Over Kill?

Okay, I went a little overboard with the encounter areas... Yes, a lot... But I was having fun and ideas were flooding my brain as I divided up the terrain for, what I hope, would make for a plethora of low level adventure hooks. I hope to delve deeper into these 'regions' in later posts. For now, have a map!

Scale: Large Hex = 2.5 miles (1 hour), Small Hex = 2640 feet (12 minutes)

As can be seen, I have chose a large selection of common humanoids to populate the surrounding area of Skelan and Ength. I hope, though breathing some individuality into them, I can put a new spin on them in the process. Yes, they are Goblins, Orcs, and such, but as ideas came to me, something else occurred to me. Motivations... Suffice it to say, more to come as I stop mapping and get to table design!

So, how bad did I mutilate it?

TB

Paladins... Perks vs Self-Imposed-Challenge (Ranty)

Okay, I may have mentioned this before on here, but I think I just had an epiphany if you will. Over at The Aspiring Lich, Chris mentioned in his comments,

 Perhaps, but where paladins are allowed, and where someone wants to play one, then they should expect that they'll have to abide by the rules of paladinhood. It irks me that people think they should get all the perks of the class while being able to play it like an amoral fighter.

I meandered about how the Unearthed Arcana book was a key point in my choice to leave D&D, and RPG in general, for so long.

I could not grasp why someone would need a tomb of a book to play a Paladin! It was nothing more than a moral Fighter who lived by a code and was beholden to his deity. While professing this very fact, it dawned on me, the difference, at least for me, of 'old school' and new.

Paladins, and other classes of the AD&D time were 'cool' because of all the 'perks'. Everyone wanted to play one (a Paladin), and the attribute restrictions were discarded rapidly to allow this in my gaming circle of the time. So began what I am now considering the "D&D Entitlement Generation!"

When I played D&D, I had to walk up-hill both-ways with cooked potatoes in my pockets, to keep me warm and to eat as a snack when they cooled, to the house of a friend to play.... No, I will not channel my father! Anyways, my point is, as I recall, playing characters who were challenged; low HPs, "bad attribute" rolls, etc. WAS the fun part. Sure, even a buff Basic D&D character died regularly, but it was fun! And oh the thrill of finally hitting fourth level with Peg-legged Willy! I still smile when I recall an NPC from a module, who's name was something like, 'Lookma Nohands' ~ recall he was a bartender. I wanted to play him as a PC!

I guess the definition of what was/is cool to play has changed. That, for me in a nutshell, is what defines the difference between the old and the new. Perks vs Self-Imposed-Challenge.

Chris started the whole thing off with,

p.s. - And don't get me started on the bitchy paladin who doesn't like the fact that she's really expected to adhere to a lawful moral code. Good grief.

Or the, "I want my Perks, and don't want to pay for it...", D&D Entitlement Personality. I think, from perusing his relatively new blog, Chris has started to feel the pull of the old over the new, and by doing so has assisted me in a new train of thought! Thanks Chris!

Am I out on a limb by myself here? Can it basically be a societal thing?

TB

Moving On A Budget

Over at Untimately, Brendan spoke about Wilderness Movement Costs and how to 'move on a budget'.

I really liked the idea and have decided to convert it to my thoughts of movement by time, where I have decided to think of traveling not as distance, but as time.

So, without further ado, a version of Brendan's tables with time equivalents for a league (2.5 miles) of travel:

Encumbrance	Movement Budget
Unencumbered	10 Hours
Lightly Encumbered	8 Hours
Heavily Encumbered	6 Hours

Unlike Brendan, I chose not to differentiate statistically between forms of locomotion; foot, horse, wagon, etc. For me, as an example, horses and such move at roughly the same walking speed as a person on foot with equivalent loads, or, a horse with a heavy load is going to move about as fast as a human with a heavy load. Granted, the weight of that load is significantly different, but hopefully you get my meaning. It is not until you get into forced marching and running that things change dramatically, but even then, it will all be about time. How long can you do it before giving out? This, at least for me, can be adjudicated on the fly.

