Fantasy Friday: On Mind Mapping...

Good Afternoon, All:

For this Fantasy Friday, I wanted to talk about a GMing tool that I've recently discovered and started using for campaign and adventure development. It's called mind mapping. A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing. You can make them using pen and paper, or you can use software like FreeMind.

Mind mapping works best as a form of brainstorming. You are getting ideas out there as quickly as you can, using the branching lines to help you organize the ideas in some form of structure. You may not use all of the ideas you capture. However, in the early stages of campaign development or adventure design, getting everything out there is very important.

One possible use for mind maps might be to capture notes and thoughts on adventure ideas for individual PCs without your campaign. Simply create a new mind map for each character in the game, and spend 5-15 minutes reviewing the character's character sheet and backstory, making notes on adventure ideas as you do so. An hour's worth of your time may produce some great ideas for adventures and even campaign seeds that will give you many sessions of enjoyment. I think that's a great return on your investment.

If you'd like to know more, you might check out the following links:
http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/freemind-tips-for-game-masters/
http://blog.lemmi.at/?p=456

Hope This Helps,
Flynn

Fantasy Friday: A Lordly Petition (A One Shot Adventure)...

Good Afternoon, All:

It's time for another installment of Fantasy Fridays. Today, I thought I'd write up a brief One Shot using a pretty major variation of the my One Page Plot format. I'm in the process of writing up some adventures to put in my GM Notebook, and figured that sharing one of them might be helpful, particularly in terms of getting feedback and additional suggestions. As inspiration, I am using Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations to inspire this particular round of adventure creation. The theme for this One Shot is Supplication.

Plot Name: A Lordly Petition

Synopsis: The Lord-Mayor of a frontier town must send the PCS to present a request for assistance before his Liege to protect his lands from a Raiding Warlord.

NPC Goals: The four primary NPCs involved in this adventure follow.

• Lord-Mayor: A retired guardsman, the Lord-Mayor is a wiry, loyal warrior. Given the ferocity of the recent attacks by the Raiding Warlord, the Lord-Mayor seeks to hold out long enough for the Liege's reinforcements to arrive. If he cannot hold out, then he will stay behind to hold the raiders off while guards escort his wife and daughter to safety.
• Liege: A gluttonous man, the Liege is a rotund yet competent administrator of the lands under his control. The Liege desires to conserve as much of his resources as possible, so that there's more money in his coffers for fine wine and epicurean delicacies.
• Raiding Warlord: A talented tactician turned rogue, the Raiding Warlord is a stern, cruel warlord. Leading his band of mercenaries, the Raiding Warlord has been secretly hired by the Neighboring Lord to raid the lands of the Lord-Mayor and create havoc. Unbeknownst to the Neighboring Lord, the Raiding Warlord also seeks a magical relic that is rumored to be in the possession of the Lord-Mayor.
• Neighboring Lord: An ambitious, scarred fencer, the Neighboring Lord inherited his title from his father. The Neighboring Lord desires the Lord-Mayor's daughter, and hired the Raiding Warlord in the hopes that the raids will force the Lord-Mayor to send his daughter to him for protection. In addition, the Neighboring Lord is willing to hire an assassin to kill the Lord-Mayor and his wife using the Raiding Warlord as the scapegoat for the murders, so that he can petition the Liege for the Lord-Mayor's daughter's hand in marriage. If push comes to shove, he'll even volunteer his own guards as reinforcements to put himself in the position to make that happen.

Locales: The four primary locations that may potentially be involved in this adventure follow.

• Frontier Town: This small walled village holds the manor of the Lord-Mayor, and has been recently filling up with refugees from the outlying farms impacted by the Raiding Warlord.
• Liege's Court: The high court of the region, this is the place where petitions are made and justice is meted out.
• Boar Woods: This small forest is owned by the Liege, and serves as his private hunting reserve. A minor trade route leads through the woods from the Lord-Mayor's lands to the Liege's castle; and might make a good place for ambushes from either the Raiding Warlord or the Neighboring Lord.
• Raider's Camp: The base camp for the raiders, this hidden location on the frontier holds most of the treasures captured by the Raiding Warlord, as well as the bulk of his mercenary forces when they are not out raiding.

Plot Hooks: The player-characters may become actively engaged in this scenario through the plot hooks that follow.

• Hired To Deliver The Petition: The party might be hired by the Lord-Mayor (or they may volunteer after a raid) to deliver the petition and secure reinforcements against the forces of the Raiding Warlord.
• Hired To Recover The Magical Relic: The Raiding Warlord may hire the party to infiltrate the Lord-Mayor's township and recover the magical relic believed to be in the Lord-Mayor's possession.
• Hired To Stop The Petitioners: The Neighboring Lord or the Raiding Warlord may hire the party to stop the petitioners from delivering the petition to the Liege.
• Hired To Kill The Lord-Mayor: The Neighboring Lord may hire the party to enter into the Lord-Mayor's good graces and then assassinate the Lord-Mayor and his wife. They must make it look like the Raiding Warlord is behind the assassination.

Possible Challenges: Some possible non-combat challenges that empower the party to attempt either a roleplaying or skills-based resolution instead of a combat resolution can be found below.

• Petitioning the Liege: The party may have to present the petition to the Liege in court, and argue on behalf of the Lord-Mayor to receive reinforcements. Failure: No reinforcements. Partial Success: Reinforcements offered by the Neighboring Lord. Success: Reinforcements from both the Liege and the Neighboring Lord.
• Searching the Lord-Mayor's Manor: The party may have to stealth into the Lord-Mayor's manor in search of the magical relic sought by the Raiding Warlord. Failure: The Lord-Mayor attempts to arrest and imprison the party as thieves. Partial Success: The party does not find any relic, but does have a chance to obtain some treasure; the Lord-Mayor puts a bounty on the head of whoever stole from him. Success: The party discover a treasure map that points to where the relic is buried.
• Learning the Petitioners' Plans: The party may have to somehow figure out the petitioners' plans if they are going to intercept the Lord-Mayor's petition. Failure: Must follow the petitioners and hope they catch up; alternately, may be hired to assassinate the Lord-Mayor and his wife instead. Partial Success: Learn of the petitioners' plans in time to arrange an ambush, but the petitioners become aware someone is following them and are more wary. Success: Learn of the petitioners' plans in time to arrange an ambush, and the petitioners do not suspect a thing.
• Finding the Raider's Camp: The party may attempt to track down the Raider's Camp through a combination of tracking and interviewing survivors. Failure: Find an abandoned camp that was used by the raiders until a week or two ago. Partial Success: Find the Raider's Camp, but are detected in the process. Success: Find the Raider's Camp without being detected.

Possible Confrontations: This scenario may include combat encounters that are most easily resolved through warskill and prowess, such as those that follow.

• Ambushed By Raiders: En route to the Liege's castle, the party may have to fend off an ambush by raiders. Alternately, the party may be the ambushers that are attacking the petitioners. Failure: Those not slain are captured and interrogated for information. Partial Success: At least some members of the party survive to continue the mission. Success: As Partial Success, plus receive a clue that the Neighboring Lord and the Raiding Warlord are in league with one another. (In the alternate scenario, the party gets what they came for, in addition to surviving.)
• Obtaining the Buried Treasure: In following the map, the party discovers that the relic has been buried in a cave that has since become an animal lair. Failure: At least one member of the party gets eaten, and no one can access the buried treasure. Partial Success: The party slay the beast(s), but cannot locate the buried treasure. Success: As Partial Success, except they also recover the buried treasure.
• Attacked By Assassins: The party may  have to deal with assassins sent by either the Neighboring Lord or the Raiding Warlord, depending on their past actions and successes/failures. Failure: At least one member of the party is incapacitated or slain, and the assassins accomplish their goal. Partial Success: The party fights off the assassins, who flee to report back to their employer. Success: As Partial Success, except no assassin survives.
• Attacking the Raider's Camp: The party may attempt to attack the raiders. Failure: At least one member of the party is incapacitated or slain, and the party is unable to stop the raiders. Partial Success: The party slays enough of the raiders to break their morale, who flee the camp to report back to the Raiding Warlord. Success: As Partial Success, except no raider survives to report to the Raiding Warlord.

Possible Complications: This scenario may include encounters that embody a plot complication that must be overcome, such as the ones that follow.

• Boar Woods Bridge Is Out: In an effort to hinder the movement of the party, an enemy has burned the Boar Woods Bridge, leaving the party to figure another way across the river.
• Angry Refugees: A small camp of refugees left homeless by the Raiding Warlord and kicked out of the Lord-Mayor's village for disruptive behavior attempt to take out their anger on the party.
• The Lord-Mayor's Daughter: Impressed by the stories of her father's adventures, the Lord-Mayor's Daughter is looking for a dashing adventurer to develop a crush on. She will sneak into his room when she can, or follow him when he leaves, only to get into trouble and need to be rescued. This won't settle well with the Lord-Mayor.

Possible Climaxes: The final encounter that should represent the biggest and most dangerous encounter of the adventure. This section should also include some notes on possible consequences of success and failure, and a sentence on how to tell when the adventure is over, whichever path the players decide to take.

• The Big Battle: The forces of the Raiding Warlord and the Lord-Mayor meet in a final, climactic battle. During the battle, efforts are made to assassinate the Lord-Mayor and his wife.
• Attack on the Lord-Mayor: The party is involved in either defending the Lord-Mayor and his family, or trying to kill them, depending on who hired them. This should be a big fight in the Lord-Mayor's manor, possibly involving more than two factions in the fight (Lord-Mayor, Raiding Warlord, Neighboring Lord).

