NecroGnomicon

Ready my ACKS

Undercrypt — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:23:40 +0000

It looks like I’ll be starting a new family campaign using Adventurer Conqueror King, which I’m looking forward to running. I’m thinking of starting them out in Barrowmaze before setting them loose on the surrounding countryside.

Dungeon Response

Undercrypt — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:22:10 +0000

When I said the pace here would be casual, I didn’t mean “updates every few months” casual. Despite the best intentions, life – or in this case, death – sometimes has other plans.

Now that I’m getting back on track… where was I? Right, the wandering monster mechanic as the dungeon’s turn in light of the party’s turns.

What if the typical “1 in 6 chance of a wandering monster” was based on a chart like this?

Roll	Result
1	Wandering monster. Consult the appropriate table.
2	Reset. A roving monster or cleverly constructed device resets a previously disabled trap.
3	Visitor. Something has taken an interest in the dungeon; consult the wandering monster table for the external area. The passing monster will linger at the entrance for 1d6 hours. Nothing happens if rolled again in the same session.
4	Monster fight. The party hears distant monsters engaging in (1-4) nonlethal (5-6) deadly combat for 3 rounds.
5	Locks. A roving monster or cleverly constructed device locks a previously unlocked door or unlocks a door previously locked.
6	Nothing happens.

The basic wandering monster still shows up, but it also serves as a simple way to make small changes emphasizing the dungeon as an active environment.

All Hallows’ Eve

Undercrypt — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:49:01 +0000

Family obligations have been keeping me busy this past month, but my schedule will soon be my own again. Have a Happy Halloween, a spectacular Samhain, an august Álfablót, and mind where you’re going in the dark.

Narrative Carrot, Mechanical Stick

Undercrypt — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:35:56 +0000

Wandering monsters end up serving several purposes, providing different things at different levels. Some games cling to them, others have dropped them entirely, which seems to suggest that there’s something valuable here with room for improvement. What’s going on?

Don't roll a 28 if you're in Gévaudan.

Narrative Carrot

From the storytelling perspective, the wandering monster can be a great hook on which to hang any number of things: hints about the current location, clues to other areas, recurring enemies, plot coupons, you name it. The randomness can inspire new storylines (“What are hobgoblins doing this far south?”), personal quests (“Them’s scaly, and Oktar needs a new pair of shoes!”), and local legends (“If you see a troll by the bridge, don’t mess with it.”). Sometimes the inexplicable manticore is just a nice change of pace to break the routine.

Aside from whatever stories may or may not arise from a particular wandering monster, the simple presence of mobile creatures helps create the impression of an organic environment. The forest without wolves is too empty, the fortress without guard patrols unbelievable, and while a good computer simulation can plot out the wolf pack’s hunting grounds and the complete patrol schedule, the wandering monster table does the trick for the tabletop. From the player’s point of view, there (ideally) shouldn’t be a difference.

All of this is Good Stuff for the players.

Don't roll a 29 either.

Mechanical Stick

The problem with all of that “Good Stuff” is, of course, how it generally takes the shape of something that’s trying to eat your face. The wandering monster is a high risk, low reward situation: an encounter that the party may or may not be ready for, probably starting at a tactical disadvantage, with little to gain and everything to lose. From the player’s perspective, it can be seen as simply a waste of time. This is why a check on the wandering monster table is one of the penalties for poor judgement – making too much of a ruckus in the castle, dallying too long in the hallways, sleeping in the woods instead of in a house like a civilized person, and so on. It’s something to be avoided.

In other words, it is chock full of Bad Stuff.

Moving Your Donkey

It seems the whole point of the wandering monster is to move the game along and keep things interesting, increasing environmental depth (the Good Stuff at the player level) while adding danger (the Bad Stuff at the character level). How could that idea be expanded? There’s probably a way to incorporate friction, or something much like it, in the mix somewhere.

Functionally, the wandering monster table is the environment’s reactions to the party’s actions. The party gets six turns to move, then the dungeon gets a move. If the party slips up, the dungeon gets an extra move. The base assumption is that the dungeon is hostile to the party, which is perfectly reasonable.

