Madlands Campaign: Thoughts On Tonight's Game...

Good Afternoon, All:

As it seems that, in the course of events, my players have reached the point where they can pursue three simple adventures that will lead to their performance of the Rite of Worldly Transformation, I actually foresee them not taking the straight and narrow path I've laid out for that particular campaign arc. Instead, I imagine that they will find another goal to chase for a while.

With that in mind, I begin to prepare for my campaign this evening. Since I typically run by the seat of my pants, err, I mean, off the cuff, I have to give consideration to the fact that the player-characters may pursue any of a number of possible plot threads. Each plot thread I've laid out could take them through a series of scenes, based on their choices. However, the significant scenes and potential end results are worth considering, as they make it easier to run games that are more sandbox-style and thus player-reactive.

Several of the PCs are seeking to retrieve magical equipment that they've ordered a few weeks back, and so must travel to a city about four days or so away. Random encounters can add a little bit of suspense, but honestly, they are likely to make it without any issues. Once they arrive, I could introduce a bit of an adventure to let them test out their new gear. To do so, though, I'd have to think about their friends, allies, contacts and acquaintances in the city. One of them may be having trouble, and request their aid for a short adventure (two-four scenes, tops, but enough to let them feel the promise of their newly acquired magical power.)

Alternately, I could step through each of the player-character's sheets, looking at their Hindrances for ideas. One has Heroic, so perhaps a scene with children in distress may be an interesting element that lets him explore that aspect of his character. Another has Curiosity, so any kind of mystery might be enough to give him something to do. They all have Enemies that they've made, and a reunion adventure might give them focus if they drift around too much without direction on their part.

And then again, I could simply wait for inspiration to strike. These guys are always asking questions, going places and looking for trouble, so coming up with adventures on the fly usually isn't difficult. Being prepared for them is another matter entirely. Still, they seem to enjoy themselves, and that's the most important thing to me.

More Later,
Flynn

Campaign Development: Background Abilities...

Good Afternoon, All:

I've observed a relatively new phenomenon recently due to my participation in the Kingmaker adventure path by Paizo, as well as reading through the War of the Burning Sky adventure path by EN Publishing and the Neverwinter Campaign Setting by Wizards of the Coast. In all three cases, the Player's Guide for the adventure path provides additional starting abilities that players can select which tie them into the campaign setting. They get their background ability for free, and along with it comes some character connection to the campaign world and the adventures as a whole. While Paizo's implementation has been a little less immersive than the examples implemented by EN Publishing or WOTC, it still captures the concept well enough that I'm tempted to pursue something like it for my next campaign.

These abilities are rarely anything overpowering. Instead, it's like a bonus granted to players who choose to connect their character to a developed storyline or campaign element, and thus enhancing their investment and immersion into the campaign. Plus, I think it gets people asking about the setting and figuring out some of the basic character roles that you want to see as a GM within the game. Usually, it's something like a +1 on a D20 roll within a limited context (such as +1 on attack rolls with axes due to cultural training), or a +2 under certain circumstances. You may also start with some kind of specialized equipment (such as a mount for a clan of horseriders, or armor for a military organization), or just a little extra cash (to reflect a better social position).

If I were to create these for my current Madlands campaign, I'd probably look at the elements that emphasize exploration in the Madlands themselves, and build some backgrounds around them. For example, I'd probably create something for the Seekers of Truth, who are trying to recover and preserve lost lore; the Order Elysia, who gain magical power by draining it from extraplanar creatures; the Circle of Mithril, a mercenary guild common to the area; the Shadow Syndicate, a rogue's guild with grander plans; and perhaps one or two other organizations with a vested interest in exploration. I'd want to make sure that I covered all of the main character types (from a "character class" perspective) in terms of applicability, and added one or two more, just for fun. Each option would be open to more than one character type, as well, to allow people to travel together who are bound by a common background, should they so choose. I'd definitely want to keep the number of options low, though, aiming for either five or seven. While it could be stretched higher than that, I would want to make sure I didn't exceed twice the number of people at the gaming table, and I'd much prefer no more than one or two more options than chairs. This creates a tighter focus, in my opinion.

I also think these would be campaign-specific. In other words, I would want to create them at the beginning of each new campaign, simply to reflect the direction of a given campaign. Next time around, even if the new campaign is set in the same location as a previous game, the focus would be different, and the background options should reflect and support that.

Until Next Time,
Flynn

Caverns of Lakoma: A Dungeon Diagram...

Good Morning, All:

To conclude my series of posts on Caverns of Lakoma dungeon design, I needed to produce a map for Level One. As I may have mentioned, I suck at dungeon maps, and so I found myself in a quandary. In the end, I decided to utilize a principle described in a recent Gnome Stew article: Prep-Lite Maps. This is also similar to the diagram dungeon as presented in Sine Nomine Publishing's Red Tide. In essence, I built a flowchart of important rooms, and will simply make up any unimportant rooms as I have need. This is the result:

For those that would like to have all of the information on the Egyptian Great Plains gathered in one place, have no fear. I've created a simple PDF with the basics. Please review it and let me know if I need to add anything to it. You can find it here:
Egyptian Great Plains Minimalist Sandbox Campaign Setting

Thank you all for hanging in through this discussion, and I look forward to any additional input you might have on my quest for improving my minimalist campaign preparation process.

