Blogs I Should Follow

I just updated Blogger to include a Blog List.  Are there some other blogs I should be following?

Thanks,

RC

S is for Sandbox Part IV: A Sample Minor Adventure Site (2): The Great Outdoors

Picking up from the last “S is for Sandbox” column, we are looking at the creation of a sample minor adventure site.  In this column, we are looking at the first of three maps, the outdoor map.  I drew a quick map, using a scale of 1 hex = 1 mile.

You will notice that I used hex paper with numbered hexes.  This is because I want to be able to create additional encounters by using the hex numbers, and I know that over the course of a sandbox campaign, the encounters in an area may well change.

I have located the hermitage on a rocky hill along the road leading from a large village (campaign starting area, to the north) and somewhere more coastal (to the southeast), with the thought that carts sent by the Thieves’ Guild to receive stolen goods could come along this road.  The pirates could use this road to bring treasure up from the coast, and closeness to the road would make visitors seem less suspicious.  It would also allow the players to easily locate this site.

The temple is on a bit of a hill so that the hermit can use smoke signals to alert the Guild when there are sufficient materials to warrant sending a cart.  The outbuildings are where the hermitage is located, the temple is ruined, and the goblin cave is where goblins who bring materials to fence stay.  Belmar’s Seat is the name of another rocky upcrop, named for a hero of old (and which can tie into the area history, and other adventure sites).

In addition to the noted road and trails, there will be numerous, non-permanent game trails.  In addition to the two small lakes shown on the map, there will be numerous small rills and streams which appear after a rain or seasonally.

Because the area is close to the village, I know that there are unlikely to be any truly dangerous monsters in the area, but also that I will want to include some other minor lairs.  Why?  Because it makes things interesting for the players, and rewards exploration of the area.  And I want to reward exploration, because exploration may eventually lead them to the goblin cave, wherein clues to unravel what is actually happening at the hermitage are most likely to come to light. 

(I am not in a rush for this to happen, mind you.  It will happen in its own time, or not, as game play dictates.)

I also know that the PCs are most likely to follow roads and trails, at least initially, in their exploration of any area, so I will want to set most encounters along these roadways and paths.  I therefore come up with a provisional list of hexes to flesh out:

0203:  Verminous Caverns:  This area is the least likely for the players to locate, so I am going to put something interesting, deadly, and rewarding here.  I am then going to sprinkle links to it in other areas of the sandbox (or I would be doing so if actually developing this area for play). 

This area contains a hidden cave system, more vertical than horizontal, which was once the lair of a green dragon.  Much of the dragon’s treasure is still hidden below, although moved now by flowing water from a single location to a plethora of areas throughout the caves.  In addition, the caves are now home to many giant spiders, flies, ants, and scorpions.  There is a rich haul here, for those capable of retrieving it…and sudden death for everyone else.

For fun, I’m going to say that the dragon’s bones are still in the caverns, where they may be found by adventurers.  They might be sold to a sage or collector, or they might be used for some form of magical ritual. 

Finally, within this hex, there is a 50% chance that any encounter will be with giant vermin of some sort.  Within a 1-hex radius around this hex, there is a 1 in 6 chance that any encounter will be with giant vermin.  I will have to develop a separate encounter table to determine what is encountered.

0207:  Spider!:  A giant black widow spider has stretched its web across the trail in this hex.  Some of the husks from its victims, if found, have treasure.

0211:  Foundations:  Alongside the trail here, the group may discover the foundations of a ruined farmhouse, which can help to offers some shelter from the elements.  There is nothing of value here.

0509: Belmar’s Cup:  This lake is known as Belmar’s Cup, after the folkhero-king who once ruled in this region.  It is relatively shallow and weedy, but offers some fishing.  Recently, a forester drowned in the lake, and now haunts this region each night as a ghoul.

0602:  Broken Cart:  An overturned cart with a broken wheel lies along side the roadway here, quietly going back to the earth.  If investigated during the summer months, there is a 1 in 6 chance that a snake takes advantage of the shade it offers…but the snake is non-venomous, and quickly slithers away.

0607: Lake Lugres:  This lake is extremely deep, being formed in a narrow fissure not unlike those in Hex 0203.  It is fed by rainwater, snow melt, and an underground spring.  There is good fishing here the year round, although would-be fishermen must cut a hole in the ice during the winter.  Legend and rumour claim that a hungry spirit dwells within the lake’s depths, but this is not so.

