will be the main campaign area out of all that above.  Hex 1010 is where the players will start.  I have that hex and all the surround hexes detailed.

This is Hex 1010 in detail.  Towns, villages, camps and places of interest are noted.  Along with names of the major geographical features in the hex.

The I select one of the town or areas of interest and draw another map.  It's like Google Map, we keep getting closer and in more detail.

Here's the Village of Bad Water.  And then below is a map of one of ruin locations.  Both get the same funnel level maps.

This one is nearly like the level above, a snap show of area and places of interested are noted with numbers.  But most of these will just have written entries as to what is there.  Unless, say number 10 is a set of stairs leading down to a dungeon.

Then there will be the last level of the funnel map.  I have been known to do detailed maps of the rooms, but for my campaign this is the smallest map I'll draw. 

So here is my campaign map funneling and the reason why I've been drawing a lot of maps lately.  While I won't probably draw maps for every village/camp/town, I'll still do a rough sketch and notes on what is in town and NPCs. 

Map funnel complete.

Day 4 and I Already Hit the Wall

I'm a fricking lightweight.  Last night was the 4th night and I already wanted to pass on doing my writing.  Tired from work and just wanting to watch Netflix...nope.  Whisk coached me into starting.  Grind.  Grind.  That's me grinding on my writing...not the other kind.  I know, TMI.  Fast forward, around 10:30pm I had the b button buried in my forehead from falling asleep and hitting my head on the keyboard, but I got my 1700 in last night.

What I worked on is the village of Bad Water.

I believe I posted this map a little while ago.  I'm going through and adding who is in each building their background, secrets and possible adventure hooks with the hard working villagers of Bad Water.  I got through 11 buildings last night and just started working on the next batch.

Back to work.

Map Time...I Know, Again

This map is for the campaign though.  So this one really has a purpose where the other two were doodles.  Here is the village of Bad Water.  This is my first attempt at crop fields.  Meh.  But I think you can identify them easily for what they are.  I like how the stone fields came out.  Might be a few nasty surprises in the outcroppings. 

I have the houses numbered to do a brief (2 to 3 sentences) of who lives inside and general occupation.  Most of these folks are farmers, but some will have secondary skills.  Number 28 is a small fortification with a dozen or so guards.  Their main job is to patrol the roads and keep them clear of bad things. 

The Gladiator Class

I've been lax in blogging, but I've been working on stuff over here.  This new campaign world I'm working on is going well there are a lot of parts to it.  I'm sure I am over doing some things (like the classes), but I'm enjoying the process.  Last time I posted the Guard class and everyone was very helpful.  I need to update it to the newest version.

This time I'm posting the Gladiator class.  Some of the...who am I kidding, I watched a ton of Spartacus and that's where my inspiration comes from.  Arenas are fairly common in my world.  That or the simplified version of pit fighting.  And this time around I will be using the one silver earned equals one experience point.  Never did that before, but for the gladiator and earning money in fight becomes more of an experience pool than just thumping opponents.

If you've got the time please take a look.  It's one page and should you have any suggestions please put them in the comments.

Once I get a few more done I'll add a page to above for my campaign material reference.  I've been working on dungeons, towns, NPCs, mapping, class building and trying to untangle how I want to use the magic system in different ways.

Campaign Map Time!

I finished a region of my campaign world.  Here's the colored pencil/sharpie version without names and sites.

As you can see, Whisk was doing coupons on the kitchen table, but I still took the picture.  The overall region is the picture below.  Then maps of the four of the hexes are above.

Hex 0910, 1009, 1010 and1110 are the four hexes I did area maps for so far.  The campaign will start in hex 1010.  Each of those hexes are 14 miles across.

Here's what they look like cut out and put together.  I forget where I found the hexes in a big hex paper, but I made several copies.  I think I would like to at least have the central hex and all the surrounding hexes finished.

I showed a version of this one in an earlier post, Game Night Chat. 

This is what it looks like after I put the names and mark the sites on the maps using Xara.  To my players, go ahead and print this out if you think it will help. 

This is hex 1009.  I some how managed to make every hex a little crooked.  It takes skill to be the consistently inept.  I make it look easy.

Okay, why does blogger keep flipping my photos?  I have to save them on there side so when I download them here they are right side up.  That is not a pube in the lower left hand corner...I think.

Last hex map.  I couldn't get the color to work that well for this one. 

After I finish them they will go in the scanner.  That was if I spill ice tea on the originals I have a copy.  I learned that lesson the hard way a few times.  Then I open Xara and start naming and marking sites.  But before that I like to write up a few details just looking at the blank map.  I don't want anything defined at that time.  I just write what comes to mind and try to weave it with the other things I've written. 

The Guard Class: Updated

UPDATED: I've redone the Guard class with the assistance of some very good suggestions.   Should you have any more thought please add them.

Last night I was at the bookstore, not writing my campaign, but came up with something else.  I created a Guard class.  I placed it in my Dropbox for you to take a look at.  Class design is not my strength.  I always tend to make them too powerful.  I did a short write up.  I gave the class a few special perks/abilities to give it its own flair.  I plan on using this for my own campaign for the city guards/caravan guards and so on.

Please take a look and if you have an suggestions please let me know.  I'd like to add this to my class arsenal.  Thanks ahead of time.

I'm a guard and now I've got class, but not until after this nap.