Some names for the megadungeon, all drawn from its back story:
Foro Nel Mondo
Bocca Dell'inferno
Rottura della Creazione
Rottura nella Creazione
Ware Sorte Awersa Di s (shorten to Ware Sorte Awersa?)
Sorte avversa degli articoli
Buco Nero
Santuario Nero
Hmmm...Santuario Nero...I guess that's a good name to start. Not too exciting if you translate it, but I suspect I'll deform it some more along the way.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Random Campaign Idea: The Last God
At the dawn of time the gods who inhabited the Astral Sea warred with the Old Ones from beyond the known universe. Aberrant monsters of the Far Realm they sought to unmake creation. The gods were hard pressed and imbued the mortals with their powers to join in the battle. In the end the Old Ones were driven from the moral world and it's parallels as well as the Astral Sea. However, many gods fell and a handful of openings to the Far Realms permitted the servants of the Old Ones to corrupt creation.
For a time the gods worked to heal the world and mortals hunted down the fell servants but the Old Ones were not permanently deterred. Again the Old Ones struck and were defeated yet more gods fell. Like the tides breaking upon the shore each war ended with reality preserved but more of the gods, and often their planes within the Astral Sea, destroyed. Each time more of the Old One's servants remained behind.
Now, a thousand years after the last war, the world awaits its fate. The Last God imbues his servants with the power to destroy the aberrant monsters while runepriests join mystery cults dedicated to fallen gods to learn their powers. Other mortals, knowing that the gods are spent and the defense of the world falls to them, have taken to walking arcane paths and making fell pacts to garner power to defeat the Old Ones and their servants. The Fey wilds have sent forth their own champions and even beings of Elemental Chaos have stepped into the world to prepare for its next defense.
Yet even before that can begin the world must be cleansed of the corruption left by the Old Ones, including the promises of power to persevere against them or even among them. It seems no place is pure and no power lies uncorrupted.
This idea comes from two primary sources and one secondary source. The primary sources are James Raggi's how to make D&D metal and Palladium Book's Old Ones. The secondary source is Charnel Gods, a supplement to Sorcerer which has no web presence that I can find.
The principle idea behind the setting is an ongoing war for the universe between the gods and Cthuvian Old Ones. As the gods beat off each attack their numbers diminished faster than their ability to regenerate. Now, the Last God prepares for his final battle by empowering servants, while men try to claim both the powers of the fallen gods as well learn the powers of creation directly.
Meanwhile, these wars have corrupted the world itself. Most power is now seduced by servants of the Old Ones and the world wars among itself as much as it tries to heal and prepare. The characters are new heroes rising to fight the corruption of the world only to risk seduction by it. Those who persevere beyond that seduction can rise to defend creation itself.
I originally conceived this for my restricted classes and races 4e campaign.
For a time the gods worked to heal the world and mortals hunted down the fell servants but the Old Ones were not permanently deterred. Again the Old Ones struck and were defeated yet more gods fell. Like the tides breaking upon the shore each war ended with reality preserved but more of the gods, and often their planes within the Astral Sea, destroyed. Each time more of the Old One's servants remained behind.
Now, a thousand years after the last war, the world awaits its fate. The Last God imbues his servants with the power to destroy the aberrant monsters while runepriests join mystery cults dedicated to fallen gods to learn their powers. Other mortals, knowing that the gods are spent and the defense of the world falls to them, have taken to walking arcane paths and making fell pacts to garner power to defeat the Old Ones and their servants. The Fey wilds have sent forth their own champions and even beings of Elemental Chaos have stepped into the world to prepare for its next defense.
Yet even before that can begin the world must be cleansed of the corruption left by the Old Ones, including the promises of power to persevere against them or even among them. It seems no place is pure and no power lies uncorrupted.
This idea comes from two primary sources and one secondary source. The primary sources are James Raggi's how to make D&D metal and Palladium Book's Old Ones. The secondary source is Charnel Gods, a supplement to Sorcerer which has no web presence that I can find.
The principle idea behind the setting is an ongoing war for the universe between the gods and Cthuvian Old Ones. As the gods beat off each attack their numbers diminished faster than their ability to regenerate. Now, the Last God prepares for his final battle by empowering servants, while men try to claim both the powers of the fallen gods as well learn the powers of creation directly.
Meanwhile, these wars have corrupted the world itself. Most power is now seduced by servants of the Old Ones and the world wars among itself as much as it tries to heal and prepare. The characters are new heroes rising to fight the corruption of the world only to risk seduction by it. Those who persevere beyond that seduction can rise to defend creation itself.
I originally conceived this for my restricted classes and races 4e campaign.
Monday, July 19, 2010
How Much Does a Gold Piece Weigh?