0911 Belmar’s Seat:  An outcrop of rock named for the hero-king Belmar.  A flat-topped boulder at the apex of the hill is known as Belmar’s Chair.  It is said that those who sit at Midsummer’s Even on Belmar’s Chair are driven mad, or become poets – if there is any difference between the two.

1005: Outbuildings:  This is the site of the Hermitage.  The outbuildings include the hermit’s quarters, a common area for guests (including a stable as part of the common area).  The cellar beneath the hermit’s quarters includes a secret area wherein treasure from bandits, goblins, and pirates may be hidden.

The hermit is a 6^th level thief.  This level was chosen so as to allow interaction with starting PCs, where the hermit will not be instantly overwhelmed, while at the same time making it possible for the PCs to defeat him later.  Besides which, living alone in the (near) wilds as he does, the hermit will need some class level “oomph”!

1204: Temple:  This is the ruined temple, beneath which the dungeon lies.  We might as well start calling this the Dungeon of the Skull, because that will be its most important feature.  Within the temple, there is an area that allows our hermit to mimic a cleric, effectively giving him access to a limited amount of curative magic each day.

In fact, let us make this a temple of Hermes (as the patron of thieves, healers, and magic, it seems appropriate).

1309:  Farmstead:  There is a small farmstead located in this hex.

1404: Goblin Cave:  When goblins visit the hermitage, they stay here.  As a result, there is goblin graffiti on the walls, carvings on the table, etc., that hints at what the hermit really is.  Unknown to the hermit, the goblins have begun mining here, trying to break into the Dungeon of the Skull.

1406:  Tailings Pile:  The tailings pile from the goblin mining – as well as some broken mining equipment of obvious goblin manufacture – is hidden just off the trail here.

Computer Woes & D&D Makes the News

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit.  My old laptop has been consigned to whatever the electronic equivalent of Davy Jones' Locker might be, and it has taken me a little bit of time to get the new one up to speed.  It suffered from Heat Death, and even though I cracked it open and cleaned it, the problem wasn't solved.  Luckily, I was able to move my files to an external hard drive, and am now back in business.  Still, I had to cancel two game sessions because I couldn't access my notes.

In addition to this, as most of you have now heard, (1) Wizards of the Coast finally got around to admitting that they were working on 5e, and (2) WotC also announced that they were going to reprint a limited run of the 1e Player's Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monster Manual.  As a result, even after I was up and running again, I spent far more time reading others' news online than working on my own writing!

As for the 5e announcement, I think it has been clear for some time now that 4e didn't perform as expected.  Well, clear to all except a few die-hard 4e fans, to whom no amount of evidence was evident enough!  So, those of us who predicted a relatively short shelf life for 4e are vindicated, those who thought there would never need be another edition are demonstrably wrong, and WotC is apparently moving back to a more "retro" (read, pre-3e) model.  This last point is important, IMHO, because it is some indication that WotC might be interested in producing something I might be interested in purchasing.

One thing that I've learned from the D&D game cycle, though, is that I never want to invest in a game that is going to go out of print in such a way as legally producing third-party support materials for it becomes impossible.  Those who opt to stay with 4e may be able to create a "retro-clone" of it, although the GSL and many changes seem to be designed to negate exactly that possibility.  I hope they have all the 4e support materials they will ever need!

A role-playing game that is tied to the fortunes and decisions of a single corporation no longer interests me.  If 5e is not an OGL game, I will give it a pass.  It could be perfect for my tastes in so many ways, yet fail to meet WotC's expectations, and disappear faster than 4e.  And then where would I be?  Hoping that I had all the 5e support materials I will ever need!  No, thank you.

I am looking forward to the 1e reprints, though, as my original Monster Manual needs replacement, having disappeared into the fog of time.  Also, I think it is a wise decision on the part of WotC to recognize that the community determines the course of the hobby, not a single company, no matter what trademarks they may hold.  That a portion of the proceeds will fund the Gygax memorial seems fitting, to me.

So, kudos to WotC for making themselves relevant to me again, at least for a single print run!