The adventure is over when any of the following conditions are met:

• The Raiding Warlord is defeated (or pretends to be defeated after acquiring the relic.)
• The Lord-Mayor is slain and his daughter delivered to the Neighboring Lord.
• The party demonstrates that the Neighboring Lord has hired the Raiding Warlord to attack the Lord-Mayor, and the results of that action has been resolved.
• The party delivers the petition, then elects not to return with them to defend the village.
• The party obtains the magical relic, then elects not to take it to the Raiding Warlord and flees.

Rewards: In addition to whatever payment is negotiated for the party's service, the equipment carried by their enemies adds to their reward. If they track down the Raider's Camp, then the raiders' treasure becomes part of their reward. If the party decides to track down the relic and keep it for themselves, that also becomes a part of their reward.

Obviously, this approach is much more open than normal, with a very fluid suggested structure that does not dictate the actual flow of events. After reading the above, do you have any suggestions on improving the core scenario? What do you think of the organization of data?

Thanks In Advance,
Flynn

GM Mentoring: Top Ten Essential Points to Running a Convention Game...

Good Afternoon, All:

I've gathered a number of resources below in regards to creating and running a Convention game scenario. While I'm not going to reiterate everything you can find in these resources, I do want to include what I view as the Top Ten Essential Points to Running a Convention Game, regardless of the gaming system.

1. Have Fun: Whatever happens, so long as you and all of the players at the table are having fun, then they will walk away with a great gaming experience. This is the ultimate rule for running convention games, and all other rules are intended to help you accomplish this goal.
2. Use a Simple Scenario: Create a scenario that you intend to be run from beginning to end in 3 to 3.5 hours, assuming a four hour session length. Generally, these scenarios are fairly linear, limited to 3-5 scenes, and have a reasonably limited focus.
3. Be Prepared: Have all of your materials ready. Know your rules. If you don't remember a particular rule for a situation that will be occuring in your scenario, make crib notes so you don't have to interrupt the game to look up the rule.
4. Use Pregens: Use pregenerated characters if at all possible, and generally speaking, it's always possible. Creating characters in the session steals time that could be better spent actually gaming.
5. Move the Game Forward: Your scenario should always reward forward motion. Many players are aware of the time constraints, and feel that they are entitled to a complete scenario with a beginning, middle and end, all within the time allotted for the game. Letting a game stall for something like shopping for magic items or gathering rumors that do not contribute to moving the scenario forward goes against this general expectation. Don't be too subtle in your clues.
6. Keep Them Alive For Most Of The Game: Remember that you are running games for people who paid to be sitting at your table. As the customer, they expect their money's worth. As the GM, you should aim to keep them alive for most of the scenario. Aside from a series of poor rolls and even poorer decisions, a character should really face death or some other form of removal from the scenario until the climactic final scene (or more than two-thirds the allotted session time has passed.) If death is a regular occurrence over the course of a scenario due to the setting or the system (such as the use of clones in a Paranoia game), apply this rule to any condition that can remove a character from the scenario permanently.
7. Be Prepared To Skip Ahead: Even if you plan for a reasonably short scenario, you may be running for a group that pushes the envelope and really drags things out. Be prepared to skip ahead to the final climactic scene if they haven't gotten there when you are an hour or so out from the end of the session. If you didn't design your scenario with that in mind, you should at least give some thought as to what you can drop if you need to make adjustments.
8. Be Prepared To Stretch It Out: Sometimes you may create a scenario that, in the hands of the gamers at your table, reaches the end too quickly. Be prepared to introduce one or more minor scenes or obstacles to add to the length of the scenario if the players move the game forward too quickly. Finishing a complete scenario in two hours can be rewarding, but if your players paid for four hours of gaming, they may be disappointed. Even if you don't have this as part of your current scenario, you should at least give it some thought ahead of time so you can be prepared, just in case.
9. Avoid Breaks: Taking breaks in mid-session always tend to last much longer than you plan, and that impacts the time spent gaming. With that in mind, you should do what you can to avoid breaks in mid-session. Go to the restroom before you get to your table and set up, just to make sure nature doesn't force you to interrupt the flow of your session. If you think you'll have to take a break, plan for it and be strict on your starting time when the break is over.
10. Pretest Your Scenario: If at all possible, run the scenario at home with another set of players before taking it out to a Convention. This allows you to see what works, what doesn't, and what might need to be modified or expanded to make the game even better.

Hope This Helps,
Flynn

Resources

Roleplaying Tips Weekly Supplemental #8: "Running Games At Conventions"

Gar Hanrahan's approach to writing con scenarios

In Like Flynn: One Shot Adventure Creation

How To Run a Great Convention Game

GM Mentoring: Want Some Advice On Running Convention Games?

Good Afternoon, All:

This past weekend, I attend a great regional gaming convention called Owl Con. Hosted by a gaming club at Rice University in Houston, TX, Owl Con is one of my favorite conventions. With very few exceptions, I have always had a great time roleplaying in the scenarios I've encountered there. This time around, I had one session being run by a GM who viewed the session as no different that what he'd run for his gaming group on their usual game night, and because of that, we didn't get much accomplished. I found it frustrating, as I walked away from the experience almost wishing I'd played something else instead. This is a pretty rare occurrence, as I'd mentioned before. I could tell he was a good GM, possibly even a great one. However, since he didn't plan for the time constraints and rigid structure inherent in a convention gaming session, I didn't get to see his abilities showcased as I would have liked.

I've been running convention games now for almost a decade, and have a fairly decent reputation for providing a satisfying gaming experience whether I'm running Traveller, Savage Worlds or D20. I'd like to think it is because I'm good at running games, but honestly, I'm sure a lot of my success in this endeavor is due to my decision to research how to run a successful convention game before I designed my first adventure for that environment.

Should I consider a short series of posts on how to design and run Convention scenarios? What do you think?

With Regards,
Flynn

Caverns of Lakoma: Features and Rooms...

Good Morning, All:

I've been working a little bit on various rooms that I'll be placing on my map. Basically, I've organized my notes below in groups based on factions. These notes are not complete, and do not include empty rooms. I figure I won't need to detail unimportant rooms, since I can provide some information on the map itself. Also, these are simply a first run-through, using the answer I posted earlier this week as my guide. As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Caverns of Lakoma Features

Ceiling Height: passages ~7 ft, carved chambers ~9 ft, natural caverns 8+1d12 ft, unless otherwise indicated.
Illumination: Rooms occupied by living humanoids are lit by torches, while the rest are unlit, unless otherwise indicated.
Doors: Most doors are large stone wheels that require significant strength and effort to move.
Murder Holes: Spears driven through murder holes, or burning oil poured on invaders. Defenders above have almost total cover against invaders in the hallway below.
Lakoma Plague: Lots of signs of a plague-ridden community exist: piles of bones and dried bodies, painting on the walls, burned out sections.
Other Features: 3 in 6 chance that a man-made room has a small fist-sized ventilation shaft leading up to the outside (and possibly down to a lower level).

Rooms

The following are important rooms that need to be placed on the map.

Humanoid Raiders
Stables: Large cavern with stalls; smells of musk, waste and spoiled food. 15 mounts, 3 humanoid tenders that seek to raise alarm against any invaders. Tenders have 2d6 silver each.
Livestock Pens: Large cavern with multiple small pens; smells of waste and spoiled food. 30 small goats, 3 humanoid tenders that seek to raise alarm against any invaders. Tenders have 2d6 silver each.
Storage Room: Earthenware pots, bundles of trade goods.
River Crossing: Rope bridge, loud roar of water passing. 2 tribal warriors protect east side. Passing requires balance and slow movement to avoid falling in. River flows through lower levels before leaving cave complex.
Living Area: Numerous family chambers, public items scattered haphazardly. 6 tribesmen, 2 tribal warriors defending 20 wives, 40 children. 1d3 gems, 1d3 jewelry, 2000ss in goods and coin.
Shaman's Quarters: Numerous totems, unusual hides. 3 tribesmen, 1 tribal shaman, Arihapelo the Dragon. They act with caution. Arihapelo bears two potions of healing (cure light wounds), ring of fire resistance.

Cabalists/Demonic Cultists
Dining Hall: Carved summoning circle, filled with binding herbs. Halion (seducer demon). Bargains for freedom "to return home". May grant one wish if released.
Barracks: Bedrolls lay scattered on the floor, smells of sickly sweet incense. 6 fanatic cultists, 2 minor demons, 1 cabalist who attack on sight. Cultists have 3d6 silver each. Cabalist carries potion of healing (cure light wounds).
Well Room: Shaft in ceiling and floor (appears as well in ruins above, lowers to river below), roar of flowing water. 3 fanatical cultists, 1 minor demon who attack on sight, 1 fanatical cultist flees to raise alarm. Cultists have 3d6 silver each.
Kitchen: Two firepits, large clay pots with dessicated vegetables. 1 cabalist, 2 minor demons and Mubarak Khalil. Capture intruders to use as sacrifices. Mubarak carries 1d3 gems, 1d3 jewelry and the Rod of Infernal Dominion (summons demons once per day). Cabalist carries 4d10 silver.
Ramshackle Cell: Tattered wooden wall and door across living quarters. 2 merchants (1 wounded), 3 tribesmen unarmed and waiting to be sacrificed.

The Restless Undead
Great Hall: Multiple columns to support ceiling, smell of death in the air. 2 ghasts, 3 ghouls prevent passage to the next lower level from this room.
Haunted Hallway: Ghostly images of seriously ill women, children and elderly collapsed on the floor reach out toward the party for aid. Fear effect.
Storage Room: Partially sealed in, stones knocked outward. "The Chieftain" resides here. Beaten gold war mask (1500 silver).
Living Quarters: Bones on litters stacked high against walls. 3 ghouls, 1 ghast seek to feast on living flesh. Silver and gold trinkets worth 3d4x10 silver total among remains.