Now on to the costs:

Terrain	Examples	Movement Cost	Becoming Lost
Average	Clear, City, Grasslands, Road*, Trail*	1 Hour	1 in 6
Moderate	Forest, Hills, Desert, Badlands	1.5 Hours	2 in 6
Difficult	Mountains, Heavy Forest, Jungle, Swamp	2 Hours	3 in 6

* Moving along Roads, or well marked Trails, does not result in a risk of Becoming Lost.

I would like to thank Brendan for pointing me to this simple and hopefully easy to master system. Thanks!

Best,
TB

Thoughts On Random Encounters

While establishing my first Encounter Location within the Free Barony of Warhone, I discovered that my 2d6 table blog reference no longer exists... "Crap!"

Gonna have to figure this out on my own and recreate the wheel. Using this handy dice probability site, I came up with an adjective based 2d6 table of my own. So when I need random encounters I will go with:

Five Option Table

2 & 12 Very Rare (5.56%)
3 & 11 Rare (11.12%)
4 & 10 Scarce (16.66%)
5 & 9 Normal (22.22%)
6 to 8 Common (44.45%)

Seven Option Table
2  Very Rare (2.78%) - Note: Could be used with the Five Option Table as Ultra Rare if 2 & 12 were broken out
3  Rare (5.56%)
4 & 5 Scarce (19.44%)
6, 7 & 8 Common (44.45%)
9 & 10 Scarce (19.44%)
11  Rare (5.56%)
12 Very Rare (2.78%)

I realize that there are more ways to break a 2d6 roll down for this, but my mind is not functioning this evening. If anyone wants to help out, and suggest what distribution they use for such a table, it would be appreciated.

Maybe the tables will reappear over on The Yaqqothl Grimoire? I'm not holding my breath though.

Now to work on the encounter tables for the site: Azimar's Ruined Keep. A little typical, but I have to start somewhere to get my creativity kindled!

TB

So, Moving Along Then (part 2a)

I changed my mind, or so Mr. ADD often convinces me to do. I was convinced to zoom in rather and jump down to 'settlement level'. I am glad I did too. It really helped me get an idea of the area. Why? I can't explain. But, none-the-less, here is a step-in on the Skelan area that was in my previous post.

 

Scale: 2640 ft sub-hex / 2.5 mi large hex

A note on the above map, the actual settlements (read rural area) of Skelan and Ength probably will most likely NOT end up where I placed the village and town icons. I tried to 'center-mass' them. I envision both being more in the branches of the 'Y' of the river, which I have to name.

Next up, before I do the actual rural settlements, is to place key encounter areas for this level, make random tables, etc. So, expect to see this map again in more detail soon.

TB

So, Moving Along Then (part 2)

Pressing forward, I have added some to the newest experiments in Mini-Gazetteer. Or, maybe I'll just call it a Blog-Gazetteer? Anyway, I added some additional terrain and random names to the base map.

I think this is as big as I feel comfortable with. Not being one that enjoys 'drilling-down' into a setting, I want to start small and work out from somewhere. So, with that in mind, I will pick a 'Base Camp' and flesh it out, and expand.

Perhaps from Skelan...

TB

So, Moving Along Then (part 1)

Now that I have had my grand epiphany about time, I return to mapping. As you can see from the below map, I have just quickly roughed in the basics; Mountains, Ocean, and the two Settlements (green hexes) I want to start with. The Settlement near the ocean will be the main trade point. The other, or located there-about, will be the starting 'base' for the campaign.

Next I want to map the trade center, so I get a feel for how dispersed it will be at this scale (small hex = 1 league, or 1 hour). So...

Not what I had hoped, but I can come back to it. Just couldn't figure out how I wanted it to look, Icon wise...

That's it for now, enjoy.
TB

It's Time To Move On

Yesterday, I posted about how I really like Bat in the Attic's use of leagues. Yes, I realize it is not a new phenomenon, but it was there that I grokked its awesomeness. I haven't been able to reproduce his great maps, as I had hoped, but I have figured out how to do something similar with Hexographer, while keeping Mr. OCD smiling.