And, if 5e turns out to be an OGL game, which users are encouraged to fold, spindle, and mutilate to their tastes -- and then share that folding, spindling, and mutilation with others -- WotC may even succeed in making their trademark relevant to me again.

Really.

The need to be able to post your house rules online, for others to access, is a requirement for online games.  To be able to do so only on the sufferance of WotC means that your online game is only viable so long as WotC says it is.  And, draconian limitations like the GSL's unwillingness to allow you to change what terms mean, prevent potential GMs from crafting an online game that will satisfy their own particular itch.

It may be good business for some products; it sucks beans for RPGs.

IMHO.

YMMV.

See you next time with more sandboxing goodness.


RC

S is for Sandbox Part IV: A Sample Minor Adventure Site (1)

I hope everyone had good holidays!

Picking up from the last “S is for Sandbox” column, we are looking at the creation of a sample minor adventure site.  As previously discussed, setting up such a site has several goals, including both speedy play (the average minor site should be explorable in a session or so), reusability, and usefulness in pointing toward other adventuring sites.

I did some initial brainstorming on Christmas Eve, and decided that the site would be the ruin of a temple, mostly lost to time, beneath which remain a smallish dungeon area.  In order to meet my goals, I considered the following:

(1)   The temple was once that of a good deity, but the high priestess turned to evil.  She is still imprisoned in the dungeon as a powerful undead spirit.  This spirit can communicate with the living through her preserved skull, and her knowledge of the area is extensive (if out of date).  Part of her reasons for communicating with the living is to trick them into freeing her, which requires three objects.  She knows where they were kept in her lifetime, but one of these objects has been moved beyond the initial starting area in the intervening years.

The purpose of this character is threefold:  First, she supplies a link to three other sites in the starting area, encouraging characters to seek out three specific treasures for her own fell purposes.  Second, she supplies a reason (information) for returning to the ruined temple.  By occasionally restocking the area with new inhabitants, both malevolent and benign, I can make additional use of my original design work.  (You may recall the importance of this goal – every hour of prep should result in a minimum of two hours of play!)  Finally, she supplies a potential Epic Endgame (or Midgame) if released.

(2)  A major treasure will be hidden in the temple dungeon, in an area unknown to the high priestess.  This area will be hard to discover without additional information, and a map in another adventure site will indicate where to look.  This gives the players another motive to return here if they have already “cleared” the site, and will give the players a motive to come here if they have not already been here, thus potentially bringing the skull into play.

(3)  The upper ruin is inhabited by a hermit who has dealings with the inhabitants of two other adventure sites…let’s say, a group of goblins inhabiting a nearby cave system, and a group of pirates in a major adventuring site consisting of a fort, the dungeons beneath, and a series of sea caves.  The hermit helps both groups fence stolen loot, and members of either group may be present at any given time.  Obviously, for the most fun, both of these groups dislike each other.

The hermit needs a contact in the closest thieves’ guild, and can certainly help PCs deal with their own stolen goods, if he believes them trustworthy.  If not, he can pass information about the PCs on to the pirates and the goblins.  Likewise, if the PCs take on either the goblins or (especially) the pirates, clues/documentation may lead them to the hermit.  (Goblins do not keep good records, but they may treat the hermit as a religious figure, and wear the same holy symbol, for example.)

It should also be noteworthy that the hermit may have a fair amount of treasure available to him at various times.  Whenever either the goblins or the pirates are particularly active, the hermit will have booty to fence.  PCs looting the hermit at this time will acquire this booty – stolen goods that may serve to connect them with either group if sold/displayed indiscriminately! 

The hermit has no interest in exploring the dungeon area, and calls himself the “caretaker” of the ruin.  He will ask for donations for its upkeep (although there is no sign of actual upkeep), and may be able to give the PCs some support in terms of minor healing, simple food, rough accommodations, etc., after any foray.  Of course, he has better food and accommodations for himself, but he is loathe to let anyone learn of them.

Requirements

From the above outline, born of simple brainstorming over the holidays, a clear idea of what is needed to make the site useful is clear:

(1)  Maps of the upper ruins, the dungeon area, and the surrounding terrain.  The upper ruin must include an area for rough accommodations, a semi-hidden better area for the hermit, and a place for stolen goods to be hidden.  The dungeon area must include a space for the skull, and a place for the hidden treasure.