Random Other Stuff
Dining Hall: Barricade from old tables, hanging skeletal corpses. 3 bone-gnawers. 2d4x100 silver among remains.
Small Cavern: Tribesman corpse, long dead; sunlight from shaft above. 1 snake swarm. Corpse has 3d6 silver.
Living Quarters: Burned out, charred bones. 5 giant rats, protecting their lair. 1 jeweled dagger (175 silver), 5d6 silver worth of simple shiny things.

If you have any other suggestions to include here, I'm more than open to them. One of the keys to minimal prep is to use resources that are available to you, and suggestions are definitely a resource to be used as you see fit.

Enjoy,
Flynn

Caverns of Lakoma: Walking Through Design Elements...

Good Morning, All:

Using my list of good dungeon design elements that I had compiled earlier, I began to analyze my initial concept for the Caverns of Lakoma. As I went through each item, it inspired more thoughts and development, until I had a nice foundation for the first level of the dungeon. The following captures the core of that initial process.

Create a short background, no more than 2-3 sentences.
The Lakoma people carved an underground city over four levels deep from a pre-existing natural cave system. When they died from a plague brought by the Bedari, the spirits of the Lakoma remained behind to wander the halls listlessly. Over a decade ago, humanoids rediscovered the caves and have begun to use it as a base of operations. In recent months, diabolists traveling in exile discovered one of the hidden entrances, and now fight both the humanoids and the undead for a place within the Caverns of Lakoma.

Use the three factions rule. PC actions will tend to have long term consequences if factions are involved.
The three factions of the Caverns of Lakoma are: Lakoma spirits and undead, a tribe of humanoid raiders and a small cult of diabolists.

Create at least three named NPCS that can server as potential allies, good villains, and provide other opportunities for negotiations and roleplaying interaction. Each NPC should have an interesting personality trait.

1. "The Chieftain": A revenant who, in his living years, was once the chieftain of the Lakoma. He will not rest so long as non-Lakoma walk the halls of his underground city.
2. Arihapelo the Dragon: The leader of the tribe of humanoid raiders. The only force stronger in Arihapelo's life than his intense greed is his fierse pride.
3. Mubarak Khalil: The leader of the exiled cultists. Mubarak prefers the company of demons to that of mortals, and treats his followers as little more than slaves and potential sacrifices.

Define relations between the NPCs in a sentence or two.

• "The Chieftain" hates both Arihapelo and Mubarak, and wants them both dead or gone.
• Arihapelo wants to see Mubarak enslaved and his demons dismissed from the city, and wants to use "The Chieftain" to locate other treasures within the city.
• Mubarak seeks to magically bind "The Chieftain," and desires the treasures and magic held by Arihapelo.

Have multiple goals, to increase the diversity of experiences that can be had in the dungeon.
On this level:

• Rescue someone who is about to be sacrificed from diabolists.
• Recover stolen goods held by Arihapelo's raiders.
• Put the spirit of "The Chieftain" to rest.

Have a secret that the players can figure out about the dungeon itself, or some similar concept.
Perhaps the Lakoma tribe bound a great evil spirit in the depths of their city, and that's part of the reason their spirits cannot rest. Hmmm. It's a classic, been done to death, really, but there's a reason it works. I'll have to keep playing with this one.

Use interesting terrain to make things more memorable and more challenging.
Between the chimneys and chutes, the columns to support larger rooms, and the murder holes, about the only thing I really need now is an underground river with a rickety old rope bridge across it.

Provide a mix of intelligent opposition, to vary the player experience. At least one encounter should provide a tactical challenge, and thus become interesting through their choice of actions.
The different factions and how they interact with one another should provide the basis for some tactical challenges. Specifics will evolve as the room layout falls into place.

If monsters are not intelligent, make them interesting. Slimes are more interesting than low-level undead because we've seen so many of those.
The warping effects of the Great Evil trapped below should give me a great excuse to introduce some interesting unintelligent monsters here.

Provide at least one setup that can be exploited in combat by tactically minded players, such as a bottleneck, a ledge, a bridge, a fortified position, etc.
See the rope bridge idea mentioned above.

Provide an opportunity to spy on enemies for the stealthily minded players, such as a murder hole, a grate, a tiny tunnel, a scrying ball, etc.
See murder holes mentioned above.

Introduce memorable magic items. A rod of thunder and lightning is better than a +1 sword.
Perhaps a Seven Spirit Bag or something similar with an appropriately Native American flavor? I'll dig around in my old Legends & Lore.

Provide stuff to interact with for players who like to experiment. Add suggestions for possible reactions.
I'm honestly at a loss for what to put here. I will have to consider this element separately. About the only thing that comes to mind at first blush would be a trapped demon who bargains with them in an attempt to game freedom.

Introduce traps that address the potential for classic PC sneakiness, such as using amulets to emulate membership in one of the factions, to encourage thought and consequences.
Aside from the use of robes and masks to infiltrate the diabolists, I can't think of much in this direction off the top of my head. This might make for another interesting blog topic in the future.

Provide an opportunity for long-term change to the player characters, such as earning a title of nobility, finding a magic throne or fountain that permanently changes someone, etc.
Aside from the demon that could grant wishes, I can easily imagine the Great Evil trapped on the bottom floor providing opportunities for long-term change, such as membership in a secret society that fights the minions of the Trapped One, mutations via warping energies, and so on.

Provide useful room descriptions (probably using the format for Lairs from our earlier discussion on Hex Content templates). Use bolded text sparingly, to help with reading the important elements of an entry.
This will be evident in the text I create to describe the rooms. This one is pretty much a technical issue, not a creative one.

Usable map, with in-map notes to make it easier to run at the table.
Easy enough to work out, as the elements come together. Again, this is a technical issue as opposed to a creative one.

Multiple entrances and exits. (Think tunnels, shafts, chimneys and crawlways.)
For starters, we have:

• A ventilation shaft leading to the top of the mesa, disguised as wells for a ruined settlement above.
• A natural cave entrance.
• Two steep sloped passages connecting to the second level.

Despite the first run through on the list, it's obvious that I have a few areas to work on:

1. Opportunities for PC experimentation
2. Opportunities for PC sneakiness
3. The Map
4. The Room Write-Ups

My next post or two on this subject should wrap up the Caverns of Lakoma first level write-up, as I go into these elements and build up the One Page Dungeon for my notes on the Egyptian Great Plains mini-setting.

With Regards,
Flynn

Caverns of Lakoma: Some Background Notes...

Good Morning, All:

While the Pueblo Indians and their cliff-side dwellings were the initial inspiration for the Caverns of Lakoma (with a nod toward the old Judges Guild module Caverns of Thracia, I was intrigued to discover that there were once actual underground cities in Turkey. I particularly enjoyed reading of Derinkuyu, Kaymakli and Ozkonak. Apparently, though, there are many more of these underground cities in that region, and so these are going to inform my creation of the Caverns of Lakoma. While many of these cities are much larger than the four levels I'm using for my caverns, there are still plenty of details that are just too awesome not to include. Below is a short synopsis of the information I think is relevant to the setting I want to create as the final piece of Adventure Material needed before the Egyptian Great Plains sandbox setting is ready to begin use.

Caverns of Lakoma
The Caverns of Lakoma were originally based on a natural cavern system, before the Lakoma tribe discovered them and moved in, excavating as they went. While the caverns could house as many as 10,000 people, the Lakoma numbered only a thousand or so at the height of their civilization.

Features
Heavy stone doors seal off sections of the underground city. These have a hole in the center to view the other side, or to allow the doors to be rolled open or closed through the use of a bar inserted within. In some cases, the passages beyond the stone doors sometimes have murder holes and narrow chambers above them used for dumping hot oil on their enemies. Discreet entrances give way to elaborate subterranean systems with air shafts, waste shafts, wells, chimneys and connecting passageways. The upper levels were used for living quarters while the lower levels were used for storage, wine making, flour grinding and worship in simple chapels. Everywhere, walls have been blackened from the use of torches.

Passages tend to be fairly narrow affairs, steeply inclined to lead from one level to the next. Only one vertical stairwell exists in the complex, connecting the third and fourth floors.

Long, narrow tubes often connected rooms to different levels, primarily for ventilation but with the added benefit of communication. Unfortunately, these small shafts also allow snakes, rodents and insect vermin to travel throughout the underground village as well.

The first floor contains stables, cellars, storage rooms, etc. Both natural caves and a ventilation shaft that appears as a well amidst ruins on the surface.

The second floor contains an amphitheater where rituals were once held, and several underground tombs which contain dessicated bodies mummified by the dry conditions. Many wall paintings depict the spirits and gods worshiped by the Lakoma.

The third floor consists of mostly living quarters, kitchens and grain storage.

The fourth floor is primarily storage, particularly through the use of earthenware jars.

More inspirational material, particularly pictures of the interior of Derinkuyu, can be found here, here and here.

History
The Lakoma had not yet reached their prime when they were struck down by disease, a ravaging illness brought to their lands by travelers from a distant shore. Many tribes were hit hard by the disease, but the close quarters of the underground city proved devastating to the Lakoma. For over a century, the Caverns of Lakoma lay abandoned, save for a number of plague-ridden undead driven to haunt the halls of the city. Humanoid raiders moved into the caverns a few decades back, waging a battle with the undead as they expanded into the abandoned city. Two years ago, a cabal of diabolists seeking a location to perform their profane rites discovered an entrance into the caverns, and have claimed a portion of the ruins for themselves.