The realization that distance is moot was a major breakthrough for me, believe it or not. I don't really care about distance anymore. Why? Because the only thing that is in distance are maps and movement.Strange considering that mapping is what makes Mr. OCD standup and flail about as if his arms and legs are independent of his body. Now, maps and movement may seem pretty important to the game, even maybe a pillar, but I have chosen not to think in distance any longer. I intend to think in time. Much more of the game, IMHO, is based on the unit of measure of time.

How did I come to this decision? Mr. OCD pointed me to it. I was trying to extrapolate the accuracy of the one hour / league, and it worked out.


Using a 5:1 sub-hex to hex ratio:
2.5 miles / league / 13200' equals 1 hour (Overland Scale)
2640' / .5 miles equals 12 min or 720 sec
528' equals 2.4 min or 144 sec (Settlement Scale at a 'block' distance)
105.6' equals 28.8 secs
21.12' equals 5.76 sec (close enough to a 20' / 6 sec combat round, even for Mista OCD)

What does that solve? Well, for me, I no longer have to think in distance, but rather in time! Torch life is in time. Rations are in time. Spell length, preparation, and casting, are in time. Everything else is in units of time! I can't help but to think that this will help 'in game', not to mention with my brain curdling attempts at mapping! Win-Win in my book. Hope it pans out while playing too. I know it has helped with mapping, which I hope to share shortly.

Surely not a significant discovery to the blog-as-sphere, but I am glad I have finally made the discovery! Or, at least, learned what others already know.

Best and happy gaming,
TB

More Mini Campaign

So I started messing around with mapping (Hexographer) again, and made a small regional map, or started it anyway. Then my best-est friend ever, OCD, came to visit. I wanted to drop in a small coastal harbor town or city. But what size? I knew I wanted to have each sub-hex be 2.5 miles (1 league) and the larger hexes to be 12.5 miles (5 leagues) based on how much I like Bat in the Attic maps. This scale just makes sense to me, and I hope to elaborate more on that in my next post.

Then I wavered! I do so ever like how it's done on The 25 Mile Hex too! Finally I just said, "Screw It!" and went to another bookmark, Medieval Demographics Made Easy. Both the above blogs mentioned it, as I recall, so it has to have something going for it, right?

So, based on the formula there ((Hex Width x .9306049)squared) tells me that there are 5.43sq miles in a 2.5 mile hex, or 1 league. Cool! Population Density, which I took to mean Rural, ranged from 30 to 120 people per square mile. So this town/city, assuming it has some kind of patrolling guard, could patrol out, on a regular basis, a half-a-day. So four hours, or 4 leagues, to be able to make it back by dark. Counting all the hexes surrounding the town/city I came up with 60 hexes and an Excel Spread Sheet...

So, based on density, this town could range from a Large Town to a Large City... I am not a complete sadist. I didn't want to randomly figure out the density of every league within the settlement's control. So I created a formula that would give me a random range between 30 and 120. Then OCD's friend showed up...

Yay, ADD, welcome! Mr. ADD wanted to know, "If the settlement could only 'protect' 3, 2, or even 1 hour out from it, what size settlements would result?"

This didn't, even at minimum density, get me a settlement smaller than 489 person Village with the Village itself and the adjoining 6 leagues. (I am using the settlement sizes from 3.5 by-the-way because I would like to use the eventual map in either a Microlite20 or Pathfinder Beginner Box campaign)

"Doh!" All I had to do was reverse the formula to be able to enter the settlement population and random density to tell me how many leagues a settlement needed. I did this not just because of Mr. ADD, but because I noticed that the first settlement was going to eat-up alot of my map. I wanted some smaller settlements for 'bases-of-operations' too out in the 'wilderness'.

Long-story-short, I think Mr. OCD and Mr. ADD have just had their communal asses kicked by Mr. Excel!

