Switching Campaign Gears Today

Depeche Mode and Pile O' Maps

Just Can't Get Enough...

Of Dave Gahan or OSR maps;)  My plans today were to draw maps of either a wizard's tower or a dwarven delve for the online game I want to run.  I decided to outsource the work and get it all done this afternoon.  Digging through my hard drive yielded gems from a couple of Bundle of Holding acquisitions from last year.  I got a variety of maps to kick the campaign off from Dyson Logos' Dodecahedron Review 2016 and ACKS Lairs & Encounters.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy drawing maps, but I need to get moving on running a G+ Flailsnails game before G+ washes away like a sandcastle!  I know I could just move over and run on the Discord Flailsnails server, but I want to get at least one G+ game in just 'cause.  More work on this needs to be done before I can schedule a game, but it was good to get the mapping squared away.  I need to work on the home campaign, too, before I run it this weekend.  The "Mimic Chasers" (this group needs a name, this will do for now) are knocking around Halwic with their investigations, but I need to turn the heat up for this next session!

Links To The G+ Flailsnails Red Tide Related Posts

https://mockorangecairn.blogspot.com/2018/09/diy30-day-twelve.html

https://mockorangecairn.blogspot.com/2018/09/diy30-day-thirteen.html 

https://mockorangecairn.blogspot.com/2018/09/diy30-day-fourteen.html 

Scenic Dunnsmouth Prep Wrapped Up

I'm Excited to Run Scenic Dunnsmouth

I finished doing the village set-up yesterday.  Lots of pig farmers in the version of Dunnsmouth I rolled up, lol.  All that's left to do is get the village placed on the big campaign map.  I'm holding off on getting this and a few other things on the big campaign map because I want to do the southern part of the map all at once. 

In Other News

We resumed playing Year of the Goat Campaign last Sunday.  The PCs made it to Halwic encountering many refugees from the fire, plague, and mimics.  They spoke to the Abbess of St. Forsythia and learned what they could from her about where the mimic(s) popped up.  Next session they'll inquire with the head of the family that was victimized by mimic(s) to investigate further.  Material I worked on during #DIY30 was very helpful to me!  Fun session.

Pivoting Towards Scenic Dunnsmouth

Scenic Dunnsmouth notes and adventure module

Getting A Handle On Year Old Notes

I began prepping the adventure Scenic Dunnsmouth by Zzarchov Kowolski to place on my campaign map a little over a year ago.  Today I went back to the notes and map I started to see what I had left to complete before I need to run it.  After awhile of looking at the module, my notes, and the map I had made, I decided today's work would be to make a tidier map (I could barely read the numbers of the houses because my handwriting+sharpie=illegible scrawl).

Old Map

I scored a small roll of cool grid paper recently and thought that would be great for the new map.  The width of the new roll of paper was about a centimeter longer than the original map's length, so I could cut the perfect width for the map off the roll and have nearly the same dimensions!

New Map

I did a little bit of refining of the original by re-orienting the north south axis a bit and spacing the buildings out from each other where they had been really crowded before.  Also, I moved the time cube from the west of the boat house to the north east.  Next work session I'll get the notes completed, then I can check this off the to-do list;-)

#DIY30 Overflow & #MOCKORANGECAIRN100 Goals

Art from Warhammer Armies: Skaven 6th Edition

I Should Have Written And Posted This A Month Ago Or More, LOL

Instead of having to refer back to the wall of text known as my #DIY30 Goals blog post made back in late August, I'm regrouping the unfinished goals from that here and the goal is to get to 100 blog posts by December 31st, 2018.  That goal is somewhat arbitrary because when I finished #DIY30 I was at post number 83, so it seemed like a good way to stay motivated to keep working on RPG stuff and blogging about it. Four and a half weeks are left and 9 blog posts left to go after this one!  I made up a goofy hashtag for this little pet project of mine #MOCKORANGECAIRN100.

The list of stuff I'll be working on or that I completed in October and November are as follows:

     -Mapping for the G+ game I want to run
     -Answering the remaining questions from "20 Quick Questions for Your Campaign Setting"
     -Strange Bedfellows conversion DONE
     -Life During Wartime Part Two blogpost.
     -The Temple of the Fractured Snail- adventure location idea I had.      
     -The Seclusium of the Orphone- I started making a seclusium from this book and it was tedious af, lol, but I want to finish it so I can drop it in my campaign somewhere. DONE
     -Scenic Dunnsmouth- I think I got my SD local map finished, just need to figure out where to put it on my campaign map and set hooks/write a rumor table.
     -Curse of Strahd adaptation.

Rat my cat Porchy killed yesterday DONE

Putting a Pin in the Seclusium

Tower Map, Location Map, Some Notes

As In It's Done!