This simple history provides me with three factions to develop: plague-ridden undead and spirits doomed to haunt the city until the end of days, the humanoid raiders that have forged a home for themselves here, and the diabolists and their demon servants/masters. This should give me plenty of fodder for adventure opportunities and site design.

Next post, I will start working through the various elements of dungeon design, putting it all together to create the first level of a colorful site for exploration.

With Regards,
Flynn

Caverns of Lakoma: Let's Explore Dungeon Design...

Good Morning, All:

One of the last elements that needs to be done for prepping Adventure Material for the Egyptian Great Plains mini-setting would be the creation of the first level of the dungeon location I called the Caverns of Lakoma. As the Caverns may set the tone for the rest of the campaign, I want to make sure that I make it as well-rounded as possible. I have a fairly rudimentary list of suggestions for dungeon design in the MyD20 Lite Referee's Guide draft. There is also a great list of suggestions for One Page Dungeons to be found in this post on Quality Dungeons, which gives me pause for thought. I think I'll talk my way through this particular dungeon design here on In Like Flynn, and discuss each element in turn, to see how it would impact the design of the Caverns of Lakoma.

First, I want to compile a list of elements that make up a quality dungeon experience. There should be a number of similarities, simply because the list from MyD20 Lite was inspired by discussions of the first One Page Dungeon contest. Here's the new list, which will likely make it into the Referee's Guide in some form or fashion:

• Create a short background, no more than 2-3 sentences.
• Use the three factions rule. PC actions will tend to have long term consequences if factions are involved.
• Create at least three named NPCS that can server as potential allies, good villains, and provide other opportunities for negotiations and roleplaying interaction. Each NPC should have an interesting personality trait.
• Define relations between the NPCs in a sentence or two.
• Have multiple goals, to increase the diversity of experiences that can be had in the dungeon.
• Have a secret that the players can figure out about the dungeon itself, or some similar concept.
• Use interesting terrain to make things more memorable and more challenging.
• Provide a mix of intelligent opposition, to vary the player experience. At least one encounter should provide a tactical challenge, and thus become interesting through their choice of actions.
• If monsters are not intelligent, make them interesting. Slimes are more interesting than low-level undead because we’ve seen so many of those.
• Provide at least one setup that can be exploited in combat by tactically minded players, such as a bottleneck, a ledge, a bridge, a fortified position, etc.
• Provide an opportunity to spy on enemies for the stealthily minded players, such as a murder hole, a grate, a tiny tunnel, a scrying ball, etc.
• Introduce memorable magic items. A rod of thunder and lightning is better than a +1 sword.
• Provide stuff to interact with for players who like to experiment. Add suggestions for possible reactions.
• Introduce traps that address the potential for classic PC sneakiness, such as using amulets to emulate membership in one of the factions, to encourage thought and consequences.
• Provide an opportunity for long-term change to the player characters, such as earning a title of nobility, finding a magic throne or fountain that permanently changes someone, etc.
• Provide useful room descriptions (probably using the format for Lairs from our earlier discussion on Hex Content templates. Use bolded text sparingly, to help with reading the important elements of an entry.
• Usable map, with in-map notes to make it easier to run at the table.
• Multiple entrances and exits. (Think tunnels, shafts, chimneys and crawlways.)/li>
  

And as a reminder, here's the description for the Caverns of Lakoma:

0406 Caverns of Lakoma: A system of caverns four levels deep, these had been expanded into an underground village by the Lakoma tribe until they fell to a great magical curse and the caverns were abandoned. For more information, see the Caverns of Lakoma notes.

With my next post, I'll start working on the background of the cavern system, and identify the three core factions that will be present, at least on this first level of caves and such.

Enjoy,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: And Now The Map...

Good Morning, All:

To wrap up the initial steps of minimal sandbox preparation, I have provided the following map of the Egyptian Great Plains setting. It was designed using Hexographer, which I heartily recommend to anyone who, like myself, has problems creating their own maps. (We all can't be Rob Conley.)

I've taken the liberty of marking the rest of this map with the other locations I'd mentioned in a previous post. It makes for an interesting locale, if a little unbalanced in terms of locations of our points of interest. Still, I like what I see, and am pleased. What are your thoughts?

Now, the only thing left to do before this can roll into play is to develop the first level of the dungeon known as the Caverns of Lakoma. I'll start that next week, and take some time to explore some dungeon design principles along the way.

More Later,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: Adventure Material, All In A Day's Ride...

Good Morning, All:

This post should wrap up the initial work on Adventure Material for my example on Minimal Sandbox Preparation using the Egyptian Great Plains setting. In essence, what I'm doing here is applying the templates I've discussed previously to the individual entries within two hexes (one day's travel) around the Home Base, Ashaba.

Important Locations within a Day's Travel of Ashaba
0304 Carrion Fields: Scavengers feast on bloated, charred bovalo bodies lying in numerous circular burned patches the size of fireballs. Each beast's horn has been cut from its facial frill.

0406 Caverns of Lakoma: A system of caverns four levels deep, these had been expanded into an underground village by the Lakoma tribe until they fell to a great magical curse and the caverns were abandoned. For more information, see the Caverns of Lakoma notes.

0503 Wendigo Lair: Collapsed adobe building smells of death and decay. 4 wendigos. Aggressively attack. Four adventurers' packs, potion of healing, 5 medium gems, 30 silver.

0505 Ashaba (Small City, Pop. 8000): Dictatorship; Reaction To Outsiders: Indifferent; Resources: Slaves; Important NPCs: Nekhba, Nomarch of Ashaba (beautiful human female aristocrat), Renotep, High Priest of Meritesh (elderly human male priest of Meritus), Gahemun, Master Slaver (obese human male rogue). Lying along the Guidid Iteru (Badari for “new big river”), the small city of Ashaba is an oasis of civilization on the frontier of the Badari settlements in the New World.

0605 Wolfrider War Party: Wooded copse, abandoned campsite invite use. 10 warriors, led by Running Bovalo (scarred human male warrior). Ambush travellers, particularly merchants. Seventy pounds of trade goods worth 750 silver, and 150 silver in coin.

0606 Animal Pit Traps: Three large spiked pit traps, twenty feet deep, placed along game trails. If undiscovered, could cause falling damage, plus possible spear damage.

0705 Temple of the Sun (Temple, Pop. 40): Theocracy; Reaction To Outsiders: Friendly; Resources: Divine spellcasting; Important NPCs: Shaket, High Priestess of Vanuroth (fanatical human female priest of Vanuros), Mukantimana, Oracle of the Sun (sphinx). The oracle Mukantimana dwells in this remote shrine to the Sun Lord, offering prophetic insight to those who answer her riddles.

The only other obvious piece of work that needs to be done here would be to create the first level of caverns of Lakoma, the dungeon located at 0505. The other levels can wait until the players decide to investigate and explore that area, or can be developed as you have time after the game has begun. However, for simply preparing the setting to begin sandbox play, we should be almost ready to go.

Our next step, of course, is the Regional Map. By this point in time, it may practically draw itself!

With Regards,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: Adventure Material, Basic Details...

Good Morning, All:

Continuing on with Adventure Material development, I have to take a look at the amount of material I will need to begin the campaign. In order to keep this a small project (this is, after all, about Minimal Sandbox Preparation), I elected to pursue a smaller area for development. Being a fan of Traveller, my first reaction was to go with a subsector map, a hex map that measures 8 columns across by 10 rows down. By putting Ashaba in the middle of the map, that basically gives me an area to play that covers about two-three days travel from the center (depending on direction). That should give me plenty of room for the initial explorations of the characters, and if this method turns out to be faster for me, I can easily develop adjacent subsector-sized regions as they are needed.

Despite the fact that we really only need to develop a few areas around the players' home base city of Ashaba, I used NBOS Software's free Inspiration Pad Pro to develop the contents for the hexes for the entire region. I did this to demonstrate the range and frequency of results that I got from the process, mostly as a way of field-testing the random chart I'd created. Here's my result set, replacing an Empty result in hex 0505 with Ashaba:

Hex	Contents
0101	Empty
0102	Lair: Common Animal
0103	Lair: Humanoid
0104	Empty
0105	Color
0106	Empty
0107	Site: Dungeon (1 level)
0108	Settlement: Homestead or Plantation
0109	Empty
0110	Lair: Common Animal
0201	Empty
0202	Lair: Supernatural Creature
0203	Empty
0204	Empty
0205	Settlement: Homestead or Plantation
0206	Empty
0207	Empty
0208	Empty
0209	Terrain Effect: Arcane
0210	Empty
0301	Empty
0302	Empty
0303	Empty
0304	Color
0305	Empty
0306	Empty
0307	Lair: Humanoid
0308	Empty
0309	Empty
0310	Empty
0401	Settlement: Homestead or Plantation
0402	Lair: Supernatural Creature
0403	Empty
0404	Empty
0405	Empty
0406	Site: Dungeon (4 levels)
0407	Empty
0408	Empty
0409	Empty
0410	Terrain Effect: Divine
0501	Empty
0502	Empty
0503	Lair: Supernatural Creature
0504	Empty
0505	Ashaba (Home Base)
0506	Empty
0507	Empty
0508	Lair: Common Animal
0509	Empty
0510	Empty
0601	Empty
0602	Empty
0603	Empty
0604	Empty
0605	Lair: Humanoid
0606	Terrain Effect: Man-made
0607	Empty
0608	Color
0609	Empty
0610	Empty
0701	Empty
0702	Lair: Supernatural Creature
0703	Empty
0704	Empty
0705	Settlement: Monastery or Shrine or Temple
0706	Empty
0707	Site: Tower (3 levels)
0708	Color
0709	Lair: Humanoid
0710	Empty
0801	Lair: Supernatural Creature
0802	Empty
0803	Lair: Common Animal
0804	Site: Dungeon (5 levels)
0805	Color
0806	Color
0807	Empty
0808	Terrain Effect: Natural and Arcane
0809	Site: Dungeon (1 level)
0810	Empty

This gives me a short list of 33 entries that will need to be developed over the course of the campaign, assuming characters hit all of them.

