In some cases, and in particular in modules like T1 Village
of Hommlet and N1 Cult of the Reptile God, the
outdoors area is sketchy at best, and non-existent at worst. As
only one adventure site is presented, it is imagined that travel from the base
of operations to the adventure site is relatively inconsequential. You can start a game this way – even a
sandbox-style game (so long as the options then open out from those initial
choices) but doing so is not preferable.
If you contrast the above modules with B2 Keep
on the Borderlands, The Lost City of Barakus, and Rappan
Athuk Reloaded, or similar modules, the appeal of having a
well-developed and interesting outdoors area to explore ought to be immediately
apparent. If nothing else, such areas
offer players a choice beyond simply travelling to the nearby ruins. And, as described in previous posts, the
point of table top role-playing games is the ability to make choices that
matter. And that means that, the more
player choices determine what the play experience actually is, the less the milieu
will seem to be “videogamey”.
The key to making the outdoors area work is to make it interesting. An interesting wilderness area offers
challenges, yes….but it also offers landmarks to navigate by, clues that help
supply context for choices, and descriptive elements akin to the “dungeon
dressing” in the 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. A large part of wilderness adventuring is
also dealing with random encounters. In
a way, these things are all part of the “challenge”, but they are also part of
making the campaign milieu seem to “breath”.
Concentrate first
on immediate needs first.
1A. Draw a wilderness
map. Either place your initial base of
operations near the centre, or ensure that there are strong obstacles (such as
deserts, high mountains, etc.) that prevent easy travel into unmapped regions. Ensure that your map includes all the
features you want in your initial area.
I.e., if you want an element of oceans and coastlines, make sure that
you include these elements.
If you can obtain numbered hex paper, it will be easier to
key the areas, and you can make changes related to the location of lairs,
monsters, etc., without having to change your map. For an initial play area, a small scale is desirable
– an area comprising no more than a week’s travel in all directions, with
whatever means the Player Characters are likely to have available. Mapping the area the characters can reach in
three game days is often sufficient.
I prefer to make these maps on a 1 hex = 5 miles scale. This is a small enough scale to note
interesting features, and large enough that the initial map need be no larger
than a single sheet of hex paper. You
may wish to experiment with larger or smaller scales.
For important regions, I will make “nested hex” paper, where
the larger hexes match the initial map, and the smaller hexes within are scaled
at 1 hex = 1 mile. This can give a
fairly comprehensive picture of an important location.
1B. Decide the basic
parameters of the objects on the map you drew.
It isn’t enough to show a stream; you want to individuate this stream
from the others on your map. If the
party gets lost, and comes across the stream, they should be able to get some
idea where they are from how the stream itself is described. Likewise, decide if woods are heavy or light,
if grasslands are rolling or not. Are these
hills craggy and full of small caves?
Are those hills forested, with gentle slopes? The level of detail that JRRT gives in The
Hobbit is about perfect for this.
1C. Decide where your
adventure locations will be, and roughly what sorts of adventure locations they
are going to be. If you will recall, we
are considering at least three major and six minor adventure locations. A major location may be a dungeon, a ruin, a
lost city, an enchanted island, or whatever else you can imagine. A minor location may be a ruined farmhouse, a
minor cave system, etc. In general, a
major location may take several sessions
to explore, while a minor location will only take about 1 game session (or
less!).
Consider how these sites will affect the areas around
them. Brainstorm a list of clues
pointing to the location’s existence, placement, and nature, as well as to any
creatures that might have a local impact on the environment. You will want to liberally sprinkle these
clues around the adventure site, as far abroad as you think believable, to aid
the players in making choices.
Basically, you are providing context here.
If you imagine the story of Little Red Riding Hood,
it is the foreknowledge of the wolf in Granny’s bed that gives the story its
tension. Likewise, in any movie or
novel, it is our ability to anticipate what may happen that makes us pay
attention. Many first time Game Masters
think it important to hide clues from their players. The reality is actually quite the reverse –
the more clues the players have, the better!
Making decisions while anticipating what may occur is far more engaging
than making decisions in the dark and hoping for the best.
1D. Place a few lairs
of creatures that are not full adventure sites.