I finished my seclusium map and key today.  All that's left with this is to get it on the campaign map.  Since it's going on a part of the map we haven't adventured towards, yet, I'm going to leave that to be done later.  It will be going several hundred miles south of where the PCs are currently and there will be more mapping to do "down there" when the time comes.  Now I can move on to finishing up whatever I had left undone with preparing "Scenic Dunnsmouth."

Ground Floor and Second Floor

Third Floor and Fourth Floor

Fifth Floor and Basement

Wednesday's Seclusium Stuff

Drinking an Almond Milk Chai While I Work On Orphone's Seclusium

This My First Post Composed On Tablet

Typing this way sucks, maybe I should get a little keyboard for my tablet.... anyway brought my notebook to Starbucks and worked on the last questions of Section 6 of The Seclusium of Orphone.  Done with that, just need to finish up mapping and then I can move on to another project.

I've Lost My Compass

Canning Rings=Improvised Drawing Tools

I Needed to Draw Some Circles

But my compass was nowhere to be found.  I've done so much minimizing in the last two years that I don't know whether my cheap little compass was a victim of my purging or not.  So I brainstormed for a minute and figured some canning jar rings would make the right size circles for the tower levels I needed to make for Orphone's seclusium.  I was able to map out levels 1-4 , completing level 1 (or ground level) enough for use and roughing levels 2-4 out with the intent of adding more detail next RPG work session.  I still need to map a subterranean level (doesn't have to be round) and get those Section 6 questions answered; so maybe a work session or two away from getting this Orphone business behind me and on to finishing the prep for Scenic Dunnsmouth (maybe, we'll see what I really feel like tackling!)

Orphone's Tower Levels 3 and 4

Building A Seclusium

Building A Seclusium, Here We Go

Lingering Unfinished For A Little Over A Year

I have owned The Seclusium of Orphone of the Three Visions by D. Vincent Baker for about four years, but I didn't get around to trying to use it until a little over a year ago.  For those unfamiliar with this product here's the back of the book blurb,

     "This book provides the rules, guidelines, tables, and suggestions for creating wizards' seclusia for your own campaigns, and features three sample seclusia in various stages of completion, including the Seclusium of Orphone of the Three Visions."

For those of you wondering "WTF is a seclusia?"  the back of the book also gives these four definitions,

     1. A place to which a wizard withdraws from the world to pursue mastery.
     2. A place of magic and plasms and grotesques and horrors and treasures and doorways to other worlds.
     3. A place which, when abandoned by the wizard but with its treasures and dangers remaining more or less intact, is a terrible and antic catastrophe in process.
     4.  A place which makes for marvelous location-based adventures.

So last year I thought it was high time I bust this book out, make a seclusium and place it on my campaign map somewhere.  A combination of laziness and name preference led me to choose the most completed sample seclusium belonging to Orphone of the Three Visions.  By the way, this isn't a review, just an anecdote of my experience using the book as intended for the first time.  Once the PCs actually interact with this location, then I'll write up a review, as I don't want to review materials that haven't seen actual campaign or one-shot play.

I was able to complete five of the six sections of this seclusium last year, but stopped due to tediousness in the process and non-urgency (this encounter location wasn't going anywhere near where the PCs were at the time.)  I vowed to complete this back during #DIY30, but got bogged down with other projects and am just now picking this up again.  Today I was able to narrow the work left down to five questions in Section 6 and although I have a rough map of the island where Orphone's seclusium is located, I need to draw a map of the tower and key it.  Not sure how much of this I'll get done tomorrow, but after I get those tasks complete, I'll place this location on my campaign map.

"Strange Bedfellows" Conversion DONE!

Coming In Under The Gun With This Week's Second Blog

I'm happy to say I've completed my conversion and adaptation of the Swords & Wizardry adventure "Strange Bedfellows" for my Lamentations of the Flame Princess Year of the Goat Campaign.  I knew this was going to take me awhile, but I had no idea how long, lol.

Last Part of "Strange Bedfellows", The Silverblossom Tree Village

Chipping Away At My #DIY30 Overflow

Silverblossom Tree Village Ground Level

I wasn't nearly as productive with game stuff in October as I had hoped to be.  Probably a combo of being a little busy with other stuff and a little burned out from #DIY30 in September.  I'm nearly done with the conversion/adaptation of the Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  Yesterday I banged through the ground level of the Silverblossom Tree Village portion of it.  My intention is to get the upper part of that village converted this week.  Then I can move on to the other undone projects from my #DIY30 goals. 

OSR Guide For The Perplexed Questionnaire

OSR Guide For The Perplexed Questionnaire 

By now you are probably aware of G+'s recent announcement to shut down by August of 2019.  As a response to that news, Zak Smith of Playing D&D With Pornstars Blog has written this questionnaire for those of us in the DIY D&D game scene to 

"explain, talk about, extend and preserve the breadth of what the DIY game scene has achieved and means by just talking to each other about it—and helping out any newbies who may just be stumbling on the scene now (there are a surprising number)."

(Clicking on Zak's quote above will take you to the questionnaire if you would like to check it out.)