Important Regional Locations
0102 Lair: Common Animal
0103 Lair: Humanoid
0105 Color
0107 Site: Dungeon (1 level)
0108 Settlement: Homestead or Plantation
0110 Lair: Common Animal
0202 Lair: Supernatural Creature
0205 Settlement: Homestead or Plantation
0209 Terrain Effect: Arcane
0304 Color
0307 Lair: Humanoid
0401 Settlement: Homestead or Plantation
0402 Lair: Supernatural Creature
0406 Site: Dungeon (4 levels)
0410 Terrain Effect: Divine
0503 Lair: Supernatural Creature
0505 Ashaba (Home Base)
0508 Lair: Common Animal
0605 Lair: Humanoid
0606 Terrain Effect: Man-made
0608 Color
0702 Lair: Supernatural Creature
0705 Settlement: Monastery or Shrine or Temple
0707 Site: Tower (3 levels)
0708 Color
0709 Lair: Humanoid
0801 Lair: Supernatural Creature
0803 Lair: Common Animal
0804 Site: Dungeon (5 levels)
0805 Color
0806 Color
0808 Terrain Effect: Natural and Arcane
0809 Site: Dungeon (1 level)

However, the locations that require Adventure Material before we can begin playing are those within a day's travel of Ashaba. That cuts the list down significantly:

Important Starting Locations
0304 Color
0406 Site: Dungeon (4 levels)
0503 Lair: Supernatural Creature
0505 Ashaba (Home Base)
0605 Lair: Humanoid
0606 Terrain Effect: Man-made
0705 Settlement: Monastery or Shrine or Temple

Not bad. It's not quite the distribution that we designed for, but such is the nature of random generation. The nice part is that we were fortunate to a sample of every category type in this selection. (Okay, truth be told, I swapped two of them out from just outside the two hex range around 0505 with hexes within the range, so that I could include an example of each hex category in the final results, but it was only a matter of shifting the content up or down one hex.) At a minimum, these are the hex locations that we'll need to develop. I will tackle these in my next post.

With Regards,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: Hex Content Category Templates...

Good Morning, All:

In regards to writing up the content of my sandbox, I find that having a sample template for each element really helps. However, in examining my Sandbox Preparation techniques, I find that I really don't have any minimalist templates that I can follow. With that in mind, as I begin to fill in my hexes, I wanted to stop a moment to consider developing a system of minimalist notation that will help me, and keep my notes small and concise. Thus, I have looked over each category of hex content, as discussed in my previous post, and suggested a base format that I would like to follow.

Color
As an example of a Color description that I think works well, here's something from pg 298 of the Lenap Chapter used as a preview for Necromancer Games' Wilderlands of High Fantasy campaign setting (pg 5 of the PDF):

0804 The Lost God: The ruins of an altar to a lost god stands on a hummock. If a prayer is said at the altar, a beam of light will point to the nearest shelter, and no random encounters will occur for the night.

In further support, two pages later, you can find another example:

1623 Abandoned Cottage: A small cottage in a grove is infested with insects. A stone calendar stands on a small table of granite within.

From these two examples, you can see that the concept here is to describe a Color hex in two sentences, preferably taking up no more than two lines in the final document I create for my setting. It should be evocative, but concise. If there's a conflict, concise wins.

Suggested Color Template:
Hex Nbr Location Name: One or two sentences that describe the location.

Lairs
I feel that there are two ways to handle Lairs in a sandbox write-up. You can use the traditional approach (two-three sentences that set up the encounter, define the participants and provide the treasure), or you can borrow from the One Page Dungeon format. With the One Page Dungeon, you are deliberately trying to describe an encounter (i.e. a room) in a brief sentence or series of sentence fragments that covers all the details in one simply line of text on the page, two at the most. Back in the day, as we old gaming fogies occasionally say, a paper publication called Dungeon Magazine used to define the following elements as necessary for describing an encounter:

The adventure itself consists of a series of planned encounters keyed to a map, timeline, or flowchart. Each encounter can include any or all of the following sections: Read-aloud Text, General Description, Creature(s), Tactics, Trap(s), Treasure, Development, and Ad-Hoc XP Adjustment. Do not include sections that are unnecessary for a given encounter. For instance, an area devoid of traps does not require a Trap section.

Looking at those elements, I think the list itself presents an immediate suggestion for a template to use in describing lairs. I've modified the list above somewhat, in keeping with the philosophy that we are trying to record the minimal information needed to run a campaign from these notes. Each element below is a sentence fragment (preferably less than ten words each), rather than a complete sentence, to help cut down on space and improve information density. For monster stats, I prefer to define those in a roster somewhere, and not in this particular write-up. That way, I can use the same campaign in multiple gaming systems with maximum re-usability. Here is my initial thoughts on the Lair template format:

Suggested Lair Template:
Hex Nbr Location/Lair Name: Description fragment. Creature(s). Tactics. Trap(s). Treasure.

You may find it worthwhile to develop a small table of options for tactics, so you can minimize that section to a few words. As an example, I offer the following:

Table: Encounter Tactics

Category	Actions
Aggressive	Incredibly irritable; will often attack other creatures on sight
Hostile	Treats others belligerently and attacks if it can reasonably succeed
Cautious	Avoids contact with other creatures whenever possible
Neutral	Only attacks other creatures in defense of themselves or their own kind
Friendly	Very friendly, curious; Will seek to interact with others, if not threatened

Settlements
There are almost as many ways to describe a settlement as there are gaming systems (and sometimes even those can see multiple formats for descriptions and/or stat blocks.) Toward that end, I simply perused a number of settlement descriptions for various systems with a little Google Fu, and noted the details that seemed important in each of them: Name, settlement size, population, available assets, spellcaster capacity, ruler/authority figure, government form, defenses, resources, tech level, alignment, law level, important NPCs, important locations, important organizations and so forth. Looking over that impressive array of items, I began to pick and choose only those elements that would add to my ability to portray the setting consistently. If I didn't feel it applied to the way I run my games, I dropped it from my list. Finally, I arranged the remaining elements into a simple series of sentence fragments, much like the Lair format above. My goal here is to bring it all down to as few lines as possible in my notes and still be effective. Here's my first suggestion for a Settlement template format:

Suggested Settlement Template:
Hex Nbr Settlement Name (Size, Pop. XXX): Government; Reaction to Outsiders: XXX (use reaction descriptors such as Hostile, Unfriendly, Indifferent, Friendly, Helpful); Resources: XXX (only the highest resource should be listed); Important NPCs: name (descriptor gender race profession), name (descriptor gender race profession), name (descriptor gender race profession) (Only list the top three or four). A single sentence description may follow, to increase the flavor and capture any important notes or elements that should be included here.

While the population is mostly flavor for me, I like having that number to banter around. Most of the remaining information I'd need can be determined from Settlement size and NPCs, at least in regards to assets, spellcasting capacity, etc.

Sites
Sites are often described in their own document, such as a One Page Dungeon or a stack of them. With that in mind, all we need here is a basic one sentence (or even sentence fragment) description of the site, and perhaps a sentence reminding us of where to look for detailed information. This wouldn't make it very different from the Color format, I'm sure.

Suggested Site Template:
Hex Nbr Site Name: One sentence describing the site, including number of floors and most outstanding characteristic about it. For more information, see [Name/Location of Site details document(s)].

Terrain Effects
To me, terrain effects are a lot like hazards and traps, and should contain the same type of information, even if the format is different. In essence, we should make sure that we've described the basic nature of the terrain effect, the impact on the character and what can mitigate or negate the terrain effect.

Suggested Terrain Effect Template:
Hex Nbr Location/Terrain Effect Name: One sentence describes the terrain effect. One sentence identifies character impact and possible mitigation or negation of the effect.

The Last Word... Today
My final words on today's topic is that, like all other systems used for information tracking, these suggested formats may shift and change as I use them more frequently. If I find myself not using certain pieces of information, I can drop that from my format. If I discover that I need information that I haven't recorded, I'll modify my templates to include it going forward. Of course, comments are always welcome, and shared insight might help me make changes while I'm still in the exploration phase. My goals for this project are simple, and anything that helps me improve the usability of these notes is welcome.

With Regards,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: The Content of Hexes...

Good Morning, All:

In order to develop Adventure Material for a sandbox setting, most people assume that we need to detail the contents of note for a variety of hexes on the map. Others, however, propose that all you have to do is prepare a small "slush pile" of lairs and dungeons, and then assign them locations as the player-characters travel about the map. As it is my personal opinion that a true sandbox assigns such details to locations before the setting even encounters player-characters, I fall in the first crowd. However, I do feel that the "slush pile" approach has its place in a sandbox setting, and I will discuss that point at the end of this post.