According to S&W and most other old school rules there are 10 coins/pound regardless of type.
How much is that in real world terms? Roughly 8 modern US quarters.
The problem with this becomes more apparent when you consider older (1950s) US quarters which were silver. It took about 7.25 of them to equal one silver piece. Pennies, actual copper pennies, run a little over half that weight implying 12-13 pennies per copper piece.
I think I'm going to run with items roughly the weight of a silver quarter being a coin in game terms. The ratio would be about 116 coins per pound. Just to make life easy I'll probably go with either 100 coins/pound or 96 coins/pound. I realize this creates issue with the use of encumbrance to make players be choosy on treasure, but I'm doubtful this will be as damaging as it might seem.
How much is that in real world terms? Roughly 8 modern US quarters.
The problem with this becomes more apparent when you consider older (1950s) US quarters which were silver. It took about 7.25 of them to equal one silver piece. Pennies, actual copper pennies, run a little over half that weight implying 12-13 pennies per copper piece.
I think I'm going to run with items roughly the weight of a silver quarter being a coin in game terms. The ratio would be about 116 coins per pound. Just to make life easy I'll probably go with either 100 coins/pound or 96 coins/pound. I realize this creates issue with the use of encumbrance to make players be choosy on treasure, but I'm doubtful this will be as damaging as it might seem.
The World After: Devils vs. Demons
Popular parlance tends to use the words devil and demon interchangeably (except when Devil is used as a proper noun for the leader of the Fallen) as the minions of Hell and Fallen Angels. D&D (and as a consequence much of gaming) does pretty much the same thing, mostly mutating them into parallel hierarchies of lawful evil and chaotic evil extra-planar beings (the inherent contradiction of a chaotic evil hierarchy mostly ignored).
However, if you look at the bullet points for the City States of the Apocalypse setting they are not the same thing or even parallel things. At least they shouldn't be even though I fell into that trap with the original. The two relevant points, rewritten to take that into account are (change in bold):
Those denizions of a new underwold were based on the ideas of a first creation from Ken Hite's GURPS Cabal among other sources. Originally, following Hite, I was going to call these beings quillip. However, I think demons is a better term.
So, some bullet points about devils and demons in the world of the City States:
The biggest places I can see this coming into the game early are spell learning and the agendas of certain inhabitants of the yet to be named megadungeon (among other areas).
However, if you look at the bullet points for the City States of the Apocalypse setting they are not the same thing or even parallel things. At least they shouldn't be even though I fell into that trap with the original. The two relevant points, rewritten to take that into account are (change in bold):
- The world is mostly blasted waste from man's war with the minions of Hell. The war was a success in that the Fallen were limited in their ability to rule but the world was destroyed in the process.
- Due to man's disruption of prophecy the world itself may be undermined and denizions of a new underworld are chewing at its foundations, which troubles everyone.
Those denizions of a new underwold were based on the ideas of a first creation from Ken Hite's GURPS Cabal among other sources. Originally, following Hite, I was going to call these beings quillip. However, I think demons is a better term.
So, some bullet points about devils and demons in the world of the City States:
- Are beings dedicated to Creation and its preservation.
- Are interested in control more than destruction, seeing the later as a means to an end
- By rebellion are cut off from the power of creation itself
- Are great sources of information about creation
- As an example of how the prior two interact: most devils can teach a magic user any spell, but could not create a new one (this is important, as spells are rare and hard to find.
- When the chips are down are more interested in fighting demons (to preserve Creation and the devils' quest for power) than in allying with them to harm humanity.
- Are members of a hierarchy and have similarities vertically and horizontally within it.
- Are from beyond Creation and consider it at best irrelevant and at worst an affront to them
- Have interests beyond the knowledge of mortals, but generally have little desire for power in Creation. Such power is just a means to their ends.
- As forces of Chaos their agenda quite often is destruction for destruction's sake (at least as can be discerned by those in Creation)
- Often have knowledge beyond Creation such as how to tap primal chaos (which Creation was built from) but little knowledge within it
- Probably don't know the spell you're looking for but can help you create new spells by tapping primal chaos (whose side effects you may not like)
- Are unique (no two demons are the same) and have highly varying (and changing) relationships with each other.
The biggest places I can see this coming into the game early are spell learning and the agendas of certain inhabitants of the yet to be named megadungeon (among other areas).
Monday Pointers: July 19, 2010
D4:DC, the Line of Stars
Zak explains why DC comics are like pre-89 RPGs and thus why both are better than Marvel comics and Vampire. Okay, maybe that last part is just me and he only draws some great parallels between the two big US comic companies and the two "eras" of D&D among other games. Still, a great read.