(2)  Statistics for the hermit, the skull, goblin visitors, and pirate visitors.  The fence probably sends a cart to the hermit to pick up goods, and so there should be statistics for these folk as well.  I can get away without statistics for the undead high priestess immediately, but I need to know roughly what she knows about the area, what the three items are she needs to be released, and where she believes them to be.

(3)  Potential hoards for treasures ready for fencing, both from goblins and pirates.  The hermit’s personal hoard of luxury goods, and his hidden cache of better food.

(4)  A signalling system whereby the hermit can let the fence know to send the cart.  This signal system might eventually be penetrated by the PCs, allowing them (potentially) to uncover the fence, recover stolen goods, etc.  It is therefore sensible that the signal is only sent after “guests” (including adventurers, goblins, and pirates) have gone away.

(5)  Odds of pirates, goblins, cart, and maybe other adventurers or travellers being present at any given time.  Who those other travellers will be.  Possibly a very simple random encounter chart for the dungeon area.

Once these basic needs have been dealt with, I can key the actual maps.  Preferably, each adventuring site in the starting area is outlined in this fashion, the basics are done for each site, and then actual keying begins for each site.  What this ensures is that, if the Game Master is forced to “wing it”, it is at least possible to do so with consistency.

Notes

The format for this series of posts, detailing a minor adventure site, came about because simply presenting such a site doesn’t actually demonstrate the steps (or thinking) leading to the end result.  At first I was thinking that I could just present a finished product, but that doesn’t actually accomplish the same thing.  Nor does a “now you finish stocking it” ala B1:  In Search of Adventure.  Ideally, you want to supply not only a completed (and usable) adventure site, but also the process that went into creating it.

Note also the focus on not determining what will happen at the site, but rather with making a site rich in possible happenings.  That way, the interests of the players at the table, rather than the interests of a single designer (even if the GM) more strongly shape the course of play.

Finally, although as I admire Mr. Gygax’s hermit encounter in B2:  Keep on the Borderlands, the inspiration for the hermit here is Peter Butterworth’s excellent portrayal of the Monk (aka the Meddling Monk) in the Doctor Who story, The Time Meddler.  The Monk later appeared in The Daleks’ Masterplan, but only a portion of the footage of that story still survives.  In TTM, the Monk has stationed himself in a ruined abbey, pretending to be seeking quiet contemplation, while pursuing a very different agenda.  The Monk is also the first Time Lord seen in Doctor Who apart from the title character (and, possibly, his granddaughter, Susan).

Preference?

I am trying to decide between Basic Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, and Stars Without Number for my example minor adventure site. 

Does anyone have a preference?

S is for Sandbox Part III: Initial Set Up For Sandbox Games (4): Initial Adventure Sites

I recommended earlier that the initial area for a sandbox milieu contains at least three major and six minor adventure sites.  The reason for this should, by this point, be obvious – if the goal is not to railroad the players, then they must have choices about what adventure sites they will explore. 

At the same time, I recommend that any campaign megadungeon is not located in (although it may be adjacent to) the initial area.  This is because it is desirable that the players think of the game milieu as more than just a village and a nearby ruin.

Why is this desirable?  Because, no matter how interesting the megadungeon may be, without the context of a larger world, such campaigns tend to grow stale rather quickly.  If your experience, or your particular strengths as a Game Master, suggest otherwise, you should disregard my advice, and go with what feels right to you.

Within the context of this discussion, a minor adventuring site is any area that can be fully explored in 1-2 game sessions or less.  Examples of minor sites might be a “five room dungeon”, a ruined villa or inn, a modest tomb, a small cave complex, or an abandoned lighthouse. 

A major adventuring site is any site that requires more time and care.  Note that it may not be immediately apparent to the players which sites are major, and which sites are minor.  What appears to be a small cave complex may lead deep beneath the earth.  What appears to be merely a ruined villa may have several dungeon levels beneath.  Only by actual exploration may the players learn the truth.

Concentrate first on immediate needs first.

Although the following is given in a step-by-step format, individual Game Masters are advised to strike while the iron is hot.  If you find yourself moved to work more on a single location, do that work first.  The steps are given in order to supply structure, and in order to supply direction when you are foundering.  They are not included to suggest slave-like devotion to a process in total disregard to your own creativity!