The elements that commonly appear in a sandbox setting fall into a few distinct categories. There are exceptions, I'm sure, but for the sake of minimal sandbox preparation, we think we can easily restrict our efforts to the following:

• Sites: Sites are the bread-and-butter of most sandbox settings. These are the large locales calling for adventure: the dungeons, the towers and the ruins that potential provide many nights of gaming fun, and also require the most preparation.
• Lairs: Lairs are best described as expanded encounters. Generally intended to last for one evening or less, lairs rarely contain more than three individual encounter locations, and often only describe elements that lend themselves to a single combat. The bulk of the entries found in most sandbox settings tend to be lairs, and often only require a few sentences to detail (assuming you have the monster stats elsewhere, or you play an RPG system where the stats are fairly minimal.) Only the most detailed of these examples require significant development beyond a minor paragraph.
• Settlements: Settlements represent civilization and a degree of protection from wilderness-inspired adventuring, while opening urban and political gaming opportunities, if you are so inclined. For most sandbox settings, these notable townships, villages, shires and camps simply represent places to refill your expendable equipment, and possibly a lair-like encounter in addition. The level of detail you would want to put into your settlements depends on the importance of these elements to your overall campaign concept and the feel you want your game to have. However, I wouldn't think you'd need to do more for a minimum preparation than you've already done with your "Home Base."
• Terrain Effects: Terrain effects cover those strange and unusual elements that don't rate as an encounter per se, but cause some impact on the characters as they pass through the hex. These could include dangerous flora, radiation, null magic zones (or wild magic zones), rifts to other dimensions or planes of existence, holy or unholy Sites, perpetual winter storms or monsoon weather, and so on. These are simply gateways to further adventure, if the PCs decide to investigate these effects, their source and potentially even their correction. For the most part, a simple paragraph should add enough definition of the situation to meet our needs of minimal preparation.
• Color: These hex results simply exist to provide color for the campaign setting. Like terrain effects, color elements can serve as gateways to further adventure, but color elements rarely impact the characters in any way, save to promote the flavor of the setting. A simple place name, or at most, a sentence or two should cover any prep work you'd need to address the contents of such a hex.

In regards to the five categories listed above, Sites obviously require a lot of work to fully prepare, while Settlements, Lairs and Terrain Effects require very little in the way of stats to be ready for play. Hexes of the Color category require a sentence or two, and that's all. Since we're not looking at publishing this, but simply looking at making something we can use in the middle of a game, we definitely want to keep our work to a minimum and easily usable. The easiest way to do this, in terms of getting work done so we can get to gaming, is to define only the first level of any Site, and leave the rest of the work for later, should the PCs decide to come explore that Site. Anything more than that is going to waste your time and delay your ability to start gaming. You can always go back and flesh out the rest of a Site after the game has begun, as you have both time and desire. However, for the purposes of developing a sandbox setting with minimal effort and maximum benefits, you should never feel compelled to prepare more than the first level of a Site before the campaign has begun.

With the above in mind, how do we decide what goes into each hex of your sandbox, if anything? Ideally, if you have a concept that you want to fully develop, you'd hand-place all of the elements you want to see, relying on your vision of the campaign to help you in these regards. Most of us aren't that in tune with our settings in the beginning, so we often fall back on one of my favorite Old School tactics: the random chart.

In order to create a random table for filling in the contents of the hexes of your sandbox setting, you need to give some thought as to the frequency and category of the various encounters and scenes you want to see as part of your exploration. What follows is an exploration of my thought process on developing a random chart or table to determine hex content.

First, we need a standard to determine frequency. Looking at ChicagoWiz's criteria for the minimal development of his sandbox settings, he developed the first level of a dungeon and three lairs. That's a total of four encounters withing a day's travel of the PCs' home. If each hex is half a day's travel (which is the scale I now like to use, after exploring other options), then there are four planned encounters within two hexes of home (which constitutes a fifth hex with content, for purposes of this discussion.) If I count the number of hexes within that range, we're looking at a total of 19 hexes (the hex that Home is sitting in, plus six for the first ring, plus twelve for the second ring of hexes.) Five hexes with content, divided by 19 hexes total, gives us a rough percentage of 26.3%. This is very close to 1 in 4, 2 in 8, 3 in 12 and 5 in 20, which opens us up to random tables based on any of these basic dice. Since we have one Site (the dungeon) in 19 hexes, we get a rough percentage of appearance equal to 5.26%. That seems to settle the matter for me, indicating that we should use a d20 for this particular random table, as there's a 1 in 20 chance of a Site appearing per hex. (Alternately, we could use the d66 table format from Traveller, which I've utilized before in this blog, but let's use the d20 this time around.)

Players are fickle beasts, as you may well know. Whenever a Referee describes an area, they immediate begin to think that an encounter is about to occur. After all, if an area is important enough to describe, then there must be something there to fight. Given that tendency among players, and the desire to reduce their frustration as a Referee (the game is supposed to be fun for everyone, after all), I don't want to have a random table that has a higher percentage of Settlements, Terrain Effects and Color combined than we have Lairs and Sites combined. We've already determined that Sites occur 1 in 20 times, and Lairs are three times more prolific, based on our use of ChicagoWiz's values, which gives us a 3 in 20 chance for Lairs. Our final piece of information from our initial frequency analysis relates to the fact that our Home base, being a Settlement, takes up one hex out of the 19, so Settlements have a 1 in 20 chance (the same as a Site). Since Lairs plus Dungeons equals 4 out of 20, then Settlements plus Terrain Effects plus Color should also equal 4 out of 20, and by the process of elimination, empty hexes occur 12 out of 20 times. 4 in 20, minus the 1 in 20 for Settlements, leaves us with 3 in 20, to be divided between Terrain Effects and Color. Let's say that we want to have more Color elements than Terrain Effects, simply because we want to minimize the amount of prep work that needs to be done, and Color elements are easier to create (and usually require less typing) than Terrain Effects. With that in mind, we now know that Color hexes have a 2 in 20 chance of showing up, while Terrain Effects have a 1 in 20 chance of showing up.

After all that long-winded discussion, we now have the basis for a random chart for filling our hexes. The results of this table are below:

Table: Hex Contents

d20	Contents
1-12	Empty
13-14	Color
15	Terrain Effect
16	Settlement
17-19	Lair
20	Site

You could easily develop additional tables to provide further detail for each category (aside from Empty, of course, and perhaps Color). I wouldn't do that unless you are concerned about possible writer's block or temporary paralysis of the imagination. Well, now that I mention it, seeing as how I am occasionally so inflicted (and because I like random tables), I think I'll offer the following simple set of subtables as a potential source of inspiration when needed.

Subtable: Terrain Effect Type

d6	Type
1	Man-made
2	Natural
3	Arcane
4	Divine
5	Extraplanar/Alien
6	Roll twice and combine results (ignoring additional 6 results

Subtable: Settlement Type

d6	Type
1	Homestead or Plantation
2	Permanent Camp or Shire
3	Village
4	Town or Small City
5	Monastery or Shrine or Temple
6	Wizard's Tower

Subtable: Lair Type

d6	Type
1	Common Animal
2	Common Animal
3	Humanoid
4	Humanoid
5	Supernatural Creature
6	Supernatural Creature

Subtable: Site Type

d6	Type
1	Dungeon (5 Room Dungeon)
2	Dungeon (1 level)
3	Dungeon (2d4 levels)
4	Tower (2d4 levels)
5	Ruins (1d6 buildings)
6	Ruins (2d6 buildings)

Now that I have some tables to roll on, I feel ready to prepare some adventure material for my minimal sandbox campaign setting. In my next post, I'll continue with some specific examples, and then it's on to the Map.

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions on the content of this post, please feel free to post them here.

With Regards,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: Home (or All Your Base Are Belong To Us)...

Good Morning, All:

As I resume my series on Sandbox Preparation, my next point of attention is the player-character's Home, their base of operations at the beginning of the campaign. Using a random generator to create several Egyptian place names to peruse, I finally decided on Ashaba. As for how much detail I would need in order to start gaming in my Egyptian Great Plains setting, I turn back to my original overview on sandbox prep to see what the extremes are.

On the overly minimalist side, I simply need to know the name of the township (per Zack S, of course), and maybe some NPCs (per ChicagoWiz). On the other end of the scale (per Rob C), I need a map, 3-5 encounters, 6-12 important locations, a roster of NPCs and/or notable monsters in the area (with stats, if needed), and a list of rumors. Looking at the Settlement template I used for Hammersong's Legacy, I would need a brief description, notes on the population, government details, defense details, notes on businesses, and important groups in the city. That's a lot of options, so to determine what I need at a minimum to run a good game in Ashaba.

Taking a moment to evaluate each element listed above in turn, I feel that I absolutely need the following items, and consider the rest to be all gravy, worthy of note but not necessary to actually run a game using the data we're creating:

• Name: Obviously, even settlement needs a name, so you know where you are.
• Roster: I like having a small roster of important people, and maybe a little bit about them. At most, we're talking Seven Sentence NPCs, nothing more. In fact, it might be better to use Gnome Stew's Wireframe Prep Lite approach, if you are comfortable with it. As for me, I can get away with one basic sentence, so long as it gives me enough detail to work with.
• Locales: I'd like to have three or four places of importance identified within the city, simply to give goals, add flavor and provide background.
• Character Roles: How does each major character role within the city? By taking a moment to make some notes about that, you come up with enough background to address your basic gaming needs for a beginning campaign.

Okay, so let's put this short list to work for us in regards to the campaign's initial base of operations.

First, we need a name. As I mentioned before, using a random name generator, I came up with Ashaba. Step One is done.