D6:Forget BP, get Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser
Over at Scrolls of Lankhmar, Srith has an interesting post about Fritz Leiber being discussed in the Wall Street Journal in the context of the Deepwater Horizon spill.
D8:Why Gamma World Wizards Love Radioactive Cocaine
And the heavy metal-gaming connection continues. Cyclopeatron suggest a campaign idea centered around a post holocaust band. This reminds me a lot of the "Grunge Warriors" strips from KoDT but still rocks. You have to give him major props for the title too.
D10:Encounters for the Rest of Us
Newbie DM brings up the idea of a community group that creates a parallel to D&D Encounters. I wonder if some of us devoted to older games could get such a thing going, but with bi-weekly instead of weekly installments.
D12:So, You Sure You Want to Go into that Giant Ant Hill
Matt at Land of Nod posts a video showing just what goes into an ant hill of the Savannah really looks like inside.
Zak explains why DC comics are like pre-89 RPGs and thus why both are better than Marvel comics and Vampire. Okay, maybe that last part is just me and he only draws some great parallels between the two big US comic companies and the two "eras" of D&D among other games. Still, a great read.
D6:Forget BP, get Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser
Over at Scrolls of Lankhmar, Srith has an interesting post about Fritz Leiber being discussed in the Wall Street Journal in the context of the Deepwater Horizon spill.
D8:Why Gamma World Wizards Love Radioactive Cocaine
And the heavy metal-gaming connection continues. Cyclopeatron suggest a campaign idea centered around a post holocaust band. This reminds me a lot of the "Grunge Warriors" strips from KoDT but still rocks. You have to give him major props for the title too.
D10:Encounters for the Rest of Us
Newbie DM brings up the idea of a community group that creates a parallel to D&D Encounters. I wonder if some of us devoted to older games could get such a thing going, but with bi-weekly instead of weekly installments.
D12:So, You Sure You Want to Go into that Giant Ant Hill
Matt at Land of Nod posts a video showing just what goes into an ant hill of the Savannah really looks like inside.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Got Confirmation...
Of my order for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying Game.
Do you have yours?
Do you have yours?
The World After: Substance to the Random List
Last week, as I was abandoning my idea of running a 4e game (I like playing it but just couldn't bring myself to read the books enough to prep) and thinking about giving something akin to a mega-dungeon centered campaign I came up with a random list of inspirational materials and created items I'd want to have.
Having decided to return to at least the ideas that initially sparked City States of the Apocalypse I started to make that list more concrete.
Old School Rules Set:Back to the drawing boards on this one...
Random Comics: I have one (of ten) selected and it could be very influential. Warriors of the Shadow Realm is set in Marvel's Weird World. Weird World has a very 70s take on both elves and dwarves. The elves remind me a lot of Elfquest (an issue of which might join the 10 pre-1980s comics). Interesting, based on both the illustration and text of the LBB I suspect a Weird World elf is much closer to Gygax's vision than all the Tolkien influenced elves that now over-run the hobby. Expect more on this topic next week.
80s "Metal" fantasy novel: The Lady of the Snowmist by Offut, which I just brought back from El Paso last month. The last of his War of the Gods on Earth books and the reason I bought the first two back in the 80s it's the one I never got around to reading back then. The tone is very different from what people think of for T&T and the Weird World comics. I like that. It's a random element, but I'll read it red notebook (and maybe blue notebook as well) in hand.
Notebooks: I wrote about a gaming table notebook with letter index tabs for keeping track of creation in play. I still intend to do that but from the same huge box of notebooks I've pulled two others fro megadungeon notes (blue) and campaign world notes (red) to keep next to me while reading source material. The blue notebook already has two entries: an outline of levels 1-3 in terms of shape and my first inhabitants, the Green Tunics.
This is the best I've felt about campaign prep in a long time. Much better than my last two clone games.
Having decided to return to at least the ideas that initially sparked City States of the Apocalypse I started to make that list more concrete.
Old School Rules Set:Back to the drawing boards on this one...
Notebooks: I wrote about a gaming table notebook with letter index tabs for keeping track of creation in play. I still intend to do that but from the same huge box of notebooks I've pulled two others fro megadungeon notes (blue) and campaign world notes (red) to keep next to me while reading source material. The blue notebook already has two entries: an outline of levels 1-3 in terms of shape and my first inhabitants, the Green Tunics.
This is the best I've felt about campaign prep in a long time. Much better than my last two clone games.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Is the plural of megadungeon simply megadungeon...
So, in returning to my megadungeon idea from the original City States game I realized there were three reasonable places to put it. Each is unique and in my inspiration has what is required. I thought I faced a tough choice.
Or do I?