More to come!
TB

Home...

Home at last, though I thought I would get alot of blogging done while on my business trip, it never came to fruition. Now, I hope, I can delve off into some PFBB ramblings...

TB

Monitary Mapping

Over on Telecanter's Receding Rules, Telecanter spoke of The Pre-Mapped Dungeon and its effect on game play.

Introducing pre-mapped dungeons in the form of Player handout maps is an interesting topic for discussion. But past; whether it should be done, how accurate they should be, and the effects to game play, I had to wonder, 'Where do they get them?'

It would be assumed that either; the map is completely fraudulent (source had never been there), or if accurate, that the dungeon had been plundered by the cartographer at, or before, the time of the map's creation. Both could be circumstances that could lead to in-game disappointment for the Characters, and to a lesser extent the Players.

But what really got me was, "How did they get such a map?" One would assume that it was made for profit, as making a personally plundered map for oneself seems cost prohibitive unless it was used to extricate oneself from same.

So, assuming it was made for profit to be sold to others, how much would it be worth? Why don't Players ever try to sell their maps? Why don't big-wig NPCs hire Characters to map locations, even their regional terrain? And, if this was prevalent, should Characters receive experience for a successful cartography exploration?

A myriad of questions I must ponder upon!

Happy mapping,
TB

Messing Around With Wacom...

Just wanted to show off my new toy! Yes, I am not very good. I have been reading tuts and sketching all day and this is the best I have to show for it....

Much practice in my future, but at least I won't feel bad about crumpling digital paper and throwing it in the digital trashcan.

Constructive critism is fine, lay it on me.

TB

It's All About The "Quarters"

So, while perusing blogs, I stumbled on Talysman's latest post: Mapping Towns and Cities During Play.

There, I saw a link to: The Quarter System. I thought, 'Cool... That would be neat!' So off I went, Mozilla buzzing, to find it was not what I had thought. It was 'Cool', just not what I anticipated.

This, is what I had in mind:

Coinage! Quarters!

That lead to this:

Where I started with a Quarter to represent the Castle/Keep. Inspired again by Talysman, here, I quickly decided that dimes would be crafts, nickles would be multi-entity establishments, quarters the controlling interest, and half-dollars would be homes.

I placed the Quarter, then a dime, figuring that the controlling entity would want them near. To support that, I needed homes. Each additional coin had to touch at least two others and homes had to touch the establishment it supported. Each craft/merchantile had to be as close to the 'hub' as I could get it, then its supporting homes. When at all possible I shared the edge of the homes with another half-dollar to represent how homes tended to cling together...

And bingo a rough Large Village was created, again based on this.

I will assume that there are three entrances into the Castle/Keep at each of the dimes, and for the most part that each coin that touches another has a major thoroughfare connecting it.

Now that I know what each can represent, I should be able to pick up some coins (the amount based on the size of the settlement) and have a ready made establishment.

What to do with the penny?... Ruins or Slums! Done.

Hope you like it, it is rather 'outside-the-box' for me, and it is all because Talysman blogged about quarters!

TB

*The only thing I had a problem with was the Church/Shrine. It probably should have gone NE or SW of the Controller, but I didn't want it near a Stable or a Blacksmith.*

Trying My Hand At Silhouettes

Wanted to try it out myself since Telecanter makes them look so cool!

First One I did took me about fifteen minutes. And it looks like it...

Learned a valuable lesson. Not all poses look right. This fellow in the original was setting up for a backswing. In the Silhouette, it appears that he is going for a forehand swing... meh.

Second one was this one, which took me about ten minutes.

You loose the pick-sword in Silhouetting him, but better. The outline doesn't look as jagged with this technique.

Fun though,

TB

Making A Pocketmod Book

While I sat and ruminated on my last post I considered how I was going to release it. I really like Pocketmods, but for a book, even a small one, more than one would be required. How would I break down the data? Some folks have released four to five Pocketmods, each with its own topic. For example; one for character creation, one for Divine Spells, one for Arcane Spells, one for Monsters, etc.