1.  Start by deciding on the nature of each adventure location.  Describe it in a single-sentence or a short paragraph.  For example:

• “Ancient ruins in jungle of the mysterious  Olmatec people.  Step-pyramids have fallen into ruin.  Jaguars and pseudo-Aztec monsters.”

• “Sea caves where pirates hide their booty.”

• “A hidden temple to an evil deity has attracted monsters to the caverns lining these ravine walls.  The monsters live in an uneasy alliance with each other, for the most part.  The priests work at excavating a collapsed tunnel into another, more ancient, complex.”

2.  Select or draw maps for each of your adventure sites.

3.  Decide what major creatures are located at each site, developing a random encounter chart if applicable. 

At this point, if you are forced to “wing it”, you have enough information to offer a consistent presentation, so long as you take notes on what you decide in play. 

After immediate needs are met, do whatever work interests you the most.  Or, take a break if nothing is particularly interesting to you.

Further develop your adventure location.  Do encounter area write-ups, place monsters, place treasures, etc., etc.  This is, in fact, similar to what you would normally do when creating an adventure site.

Every hour of prep work should result in at least two hours of game time.

Some modification of this advice is in order, for this particular step, because you do not, under any circumstances, want to force your players to interact with any particular area in a sandbox milieu.  The trick, then, becomes to (1) maximize value while (2) maximizing player choices. 

Doing so requires that you accept, a priori, that some treasures will never be found, some monsters will never be encountered, and some areas will never be explored.  If you’ve gotten into the habit, pushed by later versions of D&D, that the unit of play is the encounter, that encounters are set pieces that the players must play through, that treasures are “rewards” which must be found to ensure proper wealth by level….you need to get yourself out of those ruts right now. 

That is not how things work in a sandbox milieu.

If you can, grab some old and new edition modules, and look closely at the maps.  You will notice that, even in the most railroad-y of the older modules, there tend to be multiple ways to reach various areas, with a few choke points.  There may be much treasure hidden, but there is an assumption that finding it will rely at least in part on chance.  Module B1 actually states that in any good dungeon the PCs will not find all the treasure.

Melan did an excellent analysis of these maps, which can be read here:  http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/dnd/dungeonmaps.html

Adventure sites have replay value if the players decide that there is more to explore – simply using a complex map means that an area will gain more bang for the effort put into it.

Rather than trying to create a complex narrative of events that will happen, when you create an adventuring site, you should create minor threads of events….things that link the various creatures in the area.  Bits of politics.  Secrets small and large that can explode out into a narrative.   Basically, you are supplying hooks upon which you can build your improvisation when determining how various creatures react to the player characters and to each other.

In this way, you will allow the choices of the players, and the actual interactions within game play, to push various elements to the foreground.  Because you have done very little work on these snippets, it doesn’t matter if most of these are pushed into the background.  Also, in a persistent campaign milieu, the hook that is pushed into the background today may be thrust into the limelight tomorrow!  In this way, previous interactions will be given greater context, and take on a depth of their own.

I cannot stress enough how reading the older fantasy and adventure fiction authors – Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Vance, Robert E. Howard, etc., etc., etc. – helps with this.  These authors make use of characters who could well be PCs and NPCs in a role-playing game.  The protagonists run into characters who have agendas of their own, and those agendas make the main thrust of the story richer simply by interacting with the protagonists.  This means that these stories are less tightly plotted….but less tightly plotted is exactly what is desired in a sandbox.  These authors can really help you learn how to deliver on that desire!

You can increase the value of your design work by referencing other adventure sites in the site you are working on.  For example, a log in that abandoned lighthouse might mention the ruined jungle city.  A group of slavers operating out of part of the jungle ruins might be in league with the pirates that buried their gold in those sea caves.  A letter found in the collapsed inn refers to a treasure hidden in a small cave complex long ago. 

In this last case, the party might have already wiped out the goblins who were once living there, but never located the hidden treasure (which neither they, nor the goblins, knew about at the time).  Suddenly those caves are worth another look!

Imagine that you wish to present the players with a “rescue the prince” scenario.  A merchant’s son is taken by cultists, and is going to be sacrificed in a cavern temple to a spider god.  The merchant will pay good money to save his son.