Let me preface that I've wanted to read others' responses to these questions, but have waited to do so until I wrote my own.  So any unoriginal answers are authentically mine, lol.

 

1. One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:

It's a tie between James Raggi's I Hate Fun blog post and Matt Finch's A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming.

The I Hate Fun screed really resonated with me when I first read it back in 2013.
  
Finch's Primer was useful for me to read as I was transitioning my gaming from New World of Darkness (now known as Chronicles of Darkness) Changeling the Lost to Lamentations of the Flame Princess and other OSR games.  I go back to it a couple times a year, usually as I'm starting up anew from a gaming/DMing hiatus or at the start of a new game, like when I ran Call of Cthulhu for the first time this year.   


2. My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark:

Every once and awhile Zak Smith pops onto G+ with his "RPG Magic 8-Ball" and answers questions from followers about anything RPG for a limited amount of time.  So like campaign, monster, rules/mechanics, this vs. that, etc. queries get answered in useful, sometimes cryptic, and sometimes snarky ways.  Sometimes a combo of all three!  I hope he keeps doing those on another platform when G+ closes.
 
3. Best OSR module/supplement:

Fuuuuuuuuck.  This is like asking which is my favorite cat (out of the three I have.)  I'll try to narrow it down to three.  It pains me to leave out so many other gems, but here we go.

      1.  Vornheim -  It inspired me to go back to D&D style games and has been invaluable in presenting cities in my Year of the Goat campaign.

     2.  Yoon-Suin -  If you don't have this, you're missing out.  I love the setting, love the utility/toolbox design, and love the art.  It's on my campaign map, but the PCs haven't gotten over there, yet.  Can't wait to actually be running this! 

     3.  Red Tide -  I came to the OSR from running WOD Changeling the Lost.  I had run D&D back in my early teens, but I mostly played.  What I'm getting at here is that I needed help getting my shit together to run a sandbox style hexcrawl campaign.  Red Tide combined with Vornheim and Yoon-Suin and reading various blogs helped me run a game that has been the most fun of anything I've run to date!  It has a campaign setting folded into some great campaign generation tools and tables. 

4. My favorite house rule (by someone else):

I like the die-drop equipment tables from blog Dismaster's Den of Unfinished Thoughts.  They are a great way to streamline character creation if players have analysis paralysis during the buying equipment phase.
 
5. How I found out about the OSR:  

I'm not sure how I found out about Playing D&D With Pornstars, but it was my entry into the OSR in late 2012.  Soon after I purchased Vornheim.

6. My favorite OSR online resource/toy:

I have a couple of favorites.  Abulafia.  The D&D Web Apps by Ramanan S on his Save Vs. Total Party Kill blog.
 
7. Best place to talk to other OSR gamers:

G+ has been the best place for me to talk to OSR gamers.
 
8. Other places I might be found hanging out talking games:

Instagram and more recently I got a Discord account.  I'm on Twitch as well, but I haven't made good use of that account, yet.
 
9. My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough:

I am neither awesome nor pithy.

10. My favorite non-OSR RPG:

Changeling the Lost.  I haven't run it in 4 years, not sure when I will again.
 
11. Why I like OSR stuff:

It all mixes and matches quite well.  Lots of great imagination on display in the writing and art.  Creators who are trying to innovate and succeeding.  Usually a very high quality in the printed materials.
 
12. Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet:

Again, I can't narrow it down to two!  How about these eight:)

The Midderlands and The Midderlands Expanded

The Dark of Hot Springs Island

Petty Gods

The Dungeon Dozen

Slumbering Ursine Dunes, The Misty Isles of the Eld, and Fever Dreaming Marlinko 

13. If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:

Playing D&D With Porn Stars

14. A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is:

It's rough, but I love my campaign map.

 

15. I'm currently running/playing:

I'm currently playing in a 5e campaign.  When it wraps up, I'll be running my LotFP Year of the Goat campaign again.
 
16. I don't care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:

I use ascending these days, but when I started playing in 1990 THAC0 was the way it was done.  The LotFP Grindhouse Referee Book has a conversion chart, so if I'm running a module that uses descending, no big whoop.
 
17. The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:

Purple Worm En Scene by Luka Rejec

This illustration and more can be found on Wizard Thief Fighter.

A Post Mortem of My #DIY30 Experience

I Could Have Done Better

I didn't complete as many of the goals I laid out for myself as I hoped.  I'm not disappointed in myself, I'm just seeing how I misjudged how much I could finish in the time allotted. 

Near the end, my blog posts were rather truncated and probably a bit boring to read.

As far as the spirit of the challenge, I did less DIY and more adapting and converting of pre-written modules.

I Could Have Done Worse

I worked on RPG stuff 30 out of 33 days from September 1st to October 3rd and every day I worked on RPG stuff I also blogged about it.