That leads to two questions:

What if the dungeon has other move options besides sending monsters at the party?
What if the dungeon isn’t hostile?

Those seem like good topics for the next couple of posts.

The Island of the Dolls

Undercrypt — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:42:10 +0000

It seems more and more unlikely that I’m going to come up with an adventure scenario weirder than what you can find in the world today.

La Isla de la Muñecas

Adding undead to this would make it less creepy. Just keep the “bad spirits” at bay and walk away slowly.

Skeleton Crew

Undercrypt — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:51:04 +0000

Rise up, you dead, slain of the hydra. Rise from your graves and avenge us. Those who steal the golden fleece must die.

Ahhh, the skeleton, archetypal servant of the necromancer and my favorite minion. Low level threat or high level set dressing, there’s always a use for reanimated bones.

The bones don’t have to be naked, though. Here are a few skeleton crews with a different flavor than the Harryhausen standard, handy if you’re populating a temple of darkness or if the evil sorcerer just needs new litter-bearers today.

Roll	Condition	Equipment
1	The wet bones are still dripping blood.	Leg bones of previous victims used as clubs.
2	The dusty bones have yellowed with age.	Tattered gray robes and gnarled quarterstaves.
3	The bones are half-covered with patches of green mold.	Rotting peasant clothing.
4	Crude symbols are etched into the larger bones.	Animal hide caps and roughly carved short spears.
5	Words are inked on the back of each skull.	Black linen robes and black-handled daggers.
6	The bones are unusually thick and knobby.	The decaying remains of what might have been leather armor long ago.
7	Several cracked bones are held together with tied leather scraps.	Thick wooden clubs.
8	The ends of the fingers have been sharpened to points.	Dangling scraps of mildewed cloth.
9	A few ragged chunks of desiccated flesh still cling to the bones.	Rusting axes with smooth wooden handles.
10	Several pieces are missing: ribs, a jaw, a few fingers.	Short swords with broken and bent blades.
11	Tiny centipedes crawl over the dry bones.	Crude tunics cut from course cloth, covered in dirt.
12	All of the bones have been polished to a reflective shine.	Shining longswords in excellent condition.
13	Nesting beetles scuttle between bones and through openings.	Dirt-encrusted burial sheet remnants cling to the limbs.
14	The bones are almost black with caked dirt and dried gore.	Nothing but bones.
15	A translucent fungal slime drips off of the bones.	Some loose scraps of rusting chain mail and dented metal helmets.
16	The teeth are all made of copper.	Long, thin daggers of bone.
17	Tattered scraps of colored cloth are wrapped around the eye sockets like blindfolds.	Bloodstained maces with leather-wrapped handles.
18	The bones are exceptionally clean with a slight scent of acid.	Common clothing in surprisingly good condition.
19	Soot stains form dark blotches on a few of the bones.	Burning torches.
20	Cobwebs fill the spaces between the bones.	Rotting leather bracers dangle from the arms.

One from the Vaults

Undercrypt — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:43:43 +0000

I started lurking around some of the RPG blogs a few months ago when I started running a D&D 3.5 campaign for my awesome in-laws, grabbing a few ideas here and there and getting more curious about where RPGs are now and this “OSR” thing. I picked up Vornheim (brilliant) and Stonehell Dungeon (classic), enjoying them thoroughly but not really expecting them to get any use in play. Then I ran across the Adventure Conquerer King System, which really impressed me. Now I’m trying to figure out if I can spare the time for another campaign and wondering if it might be fun to toss some ideas around with other folks.

Since I already had a gaming site – albeit extremely dusty and abandoned – I figured I might as well start a blog and join the party. It’s likely I’ll only wander in and wave occasionally since most of my time and energy goes toward my music projects. The pace here will be very casual, so make yourself comfortable, have a cup of tea… dark, evil tea… and relax.

If anyone’s still looking for the EQ or DAoC sites, I’ve left them up for amusement. Links are at the top.