Imagine also that you want to use other parts of the cavern complex as a further adventure site, to increase the value of your work in this area.  How can you do this?

First, provide both an obvious entrance to the complex, and a concealed entrance that the cultists use.  Vermin of various sorts are good encounters for the opening areas of the obvious entrance; the cultists bypass these by using the hidden entrance.  Note that the players may use tracking, divination, or other means to also bypass these areas.  This is not cheating; this is playing the game.

Second, ensure that there are other ways to go that merely straight to the cult’s spider temple.  And some of those ways should have intelligent inhabitants.  Kobolds may attack intruders on sight, but they know about the temple, hating and fearing the priests there.  If the party can find a way to communicate, they might glean some valuable information!

Finally, include one or two bizarre things not associated with the temple itself.  For example, when I used this scenario, I included a tentacled horror that was actually quite cultured, and was more than willing to talk to the party as soon as it realized that they could actually fight back.  This provided the players with a strong clue that there was more going on in the complex than merely spider cultists and kobolds. 

I also included a fountain carved in the rock – clearly feyish in nature – next to a long drop-off, just where the PCs needed to turn to locate the spider temple.  There was more than one way to go, but one way was obviously easier than the other.  Yet, the presence of the fountain clearly piqued the player’s interest…and if they went down the shaft, there were more indications that deep fey dwelt in that region.  

Simply leaving “other ways to go” is insufficient to make your design hours really work for you – actively give the players reasons to examine those other locations.

Likewise, if you are considering including one or more Killing Fields, Megadungeons, or potential Epic Endgames in your campaign milieu, you can begin foreshadowing other adventure possibilities by including them now.  If you are interested in expanding the initial starting area beginning with the region to the immediate south, put in hints about that region right now – goods from trade routes arising in that region can appear in a bandit’s lair, for instance.

Conclusion

Again, supply of information is key to creating these sites, and making them work for you.  If you create 9 sites over the course of 20 hours, and three sites are used for a total of 40 hours or more of game play, you win.  If six out of nine are used for 60 hours of game play, even better. 

And the key to “even better” is to provide linking information, put the ball the players’ court, and then enjoy the ride!

Next:  An Example Minor Adventure Site.

Interrupting S for More RCFG Illustrations!

The first look at the RCFG owlbear:

And here is the RCFG goblin, riding a black goat, with a pair of banefoxes:

An amphisbaena

and a shark.

All of these pictures, as with the previous illustrations, are by Daniel J. Bishop, (c) 2011.

Comments would be welcome!

S is for Sandbox Part III: Initial Set Up For Sandbox Games (3): An Overview of the Region

Every area designed for a sandbox occurs as part of a larger whole, and this is no less true for the initial area than for any other.  Nothing exists in isolation.  Unless your starting area is hermetically sealed from the rest of your world – in which case, your starting area is the totality of your world! – this is as true for the game as it is for real life.  Merchant caravans come from somewhere, pirates sell their goods in some distant port.  Even the distant past is part of the larger picture….Who made that castle whose ruins the player characters are busy plundering?

It is important, therefore, to have a general overview of the region that the initial sandbox area is part of.

Two quick notes:

(1)  I have recently been involved in a discussion on DragonsFoot, where one poster seemed to believe that the “box” was an operative part of the term “sandbox” as it applies to role-playing games.  I reject this utterly.  There is, of necessity, an edge to the region currently created by the Game Master and/or explored by the players in a sandbox game – but this edge exists neither to keep the world out, or to keep the players in.  It is just the edge of the work thus far, a frontier that is always ready for expansion!

(2)  Although the last few blog posts have been written as occurring sequentially, there is no reason to do the work in this way.  So long as the necessary things get done, it doesn’t matter what order you do them in.  In fact, the work will be better for as much intersection between steps as possible.  Until the starting area is presented as “ready” by you, the Game Master, everything is fluid.  You should let yourself be inspired by all parts of the work, and you should be willing to go back and adjust stuff, add material, and even throw out things to make a more satisfying whole!

Concentrate first on immediate needs first.