The area on my campaign map where we left off the campaign last year is much more fleshed out and three out of four cardinal directions (from where they are located) have something nearby ready for the players to stumble upon and interact with if they choose.

Although I had hoped to produce more original material, thus adhering more closely to the DIY nature of the challenge, I did the work that I thought would be immediately useful in my home campaign.  That just happened to be adapting/converting a couple of  modules I had previously chosen for placement on my campaign map near where the PCs are located and likely to explore soon.

Parting Thoughts On My #DIY30 Experience

Participating in this RPG blog challenge was beneficial to me in that I felt I had to do RPG work everyday no matter how I felt or how much time I had to write/map/design in a particular day.  Working on my campaign everyday illuminated some of my writing inefficiencies and time-wasting tendencies.  Although I didn't complete as much as I wanted to when I set goals at the beginning, I still accomplished a fair amount of work and when I go back to running this campaign, I'll feel more confident about the encounters and adventure hooks that are available to the PCs in this area of the map.  I would like to do #DIY30 again, maybe early next year!


New Mini-Challenge for Myself

The goals that went unfinished will be rolled over into a new challenge I've set for myself.  After completing #DIY30, my blog was at 82 posts.  So the challenge for me will be to get to 100 posts by the end of 2018.  That will require 1.6363636364 posts per week until the end of the year.  Lol, or two posts a week most weeks.  #MOCKORANGECAIRN100  There, it even has a fucking hashtag now!


If You're Reading This I Want to Hear From You

Did you participate in #DIY30?  What did you think of your experience?  Why are you reading my blog?  What are you getting out of it?  What did you eat as a snack at that last game you DMed or played?  No snacks?  Are you fasting, lol?

#DIY30 Day Thirty

Three Rooms Left...

I worked on level three of the Broken Hammer dungeon and got so close to finishing today!  I'll wrap it up tomorrow, then it's on to the Treeblossom Village.  This wraps up my blogging of my #DIY30 challenge.  In a day or two, I'll do a post mortem on my efforts, but in short I'm happy I did it and happy it's ovah!  Thank you to anyone who has followed along.

#DIY30 Day Twenty Nine

Penultimate

I'm nearly finished with #DIY30 and there are six rooms left to adapt/convert in the Broken Hammer dungeon level three.  After I finish up the dungeon it's on to the last part of the "Strange Bedfellows" adventure, The Treeblossom Village.  I knew it was going to take a lot of work to convert and adapt this adventure to my campaign needs, but I didn't realize it was going to dominate the second half of my #DIY30 challenge and then some!  I'm happy to have gotten so much done with this, though.  I'm making it my goal for October to do a little RPG work everyday, but I'm going to reduce my blogging to once or twice a week.  Still quite a bit of stuff to finish on the #DIY30 goals list I made for myself and I want to keep rolling with this momentum I have.  If you've read this post and any others, I would welcome your comments or questions!  Did you participate in #DIY30?  What did you accomplish during those 30 days?  

#DIY30 Day Twenty Eight

Level Two In The Can

I finished up the Broken Hammer level two and have moved on to level three.  It has about a third of the rooms of level two, so I should finish it up more quickly.  

#DIY30 Day Twenty Seven

Operation Wood Pile Complete:)

I finished the last cords of firewood on Friday.  Then I was gloriously lazy Saturday.  Today I almost finished the conversion/adaptation of level two of the Broken Hammer dungeon.  Like I said earlier, I'll run my #DIY30 work into October as needed, so looks like I'll be finishing up on the 3rd.  The Broken Hammer dungeon has a third level, so I'll get started on that.  When I complete this challenge I took upon myself, I'll keep working on the projects I didn't get to, but at a somewhat reduced pace.  I'm thinking I'll work on stuff enough to write two blog posts a week.  We played D&D 5e this morning.  It was the second session of this arc of the campaign.  Early stages, but lots of fun!  The DM for that game is setting us up for some scary stuff, I think!

#DIY30 Day Twenty Six

Progress Was Made....

But not as much as I predicted yesterday, lol.  I got more done with the wood pile, but I chipped away at level two of the Broken Hammer dungeon a little, too.  I might finish the wood stacking tomorrow, but no promises.

#DIY30 Day Twenty Five

It's My Birthday

I turned 40 today.  I took the day off from wood stacking as a present to myself, but I worked on the Broken Hammer dungeon level two.  Only nine rooms left to adapt, maybe I can crank through it and the wood pile tomorrow.  We'll see how it goes.  My birthday celebration turned out to be an awesome BBQ.  We're having a warm fall, so far, here in my corner of the NW.  Soon though, the short gray days will have their reign!

#DIY30 Day Twenty Four

Same Shit, Different Day

Stacked wood, worked on Broken Hammer dungeon level two, rinse and repeat.

#DIY30 Day Twenty Three

Another Day Another Wood Pile And Level Two Session

More wood in the shed, more conversion work done on level two of the Broken Hammer dungeon from "Strange Bedfellows."  Probably gonna be the same story from me over the next two days.