With Regards,
Flynn

Sword & Planet: After the Egyptian Great Plains is Complete...

Good Morning, All:

Sorry, I am going to make one more post to delay the final map update for the Caverns of Lakoma, and then I'll be able to wrap up the Egyptian Great Plains series of posts. I'm still trying to find time to work out the final map. I've got a simple flowchart done, and if push comes to shove, I'll post that on Wednesday. Hopefully, though, I have an actual map ready by then. And now, let's move on to the distraction for the day...

In the spirit of my favorite genre of science fiction, planetary romance, I've been contemplating doing a series of posts on the development of a Sword & Planet game/setting. We have a lot of people doing work on such a thing, but I haven't heard much in the last few months, save for Urutsk: World of Mystery (and the occasional rumblings elsewhere.) In my discussions, I'd like to talk about the rules of a system that might fit that kind of game (talking D&D/retro-inspired, instead of Savage Worlds, which could also work, but might not be as interesting to most of you). I'd also like to discuss basics behind a setting, and then do some prep work like I've done with the Egyptian Great Plains idea, with the intent of creating a nice Sword & Planet campaign for the future.

Anyway, I am open to suggestions, of course, but this is what occupied my thoughts most of this last weekend.

With Regards,
Flynn

Inspired by Red Tide: The Shadow Syndicate Encounters...

Good Morning, All:

I suck at maps, particularly dungeon maps. That's why I don't have Level One of the Caverns of Lakoma ready for posting today. Instead, I'm going to touch on another topic related to fantasy world-building and sandbox preparation. Sine Nomine Publishing, creator of the wonderful Stars Without Number, also published a fantasy setting called Red Tide, which offers a lot of resources for minimal prep work in running a sandbox fantasy campaign.

One of the resources I particularly enjoyed in Red Tide was the section that described twenty different NPC groups. Each group's description was a single page, on which was enough information to cover what you would need to use that particular group in your sandbox campaign with minimal effort. Each entry was formatted as follows:

1. Illustration. A small eighth-of-a-page illustration of a typical member of the group appears in the upper left-hand corner of the page.
2. Brief description. Under the illustration, there's a paragraph describing the NPC group in a nutshell.
3. Three groups. In the final section on the first column, Mr Crawford provides three different groups of escalating power levels: Weak (levels 1-3), Average (levels 4-6) and Strong (levels 7-9). Each simply lists the members of such a group, and provides some basic treasure for the group.
4. Stat Blocks. The top third to half of the second column contains a simplified list of monster stats for the different members of the groups defined previously.
5. Complications Table. The bottom of the second column on the page is filled with a chart of 6 up to 12 different complications that add flavor to a given encounter (or series of encounters) with this NPC group.

In terms of group strength, I did a relatively quick analysis, and determined the following:

• Weak: Weak parties tend to cover a range of 5-13 HD (average of 7, median of 7), and possess 2d6x10 gp in coin and/or goods. (This assumes a gold standard.)
• Average: Average parties typically cover a range of 21-45 HD (average of 33, median of 34). Their treasure troves seem to average around 2d4x1000 gp, 1d3 Gems, 1d3 Jewelry, two consumable items (50% chance each), and one magic item (50% chance). Treasure may vary, but that seems to work well overall.
• Strong: Strong parties fill a range of 31-96 HD (average of 72, median of 74). Their treasure includes 2d6x1000 gp, 2d4 Gems, 1d4+1 Jewelry, one magic weapon (50% chance), one magic armor (50% chance), two magic items (50% chance each), and two consumables (50% chance each).

This is such an easy format to use, I'm surprised no one came up with this idea before. I could easily see putting together a selection of these encounters for my own campaigns, one for each group or organization in the setting. It reminds me in some ways of one of the Forgotten Realms books, Lords of Darkness, in which stats for members of an organization were given for levels 1 through 10, except Red Tide's approach works better from the perspective of minimalist prep. It's a lot less work to achieve what would effectively be the same gaming experience at the table.

For example, let's say I wanted to create a One-Pager for an organization in the Hammersong’s Legacy Campaign Setting. Looking through the book, I easily see that I'm going to need to define some encounters for the Shadow Syndicate. Here's what I came up with...

Illustration
Since this is a personal project, I don't feel the need to add an illustration to my One-Pager. If I did, though, it would probably be that of a highly tattooed vagabond skulking in an alleyway with a dagger in hand.