The purpose of an overview is to have answers ready for the most obvious questions that the players are going to ask, while also having in place a vision that both inspires and grounds your imagination.  You can draw a sort of vague relationship map of the surrounding area, noting only major towns, cities, and landscape features.  Feel free to name the country that the starting area is part of, determine the basic gist of the government, and name the other countries it is immediately adjacent to (or otherwise in contact with).  Decide if their relations are currently friendly or not.

You should have some idea of the major religion(s) in the region your starting area falls within, as well as what type of calendar is in use.  Noting the major holidays is also a good idea.  Make certain you know what year it is!  It is a good idea, as well, to know what event the year is counted from.

Celestially, you will want to know if there is more than one sun, or moon, and, if your world uses a system of astrology, what the major signs of its zodiac are.  You may also want to name other known planets or important astronomical/astrological features.  For example, in the northern hemisphere on Earth, you would want to mention the Big and Little Dippers, Polaris, and Orion.  I like to include the phases of the moon(s) on my calendars, as this prevents me from slipping up.  It also helps me keep track of when creatures such as lycanthropes are more active.

What trade goods are available, and where are they coming from?  You don’t need to know everything here, but 3-5 samples (good cloth, for example, or wine; ivory, silk, and gemstones; tobacco; etc.).  This will help you when you are creating treasures, stocking trading posts, and detailing merchant caravans.

Who lived here in the past?  Name 2-3 ancient peoples who are now gone, and give each one 2-3 defining characteristics.  These should be characteristics that remain persistent in the campaign milieu.  For example, in one of my own games, the ancient Esk made great use of amber beads in their decorative work, and raised barrows and monoliths now associated with the fey.  The Partheloneons, on the other hand, were pseudo-Roman militants who delved too deeply into Things Man Was Not Meant to Know (i.e., Lovecraftian mythos stuff). 

 Not only does this sort of work add realism to the game, but it allows you to create undead monsters which really feel like they come from earlier times.  Just as, in a contemporary setting, it is cooler to run into an ancient Aztec vampire or Egyptian mummy than it is to run into the ghost of Joe Modern, it is cooler in a fantasy milieu to interact with the past when you encounter such ancient creatures.  Likewise, folkloric fey often partake of the dress and mannerisms of a bygone age…these details help faeries seem different than contemporary men.

Consider, too, that some player characters might be members of long-lived races, such as elves, whose starting ages make it possible that they were alive when the ancient peoples went away!

Your own particular gaming group will have its own special interests; try to anticipate the questions that the players are likely to raise, and make sure that you have some form of answer available (even if you don’t intend to supply it to them right away!). 

After immediate needs are met, do whatever work interests you the most.  Or, take a break if nothing is particularly interesting to you.

This advice never changes….

Every hour of prep work should result in at least two hours of game time.

……..as long as you keep this advice in mind.

You should assume that your world is mostly Earth-like, except in those places where you intentionally create differences.  Thus, in addition to whatever fantastic trees you create, there will be oaks, elms, willows, and pines.  That there will be trees, even, is something that the players ought to be able to assume, unless you tell them otherwise.

If you are going to invent other details, make sure that you use them.  On the Plain of Prax, the grasses are normal, terrestrial grasses, except those unusual ones that you specify.  Those unusual ones you specify should be noteworthy in some way.  They should have an effect on game play (even if that effect is not, strictly speaking, mechanical).  You should get at least twice the time in play value as you spend in coming up with these details.

If you decide that there is a known symbol associated with an evil cult, make sure to use that symbol in concrete ways.  Knowing that symbol should allow the players to (potentially) predict the layout of an area, or even of a secret door.  For example, a cult that is known to use the number three repeatedly can have a room with two obvious doors…a clue that there is another, non-obvious door in the area.  If you spend the time to write it up, also spend the time to use it in every possible way you can think of!  Get the highest yield you can from your design work.

Conclusion

Finally, you have to decide how much of this information to pass on to your players.  My advice is, at the start of the game, very little indeed.  Rather, as you write the background of your world, assume that the players know all the background you do, and refer to it as you would oak trees, bears, and France.  Then let them ask questions as they become interested. 

Put the ball in their court in this way, and they may actually listen to the answers!

Make the answers useful to know within the context of the game milieu, and they may actually be eager to learn more.

Next:  Initial Adventure Sites.

S is for Sandbox Part III: Initial Set Up For Sandbox Games (3): An interesting outdoors area to explore

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 1^st 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.