Second, we need a roster of NPCs. That requires a little thought about Ashaba. Looks like we need a trip to Wikipedia, to research how the society of Ancient Egyptian cities were structured. Based on some quick reading, Ashaba is the seat of an isolated and relatively backwater "nome" or administrative region, who is governed by a "nomarch" that answers to the Pharaoh's Vizier. Temples form the backbone of the economy, so we will likely need a High Priest among our roster. Social structure in Ancient Egypt was fairly stratified, which means that most players will likely have characters that are mercenaries that come to Abasha looking for work. From my reading, I can see that I'd like to create a noble family aside from the nomarch and the High Priest mentioned earlier, who is probably into the slave trade. I may need to come up with a few more as I go through Steps Three and Four, but for the moment, I see the following:

People of Ashaba

• Nekhba, Nomarch of Ashaba: Appointed by the Vizier of the Badari Pharoah to serve as the provincial governess of the region, Nekhba is a beautiful yet arrogant noblewoman with grandiose political aspirations.
• Renotep, High Priest of Meritesh (Meritus): A devout follower of the Great Lord, the elderly, pious High Priest Renotep attempts to keep Nekhba's extravagances in check.
• Gahemun, Master Slaver: Once a gladiator in the arena that had won his freedom, Gahemun is now an obese, greedy slave merchant that has bought his way into nobility with gifts and bribes to the Pharoah and Vizier.

And with five minutes of work, Step Two is through.

Third, we need to create a short list of 3-4 locales within the city. These are selected simply to create an Egyptian flavor. We already know that there's a palace or palacial estate for the nomarch, at least one temple for our High Priest and perhaps an arena. To bring in more Egyptian flavor, I think I'd like to see a pyramid as a tomb for the first nomarch (who is said to have died from poison, but it is only rumored that it was at Nekhba's hand), and a second one (reserved for Nekhba) is being built by slaves. Of course, there's always the need for market places, and Ashaba should have several, but one is more of a hot bed for adventurers and adventure potential than the rest.

Locales of Ashaba

• Great Temple of Meritesh: The Great Temple of Meritesh is one of the largest structures in Ashaba, where High Priest Renotep and his fellow clergy minister to the needs of the Ashaban people.
• Pyramids of the Dawn: Although this small pyramid complex only contains one completed tomb (the Pyramid of Amenses), the Nomarch has slaves hard at work building a second pyramid to be reserved for her. The rest of the grounds are laid out in accordance with traditions dictated by the priests of Thanatos.
• Guidid Iteru Souk: Located along the banks of the great Guidid Iteru ("new big river"), this open-air market place offers native Ashabans and mercenaries the opportunity to trade with native Plainsmen and Wolfriders.

I found Google and Thesaurus.com particularly helpful in coming up with names and flavorful elements. With that, Step Three is behind me.

For Step Four, I need to consider Character Roles. In some gaming systems, that would equate to character classes. From my perspective, I agree, although I try to stick with general categories instead of specific classes, because I may use this material with a classless system such as Savage Worlds. For the most part, though, we should consider the role of the following in our newly formed city of Ashaba: Warriors, Rogues, Mages, Priests, Aristocrats and Outlanders.

Character Roles in Ashaba

• Warriors: Several opportunities for warriors present themselves immediately within the concept of Ashaba as we've created it here. The bulk of adventurers would likely be mercenaries that have come up the Guidid Iteru in search of employment against the local natives. Fighting types could also be holy warriors (temple guards, divine champions and the like) or soldiers (Ashaban militia or personal guards for nobility). Finally, warrior characters could come from either of the two predominant native cultures, the Plainsmen or the Wolfriders.
• Rogues: Every market place has its thieves, and the souks of Ashaba are no different. Slavers imply that there's a need for thugs. The possibility of political in-fighting indicates that assassins would be interesting. Escaped slaves and possibly freedom fighters may also make good rogue concepts, as well as explorers and tomb robbers.
• Mages: Obviously, there's no strong precedence for mages in either Native American or Ancient Egyptian cultures, but we can easily fall back on our Sword & Sorcery roots, such as the Conan stories. Sorcerers, ritualists and necromancers would all have a place in the arcane shadows of an Ancient Egyptian setting, while spiritualists and trickster-types might be good candidates for a more native inspiration.
• Priests: Spirituality and religion have very strong roles in both of our inspirational sources. For me, it is easy to picture priests, oracles and diviners in the great halls of Nekhba's palace, while shamans and healers wander among the tribes of the Great Plains. Secret cultists may also be found, hiding among the stones of the half-built temples or the wilderness beyond the city's reach.
• Aristocrats: Given the role of the aristocracy in Ancient Egyptian culture, there's plenty of opportunity for political adventuring. Thus, noble characters would be welcome, as would sages and scribes, who also hold significant social positions. Retainers and slaves are much lower on the social ladder, but fit within those elements. Among the natives, the tribal chiefs and war leaders make for another avenue that aristocratic characters might pursue.
• Outlanders: Many of the outlander concepts based on Native American tribesmen have already been mentioned. However, there's also room for lone explorers, hunters, crazy hermits, exiled oracles, bandits and others that live on the fringe of civilization or beyond. As the campaign grows, I'd likely add a few of these to the general roster, but other than making that note, I'm not developing any conceptually beyond this consideration.

Thinking about these character role concepts, I can go through my list of locales and my roster of NPCs, seeing how these match up. Of course, this is usually the point where my imagination starts to run wild and I develop more than the minimum I need. With that in mind, I'll stick with the above, despite the fact that I really want to put a few more items down on each list.

Within this particular post, I've intentionally explored the concept of a Home Base with a minimal level of development. While much more is possible, I think I could easily run a campaign using the above notes, and really flesh out Ashaba in play. So, what are your thoughts here? Would you need something more in terms of city details to empower you as a GM to run a game set in Ashaba and the surrounding area? Would you leave anything out? What would you do differently?

Next post, I'll focus on Adventure Material, saving the Regional Map for last. I find that it's easier to build a map that lends itself to your goals if you already have material gathered before you create the map and lock everything in place. Once that's done, we should have a sandbox created with minimal preparation that lends itself to play.

Enjoy,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: Some Random Encounter Tables...

Good Morning, All:

Because it will help me in filling out details in terms of lairs, details and other setting details, I'm pulling together a small list of encounter types that would be common to the Egyptian Great Plains setting. As I'm mentioned before, the common animal encounters will primarily come from Pleistocene animals that once roamed the region. That's what formed the basis of the Common Animal table below. I've also looked at animals common to the Great Plains today, to fill in a few niches that may have been left open. In some cases, I've substituted fantasy equivalents for certain creatures, just to keep the fantasy feel of the setting alive. Finally, in one case, I've replaced the common American bison (the buffalo, as we grew up calling it here) with a creature from Dougal Dixon's The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution, specifically the Monocorn (although I use the name "bovalo" to refer to the creature as a reminder of the niche it fills in the setting.) The resulting Common Animals table follows:

Table: Common Animal Encounters

2d6	Creature
2	Smilodon (Sabre-toothed Tiger)
3	Mastodon (Wooly Mammoth)
4	Dire Bear (Grizzly Bear)
5	Snake, Poisonous (50%)/Constrictor (50%)
6	Osquip Swarm (day)/Bat Swarm (night)
7	Bovalo
8	Jackalope
9	Dire Porcupine
10	Dire Wolf
11	Glyptodon (Dire Armadillo)
12	Dire Lizard (50%)/Dire Crocodile (50%)

In regards to more supernatural encounters, I dug through a few websites on both Native American and Egyptian mythology (and maybe one or two borrowed from Persian mythology, just for fun), and came up with the following list of supernatural creatures. As the setting develops, this list may change, of course, but this should do for starters.

Table: Supernatural Creature Encounters

2d6	Creature
2	Phoenix (50%)/Thunderbird (50%)
3	Mummy
4	Vampire
5	Ghost
6	Wendigo
7	Sasquatch
8	Griffin
9	Manticore
10	Giant
11	Djinni
12	Sphinx

My third list of possibilities includes the humanoids that the player-characters are likely to encounter over the course of the campaign. These are the most common encounters, of course, and are inspired by a variety of influences. Some of the races are chosen because of their resemblance to Egyptian god images, while others are selected because they help define the type of roles that PCs are likely to find themselves in or interacting with. Given that horses pretty much came to North America with the post-Columbian European explorers, I've elected to let my nomadic tribesmen in this example ride Dire Wolves, as they are the most mount-like of the Common Animals. Thus, I call them Wolfriders. The tribesmen that dwell in villages and raise crops are called Plainsmen. I've also elected to call my pseudo-Egyptian culture the Badari Dynasty, based on the Cultures of the World Within post I made last October. At any rate, here's the basic list I came up with (and I am open to suggestions, particularly here):

Table: Common Humanoid Encounters

2d6	Creature
2	Human Cultists (Various)
3	Human Slaves/Refugees (Badari)
4	Human Slavers/Raiders (Badari)
5	Human Merchant Caravan (Badari)
6	Human Patrol (Badari)
7	Human Nomads (Wolfriders)
8	Human Hunting/War Party (Plainsmen)
9	Gnoll Mercenaries
10	Vulturan Slavers (50%)/Mercenaries (50%)
11	Non-Human Mercenaries, Other
12	Non-Human Slaves/Refugees, Other

I would likely modify the above list to better suit the racial selections of the player-characters, once the campaign got under way. However, for the purposes of helping to generate background details, it helps to paint the right kind of picture for this particular setting.

It is important to note that encounter tables are not mandatory. These simply capture some of my thought process on figuring out what kinds of creatures and scenarios I'd envision for this campaign setting. Since I'm already doing the work of making these lists, I figured I wouldn't waste that effort and so created the random encounter tables along the way. (Otherwise, I might end up having to do the work twice, should I decide that I need encounter tables again at some later date.) For a more generic fantasy campaign setting, you could very easily just use pre-existing random encounter tables, or just put the Monster Manual on the table as the monster resource for your sandbox setting as you move through the remainder of the creative process.