#DIY30 Day Twenty Two

The Woodpile And The Dungeon

I started to stack wood today.  It's going to take a few days to get it all in the wood shed.  Also managed to get a little work done on the Broken Hammer dungeon level two.

#DIY30 Day Twenty One

Little By Little

Another session slogging through adaptation and conversion of level two of the the Broken Hammer dungeon from the Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  Only eight more days left in the month... I'll let #DIY30 run into October for any days I miss in September.  Only missed one so far, but I have real world chores to do outside this week and I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit those and this project into each day.  I've been slacking on getting the wood pile out of the driveway and into the wood shed.  Gotta download some podcasts and just GITURDUN.

20 Quick Questions to Illuminate My "Year of the Goat" Campaign Setting

First of all, gotta give credit to Jeff Rients for posting these questions over on his blog Jeff's Gameblog.  They can also be found in his excellent adventure Broodmother Skyfortress, published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

Second, I started my campaign in early 2015.  I didn't have much of this stuff defined at the beginning of the campaign, so many of the answers to these questions evolved during play.  We've been on hiatus for about a year, as two of us started small businesses, and I was unable to put the time and energy into my DM prep that I feel is necessary for me to run a fun game.  I think I've mentioned before I'm a prep heavy DM.  I've taken some steps towards being a more prep light DM, with some success, but that saying "a tiger can't change his stripes" is correct in my case.  I started writing answers to these questions several months after I received Broodmother Skyfortress.  I'll be using different colors of text to show the progression of my answers as I was not able to answer all the questions in one go.  I still have a few to answer so I will be coming back to update this when I flesh out those areas of my campaign.

5/17/17 entries will be written in BLACK.
6/28/17 entries will be written in GREEN.
8/23/18 entries will be written in BLUE.

1.  What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

I have three somewhat well defined religious orders and about four or five others that I've not gotten very far in defining.  
     A.  Church of the Covenant AKA Church of George, this is the Christianity analog.  This religious order is inspired by the real world practice of Veneration.  So instead of the worship of Jesus, this order is worshiping my fantasy version of St. George the Dragonslayer.  We only have one PC cleric so far and this is his order.
     B.  Temple of Tycho.  Tycho believers espouse gambling, chance, luck, and calculated risks as sacred to their god.  PCs have encountered a friendly priest/scholar in service to Tycho.
     C.  Knights Order Medical.  This order was briefly mentioned in A Stranger Storm, the adventure from the LotFP Grindhouse Referee Book.  The NPCs that I've portrayed have been labeled as "creepy Scientologists" (are there any other kind, lol?) by the players.  So I've decided it's a mystery cult that's a cross between Scientology and NATO Military Force with an absolute obsession for cleanliness.  Most large cities and towns will have a Knights Order Medical bathhouse/laundry.  PCs tortured and executed Sir Boris, a member of this order.  He was really a Mimic, but the PCs didn't know that until they killed him.  Knights Order Medical is now a bit unfriendly to the PC group, lol.
     D.  The god or gods of the ancient lizardfolk.  The lizardfolk are believed to be extinct (they aren't.)
     E.  Demi-human deities.  Nobody is playing a demi-human so far, so I haven't even decided what's going on with their gods.  Or if they even have gods.
     F.  Druidism.  I've used druids as NPCs.  Until I get someone playing a druid, I'm not putting much thought into this.
     G.  Beliefs of the Shoum.  Taking inspiration from Kevin Crawford's Shou in the Ride Tide campaign book, I've bundled goblinkind together into humanoids called the Shoum.  Haven't worked out their religious system, yet.  Probably gonna keep borrowing stuff about them from the Red Tide setting if it will fit into my campaign.

2.  Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

Cities will have both expedition suppliers and smiths.  A small village might have a smith with some armament skill and usually a market, farm stall, or someone willing to sell or trade surplus food and sundries.


3.  Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

4.  Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?   

Once it was Lord Vortulak, before his path intersected with the Queen of Nephilidia...

5.  Who is the greatest warrior in the land? 

Lady Uljana Chernetsk.  Her estate rests outside the garrison city of Glister.

6.  Who is the richest person in the land?

The Khan, Iman Mehdizadeh, who resides in Khyan-Hrapp Royal Palace located in the capitol city of Chizhova.

7.  Where can we go to get some magical healing?  

Cure Light Wounds-  Can be cast by clerics (PC and NPC) of Church of the Covenant, Temple of Tycho, Knights Order Medical (and other religious orders as I make them up) for 250SP

Cure Disease-  Can be cast by clerics (PC and NPC) of Church of the Covenant, Temple of Tycho, Knights Order Medical (and other religious orders as I make them up) for 350SP

Cure Serious Wounds-  Can be cast by clerics (NPC) of Church of the Covenant and Knights Order Medical (all PC clerics can do this if they have spells at this level) for 400SP

Cure Critical Wounds-  Can be cast by clerics (NPC) of Church of the Covenant and Knights Order Medical (all PC clerics can do this if they have spells at this level) for 450SP

Heal-  Can be cast by clerics (NPC) of Knights Order Medical (all PC clerics can do this if they have spells at this level) for 500SP

8.  Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions?