They are just places where a creature may be found, analogous to a single
room in a dungeon. Likewise, you can
place a few tricks, traps, and treasures without any creatures at all, just as
if you were stocking a dungeon.
Don’t assume that all of these will be hostile
encounters. Some may begin neutral; some
may be potential friends and allies.
Here woodsmen have a small encampment from which they range during
daylight hours. There a single fortified
farmhouse is found in relative isolation.
Don’t be afraid to have these areas “bleed into” one
another.
Consider: Crossing
the Misty Mountains, the party encounters stone giants, which are largely
disconnected from everything else.
However, when the party takes shelter in a cave, they unknowingly enter
the Goblin Lair adventure site. Escaping
this, they encounter a “potential landslide” natural trap, and stumble into a
gathering place of wolves….which is also the destination of the goblins they
escaped because the wolves and goblins are linked. The disturbance caused by this encounter
triggers a nearby lair – that of the Lord of Eagles. And so on.
1E. Place other
settlements, if desired. If you place
nearby villages and settlements, give them the same sort of development that
you did the initial base of operations….but, in each case, do about 1/4 of the
detail you did previously. You can
always add detail if the players are interested; if not, you need do no more.
1F. Create basic
encounter tables for random encounters.
These should reflect your design work to this point, indicating the
creatures and peoples living in your wilderness area. Your encounter tables can and should include
more than simply one fight after another.
Normal animals, for instance, should be included both in description of
the wilderness, and in “encounters”.
You can also create a list of “specials” that can occur –
random encounters that are either essentially dressing (a cart fallen over and
half-buried in mud/vegetation, with a broken axle) or an analogue to a dungeon
room (i.e., fully described creatures with or without treasure, possibly a
mixed group, possibly not, maybe a trick or a trap, etc.).
There are many products with random tables that can help you
with this work. The random ruins tables
in Wilderlands
of High Fantasy are of much use, for example, and that product also
includes a lot of examples of potential wilderness encounters and lairs.
After immediate
needs are met, do whatever work interests you the most. Or, take a break if nothing is particularly interesting
to you.
As before, once you’ve completed the most important work, do
what interests you. No level of detail
is too great, if you are creating that detail because you want to. But, if more detail doesn’t interest you at
the moment, take a break.
The wilderness area should be in constant motion. Refine your encounter tables. Create more specials. Move new creatures into the area, and change
the status of those you’ve already placed.
Consider how things interact, and how you can supply more context or
more conflict.
Every hour of prep
work should result in at least two hours of game time.
As in the previous post, keep in mind Ray Winninger’s Rule, “Whenever you design a major piece of the
campaign world, always devise at least one secret related to that piece.”
Individual lairs are not necessarily significant, unless the
creatures therein are friendly enough, numerous enough, or powerful enough to
last beyond a single encounter. Instead,
consider the secrets of particular forested regions, hills, lakes, ponds, and
beaches. Whatever is likely to stay in
the campaign milieu and have replay value.
Remember, if you accept my rule that “Whenever you devise a major piece of the campaign world, always
consider how that piece can be used for replay value” you should also
accept the converse: “Whatever has little or no replay value
shouldn’t be developed more than necessary”.
Conclusion
Sometimes it may seem that the outdoors areas are analogous
to the corridors in a dungeon – just something that separates the more
interesting rooms/encounters. This is,
of course, somewhat true, just as it is often true of a dungeon corridor, and
for much the same reason – the wilderness and the corridors are seldom well
developed.
But, of course, the condition of the dungeon corridors can
give a major indication about the nature of what is to be found within the
rooms. Also, dungeon corridors can be encounter
areas in their own right, with creatures living in them, or with tricks and/or
traps of their own. Likewise the
wilderness.
No one suggests that every corridor in a 20-level
megadungeon complex should be individually keyed. Likewise, no one is suggesting that every
tree and flower, every rill and sand dune, of the wilderness need be
detailed. Indeed, doing so would violate
the “Whatever has little or no replay
value shouldn’t be developed more than necessary” rule to no one’s benefit.
In the wilderness, as with corridors, a strong overview and
an occasional reminder, together with a little development, can go a very long
way.
Next: An overview of the region.
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