At some point, I will likely need to create stats for some of the creatures listed above (such as the bovalo, the jackalope, the wendigo and so on). Alternately, I may just take the stats of existing monsters and simply "reskin" them descriptively to meet my needs. I'll burn that bridge later, as time allows. As it stands, I probably spent an hour doing research on Wikipedia and Google, and slapping the above together. It probably took me longer to organize and write this post, with interruptions and all, than it did to research what I wanted to include in the Egyptian Great Plains campaign.

Hope This Helps,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: The Concept...

Good Morning:

To begin our little experiment in minimal sandbox preparation, I thought it would help to take a few minutes to focus on the Concept behind the setting we'll be building here. As will be common, I will likely spend more time writing these posts up than I will on the actual work performed on the task within.

I have always found inspiration from "fringe" elements of history, such as the thoughts of non-American cultures contacting America before Columbus arrived. In one such theory, ancient Egyptians (and/or the Phoenicians) had contact with America and traded regularly with the natives. These theories are based on a number of interesting tidbits of evidence, but let's face it, after three thousand years, not a lot is left to prove it one way or the other. However, as an interesting setting and one that I'd actually use, this tidbit offers a great campaign setting idea.

So, for our setting idea, let's look at a land where an Egyptian culture has settled along a large river, displacing the natives. Using the Mississippi River in our thought exercise here, we can picture large pyramids and other Egyptian elements in cities along a great river. Ancient tombs and cities of the dead provide the ruins for exploration. Tribal natives, having much in common culturally with Native Americans, would occupy some of the wilderness beyond the settled "Egyptian" lands. And for extra flavor, I could use a lot of the prehistoric animals of the Pleistocene that were common to the Great Plains region to add a savage wildness to the setting itself. (Heck, I can even throw in some dinosaurs if I wanted to.) Supernatural elements, such as monsters and the like, could derive from both Egyptian and Native American sources. Bearing in mind that this is supposed to be a game, I'm not going to spend a tremendous amount of time trying to make this an accurate portrayal, of course, but distinctive flavor makes a setting memorable. I don't know yet whether this will work or not, from a playability point of view, but for the moment, I find the idea quite intriguing.

Of course, while I'm going to pursue the Egyptian-Great Plains concept for this particular exercise, the various theories on pre-Columbian contact with the Americas presents other options for campaign setting development as well:

• Chinese and West Coast or Mayan Native Americans
• Japanese and Zuni Native Americans
• Muslims and East Coast or Mayan Native Americans
• Phoenicians and Great Plains or East Coast or Mayan Native Americans
• Vikings and East Coast Native Americans

In the case of the Oriental cultures in contact with the local native tribesmen, this would be an excellent opportunity to use Oriental Adventures or Ruins & Ronin in a frontier setting. In all cases, you have the choice of looking at the non-native culture as just beginning to colonize these areas, as being settled and established as an extension of their own homeland, or as being an empire in their own right and potentially having broken away from the lands that originally sent the colonists to this frontier land so long ago. (You can also see other examples of this kind of setting development in Rob Conley’s Points of Light II, released by Goodman Games.)

So, what do you think of this basic concept for our example setting? Any thoughts, comments or suggestions you would like to share?

With Regards,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: Some Building Blocks...

Good Morning, All:

As we continue to explore the art of sandbox preparation, I thought I would explore my own personal design process, as influenced by the elements listed in my previous post, and see what I could come up with. Before I get too far along here, though, I should probably list my goals for this particular thought experiment.

My Sandbox Preparation Goals

1. Concise: I want a process that requires minimal effort to produce and is concise in its concept and details, so I can do just enough work to create a fun environment and then get to gaming. After all, if the players are waiting to game, no one (except perhaps myself) is having any fun.
2. Improv-Friendly: I want a process that creates enough material that it is friendly to my personal improv skills. I may not be able to do a lot of work between sessions, so some of my core tasks should be front-loaded.
3. Quick: I want something that doesn't take me long to do, so that I can feel a sense of accomplishment from the creative effort and then get to gaming! (Note a recurring theme here?)
4. Repeatable: I want a process that can be easily reproduced and repeated by others, over a wide range of ideas, without pidgeon-holing anyone into a variation of the same campaign setting duplicated over and over again as a by-product of the creation process.
5. Documentation: I want a process that produces usable documentation, so that I can easily use the results in-game.

The following elements appear to be common to most implementations of a sandbox-designed campaign setting:

1. Regional Map: This map should have evocative names and notations on the sites of interesting locales.
2. Concept: The conceptual nature of the setting should be captured to some degree. This may range from a sentence to a page or more, but without a sense of the concept behind the setting, the world loses its potential for consistent richness.
3. Home: The Referee should have at least a little information on the PC's base of operations.
4. Adventure Material: The campaign at start should provide at least one session's worth of adventuring in each of at least three different locations near the base of operations.
5. Random Encounter Tables (Optional): You can always use tables designed for another source, such as those found in your favorite monster manual or rules set. However, unique encounter tables do a lot for creating a distinctive flavor for a region, and thus makes your game richer. This may, of course, require you to create a few new monsters, which means you're essentially building a roster of foes, but you can just as easily use monsters that are already available in the tomes you own.

I think anything else you come up with for your sandbox setting beyond the elements above should be considered icing on the cake, at least when developing something you are going to use at your own gaming table. Over the next few posts, I hope to create a simply setting as an example. This will not be anything nearly worthy of publication, per se, but I'll at least have something to aid in our discussions of the material.

With Regards,
Flynn

Sandbox Preparation: An Introduction...

Good Morning, All:

Today, I'd like to talk about one of Old School blogdom's favorite topics: sandbox preparation. Essentially, for those who are just now joining us, a sandbox is simply a campaign setting. The elements that define a sandbox is more a matter of the matrix-style layout of encounters based on locale, and the relative freedom of player choice that comes from this matrix of encounters, locales and adventure locations. I personally am a fan of the sandbox, and I am always on the lookout for more on the subject. Toward that end, here's some basic information I've gathered, reflecting four different opinions on what you need to start playing in a sandbox, gathered together for your enjoyment.

Rob Conley, author of the outstanding Points of Light series by Goodman Games, offers some fantastic advice on how to create a fantasy sandbox setting. You can find the details of Rob's process in his post, How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox. His blog, Bat in the Attic, even contains extended examples of his process, and I believe Rob is also working on a book that explores the process of building a sandbox in exquisite detail. (I personally can't wait to see it, myself.)

It's interesting to note that Rob's method generates a lot of detail. If you follow his process throughout, you end up with the following:

1. World or Continent map
2. One page of World Background
3. Regional map with named geography, settlements, lairs and ruins
4. Half page of regional background/history
5. Paragraph on each named geography, settlement, lair and ruin
6. A page on 2-4 on-going plots
7. 3-5 encounters per settlement (a small random encounter chart, if you will)
8. 6-12 regional encounters (another small random encounter chart)
9. A page to one-and-a-half pages of quarter-page settlement maps
10. For each settlement, details on 6-12 important locations
11. Roster of NPCs and notable monsters
12. Twelve paragraphs and stats on the most important NPCs and monsters
13. Six paragraphs and stats on the most common encounter types
14. Several paragraphs on regional organizations, with stats on common encounters associated with them
15. Rumor chart of 10-20 rumors to serve as hooks into the setting
16. Random encounter charts for major areas within region

Wow, now that's a lot. I have to admit that I tried to follow this advice in creating Hammersong's Legacy, but I was not successful in completing it all, and I still came up with a sizable document. It took me a lot longer than the twenty hours Rob posted that it would take to do all that, but I was also making it publishable. It would still take me at least forty hours to do the above, but I have to admit that when you are done, you will have a fantastic and well-detailed setting for your next campaign(s).

Now, on the other hand, we have Zac S.'s version of an extremely minimalist sandbox, in which all you need for a sandbox setting is:

1. Regional map with interesting names
2. Interesting random encounter charts for major areas within region

He actually goes into a bit more detail in another post, but as far as sheer minimalism goes, the above pretty much sums it up. You will need to be ready to improv, of course, but that's the nature of the beast.

I actually find that, as a Referee, I tend to work best in an approach described over at The Yaqqothl Grimoire, in the post How Much Time/Work a Sandbox Requires . As a result of following his process, you basically end up with:

1. Regional map, randomly stocked
2. Notes on house rules, to lend focus to the setting
3. Some great wilderness encounter tables
4. Notes on each hot spot, fleshed out to the point of empowered improv

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention ChicagoWiz's thoughts on the matter, as he actually teaches workshops on the subject. ChicagoWiz talks about sandbox prep on his blog, offering advice similar to that mentioned above in The Yaqqothl Grimoire. ChicagoWiz's more hands-on, develop-as-you-go approach works for the Referee that has time and focus to devote even minimal time on a routine basis to ongoing setting development as the campaign progresses, and really seems to create a great gaming experience for his players. Distilling his advice down, you basically start your first game with the following ready, and then develop more based on player decisions:

1. Regional map (up to 5 days travel out)
2. Three dungeons (only level 1 of each done)
3. One town (no map, just a few NPCs and the town's name)
4. One set piece (detailed encounter to be placed as needed)

What does all this mean, in the short term? I'm essentially looking at developing a process that works for me, and putting the result in the MyD20 Lite Referee's Guide. The examples I create along the way may even find themselves in the guide, as well, if I think it will help new Refs (and possibly old Refs, too) get a feel for a minimalist approach to good campaign setting development. Of course, I'll chat through my thoughts and exercises here, in hopes that I may gain input that will help make that section easier to understand and use.

With Regards,
Flynn