Looking at my computer desk... I would lose 'em! Sure they are easy to print out, cut, fold, and enjoy, but I wanted something all-in-one. Then I found this:

Instructions can be found HERE. Which utilizes four individual Pocketmods bound with kite string into a single book. That might just work for what I have in mind! That is thirty-two pages of Microlite20 goodness right there. Depending on font, it could work, if legible.

Then I found this from the same author, icspots:

Yep, that is 50+ pages! Her instructions for this little beauty can be found HERE.

What say you?

TB

Pocket Encounters...

Digging this... A modifiable Pocketmod of Telecanter's silhouettes, for encounter booklets!

Sorry, just wanted to give this a quick 'shout out'. Probably gonna post more tonight about Microlite20, so if you like that kind of thing, stay tuned.

TB

It's Got Me!!!

Yep, my addictive personality had me go out and buy the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion game for Xbox because my cheap personality waits for Elder Scrolls: Skyrim to be beaten by youngens, so I can pick it up on the cheap, used....

Well, now I am fully addicted to it! Too bad the 3d person view stinks on ice! Thankfully, the nausia I get from 1st person limits my play time, or I would get NO sleep.

Back to bashing baddies...
TB

Not Sure Why I Am Posting This...

But, since I posted a while back what I like: Mounted Characters, I thought I would post about what I don't like, or at least what doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Putting this down in a blog kind of surprises me - since they may be construed as being non-old-school.

• Dungeons. Yep don't like 'em. They make no sense to me what-so-ever. A small one under a castle for prisoners, sure, but a large one for whatever reason... nah. Natural caverns, sure. A mega-dungeon? Not in my worlds. I can even go with some Dwarven mines and some billeting for the miners, but a conventional dungeon.... Why is it there? Specially when most have no rhyme or reason for their shape? Pass!
• Vancian Magic. Another of the love-it or leave-it topics. I will just have to leave it. I feel so dirty... I guess it falls into my love of low-magic preference, but something as... incredible as magic, leaving your conscience after you cast it... nah.
• Hit Points. Okay, I don't not like them, but the idea of them being 'wounds' is outside my level-headed obsessive compulsive comprehension. The best I can succinctly refer to them as, at this moment, is Resolve. I guess 'damage' falls into the same sphere. The best way I can explain my take on it is that it isn't damage to your opponent, but rather Advantage for the attacker....
• Treasure. Not that I don't like it, but it makes no sense to me in the grand scheme of things either. I mean, why does a clan of Goblins have 'treasure' in the form of gold. Sure they are somewhat intelligent, but I just don't see them hording it either. What use do they have for it? I don't see them bartering with humans or demi-humans with it. It just seems to me that a society of chaotic, dungeon dwelling, defecate in the corner of their own 'living room', type of monsters wouldn't give... well two copper for the gold that humanity puts so much value into. If they are "intelligent" you would think they would push it all out under a tree or something to keep the big mean adventurers from ransacking their home. Now a bag of fungus spores... now that is worth fighting for!

I'll stop there before you think I shouldn't be allowed to blog about classic gaming and leave it on a high note:

Mounted Dwarves!! (Yes, again, pic used without permission and I have completely forgot where it originated from, but as always it can be removed should the originator request)

TB

Help Me Find A Site...

Googling my arse off and for the life of me I can't find it! It was a 'random nemesis success' table. Each 'x' amount of in-game time, you rolled to see what success or failure a particular nemesis, protagonist, villain had. You had to acquire enough points (totals of your rolls) before the arch-villain could move on. It was a 'ticking clock' in the background so-to-speak.

Anyone know where I can find this?

Best,
TB

An Awesome Free, No Download, Table!

This has to be seen to believed!!!

It's called Taeble, and yes it is intentionally spelled wrong, but it rocks!

You can save it, host a game on it, and best of all customize it by bringing in maps and pieces from your PC or the Web! Nice! And it already comes with all standard D&D dice...

I so want to try this out with maybe Skype....

TB