Poison-
Disease-
Curse-
Level Drain-
Lycanthropy-
Polymorph-
Alignment change-
Death-  Ain't no cure for death, son.

Undeath- 

9.  Is there a magic guild my magic-user belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells.

No.

There was a magic school up until recently... then Mimics happened.

10.  Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?

11.Where can I hire mercenaries?

Most towns and cities have a notice board for hiring small numbers.  The capitol Chizhova and Glister, a garrison city, would sometimes have larger numbers of mercs.

12.  Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed, or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?

"Black Magic" is a serious crime.  Black magic being defined as casting a spell intending to harm another.  Smaller settlements may have broader definitions of Black Magic.


13.  Which way to the nearest tavern?

We'll go by city/town listing the taverns I've got currently.

Chizhova-  The Inn of the Stealing Fat Golem
                   The Rotten Stump
                   Stink Drink (in the sewer tunnels)

Denton-  The Good Cup

Glister-  Inn of the Shining Djinn

Halwic-  Inn of the Silken Sow's Sleeve
               The Owl and the Whistle Public House
               The Rich Wolf Tavern

Harmony-  The Joyful Harp Tavern

Stone's Throw-  The Gold Crown Tavern

Thorbald-  The Soldier's Rest Inn and Tavern

Tragidore-  One-Eyed Hrothgar's
                   The Grey Vampire
                   The Sputtering Otter

Uhniv-  The Weeping Harpy Inn

Crossroads-  The Inn of the Incontinent Vicar (just south of Argyle and east of Tragidore)
                     Wildwood Inn (west of Denton)

14.  What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

Mimics.  Vampires.


15. Are there any wars brewing that I could go fight?

Various areas on my campaign map are set to trigger warlike conditions if the PCs travel far enough.  If you picture the continents of Europe and Asia, my campaign setting is roughly Ukraine.  There is a war brewing in "Bavaria" (the Better Than Any Man adventure module,)  "Fantasy Fucking Vietnam" (Quelong adventure module,) and ...


16.  How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

17.  Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and or fight?

From Zak Smith's Playing DnD with Pornstars Blog I'll be borrowing the Cults of Tiamat.  They are The Black Wing of Tiamat, The Red Hand of Tiamat, The Pale Eye of Tiamat, The Cobalt Claw of Tiamat, and The Jade Fang of Tiamat.  Duvan'Ku a death cult.  The Ckult De Ghul:  collective only in reference, this isn't one single cult, it's actually a number of small cults of myriad undead lords, vampire voivods, and skeletal schemers.  There is a Spider Cult when I decide where I'm placing Scenic Dunnsmouth on the map.

18.  What is there to eat around here?

19.  Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?

20.  Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with mad fat treasure? 




   

 


  

#DIY30 Day Twenty

Texts About the Upcoming 5e Game

Happy Mabon

Inching towards the equinox, almost there!  I started the adaptation work on level two of the Broken Hammer Dungeon this afternoon.  I might get to play D&D 5e this weekend! We'll see what my character Shaena the Halfling Rogue is going to do after meeting a midwife who's whole village was slain by EVIL FORCES.  The DM for our 5e campaign is new to DMing, but he's got a great imagination and I think it's gonna be a fun game.

#DIY30 Day Nineteen

Level One Done

I've converted/adapted what I've needed to for level one of the Broken Hammer Dungeon from the Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  Tomorrow I'll get started on the second level.  I hope I get done adapting this module before the end of the month because I want to get more original work done during #DIY30.

#DIY30 Day Eighteen

#DIY30's MVP: AC Conversion Chart from the LotFP Grindhouse Referee Book

There's A Crack In The Sky....

I'm nearly finished with the conversions/adaptations for level one of the Broken Hammer Dungeon from the Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  Just three more rooms and I can start on level two.  I've been leaning pretty hard on the handy-dandy AC Conversion Chart from LotFP's Grindhouse Referee book.  Tonight's #DIY30 soundtrack courtesy of The Klinik.

The Klinik, Fever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2vrJs2Nrms

#DIY30 Day Seventeen

Members of Goblin and Dario Argento

It Was A Nitzer Ebb And Goblin Kind of Night

Man, synthesizers and drum machines are really helping me ride out this #DIY30 thing, lol.  I started going through the dungeon of the module "Strange Bedfellows" changing all the goblinoids into Shoum, converting AC, and downgrading gold coins to silver pieces.  I'm still working on level 1 of a 3 level dungeon, so we'll see how long it takes to get this conversion business out of the way.  I forgot this module had one more part besides the dungeon; a druid tree-fort encampment is at the dungeon's other entrance, opposite from where the PCs enter.  Thankfully it's a short section!