If the megadungeon is a mythic underworld does it have to be in a single location. We're not talking multiple entrances like most have, but multiple locations such that it can be entered in places as separated in our world as America's Stonehenge, The Seattle Underground, and Carlsbad Caverns (which while not my goal here, if I wanted a megadungeon for my Demon Haunted World this would work).
Nor I am talking about something like the Underdark in the Forgotten Realms. There would be no realistic sense of distance or magical gates that connected the sections. You could simply walk through a normal dungeon region and walk out thousands of miles away. The problem, of course, is how to justify this without making it a valid route of travel for people. If that was so the dungeon, or at least the trade routes, would be controlled by some power for that purpose. Although, as an idea, that alone isn't too bad if used sparingly.
Or do I?
If the megadungeon is a mythic underworld does it have to be in a single location. We're not talking multiple entrances like most have, but multiple locations such that it can be entered in places as separated in our world as America's Stonehenge, The Seattle Underground, and Carlsbad Caverns (which while not my goal here, if I wanted a megadungeon for my Demon Haunted World this would work).
Nor I am talking about something like the Underdark in the Forgotten Realms. There would be no realistic sense of distance or magical gates that connected the sections. You could simply walk through a normal dungeon region and walk out thousands of miles away. The problem, of course, is how to justify this without making it a valid route of travel for people. If that was so the dungeon, or at least the trade routes, would be controlled by some power for that purpose. Although, as an idea, that alone isn't too bad if used sparingly.
Return to the City States
If you look at the reading box to the left I'm reading James Blish's The Devil's Day. I wrote about it setting inspiration early in this blog. I hadn't read it in years when I wrote that. However, it would inspire my short lived LL campaign from last year.
That I am reading it is distinctly related to that game, sitting down and reading all of James M's Dwimmermount posts, and this morning's random list.
Fall is coming which is campaign starting season around here and I want to run two or three things (life? what's that?) and one is Tunnels & Trolls. I think T&T has great potential as the core game for a game firmly in the old school and it answers most of my complaints about D&D.
So, I'm returning to the City States, but with several differences. I had an original megadungeon idea that I didn't run with and will this time. The setting won't be near the White City, although I won't eliminate it either. It will be closer to a location currently called Verteidigung, which is the megadungeon. That's over a thousand miles from the White City.
I also picked up four PDFs yesterday which I hope to use: The Dungeon Alphabet, Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing Games and their Modern Simulacra, and both volumes of Mythmere's Adventure Design Deskbook. Look for reviews as I actually put them through their paces.
I'll be using T&T both because I like it more and certain assumptions in it work better with my ideas than D&D. Specifically I'll be using a mildly house ruled 7.5 (mainly toning down the characteristic growth rate) and I'm sure rules will evolve during play assuming I find players.
That I am reading it is distinctly related to that game, sitting down and reading all of James M's Dwimmermount posts, and this morning's random list.
Fall is coming which is campaign starting season around here and I want to run two or three things (life? what's that?) and one is Tunnels & Trolls. I think T&T has great potential as the core game for a game firmly in the old school and it answers most of my complaints about D&D.
So, I'm returning to the City States, but with several differences. I had an original megadungeon idea that I didn't run with and will this time. The setting won't be near the White City, although I won't eliminate it either. It will be closer to a location currently called Verteidigung, which is the megadungeon. That's over a thousand miles from the White City.
I also picked up four PDFs yesterday which I hope to use: The Dungeon Alphabet, Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing Games and their Modern Simulacra, and both volumes of Mythmere's Adventure Design Deskbook. Look for reviews as I actually put them through their paces.
I'll be using T&T both because I like it more and certain assumptions in it work better with my ideas than D&D. Specifically I'll be using a mildly house ruled 7.5 (mainly toning down the characteristic growth rate) and I'm sure rules will evolve during play assuming I find players.
A Random List of Things For a D&D World
If I wanted to create a minimal D&D world designed for discovery through play a here's a random list of things I'd want to have/create:
- An 80 page spiral notebook with letter tabs with the following page counts for each letter tied to first letter frequency in English (combining J-K, P-Q, X-Z) for a glossary to fill in during play.
- Ten random pre-80s comic books on any theme
- A Horseclans or similar 80s pulp fantasy novel
- One old school rules set from D&D (up to 2e), T&T, the retro-clones, and EPT....the shorter the better.
- One each of pre-100 The Dragon, Knockspell/Fight On!
- A list of languages
- A list of names, male and female, for two cultures.
- Two levels of a mega-dungeon
- Three unique monsters
- A villain one step ahead of the character
- A rival party of adventurers (unless I knew I'd have two groups)
- A legend of ancient Rutas or treasure that references forgotten Rutas
- A brief history of the current age 8751 words in length (give or take)
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