Brief Description
New to the city of Fellgorge, the Shadow Syndicate is a brotherhood of thieves that is moving in on the territories formerly controlled by Fellgorge's native rogues’ guilds. Little is known of these mysterious intruders, although rumors run rampant with speculation. Whatever their origins, the Shadow Syndicate is well funded and operating with purpose and direction. Members of the Shadow Syndicate are organized in Pacts, who are led by Overseers. Pacts are grouped under a specific Lord of the Syndicate as Families, and Overseers form small councils that advice the Lord of the Family. The Lords form the governing body of the Shadow Syndicate called the Court of Shadows, who make policy decisions and settle disputes between various members. All that is known of the Syndicate's goals is that the Shadow Syndicate seeks to control all illicit activity in Fellgorge, and is not above intimidation, coercion, assault and even assassination to accomplish their goals. Their efforts are opposed by the local law enforcement as well as the local rogues’ guilds that are being displaced from their neighborhoods.

Three Groups

• Weak: 5 Common Thugs, 1 Overseer. 2d6x10 silver in coin and/or goods. (I use a silver standard in my campaigns.)
• Average: 15 Common Thugs, 5 Overseers, 1 Master Overseer. 2d4x1000 gp, 1d3 Gems, 1d3 Jewelry, two consumable items (50% chance each), and one magic item (50% chance).
• Strong: 30 Common Thugs, 10 Overseers, 2 Master Overseers, 1 Lord's Man. 2d6x1000 gp, 2d4 Gems, 1d4+1 Jewelry, one magic weapon (50% chance), one magic armor (50% chance), two magic items (50% chance each), and two consumables (50% chance each).

Stat Blocks

• Common Thug: AC 8 [11]; HD 1d6 hp; Atk: by weapon (1d6); ST: 18; SP: double damage with surprise; MV: 12; CL/XP: 1/15.
• Overseer: AC 7 [12]; HD 2; Atk: by weapon (1d6); ST: 16; SP: double damage with surprise; MV: 12; CL/XP: 3/60.
• Master Overseer: AC 6 [13]; HD 5; Atk: by weapon (1d6); ST: 12; SP: triple damage with surprise; MV: 12; CL/XP: 6/400.
• Lord's Man: AC 4 [15]; HD 8; Atk: by weapon (1d6); ST: 8; SP: triple damage with surprise; MV: 12; CL/XP: 9/1,100.

Complications Table

1d6	Complication
1	This band of Syndicate members is seeking to capture potential slaves to sell in distant markets. They already have 1d6 (Weak), 2d6 (Average) or 3d6 (Strong) prisoners.
2	This band of Syndicate members are pushing a protection racket, and looking for people to turn into examples.
3	This band of Syndicate members are smuggling items of great importance, and don’t want to leave behind any witnesses.
4	The Master Overseer of this group is actually a Manasan infiltrator (use the stats from the Hammersong’s Legacy Campaign Setting book.
5	This band of Syndicate members has been acting against a local Rogues’ guild, and will appear in the encounter in some form or fashion.
6	In the midst of an encounter with this band of Syndicate members, the local city guard will arrive and mistake the party for members of the Syndicate as well.

Hope This Helps,
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

Operating On Limited Prep Work...

Good Evening, All:

These last few days have been quite hectic at work, so I haven't had a chance to work on very much in the way of gaming material. Sometimes Real Life gets in our way. As a player, that's usually not a big deal. Let's face it; when you are a player, most of the time you just need to bring your dice, your character sheet and a snack or two, and you are good. Gamemasters don't always have that luxury. Of course, there are those legendary GMs we read about that have had the same game world for decades, and have so much stuff prepared that they can run entire campaigns on their notes alone. I am not one of them, much as I would love to be.

Still, there are things you can do as a GM when you don't have time to prepare as much as you'd like. First, it helps if you have a good understanding of what makes for a strong adventure story. For me, that means reading the adventure pulps that I have enjoyed since childhood and watching movies with an eye toward pacing, action and scene development. Reading books on mythology can also provide you with some great ideas for adventures and quests. Believe it or not, fairy tales make for some great adventure ideas, too. You have to disguise your sources, of course, and maybe you might blend two or more stories together, but once you get an idea, run with it.

While you can work on ideas at any time, at any place, there's still a little bit of extra work you need to do. Don't plan on throwing the most awe-inspiring combats on a week like this. Your scenarios shouldn't be twisted or convoluted. Instead, aim for straightforward and methodical. Use simple, pregenerated stats for basic monsters or NPCs when you need mechanics for encounters. Get into your roleplaying and interaction scenes more. Add some world detail, such as a simple parade or perhaps a wedding ceremony. Bits of color can sometimes distract the players into exploring avenues of your world that add depth to their gaming experience. When the players suggest something of interest in their questions or statements to one another, don't be afraid to run with it. Sometimes, it may create a totally new adventure that you hadn't planned, nor would have, but turns out to be one of the best sessions you've had in a while.

Ultimately, the key to success in these situations is: Keep It Simple. That's the thread that hopefully runs through all the advice I've offered above. You can make it appear more than that by running with the situations that the players find interesting, but keep it simple, and you will find that the campaign remains solid until you have the chance to put more time and energy into the game once again. Next week always has the chance of allowing for more creativity and game development.

Good Luck,
Flynn