#DIY30 Day Sixteen

"It's not safe to go out, it's not right to stay home"

More Cabaret Voltaire getting me through this "Strange Bedfellows" module.  The circus adaptation is done to my satisfaction.  Instead of traditional goblinoids, there will be Shoum; instead of Ogren, there will be Shoum Witches.  Tomorrow I tackle the dungeon section of this module.

 Cabaret Voltaire, Don't Argue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5-1HG2oU_M

#DIY30 Day Fifteen

Cab Voltaire, Just Fascination

Soundtrack Was Cabaret Voltaire, Christian Death, and early 90s Dance

I almost bailed on #DIY30 today, but I soaked in the tub, took a little nap, and fuckin' RALLIED, lol.  The soundtrack helped.  So what did I get done?  I worked on adapting the circus from Swords & Wizardry module "Strange Bedfellows."  I am about a third or half way done.  I'll finish tomorrow.  It's mostly condensing descriptions, changing AC, and downgrading gold coins to silver pieces.

Cabaret Voltaire, Kino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4IAnSdtbNY

#DIY30 Day Fourteen

Wizard's Tower and Dwarven Delve

I've decided to keep working on the G+ Flailsnails game today.  I'll get back to my Year of the Goat campaign tomorrow or Monday.

The Wizard's Tower is 70 miles northeast of Hohnberg located near the coast.  It's occupant has been touched by the Red Tide.  Now a Tide Cult along with the former wizard are hatching foul schemes here.

I've placed the Dwarven Delve about 50 miles northwest of the village of Meredune and the Temple of the Iron Prophet Allia Howe.  It's just over the border into the Shou Lands in the Godbarrow Mountains.  The dwarven clan that had once called this delve home were nearly wiped out by pestilence and the survivors fled to another delve.  It's now occupied by Shou.

Both of these encounter locations need a few more details and the mapping done, but I feel like I have a great start to my future Flailsnails game!

#DIY30 Day Thirteen

Lentil Tacos With Vegan Ranch Dressing

Taco Fortified

After eating a pile of lentil tacos and watching an episode of the show Van Helsing, I was ready to GITURDUN.  I fleshed out the Makerite temple a bit.  I named it Temple of the Iron Prophet Allia Howe.  It has a few named NPCs and a conflict tag (grasping noble.)  Mr. Grasping Noble has a few details like a name (Beremud Schmidt) and a household servant (Tancred.)  The city of Hohnberg has a noble (court location.)  He (Thusundi Amalric Gram) has a tax collector, Hui Niu.  I rolled a couple of ruins on a random table, but haven't written any details down for them.  There is a wizard's tower and a dwarven delve.  I'm not sure yet which will go near the city and which will go near the Makerite Temple.  Those are decisions for another day.

Assistant DM Vega

#DIY30 Day Twelve

Today I Had to Say "Fuck Module Adaptation"

Couldn't do it today.  Wasn't gonna happen.  I've powered through seven out of eight of Week One's bulleted projects, but today I needed a break from "Strange Bedfellows."  So I decided to work on the beginnings of my G+ Flailsnails campaign.  I'm going to work on this tomorrow, then get back to finishing up the work I'm doing with "Strange Bedfellows" over the weekend.

The Sun Is Rising on the Sunset Isles

Out of the five campaign settings I was deliberating running, I decided to go with Red Tide by Kevin Crawford.  I have the details of the city Hohnberg sketched out.  Tomorrow I'll be working on a remote Makerite Temple and some ruins.  I'm excited both to use this setting and run my first online game!  I'll be running this with LotFP rules, but it's a Flailsnails game, so players can bring whatever characters.  I do want to take the Shou character class from this and do whatever conversions from Labyrinth Lord (the system Red Tide is written for) to LotFP to offer as a character option. 

#DIY30 Day Eleven

Adapting the Swords & Wizardry Module "Strange Bedfellows"

I began my adaptations of this module over a year ago.  The work I had already done with it, that I consider first priority after reading a module through, is to make changes to the NPC demi-human/humanoid races.  For instance, I've mentioned in prior blog posts that the Shoum are my substitute for the Goblinoid races.  So all the orcs, half-orcs, goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblins are all transitioned to Shoum.

What I Worked On Today

Today's focus was to condense the Three Points villages' descriptions and put them in my "place template format."  The work left with adapting this module, that I'll move to tomorrow, is condensing the circus and dungeon chapters.

#DIY30 Day Ten

"The Hardest Part Is Getting Out The Door"

Above is a quote I gave a million years ago when I was interviewed for a college newspaper regarding winter bicycle commuting in Fairbanks, AK.  Whenever I'm dreading getting started on any task or project, my own words usually run through my mind.  I'm usually able to shake off my procrastination at that point and throw myself into the process.  Map drawing was like that for me today.  When I finally put pencil to paper, this little map took me about 20 or 25 minutes.  It's a bare-bones little thing, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out and I'm happy it's done.

Vortulak Vineyard Outbuildings

#DIY30 Day Nine

Neighbors

 

Woke Up At 2:30 To Drive Someone To The Airport, We're Too Far Out For Uber

Living out in the boonies has its pros and cons.  The airport situation is a definite con, lol.  Anyway I busted out this little family that cares for the Vortulak Estate in the Lord's absence.  I'll map the outbuildings tomorrow, then I can move on to the next project for #DIY30;)

House Staff of the Estate

A small family reside here year-round maintaining the house and garden.  The patriarch of this family hires the seasonal vineyard workers and oversees the wine production.  As zero level humans in LotFP.

     1.  Rocky Hsun- patriarch of the Hsun's and overseer of the Vortulak Estate Vineyard
     2.  Rance Hsun- Rocky's wife and head housekeeper of the manor house
     3.  Ricky Hsun- son of Rocky and Rance, helps with the vineyard and garden
     4.  Randi Hsun- wife of Ricky, helps with the house and garden
     5.  Reggie Hsun- young son of Ricky and Randi

#DIY30 Day Eight

Chipping Away

I played instead of DMing today!  So fun!  We're doing a quick foray into my boyfriend's D&D 5E campaign that he started last fall.  I'm not sure how many sessions we will play until we return to my LotFP YotG campaign, but the work I've gotten done in the last week has been long overdue;-)  It's been satisfying to chip away at my pile of undone campaign writing.  I finished up detailing the cellar and caverns below Lord Vortulak's Estate.  I put a Mimic (not the D&D kind as I've said before, but a Changeling) in a locked cell that had previously been the lead smuggler's room in "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh."  In the cavern closest to the river (in the original module this location was on the sea, my location is on a river cliff) I placed two Nephilidian Pawns (Rank 2.)  It's been awhile since the PCs have encountered either of those monsters!  Now I just need to get the outbuildings written and mapped and write up the house staff NPCs.

#DIY Day Seven

The Assistant DM Is Busy "Helping" Someone Play Far Cry

I worked on the re-write/adaptation of "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh" today.  I'm close to finished; just need to get the cellar and caverns re-written, the outbuildings written and mapped, and write up a few house staff NPCs.  I'm not going to re-produce my adaptation of the module here, but I will post the new wandering monster chart.  Here you go friends!

Wandering Monsters
An encounter takes place 1 in 12 chance in the garden, vineyard and outbuildings, if the season is late fall through early spring.  Otherwise seasonal workers (Zero Level Humanoids) will be found in the months of agricultural production.

1. 1d4 Shoum- (AC 15; HD 1; hp 4; #ATK 1 Spear; 1d6 DMG)
2. 1 Wolf- (AC 15; HD 2+2; hp 5; #ATK 1 Bite; 1d6 DMG)
3. 1d8 Wild Boar- (AC 15; HD 3+3; hp 18; #ATK 1 Tusk Gouge; 3d4 DMG)
4. 1d3 Violet Fungi- (AC 15; HD 3; hp 8; #ATK 1d4 Branch; Rots flesh in one round DMG) Save vs. Poison or Cure Disease

#DIY30 Day Six

  

My Assistant DM, Vega

A Day Late...

I wasn't feeling well enough to write yesterday.  My energy got sapped by a headache and nausea, but I'm feeling ok today.

"Oh, do you need this notebook?"

And A Dollar Short

Lord Vortulak's Estate

Lord Vidor Vortulak was once a skilled mage and alchemist living in his ancestral home, an elegant manor house surrounded by a productive vineyard.  Being quite the intelligent and charming fellow that he was, he caught the eye of the Nephilidian Queen.  She soon made him her lover and quite quickly after that she made him a vampire like herself.  Despising his condition and enslavement by such a monster, he escaped.  Knowing there would be no acceptance of him as a vampire, he masqueraded as his nephew for a time.  Once gossip began, regarding his ageless appearance, he left on an extended research mission.  His curiosity and diligent studies led him to find clues to the reversal of vampirism back to a mortal being.  After a suitably timed period, he has returned to Vortulak Estate as his grandnephew. 

Presently he prefers to visit the estate periodically, instead of residing there permanently.  This strategy is partly to allay suspicions about him and also to allow himself the ability to travel prolifically for reasearch.  He employs a very small house staff to maintain the house and garden.  The vineyard employs seasonal workers to produce the grapes for wine production.  Vortulak Vineyards is a well regarded name among the region's oenophiles.

I'm working on the room descriptions and wandering monster table, but I don't think I'll be finished with that today.  Since I've made his estate a vineyard, I'll probably need to draw a few maps of outbuildings for the agricultural and wine producing stuff.  Some of this should be done and ready to go tomorrow.

Printed out a PDF of The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh to highlight what I'll use from it